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Anna Claire rolls over! Yay!

Today is another first!  Today, 12-28-10, Anna Claire started the trek towards mobility!  She rolled over!  It was so exciting!  I didn’t get it on video because she did it all by herself unexpectedly while i was washing dishes!  She did it and I yelled (with joy of course!!)  haha 🙂

The Rules of This House by Gregg Harris

I LOVE IT! 

The Rules of this House by Gregg Harris (parent of Joshua Harris of I Kissed Dating Goodbye)

In this house…

1. We obey our Lord Jesus Christ.
2. We love, honor and pray for one another.
3. We tell the truth.
4. We consider another’s interests ahead of our own.
5. We speak quietly and respectfully with one another.
6. We do not hurt one another with unkind words or deeds.
7. When someone needs correction, we correct him in love.
8. When someone is sorry, we forgive him.
9. When someone is sad, we comfort him.
10. When someone is happy, we rejoice with him.
11. When we have something nice to share, we share it.
12. When we have work to do, we do it without complaining.
13. We take good care of everythingGod has given us.
14. We do not create unnecessary work for others.
15. When we open something, we close it.
16. When we turn something on, we turn it off.
17. When we take something out, we put it away.
18. When we make a mess, we clean it up.
19. When we do not know what to do, we ask.
20. When we go out, we act just as if we were in this houe.
21. When we disobey or forget any fo the ‘Rules of this House’ we accept the disciplien and instruction of the Lord.

Birthday party ideas to cut cost/make it count

From hip2save.com -12-28-10:

A few years ago, my daughter started getting invited to birthday parties for her little friends. I wasn’t sure of the protocol on gifts as we do something different (I will explain in a second). Anyway, after a few parties, I realized that the average gift is about $10. Well as I have three kids now, that can add up in a HURRY.

So this week every year, I put aside $50-$75 and hit all the awesome clearance deals. Yesterday at CVS, all the toys were 50% off so I bought five remote control cars that were normally $10 for a total of $25. I’ll keep my eyes open at other stores as well and usually get 10-15 toys for my budget.
That way, the morning of the party, I let my kids pick out which gift they want to give and wrap it. No last minute shopping or overpaying because it snuck up on us! Last year, I had three gifts left over and donated them to Toys for Tots.

For the birthday parties we throw, at first we just put “no gifts please, your presence is present enough!” However, I found that in our culture, people just NEED to bring something. So, here’s what we did instead:

For one party, we collected cash donations in a fish bowl for PEERS. They are a non-profit at Camp Lejeune that offers free babysitting for military that I used when my husband was deployed. We collected $300 and they were able to take up the carpet in one room and redo the hardwood floors with our gift!

For one party in April, we collected peanut butter and jelly for the local food pantry. The manager there told me that in the summer, they can’t keep enough of it on the shelf because it’s a meal kids can prepare on their own while the parents are at work. Most qualify for free lunch at school, but summer months are tough. (see picture above of all that was collected). Then I took my kids with me when we donated it and the food shelter gave my daughter a thank you certificate that we put in her scrapbook along with her pictures from her party!

For my son’s one year party in October, we asked people to bring size 1 or 2 diapers for the local crisis pregnancy center. We collected over 500 diapers. They were STUNNED.

12-27-10 – First time playing the piano

So much cute in one little baby!  She’s doing something new all the time! 🙂

Today, rather than sit in her bumbo seat properly, this is how Anna Claire chose to sit (apparently so she could gnaw on the side of the chair!)

Later, Daddy came home and we got to play the piano for the first time!

Then I got a few minutes alone to take a bath in the jacuzzi tub…..which was very relaxing until Andy came in with a fussy baby!  So we opted to put her in the bath with me.  But then I realized that I could bath her one handed and there was no way to sit her down properly so I could wash her.  Soooo…..then Daddy had to come in and join us so that one could hold her, the other bathe her!  It was fun!  We have to enjoy these times, because it won’t be very long at all, that we can’t do that anymore.  Right now, there is so much freedom and innocence.  What a blessing!

Christmas 2010

Had a wonderful first Christmas with Anna Claire.  Even though we haven’t started our family traditions yet, it was such a joy to reflect on our greatest gift this year – our sweet girl!  Andy and I didn’t buy for each other, so there weren’t any presents to open (although my parents did give us a couple of gifts), but we had a great season nonetheless.  I anticipate future Christmases with traditions, presents, a “normal” tree (not a tabletop like this years!) and more decorations inside the house (wasn’t able to do much this year). 

She was fun to dress up though – I took advantage of the season to dress her accordingly!  🙂  (“Who Needs Santa When I Have Grandma?” onesie)

Phillip and Janet Hunter gave us a “Baby’s first Christmas ornament for Anna Claire’s handprint.  It turned out so cute, but she wailed!  She HATES to be restrained or constrained to do something!  🙂  Strong will for such a small baby girl!  Here’s the ornament:

Article by Platt – "Why My Church Rebelled Against the American Dream."

My take: Why my church rebelled against the American Dream

Editor’s Note: David Platt, Ph.D., is the author of the New York Times bestsellerRadical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream and is senior pastor of the 4,000-member Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama.

By David Platt, Special to CNN

We American Christians have a way of taking the Jesus of the Bible and twisting him into a version of Jesus that we are more comfortable with.

A nice middle-class American Jesus. A Jesus who doesn’t mind materialism and would never call us to give away everything we have. A Jesus who is fine with nominal devotion that does not infringe on our comforts.

