8 Years Old!

8 years old!

 7 years old

 6 years old

5 years old

4 years old

3 years old

2 years old

18 months

One year old

11 months

10 months

9 months

 
8 months

7 months

6 months

5 months old

4 months old

3 months old

2 months old

1 month old

2 weeks old

And now...

Dear Victor,

Happy birthday, my fine fellow! We celebrated your 8th birthday with a family dinner and game night with the Lees and McConnells (and a jolly time of competition, strategy, and ice cream sundaes it was!).

You have grown and matured so much in the past year, and I am so thankful for the signs of God's hand at work in your life, giving you increased sensitivity to others, responsibility and leadership at home, and growth in understanding and making connections with God's Word.

You're in 2nd grade this year, and we transitioned to a new homeschool co-op and curriculum for school. You have done very well in Classical Conversations, quickly picking up the memory work (much faster than I have!) and enjoying the science activities and art projects. It is an extra sweet blessing to have good friends at school, and I'm so thankful for God's provision of friends. A very specific answer to prayer.

You start the day reading, sometimes in bed and sometimes on the couch with Dad. I love when I come out and see you reading through The Action Bible next to Daddy doing his own Bible study. It is one of my special prayer requests for you that God will give you a desire and practice of daily spending time with God in His Word.

You are a huge help to me. Whether it's laundry, putting away silverware, helping a brother with school work, getting Calvin up from a nap, or cleaning up the family room, you are a hard worker and extremely capable serving the family. I'm so thankful for your help! Even more, you are growing in discernment. You are able to see when something unwise is happening, and you often will encourage your brothers to stop something that is not good. You work hard to get your schoolwork done before listening to an audiobook in the afternoon. You have shown diligence and industry. I pray the Lord will continue giving you a heart to do all that you do as though working for Him and not people.

You still enjoy children's choir (you moved up a level this year!), and you encouraged Josiah as he began choir as well. I love hearing you sing and help to lead the church in worship. May God send those words deep into your own heart and make them a true reverberation of the worship and faith that resides there.

You love being with friends ... at home and small group, playing tag, soccer, board games, or Wild Kratts; at school, learning or playing in the gym; or at church, hanging out in the hallway or going to class together. You are a definite extrovert, getting super fueled up with time with others! And you are a good help in hospitality, always excited to have people into our home, whether neighbors, family, middle schoolers, or church friends.

We entered a new decade a week ago, and it amazes me to think about how different our lives are now. One of the hugest transitions of this past season was when God gave us you and we started our journey as parents. I am so grateful that He entrusted you to us, and I am immeasurably thankful that He is the One who has all your days written in His book, that He is your perfect Father, that He is working in your life, giving you a taste of His goodness in the Word and in the church, and that He will hold you in His hands through every day that comes.

I am working through Galatians right now, daily hearing the refrain, "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).

My Victor, you are an exceptional boy, very bright, very focused, very gifted. But it is of greatest importance that you never find your identity in what you can offer to God. Never start leaning on what you hope to contribute to your own righteousness. Our only source of life, forgiveness, and hope is in Jesus. He is the Perfect One, who kept every precept and statute of God's law. He is the Lamb of God, who laid down His life to cover over the stain of our sin. He is the source of our new life, His own Spirit the resource that produces change and real holiness within. May Jesus be your hope and joy all the days of your life. Oh, what a treasure He is!

I love you, sweet son,
Momma

Victor (1.8.20) 8 years old

1.      What is your favorite color? Blue

2.      What is your favorite toy? Wild Kratts discs

3.      What is your favorite fruit? Pear

4.      What is your favorite video to watch? Wild Kratts

5.      What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Macaroni and cheese

6.      What is your favorite thing to wear? Nothing particular

7.      What is your favorite game? Sleeping Queens

8.      What is your favorite snack? Pretzels

9.      What is your favorite animal? Peregrine falcon

10.   What is your favorite song? Hark the Harold Angels Sing and Angels We Have Heard on High

11.   What is your favorite verse? Joshua 1:9

12.   What is your favorite book? Boxcar Children

13.   Who is your best friend? The Lees

14.   What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play tag

15.   What is your favorite drink? Root beer

16.   What do you like to sleep with at night? Duck

17.   What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Apple cider donuts

18.   What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Spaghetti and meatballs

19.   What do you want to be when you grow up? Artist

20.   What was one of your favorite things that you did this year? Go camping with small group

21.   What is your favorite place to go? Grammy and Grandad’s house

Christmas Card for the Rest of You

Front: 

Merry Christmas from the Kattersons!

