Trip Across the Midwest Continued

Right now my little guy is sleeping on the couch next to me :(  He has had a fever of 100 to 103 for over 24 hours now complete with the chills and also an ear infection.  Honestly, he's had fevers and ear infections before but this is the first time I have seen him really sick like this and it's so sad to watch.  Yesterday at a friends house he literally sat on my lap and stared straight ahead then eventually curled up on my lap and went to sleep- that never happens so I knew he was feeling pretty crummy.  We've been sitting around a lot sipping apple juice and eating Popsicles and I hope this passes soon!  Thankfully it's cold and rainy outside so we're not missing out on any outdoor activities... just possibly swimming this afternoon.

However, I still have a lot of pictures to share from our trip.  After we visited my brother, sister in law, and new cousin we headed down to Indianapolis to meet up with my best friend from college, Jamie, and her boyfriend- who I have heard so much about but have not met (living 10 hours away makes get togethers hard these days!) so it was great to meet him and catch up for a couple hours.  And she hasn't seen Jake since he was around 6 months so it was nice for them to get reacquainted :)

I told them facing the sun was perfect lighting...

then we realized this worked better ;)

There was a lot of bubbles on this trip :)

We miss you, Jamie!  Can't wait to visit again :)

Parenting and Scripture Memorization

I can't help but laugh when I think back to a year ago when I started to memorize the entire book of James.  I don't know what I was thinking, but one thing was for sure, the first four verses were SUCH a huge help to me as we went through our miscarriage.  Honestly, it was one of the first things that went through my head when I was driving home from the doctors office with little Jake in the back seat.

"Count it all JOY my brothers when you meet trials of various kind, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

I remember when I "mapped" out how long it would take me to memorize the whole book -  if I memorized 4 verses a week I could be done by September.  Totally doable.

Bahahaha.  I laugh now as it was just yesterday that I finished memorizing the last 4 verses in chapter 5.  I'm only 8 months behind ;)  However, needless to say, it was totally the Lord who kept pushing me to finish.  He continued to remind me that His Word revives my soul, his precepts rejoice my heart, and they are better than gold (Psalm 19) and that man doesn't just live on bread alone, but on every Word of God (Matthew 4).  Because I have memorized scripture, I can have immediate comfort when I go through a situation.  Instead of acting on my feelings, whatever the situation may be, I can be comforted by God's Word which is true and encouraging.

I just started reading a book called "Parenting the Wholehearted Child" by Jeannie Cunnion.  I haven't even finished it, but if you're a parent I would totally recommend you purchasing it on amazon right now.  I bought the kindle edition for only $4.  It was so worth it.  I just finished reading her chapter on scripture memorization and she gives such helpful ways that she has used scripture to parent her three boys. While I knew beforehand this was something I needed to do, God used her book to really show me that I can start now because before I know it, Jake will be able to sit for more than 5 seconds and have a conversation with me.

Already, this age is FULL of sharing issues.  She took my toy.  I want his toy.  I didn't realize how much I wanted to ride my horse until she got on my horse and is loving it and now I'm devastated that I'm not on the horse and she is.  (play dates can be such a sanctifying experience :) )  For situations like this I would love to memorize Philippians 2:3-5 so when Jake is struggling with selfishness (and lets be honest, I'll need it, too) we can be reminded not to do anything out of selfish ambition, but in humility to value others interests above our own.

Another thing I really hope to show Jake through scripture is that the Bible is not just a book of rules.  I don't want to just remind him of scripture when I'm correcting him so that he will somehow equate God to this person who only loves him when he's doing the right thing.  That's why I want him to memorize verses like this (the one below)

I want Jake to know that God loves him more than anything in this whole world, even me (which is crazy to think about!)  I pray that as we read the Bible together he sees that God is 100% for him.  That He has this awesome purpose for his life and that Jake is apart of something so much greater than himself.  And that's why we gave Jake a "life verse" when he was born.  We want him to know that God has a story written specifically for him.  

When we chose 1 Samuel 12:24 "Only fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with your whole heart, for consider what great things He has done for you" we obviously hoped that it would encourage Jake to fear God and serve Him.  However, during that season of my life God had me right smack dab in the middle of reading 1,000 gifts by Ann Voskamp and He was showing me what an awesome gift Jake was, even in the (at times) difficulty of being a parent of a newborn.  That's why this verse stuck out to me, my prayer is that Jake will see all the little gifts from God that He gives us during the day- from a trip to get ice cream to simply a walk to the park.  I hope Jake has an eye for God so he truly can see all the great things He has done and continues to do for Him.

