If Only He Knew...

"I want to stay in North Carolina forever and ever!"

"Why's that?!"

"Because they have Starbucks here, and I love Starbucks!"

(I guess that's what you get when he goes on Daddy dates to Starbucks- the ironic thing is he doesn't normally even get anything, except his Dad's iPad while Joel studies)

Amazon's Charitable Side :)

I just learned this yesterday at BSF, and since it was news to me, I thought it might be news to some of you... so I thought I'd share.

Did you know Amazon has a way to donate a (very small) portion of your purchase to the charity of your choice? Yes, it's hardly anything, but if you shop a lot on Amazon, I'm sure it would eventually add up. :)

And it's super easy... instead of going to "www.amazon.com", you go to "www.smile.amazon.com". Seriously, that's it. In the beginning, it will ask you to pick out the charity of your choice, and then it reminds you to just make sure you always type in that key word "smile" first before shopping, and it will donate the money. After you select your choice, it looks exactly like the normal Amazon website, with the exception that up at the top of the screen, you will see that it says "Supporting:_____" ...


... so there you go!

I just know that with the more children I get, the more I avoid most stores like the plague (my husband was kind enough to even offer to do a return for me today on his way home from work- LOVE!) ... Liam laments that he hasn't even visited this mall's "snack area" or "playground" yet. :)  Long story short, I have a feeling that unless it can come from Target, I most likely will be shopping on sites like Amazon. And it might be minimal, but I know that my charity will be getting at least a bit more of my money then otherwise... Just make sure you are still donating to your charities and aren't replacing it with Amazon shopping! ;)

Book Review: A Mom's Prayers for Her Son

Yikes, it's been a long time since I've done a book review. I have a few that I've finished and need to be posting, but lets start with my most recently finished one (since it's fresh on my mind!) 

As a mother of three young boys (and possibly another due soon!), I'm constantly on the lookout for books that give wisdom and direction in raising boys. More so even than these however, I'm constantly looking for guidance on how to pray for them. Prayer is such a powerful tool and weapon at our disposal, and I constantly feel like I lack in this department, which grieves me because I know how effective it is and how it is our best way to communicate and have fellowship with our Lord and Creator. As Rob Tiegen says in the beginning of the book, "Out of all the things my wife does for our family, the greatest are her prayers for us every day. It's a tremendous way that she demonstrates love for her family." I've read other books on being a praying wife and mother, but they have usually all been general in nature, not necessarily giving examples. This one is different.

I loved A Mom's Prayers for Her Son! Written by Rob and Joanna Teigen, the book has a brief preface from each author before diving right in to the meat of it... 77 prayers that cover the needs of your children ranging from discipline and comfort issues, to spiritual maturity and future decisions. The last prayer is even one for when we don't know what to pray! Intermixed between these are encouraging stories from mothers, as well as advice or wisdom when it comes to topics like idols, blessings or failures, where we as parents can become part of the problem. For example, one point that stuck out to me was that we need to be careful in praying for blessings, because when we think we are praying for bread, we might be praying for stones instead, and we don't want the perceived blessings to break their communion with God. Even though I probably wouldn't pray these prayers word for word, they still gave me wonderful ideas so that my prayers don't become monotonous and rote. Each chapter (prayer) also begins with at least a couple of verses (usually in NIV) that pertain to the topic, which I was so thankful for, because if you enjoy praying Scripture over your children, these will give you some direction on where to begin. Although directed towards mothers for their sons, I think many of these prayers could be adapted to meet the need for prayer for siblings, friends, etc, and I have done this already.

I received a copy free in exchange for my review, but unfortunately it was lost in the mail. It must have been divine Providence though, because when the copy arrived, I had been frazzled after a week of dealing with three sick children. I sat down and began reading/praying through some of the prayers and I could just feel the burdens and weariness being lifted and a divine peace settling over me. These prayers were also a timely reminder that no matter how 'great' we are as parents, every good gift is from above, and only God can bring the increase into their lives, giving us a freedom to just be ourselves, if we choose to acknowledge and apply this truth. Although I recommend this book, I think it is best as a reference to go to when you need guidance with what to pray for a specific situation, as it was hard for me to read straight through for the review, even with the scattered personal stories throughout (which I don't think this was made to be a book for that), as many of these prayers are not applicable to my younger children yet!

Disclosure of Material Connection: As stated in the review, I received a copy of this book free from the publisher in exchange for the review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255

You know your Son's Daddy is an Ortho Doctor when... (PART 2)

... after falling in the backyard yesterday and breaking his arm, one of the first things he says to me through his tears as his father contemplates where to take him is

"Do you think I will need any nails or screws?"

