End of January, it's been a good month.

Hello blog, it's good to see you again. The children are asleep and I have a few minutes. About 33 to be exact.

Here are some updates;

Bible Reading
So my 90 day Bible Reading Plan is going a little bit slower than it should but I literally have no guilt over that. I just finished Dueteromony and January is about to end. I'm kind of proud of that. The things that have stood out to me thus far:
God hates sin. We are sinful people. We cannot know the mind of God, His purposes and His plan may only make sense over a period of thousands of years. We are small. His laws are perfect and good and wise.
I love how God commands the Israelites to look after the widow, the orphan and the alien among them. I love it that He also commands them to lend freely to the poor. He tells them to not go over their fields twice so that they can be gleaned by the widow and orphan. It's like He's saying, "I've provided enough for you and enough for those around you. I want you to serve them and love them and my resources will never run out.

I honestly have a tendency to be tightfisted with my money. I've always been a saver. I'm trying to learn how to hold these earthly things with an open hand. Dueteromony 15:1-12 really hit me the other day. God says that he will bless you if you are generous. Lord, teach me to be generous so that I can be a conduit for Your wealth. Let it not stop with me.

Children/parenting
I go back and forth with things being easy or difficult. This morning Levi would not leave me alone. All I wanted to do was clean the kitchen. I mean, really clean it. Aria was down for her nap and I could really get into things then. But at ever turn Levi was asking to watch a movie or to read a book, or for me to spin him on daddy's office chair... I would do it and then say, okay Levi, find something else to do, mommy is busy. Then he asked for some candy. I almost exploded. I texted Ben to let him know how good he had it. Then I went back into my room to get something, Levi followed of course. I saw a toy car on a table and started to play with it. I told Levi the car could not get off, he needed to go get his plane and rescue it. I tell you what, that was the key! Levi was soon occupied with the plane rescuing the car and proceeded to play with them for the next 30 mins. It was amazing.
Lord, help me to be creative and loving. Help me to foster Levi's creativity. Help me to know when to clean and when to just sit down with him and read a book or turn on some music and dance or when to have him help. Thank You for allowing me to clean my kitchen this morning. You are so good!

Aria is almost walking. I want her to walk but then I probably don't realize what she'll be into when she does. She has a passion for going outside. Every time the door opens she crawls like a maniac to break into the open air. Sorry little sister, it's too cold and you are going to majorly mess up your pants on the dirt out there. This is the reason why I want her to walk. I think her life will be just happier in general.

I honestly really love having two little kids. Yes, they fight and hit each other and throw soccer balls at each other's faces, but they are so much fun when they do get along. I love seeing them play together and enjoy each other. I'm amazed that God has allowed me to be their mother.
Lord, help me to be wise as I raise them. Please give me strength and courage. Thank You for a husband who is such a good father to them. I still cannot believe how much I am enjoying having a little family like this.

To Do Lists...

It makes me sad how little I have blogged lately. Resolution: blog more. Okay.

Today has felt overwhelming. The strange thing is that it's just like every other day in my life. Aria had a Dr appointment this morning for her one year well check. Turns out she has an ear infection again. I said something to Ben this morning that was... well, just not encouraging. I love it when I start out my day by tearing my husband down (says sarcastically). I think ever since then I have been plunging myself into guilt, trying to redeem myself somehow. Now that I think about it, that's just ridiculous.

How often does my mind just dwell on the negative? Lord, help me to take my thoughts captive.

I need to fold the laundry in the dryer.
I need to sweep the floor.
I need to make our bed.
I need to start packing for a trip to Kansas City this weekend... I'm a horrible horrible packer. Did I mention that I'm horrible at it? Something is always forgotten. I remember one short trip that we went on and I totally forgot to pack any pants for Ben and myself. So we both wore the same pair of pants for three days. Not that you can't do that, but we pretty much had no choice. I'm saying to myself... really?!

I need to do yoga.
I need to call a friend.
I need to read the Bible... I'm trying to read the Bible in ninety days. I think it's going to be more like a hundred and eighty days. Or more. I just finished Numbers this morning and it's only January 23rd, I should be proud right?! This is one of the reasons I have not blogged lately. But I'm totally okay with that. I haven't been on Facebook as much too, which is always a good thing.

For some reason all I want to do is stare into my pantry. This will, of course, get none of the things I need to do done.

Lord, I am crying out to You now. You are the multiplier of my time. You carry all my burdens. You give me strength even to do the little things. Help me not to be overwhelmed by what I can't do or don't want to do. Help me to know how much time to spend on each particular thing. Give me wisdom. Help me not to look to lesser things. Help me to focus. I surrender all these things and whatever else comes into my head to You today. Amen.

