Today

Today Todd went back to work after a 5 day weekend. Today the dog vomited on the carpet while I was in the shower. Today the dog ran away (again). Today the dog came home (I didn't chase her) covered in some animal's poop less than an hour before we had to leave for a doctors appointment. Today Cadence pooped all over the bathroom floor, down the back of her pants and made a trail through the hallway because she couldn't hold it anymore.

All of this before noon! As I was cleaning up the poop, I thought - why couldn't this day have happened yesterday when Todd was home to help deal with it? What did I do to deserve - but my conscience would not let me finish that thought. Because I was asking what I had done to deserve being stuck cleaning poop on the floor and I realized that "what I deserve" is much worse than cleaning poop off the floor, and what I have is far beyond a pile of poo. I have a cute little house that is warm and safe. I am married to a man that adores me and the 3 beautiful, intelligent children that we have. We do not know hunger, we have running water, and on and on the list goes, culminating with "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions." Eph. 2:4-5

So I am thankful for today in all of its chaos as it serves to remind me of the grace and mercy of God as he has given me much, much more than I ever deserved!

No Greater Joy

"No Greater Joy" is the name of a parenting magazine and ministry that I enjoy. In their latest issue I came across this article. It made me laugh, and I thought it was worth sharing. The article is written by Michael Pearl, who along with his wife wrote the book To Train Up a Child several years ago. There are a few of their ideas that I don't agree with (they believe King James is the only true version of the Bible) but they have a lot of great insights on building relationships with your kids and training them while they are young. Subscription to the magazine is free, or you can read more at www.nogreaterjoy.org

Don't send a grandpa to do a mother's work
By: Michael Pearl

"Either I have forgotten what it is like to be solely responsible for a two-year-old, or I have gotten out of shape—both physically and mentally.

My daughter Shoshanna left Jeremiah with Debi and me for the afternoon. Somehow, Deb had to go somewhere right before lunch, and I ended up with Jeremiah. No problem. I can handle kids. I prepared a good dinner, but he didn’t want to eat anything except beans and cantaloupe.
Kids take a nap after eating, right? So he selected a book, and we sat in the rocking chair as I read the “exciting” story. I finished reading, and he still showed no signs of getting sleepy, but after having five children and watching my wife, I knew just what to do. I took him to our bedroom, and we lay down together. My plans were that as soon as he got to sleep, I would go back to work.
He kept fidgeting until he got bored, and then he started in on me. He climbed on me and jumped up and down like a bull rider. I bucked him off and told him in my most commanding voice, “Go to sleep.” Instead, he grabbed my nose and tried to unscrew it. My mother had it permanently attached, and it didn’t come loose, but it was not his fault. I knocked his hand away and rapped him on the head with a knuckle before whining my protest. He lay still for a minute, and then out of nowhere, he hit me with a pillow and let out his inherited rebel yell. I was under assault, so I grabbed a pillow and held it tight over my head so he couldn’t hit me with his. He was still for a minute, and then I felt additional pillows being piled on top of the one already covering my head. He then threw the covers over the pile of well-placed pillows and pressed his body down on the top. He was trying to smother me to death! I ran out of air real fast and had to come up gasping. He rolled off the pile, but managed to bore his little finger into my belly button as he passed by. I catapulted him to the other side of the bed and commenced complaining strongly. He thought it was quite an achievement and complimented himself with a triumphant dance in the middle of the king-size bed.
Finally, I had had enough, so I searched into my past and found my scariest voice, commanded him in no uncertain terms that his mother expected him to take a nap, and that he was going to take a nap if we had to stay there all afternoon. He got quiet for the first time. Under my pile of protective pillows, I grinned my victory. A couple minutes passed, and I realized I had won, and I did it without having to read To Train Up A Child!
I was thinking, “In a minute he will be asleep, and I will be able to get up and go back to . . .” I heard a yell coming from somewhere far away, and I struggled to consciousness. I had been asleep! He put me to sleep!I jumped up and staggered to the kitchen. He was standing in the middle of the floor with his legs spread apart, pointing to a pile . . . no, two piles . . . no, four or five piles . . . and a number of spears of brown, stinky, cantaloupe and beans poopoo—on my kitchen floor! He was whining and complaining and explaining why he could not go to the bathroom, because he couldn’t undo the buttons on his pants. He was very unhappy with himself, and he blamed me for sleeping when I was supposed to be babysitting. At least, that’s the way I interpreted his jabber.
I picked up the miserable little fellow, holding him at arm’s length to avoid contamination. I regretted getting rid of that old 1950s bio suit last year. When I tried to put him into the tub, clothes and all, he began to resist. I later found out that he doesn’t like to be in the tub. To hold on to him and get him undressed, I had to change my grip several times. You guessed it, I got contaminated. I didn’t know whether to take my clothes off and get in the tub with him or to try to clean him up first. At the thought of sharing a tub with him, a premonition of impending disaster came over me. So I stripped him and washed him from head to foot—three times—him hollering the whole time. I knew he was going to tell bad things about me when the women showed up.
I then cleaned up the kitchen floor, but since I didn’t have a change of clothes for him, I wrapped him in a towel and sat down to hold him until he went to sleep. He never did go to sleep. When the ladies returned, I handed him off to his mother and told them that I never could get him to take a nap. Shoshanna said, “Oh, I fed him and gave him a nap before I brought him over.” Then from the kitchen I heard my wife ask, “What is this brown stuff on the floor?” Over my shoulder, as I was heading out the door, I said, “See you girls later. So long, poop head.”
To all mothers of two-year-olds, you have my deepest respect."

