everything she needs to know

she's learning in kindergarten!!

tonight at the dinner table we had an informative conversation (with maddie) regarding past presidents of the united states. it went a little something like this...

mads: do you know how abraham lincoln died?
us: yeah, but why don't you tell us.
mads: he got shot in the forehead....but he also set some people free!!
us: yeah. he was a good president.
mads: no he wasn't. he was poor, and then someone shot him in the head!

me: tell daddy what the name of thomas jefferson's house was.
mads: monti-JELLO!
us: (laughing) you mean monticello (pronounced monti-chello)
mads: oh yeah!

david: do you know what mount rushmore is?
mads: yeah. it's a huge rock where some presidents have their faces carved in.
david: do you know which presidents?
mads: yeah. abraham lincoln, thomas jefferson, george jefferson, and roosevelt!!
us: (laughing hysterically) you mean george washington?
mads: (laughing) yeah, that's what i meant!

we also had a very good conversation regarding black history month!! it's impressive what all the 6 year old brain can retain...even if it does get a little bit jumbled some times!!

wisdom

this is what i have been asking God for A LOT of lately! okay, maybe asking isn't the right word. begging might be the more appropriate term :-)

2010 is going to bring many new things to our life. i have no idea the time table of any of them, but most of them will happen this year. if i allow myself to dwell on it, i get extremely overwhelmed. SO, seeing as how experience has shown me that this method works, every time i start to dwell on the what-if's, i just stop and ask God for wisdom! so far....so good :-)

some of the decisions we will be facing this year are....

1. selling our house (how much do we sell it for? we want to get rid of it, but we don't want to lose too much money)

2. where to move (this is probably going to be the hardest decision. the one requiring the most prayer!)

3. where maddie will go to 1st grade (if we have moved by the time school starts next fall, this will not be an issue. but if we are still in this house, we have quite a lot to figure out)

4. buying a car...or two (david's car, bless it's 18 year old self, is finally on it's last leg. we said that we would drive it until it just couldn't take it anymore...and that's what we have done. our hope is that my car will make it a couple of more years...*doubt it* so that we will only have to buy one car this year. the kicker with this decision....no car payment! paid for, in cash, when we drive it off the lot!)

5. church home (a lot is going to have to go into this decision, as well)

that is just five of the decisions we will be facing this year. there are more...but those are for another post at another time! like i said....wisdom! boy, do we need it! and we are trusting that God will answer, in His timing, according to His will, and at the time when He will receive the most glory! all we have to do now is continue to seek Him, and wait :-)

life

yesterday was sanctity of life sunday at church.

believing that the unique value of life was designed by God at creation, and certainly believing that life begins with conception, i spent most of yesterday morning worshiping the Almighty Creator of everything & everyone, the Sovereign God who reigns over the entire universe, and His magnificent plan for every single human being that He gives breath to.

but what overwhelmed me the most in those moments was the reality of my son's life. tyson's birthmother, given her age and her life circumstances, had no reason whatsoever to choose to give him life. matter of fact, her story and how she conceived tyson, could/would convince most girls to do quite the opposite. but that, in and of itself, shows the incomprehensible power of God over every detail of His creation.

God chose, before the foundation of the world, to bring this precious little person into the world. we have no idea what he will do, where he will go, or who he will become, but knowing that his life rests in the hands of the Creator of the universe overwhelms the very core of my being. i look at my children, and i think of all of the possible reasons God created them. what role will they individually play in furthering the kingdom of God?!?! my mind can not even conceive. but as i think about all of the children that God has blessed my life with, from my own kids, to my nieces and nephews, to the children of my best friends, i must stop to remember that....

this precious child, only 2 weeks old when this picture was taken, could have been one of the 3,000 children that every day in this country have their opportunity to live brutally taken away from them!! and as i struggle to even understand the gravity of that truth, i rejoice in the God who created him. and i give thanks for the woman who according to the world's view had every right to abort him, but instead chose life for him. a life that i pray every single day will make a difference in the live's of others.

he is only 8 months old...and he has already made an enormous difference in mine!

a day (bad hair day) in the life of tyson

hard at work...trying to sit up and play at the same time!!

not much to complain about, when my sissy is around!

woohoo...we're going to pick sissy up from school

can someone please come get me?

i have been sitting here for a WHOLE 5 minutes!!

mmmm.....meal time! my favorite time of day!!

impersonations & special talents

over the past two weeks, tyson has developed a very mysterious special talent, and (at the same time) learned to do his first impersonation!!

this boy has SOOOO much saliva, spit, drool, etc. he recently discovered that he can gurgle when he is laying on his back. so who does he do a perfect impression of....chewbacca (from star wars). the more he creates this weird noise, the funnier he thinks it is and the louder he gets. he is quite entertained by it!!

when he was only a couple of weeks old, he used to make the silliest face. he would get all serious, and then perch his lips into a perfect "O" shape. he made that face, quite reguarly, until he was about 3 months old. then, one day, it just stopped. well, it has returned. except now that he can "talk" and make all kinds of noises, when he makes that face, he inadvertantly whistles!!! it is hilarious. if he is screeching (which he loves to do), and you pick him up and start to whistle, 9 times out of 10 he will perch his lips and begin to whistle as well.

who knew? an 8 month old that whistles. little t-money may not be able to sit up completely unassisted, or crawl, or do anything that the average 8 month old can do.....but i think his special talent makes him just as special :-)

sunday has a whole new look

with the new year came a call to action for our family.