Levi Stories

Oh how I've needed to post some Levi stories. His life could be a story really,

The other day I was in the bathroom and he came running in. "Wook a my found (look what I found), it's Mater!" (the tow truck character from the movie Cars). He holds up a dusty little fruit snack. Fruit snacks are his favorite thing. He randomly just looks at me and says very seriously "I don't want a fruit snack mommy." This absolutely means he wants one. I told him a while back that I would reward him for good behavior when he least expected it. We don't want to bribe, we want to reward and rewards are not expected so stop asking for fruit snacks. Anyways, he was full of delight and joy as he presented the fruit snack to me. Since we hadn't had fruit snacks in about three days I asked him where he found it. He proudly exclaimed "Under the frigerator!' and popped it in his mouth.
"Mmmm, is that pretty good little buddy?"
"Yeah."
He's probably developing a taste for mold this way.

This was a recent trip to the grocery store. I hate those carts with the cars on the front and so when we go into the store I immediately have to inform Levi very firmly that we are not going to use one of those carts. I usually try to tell him while we are in the van and clearly line out all of my expectations but often have to re-inforce them as we are entering.
His favorite thing is to run ahead of the grocery cart, head down, arms swinging at his sides like a vaulter and then turn around and run back. This is usually fine during the week at nine in the morning when the store is more empty. But for some reason I decided to go after naps which meant it was around 4 and the store was packed. I had to keep getting on to him to stay with me.
At one point I handed him some spaghetti noodles to put in the basket. I turned around and heard pasta spilling all over the floor. There was a nice man walking down the aisle and he helped me pick as much of it up as I could.
Later we were in the dairy section and Levi was wanting to get the milk. It was too heavy for him on the higher shelf so I thought maybe he could grab it from a lower one. He did pretty good until he tried to lift it above his head into the cart. I totally should have seen it coming. The gallon of milk came crashing onto the floor and milk started gushing everywhere. What do you do in that situation? A grocery store worker saw it and went into the back to get a mop I assume. I just left the scene. I felt kind of terrible, but I don't know what my presence would have accomplished. Needless to say, we left as quickly as possible.
Finally we were checking out and Levi yells out to me, "I don't want any candy!" Again, trying his hand at reverse psychology. That's right Levi and I turn back to the groceries. I look back at him and he has a Mike and Ike candy open and is eating it. At this I freak out inside. We do not steal! I went and got the candy, paid for it and all the way out to the car I let him know that he had stolen and when we got home we would have a spanking. I'm not going to go into great detail about that last part, but you get the idea.

Oh my sweet Levi, I love it when you laugh, even your new creepy laugh you have developed. You are the best nose-blower (besides your daddy) I have ever met.  I'm sorry I never let you play with my phone. I'm also sorry about yelling at you for touching my computer. You remind me a lot of how I don't listen and obey well either. I love it when you are thankful. I love it when you share and play with your little sister, she thinks you're amazing even when you spew water into her face in the bathtub. I love it that when you wake up you always want to cuddle, except when I'm trying to make dinner.

You are my precious boy.

Lately

So, it feels like it's been a million years since I've posted. I think it's actually only been a couple of weeks.

Here's what we've been doing:

1. Ben's awesome sister and her FIVE kids (ages 6 and under) came and we got to hang out with them almost every day. His parents are awesome and welcomed us and our four extra mouths for any meal we could join. Levi loved holding his brand new cousin Ruth (3 weeks old).
2. We made and delivered Christmas cookies to a few of our neighbors. The kids loved singing Christmas carols (Jingle Bells including verse) and I loved it too.
3. Ben got the flu on Christmas Day. Thankfully we had already celebrated Christmas so he didn't miss anything.
4. We were snowed in and then lost power. I became the rugged pioneer woman and got logs for our fire, cooked food over the fire and kept babies warm while Ben was sick on the couch. I have no idea how many times he broke fever in those four days, but it was pretty awful.
5. Ben's parents (who regained power before we did) took us and about half their church in. It was really cool to get to hang out with them.
6. We relocated to my parents house with my side of the family coming in town. It wasn't until Saturday afternoon that we regained power. Total days out of electricity: Four.
7. Celebrated Christmas with my side of the family. I got awesome videos of the kids doing cute things. And then I accidentally deleted them. And then I sunk into a deep pit of despair. Lesson learned: download videos from camera as soon as the event is over.
8. Both kids got sick. We ended up in the Dr's office on Thursday. Turns out Aria had a double ear infection (so that's why she was acting so crazy! Stupid parent moments...) One night out of the sickness kids woke me up about every two hours. In all honesty, the Lord really sustained me through it. Some days I would think to myself, "I shouldn't even have the energy to be walking around right now, but for some reason I do."
9. Aria got on an antibiotic for the first time. This is the worst yeast rash I have seen yet. And believe me I've seen a lot of rashes. It's kind of like trading one problem for another...
10. I decided to start intensely reading the Bible at any spare time. During nap times primarily. I have a goal of trying to read it in 90 days. I don't think I will complete it that quickly, but I am hoping I will finish close to that. It's been good to get a more sweeping view of the Word. I used to only read a little at a time and then meditate on it, so this has been a good challenge.

Tomorrow is Aria's birthday. I can't believe it's been a year...