The Girls

I figured I could do an update on the girls.

Hadley is growing up fast. We've felt like just recently her scope of understanding the world around her has expanded exponentially. She has been asking LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of questions even after we've told her we don't know a certain answer. She's interested in just about everything, but loves painting and cooking. She doesn't like to be left out of anything and loves to play with her friends. She's really into Caillou, Deigo and Dora and plays with them when she's not around her real friends. She also adores her little sister and always wants to help with Emma. Hadley's new talent is making up songs...just like her father. We bought her a kids devotional bible and have been reading it just once a week but she will remember so many details from all the stories and we love having conversations about God and Jesus with her. We've really been working on helping her cope with frustration instead of just sticking her in time out or ignoring her. People have asked if we'll be putting Hadley in preschool. At this point no. We are slowly exploring all options of schooling so that we can be well educated on all the different options and we're still undecided. We're constantly praying about where God wants to use her and Emma when it comes time to make a decision.

Here are a few recent snippets of conversations:

She will jump out from behind her curtains in her closet and say, "Hi everyone. We're going to have a show tonight," and proceed to sing and dance for us.

After a conversation on Heaven and going there to see Jesus and God:
H- "I'm going to take my bible to show them."
Me - "Show who?" (since we had just finished discussing a lot of people will be there)
H - "God and Jesus"
Me - "I think they'll like that."
H - "What kind of toys will they have there?"

Driving in the car I hear her singing: "Emma has to drive to church....what? what?........Emma has to drive to church in a car.....what? what?"

Emma will be 8 months old on the 21st!!! Ahhhh! I can't believe how fast the one year mark is coming. She is such a sweet little girl, however she is becoming more vocal in expressing her dislike of things. She is still a little unsteady when sitting by herself so we can't really set her down and walk away yet. She's getting really good at pushing up on her stomach and even a little on her feet so I think crawling will come pretty fast after mastering sitting. It's been difficult to not compare these physical milestones with Hadley's, as Hadley was sitting well by 7 months. I guess comparing is a never ending battle. She's a great sleeper, really no complaints there, even though it was a little harder,at least for me, to do the baby wise routine. But yet again it has proved a wonderful tool for our family. I finally dropped the late night feeding because it was interrupting her sleep and I think this set her up for a whole night of interruptions. Since dropping that late feeding she's been sleeping much better without many interruptions as little as they were. She will laugh so easily at Hadley. Most car rides are suddenly filled with both girls just laughing at each other for no reason at all. I love it! She seems to be a little more picky with food than Hadley was so we may end up having a tougher time getting her to try new things. Being picky definitely comes from me. She will snuggle sometimes so I'm soaking it up! Maybe that's why she's been a little late in sitting up. Her first tooth came through last week. One of the bottom fronts and its neighbor is close behind. She wasn't unbearable while it was coming through although she of course seemed to only want me when she was tired and a little more fussy in the evenings but with a little ibuprofen she slept just fine. We are so excited to watch her grow and feel blessed to have two wonderful little girls.

God is the Same Through the Ages

I've been reading through the Bible in a chronological order which I have truly enjoyed. It has unraveled more as a story of God rather than a confusing jumble of events for me. Once I finish I think I'm going to start it again because I know each time I will learn more and more. Yes, I have grown up in the church and my faith became my own in high school but 15 years later I am still learning more about my God. It's a testimony to the depth of God's personality.

Right now I'm working my way through 2 Chronicles, 2 Kings and the prophets as they all go hand in hand chronologically. I'm constantly amazed at the apparent stupidity of Israel and the chosen people God made them to be. They would hear directly, audibly from God and his prophets yet they continually, constantly, and without hesitancy turned their backs. Today people think if they actually heard God's voice they'd believe. I'm not so sure about that. But I digress.

The point of this particular blog is to focus on God's judgement seen in the Old Testament. Time and again when Israel turned away from God he would send prophets to tell them they were going to be wiped out, a plague would come to ravage their towns, their soldiers would be handed over to the enemy, you name it God would send his wrath to remind them he is their God.

So my question. Does God still do this to us today? I know with Jesus came a new covenant and grace but I can't imagine consequences and judgement are no longer a part of God's character. Do we have natural disasters, diseases, death as a result of God's wrath? Sure some of that is a natural consequence of sin. I have a feeling I've heard the answer to this at some point, which is no, God does not still send his wrath and judgement on us with Jesus' sacrifice. Thus the whole point of Judgement day.

Thoughts?

Repurposing My Habits

Repurposing is very popular now with furniture and antiques. Taking something old with a specific purpose and refinishing and even remodeling it for a whole new purpose. This is what I plan to do this new year with my habits. I'm not going to drop bad habits (as noble as that is) and I'm not going to create better ones, I'm going to take the good habits I have and do them with a better purpose.

I don't really make New Year's resolutions. It seems weird to me to wake up one day, which happens to be like most, just a different date, and vow to live better or do things differently. Why didn't I do that every day of last year? Each new day is a day where I should be saying, "Today I will live better. Today I will do things differently." I guess I don't place that much importance on New Year's resolutions because I know I might have days or weeks where I fail miserably and I don't want that to make the entire year a failure. I try to take one day at a time and if the next day is a little better than the previous I've succeeded.

Anywho, that said I do take some time to reflect and think about how I can be a better person and glorify God more. This year I want my habits to be repurposed. It's easy to say I'm going to eat better but my purpose is to lose weight. Perhaps if I repurposed my eating habits to be more healthy for my children I'd be more likely to work through the change. I'm going to repurpose my habit of relaxing (a.k.a. being lazy) not in order to accomplish more but to be a better steward of the time God has given me. I'm going to repurpose my prayer habits not because God invited me to pray but because I want to know Him more intimately.

I have a few other things in mind but it's a catchphrase I want to hold onto this year.

Did you make some resolutions? Do you keep them?