Life in 2019:

• Ben confirmed as Middle School Director at Bethlehem’s North Campus and taught at Jr High Summer Camp 2019 on the life of Joseph. 
• Amy had a few opportunities to teach in Bethlehem’s North Women’s Bible study on the gospel of John. 
• The “Summer of the Falling Tree” (4 big ones down, including one on our house and one on the neighbor’s camper…) 
• Transitioned to a new homeschool co-op, where Amy is a tutor of 4- and 5-year-olds. 
•  Boys ages 7, 5, 3, and 1!

Praying that you have unbreakable hope through God’s gift of Jesus, our Savior, Redeemer, and Friend.

And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace… Isaiah 9:6

Back: 

Victor (7) loves homeschool co-op, small group, and anything else that involves friends. He is quick at math, loves to read and listen to audiobooks, and cannot get enough freeze tag in his life.

Josiah (5) is a sensitive, imaginative lover of animals and being with close friends. He loves Wild Kratts, bouncing, and basketball.

Elliot (3) is easy-going, bright, and comical. He sings in his bed, is figuring out his letters, and loves hockey, Oreos, baseball, and reading stories.

Calvin (18 months) is a master emptier-of-cabinets, eater-of-cookies, and charmer-of-hearts. He loves pizza, snuggles, and being right in the middle of the action.

We are rich in grace, noise, and adventures!

Nailing It: Christmas Cards

My friends. It was a couple weeks ago when my dear husband casually mentioned he thought it would be good for us to send something out (i.e. a Christmas card) this year.

"Yes, that would be nice," I said, "I'll see what I can do."

Well, now we know.

I ordered pictures and pounded out a little notecard of family updates. The pictures arrived, of course, a day after I needed to send out the out-of-town gifts (but that was okay, since I was a day late in getting those packages ready anyway).

Task: Print the notecard of family updates.

One side printed fine. Upon attempting to print the other side, our printer jammed and basically died an immediate and painful death.

So, out-of-town family, sorry that your Christmas card has only one side printed. (No names of boys for you. No update about each of their charming, developing personalities. Bummer.) But you have a picture and half a card. Could be worse.

Task: Find new printer.

Task: Request Ben to print the notecard of family updates, double-sided.

I did not specify that the sides should be facing the same direction, so I guess it is really my fault that the back is upside-down.

Task: Find envelopes. It is an amazing thing that this Christmas card will probably just about exhaust our supply of envelopes purchased for our wedding thank-you's 11+years ago! But since they are brown envelopes, we need labels in order to read the addresses.

Task: Make a list of recipients.

Task: Trim list of recipients, since I did not order enough photos.

Task: Find addresses. What, have an address list? Why no, no I don't. Eventually, list of addresses is compiled.

Task: Make mail merge and print labels. Wait, our printer is dead.

Task: Go to the office, use hubby's computer to print labels.

Now, I have worked as an administrative assistant virtually my entire adult life. I have used these copiers, computers, and programs before.

So I should have expected that, of course, the labels print out fine (the 2nd time) with the top line of print 2 cm above each label divide. There is nothing like printing labels to make you feel like an incompetent nincompoop. But I face the labels undaunted, chop them with the office paper cutter, (well, yes, it is a little conspicuous that each label contains parts of 2 labels, cut at a slightly uneven angle...) and affix them to my envelopes.

Task: Stamp, return address, label, and stuff envelopes.

Finished product, proudly sitting in the office outgoing mailbox:
Brown envelope, crooked-double-label address, photo, and family update (upside-down) for some portion of our family and friends.

So, dear people, if you do not receive a Christmas card from us this year, please do not think it a reflection on our affection for you. And feel free to message me your address.

And if you do receive one, by all means feel a swell of gratitude rising in your heart that--whatever you did or did not send out this year--it most likely wasn't that.

With joy in the perfect Savior who uses nincompoops and cracked pots,
Amy

18 Months Old!

18 months old!

