What She Does All the Live-Long Day [wordless wednesday]

Verses for a Snowy Day

It's a beautifully frosted snow day today, which means that all four of us are at home!  Abby and I admired the snow from the cozy indoors, but someone else couldn't wait to jump in and help shovel.

just call me the michelin man...

I savor these moments :)

He helped out by eating the snow and making sure there was a fresh pile atop the tires :)

The two squirts are currently tucked away for nap time, so it's the perfect time to continue posting some memory verse cards.  (See here for the first installment)

Such challenging verses!  Praying they encourage you today :)

Mother Hens

My babies are extremely blessed to grow up with not just two sets of grandparents, but four!

In Korean culture, family terms are flexible - close family friends are referred to as aunts/uncles and anyone older is called "older brother/older sister." 

These four ladies - or mother hens, as I affectionately call them - are such an inspiration to me.  They have been close friends for about 40 years...loving, supporting, and praying for one another as they each chose a life of mission, got married, became a mom, and now a grandma :)

Life hasn't always been easy for them, but they have been faithful in all things..and have been there for one another through thick and thin.

I am so grateful to have grown up under their love and care...and my heart is happy when I see my children being showered with their love as well.

I want to be this beautiful in thirty years!

Words to Live By

A couple days ago, I read a beautiful blog post about one mom/missionary/cancer patient's sincere and honest struggle with God's Word.   Her story and life always amazes me...and this post in particular really encouraged and challenged me in the way I view Scripture memorization.

When I was growing up, it was all about memorizing the verses to rack up stickers on a memorization chart.  It was always about memorizing - trying to get the exact wording right and feeling successful when I did it.  I saw the benefit of it - being able to recall applicable verses when situations arose...but at the heart of my motivation was the pride in my accomplishments and my memorizing ability.

I feel challenged to dwell on the Word of God - not just be able to recite it from rote learning.  I truly believe that God's Word is living and active...and I want to spend time mulling over Bible verses, turning over the words in my heart, and giving time and space for God to speak through them.

I figured a good place to start is with our youth group's weekly memory verses.  I will be making printable memory cards for the verses and posting them here for anyone to use. :)

The dimensions are perfect for printing out as 4x6 photos, if you choose!

These verses are from the 2011 edition of the New International Version (NIV).  (Since I grew up reading the 1984 edition, some of the slight changes throw me for a surprise)

We began memorizing back in September, so I will be posting verses we've previously memorized, as well as adding to the list as time goes on!

Hope this helps anyone else who is looking to spend time meditating on Scripture!

Bedtime Monkeys

The other night I was away from home during the kids' bedtime.  Augustine texted me this photo to show me what I was missing...

Jonathan + Curious George = Buddies 4 ever

Apparently, while Aug was getting Jonathan ready for bed, Jonathan spotted the monkey pajamas and insisted that George wanted to wear them.

I'm not sure what I love more - the fact that Jonathan wanted to dress up his toy monkey or that my husband so willingly complied...  :)

Easy Preschool Alphabet Activity

When I stopped teaching a little over seven months ago, I couldn't bear to throw anything away that could potentially be useful in the future.  (Come to think of it, this is true in all areas of life for me...a problem, you might say...)

The bad news?  The storage area of our basement is completely taken over by boxes upon boxes representing my seven years in the classroom.  (Sorry, Aug...)  :(

The good news?  Anytime I want to do an art project or learning activity with Jonathan, I just go shopping...in my basement :)

Today's activity came from a nearly-discarded box of foam alphabet stickers.

I had used these babies to label several items in my classroom and had been caught in a sad dilemma because all or most of the most common letters were used up, but couldn't bring myself to pitch the rest of the perfectly useful stickers.

Enter the boy.  He actually dug this box up in the basement and trotted it over to me one morning this week.  It suddenly hit me that it didn't matter that some letters were missing - it was the perfect, hands-on activity for him to practice his letter recognition!

I selected different uppercase letters and spread them out on the floor and handed him a piece of black construction paper (just for the nice contrast).

Before he picked up a letter to stick onto the sheet, I asked him to tell me the name and color of the letter.  Then, for kicks, I asked him what sound each letter makes.  (He actually learned all of the letters sounds before learning the letters names from watching Leapfrog: Letter Factory, which I highly recommend for introducing letter sounds!)

