I’ve never really minded the idea of my children getting older.  There are certain milestones that make me sentimental, of course, but for the most part each new age or stage comes with new and exciting things that they are learning.  Just like I’d never wish away the young years, I’ve also never considered asking them to linger.

Until Little Bear.  In many ways, I’m excited to catch glimpses of what he’ll be like as he continues to show personality and interact more with the rest of our family.  However, I also would not mind one bit if we just stopped counting the months.  Despite my best efforts, he just keeps getting older.  I’ve asked him not to, but he insists on inching closer to being one-year-old, which is practically the same as OH MY WORD, MY BABY IS GOING OFF TO COLLEGE.  It is so selfish of him.

God or Jesus and the Crocodiles
Lou goes through spells where she wakes up crying in the middle of the night, or just shows up in our room.  It is usually because she has either had a bad dream or because her legs hurt.  I totally get the legs hurting- I used to have HORRIBLE growing pains.  But the bad dreams I really want to teach her how to handle on her own (eventually) so RRL and I try to give her some things she can think or pray when she wakes up from one.  Last week when she was telling about about a bad dream involving Crocodiles trying to get her feet, I suggested that next time the crocs showed up maybe she could just tell them to go back to the zoo where they belong.  Her response:
  “Nah, I think I’ll just tell God or Jesus, whichever one handles the Crocodiles, to take care of them for me”
Well, ok, then there’s that option.

The Invisible Man Saves the Day
Cbug has the most tender heart toward his sister.  She is not really at an age that makes that very easy, either.  She occasionally (cough cough) tries to get him in trouble by whining or crying if he doesn’t do things her way.  But he still plays with her and takes care of her (except for the occasionally frustrated lash-out which is definitely not ok, but I can’t say that I always blame him either).  Recently the three of us were playing Candyland. I won.  Cbug got second.  And Lou started (fake) crying, “BUT I DIDN’T WANT to be LAST.”  She was hoping Cbug would give in and let her beat him.  But instead he patiently and with much enthusiasm responded “But Sissy, you didn’t get last.  There is an invisible man playing the game with us and he got fourth place.  You totally beat him and got third.  See, you aren’t last.”  The hilarious part (if that wasn’t funny enough) was that she was totally great with that explanation.  I’m going to have to remember that.

The Monster at the Ball
Cbug and Lou, on our days of playing at home, are both having to learn to be patient with Little Bear having increasing access to the toys they leave on the floor.  Recently, they had set up all of the Little People princesses and superheros at the Castle for a ball.  They were getting so frustrated because the dancing kept getting interrupted by LB crawling right through the people, putting some in his mouth, knocking them over, etc.  At first they got frustrated but when i asked if they could come up with a way for their baby brother to play along, they invented layer 2 of the game…Now, it was time for everyone to go home from ball but they had to rush to their houses before the evil monster came out of the woods and attacked them.  (interpretation: clean up all of the people quickly before Little Bear could eat them).

Family Movie Night

It was thanks to KJ that we had one of our very best family nights during February.  Don’t get me wrong, its not like it was anything wildly creative, it was a family movie night.  But somehow, because biggest brother was planning the Friday night shin-dig all week, the excitement level at our house was through the roof.  Cbug’s teacher even sent a note home ‘Hope you all enjoy family movie night tonight, Cbug has been telling us about it all week.”  To KJ’s credit, it was a well thought out event.  He chose a movie everyone would enjoy (Robin Hood- Disney version, of course) and made two lists.  The first list was the evenings “activities” which included “1)Eat and 2) Watch a movie in our PJs” and also a list of items that he needed us to buy before the evening.  Here’s a photo of his “Ingredients”.

The last item totally stumped me.  Turns out, he wanted dinner to be from one of his favorite restaurants “Celebrity” (with a silent H of course).

Daddy is just like Abe Lincoln

KJ “When will Daddy get to be the Dad on Duty?”
ABL: I’m not sure buddy, he has tried to contact the people in charge but has not really had much success.
KJ: So, he has to wait until he gets elected?
ABL: Yeah, I guess so. He’s trying to be patient but he really wants to come to your school.
KJ: He’s just like our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln.
ABL (confused): Oh really, how is that?
KJ: Well, Abraham Lincoln really wanted to get elected to be Governor, but he didn’t get to be but he didn’t give up and then he beat the same guy and got to be president. And then he freed all of the slaves because he finally got elected.
ABL: Yep, just like that. (what was I supposed to say)

We started some new traditions this year, to celebrate the big LOVE day.
I can’t wait to see how these evolve over the years.

