It's been a while since my last post of funny things Kenan has said. So for your reading enjoyment I present to you Kenanisms!
One day hubby sat in the van with the kids while I made a quick run into Target. While I was in there a car with some younger girls parked next to us. K, who was sitting in the front seat with hubby had his head hanging out the window and when he saw the girls get out of their car, he yelled out, "Oh yeah Baby!" and the proceeded to play the air guitar with sound effects.
At dinner time one evening, K was eating a corn dog. He proclaims loudly, "I haven't had these babies in a long time!"
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Summer
Since there are only 8 days left of summer vacation, I thought I'd recap our summer and what summer has meant to us.
We visited the zoo when my grandma came to visit for a couple weeks. She became a great grandmother on her birthday which is also our oldest daughter's birthday. What a great birthday gift!
Our youngest, M was born in May, and our two middle boys, T and K were both in June. They are 4 years and 6 days apart. Here the three boys are blowing out candles on a cake meant for T and K.
For father's day we went on a walk and took lots of pictures.
T went to camp for the week and came home again. As you can see, he was greatly missed!
Our daughter went off to camp 2 days after T came home. Here she is, 2nd from the left, with all her friends.
I spontaneously decided to let the kids splash in the puddles after big rainstorm moved through.
I found 2 toads in one of our window wells. H had a lot of fun showing them around our yard and watching them hop around. Here she is with Hops. She named the other on speckles.
During a wonderful rainy day, I let the kids go out in the rain and play. I played and took pictures too!
We met a friend and her kids at a water park. We spent a good part of the day playing in the water.
Our family went to family camp and enjoyed a Western Themed dinner
We keep in touch with my former foster sister and her mom. Her mom invited us to up to her house on the lake and we camped out one night.
This is the next day as kids were taking turns on the paddle boat
A random walk we took
K learned to ride his bike without training wheels!!
We hosted a backyard end of summer party for our kids and their friends. We played Wiffle Ball and watched The Sandlot after dark outside.
Now that summer is nearing an end, it's a little sad and really exciting. I am excited for all the new possibilities that this year brings for each child, as well seeing new friendships form and old ones strengthen. I am looking forward to my quiet days with just M and all the moments he and I will share together. I'm looking forward to less bickering. Routine will be good, and it makes me thankful for the lazy days we've had together thus far. One more summer is past. I'm excited to see my children learn and grow, but I just wish I could freeze time and they wouldn't grow older. Thank you God for blessing me with the four most wonderful children a mom could ask for. Help me to remember to treasure each moment.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Comforter
Recently we attended our church's family camp. To me, family camp is a wonderful weekend. It is very busy for those with young children, but the conversations are so meaningful and the food is so good, and the laughter is contagious and there is joy all around.
The theme verse for our camp is Psalm 73:28, "But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the sovereign Lord my refuge, I will tell of all your deeds." When I am up at camp I feel near God. I feel his presence. It truly feels like a refuge. I come away blessed each year we go as a family.
On that Saturday, I was sitting there, pondering what God might have in store for me while we were at camp. For me I thought it was cool that I was so expectant for God to work something in my life, that he might have something for me.
Evening came and it was time for Vespers. If you don't know what Vespers is, it's worship and devotional time. We gather together, sing songs, and listen to a counselor give a talk. We started to wind down and this song began. It's called Comforter.
(chorus)
Come to me, I am the comforter
Come crawl up on my knee
And lay your head close against my heart
Find your rest in me
When it hurts too much to cry, I will hold you
When you feel like you will never make it through
When you need someone to hold you
I'll enfold you in my arms
For my child, I love you
(chorus)
When the days are long and life feels so empty
In the lonely nights I'll stay right by your side
When you can't explain your feelings
I will listen to your heart
I will hear the thoughts you hide
(chorus)
As I sang this song, the tears began to fall. I wasn't thinking of myself, though this song could apply to so much in my life. I began to think of my son T. He has been diagnosed with ADHD and there are many times that I find him so annoying. I love that boy, but man. He moves, and talks, moves and talks. He annoys his siblings and it seems he doesn't even realize it. I feel like I'm constantly getting after him to stop. As I listened to this song, I thought of how he might feel when we get after him. How hurtful our words may come across. Though we don't have bad intentions, what we say and do could be hurtful to him. T is such a sensitive boy.
I don't want my children to hurt. I don't want to hurt my children. The thought of any of my children hurting brought me to tears. The thought of them gong through a hurt that I can't help broke my heart. But this song reminded me that though this world brings trouble and through we will suffer with hurts, that we have a comforter. He will hold us and listen to us and comfort us. I want my children to know that when they are hurting and feeling alone, that God is their comforter. The perfect comforter, who knit them together and knows them inside and out.
I learned that night, that though my intentions are good, I need to be more thoughtful with what I say and do. To lift T up and encourage him. It may be frustrating and annoying, but it is who he is and he is my son. To show him through what I say and do, and how I react that I do love him unconditionally. This song reminded me that my children are not alone in this world and when I can't make things better they can find comfort in God above. I want my children to know that deep in their hearts.
