The New Year: books

I never put pics of me on here. Here I am modeling the new beautiful mug that David brought me back from Thailand. I LOVE it! Makes me want to curl up and read a good book. He also got me a journal to record my '1000 gifts' or blessings on a regular basis. Yes, I am joining that bandwagon. I had actually already done this before and am restarting. It really is good for the soul.

Last year, I got through about half the books on my list. And I really don't feel bad about that at all. It was a busy year, I had a baby remember. But there were some great ones: 1000 gifts, Gospel-powered parenting, and Unbroken were tops!!!

This year I decided to make my list a lot shorter, and it is a working list, and may change at any moment (I always add books, don't get to others) and even so I still may not get through it...but here it is (so far):

1. Getting Things Done
   
2. How people change

4. You can change, chester

5. Enemy within
6. Law of kindness

7. Biographies: Hudson Taylor (a reread)
   

8. The meaning of marriage, Keller
9. Finish marriage matters
10. Finish war of words
    

11. Religious affections (a reread)
    
12. Parts of calvin's institutes
13. Anne of green gable series (6 books) (a reread)
    

The New Year: Slow to speak

I really have two 'themes' for the New Year dealing with my own heart. These are things that have shown up for me in the past few months (years, decades?) of areas of struggle. I decided I would really try to focus on them this year. Last year it was "Adore more", this year the first is being 'slow to speak'. I have been deeply convicted (read: scared) about the impact my words have on all of my relationships, but especially with David and the kids. But it is not just about not speaking either, it is about listening first. All over the proverbs we read this, and about how beneficial a 'graceful tongue' is.

The other area I hope to be more intentional in and build the lifelong habit of is showing more tenderness and affection toward my family.

There you have it, 'slow to speak' and 'tenderness and affection' are things I will hope to improve on this year and forever. Already in my Bible reading this year I have seen these themes jumping out at me and it is SO helpful to be able to pray through the word and examine my heart in these areas of struggle. (I could go on and on, but I will leave the boring self-examination of deep rooted sin for me to ponder :)) Please pray for me in these areas! Thank you.

For Daddy's return

We went ahead and made Daddy's favorite for special breakfast: biscuits. They are frozen now, and some are even heart shaped (kind of). Sophia helped me do this one afternoon this week. She is a great help in the kitchen.


Always some left over dough to play with. She wanted me to give her some eggs to make jidan baba, which is an egg pancake. I told her it was the wrong kind of dough...


During our sleepless nights (they have gotten better), teething crying baby, colds upon colds, cough upon coughs, I remember thinking of my sister. How while we were enjoying time with her hubby over Thanksgiving here in Asia, she was battling BAD stomach viruses at her house, with four kids, by herself. I was thankful we were not dealing with stomach bugs and all that entails....

But don't you know Sophia started feeling BAD today. Sore throat and a stomach ache. By this afternoon she started getting sick, and just plain asking for daddy. I kept telling her 'a few more hours', she said: 'can't he just get on a bus'. Then we wouldn't see him until tomorrow! I told her we could be thankful that she wasn't this sick four days ago and I would have to say 'four more days until daddy comes' instead I can say: 'just a few more hours'. I am not sure if it is a virus or not, I don't feel great either we will see what happens.

But I am truly thankful for God's provision this entire time. In so many big and small ways I felt his presence and experienced his grace. And protection too, physical protection (when Sophia fell out of a tree), and protection from my own sin tendencies to despair or be quick to anger...such grace upon grace.

The New Year: Advent every month

Something David found for us to do this year is called 'Advent Event' and it is intended for the advent season. He decided we would try to do this every month so the girls get to know the Bible Story/Time line in very basic terms and learn that Jesus was 'coming' from way back when, and He is still coming again. It is very simple, has great pics to color and hang per day and has motions to go with it to help you remember that days' story. The girls have loved doing this so far. But this is only month one. I haven't kept up with trying to redo all the motions every day while David has been gone, we just keep up with the current day. But we will learn it! And if it gets old and boring, we will change it up.

The New Year: Starts

Knowing that we had LOTS of things going on this year, and being a very visual learner/planner, I wanted to see it all at a glance. For some, this kind of calendar may unsettle you more than settle depending on your personality. For me it is very helpful. David found it online, I have no idea where, and we got a local print shop to print it on good paper. It is a 2012 calendar, not one to be reused.



