An Encouragement

Here's a little something I borrowed from another blog. Some encouragement of eternal worth.  

Motherly Greatness

2010 at 11:35 am   |   by Kristin Chesemore
Filed under Motherhood “The mother is the hub of the home, holding all the spokes in place. Without her being at her post, the family spins out of control and falls apart.” Mark Chanski

When school starts, do you find that it gets more difficult to “hold all the spokes in place”? I sure do.

On a typical day I must get my son, Andrew, out the door for school (with homework, lunch and back-pack), clean up from breakfast, homeschool my two younger boys, pay the bills, drive to an afternoon activity, get home in time to meet Andrew and help him with homework, prepare dinner for my family and a guest, do dishes, catch up on laundry and finally clean up my house which looks like it has been visited by a tornado.

Just another ordinary day in the life of a mom. But so often, I go through these ordinary days far more aware of what I am giving than whom I am serving.

I need my gaze lifted beyond my daily duties to my eternal mission as a mother. In his book, Womanly Dominion, Mr. Chanski brings us encouragement right where we need it:

“There she sits exhausted on the edge of her bed, her face in her hands, wondering, “Where's the glory in this?”

She needs something more empowering to keep her going.

She needs to gain and maintain the deep conviction of the glory, honor, and nobility of selfless service. This she finds at the foot of the cross, looking up to the One who earned for Himself “the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9), by “emptying Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant” (2:7), humbling “Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (2:8). There she beholds her Savior who mopped up the damning vomit of her own sin with the precious sponge of His perfect life and atoning death. The love of Christ constrains and compels her to press on (2 Corinthians 5:14). The Spirit of Christ empowers her” (pp. 120-121, emphasis mine).

Are you having a hard time being “the hub” today? Then "fix your eyes on Jesus” (Heb. 12:2-3), ask Him for help and strength, and thank Him for the honor of being a mother.

Camelia Cries

Byron just reminded me that there was a point when Camelia couldn't cry past 5 minutes without getting exhausted and needing a break.  Well, those days are over.  After 1.5 hours, Camelia is still crying.  She is not in pain, is perfectly content when held, she just wants to play.  The wee hours of the morning are not the time for that.  So she cries, and we sit awake, periodically checking on her to remind her of the time.

I plan on trying a new approach to this sleeping issue.  For the next couple days I will be the one awaking her in the middle of the night to disrupt this pattern.  We shall see how it fares.

In other news, she broke her first tooth two days ago, and was declared to be in the 95th percentile for height, weight and head circumference.  She is terribly cute, loves being gushed over, and yesterday was discovered standing next to the big piano playing a tune.  Meli waves hello and good-bye at the appropriate times, and is nearly 8 months old.

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Hopefully I will get a tad bit more sleep before my day actually begins.  This episode began prior to 4 am and Camelia is finally fast asleep and perfectly content.  She sure is cute and snuggly for such a demanding little munchkin.

DADDY

I love being a dad and tonight reminded me why.

It was the annual church carnival and we decided to take the girls (even though it was way past their bed time). Camelia was strapped to mommy and GG clutched my neck as we rushed to the fun.

Initially Gilana was intimidated by all the excitement. But after a little cotton candy, a snow cone, petting rabbits, and a balloon flower from aunt Erin she was having a marvelous time!

GG was holding tight to her daddy the majority of the night as we explored the transformed church.  Her frequent screams of delight and sweet little laugh brought joy to my heart.

Then came my favorite moment of the Carnival.  As things were closing down and the exhilaration of the night was ending Gilana and I strolled away from the crowd to wait for mommy.  We sat on a small wooden bench and as we sat she stopped to look at me.  With a huge smile she patted me on the leg and lovingly said "daddy".

Then to top the night off Gilana set the record for sweetness.  I was going through the routine where she said goodnight to Momma and Camelia.  Then as I was putting her in the crib, she squeezed me around the neck and said "wuv wa daddy".

Being a daddy is wonderful!

Camelia Can Crawl!!!

Camelia crawled for the first time last night, and has been enjoying her new found freedom since.  She seems to discover her new ability afresh each time and sets forth with sweet enthusiasm.  We are so proud of our little munchkin.  She is chattering, screeching with delight, sitting up and rolling over with such ease.  Every morning we find her moving about in her crib with great determination to find what lies beyond her reach.  She is growing up, and it is bittersweet indeed.

Happenings

This last week saw some rather momentous events with Camelia pulling herself up to stand on her own for the first time.  She can now rock back and forth in the crawling position, and on Sunday evening sat herself up!  Gilana surprised us several nights ago by singing her own rendition of "Amazing Grace" to us at bedtime.  This was especially shocking as we seldom sing that hymn to her at night.

7 & 20 Months

Cousins and Uncles and Aunties!

