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Monday, October 25, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
My kids surprised me at Disneyland
Rick splurged and bought us all tickets to Disneyland's Halloween party on Friday, which started at 7pm and went until midnight. All four of us were super excited to go and looked forward to it all week. But I have to admit, I geared up and prepared for meltdowns and tired, frustrated kiddos. I mean, my kids normally go to bed around 8ish, and D-land can be a bit overwhelming for anyone. Throw in Halloween costumes, pitch black nighttime, trying to meet up with friends and 2 kids at different ride levels. I was ready to go and have fun, but I was ready with a big dose of patience, just in case.
PATIENCE NOT NEEDED.
My kids were so excited and thrilled to be there, they were on their BEST BEHAVIOR. It was Avalon's first time at age 3, and Loudoun's second time. Not once did either kid want to rush ahead, or go somewhere other than where we were at, they walked nicely to and from the parking lot, they didn't get antsy in line and they didn't whine about anything. Avalon hung out with me most of the time and I took her on the little rides, and Loudoun hung out with Daddy and our other friends and went on the big rides. We came together and did stuff as a family, and sometimes swapped kids so I could go on big rides with Loudoun.
Rick and I could barely limp back to the car from pure exhaustion, but it was one of the best outings we've had with our kids ever. Avalon did a great job walking most of the night, but I have to admit, my favorite part of the whole evening was carrying her from ride to ride, talking to each other, and seeing her joy from looking at all of the lights, the Disney characters she recognized, and the thrill from riding tall rockets and shooting Buzz Lightyear from a rotating car. And when she got tired towards the end, she put her head on my shoulder, but still talked in my ear, because there was no way she was giving in and falling asleep before it was over.
PATIENCE NOT NEEDED.
My kids were so excited and thrilled to be there, they were on their BEST BEHAVIOR. It was Avalon's first time at age 3, and Loudoun's second time. Not once did either kid want to rush ahead, or go somewhere other than where we were at, they walked nicely to and from the parking lot, they didn't get antsy in line and they didn't whine about anything. Avalon hung out with me most of the time and I took her on the little rides, and Loudoun hung out with Daddy and our other friends and went on the big rides. We came together and did stuff as a family, and sometimes swapped kids so I could go on big rides with Loudoun.
Rick and I could barely limp back to the car from pure exhaustion, but it was one of the best outings we've had with our kids ever. Avalon did a great job walking most of the night, but I have to admit, my favorite part of the whole evening was carrying her from ride to ride, talking to each other, and seeing her joy from looking at all of the lights, the Disney characters she recognized, and the thrill from riding tall rockets and shooting Buzz Lightyear from a rotating car. And when she got tired towards the end, she put her head on my shoulder, but still talked in my ear, because there was no way she was giving in and falling asleep before it was over.
FUN TIMES.
I apologize for the cell phone quality pics
Our favorite visual all night was definitely the castle.
Rick and I should've stood slightly different so we could've had pumpkin heads.
We scarfed dinner down at 9pm, so that we could get back on more rides.
.
It took 30 minutes of convincing her before we left to let us put a long sleeve shirt under her costume. Once we got there, she totally forgot she had it on.
Waiting to take off on Matterhorn.
We rode the carousel at about 11:30pm. I'm surprised she didn't fall off the horse.
Nothing like sugar to wake you up at 11:45pm.
Scary, yet such nice manners.
This was literally 4 seconds after I fastened her carseat buckle.
And we were so tired the next day, we slept in until 10am and spent all afternoon playing DJ Hero in our pajamas. With the clouds and drizzle all day, I couldn't have asked for anything more.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
A book giveaway
When I was little, I went to a Christian daycare center. It was a really cool place in the San Fernando Valley on 14 acres of land. Is that even possible? In Los Angeles? Anyway, the daycare picked my sister and I up from the local elementary school 5 blocks away, and watched us until my mom could pick us up at 6pm.
