Teaching About Jesus

There are so many things you want to impart to your kids.  From morals, to manners, to the importance of good hygiene... and everything in between.  It can be a bit daunting actually, and my kids are only 3, and 20 months.  What do I teach, when? What if I forget something SO important (clean underwear, for instance)?  Being the planner that I am, I want to schedule out a life lesson a day, then recap two days later, then outline levels of importance... but alas, that is stupid unrealistic.

So.  I felt like God gave me a plan.  Which is really a lack of plan.  Such a novel idea.  Thanks God.

1. As they are able to understand, teach when opportunities arise.

2. Demonstrate the rest.

Lately, some opportunities have arisen :) We are doing a fund-raiser at The Uprising to buy cars for missionaries around the world, through an AWESOME organization called Speed the Light (STL).  In short, the challenge is called Slow Self, Speed the Light, where we encourage students to find something they are willing to give sacrificially to sell through our group Craig's List listings - all proceeds go to STL.  In our home, we pray for missionaries every night when we pray together.  So I figured, let's all think about something we can give up and contribute.  We started talking to Marshal about the importance of helping others, how we have so much and there are missionaries who don't have as much as we do - and asked him what he wanted to give to help.  His first answer was, "money!"  What a great answer! I then reminded him that he didn't have any money, lol.  BUT we talked about how we could sell some toys, or stuffed animals, or clothes to get him some money.  His sweet little nature was just taking it all in.  No decisions yet.  I'll keep you updated. 

As I alluded, we have prayer time every night.  It's the cutest thing you've ever seen.  It ends up being a tag team prayer, where Marshal starts, and then tells each one of us - "your turn Mom" or "your turn Dada". The last of the family finishing up for the night.  We hadn't been including Mason in the turns because, well, he couldn't talk. But as his vocabulary has been growing - we thought we'd give him a chance at bat.  So for the last week or so, Mason has been taking his turn.  He bows his head, quiets his voice, and says: "Praying, praying, praying [as many times as he likes] ... Amen!"  Ooooooh! It's sweet!

Somehow the DEMONSTRATING part of the non-plan/plan is comforting and terrifying all at the same time.  I don't have to feel pressured to DO anything, but I want to BE a lot.  I want to be honest.  I want to LOVE.  I want to forgive.  I want to serve others before myself.  I want to love Jesus.  I want to know Jesus.  I want to be able to share.  I want to be able to say I'm sorry.  I want to be teachable.  I don't want to live my life for this world.  I want to be wise.  I want to bear fruit.  I want to make a difference. So where am I starting?  I'm trying to simply know Jesus, love Him, and ask Him to make me more like Himself.  

Seems like a good place to start. 

Picture This

Heritage Park Zoo

Family fun day with the cousins!  We went to Heritage Park Zoo. Have you ever been there? It's in Prescott, Arizona.  It is so cute!  It's small, we did the whole event in half a day.  The weather was perfect, low 80s, slightly overcast, intermittent breeze. We went on a weekday and it was EMPTY.  There was a fun playground area, water play, grass, and a nice shaded area for a picnic.  It was during the picnic that I learned my Mason is terrified of chickens.  Three feet / a chain-link fence away from a tiger? No problem.  A clucking hen looking for some wheat-thins? Apparently life-threatening. He kept screaming, "No doodle-doo, no doodle-doo!" while climbing away as fast as he could.  We saw lots of great wildlife, they were all out, maybe because of the cooler than usual weather.  Rates were cheap too!  Fun day with fun littles.

More Bunk-Bed Bewilderment

I promise one of these days I'll stop blogging about this bunk-bed stuff.  Maybe.  But I can't get over it! Mason still escapes from his bed every night and sleeps on the floor, until we get ready to sleep and scoop him back to the bottom bunk.

Then last night.

I go in to check on them, anticipating to move Mason (harder to do these days btw, nearly 6 months pregnant) - and BOTH beds are empty.  The room is silent.  Fleeting, random thoughts/fears of:  a.) abduction and b.) rapture, dance through my brain.  I look under the bunks to find them both sound asleep.  Against the back wall mind you.  No grabbing, scooping, or relocating happening from this preggo.  So I threw a blanket over each (well as close as I could get), and called it good.

Jungle Birds

My children are con-artists when it comes to nap-time.
Suddenly, they have to have a snack.
A drink.
Poop. Twice.
Then, JUST WHEN ALL EYELIDS ARE CLOSED...
They cue the wild jungle birds outside.
In Arizona.
The trees are silent until it's nap-time, then spontaneously -
A symphony of wild-bird-mating-calls erupts.
I just might shoot them (the birds, not the children).
Don't turn me in to PETA.
Nap-time is very important.
For the sanity of all mankind.

"Let's Go to the Movie Festival!"

