Milestones

When you have children you often measure time by months, years and milestones.  As the baby of the family, Lydia is always striving to reach those goals as soon as possible.  She loves to do whatever her big sisters do, and she has the added advantage (or disadvantage) of a lack of fear.  Most of the time it is wonderful that she is so eager to try new and difficult things.  One goal she has had her sights on is to learn to swim well enough to ride the slide at our local pool.

Let me just say that I feel a bit scared to ride this slide.   It must look gigantic to her!  But is she scared away from her goal? No.  She sees her sisters do it and we have told her she can too, as soon as she swims well enough to pop back up and paddle over to our waiting arms.  She has been practicing with Memaw and has met the required distance.  So now we were just waiting for a day with Daddy!

Here is Lydia another day practicing her jumping

You know milestones must be reached with family around to help celebrate!  So today, January 5, two months before her 5th birthday, she accomplished her goal.  As we all watched, she placed her trust in our faith in her and Daddy's waiting arms!  When she popped up, we all cheered!  Her first ride was a bit scary.  I forgot to remind her to stay in a sitting position.  She got turned over on her belly coming feet first down.  She was brave though, and gave it another shot.  She went a total of 6 times.  She wanted to go more, and she will on future PE visits! :)

At bedtime, when she was giving Daddy a good night kiss, they were playing a little guessing game they sometimes play.  Daddy pretends not to recognize her and guesses who she is with funny little clues.  Lydia, anticipating where the conversation was going, decided to give Daddy some clues.  He said, "Now, who is this again?" And Lydia replied, "I am 4.  I am Lydia.  I went down the slide!"


Four hours later and she is recognizing that this event helps to identify who she is!  This was a big deal for her.  She was proud.  So were we, and very amused!  :)

So yes, I am the only member of the family who hasn't ridden the slide!  Oh wait, neither has Memaw!  Stay posted.  Maybe we will be as brave as Lydia one day.

With All My Heart~

2012 Changes

Each new year I always look forward to changes.  I like change.  I regularly move furniture around because I enjoy change.  One of my favorite parts of the year is putting away the past school books and getting out the new ones!  I always have goals and desires for change in the New Year.

One that I always set for myself is to walk more faithfully in the ways of God.  I desire to read my Bible more faithfully, to spend more time in prayer, to do more work for the kingdom of God, to learn more scriptures and doctrine.  I never quite reach my desired walk though.  Why not?  Sin.  Oh to be in the eternal presence of God and absence of sin!  I look forward to that.  Until then, I will continue to try to mortify my laziness and lack of desire to strive for the things of God!  Practically speaking, we have a goal to read through the Old Testament as a family.  Personally, I want to spend my first 15 minutes in prayer and scripture memorization.  There are other goals on my list, but this is an example of some of the ways I want to walk closer to God in 2012!

Another goal I seem to have every year is to lose weight.  I think there were two years of my life since high school where I didn't list this as a goal.  I really need to work off at least 80 pounds.  Oh, it hurts to type that.  But I know that I need prayers of family and friends so I share this with you!  I will be posting my weight loss every Tuesday.  I will also post about my nutrition for the week and exercise goals that I meet.  I really need to have a Biggest Loser year! I hope some of you will help hold me accountable and encourage me.  So look for a post next week on this!

Starting picture 

Another change that we are seeking God for guidance and direction is in our finances.  We want a Biggest Loser year for our debt! We are praying to become better stewards of what God provides and also to work more diligently to pay off the debts we owe.  Again, your prayers would be greatly appreciated!  One goal I have this month is to record what we spend for groceries with a goal of $100 per week and to not eat out AT ALL.  I will let you know how we all do on this one!  Another way we are changing things in order to pay down our debt is for me to go back to teaching in the public school.  This was a difficult decision because I really enjoy spending my days teaching and learning with our girls.  They are going to be doing many subjects without me if I get a job again.  We are thankful that Memaw Rose is here to help us with this.  I can leave the girls at home with their work and she will assist in making sure they stay on task and complete the work.  I am thankful the girls are older now and can do so much on their own.  They are excited about helping the family reach the goal of no debt by doing their part during school!

Just a few pictures from a visit to the park!  Happy Hannah!

Sweet Sarah enjoying the new playground equipment!

Mary, Memaw and Lydia!

Here is a better, well at least closer, view of Mary! :)

So by the grace of God and some hard work I pray I will see many changes for the better in 2012.  I thank God for each day and another opportunity to serve Him in all that I do!

With All My Heart~