for quite a while now, the holy spirit has been at work in our hearts regarding our church home. we have been members of our church for 8 years. and it was during a time of great need for us, that God took us from what most would consider "the greatest church" in our area and moved us to what most would consider "the oldest church" in our area :-) it was desperately needed at the time, and the Lord has blessed our time there...all 8 years of it. we were newlyweds when we joined our church. it is where we started our family, where we met the people who would quickly become our local family, and where we stepped out in faith to answer a call that was much bigger than us...adopting tyson!!

and as our family has continued to grow in the Lord, desiring to be a part of a local fellowship where we will be ministered to and have ample opportunity to minister to others, we have decided to (again) step out in faith and find a new church!! this is a move that we have been dodging for almost a year now. for various reasons, fear being the biggest, we dug our heels into the ground and have been choosing to not move forward with what the holy spirit was leading us to do. now, as God has made it clear to us that, by not taking action, our family has suffered...we have (thankfully) decided that enough is enough!!

peace. relief. renewed spirits. united hearts and minds. these are the things that we have been experiencing over the last couple of weeks. both of our children have been positively affected by this change, as well as david and i. part of this process has been letting go of all of our "learned religious behaviors", and trusting in the power of the gospel to in and of itself transform us. by that i mean that we are visiting a church of another denomination. it will take some getting used to, but we are excited about where God is going to take us from here, and how we will continue to be changed simply by trusting in His sovereign will for our family.

munchkin menu

i am the resident chef in my house. it is a job that i absolutely LOVE, and in another life, i totally would have done professionally.

like i have mentioned before, i have taken on the task of making all of tyson's food. and lately i have been thinking....wouldn't be really cool to be able to go to a store (set up like a bakery) where you can look at the large chalkboard menu on the wall and choose from your favorite baby foods (fruits, veggies, meats, ect)? no preservatives, no jars; just all fresh ingredients made fresh to order. sounds like a great idea to me!!!

here's whats on the munchkin menu at my house (all homemade):

cereals: oatmeal

fruits: bananas, pears, apples, peaches

veggies: butternut squash, peas, green beans, sweet potatoes

we are adding new items to the menu every couple of days or so. not only am i thoroughly enjoying this process, but my munchkin is actually cooperating. when maddie was a baby, she would only eat sweet potatoes and bananas. that's it! maybe, had i taken the time to make her food, she would not be as picky as she is now. here's to hoping that tyson has a more sophisticated palette!!!

anyway, i hope to keep on roasting, pureeing, and freezing! it really is a blast!

think about it

the knowledge of the holy by a.w. tozer

this is my first book endeavour of the year. david received it as a gift for christmas, but i hi-jacked it before he was able to start it. sorry d!

this is one of those books where you read a paragraph, stop, think, read the same paragraph again, stop, think, and read the paragraph one more time...for good measure. usually by the third time you have read the same 3-4 sentences, you just might have a tiny grasp on what tozer is trying to convey.

i can already tell (i am only on chapter 1) that this book is going to be spriritually exciting, motivating, and probably a bit overwhelming! just the kind of book that i LOVE.

so, as i am sure that i will find bits of useful godly insights, i hope to post some of the more thought-provoking moments.

here's to happy, heavy reading!

out with the old...in with the new (again!)

it was very hard for me to say goodbye to 2009.

the twelve months that we have now put behind us brought forth emotions and experiences that i never dreamed could be had in such a short span of time. thinking back over the year, each month carries a significant memory that i hope to have with me for a very long time. our lives changed this year. not in a "we went from having one child to two", kind of way; but in a "God's provision is perfect, His love is unbounding, and His name is to be glorified above all else" kind of way. the ramifications of His perfect will have been overwhelming and super intense. like i said...we have been changed.

as sad as i am to say goodbye to 09, i am looking forward to living in 2010. we have no idea what is to come. we have no idea what God has in store. but we look forward, anticipating more perfect provision, and trusting in God's perfect plan.

my one and only prayer for my family this year is that we will live to the glory of God above all else. that nothing, not family or friends, material possessions or stress, NOTHING will hinder our personal relationships with the Lord; that we will love fully, live fully, and worship fully. no matter what this new year holds, we will strive to live to the glory and honor of His name!!

so here's to twenty-ten!!

anybody home

if you are wondering why it has been over two weeks since my last post, it is because christmas time (with all of it's trimmings) carried me away :-)

we left town the day after i posted my last post, and we just returned home last night. i know, to some people, that seems crazy. but if we are going to be on vacation (david and i both) then we can not be at our house! we have to be away. that is just the way we are!!

i have to say that this year was not nearly as stressful as last year, which is strange considering this year we had a baby-in-tow! but we had a wonderful time with family this year. madison got SUPER time with her cousins, jacob & hannah; including a sleep-over at gigi's house, nights of lights at the zoo, lots of non-stop playing, and a big birthday breakfast with all of her cousins!! my california sister, jaci, got to meet tyson for the very first time! it was very special, and we had the greatest time with her!! oh, how i wish we could see her more than once a year!

on the last night of vacation (at my parent's house) we had our family "last supper". jaci, my mom, and i were in the kitchen from 12:30pm until 7:30pm. here was the menu: homemade fresh ravioli with a parsley ricotta filling, homemade meatballs, homemade red sauce (papa santilli's sauce), italian sausage, asiago bread, and last but definitely NOT least...homemade (from scratch) cannolis. oh, what a dinner it was! everyone loved it. so we have decided that this will be our "last supper" every year.

so, now that we are at home, we are gearing up for our 3rd annual new year's rockin' eve with our atl family. this year we have chosen to have it catered by maggiano's :-) mmmm....can't wait!!