Living Word

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow,
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12

I have been thinking about my Bible reading time lately, actually, I am ashamed to say, my lack of it. It seems like so often the end of the day comes and my Bible remains unopened. Not from lack of want, but from lack of quality time. Oh sure, I have my kitchen Bible, and try to read a chapter to the girls at breakfast, but that is different, and not what I am talking about, I am talking about time with God in His Word, just the two of us. After reading this post though, I am encouraged. I need to stop thinking that my Bible reading is going to come in large chunks of uninterrupted time any time soon, and instead look realistically at what I can do.

So here is my goal:

1. Read 1 chapter of the Bible each morning to the girls at breakfast. If breakfast doesn't work, do it at lunch.
2. Read in my Bible for the first 15 minutes that both girls are napping. If at the end of Miss Pear's nap there has not been a 15 minute block, give her books and set the time for both of us to read.
3. Consistently put out my Kitchen Bible.

I would love to cultivate the habit of getting up before my family to have my quiet time, but truthfully, I need the sleep right now with two little ones and nursing during the night still. But one day, when the Lord shows me it is time, it will be a habit to develop again.

Reality...

Lest after this post you think Miss Pear is an angel and we are a perfect family, I bring you this post.

Tonight I had to call Poison Control for the very first time ever. (And as nice as they are, I hope the last).

Miss Pear pulled a substantial amount of leaves off my Jade plant and then bit/partially ate one leaf.

I know it is non-toxic, but when I saw the results I was suddenly very unsure, so I called...my motto is better safe than sorry.

The nice man assured me that it was okay, and told me that he did the same thing as a child...to his grandfather's plant. So while she might have a bit of an unhappy tummy, she will be fine.

Oh sure, she is going to be fine! Scared 10 years off my life, but she will be fine.

Sigh.

Teaching Compassion

I don't really know how to do this, like many things with motherhood sometimes I feel like I am forging new ground, and sometimes I feel like I am just winging it. But I want our daughters to grow to be compassionate women, and not just the kind the express it with words, but also back it up with deeds.

So each week, my goal is to find a way to express compassion or care to someone we love.

When a dear older friend of ours was in the hospital Miss Pear colored her a picture to help her feel better. As I explained what we were doing she got very excited and did a very good job. That was in December.

So now as we begin our new schedule, we are looking again for people. And, sadly, there are many people around us who could do well with extra love. A dear family has a very sick loved one, and it is the kind of sick that is long term. This morning Miss Pear colored an angel picture for her, doing her very best to stay in the lines (she is 3 and a half, that is really hard for her, but she tried so hard), and doing her very best to sign her name at the bottom.

Then she told me what she wanted me to write on top, and I almost cried.

There is a hymn/lullaby that we sing around here to offer comfort. I sang it almost constantly when Baby was sick with meningitis, and Miss Pear learned the words. So she sang it for our friend, and I wrote down the words.

I don't think I will have to teach Miss Pear to be compassionate, it is already there in her very loving heart. And I don't think I will have to teach her to act on that compassion, I just need to show her the opportunities.

We plan on doing lots of coloring pages, and also some baking.

Miss Pear and her Catechism

We are working on teaching Miss Pear the Shorter Catechism, which is really the Westminster Confession for children. It is a goal we are working towards...

So Sunday night we were going through the questions we knew to review as we had missed a few weeks with the holidays, people being sick, and Baby's adventures.

Question 9 should read:

Q. 9. What is God?
A. God is a Spirit, and has not a body like men.

In our house it went like this:

Daddy: What is God?
Miss Pear: a Spirit! (she talks in exclamation marks a lot)
Daddy: and?
Miss Pear: The Commander!

At which point I broke into complete hysterics and missed the rest of it!

Note: We don't actually use the web page, we use an excellent book with stories and the questions in more modern language. I will link to it later.

Cards for Next Christmas

Next Christmas I would like to make some gift tags, small gift cards, and note cards to accompany gifts that I would like to include an explanation on.

So once again I am working my way through the things I loved to save them to my hard drive so I have them for next year. And I am only looking at things that I already have the stamps for. Also, I am only copying things that tell me everything they used so that it is easier!

I LOVE the Snowman with a Punch from Stampin' Pretty! I think this will be a note card set for presents next year (we live so far from family that we always do a picture Christmas card of the girls).

