Snow Week

Ahhh... the first snow of the year! Welcome winter! :)

Grace

The Greek word usually translated "grace" is charis. A year or so ago, I came upon the following definition in a Bible study I was doing at the time.That which affords grace, joy, pleasure, delight, kindness, sweetness, charm and loveliness. And - The merciful kindness of God, by which He exerts His holy influence on our souls, keeps, strengthens and increases us in faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles us to the exercise of the Christian virtues. I loved that definition. In fact, I loved it so much I wanted to name Raina, Charis Abigail. Erik vetoed it. :)

During the last few years, as I have faced my own sinfulness as a mother, and sought the Lord's mercy and His wisdom to grow and change, I have read a lot of books, and sifted through a lot of philosophies and streams of parenting thought. And it is this word - Charis - that has become my own simplified parenting mission.

My little girls - as sweet and funny as they are - are sinners. They need God's grace! They can't obey God's law. So, they need a Savior. They hear that message from my lips dozens of times each day. ( "Elisa, can you obey Mommy perfectly on your own?" "No, Mommy." "Can Mommy obey Jesus perfectly on her own?" "No." "You're right. Both of us are sinners. But who obeyed perfectly?" "Jesus!" )And Jesus - in His beautiful, matchless, overwhelming kindness - died on the cross in the stead of lost sinners like my little girls and me. That's the first part of grace. Jesus, taking on our sins, and restoring our relationship to the Father by his sacrificial death. Jesus - loving us in our sinful state and reaching out to us in love - before we loved Him. Offering a free gift of salvation to those who believe.

The second part of grace is the engracing of the Holy Spirit in the lives and hearts of believers. God's grace is at work in the hearts of Christians - enabling us to walk in His ways - to turn from sin - to do the work He has given us. So my girls hear that message, too. Elisa has professed a belief in Christ. She asked Jesus to come into her heart - unprompted - a few months ago. And, while we don't necessarily assume her salvation - we do talk to her in such a way that we validate her choice. So - when she sins (which is often, believe me!:)), the line of questioning continues. "You can't obey on your own. But who can help you obey?" "Jesus." "Let's ask him to help you obey Mommy better (or act more kindly, or consider your sister above yourself, or have gentle hands or whatever)." And we pray.

I'm not explaining this well - but basically our philosophy of discipline and training boils down to teaching our girls those two aspects of grace. The glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ's shed blood for lost sinners. And the power of Christ to change our hearts and help us walk rightly. On a moment by moment basis, my discipline doesn't always look like that - although I try. Sometimes, I rush up to fighting children, grab the toy or book they are squabbling over and say in exasperation "If you are going to fight, no one gets it!" And then whirl around with the book over my head. :)

I hope that gentle, consistent discipling of our girls will lead to a decreased need for consequences and correction - but absolutely that need still exists. In our house, the consequence aspect of discipline mostly involves logical behavioral consequences. I don't believe the Bible teaches that all acts of disobedience must be corrected with physical discipline, and we choose to only use spanking when our kids willfully defy other correction. For instance, if I take away the toy as a consequence and Sadie throws a fit, kicks me, and screams. (Thankfully, that doesn't happen too often.) I'm not saying that's the right way to discipline, but it's the way we have prayerfully chosen.

I love my kids. They bring me so much joy. And I am so thankful to the Lord for them - and for how He uses parenting to teach me about His character and His grace. It's amazing. I have so far to go, and I fail so often. But I also love sharing what God is teaching us, so please don't take my words as any indication that I think we have it figured out. We definitely don't.

Here are a few of my personal favorite parenting books:

Shepherding A Child's Heart - Tedd Tripp
Heartfelt Discipline - Clay Clarkson
The Mission of Motherhood - Sally Clarkson (and its sequel The Ministry of Motherhood)
Don't make me Count to Three - Ginger Plowman
Everyday Talk - John Younts (still reading this one. It is awesome!)
Sacred Parenting - Gary Thomas

Enjoying the journey of being a mother - and hoping you are too! (well, if you are a mother, that is!:)

September with our Cousins

Amy and Forrest came to spend two weeks here in Jackson - arriving September 17 and departing October 1. What a blessing to have them here! Forrest and Erik spent one week hunting on horseback (actually, they used horses to pack in, and then walked to actually hunt), while Amy and I explored Jackson with our five little munchkins. We had so much fun during our weeks together! Here are oodles of photos to tell the stories! :)

Day One - Saturday. A hike to Jenny Lake - our third this summer.



Last huckleberries of the season

Fingerpainting at home.


Hike with Jenn Green and kiddos Sunday afternoon.

