"Mommy, my heart is closed."

When we sat down to eat lunch on Wednesday afternoon, I asked if anyone would like to pray (meaning, Isaac, Eric, or Lauren), and Isaac said, "I do!" So before he could even start, Eric squeezes his eyes tight and starts to pray first. He says, "Please God, Grammy here safe." Mom was on here way here on Wednesday afternoon and I knew the boys would want to pray for her to have safe travels (and they did). Well, as soon as Eric said his prayer, I looked over at Isaac's face and I could tell he was upset and was about to let it out, and he says, "I wanted to pray that prayer!" So, I say to Isaac, "It's ok." "You can still pray for Grammy and even I can pray for Grammy." "It's good to have alot of prayers for someone!" Then Isaac says, "No, I don't want to pray now." So, I said to him, "Well, maybe it's best if you don't pray right now because your heart is not in the right place and God wants our heart to be in the right place when we pray to Him." Then Isaac says, "Well my heart is closed...I can feel it closed!" So, I asked him, "Do you want me to pray for you?" And he says, "Yes." So, I prayed, "LORD, please help Isaac's heart to forgive Eric for praying the prayer he wanted to pray and please help him to have peace and joy in his heart." So he gets so excited and says, "Mommy!! My heart is open again! I can feel it open!" So, I say, "Good!" He says, "I'm ready to pray now." So, Isaac prays, "God, thank you for the rain for our plants and flowers, thank you for our yummy food, thank you for getting Grammy here safe, please do not let her bump into anything while she is driving around that mountain, please help her to stay on the road....(NOW IS THE AMAZING PART).....and God please help all of the people out there who's heart is closed, God please help them to have an open heart so they can pray to you and love everyone, please help them to open their heart to you, in Jesus name Amen." This is one of the first times I have experienced one of my children praying in the Spirit and truly from his heart....crying out to the LORD...interceding for others. What can I say....WOW...Thank you LORD!

Major Progress for Eric!!

So, Eric is not much of a vegetable lover and he did not really eat them at all till the beginning of this year. Scott and I decided it was time to start "making" him eat them. Boy...I had no idea what I was getting myself into!! I started with him only having to take one small bite of a vegetable, once a day.

I quickly found out there were a few vegetables that would make him throw up. LITERALLY, throw up. Yes, everything in his stomach :) Those veggies included carrots, squash, and zucchini. So, I decided to steer clear of those (for the time being). The throwing up happened on three separate occasions before we realized it wasn't so much the taste as it was the texture.

On a positive note, there were a few vegetables he would eat from time to time before we started the "you must eat your vegetables everyday" law. Those veggies included spinach, green beans and asparagus.

There were many times (more often than not) that we would sit at the table, or sometimes just Eric would sit at the table, for quite sometime after lunch or dinner was over.....waiting to eat the vegetable!! Most of the time, he would end up eating it after lots of coercion, but there were a few times we had to use the spoon :( we had to let him know we meant business. I knew that vegetables were something he would have to acquire a taste for and over time he would. Isaac had to do the same thing last year, when we started incorporating them into his diet.

Sure enough, Eric has realized he has to eat his vegetables everyday. Now he eats a few bites for lunch and a few bites for dinner. BIG progress! One of the major ways he "gets through it" is from the reward of getting to go to the car wash. One of Eric's favorite places to go is the car wash, so one day several months ago, I said, "Eric, if you eat your vegetable you can go to the car wash." So now, every time he eats his veggies he says, "Eat my broccoli, go to car wash!" And I'm ok with the fact that Eric only eats vegetables for trips to the car wash. I'm just happy he is eating them.

WHY are we making Eric eat his vegetables? Aside from the fact that God gave them to us to enjoy, there are reasons eating a diet high in vegetables can do, like:

1. Help you maintain a healthy body.
2. Reduce your risk of stroke, heart disease and high blood pressure
3. Reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes.
4. Reduce your risk and even reverse many cancers
5. Boosts your energy level
6. Will help you look and feel great

Our goal is to have our diet contain about 40% vegetables a day. Another great way to add veggies to your diet is though juicing.

