Shepherding a Child's Heart

This weekend, we had the great privileged of attending a parenting conference instructed by Dr. Tedd Tripp, pastor and author of several books, including Shepherding a Child's Heart.  His writings and specifically that book have been highly influential to me over the past 4 years of being a mother.  I was so excited and blessed that he was coming to town and we quickly purchased our tickets for the Friday night/Saturday morning event. 

Although the conference didn't offer a lot of earth shattering, mind blowing information to me, because much of it is based from his books I have already read...it was a Great time of encouragement.  We did walk away with ideas to try and a refocus on our goals and objectives as parents.  Here are a few things that I felt like he drilled into us through the event:

~ We are all created to worship.  Every person on this planet is a worshiper, the question is, What are you worshiping?  You are either worshiping the almighty God, Creator and Author of life...or something or someone else.  My children WILL worship...they will either worship God or idols.  We must not allow the things of this world to blind them to awe, wonder and majesty of God.

~Children have been commanded to obey and honor their parents, and they are promised that it may go well with them and that they may enjoy a long life on the earth.  It is a blessing to them to obey mom and dad. *Ephesians 6:1

~His key verse really is Proverbs 4:23, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life."  We need to ask God to turn our children's hearts toward Him.  I can not speak to behavior without reference to the heart.  My child's behavior is reflecting what is going on in their heart.  We need train our children's hearts and pray that it is renewed and not just try to modify bad behavior to good behavior.  The hearts needs to be transformed.

~He spent a whole session on discipline.  How to discipline, When to discipline.  To get a full understanding, you should read Shepherding a Child's Heart...or talk to me in person (reading the book would be much more insightful though than listening to me:-).

~We must teach Godly attitudes. i.e. replace love of self with love of others, pride with humility,

~Communication is really the ability to understand the thoughts and ideas of your kids.  Draw out the deep waters of their hearts (Proverbs 18:13)

My biggest mistake happened this morning though.  I was prepping Nicole and Hannah with the fact that we were going to a different church with a different nursery.  When Nicole asked why, I told her that Mommy and Daddy were going to a class to learn how to be better mommys and daddys.  Later today, I figured out I should have said that differently.

Nicole got into a lot of trouble today after nap time (she smeared lip gloss all over the wall in several spots and over different pieces of furniture...and all over Hannah's face).  As we were talking about the incident and how she would be discipline for it, she started crying and said, "But, I thought you went to that church today to learn how to be a better mommy and daddy".  Haha.  OK, not funny then...at least not to Jeremy who was dealing with her (although across the room and behind her back, I did smile...that little smartie pants!).  What she doesn't understand yet though is Hebrews 12 (the whole chapter is a great encouragement to parents I think), verse 11 "All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwords it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness."

I highly recommend Shepherding a Child's Heart and I also highly recommend a little pamphlet by a mom named Ginger Plowman called Wise Words for Moms.  This has come in so handy over the years as it gives you scriptures to help your children through different acts of disobedience, sin or just issued like fear. 

Moments Like These

Last night as I was working on dinner in the kitchen, I sort of lost track of Hannah and Nathan.  After a few moments, I heard them both laughing hard and screaming.  I took a peak around the corner into the other room and I caught them playing peek a boo together with a large pillow we have.  I only caught the tail end of it....it was going on for several minutes, and then Hannah caught me with the camera.  These two adore each other.  It's simply perfect.

It's moments like these when I am greatly encouraged.  Moments like these when I see hope for my children.  Moments like these that I can not create.  Moments like these when I can tell that my children love each other.  Moments like these that I want to store away and remember forever. 

Today is the day

It all started about 13 years ago, I was a sophomore or junior in high school and I woke up one morning sick.  Within a few hours, the right side of my face had swollen up nearly even with my nose.  I went to the doctor, they took an x-ray and determined I had a severe sinus infection.  After some medicine and a few days rest, my face returned to normal and I sort of forgot about the day.

Fast forward 6 years....I was at the dentist office get my (not so annual) teeth cleaning.  The dentist came in and did her little quality check and started examining my right front top "eye tooth" I think (It's next to my middle teeth).  She asked to do an x-ray because the whole tooth looked odd.  The x-ray showed a dead tooth with a large abscess that had been growing.  After answering her questions, we realized that I did not have a sinus infection when I was in high school, rather...my tooth had become infected and was "sick".  She told me that I needed to have it removed as soon as possible or one day, probably soon, it would shatter when I bit into something.  She was amazed this hadn't happened yet.

