Long Live the King!

We were at church last Wednesday night. Chris and the rest of the band had to stay afterwards to work on a video. All of the kids were kind of hyped up, so I took them all down to the playroom. Shaun and Jordan were playing with their friends (three girls, all around Shaun's age). They were playing a game involving a king, a queen, a prince, and a castle. Shaun asked if he could be the king. One of the girls replied, "No. But you can be the prince". To which Shaun retorted "Well, I'm the King of Rock and Roll, baby!".

I didn't quite know what to think about that. So I just laughed to myself.

Jordan Turns 4

Jordan turned 4 years old yesterday. How time flies! I'm so thankful that God chose to bless me with such a fun-loving, rambunctious, kind-hearted, adventurous, funny, lovable little boy.

Here's what our newly-turned-4-year-old is into lately:

Things he loves. Dinosaurs, Zhu Zhu Pets, the color blue, farm animals, dogs, babies, books, basketballs, and cell phones. Here he is at Wal-mart recently, trying his best to get his hands on one:


And here's a shot of him with his baby cousin Micah. He absolutely LOVES babies...both "real" babies and baby dolls. No, I do NOT have a problem with this. It simply means that he's going to be a great Daddy one day.



Foods he loves. Chick-fil-a, ham, cheese, apples, bananas, tomatos, brocolli and English peas (really!), oranges, carrots, candy (when he can find it!), and cheese sandwiches.

Clothes he loves. Jordan is very into wearing this jacket ALL. OF. THE. TIME.





Favorite activities. Running, jumping, climbing, screaming, taking a bath, reading, singing, playing ball, riding his Gator, watching G Force, playing Wii, and pretending. Here's a picture of him in the playroom at church, pretending to be a waiter at a restaurant. He was fixing me a cup of tea.


People he loves. Mom, Dad, Shaun, his cousins, Susie and Papa, Officer Joe (the security guard at church), Mr. Scott, Vincent, Baby Micah. *

Things he hates. Bedtime, riding in his car seat, having his blood drawn, having his hair cut, and wearing clothing when we're at home.

Here are some more cute pictures of Jordan that I just love. Some of these were taken from my cell phone, so excuse the poor quality:

Here we are on the way into church. This is Jordan's favorite way to get himself either into or out of the church building!


And a few more just because I like them:



Happy fourth birthday, Jordan. We love you to the moon and back!

* Of course, there are LOTS of other loves in Jordan's life. This is just the answer he gave when I "interviewed" him!

Possibilities

Our church's annual 21 day Daniel Fast is almost over. I'm actually sorry to see it go.

Now, I know that the Bible says I'm not supposed to brag about or broadcast to the world the fact that I'm fasting. But I also know that God told me to share this. So here goes:

God's been speaking to me lately. Most likely because of the fast! When our church started gearing up for this year's fast I felt God prompting me to fast for 40 days instead of 21. I was doubtful but felt him tell me in my spirit that it would be worth it. So far, it is. The condition of my heart is indescribable. I couldn't put it into words if I wanted to. Its good, though!

About a week into our fast God spoke heavily to my spirit. He told me to not stop praying for Shaun's healing. That He wasn't finished with him. To expect the unthinkable. I have been praying for my son's physical and mental healing for almost 10 years now. But I must admit, I had stopped expecting God to do anything about it. So I started praying again. Praying for Shaun to be physically healed. For him to no longer walk with a limp. For his to freely use his left hand. Praying for a healing of Shaun's learning disability. I prayed for it all to be gone!

And then I heard God speaking again, gently to my spirit..."Expect the unthinkable. And the unexpected."

That made me think. The unexpected. I sat up one night and thought of the many, many ways in which God could choose to heal my precious son. Here's a few:

*Complete physical healing. Of course this is what I want. I would love for people to see him walking by and say, "There's that boy. The one who had cerebral palsy. But not anymore! He's been healed!" Instead of, "There's that boy. That amazing boy who has cerebral palsy and can only use one hand and can still do karate!" (I've been told that people have said this about my son. Proud isn't the word!)

