Pockets

I've entered a new level of laundry danger.  Ben has found his pockets.  He can put stuff in them.  Anything that he finds that is small enough.  It's amazing.  (Only a little bit of sarcasm there.) Time to start checking them before I wash his clothes!

Look what I can do!

I love my pockets!

-Kim

BFBN: Living By Faith with my Kids- Guest Post

I am happy to say I have had the good fortune to join up with a group of ladies in the Babywise Friendly Blog Network (BFBN)!  These posts are going to be focused mainly on parenting, so if you are reading looking for Ben pictures, you'll have to check back later.  The purpose of this group is to share techniques, thoughts, and experiences on parenting, specifically focusing on how we implement the Babywise principles into our daily lives.  I'm not looking to start parenting debates.  The purpose is to support one another as we all try to figure out this mothering thing.

Today I am posting over at Valerie's blog Chronicles of a Babywise Mom.  Here today is Claire from My Devising.  She is talking about how she brings faith and learning about God into daily life.
-Kim

Living by Faith with my Kids

I grew up in a home where people took me to church, prayed with me, and talked to me about Jesus.  I was brought up a certain way and happened to continue on that path into my adulthood, but not because I never had a choice or because I was forced into it.  Even with the many moments of struggling and wrestling with my beliefs, I chose to believe in God.  I choose to believe in God.  I know I'll hit more spiritual walls in my life that cause me to ask more questions, but I'm forever grateful for the foundation that my parents laid out for me.

I hear a lot about letting our kids find their own way when it comes to faith and religion.  Let's not tell them what to believe; let's give them a blank slate and let them figure out what they want to believe.  While I always want there to be room for discussion, different opinions, and struggle with faith in my home, I don't necessarily think that means I need to let my kids loose, giving no guidance at all.  I will teach my kids thousands of things, so I don't think it's ridiculous to assume that I will also teach my kids about my faith in God - especially since it is the foundation for how I live my life.  To keep that - the thing that has saved my life and given me true hope - hidden or subdued all for the sake of letting my children explore aimlessly would be heartbreaking.

So when I talk about introducing faith into my kids' lives, that's where I'm coming from.  For right now, we have a 3.5 year old and a 1 year old, so we do have to keep things age appropriate.  These are just a few ways we can teach our kids about what we believe.

BIBLE VERSES

A couple of years ago at a MOMS Bible Study, I received a huge stack of bible verses that were organized by age level.  These have been so wonderful to use.  We have them clipped to our napkin holder on the dining room table.  I don't bring them up at every meal time, but I try to talk about them 2-3 times a week.  They are simple and easy to memorize.  Aside from hearing new words and learning how to memorize, these verses prompt some good 3 year old discussions.

*All verses are found on ABCJesusLovesMe.com and are divided by age level.  Select Curriculum > Weekly Lesson Plans > Verse

MUSIC

Duke is pretty up with the Top 40 hits, but these days, I am listening more and more to Christian music.  Not all of the time and not exclusively, but it's definitely more present than before.  There are plenty of great artists making music that sends hopeful messages, and I want my children dwelling on those thoughts.  I don't think it's necessary to completely shut out the "secular" music world.  There's some really good stuff out there.  But I want it to be paired with songs that encourage and bring light and life to my kids' minds and hearts.  Duke is at the age where learning a song is easy, so it's important to make sure that the songs he's learning are benefiting his soul.

PRAYER

I want my children growing up in a home that lives out the verse in 1 Thessalonians that says to pray continually.  The depth in which I understand how/why I communicate with God influences the depth of my belief in him.  If my children grow up only praying to God when things go wrong or before dinner, they may have a skewed view of who he is.  If prayer is something they observe that happens at all times - saying thanks for small things, asking God to heal us when we're sick, praying for our friends, asking God for forgiveness - I think they're more likely to view it as a real conversation with a relational God, rather than something we just do because we're supposed to.

We will be a home that prays, that discusses why we believe what we believe, that goes to church, and that reads the Bible.  Those things will be present.  But the bottom line below all of it is love.  From that, these things will flow.  The best we can do for our kids is to live our lives as free people who are loved by God.

How do you incorporate your faith into your home?

Claire is a stay-at-home mom of 2 and blogs at mydevising.com.

Happy Birthday, Pat!

Happy Birthday to an important member of Team Cartwright- Patrick!!

Happy Birthday, Sweetie!  Ben and I love you so much.

-Kim

Throwing rocks

Kids love the simplest things, it is great.  This weekend we spent well over an hour doing one of Ben's absolute favorite activities- throwing rocks.  It sounds silly, but he adores it.  He isn't often able to.  Let's be real, there are not a lot of times in which throwing rocks is appropriate and allowable.

Saturday was a beautiful day.  There was no way we were going to stay home.  We headed out to the state park to do one of our mini hikes.  This one was a bit different in that we didn't bring the stroller.  Ben was a trooper!  He sat down to rest a couple of times, and we carried him for a few minutes, but overall he walked almost the whole time.  And we did a mile!  It might not seem like much, but think how many steps that is on tiny toddler legs!

Ben loved walking around nature with us.  The best part was when we found a little clearing by the river.  It was just a tiny little spot, but it had a ton of little rock, just perfect for tossing into the river.  Which we did.  For quite some time.  He never seemed to get tired of it.  

