My Flower Girl

 

Mommy, can you fix my dress-up outfit now?...Sure, Elissa, let me get the needle & thread....Mommy, what's a needle? Why do you need it? What's it do?

Elissa got a colorful dress-up outfit from her cousin Hayley for her birthday. She wore it so much that the strap ripped off eventually. It's been in the "fix-it" pile for a few weeks, so it was time to get out the sewing basket. And that's when the questions started. They always say the best way to learn something is to teach it. Elissa has helped me learn so much!

Have you ever thought about what a needle is and why you need to use it? I had not. Well, Elissa, a needle makes the path for the thread and pulls it along its way, I spoke slowly as I formulated the thought in my own mind. I continued, Without the needle, the thread wouldn't have a path to follow and couldn't hold the strap to the dress. Isn't it great that we have needles? Thankfully, she seemed content. A few minutes later, she pulled the dress on and began twirling.

And I began thinking. What a great illustration of what God gives us in the Bible and His Spirit -- a guide to show us the path to go on. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 When I trust in Him and His wisdom and His ways, He will guide my path. He will show me where to go and how to get there. When I try to find my own way, it's about as useful as trying to put a piece of thread through material without a needle. It would be a frustrating, tiring, simply useless process. I need to remember the futility of leaning on my own understanding and instead trust in Him with all my heart and acknowledge Him in all my ways. Then I can twirl in His grace and enjoy the abundant life that comes from obedience.

Walking with Wise Men

He who walks with wise men, will be wise. But the companion of fools will suffer harm.
Proverbs 13:20

Setting: Elissa's room. In her hand she holds a pink plastic princess phone. In a cyclical pattern, the following may be heard...

Hi, Alivia. We're going to the park. See you there! (pause) Hi, Hayley. We're going to the park. See you there! (pause) Hi, Annalise. We're going to the park. See you there! (pause) Hi, Jensen. We're going to the park. See you there!...

Friendships evolve at such an early age, I'm realizing. It's amazing to see the attachment that Elissa has and Ethan & McKinley are beginning to form with kids their age. Be it cousins, or children of my friends, or classmates at swim lessons... they are beginning. And I quickly feel my heart crying out to God for these friendships to be places of lots of laughter and play times and chances to display all those wonderful Jesus-traits we're trying to teach them.

Oh that they will walk with wise men, as the verse says. That led me to think, well what's wise exactly? Especially at the age of 3! The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7 ...Of course, every 3-year old despises instruction, right? So if that's so, then I guess right now my prayer is that my children will begin forming lasting friendships with children who are being taught wisdom and are under godly instruction.

Jason and I were talking the other night about how interesting it is that, as Christians, we pray these things over our children. We preach it during their teenage years. Then, as adults, many of us forget the necessity to walk with wise men. We gravitate toward those who are most like us and make life seem the easiest and most fun. And granted, we need some of those people in our lives. But, we also need the deep friendships with people who have lived longer with God and can teach us and encourage us when life's really tough. Who can speak correction into our hearts when we need to hear it and don't want to. And thankfully, by not much of our own doing at first, God has led Jason and I to those friendships. So, I guess our conversations, to only name a few, could sound something like this.

Hi, Chris...Hi, Tyler... Hi, Jim... Hi, Shari...Hi, Chrisy...Hi, Tracy... We're going to Heaven. See you there!...

Name that Tune

Disclaimer: Before the age of 27, I said the word "poop" fewer times than it will be typed in this note. That's what having kids does to you.

Elissa thrives on routine. And bedtime has become a very precise one that works well for us all. The glitch used to always be that she would brush her teeth, go potty one last time, read the Bible, pray, and then she would suddenly complain of her belly hurting and have to get up and go poop. My doctor wisely pointed out to me at a healthy-baby visit that if I thought I could control my child's eating, peeing, or pooping, then I would be sadly mistaken. Elissa's proven him right. But, we have stumbled upon something silly that works great for us.

