Happy Birthday, Bugaboo!

My precious baby girl is 5 years old today.  It’s hard to believe how fast the time has gone.  We’ve had an amazing few days celebrating her birthday!  I’ll do my best to get those pictures and update up tomorrow.
I love you, Bugaboo! You are an incredible blessing from God, and I am so thankful to be your Mommy!

A summer safety reminder

This summer, as you are taking your kids to the pool, or letting others take them – please, please, take a moment to read this!
I followed a link to this blog from this blog, and I thought it was so well written and so important, that I wanted to post it here.   I can’t tell you how many times I’ve already seen moms doing some of the things mentioned in this post. 
We have to be careful!
Please read: “Drowning in Sorrow”.

Happy Father’s Day!

What an awesome weekend!!
I am incredibly blessed to be married to my best friend.  He is not only a wonderful husband and partner, he is also an amazing Daddy!  He truly loves being a daddy, and loves spending time with his little girl any chance he gets!
This weekend, we had a special Father’s Day camping trip…right in our living room!  It’s Texas, and it’s hot, so we thought it would be fun to bring it all indoors.  It was a super fun time (and still is, since we’re leaving it up till the end of the day)!  

BEFORE & AFTER:



It was interrupted for a few hours in the middle of the night Friday night/Saturday morning when we had to take Bug to the ER because she was having trouble breathing and we were afraid her throat was closing up.  Turns out, she has croup!  A steroid shot in the bottom (OUCH!), and a cool mist breathing treatment later – she’s much better!  Still a bit sick and tired, but better!  Thankfully, I guess, we gave her Benadryl before heading to the hospital in case it was a weird allergic reaction, so she ended up sleeping through a lot of it and was able to remain calm the majority of the time.  That was a huge blessing!!



Back to the camping trip…
We played games, did some reading, worked on a wooden puzzle, had fun with glow-in-the-dark sticks, and just enjoyed time as a family!  We ate all our meals in the tent, cooked Pop-Tarts over a camping stove, ate watermelon, and even had our own version of SMORES!  The smores were ‘fondue’ style – dip the marshmallow in melted chocolate chips, then dip in crushed graham crackers – Yum!  All while enjoying the conveniences of air-conditioning, indoor plumbing, and the microwave :) 
 







R even got to sneak in some quiet reading time while Bug and I made breakfast for him.  Chocolate waffles, scrambled eggs and bacon!
 

And of course – PRESENTS!  We did them a day early because Bug insisted it was Father’s Day already :) 
First, an original drawing of Daddy’s favorite animal!


Then, from Mommy & Bug, a framed collage (click to see it enlarged!)



R,
You are an amazing man, and I am so honored and blessed to call you my husband.  I love looking at our little girl and seeing so much of you in her.  I love seeing how much she loves her Daddy, and I hope and pray that when she grows up she marries someone just like you.  Thank you for loving God, and for loving us, with all your heart!  Thank you for working so hard to care for and provide for our family.  Thank you for always making time for us.  Thank you for working together with me to be the best parents we can be, and always working with me to learn more about how to do so.  Thank you for allowing God to be the 3rd strand in our marriage and for always leading our family in learning more about Him and looking to HIM for guidance. 
I look forward to raising Bug with you, to all the experiences & adventures that God will bring us, and to being married to you for the rest of my life!
I love you with all my heart!  Happy Father’s Day, my love!
Love,
Stacy

The loss of a pet

Bug’s first pet died this past weekend.  It was a tadpole.  My cousin had given us a habitat for it at Christmas, and then we ordered our tadpole from Ribbits Galore.  We actually ordered 2, but one didn’t make it in the mail.  The second one, Bug promptly named “Green Bean”.  It was supposed to turn into a frog within 90 days, but despite our best effort and instruction following - 6 months later we were just looking at an extra large tadpole.  It was still fun to watch and Bug enjoyed talking to it.

Well, Friday night R and I noticed it had finally given up.  Saturday morning, we broke the news to Bug.  To say she was devastated would be an understatement.  She was heartbroken!  I’m very thankful we got the kitties a week before so she at least already had another pet to attach to!
We held a burial service in the backyard, where R buried him in the back corner and Bug  completed it with tongue depressor headstones.
She was very sad, but seems to have moved on now.  Maybe we’ll try again if we get our hands on some real tadpoles rather than the mail order ones.  I’ve since read that there is a high death rate among them.

 
“Green Bean our family loves you”

What a night!

Last night, we spent about an hour hunkered down in the bathroom because there were TORNADO warnings (meaning they saw one!) near us for quite a while. A rotation had been spotted in our city, so we took shelter.

We threw pillows in the tub, and Bug and I got in there together, while R sat next to us, using the toilet as a desk for the laptop and checking the weather constantly. We got one kitty in with us, but the other refused to come out from under the bed, so we figured she was as safe there as anywhere else.

Here is what that looked like: (excuse the bad photos, I was using my cell phone)


We gave her the Leappad and headphones because when she has something to listen to like that she's much calmer and less talkative, which helped as we were trying to listen to the news reports.

As you can tell, she was really stressed (not!)  In fact, she prayed to God and said “Dear God, please keep us safe from the tornado and if it is close to us, please move it somewhere far, far away”.   Complete, total, faith and trust in HIM!  Love it!



