5 Months Old!

5 months old!

 4 months

3 months

2 months

 1 month

 2 weeks old

Dear Elliot,

Happy 5 months, big boy! You are at such a delightful stage right now.

In recent news:

- You are just as mellow and cheerful and pleasant a baby as can be. As long as you can see what's going on (particularly if it involves two very active big brothers), you generally kick and coo and bounce very contentedly!

- We have fallen into a lovely rhythm of days. You get up between 7-8am, and we snuggled for a while, get a new diaper, say hi to the brothers and Daddy, and maybe do some tummy time. Around 8:30am, all of us (except Dad) normally head out for a walk/bike ride around the park. We head home around 9:15am and I feed you and put you down for a long morning snooze. The big boys play for a while, do some household chores, and do school. Then I normally put together a picnic lunch, and we are all ready to head out when you wake up (or I wake you up) around 11:30am. We romp at a park or something, eat lunch, and then head home to get down for snoozes around 1:30pm. Everybody (normally) sleeps until 3:45 or 4pm, and then we have some playtime, get supper ready, and wait for Daddy to get home. Then 7:15pm you have a long evening meal and pop into bed for the night. One or two middle-of-the-night feedings wraps things up until the new morning comes. I feel like the Lord has given us such a nice season right now, and I'm savoring it.

- You kick your feet down on your pack-and-play very forcefully when you wake up or stir in your sleep. It can be rather startling for anyone hanging around who isn't used to you.

- When you wake up in the morning, you normally coo and croon and give great big beaming smiles to anyone who comes in to see you. I love that.

- You are loving the exersaucer right now! Your big brothers normally keep you faithfully supplied with rattles or rings or other toys, and you bounce and swing around very happily (unless you're tired, in which case you need Momma to come and snuggle you in order to be content).

- You are the best snuggle bug. I just love picking you up from your crib and having you curl into my shoulder and grab fistfuls of my hair or wrap your little fingers around one of my fingers. And your cheeks are wonderfully kissable.

- You're creeping toward 20 lbs, so I get a good workout. I still normally carry you in my arms for our morning walks, and I like to take you in the K'Tan for longer walks to Galaxie and back or at church. You are decently content in the stroller, but normally prefer to be carried. But it's a beast to haul you in your carseat unless we are going only a very short distance.

- You now enjoy bathtime (it's a challenge though cleaning all of the deep crevices in your neck and legs).

- Your brothers delight in you, and you delight in them! I love to watch their energetic entertainment of you, and they are normally quite careful not to be too rough (at least one of them is).

- You love Daddy! When he walks in the door, you just beam with delight!

You are our precious Chunker Monker, and we love you to pieces and pray that God's Spirit will fill you and shape your joyful spirit to delight in the things of Christ and hold fast to him all the days of your life.

We love you, little pickle!

Momma

18 pounds 13 ounces

... of sweet handsome baby chubs! (As of Monday...)

Mr. Chunker Monker.

Celebrating

Me, being spoiled rotten:

 

At Cheesecake Factory

Side-by-side with my sweetheart, just the right way to end the day!

On Turning 35

Today, 10 years ago, was the first Sunday of the new South Site of Bethlehem. What a day, full of joyful, exhausting, exhilarating hard work!

It was the beginning of a long, hard, sweet era of South Sundays (incidentally also the beginning of manning the South Info Booth, whence along came a man named Ben, causing Karin Livingston to probe a few months later, "Amy, does Ben Katterson like you?" ... but that's another story).

Then, it was the day before I turned 25.

Today, it is the day before I turn 35.

And what do I have to say about that? (Asked no one, but I'll share anyway!)

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.--Ephesians 3:20-21

That's a pretty good summary of how I feel. The road that brought me here has been full of so many gifts, so much kindness. Long days, sleepless nights (didn't know much about those before kids!), loneliness, sweet friendship, painful conflict, encouraging conversations, deep loss, precious gifts ... God's provision has been constantly beyond expectation.

 The LORD God is a sun and shield. The LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.--Psalm 46:10

I really don't have much to say about why I'm at this blessed place in life. I didn't earn it. I didn't build it. Haven't figured it all out. As for being somebody who "walks uprightly," that's all a crazy gift too. God has covered over my sinful, selfish heart with the blood of His perfect Son, and He has given me a new love for His way. And then on top of it, He's given a boatload of other sweet gifts.

Creative, goofy, hard-working, sacrificial, Jesus-loving husband.
Three bubbly, bright, joyful, energetic, wiggly little boys, and a baby with Jesus.
Seminary life, ministry opportunities, the body of Christ.
Kind, long-lasting friendships and new connections.
Extended family that I love being with.
Mind-stretching work (some of which I am paid for) and lots of satisfying responsibilities.

Praise to the Lord, who o’er all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen how thy desires e’er have been
Granted in what He ordaineth? 

So today is full of reflections of gratitude. And tomorrow?

Well, tomorrow is held in the hands of the same great Keeper and King, so whatever it holds is yet another gift.

