MommyCoddle

am I a modern mom?

Does your library have these newfangled "playaway" devices? These digital audiobook recordings that you can check out? Well, our library has recently introduced them--a hand held ipod-looking device that has a book already loaded on to it. You just plug in your earbuds and listen.

My children have been hounding me about them since the posters started going up in the library and I've really been dragging my feet. I rarely allow the girls to listen to my iPod, though they beg all the time. They have to be really sick, or really pathetic-looking in order for me to give in. Just the sight of them walking around tuned out to the world, plugged in to something else kind of gets to me. It's similar to the whole zone-out in front of the TV thing.

But last night after a homeschooling meeting at the library, I was browsing for some things to bring home to the girls, and there in front of me was the "playaway" for A Cricket in Times Square, the book Emma and I just finished reading, and another easier-read that Mary would be able to enjoy.

And I folded. I stuck those little devices in my bag and checked out.

You can imagine the squealing and excitement that "mom brought iPods home from the library!" when I arrived home last night before bed. Batteries were checked and replaced, earbuds were untangled, buttons were explained, and "ipods" were set out carefully on bedside tables for morning.

This morning, two girls emerged at my bedside, talking extremely loud with wires trailing from their earlobes. Ugh! Am I a modern mom? I don't think I'm there yet.

I'm reminded of this fantastic post by Stefani. Now I just have to think of my "hook" to bring them back to my "little house on the prairie"-fantasy world that I want to live in.

On a more serious and important note, I hope you will take a moment to check out the important NieNie Auction going on at design mom. Amy asked me to share it with all of you. She thinks highly of you all, my dear readers, and hopes you can take a moment to help out. I was unfamiliar with Stephanie's story until this week. She tugs at my heart and demands my continual prayers. Please take a look.

Wishing you a wonderful, long weekend. xo.

a much needed little lesson

I haven't taken the time to write about it here, but it has been a bit of a rocky ride since Elizabeth was born. A cloud of "abnormal test results" has been hanging over us since the first day we brought her home from the hospital. We got the call from our pediatrician to tell us that her hospital PKU tests were abnormal and that we had to come in the next day for another test.
More heel pricks. More screaming baby. More waiting.
Then the second test also came back abnormal and we were thrown into a whirlwind of possible problems, and complicated predictions for the future. One of the hardest things with a newborn is fear of the unknown and we were definitely a little spooked.
Our next step in the process of finding answers was to seek out the help of a geneticist at John's Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. They gave us probably the best, most caring, attentive medical care I've ever received. And within one day had done more blood work, answered all of our questions and passed on the  blessed news that all the previous tests were false positives. Elizabeth was going to be just fine.

Of course, it's easy to be thankful when you're on the happy side of a potential problem. But that day, sitting in the pediatric hospital with our presumed "abnormal" baby, I was thankful. I looked around me at the children--some sick, some handicapped, some hooked up to IV juices, some tiny newborns like Elizabeth--and I was overcome with thankfulness. Even though we potentially had some problems ahead, there was still much to be thankful for. I was thankful for my two children at home--healthy and happy--and I was thankful for little Elizabeth. I don't think I take enough moments to be grateful for those blessings.
And I also looked around me at those parents sitting beside me in the pediatric clinic--still smiling, still managing to be upbeat and joyful with their children--and I realized I was in the presence of some real-life heroes. And I'll bet they manage to find a little thankfulness in life as well.
A much needed little lesson.

A High Calling

"...that our God may make you worthy of His calling..."
This verse has been on my mind a lot these last few days...God's calling, being worthy of God's calling. I have always thought of a calling as something in the future, something to do, somewhere to go, something better and more important than what I'm doing now. But reading this verse it struck me that THIS is my calling-- what I'm doing today, yesterday, tomorrow. My calling is being a mother, wife, homemaker.
God has called me to care for the souls of these two little girls, to teach them, love them, protect them, discipline them. He has called me to love Dan unconditionally, to honor and encourage him. He has called me to take care of my home, to keep it, decorate it, and make it a place of refuge and fellowship. This is a portion of what I wrote in my journal yesterday:

"it struck me that this, being a mother, is my calling....not trying to be something I am not, not trying to accomplish things that just aren't possible at this season in my life, filling my day with my 'me agenda'. That is not to say that I can't pursue my interests, but I need to hold them in perspective with what God has called me to: being a mother, a wife, a homemaker. But God in His care of all of me and all of my life has also given me talents, interests and hobbies--things that make life pretty, rich, beautiful: sewing, knitting, gardening, cooking, music...They are things that bring joy and adventure to life, treasures and skills to pass on to my children. They are a part of my calling..."

This is a high calling. It is doing laundry, scouring my sink, making dinner, taking Emma around the block on her bike, showing Mary where her nose is, putting fresh flowers from my garden at the kitchen table, changing diapers, reading stories, packing lunches. It is realizing that each day holds something new. This calling is no less important than that of a pastor or a missionary or a business man. It is a high calling, the care of souls, the loving of a man, the creation of a sanctuary.