If there’s one thing that’s helped keep order in our lives, it’s having a home that’s orderly enough that my kids can HELP me keep it orderly.
I’ve always had some type of bin to store kid toys in, but when we found the perfect shelving unit/bin combo at IKEA, we both knew it was the ticket to life and orderliness in our crazy “kid land” which we call, “The Playroom.” We were trying to figure out how to store toys and ALSO get some sort of a “surface” in our playroom for building train tracks and doing puzzles and all fun things that require a hard surface. We saw these shelving units set up at IKEA and realized we had found the perfect solution for both (pictures below)!
Upon getting the bins home and the shelving unit built, I immediately started labeling them.
Three things to consider when labeling toy bins for young (non-reader) kids:
1. You want clear, simple pictures so kids can put toys away on their own before they can read2. You want words to go along with each picture so that they can begin to associate that picture with that word2. You want a label that’s going to be durable enough to resist messy and curious fingers that are touching them EVERY day…
I used my label-maker to whip out labels for each of the bins. They were so darling and cute and I was so proud of myself…until…the next morning when kids actually came near them.
For some reason, the labels stayed better on the colored bins than on the white bins, but in general, they ALL did what most stickers do…they peeled up. With a little use and over just a very little time, the corners began to curl up, and especially with the assistance of tiny fingers that LOVE peeling stickers off :). They began to look grungy and gross and fall off.
Gross.
Enter…MY SILHOUETTE CAMEO TO SAVE THE DAY!!!
I generally used the same files that I had from my previous labels (free images that I found on the internet), but I did grab a few from the Silhouette store for simplicity’s sake. I had to use Oracal 651 Outdoor Vinyl (the Sihouette “Indoor/Outdoor” vinyl did NOT stick to the bins…). (P.S. I learned that the hard way! I cut out ALL of the words, went to stick one on, and I couldn’t get it to stick…I wasted tons of vinyl! Now I always test out vinyl before cutting everything out!) So, I ordered new vinyl, tested it (ha!), cut out the words and pictures and then used transfer tape to stick them on the bins.
So simple. So easy. And I will testify–these have been on our toy bins for months now, and we’ve only lost one tiny part of one of the images on the Duplo bin. No curling, no grudginess. I also think there is just LESS temptation to try and peel them off because, unlike the labels, they don’t LOOK like stickers. Even with having lots of friends over, they have stayed in place.
I love how clean and crisp they look, while still being kid-friendly and fun.My kids love to build…can you tell? 🙂How ADORABLE are these?!!Don’t you love the functionality of these IKEA shelving units and bins?! Everything is neatly tucked away and easily accessible, AND the kids have a place to work puzzles and build train tracks!A close up of some of the pictures’ details.
I will admit, I LOVE sitting in our playroom and staring at our cute bins :).
Now, let me cast a tiny bit MORE vision to help create order in YOUR kid land!
Kids can be trained to clean up!
I am a BIG fan of teaching my kids to clean up after themselves. Not only does it produce much-needed discipline in them, but it also takes a HUGE load off of me while trying to keep the house clean. We’ve had both the kids start helping with clean up time as soon as they could crawl. Yes! You read that correctly :). Granted, at that age, I OBVIOUSLY needed to be in the room to aid the clean up, but after a year or so of training them, they are FULLY capable of cleaning up ALL BY THEMSELVES. Like I already said, this is a super easy, simple-to-teach “chore” that kids can develop disciline in early on, AND it’s a HUGE blessing and help for ME.
Step 1: “The Fetch Game”
From 6-12 months (or, crawling to 12 months), I would sit on the floor next to the toy bins and say, “Can you bring me that ball?” or “Can you bring me that yellow tool?” At 6 months, they may not get most objects right, but that’s okay! If they pick up the stuffed animal instead of the ball, I just say, “Oh! Good! You brought me the teddy bear!” All of this is aiding in your kid learning how to respond to instruction, learn vocabulary, and learn to serve and help around the house.
Step 2: “Hide and Seek”
Once they’ve mastered The Fetch Game, (after 2-3 months or so), move on to a slightly more challenging, independent task: “Can you find all the balls and put them in THIS bin? Do you see the picture of the ball on this bin?? This is where the balls go!” If any of your playrooms looks like ours does at the end of a day, this is actually a pretty challenging task! Ha! But it’s developing perseverance and diligence, as they have to scan the room and pick out the intended objects.
Step 3: “I Spy”
Once they’ve mastered Hide and Seek (again, probably after 2-3 months), ask them if they can find the bin that has a certain picture. “Which bin has the tools on it? Good! Can you find all the tools and put them in that bin?”
These were generally the steps I took in training my kids to clean up their toys, and both my kids have been able to fully independently clean up the playroom by age 2. Though it may SEEM like a lot of work on the front end, I will tell you, I am SO GRATEFUL to have two children who know how to pick up and who (generally, ha!) LOVE to clean up because it is a task they can be very successful with. Since we have cultivated the idea that order is important to us, our children have jumped on that train. And though our house is *almost never* perfectly picked up and ordered, we can usually get it back to that place very quickly since my kiddos are such huge helps!
So…are YOU ready to jump on the ORGANIZATION TRAIN?!!
Want to Check Out More Silhouette Projects?
My Silhouette Challenge buddies and I are all sharing projects on our blogs today, so peruse the projects below for a wealth of Silhouette inspiration!
Well, like last year, we had another super fun advent this year! I added a couple of details to our Advent season this year which made it even more special.
Advent Wreath:
Advent Wreath
I had wanted to do this last year, but ran out of time. The night before Advent officially started I remembered I wanted to do it and stumbled across a picture of an advent wreath done on a cake plate. I found our cake plate, four red candles leftover from our wedding (!) and then we wrapped a garland around the base. Voila! An advent wreath! My silhouette helped me make the stars to label each candle. The kids were learning about the meanings of each advent candle at church, and it was really good to light the appropriate candle at dinner (most) nights and talk with the kids about what we were focusing on that particular week as we awaited the celebration of Christ’s coming. Our kids are obviously still really young, but it was very good for myheart, and in the coming years I am hoping that the truths go deeper and deeper into our children’s hearts as well.
The Jesse Tree:
Pocket Chart Jesse Tree
If you haven’t heard of the Jesse Tree, it’s a concept based off of the Isaiah 11:1, a prophecy about Jesus that he would come from Jesse’s line. We already read the various stories from The Jesus Storybook Bible that show the kids how the entire Old Testament points to Jesus’ coming, but I thought it would be great to have some visuals to reinforce each story. I found these printable pictures here (for purchase–$6) and the Jesus Storybook Bible free additions here. (If you are a mom or teacher who loves to teach and do crafty things with your kids, the website Teachers Pay Teachers is a great one!) I had big dreams of turning them into ornaments and putting them on the kid tree in the playroom but, alas, the pocket chart was all I could handle this year :). I actually ended up really liking it there because then we would talk about the pictures throughout the day and while the kids were eating and crafting. Next year, it’ll be fun to see if Elliott can scramble them and then put the pictures in order.
Verse memory:
Displayed right next to our Jesse Tree!
We didn’t work on these as regularly as I thought we would, but it was still great to go over them with the kids and have them up as a reminder. We would say them together every once in a while and act them out, etc., etc. If you’d like to download the verse cards I made for visuals to use with your own children, click here!
Nativity Sets:
Brian’s parents got Elliott the Fisher Price Nativity set for his first Christmas, and it is SUCH an awesome set. It literally gets played with every day for the month of December. This year, they sent the kids another surprise–the Playmobil Nativity Set! It was, obviously, a HUGE hit, and it was nice to have two sets to reduce the number of fights over who gets to hold baby Jesus :). We had a lot of fun putting it together as a family, reading the Playmobil nativity story, and playing with it tons!
Thank you, Grandma & Grandpa!!
Christmas Worship:
Next year, I’m hoping to find a good kids Christmas album (anyone out there have a favorite?! Please comment below!!). This year, I just pulled up random songs on grooveshark, the kids would grab their instruments, and we would worship the newborn King!!
My little drummer boy!
The Christmas Count Up Tree!
Envelopes and daily reading plan
I used the same card holder from last year because it’s so simple to put each day’s envelope up there, along with our reading guide hanging from the bottom. The kids traded off putting stickers up once we had read that day’s story as a family. I don’t have any pictures of us all reading together, but it’s funny how not too much has changed since we did this last year. Elliott would sit curiously and attentively in Brian’s lap, studying each page and asking question after question. Selah could not stop moving during the entire chapter, often switching from Brian’s lap, to my lap, to the couch, to the floor, and would periodically look over at the book at shout something like, “baby Jesus!” or “look! sheep!!” It was such a sweet and special time each night together as a family.
Well, below is a snapshot of all the fun surprises inside each envelope!
“Well, what does it say already?!!”
Day 1: Jesus is the Light of the world
I cut a light bulb shape out of cardboard, taped together two halves of black construction paper to make a long piece of paper, gave the kids chalk, and had them trace the outline of the light bulb. Selah preferred to draw her own lights without the stencil :). Elliott meticulously traced multiple lights, only in BLUE, his favorite color. Then they smeared the chalk with a cotton ball.JESUS is the LIGHT of the world!!
I checked out a curriculum that I may do next year with the kids, and they had a sample lesson about Jesus being the light of the world. I thought this was a great way to kick off Advent and our Christmas count up. We went into my closet and shut the door and talked about how dark it was. I told them this is what the world was like without Jesus. I turned on a flashlight and showed what a big difference just one light made, and how Jesus IS the light of the world. We did this craft that I had already pinned and put the picture up where we could see it all month, reminding us of the One who is the true Light of the world!
Day 2: Decorate your own Christmas trees!
I pulled out the felt tree from last year along with a new mini Christmas tree we bought for the kids’ playroom, and then let the kids put up their decorations (all from their Nonna).
A perfect playroom tree 🙂
Day 3: Decorate Christmas cookies with the Schultzes
I had “decorate cookies” on my list of things that I wanted to do, but then our dear friends invited us over for that very purpose! Hooray!! I wish I had taken a picture, but Elliott and Selah LOVE their new buddies and it was such a treat to have all the cookies and frosting providing! Thanks, Kellie!!!
