Leading into the Unknown

At church on Sunday, Kim shared a verse in Isaiah that has stuck with me.  It is a very powerful verse and seems to be so pertinent right now.  At least in my Christian journey. I feel like a lot of us are being led by God into new territory, the unknown things that he has for us.  And this verse definitely speaks of this.

Isaiah 42:16  Israel is blind. So I will lead them along paths they have not known before.  I will guide them on roads they are not familiar with.  I will turn the darkness into light as they travel. I will make the rough places smooth. Those are the things I will do. I will not desert my people.

Ever been in a place where you are spiritually blind? In this time of my life I know that I am right where God wants me and yet I can't see the next step. Because I am blind to what God is going to do next. And that is okay. It requires that I trust him completely. And that is what he's trying to teach me. If the dramatic changes in my life in the last 15 months weren't enough change to through me into a place of total dependence on him, I don't know what will.

I especially like the part that says he will turn the darkness into light while I travel.  To me, this says he will give me clarity and direction as I am following one step at a time in obedience.  It does not say he will give me revelation while I sit around and do nothing, but as I travel. As I continue to walk after him, doing what I know he has told me do. Waiting does not mean we do nothing, but that we do the last thing he told us to do until we know differently what we are to be doing. And we obey his direction for all believers found in his word.  And he will give direction and show us what to do next as we follow him to the unknown plans he has for us.  The unknown can be scary, but with God, we can trust that the unknown things he has for us are greater than we could ever imagine.

Happy 6th Birthday Katelynn!!

 It is hard having a birthday around the holidays, especially for the parents, but we try very hard to not let Katelynn's birthday on Christmas Eve blend in with Christmas too much.  This year we had a little family only birthday party for her on Sunday night December 23rd. Like last year, she insisted on a Minnie Mouse party.  She told me she keeps picking this because she loves getting new Minnie ears each year.

 Katelynn decorated the cupcakes herself with pink sprinkles and little Minnie Mouses (Mice?) on top. 6 cupcakes had candles.

 I gave in/broke down/whatever you want to call it and bought her cowboy boots which she loves.

Here is Daniel reading her birthday card to her. What a great big brother!

 

She begged for Carlie to spend the night and we were finally able to make this happen last night. Those girls are hilarious. Katelynn is a year older than Carlie so she loves being the leader for once. Those two are like two peas in a pod.

 We put an air mattress in the living room for them to sleep on and they enjoyed jumping and dancing on it.

 They ended the night eating popcorn with M&Ms in it and watching Charlotte's Web. They had a blast and Katelynn is already asked for the exact same thing next year.

Happy Birthday sweet girl! Keep on loving Jesus and enjoying life, every moment, every day. Your smile makes my heart happy!!

Helpers

When I was pregnant with Seth, one of the questions I got asked a lot was if this was my first. When I told them about my older children I almost always was told they would be a big help.  I was hoping for help when I needed it from Haley, Daniel, and Katelynn, but not so much offering of help that it drove me crazy.

For the first 6 weeks or so I was pretty protective of Seth and didn't let the older kids help as much as they'd like.  This was partly due to the fact that Haley is much more confident in her ability to hold and carry Seth across the room than I am and quite honestly, I didn't want her to drop him. And I wanted to hold him. 

Well in the past few weeks, I have started to take advantage of their help.  They are all doing really well holding him and appeasing him. I can leave him with any of the kids holding him and take care of other things around the house like laundry and dishes.  It has been really great to have older kids who are dying to love on him and hold him.  I finally get what they were talking about.

And Haley has even survived being spit up on a few times.  At first it totally grossed her out. She would literally run from Seth when he had just spit up and I would just die laughing.  I tried to convince her it was just a part of baby life. But she is getting used to it and still is more than happy to hold him and talk to him.

And they love it when he smiles at them.  He's been doing that more often for the past few weeks as well as being more aware of you and watching you when you talk to him.

Thank God for my big helpers!!

