"endorsement of the right to kill unborn children disqualifies a person from any position of public office"

I read this article by Pastor John Piper (written in 1995) and found it compelling.

my baby is 22 months old today

And I didn't take any pictures of the cutie.

Believe me though, she is cute; a little emotional at times, but cute.

Cosette bangs her head on the ground while throwing a tantrum. Henri thought it looked like fun, laughing, and joined in with her. This made Cosette laugh, and they took turns banging their heads on the ground and giggling. What a mood change! Thank you Lord for big brothers!

some follow-ups

Sometimes I ask questions in my blog, and I don't follow-up on what I've learned or decided to do about the matter. So here is where I stand on a few issues right now.

Vaccinating my Children
And also this post.
Because I'm on the "trying to learn about homeschooling, private schooling, and public schooling options" bandwagon right now, I've dropped researching the vaccination topic any further. My children are done with their vaccination schedule until kindergarten, and they will get their scheduled vaccinations then. I may look into it again later. If the Lord were to bless us with more children, then I will for sure look into it again. If I had a newborn right now, I would follow a delayed, yet mostly complete schedule. I would not give my newborn the Hep B in the hospital. Even our doctor thought the Hep A would be unnecessary for our young children. Right now, I am pro-vaccines because I wouldn't want to put my children at risk to get sick, but I would take the time to spread out the shots. However, because I don't feel like I've researched as completely as I would like on the issue, my views could easily change.

Reading The Shack
Nope, not going to do it. I'm a really slow reader. Don't have time. Reading other things.

My car
Have I mentioned that it's all fixed? Praise the Lord!

Is Henri's wall fixed yet?
Nope. Johnny & I need to discuss if it's a "do ourselves" project or "hire someone else" project. Knowing our lack of handiness, it will probably mean that we will try to find someone else to do it. Because we lack serious skills.

I'm off to read more on homeschooling because that's the schooling option I'm the least familiar with and would require the most from me (I think).

why did I cry...

when my church's kitchen coordinator (whom I love) thought it best if I packed my son's dinner for our all-church dinners on Wednesday nights instead of trying to figure out which meals and food he could eat.

I've packed his food many times before. It's just the nature of having a son with food allergies. It's not a big deal, and I don't want others to bend over backwards for us. If he doesn't outgrow his food allergies, we want to help Henri learn how to live and eat outside of his home, asking lots of questions about the food or bringing along his own food.

Today, I felt bad about it.

nap time project

After gasping in shock, I moved his bed away from the wall.

Not Me Monday

My friend, MckMama is hosting Not Me! Monday today, and I'm joining in the fun. You can do it too; it's a great time to confess all the quirky things we do.

You may remember that we've been praying for MckMama's son, Stellan, who is growing inside her.

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I did not ask Johnny to pick out my clothes for church on Sunday morning because I had a dream during the night that I could not figure out what to wear for church and everyone was getting mad at me. And the dream certainly didn't also include that none of my closet clothes were modest or practical or fit well. And my husband's extended family also did not show up at my house in my dream and were irritated that I was making everyone late to church. Nope didn't happen...no dream Saturday night...no husband picking out my clothes Sunday morning because I was fearful of being indecisive. Not me.

I did not e-mail ALL 11 of my co-workers to discuss an issue and then find out that the premise of my question was COMPLETELY WRONG because I didn't double-check my math and only used my keen memory. That would be so embarrassing.

I did not let Henri and Cosette sleep until 5:50 p.m. during their naps just so that I could get a little more sleep during my own late afternoon nap. That would mess up their bedtime schedule.

I did not take these pictures of Henri & Cosette at the park at sunset before I took them to Target.


Like I said, that orange glow on Cosette is not from the sunset.



On that same evening, I did not take the kids out to Target with me from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. because that would be way past their bedtime. And I did not spend an hour there because I was indecisive on a birthday gift. I wouldn't do that. I am not indecisive.

