The Blame Game

Lately Tait's been blaming his animals for his crimes ( : His naughty giraffes are always getting into the plants. And, apparently, his cow has a voracious appetite for PEZ-at least that's what he informed me after he finished his snack & wanted more. How dumb does he think his mother is?!

Here's a recent crime scene: Toilet paper entirely unrolled. I thought he'd outgrown that.

The perpetrator: Mr. Lion himself, conveniently placed. I suspect he's been framed ( :

Japan Requests

Trent has family in Japan & we visited last year about this time, so Japan & the earthquake have been on our mind a lot as we can picture the country & culture (and our dear family & friends!).

Here are some prayer requests from Uncle Andrew, who is going to Sendai today with a CRASH team taking Bibles & supplies:

* Please pray for all of the relief efforts that are going on, and for the many volunteers that are a part of it, for both physical
and spiritual strength, and for Godly wisdom in making right decisions.
* Pray for the Japanese people to realize that they really can't control their destiny, and that there is an almighty God who is
control. That their hearts would be opened to the Truth.
* Pray that as we travel tomorrow we could travel safely (there was heavy snow falling today) and be able to find enough gasoline to
get there and back.
* Pray that the supplies will get to the people in great need.
* Pray that 2 large shipments of supplies (one from Okinawa, one from the US) that are planned to arrive tomorrow can get to the affected areas in good time.
* Donate through your church, or personally at the link on this page:
http://crashjapan.com/index.php?lang=en

Bottoms up!

Tait is so busy & I love it. The best way I've found lately to help him not be as whiny in the afternoon is giving him productive jobs & letting him help with supper, which he loves too. There've been some mini-disasters but mostly the benefits outweigh the mess--- plus it's fun "us" time.

Last week while we were cleaning out the snack cupboard he snuck a whole pound of peanuts (in the shell) to our bedroom & proceeded to sit on our bed & crack & eat them. I did have to chuckle at that-Trent hates it when I eat in bed ( : Like mother, like son, huh? I told Tait to take the peanut shell mess & throw it away. He got distracted:

Apparently when he noticed the dishwater in the kitchen he decided to wash all the peanuts & shells first. What a soggy mess. The best part was trying to secretly get a picture from around the corner while he balanced on his belly on the countertop to get his hands deeper into the sink!

I think Indigo is taking notes from the bouncy seat.

I love this age ( : Not being sarcastic-I really do.

As for me & my house...

Trent had this great idea to have an evening where we dedicated Indigo to the Lord. We'd never formally done this with Tait, so we included him too. It was really neat. Basically, we just sang a little & read a couple Bible passages, including the story of Samuel being given into the Lord's service by Hannah, then prayed over each of them & anointed them with (baby) oil ( :

Tait didn't really want to hear about Samuel-he kept trying to turn the pages to Jonah-his latest story obsession!

 This photo made me smile. I love Trent's passion for prayer. I also love Tait's ornery side-I can tell he is just going crazy trying to figure out how to make a mess with the baby oil ( :

Tait helped me pray over Indigo too. I love the prayers in Stormie Omartian's book "Power of a Praying Parent", especially the idea of committing our children to the Lord's care. It's way too stressful to worry, and I can start to go down that road sometimes, thinking "what if Tait drops Indigo down the stairs" or "what if Indigo grows up to be ultra-rebellious"? It's so comforting to remember that Jesus loves my children more than I do & he is sovereign & trustworthy.

The kids looked like greaseballs for the next 3 days from the oil in their hair! Their greasy hairdos were great reminders for me, though, because every time I saw them I remembered that they're the Lord's, not because Trent & I dedicated them, but because He created them.