My Savior My God

Here's a song by Aaron Shust that is a favorite of ours. The words are so powerful!

My Savior My God

I am not skilled to understand
What God has willed, what God has planned
I only know at His right hand
Stands one who is my Savior

I take him at His word and deed
Christ died to save me this I read
And in my heart I find a need
For Him to be my Savior

That He would leave His place on high
And come for sinful man to die
You count it strange, so once did I
Before I knew my Savior

My Savior loves, my Savior lives
My Savior's always there for me
My God He was, my God He is
My God He's always gonna be

Yes, living, dying; let me bring
My strength, my solace from this spring
That He who lives to be my king
Once died to be my Savior

That He would leave His place on high
And come for sinful man to die
You count it strange, so once did I
Before I knew my Savior

My Savior loves, my Savior lives
My Savior's always there for me
My God He was, My God He is
My God He's always gonna be

Hope this touchs your heart today!

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Weaning....

I'm in the process of weaning Kaylie from her musical mobile toy thingie that helps put her to sleep, to making her go to sleep on her own, in silence. I used a musical toy for all my daycare children, and it worked wonders in helping them go to sleep on their own. I'm kinda foggy on the age bracket, but I think I weaned them closer to a year old, before another baby would come along.
I've been using the same music method with Kaylie, and it has worked well. One problem--come church time, she doesn't want to settle down as fast, partly due to not being sung to; partly due to not being rocked to sleep anymore. I didn't have to deal with the church issue with my daycare children, so this is a new one for me. Plus, those children were probably in the nursery at their church, whereas we don't do that in our circles. I do wonder sometimes what that would be like, to just leave your child with someone else, in another room, while you got to listen to the entire message preached, or whatever the service may be, without distractions. I have helped out in a Baptist nursery a handful of times for different events, so I've been on that end of the spectrum as a caregiver during a service.

Anyway, so now I'm trying to convince Kaylie she can go to sleep from being wide awake in silence. If she wakes up in the middle of the night, as she's been doing for a while, ever since she's been sick, she'll eat and go back to sleep, no noise needed. But since she's not used to that during the day, and Mommy's limiting how much music she hears anymore, she's decided to make her own noise. When my daycare children were old enough to be without music, and were in another room with others going to sleep, I had a no talking, no noise policy, and it was strictly enforced. Thus, I had no problems putting 5 toddlers to sleep in one room, sometimes three in one big kingsize bed. For right now, though, as long as Kaylie is content, I care not what she does in her bed. How many of you moms have that same thought at times? =]

My questions for you today are this:

How does your child go to sleep? By being rocked, or on his/her own?

Are you the parent who doesn't care if your child talks himself/herself to sleep, or do you insist on the no noise policy, or does your child use music?

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Our Life and Health

Vernon is officially done with his fifth semester, finals and all! PRAISE THE LORD!!! 5 down, 3 to go, for pre-med schooling.....then after that, Lord willing, 8 more for med school!

In other news, Kaylie is still sick. She's now on a prescribed cough syrup, and as a result of mother's instinct taking her in to the doctor yesterday, she is also on an antibiotic for fluid in her left ear. So now we have two medicines to force on her. She hates the taste of both meds., so I'm using any way I can think of to get the medicine in her. Any of you moms have tips on how to give a baby medicine effectively?

I have been keeping watch on my left leg, which had an abscess that had to be drained, and was on meds. for that. We thought it was better. The doctor I did my follow-up with said this morning via phone that he wants to do another 10-day round of that same antibiotic to make sure we've killed the mess after I told him how it looked and had another spot I was slightly worried about. Then he'll see me after this round is finished. So hopefully this time it will go away for good!

My praise items for the day:

~Kaylie's ear was diagnosed and is being treated before it got fully infected, meaning our fussy baby should be better till we're around family and all for the holidays.
~Vernon felt well enough to go to work today, after a horrific headache last night that sent him home from work early;
~God spared him the effects of nausea while driving home from work.....he was home in the bathroom before it hit.
~My leg hasn't gotten worse, like having to have the entire leg removed or something.
~We're thankful for doctors who can diagnose and treat whatever the problem may be.
~Wonderful walking weather outside, even though it's December 19!
~God's goodness to us, in providing for our needs ALWAYS, even when we gripe and complain because life seems 'unfair' at the moment--so full of unjustices because of sickness, lack of money, etc.
~Friends who encourage and lend listening ears!

There are more, but I'll stop with those for now.
Have a blessed day!

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Needing Motivation...

