My Christmas Present Thursday, Dec 20 2007 

Family Updates and Marriage Courtney 12:27 pm

Our friend Rachel blessed us yesterday with a night out while she watched the kids.  As many of you know, we are in need of a van so we have room for three car seats.  Bill has been trying to figure out if it would be best to trade in our Chevy Lumina or to sell it for parts (it’s barely drivable).  He found a place we could sell it that he thought would be the best value, so he asked Rachel to come over a little earlier to give us time to take the car to the buyer.  I was following behind him talking to him on the cell phone (we were on a date, remember) when he pulled into the business.  I was already driving in the parking lot before I looked to see where we were.  The sign said Enterprise Car Sales.  I experienced a moment of absolute bewilderment because I knew we were planning on purchasing our van from Enterprise, and I knew we weren’t going to start looking for a couple more months.  I got out of the car to see my husband with a huge grin on his face.  He had already been working with our friend Drew (Enterprise car salesman) for a couple of weeks, and everyone and their mom (including two women who were at our house right before we left) was in on the fact that Bill was surprising me with a new-to-us van that night.  He already had it picked out.  All we had to do was test drive it and sign papers.  We left Enterprise last night with a black 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan, and I love it! 

For those of you who don’t know, C.J. Mahaney has nothing on my romantic husband.  Bill is always looking for new ways to romance me, and this was just one more thing he went out of his way to do to touch my heart (in case it doesn’t seem romantic to some of you to buy your spouse a mini van, a mini van is basically my dream car–laugh if you want).  Well, Baby, you touched it and have it as always.  I love you! 

Man, it’s going to be tough to match that Christmas present.

Cheap plug:  We are convinced of Enterprise Car Sales (especially because there’s no haggling–we always struggle with our conscience on that one).  We don’t think we will ever purchase a vehicle from anyone else.  If you are as convinced as we are after investigating, you need to purchase from our friend, Drew.  Contact us if you want his info.  :-)

 

Animal Sacrifices? Wednesday, Dec 19 2007 

Cute Kid Stuff and Funny Stuff and Sojourn Courtney 8:16 am

I lead children’s worship at church every couple of months or so.  It’s always interesting any time you ask kids questions, but I thought one particular Sunday was more interesting than usual.  We were teaching a new song written by a member of Sojourn called “Everything You Do.”  The point of the song is to try to show kids how all they do should be done for Christ (i.e. washing dishes, doing puzzles, etc.).  At the end of the song you ask, “What kind of things do you do?” and let the kids respond.  It had been going well until I called on one little boy whose response was “I sacrificed my cat.”  By God’s grace, I realized he might not have meant what it seemed like he meant, so I avoided a look of horror on my face.  A much flustered Courtney stammered quite a bit, tried to quickly make a decision, and started to go with it (I am never good when I have to think on my toes).  Thankfully, two teachers in the back who were thinking clearly quickly shouted “NO!”  Coming back to my senses, I stopped and began to explain how sacrificing our cats isn’t really something we should do for Christ. :-)   We asked for a different response and laughed much about it after the kids had gone.

Note:  The little boy’s cat had just died the week before and that was his way of saying he had let him go.  :-)   Praise God I didn’t treat him like he was totally whacked out!  Kids are hard, no matter what some people say. 

 

Gestational Diabetes Monday, Dec 17 2007 

Prayer Courtney 3:27 pm

I just got my sugar results and for the first time I came up positive for gestational diabetes.  This is going to mean some diet and exercise changes for me, so I ask that you all pray for my perseverance and the baby’s health.  

 

Some Christmas Tools We Use Monday, Dec 17 2007 

Holidays and Parenting and Resources Courtney 12:21 pm

The Christmas before Liam was born, Bill and I started evaluating how we could make sure we point our children to Christ instead of greed during the Christmas season.  Some tools we found and have used each year are:

1.  Noel Piper’s advent calendar (sorry, I couldn’t find it on the Desiring God website–I hope it hasn’t been discontinued)–this calendar lets you tell the Christmas story a little at a time for 25 days with little figurines and everything.  Here’s a picture of ours:

2.  Adornaments–a neat way to put ornaments on the tree that tell about Jesus’s names during the twelve days of Christmas

3.  Advent candles–there are many different sites where you can find readings.  Some are obviously more gospel-centered than others.  You can also write your own.  Liam enjoys blowing out the candle most nights.