So, here is the list of vegetables we ALL eat at our house...even Eric "can" eat all of them :) yay!
broccoli
cauliflower
carrots
onions
cabbage
bok choy
collard greens
kale
spinach
sweet potato
green beans
asparagus
squash
zucchini
bean sprouts

Tonight I made some beans, rice, red cabbage, zucchini, and carrots. I was hopeful and put one piece of zucchini, 4 pieces of carrots and a small bite of the red cabbage. Not only did he eat ALL of them, he asked for more zucchini!!! WOW! I can't believe it :) it's working!! Thank you LORD! I'm so proud of him...and of me for sticking to it...it has not been easy!

"When I am older"

When I was getting Isaac ready for his nap this afternoon, he was laying down on his bed and I was rubbing lotion on his hands and then rubbing one of his essential oils on his belly and he says to me, "Mommy, when I am older, you can take a break from getting yourself ready for bed and I will do it for you." "I will put your lotion on, brush your teeth, wash your hair, and get you all ready for bed." His heart for appreciation, desire to give back, and understanding that parenting takes effort, at the age of "almost 5" is just amazing! Something I pray God continues to grow and foster in him, as well as his brother and sister, throughout their lives! It is these moment when you see fruit blossoming and developing in your children that makes all the sleepless nights, cleaning of poop, urine, vomit, and various other disgusting things, screaming, whining, no patience, pregnancy, delivery, and all the other "pains" of being a Mommy 100% worth it. But, I gotta say, I could never do this Mommy thing without having the Lord in my life and calling out to Him daily! I have heard it and read in many places, but it's true....being a Mom is the most difficult job I have ever had....for many reasons. BUT, it does bring me to a place of DAILY surrender to Jesus....which is exactly the place He wants and desires us to be. WHY? Because until we realize the importance of not just having the Lord in our life but letting Him be Lord in our life and turning to Him for even the small things. You know what I mean...those things in our life that that make us say "AAHH I can't do this!" Until we go to Him and ask for His help and direction, we really can't live in the freedom that God intended for us. The freedom He gave us when He offered His Son for us, so that we might have eternal life. Yes, eternal life in Heaven, but also eternal life on earth as it is in Heaven. I am so thankful that I can cry out to God to supply my every need as a Mommy....my peace of mind, my hope, my joy, my strength, my rest.

Something the other two have never done.

Fallen asleep in the floor, after lunch, before getting in her bed for nap!!! Oh my gosh!

OR...even worse, fallen asleep in the high chair during lunch!!!! She was even chewing a bite of food when she fell asleep. I am not joking.

Lauren Jolie is 14 months

This one is a little blurry, but her dramatic face is just priceless!!

And this face....AH! Just love her!!

Fun at the Reston Zoo

It is that time of year again...YAY! We love the Reston Zoo!! It is a great petting and feeding zoo. We went last Saturday morning. It was a bit cool in the shade, but we had a great time!

Two Cool Things....

More of what Isaac is saying these days.....

....After dinner this evening Isaac asked me, "Mommy, when Grammy is visiting at our house does Papap eat at a restaurant?" And I said, "Yes, sometimes he does and sometimes he cooks." Then Isaac said, "Does he cook good food or yucky food?" Then he said, "Daddy tried to cook food once and it was yucky." One evening when I was gone (not sure why, but I think I was sick and at the doctor), Scott had to cook dinner and he attempted to make chicken fried rice, the boys favorite cuisine at the time. Well, it didn't go so well and they did not eat it. Isaac always remembers that when he thinks of Scott's cooking. In his defense, he can cook :)

Also, this evening, he was watching a movie and at the end of the movie a girl and boy were saying goodbye to each other, and he said, "They are going to miss each other alot." Then he said, "They are cousins." WHY is this cool?? Two reasons: 1)The fact that he thought they were cousins and that they would miss each other so much says how much he loves and misses his cousins :) 2)The fact that he thought they were cousins is cool because the girl in the movie was white and the boy was black.