On the Go - We Love to Learn Through Play and Tot School

I love being a stay-at-home mom and feel really blessed spending my days with my son in this way. I also love taking pictures of all the things we are doing. J and I had a lot of away-from-home activity fun in March and April. I didn't include them in any of my Tot School/We Play posts so I decided to make a special "On the Go" post. I love that we have so many fun things to do where we are always learning too. We've been having LOTS of fun!

**J is 34 months old**

Come over to play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up:

Toddler Dance Party (March 8)




























Our local library had a dance party where they invited the little ones to come out and shake it all about. Three of my moms friends joined us and we had so much fun.


St. Patrick's Day Dinner (March 17)



















We've kept in touch with friends from China who never met J. We've had fun over the years introducing them to various cultural things and this time we introduced them to traditional St. Patrick's Day dinner (corned beef, cabbage, red potatoes).


Madison Metro Bus Tour (March 18)



















Our mom's group got to take the kids on a bus tour. We all went on a short bus ride and then stayed on the bus as we toured the city bus depot and enjoyed watching the bus get washed.


Visit to the Park (March 21)




























We took a walk to our local park for the first time this spring. Instead of J riding in his car, he had a ball just pushing it. It's definitely a sign of him growing up since last year he always went in the car. He also wanted to wear his fire hat and fire chief jacket too. We had the park all to ourselves.


Birthday Party Play Date (March 22)




























We have a regular play date with a couple mom's and their kids from my mom's group. One of the girls was having her first birthday and we were invited over to celebrate the fun.


Owen Conservation Park (March 30)



















One afternoon I stopped by a conservation park my husband and I used to visit. We used to go cross-country skiing in the winter and bird watching in the spring. This was J's first time there and he did great hiking with me while sitting in the backpack.


Titus Group Zoo Play Date (March 31)





































Our Titus mom's group had a play outing one day at the zoo. After going to all the exhibits, we had our first carousel ride of the season. This was by far J's favorite part. After that, we played for a bit in the zoo park and J enjoyed the dinosaur fossil area.


Life Group at the Fire House (April 4)




























We lead a life group which is a small group through our church where we talk about the sermon together, share about our lives and pray together. One night we all met at the fire house where one of the group members is an intern and had to be on call. J got a personal tour of the fire house and was in 7th heaven!


Hiking at Natural Bridge State Park (April 9)




























We had a beautiful Saturday with temps in the 60's and made a visit to the bluffs of Baraboo, WI. We had intended to go to a bird watching area but the road was closed, so we ended up at Natural Bridge. L and I had gone there before J was born, so it was so great introducing this to him. He had his little binoculars and insisted he could walk all by himself instead of being in the backpack. He did a GREAT job walking and hiking and only asked to be held once when we were going down a steep hill (and he was fine with me just holding his hand).


Devil's Lake State Park Visit (April 10)




























We had a Sunday with the temps reaching into the 80's (unbelievable for WI in April) so we made our first visit of the season to Devil's Lake in Baraboo, WI. The lake had broken chunks of ice floating in it and J had a great time stirring the "ice soup" with his stick.


See what others are up to at The Play Academy on the Nurture Store blog.

Thanks so much for visiting!

More words for Wednesday

(Tuesday)
This morning, I was able to have catch up and pray time with L before J woke up. He was up much earlier, around 8:30. Our big outing today was late morning we went to go get groceries. It did end up being a long outing (too long) I think since I'm trying to get all my main shopping done at one place. I used to get non-grocery things from Target but I realized every time I went, what should have been a $50 excursion was ending up sometimes at a $150 excursion! It was a good thing that I found a notebook in the start of shopping. I like to keep journals and this is a nice, smaller chunky one. J had to bring his crayons along but I only let him bring 2 so I let him color in the notebook. He was so content just coloring the whole time. Now his crayons did keep on dropping, but picking them up over and over was the price of peace in the shopping cart. After shopping we had some open play time. A couple highlights: He picked his Little People to play with. Then I noticed him getting out his fire trucks and lining them up along the couch. He started talking for the Little People saying, "I'm sitting in my fire truck. Everybody ready to go?" Then he answered with another little person, "Yeah! We're ready to go!" He did this a few times, it was so cute. Soon after, he came running to me asking to watch the DVD Mighty Machines. He wanted the fire truck segment. Then when that was over he wanted to watch the garbage truck segment again.

After dinner, we went to the Verona library. J ran over to the self-check out and climbed the stool asking for my help. He was talking about the pirate and then I remembered we used self-check in the past pressing the "pirate voice" button so the computer uses that voice to walk you through. I told him we'd use that when we checked out. We ended up getting a few more books; a couple on elephants, dump truck, handy manny safety first, and a basketball book. He took these and went into the library's kid castle to "read". At bed time, he grabbed all his new books to take upstairs with him.

