Friday, March 28, 2008

This Week

I haven't written all week, just haven't felt inspired. =) But just to make myself do it, I'll give a boring recap of our week. Tuesday was a fun day...Kate and I went to visit some of our girlfriends that live in Dallas. We visited and let our kids play for just a few hours, which was way too short, but it was really fun. Thanks for taking me with you, Kate! It's always refreshing to spend time with Kelli and Holly. It's also always embarrassing when your child decides to push and shove your friends' kids playing at McDonalds. Oh, and let's not forget hair-pulling. That was a new one. Jonah has kept me busy working on a few things the last week or so....remembering manners, being kind to our friends, answering adults respectfully (which falls under the manners category I guess). This is just where we are right now...having to review some things....things like NOT HITTING YOUR FRIENDS! Ugh. I don't like having to reteach that one. I recognize that the disobedience I most detest seeing in my son is usually the kind that involves public embarrassment...the situations that really aim to crush my pride. It reveals so much about my heart when I realize that. I so don't want it to be about me. Ever. But so much of the time, it becomes about that. Something a few of us were talking about on Tuesday was the necessity of prayer in parenting. It is so simple. It should have been understood from the first day of being a mom. It shouldn't be so easy to forget about. But sadly, it is. I tend to react first, then pray later. Or control whatever behavioral-problem is daunting me before I really turn to the Lord. I want to turn to Him immediately, with no answers of my own, broken, ready to hear His solution. I know He's the Parenting Expert. No one else comes close. So why is it hard to remember to pray for wisdom in the moment of disciplining or correcting or teaching my child? It's one thing to set aside concentrated time to pray for my child's heart and development on a regular basis (not that I even do that superbly!) but an entirely different thing to always have the gut reaction of prayer whenever he tries something new on me. I wish my first response were to immediately pray. I've seen some of this compulsiveness in myself this week, and I know God is wanting to address some of these things and grow me in this area. And I just keep getting tested in it. I have definitely been more tired the last couple of weeks, and I see it affecting my patience level with my precious child. And I hate that. I need some beauty rest for my heart. I just don't want these last few months with just Jonah to be marked by an increase in how easily irritated I am. Really, most of it is just lack of enthusiasm on my part. A decrease in energy and desire for proactive parenting. Yuck. So I'm really starting to pray through a lot of that and seek what the Lord wants from me right now in terms of godly parenting during this temporary stage (pregnancy) of fatigue. And I know He'll help me. I just need to deal with all the heart issues involved for myself before I really attempt to shepherd my child's heart. Some of that process isn't all that fun. So that's been a big part of my week.

Yesterday, Jonah I went to the park to play. We took lunches, and Joel met us there during his lunch break. It was such a sweet family time. Joel is able to come home for lunch often, but we rarely go on an outing during that time so this was very special. There's a big amphitheater at the park we went to, so Jonah got on stage to "perform" for us, while Joel and I sat on the front row to cheer him on. I told Jonah to tell us some jokes or funny stories, and he proceeded to string together various comments about Jonah and the Whale, all the while pointing his finger at us emphatically. He then walked off, and Joel turned to me and said, "His first sermon!" Then we just died laughing. This little guy is SO FUNNY. Sometimes when he really shouldn't be. He's gotten in trouble before for responding to our correction by saying to us, "Don't talk to me. Don't talk to me like that." Which in my book is the equivalent of telling us to shut up, basically. So that never goes over very well! Yesterday, in the car, I told Jonah to stop doing something...spitting, I think, was the offense...and he quickly said, "I'm not going to tell you, 'Don't talk to me like that.' I'm not going to say that." He said this a few times. And lest you think this comment signaled growth in his choices, he said it with a definitive attitude. It was his way of saying it but getting an "out" in saying it because he was saying he wasn't going to say it. Make sense? He was outsmarting me big-time. I had no idea what to say in response. It was funny, but it wasn't. I just let it go though. And laughed about it in my head.

Today's big excitement was finding a great deal on a daybed at a garage sale. I had hoped to find a twin-size bed to go in Parker's room to help with accompanying guests since we no longer have an official guest room. But I hadn't gotten my hopes up very high because I didn't know if I would be able to afford it. I'd been at a standstill decorating her nursery because...oh guess what...decorating a room costs money. Hmm. Anyway, I didn't have a clue what to do in the room, and a lot of it depended on if I would find an affordable bed. Well, I feel like this bed was God's special gift to me today! He reserved it just for me. =) Seriously, I never thought I would find one at the first place I looked. It's a simple thing but a huge blessing. It is going to need some touch-up work, so I'll post before-and-after pictures when we get around to painting it.

Those are some of the highlights of the week. I left out the part about a painful spot at the top of my stomach that has been hurting me all week. Actually, it's been going on for a few weeks but has gotten worse this past week and started to alarm me. Then, I read about it on the internet. Still not sure if that's a good idea or not. It can really make you panic. But then, there are also times when it's informative and forces you to be more direct about your concerns with your doctor when he may otherwise be pretty laid-back about something. So I don't know what's best. Phone communication issues with a nurse's assistant this week left me feeling frustrated in conveying my concern, so I'm waiting until my next appointment on Monday to address it with him specifically. We'll see if it's something that warrants real concern. It probably isn't. Last Sunday, I had pretty much self-diagnosed a hernia! Now, I don't think that's it. I don't think it's anything serious. But here's my question....if all of the hernia information out there says that pregnancy is one of the top leading causes for hernias, then why don't any of the pregnancy books or resources talk about hernias in pregnancy?! It confuses me. But anyway...I'm way less dramatic about it than I was a week ago. I realize I don't have a medical degree, so I'm trying to be a little more relaxed about figuring out what's causing this pain. But I'm ready for my appointment on Monday, just to see what the doctor says it could be. This little girl does move around a whole lot. I thought Jonah was active in the womb. I really did. But Parker has him beat, big-time. She does not stop rolling and flipping and leaping. Yes, I believe she leaps. =) She is a busy girl in there. Not sure what's in store for me when she's actually outside of my uterus. We could have our hands full!

1 comments:

Courtney said...

if she is anything like creighton you will...she is nothing like anything i have ever seen! i thought about shippping her off somewhere today...do they do 16 month old boarding schools? :) just kidding...but yeah, girls...they are A HUGE HANDFUL, maybe I shouldn't say girls in general, but MY GIRL...man on man, she'll keep me on my knees and my toes! :) (at the same time)