Sprititual Parenting by C.H. Spurgeon

These are my own thoughts and ramblings. If you want to read something about the girls only...scroll down. I posted something earlier today.

Charles Spurgeon is a preacher who lived in the 1800s in England. Jeremy and I enjoy reading his sermons (however you almost have to read them outloud because it's a sort of Old English, Thee, Thou...). Anyway, I have a book he wrote called Spiritual Parenting. It is the Best parenting book I've ever read, and it doesn't even tell you how to discipline your kids! hahaha. I may never read another parenting book, because this one encourages me so much! In it reveals my deepest desires as a mom. I just got through reading a chapter entitled "Childhood and Holy Scriptures" I want to teach Nicole and Hannah The Word of God. I want to help them learn to hide His word in their heart through memorization and knowledge of the scriptures. Sometimes I get discouraged and wonder if they are to young. But, I believe they are not to young. I think the first few years of a child's life set the very foundation they will need to stand on the rest of their life. Nicole may not have scripture memorized yet, but I can repeat them and talk about them with her. Hannah may not even recognize her name yet, but through me constantly saying it, she will soon be able to...so why not the scriptures either?

I also believe that by discipling them early and teaching them to obey and to hear my voice (and Jeremy's too) that they will learn to obey and hear the voice of God as they grow older. I know that some people think that we are hard on Nicole, but we truly believe that a few years of setting standards and being consistent with our discipline will be what we need when more difficult times arise (aka...the teen years!!!!). Anyway...I was reading this chapter and was almost in tears from it because it just spoke to my heart in so many ways. I can't type the whole chapter because that would be to long (as this post probably already is). But...maybe I can share some key points/information.

"Babes receive impressions long before we are aware of the fact. During the first months of a child's life, he learns more than we imagine. He soon learns the love of his mother and his own dependence. If the mother is wise, he learns the meaning of obedienc and the necessity of yielding his will to a higher will. This may be the keynote of his whole future life. If the babe learns obedience and submission early, it may save a thousand tears from the child's eyes, and as many from the mother's heart. A special advantage is lost when even babyhood is left uncultrued." (emphasis mine)

"The Holy Scriptures may be learned by children as soon as they are capable of understanding anything. A remarkable fact, which I have heard asserted by many teachers, is that children learn to read from the Bible better than from any other book."

This is the BEST part.
"O dear mothers, please understand that you have a very sacred trust reposed in you by God! He has in effect said unto you, "Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages" (Exodus2:9). You are called to equip the future man of God, that he may be "thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Timothy 3:17. If God spares you, you may live to hear that pretty boy speak to thouands, and you will have the sweet reflection in your heart that the quiet teachings of the nursery led the adult man to love his God and serve Him.
Those who think that a woman detained at home by her little family is doing nothing think the reverse of what is true. Scarecely can the godly mother quit her home for a place of worship. However, dream not that she is lost to the work of the church. Far form it, she is doing the bes tpossible service for her Lord.
Mothers, the godly training of your offspring is your first and most pressing duty. Christian women, by teaching children the holy Scriptures, are as much fulfilling their part for the Lord as Moses did in juding Israel, or Solomon in building the temple. "(Emphasis His)

Job...and shirtless men

Job (read that JOBE...like from the Bible) is one of Nicole's favorite stories. EVERY time we open her little Bible (naps and bed time), she always want to see and hear about Job. There are two pages on him. The first page job is sad, he doesn't have a shirt on and he has sores all over his body. She gets distressed about this and even fake cries for him. Then, she happily turns to the next page where Job Has a shirt on and she says "yay!" For a while it was frustrating, but now it's kind of funny. We just have to indulge her every time we read the Bible. I told Jeremy there must be some reason for this. I honestly think it's the shirt thing. I was going to let her take a nap in just undies the other day because it was hot. She laid down and then jumped up yelling "shirt, shirt" and then she started talking about Job. Then, another day, we saw a man riding his bike without a shirt on. This was very upsetting to her. I think if we had an extra shirt in the car, she would have been happy to give it to him. Finally, last Sunday coming home from the beach, Jeremy didn't put a shirt on (he hates being sandy, and hates even more to have clothes on if he's sandy). Anyway...Nicole was just distressed the whole ride home that he wasn't wearing a shirt. She kept talking aobut Job and pointing to Jeremy. It was pretty cute.