*Complete mental healing. No more seizures. No more learning issues or processing delays or mood swings when he eats certain foods.

*The ability to overcome all of these obstacles. Maybe Shaun's muscle strength will increase as he gets older. Maybe, with God's help, he will keep working and working and practicing and stretching out his left hand until one day no one will even be able to tell there's anything wrong with it. Same for the left leg.

*The ability of a doctor to come up with a cure for CP. A new tendon-lengthening technology or something. A long shot, but I'm expecting the unthinkable, remember? :)

*No earthly healing, but thousands brought to Christ. God could choose to NOT heal Shaun here on this earth, but to use this circumstance for His own glory. Shaun could be called to preach. To be an evangelist. A mentor. A counselor for disabled kids. These possibilities are endless.

I dream of lots more, but those are some good ones, aren't they?

During tonight's prayer service, I felt God stronger than ever saying to my spirit "Expect a miracle! I'm not finished! Don't stop praying!" So I'm not. I'm still praying and expecting the unexpected. I've claimed it in Jesus' name. My heart is light with the possibilities ahead.

As we do each year, my family walked together through a prayer line at church tonight. When I tucked the kids in a little while ago, the fragrance of anointing oil was still strong on both of their heads. My heart skipped a beat as I again thought of all the possibilities. God is good, all the time.

At the office...

The doctor's office, that is! We took Jordan in today because he's ran a fever off and on for a few days and was acting a little lethargic. He has a sinus infection. No big deal. They tell us this after two rounds of labs. The second of which was ran because some of the numbers in the first, according to the doctor we saw:

"...just didn't look great. This number, here, is what I'm concerned about. It could be this low simply because he's sick, but sometimes....rarely....a number this low can be an indicator of some cancers. And we just need to make sure that he doesn't have that". Hmm. Yes. Making sure that Jordan didn't have cancer sounded pretty good to me. But he doesn't, thank God!

We saw a new doctor, who I liked a lot. She didn't even give me the "shame on you" lecture that some doctors in our practice have been known to do when she found out we didn't give our children the flu vaccine.

It was a long appointment. This is how we killed time for the two hours we were there: books, dinos, Ect-a-sketch, and the ear-looker thingy.


And then Jordan decided it would be prudent to weigh his Long Necked dinosaur:


I think this picture is hilarious!

Life in a box

My sister and I were able to go visit our friend Kelli and her new baby today. Since Kelli also has a son who is just Jordan's age, she asked if I could bring him along. So I did. Lori, Kelli, and I had some much-needed girl time. We chatted and held sweet little baby Chance while Jordan and his friend Colt played together in one of Jordan's favorite things...a big cardboard box! I snapped this picture of them with my cell phone:

Look how happy they are to be inside this box! Playing inside boxes just happens to be one of Jordan's favorite past times, so he was as happy as a clam. Maybe, if he's lucky, he'll get another big box for his birthday next week!

Nut-Shell

Today was an "errand" day. We did some school, then got ready and piled into the van around 1:00. First we hit the bank. Next we headed to Zaxby's for some lunch. Those Zalads are Heaven on Earth for a hungry girl who's Daniel Fasting! It was sooo good. And it was cheap for the kids and I to eat there. Chris and I discovered a trick during last year's Daniel Fast....We order a salad (or in this case, a Zalad!) with the chicken on the side. We give the chicken to the children and also order them some fries. Water to drink. And there you go. Everybody's happy and full! I did this today. Gave Shaun my chicken but I did order Jordan a kids meal. We still ate for around 11 dollars. Pretty good. The absolute cheapest place we three can it is at Papa's Pizza. Since Jordan's still three, he's free. And somehow even with Shaun and I getting buffets its still only around eight bucks at lunchtime. But we rarely go there anymore, since we shy away from wheat.

I'm not really sure how I got off on Papa's Pizza. Anyway.

