It might be a Clue....

That I need to do more housework. Or maybe just more public mopping.

Yesterday we drove Sir all the way to work, I did half my grocery shopping, washed two loads of laundry, ran the dishwasher once, bathed one kid, changed a wet bed, swept half the house, cleaned the master bathroom and mopped 4 ½ floors. That was aside from the usual stuff like keeping the peace, picking Sir up from the skytrain, making meals and changing diapers.

Anyway, I was mopping my bedroom floor after dinner when Dolly happened upon me:

Dolly: Hi Mommy, what are you doing?
Me: Cleaning up.
Dolly: Why are you mopping the floor?
Me: Because it needs to be done.
Dolly (still sounding puzzled)Did somebody throw up?

That's when it dawned on me that my kids don't see me do very much floor mopping around here. It gets done eventually (I use the word liberally), but usually it's after they've gone to bed in order to save my sanity while the floors dry.

Now I need to go put today's groceries away. Hmmm... I should probably go dump the mop water too, before some kid thinks it's a great place to float something.

At Long Last...

"Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only."
James 1:22

Well, Butler is now 2 years and 4 months, and I'm just getting his pictures out. At least his 2 year pictures were taken on his birthday (which is pretty good for me), but I've been working on getting everyone else's late pictures out, and now it's finally Butler's turn.

I spent waaay too much on these pictures, but I really loved some of the other poses. They conveyed quite a bit of Butler's personality, but you couldn't see his face. BUT, the good news is, that I was able to put the usually useless 'mini size' pictures useful!!! I love practicality. I cut the little mini size pictures down and glued them onto the pictures where you couldn't see my little man's face, and the result was 16 extra wallets that are little collages! After all, who really wants a mini picture any more? This way, I get rid of the mini pictures for a change, and whoever gets the pictures, gets two for one!

Anyway, Butler is always on the go. He loves to jump - off of things, that is. And the higher he can go, the better. One of these days he's gonna break something and I don't mean his surroundings. He's very opinionated, and everything has to be according to how it was first ordained. Woe to the sibling who thinks they can get away with compromise when Butler is around! But he's also very sweet, and can be quite a little charmer when he feels like it. Particularly if I'm slicing olives or kiwi's or avocados. He's happy to flutter his eyelashes and give me a kiss for every single morsel he can wheedle from me. I'm enjoying it while I can, because one day he's going to be too grown up to give me spontaneous baby hugs or great big slobbery kisses.

I especially love his latest phrase of encouragement directed to me. If I'm doing something he thinks is commendable such as helping him zip up his jacket before he asks me to, or if I'm bringing an armload of firewood inside, or sometimes even if I'm just checking whatever dinner is cooking in the oven, he'll say in almost an awe-struck tone of voice, "Good boy, Mommy! Good job!!" Hey, I don't care if the shoe doesn't fit all the way... I'll wear that one any day!

However there are a few angles of Butler that are not so sweet and adorable. In other words, you can definitely tell that he's two years old sometimes. Some of the battles we have leave me wondering if we'll ever get through this stage. Sometimes I can't decide if he's actually more of a handful than the previous kids at this age, or if I'm just busier and it just seems that way. Maybe it's a combination of both. The good thing is, it is a phase, and eventually we'll be on to the next one!

Anyway, while I was posting pictures of Butler, I thought I might as well include the previous set that got lost in the chaos of life. These were supposed to be his 18 month pictures, but the one weekend in May that I could have gotten them taken on, snuck up on me by surprise and I just didn't get it done. Then I played the 'wait till the schedule is a little free-er' game, but things weren't slowing down any.

Before I knew it, Ricka had come early and it was all about adjusting to one more addition. I finally got Butler's picture taken in the middle of July (right when it was time for Ricka's one month pictures and PC's 5yr. pictures) and he was already 20 months old. So close to 2 years, that it almost seemed pointless, but I figured I'd probably wish I'd done later on if I skipped them. Then it took me so long to get them ready to give away, it was already time for his 2 year pictures so I put them away and still have the complete package. Kids grow so fast, their pictures get outdated without any help from me, but here they are anyway.

Butler's 18mo (actually 20 months)Picture

"Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."
2 Corinthians 6:2

"O Happy Day!"

A few weeks ago, on the drive home from school, PC said to me, "Mommy, when I grow up, I want to be a Christian so I can tell people about the Lord Jesus." "PC, if you are saved, you are already a Christian." I told him. "And you can tell people about the Lord Jesus even when you're a kid." "But I want to tell people about the Lord Jesus every day for my work." He explained and then after a minute he asked, "Do you think if I tell a policeman about the Lord Jesus, he would get me?" "You mean, would you be arrested?" I asked. "Yeah." PC answered. I almost laughed, but realized he was very worried about this."No," I told him, "it's not against the law to be a Christian here. Some people won't like to be told about Him, but you won't be arrested for telling people that God loves them."

So, since then one of PC's main projects has been to convince me to take him out to pass out gospel tracts. He's been diligently folding and trimming tracts every chance he gets. When we get 100 finished, I told him, we'd walk through the neighborhoods and hand them out. But his other concern was Emma. Almost every day, he would tell her she needed to get saved. He'd tell her exactly what she needed to do, but she would just agree with him and not make any profession. This has been going on for months and many times, PC would come to me in tears because he was afraid she wouldn't accept his Saviour as her own. Every time, I would tell him to just keep praying for her.

This morning, Emma came up to me and said, "Mommy! I said to the Lord Jesus, 'O, Lord Jesus, can you please wash my sins away? Because I is a sinner. Now I can sing, O Happy Day!" She could barely hold still. "Did you tell PC?" I asked her and she dashed off to tell him the very same thing she'd told me. Now they're all singing, "Oh happy day, oh Happy day! When Jesus washed my sins away!" over and over and over at the tops of their lungs. And it's wonderful!

"Pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
James 5:16

"And they brought unto Him also infants, that He would touch them: but when His disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein."
Luke 18:15-17