(Wednesday)
Morning alone time with L went well again since J was sleeping. We are getting close to having a place secured for our fall trip up north. I'm doing the searches on the internet so I told him I found what looks like a cozy 2-bdrm cabin right on the lake in the North Woods area. We invited a friend to come along but don't know if they'll meet us. Our outing today was to Pal Zone in the morning. We got there only to find out it was not meeting today. Thankfully, my friend Eileen had come with her son and so we brainstormed and ended up taking the kids to a library nearby to play. I had to give J a time out at the library. That's a first. He bit me again. That's an instant time out now. I found a perfect corner for his time out and he obeyed well by staying there the full two minutes. Since I've started doing instant time outs for biting, he does seem to be doing it less (went from daily to maybe once or twice a week). After an hour or so of playing and reading, the boys were ready for lunch. We went to Rocky Rococo's for pizza. J got bored when I was still eating so he started playing with his grapes. I usually don't let him play with his food, but he was lining up the grapes in different ways so I let him. We then spent time at a nearby park. It was just beautiful out. No humidity, low 70's, even a little cool with the breeze. This was such a great day for Eileen and I to talk since the boys were OK on their own a lot of the time.

J took an almost 3-hour nap today so I was able to have some time with the Lord. Today I shifted gears a little bit. I haven't talked about this on the blog for a while, but I'm still struggling with my weight. Over the past few weeks as I've kind of stepped back and watched myself and the eating decisions I'm making, it hit me that I really do not have this area surrendered to God. I went searching on the internet for a book that would help guide me in this. I think I found one. It's called Uncommon Vessels; a program for developing godly eating habits. I started the intro today. I really like the goal that she lays out in the beginning. She says that the goal is not mere weight loss and the fleeting joy of fitting into your favorite jeans. The goal is that eating would be done for God's glory. She referred to 1Corinthians 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. So I want to learn what it looks like to live out that scripture in the realm of eating. For me right now, that's going to be focusing on times of overeating and too many sweets. It's funny how thinking about this in my time alone hit on another area of my life where there's too much "consumption" and that's in my computer time. I need to have more balance there especially in getting to bed at a decent hour. Another thing she mentioned that struck me was that our hearts are not changed by diets so when we are finished we them, we usually will slip back into the old eating pattern. It's when our hearts are impacted that an impact can be made for a long term lifestyle change. This program is set up to impact the inner man; our heart. Another scripture shared was encouraging: Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Tonight after dinner, J watched a Care Bears potty training video. He's not showing active interest in this, but often tells me when he has a bad diaper so that's a sign. I also have him sit on the potty whenever we're doing a bath. We'll see if this sparks more of an interest for him. Then we had our Wednesday night at the Y. I'm back to doing half walking, half running on the treadmill again to change things up. Once we got home, J had his first bubble bath. He loved playing with his dinosaurs in it, splashing around and making bubble beards. After all the fun, it was time for bed.

Picture credit to Elyse Fitzpatrick

Fun at the Dream Park

(Thursday)
Today ended up being warmer than I thought it would be. We're back to the humidity but just not as hot. We had a play date with friends at the Monona Dream Park. We started out with a picnic together. My friend Tina's daughter eats like a bird like J, picking at food. Although he always does pretty well with PB&J (today's menu). This was a new park for J, so he was a little hesitant and constantly wanted me with him. He did tolerate staying around Tina's kids so I could drop things off at the car. This park is very similar to McKee Farms, the one we go to frequently. There he roams around all over the place but not today. Tina and I were able to squeeze in some talk time, even with the kids coming to interrupt. All too soon, it was time to go and say goodbye to our friends. On the way home, J kept asking for Sim., Tina's oldest son. I think he connected a bit with him.

Once at home, it was time for a nap. He went down pretty willingly and ended up sleeping for 2-1/2 hours which was nice.

In my devotional time, Beth (from To Live is Christ) was in Acts 14. Paul and Barnabas continued on their missionary journey ending up at Iconium. There were Jews and Gentiles there opposing them and wanting to take their lives so they fled to another city and began to preach there. God performed a miracle through Paul (made a crippled man walk) and people thought they were gods and tried to worship them. Just as they were setting the record straight, some of the Jews came and won the crowd over and they turned on Paul and Barnabas. They stoned Paul and left him for dead, but he survived. The Lord delivered them. Beth shares that every time God delivers us from something (hardship, trial, habitual sin) the point is to ultimately draw us closer.

I made a new recipe for dinner; beef fried rice. We liked it, but J wouldn't have any. This is pretty typical. It's hit or miss when feeding him. He did like last night's chicken and broccoli casserole. It's hit or miss. Later, our sitter Dave came over so L & I could go to The Making of the Bible class at Blackhawk. It was a very well presented class, but a little too intellectual for me I think. He's doing a class next month about the character of a Christ follower, what happens once you commit to following him. That sounds a lot more interesting for me. The intellectual classes just don't stick with me, but those that are more relational do. When we got home, J was waiting at the door and was jumping up and down in excitement saying "mommy's home, mommy's home". What a welcome. He had boundless energy which Dave said he must have been storing up as he hadn't been that rambunctious. He ran and got his fire helmets and got daddy to play with him. They looked so cute.

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.

