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www.americanadiangirl.com

unsettled

My prayer is that my soul would find satisfaction in Christ—not pleasure, money, old cars, or even the joy of babies that sleep through the night. These things are a common grace and we ought to enjoy them; yet thirst for pleasure finds its ultimate quenching in Christ. May we not “settle” today, and in so doing, miss out on true wealth.

Amy's complete post

public service announcement

As an early Christmas present from my husband, work has begun on a new site for my blog and I think you will like it. In the meantime, enjoy this latest picture of our daughter. She will be turning two next week!

She Who Looks Just Like Him

family

Earlier this year during a conversation with my mom, she mentioned something to me that I promptly forgot until this past Thursday, American Thanksgiving. She wanted me to think about how I could do a better job of staying in contact with my brother and sister-in-law on my own without her. Meaning, having a relationship with them as well as my sister that could and would continue even after she was no longer here with us. At the time, it seemed like work and I wasn't interested in that kind of relationship-building work.
However this Thanksgiving, my parents were visiting my sister and her family out in the Mid-West, so I knew my brother and his family would not see my parents at all over the holiday weekend. It seemed important to me to make sure my brother and his family knew I was thinking of them even though I was not having the day of celebration with my family here in Ontario. I called and had to leave a message conveying my Thanksgiving wishes to them. The afternoon ended, my husband returned from work, we finished our dinner and were in the midst of our usual evening routine when my brother called back, this time leaving a message while my husband was on the phone. I was pleasantly surprised that he took the time to call and I immediately called him back. The conversation that followed between he and I for the next half hour or more was jam-packed as we moved from one topic to the next. It was wonderful to have so much to discuss and share. It wasn't work at all. In fact, if Baby L had not been in such loud distress we probably could have talked for much longer. I mused over the conversation for the rest of the evening and was still thinking about it the next day. I was so thankful that I had taken the time to call in the first place and realized that my mom was right: I need to keep in better contact with them and not just rely on my mom's updates to keep me in the loop. I am thankful for my family and they need to know I care.

just asking

He's sitting on the couch drawing a picture. I ask him what he's drawing and he replies as he holds up the partly finished picture, "They're getting married." Unsure what "they" are supposed to be, I nod and smile. A slight pause and then I ask, "Do you think you'll get married someday?" He peeks up from his work with a small grin, "Yes", he quickly answers. Now it's his turn to wait and then ask, "Do you have get kissed?" Smiling, I respond carefully, "Well, most married people do." He makes a face, "That's a-scusting." More smiles from me. Then he says, "Well, I'd still do it." Brimming with laughter, I simply continue to smile. He then quickly adds, "I'll have to get my license first."
I love this kid.

Ancient words ever true, changing me and changing you

Unhappy with my constant state of weariness, I grab my Bible and wait in the darkness of my bedroom. Waiting for a restless baby to find rest in the soft blanket and quiet dark. I grow weary of the waiting yet even more tired of the tiredness. I tell myself to turn on the booklight and read a little bit from the Word before I lay down. Emboldened by my growing dissatisfaction with the current schedule of life, I whisper to myself, "Yeah, like reading this book is going to change the situation at all." The next thought comes before I even have time to think it, "It's about changing you, not the situation. " And I know it's true. The growing stack of borrowed library books are about improving the situation, but there is only one read that can really change me. Smiling a bit now, I pick up my Bible. Thinking of the verse that has moved me over the years (long before I knew anything of interrupted nights and busy days at home) I decide I might as well read the whole chapter tonight.
"Comfort, comfort my people", says your God. Yes. Comfort. I've been longing for comfort. I read on. The grass withers and the flowers fade beneath the breath of the LORD. And so it with people. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.
How did I so easily cast aside the eternal Word of the Eternal God for words written by a withering and fading people?
He will feed His flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to His heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young. Words for me. A mother sheep with young. He's leading me. Gently.
Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. Never. Ever. What must that be like? Here comes the anticipated promise.
But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40) This is for me too.
The words of my son's catechism question ring in my ears.
Do I have a soul as well as a body?
Yes, I have a soul that can never die.
I have been given three everlasting souls to nurture and love. I don't want to grow weary of doing good.
So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. (2 Corinthians 4)
Forever. Comfort, comfort my people.

*note: I have found much clarity in the New Living Translation (NLT) from which these quotes were taken.

