Lately in the Heeremobile we have been listening to Beverly Cleary’s books on CD and it’s been so fun to relive some of those books that I read when I was little. Cleary’s writing about everyday life through the eyes of a third grade boy and a 4 year old girl really come to life. I read Otis Spofford out loud to Elena at rest time, and I can honestly say that I feel like I might understand the mind of a third grade boy a little better now. Matt has even found himself caught up in the storyline when in the van while we’re enjoying one of the audiobooks.

It’s also been fun for me to listen to the books after the recent release of the new Ramona and Beezus movie. Seeing a contemporary take on Klickitat street and the neighbor Henry makes me smile (or laugh hysterically, as my sister can attest to!).

Any other 3-5 year old-appropriate audio books we should check out as the next round of holiday travelling approaches?

Today marks three weeks since Anna’s birth.  She passed her birth weight (7 lbs., 15 oz.) at her 2 week appointment, weighing in at 8 lbs., 4 oz. which made her mama very, very happy since she had lost the full 10% of her birth weight in the hospital and we had some catching up to do.  She’s eating well, and sleeping fairly well considering she’s only 3 weeks old.  I was all ready to brag her up after she had slept well for over a week of only two middle-of-the-night feedings, but of course babies like to keep ya hoppin’: last night she was up until 3:30 and then awake again at 5.  During the day, though, she’s been a very easy-going baby like her sister Kate was.

The sister adjustment has been going surprisingly well here, too.  I feel like God has been very gracious in allowing our big girls to continue to be excited about Anna being here and not becoming resentful about receiving less attention from mom and dad.  They are still regularly asking to hold her, help change diapers, and help give her baths.  Kate says, “She’s my beeeeeest BABY!”

Some of you may know that I had a c-section with Anna (my first c-section) at the advice of my doctors after some difficulties in recovering from Kate and Elena’s births.  I knew I was up for a completely different recovery with Anna’s birth, but overall I’ve been really pleased with how things have gone.  I was able to be completely off all pain medicine by about day 10 and am, in general, feeling really well but just lacking energy.  I was all excited about a trip to Target last Friday with the whole fam and we got halfway through and I was just about done in.  After Elena’s birth, several older women had told me that I could either spend 6 weeks taking life slower and recovering, or I would end up needing 6 months to really recover, so with all of our girls I’ve tried to take things slower during this time.  We had a bunch of help from my mom during the first few weeks which was a huge boost to my sanity, and I also had some help from friends and family with rides last week before I was cleared to drive again.

We’re looking forward to tackling some more life adventures with our three ladies!

About three years ago, Matt came home from some far-and-away business travels all excited about eating sushi. I was definitely, um, hesitant to say the least about trying it, but after a taste, I realized that it was something for which I could probably develop a taste. Eventually, spider rolls (fried soft-shell crab…no real spider in it ;) ) became my favorite but I still turned up my nose at the actual raw fish rolls. But recently, I have turned over to the dark side…and now I really, really like the raw fish stuff. Matt and I now drool at the mention of a fancy rainbow roll. Good sushi is definitely not a budget food, so to tide us over between visits to our favorite local spot, Matt has become very adept at making homemade California rolls. They’re definitely not fancy, but we love them!

We have yet to find a really good source of sushi-grade fish (as in here in Ames…any hints, anyone?) so we just use what we fondly call “Krabb” (imitation crab). And yes, we like to spell it out when we talk about it. :) A little avocado, cucumber, seasoned rice and KRABB on nori (seaweed paper) and don’t forget the sesame seed! DeLISH!

In my previous post I mentioned The Jesus Storybook Bible, by Sally Lloyd-Jones and illustrated by Jago. I think that some of my friends might be tired of hearing me talk about it because I get so excited about it!

Originally, I read about it last summer and the high praise was echoed several other places when we decided to check this out. Matt and I were so impressed with how Sally Lloyd-Jones gets to the heart of both of the Old Testament and New Testament Bible stories. Her tagline to the title is “Every story whispers his name” which says it perfectly: she brings out so beautifully how the Old Testament accounts point to Jesus. Her words are simple enough for our three-year-old to understand, but woven together in such a way that Matt and I have both found tears in our eyes at different times while reading this aloud. You can check out the deluxe version to hear an audio sample of the account of creation to get a feel for her writing style.