Morning at the park

This morning, J started asking for his coat before daddy left. He wanted to go outside. He wanted to bring his fire truck and asked me to bring his hot wheel cars (we have a case). Once daddy left, we headed outside to play. It wasn't long before J was asking to walk and this time I asked if he wanted to go in his car. That way mommy can get a little exercise. He let me put him in and we headed down the sidewalk. A few minutes later, he was crying and wanting out. I had been craving some prayer walk time with God which helps rejuvenate me so I said a prayer that J would calm down and enjoy the walk. God answered and J started humming and chatting to himself so I could continue my prayer walk. After a while he started saying "park? park?" and I thought that'd be a fine idea so we went. It was about 9:15 and we ended up being there until 10am and having the park to ourselves. We went on the big swings, the little swings, climbed on the jungle gym and went down the slide. He still wants to slide down on my lap and not on his own. He's only gone down alone a couple times. We got warm so we were able to take our coats off. The morning air was so refreshing. I think it's going to be another beautiful day.

Today I was in the second part of Luke 1 where in the sixth month of Zechariah's wife Elizabeth's pregnancy, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary. On a side note, before the angel spoke to Mary (and Zechariah), it had been 400 years since God had brought about a heavenly visitation. Who would've thought he'd transmit such wondrous news to a 13/14 year old girl. This was the news that she would give birth to a son - the Son of God and name him Jesus (savior). The angel told her not to worry, that she had found favor with God. Could this young girl have imagined what was going to happen? That she would give birth to the savior of the world? Her surrendered heart is beautiful as she answers the angel saying "I am the Lord's servant."

We had a nice lunch at Arby's today. I don't often go out so I brought J's lunch and bought a sandwich before our shopping expo. We went to Savers which is one of the main places I shop besides Target or online. Savers is a secondhand store which has things in incredibly good condition for very cheap. I found J a Caterpillar digger with lights and sounds and a fire engine with the same. I was on the hunt for a couple summer tops and jeans I thought J's new toys would keep him busy but he was whiny from the beginning. I just had to grin and bare it since this is something I do about once every six months, update the wardrobe. After an hour and a half (whoa) I finally had what I wanted. We got home and put batteries in the toys and J loved it with sound and then he went for a nap.

I have to confess that I've not being doing good on my eating program. L and I have been trying to lose weight by changing our habits. We started 3 or 4 weeks ago by eating 4 meals a day with no snacking in between (unless fruit or veggies) and no eating after 7pm. I think I need to change it to 3 meals a day. Anyways, I haven't been following that very well lately. I found these cute little ice creams with about 200 calories and had one last night before bed. I also snacked before dinner yesterday because I just couldn't wait. After realizing how much I've gained since fall and having to go up a couple sizes in clothes, today was like a wake up call in the fitting room. I have to surrender this to God and let it be okay to feel hungry and be willing to do the work I need to for my body to slim down.

J had so much fun tonight playing with his new firetruck and digger. He was a little afraid about pressing the buttons so he had me doing it. (He'd say, mommy press?). Our small group tonight was fairly small. Usually we have 5 couples coming but tonight there were 3 couples. This ended up being good for having more open sharing as we discussed the sermon. A really good question we had was about sharing our faith; are we sharing freely or holding back and why. The common thread for us seems to be context; it really depends upon where you are and to whom you're speaking. We were able to share some neat times that God has opened doors for us to do this.

Tomorrow is a big day. I will be taking J for his first time swimming. He will start swimming lessons on Saturday at the Y so I'm taking him to a swim place tomorrow to have an informal time of getting used to the water before we start the formal class. I'm hoping he loves it of course, but we'll have to see how he does. Another mom from my mom's group is coming with her daughter who has never been either. It should be an adventure. So now's a good time to get our stuff ready so I'm not running around tomorrow.

Then sings my soul

After daddy left for work, J wanted to go outside. I thought we'd hang out and play but he grabbed my hand and said "walk mommy" so I followed. This was new. He took me down to our mailbox area and liked going up and down the curb practicing his stepping up. Then we went past our place so we could go by the pond. Our timing was good, since we were able to see a muskrat swimming nearby.

I started a new Beth Moore study today called "Jesus, the One and Only". Again, I like the format where she'll pick a book of the bible and then in each chapter of her book, she'll do one chapter from that bible book. Like today we started in Luke 1. In the introduction of her book she shares a powerful promise, that we will never spend time more invaluably than in the pursuit of knowing Christ Jesus. Amen to that! She says, let's fall in love with Jesus all over again. A good prelude. In Luke 1, it starts with Zechariah the priest in the temple and an angel appears to tell him that his wife will bear a son, that their prayer had been heard. This day was his turn to burn the incense in the temple which is a task a priest gets to do only once in his lifetime. Because he was incredulous about this asking "how can this be" the angel said because he did not believe, "now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens." Beth asks, "Do you have a long-standing prayer request?" God waits for the perfect timing. He is faithful and enjoyable even when a request goes unmet. That one can be a struggle for me. I continue to wrestle with impatience when there's something I pray that isn't coming to pass. It seems like I'll break through and start accepting it, and then I'll get impatient and struggle all over again. I'm learning to enjoy him with my unmet requests.

