Cherry Surprise

I love Mondays! Simply because I enjoy being at home with my boys and doing what we do everyday. Our weekends always seem a little busy, and I am such a homebody that I really just love to be home keeping house, and living life with my boys teaching and training them. This morning we went for a walk and I decided to break up our usual routine and go a different route. We ended our walk by stopping in our apartment comlex by the small grassy area and just exploring a bit. There is not much to it, it's just a small bit of grass in between two apartment buildings. Well we were over by one edge and Moses spotted a bright red berry-looking thing on the ground, about the size of a pea. Well, I looked up only to discover a cherry tree! How fun and wonderful! The cherries aren't the big kind, but small and a bit sour, but cherries nontheless. The boys were pretty excited, so I picked a few and brought them home.

Wow

I really appreciate what Stacy says on her blog about this.

Bless the Lord

"Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord!" Psalm 134:2

This verse has blessed me and helped me to lift my eyes higher as I
have been reminded, since reading it a couple days ago, that I am to
bless the Lord. I often pray and ask the Lord to bless me and my
family and provide for our needs(which is a good thing), but I really
needed to be reminded that I am to bless the Lord even more than I
seek him simply to give me what I want. There is another verse that I
am reminded of that says, "Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises
of Israel." Which means that God dwells in our praises (according to
the footnote in my ESV bible). I don't quite understand it perfectly,
but what I do understand is the more I lift my eyes from myself onto
the Lord, the greater he becomes in my life. If he dwells in the
praises of his people, his presence will be greater when our hearts
our worshiping him. This has been an encouragement to my heart.

My desire more than ever before is for things to be simple in my life.
Looking to the Lord not only for his provision, but looking to him in
praise and in order to bless his name helps me realize how simple this
life is meant to be. I was created to glorify God by enjoying him
forever. I need not worry about the little things, nor the big
things. We serve a great and mighty God who is able. That is it, he
is able and we are not. We need only to lean upon the Lord, for ALL
things, and simply enjoy the Lord and bless his name.

Green Drink

I've really enjoyed experimenting with green smoothies. They are so yummy and easy to make. This one has Kale and a nectarine in it. It's great because my boys really enjoy them too.

Our Free Bed

Here is a picture of our beautiful new free bed. It's been great to sleep on. I should have taken a picture with the bed made, but oh well.

Blessings

A sweet husband and two precious sons

A free table!One Moses

One Elijah

Two amazing precious young sons!

God Always Provides

"God is faithful to provide for the needs of his children. He likes to meet the big ones as well as the little ones too." I nodded half heartedly when I was reminded of this truth not long ago. I felt a bit ashamed because I hadn't been completely trusting God for everything at the time when I heard those words. But since then I've been praying more specifically for even little things and it's been such a blessing to see God provide. So, one thing we've been needing and praying for is a bed. We've been sleeping on the floor on a futon mattress, and it's been okay, but our backs really need a bed. So, we've been watching and praying, and tonight in the most random way, in the way where only we can say it was all God, we got a bed. We were at the store when my husband's cell phone rang. It was a friend of ours who was at the goodwill nearby. She was calling to tell us she just met a couple who were trying to drop off a bed, a bed frame and a dresser. Well, they couldn't drop it off for some reason, (not quite sure I haven't talked to her yet, she just talked to my husband) anyways, she ended up talking to them and told them about us. She told them that we had just moved back from Hawaii and that we needed a bed. So we met them just a little bit later in the parking lot and then they followed us to our apartment. What a blessing to have it delivered too! And the other God-thing is that some married friends of ours were at our place babysitting for us and so the husband was able to help my husband and the other guy bring all the stuff in. So, it was just a blessing to see God provide a free bed and dresser, and they're pretty nice and in good condition. I will post pictures later of it when it's all put together. It always amazes me how the Lord blesses us. We are so undeserving of his love and grace, but he freely gives it.

Success!