Day 4: Christmas Block Patterns
I had ordered these blocks and found block patterns for our Fall road trip, so it was easy to put together a binder with some Christmas patterns, thanks to the awesome blogger at this site who has worked so hard to put these patterns together!!
Foam magnetic shapes + cookie sheets from The Dollar Store + some sheet protectors=loads of Christmas fun!Oh, Christmas Tree!
Day 5: Stained glass window nativity
Elliott had been asking me if we could do a nativity window cling for one of our crafts. I searched Pinterest and found this one and had all the supplies. So I pulled out my Silhouette, cut out the black part for each of the kids and had it ready for the kids the next day. The kids both loved the craft, although Selah liked her stained glass a little on the “uncluttered” side so she was done in a matter of minutes. Elliott worked meticulously to fill in every space and gap. I think they turned out beautifully!!
Working diligently on their “stained glass” projects…Aren’t they beautiful? I love them!
Day 6: Lego Christmas creations with Daddy!!
I had been wanting to do Lego creations with the kids but, I’ll be honest, I don’t do well when I don’t have instructions :). Brian’s been helping me learn how to let my inner Lego woman loose (ha!) and just BUILD, but I still need to spend a few minutes breathing into a paper bag when Elliott asks me to make a police car, for instance, without any instructions. I know, gasp!!!! So I only felt comfortable doing this activity when Brian was taking the lead…and with him by my side, I even built this Snowman (mostly) by myself without any instructions!! Ha!! 🙂 We all had a lot of fun constructing :).
Look how cute these all are!!Come on, now…is he SNOW CUTE, or what?!!And I think Brian’s Rudolph deserves some extra props!!
Day 7: Put up Christmas lights outside
I’ll be honest, I had nothing planned or ready to do this day and Elliott had been ASKING and ASKING why we didn’t have lights up outside, so we finally did it :).
Day 8: Christmas tree fun!
I did two new crafts and used an old one from last year! The first–I cut out two green Christmas trees (one for each kid) and then randomely wrote A-Z throughout the tree. I also wrote the letters on some circle dots. The kids had to match the letters. This was PERFECT for Selah (26 months), and for Elliott (3 1/2), I did capital letters on the tree and lower case letters on the stickers and it made the activity a tiny bit more challenging for him.
This was the PERFECT activity for a young 2 year old!And the upper to lower case matching made it a little more challenging for my 3 year old.
The next activity wasn’t nearly as big of a hit as I thought it’d be. My kids could sit and string pony beads onto pipe cleaners for HOURS upon HOURS, so I thought I had stumbled upon the perfect craft for them–pipe cleaner Christmas trees with pony bead ornaments! But, they really only spent about 10 minutes “decorating” it and then they were both done. Oh well! 🙂 (And if you’re thinking about doing this with your kids…be sure to build the entire tree ahead of time. I did it while they were watching and it took longer than I thought and they were a little bored…)
Hot glue a wooden dowel into a wooden “wheel” and then twist green pipe cleaners around it to make a tree.Elliott’s decorated tree!
I pulled out our Counting With Christmas Trees activity from last year. The goal is to put the cooresponding number of decorations onto the tree based on the number on the star. It was perfect for Selah with a little assistance from me, although she was over it once she did numbers 1-5. Since the general activity is way too simple for Elliott, I introduced odds and evens and taught him how that worked using the trees and their ornaments. He picked it up immediately! So cool!!
Counting with Christmas Trees
Day 9: Build a nativity set!
I did have my ideas planned out a lot better this year so I actually only made ONE trip to Michael’s/Hobby Lobby at the beginning of the month! I was proud of myself :). I always check out their Christmas craft aisle for simple (and always CHEAP!) already-prepped-for-you activities. They had nativity sets again this year that were MUCH simpler than last year’s (win!) so they were really perfect for my kids’ ages, obviously with a little assistance from me. Elliott usually goes for the more “traditional” art work, whereas Selah uses her artistic license ;).
We worked on building each character together, and then the kids picked where they wanted each person/animal to go and stuck them onto the stable all by themselves.
Day 10: Christmas stickers!!
The night before this day, both Elliott and I were up a good portion of the night throwing up (boo!) so I was WIPED the next day. Thankfully, I had some of these awesome, simple backup ideas stored in my Christmas activity box… Michael’s had awesome books of Christmas stickers for $1!! My kids LOVE stickers. So, I deemed it “Christmas Sticker Day!!” And I laid on the couch while they cleared out their sticker books. Perfect.
Day 11: Snowflake window clings
This was a GREAT idea that went VERY BADLY, ha!! I found the idea here, but, I’ll be honest, the idea of a huge jar of glitter sends me into hiding. It called for white puffy paint and silver glitter. As I was strolling through Hobby Lobby, I stumbled upon GLITTER GLUE, and I thought to myself, “Yes!! This is it!! Glitter glue is pretty much EXACTLY the same thing as white puffy paint with glitter.” Oooorrr……NOT.
First of all, this is NOT an activity for 2 and 3 year olds!! Simply because their little hands weren’t strong enough to squeeze the tube and trace the outline of the snowflake. So I ended up doing the whole thing for both of them (which is NOT my idea of a good time!)
Like my artwork? :/
And then, once it dried, it just flaked off in pieces.
So disappointing.
So, if you have at least a 5 year old, give it a try, and don’t skimp on the puffy paint and glitter ;).
Day 12: Nativity window clings
These were so much fun!! So remember how Elliott had been asking me to do Nativity window clings? Well, the next time we were at our friends’ house (the sugar cookie friends!) I noticed that they had silhouette nativity characters up on their window. I asked Elliott if THAT was what he had been asking for and he said yes! SO, I came up with this idea on my own, using my Silhouette, of course!
Painting each individual piece, cut out of contact paper.Sticking them onto the window…Proud artist 🙂
Day 13: New Christmas jammies and family movie day with popcorn
Enough said, right? We watched the Veggie Tales movie, “The Toy That Saved Christmas,” and I think it might be the first time in history that BOTH my kids sat through an entire “movie”!! I think it had something to do with the popcorn in their hands ;).
Elliott’s wearing some VERY special jammies from Noah & Caleb, and Selah’s are from, of course, Costco :).I’m not sure I’ve ever made popcorn for our kids (?), but I will say–this is the first time they’ve ever sat through a movie! So…now I know!! 🙂
Day 14: Go see Christmas lights!!
A local bible college set up a pretty amazing display of lights that we drove through, which was great because it was FREEZING. Then we drove around and saw some of the most spectacular house lights we’ve ever seen…you know, the ones that have their own radio station and the lights are all synced to the music? Yeah, those. Some people have a LOT of times on their hands…and I’m grateful they do!! 🙂
Day 15: New Christmas book: Who Is Coming To Our House?
This happened to be another SUPER crazy day, filled with emergency trips to the doctor (only to discover everyone was okay), so we didn’t even get home until 4pm. Crazy. Of course, the kids were begging to “open an envelope” so I quickly shoved a piece of paper in for that day, pulled out the new book I had ordered, and we all read it together. Some days, that’s all we can handle :).
Day 16: Peppermint Day!
Oh my goodness, this day was so much fun! I printed out this printable, pulled out a candy cane for each kid, and then explained the legend of the candy cane. This was Selah’s first candy cane and Elliott has been BEGGING me to eat one, literally, since last Christmas when I gave him his first! So they were pretty thrilled.
I love Elliott’s face in this picture! And although it is SO CHALLENGING to catch a “real” Selah smile on camera, I think you can tell by the red drooling pouring out of her mouth that she really loved her first candy cane :).
I showed them the candy canes on their papers and we then talked about how to paint every other stripe on the two candy canes. Elliott was really into this idea, until, on the second cane, after he had painted every other stripe red, he informed me that, “the elevator went up, and now it’s going down…” and then he went back through and painted the rest of the white stripes red ;). Selah, again, took up her artistic license and, after painting each candy cane, decided to paint the ENTIRE paper red…ha! I love it. She didn’t miss a spot.
Striping away!
Next, I asked them if they rememebered what the candy cane tasted and smelled like. I dropped a little bit of peppermint extract, vanilla extract, and almond extract onto three separate cotton balls in dishes. They smelled them and had to identify which was which! They did it! Super cute and fun.
Bahaha!! I love this picture! I explained the activity, and they both just instantly shoved their noses into the dishes! HA! I can’t believe I caught the moment!
Lastly, we made candy canes out of pipe cleaners. This wasn’t Selah’s favorite activity since, as you know, she would prefer to exercise her artistic license and not do things “inside the box.” Elliott grabbed his pipe cleaner and immediately began alternating red and whites, but Selah…well, she kept sneaking purples when I wasn’t looking! Hahaha!!! Oh my goodness, she just cracks me up!!!
Like I’ve said before, my kids could string pony beads on pipe cleaners for HOURS every day of their lives…Proudly showing off his finished product.I turned around for a minute, and when I looked over again, this was the face I saw! HA!! So delighted, showing me that she had “cheated,” and had stopped doing the red and white pattern! 🙂Aaanddd….Selah’s finished product! Oh, how I love her creativity!!
Day 17: Christmas activities!!
I pulled out these old “magnetic presents” from last year:
And they didn’t even fight over them this year :).
I got these ideas (and one of the previous peppermint activities) from here .
The kids sorted these Christmas pom poms onto four different plates that I had written on to say Large, Medium, Small, and Tiny.They also sorted them into a cupcake tin using the big play tweezers.I also pulled out one of my colanders (which happened to be RED–bonus!) and they strung green pipe cleaners through it.
Lots of activities that kept them busy.
Day 18: Playdough & cookie cutters
My friend Elizabeth had given us some Christmas playdough last year, and it is the gift that keeps on giving!! My kids play with it all the time and it is still wonderful playdough. I found these tiny cookie cutters at Hobby Lobby and I knew they’d be perfect for the cookie cutter playdough activity I wanted to do with the kids. Sure enough, they were! Elliott made TONS and TONS of playdough cookies and Selah, well…I think you’re starting to catch on to her “style.” 🙂
Playdough cookies!
Day 19: Act out the nativity story using puppets!