So thankful for God's providence once again in all of this! Joel had just got home 10 minutes earlier, and knew exactly what had happened (even without bones sticking out!) when he saw his arm. He knew who to call to figure out the best place to take him. When I wasn't hearing anything from his end, and didn't want to bug him, I could bug Danya (who happens to be an upper extremity fellow), and she was able to tell me what all was going on and she was able to confirm Joel's hypothesis on how bad the break was (minimally angulated), that it wouldn't be painful once reduced (which is exactly what Liam stated afterwards), and how to take care of him (which I'm sure my husband would've done too eventually). Most of all, I'm thankful for God's grace in this all, as I had been amazed just a few hours earlier, how God had turned a crummy, depressing day into one filled with peace and joy. I guess he was prepping me for this. :)

Not sure what we will do about long sleeve shirts with the cold weather now here, and Liam was a bit bummed they didn't have green (although he cheerfully said he liked blue too), but these are so minor and I'm so thankful... I'm also thankful we just had Christmas pictures taken the weekend before ;)

**And, for those of you who were being prayer warriors for Joel's oral boards back in mid-October... he passed with awesome scores! Yay! Praise God!! So thankful that even though his studies never end (as he preps for cases, reviews new research, etc), the major testing is done until a yr into practice!!!**

For Part 1, see... http://javirkler.blogspot.com/2013/03/you-know-your-sons-daddy-is-ortho.html

Cutco and God's Grace

Remember this guy?

He flashes a smile, tells people hi, and they think that he is about the most perfect baby that could come by. He's known for always having a smile, always laughing, always happy...

Well, I've also decided that his bubbly little smiling self will have me with a full head of grey by the time I'm 40. And my husband predicts we will be frequenting the ER soon. And it'll be by God's grace and abounding mercy if he survives until adulthood. I think he needs someone just to follow him around 24/7. Especially when I turn my back, and he's trying to climb onto the hot stove (using that pull out drawer) to check what stuff I have cooking on the burner. Or trying to ride down the stairs on his ride-on toy. Or climb into the dryer and see if he can cover himself with clothes. Or dive headfirst over the back of the wingback chair. Or, like yesterday morning, when he came crawling up the stairs holding a Cutco knife he had gotten from climbing up and down the kitchen counter using the bottom cupboard shelves as a ladder... his little hand fisting the blade, jabbering and excitingly waving it around at me.

He wanted me to slice an apple for him.

After the first few seconds of my heart-stopping, freaking out, yelling at him 'no', rushing to him as he stood and leaned back, almost to the point of falling down the stairs, knife still in hand, and quickly grabbing it out of his hand, checking for blood and finding there was not even a scratch on his hand or body...

well, when I picture what I've seen Cutco knives do to other people and my fingernails or fingers if I forget they are in a sink filled with water, all I can do is thank God that He cares enough to dull even the sharpest knife blades when necessary.

The Importance of Voting...

Anyone who knows me, knows I'm a news junkie. It's an addiction that I've been working on curbing. Not that I feel responsible for the lack of knowledge the general public (and people in my generation specifically) have on current events, but I just can't help it. I may struggle with the conviction, when sometimes, when I can't sleep in the middle of the night (it happens weekly in this pregnancy), I'm just as quick to start reading the current world events as I am to pray or read my Bible (not my favorite on the phone, but I'm always scared of sitting up and turning on the light for fear it will wake me up further).

Besides it technically being the law (and my husband will tell you, I'm also a law-abiding citizen), we had no real reason to change our registrations and licenses over to NC, since we were only here a year, as everything would have still been valid. But... this year is an election year. And a big one. And it turns out that the senate race in NC may just well be the most expensive in history, with over $100million spent, and over 100,000 tv ads (PTL I don't have a tv...).

So... guess who registered to vote? :)

And as is custom, Liam wanted to know what we were going to do tomorrow. So I mentioned taking them with me to vote. And he wanted to know what voting was.

And thus began what I considered Government 101.

And my husband smirked and said I'm brainwashing early. ;)

I told him voting is something special that people in America get to do to choose who is our leaders in government. And he wanted to know what government was. That's a bit harder. So I said, well, do you remember who Pontius Pilate was? And he replied in the affirmative. And so I asked him whether he liked Pilate, to which he replied no, for the obvious reason of allowing Jesus to be beaten and crucified. I asked him whether he would want Pilate to be in charge of him. That was a no brainer.

