Thursday's Things Heard...

Things heard while watching Finding Nemo...

Yesterday was a rainy snuggle up under a fuzzy blanket kinda day. We started the day watching Finding Nemo in Mommy’s bed. Isn’t that the best part of anything as a little kiddo when you do it in mommy’s bed. I thought of adding popcorn but we hadn’t had breakfast yet.

Dustin always fast forwards through the part where Nemo loses his mom and siblings but when we got to the part where Nemo gets taken from his dad, I mentioned to Dustin I thought it might be too intense. He said she was fine so I used it as a learning point.

You know the part at the beginning when they are going off to the drop off and

Nemo says: What's that?

Tad: I know what that is. Sandy Plankton saw one. He called it... uh... he said it was called a "butt".

Pearl: That's a pretty big butt.

And Sheldon says: Oh, look at me. I'm gonna touch the butt.

And then Nemo swims all the way out, touches the “butt” and gets captured by a diver on his way back. His dad screams and cries out for Nemo but is unable to save him?!?!

I looked at Anna Beth as serious as I could be and says that is why it is so very important to listen to your Mommy and Poppy. If Nemo listened to his Daddy, he would be safe right now but now he is in danger.

To which she replied...I will always listen to Poppy. I will never touch the butt.

I love this little girl!

Wednesday's Something I have never done before

So what did I do this time, that I have never done before? Glad you asked...

I spoke "southern" on the phone with the bank to be more endearing to the representative at the same time being conferenced in on the phone with someone from the church who was helping with account information I didn't know and had never heard me speak that way.

Recently the discussion has been brought up as to why I do not have a southern accent and am from the south. I told my friends that I dropped it but could pull it out whenever it is needed or if I hang around my family for any length of time. Then of course they asked why I dropped it and here is my story....

I told them about the time I heard my dad's voice on a recorded tape. I questioned him and said it sounded nothing like him and how did he change his voice. He said that he had a business trip to take up in NY and he knew he would not be taken as serious of his accent was as strong as it was. I liked the way he sounded then and much preferred it over the recorded voice from years earlier. If he could drop it so could I. It wasn't then that I decided to drop it. That decision came a few years later.

As I was exiting high school, there were some close friends of mine that picked on certain words I said. Certain words sounded very 'southern'. I lived in Georgia, hello!?!?! After meeting Dustin and knowing deep down we would be married one day, I decided I didn't want my children to have a super thick southern accent. Lord help them if we both sounded like Dustin! So somewhere as we were courting, I slowly dropped it.

This last Friday, Dustin had pulled out our wedding video from over 10 years ago. When I heard my voice, it took my breath away. Look what I had done! My heart sank a little. Why was I so set on dropping it? There was one clip from when I was saying my vows that we played over and over..."to be my husband" Dustin said then that he wished I never dropped it. Man!

So, this morning someone from the church needed me to call BB&T and get our login reset. (for those of you who do not know, BB&T is based in North Carolina) For some reason we had been locked out. I was one of the original people on the account 6 years ago but of course, I haven't had anything to do with the finances once the church grew long enough to have volunteers do it. It doesn't look great to see the pastor's wife in the corner counting money and preparing deposit slips. For some reason the person who called this morning wasn't able to get past all of the automated steps to reset the password and was on the phone for 20 minutes with a rep and still wasn't able to make progress. I called and turned my accent on in a jiffy. The lady was very nice and I talked very slow and sweet. She needed to know some account info that I hadn't messed with in over 4 years so I conferenced in my friend who had asked me to call them in the first place. I talked as southern as I could get. Turns out, my friend had just as many rights with that account as I do but when he called they didn't give him any info. I called, answered the same questions and our account was unlocked AND we didn't even need the password reset.

I attribute it to my southern accent. Maybe she would have given it to me if I talked as a Marylander, maybe not BUT boy did I have fun chatting with her today and now my friend can tell my other friends that I do speak Southern.

Tuesday's Taco Salad Family Night

Family night tonight started the moment Dustin walked in the door with "just because" flowers. I have a very supportive, giving and encouraging husband. After our taco salad and recap of the day, we went downstairs and watched some DVDs we got from the library earlier that day.

