Learning the Catechism

Abigail is doing great with her Catechism questions.  Although, in the video, she was a bit distracted.  :-)

Where Is God? and Other Updates

I realize that my blog has been a little neglected as of late.  Things have been crazy hectic around here the last few days, and honestly, when things get crazy, my blogging is one of the first things to go.  Well, that and sleep.  I feel like everything I am doing keeps getting interrupted a hundred times...ever had one of those weeks?  It's just hard to focus on one thing and complete it.

Hopefully things will be calming down here shortly.  But I can't make any promises.  Potty training was going so good...and all of a sudden my 23 month old decided she didn't want to do the hard work of going to the potty anymore.  I am a bit baffled on this one.  She was doing SO GOOD.  I know that she can do it, because she has been.  So the whole potty training thing, has been rather exhausting the past few days.  And for some reason all the accidents I have to clean up seem to be on stuff that you can't just throw in the washer and be done with.  Sigh.  I'm really hoping we make some huge progress in this area real soon.

Abigail said the cutest thing yesterday.  We were going through her catechism questions together and I thought I'd try asking her a new question.  I said "Abigail, where is God?"  To which she replied "work".  The correct answer: "everywhere".  But I am always telling her that Daddy is at work, or Nana is at work, and so on.  So she just figured God must be too.  LOL!  It was way more funny in person.  :-)

Emma and Sophia are 10 months old!  Wow.  Time sure does fly!  They are still gradually easing their way into solid foods.  Really, they would rather nurse most of the time.  I usually feed them a few times a day, but Emma is not too interested at all.  Sophia pretty much loves anything that I feed her.  It's amazing to see how different they are.

I'm craving a lot of stuff.  I think I'll head to the kitchen and do a little cooking!

Catechism for Children

Abigail is learning her catechism. It is so sweet to see her learning about God, and able to say back the things that we are teaching her. She is so smart! Plus Matt and I get to benefit from memorizing this too!

Catechisms are a great way to memorize truths about God in an easy question and answer format. You can check out the Catechism for Young Children here.

Potty Training Tips

I'm not yet ready to offer my own seasoned potty training tips, but I do have a link to share. I just stumbled across this good post on potty training by MckMama over at My Charming Kids. If you're not in the potty training stage yet, there's still no reason you can't just file it away for later! Enjoy!

Where I've Been

Wondering where I've been? Me too. Actually, I've been a not just a little occupied with a new addition to the list of things that daily demand of my time. Curious yet? Yes, I have now officially embarked on the potty training journey! It's going ok, but we do seem to still have more pottying in the pants than in the potty. Oh well. I guess we'll get there eventually. My 18 month old has a great attitude about sitting on the potty and can sit for quite a while, many times a day, but I sort of feel like we're playing dodgeball...we seem to be missing most of the hits, and the times on the potty turn out a bit unproductive, if you know what I mean. :-)

Are you in the ever popular league of moms who are potty training currently, or are you a potty training veteren mom? If so, I would love to hear any advice or tips that you would like to share. Please, please, leave me a comment and tell me what worked or did not work for you!

Oh yeah. The second major time consumer these days just so happens to be my precious, adorable, TEETHING twins. Grin. Gotta love those teeth!

Thinking it through

In all that we do, are we taking the time to think it through? Do we question of ourselves why we do what we do, and why we do it the way we do?

I began to think about this last night after my husband and I read a few chapters from the book Shepherding A Child’s Heart, by Tedd Tripp. This book has been encouraging and last night really challenged me to look at why I discipline the way that I do, and to think about what my true motivation is for disciplining my children. Is it for the sake of having well behaved children? Is it for the approval of others? Is it for me? Or is it, as it should be, for the glory of God alone? The Shorter Catechism answers its first question, “what is the chief end of man?” in this way: “man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” If we are believers, our chief end in disciplining our children ought to be glorifying God.

Another great point that Tedd Tripp made in his book was that when we have family worship or devotion time, it is not for the sake of worship time, or ritual, or such, but purely for the sake of knowing God. I want to be sure that my children understand that we read the Bible and pray to God not because of habit or because it may be a good thing to do, but because we want to learn about God and because we want to know Him.

So in all that we do, let’s remember to think it through, and let’s purpose to keep our motivations pure.