Early in the week we took turns taking our littler sweethearts on dates that they helped plan.
Sweet CTL pretty much gets a special date with Mommy every-middle-of-the-night.  So he, technically, did not participate this year.  But our littlest love sure is CUTE!

RRL took Lou.  He emphasized that her Daddy was the first one to take her on dates, that her dates should always open the door for her and that the reason he was taking her on dates was to practice how she should be treated.  She was just thrilled to dress in her pink dress, have her Daddy all to herself, and go to a fancy dinner at one of her favorite places…Moo-yah (see her best “MOOOOO-Yah expression below), followed by dessert at TCBY.  Ha, nothing like a fancy dinner of hotdogs and icecream with your Daddy. 

 

We gave the kids books, Lou’s was “Miss Nelson is missing”

After I ruled out McDs and Whataburger, the boys chose Celebrity for our date.  On our way home from school that afternoon, the boys and I were planning our outing and I as trying to talk to them about how to plan a date for a lady.  I suggested that having a plan and dressing up a bit were some simple ways to show her that she was appreciated.  So, KJ suggested that they wear tuxedos on our date, since they appreciated me SO much.  Cbug was more hesitant.  When KJ mentioned the tuxes, I said I thought that would be fun and Cbug responded “I like my camo pants”.  Short. Sweet. To the point.  Typical.  I told him that was fine, he could wear what he wanted, but just try to think about how he could do something for someone else.  You can tell from the pictures how he compromised.  Love him!

KJ got “Where the Sidewalk Ends” and Cbug got a book that had the collection of “Alexander” stories. 

Also, thanks to a great group from our Bible Class, and an awesome idea by one of them, we enjoyed a date swap weekend.  We kept their kids one night and traded for our date night.  I’m pretty sure we got the best end of that bargain when we took in three extra kids (one from each family), and then got to leave FOUR behind.  SUH-WEET.

ABL

So. Friends with older kids.  You held out on me.  No one warned me about this thing called a “valentine box”.  We got instructions to decorate a shoe box or cereal box however HE wanted.  That’s it.  So I let KJ go to town with scraps of paper, stickers, tape, glue, markers, etc.  It looked exactly like you might expect from a kindergarten boy.  a big red white and pink glorious mess, and that is just the stuff that actually made it ON to the box…you should have seen the craft table.  He took it to school and well, it didn’t look like some of the others.  And it certainly didn’t look like any of the amazing creations I’ve since seen on facebook. 

…Call KJ, he understands.

And THEN go try try again.

I’m so proud of our biggest boy!
He FINALLY learned to ride a bike without training wheels.
I say finally because he has taken the training wheels off of his bike twice before and then requested that they be put back on. 
But this time was different.

Because we love you, so much!

Momma

Just for fun, here are a couple of videos.  Totally laughing at myself as I listen to my voice. 
Here is one of the process (including the funny…but not…wreck with Lou.)

And one of the finished product.  A confident (and THRILLED) bicycle rider!

In January our congregation celebrated all of the babies born or adopted in 2012.  Our sweet Little Bear was among the honored and we were so blessed by this evening.  It is our fourth time to share the rituals of “baby blessing” night and while the traditions, the gifts, and the people look much the same- it certainly never gets old.

In the spirit of keepin it real around here…
I blogged a bit about my “December funk“. 
I did still LOVE the idea of counting down to Christmas with our little family.  Taking time to remember and cherish the season of celebration. Honoring our Savior.  and savoring the family he has given us, both immediate and extended.
But ya’ll DECEMBER was nutso.  SO very busy.  So not all of the days got their just-due.  Some were quite half-hearted.  But that’s the great thing about doing this countdown thing intentionally, even when you don’t “feel” like it.  Memories are still made, love still extended and hope still REIGNS.  That’s what Christmas is all about.
insert how it is now March and I’m just now getting around to wrapping up the post about our Christmas countdown as an indicator of how we rolled at the end of 2012.

Here’s a super quick recap (ha- when have you ever known me to do anything quick in deeprollingrightfield? ha.)

I decided to scrap the idea of making our own Christmas tree.  I mean, I loved last year’s green Taj Mahal and all, but seriously, what was I thinking?  Instead, we had die-cut Christmas lights to hang. They started out all white but “turned on” one at a time, all month, for a fun multi colored decoration in our dining room.

1) Get new PJs and wear them to visit Santa.