Aunties Tammy and Tiffany came down with baby William for a visit two weeks ago.  It became a wild event of family reunions, with all of my siblings together in one place for the first time in a long time!  The cousins all met eachother.  Gilana (19 months), William (9 months), Camelia (6 months), and Aiden (1 month) made for quite the baby spectacular.

 

Camelia met her Auntie Tiffy for the first time!

Hopefully I will have more pics to add soon!

Gigi's Hooliganisms

Gilana is a hooligan.  We are always expecting something fantastic may happen at any given moment.  Especially when the foreboding tones of silence fall across the house.  I asked Gilana this morning, "Are you silly?"  She responds with confidence dripping from her springing curls, "Yeah," and then goes back to attempting to eat our furniture.

This morning I come across our little toddler taking the cap off Byron's deodorant and smearing it across her face.  I believe she thought it to be chap stick.  She was mistaken.

Immediately after this rather humorous situation, I hear Camelia's monitor picking up some static.  She only recently went down for her nap and should not have been stirring.  I walk into the room to find Gilana squatting next to her now waking sister in the crib obviously considering what her next move should be.

A short while after this, Gilana came running up to me with a big vivacious smile exclaiming "MMMMM, Yummy juice!"  I looked into the dining room to discover that the remainder of Byron's iced coffee and some of his cinnamon roll were missing.  She might not need a nap for a while.

Blue

Gigi enjoys coloring and has labeled all colors and doodling related to it as "blue."  Our sweet dear has managed to not damage anything in her current love for the arts.  Until yesterday.  In about five minutes of obviously unsupervised play while I prepared dinner, Gilana managed to highlight Camelia's upper lip green, doodle ferociously across two seat cushions in a permanent marker, and finally, hid the pens back in their "no-touch" locations. 

If Mommy doesn't see me do it, do I still get in trouble?  Yes.

Camelia Adele is {almost} 6 Months Old

Our sweet little pudgy babe is about to become 6 months old.  Wow!  She is such a lovely and joyous addition to our family, we are so blessed to have her!  This morning I set her on the floor to play with some toys and TWO minutes later came back to find that she had rolled and scooted about 15 feet around obstacles into another room to get a new toy.  She is getting mobile and will soon loose her delicious baby chunk.  I love seeing her develop, but will certainly miss this sweet stage of babyhood.

Thorns and Parenting

I strolled about the neighborhood this morning considering a certain thorn in my side and my great aversion towards it.  My responses to said thorn have been inconsiderate at best, but more so, sinful.  This fact struck me quite boldly as amidst my pondering I nigh stumbled into a license plate that read "O CYNFUL."  Yes, Lord.  Point taken.

I would much prefer to have no sin whatsoever.  My desire is to be a perfect mother with perfect little children always obedient to my every parental whim with a "Yes, maam" and a "Yes, sir."  Unfortunately, what the wee little lasses currently see is me as I am and not as Christ is.  Is perfection too much to ask for?!

Friends, hasten towards Christ in hopes of a sweet response from the One who matters, saying "Well done, My good and faithful servant."  Sweet words to desire till the point when perfection cometh!

18 and 5 months

The girls are melting my mother's heart.

Exibit A

Exibit B

 

Exibit C

 

Exibit D

The Lord Wrought a Beautiful Work

I sit here pondering this lovely life of sweet blessings.  Three babies are sleeping soundly (baby Owen Holdeman is currently in my charge), and the melodic worship of pianist Fernando Ortega fills the room.  Our lives are so full.  Reading "Stepping Heavenward" for the umpteenth time has set my mind to strive to glorify Christ in my life, though constantly failing and appearing such a sinner to those nearest me, chiefly myself.  It is so easy to relate to the main character "Katy," in her younger days as a wife and mother, striving desperately to honor her Saviour in the worshipful actions of her day to day life, yet falling short in so many ways.  To never measure up to my own standard, how infinitely more I fall short of Christ's perfection!  Blessed assurance has never been as sweet as when my sins are most terribly evident.  I love this life abounding with graces from my Saviour's hand.

Our precocious Gilana is now officially one and a half!  She continues to develop into a spunky little darling.  Some of the ways she currently amuses us are at mealtimes when Gigi announces she is full by saying and signing "All Done!" followed by waving at her food and exclaiming "Bye bye Nana."  Gilana's language skills continue to grow tremendously.  She sings "Old McDonald" with Auntie Erin by singing the chorus "E I E I O!" and enjoys crooning a sweet interpretation of "Rock-a-bye Baby" to her dolls and to babies Owen and Camelia.  Her toddler talk makes for a sweet two-way conversation of jabber, she responds to Daddy's "Who loves you?" with a triumphant "Daddy!!" and bursts into a concerned "Oh no!" at any possible dilemma.  Gigi has taken to enjoying piggy-back rides, loves giving her sissy hugs and kisses, rides her rocking horse like a pro on the circuit, pretends to share meals and other delightful experiences with her dolls, goes down the stairs backwards without assistance, and dances like no one is watching! Last week when I was fixing the sprinklers she ran, terrified through the water to reach me.  She is becoming such a big girl!