Weatherman R, and our not-so-thrilled kitty:


We got out of the bathroom around 8:45, got Bug put to bed and then R and I went in the living room to hang out. The storm seemed to have passed by at this point.    Immediately after we said it was all gone, Bug (and we) prayed to God and thanked him for providing our safety!

THEN.....
Our power went out at 10:00pm! No rain, no storm, nothing....and BAM! Lights out! Thankfully it was just about bedtime anyway, but not quite. Oh well, off we went to bed.

I knew it would be a loooooooooooooong night because none of us sleep well HOT, and Bug and I don't sleep well when it's too quiet (I use white noise, she uses music)

So, about midnight, Bug woke up crying that she couldn't sleep.  I knew this would happen since it was hot and her music went off with the power (note to self: get her a jambox cd player with battery backup)

We gave her a flashlight and told her she could read for a little bit until she was able to fall back asleep, which turned out to be 2 hours later! Poor thing!

FINALLY, after a lot of off and on sleep, the power came back on at 5:30am!  Nice, cool, air! WHEW!!!  PRAISE GOD for air conditioning!  Something we take for granted all too often.  I’m also thankful this happened at night when it was bedtime anyway.  So much to be thankful for!  Our Father truly calms storms in our lives – in so many ways!

Today, we are taking it easy at home to try to make up for missing most of our sleep last night!

We adopted!

No, not a child (yet!). This weekend, our landlord finally agreed to let us have a cat! So, we adopted a kitty from the SPCA! She is around 3 years old and just adorable! She is settling in and seems to be perfectly comfortable with us.

We went with an older kitty, instead of a kitten, for a few reasons. 1) Their temperament is known, as is if they lived with other cats or children before. 2) They often have a harder time getting adopted. and 3) The fee for adopting them is much cheaper if they’ve been at the shelter for over 30 days (as each of these had!)

Introducing……..


~ Angel ~
This little sweetie picked us out! She started rubbing on us and talking to us when we first walked in. Then, I set down my backpack for a minute and she immediately walked over to it, sniffed it, kneaded it, then made it a bed and fell asleep! R and I looked at each other and said “We’ve been adopted!” and brought her home!

To be like a child

The Bible tells us that unless we become like a child, we will not enter the kingdom of Heaven.

"I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ~ Matt 18:3

I learn so much from my little girl each day!  God uses her to teach me about His character, and the qualities He wants in each of us.  I find that I do much better when I strive to be more like her, than when I focus on trying to make her more like me.

Yesterday, I talked to Bug about her play kitchen she’s had since she was 2.  She played with it for a couple years and thoroughly enjoyed it!  However, now it just sits in our kitchen taking up space and she never plays with it anymore.  Her interests have taken her elsewhere, and she prefers to help Mommy cook in the real kitchen than to pretend to cook in a pretend kitchen.
So, I gave her some choices. 
1) She could move it outside and see if she played with it outside differently. 
2) She could sell it and use the money to buy something else. 
3) She could give it away.
She chose option #4 – “I want to sell it and give all the money to God because helping other people is more important than toys.”
WOW.
Why is it that my first (sinful) reaction in my mind is “Are you sure?? You don’t want the money for something else? You could tithe on it, but then buy something else, you know. “  Thankfully my brain-to-mouth filter was turned on, and I didn’t say any of that out loud.    Instead, I told her how proud I was of her choice and of her generosity.

Right now, I’m spending my quiet time in Psalm 119.  This morning, I picked up where I left off yesterday and read verses 36-37,

“Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.  Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.”

We don’t need to raise our kids to be grownups who seek to “have it all”.  We need to cherish our children, and look to them as examples of what God wants us to be like.

Trust in the Lord

We teach Bug a new memory verse each week.  It is awesome to see her hiding His Word in her heart, and learning more about Him in the process.  We introduce a new verse on Sunday night, and then say it each night before bed.  She usually has it memorized after a couple times, but we continue with one verse for an entire week to really meditate on it, and what it means.
A couple weeks ago, our verse was Proverbs 3:5-6.  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight”.  
This week our verse is Proverbs 18:10. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower.  The righteous run to it and are safe”.   We explained that this meant she should call on His name anytime and He will be there for her.  If she’s worried, scared, needs help, etc. That calling on His name is like running into a tower for protection.

As a mom, I can think of no better reward here on earth than to hear my child calling on the name of the Lord.   This weekend, she was climbing on a play structure in our yard, and I heard her say “Dear God, please help me to balance”.    Then, just yesterday, she was climbing our big oak tree for the first time, and she said “Dear God, please help me to not fall and to be safe”.


 


I love that she knows she can call on Him anytime, anywhere, and that He is always listening to her, because she knows Him.

“Those who know your name will trust in you, for you Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.” ~ Psalm 9:10

“If the Lord delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him in His right hand.” ~ Psalm 37:23-24

A, B, C, D, E, F, G….

Bug was so excited to show me what she had written in her “fort”!  She was halfway done when she asked for help spelling “next”, “time”, “won’t”, “sing” & “with”, but she did all the writing herself!
What a fun “schoolhouse”!

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U


V, W, X, Y, Z – NOW I KNOW MY ABC’S


NEXT TIME WON’T YOU


SING WITH ME