Halloween

Monday night we carved our pumpkins. Gabriel and Cadence both quickly decided that scooping guts out of pumpkins is gross, and they didn't want to do it. Jacob, on the other hand, seemed to really enjoy it and he wanted to scoop everyone's pumpkin. We made an executive decision not to roast the pumpkin seeds, since Todd and I both have childhood memories of our moms making the pumpkin seeds and us really not liking them.

As Halloween was drawing near, the kids watched Lord of the Rings. Cadence fell in love with Gollum, and wanted to be nothing else for Halloween. Gabriel got on that bandwagon and was going back and forth between a hobbit and Legolas. I wanted him to be a hobbit because I always call him my little hobbit. He used have curls, he is short, and he likes to eat 8 meals a day - just like a hobbit. But, I was sad to discover that they do not make Gollum costumes for children... Furthermore, there were no Lord of the Rings costumes to be found in Syracuse and to buy them online would run me about $40 each after shipping.

Todd in all his wisdom was able to convince Cadence to be the fighting princess in Lord of the Rings. Gabriel settled on Legolas, and Jacob agreed to go along with the theme and be Aragorn. I made Cadence's dress and Jacob's costume. For Gabriel I found a used costume on ebay that included the Legolas wig.

Cadence may have agreed to be a princess for Halloween, but she still loves Gollum. Often when Todd and I call her, she doesn't answer the first time and after two or three times she will say "I'm not Cadence, I'm Gollum." So we say "Gollum, come here" and she runs right over. She plays Gollum all the time. Several mornings she had taken off her pajamas and run around the house naked before I had a chance to get her dressed- I thought this was because she likes to be naked. When I try to dress her she tells me "Gollum doesn't wear clothes" which is true. See, just a loin cloth...So I assumed this her way of trying to stay naked as long as possible. But the other day I caught her taking the pajamas. I asked her to wait because I couldn't get her dressed right then. She said "Gollum doesn't wear pajamas!" And she doesn't fuss about wearing underwear, "Gollum does wear underwear." I have decided that it isn't so much about being naked as it is about embracing the role of Gollum. Naked Gollum uses pillows for her house too - I'm not sure how this relates to the movie, but she does it every day.