Love

With Valentine's Day fast approaching all the stores look like some pink and red heart fairy has exploded all over! (Not to mention all the Easter stuff that is already out...but that is another post). I actually really do like Valentine's Day, I always thought it was fun to send your friends cute cards and you know any excuse to eat candy is okay by me. But LOVE has gotten so distorted in our society many people loathe Valentine's Day because it represents something they think they should have but don't. Anyway, I recently read this blog post, a response to the Huffington Post article "How to Talk to Little Girls", and I just had to share it with you. If you've read this blog before you know my take on the futility of trying to get joy from worldly things (and also how I feel about Proactive! Curious? Read this!. As a completely random thought- they no longer play those commercials. Thankfully.) However, as a mother (I think this should apply to any mother, not just mothers of girls) I am constantly questioning how I can instill in my daughter the idea that she has worth beyond what the world can give her. One of my 'resolutions' for this year is to be more intentional about modeling my faith to Harper and more intentional about talking with her about it. While she may watch me fail at that again and again, I want her to understand the simplicity of the love of God. He loves you. The end. No "what if..." or "I didn't..". He. Loves. YOU. Below is an excerpt from the blog I referenced before. This is how the author says he will talk to his little girl:
“I love you. I love the way your hair rolls into ringlets and falls into your eyes. I love the way you read yourself books, even though you can’t read. I love the way you dance and twirl around the kitchen. I love the way you wave at cars that pass on our walks. I love the way you scream “Dad” in the middle of the night. I love the way you say “do it again” when we do something fun. I even love the permanent marker custom design you put on my new Mac. But as much as I love you, Jesus loves you more. I sacrifice a lot because I love you, but Jesus sacrificed everything because he loves you. So if somewhere along the way you fail a test or love a boy who does not love you back or have a mastectomy or develop Alzheimers or gain some weight or lose a job, you will still hold infinite value because Jesus loves you. No matter what. You are loved exactly as you are. Always.”

Always.

15 months- a little late

Harper at 15 months (on Christmas Eve):
-I seriously can't even count the number of words this child says. New (ish) ones that I haven't listed on the blog before include: Grandaddy (dadadi), Grandmother (mamama), rock (as in on a horse or in a chair), bed, eat, door, open, close, roar (lion/tiger/dinosaur sound), horse, moo, meow, no maam, no way, good dog, sit, treat, tree, teeth, sign for drink, baby doll, happy (pronounced "Abby"), button, walk, bus, truck, ow/ouch, and go. She probably has more new ones than that but that is all Jason and I can remember. And that is plenty for a 15 month old! She puts together novel two word utterances now, like 'mama button' meaning "mama's button". She also copies us (when she feels like it) doing funny things like finishing the old Tom Jones song...if we say "What's new pussy cat..." she says "whoaaaa". Jason also thinks getting her to repeat the diadochokinetic rate ("puh tuh kuh") is funny. And she does it fairly well. I recently gave Harper a standardized language test. She scored a 128 on her understanding of language (following directions, understanding what certain nouns and verbs mean, etc.) and a 129 on her use of language (number of words she says, social use of language, etc.). Her overall language age was one year, eleven months. That is 9 months ahead of her actual age! Her age equivalency on the language use subtest was 2 years!
- Sassiness. Unfortunately (and fortunately) Harper is learning how to stand up for herself. She tells Toby 'no maam' if he accidentally knocks her down and shakes her finger at him. She also sasses us occasionally and tells US no. We are having to find other ways (NOT using the word 'no') to correct her behavior (i.e. 'feet down', 'be sweet', etc.). Sometimes she tells herself 'no' as she is doing something she shouldn't. I am not sure if she is trying to correct her own behavior or just remembering that she was told 'no' when she did it before!
- Social- she is fitting in well in her now not so new daycare class. She still does not like it if the kids get really rowdy and cries sometimes if it gets too crazy in her room, but overall she has adjusted well and is slowly learning to play with the other kids. She also tries to correct her friends at school sometimes when I pick her up, telling them 'no' if they are doing something she thinks they shouldn't. She thinks she is everyone's little mama. She takes a few minutes to warm up to new situations but once she has she wants to be the center of attention. When we flew to Virginia a few days ago she got the chance to wave to the entire plane and ate it up! She did her queen wave!
-Physical- Harper is quite the climber now. She will declare 'rock rock' and climb in her rocking chair in her room and sit and rock. She can climb on everything now! She also jumps now (in her bed!). She is still very much into dancing. And swinging between us if we each have a hand while we are walking.
Misc.- Harper's pretend play skills are really developing. She loves to feed her babies and makes eating and drinking sounds when she does it! She will also brush the baby's hair and carry it around. Her new play kitchen has been quite a hit, too, and she enjoys stirring things on her stove like mom!
Well, that is Harper lately. I find it hard to believe the difference between this Christmas and last year! Time goes by too fast!

