Singing Along

I love listening to Kristen sing along to songs in the car. Some of her favorites are "Sweet Chariot," "Who Did?" "Oh, You can't get to heaven," and "Itsy Bitsy Spider." She really gets into the songs and belts them out.

Sometimes, though, Momma needs a break from all the kids songs and Kristen and Audrey are forced to listen to Virtue, Out of Eden, Cece Winans, Mary Mary or Nicole C. Mullen.

Currently, Kristen's favorite "Mommy" song is called "Under the Shadow." Kristen refers to it as "yeah, momma," because towards the end of the song there are some african drums played, bible verses quoted and someone in the background says "yeah, momma, yeah momma, yeah papa, yeah papa, yeah brother, yeah brother, yeah sister, yeah sister." Anyways Kristen loves that part.

The other day Kristen was singing it in the living room (without the help of music or Nicole) and it just amazed me how much of the lyrics she knew.

Here are the lyrics (for those of you that have not heard this wonderful song)


He who dwelleth in the secret place
Of the most high shall abide
Under the shadow
Under the shadow
Of the Almighty

Though a thousand
Fall before me
From the evil
That’s around me
They shall not
They shall not come nigh my dwelling

And I will say of the Lord He is my refuge and my fortress
My God in Him will I trust
And I will not be afraid of the snare of the fowler
My God in Him will I trust


Her second favorite "Mommy" song, "Baby Girl," also by Nicole C. Mullen, Kristen has had memorized for quite some time and it is also fun to watch her sing (or dance) along to.

Below are its lyrics :

I've got a little friend
her age is 4 plus ten
she calls me on the phone crying every
now and then
She says, "My mamma just wont listen,
my daddy still is missin'
I dont feel i am nothing of value or worth"

Chorus:
I say, "Baby girl get a hold of yourself
Baby girl don't you know your wealth
you're a diamond hiding on a shelf
baby girl, baby girl
baby girl dont you know who you are
God has made you a shining star
a little light is brighter than the dark
baby girl, baby girl"

I call my sister friend
I'm crying and whining again
she lets me vent my heart
before the healing starts
(and i say) my children just wont listen
My paycheck still is missin'
and every little thing is working my nerve

Chorus:
(she says) "Baby girl get a hold of yourself
Baby girl don't you know your wealth
you're a diamond hiding on a shelf
baby girl, baby girl
baby girl dont you know who you are
God has made you a shining star
a little light is brighter than the dark
baby girl, baby girl"


And when Kristen wants to dance in the kitchen, she requests "Talk about it" by Nicole C. Mullen.

Tell rich and poor in slavery
The king has ordered a decree
Ransom all captivity
Ring the bells of liberty
He sacrificed His everything
To buy us new identities

So every knee could bow
Every tongue confess
That Jesus our Lord is marvelous

So let the redeemed of the Lord say so
Talk about it, say so, talk about it
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so
Talk about it

Bangladesh to Bangor, Maine
If you're talking about His name
Give Him glory unashamed
(His love is so exciting)
Say it loud and quietly
Nod you head or disagree

But every knee shall bow
Every tongue confess
That Jesus our Lord is marvelous

repeat chorus

And strange, but true, when Kristen was really tiny and we had a hard time putting her to sleep, Phil or I would hold her and sway to the music of "Redeemer" also by Nicole C. Mullen.

Who taught the sun where to stand in the morning?
Who told the ocean you can only come this far?
Who showed the moon where to hide 'til evening?
Whose words alone can catch a falling star?

Well I know my Redeemer lives
I know my Redeemer lives
All of creation testify
This life within me cries
I know my Redeemer lives

The very same God that spins things in orbit
He runs to the weary, the worn and the weak
And the same gentle hands that hold me when I'm broken
They conquered death to bring me victory

Now I know my Redeemer lives
I know my Redeemer lives
Let all creation testify
Let this life within me cry
I know my Redeemer, He lives

To take away my shame
And He lives forever, I'll proclaim
That the payment for my sin
Was the precious life He gave
But now He's alive and
There's an empty grave

Now I know my Redeemer lives
I know my Redeemer lives
Let all creation testify
Let this life within me cry
I know my Redeemer, He lives

Squeeze Hugs, Prayer Time and Sleeping with my three year old

Putting Kristen to bed can be one of my favorite times of the day. The first half of the routine, putting on pajamas and brushing teeth, is sometimes difficult, as she is in the "I can do it all by myself" stage and so it takes FOREVER some nights.