I was tired this day :). I pulled out the nativity puppets we had made last year from a Michael’s set (thankfully, there were TWO!), and we acted out the story. The kids had a blast, using the two stables we had. Obviously, you could do this without puppets, and just use the figurines you have in any nativity set. As simple as this activity was, the kids really loved it as they are SO into role playing.
Selah, walking Joseph to the stable…even though he doesn’t have legs!Elliott is SERIOUSLY into role playing so he very enthusiastically acted out the entire story using his puppets…
Day 20: Snowman family day!
Snowman pancakes!!
As always, this was a HUGE hit :).Mmm, mmmm!!
I got these mini snowmen that are supposed to grow in water at Michael’s for $1. Well, they are worth about $1 :). I didn’t realize the instructions said they would take up to 10 days to grow, so they were a bit anticlimactic. Regardless, the kids thought they were cool, and it was (sort of) fun to watch them (sloooooowly) grow over the 10 days.
Tiny snowmen!Dropping the snowmen into water…Selah, admiring her “grown” snowman.Elliott and his “HUGE” snowman!
Elliott saw this craft in a magazine and asked if we could do it at some point during Advent. I think they are so adorable! I made a daddy and a mommy snowman, and each of the kids made one for themselves. Adorable!!
The kids dipped potato halves in white paint for the bodies, and then used q-tips to pain on the buttons, eyes, snowflakes falling, etc.Elliott’s is on the left, and Selah’s on the right.Our family, pictured in snowpeople. 🙂
Day 21: Foam stickers & special coloring sheets
The special coloring sheets I got from Michael’s (you use water and q-tips) weren’t necessarily a huge hit but these foam stickers (that I got on clearance last year)?!! Oh. My. Word. The kids LOVED them and have spent HOURS playing with them.
The kids played with these stickers for WEEKS without losing interest…
Day 22: Since there’s not enough snow to play with, let’s make our own!
An oldie but a goodie. We did this last year when Selah was still such an itty bitty, and she was much more adventurous this year :).
Checking out the baking soda before the shaving cream was added……and then diving right in and playing hard!Like, REALLY hard…haha! 🙂
Day 23: Open a gift and, working together, try to find THE NATIVITY!!
Our kids LOVE puzzles. It’s hard to find a challenging one for their ages, but this one did the trick!
It’s a “cube puzzle” with several scenes from the bible, including the Nativity scene.
Day 24: Bake a cake for Jesus
Yup. Second year in a row, and this didn’t happen AGAIN. Honestly, as much as I hate to admit this, Brian and I just can’t handle the sugar we used to, and we had had SOO MUCH already. The thought of baking an entire cake made us both want to puke. So, instead, we let the kids open one present in the morning, we played all day, and then we got dressed up and went to church! What greater joy is there, than worshiping the One who came to set us free!!!!!!!
On our way to church!
Day 25: It’s Christmas Day!! Celebrate the birth of Jesus and open presents!!
We had such a fun day! Here we are in our pajamas.
Merry Christmas 🙂
Thankfully, my dear friend Jill and her family sent us this AWESOME box of treats (pears, apples, popcorn, cookies, and…CHOCOLATES!!!) and I realized the chocolates were PERFECT for sticking a little candle in! (Thank you, Jilly-Bean!!!) So, we each stuck a candle in a chocolate, sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, and enjoyed a not-too-sugary treat in His name. Amen :).
I have struggled to find adequate words to describe the wonderfulness who is our Selah. She is such a bold, passionate, wild little girl, yet somehow carries the SWEETEST spirit ever… I simply can’t get enough of her. She makes us laugh constantly. She awes us every day with her fearlessness. She melts our hearts with her bold love. She is so PLAYFUL and goofy, she LOVES to sing and she LOVES do everything her big brother does. I can frequently get her to laugh so hard she gets the hiccups. She cannot HELP but tickle you if she is nearby. If you get up from your seat to get something, she will instantly run over to where you were sitting and steal your spot. She counts to 12 and then, just like her big bro taught her, moves onto 18, 19, and 20. She is SO polite, and regularly says, “please” and “thank you” unprompted. She also says, “Bless you!” if you sneeze, cough or burp! Haha! If you ever bump into something and say, “ow” out loud, she will drop what she’s doing, run over to you, kiss you, and say, “I’m sorry.” Other than “mama,” her first word was “amen,” and she is so quick to pray. Any time we drive by a “broken car” (what Elliott calls them) she immediately starts praying that everyone is okay. If Elliott is throwing a fit or having a hard time, she stops what she’s doing to pray for him! Oh, how she delights our souls…
Here are a few (or A LOT!) of the things that our sweet little girl loves…
To say that our little girl loves to climb, swing, and tumble, would be a dramatic understatement. She has BLOWN us away with her strength, fearlessness, and love for thrills. She has pushed every limit I had in my mind for what a baby or a toddler “should” be doing, and I’ve just had to learn to let her lead to some degree instead of constantly restraining her. She is our little gymnast, and we’ve learned to teach her how to be safe in what she’s doing versus not letting her try. She is simply something ELSE…
At 15 months…she had been attempting to climb into her chair for a few weeks but I had been deterring her…until the day I turned around to FIND HER LIKE THIS! HAHAHA!!! She climbed up there all on her own…15 months, folks!!A few days later, I came downstairs after putting Elliott down for a nap, to FIND HER HERE….oh, my word…17 months…alone on a big kid swing! Ahhh!!!18 months…18 months…this is the first time we saw her hanging…and she hasn’t stopped since! She will hang on ANYTHING she can find…and has had more than one bonk from hanging on things that should not be hung from!! :/19 months!19 months!19 months!It’s hard to see what’s going on here, but this is CLASSIC Selah. She is playing at our playroom table, but she is BALANCING on my knee. She’ll never choose to stand or sit–she would always rather be balancing on something or standing up high on something.As in, this is how she chooses to sit while watching a show…And this is her preferred way to eat…
All within a few days (while 19 months old), she learned how to jump, how to jump off one step, and then how to jump off of our ottoman!
She’s always loved hats, but this year her love for attire of ALL sorts has certainly grown. Every time I turn around, she is CRACKING me up!!!
A purse that doubles as a hat…And double the hats…And Elliott’s hat…And Elliott’s other two hats…And Elliott’s jammies AND Elliott’s hat…Elliott’s socks and shoes…Elliott’s shirt…Elliott’s construction gear.Wearing her snow hat and gloves while Elliott wears his…on a 70 degree day.Grandpa’s socks and grandma’s shoes…Her sunglasses.My sunglasses.My hat, Elliott’s vest.All her clothes…but do you see her dress is on inside-out? She insists on dressing herself :).Yes, this was a day that she insisted on dressing herself.Elliott’s shirt…around her waist, of course.Daddy’s shirt…Daddy’s shoes.Daddy’s other shoes…Mommy’s shoes…on backwards, of course.
She just brings so much JOY into our home!! She has such a goofy and playful side to her which has us laughing constantly. One of her favorite games has always been “peek-a-boo,” and there are few things that thrill her more than when something is “hi-ding!” (always said in a thrilled whisper). My favorite is when she points to my coffee cup and says, “Mama! Spoon! Hi-ding!!!” in the most thrilled little whisper. Sigh, I love her.
Mama?! Can you see me through this window?!Here she is at 19 months old. When Elliott and I would go up to get her once she had woken up from her nap, we would find her like this…wanting a kiss through the crib slats. She would move around to every part of her crib, and wouldn’t move until she got a kiss :).*mwah*You never know where you’re going to find her, because she is constantly crawling into places she shouldn’t just so she can hide!! (and climb, of course.)He-ey!“Peek-a-boo, Mama!!”And, don’t you know that you don’t actually need a hiding place to hide?! She gets an incredible thrill from closing her eyes and saying, “See me, mama?! I HI-DING!!”And when I just can’t seem to find her, she is gracious enough to open her eyes and surprise me! “Peek-a-boo!!”Playing peek-a-boo in the sun!However, once she started rocking the pony tail, it became a little bit harder for her to be as inconspicuous as when she simply closed her eyes :). I see someone’s pony sticking up…Where is that Selah??Peek-a-boo!!
This child LOVES FOOD. I mean, LOOOVVVESSSSS food. I can’t believe how much she can eat and how much she ENJOYS food. Definitely takes after me on this one–I see fine dining in our future!! 🙂 She will literally shove handfuls of food into her mouth just so she can free up her hands to point to more food. It’s incredible. When she hears the final timer go off for dinner, she throws her hands in the air and sings in her loudest voice, “LE-E-E-T’S EEEEEAT!!!!!!!!!” When I get her up from a nap, 9 times out of 10, the first thing she asks for is some random type of food that she’s clearly been thinking about! Ha!
She RARELY gets a sugary treat (I know…she’s SO deprived, as one can clearly see from the previous pictures…haha) so when we let her have some bites of this Mud Pie from Red Robin, she was, um, in heaven. She ate it quickly and enthusiastically…as you can see :).At some point, we introduced raisins and graham crackers to her and they became the very substance for which she lived and breathed. It took her a little while to figure out how to say “raisins” and so she was constantly begging us for “wee wees.” Oh my word…so hilarious!Not only does she love food, but she loves VEGETABLES. And she is a food SNATCHER!! One day, while prepping lunch for the kids, I turned around and saw her stealing handfuls of Elliott’s peas before he got to his plate! She’d grab a handful, shove it into her mouth, and then go back for more…haha!!One day while chopping carrots, I turned around to see this! Veggie snatcher!! Haha!!She has about 8 zucchini slices in her mouth right now! (We’re still working on those manners, ha!) Zucchini is, by far, her absolute favorite veggie.Think I’m kidding? This child LOVES zucchini!!!Bananas on the back steps!And, if she ever DOESN’T like a food, she wrinkles up her nose, tilts her head like this, and hands it back to me, saying, “No yike this…”She’s also very sure to tell me when she knows she’s NOT supposed to eat something…like this paint we’re working with here. She can’t help but hold it up to her mouth and tell me, “No eat it, Mama.” Look at her face…such a goof ball. 🙂
She loves her brother and loves to wrestle!
Multiple times a day, out of the blue, she will just run over to Elliott, tackle him, and then start tickling him!She is his little shadow, and it is the sweetest thing ever (most of the time…)
Despite her love for wrestling, she also has a deep love for babies. It’s the sweetest thing.
