Housebound...again

God is good. He is actually very good. That is quite an understatement to say the least, but I guess what I mean to say is that I experienced his "very goodness" today.

Baxter is going on 9 days with this cold. He's on the mend just dealing with the remaining guck. Owen started in the middle of the night with a croup-cough. Typical for our boys. It's just the way they get sick. I knew yesterday that he wasn't quite himself. Going to bed last night the Lord revealed my anxious heart and allowed me to entrust my boys and myself to His wise hands. Today is a school day for Owen, and I knew that if he woke up sick, we'd be housebound AGAIN. Instead of carrying that anxiety with me to bed, I cast it onto Him knowing that He cares for me, and went to sleep. I awoke at 3:30 to a very croup cough, wheezing sounding Owen. Thankfully we had some prednisone left from Baxter and so we were able to help him out. He ended up sleeping until 7:15 or 7:30, but I knew then, at 3:30, that my day would not be as I had planned. My day was in the Lord's hands and it didn't look like I had planned. And I was ok with that. That on its own is a work of God!

We ended up having the greatest day we've had in a while. God was so good to take away any bitterness or sadness that we were housebound again. He allowed me to be creative (Below are some pictures of our "painters tape road and city" that we made. I saw this idea on a blog that I saw. They had stop signs and such too. I guess you could go all out), and proactive. We just enjoyed being together and doing things together. We even got out for a run. You can't get other people sick on a run! Thankfully it was a BEAUTIFUL day. It was all such a blessing.

I realized after Matt got home at 5 and I grabbed a quick shower before dinner that I felt the Lord's nearness and goodness more than normal - on a day where I would have anticipated struggling to see that. I realized that all of the things I normally go to for help or peace or stability were taken away (the mall, the library, Target, preschool, plans, friends...) and I was left with a good, no, a very good, God to rely on for that peace and help and joy. What a blessing. Those other things will return soon, Lord willing, but I hope and pray that my trust and joy would still be found in Him in a new and deeper way than it was before this housebound day.

This song is a favorite of ours - we call it "Praise God" - and I think it's fitting for today.

"Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow.
Praise Him all creatures here below.
Praise Him above thee heavenly hosts.
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. AMEN"

A few more from the field trip

Here are a few more from O's field trip.

Owen, Kylen(one of O's best little pals at school and beyond...Baxter loves him too!) and Baxter watching the tractor.



Me and the boys.



Owen, Kylen and Natalie (a new sweet friend at school) and Baxter and Megan (Natalie's little sister). Not a great picture of all of them, but I liked it anyway.



Here is the whole group - there are two 3 year old classes and one 4 year old class. Owen's teacher is in the middle with short blond hair and sunglasses. Funny thing about Mrs. McGurn is that a) her husband was our realtor when we moved to town and 2) we live in her brother's old house! The assistant in Owen's class, Mrs. Taylor, is sitting right next to Owen on his right. Another assistant, Mrs. Hall, is next to her. We are thankful for such wonderful women to love on our boy!



Here is the neat hay maze. Just the right height.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Owen, like every other child in preschool!, had his first field trip to the pumpkin patch this past week. We decided to turn the whole day into a pumpkin day! We started the day off with breakfast at Einstein Bagels with pumpkin bagels. Then Owen, Baxter and I went to the field trip at the pumpkin patch. We took a hayride to the field and picked out two pumpkins and played with friends. Then we took the hayride back and went in a hay-bale maze. We finished the day with some pumpkin pancakes at home. A great day enjoying the beautiful world that God made.

(I"ll put some pictures up of Owen and his class too soon)

Be and my boys on the hayride - all bundled up.

Happy Pumpkin

Owen really wanted a happy pumpkin face this year, so we chose one of the pumpkins from the field trip and created a happy face. It was fun to do this together! He has enjoyed lighting the candle each night for various friends that have come over.

A few more weeks of school

The last two weeks we have still been doing some school at home, it's been a little more low key which has been good. But I am amazed that God has still provided us with a lot of great conversations about what we've been learning. We have seen God use it in Owen and also in our relationship with him. We are thankful!

The Armor of God -

Here is a song we made up:
"Be Strong in the Lord, Be strong in the Lord, don't be a weak boy, just be strong, in the Lord." Not too fancy, but catchy. I heard him singing it today during naptime. It's the most simple truth that we are not to be strong in ourselves, but in the Lord (Eph. 6), but so hard to live out! It's provided for great help in helping Owen not give in when things are hard and to persevere. We made a "belt of truth". Every time the boys put them on they just start running around the house. I guess it makes them feel strong :)



(This one makes me think of some pics I have seen of Matt as a little boy.)







