My mommy radar is alive and well!

Imagine this....

You are asleep in your bed. You have the ceiling fan whirling above you. The door to your room is closed. Your husband is snoring ever-so-slightly (ha) next to you.

But, for some reason, you are awakened. You sit straight up in bed and listen again. You immediately know that one of your children is calling for you and is crying.

It's Nolan. He is all the way downstairs in the basement, yet you were still able to hear his whimper.

It's called Mommy Radar!

You see, it is something that a mom is blessed with. It is very rare for a daddy to have...I'm not sure there has been even one well-documented occurrence. Which is not a fault...it just isn't one of their gifts.

A mom can be watching television and immediately press mute, and though dad has no idea why...when he hears the sound of a child crying, he knows he has yet again experienced Mommy Radar!

Now that Nolan is settled in on the couch after his vomitting episode. His sheets, pillow, and blankets are in the washer, in the process of getting cleaned....and here I sit, waiting to see if he throws up again.

I thank God for my mommy radar. It's comforting to know that in the midst of whatever a mommy might be doing, she has super sensitive hearing when it comes to her children.

I almost feel like I should don a cape.

I rent movies...a lot of movies

When John is out of town (like he has been since Sunday), that's time for me to rent movies. A few weeks ago, when he was gone, I had great success at choosing cute movies that I would have no issue recommending to people.

This week...my choices took a turn for the worse.

I guess if I have never heard of a particular movie, there is probably a reason why. I've figured out that reason. Because they are just BAD MOVIES.

It's pretty bad when I have had to just turn off the movie because of the content...I really need to do more research and read the back covers more closely. Last night I was 0-2 and couldn't watch either movie all the way through.

I hope next week brings better flicks.

And if you have any recommendations on what I should rent...please share!

John is almost a celebrity

And here's the proof!!

Hi daddy

A gift from her big brothers

I knew that I wanted the boys to get Paysie something...and since we've never gone there, I figured, let's head over to the mall and go to The Wacky Bear Factory.

We were not disappointed!

It didn't take them long to find the perfect animal for stuffing! It was the sheep :)

They took turns pushing the pedal with their feet to fill it up with the stuffing! Then, they jumped on one foot, touched their toes, knees, elbows, and head...turned around in a circle and jumped again...then closed their eyes...and when they opened them, there was a tiny flicker of a heartbeat in the sheep. It was very cute!

We chose out an outfit for her to wear and Nolan named her Piper. Appropriate, no?

She is squishably soft and a great choice for a gift for their little sister!

Oh, what a morning

For our family devotions, we begin by singing a hymn or two from an old hymnbook I had gotten last year from ebay. It is very old, and I bought it so that I could remove pages from it, frame our favorites, and hang them on the wall. We have a wall of hymns in our dining room.

The only problem with that, is our hymnbooks are missing our favorites because they are no longer in the book!

Last week, John went to a local bookstore...the kind that smells like old books the moment you walk in. He purchased 3 matching hymnbooks, so the kids would have an easier time singing along.

The boys were so excited to get new hymnbooks!

This morning, Nolan wanted to go on the computer, and I thought to show him Cyber Hymnal. We sang several hymns together, and when I went to take my shower, he remained at the computer, singing his favorite hymns.

When I came back out this is what he said to me:
"Hey mommy! I have a great idea! How about we sing hymns ALL DAY LONG?!?"

What could I possibly have said other than:
"That sounds like a GREAT idea!"

A little flashback to the 80s

What Jesus meant when he said "You must eat my flesh"

By John Bloom at the Desiring God Blog

The day before, Jesus had fed 5,000 people with a few loaves and fish. Then that night he walked miles across the Sea of Galilee before catching up with his disciples in their boat. The crowd had seen him send his disciples away in the only boat available. So the next day, when they found him in Capernaum, they knew he could have only got there miraculously. They wanted him to be their king.

Then he went and ruined everything. To his adoring fans Jesus said,

Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal (John 6:26-27).

Confused, they asked him how they could work to please God. He replied, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (John 6:29). (God isn’t looking for workers. He’s looking for believers.)

Jesus was a hero to the crowd because he had fed them. But Jesus discerned something very wrong about their enthusiasm. They wanted more “bread from heaven.”

But wanting the blessings Jesus provides is not the same thing as believing in him. Indeed, Jesus had come to give them bread from heaven. But not that kind of bread.

So to test them he began to make statements that sounded very strange. He told them that he was the true bread from heaven that gives life to the world and whoever eats this bread would live forever.