We met my friends and her 3 kids at the park today for a picnic lunch and play time. I thought it would feel cold, but it was actually comfortable without a coat. Nice and sunny. J was done eating before me so I sent him off with the kids to play (with a little coaxing). He wanted mommy to play with him but mommy and Tina wanted some time to chat. I had to ask my friend's opinion about bringing J to a hymn sing tonight at our church. I was getting a sitter but then realized in my heart I really wanted him to go, I just wasn't sure what to expect. She went to these as a kid and said they're usually family friendly. I think it'd be good to bring him. J was having fun on the swing and then the jungle gym. We joined the kids and spent a good part of the time on the little step bridge of which J started off being afraid. He would go across the bridge if I would hold both his hands walking beside him, then he would let the kids take him across, then he even got the courage to go on his own while holding the railing. There was a little boy who came with his mom and J started following him around. I think he scared him a bit. He said "hold hands?" to the boy who it turns out was only 14 mos old (but almost as tall as J) so he didn't understand. J is not shy. Afterward when I was getting him out of the car, he started a little word game. He wanted me to repeat what he said so he went through all sorts of words (blankie, nuk, teddy graham, hat...) and I'd repeat it back to him. Cute!

After the park, on a whim I decided to stop by the pet store to pick up a new goldfish. Turns out there was something else beckoning me instead of a fish. We visited the adoptable cats and fell in love with a cat named Luther. Well, I did at least, I'm not sure about J. Luther is a gray and whitish/tan tabby who is the most laid back cat. When they brought him out, J got down on all fours to see him and Luther came up and sniffed J's face. He was so mellow! I'm not sure if L is on board with this but we'll be near the pet store tonight so we can stop in and check him out.

We went to the hymn sing with J and he did so well, it really was a blessing. We met my friend and her husband and son and sat in the back. J just sat pleasantly on my lap taking it all in. There was a really good crowd. It was wonderful to sing the old hymns. Toward the end, J wanted to color so I brought out the little activity book. The best part was singing How Great Thou Art. It is such a beautiful hymn (we had it at our wedding) and being a nature/outdoors person it really speaks to me. Here's a snippet: When through the woods And forest glades I wander I hear the birds Sing sweetly in the trees...Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Tonight I think I learned what "then sings my soul" feels like. For those few minutes we sang, my soul felt this sweet freedom as the words resonated within my heart.

Had a challenging day

Wow, I am tired! What a day. This ended up being a mixed blessing day. It was definitely more challenging than normal and more draining too. I'm going to try and keep it short so I can get some R&R!

Daddy has an earlier schedule this week so we were solo for breakfast again. Nothing really noteworthy about waffles and strawberries. This was a blessing though, knowing now what comes later in the day. After breakfast, we joined our friend and her son at the Verona library for story time. It was nice. There was play time after and I'm having to watch Julian a lot closer since he's more aggressive now. We went to Culver's after and lunch was fine up until Julian hurt his finger. I felt awful. We came out of the bathroom and all of a sudden I hear him screaming. He had gotten his finger caught in the door! It even broke the skin around his nail and he cried and cried, it was so hard on my heart. I wasn't prepared for how much I would hurt as he hurts. The staff were nice and brought us a couple band aids. We left soon after that.

On our way home, he asked to go to the park so we stopped off. His finger seemed to be doing OK. He loves hanging out on the jungle gym. There were a few kids running around though and one of them knocked him down. I had to talk to him about being careful since it really upset Julian. His mom came over and had a strong talk with him too. It was really windy and the wind was pretty cold so we left soon after. We did some coloring and markers. Then we went outside and I did some more garden prepping and cleaning of the back porch while Julian played.

He took a good nap before dinner but woke up pretty groggy. This ended up being the hardest part of the day. I was finishing dinner and Julian wouldn't let daddy comfort him, he kept wanting me to hold him. Even if I held him a few and then set him down he still wouldn't stop crying saying "mommy, mommy". I tried to interest him in food and when he started to throw it on the floor while crying I decided to take a breather and let him calm down in his crib. When he got up he was back in good spirits and was about to get in his chair when he slipped and bumped his head on the floor. It just wasn't his day! This started the crying all over again and it took so long to finally calm him down. I agreed to let him eat waffles just to get some food in him and end the crying. We definitely experienced some fall out in not having his morning nap. He ended up going to bed well and even played a little hide and seek with me.

I finished 2Samuel 24 today and read more on the Proverbs 31 woman. What really comes across is how her family is her number one priority. This definitely resounded with me as I reviewed the verses of the various ways she provides for them and works hard. Verse 27 really sums it up. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. What a great reminder about honoring God with you work by not being idle. I was also blessed today by a fellow blogger who shared a beautiful song on her blog today. It was Your Hands by J.J. Heller. To listen to it go to http://myhomemakersheart.blogspot.com/.

Now I get to wind down and relax after a challenging day.

So many things reflect God's beauty, opening my eyes

This morning we made a quick stop to the grocery story for some things I forgot yesterday. Julian wanted to go to the park and was upset when I put him in the car and explained we were going for groceries. He REALLY loves going to the park now that it has warmed up. Anytime we go in the garage now is a trigger for wanting to go to the park. When we came home, we did play outside for a while. We had a couple balls to hit around and just enjoyed being in the sun and fresh air. I wish we had a little sandbox or something for play in the yard, but we really don't have a lot of room since it's a condo. Julian did pretty well with breakfast, eating mini muffins and yogurt. He's also getting better at using the spoon. I notice he often uses his left hand with the spoon or fork but other things he uses his right.

