Who's in Charge?

The set up:
Today I'm watching a friend's two little girls. One is 2 1/2 and the other is about 15 mos. The younger girl cries most of the time she's at my house every time I watch her. Today I decided I am in charge. I decided to actively pursue getting this child to not cry and fuss about everything.

The big scene:
After lunch she needed a diaper change, so I pulled out her things and called her over to me. She actually shook her head no! I walked her through it and tried again. After some training and some practice, she came with a minimum amount of fuss. A couple hours later, she now comes to me without crying at all. In fact, she obeys my every command without even a wrinkle of her brow. She has been more cheerful and playful the last two hours than she has ever been in my home.

The conclusion:
I knew that would happen. I was only surprised that it only took about ten minutes. My kids take a whole afternoon and we don't get the cheerful part until the next day! What I'm surprised about is my own attitude. I have LOVED being a mom today! Even with the extra kiddos! Greg has been challenging me to be more consistent with my follow through with the kids. He's convinced that this will ease my constant irritation with them. Now God has shown me that he's right! (I should have listened to my husband in the first place.)

When I provide boundaries for the children, they are secure and controlled. They know where the line is, they know what the consequences are and they are happier for them. What I have learned today is that when I provide boundaries for the children, I am secure and controlled. Their disobedience is not a reflection upon me or my mothering skills. I need to train my children to choose the right thing and providing consistency in the negative consequences will make all of us happier.

Funny Things Kids Say

Several weeks ago I was sitting in the entryway at church with Veronica. One of the guys needed to walk through several times and would stop and play with Veronica each time he passed. After one interaction, this is the conversation that followed:

Veronica: "Mama, why does he DO that?"
Me: "Well, he doesn't have kids, yet, so when he sees you he likes to play with you. It's fun playing with kids."
Veronica: "What happened?"
Me: "What do you mean?"
Veronica: "Did he kill them?"

I promise, she's never watched an episode of CSI!

This morning Greg and a couple friends are fishing (yes, in the rain). When one of them came over, Zachary answered the door. Apparently there was a little action and here's what he told me:

Zachary: "When I opened the door a cockroach tried to get in. Josh tried to kick it outside, but it wouldn't go. So I picked it up, threw it outside, shut the door and locked it!"
Me (thinking): "It sure is a good thing you locked the door, so that cockroach won't just open it!"

I know there are many more such conversations, but these two have me chuckling today.

easter weekend

Friday night we went to church and had a wonderful service. Our pastor shared the story of Jesus' death from the viewpoint of Peter. It was very engaging. I'm not sure how much the kids got, but they sat still and seemed to be paying attention the whole time.

Then we were invited to tack a red rose petal on the cross. This was to represent our sins. Zachary thought that they needed to put one up for each sin. We decided that we would each fill a whole cross, so we would only put up one for all of our own sins. This was a very powerful lesson for my boys. Quinlan wondered why there were so many sinners at our church- it took so long for everyone to take their turn.

Saturday my mom and I hid eggs in the living room while the kids were out fishing with Greg. It was so funny when Veronica found one and wondered what it was. Pretty soon everyone was running around trying to find them all! We also spent some time coloring eggs and putting stickers on them. While they were drying, I sent everyone outside to draw their favorite part of easter on the sidewalk. Zachary had two favorite parts- When Jesus died on the cross for his sins and when he rose from the tomb. Quinlan's favorite part was when Jesus came back to life. Veronica mumbled too much for me to figure out what she had drawn.

Sunday we went to church and had the easter message. The red petals we had put on the cross were now white! Jesus had made our sins clean! Everyone read the story one more time in Sunday school, too. We had a brunch after the service, and it was amazing how quickly the auditorium turned into a dining hall with everyone working together.

My favorite part of easter was before dinner on Saturday night. Greg was gone when we were ready to start, and all of the kids wanted to pray. So, I let them pray one by one. Each of them thanked God for the things they had done that day and the yummy food. But my boys were also thankful for Jesus dying on the cross for their sins. They were thankful that he did not stay dead, but had come back to life. They were thankful that they will get to go to heaven to be with Him. I was thankful that they are understanding the message of the gospel- that we are sinners and God is perfect, but Christ has come to build a bridge back to God, and we only have to believe and confess it to return home.

My Savior, My God by Aaron Shust is a song we sang on Sunday. I've been listening to it over and over today, reflecting on all that Christ has done.

And She's Mobile...

