I’ve written two posts this week. This one is some memories of my great grandma. If you go to the next post, you’ll see pictures from our past week.

My great grandma (Becca’s great great grandma) went home to be with the Lord Monday morning. Great Grandma was 102 and was happily anticipating heaven. She told my parents the last time they visited with her that “the next time I’ll see you will be in heaven.” We were able to visit with my Great Grandma last summer so she could meet her very first great great granddaughter. I’m very thankful we were able to make the trip and make a few memories for Becca to see when she’s older.

I’d like to take a little time to remember my great grandma. Growing up we always visited Great Grandma in the spring to plant tomatoes and other plants in her garden. She would always feed us egg salad sandwiches. At Halloween, my dad would take us trick-or-treating to Great Grandma’s, so we could show her our costumes. She gave out lollypops with smile faces on them. Great Grandma started the Jack Corner Basket at Thanksgiving – she always brought a small gift for everyone at the meal. One year she wrote a story for everyone.

Great Grandma gave great presents. For my birthday one year she gave me her bingo winnings for that year – $65.00. Another year she gave me an old tin chocolate box with her high school ring in it and other keepsakes she saved over time. As my great grandma got older she gave everything of value away. Looking back it was a great way for her to enjoy giving away her possessions.

As an elementary kid, I stayed with Great Grandma once when my parents were away for a few days; she wouldn’t let me wear my socks in bed – she said I needed to air out my feet. My poor feet were cold all night. These are just a few of the memories I have of my great grandma. But one memory that sticks with me from recent years is this: Great Grandma was always proud of her family. When we’d visit her she would repeatedly tell us she had a wonderful family and that God had blessed her with a wonderful family. I hope if I live to my hundreds I will have such a heart of gratefulness to God for my family. I also hope to continue the wonderful heritage of loving the Lord that Great Grandma left us.

Obituary:

Last Thursday we went to the NICU reunion party at Arlington Memorial Hospital. Every year in September, they have a reunion party for their graduates. We were delighted to see Dr. Tisdell and many of Becca’s nurses. It was so fun to “show” Becca off to the people who took care of her during her first three months. I told Becca she was going to make a lot of people happy – and she did. The nurses did a wonderful job with the party – it was a camping theme. Becca absolutely loved the “Big Horsey!” and the activities. We love the NICU staff for all they did for us and Becca. They truly are some of the dearest hearts in Texas. (The nurse who is the “head planner” of these reunions – Toni – recently started a business called Tiny Starts with gift baskets for families of newborns, especially preemies.)

My youngest brother, Joey, visited us at the end of his training at Deloitte University. We enjoyed spending time with him and were glad he was able to extend his trip to visit with us. Becca liked Uncle Joey right away. When we went on a walk after supper she wanted “Joey come.” We’re really proud of all Joey’s accomplishments. He is working for Deloitte as a federal consultant. My little brother living in D.C. – wow.

Our church picnic was on Sunday. Becca enjoyed the playground at church. She got to slide with Dillon and Meaghan. She is also enjoying playing with Amaris at church on Sundays in nursery.

The last picture is of Becca helping me make cookies . . . you can tell which part her enjoyed the best!

Children are truly a gift from the Lord (Psalm 127:3-5). Every day Josh and I get to experience this verse in vibrant color. Becca brings so much joy into our home and we’re grateful for each precious day we have with our little girl. My desire is to enjoy each day, not looking forward by wishing for things to come or backward by wishing for things the way they used to be.

Becca has done a few new things this month. Our church had a special service for 9-11. The Bedford Fire Department Honor Guard came to present the flags and they brought their firetruck. Becca was quite pleased to sit on it, and she really wanted me to go inside, but we didn’t think that was a good idea.

This month Becca has also started using her little stool to reach things.

At the beginning of the summer, Becca and I used to go lizard hunting. I promised her that I would someday catch her a lizard. This month I finally caught her one. We walked all the way back to our apartment to show Josh our catch and get his help for pictures. Becca kissed the lizard, but it didn’t turn into a prince.

