WALKING!!

I have to post this really quick: As of today, Jasper John is WALKING (for real walking, not just a few steps)!!! By himself!! Unprompted!! All over the living room!! YEEEEHAW!!!! And he stood himself back up any time he stumbled or fell, and kept on going. Instead of a discouraged, uncertain look in his eye, he was confident and excited. Praise God!!

When I was pregnant with him, planning and expecting his arrival, I never would have dreamed that we'd be where we are, but I also have to say, I can't remember the last time I felt so excited about such a simple, natural thing as my baby learning to walk. Because it really is a challenge for him - it really is more difficult for Jasper to walk than other babies (the therapist confirmed he has lower muscle tone, and he has to work HARD to do things that come naturally to other kids). So my mommy heart is swelled with pride and thankfulness right now. I'm willing to bet this is how God feels about us when we work and sweat and try, never giving up, to do something that is difficult or painful, and He's there all along, holding our hand, encouraging us, whispering, "You can do this!" What a beautiful reminder.

Thank you, God, for another answered prayer with my little one! And thank all of you who have ever offered up prayers on his behalf!

P.S. We got it on video, and I'll try to come back and post it later.

LOVE THEM

You know how some days as a mom of littles are just tough? Put your head in your hands and bawl your eyes out tough? Goodness knows I've had plenty of those, but today wasn't one of them. No, siree.

Because on the way to Bennett's little school, we were talking about Spiderman (a new phase that began thanks to a Happy Meal toy from McDonalds), and B was trying to figure out how Spiderman could still be a good guy, even though he hits and punches the bad guys. We've been talking about using gentle hands and feet lately, and how to be a good friend, and the difference between good guys and bad guys (all due to his obsession with asking questions, and with how physical and hands-on he is), and he hasn't quite figured out when violence is appropriate in the real world (???) and when it's not. And yours truly is at a loss on how to explain it! :) (if anyone has any tips, I'd LOVE to hear them!) But the conversation itself was just precious, a sweet reminder of how innocent and young and sweet my big boy still is. It was a nice, needed reminder. I'm praying more and more for wisdom as a mom these days, because I know that on my own I am completely unequipped to raise this boy up in the Lord. Thank God that He is stepping in and doing the work! Anyway, it was just a fun little conversation that made me thankful for the relationship I have with my three (almost FOUR - eek!) year old.

Then for the rest of the morning while I was running errands with Jasper, he kept saying "Hi!" to Every. Moving. Car. everywhere we went, like he's been known to do for the past couple of weeks. And I LOOOOVE it!! He gets this HUGE smile on his face and says, "Car! Hi! Hi, car!" He and I broke into a fit of giggles together two different times today. One was when he proceeded to say hi to the same stinking car about 50 times in the Wal-mart parking lot, and the other was when he was smushing up his nose and making piggy sounds over and over and over again while we were playing this evening. I love the way our relationship has evolved and become special and unique in its own right, and I'm so thankful for Thursdays, when he and I get some one on one time.

Also, Jasper's first occupational therapy session was today, and it went wonderfully. His therapist's name is Meredith, and she's amazing. She makes everything fun and is SO encouraging, to him and to me. In one hour she did so much with him, and I've already seen a change in his attitude toward walking! Seriously! And I have specific tools that I can use with him in between our sessions. A therapist comes to our house once every two weeks, and it doesn't cost us a penny! What a load off to be working toward a specific goal, and what a blessing it is!

They call this "Good Day."

(next up is book stuff)

GARAGE SALE

Our church had a GIGANTIC garage sale this past weekend to raise money for our "Greater Things" campaign, and for a new baptistry, more specifically. I scored big.

I got a sewing machine for $10. It's old, but it works, and I'm pumped, because I'm just now trying things out with it. Whoo HOOOO!!

I got a light jacket for Bennett for $1.

I got a pair of calf-length brown boots in mint condition for ONE DOLLAR. I KNOW!! Brown boots were going on my Christmas list, and I was planning on them being one of my big ticket items, but now I don't have to put them on my list at all! :)

I also bought a set of shelves/bookcases that are very old that I'm going to attempt to completely make over in the next few months. I paid $10 for both of them together. Sweet.

There were also random knick knacks and home decor, and it was all $1-$2.