I spent time in 2Samuel 22. David and his men are again fighting the Philistines. There's a lot of fighting in the Old Testament. Beth reflects how God brings David victory but this time through another person. It says David was exhausted in battle. Beth traces this word and in Hebrew it means to flee or fly away. That what David wanted to do was run and hide. It's refreshing to see David's humanity here. It reminds me of times when battles come and I'd rather run and hide than get into the confrontation. It takes a lot of effort. One of his men came to his rescue. This made me think of how wonderful it is when someone dear comes to our rescue when we need it, when we're exhausted. I can think of a time only last fall when I was overwhelmed in my depression and exhausted from the battle and my sisters came to my rescue. They stepped in to care for Julian as I needed some time out to take care of myself.

I was getting sleepy and then God gave me a second wind and I had a good study of Esther. The author has us imagine what it must have been like as Esther prepared to go before the king. Something in that day that could result in death. What an emotionally trying time it must have been knowing she would do it and it could mean her death. I see this as an example of how God uses trying circumstances to help strengthen our faith. When Esther came to the inner court, it is beautiful as you see no hesitation at all from the king and in fact he was pleased with her as he accepted her and invited her into the court. What a powerful example of an answer to prayer.

Julian did well with lunch, other than a couple mini melt downs. He cried when I wouldn't let him eat a muffin until he ate more of his hot dog. He often cries when not getting something he wants (or not getting it right away) but in prayer God has helped me grow stronger in not just giving him something because he's crying. How this even in a small way can help to prepare him for life and help him grow. He is beginning to learn his colors. He knows red, yellow and blue. Having a couple balloons has helped and also giving him crayons to color with and having him ask for them by color. After lunch, we went to the park for a while. It was really just beautiful today with the sun shining bright, the smell of spring and temperatures around 60 something. There were other kids around today so Julian hung back a bit and didn't go down the slide as much. The highlight was that he got to walk a little chihuahua. He went over to see the tiny dog and the woman handed him the leash and he led the dog around a bit. He ended up dropping the leash but thankfully the dog ran back to his owner. While we were walking home, I remembered reading somewhere today that the next time you were outside to really take it in and how easily you can find five things reflecting God's beauty. This was a really good exercise and I felt my heart connecting with God's. Here are my five of today:
-fluffy little buds on a tree that looked like soft pussy willows
-tree that had bright red fuzzy buds all over it
-the beauty of a bird in flight
-tall grasses softly moving in the breeze by the pond
-leaves and sticks dancing around in circles in the wind
I really appreciated our time outside even more.

Julian ended up waking up early again from his nap. I'm not even sure he went to sleep. He was only down about 45 minutes. So while I cooked, he was trying to find something to do. He saw the pans and said "me cook" and so I got him some pans and put a little bit of water in the bottom and gave him a spoon. He had fun stirring and making "soup". Then he did some coloring and kept calling me over to look saying, "mommy see, mommy see". He'd look up at me with this expectant look with his mouth wide open like "look what I did" and I'd tell him what a lovely picture he colored. After dinner, we played a little bit and then it was time for bed. We spent the next couple hours with our life group. I made a red velvet cake with vanilla frosting as we rotate on treats. We even had leftovers. Today we were talking about the story of Zaccheus and the transformation that came out of his relationship with Jesus. Being a chief tax collector, it was an incredible thing for him to give away half of his possessions to the poor. It shows a heart that desires to please God; a heart becoming so filled with God's goodness that he has less desire for the things of this world. Possessions are just possessions. This is a theme similar to one we talked about in my MOPS group. I was struck then too about how much stuff I hold onto and really having a desire to go through our possessions asking the question, how can we fulfill someone's need? What can I give to bless someone? I really want to take some time and do that. Mindfully unload as a love offering to God. This blog will help hold me to that!

It's now the fun part of the day where I get to relax and unwind. It's also late so sleep will be coming soon.

My little fireman...

This morning I felt a little grumbly in my heart. Not because of anything specific, just a general feeling that thankfully ended up going away. We went this morning to do our grocery shopping. We didn't have a chance to fit it in over the weekend. I wanted to leave our afternoon open in case our friend was coming over but it turned out she couldn't come.

Spending time with God today was nice. How wonderful that I can just come as I am, my junk and all, and he accepts me. He cleanses me as I lay these things at his feet. He pursues me and enjoys spending time with me. This was good to just think about for a while. Today's reading in 2Samuel 20-21:14 didn't go very deep for me. The battles continued as Sheba (a Benjamite) plans a rebellion against David and lures the men of Israel away to his side while the men of Judah stayed with David. David sends his men to overtake Sheba. Even though Joab is no longer commander, he gathers the men and leads them to the fight. He ends up killing (in a very graphic way) the new commander David appointed. Then he goes on to the battlefield where a wise woman of the town gave Sheba over to Joab (again in a graphic scene). There was a famine in the land and David sought the Lord in it.

