December is here!

Wow, time is flying by. I can't believe we are already into the Christmas season full force. We have so many fun holiday things to look forward to in the next few weeks, and I love it. I just love a full calendar....when it's filled with stuff I love with people I love, of course. Last night, the staff wives met for dinner at our pastor's wife's house....it was so encouraging to be with those ladies. I wish every single church had something specifically designed for fellowship among the pastors' wives...it makes such a difference in us being refreshed instead of feeling drained. I'm enjoying getting to know them....there are so many things to learn from all of them, and I appreciate the friendships.

The latest on Jonah....he is just talking like crazy. He's been sick today, but all week long, he's just been such a joy. He really enjoys focusing on tasks like building things and stacking blocks. He can stack them up so high before knocking them over, it's crazy! And yesterday I noticed that when he's really concentrating on doing something like that, he does this cute little face - he pushes his bottom lip out with his tongue. I think I may have seen his dad do the same thing! It's adorable. I love discovering little things like that about him. Last week, whenever we asked him what color something was, his answer was always "green." Green was definitely his favorite color. But starting today, everything is yellow to him, or shall I say "ye-wo." It's precious to hear him say these words. And he tends to say "yea" a lot when he's excited about something. Can't imagine where he might have picked that up from. =)

We had our first little playdate that was a disaster. A couple of girls I met here came over to play on Wednesday, and one of them has a two-and-a-half-year old boy that was extremely mean to Jonah. He was so aggressive, he would just run up to Jonah and throw him on the floor. Not good! And Jonah is always so mild-tempered and rarely cries when he's hurt, and he was screaming with tears streaming down his face when this boy would hurt him and was really scared to go near him. The problem was that his mom was really not doing anything about it. I can tell that discipline is not a part of their life at all, which was really sad. I'm sad, because I really want to befriend her, but if her son is going to be a bully to my son and she isn't going to do anything in response, I don't really know how it's going to work. It's bothered me a lot, and I'm not quite sure how to handle future playdates and invites. If any of you more experienced moms have dealt with this, feel free to pass on some wisdom! I didn't even mention how this child was running around my house trying to destroy things....opening and slamming all of my kitchen cabinets and slamming the sunroom door open and shut the entire time, overturning big toys in the playroom. It was extremely unpleasant, to say the least. I feel sorry for her, but I really want her to know that there are some things she can do. aaarrrrggghhhhh.

Also on my mind a lot this week has been MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). My experience in MOPS this fall has been mostly negative, and I have just planned on quitting and not doing it next semester. But all of a sudden this week, I have felt conviction that maybe God allowed me to experience what I did in order to help direct me to get involved in leadership of it and try to help make it better. I mean, I've been praying about what my ministry here in Tyler should be. And while I absolutely love women's ministry in the church, I haven't really seen a big need for someone in that area in our church. The women's ministry at Grace is very strong, with women of all ages involved. But if I stuck with MOPS, I would still be ministering to women, it would just be different than what I had envisioned. But I definitely think there is a need for leadership training, and I'm passionate about what it should be like there. So I'm trying to work through all of that and see what I am supposed to do. I just can't stop thinking about it though!