Childlike Faith

Today I was reminded of how precious the faith of a child is. Every Tuesday morning, Chris & I go to a Bible Study at my cousin Liz's church. Chris & Liz's son, David, attend the same 4 year old class while we attend a class (we are studying The Psalms of the Ascent by Beth Moore).

Anyway, I mentioned to Chris that David wasn't going to be at the class today because he was sick. So, without hesitation, Christopher said, "Mom... We need to pray for him". So, Chris led a simple prayer asking God to touch his body and make him better. After his heartfelt Amen, he opened his eyes and said, "Now David will feel better. God is strong and can make us feel better." He knew in his heart that because he asked Jesus to heal his friend, that he would be faithful and do it. No questions asked.. no doubt in his voice.

I don't know about you, but I am striving for more of that faith in my own life. Very precious.

Time Out

Oh boy... little guy informed me that he was put in time out in nursery school twice on Friday. That's a total of 3 times in one week. The teacher didn't say anything to me (maybe she's waiting until Parent Teacher Conferences this Friday). The offense was grabbing toys from other kids during the free play time and not listening to the teacher's instructions.

It's hard when you are not there to see what's happening and relying on a 4 year old's description of what's happening. Although he's hit this rough patch, I must say I am very proud of the fact that he is at least admitting it to me. He could easily just tell me that everything was fine and I would be none the wiser (until Parent Teacher Conference).

Part of me wanted to laugh though thinking back on my childhood. My poor brother and my cousins Rich & John would ALWAYS get in trouble every Sunday morning in Children's Church. There was not a Sunday that went by that they didn't get in trouble for talking, getting out of their seats, playing with someone's chair, grabbing a musical instrument, looking at someone the wrong way or basically just for breathing. My mom was confonted each week by the Director (Sister Stewart for those Bethlehem people that read this blog). It was always the same thing. My mom would talk to Steve but, at the end of the day, he was a little boy... (a Somma boy = LOTS OF ENERGY) and it would take a serious act of God to force him to sit still for that long of a period.

Anyway, I guess I can only keep telling little guy what is expected of him while he is at school and pray that his behavior will fall in line with that soon!

Give Me A Break

Yesterday, one of the kids in Chris' preschool showed up wearing a huge t-shirt that was hanging off his arms and went way past his knees. It wasn't the size of the shirt that bothered me, it was what was printed on it:

"I've been to more countries than Sarah Palin". Really...do you really need to broadcast your political views on a 4 year old child who has no clue as to who Sarah Palin is??

End of the Week.. Finally!

I have never been so glad to see a week end. It's been emotional to say the least. Dad is now home resting and tomorrow he will ride up to Ruth's house where he will stay for a little while to recover from surgery. Thank you all again for your love and prayers. I know he will be back on his feet and reading my blog soon.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Five On Friday

Five Things We Observed in NYC Last Weekend:

1) The Stores which had big banners 15 years ago advertising that they were "Going Out Of Business" are still open and still "Going Out of Business"

2) Having a Papa John's or Domino's in NYC just seems ridiculous!! Why go for the chain pizza when you are living in Pizza Heaven??

3) A restaurant you ate in 4 years ago and LOVED may now have new owners and a new chef. We learned that the hard way.

4) The "smells" of the city are still the same. You can use your imagination here....

5) The streets of NYC are crowded any time of the year.. winter, spring, summer and fall. It does not matter.

PS - We did have a celebrity sighting. Colin Farrell crossed the street right in front of us while we were at a red light.

Update on my Dad

Hi Everyone and thank you so much for all the love and prayers you are showering on my family today. Dad is in the recovery room. His surgery started a little late and lasted 2 1/2 hours. Ruth hasn't been allowed in to see him yet, but from what she has been told, everything went well. We hope to have some more information later. He is going to be in ICU tonight and will likely be released from the hospital sometime tomorrow late afternoon, should everything continue to go well.

In all likelihood, Dad will be allowed to travel to my sister's home on Saturday where he can further recover under her watch for a while. He won't be allowed to drive for at least 2 weeks.

That's about all I have as far as information for now. Thanks again, and please continue to pray for us all.