Richard Scarry's Best Learning Songs Video Ever

Science Clips for Children Characteristics of Animals

and

Berenstain Bears Mind their Manners

I am using AB as a guinea pig and testing out things for the daycare. I don't think she minds the DVDs so much! She really like the Science one. I had no idea that the library had SO much to offer.

After videos we pottied, got pjs on, brushed teeth, and read some of our new library books. After I tucked her in and sang our songs. Next was Lydia's turn and she was diapered, placed in pjs and kissed on, I looked at the clock! WooHoo it was only 8:45! What a blessing! She had a very full day and by no means felt cheated! This is the first time since Lydia was born that Dustin and I got so much time alone in the evening.

Tonight might be a very boring night to read about but man it was just what I needed! Good night!

Monday's Making it a Home...lovings with lotion

Ok, so this blog is coming a day late. PEPCO left us without power yesterday for over 11 hours! NO power means no internet and no laptop. But here is my Monday's post of how I am trying to make my house more of a home.

I could share with you how I organized the office nook in the corner of my sunroom all day yesterday (the only room with sufficient light since we didn't have power). That definitely made our house more homey but I really feel that God is showing me the importance of making my daughters feel "at home" instead of just running through a daily routine or having orders barked at them. Put your shoes on, stand here, drink your milk, go potty, pick up your toys, do not hug Moose, come here!

Sunday night's bedtime routine was no exception. God really put it on my heart to take a few moments to bless her instead of picking the short books for her bedtime story and rushing though her bedtime songs. We had a craZy weekend!!! It started with a 7AM prayer meeting Saturday AM, out of town guests, community block party, a shortened nap time, dinner with friends, a craZy Sunday AM with me pawning her off someone in the church so I can set up Sunday School, a lunch with 30+ friends, no nap, ice cream with our friends before they headed home and then her Poppy leaving her to go to a Sunday Night small group. Poor thing was spent. I was spent. She was spent. We all were spent. All I wanted to do was rush through her bedtime routine so I could take a HOT bubble bath. But I heard God whisper to me to spend extra time with her.

I put Lydia to bed and grabbed the baby lotion. I went into AB's room, read a new book I had never read her, then I read a classic 'Mommy-Anna Book'. As we put on PJs we said her prayers. She sat in my lap as I read her her bible story. And then I put lotion on her legs and arms. She was very unsure of it and thought it tickled. But then she loved the way it felt on her skin. I continued to lather it on her and silently pray over her. She continued to giggle. Then, I picked her up and put her into bed and rubbed the lotion on her feet. She loved it. We sang her 2 songs and then I turned off her lights.

All I could think is I myself would love for someone to pick me up, rub lotion on my feet and tuck me in. If I felt as spent as I did, surely she picked up on my stress and had stress of her own. What an honor it was to love on her with lotion and lather her in silent prayers.

Thank you Jesus. Please keep teaching me.

Friday's Thankful Treasures

Here is what we treasure this week...

Dustin said "My workout time in the morning along with learning to live in the moments I have with my family."

As for myself, this week I treasure Dustin's surprising me with finding our wedding video and making a digital copy of it. We will be watching it tonight. We have one photo from our wedding on a shelf and every time AB sees it she says, 'That is when Mommy was a princess and Poppy got her. It was before I was born.' This morning I told her that when Poppy comes home she gets to watch a special Princess movie with us. I hope she isn't disappointed that Disney didn't make the movie.

Anna Beth is asleep right now but I can tell you without a doubt what she treasures today! Ice Cream. She has been looking forward to it for 3 days now. She is getting a flu shot at the Dr. today. She knows that she is going to get a "little owwie, a big sticker, and some ice cream with sprinkles and a cone!!!" She has been begging to go to the doctor's office all day!

And again, since Lydia cannot talk, I would have to say that she treasured the moment that I finally quit messing with her this morning and just let her be. She has a 2 month check up today and we had to take a bath and get all nice and dressed up of course and I had to clean behind her ears and extra stuff we do not do everyday! Lotion and the whole nine yards; doesn't every

mom do that? Needless to say, she treasured the moment I was able to mark her off my to do list and move on to breakfast, dishes and laundry.

