Thankful Thursday: For the Love of a Moody Two Year Old!

Kora has been crying lately, for reasons I don't even claim to understand.  It's a relatively new phase, or maybe we've been through this before, and I've forgotten.  Sunday evening, she was crying about everything (pretty sure she was just tired), but even after she woke up from a long nap during church, she just seemed inconsolable. She'd just burst out in tears at the slightest thing.  That's just not like her, she cries, of course, but usually I know why, and she's easily consoled and a happy camper in no time.

So what do you do, with a crying child, that you desperately want to understand, and your mommy-magic to make it all better just doesn't seem to be working?  Sunday evening I just did my best to distract her and talk to her about things I knew she liked or would want to do.  And I tried to understand the little things (secondary I'm sure).  For instance, she wanted Kees to put her water cup in the floor of the van, but as soon as he did, she cried.  So I just asked her, "How can we help? Where should we put the cup? Do you want mommy to put it in her purse?"  Thankfully that worked. She was happy with the cup in my purse. Then, when we got home, I carried her up the stairs, and I whispered in her ear, that I love her and I want to help her feel all better.  Can't remember what else I said, but just basic comforting things.  When we made it up to the house, she was better and enjoyed sorting candy with Kees.

Here's the thing, sometimes, with little people, they have a lot of emotions they don't know how to name, and they aren't sure what they need or how to be comforted.  It's a hard position to be in, as a parent, and all you can do is try.  You may find something that works, and you may not.  I'm trusting that as my kids get older, they won't remember exactly what I did, but how I did it.  And hopefully, I'm responding in love and compassion, at least most of the time.

This morning, Kora woke up, cranky, and aggressive.  I gave her a time out for hitting Kees, and then I told her to go find a book and we could read together.  In all honesty the lashing out, coupled with a few crying bouts from her, and I was feeling emotional myself.  I had to take a deep breath and give myself a mommy pep talk.  She found a book, brought it to me, and I read it twice, then we took twenty minutes talking about each and every page of the book.  I asked her to find certain things on the pages, and explained anything that was new, like the picture of a lighthouse, and the various kinds of buses.

I was so surprised when she said, "You find purple car, behind this one." And she pointed to the green truck in front of the purple car.  She's 2!  That's great vocabulary and even a directional word thrown in there.

This morning, I feel like I had a small victory.  I chose to spend quality time with my child, even though I felt like locking myself in the bathroom and crying.  The result was so much better this way.  And now, as I am typing this, she is playing with Kees. They've been working together in the kitchen for 20 minutes, and my happy Kora girl is back!  Thank you LORD.  (I also prayed with her before we read our book, so this was an answer to my prayer)

Wordy Wednesday: The Long Way 'Round

In my own life, sometimes, I've had an extremely difficult time understanding God's plan.  And just when I think I finally do, everything gets turned upside down.  Leaving me, back at square one, scratching my head.  One thing I have learned, is that, no matter how much I don't know, I can always trust God's leading in my life, and his word.

This past Sunday, the sermon was from John 9:1-11. About Jesus healing a blind man. The MAIN thing that stuck out to me, out of the whole sermon, was when our pastor pointed out, on a map, that the place Jesus sent the man to be healed was likely further away than other options.  But he specifically sent him to one that was out of the way.  Seriously?!  A blind man, and he made him walk FURTHER.  As far as we know, the man didn't question Jesus, at all.  He just went, and consequently was healed.

This got me thinking.  How many times in the bible did God's instructions make sense (in our human understanding)?  Almost never.  Like, "put some blood over your door post and your first born son will be saved", or "build an ark", or "sacrifice your son".  But, those who obeyed were always blessed because they put their faith in God. They trusted him, in spite of the circumstances, and the way they would be viewed by those around them, often being ridiculed or questioned by those around them, even ones claiming to serve God as well.

And isn't God the same today?  So, when he asks you to do something, and you feel like it doesn't make sense.  Think of your favorite biblical "hero of the faith", and put yourself in their shoes.  See how God used them and how he came through, and often in what we would consider an unlikely way.   You can trust him too.  He is good, and he has your best in mind.  You can be confident, in the midst of all the crazy, knowing that God really does work in mysterious ways.  There's proof throughout the bible!

In the weeks to come, I am going to be looking at some examples that came to mind in the last few days, of people God led in unusual ways or people who were faithful even when they didn't understand what the outcome would be.  My hope is that it will encourage us all in our faith, to seek him, no matter what the path may be.  To see his hand in our lives, and see that when he's in the driver's seat, there's never a wrong turn.  It may look dark, it may feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, but God sees and he knows. If he has led you there, you're in exactly the right place.  Trust HIM.

