Bug in Your Ear

This morning Paul came running into the house yelling, "There's a wasp in my ear! There's a wasp in my ear!" After I got him calmed down I said, "It probably flew in there and then flew right back out."

"No! No! It's still in there, I can feel it!" Paul insisted. Well, I knew it couldn't be a wasp, but I got the flashlight to take a look. Nothing. Still Paul insisted. I got out the gadget we use to check for ear infections. Sure enough, I saw something moving. I grabbed the hair dryer and tried to smoke him out. Didn't work. I had Paul turn his head so that his ear was facing downward. Then I asked him to shake his head. All the while I kept checking with the ear gadget and could see the little bugger, he just wasn't budging.

Then I thought of irrigating Paul's ear with water from the bulb syringe. Still nothing. Paul said, "Momma, I don't think that's going to work because the bug will just try to get away from the water and crawl up there further." Or worse--it could drown and die in there, I thought. Then Lydia said, "Paul it's going to crawl up into your brain!" Perfect timing, as usual, Lydia. At this point I was getting a little freaked out, but Paul thought things were just getting interesting. He wondered what I was going to try next.

I pulled out the hair dryer again. Finally the bug crawled out of Paul's ear. It reminded me of Star Trek--gross. Paul was pretty impressed and he tried to get Elizabeth to come take a look at the bug. She had been trying to avoid the whole scene by hiding in Paul's room. She had no interest in seeing the bug. Grace took a picture of it and then I threw it outside. Fly away little bug and go find some other person's ear to inhabit.
This has been a tough week for Paul. Monday he burned his finger while trying to light the candle for family worship time. It really hurt. He got a big blister as a result of the burn. Jude also had a little trouble. He fell on the cement and scraped up the right side of his face. Hopefully we've hit our quota for accidents this week.

Another Ice Cream Field Trip

Thanks Scott, Katie, Joey and Sally!

Camping Out

Matt went on a business trip to Washington D.C. a couple of weeks ago. The week he was gone, all three of the boys slept in my room. On night Paul fell asleep in Daddy's big chair and Joel fell asleep right beside him in the laundry basket.

Just a Member of the Family

Mystery of God

We've been studying the book of John together as a family this year. One thing that has struck me afresh is how Jesus is our Great High Priest as well as the Perfect Lamb of Sacrifice, offered on our behalf. I was listening to this song by Selah the other day in the car and thought about how appropriate it is, especially as we head into Holy Week.

Presuppositions

This past Wednesday, I had an interesting conversation with a sister in the Lord. I was explaining to her what a difficult time we'd had with the kids during the church the previous Sunday. I told her all three of the littles had to be taken out and disciplined at one point or another and that one of them had spent the majority of the service with Matt in the van until that child's tantrum subsided.

Her response was, "So you're not getting anything out of the service, are you?" I was a little taken aback. I bumbled about a bit and tried to explain to her that Matt and I are trying to train our children to sit through worship. I wanted to ask her if her parents got anything out of worship when they were training her to sit through church services, but I didn't.

Webster's 1828 dictionary defines worship like this: "The act of paying divine honors to the Supreme Being; or the reverence and homage paid to Him in religious exercises, consisting in adoration, confession, prayer, thanksgiving and the like."

This definition tells me that worship really has nothing to do with me, or "what I'm getting out of it." Worship is about giving the One True Holy God the honor that is due Him. It's not about me getting my feel good warm fuzzies for the week, it's about praising God for who He is. If the Holy Spirit touches my heart in some way during the service, I consider it an undeserved blessing.

Secondly, Matt and I take the training of our children in how to worship God to be of extreme importance--so much so that we weekly swallow our pride and deal with the inappropriate behaviors of our children during church. It can be very humbling at times, especially when one of the littles squeals (or screams) about a perceived injustice by another child right during the Pastor's prayer or sermon. (Let's be frank, it seems like that's the only time they scream.) But we persevere, knowing that someday our small children will be able to sit through church without incident as our three older children now do. And sometimes the thought that someday they'll be facing the same challenges with their own children during worship is quite comforting :)

Happy Birthday Grandpa Tom!

Mmmm. . . Raspberries

My Uncle Keith and Aunt Leanna brought us some lovely raspberries this past Sunday. Next to BBQ and butterscotch, raspberries are Matt's favorite. Tonight I baked a raspberry cake for him. Joel didn't like the seeds. He quite eating his cake after he took two bites, then he asked for a banana.

I'm Not Tired!

Joel resisted being put down for a nap this afternoon. I usually let him take his quiet time on the couch in my room. He refused to put his feet on the couch, even after I corrected him. I decided to let it go as long as he kept his body in contact with the couch. So he fell asleep standing up next to the couch. I did lay him down after I was sure he was sleeping hard. Stubborn little guy.

