The Legacy of the Guitar in Our Family

A couple years ago, David decided that he wanted to take guitar lessons from a church brother of ours who is in his eighties. The kids and I went over there with him a few times and it was nice to listen to his wife reminisce while her husband was teaching David correct finger placement, chord progression and capo placement. I watched as he would study the notes and even remembered exactly when he said that he wanted to master the guitar by the end of the year. For Christmas, the couple gave him a card with $100 to go towards a guitar, and Jan 2010 David bought his first one.

Since then, he has never put it down. When he comes home from work he plays it. When I'm playing music in the house as I do the chores, he plays along. One of my favorite memories so far of him and his guitar is when I was pregnant with Autumn and I had the hardest time falling asleep because I was so uncomfortable, he would pick up his guitar and sing to me until I fell asleep. And my absolute favorite memory is while I was giving birth, I asked him to bring it to the hospital. He played it softly and it was my effective therapy. The nurses were impressed at how I was able to sleep through my contractions without any medication (but of course that all changed once I hit 8cm and was pressuring everyone to give me an epidural:)).

We gave Moriah her guitar when she was 2 and little David's was given to him when he was 2 as well. They play theirs nearly as much Daddy. I'm looking forward to getting Autumn her's though she seems quite content with her Daddy's. As he plays, she gets excited and jumps up and down on her knees.

 I'm so proud of David that he decided to learn it, stuck with it and he's determined to grow with it. We are so blessed with the legacy that brother Joseph passed to David and now to our children!

Check out this great song about a very lovely lady:) sung and produced by David. You hear some of the strings but for more check out his reverbNation page!

The best thing next to having twins

It's so interesting how many people remind me of how many children I said that I wanted when David and I first got engaged. It's even more interesting that for some reason I barely remember quoting that amount. ("Really?!  5 or 6?!  Did I say that?!!" I blame it on pregnancy brain. Even while I'm not pregnant:) )

I guess that's why some weren't that surprised when we announced that we were pregnant with another while Moriah was only 6 months. We were surprised... but pleasantly. I remember when were at church one day when Moriah was 3 months old. The pastor mentioned a passage (1 Chronicles 4:10) that stated "enlarging our territory" and David was elbowing me, jokingly saying, "Yeah. Enlarge our territory."

Well a few months passed and there I was at home with two in diapers. I vividly remember some mornings when they were crying at the same time. It was challenging sometimes. We were managing two that were so dependent and yet didn't know how to verbally express their needs, but if I had a chance,  I wouldn't change it for anything!

Now that they are a little bit older, 5 and 3 (David will be 4 in about 6 weeks), they are great at keeping themselves occupied together. They play cars, dolls, ride bikes, pretend cook, paint/color. They make up several different games and they are pretty good at taking turns. When they can't decide who gets to choose what to play, they play rock, paper, scissors or they flip a coin. (Prov 18:18) 

Now there are times when they argue. It gets out of hand and there is no telling who started it. Thanks to Daddy who came up with a genius and an often used discipline strategy. We have both Moriah and David hug each other and say "I love you" for about 2-3 min straight. Note: This method is used when the matter is trivial. We do have different forms of discipline depending on the matter:) It works great and after this, they usually play better than when they started.

I was looking forward to putting Moriah in all these different camps this summer since she is now old enough to participate. She did dance camp and VBS, but David is not enough and missed her like crazy when she was gone. So we decided to have her miss a couple of other programs for the remainder of the summer and just find and create activities for the both of them to do together. She wasn't bummed out at all.  I'm thankful for their relationship and pray that it will grow even stronger!

Nugget: Jesus says that the kingdom of God belongs to children such as these. I believe this means that we are to not be childish, but childlike. God desires for us to love each other like how children love. They love affectionately,  fearlessly and abundantly in forgiveness. Sometimes it seems as we get older, we leaves these virtues behind. Join me in prayer to love with a childlike heart:)


~Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.  ~Hebrews 13:1

~ Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.~ Romans 12:10

~ Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. ~1 John 4:20

Sharing is Caring

At the end of each week at my daughter's school, each child gets to choose a special gift from the treasure box for being well behaved. Admittedly, my anticipation has increased each week as she rummages through her tote bag to retrieve her trinket of choice. A few Thursdays ago was special:)

We usually eat lunch together after we pick my daughter up, but this particular day, my son and I were both hungry and we still had to run errands. So we decided to eat and then pack hers to go so that she could eat it in the car. As my daughter's class lined up for dismissal, my son eagerly ran to give her the lunch bag. She hugged him excitingly (I'm sure not just only to see him, since it seems like she's always famished after 4 hours of vpk:)) and she was just as excited to show off her treasure box toy. Before we even got inside the car, she reached down inside her bag and said "I got this for you David!" It was a yellow toy car. He exclaimed, "Thank you!!"(Like many other 3 year old boys, he loves, loves, loves cars and has tells me about every week that he has a car collection.) Then they exchanged hugs.

See this was particularly sentimental to me because I've noticed that when it comes to giving, my daughter is like me and my son is like his daddy. It's natural for he and his daddy to give. In matter of fact my son expresses his love through sharing, and when someone doesn't accept whatever he offers, (which is usually his last of something) he gets kind of offended. I wouldn't say that it's natural for my daughter and I to share. We have to be taught.:) So this was partly why I couldn't stop smiling. It touched me to know that my daughter had to choose just one thing and she chose something not for herself but for her brother. Then I thought, Yes! She gets it...wow is this how God feels when we give unselfishly? It's great to give when we have a lot, but it's a wonderful sacrifice to give when we don't have much especially while it's done with a willing and cheerful heart.

Is there anything that God has been pressing on your heart to share but it hasn't been easy to? If it's easy for you to share your materials, what about intangibles like your time or your testimony?

~And do not forget to do good and to share with others for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Hebrews 13:16