Last fall when Eleanor rolled over for the first time I lamented the loss in knowing where she would be fifteen minutes after setting her down. Luckily for me, after she rolled over a few times she thought that was enough. She didn't like being on the ground, she wanted to sit up so she could look around at all the action! It took a bit of practice, but she was soon sitting up all by herself and playing with anything she could reach. Now, she's started scooting across the floor. She's been trying for a few weeks, but was mostly spinning. The last several days have brought quite the improvement in her scooting abilities. The other kids are amazed when she comes up and topples their towers or grabs their cards. She can even reach things that are sitting on top of the coffee table! Just now, I pulled one of Veronica's barretts out of her mouth. Where do all these little things come from, and why is the baby always the one to find them? (I'm trying to get a video posted of her scooting. It's taking some time, though. Check back later!)

Unauthorized

So, apparently our week hasn't been stressful enough. On Tuesday night I logged into our online banking account to balance the checkbook and pay some bills. What's this? A $2000 overdraft! It turns out that someone hacked into our paypal account, added a new address to my profile, bought some computer equipment, and tried to stick us with the bill!
We're currently working through a dispute with paypal. Our bank is being very kind and is waiving the overdraft fee. Apparently even with a a dispute on file, paypal still tries the account a couple of times, so our kind teller is keeping an eye on our account for us, ready and waiting to waive more fees.
A few years ago Greg decided to open a second checking account. We use it soley to for paypal and other online purchases. We only transfer money to it as we use the account. It's sort of a Dave Ramsey version of a credit card. :) I'm so thankful that we had it set up like this and it's not our main bank account that's being afected. If you make online purchases, I really reccommend getting a separate account just for those! It's a time like this when it really comes handy!

My week in Prayer Requests

Sent 2-20:
Some of you know a little bit about what has been happening in our family this week. A quick recap and then our prayer request for the weekend.

On Wednesday I noticed that one side of Eleanor's neck was slightly swollen and sensitive to touch. Thinking it was her lymph nodes and she probably had an ear infection I took her in and we saw the PA. It turns out that she and the boys had strep throat. All the kids were put on antibiotics, and she was also put on ibuprofin to help with the inflammation.

Her swelling has actually gotten worse over the last two days and I took her back today. We saw our doctor and he is thinking that she has an abcessed lymph node. She's on the right meds and we also get to apply heat. That could cause the abcess to rupture and drain, which would probably be good for it. I have to call back on Monday with a progress report. If it hasn't gotten any better, we'll be referred to a specialist with the thought that it could be a cyst.

Please be praying that we can see some improvement this weekend and that she will start feeling better. Having it drain would confirm that it is only an abcess and move things along more quickly. If it does drain, that we would take care of it properly. That come Monday the doctor will know exactly what direction to head with this. Also, I have not been handling things well with little sleep and an irritible baby. We need God's peace to descend upon our house!

Thanks, everyone
Love,
Lynnette

Sent 2-23:
We've appreciated all of the prayers, care, and concern over the last several days. Prayers are powerful and effective. Even with the continued lack of sleep, my attitude today has been quite a bit better than it was on Friday. I know it's because of the Lord.

Well, the abcess on Eleanor's neck looked really close to popping yesterday, but it never happened. Today it looked kind of scabby instead of ready to pop. We've been referred to an ENT and have an appointment for Tuesday morning at 10:30.

Please pray for Eleanor to get some good sleep tonight (so we can all get some good sleep tonight). Please pray for the appointment tomorrow- that this is something that can be taken care of right there. And mostly that Eleanor will be healed soon so she can go back to being the happy baby she's trying so hard to be right now.

Love,
Lynnette (and fam)

Sent 2-24:
I've heard it said that God doesn't give you more than He knows you can handle. I think the past 24 are a case to prove that point!

Eleanor's abcess spontaneously ruptured overnight! Quite a bit of stuff came out and it's a lot smaller today than it has been all week. Our doctor still wanted us to keep the appointment with the ENT. If it hadn't reuptured, we'd be in the operating room right now getting it removed. As things stand right now, we're to keep her on antibiotics while it's healing and continue monitoring it. If there are any other pockets in there it should be evident within a couple of days and we'll go in and have them removed at that point.

Thank you all so much for the prayer support you have been giving us. Please pray for continued sleep, rest, and peace (for her and me!) Pray that everything has come out and for proper healing. Since it ruptured on it's own, there's a chance for scarring, please pray that it will be minimal (or at least coverable when she gets hair!).

Love,
Lynnette (and the rest)

Our week in photos:

Eleanor's Abcess

lost connectivity

I had a wonderful update typed up and ready to post. Of course, I lost my internet connection as soon as I was ready to share it all with you. Now I'm too tired to retype the whole thing. So here's the shortened version.

Christmas was Jesus' birthday. My kids got that. Faithwalkers was spent with my kids, but God still spoke to my heart. 2009 has started, but I haven't had a chance to make any resolutions. Or even get around to planning our school work for the semester. I'm looking forward to several things we're praying about for the coming year.