In the summer it was even better, because it became an all-day program, complete with an Olympic-sized pool with 2 diving boards and a slide, an amusement park sized slide (the kind you have to walk up 200 stairs and ride down on a square of carpet), ponies, and basketball courts. The summer theme was covered wagon days (they actually had one, too!), so in addition to learning bible verses and studying about Jesus, our daily activities included making candles and yarn dolls, churning butter, bobbing for apples, kick the can, etc. It was a blast. And if it was your birthday, you got your very own banana split!
OK, I am getting a bit off subject, but thinking back, I cannot believe how fun we had it at that camp! I wish more camps would do that nowadays.....I guess the 80's had their good points.
So, anyway, one of the teachers there took a liking to my sister and I, and asked my mom if she could take us to bible school on Sundays for awhile. She picked us up at our house and took us to Grace Community Church. I don't remember much about the bible class itself, but I definitely remember attending. I must have been about 8, my sister 5.
Fast forward to present day, a friend turned me on to a great pastor and teacher, John MacArthur. Turns out, he is the pastor of the church that the sweet teacher took my sister and I to, back in the day!
I listen to his sermons via podcast everyday in my car, and sometimes listen to KKLA when he is on in the morning (6:30am), since I have 45 minutes during my commute each way. I love how he speaks the truth and teaches directly from the Bible. He even spends the time to study and interpret the words in the Bible to accurately teach the intended meaning, even if it differs from present day translation.
I have 5 copies of his short book, You Can Trust the Bible, for anyone who would like one. Whether you are curious to read it, want to add it to your collection or know of someone who you might want to introduce it to, I am happy to send one to you! Please leave me your email address in the comments section and I will contact you for your mailing address. And if you are interested in listening to his sermons, all you have to do is visit gty.org, and you can search the website by bible book or sermon topic.
He is one of my favorites to listen to and read....who are your favorites? I would love to hear about your favorites in the comments section.
Disclosure: What, are you really reading this? I don't have to have a disclosure on this because it's my own goofy giveaway! Take that, disclosure police!
In the summer it was even better, because it became an all-day program, complete with an Olympic-sized pool with 2 diving boards and a slide, an amusement park sized slide (the kind you have to walk up 200 stairs and ride down on a square of carpet), ponies, and basketball courts. The summer theme was covered wagon days (they actually had one, too!), so in addition to learning bible verses and studying about Jesus, our daily activities included making candles and yarn dolls, churning butter, bobbing for apples, kick the can, etc. It was a blast. And if it was your birthday, you got your very own banana split!
OK, I am getting a bit off subject, but thinking back, I cannot believe how fun we had it at that camp! I wish more camps would do that nowadays.....I guess the 80's had their good points.
So, anyway, one of the teachers there took a liking to my sister and I, and asked my mom if she could take us to bible school on Sundays for awhile. She picked us up at our house and took us to Grace Community Church. I don't remember much about the bible class itself, but I definitely remember attending. I must have been about 8, my sister 5.
Fast forward to present day, a friend turned me on to a great pastor and teacher, John MacArthur. Turns out, he is the pastor of the church that the sweet teacher took my sister and I to, back in the day!
I listen to his sermons via podcast everyday in my car, and sometimes listen to KKLA when he is on in the morning (6:30am), since I have 45 minutes during my commute each way. I love how he speaks the truth and teaches directly from the Bible. He even spends the time to study and interpret the words in the Bible to accurately teach the intended meaning, even if it differs from present day translation.
He is one of my favorites to listen to and read....who are your favorites? I would love to hear about your favorites in the comments section.
Disclosure: What, are you really reading this? I don't have to have a disclosure on this because it's my own goofy giveaway! Take that, disclosure police!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Dear Compassion International,
Yesterday a yard sale took place to help raise money for a child in your program. What started out as an idea to sell a few clothes and toys that my fast growing kids could no longer use, turned into a community of big-hearted people contributing to a cause and giving as big as their heart would let them. My kids created signs and entertained shopping visitors, friends and family members donated items from their homes, and other friends even delivered items early Saturday morning and stayed for the entire sale, helping set-up and tag items, assisting customers and handing out change for purchased items.
