Close to home

We're staying close to home this week as Potty Training has begun.

Annabelle is doing quite well telling me, "Mommy, quick quick!" and off we run to her wee throne. I prefer potty training on the normal size potty, but Annabelle's diminutive size made this a little daunting. 

I *love* this potty chair from Ikea. It's the perfect size, and very easy to keep clean: one piece, no cracks or crevices to worry about cleaning so it's very sanitary. And you can't beat the price, at $3.99 it's budget friendly. (It's also available in a variety of colors for the home decorators. Myself, I prefer white.)

With so much success, she's felt confident enough to sit on the big potty twice so the transition will be quick and easy. Of course the cheers from her big brother and sister who have gone before, are a big help.

The extra incentive that has worked like a charm with all three of my little ones? M&M minis! 

Sweet little rewards for their successes.

* edit 2/28

She now wants only the big potty. I guess $3.99 was worth the preliminary work and a week's use. Good thing it's so portable, it can be the emergency potty in the car.

Eternity and Time

" . . . a wheel in the middle of a wheel."

Ezekiel 1:16

Behold, a new day is dawning! Do not let the sound of was and discords deafen your ears to My message; for I would speak to you a word of encouragement and would bring you tidings of hope.

My little children, I have not gone away never to return; but I will surely come, yes, even at a time when you least expect and when many will have become engrossed in the problems of the hour.

My beloved ones, do not focus on the problems of the world, but look up, for surely your deliverance is near.

My ageless purposes are set in Eternity. Time is like a little wheel set within the big wheel of Eternity. The little wheel turns swiftly and shall one day cease. The big wheel turns not but goes straightforward. Time is your responsibility-- Eternity is Mine! You will move into your place in the big wheel when the little wheel is left behind. See that now you redeem the time, making use of it for the purposes of My eternal kingdom, thus investing it with something of the quality of the big wheel. As you do this, your days will not be part of that which turns and dies, but of that which goes straightforward and becomes one with My great universe.

Fill your days with light and love and testimony. Glorify and honor My Name. Praise and delight yourself in the Lord. So shall eternity inhabit your heart and you will deliver your soul from the bondage of time.

You will experience liberation from the pressures of time, and in your own heart you will slow down the little wheel. So will you find a new kind of rest. You will have foretaste of the Sabbath rest, into which the whole earth will enter before long. When this time comes, I Myself will slow down the little wheel of time, and there will be an adjustment, and it will be as it was in the beginning.

--Come Away My Beloved

Moving in slow motion

There are days I feel like I'm moving in slow motion while the world around me is careening by at break-neck speeds. Lately I'm having more and more of these days pile up on each other. While it is lovely to move along on impervious to the goings on outside, it is also a little discomfiting to turn around and become aware that another week, (or two or three) has gone by.

I am enjoying this slower paced season right now because I know it is all about to change. We plan to build a new home in a nearby town this summer and while it won't be ready until August, we need to be out of this home by June so three college coeds can move in for their senior year.

 

The house needs to be orderly at all times for the prospective tenants' walk-thrus which should begin in the next week or two. Not an easy task for a homeschooling household with three young children.

And so we've begun to move. In slow motion. 

There is something to be said for having the time to do this. Things we rarely use or are extras are being donated. The garbage and recycle bins are filling up every few days. Toys and out of season clothes are in storage. Projects are getting finished up. We've been packed to the rafters for so long, having outgrown this old bungalow, it seems the house heaves a giant breath and I join with a sigh of relief. It feels good.

"Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind...
'Pooh?' he whispered.
'Yes, Piglet?'
'Nothing,' said Piglet, taking Pooh's hand. 'I just wanted to be sure of you.'"

A.A. Milne in Winnie-the-Pooh

Dust of Snow

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

~ Robert Frost

Find something beautiful about today!

Prayer

Lately Annabelle's prayers sound like this:

"Help the day, help the day, help the day . . . help Noah, help Bronin, help Mama, help Daddy, I love you too Jesus. Amen." Sometimes she tries to say "thank you for my family" but most times she just lists everyone she can think of.

It's a beautiful thing to watch the prayer life of a child grow. She's a warrior in training.

"For you answer our prayers.

All of us must come to you. 

O Lord, you alone are my hope.
I’ve trusted you, O Lord, from childhood.

O God, you have taught me from my earliest childhood,
and I constantly tell others about the wonderful things you do."

Psalms 65 & 71 New Living Translation

Winter Joy

Today I'm singing the joys of a warm winter day! Our temperatures have climbed to the sixties today and we didn't need jackets when going out. I don't care that it's just a tease and that we still have half of winter left. I can't see the muddy puddles and what's left of the dirty snow piles that line the parking lots. I can only smell the fresh clean air and feel the warmth of the sun on my pale winter skin.

photo courtesy of http://homepage.ntlworld.com/thegrinch/photo.htm

Going back to bed

I walked by the stairs tonight and found a wide-awake three year old just sitting there in the dark. She's been getting up after we've tucked her in for the night and she usually makes up the reason why it was so important to come down while I'm standing there questioning her. Tonight it was that she needed two stuffed animals that were in the bin to go to storage. With Woof and Rainbow tucked under her arm she was sent back to bed. The rule being, if you come down when you're not supposed to, you have to take your self back up to bed. But I will wait at the bottom of the stairs until she's back in bed. 

Knowing better than to ask me to come up with her, she said, "Mama . . . if I were you . . . if I was adult, and you were a little girl I would go up with you."

"Oh really?"

"Yes."

"Well, what if I kept getting up when I wasn't supposed to, and you were tired of coming up the stairs so many times?"

"Well . . . if you were a really little girl, and you slept in my room you would sleep in a bed like Annabelle's."

[Annabelle is still sleeping in a crib. She cannot get out of her bed. Smart girl that Bronwen.]

"So, should you sleep in a bed like Annabelle's?"

She went back up stairs without any further opines.