Thank You, Lord.

 Even to your old age I will be the same, and even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; and I will bear you and I will deliver you.--Isaiah 46:4

Video Catch Up

In no particular order, videos:

Tiny Baby Elliot


Josiah Running


Playing Outside (this is from a while ago, because Victor is still on the Strider here!)


Josiah Laughing


Boys in the Rain

A P.S. to the Last Post

A few more things really need to be said, regarding that last post.

What this doesn't mean.

It doesn't mean that you should never take a break, because if you're not down to "two pennies' worth of strength" you're not really loving Jesus. There have been more than a few times that I have known, in my conscience, that I would be disobeying a "still, small voice" if I tried to get a few more things done instead of taking a nap.

There are times when doing one more thing is an act of pride, and not an act of love. We are not limitless. We are not the Indispensable One. We are not God.

As His very limited creatures, we reach a place (at least every day, usually!) where we honor God's design by resting, taking a break, letting go of our desire to do all and be all.

There are times when it is not love to do something yourself, when you could share the burden with another. Maybe the sense of being overwhelmed and exhausted is actually an opportunity to teach your children the importance of "pitching in" for the needs of the family or explaining to your spouse an area where you feel over your head so that you can dream up a life-giving way to deal with it together. Maybe it is a season when you need the grace of the Body of Christ to come near, to be vulnerable enough to ask for help from outside of your own home. It is not easy to be at a place of weakness, but very real grace comes when we allow others to be hands and feet of God's love to us.

There are times when it is not good, not wise, not real love to spend yourself to the point of exhaustion over things that are not essential, when it's better to let the mountain of laundry sit for one more day and take those minutes to be still, refresh your heart, and find joy in remembering all that your limitless Savior is for you.

That widow worshiped Jesus by giving her last two pennies. Mary worshiped Jesus by sitting at His feet to listen (and it was Martha who was corrected for missing "the good part.").

Sometimes life gets reaches those swells of need that threaten to swamp the boat. During the storm, I hope that you will be buoyed in your hope by the knowledge that God receives your worship in giving your "last two cents' worth" of strength.

But for most of us, most of the time, we also worship Jesus through stepping back, sharing our load, quieting our heart, taking a break, and resting in the goodness of our great giving God.

Your Last 2 Pennies

And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw a poor widow putting in two small copper coins. And He said, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; for they all out of their surplus put into the offering, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on." Luke 21:1-4

We admire this widow, don't we? To be "caught" (by Jesus) in the act of such sweet, unself-conscious worship of the Almighty God, to so trust in the Faithful Creator that we wouldn't cling to our last two coins but tuck them secretly in the offering plate and leave all our future to His care ... that would be a gracious thing indeed.

When it comes down to our own lives, we may find it a little hard to relate. Sure, money might be tight, but most of us have more than two coins to rub together. But maybe we can glean a lesson from this widow nonetheless.

There are days when you do feel, quite literally, like you are down to your last two pennies' worth of energy. Or patience. Or stamina. Or strength.

Days when the baby cries, the toddler has an accident on the carpet, supper burns, your jeans rip, siblings squabble, and your beloved husband totally misses the cue that you need help. You feel like you're drowning in a sea of need with no lifeboats in sight.

Months--maybe years--when you never sleep through a night uninterrupted.
Not just a pile, but mountain ranges of laundry, unfolded and unsorted.
Dishes from breakfast crowding out the crusts left from lunch where you are trying to make supper.

Mommy, I need to be wiped.
Mommy, I want a cup of juice.
Mommy, I lost my boot at the park.
Mommy, my science project is due tomorrow.
Mommy, please braid my hair.
Mommy, can you give me a ride to the party?
Mommy, the dog just puked.
Mommy, he broke my toy.
Mommy, where is my backpack?
Mommy, I don't like this food.

Days of fog and fatigue that threaten to crush out your last ounce of cheer with the sheer mountain of work that lies around you.

What do you do, when you're down to your last two cents' worth of energy, and one more crisis comes? You want to scream, "Have mercy! Doesn't anyone here care that I haven't showered in a week, haven't eaten breakfast or lunch, can't find matching socks for any member of this family, and have a splitting headache?" You have only one set of hands to meet all the avalanche of need that keeps rolling over you. You've been pressed down, wrung out, and hung to dry, and you feel like you have simply nothing left to give.

Nothing but two tiny pennies' worth of care.

This is the time, sweet friend, when you may offer a gift of immeasurable worth. When you trust that God will somehow see, somehow supply, somehow sustain you after you pour out your last two cents' worth of strength--that is an offering that Jesus sees and receives.

When you give "all that you have to live on," it is there that you find He is watching. He cares, and He counts those two pennies' poured out as very great indeed.

P.S. But read this too... 

Incidentally, I didn't write this because I'm feeling down to my last two pennies. When I showed it to Ben before posting, he said, "Oh, are you feeling overwhelmed?" And I'm not, right now. I've been there. But this has been a sweet season of largely refreshment and peace.