But the second half is priceless. Kristen has several books that she LOVES to read at bedtime and becomes quite animated about when reading. This is even more true when Daddy reads. On those nights, I am upstairs putting Audrey to bed and I can hear them giggling and quoting their favorite lines. See a future post by Daddy about "Ira Sleeps Over."

After we have read a couple of books, Kristen and I brainstorm about what to pray about. She thinks about her day and names a few things or people to thank God for. The list usually includes dogs and cats, sometimes books, a lot of times she includes a specific food she had that day, and sometimes she thanks God for her house, Mommy, Daddy and Audrey. Then we brainstorm what to ask God to help us with. Most of the time she asks God to help her friends and Mommy's friends and Audrey's friends and Daddy's friends. One time she was really cute and she asked God to forgive one of her friends (who had earlier that day said stupid.) And then she thanked Him for always forgiving her for her mistakes and for forgiving all her friends' mistakes.

When we have both prayed for a few minutes, Kristen snuggles up really close, pets my arm, face or hair, and asks in a quiet voice, "Will you sleep with me for a few minutes?" And how can anyone say no to that angelic face, so I say, "I'll sleep with you for two minutes," And the little negotiator says, "How about five minutes?" and then smiles and giggles, because she knows she will get her way. During our five minutes of sleep, she continues to stroke my hair and tells me things like "Mom you have pretty hair," or "I love you more than chocolate." Often she will ask me what we are going to do the next day. After five minutes of laying together, cuddling, I get up to go upstairs. She turns on the ound machine and makes sure the volume is all the way up. I turn on the monitor. She checks to make sure the playroom light is off, that the bathroom door is open, that the storage room door is shut, that the laundry room light is on, that the laundry room door is slightly ajar and that the computer monitor is turned off.

and then comes my favorite part of the bedtime routine (well sometimes laying with her is just as good, so we'll call it a close second, but anyways...

First I receive a hug, then a squeeze hug and then a super squeeze hug. Then I receive a kiss, a squeeze kiss (where she places her hands on both sides of your head and then kisses) and then a super squeeze kiss (a more exuberant squeeze kiss that last a second or two longer.)

This is probably my favorite part of the day. When I've had a rough day, or my head hurts, I know that come 8:00 my little girl will throw her arms around me and cheer me up. I love the way she smiles at me right before the hug. I love the way her eyes seem to twinkle right before she grabs my face for a squeeze kiss. She is so loving and affectionate. I want to bottle it up because I know one of these days hugs and kiss will become more rare and probably less expressive.

After the lovefest is over, I get escorted to the stairs by my lovely daughter, where she says goodnight, turns and runs at a superspeed I didn't know preschoolers could travel at (she sure doesn't travel that fast when I ask her to hurry) to her room. When she arrives at her door, she hollers "Have a good sleep Ladybug." And I whisper back, "You too, Butterfly."






Check out an older post about Kristen and her cute betime routines here.

Joy! Joy! Joy!

The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:10 and 11

Joy does not come from having a holiday celebration with family that resembles a hallmark tv special.


I should know, my Christmas Eve was nothing like I pictured it. Audrey kept me awake from midnight to five am, and then Kristen was roaring to go at 7 am. A stupid misunderstanding with my husband that led to an hour-long argument put me in a bad mood. A tantruming three year old tested me and Phil throughout the day. Target DID NOT have any cameras in my price range left, so we had to use a 5-year-old camera that shoots really grainy pictures. (Our good camera sort of got, um, dropped a few days ago and has not yet been replaced.) And even with our old camera, I did not get the perfect family picture. Kristen didn't want to cooperate at first... even with the promise of gummy bears, and then when Kristen was ready to pose for the camera, Audrey was tired and cranky. Drool, milk and who knows what else was spilled, wiped and dropped on my sweater (and yes, I CAN see it in the pictures, and I can see the dark circles under my eyes from the lack of sleep, too.)


But in spite of the less than perfect day, my family and I were filled with joy. Because joy does not come from perfect days or perfect pictures. And joy can not be taken from us no matter how bad the circumstances.