How to...

Before

After

Playing with our new kitchen!


So, I've had a couple of requests about how I did Harper's kitchen (see pictures). The original idea came from here. (via Pinterest). In case you don't know about Pinterest, you should, unless you value your free time. Okay. Here goes. Harper's total cost for her kitchen was approximately $20. For all materials. The website I referenced has pretty good detail but some things I changed and some things she left out. So here goes.
1) Find an old tv stand, preferably one with a door (we had to add one which added a whole boatload of steps because ours didn't have a door). It would be great if you had an old one you wanted to get rid of, we didn't, so we found one at a thrift store. Cost $6.00
2) Cut a hole using a sabre saw to fit the sink. We used an old metal dog bowl that Jason found in the woods. Cost $0. They are cheap if you wanted to buy a new one, though.
3) We put two coats of primer (Kilz) on the tv stand to cover up the ugly wood laminate. Cost $0 since we already had the Kilz leftover from another home project.
4) Painted topcoat color on once primer dried. Cost ~$10 (bought way too much paint, tons leftover. You could use spray paint if you wanted for a fraction of the cost. The paint basically doubled the cost of this project. Long story made short, I was supposed to be able to get free paint and it didn't work out).
5) Painted 'eyes' of stoves with craft paint ($0.99).
6) Added stove knobs. Cost: Free (many appliance stores will give you old oven knobs for free).
7) Added door. This involved buying a scrap piece of lumber from Home Depot, getting them to cut it to size. Cost: $0.51. Seriously. Always check in the scrap section for projects like this. Had to paint and prime the door as well. Used the craft paint to paint detail on 'microwave' and 'oven'. Bought hinges and 'oven' handle for less than $2.00. I recommend always checking stores like Habitat Restore, that resell used or surplus construction and home project stuff (everything from cabinets to door knobs, to used furniture, to new ceiling fans) for these items. They sell them CHEAP and the money benefits people in need. I got the 'faucet' for the sink for less than $1.00 from our local store. This would be a great place to buy a tv stand, too, but our local store had tv stands that were too tall for Harper. We used liquid nails to place the 'faucet'. It takes 72 hours to set so take that into account before you give it to your little one.
8) Added fabric. I hemmed 1/2 yard of fabric to make a curtain then used a staple gun to attach it. The tutorial I linked to made a curtain with a curtain rod, but since I didn't have anything to attach the curtain to since it was an open piece originally I just stapled it. The fabric was on sale, I can't remember how much I paid. 1/2 a yard was probably around ~1.50. I picked a fabric that was retro looking, had muted colors that coordinated with my paint color, and wasn't too obvious for a kitchen. I looked a one that was fruits and veggies, but this was so much cuter and seemed more retro kitchen-y somehow.
The tv stand came on wheels but I took those off and added padded furniture strips to protect our floors and to make it a better height for Harper. Time wise this whole project didn't take that long, mostly just waiting on the paint to dry. We did have one issue since we had to add a door. I bought a pretty thin piece of wood since I didn't want the door to be heavy. The hinges, however, had screws that were too long and poked through the back of the door. In order to be able to mount the door correctly Jason had to use his dremel tool (cutting head) to cut the back of the screws off. Which required a Christmas Eve trip to Home Depot. Other than that, this was a fun, low stress project. And it is special because we made it just for Harper. I hope you guys are inspired to try your own project!