After lunch, Julian and I took a walk to the park. It was a little cold with the wind, but otherwise a beautiful, sunny day. It was amazing, we had the park to ourselves for the entire half hour we were there. Again we spent most of our time on the jungle gym. Julian isn't really into the swings right now. We climbed up to the higher level where the slides are where I really have to watch him because there are a couple areas that open up leaving room for a fall. We did the slides a few times and then Julian ended up going down the slide on his own for the first time. He called me to go with him but then he was scooting forward on his own so I just let him go. I heard him squeal with delight on his way down. He does really well when there are no other kids. He gets nervous when there are too many kids around. I don't blame him.

He didn't sleep very long for his afternoon nap, maybe one hour. When I was putting him in his crib, he reached out and touched my face and said something really cute. We had this really nice moment, me just holding him and hugging and kissing him before I laid him down. It was sweet. When he got up, I was finishing some things online so he came over and wanted to see Elmo dancing. So I found Elmo on You Tube and then we watched Mickey Mouse. We even found Elmo and Mickey Mouse (in costume) dancing together. Tonight was our YMCA night, so we just had sandwiches and fruit. My workout felt harder today. I don't know why sometimes it feels harder than other times. I picked Julian up from the nursery and the staff asked me if someone in our family is a fireman. I told them no. They said he is so into the fireman/firetruck things and plays the part so well (like playing with fire station Little People and wearing a fire hat and playing the part of a fireman) so they thought maybe he had a relative who was a fireman or something. I think it must be the Elmo Firehouse video he watches.

After the YMCA, it was time to give Julian a bath and tuck him in for the night. After finishing up the last of the dishes, getting the coffee ready for tomorrow and doing the blog, I'm ready to get tucked in too.

More depth in my time with God

It is weird now to not have our cat Rio around anymore. I keep having "phantom cat" experiences where I'll think I hear her meow, or I'll think I see her out of the corner of my eye but it's our other cat Buca. It's been strange that way. Our other cat, Buca, seems unfazed by it. I think he is enjoying being able to soak up all the attention and sleep in our bed. He's definitely kept me company while I adjust to Rio being gone.

Today at breakfast, french toast was on the menu for Julian. He was about to start eating but saw daddy eating a waffle so that's what he wanted. When he didn't get it he started crying and was going for a few minutes but then just stopped and got back to eating. We all watched Elmo ABC's and sang some of the songs and Julian really seemed to like that. We also did some coloring which is becoming another one of Julian's favorite things to do.

At breakfast, I read a bit more of the "Quiet Rest" book. It was really good today talking about what she called "devotionless devotions". She speaks of times that we meet with the Lord but our hearts are just not in it and it ends up more of a routine. It is so true when she says, "I must make a conscious, deliberate daily choice to sit at His feet, to listen to His word, to receive His love, to let Him change me and to pour out my heart's devotion to Him." This is the kind of time alone with the Lord that I would like to have. Right now, I do enjoy my time of reading, studying and prayer, but I'm looking for more depth. I guess I'd say more devotion. I took some time to pray about that and asked God to bring this about.

David continues grieving for his son Absalom in 2Samuel 19 today. His commander Joab spoke harshly to him that his mourning was humiliating to the men who went out and just risked their lives for David. Joab told him to go to his men which he did. Some of them had been won over to Absalom and David won the hearts of the men and returned to Jerusalem as king. The man who had cursed David just before the battle now comes to ask for his forgiveness. There is still unrest among the men as squabbles arise between the men of Israel and the men of Judah.

While daddy watched the UW Badgers get beat in the March Madness basketball tournament, Julian and I enjoyed some time at the park. He had to take his Elmo book with him so I put it in his little car trunk when we got there. Today, Julian met a little friend on the jungle gym stairs area and spent most of his time there. He met a little girl who was maybe around 12-16 months old and he called her baby. We went down the slide without knowing the bottom was all wet so my bottom got all wet. It was cold too! Must have been from the melted snow.

We went to church this afternoon and our friends from France joined us. The main theme today from Luke was Jesus as the ultimate seeker. I had never thought of him this way, it was interesting. He described how valuable we are to the Lord, he will stop at nothing in his pursuit of a relationship with us. It was refreshing to remember, it's not just us who pursue God, he is continually pursuing us. We picked up Julian from the nursery and she said that he was talking a lot and loved saying hi to everybody. Our french friends invited us to their house for a BBQ since it was nice out (sunny but not overly warm). We were outside with the kids for a bit walking around the yard. We were looking at some plantings in one area and Julian said "make mudpies". He remembered this from a book I read to him a couple times. Good memory! They had a whole box of kitchen play things and toy food that he loved playing with. He got upset and cried a couple times like when he wanted to go upstairs with the kids but I couldn't tell right away what he was wanting. We skipped tonight's bath since we got home a bit past his bed time. We were getting out of the car and he was asking to go to the park again. He can't get enough of it I guess. He still wanted a couple books read to him and would've had more but I told him we'll wait until morning.

Julian's got a belly button!

