In a couple weeks we will be taking a mini vacation! yay! We are going to be visiting my parents to celebrate my Dad's 70th birthday (we are having a hillbilly party for him...hee hee) and than we are leaving the kids with Nana and Papa and Brandon and I are going to Arizona for a few days. It's actually really exciting, Brandon was chosen to present a paper he wrote at the society of biblical languages conference... more on that later.
Well I usually wait until the very last min to tell Peyton that we are going somewhere fun because as much as we have tried to teach her about days, weeks, months and years the concept is still very foreign to her. One week in our world means any second in hers, so you can imagine why I try to wait. Well my wonderful husband (in true husband like fashion, which is not his fault, he is not with her all day everyday and does not have to listen to the constant questioning, so he does not know that some things MUST be kept secret for the sanity of the MOM... I digress) told Peyton that she was going to see Nana and Papa soon. Well this was about a week ago and sometime during the course of having to explain to her everyday...no we are not going to Nana's today... she got her in mind that not only is she going to Nana's house she is also going to DISNEYLAND! If you know anything about my child you know that it is not easy to talk her out of one of her ideas. She could tell you that the sky is green and you could try all day long to tell her that the sky is not green it is blue and she would continue to tell you that in fact the sky was green, so trying to tell her that she was NOT going to go to Disneyland was not going well. So I decided to try to rationalize (with a three year old this can be tricky) and tell her that we did not have enough money to go to Disneyland. The conversation went something like this:
Mom: Disneyland cost a lot of money. Daddy would have to work a long time to save enough money to go to Disneyland.
Peyton: But all we have to do is get a ticket!
Mom: Yes, but tickets cost a lot of money and we do not have alot of money
Peyton: We can go to the store and get more money
Mom: no that is not how it works. You have to work hard to earn that much money.
So that morning after hearing about her going to Disneyland for several hours I finally got her on the phone with Nana in hopes that Nana would be able to explain things better than I. That conversation went something like this:
Peyton: Nana I want to go to Disneyland with you
Nana: You do?
Peyton: Yes and ride all the rides like the Carousel and the train and the elephant! but mommy said no because we don't have a ticket.
Nana: Well we just might have to see what we can do about that!
So as you can see Nana was of no help.
The next morning after exhausting her father and I at the the Breakfast table with all this Disneyland talk I finally had a brilliant idea. I told her that she could go to Disneyland if she could raise enough money to go. (Secretly knowing that Nana and Papa would not be able to refuse her little pleading face and would eventually buy her a ticket to go to Disneyland anyways, I might as well get a lesson out of this... right?) So we got her piggy bank off the shelf and counted the money she had in it. She actually had, to my surprise, $12 in it. Than we looked online to see how much tickets to Disneyland were and found out they are $62 dollars! (holy cow!) So I told Peyton she had to work to raise $50 more dollars to buy a ticket to go to Disneyland. We talked about things she could do to work for the money like picking up her toys (at that moment she immediately jumped up and did that) helping mom match the socks from the laundry, emptying the dishwasher, washing her dishes and being nice to Amber (which will be the hardest of all the jobs and worth the most money!) It has been a few days now and let me tell you I have a different child on my hands!!! She has been so helpful and asks me all day what she can do to get money and jumps at the task and does it well!!! I pretty much have her trained to fold socks and empty the silverware from the dishwasher and today while Amber was being fussy in the car instead of shouting at her to be quiet Peyton reached over and grabbed Amber's hand and said "Its ok Amber, we will be home soon" I just about died. I caught her eye in the rear view mirror and she said "did I earn some money mommy?"
So we will see how long this last. I will keep Peyton's quest for Disneyland updated...I am not sure if this is going to be a great lesson learned for her if it will back fire on me and from now on she won't help around the house unless she gets some money for it. But a parent's role is ultimately a big guessing game right?
Friday, February 19, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
REVELATION
Thanks to my new found love in Beth Moore and her Bible Studies God has really been teaching me A lot. I love Beth Moore's approach to the scriptures and her passion for understanding them. (I especially look forward to seeing her choice of outfit and hairdo week after week! :) ) In the fall I finished my first study of hers through the book of Esther. It was, to say the least, life changing for me. Just a few weeks ago I gladly jumped in to a new study of hers through the book of Revelation. I don't particularly love this book of the bible, I have been through studies of it before and came away from them with nothing more than fear, but I was very curious as to what Beth Moore had to say about Revelation so I joined the study. After only three short weeks she has once again left me inspired and wanting more. Here is what I have learned so far.
The theme running through the book of Revelation is to OVERCOME!!! That was so eye opening to me and has allowed me to be able to come to this book with hope rather than fear! What a wonderful reminder that God's will for his people is to overcome! It is NOT his will for the ones that love him to be in bondage over addiction, depression, anger or rejection. We are more then conquers in Christ Jesus who loves us.