Although we had somehting else planned for our Christmas activity, when Uncle J asked us to help with his amazing proposal, we jumped at the chance.  It was so perfect!  So perfect, in fact, it was featured in the Dallas Morning News…not just once BUT TWICE (a second time as one of the year’s best pictures).  We were just the “sign holders” but we were thrilled to be there.

10) Make a basket of Christmas FUN to deliver to a friend.

Second year in a row to get zero pictures of this favorite activity.  The kids loved going shopping for Christmas stickers, candy, pencils, games, etc to put in a basket and take to a friend. 

11) Christmas music dance party 

 13) Drink hot chocolate before bed.

14) Christmas movie night in Mommy and Daddy’s room

15) Bake Treats for neighbors, teachers and friends.

Already blogged a bit about this, but the best part was when I had to borrow a cup of milk from a neighbor…for whom I was baking.  I had all 4 kids baking with me and realized I was out of milk.  Genius!

16) Buy food for the food bank.  Deliver and help sort/shelf it.

17) Help Daddy with the TeenLifeline Christmas party.

18) Christmas caroling with friends. Visit some ministers and elders from our church.

This was extra fun because we got to share the evening with some of our favorite friends!  And we found out that night that their baby #3 was on the way!  HOORAY!  Love watching these four friends (and one curly headed baby friend who sometimes joined in) show how much they appreciate people at their church.

19 and 20) Tell the story of Christmas

 ok, we were traveling so these really happened over a few days time, but I love these videos.  I posted them seperately so you could enjoy the videos!  Oh my, we’ll be working on some of the facts before next Christmas.

21) Ornament hide and find

Just as simple as it sounds. Take ornaments off the tree and take turns hiding and finding them.  Always a winner at our house!

22) Buy sibling Christmas presents

I love this tradition we started last year of drawing names and then going shopping together for the “sibling gifts”

23) Make an acrostic using “CHRISTMAS”

favorite part of this activity this year was that we read “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” on our roadtrip and from that moment on, all 3 kiddos worked really hard to find a way to include Gladys exclamation “HEY, UNTO YOU A CHILD IS BORN” into all conversations about the meaning of Christmas.  Check out this year’s “S”.

24) Read the Night before Christmas and the Story of Christ birth with Nonna

And there ya have it, our 24 days of Christmas countdown.

ABL

Note: This Bible Study schedule has been updated.  Please go here for part 2.

More than a year ago, after I finished studying my way through Nehemiah, I started praying about how to intentionally continue Bible study.  I loved the personal nature of reading and journaling through verses in the Bible so really wanted to continue that type of studying.  But, what made the Nehemiah journey so compelling was that I felt so CALLED to it.  It so closely paralleled the struggles of my real life at the time that I felt like I was drawn into the book in a personal and intimate way.  I think I was waiting for that to happen again.  So, as 2012 started and I decided I was going to study the Gospels (Matthew-John), I waited to get “motivated” …and in the mean time, I just let life get in the way.  I could give lots of reasons (excuses) why I didn’t pursue the study more, but just know that by the middle of the year I’d nearly forgotten about it.

Do you ever find yourself saying “ALRIGHT ALREADY, I’ll do it”, in response to being nearly beaten over the head with a message? Am I the only one that sometimes has to have things practically written on the wall before you act on it? I mean, really, sometimes I can be so HARD headed.
Commence head beating.
I’m not exaggerating that event after event over the last couple of months have said “Allison, you really need to KNOW Christ, know more about Jesus, who he was, what he taught, how he lived.  STUDY THE GOSPELS already.”   So, I’m gonna try again.  Studying the Gospels.  But this time I have something that was lacking in 2012…a (super simple, easy to follow) plan.

So, here’s my plan:

1) READ the GOSPELS (in parallel)
I’ve done some research on parallel Gospel tables and this is the one I like best:
http://parallelgospels.org/
I like it because it is really easy to use and its just the WORD, no commentary (although you can click on links to commentaries very easily from the home page).  And the links for each section work (and are still easy to read) from my ipod touch.  Making the study, like me, very mobile. 
I will say- I don’t know anything about this site.  I’m not getting anything for recommending it.  And please click on any advertisements or other links at your own risks, or better yet just don’t.

I’m going to do about 4 sections of this breakdown a week, but have divided it up so it flows based on the story and length of the sections (for example the whole Sermon on the Mount is only one section so I left a whole week for that).

2) JOURNAL/STUDY
Because I’m specifically wanting to read and study about Christ, I’m journaling through in a very intentional way.  I’ve got a spiral divided into the following categories:
– Characteristcs
– Teachings/Commands
– Miracles
And I’m sure as I go I may add other sections.