I don't know who wrote that song, but the words are not my own. They belong to someone and, whoever that someone is, God breathed his love for us into the words. So thank you. I found the words in our camp 50th anniversary memory book.
Beneath the song there are two Bible verses
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."
Matthew 11:28
"Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
The theme verse for our camp is Psalm 73:28, "But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the sovereign Lord my refuge, I will tell of all your deeds." When I am up at camp I feel near God. I feel his presence. It truly feels like a refuge. I come away blessed each year we go as a family.
On that Saturday, I was sitting there, pondering what God might have in store for me while we were at camp. For me I thought it was cool that I was so expectant for God to work something in my life, that he might have something for me.
Evening came and it was time for Vespers. If you don't know what Vespers is, it's worship and devotional time. We gather together, sing songs, and listen to a counselor give a talk. We started to wind down and this song began. It's called Comforter.
(chorus)
Come to me, I am the comforter
Come crawl up on my knee
And lay your head close against my heart
Find your rest in me
When it hurts too much to cry, I will hold you
When you feel like you will never make it through
When you need someone to hold you
I'll enfold you in my arms
For my child, I love you
(chorus)
When the days are long and life feels so empty
In the lonely nights I'll stay right by your side
When you can't explain your feelings
I will listen to your heart
I will hear the thoughts you hide
(chorus)
As I sang this song, the tears began to fall. I wasn't thinking of myself, though this song could apply to so much in my life. I began to think of my son T. He has been diagnosed with ADHD and there are many times that I find him so annoying. I love that boy, but man. He moves, and talks, moves and talks. He annoys his siblings and it seems he doesn't even realize it. I feel like I'm constantly getting after him to stop. As I listened to this song, I thought of how he might feel when we get after him. How hurtful our words may come across. Though we don't have bad intentions, what we say and do could be hurtful to him. T is such a sensitive boy.
I don't want my children to hurt. I don't want to hurt my children. The thought of any of my children hurting brought me to tears. The thought of them gong through a hurt that I can't help broke my heart. But this song reminded me that though this world brings trouble and through we will suffer with hurts, that we have a comforter. He will hold us and listen to us and comfort us. I want my children to know that when they are hurting and feeling alone, that God is their comforter. The perfect comforter, who knit them together and knows them inside and out.
I learned that night, that though my intentions are good, I need to be more thoughtful with what I say and do. To lift T up and encourage him. It may be frustrating and annoying, but it is who he is and he is my son. To show him through what I say and do, and how I react that I do love him unconditionally. This song reminded me that my children are not alone in this world and when I can't make things better they can find comfort in God above. I want my children to know that deep in their hearts.
I don't know who wrote that song, but the words are not my own. They belong to someone and, whoever that someone is, God breathed his love for us into the words. So thank you. I found the words in our camp 50th anniversary memory book.
Beneath the song there are two Bible verses
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."
Matthew 11:28
"Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Saturday, July 31, 2010
More than enough
Yesterday, I woke up to my alarm. Usually at 5 am the alarm is really really loud and all I want to do it shut if off as quickly as I can. As I got out of bed I began to listen to the song that was on. I've heard this song before, but this time the words just spoke to my heart. I stood there for as long as I could listening to the song. I wanted to turn off the radio so that my hubby could stay asleep and yet I wanted to keep listening to this song.
Such a beautiful song that reminded me that God is all I need. He is more than enough for me. I have all I need in him. Without him I will never be satisfied outside of him.
Lyrics to Enough by Barlow Girl
All of you, is more than enough for, all of me,
For every thirst and every need,
You satisfy me, with your love,
And all I have in you is more than enough.
You are my supply, my breath of life, still more awesome than I know,
You are my reward, worth living for, still more awesome than I know.
Cuz all of you, is more than enough for all of me,
For every thirst and every need,
You satisfy me, with your love,
And all I have in you is more than enough.
You’re my sacrifice of greatest price, still more awesome than I know,
You’re my coming king, you're everything, still more awesome than I know,
All of you, is more than enough for, all of me,
For every thirst and every need,
You satisfy me, with your love,
And all I have in you,
All of you, is more than enough for, all of me,
For every thirst and every need,
You satisfy me, with your love,
And all I have in you is more than enough.
You're enough, You're enough, You're enough for me (REPEAT 17X's)
[ Enough Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]
Friday, July 30, 2010
Success!!
On two fronts there is success. First I'll update on my 30-day challenge. I actually got up and worked out this morning. I burned 104.3 calories in about 20 minutes. Mostly upper body today. I kicked butt in boxing! If I get up tomorrow, I will be back on track for my week next week. Bonus points if I can survive the baseball game on Sunday without eating so much. We'll see about that. Ha! They say winter is bad for diets because not as much exercise - not for me. It's baseball season and having 10 games worth of tickets to use up. That's what's gonna get me!
