Disobedience.

Before I begin I would like to apologize for the utterly atrocious grammatical display that is my blog.  My husband likes to remind me, frequently, that this is a display of irony in the most public form.  You see, I studied Creative Writing and English in college.  For real.  See.  Irony.

Moving on...

I have a two year old.  You all know her as Sesame.  Mostly I relay messages of her hilarity, sense of song and frequent imaginary play sessions.  Life, however, is not all rainbows and sunshine with her.  Please do not mistake me, I adore her with all my heart and want the best for her.  Which is why I decided to share this.

Today we arrived home from Bible Study, paired with a short trip to Pappy and Yia Yia's, just barely before nap time.  I plucked Sesame from her seat, ran her through the misty rain and placed her in the entryway.  I stooped down to her level and instructed, "Sesame, I want you to go to your room, take off your shoes, put them away and get into bed.  It's nap time.  Mommy will be in after I bring Squirt in from the car.  Do you understand?"  "Yes, Mommy, " she replied, "I understand."

I know that may seem like several instructions for a two (almost three) year old, but I know she is capable of completing such a list.  I jaunted to car, snagged Z, carried him up to his room, plopped him in his crib and went to Sesame's room.

No Sesame.

I heard singing from downstairs.  Loud, twirly "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" singing.  I peered over the balcony to see my sweet Sesame twirling about the living room with her Little People, singing.

I zoomed down the stairs,  mind racing as I went: Should I just gently correct her??  Should I spank her???  Should I give her time out??  What kind of offense is this??  Where in the scale of disobedience does this lie??  


Scale of disobedience.  There is no scale.  There is obedient or not.  She is clearly disobeying me.  She knows if she is disobedient she gets spanked.  No questions.


I grabbed her upper arm and turned her to me.  "Sesame" she stared at me with wide eyes, knowing she was in trouble, "What did Mommy ask you to do?" "Go upstairs. To night night time." "Did you obey me?"  "No, Mommy." tears commence.  "Sesame, what happens when you disobey?"  "I get a spanking."

She knew.

How like our walk with the Lord.  He continually reminds us how to be obedient.  When we fall He is there to pick us up - but loves us enough to allow us to endure consequences.  Loves us enough to discipline us.  He tells us ahead of time what the consequences of sin and disobedience are - and how to avoid them - yet we still fall over and over and over.

I suppose my thoughts on this topic were stirred up, not only due to this instant, but my time in the word - both through lectures and studies.  In fact, I might be slightly plagiarizing* from a sermon I heard.   The Lord is teaching me something and I'm willing to admit I don't know what yet and I'm a little scared.  But this isn't about me.

I spanked Sesame and quickly hurried her up the stairs.  I scooped her up into my arms, hugged her, told her I loved her but she must be obedient and then promptly tickled her.

The hug concluded the punishment.  We'll tell Daddy what happened when he comes home, but other than that, it will not be brought up again. We moved on.  When she wakes up from her nap, I'm going to take her out into the snow and make Parrot Poop helmets.  Parrot Poop helmets are a blog entry all their own.  I'll tell you sometime.  I promise.  I might even include pictures.


*Fantastic Sermon by Michael Boehm - which I will link to when it's posted.  :)

A Day in the Life...

So.  Happy Thanksgiving.  :)  

I was going to share a few photos from our Turkey Day.  The first two were test photos to prepare for a photo shoot.  Little Dude is only a week younger that the intended subject - which made him the perfect candidate for testing.  :)

Love that kid.  :)  He's a total charmer.  Soooo smiley.  Not that Sesame wasn't, he's just more so.  He's perfect the art of raspberry blowing.

"Riding the horse" aka Pawpaw's knee.

Story time with Pawpaw!  I LOVE JAN BRETT.  I'm sorry, did I yell that loud enough????  I LOVE JAN BRETT!!  Her stories are fantastic!  I'm on a Gingerbread Baby kick right now.  We just checked the Umbrella out of the library as well.

Story time with Nonnie and Pawpaw.  Nonnie is Sesame namesake.  She goes by Sesame too.  :)

The lovely table.

My little bro came out of his cave for lunch, ate, then retreated back to his cave.  He didn't even emerge for pie.  It was nice to see him for the meal though!

Mis padres in their element.  :)  They make some fantastic food in this kitchen.

Z's Thanksgiving meal.  He snacked on some mashed potatoes a bit later, but this was his main meal.

My Momma explaining Facebook to my grandparents.  I cannot even begin to describe this moment.  :)

Story time with Momma - we have a TON of story time these days.  I heart it.

Little Dude and his Momma.  He's wearing the baby doll cap from the basement.  :)

The next two photos are among my favorite of my children.  :)

She was reading to him again.  I love these two and their love for each other.  :)

Show Tunes

We like music in our home.  Okay.  That is a complete understatement.  We LOVE music.  Any kind, it's always on.  Sesame has taken a liking to music as well.  Her current digs:  Bluegrass (we aren't sure, but the kid loves it) and Musicals.  She prances around singing all the songs from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Sound of Music and Mary Poppins.  Most recently, she has started involving Little Dude in these dance sequences.  She pushed him around the dining area today singing "Old Bamboo."  Love.  While I have yet to capture the dynamic duo in action, Husband snagged a video of her performance of "So Long, Farewell."  I'll warn you - it's the whole song.  No, really.  The. Entire. Thing.  Enjoy.

sharing.

