An Experiment

The daffodils are blooming! They are my favorite flower. This year I remembered an "experiment" my mom and I did with daffodils when I was young. You put a daffodil in colored water and watch it change colors.  Nate loved this. I think his favorite part was squirting the food coloring in the water.  He also enjoyed checking on them to see how they were changing.


Before


24 hours later

Nate's First Catch

We have been loving this warm weather!  This afternoon we went fishing.  Nate likes the idea of fishing more than actually doing it.  It's fun for about three minutes then he's ready to move on to something that doesn't require being still.  Darren took him fishing several months ago and I think it was a disaster.  He did better today and would actually allow the bait to stay in the water for more than a few seconds.  He did something right today because he caught a fish!  He was holding the rod all by himself when we noticed the cork was gone.  Darren helped him reel it in and we were surprised to see a nice sized little bass on the end of the line.  Nate did not know what to think about the fish.  He acted a little afraid of it at first but did end up touching it a couple of times. 

Snow!!!

Compassion International

You will notice a new button on my side bar.  It's for Compassion International.  Compassion is a non-profit "Christian child sponsorship organization that exists as an advocate for children, releasing them from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enabling them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults."  They are a very reputable organization.  Over 80% of your monthly sponsorship fee goes to provide for the child you sponsor. 

We have been sponsoring a beautiful little girl, Ledet, for over a year now.  It was about 18 months ago when God began to show me the enormous amount of scripture concerning caring for the poor, oppressed, orphans and widows.  I remember sitting on my front porch reading James and thinking that I didn't know any poor people.  BUT, I had also never asked God to open my eyes to the poor around me and around the world.  So, that afternoon I prayed that God would begin to open my eyes...be less focused on myself and my wants and instead be focused on the needs of others.  This was a scary prayer for me. I thought what if God tells me to start giving up things that I really like?  What if He asks me to get out of my comfort zone?

Since that prayer (and many more) God has changed my heart in ways that I NEVER could have imagined in my wildest dreams.  Yes, He has asked me to give up things that I really like and yes, He has asked me to get out of my comfort zone.  BUT, the best part is that He has changed my heart toward things and stuff and giving up certain things (that I used to think that I just HAD to have) hasn't been that big of a struggle.  I now have a different view of things and stuff.  They are truly just things and stuff, instead of the treasured possessions they used to be.  I do have moments where my flesh creeps in and I lose perspective, but God is faithful when I am not and restores my focus.  Do you know how huge this is?  God changed my heart!  That's so exciting to me and I'm excited to see how he is going to continue to change my heart.

Back to Compassion.  I encourage your family to consider sponsoring a child.  If you have children, let them help choose which child to sponsor.  You can choose by country or gender or age.  You can even enter a specific birth date and choose a child that way.  It has been a wonderful opportunity for us to teach Nate the importance of sharing our blessings with others.  The cost is $38.00 a month.  I know the economy is bad right now and you may feel like this is something that is not in your budget.  If so, get creative.  Your family and another family or several families could work together to sponsor one child.  Or, you might give up eating out a couple of times a month.  The blessings of knowing that you are helping a hungry or sick child (and their family) have adequate nutrition, medical care, education and access to the Gospel will greatly outweigh the sacrifice.

Fun & Games

Nate got a couple of games for Christmas. For a while our morning routine was to play Yahtzee, Candy Land, and Memory, everyday, in that order. Saturday morning we played a game of Yahtzee while we were waiting on it to warm up so we could go play outside. (Yay for warm weather and playing outside!!!) But first, Nate had to get all of the Toy Story toys to watch us play.


In case you don't remember this particular dinosaur from Toy Story 1, 2, or 3; this is Bullseye. Nate doesn't have a Bullseye, so he has to improvise. I love how imaginative and creative children are!


You can't tell that Nate has hives in this picture, but he was pretty much covered in them for about 3 days. Thankfully they weren't itchy and didn't seem to bother him at all. He just looked pitiful.

McWane Center

Today Nate and I went to the McWane center for the first time.  We met some friends and had a great time.  I must admit that the best part was getting in free.  They are doing a cell phone drive until the end of January.  For each old cell phone you bring, you get a free admission to the McWane center and an IMAX theatre ticket.  We happened to have two old cell phones.  Today was also our first time to see a film at an IMAX theatre.  It was pretty cool...when it wasn't making my stomach turn.  We didn't make it through the entire show because Nate was ready to go play some more.  I didn't mind since it was free. :)

Christmas

Christmas. I honestly don’t even know what to say about Christmas at our house this year. It was kind of crazy. Thursday night Nate and I were in the kitchen and I bumped into him. It was just a little bump, but just enough to make him lose his balance and fall flat on his face on our tile floor. Right after his face hit the floor he immediately started screaming. He never screams like that so I knew he was really hurting. There was lots of blood. I don’t handle blood or trauma well. I screamed for Darren not knowing if he had knocked a tooth (or more) out or pushed them up into his gums. I did not in any way keep my cool. My mom instincts did not kick in. I just felt absolutely horrible for him and felt responsible since my bump caused it. Darren came in and started assessing the situation. Thankfully all of his teeth were firmly in the right places. The inside of his upper lip, on the other hand, looked like hamburger meat. The gums above his two front teeth also looked really bad. I will not be surprised if his front teeth start to darken due to the intense hit his gums and mouth took. (I know about injuries to the teeth and gums. My two front teeth are lovely crowns due to a childhood accident.) He was pitiful. He was very cooperative though and allowed us to hold some ice on his extremely swollen lip. His mouth was better the next day (Christmas eve), but it was still sore and he wasn’t real excited about eating.

We always spend Christmas Eve with my family. We celebrate Christmas and my sister’s birthday. This year we had an extra big celebration because my sister turned the big 40! It’s hard to believe that she is 40 and I will be 34 in March.  Before beginning the festivities we took a few pictures.  These pictures were taken on the front porch of the house where I grew up.  It is currently for sale.  My parents have moved next door to the house where my grandmother lived.  I thought I would miss the house since we have so  many memories there, but thankfully it has been a very easy transition. 

The (much improved) boo boo

Why do we have to eat before opening presents? 

 Nate loves to reenact scenes from Toy Story. One of his favorites is “Zurg game.” He didn’t have a Zurg and when I saw this one I had to get it for him (technically my mom gave it to him for Christmas). He was so excited. Darren was not. I knew it was a Lego Zurg, but I didn’t know it would have so many pieces. We finished up Christmas Eve putting Zurg together. (Darren and Nate put him together and I cheered them on.)  It didn’t take as long as Darren anticipated and he said it was actually kind of fun.

Christmas morning Nate woke up with a fever. He felt pretty bad. He didn’t even care about opening presents. After the Motrin kicked in he felt much better. It was still a long day. As soon as his medicine would wear off, his fever would get pretty high again. I only took a couple of pictures Christmas morning. His favorite presents were the marble works game and Candy Land. He is still loving to play those at least once a day. That night we had Christmas with Darren’s family. I actually didn’t even take my camera. Nate wore his pajamas. All of the cousins were very kind to let Nate bring all of his germs to the celebration. They insisted that we come and we really appreciated that.

Nate hurting his mouth and then being sick on Christmas day really helped me keep things in perspective. I hated that he was sick Christmas day. I hate it when he’s sick any day of the week/year. However, there are children who have cancer and other horrible illnesses that will never get better. There are also children who don’t have food to eat, much less presents to open Christmas day. We are very blessed and I hope we can share our blessings in 2011.