I know a read a lot of parenting books.  (I wrote another post about scripture memorization here) But just the other day Dan and I were talking about how we could so easily explain the gospel to another 20 something year old/ adult, but explaining the gospel to a 2 year old is a whole different story.  I need all the wisdom and help that I can get in this area and I am so thankful that God has provided great friends, family, and resources (like the Bible) to help us along the way :)

Easter 2014

This year we celebrated Easter (again) in Indiana!  We weren't really planning the trip because it would be Easter weekend, but it worked out that way since Jon and Holly had their baby.  Even though we would have LOVED to be at the hospital after they had Eli like they were when we had Jake, the drive is just too long.  So we decided before he was even born to come out a couple weeks after, and they were so sweet to let us stay with them even though they were both functioning on very little sleep.  Oh the life of parents of a newborn :)  However in these pictures you would have never known they were sleep deprived!  

And this was the first real holiday we celebrated with Jake- and by celebrated I mean bought him gifts :)  We packed up all his Easter stuff (even though I bought all of it when he was with me - good thing he didn't seem to remember!) and we set it out at Jon and Holly's Sunday morning along with some eggs for him to find.  After church, Holly's mom planned a cute egg hunt for the kids and then we headed off to a Purdue baseball game!  Holly's family has a suite so we sat in there with the windows open and watched some baseball - it was SO nice!  There was much more to our trip but I won't overwhelm you with more pictures today!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Little Eli got a basket :)

I just love this picture so much :)

I know this is blurry but I just love Jake's smile!

Our attempt at getting a picture with all the kids.  I don't know what we were thinking.

Jake was SO particular with his eggs.  He took every yellow sticker off and stuck it inside his bucket :)  His little personality cracks me up.  We expected him to be running around trying to get as many of his eggs as he could but he took his good old time :)

Easter Egg Hunt

This past weekend we went to Apple Hills Farm down the road from us for an Easter Egg Hunt/ Easter activities.  It was so refreshing to be outside in the sun and I was excited to do something related to Easter.  Last year we didn't really celebrate Easter too much because we were traveling in Indiana and Ohio (and how ironic that we will be doing the exact same thing this year!) It is crazy for me to think that last year Jake was still a baby and basically chewing on the Easter eggs he found (You can see that post here :)  However this year he was super excited to pick up all the eggs and also enjoyed seeing the animals, decorating cookies, and hanging out with his friend, Caroline.  I am starting to get really excited celebrating holidays with Jake because he is finally at the age where he is getting excited to get gifts and play with new toys.  This weekend is going to be so fun! 

Here are some pictures we took this past weekend, below!

Thanks Jackie for this cute picture idea :)

What can be more fun than a ton of corn?  Apparently not much.

Jake LOVED this old school train set.  As you can see I'm not sure when was the last time they cleaned the windows.

"Painting" his sugar cookie shaped like an egg :)

running around!

My handsome boys :)

Quick family shot :)

Our Bathroom Makeover

You guys, this is by far the biggest "home" accomplishment that Dan and I have done in any of the (2) homes we have owned and it may as well be THE biggest accomplishment we make in any home we ever own.  For many of you, this project may not seem like a big deal, but for us, this was quite the renovation.  And, since we moved in, this was something we have hoped to change.  There is something about carpet in a bathroom that kinda makes me cringe.  So, I am SO thrilled to have crossed this project off our list!

For starters, a couple months ago I noticed a wet spot on our second floor bathroom ceiling.  I knew it wasn't a good sign, and when my parents came to visit and stayed with us my mom noticed the third floor bathroom carpet was damp.  bleh.  We figured out where the leak was coming from but the sub floor underneath was COMPLETELY shot when we ripped up the carpet.  We were hoping to just rip up carpet and then put down new flooring, but long story short, with help from a neighbor who just happened to go to school in carpentry and loaned us some tools and helpful tips, Dan ripped out the rotted sub floor, cut out new sub flooring and installed it, lifted the toilet, put down the new flooring and baseboards, and then we painted the walls and also the sink cabinet. Phew.

We would have LOVED to put in a new shower, but when we brought someone in to estimate what that would cost, we were quoted close to $5,000 because the awkward space would force them to custom build the base.  Honestly, if we used the space more often we would consider saving up for that, but for now it's just our guest area so we just decided to make these smaller and more affordable changes for now.

Time for the pictures!  We may add a couple little things here and there, but so far this is what our budget allows :)

{Before}

{After} 

 (again as with our play room.. I had to use my phone to take the further away pictures :) )

So funny thing about this mirror.  It was supposed to be one of those that tilts.  Well, because we have an old home with walls that aren't at a perfect 90 degree angle, it just sloped forward.  So I needed to attach a string and hook to make it stay straight.  Unfortunately it doesn't tilt anymore, but it was the best option we found for this small space. 

I saw this painting in Home Goods and fell in love with it immediately.  Who knew Home Goods sold actual paintings!?  I love that place.

So, if you want to come visit, you can have the privilege of using our third floor bathroom :)