Sharing the highlights

Weds/Thurs Highlights

WEDNESDAY...

• J continued to enjoy playing with his Alphabet floor mat.

• Went to Pal Zone and was pleasantly surprised that my friend Eileen came with her son Jackson. I didn't even have any major squabbles to referee with J and the other kids. In fact, he played with a boy, Liam, who he chased around last time. At circle time when they do a round-robin asking the children their names the kids come up and put their name tag on a board. J said his name for the first time when it was his turn. Usually he would stay quiet and I'd say his name. He made a book today for the craft and his was all about firemen, fire trucks, hoses and more fire trucks.

• Went to Bean Sprouts Cafe for lunch thinking it was kids eat free day. Turns out that was Monday but still stayed to eat. Such a great place with a kids play area (kitchen, chalk board, coloring books and crayons). The boys liked going in and out of the "kiddie door" which is a really short entrance door for kids. Eileen and I had some great catch up time.

• Stopped at the library to pick up some holds and let J play for a bit. Found a few new books of elephants and J really excited.

• Went to Culver's so daddy could have dinner. (J and I already ate thinking we were going to the Y that night but the Y was closed for maintenance.) J was so funny picking up our number card and putting it over his face and acting silly.

• Visited our nephew at his dorm the night before his first day of college classes. Went down memory lane as this dorm is one I had friends in and that L stayed in when he was in college. J had fun seeing Zach and telling him all about his new Jungle Book that we brought along.

THURSDAY.....

• My friend Eileen was back in Madison today and we met up at the library. The boys played for probably an hour. J got in a little squabble over the trains which almost always happens. Everything he picks up is "mine". Stopped at McD's after and the kids played in the play land area.

• Let J watch some of Little Einstein's Fire Truck Rocket.

• Had some arts and crafts fun. Took shaving cream mixed with food coloring and let J finger paint. He kept saying "my hands are dirty mommy" and did one painting then we moved to his new Dot Paints. We each did a few paintings and then he traced over the smiley face I made with his paint. He had a ball playing with the paint caps naming the colors and stacking them.

• Found another meal J is into. My tuna casserole this time had cheese whiz in it and I think that was the key. He's been OK with it before, but this time he ate one bowl then asked for another.

• Read a few books and then daddy gave him a bath before bed.

QUIET TIME:
For the last 2 days, I've been going through my new book Uncommon Vessels (developing godly eating habits). She had a list of some really good questions to start out with like:

1. Am I modeling good eating habits?
2. Can I eat this with thanks and gratitude?
3. Does eating this cause an inroad to sin?
4. In my eating and drinking am I glorifying God?

This is a whole new mindset as I really don't think about these things while I'm eating. I'm excited about it though, because this is exactly the direction I want to go. The main thing is that as I seek to follow the Lord, I want to have every area of my life involved in that. Not just pieces or parts. So eating is a huge part of my life. I've finally come to a point where I can't ignore anymore that my eating is out of control. (Oh, that is hard to confess!) Yet, I'm hopeful in that I believe I am now going to work on the heart issues around it. In Galatians 5:22-23, it talks about the fruit of the Spirit (i.e. what one will exemplify by the power of the Holy Spirit's work in a believer) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. What I'm working to develop here is a spirit of self-control in my eating/exercising habits. One thing she says is that nothing will cause your spiritual growth like consistent, daily prayer so I spent some time today asking the Lord to guide me in this area and to fill me with His strength.