Reality Check

Walker has the flu. I have been whining about this latest "sick" episode in our house for the last 2 days. I even went so far as to say, "We have had our fair share of sickness this winter!" And I griped about missing playgroup. And the gym. And a prayer session. I complained about how this was really messing with my workout routine. As I was running tonight after Walker went to bed I was still thinking in my head negative thoughts about missing my treadmill class, missing the playdate at the park this afternoon, bible study, etc.

Then I came to my senses.

WHAT??

I am complaining about mild illness, when I can take those babies to the dr immediately, get whatever medicine we need, then spend sweet time with them while ministering to their every little need? We don't have to make the decision of paying a bill vs healthcare. The entire time this has been going on, there has only been ONE NIGHT that they didn't sleep through the night. One. Night. There is a pharmacy on every corner. We have humidifier, nasal spray, ceiling fans, Vicks rub, everything imaginable to make them as comfortable as possible. What exactly do I have to complain about? 1.1 billion people lack access to clean drinking water. 42% of people do not have access to basic sanitation facilities! Much less the ability to alternate tylenol and motrin to keep your baby comfortable. I saw this earlier in the week.

Still, it didn't register to me that I was missing the big picture. Finally, I get it. I have been blessed beyond measure! Wake up, Jill!

I am so thankful that I have been provided everything one could possibly need to take care of these babies. And thankful for their health, and, big picture, they ARE healthy. Now, I'm off to rock Walker. Since he's been sick, he has let me rock him to sleep for every nap and wants to cuddle. So I'm taking advantage of it!

Ephesians 5:20
always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sweet Friends and Sweet Family

This weekend I took the boys to stay with our friends John and Aimee in Sugarland. They used to live in San Antonio and moved back to their home a couple of years ago. It's random that we know them; it was kind of a blind date when we met. They're friends of Tom's family from Houston. We love his Houston family so much we trusted them not to steer us so wrong, so we invited total strangers to our house for lunch one day and we've been great friends ever since.  All I knew about Aimee was that she was in marketing at The Shops at La Cantera, an awesome outdoor mall here. Ummmm, with a job like that I thought she must be much cooler than me. She is, but we're good friends anyway :) We missed Tom but had SUCH a good weekend. They have a 5 year old boy, Jack, who is Harris' idol, and a 13 month old girl, Landry. It was an action packed weekend. We kicked off the festivities with a cut throat basketball game.

Have you ever seen anything so cute? Jack scored two baskets! It was Upward so they didn't keep score but the Junior Lions (our team) destroyed the competition. I realize that's not keeping with the spirit of Upward, but it's the truth. Total domination. The other team had some very competitive parents, which I'm glad I saw. I do not want to be the parent taking my five year old aside at halftime to remind him of proper form and technique. This is what he should be doing at halftime, Upward style.

The guy talking is the "Commissioner" of the league. He showed a video that was a straight-up altar call. It completely caught me off guard. This was in a church and I knew Upward was a Christian organization, but I expected the video to be something about Christ-like sportsmanship or something like that. No. It was about accepting Jesus and encouraged questions about heaven. Interesting. Can you see the only little body not wearing a jersey? Harris was included in the talk and I think he liked hanging with the big kids.

Aimee set him up with his own seat, courtside, to cheer Jack on.

For the first 2 quarters, he was on the edge of his seat, clapping and cheering with gusto. I couldn't get a pic of the cheering because I was too busy keeping Walker off the court, so that's all I snapped. But he was into it. And Jack was performing for his audience. So funny.

We also went to the park. Look how Harris watches Jack with adoration. This picture says it all.

This was kind of high off the ground and Harris probably wouldn't have done it if he hadn't seen Jack do it. Peer pressure starts early, apparently.

Walker went down a slide all by himself! What a big boy. He is so adventurous and there isn't anything he won't try. That keeps me busy.

Harris learned how to play t-ball, courtesy of John. I love the intensity he has! That sweet boy really wanted to know what he was supposed to do.

We had picnics outside. Landry was able to grab a Veggie Straw off Walker's tray, which really upset him, so they had to be separated shortly after this pic was taken.

More happy picnickers.

We had a massive dance party. Walker LOVES to dance, so he was all about it. Check out Jack's moves on the right. He did the robot, the lawn mower, the sprinkler....all the greats.

Harris, in a CLASSIC Harris maneuver, decided has only going to take pics of the dance party. He kept asking people to say cheese. That is so like him to come up with something like that.

 Allllll of this action was on Saturday and all the kids even napped. It was a busy day. Sunday we went to see Tom's Houston family. I cannot believe I didn't get any pics! Walker was all over the place and I just didn't think to grab the camera. Here are the last pics I have of them with the boys. Well, the boy. Harris was just a couple of weeks old here. Here's Julie. I think she's Tom's 2nd cousin...is that right?

Here's Kay, Julie's sweet sister.

Meemo. :)  For awhile, Harris insisted on calling her Elmo.  I could kick myself for not getting pics of them with the boys this trip.

Thank you guys for a wonderful weekend!! We will do it again soon :)

A friend loves at all times, and is born, as is a brother, for adversity. Proverbs 17:17

Adios January

I read this Stuff Christians Like post today and it resonated with me. January has come and gone and I'm not really shaping 2011 in the way I'd hoped. My goals were simply to be more consistent and that encompassed MANY different things, but one thing was in self-discpline, spiritually. I have gone in the opposite direction in pretty much every single way. While I agree with the SCL post that the Lord doesn't love me less in times like this, scripture says it's NOT ok to blithely ignore teaching, knowing you can always come back.
2 Peter 2 – For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. ²¹For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. 