I’ve given this Bible as a birthday gift and also as a baby shower gift. You might say, “Well, isn’t a Bible a bit down the road for a baby?” If you have given birth, you probably are familiar with the exhaustion haze that comes from being up at all hours with a newborn. This is the perfect way to provide a new mom with something encouraging (but not too brainy!) to read at this time.

Adults will find Jago’s illustrations intriguingly artsy and kids will be drawn to the emotion in the characters’ faces. Our daughter will ask, “Why does he look so sad?”

Although this is definitely the first recommendation out of my mouth when someone asks about a children’s Bible (or a gift in general!), I’m just excited about getting (almost) any Bible in the hands of kids and their parents. In case you’re looking for something slightly different, we also own this board book Bible, this children’s Bible (which has simple discussion questions), and this children’s Bible that goes into a bit more detail. However, in clearly communicating the gospel, I feel like this one is tops.

After I saw this YouTube video today, I was thinking about my own experience of how seeing my sin more clearly has made me see the gospel in a completely different light. Dr. Piper says it so well:

I would say that I’ve been a Christian since about age 6, when I “asked Jesus to come into my heart.” Since then, I would have said I had a pretty good understanding of Jesus’ work on the cross, dying to pay for our sin. And for the most part, I was a fairly good kid: keeping my nose out of trouble, and generally doing what was expected of me. However, when I would hear songs like “The Wonderful Cross” and “Jesus Paid It All” and I would think, “Good grief…I haven’t done anything all THAT bad…” and part of me would just feel really uncomfortable.

A situation about two and a half years ago changed that. A set of circumstances made me see clearly, I think probably for the first time, how ugly my sin is to God. Without really realizing it, I had come to really, really like how people responded to me when I did the right/good/noble/expected things and ended up valuing that over God’s opinion. And in turn, I figured that God would probably be fairly impressed by that, too. Over and over the Bible talks about how God isn’t impressed by the things that people are, but that God sees past it and looks at the heart. I realized how awful my seemingly good works looked to God: things that I did to look good to people that were often motivated by jealousy, pride, or selfishness. Suddenly, I realized I wasn’t looking so hot in God’s eyes. Here’s this girl trying to be all religious when inside her heart is just ugly. In the Bible, Jesus uses religious people quite frequently to show how their hearts were in the wrong place and how they really liked the respect that their position got them. And that was me!

All of a sudden, I realized that need for that blood. I was really dirty. I am still so amazed that God hasn’t just zapped me out of existence…considering all of the junk that has been (and is) in my heart and mind. But, he loved me enough to not only not zap me out of existence, but to pay for all of the ugly things that I have (and still will) done.

There’s a children’s Bible that I love (The Jesus Storybook Bible) that puts it so simply: “All Naaman needed was nothing. It was the one thing Naaman didn’t have.” I was trying to please God and please people by doing, by having it all together. But all we need is the understanding that we don’t and can’t have it all together…that all our attempts at being good and perfect will fail. That’s why we need Jesus’ blood from the cross, the perfect sacrifice to pay for our sins.

C.J. Mahaney wrote a great article in response to a parent’s letter asking this:

I am afraid they (my children) do have hard thoughts of God and that’s largely because of my own sinfulness (anger, impatience, anxiety), which I am eager to continue killing by the Spirit. But apart from that, the question I have is, how do we as parents insist that our children obey us in the Lord without cultivating hard thoughts of Him?

I love his response to this.

This is a great brief summary of C.S. Lewis’ and Jonathan Edwards writings about humility in their own lives.

John Piper writes about the sovereignty of God in his salvation. This really resonated with me and makes me so thankful that our God is in control of every part of life:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Romans 8:28-30

CJ Mahaney interviews David Powlison about this quote from his book:

Don’t ever degenerate into giving advice unconnected to the good news of Jesus crucified, alive, present, at work, and returning.

—Seeing with New Eyes (P&R, 2003), p. 43.

A quick 4 minute interview well worth your time.

Since rhubarb season is drawing to a close (experts say not to cut it after the summer heat hits the 90′s) I thought I’d post my favorite new recipe this month: Grandma Stribe’s “Talk of the Town” Rhubarb Muffins. (I gave the recipe this name because Grandma was raving about this recipe and told me that her friends and neighbors just loved it :) I’m a big fan, too!)