Here she is meeting her cousin Ember for the first time…she was in love then and is still in love with her now!
She soooo badly wanted to ride a bike like Elliott’s when she was just a wee little one. As in, 19 months old. One day while letting Elliott practice riding his bike, she asked over and over again to ride it. We told her it was Elliott’s, and somehow she took that as Elliott’s TURN. So, she waited UNBELIEVABLY patiently (so patiently that we didn’t even know she was waiting!!) while he rode it, and as soon as he got off she RAN towards it, saying, “my turn!!” When we told her she was too little, she completely broke down. We felt SO bad, and decided to just go ahead and give her a turn on the bike.
So here she is! 19 months! LOL! I love this memory…she didn’t want us to touch her or the bike handles to steady her, so she just sat there…like this. Lol. I just adore her.ROCKING the stride bike at 22-23 months! She rides it INCREDIBLY fast!!
She is feisty and confident. 🙂 We’ve had to work hard already on a mouth that is gracious and not demanding. And, I will say, she’s come a long way in the last few months!! I love having a daughter…there is so much that I understand about her “sure” heart and there is so much about her heart that is a mystery to me. But either way, the Lord is giving us patience for her…to train and teach her to grow into a woman of grace. Sigh. So much prayer necessary!!! But when she is sure of something, there is NO convincing her otherwise. One of my favorite recent conversations happened with Brian:
Selah, bringing a puzzle piece to Brian to ask him what type of construction vehicle was on it: “Is it, Daddy?”
Brian: “Oh! That’s an excavator, Selah!”
Selah: “No. Loader Backhoe.”
Brian: “Oh, no, sweet girl…that’s an excavator.”
Selah: “LOAD-ER. BACK-HOE.”
Brian: “Well, actually, it’s an excavator.”
Selah: “LOAD-ER!! BACK!!! HOE!!!!!!”
Brian: “Hmmm…Selah, does it LOOK like a Loader Backhoe?”
Selah, pleased: “Yeah!” 🙂
Hahaha! This conversation happens at least once a day…Selah convincing us that we don’t know our construction vehicles, insects, or animals…hahaha.
When she doesn’t get her way, this is her face :).
Her confidence and determination doesn’t stop with climbing, jumping, swinging and construction vehicles, though…she has been insisting (for months) that she buckle herself into her car seat. She’s been able to do one or two of the three necessary clicks for a while now, but at exactly 23 months, she buckled herself completely into her car seat all by herself!!
She did it! Safety goggles on and everything!! That’s my girl!!
She LOVES to sing and has the most adorable voice ever. Her favorite songs are “Jesus Loves Me” and the “ABC song.”
Recently though, she’s been really loving the “Happy Birthday” song. Here she is, preparing for her birthday! Doesn’t she have the most adorable voice?!!
She is REALLY into jigsaw puzzles, probably because she wants to be just like her big brother :). We’re pretty impressed with how well she can work them!
Working diligently…
We finally enrolled our little gymnast in a gymnastics class, just before she turned 2. Needless to say, everyone was pretty impressed when she saw a set of bars for the very first time, ran up to them, and did this:
This is no bat…this is my daughter.And this :).Happy second birthday, our sweet, sweet love!!!!
Get it? Like tutu…but TWOTWO…? Haha…okay, moving on :).
We spent A LOT of time thinking and talking about what would really bless our little girl on her birthday this year. She doesn’t really have any friends her age, because most of her friends are 3 and 4 year old boys! What she loves most is to jump, swing, climb, hang and tumble. We recently enrolled her in a gymnastics class to help grow her natural talent and love for gymnastics, but we ultimately decided the best thing to do for her birthday was build something in our basement where she could swing and climb and hang to her heart’s delight any time she wanted to. We looked into buying them and wowsers–they are NOT cheap!! So, Selah’s UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME Daddy designed his own set for just the cost of a 2×4 and a few simple rings, bars, ropes, etc. to hang from it. So impressed :). Pictures below…
So, we had a super simple birthday party for our sweet Selah B this year. The colors were purple (her FAVORITE color) and gold (because isn’t everything better with a little gold glitter?!). I made her a special outfit, Brian made her the INCREDIBLE new gymnastics play set in our basement, and we had the grandparents over for dinner. It was a special afternoon/evening, followed by a birthday dinner at Red Robin on her actual birthday. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE celebrating?!! Such a joy to celebrate our little girl.
The morning of her birthday celebration, we let her open up her first little gift:
Nail polish!This is the very first time I’ve painted her nails!I love when her little bottom lip sticks out like this…the moments that she’s concentrating REALLY hard…Purple with sparkles, of course :).
She took a nap, and Brian helped me decorate like crazy. She woke up to this:
Purple & gold!Her TwoTwo cake!And her TwoTwo outfit. Shirt and skirt made by yours truly! (Well, I bought the plain cream shirt but added the bling myself ;)).Brian brought her down the stairs…She was so sweet pointing and naming everything she saw…“2!!”This is such a classic “Selah” snuggle…a shy little smile and she snuggles into you when she’s excited about what she sees!She LOVES her Nonna!!I took her upstairs to put on her special TwoTwo outfit, and she just LIT up…along with lighting up the room!!Then we brought her downstairs to her biggest birthday surprise…Needless to say, she was VERY excited to see multiple objects that she could hang from hanging from the ceiling!!This is what she saw!And this is what she did!This is our little gymnast!!She could eat, sleep, and live like this…seriously!She loves the rope ladder!…and the rope swing!We also got our thrill baby this little roller coaster :).Um, she loves it :).Periodically she would stop her tumbling and swinging and go hug someone :).Or stand on her head :).Time for cake!My darling two year old!Twins with her cake!Happy birthday to you!She conquered those two candles!!The out-of-town grandparents!The in-town grandparents!Y la familia 🙂
HER ACTUAL BIRTHDAY! The morning of her birthday we went to the park with some friends.
Because there’s nothing like a little excavating on your birthday!And who WOULDN’T want to crawl inside a giant hippo on your birthday?After her nap, she laid on my bed with me and just SNUGGLED me for soooo long, which is not something my active little girl usually likes to do :). I was so blessed.We blew up a purple balloon!
Daddy got home from work and Grandma, Grandpa, Elliott, Selah and I all loaded into the car…
…and brought this bright 2 year old to Red Robin!We ADORE her….
She got several super sweet gifts, but I won’t include every picture I took from her birthday here :). One of her favorites was this baby doll we got her. She ADORES real babies, and so we wanted to get her a “real-looking” baby doll. She was IN LOVE immediately. (That is, until her Aunt Amber, Uncle Jeff, and cousins got her a DIFFERENT baby doll that has far trumped this one, haha!!)She studied every detail on her baby……including how her eyes opened and closed…
Then, she went downstairs to discover that Grandma and Grandpa had gotten her two play mats to put beneath the swinging things!
She was SO thrilled, and ran and jumped on them with her baby in hand.And did a somersault……with her baby in hand!She showed her baby her new roller coaster.But did set her down to do this :).
What JOY to celebrate our wonderful two year old!!! I think she was blessed. She certainly slept well that night…
I’ll never forget the moment that, after weeks of battling the same problem with Elliott, I had a massive revelation.
“The Scripture doesn’t say that my parenting techniques will not come back void…it says, ‘The WORD will not come back void.’” (Isaiah 55:11)
I don’t know how I got two years into the whole parenting thing without ever having that thought occur to me, but it was profound for me, and surely an act of mercy from the Lord.
Elliott had (for the most part) been an incredibly kind and loving big brother towards Selah her entire 7 months of existence. But somehow, right around after he turned 2, he began experimenting with some behaviors towards her; as in, “What will happen if I kick her in the head as hard possible?”
Clearly, clearly…NOT OKAY.
She had JUST started pulling up onto furniture, and she loved being close by Elliott. So many times when he was sitting in his chair eating a meal or a snack, she would crawl over, pull herself up onto the chair, and he would kick her little head until she fell over.
We were at a loss. We had tried everything, and he wasn’t changing. If you know me, you know I have quite a bit of patience towards my kids regarding character development issues…I just recognize that many, many things will probably take YEARS for them to have true heart-change in. But, BUT…this particular issue needed to change IMMEDIATELY.
But, I’m not going to talk about exactly how he changed, because my point is something far more important: that THE WORD OF GOD WILL NOT COME BACK VOID.
Another “incident” had just occurred and I remember kneeling on the ground, holding Elliott gently by his shoulders and pleading with him to stop, using words like “being nice” and “that’s not nice” and etc., etc. I had just taught the Kids Church lesson a few hours earlier to Elliott and all of his little buddies and it was about the good Samaritan. I suddenly paused and that’s when the revelation hit me: Why am I using such “powerless” words, when I could be speaking the very words of Life, that are promised to return in power.
EVERYTHING changed about my speech that day. No longer do I tell Elliott to do things “because I said so” or “because it’s the ‘right’ thing to do”…but I am teaching him to act according to God’s Word. It is THE ONLY thing that will not return void.
This is our heart for our children:
9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing [Him], being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed [us] into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. 19 For it pleased [the Father that] in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. … 27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 29 To this [end] I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily. [Col 1:9-20, 27-29 NKJV]
Yes, we MUST teach our children that ALL things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. Our children must form their worldviews around this Truth. And so they MUST know the Scriptures, and how THE SCRIPTURES should shape their thinking and their actions. This is a great endeavor, obviously, that will take a lifetime to begin to teach, but I am amazed at how much it has pressed ME to know the Word more, because I need to have a specific answer on my tongue! I need to be able to teach them what God says about the generous person when they are confronted with sharing issues. I need to be able to recite by memory what God says will happen when they obey their parents when we have a moment (or a hundred) of defiance in a day. I need to be able to tell them what Jesus said about love when they are not treating each other lovingly. I must know what He says, so they will know what He says. There was a season where I taught the kids a Proverb a day and it was so helpful for ME. I read one chapter a day, picked one verse from that chapter, wrote it up on the white board in our playroom, and taught it to them first thing in the morning. It’s amazing how many Proverbs are the solution to almost every conflict between the kids :).