These are all great contributions to begin with, but add in the fact that everyone offered their services and goods on their own without being asked. A few neighbors walked over and donated cash to our cause and a reader of this blog from another far away city even contributed money to our child's account because she wanted to help and loved reading about Viakeshwar's story.
These are all great contributions to begin with, but add in the fact that everyone offered their services and goods on their own without being asked. A few neighbors walked over and donated cash to our cause and a reader of this blog from another far away city even contributed money to our child's account because she wanted to help and loved reading about Viakeshwar's story.
Apparently, it was backwards day.
"I have a candy."
Putting up neighborhood signs
Kids' clothes
Glassware
What a collection!
Loudoun's sign for the free Halloween candy...
...Unless you looked at the backside. B stands for Bucket.
Running the cash table. Hard at work.
I am blown away by people's generosity and I am so excited to be able to send this money to Viakeshwar and his family on behalf of everyone who helped. God worked in beautiful ways yesterday, and it doesn't go unnoticed how He was glorified throughout the day. Please give our best to Viakeshwar and his family. We love him!
Love,
All of Us
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Every little bit helps
This weekend we are holding a yard sale. We have only been living in our house slightly over 1 year, and even though we don't have a lot of furniture to sell, we always have a ton of kids' clothes to donate and toys are always circulating through. So, we pooled together as a family and decided to sell everything we don't use anymore so that we can raise money for Viakeshwar.
Viakeshwar is our sponsored child from Compassion, a great organization that exists as a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults. Viakeshwar and his family live in India on the plains of Bhandewadi Slum, home to approximately 7,500 residents. As a sponsor, our contribution allows the staff of UTTHAN Child Development Center to provide Viakeshwar with Bible teaching, health and hygiene education, medical checkups, nutritious food, field trips, cultural programs, school fees, school supplies, tutoring and remedial classes. The center staff will also provide monthly meetings, home visits, skills training and income-generating programs for the parents of our child.
I tell you all of this in case you are interested in sponsoring a child in the name of Christ. www.compassion.com. It really is a blessing.
The letters we receive from Viakeshwar touch us to the core, and we want to do whatever we can to help him. His birthday is this Friday (he's turning 7!), and although we already sent him a birthday care package, we decided we really want to send him more this Christmas, thus the yard sale idea. Both of our kids have completely jumped on board to donate many things from their rooms.
We started last night on Avalon's room, and she couldn't have surprised me more. I assumed her initial excitement to contribute would diminish when she actually saw her toys move from her closet to the "giveaway" pile, but it was quite the opposite. She gladly joined in and offered toys and stuffed animals and blankets before I even ran across them! She did have a hard time parting with her stroller. Not because she will EVER ride in it EVER again (too independent for that)...but because she pushes her dolls around in it from time to time. But after I let her play with it for about 20 minutes, she was ready to donate the stroller as well. All of this sorting and organizing resulted in a VERY, clean room, a room I haven't seen like this in months. It gets "mostly" picked up from week to week....but the junk has definitely accumulated over time. Ya know, like the happy meal toys, the band-aid wrappers (she's addicted to band-aids!), the empty bubble jars, and the lone plastic shoe for the polly pocket I haven't seen in months. It's all gone and the new cleanliness even made a difference in her excitement to go to bed last night! We'll see how long that lasts.
Tonight we are moving into Loudoun's room to continue the search for donations. I am so glad I started this process early in the week so it isn't all left to Friday at midnight! We are also writing up the posters for the neighborhood and can't wait to bake a few refreshments on Friday night to sell to our early morning visitors.
It makes me so happy that my entire family is behind this project and wants to help Viakeshwar in any way possible. I can't take credit for this idea though, I read about it through MckMama, and thought, Wait, I can do this, too!
Stay tuned for pics and details of how it went.