I did not turn around once we got near our house tonight because I was curious if there really was an exit to the freeway near my home that Google Maps had suggested to me in a route I looked up before heading out. Then I did not find that there was an exit and take the freeway away from my house at 9:30 p.m. with the kids before heading back home.

I also did not then drive up and down a few blocks in our neighborhood tonight noting the fences because I'm dreaming of putting a fence in our yard to contain the children. I wouldn't keep the kids out that late by myself.

And I do not have a bad memory that's preventing me from writing any further "Not Me" confessions from earlier in the week.

i caught him praying

Earlier this week Henri had pinched Cosette's finger with a metal clip, giving her a small owie on her finger. She cried about it on and off all morning long. I was beginning to wonder if there was something more seriously wrong with her finger.

At lunch time, she cried and cried while she waited for her food. Henri tried to make her laugh in his rather rough boyish way, but she only cried harder.

Henri started to cry himself, saying to me, "I can't stop Cosette from crying!"

She seemed to quiet down when I gave her some food, so I left Henri & Cosette at the table for a moment to throw the laundry in the dryer.

I immediately heard her start up again and as I headed back up the stairs, I heard something wonderful. Practically drowning out his voice with Cosette's cries, I heard Henri talking. I listened carefully and heard him praying to God that he would help Cosette to stop crying and help her finger to get better. As I reached the top of the stairs, I saw Henri head bowed with his hands covering his eyes. He finished his prayer, and my heart was melting as this was the first time I'd ever heard Henri pray with no urging from another person.

Sweet. Sweet. Sweet.

I helped Cosette finish some more food through her tears. I looked at her finger again and moved it to see if that was painful for her. It didn't seem to be, so I took her upstairs to put her to bed for her nap.

She had taken her band aid off and started crying whenever she looked at her small injury. Henri got a chair to reach a top shelf in our linen closet where we keep medicines and band aids. In his delight, Henri found a solitary Curious George band aid. Cosette LOVES Curious George as her brother loves him too and has many books that she enjoys paging through. She was delighted with the new Band Aid, pointing at it and saying "George! George!" in her toddler way. Happily, she went to sleep.

Her finger is fine though she still cried a second or two today when she found the tiny scab on her finger.

But finding your boy praying for his little sister? Oh, that was sweet to this mama's heart. I pray that his prayer was just the beginning of many that would grow into a relationship between him and Jesus, that he would one day repent and put his trust in Jesus, delighting in God's kindness to save us wretched sinners.

sweet family time

I came home tonight after a long day working at our church. Johnny graciously cared for the kids all day long.

My feet hurt, so I sat on the floor. The kids were all over me, giving me hugs and kisses. Then Henri got his doctor kit out and proceeded to work on my feet. He listened to them with his doctor pager, saying that my feet sounded like a helicopter. After using various medical instruments, he declared me well again, and that it was his turn. All this while, Cosette was also helping and checking me out as well. Then it was Johnny's turn, and finally Cosette's turn to be the patient.

We then moved to the living room for a Bible story, worship, and prayer. Henri led us in four songs. (My God is So Big, Jesus Loves Me, Amazing Grace, and Standing on the Promises). We were impressed with his singing and willingness to lead and suggest songs. I'm hoping this means he'll be ready to be in the children's choir at church. First practice is this Wednesday. He then made up a couple of songs and encouraged us to sing with him. We got back on track by singing the Doxology together. Henri even opened us in prayer (before we were all ready).

Then we ended with really cold bowls of ice cream. Henri had turned off the refrigerator earlier this week, and we didn't realize it until the next day when much had defrosted and the ice was melting. I reset it at a rather cold temperature, I guess, because the ice cream was SOOOO cold (colder than normal, I tell you).

It was such a nice evening at home that I wanted to record it all down before I forget our sweet time as a family.