My other success story is about M. In May when he turned 3 the Dr. recommended speech for him. She thought maybe he could be behind a little because he's not wear a lot of 3 year olds are and a lot of his words are his own language that only we understand. So we went through our school district. Turns out he's low average. Not low enough to qualify for services but low enough that he's not average with his speech. Because he's so clingy and mom oriented, we went through his evaluation in two parts. The first part was articulation and M cooperated and did really well in participating and listening to Miss A. By the end of the hour, he started to get easily distracted and frustrated. Partly because the questions were harder and partly because he'd just been on his best behavior for a whole hour and it was wearing him out. So we came back a couple days later. His cooperation went out the window and he didn't really want to do any of it. Miss A scored what he did do and he still wasn't low enough to qualify for district service. There was one more test that I had the option of M taking given that he wasn't cooperating. My choices were try to finish that day, come back another day or call it quits altogether. I decided that since he wouldn't qualify even if he bombed that one test, that there was no use in putting him through a stressful time of "playing games." I still think he's on the lower side, but even since the middle of June his language has exploded. He's trying to put more words together in a sentence doing mostly 3 words sometimes 4, sometimes 2 words at a time. He cooperates and is receptive to repeating words and sounds which is a good sign. I'll give it until late fall. If he's not improving, I'll contact a private speech therapist that our medical insurance will pay for. They don't have as low of standards so he has a better chance of qualifying for speech therapy if needed.
I'm not trying to push something that's not there. I just want M to have the best possible chance to learn all he needs now at an early age and before he starts school, than for a delay that goes untreated to cause problems once he's in school. My husband and I were in the middle about whether he really needed a speech evaluation anyway. But since the pediatrician recommended it, we thought why not. They are trained in this and can give us a good marker as where he is at. So we will see what the next few months show as far as M learning to talk. Hopefully he won't need speech therapy at all and we can just continue working with him at home like we already are.
I guess the success part of this story is that M did his best and we learned some new ways to work with him. Oh and I successfully brought him to his evaluation with his cousin L. She wanted to answer the questions and play the games too so that was tricky but we did it.
*for the record, my 30-day challenge is on day 11.
My other success story is about M. In May when he turned 3 the Dr. recommended speech for him. She thought maybe he could be behind a little because he's not wear a lot of 3 year olds are and a lot of his words are his own language that only we understand. So we went through our school district. Turns out he's low average. Not low enough to qualify for services but low enough that he's not average with his speech. Because he's so clingy and mom oriented, we went through his evaluation in two parts. The first part was articulation and M cooperated and did really well in participating and listening to Miss A. By the end of the hour, he started to get easily distracted and frustrated. Partly because the questions were harder and partly because he'd just been on his best behavior for a whole hour and it was wearing him out. So we came back a couple days later. His cooperation went out the window and he didn't really want to do any of it. Miss A scored what he did do and he still wasn't low enough to qualify for district service. There was one more test that I had the option of M taking given that he wasn't cooperating. My choices were try to finish that day, come back another day or call it quits altogether. I decided that since he wouldn't qualify even if he bombed that one test, that there was no use in putting him through a stressful time of "playing games." I still think he's on the lower side, but even since the middle of June his language has exploded. He's trying to put more words together in a sentence doing mostly 3 words sometimes 4, sometimes 2 words at a time. He cooperates and is receptive to repeating words and sounds which is a good sign. I'll give it until late fall. If he's not improving, I'll contact a private speech therapist that our medical insurance will pay for. They don't have as low of standards so he has a better chance of qualifying for speech therapy if needed.
I'm not trying to push something that's not there. I just want M to have the best possible chance to learn all he needs now at an early age and before he starts school, than for a delay that goes untreated to cause problems once he's in school. My husband and I were in the middle about whether he really needed a speech evaluation anyway. But since the pediatrician recommended it, we thought why not. They are trained in this and can give us a good marker as where he is at. So we will see what the next few months show as far as M learning to talk. Hopefully he won't need speech therapy at all and we can just continue working with him at home like we already are.
I guess the success part of this story is that M did his best and we learned some new ways to work with him. Oh and I successfully brought him to his evaluation with his cousin L. She wanted to answer the questions and play the games too so that was tricky but we did it.
*for the record, my 30-day challenge is on day 11.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
What gives?!
Okay so the last two days I've been too exhausted to get up in the morning. Well two things - first I just need to get my butt out of bed and get moving because I will wake up and it will be worth it. Then, last night I was determined to get up this morning. Did I? Nope. Not a chance. Our 6 year old ended up coming down and sleeping on the couch. Drat. *snaps fingers with a disappointed motion* Oh well, I can try tomorrow. On the upside, I have been watching what I eat and not skipping meals and that has helped. I'm still not happy with the reading on the scale (boo) but I blame the weekend at family camp. Never do I eat that much food at each meal. 5 meals of food food food. The food is yummy but, man alive, it's a lot!
M had a couple speech evaluations this week and my next post will be about that. TTFN!
M had a couple speech evaluations this week and my next post will be about that. TTFN!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
someone got the camera
I haven't posted a picture in awhile so I thought I would post some picture of M when he snuck the camera from off the kitchen counter. Looks like he had fun...