The Lord's Prayer
(Matthew 6)
I used this technique I saw on someone's blog. You write out the whole text and then you write a few words on small pieces of paper. They have to match the words and glue them on. The glue is the most fun for O!

Pops

The only thing our boys like about going to the doctor are "pops" - DumDum lolly pops. In a strange series of events, I decided to buy a bag of them at Walmart. Not the best move, but they have certainly been fun to enjoy from time to time! Here are the boys enjoying our purchase when we got home. It was Baxter's first one. He is the one that calls them "pops." He'll often just say "pops?" and smile and giggle.

He's Back...

Just an FYI that Matt has started up his blog again. He's determined to stay on top of it this time, and post shorter thoughts instead of waiting until he "has time" for a long one. So, if you're interested, here is the link to The Front Burner.

Week 3 - The Trinity

I realized a few minutes into this one that it was a lot to bite off!! As an adult, I have such a limited understanding of God in respect to the trinity. Explaining it to a 3 1/2 year old was challenging, and clarifying. Sometimes it helps to explain a large concept to a small person - makes you nail down some of the main points.

We used a few different things to help with this. One is a new book that we borrowed from a friend called "3 in 1 A picture of God" by Marxhausen. By far the best description I have ever read. He uses an apple as an analogy and does a great job explaining how our ONE God has THREE parts.



Another helpful tool is the Children's Catechsim. The questions about the trinity are:

Q. Is there more than one true God?
A. No, there is only one true God.

Q. In how many persons does this one God exist?
A. In three persons.

Q. Name these three persons.
A. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (Owen always adds an Amen here because our pastor ends his prayers that way)

Next we (mostly I) created a diagram of the trinity that Matt had found in the ESV Study Bible notes. This is where I realized I might have been better off choosing another topic. But, with that said, I"m thankful to speak often that we believe that there is only one true God to tell Owen more and more about who He is.



Then we cut ONE piece of paper into THREE parts. (The three parts then became five parts, but he was just a little scissor happy!)



Today we made a fun apple tote bag. This might be the most creative thing I have done/or will ever do. We used an apple to talk about the three parts of God and then we used apple stamps to make an A is for Apple bag with Owen's name on it. Owen enjoyed some apple while I got the paint ready. (I had seen this post at my friend Christianne's blog this week and it helped me to think of something more than a simple apple print on paper for our craft time. She has a lot of great ideas! Check her blog out - Little Page Turners.









(Just a little spill on the top right - oh well!)

Colored Salt Final Product

Here is the colored salt fruit basket. I got the idea from this colored salt tutorial at Fun with Mama. My only complaint is that the salt falls off a lot. Maybe we used too much and I need to give it a better shaking. If you have any ideas, let me know!

Week 2 - the Fruit of the Spirit

For week 2, we chose to focus in on the fruit of the spirit found in Galatians 5. This provided us not only with a good focus and good art project ideas, but more importantly, it provided great and helpful things to talk with Owen about during teaching and discipline times. The concept of the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit being at work within us was more and more clear as the week went on and as we dealt with whatever sin or obedience were happening at a given moment. If Owen hit Baxter or did not obey our words or got angry with me, etc! we could ask him, "Owen, was this a fruit of the Spirit or a fruit of the flesh?" It was clear. It was also neat to lead him to Jesus to forgive him and rescue him from the fruit of the flesh and to produce the fruit of the Spirit in him. It was neat to show Owen that in order for him to love Baxter or be kind to him, etc. he needed the Holy Spirit to produce that in him - he can not do it on his own. It was a great reminder for me too!

Here is the passage in Galatians 5:16, 22-23.

"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify w the desires of the flesh.... But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Here are a few of the ways that we learned about this this week.

Our first activity was to make a fruit of the spirit tree!





We also found this funny song that sings about the fruit of the spirit: Fruit of the Spirit song on YouTube. We have enjoyed singing this together - especially the chorus.

I printed off some sorting cards that had fruits and vegetables. I don't think he loved that part, but maybe someday!

We also did some colored salt on a fruit bowl that was really fun. There is a colored salt tutorial here.