For the rest of this post I am looking for ways to use my Deer Friends stamp set that was a Stampin' Up Hostess Set in the second half of last year (it might still be available).

For gift tags and small gift cards I am thinking the following are good options (of course, so will have to be made smaller!):

• Deer Friends Gingerbread Card
• Deer Friends Christmas Ball (I don't have the big scallop punch so I will just cut rounds)
• Christmas Holiday Notes selection (this could actually be a great gift too)
• Holiday Gift Tags - I plan on making these early for us to use but also as a start of Advent gift for some family members, and I also hope to host a gift tag swap with some friends!
• Gift Tags - I love these simple gift tags too!
• More Gift Tags - these are so pretty with the embossing, and you can actually get embossed looking paper now if the idea of embossing scares you (or you have yet to do it successfully like me!)
• Christmas Tags - and with that I will stop looking at gift tags!
  

And I saw a couple crafts that would be a cute gift/present decoration:

• Candy Cane
• Candy Cane Reindeer

And a lot of our friends drink Martinelli's Sparkling Juice and Cider for Christmas and New Year, so THIS would be a great gift! Then again cookie recipes are always great too!

Plus I can see a variation of this card being our family Christmas thank you card for next year!

There is another Christmas stamp set I got this year that I used this year to decorate our Christmas letters, but when I get a chance I will be looking for some ideas for that set too!

(Plus, if I have a plan, when my friends throw stamping parties and I feel like I should really buy something I can get something small that will go with my plan!)

Another Monday, Another Check-Up

Baby Pear had another check in with the pediatric orthopedic surgeon today, and he remains happy with everything. He made some adjustments to accommodate growth, and as always managed to say something unintentionally that encouraged me.

He always checks the skin in the folds of Baby's hip because they are so hard to clean and so easy for an infection or skin rash to start in, and to be honest, it is an area I really work hard on, but really feel like I am struggling in, plus Baby had a very full poopy diaper right as we got there and I was struggling to clean it out of all her folds and be quick about it so we did not hold up the doctor. Any way, he commented that Baby had the best skin care he had seen in a long time and that I should be giving lessons. So that did my mommy heart good.

Thank you so much for all the prayers and words of encouragement. They are helping so much.

In other health news, Mr. Pear remains the only cold free person in our house. It was a very long Friday and weekend around here, but the girls both seem to be on the mend, and Mommy understands she is not allowed to be sick when Mr. Pear is at work, so we are going with that!

Christmas Stuff for Next Year

Am I the only one who feels a little bit frustrated each year when all the really great crafting ideas for Christmas come out too late for me to make them?

So one of my goals this year was to sit down in early January and select the crafting ideas I would like to make for next year. And because none of my family (except my husband) know that I blog I can share them with you! (Plus it will make it easier to get all my stuff together if I compile it here!)

The Common Room posted a selection of frugal gifts, and included a picture of a sweet Christmas tree decoration that is a mitt made from craft paper. The simple blanket stitch makes it appear very beautiful. We will be making these next year! I would like to make one for each family we exchange gifts for, and if things are nice and quiet, and the girls schedule allows the time, I would like to make one for each of the kids in those families too for their decoration collections.

I love Shannon's idea for hankies, and would like to make some in flannel. (Although I had to laugh as I was writing this because she blogs at Rocks in my Dryer, and I will have you know that I had rocks in both my washer AND my dryer this weekend....)

Plus then an incredibly creative reader of hers posted an idea (and there were lots of great ideas) about making tea towels out of pictures your kids have made! Basically your kids write out the recipe and draw a picture to go with it, you copy that to transfer paper and iron it on the tea towel. Of course, you can jazz it up if you want too! Yup, we are going to have to make those too....

These are just the three I saw that really stood out for me!

Of course, be sure to print these or save them as pdf files because in the course of a year links often disappear.

Another great idea that we received as a gift is the gift of family recipes from this year written out to share. Our friend wrote them out and clipped them in a clothes pin that had the front and back covered in a pretty paper with magnets on the back - our friend is SO creative!

Were there any crafting ideas around the web that stood out to you? Leave a link or description in the comments if you would not mind sharing as I am always on the hunt for a good craft!

We ate...lots

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Years! It is tons of fun with a new little one to added to our family!