After losing my cat Rio last night, I let our other cat (Buca) sleep upstairs in our bed. He was really distraught yesterday and didn't go anywhere near Rio not even to go to the bathroom or eat. I had to carry him to his food area so he could do his thing. He was purring so loud sleeping with us and he stayed there all night. We haven't done that since Julian was born because he used to wake us up. He has been my little shadow around the house which has helped me deal with my sadness of losing Rio.

Julian is too little to know that Rio was sick and now isn't with us. For a while he seemed to think the word for cat was Rio. Then I think he finally got it that Rio was her name. Most of all, he loved to pull her tail and I was surprised by how good she was with him. She pawed at him once but I never saw her try to nip. That was restraint for Rio!

It was so beautiful this morning and at 9:00 I wasn't sure what to do so I asked Julian if he wanted to go to the park. He got so excited so we went and I took the long way so I could get some exercise too. We had the park to ourselves for the half hour we were there. We went down the slide and played on the jungle gym. He loved going in and out of this little tube on the jungle gym. For me, it was nice just listening to all the birds and enjoying the sun.

Today I read 2Samuel 16 and 17. David continued on the run from Absalom (his son). On the way, he ran into a man of Saul's clan who started cursing him and pelting them with stones. David wouldn't allow his men to hurt him saying maybe the Lord would see David's distress and repay him with good. Absalom sought advice from two different counsels about how to attack David. The counsel he followed was really from a friend of David's who was risking his life to mislead Absalom and help David.

In my study of Esther today, she had become queen of the most powerful nation on earth. We see that she attained royalty for the purposes of God. Haman was a man elevated to second in command under the king. He was an evil man and was enraged when Mordecai (Esther's cousin and "adoptive" father) wouldn't bow down to him because of his religion. Haman was so enraged that he hatched a scheme to destroy all the Jews. Unfortunately, the king approves this while he is not aware that his queen is a Jew.

Today for lunch the only thing Julian would eat was yogurt. He calls yogurt "Dora" because that's the brand we get. It has a picture of Dora on it. So when he asks for Dora, I know what he wants. I offered him chicken fries, ham, cheese, hot dogs, peanut butter sandwich and finally gave up. He fed himself and ended up with yogurt all over him. In the afternoon, I had some errands to run. The lady at Walgreen's offered him a balloon since he was pointing to them. He kept saying "yellow" though so she ended up giving him a second balloon. We played "balloon basketball" when we got home. He wasn't too happy that I didn't let him bring the balloons into the next store.

It was really funny, Julian was fascinated by his belly button today. It dawned on me that today was one of the first times that I didn't have him in a onesie! I usually have a onesie on him beneath his shirt, but today I put an undershirt on. Throughout the day, he'd lift his shirt and look at and touch his belly button. Then he'd go up to me or daddy and lift our shirt wanting to see our belly button! This is how enthralled he was: He loves to read placing an open book on the couch while standing in front of it. Today he'd be "reading" aloud when he'd step back, check for his belly button, then go back to reading. It was so cute.

He took a short afternoon nap and had fun coloring while I made dinner. He had fun saying "tacos" whenever I asked him what we were saying for dinner. It was so cute how he said it. Daddy played with him for a little bit until he left for a men's get together. I read about four books to him during our night routine. Usually it's one, but tonight I kept going. This ended up being a pretty hard week for me. I'm glad the week is over and I can relax.

My little one loves to dance

Today I woke up feeling much better. I'm sure it helped that I went to bed around 9:30 last night. I am still taking it easy eating bland foods just to be safe. Julian wanted to do some coloring after breakfast and then wanted to hear the story of Moses again from his toddler bible. While I ate, I read the Quiet Rest book. The message today was that God's word really tells a love story. How we all have a God-created hole that cries out to be filled, a deep need for intimacy. Many people in the scriptures illustrate this love (Adam and Eve, Abraham, David, Mary and Martha.) Julian wanted to be held again. We saw some birds at the feeder outside and watched them for a while. He wasn't really interested in painting or doing art downstairs.

David's story continues in 2Samuel 15. His son Absalom conspires evil in his heart to win the hearts of Israel and steal the throne from David. Afraid of an attack, David leaves Jerusalem with his officers and household. Beth Moore reflects that David had an opportunity for reconciliation with Absalom. He did allow Absalom to see him, but there wasn't reconciliation. Now we see how bitterness and dissatisfaction has festered in Absalom's heart toward his father. Beth shares that forgiving even if the person takes no responsibility for their actions will save us the misery that would befall, like with Absalom.

I'm really bummed that I couldn't go to my women's study today. I have no idea if my stomach thing at this stage would be contagious so I didn't go. I started the study that we'll discuss next week and it's a good one, Esther. Here the king banishes the queen from his kingdom (the King of Persia) and calls for all young virgins from 127 provinces to come to the palace. The king is preparing to select a new queen. Esther is brought to the palace and the main thing we see is that she won the favor of everyone who saw her. It was said that it wasn't just her outward beauty but with her heart, her internal beauty she won them.

