Happy Birthday Ruby and Eliza Claire

I can not believe Ruby and Eliza Claire are four!  Wow! 

Ruby loves life.  She is an all or nothing girl.  She is funny, opinionated, loud, silly, a bundle of energy, and sweet.  She is an act and ask questions later kind of girl.  If she is unhappy the whole world is going to know.  She will eat anything.  She is a light sleeper. Her favorite color is pink.  She likes dolls, dress-up, pretend play, princesses, and anything crafty.  She is Ruby!
 

Eliza Claire loves routine.  She is a cautious child.  If she had her way she would be an only child.  She needs her space and her time to herself.  She is a think of every outcome and then maybe act kind of girl.  She is sweet, loving, stubborn, demanding, silly, and funny.  She is a sound sleeper.  She will eat most things but not quite anything.  Her favorite color is blue.  She likes cars, legos, balls, and electronics. She is Eliza Claire!

It is funny, they are so different.  One is natured like Rehm, only more extreme and the other like Charlotte, only more extreme.  I can not imagine life without these two amazing girls.  They are the best!  I am so luck I get to be their Mom.

Happy Birthday girls!
Jenn

PS Pictures from their actual birthday will be up next week.  I'm too tired tonight to upload them.

A Lovely Lady with a Wonderful Dessert

Michael's parents invited our family and a couple from church, the Eubanks, over for dinner on Memorial Day. Mrs. Eubanks volunteered to bring dessert. She produced the most kid friendly dessert of all time. I would have never thought of this idea but will be stealing it in the future. She brought a bakery cake that had been iced but not decorated and then frosting and other decorations. She asked the children to help her decorate it. Since it was Memorial Day she had them make the US flag. They had so much fun and were so proud of the end result.

Retalliation

He refers to his sisters repeatedly as "The Furies"

The Furies strike back

Ruby's shirt says My Brother is a Grouch

 

Charlotte's shirt: I'd Trade My Brother for a Cupcake

Eliza Claire liked Charlotte's idea

The moral of the story...Don't mess with The Furies!

Thanks, Go Fish!

Today we were listening to Go Fish Kickin' It Old School in the van while running errands.  The song This Is My Father's World came on.  At the beginning of the song there is talking, honestly I've not listened to the talking too closely as the kids are usually all talking and I can't hear it all.  It sounds like news audio from after 911 and other catastrophes and a child saying the Lord's Prayer.  Rehm made the statement, "Mom, why did God make all those bad things happen?" 

I got the privilege to take 10 minutes to share part of my faith and my beliefs about God with all four of my kids.  Partially because Go Fish sparked the question in Rehm and partly because I had a captive audience.  We talked about things like free will and omniscience and omnipotent and how they all work together.

I explained that while God knew  those bad things would happen and he is powerful enough to change them that he gives us free will.  That He wants us to choose Him and to choose good. We also talked about how sometimes there are good things that come out of bad things.  And how those good things don't make the bad things OK but allow us to find hope and peace. 

This is a conversation we would not have had today had it we had not been listening to Go Fish.  Once again, I say thank you for the great music and the great discussions (the discussion I'm referring to is about halfway down the post). 

Jenn

PS.  I love this new CD.  It is mostly remakes of good old hymns.  I had a conversation with a homeless man today after he chuckled watching me grooving to I'll Fly Away. And those of you who know me, know I'm not the type to be grooving to anything.  I have yet to hear a Go Fish CD that our family didn't love.  And no, they are not paying me or giving me free CDs to say it.

Three Year Old Convesation

Ruby was talking to me. Eliza Claire interrupted her and asked, "Ruby,
what did you say?" Ruby responded, "nothing you need to worry about
Eliza!"

Jennifer Maham
(512) 431-6999

Theology and the Six Year Old

Coming home from lunch following VBS today, Charlotte and I had the following conversation.

Charlotte:  Mommy, was Jesus married?

Me:  Charlotte, the Bible does not say anything about Jesus getting married so we really don't know.  Many people believe that he wasn't married because they think that would have been important enough to mention in the Bible if he had been.  Other people think he was married, but we really don't know.

Charlotte: Well, I think I'm going to live a happy life and not worry about all that kind of stuff!


I think maybe I should have named her Scarlett...It was definitely a much shorter conversation than I would have had with her brother had he been the one to ask the question.

Jenn

Not all comments are useful

Over the past few months I've had several comments not written in
English. Since I don't know anyone that actually speaks these
languages nor can I read the comments I have been deleting them and
hoping it was a fluke. Since these comments have continued I've been
forced to go a step further and implement comment moderation. I know
it makes the process a but slower but I do not want things on my blog
that I don't know what they say.

I keep debating about making the blog private. I don't really want to
as I have lots of readers that I would not have had if I had limited
the blog to private status from the beginning. I'm sure over the next
few months I'll figure out a solution that works for me, the family
and the readers. In the mean time I appologize for the comment
moderation.

Thanks for sticking with me.

Oh, in case you haven't put it all together yet, if you don't want
your comments to be automatically deleted they need to be in English.

Thanks,
Jenn

Patriotism

I just had to stand in my driveway in my pajamas and recite the pledge
of allegiance with the kids. Rehm insisted on putting the flag up
today and insisted on flag ceremony complete with pledge. As a good
citizen and parent I couldn't possible say no, even if I did look like a complete and total dork.

Summer School

Everyone is working away on their summer school work. Hopefully we can
stick with this habit all summer.