“Talk of the Town” Rhubarb Muffins

1 egg, beaten
2 t. vanilla
1/2 c. oil
1 c. buttermilk (OR 1 T. lemon juice mixed with 1 c. milk, let sit 5 min…I used this and it worked well)

1-1/4 c. brown sugar
2-1/2 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1-1/2 c. rhubarb, finely chopped (so you get a rhubarb “kick” in each bite :))
1/2 c. nuts, chopped (optional)

Sugar topping:
1 T. butter, melted
1/3 c. sugar
1 t. cinnamon

Mix wet ingredients and add to combined dry ingredients. For sugar topping, mix sugar and cinnamon before adding melted butter. Fill 20 muffin cups and sprinkle on sugar topping. Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes, using toothpick test to determine “doneness.”

This is a great recipe to share with friends and neighbors since it makes such a big batch (20). Maybe it’ll be the talk of YOUR neighborhood soon!

I don’t know about you, but often feel like I’m wading through Jell-O trying to keep the house picked up, or kids fed/bathed. C.J. Mahaney wrote this blog entry about self sufficiency:

At its root, weariness is often the result of pride and self-sufficiency in my life. When I neglect casting my cares upon the Lord, the heavy fatigue of weariness will settle into my soul.

I was pretty much shocked to read this article from the Sovereign Grace blog about how Joshua Harris’ “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” has been used in classwork at a liberal school like Boston University to discuss modesty as a virtue. Then again, I have to think that there is a chance that a least a few are starting to notice the devastating results of the “hook-up” culture that seems to be prevalent today. In her article in the Wall Street Journal, Donna Freitas says of her students after reading Harris’ book,

“They seemed shocked that somewhere in America there are entire communities of people their age who really do “save themselves” until marriage, who engage in old-fashioned dating with flowers and dinner and maybe a kiss goodnight.”

I could probably just rehash everything that CJ Mahaney wrote in the article, but he probably says it better himself :)

Most of us have probably at one time arrived home from “vacation” feeling exhausted physically, emotionally, and/or spiritually. This post by C.J. Mahaney (who I had the privilege of hearing at a conference eight years ago) from the Sovereign Grace blog on leadership in family vacations addresses the father’s role in planning vacations that refresh instead of drain, but I think that the content can be easily applied to anyone seeking R&R.

I know that I have definitely fallen into some of the traps of “me-focused” time…forgetting to be grateful to God and picking up an “it’s all about me” attitude. I really appreciate how Mahaney brings a Christ-centered focus into something that we can tend to separate from our spiritual lives.

(Note: The link above is to the post with a complete .pdf of the article. If you prefer to not read it as a .pdf, part 1, part 2, and part 3 can be read separately.)

One of my favorite blogs, ReFem, recently featured this post entitled, “Wife In The Fast Lane.” (I wish I could have been the one to come up with such a catchy title for a post, but, nope, can’t take credit for this one. ;)) I originally just forwarded it to a few close friends who I knew would share my viewpoint and appreciate the content, but perhaps there’s someone else out there that could benefit from it.

I see my role as teammate, #1 cheerleader, a support, and helper to Matt as the most important part in my life. I know that to a lot of people this idea just sounds plain crazy, but because I believe what the Bible says about my life this is the first priority in my life, second only to my relationship with God. I think I could probably write for about a decade about all of my thoughts on this because I’d really like to thoroughly explain them, but I guess I’ll just have to do that in little chunks :)

Because this is such a large part of my life, I’ve grown to deeply appreciate articles and books on the topic. I’ve posted links to other ReFem articles before, but I think this is the first one I’ve posted on marriage. The author of this particular article has been through some major difficulties in life, and I know that I respect her thoughts even more so because of that.

In church/Christian circles, it seems that women (me included) to whom God has given a husband can often get super-involved in book studies, relationships with other women, helping to meet various needs in the church (which are all excellent things to be involved in), but this articles reminds us that our primary God-given ministry is to our husbands. This plays out in many different ways in different women’s lives, but it’s something that I believe we need to carefully consider.

Oh, dear…I think I could just rehash the whole article, but I’ll just let you go ahead and read it :)

In honor of Matt’s birthday today (whee!), Elena and I came up with a “Top Ten things we love about Matt/Daddy” list. It kinda went a little longer than 10, but we figured it was ok :)

Top Ten Things We Love About Matt/Daddy

1.  Elena says, “Whenever I bring Daddy one of my favorite books, he always takes time to read it to me.”

2.  Matt is so incredibly patient with me…I can hardly believe it sometimes!

3.  Matt is an incredibly hard worker…putting in super long hours to provide for us…and I appreciate that sooo much.

4.  Matt is a man of integrity…in the big things and the little things.

5.  He has awesome taste and sense of design…and I’m not the only who thinks that!

6,  He made me into a sushi lover :)  (I never thought I would say that!)