Egg Business

Paul has been diligently working to keep his chickens happy and laying. He has a handful of customers that buy from him regularly. Sometimes I even have to buy eggs (gasp) from the store for our own family because Paul has sold all of his eggs. Other times we have a glut of eggs and we're begging people to take another dozen--or two!

Paul's egg earnings finally dictated that he open up a little savings account. Matt took Paul to the local credit union and Paul proudly signed his name (in John Hancock letters) on the required paper work. Daddy says that Paul must tithe ten percent of his earnings, give half to his dad (to offset the cost of the chicken feed) and the rest he can keep.
Matt ordered ten more chickens which we'll pick up at the end of April. We're hoping to cull out the non-layers of our own flock and then add the new chickens to keep the egg production stable. I read that whether a hen is laying or not, she will eat fifteen pounds of chicken feed a month. The non-layers will have to go. As it is we're still not breaking even on costs, but we feel the learning experience for Paul is worth it.

And as far as the chicken culling goes, I'm positive our friendly white chicken is not laying, but when I asked Paul, "You know what that means, don't you Paul?" he responded with , "No, I don't." Well, let's just say I didn't have the heart to tell him the truth and the friendly white chicken will get a free pass once the culling takes place.

***Our source for egg cartons dried up. If you can contribute to the cause, we'd greatly appreciate it.***

Learning Hebrew

Grace has been wanting the Hebrew Rosetta Stone language learning program since last summer. Her birthday and Christmas both passed without her having received it. She was terribly disappointed. Both Matt and I questioned the practicality of learning Hebrew (wouldn't Spanish be more useful?) and also the price tag of the program.
Grace finally quite bugging her dad and me about purchasing the program and gave her desire over to the Lord. Matt and I noticed this change. Instead of Grace paying for half of the program, as we had originally discussed, we decided to surprise her with it. The box arrived on our front door step a couple of weeks ago. When Grace opened it, she melted into a puddle of tears. She's now learning all kinds of words in Hebrew. And I'm reminding myself that God uses all things for our good and His glory.

Unconventional Wisdom

I found this article, "The More Kids, the Less Moms' Suicide Risk," to be very interesting. Sorta flies in the face of conventional wisdom. It reminds me of the time when a very well meaning Christian sister gave me a look of horror when I told her (contrary to her advice) that I would not be getting live-in help once my fifth baby (Joel) arrived. She was absolutely certain I was going to lose my mind--or worse.

got milk?

Happy St. Patrick's Day! - Grace & the mice

Growing Up

Paul told me a cute story about Joel last night. Apparently, earlier in the day, Joel was wearing a knight's helmet. He came up to Paul and said (in his stilted three-year-old English), "I'm going now. God bless you."

What delights me about this story is that Joel is starting to play pretend games. It also tickles me that Paul thought the story was cute enough to share with his mom.

Why I Homeschool

Yesterday I was blessed to have three different conversations and times of prayer with my three oldest--all within the span of a couple of hours. All three of the children were humble before the Lord and He allowed me to see that the Holy Spirit is working in my children's hearts. What a blessing.

Sometimes I wonder if I've lost my mind in attempting this whole homeschool thing, but then the Lord shows me once again that I am doing what He has planned for our family. Last week I turned down the opportunity to work in a ministry outside of our home. Both the Lord and my husband said "no" when I brought the idea of serving in this capacity before them. For right now, my ministry is to be a help meet to my husband and a mother to my children. When I get harried with too many "good" activities that keep me from focusing my efforts on my two main ministries, then the "good becomes the enemy of the best." The time I spent with my children yesterday was confirmation that I made the right decision.

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." (Deut. 6:4-7).

Say "Cheese!"

Every time we get the camera out, Jude places himself inches in front of it and says, "Chee!" He also produces a cheesy grin. Pretty cute.

Ingenuity

Jude is now eighteen months old and he loves to take baths. He's quite the little fish, which is unfortunate for him, because the tubes in his ears don't allow him to fully partake of the water experience.

The other day I put Joel in the tub and Jude was desperate to join him. I went to fetch Jude's ear plugs, got distracted for a bit with something else and returned a few minutes later to find Jude trying to get himself into the tub by way of a pillow that he was trying to use as a step stool. He had figured out that he needed some sort of lift to get into the tub and then figured out how to solve the problem with a pillow from the love seat in our bedroom. I was pretty impressed, especially since Jude had never seen the same thing modeled by the older children.

