The Deeper Journey

I've been reading this book with a friend and it has certainly gotten my attention! The Deeper Journey is all about a life completely and utterly sold out for Christ. Walking step by step in His ways, with His spirit and for His purposes. We are not to be our false selves or our religious false selves that do things to impress others or out of fear, but to be our Christ selves that serve, obey and transform in order to build His Kingdom. It is a journey for sure to get deeper and not live on the surface! Praying for continued transformation, a new more compassionate, loving, graceful heart - that only lives to serve God and others! A life that is only achievable by giving it all up and dieing to myself - a daily battle to let God take over, take control and guide every step!

Quote of the Day

"If you enjoy reading with your children, wonderful. But if you skip the nightly book, you're not stunting their intelligence, ruining their chances for college or dooming them to a dead-end job. The same goes for the other dilemmas that weigh on parents' consciences. Watching television, playing sports, eating vegetables, living in the right neighborhood: Your choices have little effect on your kids' development, so it's OK to relax. In fact, relaxing is better for the whole family. Riding your kids "for their own good" rarely pays off, and it may hurt how your children feel about you."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704289504575313201221533826.html?mod=wsj_share_facebook#printMode

Hoping to let God guide my parenting, to relax and enjoy the ride as much as I can! I still plan to offer the best I know - good food, a life in the outdoors, lots of educational opportunities... and to try hard follow the commands to not be anxious, to love fully, not to fear and know at the end of the day I did the best I knew how.

10 months old

Sweet baby girl, you are now 10 months old and such a delight! I think the best words for this last month are "curious and busy." You are our little explorer. You now know every square inch of the house you are allowed in (and maybe a few inches where we try to keep you out of too.) You have taken off - at the beginning of the month you were taking a few steps and now you are walking in circles and on grass. You love to giggle, pet and play fetch with Ella, haul stuff from one room to the next, climb steps, play peek-a-boo, put magnets off and on the fridge - mostly off, dance to our cell phone music and say ahhh in every intonation possible. You say mama every now and then and imitate ba's, da's, ga's, pup and other sounds. You have started to feed yourself small pieces of fruit, meat and cheese and delight in throwing some to Ella as well. We are trying to teach you this isn't a good idea, but it is sure cute. Your sleeping schedule has improved nicely - after a bit of sleep training you are now sleeping from around 8-9 to 5-6. Some nights you need a cuddle around 3 and put back to sleep and some nights you are able to sleep all night long. Now that you are teething again, sleep is a bit more difficult, but we will make it through. Naps are still a struggle, but we aren't giving up! One day you were so tired you fell asleep eating.
New foods this month include peaches, steak, cheese, whole wheat bread, cottage cheese, ricotta, lemon (which you loved sucking on), cantaloupe, buckwheat, triticale, and rye. You pretty much love everything we give you except for pears.

The beginning of the month we took an airplane and had a good time in Washington with friends. We celebrated M's arrival, honored G's birthday, visited beautiful gardens, had nice meals and played with friends at the W's. You even got to see a grizzly bear! One night you were not very tired and mom let you pull everything out of the suitcase on to the bed. Oh, what a mess!!!

A few days ago you saw your first 4th of July fireworks show. As tradition would have it, we went to North Shore Park for a bit and then had a nice picnic dinner at Grandma and Papa's. Right as dinner ended, the rain began dumping, caused flooding and made the city postpone the fireworks until the next night. So the next night we went to the golf course and played with the cousins and watched the fireworks from the grass. You watched for a bit and then started crawling around - must keep busy!
You also met your great great Uncle Emil from Canada. He is our last connection to our Grandma Grace Cross - who we gave you the name Keanna, which means gracious in Hawaiian. He reminded Mom so much of her dear Grandma and had fun story's about them growing up together.

Momma having fun with your hair - a little birthday wish for Tosh's Mohawk Birthday Party!
We love you Autumn Bear and can't wait to explore and learn about the world with you!
Love,
Daddy and Mommy

Icky Sicky

Well - here's to a nasty summer cold )-: The post in my head is somewhat of a vent - this cold has knocked me a good one. Coming off almost a year of being cold free - I ponder this stage in life - did not really expect this part of it. I knew that Autumn touching and mouthing things would lead to her catching a few colds and building her immune system - we try to limit the icky things that go in her mouth, but this is an impossible job. In addition to her building her immune system - I guess I am too... I didn't realize that I would get sicker than she a lot of the time. She catches something, then 2-3 days later I'm sick too. It seems that we've been sick every 2 weeks for about 3 months. As normal as it is, I'm sure ready to be well for a while. This one has hit me the hardest - I've had a runny nose since Thursday, can't lay down flat, have taken many many hot showers, am on 1200 mg of Musinex to prevent my tendency to get sinus infections, drinking apple cider vinager through out the days (yes gross, but everything I read says it works?), and now it is in my lungs, I sound like a frog and have missed 3 days of work. Autumn and I were supposed to go to Baltimore tomorrow to meet the newest addition to our family, but I've moved our tickets to next week in hopes that my ears don't explode on the airplane and that I can actually cuddle the sweet little guy!

When I worked in the school system - a cold did not prevent me from working - I'd just try to keep my ickys away from the kids. However, now working in the Acute part of the hospital - working sick is just not an option - for them or me. So I will keep sipping my tea, steaming my airways and pray that each tomorrow is better than the yesterday!