Viakeshwar is our sponsored child from Compassion, a great organization that exists as a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults. Viakeshwar and his family live in India on the plains of Bhandewadi Slum, home to approximately 7,500 residents. As a sponsor, our contribution allows the staff of UTTHAN Child Development Center to provide Viakeshwar with Bible teaching, health and hygiene education, medical checkups, nutritious food, field trips, cultural programs, school fees, school supplies, tutoring and remedial classes. The center staff will also provide monthly meetings, home visits, skills training and income-generating programs for the parents of our child.
I tell you all of this in case you are interested in sponsoring a child in the name of Christ. www.compassion.com. It really is a blessing.
The letters we receive from Viakeshwar touch us to the core, and we want to do whatever we can to help him. His birthday is this Friday (he's turning 7!), and although we already sent him a birthday care package, we decided we really want to send him more this Christmas, thus the yard sale idea. Both of our kids have completely jumped on board to donate many things from their rooms.
We started last night on Avalon's room, and she couldn't have surprised me more. I assumed her initial excitement to contribute would diminish when she actually saw her toys move from her closet to the "giveaway" pile, but it was quite the opposite. She gladly joined in and offered toys and stuffed animals and blankets before I even ran across them! She did have a hard time parting with her stroller. Not because she will EVER ride in it EVER again (too independent for that)...but because she pushes her dolls around in it from time to time. But after I let her play with it for about 20 minutes, she was ready to donate the stroller as well. All of this sorting and organizing resulted in a VERY, clean room, a room I haven't seen like this in months. It gets "mostly" picked up from week to week....but the junk has definitely accumulated over time. Ya know, like the happy meal toys, the band-aid wrappers (she's addicted to band-aids!), the empty bubble jars, and the lone plastic shoe for the polly pocket I haven't seen in months. It's all gone and the new cleanliness even made a difference in her excitement to go to bed last night! We'll see how long that lasts.
Tonight we are moving into Loudoun's room to continue the search for donations. I am so glad I started this process early in the week so it isn't all left to Friday at midnight! We are also writing up the posters for the neighborhood and can't wait to bake a few refreshments on Friday night to sell to our early morning visitors.
It makes me so happy that my entire family is behind this project and wants to help Viakeshwar in any way possible. I can't take credit for this idea though, I read about it through MckMama, and thought, Wait, I can do this, too!
Stay tuned for pics and details of how it went.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Strong Willed Child
I have been praying to God for patience and understanding in raising my 3 year old daughter for months now. She has been testing me and pushing me to my limits on a daily basis and I have been feeling like I don't know how much more I can take. Her good days are great, her good moments on bad days are memorable, and her heart and spirit are as bright and big as the sky. But her bad days and bad moments are rough, let me tell ya. I won't go into a lot of details, because we parents all know, but basically I'm talking tantrums, stubbornness, defiance...things that kept taking me to my wit's end...A LOT. No matter how patient I tried to be, she always seemed to win out, making me feel like a failure. Irritable at best. And don't get me started on how her meltdowns made me feel during PMS....Rick knew to let me walk away for periods of time just to regain my composure.
I've pondered if this all is a result of me being newly sober, dealing with raw emotions. Or if it was me finally dealing with a toddler, sober. I mean, I've been a mother for 6 years, but only 1 year has been as a sober mother. But no matter what it was, I was feeling defeated, and prayer to God was where I went for help.
In retrospect, help came in the form of a get-together this weekend with a friend. Our purpose of meeting was to talk about God and all of His goodness, and boy was it a heartwarming meeting. Not only to talk to my friend, but the things I heard and learned about God were amazing.
