Ask and ye shall receive

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

More videos of Easton were requested. I aim to please! He's so special and absolutely cracks me up. In the first video we were at my sister's house and she (being the young and fun mom!!) had a crafty snack planned. A magazine suggested making reindeer cookies. Easton and Adi thought this was great fun, and they were actually quite good at it, as evidenced by the beautiful plate of goodies pictured below. Sometimes, however, Easton 'had a hankerin' for a chocolate chip or an M&M and they would mysteriously be placed incorrectly--so he thought he had to eat it! Call me suspicious, but I'm not sure they were all such innocent mistakes!

Then we have a couple videos of bedtime one evening, as we love to sing and rock together. He likes to sing his 'ABCs', although he gets a little ahead of himself sometimes.


And my favorite video for you this evening features my precious little boy in all his innocence of 'proper etiquette'.

Do You Ever Wonder. . .

Sunday, December 07, 2008

Don't you wonder what your kids will do when they grow up? Do you wonder what vocation they will choose? Do you wonder if all the lessons, the driving, the practice time, the instruments. . .will it be useful one day? I have to admit, I was pretty proud of Destry at his recital last weekend. He practiced this piece diligently for nearly two months to prepare for the performance. Here is about the last third of the piece. If your ear is well-trained enough to notice a little 'pitchiness', please attribute it to his failure to tune all four strings to the piano (he got a little nervous as they were starting and tuning). If your ear is not so trained (like mine!!), join me in thinking he did an outstanding job! I'm afraid it's about time to invest in a full-size violin. $$$$ I sure wish I knew if he would actually do something with this someday. . . I just keep telling myself it's great training for leading people in singing praise to the Father, and it's great character training!

Parenting Tips

Friday, December 05, 2008

It's been one of those weeks. Well, okay, maybe not the whole week, but for sure a couple days. Here is what I have learned. If it's hard to keep your younger children wholesomely occupied while homeschooling a 6th and 7th grader, or even if you just have cabin fever when you have young children, here are a few tips. 1) Let them play in the bathroom! Don't worry about climbing being dangerous or what they'll get into, just let them climb. Or if Legos aren't quite as much fun in a more appropriate room, take them to the bathroom. A guaranteed 30 minutes of peace and quiet! Not sanitary? I don't want to hear it. 2) If little kiddos are shadowing your every move, hanging on your leg, asking to go potty every five minutes (really, he just wants a sucker or a piece of gum!!!), whining, (etc, etc, etc) a good remedy is to throw oops, I meant gently place them in the bathtub. For an hour. Just keep adding hot water. Sit on the nearby toilet seat and read a magazine. They are happy in the bathtub. It's a peaceful time. A break, if you will. (of course, some of those cups got knocked off the edge and had to be cleaned up, but it's worth it) 3) If that's not working, let them tear the entire living room up, pull the cushions off the couch, drape blankets all around, you name it. 4) When you're *really* having a bad day, don't put clothes on them (truth, he wanted to wear his jammies and I just didn't care), don't fix their hair (okay, truly guilty on that one), and let them watch a movie. Two movies in two days. They turn into zombies if you let them. Wow! It's amazing! 5) And if all else fails, let them play with their older brother's tools. Just for a minute. There you have it! And I hope you have a really good friend, like I do, who had me over for lunch yesterday. When I shared my 'funk' with my friend Misti, she listened patiently, then advised me that I needed a 'renewing of my mind' as per Romans 12. She was right! God is so good. I took it to Him, He listened, He forgave, and He adjusted my attitude. So you can stop feeling sorry for my kids, I'll try to be a better mom now.

Thanksgiving Traditions

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

You know, I've always thought we didn't really have 'traditions' as a family. In looking at my pictures from our family Thanksgiving, however, I see many traditions. Admittedly, the day has changed. The biggest change, of course, was the absence of my grandparents, as well as a change in location. I find it interesting that the faces have changed, the seasons of life are different for familiar faces, but it still had a ring of familiarity to it. There was still the group of people doing puzzles. There were still people who had to have a nap. There were, as usual, kids playing with toys and posing for pictures. All seven of my Mom's grandkids (so far--Sheldon and Marcy are expecting another baby the end of March!). From left to right, Nathan, Adi, Easton (just to insert, those three are a RIOT--can't you just see it?!), Briana holding Isaiah and Destry holding Kiana. I didn't get pictures of lots of the traditions--you know, the overabundance of food, somebody off reading a book (my daughter instead of me in this stage of life), all the groups of people chatting. But I got a picture of people playing games. I got a picture of Easton and Nathan getting ready for a nap. Yes, it looks like trouble, doesn't it?! But they did go to sleep, even as ornery as they look! I stole this pic from my sis of Kiana wearing Uncle Jon's cap. It just figures--my sister got the first good picture of Kiana's first two teeth! She is SUCH a better photographer than I am!!! And here is the funnest memory of all--I saved the best for last (hope you followed it through, especially Brenda and Connie!!!) My mom has my Grandma Fetters' piano. I'm pretty sure there was ALWAYS a group of my cousins playing chopsticks every single Thanksgiving. Well, this year it was Briana and Destry as the 'older cousins' playing chopsticks. They were shocked (we all were!) when Aunt Marcy jumped up to play her rendition with Destry. How fun!! ***edit: okay, Alan says this song is not chopsticks, and had to go play me the 'true chopsticks'. So, what IS this song??????

