looking like Christmas

This is what we have been busy with this past weekend...

Putting up with tree, with a great deal of help from the two older kids.

A little late in the game, but we decided last year to start getting a special ornament for each of them each year. J was happy to see his car, and E to see her little puppy, that they had picked out at Target last year!

The sight of the presents under the tree is driving Miss E slightly insane though. She CANNOT resist their siren call. Yesterday morning, J tattled on her - she was quietly peeling the wrapper off a little present. I decided that we needed a distraction, and so was obsessed with finding an Advent calendar all day yesterday.

It was not to be, so I decided to make my own.

The kids will get to open up a little package each day - and will each receive a small treat. I've written down a bible verse in each little packet that, all together, tells the story of Jesus' birth. I have grand plans that we'll read it together just before they enjoy their treats - we'll have to see how that goes.

My last project - our family wall.

The idea was conceived while we were still in Claremont: partly executed there, when I bought the prints off Etsy (two of the prints read: love lives here and you are my sunshine). And then finished off with our photos earlier this month. It's taken me almost a month to get them printed, find mattes for them, framed, and then arranged on the wall.
And there's still room for photos to be put around what we have now.

I am off to lie down now.

thanksgiving

A good time as any to count my blessings today, so here goes...

I am thankful for my husband, because he loves me and is always so patient with me.

I am thankful for coffee, because it makes me happy, after a night of interrupted sleep.

I am thankful for interrupted sleep, because it means my kids still need me.

I am thankful for tired legs and an aching back, because it means we spent a busy (and happy!) day out with the kids.

I am thankful for a noisy home, because it means that my kids are home.

I am thankful for funny moments throughout the day, because they make the hard parts of parenting seem a little easier.

I am thankful for good health, because it is not so fun having sick (and whiny) kids.

I am thankful for the hard lessons God keeps bringing my way; if I learn, I grow.

I am thankful for grace.

I am thankful for the long hours that K has to work, because it means we are still taken care of even though Singapore is in a technical recession.

I am thankful for difficult relationships, because it means God is calling me to live beyond myself.

I am thankful for naps.

Happy Thanksgiving!

fear

If you make the Most High your dwelling--
even the LORD, who is my refuge--
then no harm will befall you,

no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread upon the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
"Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life will I satisfy him
and show him my salvation.

Psalm 91:9-16

Two Saturdays ago, K pointed something out to me that I had not thought about before. Noah's CMV makes it a little tricky if I should get pregnant again. The worst time to get CMV really is when you're pregnant, because you'd pass it on to the foetus, and the virus could affect its physical development. Because we're pretty sure Noah caught the virus in utero, we were, just weeks ago, quite worried about how his development would be affected.

My hands are full right now with the three kids, and we are not planning to get pregnant. But that conversation with K, when we talked about not getting pregnant anymore made me sad. Just because we felt we had to close that option off.

The next day, something in me rallied. I thought, living in fear is no way to live. And the sermon we listened to that Sunday was on Psalm 91. What I heard: Do not fear.

We were fearful of how the virus would affect us. But God reminded us that He has our back. He always had it. He brought Noah into our lives. And this may be it for us - three kids is plenty! But if He does give us more, fully healthy or not, it will be His plan for us, for our family.

Sunday

Sunday