Growing up so fast...

My husband leads a children's program during the adult Bible study on Wednesday evenings at our church. A few weeks ago, he decided to allow the 3 1/2 yr. olds to come out of the nursery to join the kids in class. So Madison and two other little girls got to join the older kids for singing, games, candy and a lesson.

Usually, our church nursery keeps children until they turn 4 but we like to show blatant favoritism toward our daughter and her friends.

Okay, actually our nursery is so full (the pastor's kids keep having kids like its going out of style) so to help the nursery workers, we took away the three oldest.

I think Maddie might have had a good time. What do you think?

Being that it was her Daddy goofing around and leading the songs, Maddie was the most comfortable. I think the other girls are enjoying junior church as well, though. Isn't this one a cutie? She's a sweetheart, too.

And they each did a good job sitting still for the lesson, too.

Each week, the children in junior church are asked if they read their Bible, or had someone read it to them, every single day that week. If so, they get a mini candy bar. If they read every day for a whole month, they get an ice cream sandwich. And at the end of the year, we take those who read for 8 or more months out for pizza.

Maddie has totally latched onto this concept. In the past, she has shown interest in reading her mini Bible or reading with either Seth or myself when we are reading our own Bibles. It's never been a consistent every day occurrence, though. But for two weeks now, she has asked to have her little Bible read to her every single day. It's all in the name of candy but I'm still glad. I have been reading Psalm 1 to her every day in hopes that she might unintentionally memorize some of it.

Sunday morning, she curled up on the couch next to her Daddy, opened her Bible and very seriously stared at the pages as if she was reading just as he was. He asked her to tell him about what he is reading. From the bathroom where I was doing my hair, I hear her tell this nice little story:

"Once upon a time, there was a garden. And in the garden, God put a man named Seth. And then He put a lady named Kayte. Then God put a Grandma and a Grandpa and they were Seth's parents."

Then Maddie came and sat on the toilet lid while I finished getting ready for church. Again, she opened up her Bible so I asked her to tell me about what she was reading, hoping for another nice story. What I got was:

"Once upon a time there was a lady named Kayte. And she wasn't a very good Christian."

Gee, thanks! =P

I don't know where kids come up with the things they say! LOL

Another example of such baffling moments was yesterday. I handed Maddie a stack of her folded clothes to put in her drawer. I knew she wasn't particularly in the "let's be Mommy's helper" mood but laundry doesn't wait for us to be in the right mood for it, ya know! So I instructed her to put it away. As she turned to do so, she quite emphatically said:

"I have to do ALL the work around here!!!!"

Um... excuse me? It's funny now but I assure you that it was NOT funny at the moment and we had us a "talkin' " about it!! ;) After dealing with the bad attitude she had displayed, I had to ask myself two questions:

1. When did my 3 yr. old turn into a 15 yr. old?

2. Have I ever said such a statement myself? Honestly, I really don't think I have. Thought it maybe, but we've already addressed the fact that I'm not a very good Christian. But I've never said it out loud.

*sigh* Someone please leave a comment assuring me that this happens, and that she will grow up to be nice sweet girl who says only lovely things to her aging mother as she rocks in a nursing home someday.

Love,

If you are craving chocolate milk....

...please come and visit my restroom!

Wait... something about that statement sounds weird.

What I am meaning to say is that although this paint color is called "Lindhurst Timber", we have decided to re-name it "Chocolate Milk". It just suits it perfectly. This is only one coat, and I'm sure its too dark for some people but... I actually really like it! Yeah! I was SOOOOOO close to going with a much darker shade but at the very last second went with this one, the lighter of the two I was debating between. It dried so much darker than the sample seemed! I'm very glad I did NOT get the darker one!

Then this post would be called, "If you are feeling suicidal, please don't visit my bathroom because it will push you over the edge!"

I think I am suffering from a case of severely warped humor. It runs in my family; I can't help it.

Anyway, what do you think?



And yes, we are considering putting a toilet, and even a vanity in here. Some day.

The vinyl floor should be put down soon, and it has lots of warm brown and tan hues so I think it's going to look nice. To save some money, the vanity is white instead of wood finish. And the sink top is a carmel toned "marble-like" material. ;)

If there is any area of carpentry that Seth is lacking in experience and know how, it is mudding dry wall, as he would say himself. But I have to say, he did a fabulous job in the bathroom! I couldn't even see the seams after just one coat of paint.

I couldn't get a decent picture of the ceiling but it is also fabulous. It's white bead board. I love bead board, as you will know without a doubt once the kitchen is done.

