New Picture of Knox

Christmas Relaxation Coming Up!!

Back to work—took yesterday off because of my extreme congestion and sore throat. Decided this morning that I may as well be miserable at work as well as at home—Hunny and the Knoxster are feeling better than I am. Yesterday, I put thru 4 loads of laundry and folded them, took a nap and wrapped presents while watching Oprah, waxed the kitchen floor, then went to bed earlier than usual. I used up a bunch of wrapping paper and may have to hit the after Christmas sales this year.
We have done all our Christmas shopping and most of the grocery shopping for the month of December, and I think I will send my Hunny to Walmart and Sam’s Club to get the 6 things on my grocery list for this week.. (sneaky, huh!!) I will have to go to the grocery store before Christmas, but will try to go very late or very early. I love Christmas but I hate the crowds of people, rudely butting in line in front of me and the very crowded parking lots and the wind and rain and cold. Plus, getting the baby in and out of the car seat in the cold and rain and wind…You get the picture. I get really grouchy…So, this way, I can sip a cup of coffee, listen to one of our many Christmas CD’s, and play with the baby…and enjoy!!

My Christmas To Do list:
--finish wrapping 6 presents
--have Hunny take them to the post office to ship and get stamps
--get the Christmas letter printed
--get the address book found so Hunny can get the cards ready to mail
--put up the tree and a few more decorations
--make some cookies and fudge
Thats all, folks!! Ain't it great?

Some more Knoxster updates for those who want to know:
Sunday evening, Grandpa was on the phone talking with Knox and I said, “Say, Hi Grandpa!!” And he said, “Ah, Gu Gu!!” Of course, Grandpa went crowing to Grandma… (LOL)
The Knoxster is also on the verge of rolling over from his tummy to back—we hold our breath while we watch him teeter on the edge of the abyss….
Also, he loves watching football on TV—he sits there on Daddy’s lap, leaning forward, with his eyes bugged out and mouth open, drooling—(somewhat reminiscent of young Mennonite kids who are forbidden to watch TV—personal experience here) LOL

Thanks, Lord, for....

Family and friends.
...our first son Knox...a wonderful husband...good family relationships...
Material blessings.
...food on the table and in the pantry...a roof over our heads...a car that runs well...all the baby items that we were given or were about to get at yard sales...a good job...
Spiritual Blessings.
...a wonderful church family...God-given contentment with life...a hunger for the truth...a desire to know the heart of God...
Health.
...full recoverery from the C-section...that Knox has so far been healthy...that my Dad is getting his diabetes under control...
Accomplishments.
...Shawn has finished a year of college...
Country.
...that we are still allowed freedom of religion in this country...everything that our country stands for...our military--working hard for the freedom of others...

Happy Thanksgiving!!

MAY YOUR STUFFING BE TASTY, MAY YOUR TURKEY BE PLUMP.
MAY YOUR POTATOES 'N GRAVY HAVE NARY A LUMP,
MAY YOUR YAMS BE DELICIOUS,
MAY YOUR PIES TAKE THE PRIZE,
MAY YOUR THANKSGIVING DINNER
STAY OFF OF YOUR THIGHS.
Happy Thanksgiving!

HI HO HI HO, ITS OFF TO ROCK HILL WE GO

Highlights from our adventures last week:

We went. We shopped. We conquered.

Knox and I enjoyed our visit to my sisters. I hope they had as good of a time as we did. We canned lots of potatoes and potato soup mix. The whole house smelled like taters.

I got to go Christmas shopping and otherwise shopping in Rock Hill and then at the outlet mall in Gaffney on the way home. I procured a nifty pasta machine and some new clothes among other things. I could hardly believe I got into a size 12. Sis and I spent Saturday morning “sailing our yards”. I got some nice winter clothes for the Knoxster. I found a toy octopus (Discovery Toys)for Knox for a quarter. It has a bell in its head, a crinkly red ruffle around its neck, and various chenille, polka dotted, and striped tentacles. Knox loves it, especially hearing the crinkles. He has been playing “boxer” with it---pow, pow, kick….I hung it on his car seat and heard crinkles all the way home. It is named Mrs. Magoo---ah-goo for short.

Knox got the chance to bond with Auntie Mary Ann and Uncle Andy. We believe that he loves the sound of “Uncle Andy!!” It always makes him grin when we say it.

Knox does not like his new beautiful blue and tan striped hat with ear flaps, a chin strap and a pom-pom on top. He whines loudly when we put it on and actually threw a temper tantrum at the outlet mall. Imagine!! Oh well, I’m a hard-hearted mother and can’t hear screaming (no one else could hear either) LOL…the hat stays. (for obvious motherly reasons)

Hunny spent his time in Atlanta at the Southern Regional Model United Nations convention passing faux resolutions about nuclear weapons and such. He got very little sleep.

