June 15th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

It’s been a rough morning at our house… LB and I are still under the weather (I never mentioned it on here, but a bout of pneumonia landed him in the ER last week and then he, in a spirit of generosity, shared a nasty cold with me). AG has also started showing signs of a cold, so there has been lots of nose wiping and coughing and general icky sickies.

We had to relearn the lesson that saying “I don’t know what happened” in order to avoid getting into trouble is the same thing as lying, which will get you into more trouble than you would have been in originally.

LB is excitedly practicing his new skill of climbing the stairs at lightening speed whenever I turn my back, and he’s in a hit-when-you’re-frustrated mode, which today also included a bite. I’m pretty sure the entire neighborhood heard me yell, “NO BITING!”

…and in the meantime I’ve been too preoccupied with some mundane computer and phone tasks, and have been generally irritable and impatient.

Our new verse memory system saved the day at lunchtime – how can you work on memorizing Psalm 23 and discuss how God is our shepherd without having an attitude adjustment? And then we moved on to John 14:6 and reviewed why it is wrong to lie: Jesus is The Truth!

As I got AG ready for her nap, we took a couple of minutes for a much needed therapy session (this is a conversation we often have, with slight variations here and there.)

(K) “Do you know how much I love you? Do you know that even when we have a rough day, even when you lie to me, even when Mommy is impatient… that of all the little girls in the whole wide world, I would pick you?”

(AG) “And of all the ladies in the whole wide world, I would pick you to be my mommy. And of all the little boys in the world, I would pick LB.”

(K) “You mean that even when we have a rough day, that families always love each other?”

(AG) “Yep, I mean that.”

(K) “Always, always.”

May 25th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

I hope you all had an enjoyable Memorial Day yesterday! We packed up and headed out to the Memorial Day parade with anticipation running high – we were going to see a marching band! We went to the 4th of July parade last year and had really talked up the marching band to AG – we had been talking a lot about instruments at the time and she was very excited to see them in action. Alas, we learned at the parade that there is no marching band in the 4th of July parade, although they do march in the Memorial Day parade! A mere 10 months later, the dream was coming to fruition! :)

We got to the parade route a little early and enjoyed some homemade baked doughnuts that I had pulled out of the oven and coated with butter and cinnamon sugar just before we left the house. This should surely become a tradition – they were yummy! Want to try some? You can find the recipe here.

Near the start of the parade, LB somehow rocked the umbrella stroller he was sitting in right over the curb and landed face down in the street!! This was obviously surprising and scary for us and everyone watching, but LB never made a peep! The stroller must have taken the brunt of the fall, and he was completely unfazed… although all the people around us surely were questioning our competence as parents after that ordeal!

No injuries, so on with the parade! Indeed, there was a marching band! Hooray! Even better, in my opinion, was the long line of tractors. I do love a good local parade with copious amounts of lawn tractors! Hilarious!

After the lawn tractors, of course, came every firetruck and ambulance in the town. On the way to the car, AG and I were discussing that these people help us if we have an emergency, and that if we need them we can call 9-1-1 on the telephone and they will come right away. We went over this multiple times, and when we got into the car, I told her to tell NP what we can call if we need someone to help us. She didn’t even hesitate and said oh-so-very-confidently, “We can call 8-6-1.” We just about fell on the floor laughing – hopefully we won’t be dependent on her to call for help in an emergency!!

We had a wonderful remainder of the morning and early afternoon with the kids’ “pretend grandparents,” and bought some annuals and did some planting before the day was over.

Hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day! Now that summer has “officially” begun, check out my friend Julie’s blog this week as every day she’ll be sharing strategies for spending more time with the Word this summer, along with some favorite summer recipes!

May 24th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

My daughter’s Sunday School teachers, bless their hearts… she hardly ever speaks in class because she is so shy, but I fear that when she does it is strange!

A couple of months ago her teacher (who I know well from Bible study) told me that they had been discussing trusting God when we’re afraid. She asked them what they were afraid of, and in typical 2 and 3 year old fashion, the answers centered on normal things like the dark and thunderstorms. But then my AG, who never speaks, got very animated and was exclaiming about being afraid of… cows! Yes, I traumatized her a year ago by taking her on an “educational” trip with her cousins to a large dairy farm – she has never fully recovered from her terror when we went down into the “parlor” while the cows were being milked. Obviously her teacher did not know the background to this, so it seemed a little random to be afraid of bovine.

Today they were discussing praying. I asked AG what they were praying about and she said, “I wanted to thank God for my pretend kitties.” “What did your friends thank God for?” “Their mommies and daddies.” So, now I have the child who is afraid of cows and deeply thankful for her pretend kitties. Makes a mommy proud.

I guess this is deserved… I vividly remember thinking it was my job to go talk to my first grade teacher every time I was done with my seat work and the other kids were still working. I’m sure she loved that. I recall one day telling her a long story about how I had once stepped on a nail, and then removing my shoe and sock at her desk to show her the scar. Mrs. Herbert, wherever you are, I apologize.

On a serious note, I just read a few blog entries that I recommend you take a few minutes to check out!

Monica over at DailyDwelling posted today about her husband’s return home after a 14 month deployment in Iraq as an army chaplain. The pictures are killer – be prepared! Praise the Lord for bringing our soldiers home safe and sound!

Joy at The Stay-at-home missionary posted about her husband’s safe return from a 10 day trek through the jungle by foot and boat (he is a missionary pilot). Take a few minutes to read it and her husband’s post about his trip. Praise the Lord for faithful workers in His harvest fields!!

April 16th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

I was changing LB’s diaper tonight and AG walked in carrying her Hello Kitty notebook and a purple gel pen.

(AG) Well, I’m going to my meeting now.
(K) What is your meeting for?
(AG) Well, I have to go to my meeting because a lot of people need me to tell them about Jesus. And Annie and Dora are with me (Annie and Dora have been her imaginary friends of late. Dora can jump all the way to the ceiling, by the way.), and they’re going to their pretend class! And they’re the first ones there, just like when we go!

[When I teach Bible studies she and LB are always the first kids there, so at this point her "meeting" made more sense.]

(K) Oh, are you going to Bible study?
(AG) Yes
(K) What do you do at Bible study?
(AG) Well, we talk about Jesus, and we write notes in our notebooks, and we read big people books… what else do you do at Bible study?
(K) We pray, and we read the Bible
(AG) Oh, yes, we’re going to do that, too