Well...Hannah is crying. We've been busy (doing what, I don't know?) But, I've gotta go again. We will have some FUN pictures in the next week or two (hopefully). We have some exciting family plans coming up. I'll share more later.

Nicole's armour and the beach

Saturday night at church, Nicole had an art project in the nursery. I'm assuming they were talking about the spiritual armour in Ephesians or about David and Goliath or something. Anyway...she made this armour out of a brown bag. She was so proud when we put it on her after church. She thought she was hot stuff.

Sunday we went to the beach with our friend Bryan and Brooke and their two sons. Jeremy took Nicole out in the water. Here is a picture. You can barely see them they went out so far! It's not deep though. Nicole had a blast! She also loved playing in sand, but I didn't get any pictures because we were all sandy!

Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom

So, I am officially "homeschooling" Nicole. No...I'm not sitting her down for hours on end making her recite the alphabet. I am basically choosing to be intentional about creating opportunities for her to learn. I don't want to just read a book because it has cute pictures. I want to also tie in information and activities to help her learn. I'll let her lead and as I find she is interested in a subject, we'll pursue it. For this past week, we have simply been reading the same book over and over and talking about it. It's called Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom. It's about letters of the alphabet who climb a coconut tree, and then they all fall out and get boo boos. She has enjoyed this book a lot and it's created several opportunities for us to talk about it.

Examples:

~Obviously we said the alphabet over and over (usually she only sees capital letters...this book was great because it also introduced her to lowercase letters...or baby letters as she calls them).

~We pointed out different colored letters on the pages

~We counted different letters

~We talked about shapes (mostly circles)

~Here is where it gets fun. We were outside playing earlier this week and I pointed out to her that we have a coconut tree in our yard...immediately she said "Boom Boom". So...she was relating the book to what I just told her.



~This was the best part....Let me tell you about today!

Our friends Brooke and Bryan have to little boys, Peyton (almost 3) and Caulder (almost 1 1/2). When they got here, we sat the kids down and read the book to them (they all knew it well). Then we went outside and Painted Coconuts (that had fallen out of our tree!). Peyton painted his like a dinosaur. Nicole...well...she just painted and had fun. Caulder painted on paper. Then we ate a snack of alphabet shaped cereal. For lunch, we had alphabet soup (I couldn't find any coconut to eat too). Do you see though how we tied in the book to the fun things we did the rest of the morning? That's kind of what I want to do.

Here's a picture of the kids



The coconuts





Tomorrow is August 1...and that's when we officially begin. I'll write you tomorrow to share what we will be talking about this month.

I can't leave out sweet Hannah. Isn't it cute how she sucks on those middle fingers?

My favorite photo(s)

My friend Jenn wanted all of her friends to post their favorite photo. I am photo crazy and there is NO WAY I can narrow it down to one. (oh....disclaimer...I have to be in the photo too, or else I'd have even more I love) Uh oh...another thing. I can't find pictures pre-Nicole and we don't have a good family shot yet with Hannah. Sorry she's not in here. I have favorite pictures of her...just not with her.

This was part of our family Christmas photoshoot down on the beach last December. I was preggo with Hannah
This was our anniversary last year on the cruise boat. I really like my hair here. I also like it that we sort of match (and I have accessories!!!)
Nicole and I, February of 07. Nicole's (and mine too) first sled ride!
Nicole and me again. Same month and year above.
Nicole and I with my Mama Pat and Pap Sam. I believe this was October of 07.

