Active times and quiet times

I thank the Lord that he continues to give me direction in writing my blog. This has been a great place to chronicle not only the rich times spent with our son, but also sharing what the Lord has been doing in my life. It is great to be able to look back and see the different things being learned.

February has been moving so fast it's hard to believe Valentine's Day is tomorrow. Half of February has passed!

On Thursday, Julian and I spent the morning with our Titus mom's playgroup at our church. It's nice that after several months I'm moving beyond just acquaintance with a couple of the women there. One of these ladies is Eileen. She has an 11 month old son named Jackson. Jackson has beautiful blue eyes and for an 11 month old is pretty big. He outweighs Julian by about 5 pounds! Yet Julian is on the small side as far as the charts go. But they're getting to know one another as Eileen and I get to know one another more. We hung out and kept our eyes on our boys and watched them have fun. I notice Julian is getting a little more aggressive when it comes to sharing of the little small cars people bring. When he wants a turn he stands in front of their car or puts his hand on the steering wheel, something that makes the child at least a little upset. Sometimes he has to keep waiting but other times the mom's step in and let him have a turn. He's pretty good about playing with other kids it's just the cars right now that he gets uptight about.

As far as milestones go, when we have the chance we're starting to let Julian walk on his own and follow us instead of carrying him. Partly it's a help to us since he's getting so heavy to carry all over the place. He tends to wander a bit, sometimes lagging behind and sometimes going ahead. But it's been good to start this slowly and continue to let him learn the art of "staying" with mom and/or dad.

We had fun making "mug cake" together. (see Tracey's Kitchen blog for the recipe.) This is basically a small little cake that you make in a large mug using 3 minutes in the microwave. Julian was trying to eat it using a large wooden spoon so I traded him with a fork. He seemed to have more fun trying to feed me than eating himself so he'd get some on the fork for me, I'd eat it, then I'd get some on the fork for him and he'd eat it. It was yummy especially with a bit of whip cream on it.

Later we went out and played in the snow again. We only stayed out for about 1/2 hour or so. I can't wait until Julian likes sledding as we have a great little hill just outside our door. But so far it just scares him so we hang out and play in the snow and watch the cars go by. Things he likes to do.

When Julian got up from his nap I had the stereo on and he and I got into a little dancing together. He started the dancing going around in a little circle and I was imitating him but being a little goofy and he was laughing at me and I was laughing at him. This went on for a few minutes until we got tired. One of those sweet moments to cherish.

Then I asked Julian "painting?" and he ran for the basement stairs since we have all his art supplies in the basement. He ended up doing 2 wonderful finger paintings. I would ask him what color he'd want and he'd choose one and then we'd do another color and go on this way until the picture was full. I had daddy come down to see his beautiful artwork and we ooh'd and awe'd and then hung them up on the wall. I'm glad we've been doing these different activities to help with that "cabin fever" feeling.

I don't have as much to share for Friday. But one of the main highlights was my time alone with God. This time I studied from the book by Beth Moore called A Heart Like His which is about David. Most of the study comes from the books of Samuel and today we were in 1 Samuel 13. She wanted to share some of the background of David's life leading up to him being king and this section focused on Saul. Saul ends up being the disgraced king who is removed from his post because of his inability to follow the Lord. In this situation, Samuel had told Saul to wait 7 days for Samuel's return and they would then offer up a sacrifice for an impending battle. On the 7th day when Samuel hadn't arrived yet Saul went ahead and offered the sacrifice himself instead of waiting. He said later it was because the people were pressuring him to get it done. This was Saul's first "test" and he failed it. Just this little slip and the kingdom was no longer his. Samuel declared "your kingdom will not endure". So I asked myself, how many times do I have a situation that I'm waiting on, maybe it's something I've prayed about and prayed about and haven't really heard from the Lord and yet instead of continuing to wait I just move ahead and do what I think is best in my eyes, I put my stamp of OK on it when in fact I'm not really sure if that's what God is wanting. In general I know I'm not good at waiting. Yet it's in the waiting that sometimes God is wanting to teach me and train me that I end up missing out. There's another lesson to be pulled from this where Saul said part of his reason was he listened to others. This is another trap I can fall into is looking for others approval and OK instead of looking to the Lord and doing something even if others may not approve. If God is leading me in something, I don't want to shrink back and not do it because I was worried what others would think.

I have our old Sunrise Church songbook and took some time to sing and worship the Lord. Then I had a prayer on my heart that I asked the Lord. It was a prayer that the Lord would help me to flee temptation when it comes into my life. I know some of my main triggers (for having willpower in what I'm eating) or things that trigger anger or impatience and I believe God's word that he will help us out of temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13: No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. So my prayer is that I would flee instead of "flirt"!

Later in the afternoon Julian and I went to a new library for us, one in Verona. It was huge and had lots of things for kids (a castle, a fake grocery area, a train set, puzzles) and Julian and I moved from section to section playing in the various areas. He loved playing with the cash register in the grocery area and he also liked the trains. After that we went down the road for some ice cream before his afternoon nap.

Later in the evening we had our friends Mike and Cassie over for dinner and catching up. We had Indian curry chicken which Julian did surprisingly well with and had a really nice time sharing about what we've been doing in our lives.