OK, so it's now "Facebook Official"! Baby Huff is due November 7, 2012. We all (Paul, Jacob, Addyson, Aiden, Jeanettee and myself) went to the ultrasound today. Although Paul desperately wanted to find out the sex, we did not. Here are a few pictures of my sweet little one:
Paul and I have a very strong-willed child, possibly a second but since he's only 10 months old it's hard to be sure just yet. Over the last year or two I have been reading, praying, discussing, and so on different parenting methods. My highest priority in raising my children is for them to know Jesus. Not just know Him as common folk church-goers but really know Him, intimately. This is often called having a personal relationship with Jesus. How exactly do parents lead their children to knowing their Savior intimately? Is there a script I should follow? A set of directions that works for every child? I don't believe there is.
So Paul and I have decided the most important traits we want to instill in our children. One of these is obedience to authority. If our little ones are able to be obedient to authority we hope that one day they will choose to be obedient to God. Alright, so here's what happened today... Little Miss Addyson has decided recently to throw away any food she doesn't want to eat. Then she asks for something different. I caught her the other day and decided enough was enough. So two nights ago we had cheeseburgers for dinner. Addyson refused to eat hers, which is typical of her with almost any food in the evening lately (except ice cream or junk food). I told her to put it on the counter and she would be having it for lunch the next day. She said that was fine with her, put her plate on the counter and went to play. Addy wasn't so enthusiastic about this deal the next day at lunch but rather than argue, she picked her bun apart and ate it, leaving the lone cheeseburger. I put it back in the fridge and reminded her she was getting it for dinner, figuring she would be hungry enough by dinnertime to eat it. No luck. Dinner came and went without her even taking a bite of her burger. At this point I began to wonder if I should just back down. I decided I shouldn't do that just yet. So I explained that she was going to get it again for breakfast. We had a very unhappy girl this morning when she asked for pancakes and I told her she would be eating her cheeseburger first. She screamed for a minute but quickly realized that wasn't going to get her anywhere, it never does. So she took a different approach today. She glared at me, "Den I will just throw it in the trash!" I told her she better not and that she would get a spanking for disobeying if she made that bad choice. I'm not sure exactly when she did it, but she threw it in the trash within the next few minutes. When I saw this I asked her where her cheeseburger was and she told me the truth right away. Thank God for her honesty all the time! I got the wooden spoon and told her to go in her room. She obeyed fairly well, even following the whole spanking routine we go through each time without even a whimper. Just before I spanked her she asked, "after my spanking can I have pancakes?" SPEECHLESS! What do I say to a 2 year old who reasons things out this well? Before throwing her food away she decided that she would rather be spanked than have to eat her cheeseburger. So, now I'm looking at this from 2 perspectives. Here's the first, the more negative one that concerns me: I fear that her present disobedience may cause more issues down the road. When she's a teenager will she choose to sneak out of the house to go to a party and just accept the consequences later? Will she disobey her superiors at work and lose her job? Will she stray from God and be lost? The other perspective I see is that she is very strong-willed when she has her mind set to something. So, if she is living according to Jesus' will as she grows then maybe she will live radically for Him, accepting her consequences among peers, society or anyone to go to the ends of the earth to spread the gospel. This is definitely not something within this otherwise very sweet, good little girl that I want to tame! I know I am biased toward my children and I tend to always look for the positive in everyone but here's how I perceive my daughter... She is strong-willed when she has her mind set to something. The rest of the time she is mostly compliant and does what she is told. She is the biggest helper and does so many chores around the house that most parents don't even expect from older children. She is nurturing and caring toward other children her age, older and younger. Except when she is really determined to have something done a different way she is very much of a rule-follower. She definitely has a servant's heart. She loves her family very much and reminds us of this daily, both verbally and in her actions. She watches everything her Mommy does and models her own actions very closely after the example I set. So, what do I do about this strong-willed child? Did I handle things the correct way today? Ultimately only God has these answers. I welcome any thoughts, comments or suggestions below. I sit here bewildered and completely excited at the prospect that the next year of my life holds. A short week ago I figured I would be staying home with my sweet ones for another couple years, at least until Aiden starts kindergarten was the plan.