Julian ended up with almost a beard of peanut butter after lunch today. When he was done with lunch he wanted to dance. Took my hand and danced in the kitchen and then he led me into the living room. This was so sweet. Then we collected a few toys and went outside to play. It was really windy so the beach ball I brought out was just blowing away and I had to bring that in. I was then asking Julian if he wanted to go to the park and he said "yes, park" and got excited. So I got his car and when I went to put him in it he started crying. It was like he thought I had changed my mind or something. We went back and forth with this until at a loss I set him inside to see if he'd calm down. I waited and opened the door and asked him if he was ready to go to the park. He said yes and this time he let me put him in the car. The odd thing is once we got to the park and I walked onto the grass to get to the jungle gym he wouldn't come. He put his arms up to be carried and I waited for him to walk. I think he's put off by the grass since he's never really walked on it that much. He started walking last September/October and didn't do much in the grass so now I see why he's apprehensive. So I asked if he wanted to take my hand and he did. Then he walked across the grass finally! He played for a bit on the jungle gym and a girl asked if she could play with Julian's car. I didn't see any harm in it so I said yes. We went down the slide together and hung out a bit more but then I noticed it was time to get him home for his nap.

After dinner, we hung out downstairs with Julian coloring. He's starting to learn his colors a little bit like the blue crayon and the yellow crayon. He turned on the radio and said "dance" and was dancing around the basement. It is so cute to watch him dance. He's doing more of it lately. Again he took my hand for a little bit to dance together. We played until I noticed it was time for bed. Then daddy read him a book and I tucked him in. Pretty soon I'm going to tuck myself in too.

p.s. My cat Rio died today at home. I was glad I could be there, even though it is very sad to lose a pet you cherish.

Spending time outdoors

Julian was very clingy and whiny this morning. While I was trying to eat breakfast he kept asking to be up and when I said no he started crying. Then my computer was having problems and I was trying to figure out why and he wanted to be on my lap. When I didn't pick him up it set off another torrent of crying so daddy picked him up and let him look at a photo album of himself. He really enjoyed that and was laughing at some of the photos. He started up again after looking at the album so I gave him his nuk. Then when he calmed down I was able to get on the phone so I could get the computer fixed. He was whining and pulling at my leg so I put in the Elmo ABC video so he could practice his ABC's. After I was done we went outside for a bit and got some fresh air. It was so nice out and is supposed to get up to 60 today.

Today's reading was one of my favorites; Psalm 51. It starts out mentioning two of God's greatest attributes, unfailing love and great compassion. Within this psalm you can see the process of confession and restoration of intimacy with God. From the God of love and compassion, David was pleading for mercy. He asks to be cleansed (of his sin). It takes courage to bring our sin before God and humility for the desire to turn away from it. He says "cleanse me with hyssop" and hyssop in the old testament is connected to cleansing from sin. In verse 10, he says "create in me a pure heart, O God". Beth Moore shares that only God can do this, purify us. David was humbled, cleansed, renewed and restored. A good verse to refer to is Psalm 103:10. He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

In my other study, Women of the Bible, we are reading Hannah this week. Hannah was unable to conceive. She was deeply troubled over this, bitter and full of sorrow. She turned to the Lord; wept, prayed and made a vow that if the Lord brought her a son she would give him to God for all his days. When she left the place of worship, she was uplifted. This was just from being with the Lord and pouring her heart out to him. She was uplifted without knowing how her prayer would be answered.

After lunch, Julian was really excited about going outside. We ended up being outside for close to two hours. It was so nice out. I brought out his "popcorn" push toy and his golf club and he played with both. He really liked it when I hit the golf ball and he'd go run and get the ball. After playing a while we went for a walk in his car. We were getting near the park and I wanted to surprise him. I asked him if he wanted to go to the park and he got really excited lifting his hands in the air saying "park" and of course definitely wanted to go. We went on the swing but he wanted to get off right away when he saw the jungle gym. We climbed around on the jungle gym and I got some good pictures. He went down the slide with me a few times and then he met a couple girls that looked around 8 years old. One of them really took a liking to him. She played some patty cake and then gave him some high-fives. She wanted to take him down the slide and that was okay. As usual, he wasn't happy when it came time to leave but it was getting close to nap time so off we went.

Julian continues to be such a good sleeper, it is such a blessing. After his nap, we read some books and then I got dinner ready. During dinner he was practicing his ABC's again. Something like ABCD---H---LMNP--QRS--WXY-now I know, now I know. It is so cute I'll have to get a video of it. He wanted to go outside again and play but I told him we were going to the YMCA and he'd have some fun playing there. When we were leaving, I picked him up from the nursery and there was an Indian man picking up his son. His son is often there at the same time as Julian. The dad told me that he was in the room today and saw Julian. He said Julian does so well in the nursery. I told him how we've been going for over a year now so he is really familiar with everything. Then he said Julian kept bringing him toys and he was having him put Little People in a bus. I think he has a new friend, as Julian was following around the little boy and offering him crackers. He even tried to put one in the boy's mouth! He's not shy. Later at home he didn't fuss and was really good about picking out a book and going upstairs to get ready for bed. We ended up reading a couple books, his dad read one and then I read one. Today went so fast, it's nice to finally be winding down.