Thursday's Things Heard...

Things Heard at the dinner table...

Last night as AB sat down for dinner she sang a line from a song and then continued to repeat it: "Twink, twink, twinkle, twinkle lovely little star...Twink, twink, twinkle, twinkle stupid little star."

It stopped me right in my tracks. Did my precious little three year old just say stupid? I got Dustin's attention and said, "I think she just said twink twink S-T-U-P-I-D little star!!!" Before he could even respond she said, "no mommy, I said twink twink STUPID little star!" To which Dustin replied, "well there ya go!"

Of course we had a little chat about why stupid is not the best choice of words and we don't say it in our house! BUT then the search for where in the world she heard it from started. We purposefully do not have TV and we are very selective as to which DVDs she watches. Well, remember my post from last Tuesday...the part where I let her watch the Dr. Seuss movie Green Eggs and ham? There were 2 other short cartoons on the DVD...The Sneetches and The Zax! And apparently there is a song on The Sneetches that has a duck singing a song and in that song they sing Twink, twink, twinkle, twinkle stupid little star.

Dr. Seuss was the last one I thought I would have to preview before I showed it to her. Oh well, now she knows what a bad word is and that we don't say bad words in our house. I was hoping we could have waited a while before we got to this point!

Wednesday's Something I have never done before

This week I got to attach flyers to telephone poles with a strong staple gun. Our church is doing a Community Block Party at the local Elementary School. We went door to door passing out flyers to all of the neighbors and putting the flyers on the telephone poles too!

It is exciting to be able to do this each year for our neighbors and our community. I have always been working full time and not able to help with the prep work. I took the girls with me and we went with some other ladies from the church. As we were going from house to house, I got to pray with one elderly lady and get the mail for another one. AB got some ice cream from the "broccoli truck" and we even gave a lot of flyers to the ice cream man and he will do some advertising for us too. It was nice to get out of the house. It was nice to get some exercise. And it was fun using the staple gun. Now I get to retrace all of our steps next week and take them down.

Tuesday's Taco Salad Family Night

Taco Salad is something we get to depend on each week. Everything else might be crazy or different each week but Tuesday night is something that just brings peace and wholeness to our family. Maybe wholeness is not the right word but I can't think of a better one. It just sets us in the right mood, the right frame of mind, and just does the soul good!

Tonight our family night has an unexpected guest. Anna's friend had to come over because his mommy is at the hospital! We are happy to have him and he is fitting right into our fun night. We had Taco Salad (of course) and they both got clean plate high fives!!!

Then we opened a goodie bag from AB's birthday party. Yes her birthday was at the beginning of July, but in my defense, someone gave me the advice to hold some presents back. A lot of attention would be give to Lydia once she arrived and if we staggered AB's gifts, then she would feel special and important too and an unintended benefit was that she would appreciate each toy more than normal because she could get to choose one at a time. We let her choose one a week. I think I might do it every year, new baby on the way or not because it really helped her to be thankful. Well, to get you back to tonight where we currently are, she was digging in my closet and found the goodie bag that had fallen out of the large bag of all of her gifts. It was from chuck e cheese. Her and her friend got to dig through it, split one piece of candy (come on, i don't like giving plain sugar to children). They then played with some spinning top like toy and split a deck of mini cards.

Because they did so well at dinner they are watching a movie. What movie? Dr. Seuss Green Eggs and Ham.

What is better than Taco Salad, one half a piece of candy, a goodie bag and a classic Dr. Seuss cartoon? I don't think there is anything better than that!

Monday's Making it a Home...37 minutes

What does making it a home look like? Today it looked like waking up at 6:09am. Today is the first day of a routine that Dustin and I started. Hoping it turns into a lifestyle for the 2 of us. We both set our alarm for 6:09 (we carefully calculated how much time we would need and went backwards and landed at that odd time. If we had calculated we needed one more minute we would have set the alarm for 6:08 but no point in doing it if we didn't need that time, huh?