We dragged him away from his fun long enough for a nap and to take Pat out to dinner to celebrate his birthday.  After that we went to a different part of the river to walk around.  Oh yeah, and throw more rocks.  Seriously, we hung out on the riverbank for almost an hour.  Ben loved every second of it.  

Why walk when you can run?

Found a stick right away.

I had to wrangle him to get a picture together. :)

Throwing rocks!!

Looking for good rocks with Daddy

He had so much fun!

-Kim

Dagger's bad days

Dagger has had a rough couple of days here.  Monday morning I noticed she had a spot on her back that was missing some fur.  It looked a little irritated and was pealing a bit.  I don't like to mess around with Dagger's health so I decided to take her in to the vet to get it checked out.  I had assumed that we would go there, she would get a cream or something, and that would be the end of it.  That was not the case.

When we got to the vet we found our previous vet had sold his practice to a new lady.  Okay, no big deal, she was keeping all the patients that wanted to stay.  I was already there and we liked our old vet, so I stuck around.  This new vet looked at her skin and said she needed to shave it down and take care of it.  While we had Dagger at the vet, she gave her a once over and noticed that her teeth weren't looking good at all.  In fact she was worried that a couple might need to be pulled.  Well at this point I am kind of freaking out a bit.  I adore this kitty.  One might go so far as to say I am obsessed with her.  So I do not understand how she could have gotten to the point where she needs teeth removed without my noticing.  I take her in to the vet for routine check ups every six months.  I know cats are very good at hiding anything wrong with them, and I do not want to miss anything.  I made a promise to Dagger when I adopted her to always take care of her, and I felt terrible that I had failed her.

Instead of getting a cream and heading home, Dagger ended up spending the night with the vet to get blood work done and her procedures done the next day.  If the vet was going to put her under she wanted to get both the teeth and the skin taken care of at once.  I thought that was a good plan.  Tuesday I was able to pick her up and found out she had 4 teeth removed.  My poor baby!  Fortunately her blood work looked great, so the vet thinks maybe she just has bad teeth.  It happens in humans, it could be the same in cats.  Her skin looked okay, we think it is just allergies.  (I know, how does an indoor cat have allergies?  My only guess is that since we play outside with Ben more somehow we are bringing something inside.  New rule, we all wash our hands after playing outside and before playing with Dagger.)  But my poor girl has a sore mouth and a shaved back.  When we brought her home she jumped right up into her cat tree.  She was eating her treats by evening, and has been eating a bit today.  We think she is coming through like a champ.  Now that we know she has bad teeth, we can be more proactive in her care.  She'll be getting real dental checks.  I admit I am very frustrated with our previous vet.  I mean, I brought her in every six months.  I would see him look into her mouth.  How does he miss teeth getting that bad?  It has only been about 4 months since she last saw a vet and I was told she was perfectly healthy.  I don't want to speak badly about  him, but I just don't understand.  All we can do now though is move forward with our plan to keep my precious Dagger healthy!

If anyone reading this has a cat,  make sure they get their teeth checked when at the vet!  Cats are so good at hiding problems.  Dagger was eating normally, playing, sleeping, using her litter box.  We really did not notice anything wrong with her.  I feel terrible, but I don't know what else I was supposed to do.  Luckily it is now taken care of, we have a plan of action, and my sweet kitty will be be all better soon.  She is already acting pretty much like normal, and was just begging me for scraps of cheese.  I love Dagger so much.  She was my first baby, and is still so important to me.  I am so thankful for good vets that take care of the animals that mean so much to us.

Here is my poor girl with her shaved back.  She still looks beautiful to me.

I don't think she knows she looks a little silly, so nobody say anything to her. ;)  I am so happy to have her back home with us!

-Kim

A brisk spring day

This past Sunday was a perfect, crisp, early spring day.  The sun was out, but it was cool and breezy.  We took Ben on a long walk and played at the nearby baseball field.  Ben had a blast running around the base path, chasing Pat.  The only bad point- it isn't early spring.  It's June.  (Okay May 31st, close enough ;) ) Now, I adore this weather.  I think it is perfect and should be this way all the time.  But Ben is supposed to start swim lessons pretty soon.  Something tells me he isn't going to enjoy swimming in 60 degree weather.  I can say for sure I'm not going to enjoy getting in there with him at that temperature.  Oh well, we're used to crazy weather around here.  I'm happy we are getting some spring days, even if they are at an unexpected time.  

So happy!!

Fingers crossed it warms up a little bit soon!

-Kim

Memorial Day- Fishing!

After a morning at the zoo, and a good nap for Ben, Ben and Pat got to do a little fishing!  Ben really liked watching Pat cast his line, and he even tried it himself (with some help).  He did not want to touch the fish or the worms, but was curious about them.  Pat adores being outside.  He loves fishing, and exploring, and just being in nature.  Ben seems to be heading down that path too.  I think Ben and Pat have a lot of fun outdoor adventures ahead of them.

Observing the process

Trying to cast the line

Daddy helped ;)

They caught a fish!

This is so much fun!

Ben loved being outside with Pat.  And I want to add a special thank you to Meo and Omi for watching Ben while Pat and I went to see the Avengers.  All around it was a wonderful Memorial Day!

-Kim