The magic of books!

There has been a lot of reading going on at the our home of late. We've always loved reading, but personal reading has sometimes been more in the category of wishful thinking, than as avidly pursued as I'd like to admit. More couch time has produced the opportunity to get thru more of my desired reading list (most recently finishing Hidden Art and Pride and Prejudice!)and has also provided opportunity to read even more delightful books to my boys.

Keegan is obsessed with books right now. He's just beginning to tolerate us actually reading to him as he usually prefers to turn the pages and babble about what he is looking at. :)

So I was honored to be tagged by my friend, Tara, to list my 7 favorite children's books.

Obviously since my kiddos are still very young, most of my books are in the simple/board book categories...

Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order:

Good Night Moon - a true classic. This was my favorite book as a toddler, and it has proved to be quite the favorite for my boys, especially when they are in that 15m-2 year age. Thankfully, it comes in boardbook format, which is helpful at this age. I can "read" it with my eyes closed!
Runaway Bunny - a little bit more complicated of a storyline, but such a precious story. I love this book so much, it inspired how we chose to decorate the nursery! Xander loves to "find" the baby bunny as he takes different forms throughout the book just as I once did. As a mom now, I appreciate this book all the more.
Where the Wild Things Are - Another childhood favorite of mine that has been transferred to my son. And like the Runaway Bunny, a parents perspective is a special treat now.
Barnyard Dance - We have grown to love many Sandra Boynton books, but this is my all-time favorite! It is very lyrical and funny. It has produced many giggles and imitating of various farm animals over the last 2 years! I can quote the entire book for you. Really.
Chugga-Chugga, Choo-Choo - like Barnyard Dance, this was a library find, that after hoarding for several months (I love online renewals), we finally decided to buy. The pictures of the little boy's toys put to use as surroundings for his train are awesome. I can't wait to see that kind of creativity continue to unfold in my boys.
Where is My Mommy - Xander loves this one. He frequently "reads" this to his little brother for as long as Keegan will tolerate.
I'd Be Your Hero - This delightful book is the conversation between a boy and his mother. He describes his imaginary world where he'd be his mother's hero and she encourages him as he exhibits Godly character. I love the scripture verses that are included. It's been a special book that Xander and I read together.

Wild Animal Baby - ok, so this isn't a book, but my boys have LOVED this magazine designed for kids 12months-4 years of age. Xander loves getting mail and a chance to "read" his own magazine. I love keeping one or two handy in the diaperbag for when we are stuck at the dr's office, etc. Thanks Mima for such a wonderful gift!

I'd like to tag my friend Jess and the Millers (you guys don't have a baby out of the oven yet, but I know both of you were avid childhood readers!!!)

Supermom no more...

A mom of many recently told me that she thought going from one to two children was the hardest of all because she came to the realization that she wasn't supermom. I remember looking at her thinking, “It goes away? I still have supermom moments.”

I love these moments. I get bursts of energy and excitedly pursue my mothering with a vengeance. Those are the times when I get a lot of planning done (ahh the visionary in me), host playgroups, invite friends over, try to organize my home or do lots of messy art projects and fun outings with the boys. Of course, the energy wanes as being a mom is an unpredictable and sometimes taxing job and so the energy simply runs out and I slow down to refuel.

Sadly, I’m having to temper my supermom impulses. My body just won’t let me go at the pace that I’m accustomed too. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been having lots of contractions lately and several episodes that were a bit worrisome as the contractions were coming 3-5 minutes apart and at the time I was only 21 weeks along. Thankfully, the contractions aren’t actually doing anything, so my midwife has only asked me to limit my activity level. When she first told me this, I was relieved that it wasn’t bedrest, but after she laid out what I couldn’t do, it started to sound closer and closer to just that. At this time, I’m not supposed to lift or carry Keegan at all, no housework, laundry, climbing stairs, grocery shopping, or unnecessary driving. (Happily for all of us, I can still cook!) That list pretty much stops me from doing most of my job description as a mom and manager of my home.