1 year old

 11 months old

10 months old

9 months old

8 months old

7 months old

6 months old

 
 5 months old

4 months old

3 months old

 2 months old

1 month old

2 weeks old

Dear Calvin,

Well, my fine fellow, here you are at a solid 1 1/2 years old. And you are, of course, ready to take on the world.

In news of late:

- You are an active scavenger. Extremely skilled at rifling through and displacing the contents of the kitchen cupboards, emptying the dirty dishes out of the dishwasher, and redistributing items from the recycling bag.

- You pick up on so much! Sometimes if I'm pulling together the last few things for lunch while everyone is gathered and waiting, we'll sing together, "God Is So Good." And you definitely join in! It's most precious to see you mouthing the words along with your brothers.

- You have also picked up the game Rock, Paper, Scissors, and you play a mean hand with Victor. (Although, as he noted, you always choose "rock.") Tried to video that this morning, but of course it was far more interesting to see what we were doing with our phones...

- Despite the cold weather, you definitely still love going outside. You're always up for accompanying me to get the mail, and any outings are exciting (until we have to actually buckle up in the car).

- You love the library and roam happily, sometimes checking out the Legos, sometimes wandering into the adult section, sometimes pulling books off the bottom shelves.

- You walk and run. No more Ergo unless we are headed somewhere for a real hike. But you most definitely still want to be held and carried (primarily so that you can see everything that is going on).


- You are a super happy camper at the babysitting group at homeschool co-op and nursery at church.

- You eat. A lot. You can polish off 3-4 pieces of pizza and frequently eat your own food, a 2nd helping, and then the rest of Elliot's (who is currently in a more selective phase). For all that, you are sporting a pretty trim physique and have lost a lot of the baby rolls. But I still love your chubby cheeks and those sweet little fingers.

- We did the stomach flu a couple weeks ago. Your first time really puking through the night. So not my favorite part of life. But you were a trooper and actually bounced back pretty quickly. Grateful for no trips to the ER this round!




It was in the aftermath of my own bout of the stomach flu that I reflected on this less-remembered aspect of the Christmas story.

The birth of Christ, announced by angels, welcomed by shepherds, promised by prophets, meant that God Himself entered creation. He didn't just walk through the pristine garden with Adam and Eve or bend down to see what was going on at the Tower of Babel. He actually stepped into humanity. And He tasted all the kinds of brokenness that sin brought. He left the smile of heaven and sweetest communion with the Father to join a world of stomach flu, pickpockets, head lice, plagues, and hypocritical church leaders. Every kind of bitter barb that sin has infested our lives with--He tasted it, walked through it, bore it.

Why would someone do that, little son? Having known the pain that sin brings, I can't imagine a willing choice to plunge into its cold, deadly, all pervasive presence. But the truth is, Jesus didn't come despite the pain of sin. He came because of it. Immanuel, God with us, joined this world to thwart the enemy's plans from the inside. He came to taste the bitter cup reserved for me. He came to die so that He might become the Victor over sin and death.

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

A plan and a purpose that we could never dream up. This is the reason for such a festive, joyous celebration at Christmas. This is the reason for hope any time at all.

I love you, sweet Calvin, and I pray you will always love and worship our wonderful Jesus.
Your momma

How to Find the Time

As a follower of Jesus, you want to have regular time in the Word and prayer. That doesn't mean it’s easy to carve it out each day. But you want it. 

Let me lean in here.

Why is regular time with the Lord of crucial value? Consider just 10 reasons.

• Because our hearts are fickle and forgetful.  
• Because the world is dark and darkening.
• Because our families, our neighbors, our co-workers, our children, our friends, and the strangers who pass us in the grocery store are eternal souls.
• Because apart from Jesus we can do nothing.
• Because we have a new identity, a new calling, and we need clear vision of what our Savior and Lord wants for us today.
• Because we need wisdom.
• Because we need correction.
• Because we need God's promises.
• Because facing life is terrifying when we forget who holds all the molecules and moments in His hand.
• Because our hearts will ceaselessly crave lesser things if we miss the quenching, refreshing joy of drawing near to God.

Are you with me? This is important. 

Second, if we see the importance, why is it so hard to implement? If you've ever tried and failed to establish regular time with God, you know it surely is.