7.  Elena says, “I love it when Daddy comes upstairs from work and chases me around the living room!  I just giggle and giggle…”

8.  I love it that Matt loves the outdoors and when we go camping, I feel like I have an expert park ranger leading our trip :)

9.  I’m so glad that my man knows how to take time to have fun…including making all three of us get dressed up for Halloween to give out candy :)  

10.  He understands God’s grace and love for us and has helped me to understand it more clearly by his love and forgiveness for me…

11.  He is a gifted musician and writer :)  

12.  Elena says, “Whenever Mommy takes me downstairs to say hi to Daddy, I get sooo excited and wiggle and giggle because I like to be with my daddy a WHOLE LOT!” (She really wanted to share that, and I think it mostly speaks to the fact that she can really tell that her daddy loves her a whole lot :))

1. He’s my big, strong, handsome man!

14.  I appreciate that Matt is involved in even the less-pretty parts of parenthood, including smelly diapers and middle-of-the-night wake-ups.  I am so thankful to be parenting Elena with such an amazing guy…

Happy Birthday, Babe!

So tonight I decided to make couscous (a first for me) as a side dish with our grilled Iowa chops for supper. (Mmmm-mmmmm!) (Matt did a splendiferous job of grilling, thank you my dear.) I’ve been on somewhat of a mission to have Elena try as many new foods as possible that are not choking hazards for her, so I gave her a bit of the couscous. (By the way, if anyone has any great ideas for healthy, baby-safe foods that one might not normally think of or a favorite snack your kids enjoy, I’d love to hear about it!) Boy, oh boy, did she love it! Matt and I took turns trying to spoon it directly into her mouth (no self-feeding for this food, folks!) and it just seemed like she was thoroughly enjoying the texture.

She must have still been on a quest for new taste sensations, because about 15 minutes later, I found her with her hands in the dirt of our ficus tree and a muddy tongue. :) At least she didn’t appear to enjoy the taste as much as the couscous, so hopefully there won’t be a take two of that scene!

Some of you have picked up on Matt’s appreciation lately for Mark Driscoll’s teaching from Mars Hill Church in Seattle. I often end up adopting Matt’s preferences, so I, too, have been enjoying some of Driscoll’s books (Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church and The Radical Reformission: Reaching Out without Selling Out). His up front-and-honest teaching and communication style is very refreshing for me.

Recently, I have been reading one of the blogs on the Mars Hill website: Reforming the Feminine. I definitely can’t claim to have a wide, wide knowledge of women’s resources online, but in my opinion, these women have done an incredible job of tackling some of the tougher women’s issues. During the past month or so, there have been posts on unplanned pregnancy, sexual sin, stereotypes of Christian women, gluttony, fashion, marriage, and children. I have been greatly encouraged and challenged by these writers and wanted to make sure that all ya’ll out there have an opportunity to check out this resource.

“Happy Birthday, Daddy!”

It’s Matt’s 27th birthday today :) Happy Birthday to an amazing husband/daddy-designer/coder- (pardon the slightly corny almost-rhyming) rock-n-roll-er!

I was just checking the forecast and I noticed that tomorrow is Friday and it doesn’t look too nice out. Then I realized how many awesome Friday nights in a row we had for having The Rock outside at the terrace! Wow, God! Thanks for blessing us!

Fyew! What a crazy and amazing 2.5 weeks it has been! Our lovely little lady is doing so well…I thought I would give you an update :) (For the readers who are guys out there, these are probably details that you’re not so interested in, but I have a feeling some of the gals will get a kick out of them ;))

This week, Elena:

• got a bellybutton! Yay! (the umbilical cord stump fell off)
• slept 4 consecutive hours during “the process known as night” (what Matt calls it since it’s not necessarily sleeping or going to bed)
• has been sporting a cute little curl on the top of her head (note that this is NOT a fauxhawk, it’s a CURL)
• made the heavyweight class! At her 2 week appointment she is up to 8lbs6oz from her birth weight which the doctor was really pleased with.
• has just been an amazing little girl that her parents adore!

One thing that I have been thinking about is what awesome friends and family we have around us…we have been so grateful for phone calls and visits, meals, gifts, and help around the house…we feel totally blessed by you guys! Thank you :)