predictions

update: Predictions WINNER!!!! (could you get any closer?!?!) 

 Joy said...

-10/10/10
-5:30am
-6 pounds 9ounces
-Chace (really no clue!) and no idea for middle name

And I really wish I could take his newborn photos! Sad that mn is so far away....

September 29, 2010 10:30 PM

With each passing day we grow more and more excited to meet our precious little miracle! We have guesses about when we'll meet him and other details. BUT...

We think it'd be fun to hear what YOU think.  
So, leave a comment with your predictions on:


1. What date will Little Mr. be born?
2. What time of day will it be when he's born?
3. How much will he weigh?
4. What will his name be?

Little Mr. and I at 36 weeks, 1 day (last Saturday) 

grace based

Grace based well, everything in life, I guess should be the goal.

But before all my time gets taken by Little Mr. and I'm yet another busy mom off the blog rolls... I thought I'd post this.

I was VERY helped by this "parenting book".  No, not the normal Dr. Sears, Baby Whisperer, Nursing Mothers Companion, or Happiest Kid on the Block- although all are quite helpful in their own right.  This book sets all of the "how-to's" aside for a moment and focuses on the philosophy behind what drives you as a parent, family, and child of God. It summarizes beautifully many of my underlying parenting philosophies that have been developing over the years. (Through having little sisters, watching other moms and dads, lots of nannying, and just aging). [I can't say I absolutely agree with absolutely everything, but pretty darn close].

The book is: Grace Based Parenting By: Tim Kimmel

I recommend that you read it. But here are a few highlights that stood out to me:

• pg. 5- Since how children 'turn out' is far more contingent on what is going on inside them than outside them; unnecessarily tight boundaries undermine the desire of the Holy Spirit who is working to build a sense of biblical moral resolve in their hearts. Children are free agents who need Jesus. Basically God is not interested in 'moral' or 'evangelical' children, but rather having their heart. Rules in the the head seldom move to the heart.
• pg. 19- Grace based parents spend their time entrusting themselves to Christ. They live to know God more. Their children are daily recipients of the grace these parents are enjoying from the Lord. And are especially graceful when their children are the hardest to love.   Grace has eternal appeal. It effects how goals are developed, discipline is handled, fears are processed, quarks are dealt with and our response to fears. (pg. 29)
• pg. 54- Give love when child is unappreciative, doesn't deserve it, it's inconvenient, costly to us and painful. Rom 5:6-8
• Unfortunately western parents can afford to raise children in evangelical hideaways & create a spiritual 'disneyland' for them. This works directly against the development of an empowered relationship with Christ!  Goal- to raise spiritually strong and gospel saturated children! Inside the boundaries of respect and honor there's room for our children to be the creative individuals God made them to be. -That's how Jesus 'parents' us.
• Our parenting method is empowered by our confidence in God, rather than our concerns about the messed up world we're raising our children in.  pg. 212- don't be concerned with how other parents view your children, be more concerned with how God views your children.

There are soooo many more points that are note worthy. I was really reminded at how much grace has been given to me minute by minute by my heavenly father, and how desperately I want to model that for our kids. I want to show them how the gospel is lived out in a consistent and loving way each day.

My favorite chapters, if you only have a little time, were 5, 6, 7, 9, & 10

Showers of Mercy-drops

Showers of blessing, Showers of blessing we need: Mercy-drops round us are falling, But for the showers we plead.

There shall be showers of blessing: This is the promise of love; There shall be seasons refreshing, Sent from the Savior above.

1. There shall be showers of blessing, Precious reviving again; Over the hills and the valleys, Sound of abundance of rain.
2. Now as to God we’re confessing, Now as on Jesus we call!
3. There shall be showers of blessing, If we but trust and obey; There shall be seasons refreshing, If we let God have His way.

Mercy= "a blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion" 

The last few weeks have come upon us like a refreshing shower. (sometimes rather heavy, literal, rain showers too! yesterday parts of the metro got like 5-9 inches of rain!) God has been so good to us. He has used you, our friends and family, over and over again to remind us that he loves us and does have compassion on His children.  