Special Prayer

Hi everyone... I was going to post something early tomorrow, but a change in time made me post this tonight. My father is having surgery at 7:00 am tomorrow morning (it was originally scheduled for 12:00 pm) to remove some plaque in an artery in his neck. The artery is about 90% blocked right now. Our family would greatly your prayers. We are believing for a fast and full recovery!

Thanks!!

Halloween

UGH... I hate Halloween. I hate that every store you walk into has skulls, evil looking monsters, fake cobwebs and various other demonic looking paraphernalia. I really don't like exposing Christopher to that stuff and it just seems to be everywhere...even the grocery store!

This is the first year I've had to really deal with Halloween. I've been very torn about how to handle it with Chris. He dressed up his first Halloween (he was 11 months old) and went out with his cousins (he was in a stroller) and has no recollection of this. Then, the next three years, I didn't dress him up or take him out. Last year he handed out candy to some neighbors who came by and he loved answering the door bell when it rang. That was good enough for him and just fine by me. A couple of times there were some younger teenagers "tweens" who came to the door in some scary outfits and I had to hide Christopher behind me so he wouldn't get freaked out by seeing them.

So, this year he is in preschool, a Christian preschool and, much to my disappointment, they are having a halloween parade. The plan is for the teachers to explain the difference between "pretending" (dress up) and reality. No scary costumes are allowed, no masks, no guns, etc. Still, I wonder if I should even send him to school that day. Am I opening a can of worms?

My former pastor preached a very good sermon about Halloween a few years ago. It's an evil celebration that certainly does not glorify God in any way, shape or form. Yes, I dressed up and participated in Halloween as a child, and suffered no ill-affects from it, but as my pastor pointed out, this is one of the most holy days on the satanic worshippers calendar. It seemed more innocent back then, even though it is probably just as evil. I don't want to shield Christopher in a bubble, but I'd like to teach him about Halloween from the Christian perspective.

I know many of you have struggled with this over the years as well. How do you handle Halloween with your kids?? I'm open to any and all advice. If you'd like to leave a comment you can do so by clicking on the anonymous button after writing a note in the comment box or you can email me privately at bmmalave@aol.com.

More City Pictures

We enjoyed this trip with my father-in-law, Domingo, and sister-in-law, Shirley. Can you believe the Fulton Fish Market is now a Gap? Doesn't seem right. We did all the "touristy" things including buying a $3.00 pretzel which was not very tasty (we ended up giving the pretzel to a homeless person) and snapping pictures while in Times Square as if we never saw it before. Of course, driving around NYC with Florida license plates puts a target on you. I felt like putting up a sign that said "Hey.. we are from here.. we are one of "youse" Please don't honk.. we know where we are going and how to get there"

Fun in the City

On Saturday afternoon, we made an unexpected trip into Manhattan. Our original plan was to take Chris on the Staten Island Ferry. By the time we got through the traffic on the Holland Tunnel, it was almost dusk and it was chilly! We could only imagine how cold it would be on the boat and there was no place to park. So, we headed over to the South Street Seaport and had fun just walking around watching all the weirdos...oops I mean street performers do their thing. Chris had a birds eye view from Steve's shoulders. He was taking it all in and was loving the two huge ships that are docked there. We watched the sunset above Brooklyn and people watched for a while.

Chris loves the city and cried when he knew it was time to leave. It's so much fun to see the city from a child's eye. I've been to the seaport a thousand times, but never with a child.

Here are some pictures

Lydia Rose Somma

Here is a picture of Stephen & Sara's baby girl.

Five On Friday

Top 5 Confessions Heard Around The House This Week:

1) Christopher to Mom -- "I ate ALL the popcorn"

2) "I grabbed the toy from the kid"

3) "After the teacher blew the whistle, I didn't line up with everyone.. I kept playing instead"

4) "I DID hear you tell me to clean up... I can do it later"

5) "I really like the library Mom" (at least that's a good one!)

Crazy Calendar

A few months ago, I purchased this adorable calendar in hopes it would teach Christopher the months of the year and the days of the week. It has some great magnets for special events and it also helps him learn the meaning of time. Having a visual is really helpful for this. I'm such a schedule fanatic that I guess it's only natural I pass this on to him.

