Picture Update

As I said in the last post, our wonderful friends, the Bridenstine's came to visit us last week and we had such a fun and refreshing time together. We love them so much and they are so dear to us!

Here are some pictures from our time together:

Taylor Joy and Will

Ready for our double date.



Easton playing with Natalie (the Arbuckles' newest little one)


Also, here are some pictures of the fun being had in our unexpected snow on Tuesday!

Charlie Bit Me

On a lighter note, and for 28 seconds of your time, watch this hilarious video. We've been hanging out with our wonderful friends from North Carolina, The Bridenstine's, and they have exposed us to some funny videos. The kids and I are loving this one. What a refreshing time to have them spend the past few days with us. Enjoy!

Blogging

After listening to Allen's sermon last night about Deviants in Disguise, false prophets from the Sermon on the Mount, I am painfully aware that as my blog has grown from just a place to post pictures of the kids, I have more responsibility in what I am posting on here. Here's a wonderful article that I found very helpful as well.

Here's what I'm NOT doing:

I'm not advocating you to check my blog every day. I don't post everyday anyway.  It's a miracle if I can post twice a week (after all, I have 3 kids under 4 years old). Use Google Reader and check it when you can. And not to the detriment of other things.

I'm not saying I'm the final authority on anything. I'm not an expert book reviewer, crafter, cook, pastor's wife or mom. Quite the opposite, actually. I learn from so many other women, bloggers and experts on these issues and areas of life. I am so thankful for a community to learn and grow in these ways.

Here's what I am doing:

Desiring to communicate my heart to friends, family and others who are interested in our family. I don't think you are a blog-stalker if you found our blog and keep up with it. I invite whoever is interested in us and who isn't doing/thinking the above things (the NOTs) to join us as we journey through life, by God's grace.

Blogging to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." I think that includes blogging. I'd like to serve you with resources, books, quotes, any other helpful material that would be meaningful for your life. I hope it encourages you, draws you closer to God and brings glory to God.

Here's a quote from Bob Kauflin's 17-year-old daughter who started a picture blog:

"If you ever have any free time and you're wondering, "What in the world am I going to do now?" don't go to my blog. Have extended devotions, or read some good book on our Savior, or serve your family. And once you've done that, come and visit my blog."

Such wisdom in her youth! I pray these same things for you as you explore the blogosphere.

Easton on the Move

Easton has been trying for a month or so to crawl and I can't deny it any longer...

He's crawling! It is super-official!

He is the earliest of my three to crawl, coming in at 6 1/2 months. How did this happen?

Checkout the video below:

(by the way, that high-pitched squeak you hear in the background is actually Taylor Joy!)

Valentine Pops

A cute Valentine treat that the kids and I made and decorated to give to our neighbors...hope you enjoy the recipe!

Rice Crispy Valentine Pops

• 1 stick  butter or margarine
• 1 package  (10 oz., about 40) regular marshmallows
•  Food coloring
•  6 cups  Rice Crispy cereal
  
•  12  wooden ice cream sticks
•   Flaked coconut
•   Multi-colored sprinkles
•   Semi-sweet chocolate morsels, melted

Directions:

1. In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat. Stir in food coloring, if desired.

2. Add Rice Crispies cereal. Stir until well coated.

3. Using 1/2-cup measuring cup coated with cooking spray divide warm cereal mixture into portions. Using buttered hands shape each portion into ball. I found that it was better to wait until it had cooled down quite a bit before trying to form the balls. And, it took forming them several times for them to stay.

4. Insert wooden stick, if desired. Decorate with coconut, multi-colored sprinkles and/or melted chocolate, if desired. Let stand until firm. Best if served the same day. We also wrapped them in cellophane and tied a ribbon around them.

5 Cities That Ruled The World

I signed up to review this book because of several thoughts that went through my head when I saw the cover and what it was about.

First, Douglas Wilson! He's a great writer and has an amazing wife who ministers to me greatly over at the Femina blog and as a recipient of her monthly Minister's Wife newsletter. He has also written highly recommended books, one such book is Persuasions that has been recommended to me recently. Second, it's a history book written by a Christian. Wow, I might actually like this.

Since Allen is a history buff and loves all things history, I often feel out of the loop when he's giving details about something I should know in depth, like say, the Alamo. I've told him this before, so this isn't news to him, but it's often hard to go to historical places with him because he loves to read every piece of writing on every wall, inspect every historical item and listen to every account that is given of said piece of history. I like to look around and see the sights. I don't want to be bound to learning every single thing. That doesn't feel much like a vacation to me.

