Love Come to Life

Love. It's the driving force in our walks with Christ. It's our calling. It makes this world a tolerable, even enjoyable place. Yet sometimes, we get so hardened by the evil that presides on earth, we get cold. We need to be the warmth, light and love to this fallen world. Big Daddy Weave's song "Love Come to Life," articulates this message so beautifully, I wanted to share it with y'all today...

I've been restless on the inside
Wondering about this heart of mine
I've been desperately trying to find
A way to prove that I'm still alive

Has the love I speak so loudly of quietly grown cold
Has my life been an empty voice?
What I say needs to be seen
I need to step out and make the choice
To let go of everything
Would You reignite this heart spark here in the dark?

[Chorus]
Bring Your love to life inside of me
Why don't You break my heart 'til it moves my hands and feet
For the hopeless and the broken
For the ones that don't know that You love them
Bring Your love to life inside of me

A generation You're calling out
Living everything that we sing about
A revelation right here and now
Of love beyond a shadow of a doubt
Love that's greater than our own
Won't remain unknown, when You...

[Chorus]

Love come to life
Love come to life
Bring love to life inside of me
[X4]

[Chorus]

Love come to life
Love come to life
Bring love to life inside of me
[X4]

Preparing for Easter

We are now in the season of Lent. We belong to an Independent Christian church, and while we don't place any emphasis on this season, I want to use these days as a time of preparation and teaching in our home so that our children will always know the true meaning of Easter.

This week I spent time with Brody reading and telling him about the Triumphal Entry. I love accompanying a craft with lessons and important stories because I really think it helps children grasp the idea and meaning behind them.

Here's the craft we made to drive home the Triumphal Entry. I apologize for the lack of quality and quantity of the pictures. I accidentally rebooted (or whatever the technical term is) my iPhone and erased the pictures I already had on there. So I was forced to just snap a quick end product pic.

I took two leaves from an old wreath and dipped them in paint, then let Brody apply the "stamps" the be paper so they resembled the palms branches laid down. Then found a picture of Jesus riding a donkey on the internet, printed it off and let Brody color it. Then we glued it on top of the "branches."
This week we have been saying "Hosanna, in the highest." And singing a song we sing in church,

"Clap your hands all you people, shout unto God with a voice of triumph. 

Clap your hands all you people, shout unto God with a voice of praise. 

Hosanna! Hosanna! Shout unto God with a voice of triumph! 

Praise Him, Praise Him! Shout unto God with a voice of praise! "

What activities are you doing with your kids to help them prepare for the Easter season? I'd love to read your ideas! 

Sometimes Life Sucks

This is me an my momma. This is one of my absolute favorite pictures of us. It's old yes, (from my 16 birthday lol) but I love it. Pictures of us are few and far between. My mom has always hated having her picture taken, and I never thought to push the issue. Now I wish I would have. I wish I had more pictures of us together.

You see, our world was turned upside down in the late summer of 2010. We got the unthinkable, unfair diagnosis of Early Onset Alzheimer's. Excuse me? Alzheimer's? No, no no. You see, I'm a nurse. 57 year old, healthy, funny, intelligent, hardworking women don't get Alzheimer's. People get it late late in life. After they have enjoyed retirement for a while, enjoyed their grandkids, traveled, enjoyed the changing relationship with their children to friends.

I was supposed to be able to call up my mom in the middle of the night with my first child in tears because I don't know what I'm doing. I was supposed to be able to ask her when I started sitting up, crawling, walking and all other fun milestones my Brody was reaching. Brody was supposed to be able to "go on vacation to my Granny's," like my nieces and nephews did.

Instead we are dealing with early retirement and disability, selling her house and moving in with my sister, the inability to read a clock or get out correct change. My mom doesn't know how old I am or when my birthday is. And you know what? It sucks. It's horrible, it's not fair and it sucks. My mom is seriously the best mom in the world. We had the most amazing relationship that has been forced to change. And I hate it. It has rocked my family, my faith and my life to the core and it's not fair.

Sometimes a girl just needs her momma.....

Wordless Wednesday!

A little after Valentine's Day creativity :)

This silly boy makes my world go round.

A Little Pinterest Love

Brody is really getting into crafts and art projects, so I have tried to add at least a couple (other than drawing with crayons and paper, which he does daily) into our weekly rotation. I also am a serious holiday junkie. I go overboard and love it. So when I found this pinterest inspired Valentine's craft I knew we had to give it a go, and it was a total success! This craft was so easy and Brody had a blast doing it. Toilet Paper roll as a heart stamp? Hello genius. 

Supplies

1 toilet paper roll

paint

paper

That simple folks. I cut the toilet paper roll into two so that Brody could have a red stamp and a pink stamp, dipped the ends in paint and let him go to town! 

 **TIP- I always use blue painter's tape to secure the paper to the table. This way, the paper stays put, it peels up easier than regular tape and comes right off his paper without tearing!**

He loves craft time!