We woke up and each had a few minutes of prayer time by ourselves. We then joined together for a time of prayer together, out loud, pouring our hearts to God for us, our marriage, our family, our church and our jobs. Then it was on to the family room. We did a 20 minute work out! Jillian Michaels 30 day Shred. We both need to get fit and this is the first time we did something like this together. Then it was on to showering, getting ready for the day and feeding a little baby.

After Dustin left, I was able to make some coffee and sit down and go over the bible study for this Wednesday's night small group. By the time Anna Beth was up and about, I was in a great place mentally to bring on the day. I felt confident that I could take today on and all that it brought. I think a huge part of that came from my prayers this morning asking God to order my steps and to PLEASE PLEASE guide me. Give me wisdom ad show me how to be the mom Anna Beth needs!

Its only 10:30 right now and we have had a wonderful morning. I made us banana waffles and we did an arts and crafts project she has been begging me to do. Its an annoying little craft that has 5,000,000 pieces and is for ages 5 and up. It is the kind where you put beads on a peg board and iron it so they fuse together. Her YaYa bought it for her and I was going to save it for a later day but she found it and has been begging to do it ever since. Today I surprised her with it. Poor thing probably thought she would never be able to do it based on the number of times I told her no last week. She was so very excited. Even though she wasn't able to do the craft all on her own because of the difficulty level, we used it as a chance to learn to sort colors and to count by actually touching objects instead of just pointing to pictures in a book.

I timed our bead project. Start to finish was 37 minutes. I probably spent 37 minutes last week saying no. Now we have an owl made of beads on our fridge. When she sees it she will probably remember being so excited to make it and remember how fun it was to sort all the beads. When I see it, I will be reminded not to say no all the time and that 37 minutes spent with my daughter making memories is priceless and when she is grown up and married I would give anything to have just another 37 minutes with her.

Friday's Thankful Treasures

What do we treasure?

I asked Dustin what he treasured today via text and here was his reply: "Seriously, you and my girls. I really do. The busier I am the more I love you guys. Strange isn't it?" I asked him if he was sure he wanted to use this one so early in the game and I would be posting it each Friday. He stuck with his answer.

My treasure this week is a bible verse I read again. It's so cool to re-read one and it speaks to you differently. Lamentations 3:22-24 ²² The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. ²³ Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. ²⁴ I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!”

Anna Beth, what are you most thankful for this week? "My green blankie!" (thanks Aunt Donna...3 years and counting! Still the most favorite thing)

Lydia, since she can't speak, I am just going to speculate. I will have to say she treasured me this morning at 6am when I went into her room. She smiled so big at me and I got a coo!

Thursday's Something I have never done before

Call me crazy, but I have never used those recyclable grocery bags. I don't know what they are really called but I thought they were silly. Just another save-the-world-and-make-the-store-a-lot-of-money kinda things. I took 6 with me that I had collected over the year. I didn't buy them, they were either left at my house after a church pot luck, a meal was brought in them when Lydia was born, or a freebie from a vendor at work. I take that back, I did buy one, well it came with a meal. I ordered a LOT of food from Crisp and Juicy one time and that is what they put my food in.

Anyways, the lady kindly took my bags. I still couldn't figure out her thoughts on them. I am not sure if she is annoyed by having to use the customers own bags. Isn't it easier to just use the plastic bags that are right in front of her.

I must tell you my motivation for bringing my own bags was two fold. First, I knew I would be needing to write something I have never done before. Secondly, I got so stinkin tired of the million plastic bags that would collect in my kitchen. I tried all the special holders that you can get for them. I even made one of my own; a empty kleenex box is perfect. You can cram about 15 or so bags in there and it doesn't take up that much space. Our problem was that we had like 1,500 bags. I tried the paper bag route as well until I saw a tiny baby roach in the last paper bag I brought home. I had my breaking point and I do not think I will ever turn back.

I think the thing I enjoyed most was how easy it was to carry the heaver items such as 2 liter bottles. I like they way it fits back into the cart. You can see what is in each bag. As you put them into your car you can see which bag has your bread and eggs and be sure not to crush them.