It is on our wall in the kitchen. (this pic is for perspective)

David and I have lots of great ideas, burdens, and focuses this year, but they don't happen in a vacuum, it is 'in the midst' of all that comes are way (unplanned) that we hope to still thrive, something we admittedly struggle to do sometimes.


For example, our new year started this way:



A full week of helping our friends during a medical crisis. (Both Mommy and Baby are doing well now, by the way, a little new year miracle).

Anyway. Back to our new year focus. Based on our calendar, we won't have any real semblance of steady routine until about April. Good to know.

However, we still must live in the unsteady stream, so our focuses remain.

Here is our first emphasis of the New Year as a couple/family:

The past 4+ years we have read lots of parenting books, sought lots of advice and grown a ton in our marriage and family. But this year we hope to really focus on our marriage. There is nothing wrong with our marriage, we just aim to be a lot more intentional in it. All parenting philosophies, etc. go out the window if your marriage doesn't display the gospel to your children. We know this. We hope to focus better on living it. This isn't just a blanket statement, we have some specific goals to this end, and are still tweaking others.

I know of at least 3, maybe 4 couples who have told me that about year 7 in their marriage things got tough. I am not sure about it for us but I do know that year 7-8 for us was probably the most eye-opening. This has got to be because by year 7 you have your 2-4 kids, and just the plain logistics of life are difficult. Not to mention you are responsible for the raising of little souls, and of course, loving your husband, and here is the kicker, a noble wife: 'brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.' Easier said than done. So yes, we need focus and intentionality that we hope will start this year and never stop!

By the way, my incredible hubby returns TODAY! If he is on time, the whole clan will go pick him up from the airport. We are SO excited!

Happy New Year!

(In America, I am late on this. But Chinese New Year is not until the 23rd, so I am right on time!)

Girls outing

All outings these days are girls outings. Tobin stays home during his naps (and Ayi or David is there). But we do all go out to eat together and these days after dinner, Tobin strolls in the stroller while the girls play outside.

Because Sophia no longer has school, I planned a different afternoon thing to do each day, two-three days included play dates, which she would love. Except now it is Wednesday and because of all the colds going around, play dates are pretty much out!

The girls and I went up to the nearby park/tourism center and had a good adventure.

It was a bright sunny day, so hats were a must. Plus I thought we were going to go to a wide open school yard, but we changed our minds at the last minute.


On the swing set


Tire swing



Looks pretty cool right? Brand new and for touristy purposes!



wandering peacocks


rock climbing


under the elephants


wanderings through the woods..

Sleepless in Southern China

Sophia, Bella, and Tobin have colds. Oh yeah, that is all three of our kids. For Bella this means sleepless nights of cries (one night it was about 8 times): 'my nose is running' (it is really actually stopped up). Finally I have given her some medicine. The past two nights Tobin has woken up, so unlike him! His teeth, and his own cold have him feeling pretty miserable too. I gave him a bottle at 1:30 a.m., he drank it up and whined back to sleep. The next night it was 4:30 a.m.. So far this evening he woke up at 8:45 p.m. and has cried on and off for an hour. I have given him some meds to help with pain, but he won't take a bottle, or water, or anything. I have rocked him some, on and off. We will see if I need to rock him all night. Things are quiet now, except the bangs and shakes of fire works. Loud ones. This too, wakes my babies, and me of course. We have another full week+ of this. Louder and louder they get.

But I have been drinking half caff coffee in the mornings and some coke in the afternoons (not a full can). It just doesn't seem to fare me very well. Oh well.

And did I mention it has gotten cold. For two nights I have worn double socks, added a blanket and doubled up the down comforter (since David is gone). Even if all were quiet, the cold has kept me not resting well either. The kids have small heaters in their rooms. Which is very helpful.

This is all for a season, right? I don't unlike this season actually, just weary right now, with an extra appreciation for all single parents out there. And a real awareness of God's nearness, which just may be why he intends these seasons for us...so that always we know His nearness=our good (Ps 73)!

Sophia's dance class

Finally some pics from her last day of dance. Lighting was bad, so was the angle, I didn't want to interrupt too much!