Honestly, it's been hard at times throughout the past year or two to feel that mercy -tangibly- we know each day comes as a new mercy (it just doesn't always feel like it to me). But God has gotten us through! 


Just in the past two weeks we've had two baby showers- each celebrating God's gift of goodness to us in allowing Little Mr. to grow so strong and long in the womb, and to one day VERY SOON to hold our precious baby boy! And on top of that Charlie changed jobs (well, officially starts on the 30th); God opened doors for him to work as an "in-house attorney" at a large local/national company. (This brings him one step closer to his career goal of becoming general counsel at a company one day).  God's timing and ways are so mysterious sometimes, and this summer has brought us nearer to to Him- through prayer and dependance, and faith building. (It wasn't fun btw, but good). 'God has had His way and now it feels like a season refreshing'- as the song above states.

Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Psalm 106:1 

Two Saturday's ago both of our families and MANY extended family members came from all over. -Iowa, Wisconsin, and the greater metro; because I am unable to go much more than 40 minutes from home (because of the cerclage). We felt so incredibly loved by their kindness and thoughtfulness, toward us and time spent with us and getting here. Elizabeth and Bridget hosted a really darling "Little Mr." shower. (I actually don't have many pictures of it... but you can go to Liz's post about it for a few more). They had the napkins folded as ties, and the cups had mustaches, and lots of really yummy food. Thanks sisters!

And then last Saturday (top left picture below) Nichole Wells, Anne Golliher and Andrea Brogle hosted a baby shower for our friends celebrating our Little Guy! These girls are precious and treasured gifts in my life. They made Charlie and I feel so blessed! -Actually everyone who came made us feel that way. THANK YOU over and over again! There were friends from college days, book club, small group, Titus 2 group, neighbors, friends from the area and even one surprise friend from California! What an amazing day. Maryann gave a wonderful devotional, and we all enjoyed yummy food. (After completing a rather disgusting baby food guessing game)... good times.

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! 1 Chronicles 16:34 

We're feeling as "ready" as new parents could. I'm 36 weeks today! I've had a few practice tummy tighteners, but nothing terribly serious yet. We're positively elated at the prospect of meeting our precious son in as soon as a few short days or weeks! Sometimes I can't believe it's all really happening. 

Taste and See That the Lord Is Good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Psalm 34:8

Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.  Psalm 147:1, 3

are there "normal" dreams?

OK, I'm thinking weird sleep and sleep patterns are a normal part of pregnancy. I've heard of crazy dreams, dreaming of your baby, etc. But I tell ya- I'm losing it. 'Cuz I've been dreaming REAL things.

-The most frustrating is the "To-do" lists or how I'll go about accomplishing a project. VERY VIVID and detailed. In the dream (apparently- cuz when i wake up nothing is done) I either write it down or do the project... so now when I wake I'm upset because can't remember the whole list of to-do's so I can write it down quick or if I did indeed just dream it. It usually comes back to me throughout the day in parts and I rush to write it down.

Dreaming fake things, or about our Little Boy or a weird list would be fine. But not the real stuff I need to do or remember, etc!

AHHHHHHHH!

As a side note, Little Mr. isn't waking me up as much these days, has definitive patters of sleeping and MEGA play/kicking time, gets the hic-up's 1-2x's per day and has gotten super big in the past week. We go for and ultrasound Friday and they'll do measurements, weight, etc.

The 29th is the day my cerclage will come out (week 36, day 4). And I'm generally off of bed rest- with the exception of lifting and exercising.  Charlie and I have started going for slow walks this week, and are starting to lengthen them. It's so great to get out and DO something again! WOW!

33

The two of us on 33 weeks and 1 day:

I'd post one with my head attached but for some reason charlie didn't take one.   Oh well.

Sweet corn has really been hitting the spot lately! And it's super sweet this season too!) Yummy!

I've been drooling over a few of these. -The latest addition to VS's PINK collection.