We have also been studying the person of John to see what we can learn about being able to receive a fresh revelation from God and so far the biggest thing that has stuck out to me is that he simply WANTED IT! In Revelation 1:12 John says "and I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me" He just turned around....he made the choice to turn toward Jesus. How often do I make the choice to turn away from Jesus and seek answers elsewhere and than wonder why I am not hearing form God? Some other things we can learn from John is first, he overcame and endured through his hardships (When he received his revelation he was in fact cast away from all that he knew and loved and put on an island to be persecuted.) second, he feared God! and third, he trusted God! If only we could apply these few things to our lives on a daily basis, think of the new Revelations we might receive!
And lastly (for today) I have learned that in order to receive a new revelation I must first come back to my "first love" JESUS. There are two distinct ways to turn from Jesus, one is to purposefully do so. To make that choice not to follow him and look for truth elsewhere. which is so easy to do these days with all the psychological mind games that the world can play with us it is easy to start believing the world rather than God. The other is to just to simply let him (our first love) slip away. I have to tell you that I was convicted this week to ask myself "is God my first love???" Have I (unknowingly) in the business of life, and kids, and day to day activities let Him slip away?
This I know to be true...It is impossible to receive a fresh revelation from God by accident, it has to be a choice. I encourage you to ask yourself some tough questions today. I don't know about you but I WANT to receive a fresh revelation from God and step by step I am making that choice.
The theme running through the book of Revelation is to OVERCOME!!! That was so eye opening to me and has allowed me to be able to come to this book with hope rather than fear! What a wonderful reminder that God's will for his people is to overcome! It is NOT his will for the ones that love him to be in bondage over addiction, depression, anger or rejection. We are more then conquers in Christ Jesus who loves us.
We have also been studying the person of John to see what we can learn about being able to receive a fresh revelation from God and so far the biggest thing that has stuck out to me is that he simply WANTED IT! In Revelation 1:12 John says "and I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me" He just turned around....he made the choice to turn toward Jesus. How often do I make the choice to turn away from Jesus and seek answers elsewhere and than wonder why I am not hearing form God? Some other things we can learn from John is first, he overcame and endured through his hardships (When he received his revelation he was in fact cast away from all that he knew and loved and put on an island to be persecuted.) second, he feared God! and third, he trusted God! If only we could apply these few things to our lives on a daily basis, think of the new Revelations we might receive!
And lastly (for today) I have learned that in order to receive a new revelation I must first come back to my "first love" JESUS. There are two distinct ways to turn from Jesus, one is to purposefully do so. To make that choice not to follow him and look for truth elsewhere. which is so easy to do these days with all the psychological mind games that the world can play with us it is easy to start believing the world rather than God. The other is to just to simply let him (our first love) slip away. I have to tell you that I was convicted this week to ask myself "is God my first love???" Have I (unknowingly) in the business of life, and kids, and day to day activities let Him slip away?
This I know to be true...It is impossible to receive a fresh revelation from God by accident, it has to be a choice. I encourage you to ask yourself some tough questions today. I don't know about you but I WANT to receive a fresh revelation from God and step by step I am making that choice.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
"I can see the whole world from up here!"
Both of my children are amazing and beautiful but today I want to spend sometime updating you on the life of Peyton. Well she turned three just a week ago and much to her delight and her parents fear she is now a little lady. The things that come out of her mouth have me smiling constantly even when she is in trouble, I try to bite my lips but can't help it she is just to funny. It is Drama Drama Drama all the time in her little world. Her newest thing, at the moment is that she pretends that she is falling down all the time. Like ALL the time. At least 10 times a day she will be walking and all the sudden she "pretends" to fall down and cry's out for help in the most dramatic fashion. The only explanation we can come up with for this behavior is that her one year old sister is starting to learn to walk and falls down a lot and she would like to have some of that attention on her as well. (as if she doesn't get enough already).
In the past few months she has found (much to my delight) the joy of watching and making home videos. She has learned that my phone can make a video so often once Amber goes to bed she asks me to record her dancing or singing on my phone and then she will watch over and over and just laugh and laugh. I am not sure how well she understand the concept of our home videos because often when we are watching tv she will come in the room and look at the tv and say "Mom is that you on the tv?" The other night we were watching Olympic Ice skating and she said "mommy look at you skating! you are doing such a good job?" I said "Why thank you!" :0)
Some of her favorite things at the moment are Sausage (don't know how this started but it is one of the only things she will eat) WordWorld (A TV show all about words! Its wonderful because its teaching her some of the fundamentals of reading through songs and phrases. I will catch her singing them sometimes and it blows me away.) Riding her bike (not just down hill anymore) The other day she road her bike around the whole park! And Gymnastics! The thing she lives for week after week. She can now walk across a high balance beam all by herself, swing on the rings, and jump from a high platform into a foam pit with no fear! This week will be her last class in the mommy and me level. Starting next month her teacher thinks that she is ready to move on to the next level! I am such a proud mommy. She is working so hard and listens so well during class. I think I might just shed a tear on her first day of class when I will be sitting on the sidelines just watching her do it all by herself without moms help. She is growing up way to fast!