Both boys have been to movies as newborns, sleeping and nursing through the whole ordeal. But this was the first movie they went to for their OWN enjoyment, and boy did they enjoy it!  We went to see the new Winnie the Pooh movie - BIG HIT.  Marshal was especially excited, he sat on his little booster with a big bag of popcorn, laughing and offering sweet little comments through the whole thing.  Mason sat quietly on my lap for oh, 17 minutes, and then wanted to drink my soda, kick off his shoes, throw his sippy-cup down the slanted floor, and shake the seats of the kids in front of us.  Luckily, the theater was full of restless littles and everyone was patient.

On our way out of the theater, Marshal kept saying, "Mom! Thanks for taking me to the movie festival, it was SO AWESOME!"  Festival... theater... so sweet.  

(Sorry for the horrible picture quality - I only had one shot in the dark - and the flash blinded the whole Pooh audience.) 

More Bunk-Bed Updates

Perhaps Mason comes by it genetically?
Wanting to be on the floor?
Under a bunk?

Or perhaps it has nothing to do with the bunk at all...
(Above is how we found him LAST night.)

Retro Red Rider

Papa got Marsh the coolest trike EVER for his birthday.  It's this retro red Radio Flyer, with matching helmet of course.  Marsh really wants to be proficient, so he practices every day.  We decided to go out beyond just the confines of the patio, so the whole family went for a walk.  Marsh was cracking us up, you can tell he was trying so hard.  He had some difficulty steering and stopping, so as you can see above Daddy was helping.  FUNNIEST THING EVER - do you notice anything missing from the pictures? Jalon's shoe! Our new roads have just enough hill that Marshal would lose control, so Jalon was riding on the back with one flip-flopped-foot dragging off the back for some resistance, and his flip-flop busted! So the rest of the walk/ride was done with one foot bare.

Every Night!

Oh yes. The saga continues.  

Every night sweet Mason gets out of his securely railed
bottom bunk and falls asleep on the floor.
This time half UNDER the beds.

Makes me laugh, it's like a game of Where's Waldo. 

But in the dark.  

With your baby.

Picture This

 

Vacation Bible School

Some memories of my own childhood are so sweet.  One of those memories is Vacation Bible School (VBS).  I remember it being at the Methodist church in Williams, AZ - a beautiful, old, and seemingly HUGE  building with secret passages, lots of stairs, and even more adventures.  I can still remember the layout, smell, the walls, the teachers, the songs.  All wonderful.

This Summer my little Marshal Jay got to go to his first VBS.  Oh.  So.  Precious.  The day above was Christmas-Day at VBS, hence the red and green.  I love his little BGMC Buddy Barrell.  He loves missionaries.  He prays for  them every night.

Memories in the making.

Bunk Bed Business

Remember this sweet post? 

Only the beginning. 

For the last two nights we've gone in to check on the boys and found Mason out of his bottom bunk... drooling-asleep on the floor.  (Very soft new carpet I might add, I've been tempted to sleep on it myself.)

THEN TONIGHT!!!

We heard a banging through our baby monitor and went to check - - -No babies in EITHER bunk bed.  Both UNDER the bottom bunk. They were busy banging little plastic balls on the wood; which they must have silently snuck.They had to do the walk crawl of shame, back into their respective beds.

Sweet brotherly mischief (only the beginning?)

Pray for me. 

Love them.

Can't wait to see what they dream up for tomorrow night.  

Swimming Lessons!!!

Marshal started his first of 14 days of swimming lessons. He's such a big boy! He went with his friend Max, and they were put into different groups (a HUGE blessing in disguise, as it turned out - those boys only want to play!) In fact, by the time I got in there they had migrated to the same group and had to be separated - silly best buddies.  They started learning how to float, put their heads under water, blow bubbles and kick their little legs.  Marshal kept getting distracted, mostly trying to show me what he was learning.  I had to tell him repeatedly to listen to his teacher.  Bless them for their patience!  That's a lot of kids! In the water! With doting parents! Can't wait to go again tomorrow!

Buffalo Park

It is hot here in the Verde! For Fourth of July we decided to trek up to Flagstaff for the day to cool off a bit.  We had a picnic at Buffalo Park, and played the the forest.  Mason was insistent on running the trail - his cute little half run/half skip.  We were in flip-flops, so it wasn't the best hiking attire - but it didn't stop the little boys.  They also loved the buffalo (fake, of course).  They kept walking back to it to say goodbye.  Maybe we need some pets... nah.  It was a beautiful day.  Love my family.  Loved the day.  

Brotherly Love

We are officially in (and even settled) into our new house in Clarkdale.  It feels so great! The first night we were in, we figured Mason would want to sleep in his crib again (now in the baby's to-be-room) for a little stability.  We put Marshal to sleep in his new bunk-beds; top bunk, per his request - and laid Mason down in the other room.

AN HOUR LATER, Mason is crying and crying.  New house we figured.  Adjusting? Well after there was no end in sight for the tears, I asked Mason if he wanted to go sleep with Brother,  and he quickly answered in his husky little voice - "Uh-huh!"

So we laid Mason in the bottom-bunk-big-boy-bed and he rolled over and went to sleep.  All he wanted was his brother close by.  And just like that my little M is not as much a baby anymore... and has been in a big-boy-bed ever since.  So precious.  Growing up.