I'm in love

enough

"I could have bought trays to line up everything neatly in rows, but I didn’t want to buy more stuff to hold my stuff. It’s just one drawer and it’s not out in the open."

That is exactly how I feel about keeping our home clean and organized. From Small Notebook for a Simple Home: The Lost Rule of Organizing
This reminded me of what Mary at Owlhaven wrote last week.

"In the middle of that movie, while watching a man offering gracious hospitality in the doorway of his 5 x 6 foot shack, my longing for new dishes and new floors in my comfortable home seemed as stupid and frivolous as socks on a turkey."

Use the link above to read the whole post.
photo: the living room of my childhood dollhouse

sad but true

I have accidently used my husband's toothbrush so often these past few months that he now stores his in the mirrored medicine cabinet so that mine is the only option unless you count our six-year old son's chewed up one. Yuck.

When I can

I am enjoying listening to Pastor John Piper's current sermon series from the book of John. Between missing some of our own pastor's sermons while tending to the girls during church and not having much of my own Bible reading time, I need to hear the Word while I work here at home. And who better than John Piper. Follow the link and just start wherever you want.
The Gospel of John Series

Guess who!

Big Girl K at 23 months

Baby L at three months

Douglas Wilson encouraging parents

A Deeper Level of Worship

Many of you are here as parents of little ones and, in some cases, many little ones. For you, the worship of the Lord is a far more arduous task that it is for the rest of us. All of us are engaged in the work of worshipping the Lord, but you are carrying young ones in your arms as you perform the same labor that we do.

The work includes great things, like keeping everyone in fellowship throughout the whole service, and trivial things, like finding your place in the psalter. The work is daunting, and it is sometimes easy to forget why you are doing it. There are three things for you to keep in mind as you continue

The first is that while you sometimes need to be reminded why you are doing this, God knows exactly why you are doing it. Do not grow weary in doing good. God sees, and your labor in the Lord will bear good fruit. Your labor is before the Lord—He sees, and He rejoices. When you need to be reminded, there is one who can always remind you. You are here with your little ones because God calls you to worship Him together with all the children He has given you.

This means, secondly, that God receives, as true worship, every distracted shush, every spilled cup of wine, every dropped hymnal, and every time you have to take your child out to have a little word with him. You are not taken away from true worship by these things, but farther into true worship than most of are privileged to go. If Christian discipleship consists of "my life for yours," what is worshiping with four to seven little ones?

Third, do not think of this time as the time of distraction, but rather as a time of fruitful planting, and trust God to be kind. He will bestow a time of fruitful harvest. The sun is hot and the soil is hard—but it will all come back to you, thirty, sixty and a hundred fold.

Brandishing plastic sword and dagger, he came running across the grassy courtyard to greet me as I returned home from the grocery store. "I thought you were a 'crimimmal'", he called out caught up in a world of play where Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, knights, robots and Spiderman all happily play together. It's a wonderful time to be his mommy.

for the love of pink and baby girls

pep talk to myself

Do you ever feel embarrassed to have seen yourself and your situation as so unbearable and unrelenting only to find someone who has been given a greater burden yet they carry it with much grace and perseverance?
That happened to me again today.
Feeling sorry for myself and my constant state of tiredness and lack of ability to do all "the other things" and then I find this. Moms who struggle with so much more than me and are still able to love and encourage each other with kind words and thoughts of intercessory prayer.
It's pathetic to see yourself wimping out on life's trials especially when they are NOTHING compared to what others are doing.
Stop whining, pray for strength and get ready to be strong. This trial may be just a warm-up for the real deal.

planning

From Richele at Barefoot Voyage an inspiring list of goals for each subject.

Home School Goals By Subject

Of first importance

Andrea writes in her post Learning at Home about her older son's desire to learn reading and writing before she had even begun any type of formal homeschooling with him. However it was this paragraph that caught my attention and seemed to resonate with my thoughts and concerns for our son.

It's amazing to me because I decided long ago, when he was really little, that my goal with them wouldn't be to teach them how to read at a young age, but to focus on manners and attitudes. Because, I always thought, who cares when you begin reading as long as you get it some time. But manners are something that can easily be over looked in the frenzy of early childhood education.

As I have been diligently praying for our homeschool plans for the year ahead of us, I have been reading and re-reading the book of Colossians, specifically the third chapter. No matter what relational aspect of myself I'm considering(daughter, wife, mother, friend) the words starting in verse twelve sink deep into my heart.