I am so thankful for many things this year--and at this time, I'm especially thankful for family and the traditions we have, even when we don't realize it!

A Day in the Life

Thursday, November 27, 2008

I think sometimes we don't realize just how hard it is to be a kid. Here are just a few pictures and videos to remind you how hard Kiana works every single day. It is her personal job to keep anyone from sleeping too late in the morning, and certainly from taking a nap!! That requires constant vigilance on her part (and let me assure you, she is particularly good at it!) Yes, she is ON my head! So much for the Sunday afternoon nap! This English language is quite difficult to master, but she's working on it. Practice makes perfect, they say, so 'buh, buh, buh' it is!

Another great way of reinforcing language skills is reading--upwards of 15 books per day! VERY important. With reading comes all these new tricks, such as making the 'shhhh' sound for 'Goodnight Moon'.


Then there's her baby doll (gift from Aunt Shayla). She must be carried around, hugged, kissed, fed bottles, pushed in the stroller. . . This hardworking mommy is careful to try each bottle before her baby gets it (she's just sure there's going to be something in it one of these days!)


There's lots of music in this house, and she is responsible for producing at least half of it. When the beat starts, she just has to move along, and when it stops. . .well, who is going to push the button if she doesn't?! (okay, big brother Easton is glad to get involved when the camera is out, but normally it's up to her to take care of this huge responsibility).




And then she has to put up with an annoying mother who wants her to show off her new animal skills (rooster, worm, elephant with the arm becoming a trunk, etc.) when she just recently discovered that she can take her own shoe off by pulling on this amazing string. . .somehow. . .Then she had to get down from the chair to come and stick her finger in MY mouth!

So, the next time you think 'wow, must be the life' when you look at a 14 month old who seems to have every need met for her, you might want to think again. It's exhausting!

Part of My Job

Saturday, November 22, 2008

In case you aren't aware of the many 'job descriptions' inherent in the position of motherhood, I thought I'd clue you in on one of them: interpreter. Kiana is starting to think she can talk. The only problem is, she appears to be German! Almost everything she says has a guttural sound with a strong 'G'. For example, see the following Kiana/English dictionary. Gnk—drink Uh—up Muh—more Dawgg-gn—bottle Dnnng—down Put-puh—paci Bng-gl—Bible She's really, really cute, though, and extremely expressive, so we figure out what she is saying. Isn't this outfit darling?! She looks so cute walking around in it! Easton, on the other hand, is a little easier to understand. I would guess in the following picture, he is saying "My Toiyn!" (my turn, to you English speakers). And I would guess he and Daddy are talking about lunch here on the bridge. Easton would be requesting the same meal he requests every day: a peanut butter and jelly FWANitch. (said with the chin sticking out and a great effort at enunciation).