Gentle little Camelia enjoys being with her family and observing excitement from the safety of Mommy or Daddy's arms.  She is becoming much more comfortable around other people and new experiences.  Mellie can now sit up on her own and has discovered her tongue and those illusive toes.  Everything within reach promptly is shoved into her mouth for the taste test, and she can roll completely over from either side.  Byron enjoys the humor of a "round baby rolling."  Camelia is doing an excellent job sleeping through the night, and can even sleep through Gilana's protests at nap time.  Her sweet laughter is music to my ears and strikes joy in my heart.  She giggles and chortles when I blow raspberries on her chunky thighs and sweet chest and enjoys when I tickle her face.

We recently took both girls to the community pool.  Gilana was apprehensive about the entire situation, but Camelia took to it quite jovially!  She floated about the pool with Daddy while Gilana stayed clear of the water with Mommy until she spied a little playmate her age enjoying the shallows of the hot-tub.  Bath-time is met every evening with girlie delight as Gigi rushes to have her things removed and partake in the Bath-time-baby Dance!  The girls lavish each other with kisses and hugs, splashing cheerily up to the time when we take them out to don their matching size four diapers!

Gilana is no longer experiencing any nightmares, but she has gotten in the habit of not sleeping when told.  We have had quite a few rather sleepless nights in our attempts to retrain on appropriate bedtime behavior.  Despite her sister's wayward behavior, Camelia has taken the high road and chosen to sleep well.  Our precious vessels of sanctification are doing their jobs with utmost decorum.

Nocturnal Wakings

Two nights ago Gilana woke with a start around 11 pm and screamed in terror for her Mommy and Daddy.  We rushed in to comfort and sooth her back to sleep, but she would have none of it!  Sweet Gigi was traumatized and refused anything to do with the pack-n-play she had been sleeping in for about a week.  Camelia had been learning to sleep in the nursery while Gilana enjoyed her temporary quarters in the guest room.  Everything was going great, but then this sleep-depriving snag hit us hard!  We thought through possible reasons she might have been struggling, did research on how to help her, but that night dragged on with a whimpering babe refusing to leave her Daddy's loving arms. 

He attempted taking her to bed with us, but that made her want to be a
        monkey jumping on the bed...
                        and we certainly didn't want her to fall off and bump her head!
So Momma decided not to call the doctor, but rather try and get the wee lass back to sleep.

Every attempt to lay her down resulted in lengthy and fearful wails, so Byron eventually decided to sleep in the room with her.  She woke several times an hour till 5 am after Byron had finally retreated back to bed.  We bolted out of bed at the sound of the Guest Room door opening with Gilana crying her way down the hallway towards the stairs.  Huge scare and relief that we had awoken!!  We then determined to put Gigi in the nursery with Camelia.  It worked and they both slept!

Every bedtime experience since that night has been a trial.  Nap times the last 2 days have been multi-hour crying sessions with us attempting to comfort Gigi in whatever way possible.  We even had her puppy-doll scope out the room for possible troubles, then report back to Gilana with the good results.  She wasn't buying it.  Last night Camelia went to sleep beautifully, but Gigi again fussed.  I prayed with our whimpering darling and sang her lullabies to sleep.  She finally gave in to exhaustion and collapsed into a ball on her mattress.  After this she slept excellently, despite Camelia's cries during the night whenever she lost her pacifier. This afternoon Gilana cried for nearly 2 hours as Byron and I continually went in to the nursery to check on her.  She refused to lay down, and propped herself against the rail as I once again prayed and sang her to sleep.  Gilana then fell asleep STANDING!  She had crumpled into mush on the mattress by the time her Daddy and Uncle Goggle came to see this darling anomaly. 

This evening was a different matter entirely.  Gilana and Camelia had their baths at Mopsy and Popsy's house followed by a walk home in the stroller.  After turning on the nursery fan and some soft lullaby music, I gave sweet Gigi a bottle to drink on her own as I nursed precious Camelia.  This was followed by a bedtime story and prayers for Melly as Gigi and I tucked her in and gave her kisses.  Then Gilana drank the rest of her bottle plus and entire second one!  Gilana and I prayed together and I settled her down in the crib, awaiting the howl.  Nothing.  She was tired and ready for bed!!!

Our girls are now officially sleeping in the nursery together, and we are SO grateful!!

I'm Just a Hanke

To my recollection, the situation presented itself quite joyfully.  The boisterous toddler rushed upon my person with arms outstretched for sweet embrace.  Or so I thought.  As soon as Gilana's arms were properly wrapped about my legs, the little head swished to and fro depositing the leaking contents of her nose.  I had been used-- and in a quite sordid manner.