I stayed for an hour, and could have stayed a lot longer, but I was afraid of jinxing myself since I found EXACTLY what I wanted, and that pretty much never happens!

I would say after this experience that I'm a huge fan of garage sales, but that's not entirely true. Maybe I just don't hit the right ones, but I've very rarely had good finds at garage sales. But this one at the church was positively huge (spanning a large outside parking lot and four gymnasiums worth of stuff!). So any time there's an enormous sale like that, you can bet yours truly will be there!

HALLOWEEN

First off, I tried for about 30 minutes to get the pictures to appear here the way I cropped them in iPhoto, with no success - gah!! So these pics are only somewhat as cute as I had them worked out to be, a rough draft of sorts, if you will...but I'm probably the only one who really cares anyway, eh?

We carved and painted pumpkins the night before Halloween. For Halloween itself, after the boys woke up from their afternoon naps, we loaded them up and took them to Poppy and Mimi's house for some dinner and festivities. Me and Mimi took them trick-or-treating while Michael and my dad stayed home passing out candy to droves of trick-or-treaters. The boys did REALLY well and both of them LOVED going up to the houses, knocking on doors, saying "Trick-or-Treat!" and getting a bucket full of candy.

Carving and painting pumpkins.

(I also attempted roasting pumpkin seeds, but I set the oven too high, and they ended up tasting like burnt sunflower seed shells. Rough. We'll try again next year.)

Off to Poppy and Mimi's house for pizza and Trick-or-Treating!

The Pumpkin (what Bennett asked to be this year) and The Spider

One Sad Spider

Yes, I am dancing and carrying on like a crazy woman in the background. I am unashamed. Anything for good pictures, my friends.

Let's go get some candy!

Their favorite house of the night.

Happy Halloween!

DUDE, ACT LIKE A LADY

la·dy (ld)

n. pl. la·dies

1. A well-mannered and considerate woman with high standards of proper behavior.

2. a. A woman regarded as proper and virtuous.

b. A well-behaved young girl.

3. A woman who is the head of a household.

4. A woman, especially when spoken of or to in a polite way.

And so the rant/soap box/randomness begins, but this has been bugging me so much lately, I really can't help myself.

Ah, the word has so many different connotations, and is used so lightly and flippantly these days. But the truth is, to be a lady, you have to act like a lady. And sadly, I see so many women who, at times, act nothing like the word.

*Does a lady feel the need to slight or insult another woman, especially one who might be awkward, or social inept, or unattractive, or annoying, or different, or financially strapped, etc etc etc?

No. A lady loves and gives and reaches out.

*Does a lady quickly turn on others who have offended or "bested" her?

No. She extends grace and forgives and moves forward.

*Does a lady gossip and spread around juicy tidbits of news about others?

No. A lady keeps quiet. She encourages, she uplifts.

*Does a lady join in something morally wrong to preserve her image, or the good opinion of others?

No. She has a backbone and convictions, and she stands by them. Her trust is in the Lord, not in men (or women, as it were).

Why do we as women have such a difficult time being ladies? Because I for one think it is ridiculous that we women who claim to belong to Christ, justify and excuse our behavior toward one another. And of COURSE I am speaking to myself as well. My own words and actions and thoughts have disturbed me just as much at times.

I was talking to a friend several weeks ago, and she said sometimes she wishes we could get all of the women at church our age - our peers - together in one room and talk out why on earth we think it's okay to attack, demean, judge and talk about each other. Not just nasty, ugly, menacing things, because truth be told, we probably wouldn't get away with that - everyone would see our "true colors." No, she and I were talking about how women can snub, choose sides, pick teams, and look down at other women, and how hurtful that is to others. What if we all got together and were honest with each other? What if we committed to overlooking the sins and pitfalls of others, and worked on our own selves instead? What if we saw that annoying, silly, uninteresting, untalented woman (as we have judged her to be) in the light the Lord sees her in - His bride, His chosen one, His special interest? What if it wasn't necessary to be better than someone else?

This seems to be a plight of women, something so many of us (except for a select few I know that have always risen above it all - goodness, I wish I knew how they do it!) struggle with, and it just doesn't make sense. We spend our time and energy and feelings sizing ourselves up, comparing, judging, and hurting each other. Why do women do this?? When our energy could be focused on helping, healing, ministering, loving our children, setting Christ's example, serving, and delighting in the gifts the Lord has given each of us, while making allowances and a safe place for the faults and short-comings we all have?