So for those reasons, I snatched up this book. I am sad to say that I was pretty disappointed. Although Doug's writing skills are top-notch and his historical knowledge seems to be unsurpassed, I wouldn't recommend this book for several reasons.

First, it failed to hold my attention. I really wanted to like it and to get some background on these cities, I wanted to be enamored with the way it was written and the history that is behind these cities. The way it was written is very educational and far from relate-able. I felt like I was reading a textbook and that I was in the secondary course needing a better background for what I was reading about.

Second, it seemed to me that the way the information was presented, as to a student from a professor, it would be more beneficial and more complete to read up on these cities in a history book that included the entire history of the city.

I value the intention of this book, which is telling the story of how 5 cities, Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London and New York have shaped the course of global history. I enjoyed reading about Jerusalem since it is so relevant to what I read on an everyday basis, the Bible. I loved it when he tied in background or historical information that helped me to understand the background of scripture better, and thus aid me in my Bible study.

I appreciated the Epilogue as it tied together all the loose ends of these cities in relation to scripture and the future heavenly city. He says that the prince of that city, Jesus, is Immanuel, God with us. He's not distant, not far-removed, but right here with us. Wilson says that the kingdom of God works "quietly, over the course of many generations...His power has been working, and His work will be accomplished." He closes with a scripture (prophecy) about the future city that believers can look forward to in Heaven one day.

On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare
       a feast of rich food for all peoples,
       a banquet of aged wine—
       the best of meats and the finest of wines.

On this mountain he will destroy
       the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
       the sheet that covers all nations;

He will swallow up death forever.
       The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears
       from all faces;
       he will remove the disgrace of his people
       from all the earth.
       The LORD has spoken.

In that day they will say,
       "Surely this is our God;
       we trusted in him, and he saved us.
       This is the LORD, we trusted in him;
       let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation."

Isaiah 25:6-9


I am grateful for the opportunity to expand my horizons beyond the usual that you would see on my bookshelf: Shopping for Time, Feminine Appeal, Gospel Powered Parenting, Discipline of Grace, etc. It was beneficial for me personally to open up my mind to history and learning in an educational way that I haven't done for the past 5 years.



(This is a review through Thomas Nelson's Book Sneeze program.)

Heart Headbands

My hip friend, Stephanie, came to church on Sunday night with a totally cute headband in her hair. It looked make-able. I asked her if she made it. Nope. It was the ribbon from an Anthropologie package! It was ribbon with circles of felt threaded onto it. So cute!

I thought it might be fun to make a headband with hearts since Valentine's Day is coming up. Here's what I came up with.

Grab a few old wool sweaters that you don't wear anymore (or that shrunk up in the wash). Wash and dry them on hot. (or go pick up quality felt from the store!)

Cut out a cardstock heart, like the little one I made. It can be smaller or bigger than mine, just depending on preference.

Use a fabric marker to trace the heart (on the wrong side of the sweater) and cut out a few hearts.

Now grab some ribbon and elastic. Measure your head using the ribbon and pull the ribbon around your head (like as tight as you would want a headband) and leave 2-3 inches for elastic. Either fold over or burn the edges of your ribbon and sew back and forth a few times to secure ONE edge.

Fold over hearts and carefully cut two slits in each heart...one towards the top and one towards the bottom. The ribbon should be able to slip through here without being bunched up.

Now, slide your cutie hearts onto your ribbon how you would like them and sew up the other side.

The final product!

Tree of Thanks Placemats

After November's Tree of Thanks, where each family member wrote something they were thankful for each day during the month (we missed several), I decided I wanted to remember the things that we said.

Result?

Thanksgiving placemats!

Because of all the Advent festivities, these just got laminated (here in February) and ready to pull out next November. I photoshopped pictures of all of us with our name and a caption that says, "is thankful for..." and pasted all of the coordinating thankful leaves onto a piece of poster board. Then, off to get laminated, of course.

I think they turned out really cute and I think I might start making placemats for many different holidays throughout the year. You could definitely do something like this for Valentine's Day with the valentines that each family member received and maybe a quote, "Taylor Joy is loved..." and reasons why we love each family member written on scrapbook paper hearts.

More Valentine's fun to come...