What is it about having a sick child that causes lack of motivation for the mom? Or don't the rest of you feel this way? I tend to feel miserable along with my daughter, and have to fight to get things done around here, seemingly more now than usual. Maybe it's because my allergies are bothering me, so in a sense, I AM sick right along with Kaylie.
I was thinking a few minutes ago, that with the weather like it is right now, and not venturing outside much in a day's time, I have plenty of time to get stuff done around here, and yet.....I'm lacking motivation! I keep reminding myself, that come January, I will be MUCH busier with a second baby in the house, so get all I can done project-wise, NOW!
Any ideas for motivators?
Til next time, the laundry, dishes, dusty surfaces, dirty bathroom mirror, etc., are calling me....

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Poll Time for Parents

As Mark Lowry would say, "I'm curious; let's take a poll"....

1. How many of you kept your babies in their infant car seat until they were a year old, or reached their weight to be turned around?
2. How many of you kept your baby rear-facing, but put them in a rear-facing/front-facing seat until they could turn around?
3. How many of you turned your baby around before a year old?
4. How many of you don't worry about the weight and age thing, and do whatever you have to do for your child?

With a 7-month-old who is following in her daddy's footsteps in being tall and slender, I'm wondering if she'll be able to stay in her infant seat until she reaches 1 year old and 20 lbs. The car seat I bought several years ago for my daycare is one of those 20-100 lbs., only forward-facing car seats with straps that can be removed if your child is big enough to use the seat belt and just use the booster seat part. So we're set for however many years she's in a car seat. She also is barely 16 lbs., at present.....so not sure if she'll be 20 lbs. by April 26, 2007.

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2007 Is Coming.....

I was checking out a friend's site today, and had a serious guilt attack. She had us on her list of links, and when I thought about how often I like to check her site and anticipate her new posts, partly because she's a new mom, (Know who you are yet?)and how I don't get updated very often, sometimes because I think I'll let Vern update this time. Who are we kidding?! He barely has time to remember his name, much less spend time on the computer telling others about his life. If you want to know about him, you either have to ask his social secretary or call him direct. Emailing him might work.
So I decided, upon the self-inflicted guilt trip that I would update for those of you who are faithful checkers.
Vernon is at the end of his 5th semester in pre-med school. He has one final on Monday and three! on Wednesday. PRAY FOR HIM!!! He'll be out for almost a month then.
Lez is staying busy as wife, mother, cab driver, nurse, friend, etc. I mentioned in my last post about helping a community couple. That is no longer, since they've moved in with someone else and have help provided there. PTL for that answered prayer! I knew come January I wouldn't be able to help them, and even though that wasn't my problem, I still wanted to help them find SOMEONE.
Come January I will be babysitting a two month old. Morgan is 6 months younger than Kaylie. So when Morgan starts Jan. 2, I'll have an 8 month old and a 2 month old.....this will prove interesting, I have no doubt. I told Morgan's mom I would like to have a trial day before we start for good, so I know what I'm getting myself into. Any tips on how to cope with 2 under 1?
Kaylie is 7 months old now; sitting up, crawling, pulling up, two bottom teeth, chattering more and more, quite her own little person. She had a bad cold that kept her coughing for a good month. Last week she was finally cough-free. Except for when she would do it for fun--liking the sound, since she'd done it for so long! And sleeping through the night again! Then Monday night...she was up three times by 2:30AM. All you moms who've spent countless nights getting up with your babies, know the dread you can feel when hearing your baby cry, once again. Lo, and behold, Tuesday morning I realized the reason for the bad night. Kaylie woke up with a runny nose, stopped up head, sneezes galore, etc. I spent a few discouraged hours that morning, trying to improve my outlook on the day and the week ahead with a fussy baby AGAIN. Long story short, she's on Triaminic, a vaporizer in her room, and doing reasonably well, considering. PRAISE THE LORD!!!

We plan to spend Christmas weekend and several days following with the Horst side, and Thursday through Monday with the Yates side. Vern's off that entire week! I can't wait! I live for these school breaks!

Last night we went to a "Walk through Bethlehem" with some friends that a Methodist church put on, and they were basically trying to re-create what it could've been like 2000 years ago. They had scenes starting from when the Angel told Mary she was to have a child, to Joseph and Mary traveling, to what Bethlehem in the middle of the census time could've been like, to the manger scene, amongst other scenes along the way. It was very well put on, and alot of hard work, I'm sure!

May Jesus Be the REAL REASON expressed in YOUR SEASON!

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