Taco Tuesday: Thai Peanut Chicken (Crockpot)

Last week I was on a bit of a crock pot kick.  I found this recipe on the Family Fresh Meals blog, check it out here.  She has tons of crock pot recipes, school lunch ideas, and other fun things.  I followed the recipe.  It turned out well.  I DID add fish sauce, and then taste the sauce and add some brown sugar. I used unsweetened peanut butter, so I think if you used regular peanut butter it would be plenty sweet.  I would leave out the onions and bell peppers and add them at the very end, if at all. For my taste, I'd rather eat the veggies raw on the side, than have mushy ones.  But if I DID add them, I'd just put them in for the last 10-15 minutes, but I like my veggies CRISP.  I'd also serve this with sliced cucumber on the side, and over rice.  This recipe is a keeper!!

 

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 small red or orange bell pepper, sliced
• 1 small yellow bell pepper, sliced
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
• 1 Tablespoon lime juice
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoons of honey
• 1/4 cup crushed peanuts for topping

Directions:

1. Place peppers and onion at the bottom of the crockpot. This will act as a “stand” for the chicken, so it doesn’t dry out. 2. Next place chicken on top.
2. In a bowl, mix together peanut butter, lime juice, chicken broth, soy sauce, and honey. Pour sauce over chicken.
3. Cook on low for 3-4 hours on HIGH or 6 on LOW. When 15 minutes remain of cooking time, shred chicken with two forks. Cover and continue cooking for the remainder of the time. Remove from crockpot and serve over brown rice, noodles, OR using as a salad topper or in lettuce wraps!

Manic Monday: Halloween Math

Sorting, and counting, and sequencing, OH MY!

I'm a nerd.  I'm probably raising my children to be nerds, but I can't help myself.  I LOVE, LOVE math.

So, we went to our church's harvest party. There was a large piñata FILLED with candy, and only 6 kids to gather it.  We came home with a ton of candy!  Last night I sorted out the stuff I'd rather my kids not have or that I thought they wouldn't like.  Doug got all the peppermint patties, andes, and junior mints.  And I took out jolly ranchers because they're like suckers without the sticks.  Choking hazard, plus super messy.  I'll eat those!

In the past, I've just sorted the candy myself, super fairly.  If there's an even number of a certain type of candy, I divide it between my kids, if there's one leftover, I take it and set it aside.  I was planning on doing that tonight after church, but decided to include the kids and nerd out with the whole thing.

Kees had SO much fun!  And Kora helped too.

First, we sorted.  I wrote down each type of candy and we wrote how many there were.  I did a little bit of TPR (total physical response) to make sure Kees knew all the names of the candies.  So I'd say, "Where are the snickers bars?"  And he'd point. Then I'd say, "Where's the laffy taffy? Then he'd point to them.  And so on, until I was pretty sure he knew what was what. That makes it easier when I had them put all the candy in one long line from least amount to greatest amount.  Since I had everything written down, I'd say, "Do the groups of 4 next, that's nerds, lemon heads, mike & ike, and  snickers."  Kora helped us with spacing the groups apart.  It was important to me, to have them in "groups", so I need there to be spaces so we could easily differentiate.  Once the LONG line of candy groups was made.  I asked Kees "How many groups of 1, and how many is that all together?"  We went through all the groups this way.  By using and emphasizing the word "groups" and "all together", I was hoping I would be preparing him for multiplication.  I know that's a long way off, but he latched right onto this concept!  Have I mentioned I love math.

Lining the candy up from smallest amount to largest amount. I had the kids put their hands down in between each group to leave spacing.

Kees finding the next group.

Kora was GREAT at this job!  Her tiny hand makes a great space between groups.

We counted ALL the candy, 81 pieces.

We took turns picking our candy.

Kora picked pink candy first.

Both kids decided to share with Doug all on their own.  Love that they like to share (for now).

Here's some of our work. 

Here's what's so fun about all this. We not only did math, but it's also pre-reading, reading, and writing.  Kora's not reading yet, but learning the names of the candies based on their packaging is pre-reading. Watching me write down all the names, shows the importance of writing, and print permanence.  When we look back over the list tomorrow, it says the same thing!

So, when you get that Halloween candy, think of ways to include math, reading, and writing.  If your kids are older you could have them make up problems using the chart you make, addition, subtraction, multiplication or division.  If there are 8 sour punch straws, how many would each child get if there are 2 in our family?  And so on and so on!  If your kids are older and not feeling the Halloween math, tell them they have to do the work to earn the candy.  Otherwise, mom/dad gets it all. :)

Craziest part about all of this, my kids didn't even get to eat any of this candy tonight.  Doug and I decided no sugar after 7 pm, just yesterday.  I was surprised how good their attitudes were about not getting to eat any of it.  But I did let them plan what their one piece will be, after lunch tomorrow. :)  They were satisfied with that.

Flashback Friday: Going on a Cat Hunt

Friday:

This seems like a month ago, not last week.   Anyway...

Kids eating lunch

In the evening, I had a ladies movie night at church. Doug took the kids to their FIRST football game.  So sad I missed it, but ladies night was great too, Sandy came with me. ;)

So ready to go to their first football game!

Pictures Doug took!

Saturday:

Game day! We lost, so sad!  Kees was into football before going to the game, now, he's obsessed.  We have to cheer, for hours.  We each pick a team, and then Kees updates us on the score.  He plays both teams. We are expected to react appropriately based on how well our team is doing.  It's usually OU vs OSU, or Vikings vs. Wolves.  He also pretends to stamp our hands.