Yikes.  But I take heart in this scripture:
 Phil 3:13 But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.

And this one:
Lamen. 3:23 Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.

So my prayer would be to listen and ACT on the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I've felt led to do various things this month and sometimes did it, sometimes went right on "doing what was right in my own eyes." My heart is just heavy today and it feels better to talk it out, even if it's to people at the other end of the computer screen. Articulating just helps. Sometimes I'll tell Tom, please don't try to fix the problem I'm about to tell you, JUST LISTEN. So thank you listeners. :) You saved Tom from hearing me ramble about this on our date night tonight and I'm sure he's deepy grateful.

I feel so much better. Time for a Harris story. He's in a full sized bed now and has a lamp on his nightstand, which is now right next to his bed. He's started turning the lamp on at night to "read" his books. He concentrates so hard on reading to himself that we have to say something for him to notice the door is open and he's being watched. Of course I creep over to him and whisper in his ear because it's funny to watch him get startled. That's not mean....is it? He asked me to teach him how to read (NO PRESSURE) and we've been working on sounding out words. He sort of read the word "Gap" on my shirt today. Sort of. I like that he's interested so I'm trying to work on it with him. He knows all his letter sounds, just has to get them put together. This Leapfrog video is so helpful. I think he's making progress and then he'll tell me something completely off. I asked him what letter Goolsby started with and he made the G sound, then told me it starts with the letter 3. <Sigh> That's what you get with a 3 year old, I guess. It must be so frustrating to be a stage mom. And I've heard him count to ten numerous times but he apparently likes to press my buttons. Half the time I ask him to count, he'll say 1, 2, 3..........SEVEN! Then laugh maniacally.  If I offer any sort of incentive (read, bribe) to encourage him to count he rattles it off no problem. That boy is a character. And Walker likes to raise the roof. I HAVE to get him on video doing it.

Our family can look just like these people. We already own 1 snuggie. We can now all 4 raise the roof with style. We have camping equipment. We're just 3 snuggies away from awesome. I'll keep you posted.

And because I mentioned Walker's tantrums in this post, I took a pic of him in full on tantrum mode. He's just laid himself delicately on the floor and is screaming at full volume. Be thankful it's a pic and not a video.

Power Outages.....Snow in San Antonio....What Next?

Wednesday was a day of rolling blackouts for most of San Antonio. Rather than spend the day alone, our friends came to play. 5 kids, ages 3 and under, with the looming threat of losing power (and heat!) made for an exciting day. Look at these cuties.

There was constant puzzle working and snacking all day long. The moms survived on Diet Coke and yogurt dip. It would have been a MISERABLE day to be alone, but ended up being so fun and the time flew by. Too bad we can't do it again today! San Antonio actually has snow. Our neighbor told me he hadn't seen it like this since 1985. Here, everything is shut down and it's barely even accumulated.

There's nothing on the lawns at all. This was at 8.

By 10, here's what it looked like.

Streets were barely wet and it was already melting off the sidewalks. But I still don't want to be on the roads. There are TONS of wrecks down here even when it just rains, so I can't imagine what it's like today. We stayed outside and played for awhile but Walker froze out. He must have really been chilly to ask to come inside because he's usually gung-ho to stay out no matter what. Maybe tonight Tom can drive us to go do something. Anything at all, really. We need O-U-T.

Hope everyone is enjoying their snow day! And because I realized there wasn't a pic of Harris, here you go. Don't want him to be left out.

Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.

— Ephesians 6:24

Haircut Awesome-ness

I could kick myself for not having a camera with me. Who knew it was going to be such a monumental moment?? I took Harris to get a haircut. I usually do it myself but it was butchered beyond belief and growing out funny, so a groupon came in handy. Harris was going to be fine because we promised pizza if he let the lady cut his hair. It never occurred to me to have them do Walker's because he is such a handful. But he was sitting in a little car next to Harris' driving away and glancing at the tv.....so I seized the opportunity. I thought it was worth a shot but secretly expected the worst. He was so distracted by all the other things going on that he barely even paid attention to getting his hair cut. There was a tear or two, but nothing major. This is the same kid that cries at EVERY diaper change. He cries about getting his clothes changed. He cries about getting put in his high chair. He cries about not getting what he wants fast enough. He will throw a fit at the drop of a hat and really doesn't like to be messed with, so maybe you can understand why this warrants an entire blog post. Tom called in the middle of it and I'm not sure he believed that his two kids were both getting haircuts in the background, since there was no screaming or gnashing of teeth. He hustled over to see for himself. Walker literally HIGH-FIVED the stylist when she was done. So he went from this...

 To THIS!

Yes, the first picture he's surveying the damage he did with a box of wipes. I still don't know how he got ahold of them while strapped in a booster seat. Guess he was too close to the table. But doesn't he look handsome?

Here's Harris. He doesn't really have a double chin, for the record.

I was about to publish and found this pic, too. This is Walker at the beginning of a fit. Had I waited 30 seconds he would have conjured up real tears.

This is his reaction to just about anything that wasn't his idea. Or, it might have been his idea but in the nano-second it took me to react, he might have changed his mind. After the real tears come, he throws himself backward, but what's hilarious is that now he is cautiously lays himself down, making sure there's nothing uncomfortable that he's going to land on. Guess there were a couple of bad experiences. So that's what I thought would happen if there was any attempt at haircutting. That was such a pleasant surprise!!

We just went over this verse in Bible study. What a sweet promise from the Lord.
Ezekiel 36:26
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.