thanks. part 2

So, I had intended this to be a sweet post about how I am thankful, not only at Thanksgiving, but also at this time of year. For an amazing family, for my dad who sends Harper musical Peanuts cards in the mail just because she dances to them, to my mom who drives twelve hours to spend one day with Harper, to my father in law who tuned up my car before I went on a road trip giving me peace of mind, to my mother in law who teaches me important things like tying bows and how to be a great mom. And how this time of year I am thankful for the gift of babies...Harper and Jesus. Not in that order. Anyway. That was BEFORE I had one of my top 5 scariest moments of my life. I got home from work, unloaded my car (including Harper), let Toby out of his kennel, and as I was doing this got a call from Jason. He was on his way home from work (45 minutes a way). Then I turned on the Christmas tree lights. Toby and Harper were running around together. Then I opened our front door to turn on our Christmas lights outside. We have a regular door and a storm door. I left both open as I reached around the storm door to plug in the lights. Then I heard a click. I looked behind me. Harper and Toby had closed the door. Aggravated I try to open the door, "How did they get to the door so fast?" I think. The door does. not. open. I push. Horrified I slowly realize that the doorknob must have gotten locked (can Harper reach that?). 'Don't panic' I tell myself. I probably left the door into the laundry room through the garage door open. Now I hear Harper crying through the door. I run to the garage door. It was not unlocked. And no amount of shoving it with my shoulder opened it. 'Maybe I left the back door unlocked when I let Toby out to go to the bathroom earlier.' Now Harper was REALLY screaming. I ran to the back door. Also not unlocked. Of course. I am so cautious about anyone ever getting into the house I ALWAYS lock the doors. Now, you may be saying "why is she panicking? why doesn't she just get the key out of its hiding place?". Well, several weeks ago my hidden key fell in between the slats of our deck making it impossible to reach. So now my child, keys, cell phone, and dog are all in the house. And I am out. And it is raining. I stayed calm externally. Earlier, when I was still inside and I had let Toby out I had pulled up the blinds on the back door so Harper could see him outside. Now I was so thankful that I could sit by the backdoor and see her inside. We sang. We identified our eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. We (well, I) screamed and banged on the door at Toby when he stole her brand new stuffed animal and tried to tear it to pieces knowing I couldn't do a thing about it (I mentally told him he was lucky I couldn't get in). All with a door between us. I could have gone to a neighbor's house or gotten them to call the police. But really they would have just done the same thing I could have done. I knew I could either a) retrieve the impossible to retrieve key (which I tried multiple times) or b) wait the (now 30) minutes until Jason got home. So we waited. Harper cried. I wanted to cry. I am not sure if she was crying because she knew something was wrong or because she wanted to be outside. Finally after exhausting all songs, memorized books, and non-curse bad words (to Toby) that I know I heard a truck go down our street. I ran around to the front and thought I saw a truck in the drive. I blinked. It was really there. Jason was home. I ran screaming and crying "unlock the door, they locked me out!". He thought someone in our family was dead or seriously injured by my reaction. It is hard to be a grown up and keep it together forever, though. Anyway. So after my afternoon (followed, sweetly, by a dinner at Panera and a Shake's frozen custard), my new thanks list is as follows:
1- I am thankful that I worship a God who is bigger than door locks and fear and terror and mistakes.
2- I am thankful that God gave me 40 minutes of (mostly) calm so I did not freak out my child.
3- I am thankful that on the same day a sweet friend at work gave Harper a new teddy bear for Christmas she had something new and cuddly to cling to while she watched her mommy sit outside the door.
4- I am thankful I have a husband who calls me to let me know when he is coming home and that I actually got that phone call prior to the locking out. Otherwise I would have broken the glass. Also I am thankful Jason remained calm and took me to eat, which he knows makes everything better (although I felt so sick to my stomach after this I didn't eat much. Harper did, though!)
5- I am thankful I have a dog that is sweet as sugar to my baby and so even though he stole her teddy bear (which she took back) I did not have to worry about him hurting her.
6- I am thankful for my sweet, spirited daughter who loves to investigate and explore. Even door locks.
PS- this is our 100th blog. When we started this thing I never thought I would be posting about my child locking me out of the house!

