Sarah and the computer

Tonight Nelson brought home a very small laptop computer from work. He is just borrowing it for the weekend to play around with. But Sarah got so excited seeing it. She exclaimed in delight, "That computer is Sarah-sized!" She immediately asked if she could type on it. She said she wanted to type a note to Grandma and Grandpa!

Here is Sarah, hard at work on her letter.



Even with a computer, Sarah likes to pose.



After finishing her typing Sarah decided to distribute Valentines. She meticulously stuffed cards in envelope, then began handing them out. She gave a card to Daddy, and to Mommy, and to Curious George!

We also had another hearty bowl of "hair clip soup" this morning. Maybe that will help us get over our colds! :)

doctor visit and early literacy

Sarah's cold took a turn for the worse today, and she woke up feverish and lethargic. So off we went to the doctor for Sarah to get "docked." The doctor checked her breathing and ears, then ordered a nasal swab to test for flu and blood work to test for walking pneumonia. Thankfully, both tests were negative (and Sarah never made a peep when the tech was drawing her blood--brave girl!). We came home with a list of recommended OTC drugs and dosages. Basically we need to try to keep her fever down and keep her comfortable.

While we waited for the test results, I let Sarah use a pen and paper to keep her occupied. I noticed something quite interesting. When I gave her a sheet of notebook paper, Sarah drew pictures--mostly faces of people she knew. But when I let her use a blank page in my day planner, she didn't draw pictures--she "wrote." I'm sure we all remember those scribbly lines that kids draw to write "words" when they don't know how to form letters yet. Those lines are what Sarah wrote in the planner. I found it very interesting that she drew on notebook paper, but "wrote" in the planner. I wish I had some pictures to include--maybe I can post those later, and you can see for yourself.

I have a bit of a cold myself that Sarah "shared" with me. While we waited for the test results, Sarah listened to me cough and drew a picture of "sick Mommy." She told me I needed to be "docked" as well!

boats, diapers, and the lost weekend

Well, obviously I am NOT going to make the blog every day in February challenge. :-p I'm not even making my own personal 'blog every day from the 7th of February on" challenge. Life has a habit of interfering with our plans sometimes! "The best-laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft a-gley..." (Hope I spelled all that correctly...it's been awhile since I read Burns!).

Anyway, this weekend has been something of a struggle for me. Those who know me know my life is frequently disrupted by migraines. The past few days it has been more disrupted than usual! I couldn't drive home Friday night, so my parents drove Sarah and me to meet Nelson in Johnson City so that he could play taxi. Saturday we were supposed to go back to Greeneville to get my car, but we never made it. Sunday I missed both church and our evening small group. Today I am finally starting to come out of it a bit, although I wasn't able to make it to my normal Monday night Sunday either. I am hoping that I wake up to a headache-free day tomorrow and that life will finally return to normal!

Fortunately, I did at least manage to get Sarah to Kindermusik today. Her "homework" assignment was to build a boat and bring it. We took one of the Gladware containers that sandwich meat comes in, poked a hole in the lid, stuck a straw through the hole (to be our mast), and added a paper sail (or flag, as Sarah calls it. She of course decorated said flag). She is very proud of her boat, and she looks forward to trying it out in the bathtub tonight. She also discovered that if she removes the paper flag, she can blow into the straw and have a very cool homemade instrument! :)

As we were getting ready to leave for Kindermusik this morning, I changed Sarah's diaper. Once I got a new, clean diaper on her, she told me I had done it wrong and needed to fix it! I wanted to know just what the problem was with this diaper. She responded, "It's lefty-loosey, and I need it to be righty-tighty!" Lol. I tightened the tabs, and she was fine!

funny conversations in the car

Sarah and I drove to Greeneville to see my parents today, then rode with my parents to Johnson City to meet up with Nelson for supper. While in the car at one point, my dad asked Sarah if she was doing okay. She did not reply. Since I was sitting right next to her, I also asked her if she all right. Still no response. I said, "Are you not talking?" She answered, "No, I'm spaced out."

Later, my parents drove Sarah to the mall. On the ride over, Sarah suddenly said, "Mike, I need you to give me some privacy now."

Funny, funny girl! :)

Have a good night!

P.S. I'm highly insulted that Blogger's spell check wants me to change the spelling of Greeneville! Doesn't it know that all of the other Greenvilles in the nation that don't have the extra E are spelled wrong?! :-p

2nd post--with promised pictures

Well, here is the 2nd post and the pictures that I promised! The first is just a simple picture of Sarah brushing her teeth before bedtime. Ah, the minutiae of daily life! :)



We all know how much Sarah loves Cinderella. She now has 3 (count 'em 3 Cinderella dress up outfits). But she has shown an interest in a few other of the Disney princesses. She calls this her Sleeping Beauty outfit...



I really wish I had thought to take a picture the other day when she dressed herself again. This time she chose purple and blue pajama shorts and a pink t-shirt that said princess on the front. She does a really good job on getting the clothes on herself, but she has no concept of seasonal appropriateness or color coordination! Lol. Sadly, though, I did not get a picture. So you are left to you imaginations!