My friend Jenn wanted all of her friends to post their favorite photo. I am photo crazy and there is NO WAY I can narrow it down to one. (oh....disclaimer...I have to be in the photo too, or else I'd have even more I love)

Pictures of the girls'swimming

Earlier this week, I posted about our time swimming on Greg's birthday. Here are a few pics and videos. Hannah pretty much liked the swimming (except when she got splashed).

Nicole LOVES being in the water.

A cute picture of Hannah, daddy and Gramps

Baby Bumbo!

So, I finally gave in a bought a Baby Bumbo. What is a Baby Bumbo you may ask? It's a cool chair that lets your little baby sit up, even though she really can't yet. They are pretty expensive, $40-$50. However I got mine on Craigslist (If you haven't heard of it, or used it yet...it's pretty cool. Craigslist is basically free "for sell" ads in your local area. We've bought and sold a lot of stuff on it.). Anyway...I got our Baby Bumbo for $15. Yay me! (as Nicole would say). Here's my little bumbo in it now. Hannah loves it!

I also have a pic here of Nicole and Hannah from earlier this week.

We've had a very good, but busy week. A friend came in town to visit one day, Greg's birthday was another day, and a few play dates as well. Gotta go get some work done now:-) God Bless!

PEE PEE!!!!!

I don't know if Jeremy has ever looked at this blog, but he knows I do it. In fact, an incident happened Sunday night with Nicole, and he looked at me and said, "Michele....this should go up on the blog!" hehehe. So...here it goes.

Sunday evenings, Jeremy goes to a Bible study and I try to go sometimes too. However, I couldn't go this week. So, we decided to grab a bite to eat at one of our favorite restaurants (Silverspoon) and then I drove Jeremy to the Bible and he was just going to catch a ride home with a friend. Anyway, I knew Nicole would have to go potty because she had just drank a bunch of milk at dinner, so I asked him to take her inside to go potty before we left.

The Bible study had already begun (we learn Greek for the first 30 minutes or so), but she took attention away when she walked in and said "HI". Jeremy quickly ushered her to the bathroom where she did her business. When she was finished, she went running out of the bathroom, out into the living room and straight to our friend Celia (the leader's wife). Nicole put her hands on Celia's knees, and said (very loudly) Pee Pee!. Everyone started laughing. She totally interrupted Greek study, but I'm sure it was very cute. She was very proud of herself for going potty and thought everyone else should be proud of her too...hehehe.

Keep reading...I wrote two posts today about our fun last night.

Hannah's first time swimming

Last night was Greg's birthday (Jeremy's dad), so we spent the evening at their house. We decided to go up to the pool and swim (Nicole is a shark in the water...she just LOVES it!) We even brought a swim suit for Hannah. She LOVED the water! It was very warm (almost to warm!). The only time she really cried was when Jeremy and Greg were throwing Nicole in the air and Hannah got spashed in her face (pretty cute actually). I DON'T have any pictures, yet. They are all on Greg & Valerie's camera...so I will post them up ASAP.

Nicole did Great in the water again. She is now confident enough in the water, that she will hold onto a noodle, kick, and actually swim around the pool all by herself. She's so proud when she does it. I can't believe how big she's getting already. It's fun to watch her. I can't wait to show you the pictures

I woke up grumpy this morning because I only got a few hours of sleep (not the girls fault...my fault for staying up late). So, anyway...I was just grumpy, annoyed, frustrated ... you know the feeling. Until Hannah started talking. I got the camera out at the very end. She seriously "talked" for about 45 minutes. Finally got me smiling and laughing. It's great how she does that:-) I thought you might enjoy watching one of the videos I took.

I also needed to post these little smiles I got from the two of them the other day.

Sorry, I forgot to rotate this one.

Hannah is now grabbing items and holding onto them. We've been putting these stuffed animals near her, and she's even fallen asleep with one...sweet huh?

Jeremy loves his girls! (and they love him:-)