Almost six weeks ago, I posted some pictures of Daniel's loose tooth. Well...


This morning as Daniel was eating an apple he excitedly called me into the bathroom.

"Mommy! Mommy! My tooth came out!"

And sure enough, Daniel's first tooth has come out. Thankfully his gums didn't bleed too much. Normally if Daniel gets hurt, he doesn't cry until he sees the blood. But this morning there wasn't any crying in sight! I was waiting for it but all I got was an excited 6 1/2yr old boy proudly showing us the gap in his teeth.

The tooth was carefully rinsed off (don't want it falling down the drain), put it in a little container and off it went with him to school today. He was so excited about sharing his good news with his classmates.

My heart is heavy today

I'm seeking God for encouragement

Medley

(Give/Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus/With Or Without You/Your Love Oh Lord)

by Third Day

You said all that follow You may find

Comfort and pain, blessings in hard times

Were I to leave, where else would I go?

The words of life and of truth you hold

All I want is love

I confess to this

I will take it, Lord

All You have to give

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in His wonderful face

And the things of Earth

Will grow strangely dim

In the light of His glory and grace

And you give yourself away

And you give yourself away

And you give

And you give

And you give yourself away

All I want is love

And I confess to this

I will take it, Lord

All You have to give

All You have to give

All You have

All You have to give

Your love, oh Lord

Reaches to the heavens

Your faithfulness stretches to the sky

And Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains

Your justice flows like the ocean's tides

And I will lift my voice

To worship You, my King

I will find my strength

In the shadow of Your wings

Your love, oh Lord

Reaches to the heavens

Your faithfulness stretches to the sky

"Do not be anxious about anything,

but in everything, by prayer and petition,

with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

And the peace of God,

which transcends all understanding,

will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus"

Philippians 4:6,7

"In repentance and rest is your salvation,

in quietness and trust is your strength."

Isaiah 30:15

Thank you for your encouragement today, Jesus!

Worth Watching

I'm so tired and I can't nap. I still have two kids awake - one of which is a big mischief maker. My solution - I'm blogging! I tried reading my Bible a bit earlier but felt myself dozing off so that won't work right now either.

On Friday I blogged about my gift to Jeremy for Valentine's Day. We just finished the first of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "The Fellowship of the Ring". I am thoroughly enjoying it so far. The movie ended and I was surprised! I thought the whole journey finished in the first movie. If you haven't seen the movies yet, I highly recommend them (it seems weird to be saying that when I have refused to see them for so long). They tell a story of deep friendship and courage. And I was pleasantly surprised that, at least so far, the scary guys aren't that gruesome looking. They are pretty icky but not unbearable. I'm looking forward to the next movie, "The Two Towers". Maybe we'll start it tonight. I've learned my lesson though; we have to stop the movie early enough in the evening so that we can watch something lighter on TV before going to bed. That way I can have a good sleep.

Weigh-In Saturday

This morning I was awoken (rather early for a Saturday morning) by Jeremy. He was too excited to keep his news to himself!

My sweetie has lost another 3lbs this week for a total of 41lbs. There was a lot less cheating this week which seemed to really make a difference. I know that Jeremy would still love to lose 4-6lbs each week (he is a goal setter and has a hard time staying excited and focused if the results don't come quickly) but still knows that "a pound is a pound". I was pleasently surprised this week as well because I was able to come up with supper ideas for each night.

Jeremy is now down to 241lbs; we're hoping that next Saturday the scale will show numbers in the 230's. Wow! It has been a long time since we've seen that number!

Rest

I'm tired, spent, emotional, exhausted, "I don't care-ish", "I care too much to just forget it-ish"..., my list goes on. There is a lot happening personally and in our church right now. When I look at the big picture, I get excited and can see so many ways that God is working. But then I take my eyes off God and get caught up in the nitty-gritty details of everything. It's so exhausting!

I am really wanting to have some uninterrupted time with God, but the two extra kids I have today has not allowed me that time. Now that one has gone home and the other is napping, the logical thing would be to occupy my two kids and go spend some time with God. The problem is that I am so exhausted I would just fall asleep. So, I am going to hire Veggie Tales to occupy my children so I can rest on the couch. My sweetie already said that he'll make sure I get some "God" time tonight. He is so good with that.

