Archive for January, 2009
Kindness of Strangers
Yesterday was a bit of a strange day. We had our first session of Homeschool Gym & Swim at YMCA. The boys had a great time, and participated well. I got to meet some wonderful new moms and actually have some adult conversation.
But as we were walking up the stairs to leave, Jake somehow tripped and managed to hit the side of his head on the corner of a table. I didn’t think anything of it at first until the mom on the other side of him mentioned that it was bleeding. Next thing I know, there was blood everywhere. Fortunately, we were just finishing swim lessons and had wet towels. We applied the wet towels to his head still thinking that it wouldn’t be a big deal, until we moved the towels away and saw his head split open just beside his eye, looking a little like a pair of lips on the side of his face.
We realized at this point that he was definitely going to need medical attention and quite possibly stitches. The mom that noticed the blood offered to take my boys home with her while I took Jake to urgent care. This was amazing considering that we had just met less than two hours earlier at the beginning of class. We had discovered that they only lived about five minutes from our house. What a tremendous blessing, and what an amazing God we have.
From there, the kindness just kept growing. Someone quickly called our pediatrician to see if we could get Jacob in there instead of taking him to urgent care because it is the middle of flu season, glad they thought of that because it would have never crossed my mind. Then to add to it, the assistant director offered to ride with us to make sure that Jake stayed awake while their swim instructor followed behind to give him a ride back to work.
I am still humbled to have so many people offer their generosity to us. To all who helped, thank you again for your care over our family.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )Seven Prayers a Day
I’m cross posting this both here and on My Grown Up Christmas Wish.
The other day I came across a verse that God used to prompt me to write this post. If you are a mom (or have someone else you want to pray for specifically), I hope you will join me as I do this for the next 7 days. It struck me that I need reminders during the day to be praying over my girls, and I decided to choose 7 events in a day that would remind me to do so. Then, I chose verses that had to do with that time of the day (for example: as my kids are getting dressed in the morning) and then I put them on notecards.
EDITH or Eat It
Yesterday our first project was creating our Emergency plan that we learned about at the fire station the day before. I talked with the boys a little more about fire safety, then we started drawing out the rooms of our house. We started marking the exits and labeling the escape routes. Along the side of the page, I wrote
Emergency
Drill
In
The
Home
speaking out load as I wrote it saying, “Edith, emergency drill in the home.”
Gio looked at me like he didn’t have a clue what I was talking about. I reminded him of the video that we had seen the day before. He looked me straight in the eye and told me, “I was wondering why they kept saying ‘eat it, eat it, eat it.'”
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Checking Out Heaven
Lately, DJ has been asking a lot of questions about heaven. He is becoming one of the most creative thinkers that I’ve ever met. He told me for several weeks that he didn’t want to go to heaven because he was afraid that he was going to fall off. After talking with him several times, I finally understood that to him, heaven was literally above the clouds, and since you can’t climb that high with a ladder, or fly there with an airplane, then it would be really easy to fall off the side.
We’ve talked more about it, and he seemed to be better with the idea for a while, but I could tell that his mind was still working it over. Then he started asking if there were toys in heaven. I told him that I didn’t know if there would be toys there or not, but I did know that God made it the perfect place for people to find joy and have job so whatever God had there would be something that He would enjoy doing.
Apparently he’s been pondering that ever since. Yesterday as we were snuggling, he looked up at me and said, “Mom, I want us to go to heaven and check it out.” My initial reaction was to tell him that we couldn’t do that, but the Spirit prompted me to ask him what he meant instead of shutting him down. I was so glad that I asked him. His response was, “I think I want to live in heaven someday when I die, so I’d like for you and me to go up there and check it out to make sure I’m going to like it.”
I think God is definitely working in his little heart.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Field Trip Day
Today was the day that the boys have been anticipating for weeks: field trip to the fire station. And what good mother wouldn’t take her camera with her when he son is completely obsessed with fire trucks? Um, yep, this one. Did not even cross my mind. No camera, no phone, nada. So you’ll just have to imagine the experience.
Let me set the stage for you: cold, dreary day in the middle of winter in North Carolina. Weatherman is predicting up to four inches of rain, couldn’t be snow, it’s too warm for that. Three little boys with no jackets because they can’t seem to be found anywhere, oh, you left them in the car again, thank goodness! Then it’s on to the missing shoes. Finally get shoes on two boys, Gio cannot find shoes anywhere so he wears his flipflops, yes 40 degree weather and he’s wearing a short-sleeved polo and flipflops. Wish I had a picture of that one. What a surprise when I tucked him into bed tonight and found his shoes neatly hanging in the shoe rack in his closet. Who would have ever thought to look there. Anyway, I digress….
