Say Please

This is one of those posts that you want in the memory books because you want to remember the good and the bad......but at the same time you wish it was just a silly story and not a reality that shows the reality of sin, even in our little children.

Jonah is strong willed.  And he is stubborn.  I can say that he's stubborn because I know stubborn.  I am stubborn.  So is Peter.  In fact, Peter thought he was stubborn until he met me.  Our kids were just genetically destined to be stubborn and Jonah is not disappointing.

For whatever reason, I had been a bit lax in teaching Jonah to ask for things in a polite and kind way rather than just pointing and whining.  I know how quickly it can become a bad habit and its not honoring to the Lord to treat others that way, so I wanted to be more consistent and firm in this area.  Things like saying "please" when you want something.  And Jonah would randomly try to sign please or make an attempt at saying the word.

So when he started using more whining than manners, I asked him to say "please" at the breakfast table for his milk.  He refused.  And screamed.  I tried discipline that normally works but yet he refused.  All morning long.  We tried putting him on a stool for time-out until he would relent, but he cried and screamed at us.

He literally began to fall asleep on the stool, so I put him down for a nap.  I thought he'd wake up happy and want to say please for milk and a snack.  He didn't.  He screamed in our faces over and over and over.  Yes, he did get milk, and did eat dinner, but wasn't given dessert or toys unless he wanted to politely ask for them.  We knew he was capable of showing love in asking for things politely, and we knew that he was being simply defiant.  And honestly, it just broke our hearts.  Oh, how we hate to see sinful natures in our kids.  We just so much want to see them know Jesus at a young age who has died to free them of that sin.

Jonah never relented that day.  He went to bed without saying or signing please.  And even now, won't say it (unless our friends ask him to sign it, then he will........until he realized we're watching, then he won't!)  Crazy huh?  We've just determined to pray,pray, pray.  And try to be consistent in showing him how to treat his parents, brother, and others.  Because Christ shows us how to do that.

Raising children is kind of scary sometimes.  Lord, help me raise them in a way that is pleasing to you and shows them who You are.

Jonah, we love you.  Lucky for you, your Mama is just as stubborn as you.....at least I think so.  You might give me a run for my money.  But goodness we adore you and are so blessed to be your parents!  And if you want to start saying please tomorrow, that'd be kind of amazing :-)

EPIC Black Butte Retreat 2013

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from our annual EPIC Black Butte retreat that happened about a month ago.  It's something I always look forward to.  It is definitely alot of work, but its such a sweet time.  It's always amazing to see how God takes all of our plans, filters out all the self-seeking/frivilous/unnecessary stuff we planned, and has His Spirit work out an amazing weekend even better than we could have imagined.

Our theme for the week was the armor of God.  How necessary it is to equip ourselves daily with them wonderful armor tools God provides, because it's so crucial to persevere in our faith and not fall to Satan's attacks.  God brought a variety of young ladies to the retreat, 14 in all, and it was neat to see them focus on Christ and encourage each other throughout the weekend.

We played lots of games, shopped a bit, ate lots of food, shared devotionals, swam, walked, competed in the "Amazing Race", and just had a great time.  We shared a lot of laughs and made great memories.

I think my favorite part of the whole weekend was working with the other women who served as leaders.  It is so beautiful when God brings different ladies with different gifts together to seamlessly create weekend retreats that go off without any hiccups.  We work so well together and I am so blessed to work in ministry with them.

EPIC is on a little break for the summer, but fall will be here before we know it, and we'll wait to see what God has in store for our group!!

Picture dump

Since I'm so behind on my blog I thought I'd just dump a bunch of random pictures on here in a small attempt to catch up to more recent life!

 *  the boys loved Daddy letting them play in the car one day

*  lookin' cute in their shorts

 *  Jonah had his first haircut.  He sat all by himself at Great Clips and did so good!

*  He loooooves to sit like this on top of us.  It's hilarious

 *  my cute Ben is his pj's

 

*  looks like Jonah woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning, ha ha

*  Ben has been riding his bike everywhere.  He picked it up in no time at all and was soooo proud

*  Nothing like a bedtime Baby Einstein with your brother by your side 

*  Jonah LOVES to do everything like Ben.  Including wearing his shoes and wearing his undies.  He was just so proud of himself.

It's ridiculous how cute they are! 

 oh Jonah, that smile!

they're looking at me like "ain't nobody got time for pictures Mama"  Love it! 

Oh how I love them.  That's all.

Faces of summer

This time of year tends to get really, really busy and then it's fall.  And we look back and wonder where the summer went.  I'm trying to remind myself to slow down a bit, get off facebook a bit, and just soak up these sweet moments.  I just want to stare at the faces of my 3 loves and impress these memories and their features into my mind.  I sure do love these summer faces....

Fun in Portland

Peter had a work related training in Portland for 3 days last week, so we decided to tag along.  I only felt slightly bad that the boys and I got to play while he worked.

We left early Wednesday morning and dropped him off downtown before heading to the zoo.  We are definitely making use of our memberships!  We spent almost 4 hours there, then the boys napped for about 30 minutes in the car while I was driving.  We still had a bit of time to kill so we headed to Toys'R'Us where the boys played with toys and their train table for an hour and a half.  We picked up Daddy and headed to our hotel together!  We got our room setup then headed to Olive Garden.  Afterward we took the boys swimming at a local community pool since the hotel pool was closed for that first night.  The boys loved it!

Thursday morning Peter took public transportation to his training and the boys and I ate breakfast at the hotel then headed out to the local mall.  I had something to pick up for our EPIC girls retreat so I did that and then the boys played for a long time at the mall playground and those quarter ride machines (they prefer to play on them without the movement/money put in so it's great!)  We got a Sees chocolate then headed back to the hotel for naptime.  We picked up Daddy, walked around the downtown Portland waterfront, ate at the Cheesecake Factory, then went swimming at the hotel.

Friday morning Peter took the train again, we had breakfast and then I packed up the hotel room with the two boys.  Not.an.easy.task.at.all.  We checked out and headed to the Children's Museum.  We had the whole day to kill and there was nearly no one there so we spent about 4 hours there.  The boys loved it!  They were tired but I figured that instead of napping in the warm car that day, they could just nap in the stroller.  So I walked across the parking lot to the zoo again....might as well since it's right there and we're members.  Benjamin was so excited.  We walked the whole zoo, seeing most things pretty quickly in the hour and a half we had left before we needed to go pick up Daddy.  It was a beautiful day and so fun to be out and about.  We hit a Fuddruckers on the way home and I got home just in time to switch cars and head to worship team at church.  We were pretty tired that night, but it was such a nice change of pace from our regular routine.  We felt really fortunate to get to enjoy a bit of fun while our hard working Daddy learned a ton.