The Zaxby's in Cleveland has a "game room", so that was helpful while we waited for our food. And after we had eaten and I needed a little rest :)

Next up was Wal-Mart. The most dreaded portion of the trip. My youngest son is notorious for his bad behavior in Wal-Mart. I'm not sure what he has agaisnt the place, but I can count on one hand the times he's been well-behaved inside a Wal-Mart. But we had to go. We were out of food, and this "new" Wal-Mart has a Gluten Free aisle that's actually pretty good. So we went, and made it out without any dramatic episodes. One reason for this was because I allowed Jordan to hang onto the back of the buggy instead of actually sitting inside the buggy. Which is against the rules, I know, but it allowed me to have a peaceful shopping trip, so I decided it was alright.

We hit the library next. The kids stocked up on books to read next week. Shaun actually picked out 17 books. I thought about making him put some back, but who am I to discourage him from reading? Jordan picked a few, then I found one for me and then we made our way to the check out desk. This is where I realized that...I only have 2 hands! Ha! I had forgotten to bring along our "library bag" and didn't think I could make it outside to the van with Jordan and all those books....so the sweet librarian offered to put most of them into a plastic grocery bag for me. I'm not really sure why she didn't offer us two bags....since all of the books wouldn't fit into just the one. Maybe each patron is allowed only one bag? Who knows. Anyway, Shaun insisted on carrying the bag, and I had an armful of books in one arm and Jordan in the other. As soon as we made it out onto the porch, Jordan squirms out of my arms and promptly runs right into a puddle. Of course he was wearing his "Kidpak" shoes (Converse All Stars) which are completely NON-waterproof. His feet were soaked, as well as the bottoms of his pants. I snatched him up and strapped him into his car seat.

I debated on whether to just skip our next stop or not, but decided to go for it. Our trip into Ace Hardware went smooth as silk. Probably because we only had to get one thing. On the way home, the boys decided they wanted to see thier Granny and Pawpaw. We had a nice visit with them. They fed us a snack of collard greens and peas and we watched some monster trucks on television. At five, Chris called to say that he was home, so we headed that way to.

When we got home I realized that I had forgotten to start the dishwasher before we left. Every single pot I use for cooking was inside. Rather than wash them by hand, we decided to go out for dinner. Back to Cleveland we went for some "country cookin". Of course we only had the veggies, but it was still good. And of course I stopped at the RedBox on the way home.

So there you have it. Our day, in a nut-shell.

He's still here

The Hubs and I (and our entire church) are fasting again. We do this every January. For 21 days, we "Daniel Fast": only eat fruits, veggies, nuts/seeds, and water. I've been doing pretty well with the food part this year. I feel great. I haven't cheated. I'm having problems with the other part of fasting. The praying and Bible study part. Not that I haven't been praying. Or reading my Bible. Its just that I haven't found extra time to carve out for this. I was feeling like I was missing out. I needed to hear a Word! I really wanted to have an hour to sit down and really "get with God" so that I could in return receive a deep, prophetic word. Get some encouragement! Or at least hit God up with my extensive prayer request list.

But...that did NOT happen this week. Between homeschooling, attempting to clean, dealing with Chris' absence (he's been recording the band's new cd every night), breaking up fights between the children, and sitting up half the night with Jordan (who suddenly decided that sleeping is optional), I just haven't been able to put what I wanted into it. I did good to read a few minutes first thing in the morning, mutter a few prayer requests when I remembered to throughout the day, and read a few more minutes at night. I was discouraged. Disappointed- I really had been intent on going after God with all I had during this fast.

And then today, I DID get my Word. Shaun and Chris weren't home. Jordan was in the bathtub splashing his little heart out. I was in the living room folding laundry and listening to my iPod.

Delulge was playing: "Whisper His name and He will come to you....Call out His name and He will answer you...Shout out His name and He will run to you...

And it occured to me that my fasting habits haven't gone unnoticed by God. Even if I haven't been able to spend tons and tons of "alone" time with my Father, He still knows the desires of my heart. And He's been with me the whole time. When I'm reading my Bible in bed. When I'm whispering prayers of protection over my children while doing the dishes. When I'm thanking Him for meeting an unexpected need while riding in the car. And when I get a minute to myself to sing to Him, even if I'm folding clothes at the same time. He's here.

I'm still going to strive to find more alone time to study and pray. But...if it doens't happen, that's fine, too. Because He's still here.

