January 2009 Archives

[Note: This was originally posted on my fighterverse.com site, but I have since given it up. It attempt to archive a few of the things I wrote, I am reposting it here on the original date that I wrote it.]

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing,

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. (1 Thessalonians 5:14-22 ESV)

Considering my recent circumstances, learning this verse has helped me a great deal. My husband has been somewhat fainthearted - sad because he lost a job he loved, weary from the emotional weight, and struggling to reorient himself to looking for a job. And what am I to do? Encourage him. Be patient with him.

While it has been easier than usual to "pray without ceasing" (isn't it always easier when life is hard? I need to remember to pray without ceasing even when things are going well...), it has been more of a challenge to "rejoice always" and "give thanks in all circumstances."

After my husband lost his job, my son got the stomach flu and threw up around 10 times during the night. The next day, I got it, and couldn't keep any food down for a good 48 hours. The following day, you guessed it, Josh was sick too. So, here I am, trying to comfort my son and husband while feeling my own stomach revolt against me... and rejoice??? Give thanks???

This is why I am so thankful for Scripture. There are so many times when I think, "Well, the Bible says to do it so I'm just going to do it even though I don't feel like it." So, I started rejoicing and giving thanks for anything I could think of. Then God was gracious and continued to open my eyes to His goodness, His redemption, His grace and mercy.

Praises to the great God of Comfort, who continues to reveal His great mercies to me and my family.

[Note: This was originally posted on my fighterverse.com site, but I have since given it up. It attempt to archive a few of the things I wrote, I am reposting it here on the original date that I wrote it.]

Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. (Isaiah 43:1b-3a ESV)

My husband lost his job today.

Here's the story: My son, Caleb, and I went to the Children's museum for a fun day of exploration. We did something in every exhibit and finally ended up playing in a pool of bubbles. My cell phone rang and it was Josh, "Hi, honey. Um... can you sit down?" I was leaning over Caleb, holding the back of his shirt to keep him from jumping in the water.

"Okay, I'm sitting." I lied.

"[My Company] just laid off a bunch of people today. And, I'm one of them."

I didn't panic or cry or get angry. I just mumbled something like, "Okay. Well, okay. We'll just have to trust God and see where this takes us." Josh asked me if I could leave the museum to get him immediately. About a quarter of the employees at his company were laid off that day and it wasn't exactly the best place to remain at the moment.

When I had finally navigated the skyways to get to my car, I saw that my iPod was plugged in and continuously playing my memory song for this week's fighter verse. I left it playing as I drove from St. Paul to Minneapolis to pick up my husband. My thoughts interspersed with the verses that sang out from the car stereo:

Fear not, for I have redeemed you...
What can this world do to me when I have the most important gift, redemption in Christ?

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you... they shall not overwhelm you...
My God is the same God who allowed the Israelites to pass through waters unharmed, even as their enemy pressed in behind them. Will not this same God protect my family?

When you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
My God is the same God who allowed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to pass through the fiery furnace unharmed after they refused to worship King Nebuchadnezzar's golden idol. Will not this same God protect my family?

For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
Yes, you are the Lord. You are my God. You are Holy. And you are my Savior. I have nothing to fear.

What a joy to have my fear replaced with praise and glory to God. Meditate on His Word day and night and see if your spirit too begins to rejoice in the face of trials.

I am in the process of designing the most awesome diaper bag ever. It has so far involved me inspecting every bag, backpack, diaper bag, purse, satchel, wallet, or other "put stuff in here and carry it around" device. I have even been inspecting art caddies. Anyway, my goal is to have a diaper bag that works for me and doesn't just get crammed with crap all the time (sometimes literally).

So, I'm going to go modular. That means that the bag will have different parts that you can add or subtract depending on where you are going. For example, I currently put my wallet, lip gloss, iPod, and cell phone in the side pouch of the diaper bag (mostly because... why would I want to carry a purse and a diaper bag???). There have been too many times that Josh has been carrying the diaper bag and went off somewhere and I didn't have my stuff until I could find him. Like the time I got carded for wine tasting and...where...is...my...wallet???

I want to be able to detach a slick looking purse/bag that is feminine and wonderful that I can take with me and reattach to the diaper bag when I don't want to be carrying a million things. I would also like another piece that is detachable from the main bag that can be used when you need extra stuff like pajamas or toys to occupy the child. I don't need them all the time, but sometimes I do and I don't want to have to cram them all in my current diaper bag or carry an additional bag (can you tell that I hate carrying lots of bags).

Here's where I'm at so far. It will be a backpack (where I can zip the shoulder straps together to have just one strap that you can sling over if I wish, for the times I'm feeling one-handed). It will have three modules, that can be added or subtracted from the main compartment as needed, and each designed specifically to hold the following stuff:

• Main Compartment: diapers and diaper soil bag (we do cloth), wipes, sippy cup, snack, a few first aid items, nursing cover, and a place to attach my sling.
• My Purse Add-On: book, lip gloss, wallet, gum/mints, feminine things, cell phone, iPod
• Extra Stuff Add-On: functional space for miscellaneous stuff like toys, books, change of clothes, blanket, lunch, etc.

I'm trying to think this through very thoroughly since it's going to be a huge task once I get started. I have lots of sketches in my book waiting to evolve into the most perfect bag ever. Please let me know if you have any thoughts about what could make my bag super awesome, or if you have any things that you hate/love about your bags that I could keep in mind.