A rhetorical question: What is the deal with Honda Civics in the fast last on I-85 vrooming around me at alarming rates of speed, and cutting in front of me without signals??? I’ve never been the slowest of drivers, as evidenced by several speeding tickets that are no longer on my DMV driving record, but, goodness…

We are all glad to be back to our cozy little nest at least for a little while.

...all the news that isn't....

The Knoxster is finally feeling better. I am happy.

We are getting ready for a big weekend. Hunny is leaving Thursday morning for Atlanta for a model UN convention and I am heading to Rock Hill to see my sister for a couple of days. In case you are wondering, I do not know if the convention has any purpose other than educational…I really doubt it. Hunny has to dress up in business attire for 3 days (think suit and tie) and eat from a cooler at the Marriott hotel. The convention runs from 7 am until midnight-ish. They won’t have time to run to restaurants to eat and the hotel provides food at a high price, plus he wasn’t sure he would like any of it. So I am getting a cooler ready for him: sodas, snacks, sandwich fixins’, fruit, and a few breakfast items. They will get dinner provided 2 nights.

On Thursday, Mary Ann and I plan to process 50 pounds of taters, and some carrots and celery into home canned potato soup mix. I hope to do some Christmas shopping on Friday since they live so close to Target and other stores. Saturday, I want to leave for home in enough time to stop at the outlet mall and then do grocery shopping before picking Hunny back up at 9 pm.

So I have to get everything ready:
House cleaned
Cat food dispenser filled
Laundry finished
Bags packed for Hunny, me and the Knoxster
Diaper bag filled
Car cleaned
Cooler packed
Canning supplies, jars and pressure canner located
Stroller
Carry seat
Bills paid that are due this week
Trash taken to the dump
Trip to the bank
Trip to Walmart and Bilo for last minute items

Then the car will have to be packed up. I enjoy coming home to a clean house. I have learned to leave extra time for straightening up before we leave. Its just easier in the long run…then I can enjoy my time away. Anyway, Hunny will help me with a bunch of this, at least some of the grunt work. He’s so good about that.

And thus endeth the week(eth)…

Knox is finishing up his first week in daycare and I must say that so far I am happy with the place. Obviously, my first choice is to stay home with him, but with Hunny in college full time plus, it wouldn’t be fair to him to make him work full time and go to school full time, so working is my contribution to the family coffers. (just an FYI for those of you who have persuasions on either side--both for and against women working out of the home) I really don't want to live out of the car and eat beenie-weenies.
Good things:
1. He gets his diaper checked/changed on the hour.
2. They write down when he naps and how much he eats.
3. They do exercises with him, sing and read stories to him
4. Only 4-5 kids in the room.
5. The Director told me this morning that he is “such a good baby” and wanted to know if there was anything that we wanted done differently.
6. Everything seems calm and happy—anytime Hunny picks him up (at different times each day).
7. He gets held a lot.
8. This won’t be forever.

The Knoxster is trying to stay up all day in order not to miss anything going on at school. Some days he only sleeps 2 ½ hours during the day in catnaps. I’ve never known a 3 month old to do that. I’m hoping that this is only a phase. Although Hunny just picked him up and they said he slept all day…I don’t think he is feeling the greatest and he did have some Tylenol last night.
Knox has weak sinuses like his parents, evidently. The weather this week has been up to 81 degrees and then down in the 30’s. He has a runny nose and is “snuffling”… Hunny’s had sinus headaches all week and I have had sneezing and tiredness. I’ll be happy when the weather finally decides that it is actually November. Although the nice weather has been a bonus!!

An oh by the way, for the proud grandparents and aunties and unkies out in blogger world: Knox has started laughing!!! (It’s the cutest thing—wish ya’ll were here!!)

Saga of the Weekend

Dear Readers,

Grandma left this weekend for NY. We are gong to miss her terribly. She was such a big help. Knox quickly grew to love her. We took her to GSP on Saturday morning to catch her flight to Buffalo, and then stopped at our friend Christine’s new dog grooming shop, Bubbles and Biscuits. It is a great little store and she does a super job of grooming. She also has do-it-yourself dog bathtubs. Great for those of us who hate the mess at home!!

We stopped at Sams Club on the way home to get the rest of the groceries. While there, my abdomen really started hurting worse ( I had been complaining about it for a couple of days). Well, my Hunny decided that I needed to see a doctor ASAP to be sure that it was not an appendicitis. So we ended up at an Urgent Care facility on the way home. They probably thought I was looney-tunes…but Shawn insisted.
So I filled out pages of paperwork.
So we did the blood stick.
And the pee test.
And then I headed down to the x-ray room. I stripped to my underwear, got my chin up on the x-ray thingie and got one x-ray taken, when there was a loud, banging on the door. It was the nurse.
Stop taking x-rays!!! She’s pregnant!!! (no bedside manners here)
Oh, by the way, congratulations!
So after picking up my jaw from the floor, I headed back to the bathroom to put my clothes back on. I am furiously counting, thinking How could THIS have happened? (yes, I know about the birds and the bees, thank you very much)
I had gotten half of my clothes back on when there was another loud knock on the door. It was the nurse again.
I’m thinking…what is it, twins, triplets?
She says, “I’m sorry, I put the stick in backward. You’re not pregnant, take your clothes off again and finish the x-rays.”
Long story short, no appendicitis, thank God. Tests were inconclusive, but the doctor did say that it could be the start of a “smoldering appendix”. (and I still have localized pain in the lower right quadrant of the abdomen. We will be keeping an eye on that.) And no, I did not have a heart attack, although I nearly passed out on that nurse!!

