The Preacher's Wife

Photo Journal: A trip to the lake

   


 
 



 
 

Somebody bottle this energy!

I never truly understood the phrase, "if you could just bottle up that energy," until I had two preschool age boys.  Their energy is off the charts. 

After watching Elijah fly past us one day, my husband asked me, "What would it be like to willingly run everywhere you go?"  And it's so true, they run 90% of the time!

Earlier this week, we were recording some videos on my computer.  I had to leave the room to tend to Abbey.  When I returned, there were about 10 additional videos recorded. 

Here is one of my favorites.  It is the perfect picture of their never ending energy.  They are really this active for the majority of every day.  I love my boys.

 

Big Brothers

There are a few phrases that have been added to my repertoire that I seem to say 100 times a day now that Abbey Faith is here...

    Shhh...
    Go wash your hands, with soap
    Please get out of her face
    Don't touch the swing
    She doesn't need to be checked on

They are both constantly checking to see if her eyes are open.  But they mean well.  I am trying establish some general guidelines for living life with a newborn baby rather than constantly fussing at them.  We are working on it.

Here's a few pictures of the big brothers and one of sweet Abbey at the end...

 

The little drummer boys

One of our favorite past times at the Furtick house is playing music.  Elijah is really excelling on the drums and Graham is having a great time.

Here is Elijah's latest video.  He and his dad call this song, Graham Graham Boogie.

 

 

And of course, Graham plays the drums too.  Here he is playing Elevation's Sun Stand Still...

 

  

Love Post #2

Elijah's turn today.  My baby is not really a baby anymore.  It's hard to believe that the colicky infant then baby tortured with ear infections is now a sweet, intelligent little boy.  I never thought I would make here.  Seriously.

So things I love about Elijah...

I love how honest he is.  I don't think there is a 5 year old more honest.  He frequently tells on himself and I think it is an incredible quality.

I love how he has basically taught himself to read.  He absorbs any little reading tidbit you give him.

I love how runs and stomps everywhere he goes.  I have tried to break him of this to no avail.  I take it as a sign of his passion.

I love how he answers Graham's questions.  He may as well be Master Yoda to Graham.

I love how awesome he is on the drums.  Truly a child prodigy if his mom does say so.

I love what an amazing helper he has become.  I am counting on this continuing over the next several months.  Maybe I can teach him how to make a bottle in the middle of the night?

I love how he calls the stapler, the stabilizer.  I laugh every time he asks me to stabilize two pieces of paper together.

I love how he truly has a good heart.  He is not strong willed, although passionate, at times, he truly wants to please his parents and God.  That is going to take him a really long way in life.

To see what I said about Elijah two years ago, click here.

Can kids fast?

My husband has done several extended fasts.  Currently he is on day 8 of an 11 day juice only fast (read more about that here).  Since our boys are now able to understand so much of what we do, and since we invited our staff and many volunteers to join my husband for 5 of the 11 days, we decided to involve our kids too. 

We talked about how daddy is fasting from food and how that means he would only drink juice for 11 days.  We talked about how fasting means you are giving up something important to you in order draw closer to God.  We suggested that they give up desserts for the last 5 days of the fast and they agreed.

Then this past Sunday Elijah had a huge crying episode over his video game.  These episodes seemed to be happening too often for my liking.  So I suggested to him that maybe he should fast from all video games as well.  He was not very receptive to this suggestion, at first.  Then my husband and Elijah prayed about it and afterwards, Elijah agreed that he thought God would want him to include video games in his fast.

We have now completed day two of the no desserts or video games fast.  I was surprised today when Elijah refused a lollipop at the office (totally unsolicited) because it was dessert.  We did not have any qualifying conversations about our definition of dessert.  I have also not heard one mention of his DSi or Playstation.

I am not sure what their little minds understand about God and the purpose of a fast but I do believe that God honors their obedient hearts to their parents.  After all God asked us to simply have faith like a child.

Furtick Family Jam Session

I had a post set to go up this morning.  Apparently I closed my laptop before it finished saving.  Of course I didn't realize this until I left my house today.  That post will have to wait for another day, or maybe never because, actually, it wasn't that great.

This video is awesome though.  For your viewing pleasure, here is the latest Furtick family jam session...

My Christmas Mistake

 

Every year I buy the boys matching Christmas pjs.  Usually I purchase them on clearance after Christmas for the following year.  Last year after Christmas I got greedy.  I kept waiting for the pjs to go more than 50% off and ended up not getting any.

So this year I had to pay full price for pjs.  Ouch.  We picked out these cute little long john style pjs from Old Navy.  The boys wore them to bed on Christmas Eve. 

On Christmas morning we realized the pjs had a huge flaw.  The boys could not unbutton them on their own to use the bathroom.  In the middle of our present opening, both of them came to me in a panic to help them unbutton :).  The rest of my Christmas pictures, they are in their underwear.  Nice.

Pictured above are the only decent pictures I got with them in their pjs.  Of course they won't wear them now either.  I don't blame them.  No one wants to feel trapped.  Oh well.  Lesson learned.  This year I purchased at 50% off and I of course, bought 3 pairs (one of them is red, one is blue and one is pink :)).

Oh and I cannot finish without saying how amazing my in-laws are.  They go out of their way every year to make Christmas extra special for our boys and it means the world to me.  I am so thankful for them!

Snow Day

We have had two great snows in the past two weeks, a big deal for NC.  My boys have had the best time playing outside with their dad.  This Florida raised girl has had the best time not being wanted outside for the first time since we have had kids (besides, I can barely button my coat :))  My job is to help everyone get dressed, make hot chocolate, and then, of course, take care of all the wet laundry.

I know people from the North love to make fun of how our world stops when we get a bit of winter weather here in the South, but honestly, I love it.  It forces us to stay home and be together.  It makes whatever important thing you had to do take a back seat.  Hope you were able to relax a bit and enjoy the weather this week!

Organization

In the month of January, retailers seem to take on the themes of weight loss and organization.  I guess those are most people's goals for the new year.  I am in an organizational mood but not because of the new year, more because I have less than 10 weeks before another child is added to my care.

I am working my way through many of the rooms in the house.  One of my biggest tasks is to move Graham into Elijah's room.  They have been sleeping in bunk beds together for close to a year but I have not moved Graham's clothes over.

I have been in search of something to give the boys more independence in the mornings (and me more freedom).  But ages 5 and 3 are not quite able to dress appropriately for a day's weather and tasks.  I didn't want the square organizer that hangs from the clothes rack in the closet, I don't have the space for that.  But I found these weekday clothing organizers for kids.  They are actually made to hang on the door but fit perfectly on a blank wall in the boys' closet.  When Graham saw them he said, "Yeah because you are going to have to dress baby Abbey."

 I hung the organizers and placed the boy's clothes for the rest of the week in them.  I can't wait to say, "Boys, go get dressed!" tomorrow morning.  But I have a feeling they will be dressed before I can tell them because they are so excited about it.

I purchased ours at Lillian Vernon and personalization was included (bonus!) but there are many different versions available online if you search "kids weekday organizer."  I still need to move Graham's clothes to their room but for now I feel a big sense of accomplishment.