Kora and I, sitting in the stands.

Stamp on her hand!

She wanted to stamp my hand too.

Why does her stamp have to hurt?

Kora was playing a game.  She had a purple bead, that was a "dice", and she was rolling it on a mirror she "borrowed" from my make-up bag. 

Seriously, football, ALL DAY.  The boy is obsessed!

Kees brought Doug and I these buckets to use as megaphones to cheer for him.  Kora had other plans.

I took a nap, when I woke up, Doug had made THIS magic happen.  Yum, yum, yum!

Sunday:

Who doesn't love that little princess?!

We got to church early because Doug is going to be helping teach for the next few weeks.  So, the kids and I were waiting until it was time for them to go to class.

I taught Children's church this week, which means Kees went! :)

Kees was concerned about why the numbers start with 3 and go to 5, and if the one below the 3, was a 2,  there's no place for a 1!  I found the answer for him, when we were at lunch with the director of the school, she said it's the age the kids need to be to jump off of each level.  Mystery solved!

We got to hang out with the youth Sunday night. They are going through a pretty cool study. At the end of class, we got to play GIANT bowling.

When we got home, we carved our first pumpkin as a family. Neither one of our kids wanted to put their hands inside it.

Monday:

We worked on school work in the morning, ate lunch, then headed out for a Halloween nature walk.  We did one last year too, when we were still in Oklahoma.  I let the kids take their Halloween buckets and fill them up with leaves, rocks, berries, whatever they find.

We spotted a CAT!!!

This was about as close as we got to the kitty.  Kora was so, so happy.  Check out the video on facebook if you want to see her run and squeal.

When we got back home, we made pumpkin muffins!

Kees took this one, please ignore the open cabinets.  

She ate tons of batter, and then two muffins. She approves!

Out with the ladies from my bible study and we saw this...

Add one more 'e'!  It's even KTS.

Tuesday:

So, this happened...

Kees and Kora are loving the Hooked on Phonics books that Sandy got us. Kees and I are working through the workbook too.

The kids were quiet, for a while, then they came running into the living room, and said, "Come see what we've been doing.  Our babies are roasting marshmallows!"  I bought tiny LED lights for our jack o lantern, and the kids have been playing with them.

My kids are the best.  Love stuff like this!

Kora was driving cars through the batman house.   She did NOT want me to drive them back through the door.   So, I did it, to annoy her.  I learned that trick from my dad.

And my kids made chocolate chip cookies!  So fun, Kees said he had to poke a lot of holes in those cookies.

Kees took this one.

Out for another walk. So glad we went, it's been raining since!

Kees telling me about "No Noggin".

Kora thought "No Noggin" was so funny!

We ate dinner with Doug. Then he headed to his bible study, and we went to the store.   Kora helped herself to a strawberry.

We went to the Dollar Tree. I let the kids pick one thing each. Kora picked this bear, and Kees picked stamps, so he can really stamp our hands when we watch him play football, all day, every day.

Wednesday:

Kees lining up the words he cut out from the food boxes I'd been saving.

Kora found an empty eye ball bubble container on one of our nature walks.  He got her finger stuck in it, and guess what Kees's favorite and best berry was inside and she smashed it.  Lots of drama on that one.  There was a lot of crying, but eventually we got over it.

The kids were rocking back and forth in their chairs and they were banging against the counter.  So noisy! So I off handedly said, "If y'all don't quit that, we're going to eat on the floor. " They thought it sounded fun, and I so did I.   Until I went to the bathroom and came back to find Kora had taken a large bite out of ALL the grilled cheese halves, and was touching a couple of them with her feet.  I was gone for a MINUTE!

Kids decided to blog.  Kees is blogging about songs. And Kora is blogging about pink toys.

We went to visit some friends for dessert after dinner. We got to meet and FEED their pig.

It was raining when we got home and Kora was so happy.

Thursday:

Now Kees's cars are playing football. Front row is OU, back row is OSU. And way over by the couch is the quarterback. He is the quarterback for both teams, cause Kees only has one quarterback car. Not sure what makes it a quarterback, but I just go along.

It was an insane day filled with baking, cooking, and cleaning. Plus Kees's school work.  I'm shocked I took any pictures.  I barely ate or sat down.  I made 3 desserts, soup, and lasagna.  And Doug hosted the men's bible study at our place.   I managed to get it all done, but there were some moments where I wasn't quite sure.

Kees is getting books out to read to his babies.  So cute.  And he can read TWO books now.

Crock pot lasagna. It turned out well, and I needed that to happen.

Making a poke cake.  Kora thought it was a mutilation cake.  Good thing you cover it with whipped cream.

The kids and I went to a surprise party for a friend, while Doug hosted the bible study.  Then we went to the grocery store.  I remembered to snap a couple pictures at the store.  Kees's eyes almost match his jacket!

Whew! Is it weekend yet? ALMOST!!!