Elissa knows now that she brushes her teeth, and then gets on the potty for 3 songs. This keeps her entertained and on the potty long enough that she realizes she needs to poop. I am usually the nominated singer, and the most popular song is Happy Birthday. (We hope the association doesn't cause her problems in the future. Ha!) Lately, she has also started making up songs. After our first round of Happy Birthday, Dear Target, Elissa said she was going to sing The Poop Song.

At this point, I must pause and insert the fact that for some reason she was not happy with my choice of PJs for her tonight. They are her ice cream sundae PJs that she normally loves. I've been trying to train her that she can't throw fits about what clothes she wears. (Something I hope will just flow peacefully into teenage years. Right??!) After much expressed sadness over the chosen PJs, and my assurance that I understood that she was sad but needed her to keep them on for tonight, she had moved on with her usual routine and seemed very happy.

Now, back to The Poop Song. Elissa begins singing, joyfully and with her silly dramatic singing face, the following melody: I love going poop, but when I'm going poop, I wish I didn't wear these PJs, because I don't like these PJs. It was so out of the blue and such a happy sounding song, that Jason and I cracked up! I had tears in my eyes,Jason was snorting he was laughing so hard, and Elissa was very proud of her silly song. I expected Jason to laugh at The Poop Song, but never thought I would!

Clean Start

The inspiration for the blogging has been developing the past few weeks. There have been numerous times that I've said, "If I were a blogger, today's title would be _______". Today happened to be such a strong sense of the perfect photo journaling opportunity that I finally decided to go with it.

Here's the quick background. As the mother of 3 kids age 3 and under car rides have become miserable. Elissa is actually pretty pleasant and independent most of the time. Ethan & McKinley, however, have become these little monsters who scream and throw down toys when handed the "wrong" one -- which usually involves a blind groping of the Cheerio-laden floor from the driver's seat. Screaming persists until that magical item or distraction can be found.

Jason and I decided yesterday that we really must take the blame for this. And it really must stop. Now. Otherwise we will have little incentive to get in the car, to be honest. We both had the same feeling. New car rule: no one gets anything handed to them from the front seat. I decided today that this was the only thing I could see working. Cold turkey.

Step one: Keep kids entertained while cleaning out car. Surprisingly, sitting in car seats that are out of the car is very entertaining. Check.

Step two: Remove every crumb and toy from car. After 20 minutes of vacuuming, check.

Step three: Convince kids that car seats are really more fun inside the car now. Check.

Step four: Announce, "Elissa, Ethan, and McKinley, choose ONE toy to take in the car for our ...RIDE (keyword that gets everyone excited and running for shoes)!"

Step five: Buckle kids in and explain where they can put their toy if they don't want to hold it, but emphasize that if it hits the floor, Mommy is NOT picking it up.

Step six: Drive to local Starbucks where Mommy gets a reward for cleaning out the car, and kids get a chance to celebrate a successful, short car trip. In the drive-thru, brag on each kid for still having toy with them.

Step seven: Return home and CELEBRATE! Everyone kept their toy, and no one yelled at Mommy!!

Step eight: Pray that they got it, and for patience, as I'm sure they haven't yet. :)

The Meaning for It All

Well, this is my first attempt at blogging or journaling or whatever it becomes. I've been a horribly negligent scrapbooker and baby bookkeeper. My vision right now is for this to become something that I can print and save and pass on to Elissa, Ethan, and McKinley some day. Something to reveal my thoughts, struggles, and desires to please God in our every day encounters. Something to bring glory to Christ.

So, for anyone else who happens upon it (other than my mom) I can almost assure you that it will be less entertaining for you. Then again, we just heard a sermon this Sunday on the fish & the loaves and how Christ can take our meager offering and turn it into something big. If there's any way that as a stay-at-home mom trying to figure out how to be full of Jesus so it splashes out on my husband, children, and everyone we encounter...if Jesus can take that and use it to reach someone somewhere to encourage them in their walk or even begin a walk with Jesus... then wow! That would be amazing!

Well, here we go...