on dropping naps

sweet graham rarely sleeps during rest time anymore. he is still in that transition and i go back and forth about whether i would rather coax him into an afternoon nap or for him to go right to sleep at night. it results in a lot of crashes on the couch when we are reading books in the afternoon or evening. i love to look at sleeping children, so i want a few on here. he may hate me for taking these one day...






and sometimes when he does sleep, it seems impossible to wake him

on a related note, here is some post-sleeping morning hair

15 months: busy and messy

i've been trying to capture miles on camera lately because he is at this wild stage of non-stop moving and shaking around the house...all kinds of dangerous and messy ideas and activities attract him. my simple job is to keep him from getting injured and it seems to consume most of my time lately...

he is 25 lb and 31 inches-50th percentile
he can walk but doesn't usually, preferring crawling (faster) or being toted (lazy)
he talks all kinds of cute gibberish---"diggle nimmle diggle..." i recognize a few words here and there like uh-oh, dada, and mama
we love this little boy, still super snuggly and i don't mind that a bit.




my weight for leg-extensions to help my runner's knee




playing mommy, daddy, and unwilling baby

on daughters and body image

i have all these thoughts rolling around in my head and adam took the big kids swimming, so bear with me while i process out loud. i read this article by janell burley hofmann about an experience she had with her seven year old daughter (7!!!) after her daughter confessed feeling "fat." it's a good read and made me cry, surprise surprise. i could not help thinking of my beautiful daughter and the conversations we are sure to have in the future. i could not help but think of my childhood and the fear and control that gripped me in my middle school years as i desperately wanted to be "thin."

it is such a touchy issue with women...this topic of beauty and weight and health. we struggle to be thankful for how we were created and to fight self-loathing and destructive tendencies. we struggle to not compare with others, to not be defensive when people express concern. our culture is hard on women...telling us lies about what real people look like and act like and our information age puts overwhelming amounts of info in front of our faces all the time enticing us to think there are quick fixes and essential ingredients to happy and healthy lives. and well, we are just sinful and we twist things. like anything else good, we broken messed up folks can turn health and fitness and beauty into idolatry.

i admire hofman for the way she faced head-on her own insecurity about her body with her daughter. and while, i'm sure we disagree on many things (girl-power, self-confidence etc), i think she makes a good point. our daughters will learn from the women in their lives. adam noted, that insecurity about body cannot be dispelled in an instant. it is something we must cultivate and encourage...this looking to Jesus for security and identity. when they are young, mommy is so important. marit is just 4, but i pray that she will find rest in Jesus so that when she is more influenced by peers, she will be confident in Him and His loving work in and around her. do i really believe that i am created beautifully by God in His image? of course our motives are always mixed and kids have a way of seeing through them...little perceivers that they are. am i telling marit one thing and acting something different out for my own body? of course, eating well and exercising are ways we can take good care of the gift that is the body, but am i emphasizing it right in my own life, with my words and actions?

what do i know? we have not had these conversations at all yet, but i want marit to know from now until forever the truth: you are beloved by God. you have been created by God. no amount of striving for perfection in any area of life, be it having a perfectly thin body or achieving excellence in some sport or art will ever ever satisfy. only Jesus can satisfy the longing in your heart to belong and to be loved. everything and everyone else will fail.

i want to live this struggle openly before my little girl. i want to repent of my own sin to the Lord and if it is helpful, to her. i want to preach the Gospel to myself so often that marit overhears it and preaches it to herself.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in you body. 1cor 6:19-20

this article is great too regarding body and performance and being loved by God.

Christmas footage

this year, we mostly stayed here and people came to us several days before Christmas. i liked it that way. my sister and husband came from chicago, my brother and sister-in-law and kids from athens, my parents came, we MISSED abe and bethany who are living in India right now. it was a lot of chaos, but good to be together. we took a day-trip to see my dad's side of the family on one day. on Christmas eve and day we saw adam's parents. i took maybe 2 photos the whole week, so these are all from my dad.
messy gift exchange...so fun!

 

 

cousins testing out the playroom bed

 

kroc center to the rescue on a cold, rainy day to get the kiddos some energy-exertion

 

family walk...we were going to carol, but the weather did not allow

 

dress-up!

 

duets!

 

lips!

 

eliza meets my sweet grandma

 

jeremiah and aida discuss

 

most the great-grands watching amahl and the night visitors

 

mom and sisters

 

story time with papa

"christmas" dinner prep(on dec 22)

on christmas morning with their scarves and pottery i made for them...

picking char char up from the airport

shelter

my favorite song today...


In the arms of a good Father
You can go to the deep water
Where the questions, we have left unspoken
Come out in the open
We will find shelter here

So I lay down, what I cannot hold in my hands
Every sorrow and hope spinning out of control
And here I find sweet resolution comes in letting go
And we will find shelter here

When I look back I can see,
And when I am old I'll remember these things
Like a mountain of stone
And the longing that makes me believe...

There is a tree by the blue river
Where the shade stretches wide over
In this breaking we are hand and glove
Come with me my love
We will find shelter here
We will find shelter here...

on milkshakes

Motherhood & Work: Too many straws in my milkshake | Rachel Jankovic from Canon Wired on Vimeo.

i found this encouraging today. "stop calculating how much you have to give..."
i appreciate her humor and real-life experience...her book is a treasure too.

our mighty hunter

do you see this precious boy with big brown eyes and a dirt-streaked face?

he caught his first lizard yesterday all by himself. i heard him catch his breath and move very quickly behind the playhouse and then proudly walk out holding the lizard by his tail. unfortunately, squeamish mommy let him escape when we were trying to transfer to a creature keeper. "bye bye lizard, you can go back to your fambly." i have a stash of old plastic jars and containers for all the creatures they like to catch and just one rule: do not bring yard creatures into the house. usually their conscience is pricked and they let them go back to their "famblies" within the hour anyway. after graham's escapades yesterday there was this conversation:

adam: graham, that's a real milestone for a little boy!

graham (in his toughest voice): yeah! now i'm a lizard hunter!

marit took this one of us...isn't he so big?!

haircut for snuggle bug!

adam finally agreed marit could get a haircut it was her first one...we've been trying to convince him for a while. her long hair was so pretty, but prone to painful tangles and super slippery so it always just seemed kind of a mess. she was soooo excited because she associates haircuts (not long hair) with Rapunzel. mommy got a much-needed trim too, though not nearly so dramatic.