Since then, this evening I have finished hand-sewing a patch on Johnny's baseball pants so that he will be ready to go tomorrow. I'm not a sewer, but I told Johnny, "I feel so domestic."

a little fun

on this web site--thanks to Tiffany.

i have a question

Does anyone else stay up late because you're too tired to get ready for bed?

precious moment

While the communion service was happening this morning at our church, I was quietly explaining to Henri again why we take communion and why he doesn't take it yet.

Henri whispered to me, "Mama, I want to be a sinner who loves Jesus too."

His words brought tears to my eyes. Maybe he was only saying it so that he could have the grape juice, but I still LOVED those words.

climb every mountain

Before we got on an airplane to fly out to visit Johnny's family last month, Henri had been insisting that he do one thing while were there:

He wanted to climb a mountain.

See, he's also been wanting to climb trees. But our two young trees just won't hold him.

Because Henri says he's getting bigger and stronger, he also wanted to climb a mountain.

This is where Johnny's dad (aka Bapa) comes in. Bapa likes to hike, and so do I. Three years ago, Johnny, Bapa, and I climbed a butte--5 miles up and 5 miles down. It was a long hike, and we all had sore knees after coming down it. The view at the top was beautiful.

Bapa and I wanted to take Henri up a "mountain", a smaller one. After much deliberating, we chose a nearby trail that was about a mile long that went up to the top of a "mountain". This mountain had a plateau on top with great views over the valley Johnny's parents live in.

We were joined by Aunt Kristin (Johnny's sister), Aunt Becky (Johnny's aunt), and cousins Natey and Kristian.

I wasn't sure that Henri would make it up. He kept asking to stop and rest, and got rather tired near the top. However, once he heard our family ahead of us shout that they had reached the top, he ran up. Henri did great on the plateau at the top, and we sipped water and ate snacks. He even ran ahead of everyone back down the trail. I guess going down the mountain was easier than going up.

weather boy

It's been fun for Johnny and I to see Henri learning more about our world. Here's Henri delighting in throwing rocks in a lake.


Have I mentioned that Henri likes to check the weather?

It all started back in May or June when we started to get thunderstorms. Henri had a tradition of of coming into our room whenever the thunder was a little too scary, and he continued the tradition this spring and summer.

And we'd talk about the sirens going off as storms approached.

He'd see me check the radar on the Internet. And I pointed out the approaching storm to him, explaining where we were and what the different colors on the storm meant.

We went into the basement maybe once or twice, and we talked about how we'd go under the stairs if things got really bad.

Around the same time, he got a book from the library that showed a tornado in it. And a tornado ripped through a suburb of our city. Then we went to YouTube so that he could watch some tornadoes in action.

Henri was fascinated. He began asking me to check the weather all the time and asked more questions about it. Then I showed him where the shortcut was in the browser so that he could click on it himself, and I showed him how to get to the radar.

Now he has a shortcut in his "user" in a browser on our computer. When he hears a storm coming, instead of hopping into our bed, he comes into our room, gets on the computer and checks the radar. Then he goes quietly back to his room.

He also checks the forecast each morning for me. For several days, they've been predicting rain and possible thunderstorms on Tuesday. He's always watching for the thunderstorms. When I told him on Saturday that his friend Toby would be coming over on Tuesday, Henri exclaimed,

"Toby can't come over on Tuesday! That's when the thunderstorm is coming!"

I assured him that Toby would not come over if there was a bad thunderstorm coming--that we would wait and see how bad this thunderstorm was before making that decision.

Johnny and I immediately knew who to tell first of Henri's latest fascination with the weather: Johnny's mom (aka Nani), who has been known to watch the weather channel daily (& probably now checks www.weather.com) to stay on top of the weather. I think he's made her proud.

As for us, we've enjoyed watching Henri go through another stage of interest and teaching him about it along the way.

gramps & gigi

aka "The Greats"
aka "Great Grandpa & Great Grandma"

(Johnny's Mom's parents with Henri & Cosette)