I was struck by the simplicity of Romans 12 as a concise “handbook” for (some of) the ways of the Lord a few months ago, and decided I wanted to memorize a chunk of the chapter with the kids over the Summer. My goal was 13 verses, and we got through 6, which I was very pleased with :). We started out with Psalm 128:1 (“Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who walk in His ways.”), and I prefaced the whole series by talking about how we must understand that God says we will be blessed when we walk in His ways, and it is of utmost importance that we regard Him with utter holiness, with complete resolve that He is THE WAY. Then we went on to learn about what some of those “ways” are by memorizing Romans 12: 9-13.
9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. [Rom 12:9-13 NIV]
It was SO HELPFUL in my daily parenting, because not only did I have specific (powerful!) language (that won’t return void!!!!) to use with the kids during conflicts and disrespect, but because it helped form my prayers. Many times throughout the day, my prayer is, “Oh, dear, Lord. Have mercy.” (Anyone else have prayers like that during the day??) But when I am focusing on a specific Scripture a day or a week, my prayers are filled with more vision and more faith. “Oh, Lord…please turn Elliott’s heart to TRULY honor his sister above himself.”
Since we’ve entered the “3s,” whining has been one of our biggest battles. I will admit, when I am SO worn out from the constant whining, I usually just look at Elliott with pleading eyes and beg, “You’re killing me. You’ve GOT to stop whining!!” Hmm, as you can imagine, not the most effective or mature parenting technique :). So I was SUPER excited when we hit the verse that tells us we are never to be lacking in zeal. Finally, I had biblical language to tackle this whining monster. I did lots of role plays with him and we acted out what it looks like to be lacking in zeal and what it looks like to keep our spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Oh, my, did it help, thanks to the grace of God!!! The monster FOR SURE still rears its ugly head daily, but Elliott’s taken a lot of ground.
So, my mama friends–I wanted to share the Scripture verse cards that I made in case you’d like to use them! (Why reinvent the wheel?!) We worked on one verse a week, and usually by the end of the day or at least by day 2, Elliott had each one memorized. Selah (at almost 2) runs around singing, “Walk in His ways!!” which I LOVE. Yes, my dear, that’s exactly right…let’s be devoted to walking in His ways.
Click on the picture below to download all 6 verse cards!
Verse Cards
Want to do this with your kids but not a “natural” teacher?
YOU CAN DO THIS!!! I promise!!! Here are 6 simple tips for you:
1. Read the Word and allow the Lord to STIR YOU!
If you are excited, they will be excited, too. If you know me, you know this comes awfully naturally to me–you KNOW that if something has changed my life, I will tell you about it so it can change yours, too!! 🙂 More often than not, I have taught my kids a new verse just because I was reading the Word and was so stirred I couldn’t help but share it with them. Even if we don’t do an entire “lesson” on the verse and memorize it, I trust that it’s being deposited in their hearts. When this happens, I call them over and say, “Kids! Come listen to this!!!! Listen to what God promises us!!!” So, this may go without saying, but when God has stirred YOUR heart with His Word, that is the first step for your childrens’ hearts to be stirred as well. When they see YOU moved by His word, it shows them practically what a changed heart really looks like.
2. Call your kids over to come sit down and learn the Word of God!
If you have carpet squares or one piece of paper for each child or a chair for each child or SOMETHING the kids can sit on so they know their job is to sit and listen, that is VERY helpful.
3. Songs, Visuals, examples and role-plays are helpful!
I always try to have my bible with me so they can really SEE that everything I’m teaching them comes straight from the Word of God. (I remember getting to college and re-reading the bible with new eyes, and being SHOCKED at how much Scripture I knew from songs, liturgy, etc, that I hadn’t realized was SCRIPTURE! Isn’t that crazy?! But it held a WEIGHTINESS to it once I found out it was THE LIVING WORD OF GOD versus just some lyrics to a song that a writer scribbled on a piece of paper. It is SO important to me that my kids understand that the things I say and the rules I give them come from GOD, not just my own good ideas.) Even when I have a verse card printed out, I read the verse out of my bible first. Then, I show them the verse card and talk through each word/phrase with them, pointing out how the pictures show the meaning of the words. We then hang it up where they can see it.
Our six verses, all in a row.
My kids are YOUNG (almost 2 and 3) so I need to use lots of visual and acting to help them understand the meaning of each verse. Obviously, the older your kids are, the less visuals and acting you will need, but these things are still VERY useful for teaching ALL kids how to really APPLY Scripture to their daily lives.
Here’s an example:
Verse: Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
What I said: Okay, kids, listen to what God says: “Love must be SINCERE.” Can you say “sincere?” Sincere means really, really, really MEANING what you do. So if you ask me to play with the toy I’m playing with and I say, “Fine! Take it!! Hmmph!!!” and throw the toy at you, I did the “right” thing, but I wasn’t loving you like God defines love. My love wasn’t sincere. Now if you ask me to play with a toy I’m playing with, and my heart really DOES want you to have the joy of playing with it, too, then my heart sincerely wants to love you. In that case, I could say, “Oh! You want to play with it, too?! Sure!!” That means my love was sincere, and that means I am walking in God’s ways.
Since my kids are so little, I keep the “lesson” to less than 5 minutes long. I had to break the initial teaching of this verse up into two days since the idea of “sincere love” was complex enough to fill 5 minutes. The next day we talked a lot about what evil is, and what it means to run away from it (lots of funny role plays!!) and what it means to CLING to something that is good.
SING!!!! How much easier is it to remember something when it’s put to music??!! I hope you know about Seeds Family Worship…they are AWESOME. They sing Scriptures! We have listened to “The Good Song” probably hundreds of times: “Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who walk in His ways!” The kids and I often worship together, singing at the top of our lungs, dancing around our living room, sometimes with instruments in hands. I love worshiping the Lord with my kids!!!
4. Teach it on day 1 (and sometimes day 2) and then use the language of the Scripture as often as you can throughout the week (and forever!).
I only had the kids “sit” for a “lesson” on the days that I initially introduced the verse and its meaning, which took 1-2 days. Then, the “teaching” of it was much more “organic” throughout the week in that I would point out how that Scripture occurred throughout our day. Anytime the kids do something according to the Scripture I am sure to point it out to them. “Oh, Elliott! The way you just shared that toy with Selah was truly sincere love! Thank you for loving her so sincerely! That blesses God and it blesses me!! How does your heart feel when you see how blessed Selah is?! Isn’t it awesome to walk in God’s ways??!!”
Or, if they were having a hard time, I would use the same biblical language with them. The MOST often used one this Summer has been: “Oh, buddy…are you devoted to Selah in love right now? Are you making sure that you are honoring her above yourself?”
It’s SO HELPFUL for them to see how the Word is in all things and before all things…they need to understand how Scripture is RELEVANT to their daily lives and actions, and they need to SEE how to apply it. Like I said earlier, this will take a lifetime, so we’d best start early!! 🙂
We would say our verses together every time we were driving or sometimes when we were sitting and playing and we would always tell Daddy when he got home from work what our verse of the week was. This is actually Elliott’s favorite verse and I catch him ALL the time saying, “Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.” YES!!
5. Always, in everything, teach them about Christ
There is no sense in teaching any of these things without also teaching the Gospel. Our children must understand that it is only by the grace of God that we can escape sin, thanks to Jesus Christ. We have worked hard on this with Elliott. I’ll never forget one day that I looked at him and said, “Elliott, you are the only one who can choose to obey. You’ve got to do this. You’ve got to choose to obey!” And before I had barely finished talking, he interrupted me and said, “NO!! Jesus and GOD help me obey!!” I remember taking a deep breath, realizing that my frustration had gotten the better of me, and told him, “Buddy, you are right. Let’s pray together. We BOTH need the Lord’s help to obey Him.”
6. PRAY, never-ceasingly
The moment I knew I had to start training, teaching, and disciplining Elliott (long before he was 1), I have been faithfully praying for HIS HEART to turn towards obedience to God. The LAST THING IN THE WORLD we want are children who “do what the bible says” but do not really LOVE God. Scripture is so clear: When we love God, we obey His commands. Children are so tricky because we must teach them to obey (“…train your child in the way he should go…”) long before they have a sincere love for God. But I am faithful to pray for their hearts to turn EVERY time I teach, train or discipline. Because it’s not ME that’s going to turn their hearts to love the Lord; it’s the Holy Spirit. So, I would exhort you: Never teach without praying. Always pray as you teach.
Remember the verse from above: For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing [Him], being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God…
KEEP ON KEEPING ON, MAMAS!!!! May the Lord fill you with STRENGTH!!! And FAITH!!!! May YOU, by the grace of God, never be lacking in zeal but keep your spiritual fervor as you serve your children and in doing so, are serving the Lord!!!!!