While at the kitchen sink today I read one of my previous memory verses taped to the side of the cupboard, "In repentance and rest is your salvation; in quietness and trust is your strength" Isaiah 30:15. The second part of that verse helped to calm my soul for a bit until I started worrying again.

This verse just came to mind:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

Phillipians 4:6-8

Yes, Lord, I am choosing to trust you and accept your strength. Help me to think on things that are pure rather than listening to the conflict going on in my mind. Help me to feel Your peace which goes beyond all understanding. Rest..., Peace..., aaaahhhhh, sounds good to me!

Gift of the Heart

Well, as I stated in my Valentine's Day post, I was working on a gift for Jeremy but couldn't say anything at the time in case he read the blog! This year I decided to make the gift rather than go out and buy something, making it more meaningful. At first, everything I tried to create would not cooperate. Once I finally figured out the gift, we were too busy with church meetings for me to give it to him! I have finally given Jeremy his gift so now I can reveal it.

First for a little background. As I began brainstorming, I remembered about the first Valentine's gift Jeremy gave me when we were dating. He had secretly made my gift. He took a block of wood, cut it down to size, chiseled out the shape of a heart, melted red candle wax into the heart and wrote some sentiments on it. The part that made the gift extra special is that the wax he melted was left over from the candles he had lit when he asked me to court him. (That is a story all on it's own - perhaps I'll share it one day).

When I remembered about this special Valentine's gift I thought it would be fun to "give" it to Jeremy as a reminder of all the Valentine's days we have had over the past twelve years, but more importanly how much deeper our love is for each other.

I sheepishly gave the gift to Jeremy, hoping he wouldn't think it was a silly idea. He was so surprised! He had completely forgotten about it! We had fun taking a walk down memory lane. It was a simple gift, didn't cost me anything, but was very meaningful.

Then I told Jeremy about the other part of his gift (another gift of my heart). Jeremy loves "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy by J. R.R. Tolkien. I have never watched the movies. I am not a SciFi kind of person ("What's the point in watching SciFi movies? They aren't reality...these things would never happen!"), so Jeremy has always watched them on his own. I've felt bad about this in the past but simply had no desire to watch the movies. Well, people change! I told Jeremy I would watch all three (extended versions) of "The Lord of the Rings". We began watching "The Fellowship of the Ring" this week. Wouldn't you know it, but I'm enjoying it! We are only half way through it (just watching a bit in the evenings) and my imagination is wondering what's going to happen next!

My "gifts from the heart" for my sweetie!

Praying for our Children

I was just reading Heather's blog over at "Mumblings of a Mommy 'Monk'". She has an excellent post today (many of her's are!) called "The Prayer of a Righteous Woman". I encourage you to read it. For me, it was an encouragement / reminder to be continuously praying for our children.

There is an excellent book by Stormie Omartian called "The Power of a Praying Parent". I highly recommend it! Heather's blog today was a good reminder for me to blow the dust off my "Praying Parent" book and work through it again.

Check out and leave a comment on Heather's blog and then let me know what you thought!

Spring Has Sprung!

The sun is shining!

We haven't had a beautiful, sunny day like this for quite some time. Jeremy has taken Daniel and Rebecca to the park while I am at home with "my little girl" I take care of. She is napping almost finished her nap. As I was getting a drink of water from the kitchen sink I saw a splash of color in the back yard. Could that possibly be some spring flowers peeking their heads out of the dirt? I had to investigate!

This is what I found!

"Creation Calls"
by Brian Doerksen
I have felt the wind blow, whispering your name
I have seen your tears fall when I watch the rain

How could I say there is no God
When all around creation calls
A singing bird, a mighty tree
The vast expanse of open sea

Gazing at a bird in flight, soaring through the air
Lying down beneath the stars, I feel your presence there

I love to stand at ocean's shore
And feel the thundering breakers roar
To walk through golden fields of grain
'Neath endless blue horizon's frame

Listening to a river run, watering the earth
Fragrance of a rose in bloom, a newborn's cry at birth

(chorus 1)
(chorus 2)

I believe, I believe, I believe
Lyrics provided by www.seekalyric.com

Weigh-In Saturday

Jeremy's goal for this past week was to lose 5-6lbs. But little things this week, like Valentine's Day, through a glitch into his plan. In the end he only lost 1lb. He was discouraged by that number. I know he was hoping for at least 2-3lbs. But, as we keep telling our friends who are also losing weight, a pound lost is a pound lost - and one pound closer to your goal!