Just a week or so later, I was put under general anesthesia for several hours as they removed my tooth and cleaned the yucky infection that had been growing for all those years.  The next several days were lost to me.  Let me say that I DO NOT do general anesthesia or pain medicine well.  I know I was delirious, I know I threw up a lot, and I'm pretty sure I hallucinated a lot too.  I even remember driving myself to work one day the next week, but immediately calling someone (my mom I think) to come get me, because I crawled down the hallway into a bathroom (to get sick again).  I have no idea how I drove a car that far...it was unsafe!  Anyway...the surgery was no good and I pray I don't need a surgery more important ever in my life.

So, now, I was missing a tooth.  A very important tooth if you are a girl that smiles and giggles a lot.  I had a partial tooth piece that fit in my mouth like a retainer.  This was suppose to be temporary...like maybe for 6 months. 

6 1/2 years and three babies later, I still have that temporary partial tooth in my mouth.  It comes out when I eat (especially something sticky or soft like bread), it doesn't blend with my teeth well, it's annoying, but it has saved me embarrassment over the years (when it' s not sticking to food or falling out when I talk).

Well, today is the day.  The day I get to throw away my trusty partial tooth, because in less than 2 hours, I will receive the final installment of my tooth implant.  I have been going to the dentist every week for a month now, and before that, once a month for 3 months prepping my mouth for this *new* addition.  But, this is it.  Today I get the final piece....my *crown*.  It will be my permanent tooth that has been custom made for me. 

I have high hopes for this tooth.  Although I will still cut the corn off the cob and slice my apple into pieces, I will not have to gag in mid sentence as I chew because my tooth has become one with my food.  I will not have something to "play" with in my mouth when I get nervous (this is a good thing).  I won't ever again have to answer my children's probing questions in the morning as they watch me brush my teeth, with my partial out.  I hope I will not have to hide my smile and be concerned about which angle a picture is taken of me.

I have been waiting for this for a long time.  I'm scared, I'm excited...I probably will cry!

Pizza and sunsets

One night we went to a little restaurant at a hunt camp for dinner.  If you ever want to hunt/fish in Canada...check out Le Cueyer's. It seemed like a nice place.  Their little restaurant was filled with stuffed animals and mounted fish.  Bears, geese, deer, moose, racoons, pike, whatever kind of animals they up there, I'm sure it was mounted at LeCueyer's.  In all honesty, the pizza wasn't that great, but as always, the night was filled with memories. 

There were two funny stories that involved me.  Do you want to hear them? 

Well, as always, in the middle of dinner, Hannah had to go potty.  My rule, especially when out is that if one girl goes potty the other has to come and go as well because if they don't, I will be back in the bathroom again soon.  So, I took Nicole with me.  Now, Nicole is 4 and wants to be a big girl whenever possible.  She has been going into the little stalls by herself lately...which is nice because public potty time is shortened a little.  The problem this night was that the stalls did not have the back and forth latch, rather, they had the little rotating disc type of latch. These are easily rotated to the lock the door, but often can get stuck and be difficult to unlock....I guess.  After Nicole was done doing her business she tried to get out...and couldn't.  She kept trying and I kept offering help, on the outside of the stall.  She was getting upset because she thought she would be stuck in there.  So...what does any loving and somewhat psychotic mommy do?  Yep, I laid down on the dirty floor and military crawled my way into her stall to save my sweet girl.  I did it...just for her.  To make me feel better about my act, the lock was difficult, even for me to open, so she wasn't just "playing me" like sometimes she does.  I am just thankful that I wasn't at walmart or somewhere there is high bathroom traffic and nasty nasty floors.  This little bathroom was clean (but dirty...you know what I mean?  a bathroom is never really that clean).  We came out of the bathroom laughing and Jeremy was just smiling.  Why was he smiling?  Because he knew that funny things always happen to me in the bathroom:)

The other funny story may not be that funny unless you were there.  We were going to walk down the boardwalk and take some sunset pictures, but I had something in my hands that I wanted to put back in our rental van.  Our rental van was a white Town and Country (great van by the way).  Anyway, I was walking to the van to quickly put the stuff away and the door wouldn't open.  I turned around and asked Jeremy to unlock the van and I tried to open is again.  Then...the alarm on the van next to me started going off....I don't know why.  Until I looked at Jeremy and he is bent over laughing at me.  I look back at the van, and realize that I am trying to get into someone else's white Honda Odyssey.  I quickly let go of the handle and walk to the van whose alarm is going off....our van.  I start laughing and I feel like silly girl....until, we hear the people inside talking about what I just did and laughing at me.  It was Their van.  Jeremy was having a fit...he just thought it was hysterical...and Nicole was asking me why I was trying to get into that other person's van!  Haha...it was a funny moment.