But where I think God stepped in and answered my prayers is when my friend brought up the concept of a "strong-willed child." Did you know there is such a thing? I mean, I've used words like independent and stubborn to describe my daughter, but I never knew there was an actual term. Don't get me wrong, I'm not thrilled because I have a label for my toddler (although she did get 12 out of 12 on the "strong will" scale), but I am elated that I now have a Google term to type in and Voila! I have multiple resources on the internet to help me out. There are books upon books out there with studies and suggestions and resources on creative ways to discipline a strong-willed child. After comparing several of the top choices, I ordered a 5 out of 5 star book. In the meantime, I started reading the reviews on the book and have already found so many tips and suggestions to apply to life at home. And you know what?
They are working.
They are simple and common sense, but the authors are saying you have to approach SWC differently. Parenting styles you used on a compliant child (Loudoun) will not work on SWC (Avalon). FINALLY! I feel like I wasn't defeated, I just didn't have the correct tools to be successful with her. In three days I have seen a night and day difference. She is listening, she is responding and we have more peace between us. There isn't this tension about whether or not a tantrum is on the verge of erupting. It's more like, if it erupts, here are the steps we are going to work through to end the tantrum quickly and smoothly. Who knows, maybe we'll get to few, if any tantrums soon!
Avalon is such a loving, generous, sweet, tender-hearted girl. I was so afraid of crushing her spirit while trying to force her to obey family rules. Now I am learning how to set the boundaries while letting her spirit shine. And the book hasn't even been delivered yet. I have new hope. Thank you, God, for listening and answering my prayers. Thank you, friend, for your much appreciated advice.
I've pondered if this all is a result of me being newly sober, dealing with raw emotions. Or if it was me finally dealing with a toddler, sober. I mean, I've been a mother for 6 years, but only 1 year has been as a sober mother. But no matter what it was, I was feeling defeated, and prayer to God was where I went for help.
In retrospect, help came in the form of a get-together this weekend with a friend. Our purpose of meeting was to talk about God and all of His goodness, and boy was it a heartwarming meeting. Not only to talk to my friend, but the things I heard and learned about God were amazing.
But where I think God stepped in and answered my prayers is when my friend brought up the concept of a "strong-willed child." Did you know there is such a thing? I mean, I've used words like independent and stubborn to describe my daughter, but I never knew there was an actual term. Don't get me wrong, I'm not thrilled because I have a label for my toddler (although she did get 12 out of 12 on the "strong will" scale), but I am elated that I now have a Google term to type in and Voila! I have multiple resources on the internet to help me out. There are books upon books out there with studies and suggestions and resources on creative ways to discipline a strong-willed child. After comparing several of the top choices, I ordered a 5 out of 5 star book. In the meantime, I started reading the reviews on the book and have already found so many tips and suggestions to apply to life at home. And you know what?
They are working.
They are simple and common sense, but the authors are saying you have to approach SWC differently. Parenting styles you used on a compliant child (Loudoun) will not work on SWC (Avalon). FINALLY! I feel like I wasn't defeated, I just didn't have the correct tools to be successful with her. In three days I have seen a night and day difference. She is listening, she is responding and we have more peace between us. There isn't this tension about whether or not a tantrum is on the verge of erupting. It's more like, if it erupts, here are the steps we are going to work through to end the tantrum quickly and smoothly. Who knows, maybe we'll get to few, if any tantrums soon!
Avalon is such a loving, generous, sweet, tender-hearted girl. I was so afraid of crushing her spirit while trying to force her to obey family rules. Now I am learning how to set the boundaries while letting her spirit shine. And the book hasn't even been delivered yet. I have new hope. Thank you, God, for listening and answering my prayers. Thank you, friend, for your much appreciated advice.
Monday, October 4, 2010
A casual Sunday stroll...is that possible with a puppy?
Apparently it is! I think it helped that Avalon lingered behind me for most of the walk, and she was the treat holder. There was no way Barkley wanted to charge ahead! At one point, they both even let me lay down on the sidewalk and take pictures. Which I have found so far is the best way to photograph a BLACK dog. A moving, black dog. Again, Avalon holding the treats 6 inches from his head kept him pretty still.
(click to enlarge)
We had fun. And Barkley got lots of bacon treats!
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