A Wee Update!

Three big new things:

1. Last week, Z was a bit underslept after a slumber party with his cousins (see slideshow) and we had a horrible week. Saturday, I decided the week couldn't get any worse, so let's start potty training! I'm so glad we did! I knew he was ready, I just wasn't ready with moving houses and all. Here's our potty success tally:

Saturday: 0
Sunday: 1
Monday: 2
Tuesday: 6! Six tinkles, ah, ah, ah! (to be said with Transylvanian accent)

A friend of mine suggested we get presents from the dollar store to reward him when he goes, and it's working wonderfully. Yesterday he really seemed to get it. I'm avoiding worrying about how to wean him from the presents, one step at a time, right?

2. I started my new job last week taking pictures and making virtual tours for a local real estate company. I'm enjoying it so far and am so glad to have the income coming in before my school loan comes due next month. I'd really like to pay it off myself, without my hubby's help. We'll see.

I guess I'm feeling entrepreneurial as I seem to have started a new business to go with my new job. I learned so much about staging when I sold my house that I decided to sell my knowledge to others. For a small fee, home sellers can hire me for an hour consultation and personalized list of improvements they can make to their home to sell it quicker and for more profit. Ben helped me make fliers for the realtors (they can hire me too!) and I still need to make business cards, but that's about all I have for start up fees. So far I've only done it pro bono (for free), but I really really have fun doing this!

3. Finally, I was published again on TuscMom.com! Click here to see my article on meeting the needs of a baby.

God is Good All the Time, I'm not

One nice perk to living outside of town that we're noticing is the beauty we get to see everyday that we rarely saw before. Our little town had character, but now we see rolling hills with cows and horses, farmers farming, and clothes drying on a line. It does the heart good, I think.

The other day I was driving amidst this beauty and had one of those epiphany moments. I'd been wondering how certain people like my pastor's wife can be so very disciplined in their speech that you can't even imagine them ever speaking ill of another person. In that moment on the road, it dawned on me that to love God with all my heart, mind and strength is to also to glorify Him and to worship Him with all that I have all the time. Then my words and my actions are not my own. Every word should be for Him. What place is there in my worship/my life for speech that is negative about another creation, like me, that is made in HIS image?

The same could be said regarding anger, what place is there in worshiping God with my life to release the wrath of Becca on another precious soul, who do I think I am? God? There is evil in the world and it's not wrong to be angry about it or to speak of it, but since we are told to think on whatever is true, honest, just, pure, and lovely, well there isn't much time for yuck in our lives, is there? Not unless we're actively doing something about it anyways, eh?

So, Saturday, I went to visit Markie, my friend who was in a car accident and has severe brain damage. I read some of God's Word to him as honestly, it's sometimes hard to know what to say to someone who can't speak back to you. I probably thought God would speak to him through the passage, but no, He spoke to me instead. Here's what it said,

Don't speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God's law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor? -James 4:11&12

Calling all Pharisees! Chief Becca here to share that she's been wrong. It's not okay to judge ANYONE, ever! So they parent differently than you, maybe there's a good reason. So that church worships differently than you do, they're still the bride of Christ. So they have different political views (**gasp**, you mean maybe Jesus wasn't a Republican?). All I know is that there is NO bandwagon that I can jump on completely unless it's Jesus' personal bandwagon.

I've been praying for love, that I could just begin to love others as Christ does. Letting go of presuppositions that may not be Biblical and forming speech and actions that are disciplined is a good first step in loving my neighbor. Giving others grace as I would myself, and in all humility, love and respect for their Creator, worship God with my words and my actions, all the time, that's my goal.

Peek-A-Boo!!!

Notice anything different about me? No, it's not a new shirt, my mom bought it for my cousin in Rome before I was born, so it's just another hand-me-down from my cousins. Nope, I'm showing off something brand new. Yup! They're ankles! Mom says she's never seen mine before. I'm not sure if she's happy or sad about it, she's super weird. To prove it, I'll show you a video she took of me today. At first she was being kind of funny, I even laughed to humor her, but then she kept following me around with the camera so I just ignored her and she finally stopped.

A little slice of heaven

There was a tractor nearly in our back yard last night and I took a picture because I was so excited! I'm so green at this country living I'm not even sure what they're farming in the field behind us, but I saw pictures from last year of corn growing back there. I think it's soy beans this year, what do you think?

The kids have taken to playing in the mulch rocks every day. We buy a whole yard for them and all they want are the rocks. But Z would play for hours in them and Juju would eat them all if she could! Here's why we're now a "bath every night" family.


No, I don't let her eat them, really! She does try though. See the awesome old school house across the street? I love seeing that everyday! Oh, and I can see the hill above from my kitchen sink! Thanks for your patience as we moved all our earthly possessions (of which there are far too many) from one location to another ten minutes down the road from the first. Nine years ago we did this and only moved four blocks, so we're really branching out this time!

It's been quite stressful and we're barely hanging on by a thread at times. My precious husband has been working hard all day and coming home and working hard all night on things that only he can do, and I can only wish for a break for him, but there is none in sight quite yet. Before Ben's sisters came to help us unpack the kitchen (it would have taken me days with the kiddos!), we both felt physically unable to breathe when we walked through all the boxes in there. Then his Grandma came on Wednesday and I got the bedroom and bathroom boxes finished while she did the dining room, so I'm feeling like we've made a ton of progress for only having been allowed to unpack boxes a week ago.

We've had lots and lots of flies here in the house and they seem to follow me in the car and other places too. I'm not sure if it's a country thing or the physical embodiment of my stress swarming around me, either way, I've set aside my new found pacifist ways for now and am armed and ready! Ben is too and has already picked off a ground hog that was chewing the foundation of our shed away. Turns out it's legal to hunt on your own land if you are outside city limits and own more than an acre (we own 1.25 acres)! I'm not sure that would have stopped my husband, but now I have less reason to be disapproving.

We've been meeting neighbors and they're all wonderful. Last night we went to the horse farm two doors down and Z got to play with the kittens there and see chickens and colts. They have a pond with a paddle boat and we've been promised a paddle boat fishing trip sometime for Z with the neighbor boy. Both kids have been sleeping so well and the dogs are in heaven, not literally. This is the first time since the kids were born that we've seen our hairless pooches this happy for this long. So, the guest room is ready, when are you coming to visit?