Becca is now the proud owner of her very own library card. I was getting a little tired of reading the same books over and over again, so two Mondays ago we went to our public library to get some “new” books. Over the next two days I lost count of how many times we read read “All Aboard” — a book about Mr. Bunny’s train ride — and “The Eensy-Weensy Spider” — a book with the familiar song plus 7 new verses.

I was sick all last week, so having “new” books to read was helpful. One morning we spent a long time reading in our bed. Becca wanted to read there instead of the couch.

I’m sure we’ll have some more new experiences this month . . . life is full of fun and excitement here in Texas!

One of the neat things about starting a family is starting family traditions/practices. I want our family to be rich with traditions – not only holiday traditions but also daily family traditions. Here’s a few of the regular family traditions/practices we have right now.

Something Josh and I started when we were first married is Friday night Date Night. We reserve Friday nights to be together without school work or other distractions (like taking phone calls). Now that we’ve been blessed with Becca we have Family/Date night. When the weather is nice we typically go to a park. Then after Becca goes to bed, Josh and I play games or read together. This past Friday, we visited a park that we found about a year ago. A year makes a huge difference when it comes to playing with your baby at a park!

A practice (we hope it turns into a tradition) that we’ve recently started is lunch, dinner, and bedtime Bible reading. After thinking about all the books we read together in a year (just a chapter at a time) we decided to add chapters of the Bible into the mix. We’re reading one chapter from the Old Testament after we eat lunch and dinner, and we’re reading one chapter from the New Testament before we go to bed. So far, we’re both enjoying this new practice, and it’s been a good way to start teaching Becca to sit and listen to Daddy read the Bible.

After Becca was born, we decided to memorize hymns. We are currently working on Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted. So far we have learned the following hymns: Lord Enthroned in Heavenly Splendor; God Moves in a Mysterious Way; Praise, my Soul, the King of Heaven; O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus; Be Still my Soul; Be Thou My Vision; All Creatures of Our God and King; A Mighty Fortress is Our God; Come Thou Fount; Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence; What is the World to Me?; Praise to the Lord; Come We that Love the Lord; My Jesus Fair; He Who Would Valiant Be; Come Christians Join to Sing; Break Thou the Bread of Life; I Run to Christ; Rejoice, the Lord is King!; and Jesus, Lover of My Soul. Our practice is to sing the hymns we’ve memorized while we drive to church on Sunday mornings. We also sing a couple verses of the hymn we’re working on each night before we eat dinner.

After reading a chapter entitled “Mealtime Prayers with the Pipers” from Piper’s book, Pierced by the Word, Josh decided to write mealtime prayers for our family. This was part of my anniversary gift. We have the morning prayer memorized, and we’re working on the noon and evening prayers.

We end the day (well, Becca’s day) with a bedtime ritual. While Becca drinks her bottle of milk, she sits in my lap while Josh reads a Bible story to her (from The Jesus Storybook Bible or The Big Picture Story Bible). Then we sing “Goodnight, Our God is Watching Over You” (something my parents — especially my dad — would sing to me when I was little), then we pray for Becca and tell her “Daddy loves you, and Mommy loves you, but most of all, Jesus loves you” (another tradition from my parents).

Slides. Several weeks ago, the thought of going down a tube slide by herself invoked fear in our little girl’s heart. I could not get her to go down them without me, which meant I ended up with bruises and missing skin from trying to have a toddler on my lap and go down a tube slide. I’ll admit it, tube slides are scary. There’s a lot of uncertainty looking down from the top. It’s dark! What if I get hurt? What if I flip over? What if . . .  Poor Becca couldn’t see the end from the top where she stood . . . it was just a dark tunnel of uncertainty that made her afraid to do anything except sit up at the top and run the opposite direction whenever Mommy called for her to come down. Becca didn’t realize that Mommy was waiting for her at the end of the slide. She didn’t realize that I was climbing halfway up the slide to help her come down. She was afraid.

This week, something changed. Becca went down the tube slides all by herself over and over and over again. She loved it. She came down head-first and then transitioned to feet-first on her tummy. She now loves slides. We went to the water play park for the last time last week (the water shuts off on Labor Day) and Becca wasn’t overly interested in getting wet – she wanted to slide. She knows Mommy is at the end of the slide. She knows now that sometimes Mommy meets her halfway up the slide to help her come down.

