Cade is Four!

Ahoy Mateys! The big countdown to Cade's birthday has come and gone. His celebration took place at the new Dewars, where they have a fun set-up with a party room and a play room that's perfect for an active bunch of kids.



Aren't these adorable?!!
Good job Jill!





And aren't these adorable, too?!!
Good job Jill and Marcus!





And the Blessings Flow

Psalm 25: 4-5

"Show me your ways, O LORD,

teach me your paths;

guide me in your truth and teach me,

for you are God my Savior,

and my hope is in you all day long."

A couple weeks ago I was challenged by a comment my mom made. It was the first thing she said when I arrived for a visit. I often can tell what she has been thinking about during the day by her first words when I arrive. She said, that heaven must be a lonely place. Wow. Caught me off-guard. My mind raced with answers and I offered a few, but I then started praying about how I could further the topic so she had a better understanding of what heaven will be like.

Since she accepted Christ in 8/2010, some of the things I've asked God are about how she can learn to have a personal relationship and how she can learn to worship Him.  Wth dmentia, where her thoughts often leave her quickly, and with her ability to find the right words to speak her thoughts diminishing weekly, I wasn't sure how to approach this. Little did I know,that answer was already in the Plan.

It all just makes me smile!

At church, our Sunday School class recently finished a study of heaven by David Jeremiah called, What You Always Wanted to Know About Heaven. Yep, God's perfect timing. So, the next day I began reading about heaven to my mom. She seemed to be encouraged especially by chap. 3 that dealt with 'Why heaven won't be boring', but it's difficult to know exactly what she's thinking since she uses so few words. But after I read the chapter called, "The Heavenly City" where he relays the parts of the bible that describe the New Jerusalem, she asked, "Fact or fiction?" I assured her that it was fact, but that was all she had to say. The next day, her first words were, "Better to be fiction". I explained that I agree that it is difficult for me also to imagine what heaven is like, but it's my faith in God that lets me trust what God has revealed in the bible since my mind is SO limited. I asked her, Do you trust God?" and she answered yes. So I decided, with her approval, to just continue reading.

The next chapter was, "Worship in Heaven". (more perfect timing!)

Four of the paragraphs were titled:

• Worship Is Not About Us--It's About Him!
• Worship Is Not About Here--It's About There
• Worship Is Not About Now--It's About Then
• Worship Is Not About One--It's About Many

Ready? When I finished reading this chapter, that sweet woman had her eyes closed and said, "Hallelujah"! and then repeated it 2 more times! I've never heard her say anything like that. Amazing. Our God is truly amazing!

Me, Mom, my brother Dan

My sister-in-law Chris, Mom, Dan





Shopping and Eating

Shopping

Shopping with these 2 has become easier in some ways these days. Of course, timing is everything. On this particular day, I timed going to Costco at about 10:30 in order to get in on the early admitance time and then to be getting back in the car around noon so Sydney would fall asleep on our way home. Ha! Really, Syd? You're going to fall asleep before we get there?? (What is it about this little livewire who go-go-goes and then falls asleep as soon as she is strapped into a carseat? Not that I'm complaining. It IS nice to have a backup plan for getting her to sleep.) But so much for timing. That meant I would need to carry her into the store, hoping that she would soon wake up enough to sit in the cart. Well she woke up grumpy and wanted nothing to do with the cart...until....I started pushing Cade faster and letting go of the cart and saying, "Bye!" Thank you, Lord, that these 2 are full of fun and are fairly easy to change their grumpies into happy.

Eating

Eating---another topic that is often about timing and has become somewhat easier. The easier part is that most of Sydney's food doesn't need to be prepared separately and she's not usually a picky eater. But... Sydney is making the transition from a booster chair to using a regular chair during meals. This means that she is no longer buckled into her chair and helps herself to whatever she can reach (with no hesitation of climbing onto the counter). Challenging, but not impossible! Another blink of the eye and she'll be past this stage also.

And some cute eating pictures:



Frosting




Rice krispie treats on a spoon