He loves his calendar and he has been asking for months when December is coming. He has two purposes for wanting December to come quickly. One, he knows we are driving to Florida for Christmas and, maybe more importantly, he knows he will be turning 5 the day after Christmas. So, too huge events for him.

The other day I walked into the kitchen to find him standing on a chair (which dragged over from the kitchen), leaning over the counter. Apparantley, he had decided to make some "adjustments" to our schedule. I'm not sure if you can make out all the little buttons, but he's added Flag Day, The Fourth of July, Easter, St. Patrick's Day, Christmas, The Last Day of School and Cinco de Mayo to our calendar for October! I haven't had the heart to change it back to our actual calendar yet.

Lydia Rose

Steve & Sara have named their baby girl, Lydia Rose Somma. I still am awaiting photos so will share them as soon as I receive them. As you can imagine, with the time difference (they are in Seattle) and having 4 other children to tend to, communication is a little tough so that's why there is so much delay.

On a separate note, please keep us in prayer as we are discussing some options regarding the sale of our home (or lack thereof) in Florida.

It's A Girl !!

Just a quick post to let you know that my brother, Stephen, and his wife, Sara, had a baby girl last night at around 7:00 pm (Pacific time). Both baby and Sara are doing well. Pictures and details as to name, weight, etc. to follow hopefully today!

Pictures

Five On Friday

Five Things I Have Recently Realized:

1) It's time to pull out the winter clothes -- oh wait.. we lived in Florida for 4 years... what winter clothes????

2) Socks disappear in the laundry... where do they go??

3) One of the benefits of living in a townhouse is that you don't have to rake leaves in the Fall, shovel snow in the Winter or mow the lawn in the Spring and Summer. NICE!!

4) Climbing stairs a gazillion times a day does count for exercise.

5) It's better to leave dirty dishes in your sink and spend quality time with visitors and friends then to tackle it while they are there. The dishes aren't going anywhere -- they will be there when they leave.

Good Times

Having a great time with Ruth, but it's going too fast. Today was very exciting because Chris finally ate cereal... with milk! Chris is a very picky eater and for the longest time breakfast was pancakes, a waffle or, more recently, yogurt. Then last week he started experimenting with dry Cheerios and Rice Krispies and today, he added the milk to his little bowl. This may not seem like a big deal to many, but to this mom who has been praying for her little boy's food selections to expand, it's a huge deal. I just continue to thank God for hearing all prayers.. big and small.

I'll post some pictures of my visit with Ruth soon.

Special Visitor

I'm so excited I can barely contain myself. My sister, Ruth, is coming for a visit from Florida today. We haven't seen her since June and Chris has no idea that she is coming. I'm going to let him know as we are driving to the airport later today. Although she is only coming for a few days, I'm just looking forward to catching up. So, I may not be on the computer much in the next day or so. Be back soon!

Exercise

I was very motivated the other day to really get back to exercising. When we moved to NJ, I knew exactly where to find my Pilates equipment in our boxes. I pulled it out and there it sat on a shelf for about a month. So, I pulled it out the other day, got dressed in work out gear and found an activity to keep Chris busy while I exercised. I was mentally psyched and ready to go.

I had everything all set but was horrified to find NO DVD inside the DVD box. What???!? Where is my DVD and how annoying is it that all the equipment is there, I'm fully dressed and ready for action and no DVD. Chris is occupied, but for how long?? Hmmm... after a quick look in all the DVDs stored in the living, sorting through all of Chris' DVDs (which are numerous) and scratching my head, the reality hits me that there is only one place this DVD could be. In the garage, in "some" box. There are at least 40 boxes out there. Yes they are labeled, but many of these boxes have been emptied and refilled with other things since we will be likely moving again in June. Ugh....

So, I dash down the stairs to the garage and start my endeavor. I know we have a box of DVDs/CDs but it requires a lot of maneuvering to get to it. I finally wiggle it out and literally have to dive into this large box to get to all the things on the bottom. It's a dark garage and I'm having a hard time seeing. This is a process, people! After spending what seemed like an eternity in the boxes, I still had not uncovered the DVD. Chris was calling and I knew my "exercise" window had been officially closed. I definitely had a workout digging through boxes.. just not the workout I had intended.