The rest of the weekend was uneventful.

That was a good thing.

boy+training+discipline+lots of love=Godly man

I’ve been thinking about child rearing and ya’ll know how new I am at this…..but a logical point of view is figuring out what the end product should be and working back. (my logic anyway) What can I do as the mom?-- in the end, it’s a personal choice to serve God and daily live for him. What can I do to facilitate a tender heart towards God and others? I’ve heard the studies that less than 2 % of people accept the Lord after age 18. I’ve mused over the Jewish tradition of boys becoming men at age 13. I’ve read studies and websites that say that a child’s general disposition and temperament is almost completely locked in by age 5. Yikes!! I’ve got less than five years to work with him. We pray every day that Knox will grow up to be a man of God, not a man who breaks God’s heart, but a man that is gentle, loving, easy to communicate with….one who stands strong, not blown around “by every wind of doctrine”….

I’m reading To Train Up a Child by Michael and Debi Pearl at the moment. I have been getting their free little magazine No Greater Joy since we got married. I had been reading about the controversy over some of their religious beliefs/child-rearing techniques, so I thought I would check it out for myself. To start with, yes, I disagree with some of their doctrines. However, so far, I tend to agree with him on a lot of issues. Possibly, he over-simplifies some things, and I could see how a person could take one of his examples and run with it, i.e. training children is the same as training dogs. But that was not his point at all. The point is that if animals can be trained, then we should expect that much more from our kids, who have human intellect (not that of a dog or rat or mice). Young kids do not have the reasoning capabilities of an adult. That is why they have parents, who train them to know the truth so that they can reason and make dicisions for themselves. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the book.

I have not read Growing Kid’s Gods Way, just glanced at it—so I won't comment.
Of the secular books I have read, i.e. What to Expect…they are good with medical advise and timelines of what kids should be achieving by a certain age. However, I think kids understand things much earlier than we give them credit for. (Isn’t this where training comes in?)

The truth is, after teaching school and being a nanny, there are a few things that I have learned.

Be consistent. Consistency is a huge key. Start as you want to finish. This is a flaw of human nature that all of us have trouble with. This is a life lesson that we all need to learn as soon as possible.

Teach following the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law. I had students that would “know better”. Just because Teacher or Mom didn’t specifically say it today, doesn’t mean that the rule is invalid again until she says so. (I can play on the road today because Mom didn’t tell me today to not go on the road.)

Don’t under-estimate the ability of a child. Don’t we all “rise to the occasion”? Sometimes things are a stretch for us, but if we set a goal, we can eventually reach it. Example, a first grader is far too incompetent to learn multiplication. It is far above their grasp. Well, I went to a small school and I learned some of the multiplication tables before I ever fully understood subtraction. I heard the older kids reciting and practicing them. Kids can memorize long passages of Scripture and poetry easier than adults. Kids are not dumb….lets not “dumb them down” and just expect that they are too little to do or understand.

There is a difference between children doing something wrong on purpose (commonly called rebellion) and children just being children because they haven’t yet learned that something is wrong or will hurt them, or will make a big mess for Mom to clean up. Kids knock over glasses of water at the dinner table sometimes because their eye-hand coordination is not developed yet. Yelling at the child doesn’t help. Training would involve teaching them how to clean it up and where not to put the glass---on the edge of the table.

Kids are human and have feelings and ideas too. As a kid, I felt like adults were not always interested in what I had to say. Even if a kid is dead wrong, he does deserve to be listened to, not shot down cruelly by an adult with “better” ideas.

These are just some of my observations, not a complete list. As I said before, I am new at raising kids. I don’t profess to know all the answers, I just know what I want to end up with—a Godly man. Your observations/corrections are welcome…email me or post on this blog.

Heart breaking news

We received such sad news yesterday. My dad called about 11pm and told us that my cousin Jeff and his 5 kids were in a bad head-on accident near Spokane, Washington, where thy live. Jeff is in the hospital (upgraded to serious condition) and the kids were all killed. I could hardly sleep last night for crying. In my wildest imaginations, I cannot even fathom the pain and sorrow that his wife Carolyn is facing right now.

I just wanted to stay home from work today and hold my baby tight. As my friend Arlene said on her blog, take the time with those you love and treasure every moment.