Well, we did walk down the boardwalk and saw a beautiful sunset and took some fun pictures. 

Emo, Ontario

On Tuesday of our vacation, we had to take a 45 minute drive south to Emo in order to pick something up.  I asked the cashier at the grocery store if there was a park around and she told me about a really beautiful park, playground, splashpad on the river just around the corner.  She told me about the water playground but then said, "but, if it's to hot out, there is a library down the street too."

Um...excuse me?  Is 73 degrees to hot?  I was worried it was to cold! 

I really didn't think the girls would play in the water for two reason...one, when the wind blew, it was a bit chilly and two....no bathing suits.  Now, no bathing suits hasn't stopped us before, but we weren't in a foreign country 45 minutes from the house. 


The girls played on the playground for a little while, then Jeremy ventured over to the water play area.  I am so glad that HE is THEIR daddy.  He makes life fun.  He is intentional about making memories and not letting a little thing like no bathing suits get in the way.  So, he turned on the water and the good times started.

Well, for ONE of our children

Hannah was not excited about getting wet, or watching others get wet.

She cried and whined most of the time.

Or, she covered her face.

We tried to force her in, thinking that if she just got wet, then she would let loose and enjoy it.  Nope...didn't work.

Nathan was also not excited about being wet, or cold. 

But, Nicole....Nicole loved it.  So, we made Hannah sit and watch her big sister run around half dressed in cold water at a beautiful park in southern Ontario.

All three kids had a chance to ride the lion statue.  Fun!

Speaking of Emo...there was this cute little prayer chapel on the side of the road.  We had to stop, and I went inside.  Just a tiny room for one.  But, cute nonetheless.

Random Vacation Silliness

Today I don't feel like writing out stories or explaining things to well.  I just feel like posting random vacation silliness pictures.

Enjoy

Why eat ice cream when you can wear it?

Hi.

Pajama Party...

While waiting for the storm to pass in the boat house, we kept the kids busy making funny faces so the thunder wouldn't scare them.  Hannah wasn't to into it...

We asked the girls to go get ready for their naps...and very obediently they said "Yes sir".  A few minutes later, this is what we found.  Silly girls!

I know he loves my kisses!

This story deserves a post of itself...it will come.  Maybe tomorrow.

And, this story goes along with it.  Let's just say, Nicole had fun at the water park.  Hannah did not.

Remember when Hannah's smile looked like severe pain?  Now it's covering up her face that she likes to do for the camera.  She asked me to take a picture, and this is what she did.

Having fun on lake superior. 

LOTS more of these pictures to come!

Nathan having fun at Lake Superior...me...not having so much fun.  This kid is obsessed with hair, mine particularly!

Lake of the Woods

Lake of the Woods is the name of the large lake we stayed on...it's massively huge and known around the world for great fishing.  Unfortunately, we didn't get a taste of that great fishing.  We *thought* all week that we would be able to go on a fishing excursion, but it never happened, so the last day of our trip, Jeremy took Nicole out for a couple of hours and they caught a fish.  But, they had some nice quality daughter/daddy time.

Anyway, one day...I don't know which, they all blur together, we found a small playground on the bank of the lake down the road a bit.  After playing on the playground a little bit, Jeremy decided he needed to teach his girls how to skip rocks.

  One thing

led to 

another 

and.....

Yep....we got in the lake, fully clothed.  Ok, not we...but the girls did at least.

This poor little girl was having NO fun at all...

can't you tell?

Where is Hannah you ask?  Well, after a little sisterly love and tackle mishap she pretty much cried the rest of the time.  You'll have to watch the video to see what I'm talking about.

So, after that...Hannah hung out on the bank most of the time.

Hmmm....what in the world is she doing here?

Yep...going pee in the lake.  She insisted on taking her pants off, but we talked her into keeping her undies on.  It was actually quite funny, she kept squatting down and standing up.  We heard her say, "(giggle) I keep going pee!"  She didn't know it was just the water dripping off her legs, hahaha.  This probably would have been a moment forgotten if Nicole had not brought it up at dinner that night to Phil and Nancy, the people we were borrowing the house from (they live in a house on an island about 2 minutes boat ride away).  As we are eating dinner and Nicole is telling them about her day,  she says, "and I went pee in the lake!" as she's laughing.  Nancy looks at us and says, "There's an outhouse"  Ooopps....didn't see that one! haha.  It was embarrassing to Jeremy and I, but certainly not to Nicole.  I'm pretty sure she thought it was cool.

And, just to prove we brought him along, a photo of Nathan with his daddy-o.

Nate cut a tooth while in Canada by the way.  The bottom right one next to his front tooth (what number is that Valerie?)