Not my child! Monday! and one teeny Not Me!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! MckMama began this blog carnival and here are my confessions in the form of denials. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

It's not my 2 year old child who likes to open and close slam the baby gate shut only because he sits close enough and can reach it. MY 2 year old sits quietly with his hands in his lap while waiting for mommy to bring his food to the table.

It wasn't my 9 year old child who thought it would be fun to teach our 2 year old to throw food at the table. Our children have table manners fit for the Queen.

It was not my 2 year old who duped his cousin into switching diapers because the diaper he picked out didn't have momo elmo on it and hers did. My 2 year old is unselfish and gives the best to others.

It wasn't my 11 year old child who asked me if Dairy Queen would be a good job for her when she gets older or should she be a room designer. Nope my children know exactly what they want to in life. They have life all mapped out.

It's not my child who proceeds to take every. single. book. off his bookshelf daily. Nope my children read a single book at a time and then put it back in it's place on the shelf not on the floor.

It's not my 5 year old child who, when given the digital camera, took pictures of my butt! nope. This little budding photographer does not take butt shots. Only artistic arrangements of flowers and wildlife and other such goodness - not mom's butt!

And lastly, it's not my child who dumped a newly box of lucky charms out all over the floor and it's not me who took pictures of his folly and watched his big brother and cousin and he eat up their sugary mess.

The State Fair according to Kenan

On Saturday our family went to the State Fair. We let the kids have the camera to take pictures. I find the view from our 5 year old fascinating so here is another addition of "The World according to Kenan."

from here to there and from there to here

funny people are everywhere.

Mommy and his big sister walking

Papa checking out his dream grill kitchen. I think he's dreaming of a brisket slow cooked over the flames for 3 days. Oh, wait - maybe that was me. Mmmmm!

Another self portrait. There were many. He would do them upside down as he was walking too. Pretty talented.

The sky glider

A wider view of the sky glider and more funny people.

A tractor on Machinery hill from the vantage point of a 5 year old.

A sculpture of something carved out of a dead tree.

He had to take a picture of Spongebob Squarepants at one of the gazillion souvenir stands.

A dinosaur from dinosaur world. The picture is blurry because he was snapping pictures and running to the next dinosaur. Kenan was so excited to slow down.

Overpriced dinos.

His sweet cousin Lu bear

More funny people and the carousel

What can expect from a little 5 year old with no one helping him?

Much better!

A wagon wheel. I really like this picture.

A toddler tornado!

It's so amazing how toddlers can dictate how you will be spending your day. I mean, I woke up this morning with a migraine. Boo me. Well I had been trying not to do to much, with toddlers that's pretty hard. Timmy is pretty good about being helpful, mostly by staying out of my hair and keeping Kenan entertained. That is a feat in and of itself let me tell you! Way to go Timmy. Well anyway, my migraine slowly went away ( yay! )* and I was doing our online banking and all the goodness that goes along with that when Micah went into the kitchen. I figured that he was going downstairs to play and really didn't think much of it. All of a sudden Micah comes back into the dining room and spills dumps a whole box of Lucky Charms on the floor! Immediately after chaos ensued and I'm trying to keep little feet from crunching them and causing a bigger mess. Then Micah thinks I'm going to bring some lucky charms and put them on the couch. He does so by the fistfull and Lucy is happily stepping on them. By this time my head is spinning because now Micah has taken to throwing them on the table and then Kenan decides, I'm going to help my mama by going outside. Only going outside means tracking right through the pile to go out a get a couple star wars guys and come back in. Then calm. You can see why they were calm in the pictures that follow. I had to take these because 1. how often does this happen? and 2. it kept me from getting even more frustrated.

Lucy decided to stay out of the big mess and get whatever she could elsewhere.

The boys shoveling all the marshmallows into their mouths as fast as they could. Let me tell you that after all was swept up, the cereal to marshmallow ratio was quite off balance. Does that surprise anyone though?

If you look carefully Lucy has them stuck on her socks. I picked her up and she was covered in marshmallows.

"I'm helping you clean up mama." and then he's gone because suddenly "he's too full."

