Compassion

I have been reading updates from this blog that chronicles a mom's recent
trip to Africa to visit her sponsored child. Her stories and photos have
brought me to tears, as has this music video by Sara Groves.

Ultimately, it has caused our family to consider sponsoring a child.
We checked out the website and discovered a little boy who has
the same birth date (day and age!) as Elisha. We feel this is a great
opportunity to teach our kids about sacrifice, sharing, and compassion.

A reader on Shannon's blog left this comment, and it really resonates
with where I am right now: seeing needs and struggling to discern
what my specific role is in meeting those needs.

"Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special attention
to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstances,
are brought into closer connection with you."

- St. Augustine of Hippo

How do you respond to the overwhelming needs you see?
Do you have words of wisdom
concerning balance and discernment?

Special Delivery

Elisha and Madelyn received money for their birthday
from Great-Grandpa and Grandma Bowman. They decided
to combine their resources and order some play food from online.
It arrived this week, and they were thrilled!
This food is really cool - it has Velcro that sticks it together
and you can use a knife to "cut" it and serve. Very fun!

Growing More

My latest picture today at 28 1/2 weeks.
It's hard to believe I have several more weeks to grow...
I think you will only understand what I'm saying
if you are or have been pregnant before.
You seriously start wondering how big you can get.
The whole baby growing inside of you feeling is a bit surreal.

Semantics

Conversation in our kitchen Friday night:

Elisha: Mom, what is a show off?
Me: Someone who wants everyone to pay attention to them.
Elisha: Well then, Mrs Cerny (his preschool teacher) is a show off.
Me: Why?
Elisha: Because she always wants us to pay attention to her.

There's just something about the English language that requires more than a simple definition, you know? :o)

Odds and Ends

Elisha bought Madelyn a View Master for her birthday.
One day I walked into the living room to see this:

Last week, Madelyn brought me this pretzel and said "E"!
(She was holding onto the round loop, so it really did look like an "e.")
Amazingly, she can recognize all of her letters,
thanks to the Leapfrog Letter Factory video.
Seriously, we cannot take credit for this type of knowledge. :)

Fun with Elisha's hair...pre-haircut

Elisha before bedtime playing with his Leappad

Growing

22 weeks

25 weeks

One more thing...

My mom had her "reconnecting" surgery Wednesday and will be in the hospital until next week. The doctor said things went well, so we are looking forward to her resting, recovering, and resuming her normal activities sometime down the road. We would appreciate your prayers as she completes this final leg of her journey. Thanks!

Fantastic Five

Elisha decided to have a snowman part to celebrate turning 5.
A few friends joined us to create sock snowmen, make minis pizzas,
play games, and enjoy cupcakes. It was a fun day!

Making mini pizzas
(really simple to pull off with store-bought frozen bread dough)

Pin the Nose on the Snowman

Friends having fun at present time

"Happy Birthday to You!"

"Let's eat 'em!"

Startling

We were going a bit stir crazy last night, so I decided about 6:00 to load the kids up and head to Tree of Life so they could spend some birthday money to buy a DVD of their choice. After getting their socks and shoes on, it was my turn.

I grabbed my shoes from our laundry room (a nice warm area that also houses our furnace, water heater and such) and started to put them on. The right one went on fine, but the left one seemed to have something in the toe that was making it uncomfortable ("maybe a piece of lint or a small rock" I thought.) I turned it over, knocked it on the floor and tried again. This time there was something under the ball of my foot. I tried to shake it out but didn't see anything fall out, so I stuck my hand in the toe and tried to scrape it out. I was relieved when something dark appeared in the shoe's opening - finally!

My relief was short lived as the object started to move and crawl onto the heel of my shoe. It was a huge (in my opinion) spider! I jumped up and semi-freaked out for a moment, but quickly regained my composure since the kids were around. Jim was at work and I would have to deal with this. My plan: take it outside and kill it (I didn't want its guts on the carpet). I put on my boots, picked up my shoe (it crawled back inside), took it out to the front porch, shook it out, and stepped on it.

Below is a photo of the remains that Jim took for me this morning. You can't tell how big it was because it's all curled up and there is nothing to show it's size, but I'd say it was bigger than a quarter with its legs out. I considered trying to take photos when it happened, but I was afraid it would crawl away and I would have to stay up all night wondering where it was (shiver).

Thus ends the my spider story, although I still get the heebie geebies just thinking about it: I touched a spider! Eeeehhhhh!

Turning Two

It's been the week of birthdays at the Womack house.
Madelyn turned 2 on Monday,and Elisha turned 5 Thursday.
We are now officially presented, partied and cupcaked out!

More Christmasing

Christmas Sunday

Christmas Eve at Great-Grandpa and Grandma Bowman's

After-Christmas, opening presents from Uncle Dan and Aunt Patti

Funny, Funnier, Funniest

I'll leave it to you to decide which adjective fits which photos.

What happens when you leave clean laundry too accessible.

What happens when you share your hat with a tired 4 year old

What happens when you leave the Kleenex
box within reach of your 1 year old

Christmasing at IWU

IWU has a wonderful Christmas "party" where they have great snacks, fun presents for the children, and (yes) generous bonuses for employees. Here are the kids all dressed up and enjoying their gifts.

Experimenting

I read about this idea in a magazine (I think it was Family Fun) while I was in the doctor's office a few weeks ago. I came home and tried it out that very day. Just fill an ice cube tray with water and put drops of food coloring in each area. Let your child use a plastic dropper to mix colors and experiment. Elisha did this for about an hour, if I remember right. Once the colors get too mixed up, you can just dump it out, rinse the tray and start over. I love fun, inexpensive projects like this!

And the Winner is...

Based on the vote in the comments, there was a tie among A, E and G (A actually won if I count the second part of my brother's comment where he admits it's the best photo). I decided I am too chicken to send out A this year, so I had to break the tie and I chose G.

I decided to go with Madelyn smiling and Elisha's "I'm a model" pose in G rather than Madelyn looking out of it and Elisha looking ornery (which he is) and like I am tickling him or grabbing his neck (which I very well might have been) in E. Jim looks slightly more "with it" in E, but he doesn't look great in any of the photos due to his headache, and I think I look more relaxed in G.

So, there you have it - all of the logic behind my choice (actually Jim helped choose too) and way more than you ever cared to know about the process of selecting the Womack family Christmas photo.

For those of you who picked the winning photo, I have homemade candy bark for you at my house if you can stop by to get it. Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Photos 2007

Yep, it's that time of year again...time to vote for your favorite
Womack family photo only to have us choose a completely
different one that the majority of you did not choose.
(See December 2006)

This year we have several options, thanks to a mobile Madelyn;
a very silly, sometimes uncooperative Elisha;
and a not-feeling-so-well Jim (headache).

We do want to know what you think, so please cast your vote
and tell us why you selected a particular photo.
We need to order this week sometime, so vote NOW!

I have to admit that this top one is one of my favorites:

real life with our kids.

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

Cute photos of the kiddos: