Days To Remember G's Blog

My children really do not know how to walk. I am sure your children do not know how to walk either, especially if they are under the age of 8, which I think is a good estimation. We took the kids for a walk across the causeway Sunday morning, yes we skipped out on church (don't judge me). Maggie like I mentioned in a previous post was sick and so we decided to not expose our child to the church for them to catch it. So we put them all in strollers and enjoyed the beautiful 68 degree weather. It was beautiful outside, we saw dolphins too and played by the river. Once we got over the causeway the boys wanted to "walk" too. Now, I have noticed this "walk" before. It happens every day in my home. I think I have just coined it's name. It is the flutter walk....not really walking, not really running just a twitter lee fly walk where they flutter like little butterflies. Then the flutter becomes an all out run. So all of my children do this, it really is not walking......they have done it since they began moving their little legs. It may just be a Phelps trait, but I think that other families may have this trait too.

When I was pregnant with Hezekiah, Page had been reading in Isaiah about King Hezekiah and really liked the name and decided that this would be our son's name. I liked it as well and I think that being named after someone who was given a sign as making time go backwards is also amazing! If you do not know much about King Hezekiah, let me tell you a bit. This is found in the Bible in Isaiah chapter 38, and also in the Illustrated Family Bible Stories published by Parragon Publishing.

King Hezekiah became gravely ill when a boil erupted on his skin and spread an infection all over his body until he was almost dying. The prophet Isaiah went to see him and told him, " God says you won't recover from this illness, so you must hurry and put your affairs in order before you die."

Hezekiah's heart sank with despair. With tears streaming down his face, he turned his face to the wall and prayed, "Lord God, please remember that I have loved you sincerely and always tried to do good. Must the best years of my life be cut short like this? Listen to my cries, O God, and help me!"

God gave Isaiah another message for the sick king.

"Tell Hezekiah that i have heard his tearful prayer and will give him another 15 years to live. And by the strength of my hand, I will defend Jerusalem from our Assyrian attackers. Watch and see! As a sign that my promise will come true, I will make the shadow cast by the sundial move back ten paces."

Then Isaiah told the king to take a thick mixture of figs, and to apply it as medicine to the boil. Hezekiah did this and was healed completely, and he watched in awe as indeed the sundial's shadow moved back ten paces.

"I praise you, loving God, for saving me from death, " Hezekiah joyfully wrote afterwards. "My suffering has made me humble and I will spend the rest of my days singing about your faithfulness."

Oh, where to begin? I love the prayers of Hezekiah, I have prayed similar prayers of sorrow in my life when hardship arises and have praised God too from delivering me and my family from turmoils. I love how Hezekiah just is filled with emotion to cry out to God when he is need (maybe that is because I am such an emotional being and can relate) and I also applaud the prayer of thanksgiving to our God. I look forward to meeting this king one day in heaven. It is really cool too that God gave him a sign. You know we often times want signs saying do this or do that, but Hezekiah did not even pray for a sign and God just gave him one. The sign was to make time go backward? This blows me away, like on many levels blows me away (I think it is the whole sci fi, time travel thing for me here). Our God who is infinite and has no boundaries and is time less did this just because well He can. I really think that is just AMAZING! Let alone, he extended his life and healed him, which is mind blowing as well. I stand in awe.

So my sweet love, Hezekiah Page Phelps, when mommy reads this story to you I pray that you (as well as your brother and sister) will learn to love God, pray to Him, and find that He can do and still does some Amazing things!

We recently got a book from the library titled /Yes Day/ by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld. Also author and illustrator of/ Duck Rabbit/. During our reading time the past few weeks this has been one of our favorite books. Hezekiah asked if we could have a Yes Day and I agreed. He decided that Yes Day would be on Saturday, so we celebrated Yes Day this past weekend. The book is cute, because the little boy asks for pizza for breakfast, asks to not clean his room, asks to stay up late, to have a food fight, to get ice cream, and to use hair gel. So every answer to his questions (of course within reason at our house) was YES! The boys got up Saturday morning and asked Page for bacon egg and cheese crossiants and Fun Dip for breakfast. So the answer of course was YES. Afterward they asked for ice cream, but it was too early for the ice cream store to be open, so we said Yes, but after lunch. Mainly their questions all resounded around food. But we all played and stayed at home all morning, played what they asked us to play and went and had ice cream after lunch, stayed up late and watched Buzz Light year. Yes day was a lot of fun and I think yes day will become an addition to our calendar each year.

We also celebrated Valentine's Day.  Page and I had a nice date Friday night. The Valentine Heart came for a visit on Friday too and left gifts for the kids in the garage. The Valentine Heart is always a lot of fun!

Today is President's day and Hezekiah informed me of that this morning. He said, "Yes, it is George Washington's birthday and well, that other guy." Crack me up. I said, "Maybe Abraham Lincoln or someone like that?" Hezekiah said, "Yeah!" Too funny. Anyhow, one good thing President's day is for, is for having the day off school, sleeping in and playing with friends.

When I grow up I am going to:
1) Do a full triathalon.
2) Be a pastry chef/cake decorator.  Maybe own my own bakery?

So in order to do number 2, I have to do number 1, so I will not gain a lot of weight doing number 2!

Lately, these two things have been on my mind a lot! Maybe it is an overdose of Challenge on the Food Network or Ace of Cakes, but whatever it is I have been almost consumed by these thoughts. I absolutely love artsy things and the cakes that they design are just so adorable. I can't get enough of the intricate details and for some reason see myself doing this one day. I do think though that I need, desperately need, more time on my hands and with three children time to allot to these activities are minimized unless I just get self absorbed. Which I will not do, because I love my husband and children way too much. So until more time, I will dream of the cakes I will one day make, visit little bakeries and look at all their cute pastry designs or chocolatier designs, maybe have a few samples, and do my normal workout routine which consists of walking the causeway each Tuesday and going to the gym in the afternoon 4 times a week (this is of course unless children are sick). So until I grow up, which of course is years from now, I will dream and work at these goals.