It finally happened! Moses had his first bowel movement on the toilet today! I am only sharing this information with the world because I believe that prayer and the natural things God provided really works. So, he didn't go for the first 2 days, we fed him prunes(that being a natural laxative that God provided) and prayed (yes we sure did) and he pooped in his diaper in the middle of the night. Well that was Tuesday night and he hadn't gone again, until today. Almost 3 days, and I was just praying that he would go again, and especially that he would go on the potty. I have heard so many stories about poop being so hard for kids to do on the toilet and it even taking weeks to months for this to even happen. Well we have just been praying that it would happen quickly for him, and he's been eating lots of prunes. Finally today after lunch, all on his own even, Moses started getting squiggly in the living room and very urgently called out to me that he really needed to go potty, and poopoo. We hurried to the bathroom and got on the seat and praise the Lord, it came! :) I feel so encouraged for how potty training has gone for us. I know that every child is different, but I am praising the Lord for how easy this transition has gone Moses.

Fun Faces

This was taken at Wild Life Safari in Southern Oregon. Isn't this great? I really like giraffes and thought this was a awesome picture taken by my wonderful husband.

I don't remember the name of this bird, but it was really cool

The newest exhibit!

Underwear, fewer diapers and prunes

This place is slowly starting to feel like home. I really enjoy where we are right now. It feels good. I have been going for walks around our neighborhood lately, although it's been freezing! I feel so blessed because even though we're in an apartment, we are about one block down from a church that has a bit of property around it and it's all grass. It's been wonderful for me as I've been taking the boys there to run! We only have one car and Ryan takes it to work, so it's great to have a place to take the boys that is in walking distance. Yes, Ryan got a job. It is just temporary but he is doing more construction work, remodeling a house.

My son is embarking on a new path in life as he just started wearing big boy underwear! As of Monday I finally started potty-training Moses (he will be 3 at the end of Sept.). It felt like such a daunting tunnel that I did not want to go through, but he seemed so ready that I knew we needed to just do it. And it's been surprisingly really great. It's been awesome to only be using like 2 diapers a day. One for nap and the other for bedtime. Well, I could tell he was ready because he would often tell us when he was going in his diaper, pee and poop. He also was very interested in mom and dad going potty, and we've been talking about it a lot. I started talking about it 2 months ago before we moved. I told him that when we got to our new home we would start potty-training and he would get stickers! Oh boy was he excited about stickers. However, the greater motivation was the yogurt covered pretzels that I also gave him. I am so encouraged that it is going well. The only thing I wasn't prepared for was constipation. Yep, with all the excitement he did not poop for 2 days. So yesterday I went out to get prune juice, however it was like 3.70 for 64 oz. of the stuff! Well, I didn't need that much, so I checked the bulk section and bought some dried prunes instead. It did the trick. He ended up pooping at 2am this morning, but he didn't wake up. He just went right in his sleep. Maybe it woke Elijah up, I don't know. I just went into the room because Elijah had been crying and helped him go back to sleep, and then realized that my other sleeping son had a poopy diaper. I was just thankful that he was not longer plugged up! Funny funny, the things we moms go through!

So here are a few potty training tips for anyone who needs them:
1. Wait until your child is ready. As for my experience, it's much less work waiting for them to be ready because it will go much quicker and smoother (my first attempt was like back in February and he just didn't care it wasn't worth the work).
2. Plan on being home and not going anywhere for 2-3 days. For Moses he caught on really quick and yesterday, the 2nd day we went out for 2 hours (i put him in a diaper just in case) and he stayed dry the whole time. When we got home he wanted to go potty.
3. We started in the morning, and you really have to take them every 30 to 40 minutes until they start getting it. I tried stretching it out to 45 min once and he had an accident. So, even if they only pee a little, i found 30-40min worked really well.
4. It also helps to keep them well hydrated (good idea anyway for everyday life) but it helps with the whole process.