Kids running ahead

Our five sweet kiddos, dressed in coordinating outfits from Michelle

Big girl Elisa

Is she eating him or kissing him? :)

Raina's first solid foods - at 6 1/2 months. Earlier than I've started with my other girls, and she loves it! This bite was carrots. Now she has sampled squash, green beans, peas, zucchini, prunes, and pears.

At the park - Tuesday

Sweet baby girls

Sadie Pearl

Library Story Hour with friends

The Sub Shop - local favorite

Jackson Lake Lodge - Wednesday

Moose Visitor's Center

Moving pictures on the floor

Thursday - Birthday tea. 22 kids in the backyard!

Princess Selah Ruth

Little Raina-bean

the grown-ups table

Preschool outing to the Rockefellar Preserve on Friday! Beautiful.

Sadie - ambling along

Ephraim with his explorer backpack. They were filled with colored pencils, journals, magnifying glasses, etc.

Reading stories after our picnic lunch





The next week - at Targhee Resort in Idaho

Wednesday of Week 2 - String Lake hike with Amy and Forrest

Brr!

At the creek by Grandma's house

The Arnold family

Ephraim in the Land Cruiser.

We loved having you here!

Last Hurrah

Summer is fading here in Jackson. Today we walked outside wearing fleece and wishing we had mittens. I know there will be more warm days, but fall is definitely on its way. I thought I would post a few photos of one of our last summer hurrahs. I have been trying to fit in adventures and fun while summer lasts. We have enjoyed trips to the fountain park at Teton Village (the ski resort), where they also have an outdoor story hour at 5 PM on Tuesdays. I never remembered my camera, unfortunately. So fun. We've been loving our bike. We love the park and our backyard and our friends' backyards. :) It has been such a wonderful summer.

On Friday, we met my friend Jenn, her two daughters and her brave mom up in the national park. We rode our bikes along the bike path to Jenny Lake, where we hopped on the locals-free ferry across the lake. Then we hiked with all five girls about a mile to Hidden Falls - a very popular tourist trail. We picnicked, picked loads of yummy huckleberries and then took the boat back across. Sadie and Zoe conked out in the Chariots on the bike ride back to our cars. Then - to cap it off, we got ice cream on the way home! It was an epic, all-day, amazingly fun adventure. I was tired.

And- my hubby wanted to camp that night. So, when we arrived home, I threw together camp food, clothes, and a quick dinner, and Erik loaded the car with our gear. We ended up only camping for about 13 hours, as evening and morning were punctuated with lots of thunder and lighting and bursts of rain. Still - we managed another trip, and my ever optimistic husband was blessed! :)



Trinity and my girls - looking at the waterfall after their long, brave hike to the top.

Our whole crew. Can you tell both my girls have band-aids? We took a few tumbles on the rocky path.

Elisa searching for huckleberries. Yum! They were so good. Sorry, bears, if we ate your stash.

This isn't from that day, but I thought I'd stick another photo of the bike set-up with me hauling. Elisa does such a great job.

For the Love of Books

A few days ago, I was picking raspberries in a backyard garden belonging to my friend's mom. Hanging on her clothesline was a fabric clothespin bag bearing this C.S. Lewis quote.

"There has never been a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit my tastes."

Amen, Clive Staples. I love it!

For the love of books and tea, I am dearly excited that we are beginning our "Five in A Row" preschool curriculum this week. Crisp new picture books line the shelves in our school room, waiting to be opened - one a week -as we explore the world through literature.

Mondays - Social Studies.
Tuesdays - Art
Wednesdays - Language Arts and Bible
Fridays - Science and Math.
All based on fun, beautifully illustrated children's literature. Thursdays we are taking off for adventure and friends - so I guess we are really doing Four In A Row. :) It's a fabulous program, and I am really excited! We read the same book each day and then follow it with lessons and projects that are drawn from the story. If you want to check it out, visit fiveinarow.com. We will also be supplementing this simple curriculum with a basic Pre-K phonics lesson for Elisa. That curriculum is from Winter Promise, another home-school company with great, literature based lessons.



First day of school - impish little Sadie-girl

Elisa Joy

My precious tagalong

Why do we want to homeschool? Obviously, a love of books is a strong pull for me. I want my kids to love learning as they discover life in story form. I love the idea of teaching history through narrative, living books, rather than textbooks. There are, however, many more important reasons. :) I am a little bit tentative to share our thoughts because I don't want to sound as though I believe the path we are choosing is the only "right" one. We certainly know many godly families who have evaluated the same factors and made different choices about how to school their little ones. We think homeschooling is the clear path God is setting before us as a family - but we know He leads others differently. That said:

• We want our teaching - and our kids' learning - to be centered around Biblical truth. The truth that math exists because God created order and logic. That the world is full of scientific miracles because God is marvelously creative. That every question and situation throughout history highlights sin and fallen man's need for a Savior.
  