I would apologize for this little sermonette, except that it's my blog, so I can write about whatever I want, right? So here it is, all out in the open. And if nothing else, maybe this will give me more accountability and make me think twice when I am tempted to open my mouth or flap my jaws about something that just isn't Christ-like. Because I really do want to be a lady. Ladies look pretty, inside and out. They're kind. They're loving. They're generous and helpful. They're confident and carefree. They're what God intended women to be.

Okay, whew. Deep breath. Now I'm repelling back down the mountain this soap box has morphed into, and making a list of upcoming blogs:

1) Halloween activities and pictures.

2) Garage sale.

2) Update on book(s). That's right. Plural. :)

3) No Shame. (a post about getting help when you NEED help - again with the randomness)

4) House cleaning. Because I've got this bad boy under control for the first time in my life (knock on wood).

5) Crafty projects/decorating.

And if you decide to continue reading after today's toe-smashing event, I give you a kudos, a two-thumbs up, a pat on the back, and a Starbucks toffe-mocha frappacino all rolled into one.

PUMPKIN PATCH PARTY

Our friends had a birthday party at the pumpkin patch this year, and we were so excited to go since we hadn't made the trip yet! It was a pretty sweet set-up, with little tables set out to have cake, a fast-pass to go on the hayride, picking out our very own pumpkins, and then going crazy in the bounce houses afterward. I was a good little Mama/Blogger, and took lots of pictures. Here are some of my favorites.

GO SEEK LOVE

You only have four days left (till the end of October) to buy a t-shirt from goseeklove.com to support the Cox's adoption in Ethiopia! Check out their blog at http://coxragamuffins.blogspot.com, or my post down below for more info.!

FRIENDS

We went to play with some friends several weeks ago, where Bennett and his buddy, Cason got really dirty playing in a sandbox, and wet as well. We ended up stripping off their shirts and they were both wearing their cute little khaki shorts, shirtless, swinging on the swing set. Cutest. Pictures. Ever. (Thanks, Leslie, for the photos!)

HAVE YOU EVER

Have you ever had your three-year-old poop all over the entryway floor (because he doesn't like wearing underwear and is sneaky, and puts his shorts back on without it when mommy isn't looking, and didn't make it from playing outside to the potty in time, and yes I know this is a horrendous run-on sentence), and then had your baby crawl all through it, getting it all over his hands and feet, thus giving you two poop-covered children in the bat of an eye?

Because I sure have. If I hadn't been initiated to the Mommy Club before, boy howdy this would've done it for me. Here's hoping your day has fared a bit better than mine :).

ADOPTION

Michael and I both have a passion for children - loving them, helping them, teaching them, etc. We've known for a while now that we'd like to adopt someday, bringing children into our home that wouldn't have had all of their needs met otherwise.

Our family isn't quite ready to take the first step in the adoption process yet, but our good friends, Jason and Summer Cox, are right smack in the middle of it right now. They are on the waiting list to receive their baby girl from Ethiopia. The children in Ethiopia are poverty-stricken and the stats from the country about orphans, disease, malnutrition, etc., are heart-breaking. But Jason and Summer have been convicted to change all of that for one baby girl.

It's a wonderful thing, a beautiful sacrifice of love, but it's also a difficult road, especially financially.

Adoption is crazy-expensive, and couples who are adopting can use a LOT of help. If you know me, or the Coxes, if you love children, if you yourself have a heart for adoption, I encourage you to check out Summer's blog at http://coxragamuffins.blogspot.com. It gives info on their journey, where they're at now, etc.

And if you want to HELP THEM OUT (which would be AWESOME!!!!), you can support them by buying coffee (see Summer's blog for the link), or buying a t-shirt at www.goseeklove.com, where the proceeds go toward their adoption, or by donating stuff for their monstrous garage sale, or by showing up and buying stuff at their monstrous garage sale (again, see Summer's blog for details, or contact her if you know her personally).

We sure do love you, Jason, Summer, Elijah and Judah, and our prayers and support are with you and the beautiful baby girl you'll soon be holding in your arms!