We’ve had such a FUN summer. I have been healthy, my kids are MORE FUN THAN EVER and we have just had a BLAST. Some highlights in photos:
We swam.And looked adorable doing it :).We played with friends.We went to the Denver Aquarium.Where Selah petted a tiger.Siblings that paint together, stay together.He doesn’t even mind getting his hands dirty anymore! 🙂We went to a kids’ roller coaster park.Aaaaand, we moved. Because what would we do with ourselves if we didn’t move at least once every year?Elliott was seriously an INCREDIBLE helper…everyday he would beg me to pack up more boxes so he could help.This little darling didn’t miss out on the moving action.And, what good would a move be if it didn’t have a little adventure mixed in? While Brian was driving the moving truck to our new home, the rest of us realized we were locked out. My big brother saved the day, climbed a window, and broke into our new home! (Have no fear: he didn’t really “break” in…the previous renters had left a window open, so he just had to pop out the screen…)This picture does a great job of summing up how exhausted we all were. (This is totally not posed!!) We could never have made it without Brian’s parents help to finish packing up the old house and unpacking in the new house, or without my parents–who fed us for the first two days we moved in to keep us all alive.Brian and I were SO tired, that we took a day to get away and go to Water World (coolest water park EVER!) (Yes, it’s blurry. That’s how tired we were…)Brian asked Elliott if he wanted to help him set up shelves in the garage, and Elliott immediately ran to get his working guy gear so he could help. Such a mini Brian (minus the striped Polo shirt)…I love it.We got a little settled in, and went on a road trip…I’ll just post the pictures of them sleeping because that was pretty much what they did the whole trip. (OR NOT, haha!) But we all survived :).We went to the zoo multiple times.And always fed the giraffes. *Note: it’s apparently a requirement to stick your tongue out like the giraffe while feeding him.We did a LOT of trampoline jumping on our new toy. (Don’t worry: it does have a net!)Our little gymnast is BESIDE herself with joy!Grandma & Grandpa came to visit TWICE!! This was to commemorate one of our Focus on the Family trips. Selah apparently didn’t want to commemorate.We learned a letter a day and did a fun craft to go along with it.Selah learned right along with Elliott!At the beginning of the summer I drew a few shapes to build a car out of construction paper and was a little shocked when the big man did an incredible job of cutting all the shapes out! His cutting skills are pretty awesome at this point, and he loved cutting out each letter for the coresponding craft.“M” is for marshmallows!We BBQed with friends. Our new house came with a BBQ!! I’ve always DREAMED of having a BBQ!!The littles eating BBQWe went to Chic-fil-a. And even met the cow!Grandma & Grandpa got us a baby pool and this Baby Bean did LOTS of lounging out by the pool!!All of Brian’s family came to visit!We played at tons of parks, including this really cool modern one that we found!We rode bikes almost every day.This little girl got SO GOOD at the Stride Bike that I often have to run to catch up to her!!We baked muffins and banana bread and ate outside on the patio.During one of Grandma & Granpa’s visits, everyone went to The North Pole while I was at a bridal shower.This girl DIGS motorcycles. Seriously. Especially motor cycles from The North Pole.We took our kids on their very first hike to celebrate Kari’s birthday! It was so much fun!!!Charlotte, Selah, Quinn, Elliott, and AvaWe had lunch with Daddy at work!One of these things is not like the other one…Aaand, these little ones spent more time than ever with me in the kitchen. Looking at those faces, would you be more than a little nervous to eat what’s in that pie??
Adios, Summer!! You’ve been good to us. Now, bring on the warm boots, cozy sweaters, beautiful leaves and all the colors and smells of FALL….!!!!
This big man started preschool! We are SO PROUD of him and excited for this newest adventure!
Some stats:
Age:Almost 3 1/2
Height: 41 1/2 inches
Shoe size: 11
Clothing size: 4 or 5T
Loves: Balls, trucks, cars, “tiny” Legos, READING, aaaaannnnddd….apple sauce.
Biggest accomplishments this summer: Writing his name all by himself, being able to identify the first letter of words that we give him, and mastering his pedal bike which he can now ride to our nearby park and back!
Not bad, eh? He’s written it many times, totally under his own volition.On one of his many bike rides with Daddy.When he grows up, he wants to be…: “A fireman.”
Favorite part of preschool so far: “I like to play there.”
I tell you what…THIS KID. He amazes us every day.
We have had such a fun summer together, learning and playing hard.
Here’s his Happy First Year of Preschool sign along with the overflowing abundance of artwork he and Selah did this summer!
Selah’s creations are on the left, and Elliott’s are on the right.
We let him pick out a new shirt to buy for his first day. He VERY excitedly found this one and insisted on it. We got him a new pair of tennis shoes that just happened to have cars on them as well :). We let him wear his new shirt on orientation day, which was, technically, his first day…
Orientation Day
The child loves cars!
My mom stayed home with Selah who had a little cold, and Elliott and I went to the orientation together.
It was so fun for him to pick out his name tag and find the bin with his name on it!Aaaannnddd…they had cars out to play with…WIN.His sweet teachers, reading, The Kissing HandAfter the orienation was officially over, he was READY to go. He really wanted a snack! So, out we went. The school has this “Fun Bus” that comes once a month…it’s like a mini gymnastics/obstacle course inside. Pretty fun, if I do say so myself! So he got to try it out that day.We sat on a bench and ate his snack, and headed home!
His first official day!
Somehow, all three of us were fed and ready to go in time to snap a few pics before leaving at 8:30. Miraculous.
Giggly, goofy faceMy handsome, big boy!!“Say, what?!”BFFs
Daddy met us at preschool to see Elliott off on his very first day!
Little man, big world.“Love you, Selah! BYE!”LITERALLY running into the school, Selah trailing close behind…“The Yellow Door” and a yellow-shirted sister running to join in on the photo. This big guy is always happy with Daddy by his side.
He went in without any problems and easily said, “goodbye.” When I picked him up, he wanted me to hold him and not put him down…not because he didn’t have a great time, but I’m pretty sure because he missed me :). My sweet boy. He told me he learned lots of new songs, but he couldn’t remember them all. By the time we got home, he had remembered one, and sung it for me: “Eyes are watching, ears are listening, voices quiet, body is calm…” He told me the names of a couple new friends that he really liked and said he had a great time. When I asked him if he wanted to go back, he said, “No,” and my heart stopped for a minute. “Oh, really, Buddy? How come?” He responded, “I only want to go to preschool when it’s a work day.” (As in, on the days that Daddy is working…as in, he wants to make sure he’s home when Daddy is home.) “Oh, sweet boy, yes, of course. You’ll only go on work days.” Bless my ever-living soul.
Here he is admiring the novelty of “the stamp” on his hand while eating lunch.
Stamp on the right hand!
Aaaannndd…the infamous question: “How did YOU do with his first day of preschool, Mama?” Well….to be honest, the whole experience has left me leaning much closer to the homeschooling side of the fence. We have had an AWESOME experience with the school so far and we love his teachers, so it’s not that we’ve had a negative experience at all. It’s just that he’s MY BOY. MY BOY….And I cannot IMAGINE having him gone for more than 2 mornings a week. I asked Brian on the first day if he thought the teachers would mind if I asked them to give me a play-by-play of everything that happened and that was said and done for the 2 hours and 45 minutes that he was under their care. He responded with, “Well, yeah, since you did that for every one of your students, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.” Sigh. I know, I know…he’s only 3…my perspective will likely change as he gets older. But for now, I’m a leanin’…. 🙂 One of the biggest reasons we chose to enroll him in preschool is for the enrichment portions of it. This school has a little soccer program that he can be a part of, and he LOOOOOOOOVVVVVVES it. After his first day, he said to me, “Mom, I want to play soccer EVERY day!” So, hopefully as I get to see him come alive through some of these types of things, I will be more excited about his year away from me :).
That night, we all went out to dinner to celebrate his very first day! And it just happened to be, “get a free burger” night at RR!
The first week that life returned to “normal” after we lost the baby, I was a total and complete disaster (to put it bluntly!). It was SO HARD to go back to “normal,” when nothing was normal! Everything was different. I buried my face in the Word and tried to fill every moment I could with my family and my friends. It was just so hard to have nothing “exciting” on the schedule to look forward to. Everyone says, “Don’t busy yourself…you need to grieve,” but it didn’t work like that for me. I had PLENTY of time to grieve, I was filling all my spare moments with Truth, and then I JUST NEEDED TO BE WITH PEOPLE WHO FILLED ME UP.
And let me just tell you, THE LORD WAS GOOD TO ME.
APRIL
It all started one day when I was in the middle of a fairly good breakdown, sobbing at our kitchen table. Our kids were playing in the other room and Brian found me there…tears forming a large puddle in front of me. He looked at me with a compassionate heart but having no idea what to do with me. Thankfully, the Lord Almighty intervened in that moment when, suddenly, my dear friend Jenny texted me to ask me how I was doing. And I responded by begging her to fly out to visit.
AND SHE DID.
I don’t know what I would’ve done without her friendship and love that week; a week where I wasn’t sure how to put one foot in front of the other. Several days of getting to know her sweet little Karalee and the companionship of one of my longest friends…she brought me chocolate and wine and we bawled through Frozen together. (Oh, wait…maybe I was the only one who was crying…) I was so grateful to the Lord, who supplied everything that I needed that week and more. And so thankful for Jenny, who is one of my most faithful friends.
Jenny & Karalee!
MAY
Not two weeks had passed when Melisa told me SHE was coming to visit. WHAT, WHAT?!! I missed Stella terribly, but almost a week (almost a WEEK!) with my Melisa and her Judah filled me up in a way that words cannot describe. It’s never enough time, but what would I have done without her love, her faith, her joy, her understanding…there’s something about being with someone who has experienced great loss but has been driven closer to the Lord, farther from bitterness, closer to grace, that brings a comfort others cannot. Thank the good Lord for Melisa.
Melisa & Baby Judah
Good times, great food. My parents treated Brian and me to an AWESOME dinner and a play in Denver for my birthday. It was such a lovely evening with them, filling our faces and a night out on the town.
Mmm, mmm, gooooood!!!
My newest niece was born…Ember Vivienne…and I got to hold her and the fullness of her chubby cheeks on my birthday for the first time. What a GIFT. Just look at this doll! I was in heaven.
For reals…those cheeks.
A birthday celebration with friends…Elizabeth and I both have birthdays in May, so Katie and Suz treated us to the Melting Pot! THE MELTING POT!! But oh, these friends…who brought me salted caramel graham cracker cookies and coffees and flowers and watched my kids and prayed for me and listened to me and went to CB & Potts with me multiple times :)…thank the Lord for these friends.
Sweet dessert, sweet fellowship
Guess who else came to town?! JILLIAN!! What a GIFT to meet her newest little man, sweet little Vaughn, and to do a major “fast forward” catch up with her!! We were both talking so fast, trying to squeeze months (years?) of catch up into 3 short hours. She is a heart friend, and I love her dearly!!
Jillian and baby Vaughn (can you tell Selah is enamored with Jillian’s beauty?!!)
JULY
EJ!! EJ, EJ!!! Erika’s family lives outside of Denver and she came to visit them…and so graciously met me for a (LONG) lunch one day. There have been many moments in my life where I have been acutely aware of the fact that Erika’s prayers and faith have so greatly helped me fix my eyes on the Lord. It was SUCH A GIFT to get to see her…it’s like a fire-hydrant of refreshment.
The one and only EJ.
Rayel got married!! We drove out to Minnesota to be a part of her day and it was such a joy to see her (seriously, most gorgeous bride ever!) and to watch her marry the love of her life!