Christmas Eve we had an early barbecue supper so that we could make it to church on time. Of course I wore sandals for no other reason than I could. Baby stayed awake the whole service and smiled at the people behind us. Very cute. We then came home, had dessert and opened presents.

Christmas morning we opened stockings, ate cinnamon buns and talked to all of our family on the phone - it takes longer now that so many people need phone time!

The day after Christmas is Boxing Day - mostly a Canadian and European holiday. We had friends over for supper and it was fabulous. The next day we had Boxing Day 2 and had our neighbors over (0ur house is too small to have everyone at once).

And we were exhausted and very full after that!

New Year's Eve is not really a big holiday for us, we just like the time off! But we had Chinese take out for supper followed by dessert and games and regular bed times.

New Year's Day is always the Rose Bowl Parade and taking the tree down for us, but this year we added in watching the Winter Classic - the outdoor NHL game that was at Wrigley Field. It was great.

I love this time of year, it is so much fun, and when it is over we need a year to recover to do it all again!

With the hanging if the new calendar I always start thinking about what I want to accomplish in the next year. Not resolutions, they just break your heart, but goals. My heart has been focused on the Lord in a serious way with all the special reading and celebrating, and it translates into a desire to do some things differently, some things better, and think about what needs to be accomplished.

So next week I will be sharing about what I hope to accomplish this year - and that is my first goal...nice and attainable...I love crossing stuff off lists!

How were your celebrations??

Happy New Year

Sometimes as moms we do the same thing each day only to do it all over again. We wonder if our children are listening as they do WHAT YOU JUST TOLD THEM NOT TO! (No, that never happens at our home, why do you ask?? LOL) Sometimes we wonder if the things we struggle to do with our children are having eternal impact, if they are really making a difference, and then you have a conversation like I had on Monday, and I am posting this to start the New Year in the hopes that it will offer you the encouragement it offered me.

Mommy: Before we leave the table we are going to read a chapter in our Bible.
Miss Pear: Can we read about Jesus?

Miss Pear often shows her agreement by asking to do what you just said you were going to do, usually when she REALLY agrees!

...happy mommy sigh...

And over a month after we read Jonah she informed her Daddy that she was going to Ninlavah. (Okay, so I have some work to do on pronunciation, but at least she did not say she was going to Tarshishkabobbers.....)

Christmas Wish

I had to interrupt my bloggy break with excellent news.

Today we got the one thing we really wanted for Christmas. At Baby's appointment with the pediatric orthopedic surgeon, the doctor told us that everything looks good, and the harness is working!!! This is the absolute earliest we could possibly know, and x-rays confirm what we have prayed for.

We have been praying that the harness would work and we could avoid casting, and that Baby would heal completely. I had actually asked the Lord for this confirmation for Christmas, and He is so gracious that He gave us this.

The first appointment I was in tears when Baby was put into the harness, and this one I was in tears because she will be staying in it...yeah, I see the irony too....

So best guess is that she will be in the harness 24/7 for another 5 weeks, and then she will get brief periods out of it. We will learn more as we go along.

Merry Christmas to us! And you too!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

In the joy of preparing for our Christmas festivities and caring for my family, time has been slipping away on me! All of a sudden it is bed time and so much is left undone! But my family is well loved and cared for, and that is what matters. (And the fact that we had an almost NORMAL night last night! Praise the Lord! The previous 2 Monday's after Baby's appointment had been long and dreadful!)

With that in mind, I am taking a blogging break until the New Year! After all, there are goodies to eat, family to love, presents to open, girls to play with, goodies to eat...er...did I already mention the goodies?...oh, well stop by because I made some delicious things!...and friends to visit with.

Unless of course the doctor tells us good news next Monday in which case I will have to of course come tell you! But assume no news is good news too.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas season filled with the Lord's love and grace.

Baby's Doctor Appointment

We had another check up for Baby this morning as the Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeon checked her out and checked out the harness positioning. He did make some minor adjustments to accommodate growth and allow more kicking!

He was really, really pleased with what he saw! Baby's knees lay much flatter, and her hip was in the socket! (It is common in these first couple weeks for the hip to pop in and out of place) but her hip stayed in place all week!