• We want to be the primary influences in our girls' hearts. We feel strongly that a big part of our role as parents is to protect the hearts of our children from ungodly influences. They don't need - as young children - to be in the world. Their little hearts and minds are still soft and impressionable, and we as their parents want to be the ones shaping their worldview and instilling Biblical values. And then, as they grow older, we pray the Holy Spirit will draw them into a saving faith.
  
• We believe God calls parents to be teachers. Deuteronomy 6 is clear that we need to be speaking to our children of the things of the Lord, day in and day out - when they rise up and when they lie down. Certainly we can do that even if our kids are in school during the day, but the time is more limited.
  
• We want our family relationships to be the most important relationships our kids have. We want our daughters to be best friends. While they absolutely have other social interaction and grow friendships outside of our home, sisters need to come first.

This week's book is "Storm in the Night." Elisa has the first few weeks memorized (the order we get to read the much-anticipated new books). I know there will be days when Raina's nap is short, and I am juggling a crying baby, an antsy toddler, and an impatient pre-schooler, but I feel so blessed to be able to do this with my girls. And we aren't even in kindergarten yet! :)


Developing my own love of books - I have been building a list of "must-reads." I am going to post it for two reasons. One -to suggest birthday gifts for my upcoming 30th birthday. :) Hee hee. Two - because I keep losing the handwritten list and I don't want to forget!

John MacArthur - A Simple Christianity (I already have this one)
Farley - Gospel-Powered Parenting
Joshua Harris - Dug Down Deep
Leslie Ludy - The Lost Art of True Beauty
Paul David Tripp - Instruments in the Redeemer's Hand (I can borrow this one)
Martha Peace - An Excellent Wife and A Faithful Parent
Dave Harvey - When Sinners Say I Do
Younts - Easy Talk
Clarkson - Educating the Whole-Hearted Child
Grubb - Rees Howells: Intercessor
Tedd Tripp - Instructing A Child's Heart

I know I am a little silly - but every time I read one book, I find a handful of others that sound interesting in that author's notes. So - I had to make and then narrow a list. :)

Maybe I need another bookshelf.

Elisa's First Report Card... and other Summertime Fun

It's cliche and redundant... but it's true. Time flies! And time with the third baby especially flies in comparison with the first and second. I can hardly believe my sweet little Raina is five months old. I want to hold tightly to this fistful of precious moments... but they are still passing me by. My Raina-girl weighs about 15 pounds. She rolls back and forth from tummy to back to tummy. She sits with help. She sleeps twelve hours at night and eats five times a day. She laughs - contagiously. She puts up with constant, in-her-face attention from two big sisters. And she brings us joy every moment of the day.

Many have asked me whether the transition to three has been easier or more difficult than the transition to two. Erik and I give different answers. :) I know that I rely on his help more than I did when it was just Elisa and Sadie. So, for him, the transition has been more hands-on, more intense. For me, in the day-to-day, it has been simpler. Instead of trying to entertain the older one while feeding the baby, I am settling squabbles from my rocking chair. Raina is a happy, schlepped along little munchkin. She just gets tucked in my arms and we follow the big kids through their routines. I am so thankful that my beautiful girl has also proven sweetly unflappable.

It is interesting how you adapt as a mother through the years. Hopefully that adaptation is growth and maturity and not backsliding. :) I remember being pregnant with Ellie and just thinking that I would know everything instinctually. I was so thrilled to be bearing life, and it all seemed natural and easy... until I brought her home and realized how many simple decisions you have to make daily, and how those small choices add up to a sort of backbone philosophy or method that becomes the new framework for every future choice. In many ways, each new child has been "easier," simply because that gentle framework and mission is already in place, and I find myself stressing far less over the unimportant details as I allow myself to simply love my little ones by God's grace.

We have been busy -- hosting family, enjoying the sunshine, swim class, camping trips, bike rides... It seems surreal that it is now August and I am starting to plan for fall. :) Trying to enjoy each blessed moment.


Elisa swimming. Isn't she big? Her "report card" from today, the last day, was filled with Es and Gs. (Excellent and Good) She is clear to move up to the next level - from Guppies to Polliwogs. Anyone know what a Polliwog is?

I was so proud of her. She learned so much!

A June tea party with a lot of frilly little ladies.

A group date to the shooting range. I shot only once. Not my cup of tea, or Becca's (on the right). But Dancy grew up in Texas and took shooting lessons. She even showed up the guys. :)

Camping up the Buffalo Fork.





With Nana at Jackson Lake