His Favorite Part

Jonas sure gives me a lot to blog about regarding eating! When we had Caedmon we thought we were perfect parents, at least in teaching our kids not to be picky eaters. Even to this day, Caedmon prefers salads and vegetables to sweets. He often doesn't finish a dessert, and a special treat to him is fresh vegetables cut up, particularly raw tomatoes.

Jonas, on the other hand, loves anything with white flour, sugar, and fat in it. He will literally fast for days if all he is offered is meat and vegetables. Only recently have we seen him accidentally eat some greens and meat. For awhile we tried to force him to eat at least a bite of everything, until he developed the capability of gagging until he puked it up. That battle is no longer worth it!

A rule we have in our house is the kids have to ask before they're excused, carry their dishes into the kitchen, then hug and thank the person who made the food. I started making them tell the cook what their favorite part was, so they were at least thinking about what they were thanking the person for, and not focusing on the part of the meal they DIDN'T especially appreciate.

Jonas is hilarious at this. Often he just mimics Caedmon and says his favorite part was the same thing Caedmon says. Other times he just says the first food that he remembers from dinner. When he says, "Thank you, Mom, my favorite part was the salad...the rice...the beans..." I just want to say, "LIAR! Maybe you'd have a favorite part if you had actually eaten a bean!"

My favorites though are when he is honest. "Thank you, Mom, my favorite part was the chocolate milk. My favorite part was the dip-dip. My favorite part was the cookie. My favorite part was the sugar on top. My favorite part was please be excused." Fair enough.

Jonas dreams of a day when he gets pancakes, sweet rolls, and juice for breakfast, PB&J without the bread and peanut butter for lunch, maybe a cookie, graham crackers and a smoothie, and ice cream, pudding, and chocolate dipped bananas for dinner. Those would be his favorite parts!

Kids

Some of my favorite recent words from Caedmon are "egg-zylophone" for xylophone, "inshtruments" for instruments, "geetar" for guitar, and "pofe office" for post office. Jonas can't say his "R's" properly, and I'm sorry to say we make fun of him to hear him keep repeating things. It is so cute!

The other day I heard Jonas lament, "Mom! I have to go potty AGAIN!" Such an inconvenience when one wants to play! Welcome to my world, Jonas!

Caedmon has developed the habit of constantly reminding me what I said. He will tell me where I was when I promised him something, what I was doing, and repeat my exact words. Needless to say I don't make vague promises anymore hoping he'll forget!

He is still the boss of CaedmonandJonas. The other day Jason said, if you hear your first name, don't spank Caedmon. He's talking about racecars. So, since Caedmon isn't allowed to call us by name, he decided to name two racecars "Beth" and "Jason." It is hilarious. Beth and Jason converse and fight and race and do everything together. Jonas gets to play with Beth and Caedmon gets Jason. And they get to say "Beth" and "Jason" as loud as they want! The latest thing he has tried is to pick favorite parents. i.e."Jonas, you like Mom and I like Daddy." Jonas will consent, "I like Mom and you like Dad." I have even heard him say, "Jonas, Mom likes you and Dad likes me." Ummm, well it's true. But we have not picked favorites like Isaac and Rebekah.

I love my job! Never a dull minute.

Weekend Reflections

This was a very busy weekend! One of the highlights was hiking with some new friends at a local river with cliffs. Here C & J were playing stick races. They had so much fun running down the trail together and climbing rocks! I realized camping this year will be very fun for our family!

They were pretty tuckered out coming back!

Thursday we had new friends over from our small group. Friday we enjoyed an amazing worship night at one of our churches. Saturday we hiked and explored with other new friends. Sunday we went to our 2 churches, our small group, a baptism service, and took a bike ride to some other new friends' house to visit.

Almost a year after moving from Montana, in my devotions this morning I realized how faithful God has been to answer my prayers for a place of our own here in Wisconsin! There have been long, lonely, yet peace-filled months. But now there is a light at the end of this season and we are meeting so many wonderful friends! This summer looks BUSY with get-togethers and fellowshipping with our new acquaintances. SO grateful for how God works, and our new lives here.

