Learn something new everyday

Here are a couple of things I learned yesterday:

1. Good neighbors are priceless...
2. Clean up your kitchen BEFORE going outside to play with the kids because you might stick your foot in a hole and sprain* your ankle and one of the aforementioned neighbors might be in your kitchen fixing your kids dinner...

*This is a self diagnosis. Yesterday I could barely walk on it. Today it is a little better--still swollen and still pain especially at certain angles.

Today, Thomas got a couple of beans in the Lenten offering vase for bringing me the step stool to prop my sad foot and making me a breakfast of graham crackers and cream cheese...all at his own initiative!

Until next time...

Observing Lent

Ash Wednesday always seems to sneak up on me. Thankfully, I have a friend who emailed me some ideas for Lent a few days ago and her email prompted my preparations.


To observe Lent this year, we have set up a Lenten tree (that will turn into an Easter tree on Easter morning....shhhh-don't tell the boys!). Hanging on the tree are 45 Bible verses, one for each day from today to Good Friday. Each day we will take down the verse for that day and read it. Then we might pray the verse, read it in context, or just talk about it...I'll try to update about how that is going at some point. As Easter approaches, the tree will grow more and more bare and will be empty on Holy Saturday as we remember our Lord in the tomb. Now keep this as a secret...Easter morning before the kids wake up I plan to fill the tree with egg ornaments and hopefully stems of blooming forsythia from our yard. Oh, I look forward to Easter! But for now we must travel through Lent...


Here is our Lenten tree:


In the picture, there is a jar of beans and what we are calling our Lenten offering vase. For each kind or thoughtful thing we observe the boys doing, we are placing a bean in the offering vase.


Click here for the list of Bible verses I'm using for the Lenten tree.


May your Lenten observation be blessed. Create in us a clean heart, O Lord, and renew a right spirit within us...



Until next time....

Valentine's Weekend

Valentine's weekend started with SNOW! Thankfully, Thomas had time to have his class Valentine party before early pickup and then the fun started. I captured a picture of Hudson enjoying the first flakes. I loved his look of wonder and excitement.

From Valentine's Day Weekend 2010

By the time we were home from school and from going the the store for some very important hot chocolate, there was enough snow for a little fun.

From Valentine's Day Weekend 2010

From Valentine's Day Weekend 2010

Later we came out for more snow fun with friends...

From Valentine's Day Weekend 2010

From Valentine's Day Weekend 2010

Including the building of this snow friend.

From Valentine's Day Weekend 2010

We had more fun in the snow on Saturday.

From Valentine's Day Weekend 2010

Then it was time to get ready for Valentine's Day...We made cookies on Saturday night.

From Valentine's Day Weekend 2010

Then on Sunday enjoyed waffles for breakfast....

From Valentine's Day Weekend 2010

And decorated our cookies to eat after lunch.

From Valentine's Day Weekend 2010

Despite Hudson's BIG yucky cold, we had a fun weekend!

From Valentine's Day Weekend 2010

Until next time...

thursday THREE

I.

For the past few years, my parents have given Matthew the renewal of his Costco membership for his birthday. If you know Matthew, you know that he LOVES a bargain and even that is an understatement. We go almost weekly because they have great prices on milk and we enjoy strolling around as a family...it is the gift that keeps giving!

Well, yesterday, guess who I ran into at Costco...

BETH MOORE!

Okay, I didn't just run into her. She was having a book signing. And because it is a membership warehouse, it wasn't covered over with people like it probably was the other places she visited. So she met Thomas and Hudson who were with me. And when I thanked Beth Moore for what she does (if you don't know then you are missing out!), she said, "Thank you, for what you do," nodding her head at the boys... I don't have the words to express how much those words blessed me.... And I didn't even have Thomas say all his memorized Bible verses for her! She would have loved that!

II.

A moment of brotherly love... Now I'll try to tune out the tattling and bickering in the background to focus on these precious faces and their cute matching pjs :)

III.

And lastly, our neighbor friends are dear to us. When we found this house, we were desperate to find a home before we had to move out of our other house. Plus, I was very pregnant with Thomas. There were two neighbors who had blue bows on their mailboxes at the time! Now that we know these families and their precious children, the value on our home goes up exponentially.

Hope we get some snow and can build some snowmen with them this weekend!

Until next time,

melissa

thursday THREE

I.
Earlier today I remembered that I didn't follow through on some discipline from last night. As I shared that with Thomas, he said, "That's okay, Mom, you're giving me a little mercy..." I fail as a parent and my child turns it into a spiritual lesson...

II.
Hudson is crazy about baseball. In fact this blog entry was interupted a few times by games of catch in the kitchen. A few minutes ago, he was using a vacuum attachment as a bat for some hitting practice until he decided to use his drum stick instead.

III.
I heard the best definition of love the other day...

Love is persistance in a free choice to pour out self for the benefit of
another.

Love is a choice. Love is something you do and not something you feel.

Until next time,
melissa