He was even more pleased to hear that there was no clicking of the hip all week and that she was beginning to kick her left leg more, moving her left foot on its own for the first time! (A classic sign of hip dysplasia is that on the side of the hip with dysplasia the children move that leg a lot less, and this was very true of Baby, when she did kick on the left it was more of a motion carrying over thing than a deliberate kick. Yet last night when I was nursing her she suddenly started tapping her left foot - she has NEVER done that!)

So while it is still too early to say the harness is working for Baby, there is lots of very good news, lots of positive things to make us hopeful, and nothing negative to indicate it is not working. Which is the best case scenario at this point!

We go back next Monday.

Christmas Traditions - Christmas Tree Ornaments

This is likely only part 1 because I am sleepy, have little windows of time, and am only going to talk about 1 tradition, turns out our family has more than I thought!

When I was little I began receiving occasional Christmas ornaments. Eventually it became expected to get at least 1 from somebody! My husband received some too. Yet our first Christmas our tree was a little on the sparse side, so it was a good thing that we stuck it in the corner and only had to decorate a third of it!

Our first Christmas tree decorating just the two of us was special, and Mr. Pear had a special ornament for me for the tree. A couple one. And now each year we get a couple ornament, and it goes on the tree when we put it up.

Our daughter's first Christmases were marked with a very special ornament with their name on it. Both have the same ornament, Joy Ride from Lenox. It is a special gift from us to them so that one day they have a tangible reminder of how thrilled we were to celebrate their first Christmas with them.

Each year it is our tradition to put a Christmas tree decoration in the stockings. We try to pick something that is both nice and kind of marking that time in their lives. So far there is lots of Winnie the Pooh as that was the nursery theme for both girls, and a huge favorite around here.

Each year the grandparents give the girls an ornament too.

So for those of you keeping track, each girl gets 3 ornaments each Christmas, except for their first Christmas when they get 4. At this rate, at their 23th birthdays they will each have 70 Christmas Tree decorations. Yeah, I don't think their first Christmas trees will be sparse either!

It is such a fun tradition! And I am making a photo log of their ornaments so we not only know which ornament belongs to which Pear, but also who gave it to them and when.

While it may not be something that gets tucked away in their hope chests, it is a special tradition that already I am looking forward with to helping them when they have their own homes one day in the very far, very distant future.

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

...I would teach Miss Pear that song, but really don't think I could handle hearing it all day at the top volume rain can excite her to, so we will stick to our "two little eyes to look to God" song we are learning intermittently.

First off, we had a MUCH better night last night. While it did take until 11PM to get Baby down for the night, once she was down she slept until about 4:30, got up, nursed, and went straight back to sleep until about 7:40 when she repeated the process and finally woke up around 9:30. I feel SO much better.

Unfortunately, Miss Pear's cold has been lingering for 14 days, so we had to go to the doctor is this very cold, rainy weather. She has what I understand to be the start of a sinus infection, so she is on antibiotics now, along with most of our neighbors!

So it will likely be the continuation of a couple quiet days while we slowly get ready for Christmas.

Miss Pear helped stamp all the Christmas cards earlier in the week and was very proud to help mail them.

Most of the baking is done, but I would like to make one more slice and another batch of shortbread cookies. This baking will be munched on through Christmas and New Years. Of course there are special Christmas logs to be made in advance too so that they can just be stuffed with whip cream the day of!

I am starting to do the other things I can do early too. I roasted three chickens yesterday, took the meat off in large chunks and will just warm it gently the day we need it. I made cranberry sauce today. Oh, and on the weekend I made the special ribs.

I am still hoping to make ahead some side dishes too.

I don't want to be one of those women who miss all of Christmas because they are in the kitchen, yet I want special meals too! So I will see what I can do to figure this out and make it easier. And as tradition demands the same things each year, maybe I can even make up a bake ahead plan for each year! Now wouldn't that be all organized!

Of course, with a 14 week old, planning ahead to make things easier seems to be the name of the game for EVERYTHING!

Do you have a favorite thing you must have each Christmas?

T'was the night before Christmas...

After a night of being up each and every hour with Baby (the first night ever like that), many hours more than once, I read The Night Before Christmas for Moms at My Quiet Corner. I read it last year too, and it was great then, but a must read this year!

And we are praying for a quieter and sleepier night tonight.

But even with the severe lack of sleep, I love being a mommy.