And in love with this Bengals sweatshirt by Firedaughter.

This week it's been cool, and definitely more fall like. I've pulled out a couple sweaters and comfy sweatshirts.  And we've had fun enjoying a few football games. Thursday night we're headed to a party to watch the Vikings opening game- against the dreaded Saints.  I hope they're nice to Farve, cuz when there not, it makes me say naughty things.

mish-mash

Entertainment addition: As of last night (thanks to Jesse and Jasmine) I've added "The Goonies" to the list of movies I've watched. (Somehow I missed that one in 1985).  Some funny parts, mostly rather slow. Also, Charlie and I have one last season of the O.C. left to watch. (*blushes*, LOL, yes we know it's a teeny-bopper series, but have found it entertaining. -Especially since I couldn't do many activities this summer). And we're both excited to sit back and enjoy football this fall. (I purposely say enjoy, because it's a conscious decision to not get as emotionally/and time-involved this season, last year was intense!)


Pregnancy change: I actually find the baby squirming inside me cute and adorable now. (I'm not sure how the change happened). I mentioned a while ago that his hands or feet making long sweeping movements across my uterus grossed/weirded me out. -and it did, it was so strange. Well now I think he's big enough I can tell exactly what he's doing in there and what body part is squirming around (OFTEN). That kinda helps me picture him. Also, I don't usually fully wake up at night when he's readjusting anymore. So that's been nice. He's getting so big now (about 4 3/4lbs!!!) that even though we go in for ultrasounds every-other week, it's hard to get a good picture of his face. It looks rather cramped these days, plus he's been head down (which is good).

Family News: Our little brother, Andrew, officially passed his ordination yesterday! He's been studying very hard for this. (He's a youth pastor out in OH right now). His ordination service and celebration will be this weekend. Charlie and I are bummed we can't be there. But congrat's FoCack!

Something I learned:
I am NOT GOOD, or remotely close to good, at guitar hero!!! Um-yeah. Sorry band, I got us boo'ed off stage.  But I found it entertaining to watch my Babe and friends play.

We went to Church last Saturday night! The first time in at least three months. I can nearly count on one hand the number of times I've been able to go to church this whole year!  (Jan-early May I was terribly sick, then May 29-until recently, bed rest). It was so good to be there. I especially miss the worship. I love the genuineness of worshipers at Bethlehem; nothing about it is a show, it people truly praising the Lord in many ways, their hands-arms-body, spoken word, prayer, song.  At this service I was sweetly reminded of God's goodness to me in Salvation. Seemingly such a simple fundamental thing. But it's not. He has chosen, redeemed, loved, and is sanctifying ME! -A perfectly holy, all-powerful, all-knowing, creator God! Standing there singing about what He's done made me teary. Definitely good to be reminded.

Minnesota to-do list this fall: There are two things I'd love to do this fall (but will probably have to wait for Little Mr. to come). One is head up to Taylors Falls, MN to hike (ever so slowly). I've heard it's really pretty. And then go to the winery/apple orchard/pumpkin farm near still water. This is something we do every year; wine taste, pick a pumpkin, walk hand-in-hand through the apple orchard... but last year I remember walking through there thinking- 'I wonder what next year will be like, will we have a baby with us?' This is something I've wondered the last three years- the first we hadn't conceived yet, but were considering it, the second year I got pregnant a month after that with Baby Ruttigar. And last year, I was grieving, bewildered at our year, and having to babies in heaven, and trying to just enjoy time with my Charlie. Crazy to think that this year, Lord willing, we could have a little man in tow! WOW! Super exciting too! Hummm, fall makes me nostalgic in so many ways.

Thoughts: I need to clean out our car desperately.  I wonder which day we'll meet our son. Confession, I haven't cleaned the house for about one month-shhhhh. I'm going to finish one more sewing project, then get my Janome machine tuned up; it's a year old this week! (Love it!) I'm excited that it's September!- I get to see lots of friends and family this month! YAY!