On Saturday, I spent over an hour trying to download a birthday picture of our newly 1 year old Owen Isaac. For the life of me I can’t fugure it out.  So, I’ll just tell you all. He’s the cutest 1 year old in the world! He has a big adorable grin with one big dimple on his left cheek and four little chipmunk teeth peeking out from his little lips.  His big blue eyes smile as big as his mouth does. He has straight blonde hair (not sure how it’s blonde with hubby and I both having dark hair) but you can’t see it in the picture because it’s covered with a Chuck E Cheese birthday crown that says ”It’s Party Time!”  

Happy Birthday Owie!!!

This is a website that interviewed 1600 professing Christian guys about what does, or doesn’t cause them to stumble in their striving to remain pure.  I thought it was very interesting. Much of it is common sense, of course miniskirts with fishnet stalkings are going to make a guy stumble.  Other things were not so obvious, at least not to me.  Kinda makes me want to start wearing Burkas (not really).

At bedtime tonight, I sent the boys to go use the potty.  Aaron went to the kids bathroom, Gabe went into the master bathroom.  I was on the phone with hubby when I  saw Emmie wander into the bathroom where Gabe was as he was finishing.  So, wanting to protect her innocence, I went to stop her. Gabe was already re-dressed and Emmie was pulling her diaper off in front of the potty trying  to pee like brother—standing up! I almost died laughing. I got off the phone so I could help her potty the “girl way”.

Gabe then wanders into the bathroom while Emmie is sitting on the potty.  I told him, “Gabe you need to leave because Emmie is going potty.” Gabe said, “She’s not going potty, she doesn’t even have a p*n*s.” Of course, how could she possibly go potty without one of those =) 

***This post is recycled from my old blog***

A little about why I chose “A thinking Woman” for my blog title.

I think there is a widespread epidemic in our country. It is the disease of mindlessness. This disease is a cancer and it eats away at the brain until the mass of mush is no longer able to perform its function. And from what I observe, this disease targets the minds of women more than men. The reason for this is that we women tend to “think with our hearts”. Men use the God given thinking organ to do the thinking. We use our “feeling” organ to do our thinking. Thus, all the woman jokes. And to tell you the truth, I am tempted to laugh along with the men. I am not excluding myself from the temptation to feel my way through life, decisions, etc, however, I think it’s time that we women turn our brains on and use them the way God intended.

Instead of mindlessly following our husbands, pastors, ideals of feminism, or the group of girls headed to mall to get their nails done and who can’t make a trip to the bathroom by themselves, why don’t we think for ourselves? Don’t get me wrong, when it comes to our husbands and pastors, there is a level of submission and following we must do. But it is not mindless following. It is calculated. We choose our husbands based upon our beliefs, not theirs. “I do not follow my beliefs because of my husband, I follow my husband because of my beliefs.” Although, now that I am married, I follow my husband because it is right to do so. We choose which church we want to become members of therefore, which elders we want to submit to, based upon our beliefs. Of course if you are married, your husband chooses your church, hopefully but not necessarily, with your counsel.

We must open our minds and think. Do you know how we do that? We open our Bibles and read. We yearn for knowledge. We pray that God give us thoughts according to wisdom and coherence.

Have you ever thought about the implications and consequences of your beliefs? Every belief has an implication. Every thought has a consequence.

Homework for the week Think about your beliefs. Do they end up with false conclusions? Or do they end up at God’s Word, which is the only standard by which we can safely measure our beliefs.

We had a rough (for me) but exciting (for the kids) morning.  Aaron, Emmie and Owen and I were playing in the back yard.  I had my attention on Owen, helping him try to stand up. I looked over at Aaron and he had something in his hand. It was a syringe. I yell at Aaron to throw it down and he obeys.  I am praising the Lord that the cap was on the needle. 

I took all the kids inside and washed Aaron’s hands up really well.  Then I went back out and using ziplock bags (so I didn’t have to touch it) I put the syringe in a bag.  I called hubby, crying from anger that someone would throw a syringe over our fence. Nevermind that we have small children who pick up anything that looks interesting, and two little ones who still put things in their mouths.   