It has been humbling to say the least. I never realized how difficult it is for me to ask for help, especially when as long as I’m following the midwives orders and laying down periodically I feel just fine. I feel lazy. But I’m learning -learning to ask for help in seemingly silly things (“Hi, Rich is gone, would you mind coming over to go upstairs and get Keegan up from his nap?”), accepting the fact that people will be coming over to the house when it isn’t “company ready,” having to say no to really fun things and just holding all commitments lightly.

Not holding Keegan has been one of the hardest parts. Keegan is such a cuddle bug – as long as one is up and walking around. He’s become quite the daddy’s boy, both in loving to wrestle with him, but also for the all important cuddle time. And he now calls for Oma when he wakes up from his naps.

With trial comes growth. Being forced to slow down has really strengthened my time in the Word and in talking to God. It has been truly sweet. I’m also reading more which I’ve been wanting to do for a while. (I’ll take any good book recommendations!!!) My internet addiction has been curbed as well. Having only one or two trips up the stairs a day has severely limited the time I get to spend on the computer.

While my midwife is quite confident that I will have no problem going to term, I would still appreciate your prayers – obviously for the safety of this little one and a long/complete pregnancy, for Rich as his workload has increased and for me that I would be content where I'm at and yet also creative in still fulfilling my role as a wife, mom and manager of my home despite the current restrictions.

Thinking things thru...

We are still in the process of deciding what we as a family will do for/around Halloween. I have a problem, as a believer, celebrating a holiday that is centered on evil. Although the way most people celebrate it is harmless enough, the idea of supporting a holiday that glorifies ghosts, goblins, witches and the occult bothers me.

But the dilemma lies in wanting to be neighborly and reach out to those around me as well as not have my kids feel jipped that they are somehow missing out on something. Growing up, my parents always had candy for the short time that we were home and trick-or-treaters came to the door. We always happily handed them a piece of candy and a track. Then we were off to the festival that our church held. Actually, we ended up taking half of the neighborhood kids with us because they found it far more entertaining to play games AND get candy than to merely go door-to-door asking for it. (One of my clearest memories was the year I dressed up as Teddy Roosevelt and my paster grabbed me and tried to perform a wedding ceremony with a girl dressed as a bride. I remember ripping off my bowler cap and screaming that I was a girl too so he couldn't do that!)

So many questions still swirl around in my mind. Thankfully, no decision we make is final and there is always room to think, ponder and make changes as we go. I did find several thought provoking articles such as this, this and this.

For this year, we didn’t do much. The church where we do Cubbies does a festival. Since we really don’t know anyone there and Xander hasn’t developed any friendships yet, so we opted out. Instead, Alexander had the opportunity to help pass out some candy at my parents’ home.

And then Opa took him into the backyard for a special candy hunt! He loved the hunt, but I think he loved indulging in some of his finds afterwards even more…

Creation

Since Xander has been learning about Creation at Cubbies and memorizing verses related to it, we've started a unit on Creation. I plan on spending the next three weeks going through and learning about God's beautiful creation! Xander is also not totally up on number (symbol) recognition, so I'm also using this time to reinforce his ability to recognize the numbers and play various numbers games. It's been fun so far and I'll post a little more about how it is going later.

My latest read has provided inspiration along the way (The Hidden Art of Homemaking, by Edith Shaeffer). I adored the first chapter where she talked about how, as believers, we are called to be creative and artistic in our everyday endeavors as a reflection of the perfect Creator God whom we worship. I love her wholistic approach to integrating faith into every area of our lives. It is easy to see how influential she was on my mom as I read and I'm thankful that I too can benefit from her writings. (I'm especially thankful for this book as it played a central role in changing my mom's heart on wanting kids. Three months after reading it, I came into existence!)

There is a chapter on creating art as a way of reflecting the Creator. I'm by no means artistically inclined. But in seeing her examples of how she used this area to bless her children, I embarked on making this wonderful creation wheel. Thankfully, kids aren't as discriminating on judging good art and it has proved a useful and entertaining tool in teaching Xander about creation! He loves turning the wheel and sharing with me about what happened on each day of creation!(Thanks to Tara for turning me on to the wonderfully prolific Kathy Ross and her arts and crafts books!!!)