Random

So I braved the crowds yesterday (which, in all honesty, are nothing compared to most places this time of year...I shudder remembering when I lived in Birmingham! You can't even get near the Galleria this time of year!). Anyway, back to my original point, I braved the crowds and had some adventures.
1) Apparently it was men in kilts convention at Tiger Town- there were tons of men (I mean, upwards of 10) wearing kilts. Nice.
2) As I waited in the drive through line at Chick-Fil-A just to get the Peppermint Chocolate Chip milkshake and it seemed to take forever, I thought "Is this really worth it?". IT WAS! That milkshake and all its glorious calories got me through a three hour shopping trip!
3) Stores sell a lot of crap. You have a lot of time to look around as you wait in line and there is all kinds of junk being sold. It's the kind of stuff that wouldn't sell at a yard sale for a nickel! Why do they have it?
4) The Books a Million lady got angry with me when I turned down their special card offer. I told her "I never shop here" and she then went into this whole spiel about how it would only cost me $12.99 today instead of the regular $20. I said "So I get to use it today if I purchase it?" and she said well, the discount can either be looked at as applied to the purchase or the cost of the card. I say: "so basically I am just adding $12.99 to my total purchase price? No thanks." and she got really offended! Point is- do they get commission off these cards or something? And honestly, I almost always buy my books off Amazon anyway, so I'll just be wasting the money. I was already spending a lot of money at their store, just leave me alone!
5) I love love love to give presents. Jason would tell you that if he didn't watch me, I would spend all our money on food and gifts. It is just fun to pick out something that you know will give someone happiness and give it to them! I also really love wrapping gifts. Anyway, all that being said, I really lost sight of the joy of the season during yesterday's holiday shopping. Oh, I got excited about finding just the right thing, but all in all, the craziness and business of this time of year really usurps the real reason we celebrate Christmas. I need to continue to try to focus on THAT and not let everything else get in the way!
Merry Christmas!

thanks.

Waste Not

My small group has been reading the book by John Piper "Don't Waste Your Life". I recommend this book to anyone, but I am not going to talk so much about the book but more about a decision I made because of reading the book and feeling a tugging at my heart. I decided to give up television and facebook for a week. Not so hard, you might say. Well, it honestly wasn't. But I've had quite a few people ask me "Why?" so I thought I'd explain. First, I read this from Piper's book:

"Television is one of the greatest life wasters of the modern age....The main problem with TV is not how much smut is available, though that is a problem. Just the ads are enough to sow fertile seeds of greed and lust, no matter what program you're watching. The greater problem is banality. A mind fed daily on TV diminishes. Your mind was made to know and love God. Its facility for this is ruined by excessive TV. The content is so trivial and so shallow that the capacity of the mind to think worthy thoughts withers, and the capacit of the heart to feel deep emotions shrivels. Neil Postman shows why.

What is happening in America is that television is transforming all serious public business into junk....Television disdains exposition, which is serious, sequential, rational, and complex. It offers instead a mode of discourse in which everything is accessible, simplistic, concrete, and above all, entertaining. As a result, America is the world's first culture in jeopardy of amusing itself to death."

-John Piper Don't Waste Your Life
It got me to thinking about the reasons I watch tv and get on Facebook. I couldn't really come up with any GOOD answers. I guess the biggest reason is to literally waste time. Most shows I watch are not quality, informative programming. They don't do much more than to provide a background for whatever else it is I'm doing. Or not doing. Sometimes I turn on the tv when I'm bored. Because it's there. It beckons "turn me on, I'll help keep you mildly entertained for a while". The same is true, for the most part, for Facebook (oh sure, I keep up with friends and family far away, but mostly, I just got on because I was wanting to waste some time). Thinking all this over I came to the conclusion that I have so much more LIFE to be living and that I am called to live it, not waste it. So for a week I watched no tv and did not get on Facebook. Oh, I fretted "What if I miss something?", "What if someone tries to contact me and thinks I am rude for not replying?". Well, those are silly reasons. Guess what? A tornado hit the city I live in, people tried to contact me, and I didn't get on FB or turn on the TV. And I'm still here. My friends still like me. The tornado would have come whether or not I knew about it. The destruction would have been there whether or not I turned on the tv to gawk at it like a rubber necker at an accident. So, I gave up Facebook and tv to start living life a little more. What did I do? How did things differ from before? Now that it is over, have things changed? Well, I spent more quality time with my daughter, dog, and husband, spent more quality time in the Word, and was able to find time to do more things for others, even silly things just to say "thinking about you". Today was day one of being back to 'normal'. I turned on the morning news for a little while, checked Facebook, even uploaded a video! But my attitude about it was different. It wasn't something I was doing just to waste time, I had a purpose, I fulfilled that purpose, and I moved on. Do I think I had some sort of "problem" with TV or FB? No. No more than any of you reading this. Do I think I am better than anyone for having given it up? Of course not. I do think I am a better ME, though. So, if you ask "why?" there you go. My life is being shaped and changed so that I live each day in an effort to glorify God and use this life wisely! And by the way, the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon (By Bill Watterson) has always made me laugh and is so appropriate I had to include it!