Like I said earlier, it's amazing how toddlers will dictate how you will spend your day. Now instead of relaxing this afternoon, I'll be sweeping and mopping up the marshmallow residue and vacuuming the sofa. I guess it was due time for me to mop anyway...

*by the way, I was going to do a blog post about my migraines and what I've noticed with them but how boring is that? Kids are wonderful blessings!

A trip to the Zoo

Last night after Bible Study, a couple friends invited me and the kids to come with them to the zoo today. I said yes, as I was looking forward to getting out of the house and chatting with my friends and seeing the kids having fun with some other kids. I made a quick stop at the grocery store last night to buy some food for lunch. Let me just say that there are some very interesting characters out grocery shopping at 9 p.m. The morning went well. I can't say for sure but I really think just setting some aside before my kids woke up to pray for them and our day helped. We had a little talk before we left about how to behave and what I expected of them and they behaved amazingly well.

We met at the snow monkeys and proceeded to the Woodland Adventures Tree house play area. All the kids had so much fun, but alas, I did not bring the camera. I was thinking that maybe, just maybe I wouldn't need it. *gasp* Oh how I wished I had brought the camera. Lucy and Micah had a blast climbing in the gigantic bird's nest and Micah had fun bouncing on each of the three fish. You know those things on a big giant spring that a kid sits upon and they rock back and forth. When I was a kid I loved trying to rock so far forward that the toy animal or car or whatever would touch the ground They were all the same but he had to try each of them, naturally. The funniest part for me, but maybe not for Micah, was the bear cave. Inside is a big (fake but very real looking) bear standing on it's hind legs. I saw it from distance, but Micah did not. He started into the cave, stopped dead in his tracks and began to whimper. Oh how that was so funny. He picked him and gave him a big hug and brought Lucy in to touch the bear. Only then would enter the cave and touch the bear. All was good until he saw a baby bear cub peeking around the corner. That scared him and he ran out of the cave. He did end up following me up to the baby bear because he wanted to be near me. He also patted the baby bear on the head when he saw Lucy touching it and she was okay.

After Woodland Adventure we took the tractor ride to the farm, where we watched the cow milking demonstration. Yep, Micah and Lucy sat through the whole demonstration. I knew Hannah, Timmy, and Kenan would sit with their friends and handle it, but I really didn't think I could keep both toddlers sitting still for this demonstration by myself. We ended up in the second row and sure enough they sat through it. Micah freaked when the cow came out, but after some reassurance he calmly sat through the whole milking, sucking his thumb all the while. Lucy got a little squirmy but since there was no where to go she sat through it mostly happy.

When the cow milking was over we went over to the goats. The kids got to feed the goats and go in the pen. I didn't bring the toddlers in because Micah just wasn't getting over the fact that a goat actually dared put his mouth on the stroller stray. Lucy wanted to pet a goat and she liked that but back only, no face for her. She would pull back if the goat's face went anywhere near her. The kids climbed on the big green tractor and some other tractors and then it was time for lunch. We had a picnic and then walked to the car since Timmy had a headache. I really wish I would've taken the camera with me so I could add some pictures here. Oh well.

The world according Kenan

On Saturday we visited Fort Snelling State Park and went hiking. I blogged about it here. We let Kenan have the digital camera to take pictures of what he saw. Here are the best ones.

Yellow Flowers

His eye

Tree tops

a close up of his Clifford

my head

Some purple flowers. When he saw these he grabbed the camera and said "I need to take a pictures of these!"

"Mommy, pick me up! I need to take a picture of the water!"

The ground. I wonder what he was thinking when he took this.

The wall on the bridge

Papa pushing the stroller over the cool bridge. No bikes allowed but we saw a bike ignore the sign and ride her bike.

So this is the world, er, Fort Snelling State Park according to Kenan. He had such a fun time taking these pictures and I'm sure there will be other posts like this as he loves to use the camera. Sometimes he takes some very unique pictures too!

