Spring Break 2010

The Zfam stayed home this Spring Break because we had hoped to be moving into our new home, but a cracked counter top delayed those plans. I tried to strike the right balance between relaxed hanging out at home and fun activities so that Abigail could return to school on Monday and not feel like the week was a total bust. Monday we met friends at Jump N Jive and the girls jumped and jived themselves silly. Tuesday, we stayed home and the girls stayed in their pajamas ALL DAY LONG. That's fun too sometimes. Wednesday, we went to the regualar Wednesday play date that Rebecca and I have been attending with other moms and kids from our church for the past few months. Rebecca usually spends most of the time sitting in my lap watching the other kids play, but I guess having her big sister there gave her just the confidence she needed to join in the fun. On Thursday, we made a trip to the library for books and videos. I was wondering what on earth I could come up with to do on Friday that would end the week with a bang, when I got a text from a sweet friend inviting us to come over to swim. PERFECT! We all had a lot of fun swimming in an indoor pool while it was cold and gray outside.

Between all the various activities, I tried to get as much done in preparation for our move as I could, but I'm afraid it wasn't nearly enough. Chris is taking next week off so hopefully together we get a whole lot done. And maybe, just maybe my next post will be done from our new address.

Lamentations of a Brunette

Matthew 10:29-31

²⁹Are not two sparrows sold for a penny^a]">[a]? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. ³⁰And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

The Bible tells me that God knows the number of hairs on my head so I often wonder what He thinks when I stand in front of the mirror plucking out all the grays. I don't really have many all over my head, but having dark hair makes the ones I do have stick out like a sore thumb. The gray is mainly concentrated in one patch above my right eyebrow and at my temples. You know, the places that make a man look distinguished, but just make a woman look old. I don't feel old and I'm not ready to look old. I know the simple solution is to start coloring my hair, but that takes time and money. Both of which always seem to be in short supply. I haven't found the hidden blessing in this situation. I know I should be grateful that I have hair, but if I keep plucking out the grays I might risk that as well.

Love Languages

In a previous post I wrote that I would be taking the challenge to start looking for the blessings in difficult situations. Most moms would agree that 8 months of potty training without achieving the goal would qualify as a difficult situation. At the end of January, I was at my wits end. I felt as if we were getting nowhere. My husband felt it was time to make an appointment with an urologist to rule out any health problems that could be hindering progress. I have heard horror stories about the kind of tests that might be required and I really felt it wasn't (isn't) medical. I asked Chris for one more month and we agreed that if things had not improved at the end of the month, we would make a doctor's appointment. Chris went online and found an article about how potty training can become a power struggle between parents and child. We agreed to employ the strategy suggested by the doctor who wrote the article. I also remembered a book I had heard good things about called The Five Love Languages of Children. I wanted to make sure there wasn't something I was missing in showing love to my daughter. This book is the blessing! I learned so much about how to show my daughters the unconditional love they need to thrive. I highly recommend it to all that have a child in their life whom they love.

The month has passed and we still have accidents, but much progress has been made. But the most progress has been made in the ways I show my love for the two precious girls that God so generously blessed me with.

Psalm 127:3

³ Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.

Holding Little Hands

Somewhere between the 3rd and 4th birthdays of both my girls, something magical happened: When out running errands or such, I could just dangle my hand behind me and a little hand would grab it. Before that magical moment, I would always have to search out the little hand and grab it before crossing a street or stepping away from the the car in a parking lot. I remember a conversation with my cousin where I told her that I always held Abigail's hand and walked her to her preschool teacher instead of pulling up and letting her hop out of the car. My cousin told me to enjoy it because she knew from her own experience with her Kindergarten aged son that my days were numbered. I made a point from then on to cherish every time that Abigail let me hold her hand and I began the habit of telling her, "I love this little hand." I braced myself for the dreaded day that my dangling hand would be met with the inevitable "Mom! I'm too old to hold your hand!" that my cousin warned of. Well, Abigail is 8 1/2 years old and it's been quite a while since it has been necessary to hold her hand before crossing a street, but every once in a while she blesses me by grabbing my hand. When she does, I send up a little prayer of thanks and even though that hand has grown to be not so small, I still squeeze it and tell her, "I love this little hand."

Daily Miracles

I am currently doing Priscilla Shirer's new Bible study titled, One in a Million. In this study, the author compares our modern day walks with God to the journey of the Hebrews out of captivity in Egypt to Canaan, the land promised to their ancestors. The title comes from the fact that of the roughly 2 million Hebrews invited to the Promised Land, only two actually entered it. In other words, only one in a million actually reached the intended destination. The author maintains, that of the millions of modern day Christians that go to church every Sunday and hear about the abundant life that Christ promises, very few actually live it.

John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. "

The author compares the wilderness that God's chosen people wandered in to our current trials and struggles. While the Hebrews wandered in the desert they grumbled and complained about their circumstances despite the fact that they had been liberated from slavery and were experiencing God's miracles on a daily basis. At one particularly terrifying moment, the people cried out to Moses: "Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!" (Exodus 14:12).

Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. ¹⁴ The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." (Exodus 14:13-14)

In this life, when we find ourselves facing an impossible situation or even our every day trials, the author encourages us to be the 4 thing that Moses told the Hebrews to be:

1. Be fearless (Trust God)
2. Be still (Let God do His job)
3. Be watchful (Open your eyes to what God is doing)
4. Be quiet (Guard yourself against complaining)

One of our study leaders gave us a challenge this week. She encouraged us to pray that God would heighten our awareness to His activity and then look for those daily miracles, even those little things that could be chalked up to coincidence. Not only am I going to take this challenge, I am going to take it a step further and look for the blessings in those situations that seem at first to be only negative. I'll keep you posted.

Heaven?

Sometimes, I find myself dreaming about what heaven will be like. I know a little bit about what the Bible says heaven will be like, such as streets paved with gold and no more sorrow and no more pain and that sounds amazing and wonderful, but I also like to believe that heaven will also be a place where I am never in a hurry.

I really don't like always being in a hurry and that is pretty much a given during the school year. I hurry home from working out to hurry up and take a shower to hurry up and get Abigail up so she can hurry up and get ready while I hurry up and make her lunch and prepare breakfast. Then I "encourage" her to hurry up and eat so that we can hurry up and make it to school on time. Then I spend the day hurrying around trying to get laundry done, errands run, emails returned, before I have to hurry and make lunch. After lunch I try to hurry Rebecca down for a nap so that we can hurry up and be at the school by 3:00 to pick up Abigail. After school we hurry to piano lessons and sports practices and we hurry to finish homework and cook dinner. I hurry to get to PTA meetings, doctors' appointments, play dates, Bible Studies. After dinner we hurry through baths and stories and prayers so that it is not too late when we get to sleep so that we can wake up the next day and hurry, hurry, hurry all over again. Don't get me wrong. I like to stay busy. It's the constant state of being rushed in my busyness that I can't stand.

The past 4 days have been a little like what I hope heaven will be like. Thursday, we got 11 inches of snow that almost completely shut down the city. Schools were closed, extracurricular activities were cancelled and the streets were a mess so there were no errands to run. Were we bored? No way! We stayed busy playing games, making soups and chili, baking, watching movies, shoveling snow, playing in the snow, reading, updating long neglected blogs, etc. But we were never in a hurry and it was WONDERFUL!!!

Tomorrow we will be back to hurrying around and I will be back to dreaming of what it might be like in heaven.

Philippians 3:14

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Heaven?

 

Heaven?

 

What a coincidence!

I've been wanting to update my blog for a long time now, but things have just been so busy! Well today is a snow day which means no school, no errands, no play dates and no extra-curricular activities and while I want to spend a good portion of the day enjoying my girls, I thought I would take a moment or two to try and get back into this blogging business. When I logged onto Peaceful Chaos, I realized that it has been exactly 7 months to the day since I last blogged and and also exactly 1 year to the day since I first started my blog. What a coincidence and my how time flies!
A lot has happened since my last post.

Our sweet Abigail turned 8 years old and has already completed her first semester of 3rd grade. She enjoys school and loves her teacher. She has sweet friends that we enjoy having over to play. She stays busy with piano lessons, sports (soccer, basketball and volleyball) and serving on the motion team at church. And she finally got those two front teeth that she lost over a year ago.

Yours truly turned, well let's not go there. Let's just say it was a significant birthday worthy of a significant celebration so the Zfam went on a Disney cruise. Chris never thought he would enjoy a cruise, much less a Disney cruise. But we had an absolute blast! It was the perfect combination of fun and relaxation. The cruise people were so wonderful about accomodating Rebecca's nut allergies. We are already talking about taking another Disney cruise in 2011 to celebrate our 20 year anniversary. Most people don't take their kids when they take trips to celebrate anniversaries, but Chris and I had 10 years of alone trips before Abigail was born and we have every reason to believe we will have more opportunities for fun trips with just the two of us when our girls have their own lives. Before that window closes, we agree that we want to spend our limited vacation time and resources doing fun things as a family. So fingers crossed, the Zfam will get to set sail again next summer.

The past 7 months have not just been all fun and games. In August, we said a tearful goodbye to Chris' brother Andreas who finally lost his long battle with melanoma. Andreas was Chris' only sibling and Rebecca's godfather. We are still very sad, but we will always cherish our memories of the two trips he made from Switzerland to visit us.

In September Rebecca started school or at least that's what we call it. She goes to Mother's Day Out once a week. She is not always eager to go and she usually cries for a few minutes when I drop her off, but when I pick her up she always tells me she had fun and her teachers usually report that she had a good day. I wish I could report that we are done and finished with the potty training, but Miss Rebecca has proved to be one tough customer in that department. I think she just loves her MDO teacher, Ms Manda, so much and somehow realizes that being potty trained means promotion out of her class.

In addition to all of that busyness, in October Chris and I decided that we would renovate and move into the house my grandparents built for their young family over 60 years ago. It is a long story and I will have to dedicate another post on another day to tell it.

Right now I have popcorn to pop and games to play.

Happy Snow Day, Y'all!