On a happier note, before Jeremy started losing weight, his waist was a very tight 44". Now he is a very comfortable 40"! We went and bought him a new pair of work pants because his old ones were literally falling off of him! On Thursday Jeremy went out to the storage room and brought in his box of clothes from when he was a little smaller. He found some jeans that fit great (no more baggy jeans!!!) and a few other clothes as well. I think most of them will fit him after he loses another 2".

Last time I mentioned the frustration of thinking of new meals to make that are relatively carb-free. Again, if you have any recipes (or some that could be adjusted as such), I'd love to give them a try! Thank you, Patty, for the recipe you sent me. I haven't had a chance to make it yet, but we just bought some more chicken so I'm looking forward to making it!

Until next week...!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

Jeremy's days off got switched around a bit for this week so he was off yesterday. He took advantage of that and took Rebecca out for lunch - just her and Daddy! When he first asked her if she would like to go out for lunch just the two of them, she said, "No! I want to go with just Mommy!" Are you kidding me?! You're with me every day, all day, you don't see Daddy at all during the days and you still want to hang out with me?! Aaaaggghhh! (Don't worry - I didn't say that to her - it was just loud and clear in my thoughts!). One thing I'm learning about my daughter is that she is a lot like me - doesn't like change. So, when I look at her answer from that perspective, I can understand why she said "No!".

After a little convincing from Daddy, she began getting excited about their special date! She got to choose where they would go. She immediately chose the restaurant - they give the kids a little box of Smarties at the end! What kid wouldn't like that?!

First thing in the morning, Becca had her long, pretty purple dress on. She was ready to go by 7:30 in the morning! I put her hair into ponytails and off she went with Daddy for their lunch date. I still had "my little guy" for the day so I wasn't completely free.

Here are some pictures Jeremy and Becca took while on their date!

Jeremy took this of Becca

Becca took this of Jeremy

Daddy & Becca enjoying their special date together!

Meanwhile, Daniel was at school exchanging Valentine cards, enjoying a "Friendship Fruit Salad" with his class, Pizza Day for lunch and choir after school. Jeremy and Becca picked him up after choir. They went shopping and bought me this pretty necklace! Shortly after, our babysitter came and Jeremy and I headed out for the evening. We had a wonderful dinner. Here is a picture our waitress took of us.After we rolled ourselves out of the restaurant with our leftovers in tow, we had about 1 1/2hrs until we were to meet some friends for coffee. What do you do when you have time to kill but are too full to do anything active? Shop, of course! Jeremy went in one direction and I went to Reitman's (my favorite clothing store!). I wasn't going to buy anything unless it fit perfectly, needed it, loved it and was on sale. I happened to find a light grey, super soft sweater. I'm always looking for warm cozy tops. I did restrain myself somewhat and put another top back. Anyway, after that quick shopping and meeting up with each other for a little browsing / dreaming at Linens 'n Things, we went to meet our friends for coffee. We had a great time visiting with them and ended up staying until the coffee shop closed! We were both tired when we got home but thoroughly enjoyed ourselves during the evening.

Today I am working on Jeremy's gift and will give it to him tonight. I can't give any clues in case he reads this but I might just write about it tomorrow.

I hope you had an enjoyable Valentine's Day whether you spent it with your sweetie, your kids, friends or by yourself.

Book Giveaway!

Heather over at Mumblings of a Mommy "Monk" has a book giveaway. The book is called "Rattled: Surviving Your Baby's First Year Without Losing Your Cool" by Trish Berg.

This is what Heather says:

I have a book to give away to one reader, so in the comments, share with us about a new mommy moment that will make us smile. I'll post the winner by Friday!

So, if you are a new mom or know someone who is - share a Mommy Moment in the comments on Heather's blog and see what happens!