Let's see, what is Caleb doing these days? Well, besides being funny, he's been really talking and moving! Here's the list for all who are interested (I may add more when I think of more):

Words He's Saying

• Ella
• Grandma ("Ramma!") & Grandpa ("Ram-PA!")
• Mama & Dada
• Names of some people (Jenna as "Enna", Elise as "Eesh", Kristin as "Tih-tih", Marcus as "Arkuh")
• All Done (Ah-Duh!)
• Baby ("Bah-Bee")
• Night-Night ("Nigh-nigh")
• Kitty ("Tee-Tee")
• Light ("Aight-ah!")
• Foods: Banana ("Nah-Nah")
• Art ("Art-ah!")
• Rock Rock (i.e. sway. "rah-rah")
• Clean ("Gn-gn", impersonating a song we sing)
• Yes ("Yeah yeah yeah") and No
• Hi & Bye Bye
• Tree ("Ree")
• Wiggle ("Giguh")
• High ("Aiiiiiiii" while he puts his arms up)
• Animal/Object Sounds: Dog, Cat, Bird, Airplane, Lion, Bear, Crocodile, Bug, Firetruck, Car/Truck, Sheep, Frog, Duck, Lizard, Snake, Tiger, Monkey/Gorilla, Chicken, Baby Chick, Alarm clock, Tick-tock clock, Sizzle

Words He's Signing

• More/Again
• All Done
• Art
• Sizzle (from all of our cooking)
• Shake
• Drink & Eat
• Deer/Horse
• Grandma, Grandma, Mama, Daddy (some confusion of signs)
• Dog
• Fish
• Cat
• Bird
• Round & Round (like a fan, a wheel, or a circle)
• Car
• Ball
• Nurse (milk)
• Sleep
• Phone
• Airplane
• Water
• Pointing to body parts - eyes, ears, head, mouth, teeth, tongue, hair, belly button, chest, hand, feet, nipples (he's fascinated by his nipples)

Great Feats of Movement and Strength

• Up and down the stairs for long periods of time, has several different methods
• Loves to stand on his step stool for helping in the kitchen & brushing teeth
• Climbing, sometimes I look up and he's standing on an end table! Gasp!
• Enjoys homemade obstacle courses through chairs, cushions, step stools, etc.
• Carries around the 8 lb. bag of potatoes and loves it (who knows...)
• Empties out the pan corner cupboard so he can sit in there with the door shut
• I don't think he knows how to walk anymore. It's run, run, run!
• Loves to dance & hop. He can get both feet off the ground sometimes.
• Loves balls - he throws them & kicks them
• Playing with Ella - this involves tug-o-war, throwing her toy for her, and just running around crazily

Big Helper

• Helps load/unload washing machine, helps sort laundry into piles
• Throws away garbage (and sometimes things that aren't garbage)
• Open/close cabinets when asked and retrieve some items (crackers, towel, etc.)
• "Sweeps" the floor & uses his popper vacuum when dad vacuums
• Helps let the dog outside, put dog in/out of kennel, change towels in her kennel
• Loves cleaning with his sponge (sometimes cleans after himself without being asked!)
• He puts things away when asked & on his own (I keep finding Little People & Duplo blocks in neat rows in the cabinets or in my drawers)
• Knows how to make popcorn and "helps" me do it, he even knows which pan to get out of the cabinet & where all of the ingredients are located

More Silliness

• Burped the other day and has been trying so hard to reproduce this
• Will make zerberts on other people, they are great ones of high quality that produce much laughter
• Has running gags like the other day when I hurt myself and exclaimed "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" He's been hopping around impersonating me ever since. Also has a "Blug! Blug! Blug! Blug!" running gag with Josh referring to some experience blowing bubbles in the tub
• He puts things on his head that don't belong on heads and belly laughs and hits the floor he thinks it's so funny (like a monkey doll, a measuring cup, towel)
• Shuts himself in Ella's kennel and shouts "Woof! Woof! Ella! Ella! Woof!"

Budding Creativity

• Loves to color several times a day, when you ask him what's in his picture it is always, "Ella!"
• Goes in the tub for painting time
• Carries around his paintbrush and pretends to paint the whole house
• Paints with water on paper sitting at his "big kid" chair & table
• Carries around his drum and loves to drum to music. Sometimes he even keeps a beat!
• Sings all the time. When we sing the "Lewis Family Night Night" song he will sing "Ahhhh daddee, Ahhhhhh mama, Ahhhhhh Rampa!, Ahhhhhh Rammma!" It's so sweet. He also loves "My God is So Big" and "Jesus Loves the Little Ones Like Me" and knows the actions
• Choreographs his own dances when you turn on music. Yesterday he spun around, put both hands on his forehead, palms out, and wiggled his fingers while hopping. It was hilarious.
• Reading all the time. He carries books around and asks to be read to. He also will sit and look at magazines or catalogs, muttering to himself the whole time.

Each year, I try to assess how I am doing with reading the Bible in a consistent way. I have followed several different plans in years past. Some years I have focused more on a form of study instead. Other years I have just thrown up my hands and said, "That's it! I need to read Psalms!" (Or whatever book it happened to be that day, week, or month).

I decided, however, that I needed a plan this year. Mostly because my brain is just a bit unfocused lately. I was directed toward some studies at Discipleship Journal. Zondervan also has some interesting plans that I've done before (sorry, there is a girl version and a boy version and I'm linking to the girl version because I used to work with a girls youth ministry and... yeah.) I'm sure you could find many more plans with a simple search of the interwebs.

This year, however, I am going to read along with my church's bible reading plan. It's called the Discipleship Journal One Year Plan. You basically download the bookmarks and place them in your Bible, then read one section from each bookmark each day. If you don't like the bookmarks, you can just download the monthly checklists to direct your reading.

I hope I can find some others to connect with who are also reading this plan so there can be some encouragement and discussion and whatnot. Oh, and while I'm at it, I'd like to encourage my readers to find a reading plan and get in the Word!