The dude is serious about his art 

Ok, maybe not SO serious :) 

Bonus? When they get bored of painting, the stamps make an awesome telescope! Yo Ho Ho! 

The finished Project!
And someone trying to sneak their cute little hands back into the paint :) 

Well hello there...

...trying twos!

Some refer to this as the "terrible twos." I HATE this term! Do some days, hours or even minutes feel terrible? You bet. But I loath the idea of referring to any part of my son's life as "terrible," I like "trying" much better. :)

Brody is such a great kid with such an awesome personality. And in the last couple weeks this little boy is definitely starting to explore exactly what this personality is going to be. He gets the craziest ideas in his head and he HAS to see them through. Like, right. this. second. Even if said plan is jumping off the back of the couch, throwing our snacks around the living room, our playing "earthquake" with our sweet 5 month old friend while he is in the jumper. (It didn't get far Mika, promise!)

If I happen to have the audacity to stop one of these wild schemes, whoa man. It is world ending. We're talking throw ourselves on the floor, wailing, flop like a fish kind of world ending. Another world ending event we've been experiencing is bed time (and nap time). He is so full of energy and life the idea of having to slow down for any amount of time seems insurmountable and torturous.

Hello discipline, we finally meet. Lance and I have been having many discussions as to how we want to handle discipline in our house and what behaviors we find unacceptable. Now I know there are 10,764 ways to discipline a child, these are just the ideas that we have decided to implement in our home and reserve the right to declare them utter failures and abort at any time. :) I'm just going to say upfront we are ok with spanking. We are definitely not ok with excessive spanking, violent and anger driven spanking or spanking for everything. We have decided we will have a list of things we feel are completely unacceptable all the time and those get an automatic spanking. The driving factor with this list is hurting someone, hitting, kicking, biting, throwing things AT someone all make the list.

The other forms of discipline we are sticking with are positive reinforcement, distraction and time out. Positive reinforcement and distraction are ideas we've been using all along. I feel no child wants to misbehave and can usually be redirected to acceptable behavior. And everyone wants to be praised and do a good job. Praise good behavior, that's what the child will strive for. But, Brody is a kid and is trying to figure this thing called life out, and will do things that require teaching and punishment. Enter time out. Our decided time out length is based upon age. So right now, his time out length is 1min 45 seconds. Yesterday was the first day we really started implementing time out. He sat in time out 3 times, twice for dumping his food out on the floor and once fore the earthquake baby incident. And you know what? They worked great for us! He cried through the whole thing of course, but after the second food incident he didn't dump his food anymore and after one time out for playing rough with the baby, he didn't attempt that either.

Now, I know we will have set backs, we will have great days and we will have days that  tempt me to call this phase "terrible." But along with this stage is so much fun. Brody is becoming so loving and affectionate (hello melt into a mushy momma puddle every time I hear that sweet voice say "ah you" {translation=love you}), his sense of humor is starting to develop and finds things hilarious, the amazing way is knowledge grows everyday. And oh so much fun playing! I love this age with all the ups and downs and can't wait to see where this little boy takes us next. :)

Brody's Wish List!

     I am very much a one holiday at a time kina gal. I love them all and think they all deserve their own time to shine. With Christmas being the PARTIAL exception. I refuse to put up any decorations, listen to music, give in to the social pull to start Christmas in August (I mean, come on! Respect the bird people!), but I will begin thinking about Christmas gifts months in advance. That way I  an keep my eye out for sales, get lists to relatives and so on.

So, without further ado.... (dun dun dun...)

Brody's Christmas List! 

Fisher-Price Grow with Me Workshop Playset

Brody loves to work on things and figure out how to take things apart and put back together. He will LOVE THIS! 

Some play cookware, food and dishes for his kitchen Some Melissa and Doug Puzzles Some Movies      On his list will also be some books, PJs, and new outfits. And this little Santa tends to go overboard, so I'm sure a few more things will pop up between now and December 25. :) But it's a start.        What are your little ones asking for/planning on getting for Christmas this year?  Liking up for Toddle Along Tuesday!

18 Months?!

Dear Brody,
     I can't believe you are 18 months! (plus some!). You are such a joy! Your Dad and I are SO blessed to be your parents. You constantly keep us laughing with your silly faces and your every growing sense of humor! It is so fun to see you start to develop a sense of humor and I really think you're making jokes already! You'll do something silly or crazy and then crack up at your self; it's really the cutest thing in the world!