Peeling off the back of the sticker was a bit of a challenge, but he remained focused and determined to do it.  Some of them were a little tricky, so I gave him a little head start.

He then slapped the letter stickers on any which way he pleased.  In the future, I might draw lines on the paper and have him stick them onto the line so they face the same direction.  Since it was the first time we did it, though, I just wanted him to be free and have fun :)

The finished product!

Hamming it up

Since then, he has requested to "do letters" again several times.  I think we can call it a success! :)

Side note: the box of foam letters came also with lowercase letters.  Since he is still learning his lowercase letters, I waited till after he finished his project to pull some out to show him.

Hehe can you guess what he thought these were? (answers in the caption)

(The "v" was a "heart"...and the "j" he called a "saxophone"!) hahaa

I guess we know what to work on next! :)

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And, just because most of my recent posts have been very Jonathan-heavy...

Here is a gratuitous shot of our little gal who has been chomping down finger foods and army-crawling all over the house.

Have a great week!

2013: a Photo Recap

I know we're almost halfway through the first month of 2014, but my college roomie (who blogs over at Run With Holly) just did a Year in Pictures post that I really enjoyed, so I thought I'd follow suit while 2013 still feels fresh on my mind. :)

Roomies for 3 years, friends for 13 and counting!

2013 was a year filled with joy!  It was a lot of fun to look back at my pictures from this year because so much of what happened and what God did made me smile :)

2013 in Review:

January:
We were delighted to discover that we were expecting a baby girl!
We also celebrated cousin Bella's 3rd birthday with a costume party (for the kids)

February:
We saw Pentatonix in concert! I'm forever amazed by their vocal ability and musicality!

March:
Over spring break, Aug and I did a bunch of date days instead of going on a long trip...I loved it!
One of them included a Thai cooking class - yum! :)

April:
My sister kindly did a maternity photo shoot for me (and included my beloved cherry blossom tree)
Aug turned 31 :)

May:
On Mother's Day, our church family threw a joint baby shower for my friend and me.
Jonathan mopped the floor as a Mother's Day gift to me ;)
I said goodbye to teaching (for now) and ended the school year early with maternity leave.

June:
Abigail was born!
(This was taken when she was 3 days old.  My co-teacher sweetly made this blanket with our class for Abby)

July:
Jonathan turned 2! We celebrated at Glen Echo park, where we watched a puppet show and rode the carousel, which he found slightly terrifying :-/
My mother turned 60 (a special birthday in Korean culture)
We celebrated 4 years of marriage!
Abby went to her first wedding :) (Dream & Chris)

August:
We went on a family vacation to Deep Creek
We went to the fire station on the final day of summer vacation!
Aug started a new position at his school, while I tried on the Stay-At-Home-Mama hat for the first time. :)

September:
I turned 31 :)
We celebrated Abby's 100th day (another Korean tradition)
Gummy Bear Mama was born.
We soaked up the fall weather with lots of play dates at the playground
We went apple-picking and came home with lots of Honey Crisp..mmm!
We bade farewell to Uncle Joe, who moved across the country for his new job

October:
Firefighter Jonathan saved the day with Dalmatian pup Abby by his side :)
We learned about God's generosity all over again as the yard sale for Carlin yielded over $2,000!
Kinda-sorta started potty-training Jonathan :)
I entered the 21st century - upgraded from my trusty flip phone to a smart phone 

November:
Abby was Aug's date for my dear friend Alison's wedding for which I was a bridesmaid (bridesmatron? haha)
Abby became mobile and started eating solid food (she was skeptical at first, but now is completely sold!)

December:
Abby's first Christmas!  She started crawling on her belly right before Christmas day.
This was Jonathan's third Christmas but first time actively participating in the decorating! He made sure that one patch on the very bottom half of the tree was extremely well decked out with ornaments.

Every year, everyone in our church chooses a Bible verse to focus on for the year (we call them "key verses").  Last year's verse was all about generosity, and while it challenged me a lot, I am grateful because I learned a lot about generosity through the opportunities that came up and through the ways God showed His generosity to me.

This year, my verse is about encouragement.  It is my hope and prayer to be intentional about encouraging others and being encouraged through His Word.  I want to look for opportunities to encourage those around me (especially these two little squirts and their daddy) and build them up!

"Happy 2014! WE LOVE YOU."

 Looking forward to great things to come in 2014!