Sweet Rayel!Our lil’ fam
On the way we got to see my long-time friend Amy and her husband Michael and her two (BIG!) boys Nathan & Joel. I can’t believe I forgot to snap a pic!! But we met at the Cabela’s in Omaha, walked around the cool store and, again, tried to catch up a LOT of things in a very quick lunch! Though I haven’t been able to see Amy very often since she lived with us while I was in high school, I think of her every day because she was the wonder woman behind my kids’ bedding and decor for their nurseries. So though she is far, her fingerprints are in our home and I love that!! 🙂
On the way back, we got to see Danielle and her family! Danielle!! It’s difficult to describe how my heart loves Danielle. She just makes everyone feel like they are the most special person on earth. I cannot BELIEVE I got the gift of getting to meet her DARLING Eliza while just a few weeks old, and spend time with her precious big girls Raegan and Anabelle. They were both SO sweet to Elliott and Selah, and Danielle and I talked a hundred miles an hour trying to–again–catch up on each other’s lives!! The time was WAY too short, but so, so, soooo sweet and such a GIFT from the Lord.
Danielle, Raegan, Anabelle and sweet baby Eliza
AUGUST
We celebrated 5 years together as husband and wife!! We had dinner at a restaurant I’ve been wanting to go to for years and years…super delicious fondue in a quaint little city. It was such a special date…filled with reminiscing about trials and joys and failures and victories. Oh, how I love this man.
We had a table out on the balcony, overlooking Manitou Springs…perfect.
Then, JILL was in town!! Jill and her family moved to England last summer and she came out with the kids for THREE weeks to visit!! Her youngest, sweet Olivia, is just a few months older than Selah and her boys are as sweet as can be. Elliott has inherited (half of) the boys’ clothes and Selah has inherited Olivia’s hand-me-downs so they are very special friends :). Our kids got to see each other a few times and it was such a GIFT–both for me to see Jill and for my kids to play with hers. I was so, so blessed.
SWEETEST.PICTURE.EVER.
Kari, Jill and I (and all the kids and two sets of grandparents!) met at Focus on the Family one morning.
Jill, Kari, Me and all of our children. Such a JOY to be together and have all our kids together!
Since Kari is in the previous photo, I’ll go ahead and mention her now, though she has been such a God-sent throughout the entire Spring and Summer. There are times when God’s gifts are so timely and perfect that I am at a loss for words to express my gratitude. Kari (and her family) and I living in the same city (well, sorta…) has been such a gift. Her friendship, her faith, her desire to follow the Lord in all things despite the cost has strengthened and encouraged me numerous times. I can’t believe we get to live so close!! Her sweet little guy Quinn got to spend the day with us a couple weeks ago and his friendship with Elliott blessed me immensely. So thankful that God orchestrated each of our lives to cross paths in a way that we can do life together.
Keely is officially hitched!! But before that happened, she had a gorgeous bridal shower in town. We’re missing Emily and Logan, but this group of ours has been friends since elementary/high school. It was SUCH A JOY to see them all while celebrating this dear friend of ours. Her shower was at the Broadmoor, and I told Brian that I felt like I had been on vacation after coming back from it. So refreshing, and so much fun to celebrate our friend!!
Jill, Sara, Keely, Kari and meAnd the “locals” got together one more time to feast on some amazing food and eat large portions of this incredible chocolate cake :).
SEPTEMBER
And last, but CERTAINLY not least…oh, how the Lord put this cherry on top of all of the ways He’s lavished me with love this Spring/Summer…he gave me Melanie for a sister-in-law. The picture below is (obviously) not of her, but of her beautiful offspring: my sweet nieces and a nephew who come over to play… I honestly am not sure how to adequately describe the gift it’s been to be near her this summer, but I will just say, she is absolutely a “good and perfect gift” from my Father. Thank you, Lord for her friendship, her faith, and her testimony of the transforming power of the gospel. Thank you, Lord.
Selah (1), Cypher (2), Elliott (3) and Fable (4)… If only baby Ember were in this picture as well…she would cover the <1 age :).Oh, now, look at that–I found a picture of her after all! 🙂 THIS was one of my favorite nights EVER…Biaggi’s, Fried Pimento (who KNEW?!), a big hat and two very grateful hearts. (P.S. She doesn’t own this hat…although I’m sure she’d love to ;).)
I am RICH. Rich with friendships, rich with people who love me, rich with people who fill me with faith. The Lord has been so faithful to meet my every need and surround me with those who love me. I am RICH….
Those of you who know me, know that I love to throw a good party. I used to be an avid crafter until, well, life got WAYYYYYY too busy for that. I still have managed to make time to throw my kids’ birthday parties and a shower here and there, but otherwise, my crafty side has remained dormant.
That is, until, everything changed on October 5, 2013.
We threw a little birthday party for our tweet one year old, and though I started out by saying, “I’m going to keep it SIMPLE!” I just got swept up in the adorable theme and couldn’t help myself. My mind was flooded with birds and puns and ideas to bless our daughter, and they all came into existence. We invited just a few close friends and family, and my dear friend Kari was one of the guests. I’ll never forget the moment her eyes had just scanned ALLLLL of the birds around our house, each intricate tail, beak, wing, and body cut by hand and she said to me, “You didn’t cut these all out by hand, did you?”
“Yes, I did!” I said proudly.
“Ummm, haven’t you heard of a Cricut?” she asked me, stunned.
“The insect?”
A slight smile slowly spread across her face as she stared at me in disbelief…”No…..the machine that would have cut all of this out FOR YOU…”
I was TRULY baffled. For years, I have made every one of my decorations by hand…in that one moment, my memory flashed back to Elliott’s ball birthday party where I cut out EVERY SINGLE BALL by hand and his Construction themed birthday party where I cut out EVERY SINGLE CUPCAKE CONSTRUCTION SIGN by hand and then I stared at each bird, each cupcake topper, each number that marked the different years of Selah’s birthday banner and I thought about every minute that it took for me to cut each one out by hand…and I almost cried.
“It does WHAT…?!”
She tried to explain to me the concept of this “electronic cutting machine” but I was so overwhelmed at the idea of it–and all of the hours I had spent that didn’t need to spent if she was, indeed, telling me the truth. It was as if I had been making the trek every day to the river to wash my family’s clothes with rocks in hand and somebody told me there was a MACHINE that would do that all for me. Brian jumped off of the couch and began to research. (One of the many reasons I LOVE this husband of mine!) Within just a few minutes he had found a different version of the Cricut–an electronic cutting machine called a Silhouette. It got far better reviews than the Cricut and for several reasons it seemed like a much better option. We sat there while guests continued to mingle at our house and we watched the promo video for it. I’m sure there was a puddle of drool on the floor beneath me because I couldn’t BELIEVE the things this machine said it could do. Where had it been all my life??!! I was in love.
I spent the next few hours, days, weeks and months convincing Brian that this would be the BEST investment we could POSSIBLY make for our future and our household. 🙂 After a few good nudges come December, I opened up my very special gift on Christmas day.
My three favorite things about this photo: 1. Elliott’s bedhead. 2. The three of us in our Christmas jammies. 3. The CLEAR affection that my daughter already has for crafting!! 😉
There she was…in all of her beauty. She was gorgeous, and terrifying. I knew I had to jump in right away and figure out how to use her quickly before she sat dormant too long.
Brian and I opened the box together, read all the instructions, and watched the video. I designed a simple card and made my first cut.
And sliced right through the cutting mat. (Palm to forehead.)
Good thing it came with two :/. Needless to say, it has been a huge learning curve for me. I have moved from designing a few very simple cards to some fun signs for Elliott’s 3rd birthday to making banners and wedding presents to some meaningful gifts for friends to…my latest projects…home decor.
I stumbled upon a facebook group that is like a Silhouette support group. Everyone who is a part of it is AWESOME–everyone is so kind and helpful and it’s SO MUCH FUN to see people’s creativity and to share a bit of mine. Each month, the group hosts a “challenge” with a theme, and I finally decided to be brave and jump in this month. 🙂
This month’s theme is HOME DECOR. I had just finished this project, and so I figured this would be a fun way to share it!
Several months ago, I came across this scripture while reading the Word one morning. It resonated so deeply with me, because this is SO who Brian and I long for our children to be!
“May our sons flourish in their youth like well-nurtured plants. May our daughters be like graceful pillars, carved to beautify a palace.” Psalm 144:12
YES. I have mentioned it briefly before, but I LONG for my son to not be quenched in his “boyness” but to FLOURISH in his youth. Yes, I want to raise him to be respectful and kind and thoughtful, but all the while being brave and mighty and BOY. Our society has a tendency to want little boys to act and behave like little girls, and then years later when they become a man and husband, their wives are upset because they are passive. I won’t go off on a tangent now 🙂 but this is so our heart’s cry: that our son would FLOURISH in his youth. We have gone to great lengths to nurture our son; his heart is SO sensitive and soft that, like a tender shoot of a young plant, he takes a LOT of nurturing. We have tried so hard, resting on the grace of God, to know his heart and shepherd it, while at the same time encouraging him to be brave and bold. Oh, Lord, may he flourish in his youth!!
And, our sweet Selah. THIS GIRL. I tell you what, she is STRONG–strength like a pillar. I LOVE this description of a girl: a gracefulpillar. YES. We want our daughter to be filled with grace, both in her speech and her actions. And at the same time, we want to teach her to STAND FIRM. To be unwavering and unmoved by the ways of this world, but firm in the knowledge of our God. A graceful pillar. Like the son who flourishes like a well-nurtured plant, we are striving to teach her what it looks like to be such a graceful pillar; she must be shown how to stand firm and not tossed by the waves. Like a pillar carved to beautify a palace, so we are teaching our girl. We are praying for her heart that she would be like the fragrance of Christ and that just by looking at her, people would pause to stop and think about how great our God is! (Selah!)
All that to say, once I stumbled upon this scripture, I knew I wanted it up in the new rental home we were moving into the next month. And once we were here, Brian and I embarked on making this sign together!