A Performance Worth Watching

Friday, November 21, 2008

Briana's drama class performed a series of skits last weekend. It wasn't a long performance, but there were some really good messages within the skits. One that particularly hit me had each actor labeled with a body part, (mouth, hand, head, etc.--Briana was an eye. . .) and represented the different parts of the church, the body of Christ. As the play went on, they were trying to decide what to do for Christ, but as they came up with an idea, an important piece of the body was missing. They couldn't partake of the Lord's Supper because the thumbs didn't show up. They couldn't lead the singing b/c the arms left. They couldn't sing b/c vocal chords hadn't shown up. They couldn't read the Word b/c the tongue had left to catch up on its wagging. Meanwhile, 'ought to' and 'opinion' were going on about what others ought to do and what they thought. In the end, they decided the meeting would have to adjourn. When the eyes were asked to come forward, and the finger asked what THEY could do, the solemn response was 'They can weep.' They can weep. . . I'm not describing it nearly well enough, but I found it particularly powerful. I didn't even clap at the conclusion of the piece because I was so moved. It made me ask myself 'what is MY purpose in the body that God is counting on me to fulfill, but I'm 'not showing up', or I'm out doing my own thing, or I'm focusing on what someone ELSE should be doing'. . .the kids did a great job! Another skit was a retelling of the story of Rahab, from the perspective of Rahab being older and a mother and telling her child the story of the destruction of Jericho. Briana played the part of the 'mature Rahab'. I know the picture is blurry--it's hard to get a good pic with a little one on my lap and changing camera settings in the dark! They ended with a resounding chorus encouraging Christian soldiers to go onward into battle. Briana's the second one to the left of the cross (another blurry picture!) I'm really grateful for the opportunity for my children to participate in drama performances that are clean and even have a worthwhile message! Kristina and I went to a high school performance of 'Annie Get Your Gun' last night. I was so surprised by some of the content! I think there is so much worldliness around us all the time that we get desensitized to things that simply contradict God's Word and plan so we just go along with it. The musical had the high school kids cussing, but what was really surprising was the prevalence of the immorality. Now, I realize that many of the participants are probably sexually active anyway, so maybe people don't see it as a big deal for them to sing songs about 'doing what comes naturally' and wearing dresses with heels and no underpants, and not having money for stockings but getting them by 'doing what comes naturally'. And a young man sang a song about how he'd always been proud of being with many girls b/c it kept him from settling down with one. But I was very surprised that *teenagers* (especially!) would be allowed to be involved with this. Am I getting prudish in my old age?! I think it's such a difficult balance. I realize I don't want to overprotect my kids and have them be naive and easily taken in by the snares of the world (Proverbs 6-7) as I see chapter 7 verses 21-23 referring to someone who is just clueless and unprepared to resist temptation. I want my children to be wise and aware and prepared to recognize and thus flee from evil. I want them to be able to interact with people of all backgrounds and to be relevant to the culture in a way that they can show Christ in their lives without turning people off of Christianity. Yet I think of Romans 12 and I am also aware that I don't want them (or myself) to be conformed to the world, but rather to be TRANSFORMED to the image of Christ. If we look just like the world around us, why should they be interested in knowing more about our Savior??? I don't know. What do you think? We didn't stay for the whole play. We were pretty disturbed by its content. I've been thinking about it all morning. What is the balance between standing up for God's truth and being able to relate to unbelievers without them dismissing us as 'prudish', 'old-fashioned', 'radicals', etc.??

Try Again Sally Jane

Sunday, November 16, 2008

I recently had the opportunity (misfortune??) of conversing with a group of people regarding abortion. I don't think I've ever had a more depressing conversation in my life. Aside from the expected opinions such as a 'woman's right to control what happens to her body' and 'when does life begin', there were other thoughts I wasn't quite as prepared for. Do you know that some professing christians don't agree with abortion 'except in cases of rape, incest, or danger to the mother'? We just always have to have an exception clause in there, don't we, as if God doesn't love and have a plan for every single person he makes. And then there was the opinion that a person could have one abortion if she just got 'unlucky' b/c her birth control failed. Seriously, I'm not kidding--you get one 'free pass', just don't make it a habit. I was very, very saddened by the attitude expressed by a couple of young girls. Similar to Obama's declaration that he wouldn't want his daughters to be 'punished' with a baby, these girls didn't think they deserved to have their lives 'ruined' by a baby. I was also shocked at the overall misunderstanding of adoption. When I suggested this as an option, I was met with absolute scorn. The attitude was that they would never 'give a child away' b/c it would end up in an orphanage or moved around from foster home to foster home, likely being abused and unwanted. My attempts (as an adoptive mother familiar with the process) to educate them about this option were ridiculed and demeaned. I tried to share with them that I found adoption to be a selfless and mature alternative to abortion, a decision made in the best interests of a child. I told them a child never needs to become part of 'the system' or end up in an orphanage, but that they could have control of choosing a family for their child. It just made my heart twist in pain to think of young girls killing their babies b/c they truly think it's the best option for a baby they don't want--an option preferable to being stuck in an orphanage somewhere, unwanted and unloved. But the attitude that struck me the most was the absolute self-centered, me-first, immediate gratification, what-I-deserve attitude. I can't even express it. I was literally told that adoption wasn't 'such an easy solution'. "It's not easy." Well, of course not! Is that really what we're looking for?! The easy out?! I respectfully submit to you that an 'easy answer' is not the point. The supposed dilemma here is to either end a life, raise a life, or make an adoption plan for a life. None of these three is an easy answer. This is real life, here, and there's nothing easy about it! Apparently, to these girls, ending the life is the easy answer--regardless of the psychological and potentially physical harm they will suffer in addition to the loss of the physical life of the child and their own spiritual death. As I was shocked to silence (yes, imagine that!) by this attitude--it's just not easy--I couldn't help but think of a children's book I used to read to Briana and Destry. It's called 'Try Again Sally Jane'. The main storyline involves a little girl trying to rollerskate, and she falls into a pond. As she's moaning that it's not easy, a series of animals tell their stories. I used to emulate various animals as I read it to them. "Not easy?" croaked the frog. "What is? Look at what I had to learn how to do. Jump! Dive! Eat flies! Do you think THAT was easy?" The animals show her that lots of things aren't easy, so what she needs to do is 'try again, Sally Jane'. While the message of not giving up is a good one, I also like the message that lots of things in life just aren't easy. Don't expect it to be easy. Don't look for the easy out (unless you're playing baseball!). Don't whine that it's not easy. And please, please, please, don't kill your baby because the other options 'aren't easy'. (I daresay you'll find that killing the baby doesn't turn out to be quite the easy solution you thought it would be, anyway). I think it's time to dust that book off and get my voice into shape. Easton and Kiana need to learn that life isn't about what's 'easy for me', and it's never too early to start teaching that lesson.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Friday, November 14, 2008