When asked, “If you could parent your daughters all over again, what would you do differently?” Carolyn Mahaney answered, “I wish I had trusted God more.” She writes, “For every fearful peek into the future, I wish I had looked to Christ instead. For each imaginary trouble conjured up, I wish I had recalled the specific, unfailing faithfulness of God. In place of dismay and dread, I wish I had exhibited hope and joy. I wish I had approached mothering like the preacher Charles Spurgeon approached his job: ‘forecasting victory, not foreboding defeat” (Girl Talk, 2005, pg.65).

Motherhood  for me can be like standing up at the top of a tube slide. There’s so much uncertainty – there’s so many “what if’s.” After Becca’s premature birth and then even more so after our miscarriage, I struggled with fear. What if something happens to Becca? What if she falls down the stairs when we’re visiting our parents? What if we lose another baby? What if something happens to Josh? Carolyn Mahaney’s words are a reminder to me that I can be just like a little one at the top of the slide. It’s dark. I don’t know what the end is like. But God is there. He knows all about the slide – the turns, the speed, the ending. He’ll even climb up halfway to help me come down. When I trust that my heavenly Father knows all about what each slide holds for me, the fears of motherhood give way to joy in Christ. Trusting God is far better than living in fear and in the “what if’s.” It makes sliding something I want to do “again and again.”

Another thing Becca is really enjoying is tents. She loves being in our homemade tents. We build her tents all over the place. Josh makes her a special one in our bedroom – in the dark – and they use the electric lantern. It’s really fun to hear them play together. The tents usually end up pretty crowded, as Becca likes to bring in her animal friends.

This week at the park, there was a stray duck on the basketball courts. I’m not sure who enjoyed the Cheerios more, Becca or the duck!

One thing people tend to comment on when they visit our home is the number of books we own. One of the things Josh and I started in the first year of marriage was reading to each other. Each Sunday we read a chapter of a book focused on the home. We also read through a book in our morning devotional time together. Josh reads fiction to me in the evenings, as time allows. We try to get a chapter in each night. We’re currently reading through N. D. Wilson’s 100 Cupboards Series (ht to J. Farmer) and enjoying it immensely. We love the we read together so much–it’s a great thing to share in marriage.

Here’s a list of the books we read in 2010 and the ones we’ve read so far this year. It’s amazing how much you material you can cover when only reading a chapter or less a day.

Books Read in 2010
(You’ll notice in 2010 my solo reading was nonexistent . . . dissertation and Becca!)

Fiction:

NonFiction:

Books Read in 2011

Fiction:

Nonfiction:

Josh and I are not the only readers in our home. Becca loves books. Of all the gifts she’s received, books seem to be her favorite “toy” (besides all her animal friends, who are becoming more and more important!). We read with Becca multiple times a day. She does a great job filling in words for me, and it’s a lot of fun.

Becca’s favorite book is the Jesus Storybook Bible. Becca and I read from it each morning as she drinks her bottle of milk. We usually read from it 1 or 2 more times during the day. (The picture on the left shows some of Becca’s favorite Bible stories.)

Becca’s second favorite book is about Hanukkah. We read it over and over again. It’s so cute to hear her say “Hanukkah” (something like, hah-nah-nah-nah). Becca’s motivation for wearing pony tails in her hair is that it matches the girl in the Hanukkah book. Most of the books Becca likes are rather short, but recently I have been reading her The Little Engine That Could” a lot. She likes the voices of the different characters.

One other thing to share about. Becca is doing well with her potty training. She keeps a dry diaper as long as I take her to the potty often enough. She rarely tells me she has to go potty and if I ask her if she wants to go, she usually says “ah-ti-ti-ti” (= no thank you). We use stickers to reward Becca – one for a dry diaper and one for going potty (chocolate is now only used for special occasions). I started this by making a sticker chart for Becca. However, one day Josh let her put her reward stickers on his laptop. This started the apartment-wide sticker chart. Now Becca puts her reward stickers all over our home. It’s really cute and well worth it. (The picture on the left shows how many diapers Becca used in 2 weeks. It’s the first time we’ve been able to go 2 weeks before washing the diapers.)