Weigh-In Saturday

It has been a couple of weeks since I've updated you about Jeremy's weight loss. The last time I updated I told you that we switched to a digital scale. Well, the new scale seemed a little finicky at first. The first few times we step on it it gives one number but after that it gives a different number. So two weeks ago we went according to the number that seemed to make the most sense. But since then Jeremy has chosen to go with the first number that appears. (Does any of this make sense???!) So, with that being said, he is now at 245 lbs. I know that it seems like he's only lost 1 lb in the past two weeks but he has really lost about 4 or 5 lbs (I can't remember the exact amount and Jeremy's not home to clarify things!).

So, for today I'm not officially saying how many pounds Jeremy has lost but rather that he is now 245 lbs! This next week he is hoping to lose about 5 or 6 lbs. He has been a little relaxed in what he's been eating these past couple weeks so this next week will be about refocusing. If you have any good recipes for "no carb" meals, please let me know! I'm starting to tire of what to make for suppers (his lunches usually consist of supper leftovers). I know that the only way for this to work for Jeremy is for me to cook healthy. I love healthy foods (salad, veggies...) but even I'm starting to tire of salad every night. I need a new creative burst to keep me going. So any ideas - let me know!

Journey Between the Doors

"See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another."
Isaiah 48:10,11

I am realizing more and more how important it is for us to glorify God. I've mentioned before about a book Jeremy and I are reading called "Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ". This small book has really opened my eyes to the importance that everything we do should glorify God. I've also been amazed at how many times the bible mentions God being glorified. These verses from Isaiah 48 are no exception. God often puts us through a refining process. The refining process is not meant to be easy; it is meant to change the original into something new. But all the while it is for His glory!

"...'I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.' "
Isaiah 48:17

This verse has been very meaningful to me lately. Jeremy and I have been seeking God, asking Him what He wants us to do next (keeping in mind that this is a year of change). When I read this verse I was very encouraged by the reminder that God is not only teaching us, but that He is teaching us what is best for us and He is directing us in the way we should go.

Excerpt from my journal:

"Pondering on these verses again! 'I have refined you' and 'I am the LORD...who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you...'. So affirmation of why we are going through trials - to be refined for His glory; and a reminder that God knows what's best for us and He will direct us in the way we should go. So trust God when doors open or close and be thankful for the journey between the doors!

Thank you, Jesus, for our journey. Please continue to speak to me, give me confidence to trust in You! I don't want to fear You or Your plans. Please help us to be patient during this journey and help both of us to be sure and at peace when it's the right time to act."

Peek-a-Boo!

I was having fun with "my little guy" today. Actually he started it! I was feeding him his lunch and he started pulling the bib up and over his eyes. He'd pause like that and then put the bib down and smile a BIG smile - all the while waiting for a reaction. It was so cute I had to take pictures! Of course I played right along!

A Reminder to Trust!

I've just finished reading through all the updated blogs on my Blogline Feeds. The last one I read was by Sassikiwi at The Carpenter's Hand. Her post from today spoke right to where I'm at right now. I encourage you to read it as it's a good encouragement and reminder for all of us.

Student of the Month

I received a notice on Wednesday last week that Daniel would be receiving a "Student of the Month" award today. His school does a great job of recognizing every student throughout the year. It's not based on who is doing the best. Instead, it is based on picking a few children's names out of a hat (or something random like that) and then the teacher shares about that student's strengths. I like that! Not all students are Honor Roll students but all students need to be recognized for their effort. Last year Daniel's kindergarted teacher shared that Daniel loved to use LOTS of colors when coloring his work. He took a lot of time making sure things were very colorful. I liked that she picked up on his personality trait! To be honest, I don't remember what Daniel's teacher said about him today! I was busy trying to keep 3 kids quiet!

Here is a picture I took after school with Daniel and his teacher. Unfortunately, inbetween trying to keep kids herded and dodging snow/rain drops, I didn't get Daniel's whole award in the picture. The award will hang on the Student of the Month wall for the month of February, so I can't even do a second picture of it with Daniel! Oh well! But I think the picture turned out pretty well considering I was reaching for an escaping child at the same time!