3) MEMORIZE the Word with my family
Our kids are young, but they can already memorize scripture.  We are thinking about doing 1 verse a month.   Because we hadn’t started the reading yet in January, we chose a “prophetic” verse about Jesus to start

JANUARY FAMILY VERSE
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” ISAIAH 9:6

Why am I telling you my plan? You know, I’m not really sure. 
I guess I hoped that saying it out loud will help me commit to it.
But I also hope that maybe some of you will join me. 
Adding an element of community perspective to a personal Bible study.

As a busy working mom, I’ve been frustrated with the structure of Bible Studies I’ve been part of.  PLEASE DON’T HEAR ME WRONG ON THIS.  I love/need the perspective of community while studying, and I’ve had some awesome opportunities to be part of those kinds of studies.  However, with 4 kids aged 6 and under, it is very difficult to have something specifically scheduled into an evening, that requires me to drop my children off (yet again) in childcare, and work my way through a workbook that may or may not be at all relevant to where I am right now.  Not that there is anything wrong with that kind of studying AT ALL, it works great for some people, it just doesn’t fit into my lifestyle right now. That said- I BELIEVE that the WORD always has/needs a place in my life.  And maybe some of you feel the same way.  If so, you are exactly who I feel called to encourage in this.  Together, we can find a way to dive into the Word in a way that lets it resonate with us where we are. 

If that is what you need right now, do you wanna try this together?

Like I said, I’m following the chart below and I’ll let you know each month which verse/verses our family is memorizing (probably one from the previous month’s studying).  But feel free to move at your own pace, do what works best for your family, and share what you are learning on your own blog, on facebook, with me via email/text/comment- or don’t share a bit.  Totally up to you.  The journaling, especially, will probably look totally different for different people.  If you are looking for a model or triggers for journaling, I’ve used the “Discovery Bible Study” method and “S.P.E.C.K.” prompts and liked both.  I’ve also just journaled verse by verse.  Do some research, there are lots of good suggestions from others on how to just read and study the Bible without a workbook, so to speak.

 Its only four books of the entire Bible.  Over the course of an entire year.  So, the idea is for it to be SUPER SIMPLE and accomplish-able.  However, the idea is also for it to be very purposeful and intentional. AND to involve our families. 
Because this whole thing may be a huge learning curve, but here’s what I DO know for SURE.  The Word is ALIVE, it is TRUE and it is RELEVANT.  And I have to believe that as we study about Christ- his teachings, his life, his characteristics, his miracles- we will know Him in new ways. 

Lets stand there together at the end of 2013.  Because that is the real goal.  Whether you join me in this kind of personal study, whether you attend organized Bible Study, or whether you are attending Church regularly for the very first time.  No matter how different our experiences are as we read and study The Word this year- Let’s all arrive at December 31, 2013, and say we know CHRIST more fully, more deeply, and as a result our hearts and lives are changed.  And that, folks, is my New Year’s Resolution!

ABL

Here are the first six months.  The numbers coordinate with the numbered sections on this link:
http://parallelgospels.org/

January (I’ve spent this week praying and planning.  I’ll start this specific plan next week, Jan 6th)
Wk 1: 1-5
Wk 2: 6-9
Wk 3: 10-14
Wk 4: 15-18
 
February
Wk 1: 19-22
Wk 2: 23-26
Wk 3: 27-30
Wk 4: 31-35

 March
 Wk 1: 36-40
Wk 2: 41-44
Wk 3: 45-47
Wk 4: 48-52

 April
Wk 1: 53-56
Wk 2: 57
Wk 3: 58-63
Wk 4: 64-67
Wk 5: 68-70
 
May
 Wk 1: 71-73
Wk 2: 74-76
Wk 3: 77-79
Wk 4: 80-83

June
Wk 1: 84-89
Wk 2: 90-93
Wk 3: 94-98
Wk 4: 99-101 

Visit the first 2 posts in the “5 things for the 5-year-old” series to read about Cbug’s party that he planned and his 5-year interview; as well as see a video of his first 5 years and read his bday letter.

And rounding out the series, at number 5…
5) the Birthday DAY
Even though we celebrated officially on December 26th, today is his birthday.  And for our calendar/date-lovin-boy its important that we celebrate some on January 3rd, too.  Once again, everything about how he chose to celebrate was predictably unpredictable.  I couldn’t have guessed any of it ahead of time, which is why I didn’t even bother guessing.  He has specific ideas about how to do things, and they rarely line up with any other 5 year-old I know.  But, as usual, it sure was fun.