I called poison control, then made an appointment to take Aaron in to the pediatrician tomorrow afternoon. I’m hoping to get some blood tests done to make sure he hasn’t contracted anything scary. I’m not sure if he opened the syringe and poked himself, but he has a mark on his palm that could be from a needle prick.  But then, he was playing with some wood chips that could just as easily have made a prick mark like that. We’ll see. I’m not overly worried and am praising God for the peace He’s given me.  

I also called the police and had an officer come out to the house to get the syringe.  I was hoping they could fingerprint it and see if they could track down the person responsible for it being in our yard.  But the officer said they reserve fingerprinting for things like murder and burglary.  I then asked if he could send it to a lab and see if there are any diseases present that Aaron could have been exposed to.  He said he would, and took my information so I could be contacted if anything shows up.  He did comfort me in telling me that with hepatitis and HIV, the viruses die soon after coming in contact with air,  even in a matter of hours.  

Aaron was excited that a real policeman came to our house. He spent a while trying to explain to the policeman about how cool his (Aaron’s) boots are.  He was also very fascinated with the officer’s gun.  He told the officer, “The police will throw you in jail if you drive too fast!” Aaron also told him all about the “bad guy syringe” he found.  The officer talked to Aaron about the importance of not touching syringes and that he should instead tell mommy or daddy if he ever finds one again.

It’s been an emotionally charged few weeks for me, but today was the kicker.  I am so ready for a nice peaceful day.

Emmie: “Guess what?”

Mommy: “What?”

Emmie: “I say ‘guess what’.” 

With the last few posts about our journey into paedobaptism, I believe there has been some misunderstanding.  It was not our intention to announce that we were dissolving our membership at our current church.  We simply believed that our closer friends, who are generally the ones who read our blogs, deserved an explanation as to why they may not see us at church regularly.  We are in the process of *looking* for a church which agrees with our heart on this issue.  We are still members at our beloved current church until further notice.  Also, if  or when we do dissolve our membership, we will announce it in a way that is more personal.  Our hearts are breaking over this. But we don’t know what else to do.  We don’t know how else to handle it.  We believe we may have made some people angry/frustrated/disappointed in us.  Again, we are truly heartbroken about this. Neither Josh nor I slept much last night because we were too grieved at the prospect that we have let someone in particular down who we love and respect so much. We understand that not everyone will understand, or support us, let alone agree with us.  It’s possible that we may not have handled this situation in the best way possible, but we did think it through and we tried the best we knew how.  We’re sorry if we’ve caused any unnecessary pain, but please know that we’re hurting too.

Dear Friends,

Out of our love for you, Josh and I want to make you aware of our most recent family developments.  Again, know that we love you all, this does NOT affect our fellowship with anyone who may disagree with us.  We pray there will be understanding and charity.  This was NOT an easy decision.  Many tears and sleepless nights were involved.  I refer you once again to my hubby’s blog for details.

Well they’ve gotten rid of Christmas.  Of course Easter’s next.  Gabriel came home from school today with a gift from what he said was a “great, big mouse”. It was a yellow stuffed duck and a little Easter egg with a bouncy ball and a sticker inside.  I asked some questions about the big mouse, trying to figure out what he was talking about.  He was giving vague answers, so I dropped the issue.  I then looked in his communication notebook, where his teachers and I can leave notes for each other. His teacher said his class had a visit from the “Spring Bunny”.  So the “great, big mouse” is a bunny. And not just any bunny, the “Spring Bunny”. Please.  Heaven forbid we call it an Easter Bunny.

Easter isn’t even a Christian holiday. It’s roots are deeply planted in paganism.  Of course the idea of bunnies this time of year is also planted in paganism, so maybe a “Resurrection Day Mouse” would be better. Or maybe just sacrilegious. Do we really even need a cute little mascot? 

Because of the recent rains, we’ve have a few snails crawling around the driveway.

Well, yesterday, the snails were all gone. I was getting Gabe (4 1/2) off his school bus and he asked, “Where are the snails?” I said, “They’re all gone.” He asked, “Did the French people eat them all?”

 The day before, Gabe asked me, “Are you a French people?” I replied, “No, I’m not a French person, I am an American.” He asked, “So, you don’t eat snails?”