Okay, everyone. Clothes: check; Shoes: close enough; Coats: think so. Time: oh shoot the timer went off I didn’t hear it. We’re late guys. Hop in the van or we’re going to miss it. Um, what’s that smell. Now? I just changed you. Okay, guys, hold up a minute. I’ve gotta change Jake again. Walk to the stairs, housekeeper is literally in the middle of the stairs mopping them. No way are we going to make it up the hardwood stairs safely to get a diaper change. Just go with it. Not too bad of a smell. Let’s head out. Make it all the way to the fire station. Everyone is still in the parking lot as we pull in. Whew! We made it. They wave and walk off. Um, hello, wait for us please. You said 9:50 and it’s only 9:49. I’ve still got one minute. Guess we didn’t synchronize our watches today. Quickly park the car and get the boys up to the firehouse in the increasing rain. Everyone makes it safely inside.
Time for the tour? Nope, time for the safety lesson. We get to watch a cartoon about EDITH. It was actually really educational and reinforced a point that I’ve been wanting to work on. Yeah, another project for homeschool. I think I’ll use it for my art lesson tomorrow. DJ is getting really bored with the movie at this point and really wants to see the fire truck and the pole, but he holds it together the best that he can. He did manage to get a chuckle out of the fireman a couple of time with his enthusiasm. Let’s just say that “rhetorical question” has not come up in homeschool yet, and he’s an eager student.
Finally, the magic words are spoken, “Does anyone want to go see the firetrucks?” DJ was thrilled and Gio crawled under the table. Fortunately, peer pressure won out and Gio came out from under the table with very little coaxing. The firefighters were great. They explained what a few of the different buttons and levers did, then they let each of the children walk through the fire truck. DJ was proud to be the first one to go through, and Jake followed soon after. Then as the other children were climbing through, DJ went over to the two other firefighters and started asking about each button and lever, wanting to know what they did and how to make them work. Some other parents got a picture of all the kids in front of the firetruck. If I can get a copy, I’ll try to post it here later.
Then the fireman finally went down the pole. DJ was really hoping that he could go down pole as well, but children were not allowed for saftey reasons. He did however notice something that none of the other children noticed, or at least were not brave enough to ask. There was a “trap door” on the pole. I had never seen anything like it and was curious as well. The fireman explained that it was for safety reasons. Many children come through the fire house for tours. During one of the tours, a boy got too close to the pole and fell down. Now they have the trap door on there to prevent accidents. It requires at least 45 pounds of pressure before it will open. He demonstrated by pulling on the pole, then allowed all the children to take turns pulling the pole to see if they could open it. My determined little 38 pound monkey went right up there and yanked with all his might and pulled it open at which point the firement told him that he was welcome to come upstairs and fill out an application to join the force.
On the way home, we had probably the most beautiful moment of the trip. Gio, who will seldom admit to having a good time even if he is laughing so hard he cannot breath, quietly told me that he had a really good time and that he was glad he came on the trip today. As much as I loved watching DJ’s enthusiasm, my heart melted when I heard Gio volunteer that little tidbit.
*Just a quick sidenote from me. If you don’t have a home safety plan setup, take the time to do it. That’s our project for the week. The link I posted above was one of the best that I found on the internet. I hope we never need to use this knowledge, but if we do, it’s great to be prepared.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )ParentalRights.org » Blog » UN Report: Belgium
Are you prepared to be scared? What I read in here was absolutely frightening.
ParentalRights.org » Blog » UN Report: Belgium.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Easy Gluten Free Recipes for the Gluten Free Lunchbox: Gluten Free Kebabs | My Gluten Free Child
Among other things that you will see me writing about, going gluten free is big in our house. Over the past three years (wow, has it really been that long already?), we have learned that DJ & I both have Celiac disease, and everyone else is the family has double markers for gluten intolerance, meaning that no one in the family should be eating gluten. The three “lucky ones” can have it occasionally without problem, but for us with Celiac’s, it is a lifetime “no-no.”
We really struggle with this as our pickiest eater is, of course, the one with Celiac’s. All he wants to eat are sausage and chicken nuggets, with wheat of course. I am constantly on the hunt for more ideas that he can eat, and just this morning had been thinking that I’ve got to find some new lunch ideas. God was obviously listening to my needs once again and meeting them before I could even ask.
I took the time tonight to read over my blogs for the last several days. As I was reading one, a link on that blogroll caught my eye: My Gluten Free Child. I’d never seen the site before, but I knew I had to visit it. Here I found the answer to my prayer in the entry entitled Easy Gluten Free Recipes for the Gluten Free Lunchbox: Gluten Free Kebabs | My Gluten Free Child.
Finally, someone else with ideas about food that he may actually eat. If anyone else has some ideas for picky eaters that are gluten free, please leave a comment here. I’d also love any ideas that you have for ways to encourage him to eat in a healthy manner while still respecting his sensitivities.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )
Odyssey of a Lifetime 
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