I did buy a reusable bag that day, but not for myself. As I had all the groceries on the belt, I had a little separate pile. I had dinner for a friend that just had a baby. Yes, I just had a baby myself, I know that. Hence me buying the refrigerated pasta, sauce, a bagged salad, and a fresh pie from the bakery. The could make it that night in like 4 minutes or they could throw it in the fridge and eat it later after they ate all the yummy leftovers from people that brought them real food. Anyways, I asked the cashier to put theirs in a separate bag. It felt nice to put their meal in one of those bags. It was nice than putting it in a plastic bag or worse a paper bag with a baby roach!!!

Wednesday's Things Heard

Things Heard When Poppy Comes Home from work...

9/10/10 "Hey Poppy, this is Lor (Pointing to me). You can hug her all you want."

Things Heard at the Dinner Table

9/9/10 (this conversation happened after AB had repeatedly dug her toe nails into Dustin's leg at the dinner table) Dinner was almost over and out of the blue she said, "Poppy, I am very sorry to scratch you." To which he replied "Thank you Anna, that is very nice." Poppy I will never scratch you like this again" "OUCH ANNA!" Hahahaha.

Things Heard on the Swing Set

9/14/10 We were talking about what we learned at the library that day...fall weather. She saw the wind blowing her two flags and she said, "Mommy, my America flag is winding. My pirate flag is winding too".

Tuesday's Taco Salad and Family Night

Tuesday Night Taco Salad and Family Night...it's my favorite night of the week. Its super easy for AB to help me prepare it and she eats everything on the table minus the lettuce. It only takes like 5 minutes to prepare because I make the taco meat batches at a time and freeze it so I just pull a bag out that afternoon and everything else is just pouring it into bowls.

Our family time consisted of show-and-telling her craft project with Poppy that we made at the library, sand box time, helping Mommy clear the table and load the dishwasher, reading books from the library, and AB's favorite part, "cycling" or as we adults call it ... recycling.

Memories made...in the sand box tonight, I showed her how I made sand castles when I was a little girl. The rest of the evening she would make a castle and then say, "look mommy, when I was a little girl I made one like this", over and over and over. She wanted to be just like me. It was so precious. I hope I am always someone she wants to be like. But Lord have mercy, please let her far surpass me and be much greater.

The sun was quickly sinking and the wonderful fall weather was a little too cold for Lydia so I told Anna Beth that she had 5 more minutes. During those 5 minutes, she proceeded to make me a sand-meatball-bean-and-milk-sand-cake. She stuck a stick in it and sang happy birthday to me. I even got to blow the candle out.

Why can't every night be Taco Salad and Family Night?

Here is a picture of our salad and here is one of her helping me do the "cycling". She said it is her favorite thing to do.

Monday's Making it a Home...Flash Cards and puzzle pieces

So on Saturday I put the girls down for their naps and wrote up my plan for the blog for this fall. You can see the breakdown that I will try to do each week. In that post I shared how God was teaching me it is not about keeping house but making it a home. Well no later than an hour after I wrote that, Anna Beth got up and put me to the test. I had told her when she woke up we would play with her puzzle. Where did she plop down and spread the million pieces and 2 sets of flash cards? Of course right in the middle of our home...10 steps from the front door, 2 steps from the kitchen, 1 step from the living room, 2 steps from the stairs leading up to the bedrooms and 2 steps from the stairs leading down to the family room.

Oh how I cringed inside. What a mess, people will trip. Puzzle pieces will be lost forever. I think God might be teaching me more than just how to make my house a home, he is showing me an ugly side of myself, the side that prefers order and perfection over silliness with a 3 year old. I chose silliness and survived!! I think AB had fun too.

ACCOMPLISHMENT: Birth Announcements

Birth Announcements and Thank you notes are done and sitting by the door. I am hoping my dear husband will take them to the post office for me. Can you imagine me with my 2 kiddos standing at the counter at the post office putting stamps on all of them? Lord have mercy!

Not sure why people send them but then again at the same time I am not sure why people do not. I guess it is a southern thing! I feel compelled that I MUST do this. Regardless, they are out, a little late but here they come.

Does one know the time limit on a thank you note? I am finding that thank you notes are a southern thing as well but again I feel compelled that I MUST do them even if my child is 7 and a half weeks old now. In my mind, I just couldn't let it go till she was 8 weeks old.

SO there you go! I get to cross 2 things off my list today and am ready to move on! Phew!