Then he said, “And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (v. 51). This sounded like cannibalism. His listeners balked. He pressed it even further:

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink (John 6:53-55).

The “Jesus for King” campaign evaporated. The people walked away shaking their heads. The crazy man wants us to eat his flesh! They completely misunderstood what Jesus was saying.

So what did he mean? Here are the clues:

How do you labor for the food that endures to eternal life? Believe in me! (v. 27, 29)
“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me [in faith] shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (v. 35)
“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (v. 40)
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.” (v. 47)
For Jesus eating is believing; drinking is believing. He promises eternal life to those who believe in him. Believe what?

Believe that his death—the breaking of his body and spilling of his blood—pays in full the penalty for our sin and that his perfect righteousness is freely given to us in exchange for our unrighteousness.

Believing this is how we “eat” Jesus’ flesh and “drink” his blood. This is why he instituted the Lord’s Supper: he did not want us to forget the very core of what we believe.

When the crowd took offense at his gruesome talk, Jesus exposed their unbelief: “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe” (vv. 63-64).

Let’s you and I be like Peter. He didn’t walk away, but instead said to Jesus, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God” (vv. 68-69).

31 weeks

A few people have told me I look like I'm carrying lower...

For Gramma and Grampa in Maine

How do people find my blog?

I often like to go to my sitemeter and see how people found me. It's always interesting when they find me through their searches on google.

I think the most interesting I've seen yet are:

1. pregnant woman in leotard (um, sorry, no pics)
2. mouse squished between toes (ewww)
3. quotes that start with smell of death (morbid?)
4. how to decorate lover's room (wha??)

Who would have thought?

Bring The Rain

I came across this blog and it has brought tears to my eyes more than once. It is a story of a mom who found out at her 20 week ultrasound that her baby girl would not survive. The sadness is profound, but so is her faith.

When her ultrasound began and they found abnormalities in their baby, her response was:

"I think that my Jesus is the same as He was before I walked into this room. He's no different, it's okay, He's no different..."

Read her story and thank God for His faithfulness.

Bring The Rain

Baby born twice...what an amazing story!

Medical marvel: Baby Macie Hope was born twice

103 degrees

It's only June 6th, right?

I was driving down the road and saw a bank flash 103 degrees.

Now, I know that the thermometer was probably right in the sun...since every other scrolling marquee read only a measly 93.

But just seeing 103 made me dread the next couple of months.

Come on, it's only June!!

A church sign

I saw this at Crummy Church Signs and had to share, lol.

Baby Development

Check out this link. You can scroll ahead and see how a woman's body changes and how the baby develops on a weekly basis.

Little Pink Booties...

Made with lots of love...

The Shack

Last fall, I won a book from a giveaway hosted on someone's blog. I had no idea what the book was about, just that the blogger who was giving it away raved about it and how it changed her life.

I received it in the mail and there it sat on my shelf for months, collecting dust.

Until I saw that Tim Challies had done an indepth review on it here.

I decided to grab it off the shelf and bring it with me on our trip to Maine a few weeks ago. I read it on the way up.

My only recommendation is to read what Tim says about it. It is a novel that many seem to fall in love with...yet, there are so many theological flaws in it. When I read it, I was dumbfounded at some of what was said. I have huge problems with the way it depicts the trinity, the way it misrepresents Scripture, and the way that it directly contradicts Scripture.

If you read it, be aware of these things. It is scary that so many people read this book and feel closer to God because of it...when it reality, the God of this book is not the God of the Bible.

I know that this book is not supposed to be a book on systematic theology. The problem I have is that it is being elevated as such by the church.

Read Challies' review...then read the book. Have your Bible handy and it will be easy to see why a lot of people are concerned about it's popularity.

"Gideon, you are going to hell"

Can you tell that John has been talking to the kids about how we are all bad and sinful and deserve to go to hell? And that it is only by the grace of God that we are saved and are able to go to heaven?

Obviously Nolan has been listening. Well, at least to the hell part.

Gideon was being chased by Nolan because he stole some toy from him. They ran over to me and Nolan was telling me that Gideon was going to hell because he was acting bad.

I told him that this is when you show him God's grace and point him back to Jesus who can help us.

There was an apology from Gideon and a little more hellfire and brimstone talk from Nolan.

Yeah, we've got here the makings of the next Jonathan Edwards!

17 hours later...

and we made it back home!

Sorry for the hiatus...I'll be back later today with some updates :)