Another 10 reasons:

• Because our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
• Because little kids wake up early.
• Because work, school, bills, housework, yardwork, sports, laundry, dishes, meal prep, shopping, driving, meetings, and church activities demand our attention.
• Because it's very hard to concentrate.
• Because it is noisy.
• Because interruptions constantly bombard us.
• Because the Bible can be hard to understand.
• Because our phones are right. there.
• Because we are very tired.
• Because we feel guilty about not doing it enough, or right, or at all.

Quick reminder: why do we want to meet with God? 

Not to gain His favor or approval. 

Not to maintain a certain level of spirituality.

Not to prevent bad things from happening or offer penance for our mistakes.

In Christ, we are beloved. The door has been flung open to commune with God, hear from Him, pour out our hearts to Him, and grow in the reflection of Christ. That’s why.

Another clarification: having a plan for your time with God is not legalism. It is the essential work of establishing a priority. Every important area of life requires purpose and planning to flourish.

For that reason, let’s get practical ...

Step 1: Ask God for help. 

Our biggest obstacles to time with God are not schedules, children, or our many responsibilities. Our biggest obstacles are in our own heart (accentuated by obstacles from the world and the devil). So ask God to knock them all over and make time with Him a daily privilege and delight. 

Step 2: Assess your daily rhythm. 

Establishing regular time with God is very challenging when life doesn’t operate in a tidy schedule. In addition, life is a series of changing seasons. Just when you find a pattern that fits one stage of life, something changes.

However, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to plan time with God. It simply may not work the same way every day, every week, or every year. 

So consider: Right now, what are the times in your day where you are freest from other demands? Where do you get to decide what you will do with a chunk of time? (This might be naptime, evenings, the first hour of the day, a block of time when kids are at school, or your lunch break.)

Step 3: Consider the competition. 

Another piece to the puzzle is identifying what absorbs spare moments right now.

For a day or two, observe your day like a careful budgeter. Assess your responsibilities but also those spare minutes here and there that are “slush time.” (“Slush time” is where you default when you catch a spare moment … maybe Facebook, grabbing a podcast or newscast, scrolling on your phone, Netflix, checking email, or cleaning a closet.)

Repurposing “slush time” may be a way of creating time with God.

Step 4: Plan the time and set a reminder.

As you seek God’s help and review your daily rhythm, choose a block of time that seems most consistently free and set it aside for time with God.

Then do what you would do if you set any other important meeting. Put it on your calendar, set a reminder on your phone, communicate with your spouse, block it on your work schedule, or so forth.

However odd it may feel, these steps are just the practical implementation of your highest priorities.

Step 5: Plan the where and what.

Next you need a simple plan for where you will be and what you will do during your time with God. 

Here are a few suggestions:

• Take advantage of the double blessing of God’s word with God’s people by joining a Bible study at your local church. 
• Follow a Bible reading plan, ideally with the fellowship of others. Here’s one such option. 
• Open and close your time with prayer, and pray in the middle. More than a mental or academic exercise, this time is for communion, renewal, and refreshment of your heart with the Lord.

Step 6: Do some troubleshooting.

What is most likely to crash your plan?

Keep a pad of paper or your phone nearby to briefly log to-do items that come to mind in the midst of your quiet time. These thoughts are not a sign of spiritual weakness! God is with you in all the details of life, but those things can likely be recorded and dealt with later.

If your children are a frequent interruption, consider some preventative measures. Set their expectations and provide helpful boundaries (Mommy is going to read and pray for 30 minutes now, and I will see you when I’m done.) Recruit help from your husband. 

Remember that you are loving your family by preserving time with the Lord. It is worth every creative effort to build this into your rhythm of life.

Step 7: Arm yourself for emergencies.

In a fallen world, even the best plan is likely to flop at times.

A new baby, the stomach flu, your husband’s travel, or a family crisis shake things up. This is not failure. And it doesn’t mean that you have lost communion with God, even if your planned time is missed.

Consider an arsenal of options for these emergency days:

• Play an audio Bible in the car, while you’re doing dishes, or as the backdrop to your regular activities.
• Let memorized Scripture feed your heart during middle-of-the-night awakenings or the briefest pauses in your day (during a bathroom break, while you sort laundry, walking to the mailbox, or while you brush your teeth).
• Pour out your heart to God, express your weakness and your desire to get time with Him, and hold fast to the promise of His unshakable love and care for you.

May every day be sweetened by time with God, no matter your schedule or season of life.