One good note is I did run a mile yesterday!

So this is my whole "angst" as of late. I think we can do good, go to church, surround ourselves with happy little neighbors.  But one thing that we lack no matter where we reside, go to church, or try to do good or pick the best for our kids is that we do not all agree on morals and values. Even if you are Baptist, Methodist or Catholic you might find that whatever your "religion" is you just seem to find that those that "go to church" with you do not necessarily hold the same ideals for raising children as you. Is that problematic for you? Well, it is for me. I think it is that most of the time people just attend church and they may or may not have a relationship with Christ. It is not for me to judge.  But they (myself included) are just not digging into the scripture to see what the TRUTH says in order to teach and raise our and their children in a godly way. And also if there is no relationship with Christ then most likely the values that are held at home are going to be different from what mine are for me and my family.

Now, I am making an effort but I do not have a grasp on how to do this.  But seeking God's wisdom to raise my kiddos in a way that honors Him is difficult because, well, I know my kids and I know how they behave. But I want to challenge other mommies and daddies to grasp this idea of teaching our children as from Deuteronomy 6:4-8.

"Listen Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

So this is what I am hoping for.  In response to my last post, this is the reason why I see the need for me to create a compound (ha ha ha) of a family of believers that believe as I do.  To share experiences and to raise our kids together in love and respect for our Father. With families that share the same set of beliefs so that I can feel secure that my children and their minds are not being infiltrated by junk.   Oh, the responsibility we have as parents, let's not take it lightly.  It scares me!   I think I have learned as of late that children learn more by example, so I guess I need to check myself and my example that I am setting . . . Oh God help me!

So Kiah was home for the rest of the week and it was great to have him home. Oh, so much that maybe next year is the year for me to home school??? Magpie is starting to do better on her own and not need me as much or get into as much trouble, so I will be praying about it and seeking what I am to do. It is funny, I often feel at times I just want to do this whole home church/home school thing where it is a small group of people (that I would prefer to select, so if I messed up any they would still love me despite my imperfections), and like do this family church/home thing rather than the whole corporate church thing??? Does that sound weird or not right? I do not know. Anyhow I just want to have the sense of protection around my kids, I think sometimes there is more influence from the kids at church than at school........which is particularly sad especially with little girls these days that are 5/6 talking about how so and so is their boyfriend. So where do they get this from? Older kids I am sure. But poor Hezekiah's class at church has like 11 little girls in it and then him and maybe one other little boy. So, the pressures. Anyhow, I just want him to be naive to that. Maybe I should just start keeping him with me.

So this is a random post, but another crazy thing that happened last week was that Magpie decided to lick deodorant. Yes, totally disgusting. I was drying her hair and she got a hold of the deodorant and next thing I knew she licked it and I grabbed her tongue and wiped it clean but she must have had a bit of it because she started gagging and drooling it out and so I got her to the sink and washed her mouth out with water. I knew whatever there was in her mouth was not much, but it scared me nonetheless. In the past, I had another incident a couple years ago with Hezekiah, he got in our bathroom and thought that Ben gay was toothpaste, he had it all over his shirt and I was not sure how much he had, but he showed me and he had put it on a toothbrush and immediately knew that was the wrong thing to do, but he tried to clean it up. I had to call poison control. That too scared me like a ton. Oh, the things these kids do, to keep me on my toes.

Well, as for the rest of this week, I hope not to get slimed too much, not have children try to eat things they are not suppose to eat, and try to protect my children's minds from the warped world that we live in. All in all, I am looking forward to this week being a success!

Eli has started the lessons too and is now on lesson 19. He is doing amazing, he can read an entire sentence. I highly recommend this book and have enjoyed being their teacher. It is fun to snuggle with my boys and listen to them read.

On the way home we passed by another restaurant that we have never taken our children to, it is now known as Web Waspster. That is how Eli said it. He has trouble with his R's, L's, and W's which he is working on and saying a lot better these days........he kept trying to say the restaurants name and then he finally got it after some practice. He said, "I mean Red Lobster, now those words sure take some practice." Too cute!

Maggie Beth last evening also said her brothers names.  She usually just calls them Bubbies.  But last night she said Eli and Ki Ki.  It is funny because she was saying other kids names like Max and Dillan, but not her brothers.  She finally did it.  She is talking a lot more these days, the same happened with Eli.  I remember when Eli was 18 months and we went on a trip and he said very few words and then around 20 months, what Maggie Beth is now he just started talking in complete sentences.  Maggie Beth is not there yet, but she is 20 months and she is doing wonderful, but also getting a temper too.  She insists on walking without holding our hand and when we go to reach for it in the parking lot she gets so mad, but oh well, I have to keep the kid safe.

We pick up Hezekiah and as we are driving, he pipes up, "Mommy, when are
you going to have another baby?"
Me, "Well, Hezekiah, I do not know, why do you want another baby?"
Hezekiah, "Yes."
Me, "Well, Why?"
Hezekiah, "Because I want Eli and I to both have a sister." (I guess
since there is just on Maggie Beth there is not much for sharing these
days?)
Me, "Well, if we had another baby sister what would you name her?"
Hezekiah, "I don't know."
Eli, "I don't want another baby sister, I want a baby brother. And I
would name him Johnny."
Hezekiah, "No, I would name him Booma."

Later this evening, Hezekiah asks, "Mommy, why did God make holes in our
penis'?"
Me, "Well, Hezekiah, God made a hole in your penis so you could
eliminate waste."
End of conversation.

Oh the conversations that are had with 6 and 4 year olds.