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom He gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. (NLT)

Of more importance than any academic study is the teaching and training of our children's hearts. Jesus made it clear in His ministry that the heart determines what a person says and does.

A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart. (Luke 6:45 NLT)

I'm seeing that training my children in godly attitudes means continually going after their heart with the message of Christ. And there is no spreadsheet, workbook or lesson plan that will do the job adequately. That's why prayer is my best plan. Be devoted to prayer is what Paul writes later in the letter. Tall order, but anything else falls too short.

holding it together

I wrote this more than two weeks ago but thought I'd go ahead and post it anyway. Baby L would have been less than two weeks old.

I purposefully kept our six year old son with me today even though he had been invited to play with his usual playmates. I needed to see how the day would go with just the children and I alone together all day. My plan was to spend some learning time with my son in the morning while the babies slept. The summer has flown by and we have not sat down together to focus on his reading or writing at all. His reading is progressing great but his letter writing needs some extra practice. We spent some time working on a Bible notebooking page for the story of Joseph which we had completed reading before Baby L was born. We then reviewed the various Psalms that we have been memorizing. So far we have learned Psalm One Hundred, Eight, One and now we are in the middle of the Twenty-third Psalm. Moving onto our Phonics book we reviewed some of the lessons learned back in the spring. He is a bit rusty on some of the rules, like when to use the hard and soft sounds of "c" and "g". They are a bit tricky. The last bit of time was spent arranging some handwriting practice. His letters have gotten sloppy and he is using upper and lowercase letters randomly.
But he loves books and routinely hauls books around the house to read and look at. So despite our hit-and-miss schedule, he seems to have continued to be interested in reading. It was a good day despite the hectic moments. Thankfully Daddy can readily come home from work early on occasion to help.

thinking about

Prayer: why we struggle (and how not to)

Convicted. But am I willing to change?

what is meant to be

I found this post from Apple Pie helpful as a young mom attempting to home school our first child. But really, her thoughts can apply to any one of us as Christians.

In becoming organized, the first thing I must do is the hardest. I must lay it all down. Every scrap of it. Every word on my planning pages. Every day of my year. Everything I want to accomplish, however noble and good. Is it mine, or is it His? If it's only mine, then changes must be made.

I must be still and quiet every morning. I must ask, Lord what would you like to accomplish today? This month? This year? Then I must be still. After a few minutes, ideas will come. Yes, they will. Not because I am a spiritual giant, but because my Heavenly Father loves me. I should write them down so I don't forget. On days when there are no impressions, I know to move forward with what seems best. But on most days, there are ideas that lead me to change course, set aside something I wanted to do, attend to something I hadn't thought of, or teach a subject in a different way.
I should offer myself to Him as His servant in this unique role of homeschooling mother. I am not my own. I need to remember it. He is a God of order, and the first part of order is to order my heart properly, to re-set it, like an inner clock. Every day. There is no substitute for this. I will not outgrow my need for it. Rather, as time passes, I understand more and more that to venture out on my own best guess -- without even stopping to ask the Lord about it -- is a slippery slope.

I was designed for fellowship with Him. Partnership, actually. I should be doing this with Him, rather than alone on my own with my own agenda and impulsive ideas. He is, after all, Emmanuel, God with us. That was his intent from the beginning.

But He will not do for me what only I can do. I must decide to stop and listen. If I do, He will meet me. I will know what I need to do, how I need to change, which adjustments I should make. He will make me sturdy, wise, and patient. He will help me craft, out of our days, a home that is all it was meant to be.

Read the whole post here.

life in the big city

A few weeks ago, I was running some errands which included buying groceries. Our son asked where we were headed next and I replied, "To the grocery store, Food Basics." After a moment, the question came. "Is that one where all the people with brown skin go?"
Laughing out loud, I knew exactly what he meant.

Sunday commentary

On Sunday evening we headed out to church for the first time since Baby L was born. From the back seat where he is flipping through the pages of his Bible, our son asked, "Why didn't Goliath duck when that stone hit him in the eye?"
Before I could think of a response, he continued, "That guy had no sense. I guess he wanted to get hit in the eye and die."
Commentary concluded, the conversation was over before I could figure out what to say.
I mean, really Goliath, you should have ducked. :)

baby doll

Laura Hope
July 31, 2009
6 lbs. 3 oz.
beautiful gift