May Flowers

We planted flowers this morning. Talia was in little girl heaven. Benj was a bit grumpy and so not very excited about the whole thing.

Using the trowel from Talia's plastic play gardening set--the handle is an ear of corn--we filled her pot with soil. (Well, dirt if you ask her.) (1)

Next we carefully poured out two little seeds into the palm of her chubby hand and I helped her tip them into the pot.

Then Mama put "just a little scoop" of soil on top of the seeds and we "pat, pat, pat'ed" the soil down with a flat trowel (an eggplant-shaped handle :) ).

Flowers not only need soil ("food") and seeds to grow. They also need water. She helped me sprinkle some water from her watering can on the pot and then I taught her to check the holes in the bottom of the pot for drips to show that we gave our flowers enough to drink. (2)

The last thing we need for healthy flowers is sunshine! We placed her pots on some low shelves on the sunny side of the house. (3)

She was so proud of her "f'owers." (4)

Easter Fun

All dressed up

Waiting for their first-ever Easter Egg Hunt to start
Benjamin finding his eggs

Talia fills her basket

Easter Eggs

Last night the kids had their first ever experience coloring Easter eggs. They had a great time!

Today we ate some of our creations for lunch. (Benj is allergic to the white of the egg so we actually eat hard boiled eggs a lot. I just take the white off for him and he eats the yolk. Loves it!--I know, weird.) Anyway, I told the kids we were going to eat Easter eggs for lunch and they immediately began planning which one they wanted to eat. Seth had drawn "Bob" and "Larry" faces (VeggieTales characters) so Benj decided he wanted to eat Bob and Tali wanted Larry. Lunch was ready, they were sitting in their seats, and the time came for me to crack & peel their eggs. Benjamin had an absolute MELTDOWN. He could NOT understand why I wouldn't let him eat "Bob." He cried big, sad crocodile tears for at least 5 minutes as I tried and tried to console him, explaining that we can't eat the colored eggshells just like we can't eat white eggshells...etc. Poor guy. What a letdown. (Meanwhile, Talia was happily chowing down. Evidently it wasn't an issue for her.)

God is God and I am not

Yesterday after reading Seth's post I was reflecting on the place where God has us right now and remembering again that our only safety and hope is in the fact that we can trust our loving God who promises to "work all things together for our good." Then, as I was driving to my doctor's appointment this song by Steven Curtis Chapman came on the radio:

God is God

And the pain falls like a curtain
On the things I once called certain
And I have to say the words I fear the most:
I just don’t know

And the questions without answers
Come and paralyze the dancer
So I stand here on the stage afraid to move
Afraid to fall, oh, but fall I must
On this truth that my life has been formed from the dust

God is God and I am not
I can only see a part of the picture He’s painting
God is God and I am man
So I’ll never understand it all
For only God is God

And the sky begins to thunder
And I’m filled with awe and wonder
‘Til the only burning question that remains
Is "who am I?"

Can I form a single mountain?
Take the stars in hand and count them?
Can I even take a breath without God giving it to me?
He is first and last before all that has been
Beyond all that will pass

Oh, how great are the riches of His wisdom and knowledge
How unsearchable; for to Him and through
Him and from Him are all things

So let us worship before the throne
Of the One who is worthy of worship alone

Dissertation Update

Seth here, again. 3:18 AM.

The dissertation is finally rolling again. I just sent off the initial draft of chapter 4 to my advisor. I was hoping to do that about a month ago, but the last few weeks have been tough in a number of ways.

Thanks to all of you who are praying for us during this time. And I mean "us." I'm putting in the late nights, but Kiersten is working very hard each day to take care of the kids and to free me up to do what needs to be done. She has been amazing, especially the last couple of weeks. But we're both worn out, and our baby girl's due date is getting ever closer.

The current plan is for me to finish my initial draft this month, and then to work on revisions over the summer. I have the first 4 chapters (out of 7) turned in to my advisor, and I am up to 171 pages. It's a little pre-mature to turn in the concluding chapter, so as long as I get chapters 5 and 6 turned in the next 4 weeks, we'll be sitting in good shape going into the summer.

Please continue to pray for us. We don't know why God is allowing this to drag on and on, and its a challenge to trust Him when things are hard. Pray for perseverance. Pray for peace.

But as always when we go through a difficult time, I think God is drawing us closer to Him. I'll close with a truth from Psalm 2 that encouraged me today:
"Blessed are all who take refuge in Him."

My Sensitive Girl

Seth here, with a quick story about my sweet, little girl.

Background: For the last 2 years, I have been driving to work in a beat-up, '92 Pontiac Bonnyville. Although this car has definitely been a blessing (we got it for free soon after Benj was born and right at the time when I started a new job and we needed two cars for the first time in our lives), but it has also been a "thorn in my flesh": i.e., something that God has used to humble me, test me, and refine me. So when the brakes on it wore out about a month ago and we knew we would soon be buying a minivan, we decided not to fix it and I rejoiced that I finally didn't have drive that car around anymore.

Well, we bought a minivan last week and we found a needy college student who is gratefully taking this bucket of bolts off of our hands. So today Kiersten, the kids, and I took the car to the shop to get the brakes fixed, and the transfer will happen tomorrow (Lord willing). I am meeting the college student at the shop in the morning and we are going from there to the government office to file the paperwork, so I knew this would be the last time the kids would see "Daddy's car."

So as we were about to pull away, I joyfully told the kids, "Wave bye-bye to Daddy's car. You won't see it anymore." And Benj gladly complied.

But poor Talia immediately burst into tears. Kiersten & I, rather shocked, asked her what was wrong. She was too upset to speak clearly, but I made out "daddy's car," so I asked her if she was upset because she wasn't going to see daddy's car anymore. Through her tears, she sadly said, "Yes."

After I stopped laughing (and while Kiersten was trying to stop laughing), I explained to her that we don't need 3 cars and that the silver car that used to be mommy's car will now be daddy's car. She eventually calmed down and even took a little nap while we were our running an errand, but she really didn't cheer up until we were pulling into McDonald's for lunch.

My poor, sensitive girl. I guess if you look at things from her perspective, all her life that car has been part of daddy's identity, so parting with it was hard. It will be interesting to see how that sensitivity (and desire for stability?) plays itself out when she is older.

Mr. Contrary

Is it just age 3? Lately Benjamin has been Mr. Contrary! For example:

Talia: "I see a bird."
Benj: "I don't see a bird."
(repeat until Talia dissolves into frustrated tears)

or

Benj: "What is that sound?"
Me: "It's that blue car that just drove by."
Benj: "It's not a blue car."

or

Benj: "There's Daddy's car."
Me: "That's Daddy's old car, now he drives the silver car we used to drive."
Benj: "Nope. No he doesn't."

I'm a bit confused about this whole post-modern denial of solid fact. The "nuh-uh/uh-huh" route seems a bit childish, but that's what these conversations feel like!

So...time to comment! This is a bit of a departure from my norm, but I would love to hear from all you wise parents about your experiences with contrary-ness and your ideas for weeding out that argumentative spirit.