Our plans have changed in a whirlwind. I look at all that’s happened and I joyfully accept this major change that has come about because I can’t see it as anything other than God’s divine plan for my life. More importantly, His plan to use me for the glory of his kingdom! I am delighted to be used by my Savior in ways still unforeseen to me. I sing, “Where you go, I’ll go, where you stay, I’ll stay, where you move, I’ll move. I will follow you!” joyfully as I prepare as much as possible for the journey ahead. You see, for the last 5 years I have taught in a predominantly upper and middle-class elementary school on the east side of town. Now, God is leading me to teach middle school in a very rough, what most people would call the ghetto. Yet I fear no evil, for God is with me. Not many teachers would willingly make a move like this. I’m not most teachers. Being a radical follower of Jesus is what I am striving to be! I know that I will be teaching so much more than just mathematics to these 6th graders next year. How this will occur is still a mystery to me but not to my Father. He has had a plan for our lives since the beginning of time. Wonder fills me as to how his plan will unfold. Will I have the opportunity to lead a student group in studying God's word? Perhaps it will be the teachers that I impact and lead to Jesus. Or, maybe there is a specific family I will meet on my journey who I will be able to help and, I pray, bring to Jesus. Maybe I will be a liaison between this school and my church to bring the gospel to many. Even better, maybe it will be all these things and more! Don't get me wrong, I have had very mixed emotions about this situation in the days that have passed. My primary stumbling block emotionally is that I will not be home with my sweet little ones 24/7 any longer. I am once again going to have to trust them to someone else's care. But, just as God provided the perfect caretaker for Addyson for the first 2 years of her life, I trust that He has someone for Addyson, Aiden and my sweet one who will be arriving around November. Although the thought of missing out on time with these sweet children is very sad to me, it is even more sad to think of missing out on an opportunity God has already designed. I can't bear to think of anyone in this "ghetto" perishing because I wasn't willing to go when my Lord said, "GO!" I am just grateful that after all my time “following” him my eyes have actually been opened to truly GO and follow where He leads. I am ready to make a difference for the Glory of God! My grandma taught me to sew many years ago. It's been about 15 years since I've actually sewn anything worth talking about so I decided to attempt a simple "pillowcase dress" for my sweet little girl. Here is a photo of the finished product and then I will explain the steps I took to make it. STEP 1- I found a piece of fabric that I loved and other piece for a coordinating trim. I cut these into "fat quarters" (this was a new term to me, I discovered that it means 22"x18", which is a quarter of a yard). It takes 2 fat quarters to make the dress, one for the front and one for the back. I then held it so the shorter side would become the top and bottom of the dress. I cut at the top of the dress on a diagonal- 3.5cm in and 7cm down. To make this easy and consistent I folded the fabric and cut all 4 parts at once. STEP 2- I cut an 18"x3" piece of green fabric to coordinate as the bottom trim for the dress. I sewed this on then ironed the very bottom of the trim and sewed across again. STEP 3- I turned the dress so that the wrong sides were facing out and I pinned it together so that I could sew the sides. Step 4- I folded the arm holes over about 1/4" each and pressed them then I folded them over again about 1/2" and pressed them. After this I sewed both sides very close to the edge. STEP 5- I folded the top down about 1/4" and pressed it then sewed it in place. STEP 6- I folded the tops down again about 1" and pressed them in place before sewing. STEP 7- After sewing the top I strung a ribbon through both sides and pulled to bunch the top of the dress. DONE!
I used to sew a lot as a kid, with my grandmother. She taught me to make pillows, quilts, and pillow cases. She also taught me how to cut out patterns and how to use a sewing machine. As I drifted into my teen years and had a boyfriend I drifted away from sewing with Grandma but the memories are still there. The memories came flooding back today as I sat in front of the sewing machine my husband and kids bought me over a year ago for Mother's Day.
Memories of cutting out little squares for yet another quilt Grandma was working on. Memories of her letting me be the one to sew the squares together. I remember how patient and calm she always was, even when my squares turned out quite crooked. I loved visiting her in Florida because she had a quilt room that was amazing to me. She would let me pick out fabric and make a new pillow or whatever it was I wanted to make that day. As I sat sewing a dress for my little girl and thinking about all the memories of sewing with her my mind wandered to the days we spent on the beach together. She would help me gather sea shells all day long and then we would use popsicle sticks and make jewelry boxes decorated with sea shells. Grandma would even help me pry open the sea shells with those little clam-like creatures inside, the ones that dig back down into the sand when the water receedes. She would take my brother, DJ, and I out to the "fishing bridge" to see Uncle Art and help him fish. Grandma always made something tasty for breakfast. Usually my favorite, omelets! I remember the "glasses" she gave us to drink from- they were actually glass jars that dried beef comes packaged in in the south. She took me to her quilting meetings and made me feel so grown up, as if I was just as great of a quilter as any of the much more experienced, older women in the meetings. She took us to the park near her house, but not for too long because she worried about who might come around. Haha! Several trips we went to see the manatee at the aquarium near her house. She could stand and watch that manatee all day! Or was that me? I'm not really sure which of us it was come to think of it. When Grandma and Uncle Art came to PA to visit they usually stayed with us. This lead to several things that make me laugh thinking back. Grandma would always help in the kitchen, especially with cleaning up. That meant that she re-arranged almost everything. It would take us months to get everything back in it's rightful place and then they would come for another visit! Whenever she would forget something she would tell us she had "Grandma disease". At the time I thought it was just a funny thing that old people said and I assumed that all old people forgot things. When they were getting ready to head back to Florida both of them would start singing or humming, "On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again." I remember calling Grandma after I had moved to Florida and every time she would ask me when I was going to graduate and did I still want to be a teacher. By this point I had already graduated and had been teaching since moving to Florida. Still she asked each time we talked and still I answered like she had never asked before. It makes me laugh because she really did forget things all the time. She would tell me the same story over and over until I would finish it for her. Even when I told her what happened she would still finish telling the entire story again. It used to annoy me to some degree but now I look back and laugh and remember that was just part of her "Grandma disease". After so many good memories my mind then drifted to her last days here on Earth. I remember getting a phone call at work one Tuesday from my mom. The words that came from her mouth weren't something I was prepared for at the time, "If you want to say goodbye you need to get home tonight." I was on a plane 2 hours later and on my way home. The next few days are a whirlwind in my mind. Sleepless nights sitting by Grandma's side just hoping that she might open her eyes or speak to us. Swabbing her mouth because it was so dry from the oxygen. Family in and out that I hadn't seen in years. Drifting back to a few years before when she stunned everyone and made a full recovery after a stroke. Hoping that she would be able to do that again but praying that she could let go so she wouldnt' be in pain anymore. What happened to my frail Grandma in that hospital was inhumane and it's something that I still can't bring myself to talk about and I try not to even think about. There's a reason it's taken me so long to really use my sewing machine, it's because I knew I would have to face all these bittersweet memories of a woman I loved dearly. My only regret is that I didn't spend more time with her when I had the opportunity. I wish I had called her more and told her I love her more often. Alright, well I intended this posting to be about the dress I made for Addy today but it's gotten so long and personal that I think I will just do another post. |
About TrishI am a busy Mommy who loves to spend time with her little ones. I am going to attempt to post on here regularly but make no promises. Archives
August 2013
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