This post has little to do with my children, or poop, or Momma-hood as it were.  This post has quite a bit to do with conviction.

This past weekend I had the privilege of photographing a beautiful, newly engaged, couple.  We spent a couple hours on the Butler campus in general merriment while I snapped photos.  Our last stop was The Circle downtown.  The bride to be needed to change clothes so we decided to meet up at the Starbucks.  

Confession: I was a teeny bit stoked.  I heart Peppermint Mochas and have been trying to stay away from Coffee shops on a whole.  I mean, hello, I can brew my own espresso and steam my own milk at home for a fraction of the cost.  It's just a matter of laziness.  However, this particular venture was the perfect excuse to snag a cheery beverage.

I arrived and meandered to the long line.  We are talking looooooooooooong line.  For real.  I stood there pondering the menu and secretly thought "How can they charge $4 for these drinks."  I moved forward a bit in line and started to stare out the windows at the gorgeous Christmas decorations.  Christmas is so happy.  :)  Then I saw this:

In the split second after seeing these two men my heart began to sink.  The thought of paying $4 for a drink - I did not need - became exceedingly ridiculous.  I was overwhelmingly convicted.

I started to write my response off.  "Oh, you're just being silly."  followed closely by "They wouldn't really use the money wisely."  Seriously.

I mean, Seriously.

Did I really have that thought?  Does it matter what happens to the money after I give it?  Who am I to not give that which is not mine to begin with?  Who am I to not obey simply because four dollars might be added to beer money?  Who am I to judge?

All these thoughts and questions bounded around in my brain in a matter of seconds.  I knew I needed to remember the moment.  So I took the awkward photo.  I started, yet again, to write it off as just being an ironic moment.  "Oh, look at that," I said to myself, "all these people in Starbucks and no one is willing to give to these men.  How ironic."  But it was so much more than that.

What a statement on our culture as a whole this is.  Some people payed with cash for a Venti Holiday drink - 4.75 plus tax - and then walked by these men without acknowledging them.  My intent in sharing this moment is not to discredit those who do not give.  Nor is it to scorn those that ignore - for I am usually among them. My intent is to share a moment in time when the Lord brought my own inadequacies to my attention and called me out on a commandment.

We are called to care for those that cannot care for themselves.  To love the unlovable.  To "Cheerfully open our home to those who need a meal or a place to stay." (1 Peter 4:9) We are reminded by Jesus himself, "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’" (Matthew 25:40) How very frequently I forget this.  How often do I not make that meal for someone who is ill because I don't have time?  How frequently do I walk by a homeless person on the street with my head down, because I have somewhere to be?  How readily do I deny love to the unlovable for this silly reason of preoccupation?

The Lord has truly blessed my family in innumerable ways.  My job as his servant is to share those blessings - be it by giving time, using the gifts He has given me or dropping $4 into a cup that is not my own.

When my turn at the counter came, I ordered a tall coffee, payed the 1.80 with my debit card, added some cream and marched out into the cold.  I dropped my four dollars down into the cup and handed the coffee to the man.  "You need this more than I do," I said. "Thank you," he replied, "God bless you."  "He already has," I thought to myself.

Little Dude.

Both Husband Dearest and I feel that our tiny Squirt of a boy has grown by leaps and bounds this week.  He's making more communicative sounds.  No, really, he is.  Even Sesame thought he was say "Mommy" today.  I told her he wasn't, and then he made a sound that was extremely convincing for her case.  His hand/eye coordination isn't so...hmm...how shall I say...like a flailing baby giraffe.  He's actually moving objects from in front of him to his mouth.  Love it.  He's so smiley and giddy and easy going - yet he knows what he wants.

Today marked a milestone for him as well.  He entered into the land of food.  I noticed he was eyeing my spaghetti last night, so we started rice cereal today.  :)  Enjoy.

Life.

So.  Life has been ... busy.  I have had approximately 5 billion varied posts rattling around in my brain at any given time, yet they never quite make it here to my little corner of the interwebs.  So.  In an effort to leave you hanging no longer, here is a quick run down of life in these parts.

1.  We (meaning the 2 year old in our family) is currently obsessed with all things musical.  By this I mean she has successfully memorized all of the songs from Sound of Music, excluding "The Sound of Music" and "Climb Every Mountain" because, and I quote Sesame here, "They are scary Mommy."

2.  Little Dude is growing like a weed.  A WEED I say!  He and Sesame are total buds these days.  The following photo is one that he will hate me for one day...but I don't care.  I hear these matching pajamas - Thanks Nonnie!

3.  Little Dude has also entered into the happy-screech-like-a-pterodactyl-because-I-don't-know-how-to-control-my-volume phase of speech development.  Lovely.  He happy screeches, I screech back, Sesame asks why I'm screaming.  She didn't quite get the whole "I"m teaching him to speak" vibe.  Oh well.  It worked for her.  Little Dude is such a charmer.  His eyelashes curl all the way back to his eyelids.  Spittin' image of is Papa.  :)

3.  Little Dude had a magnificent, glorious and clandestine poop the other day.  The situation deserves it's own post.  Prepare to be amazed.

4.  Sesame likes to jump in leaves.  A lot.  A lot a lot.

5.  I heart Pumpkin Spice lattes.
6.  We are running late to leave for church...so I'm publishing this as is since it's been..you know...a month.  :)

Thanks to those 5 of you that read this!