Lastly, This morning we were rushing out the door because we were running late to Bible study and as I was putting Amber in the car I yelled for Peyton to get in the car too but, no such luck, so I turned to grab her and I saw that she was standing on our porch railing stretching on her tiptoes to peer over the side and with a look of amazement and said. "Mommy I can see the whole world from up here!" My first thought was to grab her from that railing and briskly walk her to the car saying "no you don't the world is much bigger than what you can see from that railing!" But than I caught myself, and for just a moment I tried to imagine what it would be like to be able to behold and dwell in the beauty of the world that was just outside my porch railing. What kind of peace would I find in the cool sea breeze, or the beautiful tall oak trees that give our little house shade, or the fact that on a clear day you can see the ocean from our porch and what about spending sometime in awe and wonder over the thickness of the morning fog. So instead I picked Peyton up and together looking at the view from our porch railing I said "Yea...isn't it amazing!"
May you find safety and peace from the view of your porch railing today!
In the past few months she has found (much to my delight) the joy of watching and making home videos. She has learned that my phone can make a video so often once Amber goes to bed she asks me to record her dancing or singing on my phone and then she will watch over and over and just laugh and laugh. I am not sure how well she understand the concept of our home videos because often when we are watching tv she will come in the room and look at the tv and say "Mom is that you on the tv?" The other night we were watching Olympic Ice skating and she said "mommy look at you skating! you are doing such a good job?" I said "Why thank you!" :0)
Some of her favorite things at the moment are Sausage (don't know how this started but it is one of the only things she will eat) WordWorld (A TV show all about words! Its wonderful because its teaching her some of the fundamentals of reading through songs and phrases. I will catch her singing them sometimes and it blows me away.) Riding her bike (not just down hill anymore) The other day she road her bike around the whole park! And Gymnastics! The thing she lives for week after week. She can now walk across a high balance beam all by herself, swing on the rings, and jump from a high platform into a foam pit with no fear! This week will be her last class in the mommy and me level. Starting next month her teacher thinks that she is ready to move on to the next level! I am such a proud mommy. She is working so hard and listens so well during class. I think I might just shed a tear on her first day of class when I will be sitting on the sidelines just watching her do it all by herself without moms help. She is growing up way to fast!
Lastly, This morning we were rushing out the door because we were running late to Bible study and as I was putting Amber in the car I yelled for Peyton to get in the car too but, no such luck, so I turned to grab her and I saw that she was standing on our porch railing stretching on her tiptoes to peer over the side and with a look of amazement and said. "Mommy I can see the whole world from up here!" My first thought was to grab her from that railing and briskly walk her to the car saying "no you don't the world is much bigger than what you can see from that railing!" But than I caught myself, and for just a moment I tried to imagine what it would be like to be able to behold and dwell in the beauty of the world that was just outside my porch railing. What kind of peace would I find in the cool sea breeze, or the beautiful tall oak trees that give our little house shade, or the fact that on a clear day you can see the ocean from our porch and what about spending sometime in awe and wonder over the thickness of the morning fog. So instead I picked Peyton up and together looking at the view from our porch railing I said "Yea...isn't it amazing!"
May you find safety and peace from the view of your porch railing today!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Birthdays, Birthdays and more Birthdays....
So it's Birthday season here at the Kertson household. For those of you who don't know already...all four of our birthdays are within a month of each other, only two weeks separating each with Brandon starting the extravaganza on Dec. 31st, Ambers being Jan. 13th, Mine Jan 27th and lastly Peyton's being Feb. 8th. (Poor Peyton...this is the first year she actually understands her birthday and is soooooooooo looking forward to it and has had to watch all her other family members birthdays go by before hers.) So there you have it...poor planning...or just no planning...however you want to put it, that is our situation. So with this situation comes many challenges, the first of course is the money issue...especially after the Holidays things are a bit tight. Before Amber was born I didn't see this as such a huge crisis. Brandon and I were willing to take a back seat to presents and things on our birthdays so save up money for presents and parties on Peyton's birthday but that little plan soon went out the window a year later when a new little gift came along in the form of Amber in January. So now we have delicate decisions to make regarding how we celebrate birthdays. Now I understand that there are the kinds of people who grew up in households where birthdays were not a huge deal but I WAS NOT ONE OF THEM, so Birthdays are big for me. I want to go all out and make them special so that is why I am struggling with our situation.