Coming this Fall!!!

A lot has been stirring in my heart lately. As I transition out of the corporate world and into a life of homemaking and running a daycare out of my home, my mind is spinning. I feel like I have been given a huge gift; an opportunity to pour into my daughter’s lives, an opportunity to reach others, to give myself fully to God, my family, my business, my church, and lastly, give myself fully to myself.

We have been experiencing some very wonderful weather. Fall is quickly approaching. Soon we will be crunching leaves under our feet as we take our walks. You can smell the apple cider, well you can almost smell it. A new season is a new beginning. Summer is over. Peoples minds are transitioning from play to work, a time of rest to a time of busyness. School is back in. At the Tapestry, small groups are starting back up. Dustin just started the bowling league. I am staying home from my corporate job. Lydia is 7 weeks old (yesterday) and is growing out of her newborn clothes. Anna Beth is a little over 3 and we are starting pre-school (homeschool style). Everyone is in the middle of some sort of physical, emotional or spiritual transition.

Please join me as I give you a glimpse into my life, a life that is constantly in transition...my life as a wife, a mommy, a homemaker, a teacher, an at-home daycare provider, a Pastor’s wife, a children’s Pastor, a friend, an ordinary girl learning to become a lady, and last but not least, a blogger. Below is my proposed blog schedule for the fall. I will change these topics up every quarter.

Mondays

‘A simple reminder that it is not about keeping house but making a home’

This is something that God whispered in my ear as I was driving down the interstate yesterday afternoon. We had just finished a photo session. Lydia turned 7 weeks old that day. We had a great (and successful) morning. We were showered, fed, pottied and diapered, got out the door and made it to our appointment on time. But as we were turning around to go home, all I could think about was that it was time to get everyone fed, pottied, diapered and in bed for naps and how I had to empty the dishwasher from the night before, do laundry, pick up the house before the exterminator came to give an estimate, and the list ran on. I felt like the last 7 weeks that I have been on maternity leave I had missed the point. I thought homemaking was all about the laundry being put away, dishes washed, and dinner on the table when my husband came home. God revealed to me I have been just merely a house keeper. Sure, my house has been kept (somewhat...it’s hard with a newborn and a three year old) but I wasn’t making it a home. Who wants to live in a tidy home with a stressed mommy who keeps answering her three year old’s daily question “mommy do you want to play with me” by saying sure baby but first, mommy has to pick up the house, or mommy has to clean first. Duh, I should be focusing on reading fairy tales, building towers with blocks, putting masterpieces on the sidewalk with tiny bits of chalk. The laundry will be put away but I need to build memories and give lovings and huggings first. Isn’t that where memories are made and how a home is built. Anyways, I say all that to say this, each Monday I will write about ways I was reminded to make a home instead of keep a house.

Tuesdays

Tuesday Nights are Taco Salad and Family Night

One meal that Dustin and I each remember from our childhoods was Taco Salad. Yes, both of our moms did it because it was quick and a no-brainer. If they did it, why can’t I. Of course I combine both of our versions to make it our own. We add avocado and olives. Dustin grew up topping his with ranch dressing and I grew up with sour cream and salsa. Who knows which way the girls will prefer theirs.

The ‘family night’ part of the night looks like bubble baths, candy land or a family friendly movie. It always is at our house. Our life of full time ministry and 2 full time jobs makes us on the go and on the run all the time. We must provide some since of normalcy for our girls and Tuesday Night Taco Salad and Family Night is something we ALL can depend on. And on Tuesday nights you can read of our adventures.

Wednesday

Something I have never done before

2010 has been filled with things I have never done before. Leaving my family and going to India to play with orphans, grilling pineapple, grilling cantaloupe, having 11 different couples over for dinner a couple at a time, gave birth to my second child, evacuated my house because of a storm. Some of these are monumental, some are not so much, but saying that every Wednesday I will post something new seems that I will live my life purposefully (at least for the next quarter).

Thursday

Things Heard...

I have not been the best at keeping track of the little things that AB has shared with us. The funny, the wise, the crazy and just plain silly. There are times that God uses her to bring our focus back to what is important and there are times that God uses her to teach us. Thursday’s blog entries will be short and sweet, but one day I will collect them all and make a book for my daughters to keep forever.