Kids' Concert

Ever since Beckett's birthday when he received his guitars and Christmas when they received their microphones, there have been a plethora of concerts taking place right inside of our house! It has been precious to watch.

And for the record, they have no idea what High School Musical even is.

Easton's Half Birthday

Easton Brooks celebrated his half birthday yesterday.

It may not have been the most delightful celebration. We started the day off waking him up around 5:15 am to get him ready to go to the hospital. It would have normally been time for him to eat, but he wasn't allowed to eat after 1 a.m. So he was just tired, hungry and cranky (as are most of us at 5 am).

We arrived at the hospital, waited around for awhile and then he went in to get tube in his ears around 7:30. He came back, tubed up, around 7:45, ate and was still pretty cranky. We took him home, he took a 3 hour nap and woke up a new baby. The doctor told us he was able to clear out lots of yucky fluid in his ears and so I am sure that helped. The tubes will now help whatever fluid accumulates in there to empty itself out, as it had been unable to the past 2 months that he's had constant ear infections.

While not the greatest thing to have done to your 6 month old, it is definitely an answer to prayer. There have been many naps and many nights where I have just had to pray and ask the Lord to take away any pain he is experiencing. It's awful to know your baby is in pain and not be able to do anything about it. So, all that to say, this is a good thing and I believe his world is getting back to normal. The happy, "easy E", as we call him is back.

He slept great last night (all through the night) and I am sure that's why. It's been months since that happened.

As far as milestones this month, our little man is almost crawling. I can't believe how big he thinks he is. I guess he sees the other two and wants to do what they are doing, but I am tempted to push him down when he tries that crawling action. Not cool for a 6 month old. He's not trying to sit on his own yet and we haven't tried solids yet. He grabs at everything and is actually very coordinated. He did not get his great hand-eye coordination from me, that's for sure.

Here are some pictures of the precious fella:

And a few of the other two cuties:

Gospel Powered Parenting, Ch.1

I LOVE this book.

I am not one to just swallow a book whole, but this one I did and will continue to.

This is the ultimate parenting book. I love Shepherding a Child's Heart and it is my old favorite, but I think this book is so foundational that it wins out. Every chapter in this book brought me back to the Gospel and seeing all aspects of parenting in light of the cross, seeing ourselves in view of God's character and His great mercy toward us.

The author, William Farley, talks often about the importance of the father on your children. As a matter of fact, much of the book is directed specifically to the father. He says this,

"The common denominator between success and failure seems to be the spiritual depth and sincerity of the parents, especially the spiritual depth and sincerity of the father."

Farley says we "need the grace that comes to (us) through the Gospel" since parenting is difficult and because we are imperfect. I have often wondered how people raise children without the Lord. I have so many days where I just want to give up...I think I would despair if I didn't have God to turn to...if I didn't have a refuge.

God is sovereign but he uses "means" (parents) to reach our children. Holding God's sovereignty and man's responsibility in tension is what Farley emphasizes in the first chapter. He says, "It is fatal to presume upon God's sovereignty by neglecting parental faithfulness. Yet it is also a mistake to assume that it all depends on us."

He also takes a stab at those who shelter their children from the world and taking a defensive standpoint when instead he says we should take the offense and equip our children to overcome the world. He says it is our job as parents to give our children a God-centered worldview by "going after their hearts."

A few questions he asked and I had to ask myself:

What assumptions have affected my approach to parenting? (am I assuming parenting should be easy, am I assuming God is sovereign and I am responsible and holding those two in tension, am I pursuing my childrens' hearts and making the Gospel attractive, am I assuming my children are believers just because they do or say the right thing, is my house child-centered or God-centered)

Which pressures from our culture make these assumptions difficult to believe or apply?

What do you think? Have you learned or are you learning this through your parenting journey?

Happy Birthday to him...

to the one who jumps vigorously...

to the one who samples lots of concoctions...

to the one who "catches" butterflies...

to the one who consents to my decorating whims...

to the one who loves and gives and serves his heart out...

yeah, you. Plus 28.

Happy Birthday.

We love you.

Taylor Joyisms & Beckettisms

Taylor Joyisms used to be monthly feature here at the Duty Chronicles and since Easton was born, they are sadly down to a semi-annual basis. It's not that hilarious things aren't being said, but they are laughed at and forgotten most of the time.

Here are a few that we have kept up with in the past month, with a few from our newly verbose son, as well.



Taylor Joyisms:

"Daddy, you're the exercising boy that's the exercising boy!"