Incidentally, the girl to the right with the pig tails is the one that Sophia had her little altercation with.


she concentrates pretty hard and really follows the teacher.


she told me one day they learned to 'niu pigu', literally 'twist your bottom'. Not sure how I feel about that.




enjoy!

Tea Party II

When David went to Vietnam I told the girls we would have a 'Tea Party' and they loved it. I prepped quite a bit, planned snacks, organized the crafts, and figured out the 'theme'. I decided this would be a great thing for them to look forward to while he was gone this time, it may just become a tradition!

I changed the theme and the crafts, and even the snacks, I kind of forgot how much prep this took. Not to mention I was sticking to special breakfast Saturday (the day of the party), and had to make coffee cake (I made it Fri night, mornings are hard without daddy around).

This was to be a 'hot chocolate party'. I put the hot chocolate in the tea pitcher. Last time the theme was 'wisdom from above' from James 3:17 (I am certain they do not remember that, though they know the verse pretty well). This time the theme was 'unfading beauty' (1 Pet 3:3-4)


I had them dress up in whichever dress they chose and told them to bring their jewelry boxes out.


After they donned some pretty stuff, we talked about the meaning of this verse. It was great for Sophia to think through the questions I was asking. This is pretty straightforward teaching here. As we got all 'dolled' up I reminded them that this is not 'bad' per se, but that this is the kind of beauty that will not last...we need to work on the beauty that lasts and that is valuable in God's sight. We dissected the verse a little and how to apply it in simple ways. Sophia hung with it...they were quite surprised when I got out a little make up. (they always want to put on my make up, which I rarely wear)


Please Bella listen to mommy and don't touch everything yet....she did have a blast despite this look of malcontent.


I put eyeshadow, blush, and lip gloss on them.



We prayed together and then had our first snack break



chugging hot chocolate and marshmallows, mini oreos, and chocolate topped mushroom shaped crackers. Yum. They loved it.


Have to send a shout out to these paper towels. They are great! found here just recently, I need to re-look for stuff because new things pop up and have been there for awhile right under our noses. Now, usually I may be tempted to stock, hoard, and hide from other ex-pats (ahem, so I have been accused). But this time I bought three packs, of the ten-fifteen that were left. I consider that self-control. Then yesterday I went back to get some for our friends and saw there were only two more left, so I bought them...what is that called? Selfishness? Wisdom? You decide.

Digression. Meanwhile, I turn on the classical music playlist, Mozart blares, and we chit chat.



Then we start craft #1: twirly sticks, wands, whatever you want to call them. I used the empty rolls from Tin foil, covered with shiny paper and then had the girls cut and glue the strips of tissue paper. They loved it.


we had another snack break, then moved on to craft #2. Window art.
I could not get these little bottles open. Lefty was not Loosey. And there was some kind of plug. I squeezed one hard thinking it was open and would come out, and there went the bright orange paint, in a perfect rainbow arch across the room. We quickly cleaned it up, and laughed a bit. I thought "david will think I am sabotaging the couches in order to try for new ones". But really after a wash it came off the cushion. Just the part below that you can't wash is still there.






We finished just in time as Tobin woke up from his morning nap!
A few hours later Bella said: Thank you mommy for doing all the tea party stuff! She really has a grateful heart, because she will remember stuff awhile after it is done and say thank you. For simple things too!

We had a great time. But we still miss Daddy. 3.5 days left, but who is counting? (WE ARE! WE ARE!)

School dayz gone

Spring Festival Break has arrived! They will have many weeks off, until March 'something' which is the answer I kept getting from her teachers. No one really knows. (how do you plan like that?).
Sophia LOVES any place that has friends, so she loves school. Here are a few snapshots of some of the last days of the semester:


On the way out...


She wanted to wear her uniform. I told her that no one else would be wearing it and she did not care!



what they ate one day this week. She usually does not go in the mornings and eat lunch with them, but on this day she did. She ate it up!



Today she said, when I grow up I am going to be a Dai zu, which is Chinese for a minority group around here. I laughed hard at this. I mention it now because she really fits in wherever she goes. This is a blessing.

Their own tea party

1.10.2012
I am going a little out of order, oh well.
The girls had their own tea party days before the one I had planned. They invited various stuffed animals and had a great time!




This

Bella at play

1.11.2012
I took Bella up to Sophia's school playground, and she had a good time playing....