What kind of things do you use?

 

Updated Blogroll Friday, Dec 14 2007 

Resources Courtney 1:53 pm

It’s been a long time since I updated our blogroll, especially considering the amount of new friends we have from church, so I would encourage you to look around at some of our friends’ sites.  Some are simply family updates and some talk about a bit more.  I love all these sites and check them each time they post something new.  Happy clicking!

 

Boy-Girl Poll Thursday, Dec 13 2007 

General and Parenting Courtney 12:15 pm

I got this idea from my friend, Becky, but I thought it would be fun to take a poll on how many people think I’m having a boy and how many think I’m having a girl.  We have never found out the sex of our babies, but it’s always fun to hear everyone’s predictions.  Leave a quick comment telling me what you think Munchkin is, and, if you want, let me know why you think so.

 

Biblical Masculinity Wednesday, Dec 12 2007 

Biblical Manhood and Preaching and Sojourn and Spiritual Growth Courtney 11:03 am

I know it’s a little strange for me to write a post with this title, but I wanted to encourage each of you to listen to one of our pastors, Daniel Montgomery’s, sermon from this past Sunday.  He is doing a series on biblical manhood and womanhood, and focused on the dudes this week.  Though it was addressing manhood, I didn’t stop talking about it with Bill until 10:30 last night.

Here are a few things I really found helpful:

1)  Pointing out how masculine Jesus was even though our society tries to make him extremely feminine. 

2)  Seeing how unappealing chuch is for many men because of the lack of masculinity shown by most church-going males.

3)  Learning how to see my son’s aggression as a good thing that was given to him by God and looking at some ways to help him direct that energy for good, not evil.

4)  Being brought to tears once again as I praise God for giving me a husband who is truly a manly man, which equals being a godly man.

 

Our Home Tuesday, Dec 11 2007 

Funny Stuff and Home Courtney 2:21 pm

Random thoughts I’ve had since moving into our first house, built in 1946: 

* Mice were cute until they came inside.
* I don’t think Yankee candles should ever come up with a scent called sewage.
* Why, oh, why can’t I paint a straight line on walls even when I use tape?
* Ceilings don’t keep their pearly while color when water drips through them.
* Handwashing dishes hasn’t been as fun as I thought it would be.
* Rocks are beautiful in a flower bed unless you want to dig up the flower bed.
* What grass?
* Utility rooms can work as offices.
* Can’t we just hide the hole in the wall instead of filling it?
* We’ll never have to buy a swimming pool!  We have one provided for us in the back yard every time it rains.
* Garages are still useful even if you can’t park a car in them.
* Who needs a wheelbarrow when you have a wagon?
* Having a huge one pane window just gives you an excuse to layer up on cold days.
* Praise God for my beautiful, perfect little house!

 

We’re Back, Maybe! Monday, Dec 10 2007 

General Courtney 2:11 pm

Since we moved into our home, we have had two problems in regards to the Internet.  One, we don’t actually have a phone line that runs into the house.  When the siding was redone before we moved in, the wire was cut.  Two, the only place we really had for the computer was in Ariana’s room.  This poses a difficult situation when you can only get on the computer during naps but the computer is in the room one of your children are napping in. 

Well, our phone line is running through one of our windows (hee, hee), but at least we have one.  Also, Bill bought a perfect sized computer desk yesterday that fits in our utility room (hey, when you have a small house, you do what works), so the computer is now out of a kid’s room.  Today is the first day I am really getting to use the Internet much since we moved in.  Hopefully that means I can begin blogging again, especially since that is one of my forms of journaling about me and the rest of my family.  Tentatively, therefore, I am saying that we are back.  We’ll see…