"I meant to do that on accident"

(pointing to her sippy cup) "N - U - B - Y. That spells cup."

"Since Beckett was coughing two times, I burped his back."

"Daddy, you're a sneaky potato!"

"I'm a really good killer. I can kill them really really hard." (about the flies in our house)

"oh, pink it!" (she says it in the same context of "aww, man!")

"it's like a rock star" (if something is really cool)

(with her new doctor kit) "I can hear your heartbeep!"

"Mommy, do we need to disgust?" (discuss)

"Take it to the MAX!" (when she wants to do something with greatness)

"Daddy, I want to be an adult." Allen said, "No Geet (her nickname), I don't want you to be an adult. I want you to be my little girl." And she said, "But I just want to be an adult." Allen said, "You'll be an adult one day. But for now I want you to enjoy being little. I love that you're my little girl." And then she said, "Yeeeeah, I'll be an adult when I'm four."

Beckettisms:

"mommy...i unt a piece of chocolate milk!"

(after pulling down a table in the kitchen and glass all over the floor) "I sorry. I not do it 'gain."

"I aggle goose" (mommy translation: I want apple juice)

"What doin' dayeee? (daddy translation: what are you doing, Daddy?)

(after seeing a boy hitting in preschool and him being told to "be nice", Beckett walks around patting everyone saying this) "I nice. I nice. I nice"

Beckett also loves to pray and will go on and on until you stop him. I would love to listen to him pray forever, it's so sweet, but often (for time's sake) we have to prompt him to say, "In Jesus' name, Amen." I hope to get it on video very soon.


Hope you enjoyed this installment of Dutyisms. I'll try to keep up with all the Duty funnies until the next time.

How you can help Haiti

This is Allen's post on the NL blog:

By now, you have probably heard about the massive 7.3 earthquake that struck Haiti two days ago. If not, here is a news brief from the New York Times on the event and the country:

“On Jan. 12, 2010, a massive earthquake struck Haiti, devastating its capital. Thousands of people were feared dead. The recent earthquake, the worst in the region in more than 200 years, brought even more suffering to a nation that was already the hemisphere’s poorest and most disaster-prone.

Haiti occupies an area roughly the size of Maryland on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Nearly all of the 8.7 million residents are of African descent and speak Creole and French. The capital is Port-au-Prince.

The country is, by a significant margin, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, with four out of five people living in poverty and more than half in abject poverty. Deforestation and over-farming have left much of Haiti eroded and barren, undermining subsistence farming efforts, driving up food prices and leaving the country even more vulnerable to natural disasters. Its long history of political instability and corruption has added to the turmoil.”

Please be in prayer for the country’s leadership, the believers there, and for the many aid workers already there or leaving to help. We would also urge you to consider donating by purchasing a Help Haiti t-shirt (take a look here). The shirts are $25 each, and 100% of the proceeds go toward Haiti disaster relief through Real Hope for Haiti, Compassion International, and Heartline.

New Life will be placing a bulk order for these t-shirts on Friday. To place your order through New Life, please email Allen by 12 pm CST on Friday with the number of t-shirts you would like and the sizes you need. Then bring your payment to worship on Sunday evening (make checks payable to New Life with “Help Haiti” on the memo line). One of our members has volunteered to bring the shirts to College Station next weekend so we will not have to pay any shipping charges.

For friends of New Life that live outside of College Station, you may order your shirt directly through Aaron Ivey’s website, and the shirt will be shipped to your address in 3–7 days. Shipping charges will apply to orders placed through Ivey’s site.

Thank you for praying or donating to help these hurting people.

Here's a few more ways to help on Justin Taylor's blog, as well.

Praying through this

Thinking beyond myself

{for today}

The Rescue Kids!

Now, for some of the crafts that I have been undertaking throughout November and December that I couldn't tell you about until after Christmas (I love surprises!).

The capes and masks that I made for the kids were huge hit since they (Taylor Joy especially) are in a wonderful phase that includes imagining almost everything they do. I hope this phase lasts! They love to imagine that Taylor's bed is a car that drives us to Chuck E. Cheese or Chic-fil-A and then we get out and order our meal or play pretend games together. They love to imagine they are Word Girl and Captain Huggieface and race around the house "rescuing" each other from the Bad Guys (they usually say that Allen is the Butcher...a bad guy on the show). Beckett is always needing to be rescued from someone who is tickling him. It's just too much fun not to.