The joy that is for all people comes from the fact that our God became flesh and dwelled among us. Joy comes from the Savior! I am loved unconditionally by the Creator of the universe. He is what brings me true joy. Thank you God for saving me from my selfishness, bad attitude, thoughtlessness, impatience, and unforgiveness. Thank you for not counting these sins I committed today, or any others,against me. Thank you for taking on my punishment at Calvary. Thank you for joy, love and peace that cannot be taken away. That is the reason we celebrate this Christmas. Not Santa, parties, presents or even family and friends. We celebrate that Holy Night when our God and Savior left His place in Heaven and came to earth as a baby to allow us a way to have a relationship with Him again. JOY! JOY! JOY!




Oh and we did get a couple of pictures that weren't terrible. Some were kind of cute.





And our Christmas day was much, much better:)

Happy Thanksgiving

The O'Neal P.A.C.K. is thankful for our wonderful family








our beautiful,healthy and fun girls,






and books






oh and naps


and crazy worm toys.



Not so thankful for all the food we ate and now we have to do sit ups to get rid of the extra weight.






But we ARE thankful for God's love and amazing grace.

Childlike Faith

" God loves us and He wants us to care about people and help people. And He loves us even if we make mistakes, even big ones," Kristen told me today on the way to bible study today. She continued to inform me that "God lives in heaven. With Jesus. And MY Great- Grandpa. Soon we'll be in heaven too."



Kristen's Great-Grandpa died last week and she traveled with her family to St. Louis to attend his funeral.
















The trip there was pretty rough,with lots of crying from Audrey and lots of whining from Kristen. But it was nice to be able to show our respect and love for Grandpa Schwane. And luckily the girls slept most of the time on the return trip back to KC.








Kristen really enjoyed meeting Cousin Tim and staying at his house. We were very thankful for his hospitality. Kristen understood that he is Daddy’s cousin, like Charis is her cousin. Sarah Poertner was there, too, and Kristen talked about how Daddy has two cousins.




Actually there are a ton more, but we’ll save those intros for a later time.









Kristen and Audrey both loved seeing their Mimi and Papa.















And their aunts and uncles.









I asked Kristen what else she knew about God, and she said, " Jesus loves us anyways. Even if we make big mistakes, even if we make little mistakes. If we say we are sorry, He forgives us and He loves us even when we make mistakes. And He wants us to share and be nice to good people and bad people."



I asked her what she meant by the 'bad' people and she said, "like Edgar" (from the Aristocats... he stole Madame's cats) She continued by saying, " If Edgar says sorry, Jesus will forgive him and teach him to be nice and care about people and to not take cats anymore."




I think my little three old summarized the gospel pretty well. Accept Jesus and his love and grace. And in response, love and be graceful to others.

Audrey's dedication

On Sunday October 11, 2009 Cecilia and I formally dedicated Audrey to God in our Sunday morning service. God has no grandchildren and there is no substitute for each individual's personal choice to begin a relationship with God through Jesus. So we can not make Audrey's personal salvation decision for her. What we CAN do is our very best to model for Audrey what a relationship with Christ should be like, and to raise her in a home where Christ is the highest priority. The formal dedication is our opportunity to declare that publicly. AND to acknowledge that in addition to our influence, Audrey will be much better off if she experiences genuine Christ-like love from both her extended family and her church family. Sooo with that being said, ON TO THE PHOTOS! Here we are at home getting ready to head out...




Here we are during Pastor Rob's speech... (Thanks, Michelle, for monitoring from behind the podium..;)...






We celebrated the occasion further with some lunch at Perkin's...




Kristen hamming it up with one of her super-cute smiles...



All that dedicating and eating makes a little girl need a nap!!..




Back when we dedicated Kristen, we were not yet blogging, so here is a picture from back then (December 31, 2006)...



Now some verses pertaining to this topic:
from Deuteronomy 6 (NIV)...
"4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."

from Joshua 24 (NIV):
14 "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

Matthew 19:14 (NIV): Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

And finally, I am pasting below a few paragraphs that speak quite nicely to this topic. My friend Jeremy Bond and his wife Becky also have two young daughters, Julia and Sophia. Last summer, Jeremy wrote a great article about parenting. It was so meaningful that I pasted a large chunk of it into my journal at the time and am now pasting it here for your enjoyment (emphases in bold are mine). Thanks, Jeremy, for sharing!