First, I spent a bit of time designing it through my Silhouette software. Though I’ve always wanted to be good at graphic design, this isn’t necessarily my strength (yet). So I spent a while, playing with the colors and the fonts and learning about the program. After a while, I settled upon this:
Brian went out and got a wood board from Home Depot and cut it down to the size we wanted: 14″x 36″
I spray painted it white, and decided to use a stronger vinyl for the letters than the regular vinyl I have used for other basic projects since I wanted to make sure it would stick to a painted surface. (During my last project, I couldn’t get the vinyl to stick to the medium I was using and my Silhouette support group came to the rescue and taught me about Oracal 651…an outdoor vinyl that’s much stronger.) I loaded the vinyl into my Silhouette, pushed the little button on my computer and my awesome machine cut out all these letters for me!!
Using painter’s tape, I transferred the letters that I wanted to remain in white to the sign.
See the rolls of TP under the table? This picture represents REAL life around these parts…this is how we roll! (Haha…)
**Mistake #1: I FORGOT to lay down the verse reference, which I wanted in white as well. I didn’t realize I had forgotten this until the END, so it was definitely frustrating to have to go back and fix that. Lesson learned!
Then, Brian spray painted the whole thing turquoise. We let it dry, I peeled off the letters, and then I applied the rest of the scripture that was to remain in black. (It was at this point that I realized I had forgotten to put the reference down two steps earlier, so we ended up having to tape off the corner, spray the bottom corner white again, put on the letters, spray paint it turquoise, and then remove the lettering. Thus, as you can probably see below, there are lines around the reference which totally bother me, but, honestly, it’s a good reminder that perfection is not required to be a good parent :)).
Using a sandpaper block, I distressed the edges of the sign a little bit.
The finished product!
**Mistake #2: It wasn’t until we got the sign all hung up that I realized the tiny hyphen that should be present between “well” and “nurtured” didn’t survive the transfer. Gah! So…I had to go back and re-cut that little piece and attach it to the sign. I learned so much through this project!
We put the sign up on the wall in our playroom with several of my favorite recent pictures of the kiddos…pictures that show them flourishing and filled with joy.
A glimpse of our playroom!This little cutie woke up from her nap while I was snapping photos. I set her up with a snack, but she decided the subject of my photo should be something far more interesting than a wall in our playroom. So! Here’s my pillar…snacks in mouth and all :).Our flourishing youth & graceful pillar!
I love how it turned out, mistakes and all, and I love the reminder that it serves on the wall of our playroom!!
I hope you enjoyed learning about one of my very first home decor Silhouette projects :).
Now…do you love crafts and home decor as much as I do?? And do you…
Want to Check Out More Silhouette Projects?
My Silhouette Challenge buddies and I are all sharing projects on our blogs today, so peruse the projects below for a wealth of Silhouette inspiration!
I have always been that person who has wanted to wait until it was “safe” to tell people about our pregnancies. I will tell the very, very closest, those safest to my heart right away, but I will wait to tell the rest. I have called this “my safety zone.” I’ve never been a big fan of grieving while “the masses” looked on and this was my way of making sure I didn’t have to. We’ve always waited until we’ve seen an ultra sound, made sure that baby was in the right place, and made sure there was a heart beating strongly. I know, according to the books, you’re not out of the “danger” window until around 12-13 weeks, but since I get so sick during my pregnancies–and everyone has always told me that as long as you are sick, you KNOW the baby is okay–I have figured we were “safe” once we saw that heartbeat and as long as I was still throwing up. As much as I don’t enjoy vomiting every day, it’s been a comfort to me with each of my pregnancies. With each heave, I take comfort in the “fact” that my baby is growing well.
One of my initial thoughts after we lost the baby was, “Oh, no…my plan of waiting until it was “safe” didn’t work! We’ve told EVERYONE…Oooooohhhhh noooooooo…..” Total and absolute dread followed at the thought of having to tell the world the terrible news. Shame for celebrating our baby consumed me. And I immediately began changing my “safety zone” in my head: “Next time, I’ll wait until 13 weeks! Oh wait, I have friends who have lost babies even after 13 weeks. That’s still not safe. Okay, I’ll wait until 20 weeks! That will keep me safe! Oh, wait….I have very good friends who have lost babies after 20 weeks. That WON’T keep me safe. I’ve got it! I’ll wait until my due date to tell the world!! Oh…wait…I know that even women who carry babies full term give birth to stillborn babies…”
I played out various scenarios in my head–like, waiting until my next child’s first birthday to share the news with the world. But I knew, in reality, that even THEN I wouldn’t be “safe.”
I know I have only one choice that is “safe.” And I know exactly what that choice is…so, daily, I drop my tense shoulders…I let down my walls, I lift up my head, and I let the Lord IN…I set my terrified eyes on HIM. I lock my weeping heart on HIM. Because I know…that in Him, and Him alone, will I find safety…will I find shelter…will I find refuge…in the shadow of His wings, I am safe.
The Lord has had me on this journey of learning what it means to TRULY rely on Him, and Him alone, for years, but he has had His thumb on this issue very strongly for the last 2 1/2 or so. And I will be honest, I thought I was mostly done. I mean, come on, at least at 90% or so… But my tendency to want to find safety in statistics, in the past, in others’ stories, in science, in ANYTHING other than the Lord has reared its fierce head boldly since we lost our baby.
When tragedy occurs, we all just want to be safe. We all just want OUT of it. We all just want to have control over SOMETHING that will secure in our hearts and minds that we won’t ever meet tragedy again. I have wanted, desperately, to find something seemingly-safe to cling to. I have wanted to cling to the statistics to assure me that this will never happen again. I have wanted to cling to the fact that I have two of the most incredible children on the planet to assure me that, of course, I will get pregnant again and carry another baby full term. I have wanted to cling to the stories of my friends, who have lost babies and gone on to have more. But even as I have begun to put my hands on each of those “securities,” I knew instantly that my fingers would never be able to take a grip on them. They are too slippery, too unsubstantial, too meaningless. And now, I can’t even hope in my nausea. I won’t even “know” that my baby is okay because I am throwing up. Because that’s not true. Those statistics, those stories, my children…they are all great encouragements to me; they do give me hope to some degree. But they are not MY HOPE. They cannot be the places my eyes are set.
God holds life in His hands.
That’s it. That’s the end of the story. I can focus on my health, I can time whatever I want to, but GOD HOLDS LIFE IN HIS HANDS.
I can read, I can plan, I can study, I can take the perfect prenatal vitamins, but it is my GOD who holds my babies’ lives in His hands.
No king is saved by the multitude of an army; A mighty man is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a vain hope for safety; Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, On those who hope in His mercy, To deliver their soul from death, And to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him, Because we have trusted in His holy name. Let Your mercy, O LORD, be upon us, Just as we hope in You. [Psa 33:14-22 NKJV]
I hope in THE LORD…not the “safety zone” of pregnancies, not the nausea, not the statistics, not the past. My hope, my trust, is in the LORD.
And so, my perspective has changed entirely. You know, I will never get to have a baby shower to celebrate the life of my third baby. I will never get to plan his or hers first, second, or third birthday party. I had 2 months, once we found out we were pregnant, to celebrate my baby’s life. And you know what? I DID. WE did.
We rejoiced over our baby’s life!!
Oh, how we REJOICED over this little one in our family!! AndI have no regrets. It was NOT a waste that we celebrated, despite what fear wants to tell me! I am so grateful that we did. I am so grateful for our friends and family who wholeheartedly celebrated with us!! I am so grateful that we took pictures, made a (virtual) announcement, and didn’t withhold our great news until it was “safe.” I am so thankful we didn’t miss out on our short window to celebrate the life of our littlest love. We made A LIFE, and we celebrated that life wholeheartedly. THANK GOD.
All three of our children :).
I was a bit taken aback, honestly, by the sympathy that came from “the masses” towards us. I didn’t think I wanted it or needed it, but I was so blessed by the way MANY came around us when they found out we had lost our baby. If you are reading this now, you are probably one of the people who did that, and I want to tell you how grateful I am for your love and your care. We live in hard times, where the lives of babies inside wombs are not valued as they should be, and yet you valued our baby’s life and then grieved with us when that life was gone. Thank you.
It’s just that I LOVE to celebrate, and I can’t believe I almost let that part of me be stolen. I’m sure I was created to celebrate. Jesus loved to celebrate too, you know! He loved weddings, right??!! 🙂 I love throwing showers, I love finding excuses to make a fun gift for someone, I LOVE IT ALL. And it’s because I love LIFE. I love people, and I love life. It brings ME to life when I get to celebrate others. Weddings are MMYYYY FAAAAVORITE….not because I love details and coordinating colors and themes and parties in and of themselves, but because I love TO TRULY CELEBRATE the fact that two people have chosen to lay their lives down for each other and become one before God and their closest friends!! That is a day to be CELEBRATED!! BIG TIME!!! Does celebration always have to look like a well-planned out party or gift? Oh, of course not. But HOW FUN to go ALL OUT and NOT WITHHOLD A THING to celebrate someone or something like CRAZY. I LOVE to celebrate LIFE.
I never want to quit celebrating. I never, ever want to quit celebrating LIFE. I never want to celebrate only when it’s “safe.” I want to be wholehearted and, like the woman many of us strive to be like, I so desperately want to “laugh at the days to come” and not fear them (Proverbs 31). It feels ridiculously scary, still, to think about (whenever that day comes) celebrating our next pregnancy boldly. So, so scary. And I have no expectations on us for when the “right time” will be to share. But, I do know this: without faith it is impossible to please Him, and my safety lies in Him…FAITH in HIM. And I want that truth to always drive our celebration, whether we share at 4, 10, 13, or 20 weeks next time.
Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the LORD our God. They have bowed down and fallen; But we have risen and stand upright. Save, LORD! May the King answer us when we call. [Psa 20:1-9 NKJV]
WE HOPE, with all our hearts, that we will have another baby one day. But we will not hope in the fact that the statistics say we should or shouldn’t…If God grants us the blessing of another child to care for and raise here on earth, then it is solely by His mercy. Some trust in statistics; But we will remember the name of the LORD our God. We hope in the LORD. And though it feels so scary, I am promised that when I trust in His name, I will NOT be overcome by fear, but instead I will rise and stand upright. Praise be to God!!
Oh, Lord. Give me the strength, the hope, the faith to celebrate LIFE, even when it feels so scary. Give me the faith to trust solely in You, the One who holds life in His hands. Amen.
