Ears Update

We took little Girlie to the ENT on Monday and he said that after 3 ear infections for a child below 1 year old they should get tubes. She’s had 8! But because 7 of them were before we knew about her milk allergy he said to count it as 1. We see him again in a month and if she has another one than he thinks she should get tubes. It is a bit disappointing but I’m learning to trust in God more. We know that God has designed her ears and if tubes are the best thing for her than God will make that clear.

I would love prayer though for the whole allergy thing. Honestly, I’m a bit overwhelmed by her food allergies. I don’t know what to feed her. It seems like anything can set her off and I don’t even know what those things are. I think I am trying so hard for her to not have an allergic reaction so that her ears will stay clear. I am realizing I need to just LET GO. Obviously I’m not going to give her milk but I think I need to loosen up a bit.

Anyway, any prayers for her healing and my heart would be appreciated!

Baptism

I'm so grateful that our church has recently been going through a series on baptism, teaching clearly our position of believer's baptism. It has especially been a joy the past few weeks to witness the baptisms that have taken place. These have been fresh reminders of God's amazing work of salvation. We have held Karis out of her class so she could witness them as well. She has really enjoyed it and it has prompted some great conversations with her. But my favorite was this:

Mommy: "Where is Daddy?"
Karis: "He is baptizing Jotham in the bathtub."

I guess we still need to work on explaining believer's baptism to her.

On a another note, I read this last week and thought it was beautiful.

3 Generations

Our little man has the privilege of being born on his grandfather, PPaw's birthday. When he was born one of the first things I noticed about him was his hands, and I said to Erik, "He has your Dad's hands." Now he has inherited his bed. When PPaw was a little boy he had bunk beds that he shared with his big brother. When Erik was growing up he slept in the same bunk beds. Now our little Jotham gets to use them. 3 Generations of Sheffer men in the same beds- what a fun tradition.

So far the transition has gone well (of course it has only been 1 day). When we put him down for his nap yesterday he wasn't so sure. He kept saying, "I'm not ready." But if you know our boy, who doesn't like any sort of change or anything new, he never would be ready, so Daddy tucked him in anyway. He woke up after his nap, very proud of himself and asked to sleep there last night. He did great and didn't wake up this morning until 8:30!

Cia- 9 Months

Well our girlie girl is 9 months old (this past Tuesday). We took her for her check up and here are the stats. She's a lightweight at 17lbs. 11 oz (25%). A little tall at 28 inches (50-75%) and nothing exciting with a peanut size 44 cm head (25-50%). She is crawling really well and enjoys being able to get into things and over to people who are around her.

On a disappointing note, she had some fluid in her ears and our doctor thinks we should still take her to the ENT next week. Then the next day she was miserable, crying & clearly in pain so I took her back to the doctor. The fluid had increased and she had another infection. So she is back on antibiotics, doing well now that they've kicked in. The ENT will do a hearing test to determine if she has hearing loss and if she does our doctor would recommend tubes. Please pray that girlie doesn't have any hearing loss and that the ENT will have some other suggestions.

On a similar note she has had a rash on her face for about three weeks. We weren't sure what was causing it so now her food has gone back to being pretty limited (broccoli, oatmeal, applesauce, & green beans). Since limiting it her rash has cleared up. I'm hopeful that the rash & the ears were related and they'll both clear up now that her food has been limited.

Hard Work

Dear Little Mercia has just started some finger foods. I went to the store to get some Biter Biscuits for her and discovered that most of these types of food have milk in them. I did find some Apple Wagon Wheels, which she is enjoying in this picture. I like the details of how hard her hands are working to hold onto and eat this little treat- it was hard for her. So hard that she wasn't even able to finish it, it got too small and slippery and she couldn't hold onto it. But someday she'll be able to pick it up with two fingers and stick the whole thing her mouth, chew it, swallow and move on.

Isn't this the stuff of life? God hands us something in our life circumstance. We aren't sure what it is and we tremble with fear and excitement. We grab hold of it and work on it. Sometimes it is such hard work that we want to just give up, not bother. Sometimes even when we work hard we can't get to the end of it. We need to try again the next day.

But the circumstances that God gives us are like this wagon wheel-just the beginning of something. A training ground. If I gave Mercia a real apple she would choke. She doesn't even know yet what is yet to come, all the delicious fruit, and tasty desserts that can be made from them.

Neither do I. I know that life with 3 kids is hard work. I know that everyday I fight hard and something always seem to slip away. Oh Lord, what is yet to come!


Philippians 1:6
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 3:13-14
But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Preschool Fun

Even though Karis won't be starting school for another two years I've started doing some little preschool activities with her. Things like activity books and letters of the week. Last week we learned about the letter A. Our first field trip was to go apple picking with our friends the Castros. I didn't really get any good shots of the kids because I was too busy trying to pick apples and keep my stroller from rolling into an apple tree (which it only did one time).





On another note, as part of implementing my daily schedule we have reading time each day. This is where Karis and Jotham sit in our two arms chairs and "read" books. So far it has been going well. Jotham seems to enjoy it as long as I don't make him stay there too long.

Zoo

Last Tuesday Erik had the day off and we decided to make our annual trip to the National Zoo. We have since decided never to go in the summer again (like we always have) and to always go the first week of September. All the kids are back in school and it is too early for field trips - it was empty! We even got to watch an elephant show. But more than the animals as the zoo I just enjoyed being with my family.

Lifehouse Everything Skit

A friend sent this to me tonight with the following disclaimer, "if you get through the first few minutes you'll be touched at the end." The skit is such a sweet reminder of our Savior and all He has done for us that I wanted to share.

Schedule

I recently read the book Manager’s of Their Homes by Teri Maxwell. It has been very helpful to me in thinking about how I run each day. For the last few weeks I have been working on coming up with a more set daily schedule. The reason I am doing this is because I have been convicted that I am not really doing all that God has called me to do. This is not some mere desire to “do it all.” It really isn’t. I have already learned I cannot do it all and so I rarely even try! What I have realized is I am not making the priorities that God has for me my actual priorities. I have been living my life and running my days (& thereby my kids days) to serve myself. I will rush through things so that I can get to whatever it is I want to do (email, nap, etc). I will push off time playing with the kids doing other things (chores, email, etc.) saying to myself that I “need” to get these things done. The other day I had this very convicting thought: I have been called by God to do certain role (being Erik’s wife and our children’s mom) and I am not doing it nearly as well as I would if I had been hired by someone to do something not even half as important. So as I attempt to schedule more I am hopeful that it will bring some accountability into my life for my role. I desire to do things like chores well but more importantly I desire to build relationally with my children. I want to be “all in” the moments I have with them not thinking “I wish I could post or read a blog now” or “I need to fold the laundry.” God please give me grace to be faithful to what you have called me to.

Steam, Pressure and Escape

I read this today and thought it was too wonderful not to share.