New Beginnings

Today/Last night has been a day of new beginnings already. I guess that's pretty appropriate considering it is a new year.

Last night we tried Seth sleeping in his crib in his room and he did great! I've been a little apprehensive to do this for a couple of reasons. 1 - He and Katelynn are sharing a room and I really didn't want her sleep to suffer because of him waking up or keeping her awake. 2 - I am pretty lazy/tired in the middle of the night and was afraid I would just ignore him instead of actually get up with him if he was further away.  Neither one of my fears were realized last night.  He slept in his crib for two 4 hour stretches and I was able to get up feed him and put him right back to bed without bothering Katelynn much at all. After his 6am feeding I let him stay in our room since I didn't want the kids to wake him up or he the kids.  I could have put him back in the crib probably looking back at it.  I think I will try that tonight.  The main thing that changed is that I slept so much better and I think he did too.  He's been staying in a pack n play a few feet from our bed and between his grunting (he is not a quiet sleeper usually) and my trying to make sure BJ is getting decent sleep since he has to work in the mornings, I've been getting up to appease Seth more than I really have to.  I learned that last night as I wasn't nearly as prone to walk to the other room at every noise or movement and he seemed to settle quicker after waking himself up. I am so glad this went so well!

Secondly, today I tried Seth in my Beco Butterfly II carrier and he liked it.  I tried it when he was smaller and he just wasn't happy.  Maybe he was too small for it.  But today I was able to do some laundry with two hands instead of one while he slept on me.  And it was so nice!  And so much quicker.

We didn't stay up last night to ring in the new year and the kids were kind of bummed.  My kids pretty much wake up with the sun and I can't trust that staying up later means sleeping in later.  I just didn't want to risk them staying up and then being moody today from the lack of sleep.  I did however let Daniel and Katelynn have their own mock countdown today after which they sprayed each other with silly string. They loved it!  I have a friend who let her younger kids watch the ball drop from a previous year on you tube so the kids could celebrate without staying up so late.  I think that is a great idea and will try to remember that next year.

Haley is working hard on her multiplication facts and knows up to 8s.  We will work on 9s tomorrow and then will keep reviewing daily and she'll be done.  (She already knows her 10s since they are so easy.)  Hopefully this will make her math so much easier for her.  She is so proud of herself.

Daniel is working on addition facts.  He knows them, but then stresses himself out when having to answer them on a timed test or computer game.  This last Sunday he sang a song at the "all church singing" for the first time.  I never realized how nervous and scared that all made him.  He does really well, but was clinging to me so tightly.  I say that all to say, can you pray with me that God will help him to relax and do his best and gain some self confidence along the way? There are so many things I know he can do but the pressure seems to often distract him from doing his best or even trying. And then he is disappointed in himself and says he can't do it. So his grades don't reflect how smart he is, but rather the fact he hates tests and does not test well. I know God can help him do his best and learn to relax and not be so tense in these situations.

Katelynn is still so sweet with Seth. She was so excited when I told her Seth would start sleeping in her room.  She was a little disappointed when she woke up and he wasn't there.  At first she thought I lied to her, until I reminded her that he woke her up in the middle of the night and she came and told me about it.

I went and looked at my last years new year's resolutions and I had printed pictures to scrapbook.  Yeah.  That still isn't done.  Maybe I can at least get Jill's wedding scrapbook done by her anniversary. I think it'll be 5 years in November. I have done the wedding party and just have the actual ceremony pictures left.  I can always hope, right? Jill has done really well making books of photos and getting them printed of Erin.  Maybe I should give up on old school scrap-booking (although I really do love it and have a ton of stuff to use up) and switch to digital or photo books.  Or maybe I should at least think about making books for gifts for grandparents and such. I don't know. Another decision for another day.

Happy 2013! I pray this year is filled with more of God and the realization that he loves you more than you can even imagine and he has plans for you beyond your wildest dreams as you learn to trust him!!