My very great reward

Today, I was going through my day pondering all that I could blog about today. I had been doing my normal day to day stuff. I folded laundry, put that laundry away. Well okay, some of that laundry is put away. The rest is sitting in baskets in our room. But hey - it's folded and in the right room to be put away later. I picked up hundreds of books and had some snuggle time with the toddlers. I conversed with the older two about possible halloween costume ideas, I put dishes away, made lunch and cleaned up from lunch. Finally nap time came and I was able to sit down for some quiet time. I started to read the book we are going through for Bible study and I came across this verse - "I am your shield, your very great reward." Genesis 15:1

It came out of the context of being obedient to God, even when things seem scary or hard or when it comes to something we think isn't clear. He is our shield. He is my protector and defender. Nothing's going to get past him. That's not say bad things won't happen to me or that I won't experience hard times. He's saying he will protect and defend me. He is my armor. He is my strength and with him I can get through anything!

The second part of this verse really got me. Your very great reward. Pause for a minute and think about that. He is our very great reward. When we are obedient and follow God no matter what we think is best or what might be easiest or safest, our reward is great. No not great - very great. It's not just any reward. It's Him! What could possibly be better than that?! Out of our obedience to Him comes a chance for him to really show his faithfulness to us. He is always showing that to us it's just maybe when we are obedient we are looking for His hand in our life. Our faith is strengthened and our trust in Him is bolstered. It's joy and happiness from knowing and following my God who will never leave me or forsake me. (Joshua 1:5) It's a satisfaction of experiencing God providing all we need at each specific time. (psalm 23) He gives us everything we need. Not what we think we need but what we do need. I'm not saying he won't give us things that we want or anything like that. I'm saying that all that other stuff doesn't matter to me when I'm really seeking him and obeying him.

I'm learning that right now. I wonder to myself sometimes how many times must I repeat myself to my kids. It's the same way with me and God. How many different ways must he say the same thing before I get it? I found great support in this group of women at my Bible Study this summer. It's been a great blessing. Their encouragement truly was from God. Then life got crazy with flu and other ickiness going through our family, and then more encouragement. I'm slowly getting over my fear and getting with the program. So then last week at Bible Study, we read through Psalm 23. Well actually our guest speaker read through it and we listened. It was really powerful to me. Especially the part "even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me." I could picture Jesus walking beside me with his arm around me. I felt comforted and safe. I wasn't afraid of whatever my lie ahead. Yep, that spoke to me but did I do anything about it? I wish I could say yes. I'm not sure what I've been waiting for but I think it's fear that has been holding me back. This morning I read my sister's blog and came across the bible verse she wrote at the bottom. Jeremiah 29:11 "for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future." This reminded me of God wanting me to be obedient, not because I should, or because he's God and he said so. It's because it's for my best. He wants the best for me. Sometimes we need to delve into something (whether it's from our past or something we are currently experiencing) that might seem scary and painful at the time, but as we move into that and allow him to work and remove the hurt and anger, sorrow, and bitterness then we can heal and experience that hope that He has for us. Then later today I came across Genesis 15:1 and read my Bible Study. I need to be obedient to what he's telling me. As I go forward with him he is my protector, defender, comforter, shepherd, provider, and so much more. I was obedient today and I know it's a good thing.

Not my child Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

This is my first attempt at not my child Monday. Here goes... it's not my 5 year old child who has been getting up at 6:30 a.m. and waking his little brother up along with him. Nope not my child. My child sleeps in until at least 8 a.m. and would never think of waking his sweet slumbering 2 year old brother. Nope not my child.

And it's certainly not my children who have taken to screaming ear piercing screams for the heck of it. Nope inside voices only in our house.

It's not my 5 year old child that threw a car at his 2 year old brother because the 2 year old wouldn't share. It's not my child who hit him in the corner of the eye causing the 2 year old to have a purple eye. Nope kindness and gentleness prevail 100% of the time in our home

And finally, it's not my 9 year old child who thought it would be a great idea to give the 2 year old a piggy back ride right next to the mantle. It wasn't my 2 year old who reached out and grabbed the crystal candle holder and threw it down to the floor where it shattered into thousands of pieces. My children know horsing around is for outside and my 2 year old understands what he can and can't touch.