# 0042: Reason #7,482

I posted this on our family blog on Wednesday, September 7, 2011 and titled it "Reason #7,482":

A few weeks ago, out of the blue, my girl told me she did not want to go to heaven, she wanted to stay home with me and Dadda and her brother at our house. I told her that God and Jesus who we pray to every night would be there and that really it is the place to be. Besides, me and Dadda are planning on being there one day and we'd all really like it if she and her brother were there, too. (I didn't want to get into a whole lot of, "we'll go there when we die" stuff because then we'd have a whole new set of questions.)

I could tell she really wasn't too sold on living somewhere else. I dropped it for awhile, but then I brought it back up again at lunch and tried to explain to her that heaven is actually our real home. We'll only be here for a little while then we'll go live with Jesus in heaven forever. Somehow or another I think it became clearer to her this second time around.

All I could think was how incredibly thankful I am to have been the one there to answer that question (even if it was technically a statement). I am the one that was there to ease her concerns on this subject (a very important one) that she was confused about. There are so many parts of my day that make me grateful to be a stay-at-home mom to these kids. I couldn't begin list all the reasons (well, I could begin, but I don't know that I would ever finish until maybe the year 2028 and even then I think I would be able to continue), but this particular conversation on this particular day I will call "Reason #7,482."

I am thankful that I was there, I was available and we were not rushed. I'm also thankful for all the previous 7, 481 reasons that led to this one. Without all those, would she have even trusted me enough to ask?

Maybe not all of her questions will be as important as this one, but they might be to her at the time and I plan on being there. I'm glad to be "The Mom" and I'll send the baby-daddy a quick email saying thanks and say a prayer of thanks later, too.

Reason #7,483: One boy and one girl each hugging one of my legs while I made zucchini bread and my big girl saying, "We love you so much, Mama!"

Have you ever heard the saying, "If we don't teach our kids to follow Christ, the world will teach them not to."? I believe it. We can't entrust anyone else with the responsibility of pointing our kids to Christ. We hope and pray that they will meet people along the way that will be encouraging to them, but God gave us the responsibility first when He gave us these babies. 
I read something else the other day about how nightly prayers, attending church, daily devotions or Bible readings really aren't enough to show your child the love of God- they have to see you live it. 
I love that my kids can see me walk the walk everyday. Oh yeah, I walk the walk every day- I'm the ultimate Christ-like example. No, I'm not. I'm confident that there are better examples out there, but I'm the one that He gave these kids! 

# 0041: Snuggling Up, Watching a Movie

Classic. You see this on facepage statuses all the time: "Snuggled up on the couch watching a movie with my kiddo tonight!"
We have movie nights fairly often and they're a big deal. We have to have things picked up and ready to jump in bed as soon as the "big show" is over. We have one of those movie theatre popcorn poppers that we drag out and we watch a show we've never seen before. We try not watch movies or TV constantly so that when we do it's an event.
I love relaxing and holding those little kids snuggled up on the couch! I love to see them get into the show. It's a great way to end the day.
You could say that movie watching is a lousy way to spend quality time together; there's no talking, no engaging, you're just vegging out. True, but sometimes it's nice to veg out together, with no talking, just some laughs occasionally and the snuggling. Of course, the snuggling.

This exactly what ours looks like. We even update the marque.

We got some popcorn buckets at Target.

One day we want to get one of those big projection screens and a progector I guess for the backyard. Fun.

# 0040: Making Faces

I HATE GAS PRICES!!!!... therefore I hate pumping gas, going to gas stations and just about everything about gasoline. HOWEVER!!!!... I love making faces with and at my kids!
Soooooo... we take something that none of us like (the kiddos don't like it because they know it's just a delay in getting them to our much anticipated super-happy-fun destination) and have fun in spite of it... for at least just a minute.
I love to make faces at them through the window. I see them sitting in there, still in their seats, starring straight ahead, looking completely bored and I love seeing their faces light up when I peek in with my eyelids pulled up and my tongue sticking out. It beats watching those numbers roll up!
I'm sure this activity wont last forever. Soon they'll have their noses in books or phones or anything else, but their goofy mom. For now it's a fun game to play, a nice distraction to lighten the mood... while the oil companies lighten our wallets... sigh...

Another fun face making game to play is to take pictures of your crazy face and see whose is the funniest. My siblings and husband and I used to do this before we had kids... Remember the novelty of the digital camera? We would plug it into the TV to view the pics off of it and then get carried away passing the camera around to see who could make the ugliest face.

# 0039: My Growth... Part II

I love when babies get to the age where they're hanging on your hip with their arm around your shoulder and the other one dropped to their side like they're cool; like any minute they could throw a gang sign up in your face. (I don't know if this is funny or not: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/babies-gang-signs_n_1891304.html)
I love mine squeezes my upper arm between his little body and his own arm when we walk upstairs and how he grabs onto my chest with his other hand going around a corner (I don't know why he does- I'm not that fast).
I love how they look like they're in charge; like they're the mighty sea captain directing the ship where to go- like little Jack Sparrows...

Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Carribean

Alright- now let's get out of here- word to your mother!

# 0038: My Growth

I have developed a "growth" on my right hip... It's a really chunky, giggly, slobbery, adorable growth. I guess we've entered into the "attachment" or "separation anxiety" phase. It took him longer to get here than it took the other two. Actually, he detaches easier than the other two did, which is kind of good since there is the other two.

I love that little growth! Most days it feels like I'm walking through mud to get things done around the house because of the neediness of this age, but I know from experience that this growth wont hang on forever. In just a matter of days he'll be crawling. Still, it's good for him to sit and play with a basket of toys while I type up a blog post every now and then.
Oh!- Did you think I was going to talk about Reason # 0038 being my growth as a mother? Oh yeah- there's that, too...

Book Review: Deceptively Delicious

I was walking through the library a few weeks ago to pick up some books we had on hold and Deceptively Delicious was on a display along with some other cookbooks. I remembered seeing Jessica Seinfeld on one of those morning talk shows (that I despise...) peddling her book a few years back when it first came out. I remembered thinking it sounded kind of interesting so I grabbed it.

The design is cute and retro- I like it. It explains how to do everything from the pureeing of the vegetables and fruits to the actually recipes themselves. She explains alot and even has input from a real dietitian.

I found some recipes that looked good. I bought up my veggies and pureed them one day. The pureeing was the most time intensive part. I tried the brownies first; the brownies with carrots and spinach. They were not bad. My critics said they tasted a little weird, but still satisfied the sweet tooth. I tried sweet potatoes in my pancakes- that was good! We did cauliflower and butternut squash in our grilled cheeses- I liked that, too. The apple sauce muffins with carrot in them was a big hit! I tried several other recipes from the book; some were okay, some were good, but over all they were healthy! I knew that I was getting an extra dose of something healthy where I usually wouldn't be. It's like a buy one, get one... sort of. 

This is not a new criticism of the book, but I don't see how it really teaches your kids to eat their veggies. They're not learning to like the taste and texture of them. IF they help you prepare the food, they might learn the importance of eating them (if it's important to you, it might become important to them). But they're not really learning to enjoy the fruits and veggies. 

I like the book. I think it's a pretty good idea, but I don't expect my kids to be all about spinach and cauliflower now. I like the book because it reminds me to eat healthy and if I can sneak in an extra vegetable somewhere I should (eggs are a great place to start)! My kiddos are pretty good eaters, but you're not going to find them begging for broccoli or olives or slices of cucumber. More than likely you wont see them slamming a V8, but you wont see us putting away a Dominoes pizza at 9 pm either, I'm just sayin'. 

As far as really getting my kids to eat well, we start them early with introducing lots of different foods. I try to lead by example and I try to make sure they get a variety. Of course, threats and promises of after meal treats are tools of the trade as well.

Jessica Seinfeld has a couple of suggestions too, like eating together, staying on a daily meal schedule and talking about anything else but food at the table. 

You could check out the book or you could have a V8...

# 0037: Bible Stories

Last week, I had the opportunity of teaching my two oldest kids in Sunday School. Long story, but we walked in, turned the light on and jumped into class with no plan really. I opened up the Children's Bible to a random page and started reading. 

I told the story of Baby Moses (Exodus 1-2) and compared him to our little baby boy. Then, we made our own Baby Moseses and baskets and a river and yada, yada class was over! 

Since becoming a mom, I love that I am able to understand better certain Bible stories like this one. I love that I "get it" when it comes to matters involving other parents and children, because like everything else in the Bible, the principles never go out of date, they are never irrelevant. 

How terrifying it must have been to be a pregnant Hebrew woman just hoping that your baby wouldn't be born a boy because you knew he would be taken from you and killed. I can't imagine your husband would feel that great about it either. Then, for Moses's mom to carry him, birth him, keep him hidden and nurse him for 3 months then send him down a river in a basket! I can't imagine putting a three month old baby in a basket in a river and just hoping for the best. That was the best she could do. 

I love that I can understand these people's feelings better because I'm a parent, too. That's as far as I want it to go, though. I don't want to experience having a Pharaoh that would sentence my kids to death as soon as they're born. Just being parents is where the comparisons can stop for me.

What a blessing for Moses's mom when her sister convinced Pharaoh's daughter to let "a Hebrew woman" nurse him. She got her baby back! She got him back for a while longer anyway. 

I love that I "get" this stuff just a little better now that I have had my own babies. 

This isn't the only story in the Bible having to do with parents, babies, family, etc, of course. There are so many great motherly and fatherly examples in the Bible.