“Books are kind of a big deal. Actually, reading is a big deal. Like all parents, we want our kids to be able to read. We want them to enjoy reading and love learning from books. We want them to have the reading skills needed to enjoy life to its fullest. Of course, we have other reasons we read. We read to Sophia because she has no hearing in one ear and her doctor wants to expose her to as much reading as possible to develop her speech. It’s working. There are countless reasons for us to pick up a book, but all this begins with an underlying hope that our kids will learn to read and love to read.
How can we give this gift of reading to our girls? It starts simply by reading with them. Mom or I will pick up a book, the girls crawl up on our lap, and we read. We read to share time with Julia and Sophia. We read to learn new ideas. We read to prepare them to sleep at night. We read to relax. We read to distract. We read to be creative. We started reading when they were infants. We continued reading when they could hold the books and turn the pages. And, when they’re reading on their own, we’ll read along with them to share yet another reading experience.
There are times with Julia that we spend time sounding out letters and words. We’ll practice making the sounds. We’ll use cue cards and study her “sight words” given by her Kindergarten teacher. There are times we have to correct her pronunciation of a word or sound. Sometimes she likes learning these “laws of reading”, but we’ve also discovered that there are times we need to just let her read her own way. She wants to read, but she wants to learn to read on her own. Too much help from mom and dad isn’t always in her plans.
Now, not only is Julia learning to read. She’s learning to write. She’s creating her own books and stories. Sure, for now, it means copying words, creating three word sentences, or just coloring the pictures of her homemade book. But, they are still her books, and she loves them. Whatever you do, do not let her see you throw one away. We now have 341 of these stapled creations. She loves to read. She’s still learning, but she’s also enjoying the process and the benefits of her evolving reading skills. She’s becoming a reader.
Here’s the funny thing. I’m wondering if this approach to teaching our kids to read is also a good metaphor for nurturing them into a loving relationship with Jesus. Perhaps the reading approach could teach us a thing or two about how we teach our kids about God’s love.
What if our goal as parents was to show our children the story of God? What if we continually looked for ways to bring them into the story of God? We read a book every day at our house. What if we lived a piece of God’s story every day at our house? I don’t have to convince Julia that she needs to learn to read. She’s seen the “magic” of reading. She wants it for herself. What if we didn’t need to convince our children they needed to love Jesus Christ? What if they saw the power of Jesus every day for themselves? They could share in the God stories with us. I admit it is a metaphor I’m still exploring and trying to articulate.
Now that Julia is in Kindergarten, she’s learning more about the rules and structure that organize reading. However, if she becomes too focused on perfecting these rules and techniques, she will not only lose patience, but lose interest. Why? Reading becomes about rules and techniques and symbols instead of imagination, learning, and stories. Reading would no longer be fun.
Are we in danger of doing this with God? Can we be so focused on the rules and techniques of living for God that our kids are growing impatient and missing out on the joy and the reason for loving God? This can easily happen because these techniques and rules are often easier to teach and provide quicker results. Do we want our kids to spend their childhood learning the rules and techniques of God, only to spend the rest of their lives wondering why these rules even matter? It becomes too easy to turn the Bible into nothing more than a manual for the living the Christian life. The Bible does not exist to be a “how to” book. It is the story of God. Even those parts of the Bible that seem to be only techniques and rules were written to tell the story of man’s interaction with God. Shouldn’t we stay focused on this story?
Is it possible to live the life of Jesus with our kids, to “read” them the story of Jesus, in ways that allow them to experience the mystery, power, fear, and love of God for themselves? Can this story of Jesus be in our homes, in our hearts, in our arguments, in our decision making, in our laughter, in our service, and in our experiences? Will this developing story create in them hearts that yearn to know God and love Jesus Christ?
Can we get past the stress and worry that comes from trying to “make” our children into Christians? I think we often get so bogged down in the techniques and rules of Christian parenting that we miss out on the joy of the process. We miss the joy of watching the reaction of children as they hear, learn, and participate in the story of God. We miss out on the miracle of trusting God to reveal himself to our kids in new and creative ways. Christian parenting loses its fun, loses its joy, when it is no longer a story.”