Our Prayer Jar and some other thoughts about prayer...

Sometime during last winter, our little Prayer Bowl fell in the soup. Or maybe some soup fell in the bowl and onto the little papers inside it. I can't remember.

These little papers had the names of family and friends for which we pray, fruits of the Spirit, etc. We were in the habit of pulling out a name or two to pray for before we ate dinner each evening. But after the little papers got all soupy, well, there just wasn't any help for them.

We took a break.

Last Sunday, we made a new Prayer Jar. Each participating child had a job. And we discussed for whom and for what we'd like to pray while we worked.

Here's Daddy preparing our new set of little papers. In Fall colors. Michael waits patiently.

Mercy glues little Fall leaves onto our new Prayer Jar. This is one of her favorite sweaters. Seeing it reminds me that I need to replace the button that fell off in the wash. I think the wooden toggle buttons are her favorite part of her favorite sweater.


Michael cuts. Michael is left handed and I think it must be hard to cut left handed when you are 5 and you are Michael. He stuck with it, though.


Daniel writes our prayer ideas onto each little paper. He begs to write things these days and is disappointed when his grammar lesson doesn't include a writing assignment.


And here we have our new Prayer Jar. Please know that this idea is not original to me. I borrowed it from my friend Stacy a year or so ago. It has really helped in making prayer for others as a family a part of our day.

The kids and I have also been praying together each day during Circle Time in the mornings. Circle Time begins our school day and a few minutes of prayer begins each Circle Time. I've been asking the kids to share prayer requests.

This is how it goes almost every morning:

Me: Does anyone need prayer this morning?
(Michael's and Mercy's hands shoot up. Daniel joins in reluctantly.)
Me: Yes, Michael?
Michael: Doggy still has the measles... and today he has to get all of his teeth pulled out.
Me: Okay. How about you Mercy?
Mercy: Tigger has the measles, too.
Me: We can pray about that. Daniel?
Daniel: I'd like prayer so that I can have better concentration.
Me (somewhat hopeful that we won't be praying only for imaginary stuffed animals today): What kind of things do you want to concentrate on?
Daniel: Ummm. Video games.
Me(After sharing my prayer needs with them-patience and a cheerful voice): Right. Okay. Let's pray!

The other day when we had the pleasure of sharing Circle Time with Daddy, I was about to stop the praying for the stuffed animals business out of irritation with the fact that it wasn't "real". Before I said anything, Bob quietly nixed my attempt to quiet the kids' childish prayer requests. I'm glad he did. After all, they are children, right?

This little topic here is probably worth a whole 'nother post. How do you teach and model for your kids how to pray? I'm pretty sure that making lists of things they can't pray for is not a good beginning.

So we'll be using our Prayer Jar and I'll be keeping my mouth smile-y but mostly shut at Circle Time while the stuffed animals recover from the measles and we pray for more concentration for getting the TriForce when we play Zelda.

What's going on over there?

Mercy styles her relationship with Josiah after the "mother and/or smother" format. Here's what I found the two of them doing after a long day at our homeschool co-op:


Josiah says: Stickers! Mercy and stickers are fun.

I really have TWO babies...

A post in which I will contemplate how close in age my youngest two are.

And some pictures, too.

Good morning, James!


Josiah and James are just under 18 months apart. I know people have children that are closer in age than these two... (Megan, here's your picture of Josiah holding James!)


And Michael was just 1 and a half when I had Mercy... So we've done this combo before.


But Josiah still seems very much a baby to me. Maybe it's that he stopped nursing only 8 months ago. It just wasn't that long ago that I was taking him in as a newborn to the same lactation consultant lady that I saw this week with James.


Sweet little boys... I love how God has created this family of ours. Two boys on the top end, my girl in the middle, and two boys on the bottom. So much potential for special sibling friendships.

Goodnight James!

Your powers are weak!

Although these images are quite funny on their own, imagine that you can hear Josiah speaking in Darth Vader's voice through the little sound box that is hanging down from Vader's head.

Introducing...

James William Montgomery

Born at 11:13 am on September 15, 2009

8 lbs 3 ozs.

20.5 inches long

Welcome, Sweet Baby James!

Looking a little pumpkin-y today, James... Amy, this picture is for you. Check out all that crazy hair!



Hooray! James is here!!

The Early Labor Record

As many of you know, I'm getting pretty close to having my fifth child. My due date is officially this coming Sunday.

Unlike any of my other pregnancies, I've been experiencing lots of Braxton Hicks contractions and prelabor signs. Really, I can't remember having any contractions at all until I'm in the hospital being induced for 3 out of the 4. The other one, my first, started at home and ended at the hospital but my memory of it is clouded by the fact that it was 7 years ago.

During dinner time last night, I was having some pretty consistent contractions and while I didn't really have the patience for doing so, my husband and I began writing down how often the contractions were coming, how strong they were, etc.

My contractions were coming between 2-10 minutes apart and we had listed some of them as "mild", "moderate", "stronger". You get the idea.

Daniel took one look at it and said, "Early Labor Record?! I'm going to make one, too!"

He brought this to us a few minutes later:

Really? "Ninja like" contractions?

(This made Bob and I just about fall down laughing, except that I was having a contraction and holding a sleepy Josiah).

And he wasn't done...


Pray for us as we enter into this time of superheroic measures of contractions!

Four Eyes

Recently, Michael became our first child to wear glasses. Turns out that he is rather nearsighted.

I assume that all the kids will need glasses at some point in their adolescence. Both Bob and I require aid for our vision. For me, it's those blinders that horses wear in parades. Keeps me from getting distracted in the ice cream aisle while doing the big Grocery Shop for the family.

For Bob, well, he got a Virtual Boy stuck on his head back in the early nineties. Never could get it off. But would you want to?

So Michael and I made a visit to the eye doctor...


...where he smiled real big and was given football cards for his efforts.


Since then, I've been trying to capture the little boy handsome-ness he displays while wearing them.


If you know Michael, you know he's a mover and that it's hard to capture him on film at times.


And now you also know how Michael looks in his War Paint.

Michael, you've been doing an awesome job at keeping your glasses "on your face, or in their case"! I'm so thankful that you remember to take them off before you wrestle! And I really do think you look handsome in your new glasses, Buddy.