A Jesus who wants us to be balanced, who wants us to avoid dangerous extremes, and who for that matter wants us to avoid danger altogether. A Jesus who brings comfort and prosperity to us as we live out our Christian spin on the American Dream.

But lately I’ve begun to have hope that the situation is changing.

The 20th-century historian who coined the term “American Dream,” James Truslow Adams, defined it as “a dream… in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are.”

But many of us are realizing that Jesus has different priorities. Instead of congratulating us on our self-fulfillment, he confronts us with our inability to accomplish anything of value apart from God. Instead of wanting us to be recognized by others, he beckons us to die to ourselves and seek above all the glory of God.

In my own faith family, the Church at Brook Hills, we have tried to get out from under the American Dream mindset and start living and serving differently.

Like many other large American churches, we had a multimillion-dollar campus and plans to make it even larger to house programs that would cater to our own desires. But then we started looking at the world we live in.

It’s a world where 26,000 children die every day of starvation or a preventable disease. A world where billions live in situations of such grinding poverty that an American middle-class neighborhood looks like Beverly Hills by comparison. A world where more than a billion people have never even heard the name Jesus. So we asked ourselves, “What are we spending our time and money on that is less important than meeting these needs?” And that’s when things started to change.

First we gave away our entire surplus fund – $500,000 – through partnerships with churches in India, where 41 percent of the world’s poor live. Then we trimmed another $1.5 million from our budget and used the savings to build wells, improve education, provide medical care and share the gospel in impoverished places around the world. Literally hundreds of church members have gone overseas temporarily or permanently to serve in such places.

And it’s not just distant needs we’re trying to meet. It’s also needs near at hand.

One day I called up the Department of Human Resources in Shelby County, Alabama, where our church is located, and asked, “How many families would you need in order to take care of all the foster and adoption needs that we have in our county?”

The woman I was talking to laughed.

I said, “No, really, if a miracle were to take place, how many families would be sufficient to cover all the different needs you have?”

She replied, “It would be a miracle if we had 150 more families.”

When I shared this conversation with our church, over 160 families signed up to help with foster care and adoption. We don’t want even one child in our county to be without a loving home. It’s not the way of the American Dream. It doesn’t add to our comfort, prosperity, or ease. But we are discovering the indescribable joy of sacrificial love for others, and along the way we are learning more about the inexpressible wonder of God’s sacrificial love for us.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love my country and I couldn’t be more grateful for its hard-won freedoms. The challenge before we American Christians, as I see it, is to use the freedoms, resources, and opportunities at our disposal while making sure not to embrace values and assumptions that contradict what God has said in the Bible.

I believe God has a dream for people today. It’s just not the same as the American Dream.

I believe God is saying to us that real success is found in radical sacrifice. That ultimate satisfaction is found not in making much of ourselves but in making much of him. That the purpose of our lives transcends the country and culture in which we live. That meaning is found in community, not individualism. That joy is found in generosity, not materialism. And that Jesus is a reward worth risking everything for.

Indeed, the gospel compels us to live for the glory of God in a world of urgent spiritual and physical need, and this is a dream worth giving our lives to pursue.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Platt.

Why My Church Rebelled Against the American Dream – Platt

12-20-2010 – Anna Claire can squeal!

Baby girl just continues to grow and change! Every new phase is a delight! She’s been laughing out loud (just a verrryyy little), but she likes it when you take her shirt off – she thinks that’s funny. That’s also the only time consequently that she will laugh out loud for me. I discovered that she is ticklish. So, if I combine taking her shirt off and tickling her, she thinks it’s funny and will cackle a bit for me! 🙂 Today she got a little EXTRA-excited and started squealing. She was evidently impressed with herself, bc she continued to do it, and I was lucky and got a very small bit on audio.  Here goes:

12-22-10 – Family Christmas Service

She just becomes more and more precious! Tonight we attended our church’s Family Christmas Service – a lot of music mostly with some readings. Andy and the rest of the staff surprised the church by doing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” with the handbells and wearing Santa hats! This was so fun! (Personally, my favorite part about it was that I know how ridiculous Andy felt in the hat, so that made it all the funnier!) I hope I can get a video or picture of it to keep.

Otherwise, Andy sang “Sweet Little Jesus Boy” and did a marvelous job! 🙂 Rebecca Malphurs calls that song “an English major’s nightmare” and she’s probably right, but it was masterfully performed! (Yes, I’m probably biased, but he really did do great!) Andy’s been going around the house singing it for a month now, so I’m a little glad it’s behind him! 😉

Anyway, Anna Claire stayed in the service with us because there was no nursery last night. She was doing wonderfully sitting on my lap, playing with her rings and blanket doll, and then Andy went up to the stage to sing…..the minute he started singing she STOPPED playing with her toys and started arching her back, wiggling and SPITTING!! (BTW – if I haven’t mentioned it earlier, Andy taught her to blow her lips and spit over a month ago and she totally associates spitting with her daddy…..she does it almost daily when he gets home!) Anyway, realizing that she recognized his voice and reacted so strongly to it is just another special memory for me. That’s why I want to keep this blog – I don’t want to forget anything, and my memory is just dreadful.

After the service, Andy was in the mood to sing some more – so off to myspace karaoke he went. Anna Claire decided to sing along – it was their first “duet!”

Christmas Morning Blueberry French Toast – per E-Mealz