Speaking of kitchen, this is the kitchen and dinning room floor at the moment. It's a STICKY situation.

I mean literally: it's STICKY! All that stuff you see is glue. Glue that must be cleaned off before a new vinyl floor can be put down.

We've been meeting a few neighbors as they are out working on lawns and catch us coming or going. So far, the neighbors are elderly folk who are thrilled to have a young family moving in. Hopefully, they are still happy about it after a summer of little girls happily shrieking while they run in the back yard!

Love,

Parenting Philosophies

As I begin writing this post, my mind is a disorganized jumble of thoughts, conviction, verses, and a desire to make it all clear and computable to my mind. Maybe it is the little baby growing in my tummy that somehow has my brain in a fog, or maybe it is simply the enormity of the subject of parenting and the philosophies that govern our parenting. Hopefully by the time I sign "Love, Kayte" we are not all confused and reaching for the "off" button on our computers! ;)

My pastor preached a lesson tonight from the text Titus 2:1-5. It was part two of a two week lesson on the subject of teaching, specifically in the area of parenting. I was serving in the nursery last week so I did not catch for the first half of the lesson but the second half was a huge help and blessing to me. I have had several conversations with my father in law (and pastor) about parenting. I have actually cried (and wished that I hadn't; don't you ever wish you could turn off the "woman" part of your brain that makes you cry when you don't really want to!☺) as we talked about how my generation, including myself, are lacking in some of the basic fundamentals of parenting. The world has infiltrated our philosophies to such an extend that we are void in even just common sense in some fields. Christians mimic worldly methods at every turn, and yet hope for a better result. I have felt discouraged as I have looked inside myself and saw that I had an empty tool box while trying to build godly, wise, prudent children that can lead useful happy lives for the Lord. Tonight, however, I was given some practical help and spiritual encouragement. I suppose to some, a preacher "meddling" with the private affairs of parenting and family life would be bothersome, but I am so hungry for it. I know I need it and I drink it up.

I scribbled down a few notes as pastor spoke tonight, and I think it might be an encouragement to others who are also in the "parenting trenches" and may be needing a boost. Of course, please understand that I took notes as closely as I could, but these are not direct quotes. My father in law can not be held responsible for any incoherent babbling that may follow. ;)

• The most important things I learned in life, I did not learn in school. I learned it home, particularly from my Dad. There is no substitute for a Mom and a Dad as they interact while raising a family.

• II Cor. 12:15 "I will gladly spend and be spent for you..." Parents, you have to literally pour your life into your kids. Spouse, you have pour your life into your spouse.

• All the worldly philosophies that have corrupted our thinking and the way we approach parenting are rooted in selfishness. The second root in laziness.

• I despise terms like "bonding" and "quality time". It's the world's way of making themselves feel better about their neglect. We need quality parents who spend time... lots and lots of time with their children.

• Love is an action. Loving our children is serving them, instructing them, teaching them, helping them. TIME.

• My Dad was always teaching me. This is the way we sweep, this is how to hammer a nail, this is how to fix a toilet, this is what you do with machinery. We never do this, we always do this. How to act, how to walk, what to do. Always teaching me.

Do you know the literal meaning the word "selfish"? The root words translate to mean "self imposed hell". And isn't that so true? Selfish living results in such misery for others, and even more so for ourselves. I am adopting II Cor. 12:15 as my parenting verse. Sometime soon, I am going to create some decorative wall hanging and paint the verse on it to remind me. Until I do that, I am just going to hand write it and post it somewhere I look at often.

Just yesterday, I put the girls to bed quite early at 7:30. I was just too tired to answer any more questions. Get any more sippy cups full. Read any more books. Have any more tea parties. Assist in the potty or change any more diapers. When Seth came home, I told him that I just couldn't take it any more so I put them to bed. We all have bad days, to be sure. But I certainly don't want the "I can't take it any more" attitude to be any more than a rare occurrence. I'm praying for the Lord to change me. Moms are generally not thought of as selfish people. We certainly like to think of ourselves as "givers" and "sacrificers". But truth be told, our sin nature and our personal tendencies do not vanish the moment we give birth. At times, these little people who call us Mom seem to actually accentuate our short comings. At the same time, what greater opportunity does a person have to truly die to self than with the privilege and responsibility of parenting. My pastor, a few years ago, said that he discourages any couple to plan against having any children. He said there is a maturity that comes only with parenthood and though some may never have children for reasons beyond their control, he advises not to plan on being childless in a desire for a career or other pursuit.

