Mommy can you teach me?

This post is a little different than what I normally write, but it shows the heart of Josiah and I wanted to share that with his family.

Being a Christian in American society is hard. Not hard in the sense that the life that God calls us to is full of burdens, but that there are so many distractions that get in the way. We have a busy schedule and it is busy watching my two kids and babysitting a third. And also want a clean house. And I also want to exercise. So I have gotten lazy and have not sought what after God and His amazing plans for my life. I just coast, going from task to task, day to day and try not to think about it. But the truth is the Holy Spirit just didn't all me do that for very long.


I felt the tugging a month ago. I ignored it for a couple of weeks but finally I called a friend and she helped me out. But I was still struggling with how this was going to work with Jason's busy schedule and me taking care of 3 kids. Ideas started coming to my head. More ideas were "randomly" showing up in other places. But I wasn't committing to anything. Just flopping around. Then one day as I was reading one article on scripture memorization, my sweet three year old comes up to me, snuggles in and looks up at with me with his beauitful innocent eyes and says, "Mommy, I want to be like Jesus. Can you show me how?"

The challenge had been issued. It was as if God himself said, "Are you going to follow or not?" The tears began to fall and I choked out, "I will try little man. I will try." His response, "Thank you, mommy." That was all God was asking, was for me to start trying.

So this past week Josiah and I have been working together to be like Jesus. We made muffins for the neighbors. I am memorizing Colossians and he is memorizing certain passages with me. He listens as I recite the words through out the day. We made prayer cards that we hung around the house to help us make the day full of prayer instead of just 15 minutes in the morning. Whenever I see a prayer card I pray aloud and he then takes his chair over to the card and "reads" the prayer also. I have a friend who is in the hospital and he decided to make her a card to cheer her up. Together we are journeying to discover what it means to be like Jesus.

And through all of this we sing together:

May our steps be worship, may our thoughts be praise
May our words bring honor to your name

Pictures

I was going to give details about what has been going on in our family lately but blogger is not being cooperative this evening and it is taking forever to get stuff on here and it is late. So here are some random pictures from the last month.

The three boys hanging out.

Josiah reading Jaron a book.

Josiah painting Christmas ornaments.

Josiah riding his big boy bike.

Brothers playing together.

Learning not to Worry

Jaron had his 12 month appointment yesterday. He is 28.5 inches long (10%) and 19 lbs. 8 oz (13%). He has only grown an inch and gained 1 lb. in 6 months. While the doctor didn't seem overly concerned, she did say the dreaded words of "this isn't normal" and "we are going to watch him." Words a mom never likes to hear from the doctor. I have known in my heart for a couple of months that he hasn't been growing but I pushed worried thoughts out of my head and tried to focus on his amazingly happy personality. But to hear the doctor say those things, the worried thoughts came rushing in.

So now I am learning to not worry about what I can't change. Learning to not think what if I had done this or that, but to focus on all the great strides in development Jaron has made (even if he is a little behind) and to continue to do what I have been doing all along...loving him the best that I can. And as I look at him happily playing on the floor with his toys...listen to his giggles when he plays peek-a-boo with me...hold him close to me as I rock him to sleep at night...I think to myself, if this is what "not normal" is like, then I am okay with that.

Jaron is 1

A year ago Jason and I made the treacherous trip in an ice storm to have Jaron delivered. While Jaron had issues with his lungs when he was born you would never know it now. He is a very active, happy little boy. It is hard to believe all that happened a year ago...seems like just a few months...and yet I can't remember life without him. He is a perfect addition to our family and the world has definitely been blessed with his laid back, smiley personality. Not a day goes by that he does make us laugh.

Today we did a little celebration for Jaron. His birthday almost sneaked up on us. Jaron, Jason, and Josiah have been really sick, plus I was gone for a few days for the memorial service for my grandpa so things have been a little crazy. We were going to have some friends over but since our family was sick that didn't work out. But we did make a cake for him to play in. Below are pictures of the experience.

The first few touches, trying to figure out what it was.

Then he discovered he could grab fist fulls.

YUM!!

"OH!" A piece of cake just fell on the floor.

He really liked the cake and cried when I decided he had enough. Then he opened a present from his brother. I don't have pictures of that and it wasn't very exciting because he was not at all interested in tearing the wrapping paper. I had to do it for him.

Ramdom Pics

Both my kids are taking a nap and Kahlil has decided taking a nap by himself wasn't an option. He is now sleeping peacefully in my arms. Since I can't do any cleaning I decided I would try to blog. Another thing I can add to my list of things I can do with one hand. :) Here are random pictures of things going on in our life.

Cute picture of Jaron

Daddy and Jaron

Josiah playing dress up with last year's transformer costume. Doesn't he look tough?

We fixed up Josiah's room this past week. We painted and laid new carpet. Here is Josiah helping me paint.

Since Josiah's room was under construction, he and Jaron had to share a room. The only problem was when Josiah would wake up in the morning he would sneak into Jaron's crib and wake Jaron up. Poor Jaron was exhausted for a week.

Halloween Pics

Here are some pictures from Halloween.

The day before Halloween the OSU sport teams had a Halloween carnival so Jason took Josiah. Here is Josiah eating ice cream. He was a pit crew guy for Lightning McQueen. At the carnival he won a football player bobblehead for throwing a football into the hole (he was only a foot away).

On Halloween we hung out with some friends from the church. Here is Josiah and Jaron with their kids before we headed to the Halloween carnival.

Jaron the lion



Josiah got to ride a horse at the carnival.

Josiah playing in the rice at one of the booths.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of this, but we also got to ride in the back of a 1950s fire truck around the parking lot. Josiah told me it was a lot more fun than riding in my car. :)

Fun Video of the Boys

I laugh everytime I see this video.