The Heart of the Problem

We have a wonderful Associate Pastor at our church. His name is Kerry Skinner and he preaches most Sunday nights. When I go to the evening services I feel like I'm sitting at the feet of a great teacher of the Scriptures and I come away refreshed and recommitted to walking with Christ that week. I had a chance to talk with him recently and he told me of a book he had co-authored entitled "The Heart of the Problem". I thought it would be a good way to start out the new year. I'm three days into it (I started a week "late") and already this book is challenging me to rethink some of the humanistic philosophies that I had unknowingly picked up along the way and to refocus on the simple truth of the gospel. Who knows where this will lead but it's got me thinking quite a bit - meditating on the meaning of scriptures and examining my attitudes and beliefs. I recommend checking it out if you are looking for a good study.

Zwieback

Maggie had her first taste of Zwieback today. For those of you who don't know (I didn't until a couple of months ago) zwieback is a piece of bread that's been "baked twice" (in german) to form a very hard, crunchy, long lasting chew toy for toddlers. . . or sailors apparently. Anyway, I was surprised to see Maggie take to it so readily - she has just recently allowed me to put table food in her mouth and is still pretty hesitant to eat anything that remotely involves some kind of texture. So imagine my surprise when I handed her a piece of zwieback and she started munching away! I eventually grabbed my camera and got some video to capture the interesting facial expressions and the loud CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH. She had been chewing away for a couple of minutes by the time I got the camera rolling, so it doesn't seem as if she's that interested, but you can tell she's gnawed off a corner already. Here she is showing off the final product:

Spoon!

During Christmas we got to spend a little time with Maggie's two year old cousin. Watching her eat her breakfast all by herself inspired me. So when we got back home (on our own kitchen floor - I wasn't about to try this on someone else's) I tried giving her the spoon. And she did it! I probably should have tried this months ago but I was a little scared of the mess. Anyways, there's a video on google (see the link at right) if you want to see it for yourself.

Bear Tunes

I recieved a neat CD for Christmas - Bear Tunes for Kids. My mom and I had seen it in a local shop in their town and had a laugh over it (she knows our affinity for a certain little brown bear). So she got it for me - and I laughed when I opened it. I played it yesterday for the first time and it's really great! The songs are not only cute, but very informative and educational. And at the end of the CD the songwriter spends several minutes telling ALL kinds of facts about bears. I told my mom it was like visiting a zoo in my head. And if you know me, you know that zoos are one of my favorite things! I would recommend this CD to anyone who has kids that are interested in animals. I've linked to his website on the right side of the screen. He has several other CDs as well for other animals, etc.

Maggie Rocks!

Maggie enjoys a Christmas present from Grumpa and Grammy. . . a rocking chair that belonged to her great-grandmother and has been passed down through the family.

A War Eagle Christmas

Here Ben shows off his gift from Heather - a T-shirt quilt! The squares on the quilt are made from shirts that Ben had during his days in Auburn's Marching and Pep band, plus a few others he picked up along the way. There are 32 T-shirts in this quilt. The 16 shirts along the border of the quilt also have the back of the shirt on the back of the quilt.

Merry Christmas!

At our house, Christmas really begins when Ben gets home from work on his last day before the 25th. This year that fell on the 23rd so we had our "traditional Christmas Eve Celebration" one night early. This is a quiet night of family time when we light our advent candles, have a nice dinner and exchange gifts.

Since Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday, we had a busy morning! After church, we raced home to load the car and feed Maggie, took a quick family picture (with Heather's new tripod - thank you Ben!) and we were off to the grandparents!

Christmas sure is different with a little one. She had LOTS of fun with paper and wrappings and boxes, and even enjoyed her gifts some. haha. This picture shows Maggie with some bath toys from her stocking. She LOVED pulling the things out of the stocking and bounced up and down at each one!

While we were traveling, we worked on some of Maggie's skills - like drinking from a cup! Later in our trip we traveled up to my parents to visit "Grammy and Grumpa". They gave Maggie a very unique gift - a child size rocking chair that had belonged to her great-grandmother! Maggie really enjoys it. And we enjoyed spending time in the quiet mountains of North Carolina.

We hope you have a wonderful 2007 - we are looking forward to watching Maggie grow up even more!