Parenting isn't for wimps, they say! I need to pump some figurative iron. Praise the Lord that He doesn't ask us to do this alone!

If any of us lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and unbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

James 1:5

Love,

Hair Designs by Maddie

The girls got their basket of hair clips out this morning. They both were having such fun while Maddie created this lovely do.

Having little girls is a blast!


Love,

12 week ultra sound

Cute, right? ;)

I am super spoiled when it comes to the number of ultra sounds I am given in my pregnancies. When pregnant with Maddie, I literally had 17 or 18 ultra sounds by the time she was born. Basically, the reason for the sky rocketing costs of health care is spoiled rotten mamas like me. ;) I love them!!! If I could, I would have an ultra sound every single day. I just love seeing the little peanuts moving around and their little heart puttering steadily. It's sort of amazing to be able to view this tiny little world contained inside my tummy.

This ultra sound was a level two, which shows more detail, so I went to a city about an hour away to have it performed. We have done this with my past 3 pregnancies so that a special test called a Nuchal Translucency Screen, can be done. In my lay person terms, it's a way of measuring the area in the back of the baby's neck. What they look for is too much fluid or too large of an area.

What I copied from somewhere online:

The NT test uses ultrasound to measure the clear (translucent) space in the tissue at the back of your developing baby's neck. Babies with abnormalities tend to accumulate more fluid at the back of their neck during the first trimester, causing this clear space to be larger than average.

We were sent to see a genetic counsellor after losing our second baby and we also meet with her at this ultra sound appointment. On our first visit over 4 years ago, she took an exteneive family history from both Seth and I, and tested DNA from both of us. Neither of us carried genetic mutations, which was a relief, of course. Since then, we see her once a pregnancy for prenatal tests. Its sort of nice to see the same person, even if just once in each pregnancy, over again. She remembers our history and our girls and is just a super sharp doctor. She reviews the NT screen, and combines it with information gained from blood screens to assess our risk of having another baby with a chromosome abnormality.

The NT looked great, as did other parts of the anatomy. I did the first stage of the blood screen yesterday as well, and will complete the series in a couple of months.

My sister in law, Tara, went with me since Seth couldn't get away from church yesterday. It was fun to have gal pal with me. I think she may never ride with me ever again since I am personally responsible for every "bad woman driver" joke ever told. We also went to lunch and had our cell phones turned off so I call that a GOOD DAY!! =)

Are you wondering why I consent to all the prenatal testing? I just want to state very clearly that we would never ever terminate any pregnancy based on results indicating a deformation. We would never terminate for any reason at all. I'm sure you all knew that but sometimes I think people assume that if you are willing to go through all these tests it means you might be willing to abort based on the results (which by the way, can be incorrect!). I just had to be clear about that.

So why do we do this? Does it mean that we don't trust God with our babies?

I personally don't see it that way. I know many good people who do see prenatal testing as a lack of faith but I must respectfully disagree.

When we were first offered our first prenatal test with our first pregnancy, my first thought was "What does it matter? We want the baby anyway." and I said as much to my midwife. And what she said pretty much sums up the reason I like to have the prenatal screening that is available. She said that the more we know about problems that baby may have in advance the more prepared we can be for their care. The delivery of a special needs baby can be very different than a healthy baby. Special measures can be taken to prevent further problems. Important equipment and staff can be nearby. In our case, we deliver at a small hospital without a neonatal unit. So if we knew of a problem in advance, we could plan to deliver in a more suitable hospital. No air lifting a newborn, no separate hospitals for me and baby, etc.

And aside from being medically prepared, there is emotional, financial and mental preparedness.

My personal rule of thumb for prenatal tests is that anything involving risk to the baby is not an option. So blood tests and ultra sounds: sure. Amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling: no thank you.

Something to keep in mind with the non-invasive tests, which is all that I will consent to, is that they are not 100% accurate. A problem can go undetected, and a problem that isn't actually there can show up in the results. I have had a few friends who have had scary results which had them very concerned for the rest of their pregnancy. In every case, the baby was perfectly healthy. So the risk we take is living with a "bad" test result that may or may not be true. In my opinion, that is the fact that expectant parents have to consider and decide if they can live with.

The particular series that I am doing with this pregnancy (and it is so amazing how things change so much between each pregnancy and mine haven't been more than 2 years apart so far)
combines results form the NT and the two blood screening and between all that will give a 90% rule out of several serious conditions. I am personally okay with that. I understand that there are no guarantees and ultimately God will give us the baby He wants us to have. We love the little peanut just how he or she is.