What a nice big sister, hmmmm? Kiana loves to read books. She toddles over to the book basket and brings back a book several times a day. Whoever is willing to read her a book is her favorite person of the moment. . .mommy, daddy, sissy or brother! Good thing she has several family members who also love to read, since she seems to be a natural!

Double Trouble

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Easton and Kiana are really having fun playing together these days. I see conspiracies in the future between these friends/siblings. Isn't it a good thing we have two different doorways between the kitchen and the dining room so they can do laps?? Notice big brother Destry saying 'go, go' in the beginning of the video (see how he encourages them?!), and then Kiana echos the 'go, go'! Little Kiana is just holding on so tight!

What Child Labor Laws??

Monday, November 10, 2008

You know how children are--they think work is fun--it's play for them. Easton finds this especially true, whether he's helping with dishes, sweeping the floor, helping Daddy gather the eggs, setting the table, vacuuming the floor. . . I know that picture is really blurry, but I just had to include the little tiny boy with the big ole Rainbow!! That spot right there is really, really clean (he vacuumed it for about 15 minutes!) He also loves to help fold laundry--especially the bath towels which we roll.

I think his favorite job, however, is helping to make cookies. I think it's the special treat at the end that makes it so worth his while!

Speaking of working, that's what I should get back to. I have so much to do, and I felt overwhelmed, so took a 'mommy time out'. The little ones are down for nap, the older kids are watching Hamlet (which we read in literature last week) and Mommy has enough to do to keep her busy until bedtime tonight! Where do I start???

Seriously Mixed Up

Friday, November 07, 2008

My sweet two-year-old Easton absolutely cracks me up. He just told me he was going to play football (to which I, of course, said okay). Then he ran into the living room, grabbed a (toy) golf club, placed the football carefully on the floor, whacked it across the room with the golf club and took off running to 'first base'! Oh, I get such a kick out of him! He has a cold right now and is very concerned that I 'get the boogies out'. But instead of blowing when I bring a tissue, he sucks his nose in. I ask him to go get me a tissue and he asks "a tennis shoe??". Whoops! That's Kiana's remedy for boogies! tee, hee Actually, she just likes to stick her finger in the hole that is 'just her size'! He repeats everything I say these days. For example, he brought me his sippy cup saying 'it has chocolate milk on it!' I said "Just go get a wipey, and wipe it off." He said 'det a wipey? wipe it off?' Sigh. "Yes, honey, get a wipey and wipe it off." 'Otay--I det a wipey, wipe it off!!!' Great idea! He loves ketchup. On everything. Not kidding. I think he takes after my brother and sister--and perhaps Charles Ingle!! ha! (sorry, there's just a memory there from when Marvin's family had us over once when we were kids and there was no ketchup on the table, and my brother and sister were dying for ketchup but had been raised not to ask for it. . .fortunately for them, Charles was there and just got up to go get some ketchup!) Alan and I went to hear Gianna Jessen last night (wonderful, wonderful evening!) and Briana watched the kids. She made some chicken patties, nice and easy. He didn't want a sandwich--he wanted to dip it in ketchup. Nice sister that she is, she cut it into strips and fed him 'a few chicken strips with his ketchup', as she said! What an incredible blessing he is. I look forward to more joy from Easton!