The Best Day

Yesterday the boys had a day in heaven! We were going for a bike ride when my tire tube popped, so we had to walk home. On the way we found a street being torn up! FREE little boy entertainment!

THEN when we went to pick up a book from the library later in the day, the Fire station was having an open house. Fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, and motorcycles were parked, all to climb and play with, what a day! To top it off they had a healthcare helicoptor come land and take off for the audience. (I didn't have the camera this time)

I think I had an even better time than they did, just watching the delight and wonder in their eyes. It occured to me God made this huge creative world for us to enjoy. He takes great delight in us comprehending little things, learning about His world! I can't think of anything I enjoy more than watching my children enjoy life!

Yard

Now that we have a yard, we are starting to realize how much work goes into taking care of it! It is all worth it though! We have a cardinal couple visiting our birdhouse regularly, along with other various critters. Fortunately, we have lots of help!

Afterwards, we have to polish the equipment. We LOVE having our own house!

Angry Angry Angry

This pregnancy has been a major test in patience! For some reason, I get very mad very quickly for very little reason! At least I hope it is the pregnancy! I have never had major anger issues before this baby came along.

Now on a good day, one where I have gotten up an hour before the family, sought God and asked for His Spirit to make me gentle with my kids, I am lucky to only blow up at them once or twice a day. It is ridiculous!

If for some reason I don't get time with God, the day is incredibly worse, and I simply can't seem to pray enough or get out of the funk at all.

Thankfully, I have never abused my children, but I am more harsh than I should be, and use the tone of voice that I used to judge other moms for. I am demanding and unreasonable at times. It breaks my heart to see them shrink back when I yell at them, as if they don't recognize me and wonder where their mom who loves them is.

How thankful I am for grace! And the example that little ones constantly bring me. One particularly bad day, for bedtime I told them a story about a Mama bear and her 2 little cubs. Mama bear was so angry and yelled and hurt their feelings all day and didn't forgive quickly and she said she was wrong and she was sorry and she was going to pray God would help her be a better Mama Bear. Then Mama bear asked the 2 baby bears it they would forgive her. Caedmon and Jonas yelled out, "We forgive you, Mama Bear!!!"

Oh, heavenly Father, always so tender with us, I need thee every hour!

Science Getaway

My good friend Sarah came to visit from Michigan! We headed to Minneapolis to go to an International Justice Mission conference, which was excellent! Got to see Sara Groves perform and got informed about how IJM is combating all sorts of trafficking and slavery.

Jason's sister Kim housed us and watched the boys for the event. (THANK YOU KIM!) The next day we headed to the science museum. The Dead Sea Scrolls were visiting, so Sarah and Kim checked those out. I didn't think my 2 year old would appreciate the $34 to see them so we just saw all the other cool stuff! Here they built big towers with limitless blocks!

They wove me a nice wool blanket.

Some exhibits were a bit overwhelming and some dinosaurs were a bit scary, but they had a blast. I can't wait to take them when they're a little bigger too! One fun thing was musical stairs, which they stomped up and down dozens of times. But, of course, the highlight was watching the rain and boats on the river. What a fun excursion we had!

Dandelions and Sun

This is Caed in front of our new house on a beautiful spring afternoon, waiting for Daddy to come home. I get flowers every day now! They are mostly the same color as these.

I love these gifts from my little men!

Hiking in our new 'hood.

Dandelions are too fun! (And so are trains!)

We discovered a new rock wall to climb, about 2 blocks from our house! Jackpot!

This is just a random picture of the kabobs I made the other night. They were sooooo good and they looked so pretty! I LOVE summertime!

Boys Toys

We are very into CARS these days. Jonas is especially obsessed. I am half tempted to throw out all their bulky toys that get everywhere and just keep the cars. Afterall, the cars they play with now are quite cheap compared to what they'll want in a few years!