I hope I haven't been controversial or offensive in this post. I only wanted to explain that agreeing to prenatal testing is not necessarily a matter of trusting God or not. With our living children, if we suspect an illness, do we lack faith if we take them to the doctor to get a diagnosis, and possibly treatment? And just as there is not always a "cure" for birth defects, so many of the illnesses our little ones get don't really have a cure either. We just like to know what the problem is so that we can at least we aware and take whatever action we can take, even if that action is simply a more specific prayer.

Likewise, I completely understand people choosing not undergo prenatal tests. This is not a "right vs. wrong" issue in my mind.

"For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb."

Psalm 139:13

Love,

Other happenings

I have been MIA lately and I hope you understand. No time, no energy, blah blah blah. Yada Yada Yada.

I completely skipped Easter on my blog but we did celebrate and had a wonderful day. Sadly, I left my camera at home. =(

The girls were dressed in their frilly dresses. We had a light breakfast during Sunday School hour at church. Well, it could have been light but I ate like 2 and half muffins so I was pretty stuffed. We enjoyed special music and the congregation sang about Christ's resurrection. Our church was very full with a record breaking attendance of (going by memory here so don't quote me) 113!!!! Praise the Lord!

After church, "Brother Seth", as he called at church, setup a little Easter Egg hunt on the church lawn for any kiddos who wanted to participate. We're not all focused on the Easter Bunny (Maddie is actually terrified of him) but we sure do like candy around here! And it's such a lovely sight to see all the youngsters scampering around the grass in their nice church clothes and beautiful pastel dresses. Eden scored big time. I think she got more candy than Madison!

By Tuesday, Maddie had eaten so much candy (most of which was without permission... grrrrr!) that she actually did not even want any more. That is a first!

My mother in law prepared a massive ham feast. It was also the day before my father in law's birthday, so we celebrated his 60th birthday a bit too.

I have an ultrasound tomorrow, so hopefully I will have a picture to share with you in tomorrow's post.

Love,

Until now...

My entire life, I been baffled and even appalled by the tendency of women to fall into the pattern of keeping themselves "put together" and caring about their appearance only until they secure a man and have the ol' ball and chain firmly in place. Then, after a few years of marriage and a couple of kids, all efforts in the physical appearance category go out the window. I've never understood. Never been tempted to join them in this phenomenon.

Until now.

Now... I totally get it. I'm totally tempted to just "let myself go."

Please don't get too worried. I've haven't... well, I don't think I have at least... at least not completely.

You will not find me at WalMart in my pajamas. I do not attend every church service in the same jean skirt and tennis shoes. But I do wear the same jean skirt and old sandals to WalMart and everywhere else I go. It's just so comfortable, you see.

I remember being a teenager and driving to the dentist with my mom. It was a hot HOT summer day in the desert of Southern California, where I grew up. As we were about to get out of the car and walk into the office together, I casually evaluated my mom's outfit. Shorts and t-shirt that neither matched nor were her size.

"Mom!! What are you wearing!!!???!!!" I gasped in horror.

Someday, I am sure I will be getting out the car with a teenage Madison or Eden and hear something similar. LOL


"Kate, I just don't care. Someday, you'll understand." Suddenly, hundreds of images of my grandma (my mom's mom) wearing Capri pants and t-shirts that really really did not match.... like really did not match.... filled my mind. Was it genetic? I protested to my mom that I would never give in to the family curse of a non-matching but comfortable existence. My mom re-iterated that one day I would understand.


And I do. But not to the extent that I'm planning on leaving my house in a similar ensemble.


Just know that although I am wearing the same the jean skirt into the ground, I'm trying really hard to not let myself go. But some days, brushing my teeth is all the beauty routine I am motivated to do! When I took the time to remove the 4 month old nail polish from my toe nails and actually put a file to my finger nails, I felt like we should have celebrated with a date. Too bad Seth was working. (And I doubt he would have seen my reasoning.) I haven't trimmed my hair since Christmas and seriously need to. But I've been using any babysitters I have for doctor's appointments or working on the house. So, anyone offering to watch my little darlings (please ignore any posts I have ever posted about their sin natures) in the name of saving me from about an inch of split ends? ;)



The good news, I still shellac this face with makeup every day. The world can not handle a falling away of that necessity. I'm embarrassed to even post this picture of myself.





Love,