Wrapping up from the holiday weekend

(Monday) Another lazy morning! Somehow it flew from 7:30am when I was thinking of getting up to 9am. Whoa! J was just quietly chatting in his room. We had a nice morning together with daddy not having to go into work. J's favorite toy has now become his little Thomas trains. I let J watch Elmo and the Firehouse and when Elmo got to wear a fire helmet I gave J his helmet and he was wearing it while he watched. He didn't sleep at all during his morning nap. He went down and was chatting away and then 45 minutes later was still going. He didn't howl or complain at all but I thought I'd get him. I was outside his door and I heard him singing. It sounded a bit like the tune from twinkle twinkle. I quick called L so he could listen and we both stood out there laughing before we went in. It was so cute.

I started Luke 11 during my devotional time. Beth stops to encourage us that God has a specific purpose for this study in our lives. We're about 3/4 of the way through. Jesus teaches on prayer after his disciples ask him how to pray. He teaches us in a simple way to talk to our Father, asking for our daily bread (our daily needs), to forgive our sins and protect us from being tempted to sin. Then he tells a story to illustrate the need for boldness in our prayers. He says, verse 9 So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. It is a reminder that God is ready and waiting to respond to us.

We went to the UW Terrace in downtown Madison and packed a lunch. J sat at the table playing with his Thomas trains while daddy and I caught up on some reading. We had a great view of the lake and there was a slight breeze. Very warm but nice in the shade. We were visited by a pair of ducks which was fun for J since I gave him some bread to feed them. Later, J and I went inside and he was enthralled by their big fish tank. He got really animated when there was another little boy just about his age watching them with him, pointing to the different fish and naming their colors.

I got another night off from cooking and we just had leftovers. Later, we played outside. I don't know why, but J wanted to bring his Elmo shape sorter outside to play with. We said hi to our neighbor Bill when he drove by. Then J kept saying hi and Bill had to go in and J was making a sad face. J wanted daddy to play so we went inside to get him and we all played together. Daddy and I were rolling the ball and playing tag by trying to touch J. He loved it when I pushed him around on his little truck. It was hard to get him to go inside. Sometimes J is really antsy when I'm trying to get his PJ's on. He starts kicking and trying to roll over and he won't stay still. When I notice I'm getting really frustrated and he won't listen, I've started a new thing of tickling him, telling him "tickle mommy" is going to come out. Then I tickle him like crazy and he can't stop laughing. It eases my tension and usually wears him out a bit so I can get his PJ's on.

(Tuesday) This morning we did our grocery shopping. J was a bit cranky which is unusual for shopping. He kept wanting to hold things and when I let him he threw it on the ground so I told him no more. Then he was pouting/crying/whining all at the same time. He would say "I want home" or "I want to walk" (since he'd really love to get out of the cart).

In my devotional time, I continued in Luke 11. Here again, Jesus is healing someone by driving out a demon. some of them accused him of working with Satan (what a joke!) the prince of demons. Jesus rightly replies how this makes no sense - if he was working for Satan he'd do Satan's work. He wouldn't be divided against him and heal someone (from verse 18: If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? He then tells a story about a strong man which Beth says is describing Satan. She wants us to not forget that yes, Satan is strong. We are no match for him. He will try to tempt us in so many ways so that we are pulled away from growing closer to Jesus. But he is no match for God. And the Lord will restore what Satan takes from us. This made me think about my depression. Things were so dark and I now know first hand what it's like for Satan to torment you. I had to fight so many horrible thoughts that I know the Lord didn't place in my head. But even when I struggled just to pray and sometimes couldn't even pray, never did the Lord let me go. I didn't know it at the time while struggling, I couldn't "feel" the Lord's presence and didn't feel any connection, but after I recovered I saw that each and every day through that time the Lord upheld me. It is truly like that Footprints in the Sand poem. (See link).

Around lunch time, J was saying "I want to worship" so I put in his kids worship CD and he was moving along to the music. He was saying "the birds are singing" and I could hear them outside and told him that yes, they were. Then he said "sing to Jesus" and so I said yes, let's sing to Jesus. He was really animated.

After that we just played inside for a while, as I kept asking if he'd like to go outside and he'd say no. Then later he was ready so we played in the sandbox for the first time. I think he really liked it. We created a little game where I would fill up one of his toys that is like a mold (a fish, train, sandcastle) and I'd uncover it and say "ta da" and his job would be to smoosh it down. Then he'd say "again?" and we'd start all over. Then I got some of his little cars to play in the sand and a digger. He had a lot of fun making car/truck noises and pushing them through the sand. I got out a couple times to take his picture and he got upset saying "mommy in the sandbox?".

We stopped at the library to drop off some books and during our ride he somehow brought up PalZone which is the play group we go to on Wednesdays. Well, tomorrow is a special PalZone day where we meet at the zoo and have pizza so I was telling him all about it. Then he'd say "again" and wanted me to repeat it over and over while he'd name all the animals we'd see like saying monkeys-ooh ooh, lion-roar.
Later, I heard him reading to himself and kept hearing him say some word over and over. It turns out he was looking at a fire truck book with lots of firemen on every page and he was saying helmet, helmet, while pointing to each one.

He ate the dinner I made which isn't often the case. He likes rice & ate a little pork chop. After dinner, he said he wants to read the Jesus book. I wasn't sure which one he was talking about and then he pointed to his children's bible. So I found the story of Jesus teaching at the temple when he was a young man. I had to clean up after that and I heard J "reading" and he'd say Jesus about every other word as he went.

We usually have our life group but it was canceled tonight so we took a nice family walk. J saw the park and started asking to go and I was glad we still had some light left. We did the slide and swings. He still wants me with him on the slide which I enjoy, but continue to encourage him to try it. At bedtime, I always have prayer time and tonight J says "pray for so and so?" and started saying all these names of our friends and their kids. So we had several people we prayed for.