So I told him Pilate was the government. The government decides what we can do and not do. And some people, like the Jews, were not able to decide whether or not they wanted Pilate. But in America, our blessing is we get to choose our government. But there are good candidates and bad candidates. So we study which ones are good (I may or may not have spent 2 hours doing this late one night), and go vote for them. He wanted to know how candidates were bad... oh my. He opened up a can of worms with that one ;)  Haha.

I told him that some candidates want babies that are still in their mommy's bellies not to live... to which my son said that was wrong and murder.

And I said and some people, see that you work real hard to make money, and want to take away more of your money... to which he replied that that was stealing.

And I said that depending upon who gets elected, some people may not want us worshipping God any way we want, anytime we want, nor would they want us praying out loud in front of other people and obeying what God tells us to do; and some may not want us telling others about Jesus and how much he loves them.... and he said well, we always need to obey God, and I better go vote in the good candidates.

My thoughts exactly. ;)

So there may have been a little indoctrination there, or specific wording to help my 5-year old understand.... but he got it.

Do you??

Our first overnight guest!

Ruth came to visit us! :) She was the first one brave enough to venture out here to the east coast and spend the night with our crazy family! We enjoyed learning how to cook GAPS-style, and took her to the Life and Science Museum (the outdoor portion) and went hiking. And ended it with style- with three sick kids! ;)

 The only part of the inside section we hit up.

 They had a farmyard with a cow, goats, chickens, pigs, owls, a donkey and alpacas.

 Aiden's favorite part was the butterfly house.

 We took advantage of the only dinosaur they could climb on.

 Digging for real "fossils" (aka shark teeth, shells, coral, fossilized leaves that were imported from a mine near the ocean).

 Poor Ruth read a LOT of books. Callum hardly ever paid attention, but every once in a while, he'd go over there just to "cheese" it for the camera. Literally.

 Hiking at Eno River State Park.

 Like I said. Every once in a while he will strike a pose and say "cheese", telling me I need to take his picture. This was one of them. 

 He had to be like his big brother with a walking stick. Although he thought it was more for hitting the ground with each step.

I love that Liam is starting to notice things and be so observant. He saw this tree and asked me to take a picture, because it was so unsual and like a rope. :)

Ruth's stay also coincided with Halloween. So we all know I'm not a Halloween person. Never have been. Probably never will be. Liam on the other hand declared this past week that he "loves Halloween, because he loves sugar, even when eating too much makes [him] sick." Oh my.

And that is what I had to combat with, dear ones.

And once again, I was missing Detroit, with their saavy idea of redeeming the Halloween by having the children dress up and visit the nursing home, where the elderly and staff hand out treats.

And so, although the little friend he's made was going trick-or-treating (in a spiderman costume that scared my son when we were over for a playdate earlier that week), I was trying to come up with a "harvest party" to make us forget about the fact that we weren't engorging bags filled with candy. And I didn't even have to build it up. He did it all in his mind! But I had made plans... and then all three were sick by that morning (well, Callum had been sick since the previous Friday, and Aiden began his cough the day before). And our Halloween came quite close to scarily ending with a trip to Duke's ER, when Liam became unable to breathe that evening. And my plans of...

Decorating small pie pumpkins... Short of going to a pumpkin patch, I could not find them anywhere near us in the stores.
Pumpkin donuts with harvest sprinkles hanging from strings...   too much sugar.
Bobbing for apples...  with congestion and germs going around, I nixed this idea pretty quick.
Hiding candy in balloons for the boys to pop... Too much sugar, so I decided it'd be too hard to explain to the younger two why they had to wait days (until they were better) to eat it.
Homemade apple cider... forgotten with the whole ordeal.
Making sliced caramel apple "lollipops"... Again, too much sugar so it was improvised.


So what did we do??

Well, living in a subdivision this year, I realized I would probably be getting children at the door for the first time since we've been married. And they might not notice that our porch light has been out for two months. So I begrudgingly bought candy, and after my husband talked about passing out tracts (where do you get tracts in the eleventh hour?), I went online, got an idea and Ruth and the boys took action. And sure enough, we did get visitors. Though not many. But Joel didn't want our "hard work" to be wasted, so he actually changed the light bulb. And suddenly we had many. And Liam had fun passing it out, not complaining about not being out once.

And Liam was excited to get something he could get a special gift from his Aunt Ruthie since he wasn't able to have candy that day.

Aiden slept through it all, after not having a nap that afternoon.

And Callum ran around, cheesing it... his usual self.

And because they were all sick, they didn't have too big of an appetite, but still managed a bit of a fun with apples dipped in peanut butter and sprinkles (because I'm not that mean). ;)