The Last Couple Weeks

Joshua has been ice skating with Daddy for the last few Saturday afternoons. The rink in town has free rental skates, even the double-bladed skates for kids! Joshua has really enjoyed this and looks forward to it each week.



Winter also brings sledding. Joshua and Daddy took a quick sledding trip after visiting the ice rink. They made a jump and had a blast.




Joshua has also been taking swimming lessons. Well, the pool calls it "Preschool Aquatics", I call it "Getting familiar with being in the water". But it's a good start and it is building confidence in Joshua that I haven't seen before when he is in the water.

Joel and I are looking forward to Rachel's third birthday on Sunday. Rachel is very excited. She has grown a lot this past year and has come a long way. Rachel enjoys carrying her little toys around the house and leaves a pretty trail for Mommy to pick up. :) She loves her little sister and wants to hold her frequently.



Joshua and Rachel play together most of the time and usually they have a very good time as you can see here:



Madelynn is sitting up on her own now. She pushed her first tooth through a couple weeks ago and is now working on her second. She can roll but prefers to stand and jump on my lap. She is a happy little girl who is starting to grab at things in front of her, next to her, anywhere actually. She grabbed a hand sanitizer pump bottle yesterday and was sucking on that. We rushed off to the clinic, but everything turned out ok. She only got a few drops and was just fine. Whew!

Joel and I have been able to go on dates over the last month. That has been great! Sometimes we go out, most of the time we stay home and enjoy the quiet by playing a game or our musical instruments. Sometimes Madelynn joins us, and that's fun too.



We are still looking for another place to live. We have looked at two places, but there has been no leading from Jesus to say "yes" to them.

We are also in the middle of a situation that involves Joshua and his education. I'm sorry I can't be more specific, but perhaps when it is resolved I'll be more open about it. But it is heavy on our hearts and wanted to let you know.

On the more brighter side, Joel is continuing to work everyday (M-F), which we are so grateful for.
I am continuing to do the two Bible Studies and am now involved in The Truth Project with a group of friends. I am also crocheting in my free time in hopes of opening an Etsy shop in the near future.

Yet Again,

Another video with Madelynn in her high chair:

Madelynn is done eating and all of a sudden she starts doing this funny thing with her mouth:


(That's 'Dogwood' playing in the background)

Some(?) Pictures of the Kids

Here are some of the kiddos together. I hope one of these works for you, Great Grampa W.






One day, Josh the Punk and Diva Rachel put on a fabulous (Loud) concert:


I'm serious when I said Josh the Punk. He looked just like a punk screaming into the microphone and yelling jibberish.




And Rachel accompanied with some melodious (loud) singing:


Joshua continues to do well in Preschool. He is starting "Preschool Aquatics" (swimming lessons) this week and really enjoys it.

No big updates on Rachel. Just persevering through the Two's and looking forward to her third birthday at the end of this month.

Next up, is Quiet One. The Blue Eyed Wonder...Madelynn!:

Umm, Madelynn? could you get your feet out of your mouth so our friends can see you?

Uh, Madelynn? Over here! The Grandparents and Family want to see your face!!

Ah! There we go! Thanks Madelynn!
There she is. The Big Seven Month-er.

She's growing so much!

And there's her beautiful smile!

Madelynn is sitting up, with some support.
Yes, some. I know. Those are big pillows. But really she only needs some help sitting up.

I love this picture.

Madelynn is rolling now. That started about a month ago. Oh, and she's teething. I can feel bumps that are about to poke through. She's not too interested in being on her tummy so I think crawling will be delayed by quite a bit. She still loves to stand, so perhaps she'll be walking before she crawls.

One prayer request comes to mind for Joel and I. That is, our lease is up May 1st. We need to find another place to live in less than four months. Preferably a three bedroom house.

Have a great day!

Sledding

Bugs - by Joel.

So once again I'm a little behind in getting my thoughts on to a blog. I think last April I wrote about the beauty of winter, so now in the middle of January I'm going to write about bugs.
For starters, here's my favorite:
The pine beetle, or spruce beetle - I'm not sure which. They tend to be a inch to two inches long with long curved antenna that long as well. It seems they have very little control over their flight. And they're dumb as a bag of hammers. Maybe that's why I like them - they make me feel smart. I'm not intimidated by pine beetles the way one might be by say, a dragonfly.

Dragonflies are beautiful and fast and strong. They seem invincible.
But there was this day back in July. We were building a house on Two Island lake, taking coffee break on a grassy point jutting out into the lake. As I sat down on an old log by the fire-pit I saw hanging from a twig what seemed to be the discarded exoskeleton of some kind of water beetle. Next to it was a dragonfly that seemed in no hurry to fly off. I wondered if there were a connection between the two despite the difference in their shapes. Looking around, my co-worker and I soon discovered in the grass all over the point were hundreds of dragonflies hanging from reeds and sticks and alongside them were these shells. Upon closer inspection we found that some of the dragonflies had tiny little wings and their abdomens were curled up. We were watching a dragonfly hatch! In their final of many larvae stages as a water dwelling insect the dragonflies had climbed ashore and crawled out of their skin. As they soaked up the sun their wings would unfurl and abdomens uncurl. It looked like a slow process. And what struck me was this: the seemingly invincible dragonfly, for these few hours of its life is totally vulnerable. I learned later that even in the water it is a vicious predator. But as I sat there on that grassy point I saw one dragonfly who had fell victim to red ants. Before its wings had fully dried, a dozen or more red ants had taken it captive and were already dismantling it to drag back to the colony.

It made me heartsick. I know that the ants have to eat too, but it stirred up something deep within me. I felt it again watching BBC's Planet Earth, as animals fell prey to each other. And most recently last fall as I took the knife to the belly of the doe I had just shot, while her fawn ran off into the forest.

And that's just animals! What about all the suffering caused to people at the hands of other people? What about infants born with heart abnormalities?

It makes me homesick. For my eternal home. Romans 8 talks about creation groaning from it bondage to corruption. Sometimes I groan too.

Its the corruption of death that has been in place since Adam and Eve chose a way other than the one offered by the Giver of Life.

In this world all life is dependent on death. We cannot eat without something dying - be it plant or animal. Even plants depend on the death of other plants for their nutrients.

Now imagine that the God who created a world full of life, that was then defiled and made a world full of death by his own creation, would subject himself into that world! Think of it - without the death of Jesus we have no life. None of us deserves anything other than eternal death because we've all rebelled in some way against our Eternal Giver of Life.

But here's the hope - Jesus did not stay dead! The pattern of life being dependent on death was broken. The power of God is stronger than death. And one day there will be a new heaven and new earth where there will be no more death, no more suffering, no more infants dying. And participation in that world requires the obvious - not saying "no" to the One who created you for it!

I am grateful for these moments of heartsickness. It just means I love Jesus so much more than this world. I can't wait to go home. But for now I'm also pretty excited about all He is doing here - bringing life and busting apart the cycle of sin and death.

So that's where my mind goes when I start thinking about bugs!