I think I'm on to something.

I decided to buckle down today and really get serious about teaching Jordan his letters. I've been putting this off for several reasons. First of all, my hands are full with teaching Shaun. I know. I feel guilty just thinking it, let alone posting it here for all to see. Secondly, Jordan is just so active. Its really hard to get him to sit down and do anything for more than a few minutes. Thirdly, my sweet little Jordan is just not into anything academic. Seriously. He's not interested at all. He has retained everything he learned from preschool last year, which is a huge relief. He knows all his colors and he can count. At least I don't have to start over from scratch. I haven't been really worried about teaching him until now. He'll be four at the end of the month. We're looking into what to do with him next year, school-wise. I was leaning toward enrolling him in the GA Pre K program, but I just don't feel comfortable with that for several reasons that I'm not going to go into. Perhaps a private pre k class at his school from last year. Or maybe I'll just teach him from home. Its up in the air. We're praying about it. Hard.

But, regardless of what we decide, he needs to learn these flippin' letters! So today, I pulled him away from the Wii and we sat down at the dining room table. I had my flash cards ready. We were going to learn A E I and O today. I was determined. Okay, so he already knows A and O. So just E and I. He actually did okay. He was working hard. And then something completely unexpected happened. Shaun wandered into the room. (He had been taking a break from his math!) "Can I help teach him?", he asked. Warily, I agreed, thinking that this was NOT going to work out. But...it did! Shaun was so patient with his brother. And Jordan was so much more eager to work for Shaun. First they worked on their flash cards and then Shaun came up with the idea of writing the letters on his small dry-erase board and letting Jordan call them out. They did this for about 20 minutes, which is a HUGE amount of time for a three year old to work. They had such a good time. It was so good for both of them. And me, too! I was able to have a phone conversation with my sister while all this was going on :)

So...I think I'm on to something. I'm going to make this a daily activity. I just hope it lasts!

I told you so...

It snowed last night in Georgia. As always, this stirred up panic in the hearts of all the southerners. I seriously love how everyone goes nuts when there's even just a little bit of talk about snow. I had to stop at the grocery store yesterday afternoon. Thank goodness we aren't bread eaters and milk drinkers in our house. Because there wasn't any milk or bread in the entire store. But of course there was plenty of almond milk, rice bread, and cheese. Perfect for snacks in case our power happened to go out. Which it didn't, but still. I had to stock up. You know...just in case! I don't think I've ever really been glad about Shaun's food sensitivities until last night. That may sound crazy, but it was nice to calmly walk to the "natural foods" section and get my groceries without any problems while everyone else fought it out over the last loaf of "real" bread.

We finally made it home and of course, the kids wanted to play in the snow. They only lasted a few minutes. It was just too cold. Shaun woke up bright and early this morning and wanted to go out again. Of course he didn't listen to me when I told him that 17 degree weather is just TOO COLD to be playing in. The whining persisted, and I gave in. I let him outside. In about three minutes I hear this from outside:

"Mom. MOM! MOMMY! MOMMEEEEEEEEE! My hands. They're cold! PLEEEEASE let me in, MOMMMMEEEEE!"

I opened the door and there he stood. Frozen to the core. Hands too numb to even open the door since his gloves were wet. Poor thing. And what do you think I said? That's right.

"I TOLD you so!"

Not very mature, I know. But my sweet Shaun had to agree that, just this once, his mom was actually right!

Its about 4:30 pm now. The rest of the day was spent somewhat uneventfully in front of the television. The kids played Wii and watched movies, since The Smith Academy decided to follow the trend of area school closings. Its still only 23 degrees outside. I'm ready for spring and its only January!

Speed-reading

I listened to my daddy "speed-read" to Jordan tonight. You know...Jordan asked Papa to read "Berenstein Bears" right before kick-off time. And of course, Papa couldn't tell him no. So what to do? "Speed-read", of course! Hilarious! He read that book in about 2 minutes. And Jordan sat captivated, listening intently. Just the way I did at his age, when Daddy "speed-read" to me. Memories!