So how are we handling it this year you ask? Well...as a good friend (who shall remain nameless) has pointed out...not well. It all started with this idea that seemed to make a lot of sense to me, here it is: invite the same amount of friends to your child's party as the age they are turning that year. So when Amber's 1st birthday rolled around we invited her ONE best buddy Micah and his family over for dinner and cake. It was a nice evening...very different then Peyton's first birthday where there was 30+ plus people and lots and lots of presents (not that that was not fun too) but following this new rule I tried it out. Unfair to Amber? I don't know...At the moment I don't think she knew the difference. All she knew was that she got to play with balloons and people sat around and watched her eat cake. (which was homemade with less sugar...different then peyton's store bought chocolate cake which put her in a sugar coma. Unfair too?) Will Amber ask why she didn't get a big 1st birthday party like Peyton did when she is 16 and looking at family photos? That I don't know...
When it came time to plan Peyton's party I started it with the new rule in mind although I knew I had to fudge it by two. Inviting five friends and their families. I blame it on being apart of a wonderful church family where peyton attends play group on Friday and Sunday school on Sunday and has accumulated some very close friends that she speaks of on a daily basis by name so we could not pick three and leave the other two out. Well some how in the last couple weeks the guest list has grown to somewhere around 30 people!!! How this happened...well once again...I blame it on our wonderful life where we have so many wonderful friends that love peyton and want to celebrate her. Unfair to Amber? Maybe...but at this point what has been done this year has been done. But it takes good friends to make you think...so that it what I am doing in this blog. Thinking. I know in my heart I do not favor one of my children more than the other and I only had their best interest at heart in the planning of their birthdays. Next year will bring even more challenges as Amber grows and starts to understand her birthday we are going to have to decide how this is going to go down and how it is going to go down fairly. So any suggestions would greatly be appreciated. Obviously for me I want to throw them both individual birthday parties and make them feel loved and celebrated. I hate the thought of them having to have combined birthday parties for the rest of their childhood but as anyone knows who has planned a birthday party before they are freakin expensive!!!! So what to do....what to do. Well I guess I dwell on it all year and hope to come up with a fair yet wonderful solution for next year. Again any suggestions are much appreciated!!! and don't worry another little gift to arrive in the winter months is NOT in the plan this year....and yes there is a plan! :)
So how are we handling it this year you ask? Well...as a good friend (who shall remain nameless) has pointed out...not well. It all started with this idea that seemed to make a lot of sense to me, here it is: invite the same amount of friends to your child's party as the age they are turning that year. So when Amber's 1st birthday rolled around we invited her ONE best buddy Micah and his family over for dinner and cake. It was a nice evening...very different then Peyton's first birthday where there was 30+ plus people and lots and lots of presents (not that that was not fun too) but following this new rule I tried it out. Unfair to Amber? I don't know...At the moment I don't think she knew the difference. All she knew was that she got to play with balloons and people sat around and watched her eat cake. (which was homemade with less sugar...different then peyton's store bought chocolate cake which put her in a sugar coma. Unfair too?) Will Amber ask why she didn't get a big 1st birthday party like Peyton did when she is 16 and looking at family photos? That I don't know...
When it came time to plan Peyton's party I started it with the new rule in mind although I knew I had to fudge it by two. Inviting five friends and their families. I blame it on being apart of a wonderful church family where peyton attends play group on Friday and Sunday school on Sunday and has accumulated some very close friends that she speaks of on a daily basis by name so we could not pick three and leave the other two out. Well some how in the last couple weeks the guest list has grown to somewhere around 30 people!!! How this happened...well once again...I blame it on our wonderful life where we have so many wonderful friends that love peyton and want to celebrate her. Unfair to Amber? Maybe...but at this point what has been done this year has been done. But it takes good friends to make you think...so that it what I am doing in this blog. Thinking. I know in my heart I do not favor one of my children more than the other and I only had their best interest at heart in the planning of their birthdays. Next year will bring even more challenges as Amber grows and starts to understand her birthday we are going to have to decide how this is going to go down and how it is going to go down fairly. So any suggestions would greatly be appreciated. Obviously for me I want to throw them both individual birthday parties and make them feel loved and celebrated. I hate the thought of them having to have combined birthday parties for the rest of their childhood but as anyone knows who has planned a birthday party before they are freakin expensive!!!! So what to do....what to do. Well I guess I dwell on it all year and hope to come up with a fair yet wonderful solution for next year. Again any suggestions are much appreciated!!! and don't worry another little gift to arrive in the winter months is NOT in the plan this year....and yes there is a plan! :)
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