Jude was so excited to get into the tub that he even let me put his ear plugs in his ears without the usual fuss. The sweet taste of success was finally savored and Jude giggled and splashed with delight as soon as his feet hit the water.

Back in Business

A few weeks ago our chickens suddenly cut their egg production in half. We just couldn't figure it out. We checked their water and food supplies, wondered if the change in weather was a factor or if the chickens were just getting older and not laying as much. I was getting pretty concerned because Paul had egg customers to whom he had promised eggs and we weren't able to fill the orders.

Finally I got a hint from a friend of mine that we should check the chickens for lice. Matt did check them and sure enough, that was the problem. He bought the last bottle of dusting powder off the shelf at the local feed store, so I guess other chickens in the area must be having the same issues.

The next morning, Matt and Paul dusted each chicken after it came out of the chicken house. Twenty eight chickens were properly treated and then the guys cleaned out the chicken house, sterilized it and put new wood shavings down. The chickens started laying their usual amount of eggs the very next day. Problem solved. Matt and Paul dusted the chickens again this morning for their second and final treatment.

The newest threat to our chickens is in the form of a hawk family that's taken up residence in our birch tree. They've built quite the aerie in the uppermost branches of the tree. I'm sure they thought it was a ideal spot with a plentiful food supply so nearby. I have a neighbor down the road who said that she lost all of her chickens to hawks, although she didn't have a chicken house for her chickens. I figured that hawks wouldn't bother full grown chickens, but I spoke with my Grandma last night on the phone and she said she had a friend whose Jack Russell Terrier was carried off and killed by a hawk (must have been a pretty desperate--or evil hawk).

Anyway, I have noticed that our chickens look up in the sky when the hawks are circling our yard and then they high tail it to the chicken house, well house or to the safe covering of the snowball bush. Last year we put up a fence to keep neighbor dogs out of our yard, but obviously that won't deter the hawks. Only time will tell, I guess. I would rather not have the scene of the flying monkeys of the Wizard of Oz replayed in our very own back yard.

We All Scream for Ice Cream

Last Saturday night we took the whole family to Baskin Robbins for an ice cream treat, compliments of my sister, who gave the kids a gift certificate for Christmas. We rarely take the whole family for ice cream any more because a couple of half gallons of ice cream from the store is just much more economical for us.

As a kid, my parents took us to Baskin and Robbins fairly regularly. I've rarely deviated from ordering my favorite treat (a scoop of peanut butter and chocolate and a scoop of rocky road on a sugar cone) for the past twenty five years. Even as a kid I used to be amazed at the people who would come into the store and order vanilla ice cream. I just couldn't fathom how one could have 31 different flavors of ice cream from which to choose and then decide on vanilla.

The other night, as we backed out of the driveway, I announced to the kids. "This place has 31 flavors of ice cream to choose from!" Immediately from the back of the van I hear Lydia say, "I choose vanilla!" My very own child--a vanilla chooser.

Brotherly Love

Prayer Warrior

I've been reading the biography "George Muller--Man of Faith & Miracles" by Basil Miller to the kids. Yesterday I read the following passage from the book:

Throughout the year there were to be testings of personal faith, but God never failed him [Muller]. As a sample of such trials on November 30 he writes, "being in great need, I was led, yesterday morning, earnestly to ask the Lord; and in answer to this petition a brother gave me, last evening, ten pounds." Morning prayer was answered by the evening gift.

Mr. Muller testifies that in his lifetime fifty thousand such specific prayers were answered. Years before he died, about the middle of his career, he affirmed that up to that time five thousand of his definite prayers had been answered on the day of asking.

He made it a habit to keep a notebook with two page entries. On one page he gave the petition and the date, and on the opposite page he entered the date of the answer. In this manner he was able to keep record of definite petitions, and their specific answers.

Another striking aspect of George Muller, which is repeated throughout the book, is that very early in his ministry he purposed to never agree to a specific wage from his congregants, choosing instead to allow his congregants to give freely (or not so freely) as they were led by the Spirit. George also purposed to never tell anyone of any specific need that he had. He simply brought his specific needs before the Lord and the Lord always provided exactly what George had asked for, sometimes He provided much more. At one point he was feeding two thousand orphans a day, directly from the hand of God. Amazing.

I believe my next trip to WalMart will include the purchase of a small spiral notebook, in which to start writing my prayers.

Encouragement

I've been struggling lately. That's the reason for the lack of blog posts. Satan's been throwing some pretty fiery darts my way, but God is reminding me of His faithfulness. Last week, in two very different places, the Lord brought this old hymn to my ears. It's probably my hands down favorite song of the Christian group Selah. The depths of God's love for His children can never be fully known, at least not on this side of Heaven.