All that to say, it's been precious to see them use something so simple to enhance their precious little imaginations. Here are the tutorials I used for the capes and masks:


Superhero Cape and Mask Tutorial

Instead of using an old dress like she suggested, I just used fabric I had or got for really cheap, about a yard for each. I made Beckett's shorter than Taylor Joy's, of course.

I also appliqued their initials on the back of their capes and added a girly bow to Taylor Joy's.

Hope this can be useful for you and your kids, too!

Christmas Pictures in Review

We had a beautiful Christmas together.

We started off the festivities in Sachse with my family on the 23rd. Spending time with their Nanny, Papa and Aunt B was a highlight for sure. It was brief, but worth it. Nanny and Papa attempted to wrap a picture of the kids' new trampoline, but I'm pretty sure it was lost in translation. It came through loud and clear when Allen put it together the day after Christmas. They are loving it and I have to be quite honest, I like it myself. Practicing my old cheerleader jumps is pretty fun and Taylor Joy keeps asking me, "Mom! Who taught you to do that?" I'm not sure I'll be brave enough to try any flips anytime soon though. We are coming up on our 10 year high school reunion this year. Crazy how that silly thing called time flies!

We headed over to McKinney on Christmas Eve morning to spend some time with Mima, G-pa, Aunt Lizzie, Aunt Cathy and Uncle Ryan. It was way too brief, but so much fun. Notice the wonderful quality of my pictures below? Yeah? Yeah! That's what I thought. Thank Mima and G-pa for that. I think Cathy might win the award for most thoughtful gift this year. She got me this awesome book that I can't wait to dig into.

We headed to Frisco to see our friends Ryan and Cate for an excruciatingly quick 10 minute hello and gift drop-off in the SNOW! Yes, it was really coming down on our way there and back. Beautiful!

We came home to get settled back in and spend a low-key Christmas Eve and Christmas in our home. It was a fun night and day of fire burning in the fireplace, cold weather, sweet devotions together, yummy meals and blessing each other with thoughtful gifts. I am so thankful that we sat down before Thanksgiving and actually planned out our budget and gifts this year. I was able to make gifts for the kids and our family that were thoughtful and also useful and well received. I made capes for the kids since they love Word Girl and Captain Huggieface and love to pretend they are the Rescue Kids. I love it that it promotes them using their imagination, as opposed to another battery-operated toy. We also got them a tent with a tunnel that we thought they would enjoy since they love making forts. I made necklaces for Taylor Joy, family, some friends and myself. I was so blessed by our Advent time this year and hearing the kids recite the entire Christmas story on Christmas when we had gone through the whole thing. Taylor Joy's prayer on Christmas Eve was the most memorable thing about the entire day. Such a blessing to hear her articulate everything we have labored to teach her about Christ and Him coming into the world to save us from our sins. It was a beautiful day to remember the sacrifice that Christ made in coming into the world and to praise Him, not only for that, but also for the evidences of His grace that we have seen in ourselves and in our children in the past year. It was a tough year with lots of changes that took place, but nonetheless a praiseworthy year for the things the Lord did in and through us.

Here's a video slideshow of our Christmas:

Make a Smilebox photobook

Jumpers

Giggles all around and lots of fun being had on our new trampoline. Thanks, Nanny and Papa!

Get yours too!

Bible Reading Plans for the New Year!

Allen and I read through one together last year and it blessed our socks off! Doing it together was fun, and always gave us something to talk about as well. Once I heard a few other people were doing it, it was great because we could discuss what we were learning through the scriptures, too.

Justin Taylor had a blog post last year with many different Bible reading plans to choose from. Last year we read the ESV Bible Reading Plan and this year we are going to try the Discipleship Journal Plan (with catch-up days), which will work nicely if you fall behind or if you want to research something more fully on the "off" days.

So, don't delay! Go choose yours! I highly recommend it.

Merry Christmas

From our family to yours...





Thanks for reading updates of our family and joining us in this journey of life. We are blessed to walk through it with you and with a Savior who loved us enough to come to earth as a baby and rescue us from our sin. We are overwhelmed by His goodness and grace toward us as we consider what we really deserved, death. But He who is infinitely holy showed His infinite love to us who are infinitely sinful and instead of giving us the infinite punishment that we deserve, He gave us His infinite grace. What an amazing thing! REJOICE!

Beckett's Birthday

A slideshow from my birthday boy's party...

Make a Smilebox slideshow