Praying for my kids...

I've been reading my Bible a lot more now, pretty much daily (okay, the Bible app on my iPhone, but it is with me everywhere!) and have a few different 'plans' going. Through reading a few verses and then also hearing them at church, I did a search on Pinterest to see what would come up for them. The two verses linked to a few different blogs/websites that had some great ideas for me....something I don't think I thought too much about before...and that is praying for my kids as well as with them. They are so eager to be learning about God and Jesus and love to find a prayer out of our little prayer book at dinner. I've been trying to pray with them at bedtime and it's amazing to hear how naturally it comes to them. Tonight, with Nolan, as we were talking about praying and what/who to pray about/for, I told him that even though we can't see God, we can pray to him anytime. He agreed with me and said that he is in our hearts and then said that God is wiggling and shaking inside his body and showed me by wiggling around himself! Jenna is learning so much at preschool, I'm so thankful that we chose Acorn Academy over another preschool through the school district! Tonight, she and Nolan were in the basement and Jesse overheard her telling Nolan that it was okay to be different, because that's how God made us! It's okay to be short or tall! The other thing she learns at preschool are different Bible verses that they work on memorizing. She is very proud when reciting them. The latest is from Philippians 4:13.

So, one thing I am going to do is decide on a verse for each kid and then I will use it to pray for them over the course of the next year. I may just do this until January and then start again, but we'll see how it goes. The idea I found was to trace each kid's hand and then write the verse on there and then put it in your Bible. I'm very excited to be praying for and with my kids....and excited to see what God has in store for them and us as a family!

                                              
We had a great weekend, starting off with camping in the basement Friday night! We bought a new, bigger tent last summer, so thought we'd try it out. It fit in the family room with the couches pushed back a little. We slept on the extra full-size mattress we have (not a blow-up one) and the kids slept on their little foam pull-out couches with their polar fleece sleeping bags. There was tons of space, so the kids had fun running around, jumping on our mattress and playing with Nolan's hockey guys. They also set up Nolan's fishing game and caught some fish! We made trail mix right after dinner and brought that and their water bottles down with us. They loved that there was a pocket on each side of the tent for them to put their water and trail mix in ! It took Nolan a while to fall asleep, but they slept good (Ellie was up a few times...but she slept up in her bedroom!), and were excited when they woke up. Jesse and I had sore backs and necks, but it was well worth it. They really wanted to keep the tent up, but I'm sure will do it again, or even try the backyard. Hopefully this summer we can camp somewhere as a whole family!

Saturday, enjoyed the nice weather and went for a bike ride and played outside! After church, we went to a birthday party. No naps in the afternoon made for a long night. Today, we went to our friends' house for lunch and lots of playing! Nolan was so tired (and also has a head cold), he fell asleep in Jesse's arms. What a great time, just wish we lived closer :).

I have been off from work the past two weeks, and now go back on Tuesday. It has been great not thinking about work at all, but back to reality! I think I work now without a break (haha) until the end of May. I so love that I only work two days a week and have breaks throughout the year instead of just the whole summer off! I'm actually looking forward to having nothing going on but work this summer....no preschool, ECFE, classes, etc. Hopefully we'll be outside a lot and go swimming and to the cabin....that sounds good to me!