Friday

Thankful Treasures

I will list one thing that each of my family members treasure. We are currently teaching our daughter the difference between wants and needs and being thankful for what we have. She knows that we do not buy everything we want. She knows that there are some times we will walk into a store and leave empty handed. She knows that just because someone else has something, doesn't mean we need to have it too. What do we treasure? Come back each Friday and see.

I also will try to include Accomplishments, Milestones and “A Penny Saved” Moments. And of course there is always the bonus little moments that aren’t scheduled! Those are the best, right?

I hope that this glimpse into my life is a blessing to whoever may read it. See you this Monday!

September 3, 2010: Today Compassion Begins

This morning I opened the fridge to find that Dustin had left his lunch at home again! AB and Lydia and I already had one errand to run and it was close to Dustin's work. I decided we could swing it! (we are getting much better at outings). Lydia turned 6 weeks old today and was in a super happy mood, smiling and the whole 9 yards, so yes, we would take Dustin's lunch to him.

Here is a photo of Lydia Grace in her super happy mood:

Once we got to Dustin's work he brought AB some pretzels and a banana. We went on to run our errand and headed home. Here is AB eating the yummy pretzels:

On the way home we drove past a homeless man lying on the grass. I saw him but wasnt sure if Anna Beth saw him to. Yep, she saw him.

Here is what our conversation went like:

AB: Mommy, that man is sleeping on the grass. Did you see him?

Mommy: I did see him. He is sleeping on the grass because he doesnt have a house.

AB: He has a house, his house is in, he has a house...his house is just in Georgia.

Mommy: Nope, he does not have a house at all. Some people have houses and some people do not.

(we drove through another intersection and this time she saw a homeless lady)

AB: Mommy, do you see her. She is sad.

Mommy: I do see her. She is sad. She doesn't have a house either. See the sign she is holding up? That sign says I do not have a house, please help me.

I then explained how she doesn't have a house, food or money. As we were turning into our neighborhood I asked her what we could do for the lady.

AB: She can come to our kitchen and eat.

Mommy: That is a good idea. Maybe one day she can come to our kitchen and eat. How bout today we go give her something to eat now. Do you think she will like a banana?

AB: (with much excitement!!!) Yes! She will love it.

Mommy: OK I will turn around.

Trying to reiterate the lesson that was being learned I continued the conversation.

Mommy: Ok, here we go. We are almost there. Do you know why we are giving her your banana?

AB: (I was hoping she would say because she doesn't have a kitchen or money or something along those lines, but nope...my 3 year old blew me away) Because we LOVE HER!

Mommy: Do you know why we are giving her a dollar?

AB: (I was hoping she would say something like so she can buy a house or something but again, my 3 year old blew me away) Because we LOVE HER.

Mommy: You are right. We do love her. We will give her a dollar and a banana so she can eat and maybe buy a house one day. And we will pray for her that she will know Jesus. Let's pray. Jesus, please let the lady know you, have a house and a happy heart (she's 3, that is as simple as I could put it). In Jesus name, AMEN.

AB: Mommy, what is her name?

mommy: We can ask her. Oh, there she is.

We missed the red light but decided to just turn our hazard lights on and have a chat with her. I gave her the dollar and then proceeded to explain to her that AB wanted to share her banana and we wanted to pray for her and wanted to know her name. She took the banana and started eating it before she said a word. After she ate a couple bites she said her name was Jenny and explained her situation. Her husband gets work here and there and only gets about 500 a month and was trying to get her off the streets. We said we would pray for her and AB got to say hi to Mrs. Jenny. The light turned green and off we went, but not before I snapped one last photo. Mrs. Jenny had moved on the car behind ours but AB wanted to see her eat her banana. Here is the last photo I snapped.

This is Mrs. Jenny eating the banana:

Today some innocence was lost. AB knows that some people do not have food and they do not have a house and have to sleep outside during the heat or the cold. That is a lot to stomach for such a small child but today, my daughter got to see Jesus in a different way.

³⁴"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

Matthew 25:34-35

I love my Job!