See you tomorrow! :)

oops!

Looks like I missed a day! :( Does it count if I say I DID write a blog post yesterday--I just posted it on Spark People instead of here? :-p

Okay, so I agree that's cheating a bit. How about the fact the post on Psalm 32 was so stinking long it counts as two posts? Does that work? No?

Well, then, here's my final offer: I'll post twice today (later with a picture!). Does THAT make up for being missing in action yesterday? Whoo-hoo! I think we have a winner! :)

Sarah has two toy magic wands. They make noises and are great fun. I had to vacuum today (always a pleasant experience!), and Sarah came up with an idea for those magic wands! I pitched the idea of using the wands to magically clean the floor so that we didn't have to vacuum at all, but oddly enough Sarah rejected that one. Her thought? Use the wands to "magic" (yes, she uses the word as a verb, ala Calvin and Hobbes: "Verbing words is fun!") herself so that she wasn't bothered by the vacuum anymore! "Let's do that tomorrow!" she says. Who knows? Since it was her idea, maybe it will actually work! (Not holding my breath on that one, but hey, you never know!).

See you later! Picture to come!

Psalm 32 (loooooong)

Okay, now that I've built up all this anticipation, the post itself is probably going to be something of a letdown! :-p That's the trouble with putting it off for a couple of days! Now I can't live up to my own hype!

Anyway, the first sermon in the series was on Psalm 138 (see entry on Feb. 10 if you want a review of that one). This week we moved on to Psalm 32. This is a confessional psalm, a psalm of David. It is not quite as personal (in my opinion) as its companion Psalm 51. The context of Psalm 51 of course is David's sin, chronicled in 2 Samuel 11-12. Psalm 32 likely comes out of that same time period, but it is a bit more "generic," so there is much we can glean. I will kind of combine what I learned in my own study as well as what the preacher brought out as well.

The speaker quoted a commentary by a Baxter (sorry, didn't catch the rest of the name) which stated that this Psalm was a "psalm of the sacrament of confession." Since Lent is traditionally a time of acknowledging our need, it is a perfect time to reflect on our sins and our need for confession. (And on this side of the cross, we know that "if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." But I'm getting ahead of myself).

The Psalm itself begins "How blessed is he whose trangression is forgiven, who sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whom there is no deceit!" The first thing that stood out to me in my private study is that the word "blessed" literally means "Oh, how very happy!" If you've ever truly felt the weight of your own sin bearing down on you, you can certainly relate to that "Oh, how very happy!" feeling of relief that comes when you know for an absolute fact that you are forgiven and that the slate is wiped clean. :)

In those first two verses there are several different words used for sin: transgression, sin, and iniquity. Interestingly, all three have a slightly different meaning. Transgression refers to rebellion; David's behavior in back in 2 Samuel definitely qualifies as direct rebellion against God! Sometimes we are not so quick to see our OWN transgressions as rebellion, but it is important to remember that is exactly what they are. Sin is the idea of "missing the mark." (The speaker mentioned that sometimes we aim for the wrong target!). It doesn't seem so bad somehow to refer to sin as "missing the mark"--makes it sound like an innocent error. Of course this is doctrinally incorrect--our sin is not just an innocent little mistake. We do badly miss the mark, but we do it deliberately (going back to that idea of rebellion). Finally, iniquity emcompasses the idea of guilt. We are all guilty.

Sorry that I can't seem to get past these two verses, but I think it really brings out the meaning when you look at it as 'Oh, how very happy is he whose rebellion is forgiven, whose missing the mark is covered! Oh, how very happy is the man to whom the LORD does not impute guilt." How very happy indeed! :) That is really what the celebration of Easter is all about!

Verses 3 and 4 go on to say, "When I kept silent about my sin, my body waasted away through my groaning all day long. For Day and night Your hand was heavy upon me." This made me think of Hebrews 12:5-11. I won't quote it all here, but it can be summed up by saying that God disciplines us because He loves us. Discipline for sin is never pleasant, but we should be grateful that God cares enough for us to do it. David felt that heavy hand upon him, draining him. But as soon as he acknowledged and confessed his sin (verse 5), God forgave him. "I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.' And You forgave the guilt of my sin." Again, all three words for sin are mentioned: David acknowledged his sin, confessed his transgressions, and did not hide his iniquity. Also, three different words used for David's confession: he acknowledged his sin, he confessed his transgressions, and he did not hide his iniquity. So once David stopped trying to run, stopped trying to hide, stopped trying to ignore his sin, he confessed everything to God and was completely forgiven. Interestingly, confess means to "say the same." When we confess our sin to God, we simply say the same thing about it that God does. We acknowledge that guilt and rebellion; we admit that we have missed the mark and have aimed at the wrong target. And God covers our sin. He puts it behind His back. He removes it as far as the east is from the west. He casts it into the bottom of the ocean.

Oh, how very happy we are indeed!