 Your favorite toys right now are your horses, your books, cars and your kitchen. We spend most of our days running between these few things. You love to be outside most of all though :). Crazy Oklahoma weather has forced us to stay inside here lately because of rain, heat, cold and all of the above! You love to drive your truck, swing, and sword fight with sticks. Our good friends the Panters have all kinds of animals that you love to go see! When we say we're going to KP's house, you know you'll get to see horses and cows and get so excited! And dogs! Oh boy, do you love dogs! Any time you see a sliding/french/or any kind of back door, you run to it saying "GOG GOG GOG!" you just KNOW there will be a fur buddy on the other side. It's so cute because you get really confused if there's not one! Bath time is also one of your favorites. :) Any time I say "bath," you immediately run to the bathroom, throw back the shower curtain and start tossing in your soap. Shouting "bat bat bat" the whole time. :) 

Your vocabulary is really starting to boom! We still have a little bit of a hard time differentiating some words, but you're trying so hard and we are SO proud of you! Your regularly say, dog, cracker, momma, dada, moo, neigh, quack, baa, hot, hat, bath, car, tractor, out, bible, flag, ball, baby and a few more I'm sure I'm forgetting. It's so encouraging to see your words growing. It seems like just yesterday we were worried you couldn't hear at all and now, you can hear a dog bark a mile away and recognize it. Your signing is also incredible! You sign so many words and pick up new ones weekly! We're working on colors and you love learning about different animals and shapes. You are so smart Brody; I can see it in your eyes. :) 

Another change this month is a little visitor we get twice a week. Baby Hudson. I was a little worried how you would adjust at first because you are so use to having all my attention all day. The first day was not even rough for you! Just a little confusing maybe, but you have adapted SO well! You love looking at him and get so concerned if he gets upset! You have even started giving him kisses. You are such a kind boy with such a tender heart. Please keep this trait forever. You are just the sweetest. I know someday you will be a fantastic brother. :) 

It is amazing how fast you are growing! You are sleeping so great and eating like a champ! You've transitioned to one nap a day and are still sleeping 10-12 hours at night. We still have binky for a few more days and woobie and your dog accompany you to every bed time :). Your favorite foods are bananas, apples, grapes, chicken, green beans, peas and corn. You are a pretty diverse eater and will try almost any thing I give you. Your foodie momma is so proud of that Brody! You love to eat, cook and everything culinary! I can't wait to start cooking/baking together. I know it will be a great bonding time for us! You also have a sweet tooth. You come by it naturally though. Your daddy and I both love our sweets. But it's alright, everything in moderation 

Your are in size four diapers and clothes are 18-24 months. You are so long and lean a lot of the time your pants will be too big in the waist or too short in the length. So far your built just like your daddy little man. Your feet are a different story though; those are momma's all the way! There big and wide just like mine! Sorry buddy. We went shoe shopping the other day and had to buy you 7s and I'm sure they won't last until spring!

Brody Pate, I could go on forever bragging about you. You are an absolute blessing to be around. I thank the Lord every day that he picked ME to be your momma. You are just the best little boy! It amazes me the connection we have and how much fun we have spending our days together. I hate leaving you in the morning and can't wait to get home to you in the evening. It is so exciting to see you growing and learning every day! Your daddy and I cherish each milestone and love seeing your learn new things! But it's ok if you want to slow down just a little! Let us enjoy it slowly. I pray for you every day sweet boy. You are my heart. 

I love you to the moon and back... 

 

Carpe Diem

     Carpe Diem is a cliche that has been around for quite a while. Some people have taken it so far as to adopt it as their lifestyle. Usually, someone with this mentality uses it to encourage a life that is all about self. Doing what you want to do, when and how you want to do it. Your number one concern is living your life exactly how you want it. Life is too short to do it any other way.
    But what if we took this idea and applied it to servanthood? The other day while I was running I was listening to a sermon that encouraged people to "go until they here a no," in regards to serving God. For so many of us, it's hard to know exactly where God is trying to lead us in our life. We get so wrapped up in trying to look for that one area, that one ministry, that we just KNOW God has set out for us, that we may miss ways we can serve everyday.
     Matthew 28:19-20 tells us "Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." The Great Commission. To all of us. In all circumstances. It doesn't matter whether we are preaching, leading youth, cleaning bathrooms, or mothering our children, we are to do it with the great commission in mind.
     Carpe Diem is Latin and literally means, "to pluck the day." If we could wake up each day and say, "Ok God, I don't know what you've got planned for me, but today I'm going to look with your eyes and show your love to the world." God will do great things with you if you are willing, but what are you doing in the meantime? We as believers need to seize the day and take over this world for Jesus Christ. Refocus our "anything goes as long as it will benefit me" mentality to anything goes as long as it benefits the KINGDOM" mentality.
       So go, wholeheartedly, serve the world for Jesus with reckless abandon and watch what God will do with your life and your service. I promise, it will be amazing.

Wordless Wednesday!

     Do you think this is a sign that we MIGHT eat too much ice cream at our house? Nah, I didn't think so either. :) 

*Disclaimer, please excuse toy tornado in background and crappy photo quality. Pictures taken on my iPhone of an ever moving toddler. Hmm, same reason my living room looks like a disaster zone... :)