I'm not the best prayer. I do it every now and then when I think about it, it's very formal, I ask for big things in a small way and I usually only ask once.
I did a bible study about the book "The Circle Maker" by Mark Batterson, and my prayer life changed dramatically.
Mark talks about the power of prayer. He states that BOLD prayers please the Lord. He challenges his readers to be specific and intentional with their prayer life. He reminds us that God can do ANYTHING, but he doesn't necessarily do it right away. He says to circle your dreams and fears in prayer whether it be mentally or physically. He suggests that a change of pace + a change of place = a change in perspective. Don't give up on God when he doesn't give an answer right away. KEEP ASKING. Try something different during your prayer time. He suggested that trying something "physical" can really focus your mind on your request (this doesn't mean that it makes your prayer magical, it just keeps you mindful).
I thought he was kind of quirky. He often mentions that he paces, and places his hands, and fasts. When He mentioned that he does these things to stay focused on his prayers, it hit me! It's really hard for me to pray when there's a mess around me or the TV is on or my phone is near me. It's hard for me to pray when I could be playing with Claire. I need to find something that will keep me focused on a prayer.
I have challenged myself to circle Claire's sleeping habits in prayer. I know that sounds silly, but it's something that really bothers me. She does ok at night, but she won't nap consistently. She needs it, I need it. I am going to stop every time I lay her in her crib and pray in her doorway. I going to pray for peace and comfort for her to know that her crib is a safe place. I'm going to pray for good rest. I'm going to build on this prayer as I see needs arise. Even though it seems silly to me (and probably to you) for me to pray about my baby's sleep, nothing is too silly, too small or too big for God. He will help Claire sleep!
I'm going to circle this need in prayer for 21 days as part of Mark Batterson's challenge. Join me! What are some things that you could pray about? Where can you go or what could you do to help you remember to circle this dream or fear in prayer? If you do this, I hope you notice that your prayer life will grow tremendously, and you'll find yourself praying about everything!
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Monday, July 27, 2015
Month 8
This has been by FAR the biggest month in her sweet little life! So many changes!
Claire loves: mama and daddy, eating real food, other peoples' attention, paper, crawling to places she's not supposed to, making funny faces, books and eating paper
She does not love: getting teeth, long car rides
She's tried almost all foods (no honey). There's not much she doesn't like, but she loves cheese, puffs, fruit, and deli meat the most. According to my scale at home she's 20.8lbs.
- She started crying and peeking over her bumper watching for me to come in and get her.
- She pulled herself up to a standing position while holding on to her walker on 6/22.
- Got herself from the crawling position back to sitting up on 6/24.
- Got herself from laying on her belly to sitting position on 6/27. She loves to use this new trick in her crib!
- Pulled up in her crib on 6/29. Had to lower the mattress.
- She dances every time she plays with her walker or piano.
- 6/30 started trying to bear crawl.
- Now that she can sit herself up, she likes to play in her crib and has started "playing herself to sleep".
- As of 7/1 she still has both bottom teeth buds and the top right front tooth is budding. No breakthrough, but lots of restless nights and nap times.
- She loves clapping her hands together or holding things and clapping them together.
- She LOVES music. When she hears it, she dances. She has a piano and drum that she likes. She dances when she claps toys together.
- She waves.
- She responds to different parts of TV shows.
- She makes a "hi" sound, a "da" sound and "mm" when she's sad. She talks a lot.
- She's learned how to make a sucking sound with her tongue and how to blow raspberries.
- She had her first Fourth of July and got to celebrate with the Curtis/Hodges family. All of the cousins got to meet her and she got some great snuggles.
- She was a CHAMP with late nights and crazy days while we moved.
- We packed up and moved into a new home.
- She's starting to flirt and become bashful at the same time. She lays her head on my shoulder when people talk to her.
- As of 7/6 she has taken 4 "crawls".
- Crawled across the room looking at herself in the iPhone on 7/9.
- Found out she had Hand Foot and Mouth Virus. She had a couple of days where she was very whiney. She also wasn't nursing well and was waking at night every 2.5-3 hours. I was ready to let her cry it out to get back on a sleeping schedule, but decided I should make sure she wasn't sick first...turns out she was. She had sores in her mouth and bumps around her mouth.
- When she sees me getting ready to feed her, she laughs and makes a sucking motion.
- She cocks her head to the side almost anytime she sees someone.
- She mimics growls, laughs, claps, and "spits".
- Went to a drive in movie to see "Inside Out". She didn't sleep a wink, but was a very good girl.
- Her front bottom left tooth popped up on 7/11.
- She eats and plays with everything she's not supposed to. She's a tad mischievous... She laughs when I say "no". I even had to seat her hand once and she giggled.
- She looks at Andrew when I say "where's dada". She gives me a kiss when I ask, "Can mama have a kiss?"
- Now that she crawls, she loves to find the vent under the refrigerator, paper, shoes, cords the vacuum and door stoppers.
- When I come home from being away (very rare occurrence) she does this laugh/cry mix when she sees me.
- We met Cash Seals and Claire met Brooke for the first time on 7/15.
- I tried giving Claire a formula bottle to see if it would help her take a bottle. She didn't hate it, but didn't finish it. Then she put up everywhere...
- She pretends to read books.
- She nods yes when she sees something she wants.
- We started "sleep training" again on 7/18. We had an open full week of nothing to do before guests were coming.
This is how it went:
NIGHT ONE: out later for a birthday party, down by 9:30. Up at 1, started to fall back asleep around 1:20, but woke back up with a vengeance! Asleep around 2. Up at 5:40 for a short time. Awake by 9 (she woke up sad). NIGHT TWO: Down at 8:30. Up at 7:30. NIGHT THREE: Down by 8:30 (she took 2 amazing naps this day and 1 cat nap around 6:30). Up at 2 for around 15 minutes. Up again. I have no idea what time because I was too tired. It WAS thunder storming! NIGHT FOUR: Down by 9. More thunderstorms. Up at 12 but only for a minute. Up at 5:30 and 7:15. NIGHT FIVE: Down at 8:45. All night until 7:30! NIGHT SIX: Down by 8;45. Up at 3:30 for very short. 7:45 up for the day. NIGHT SEVEN (we had company spend the night, so I was REALLY HOPING she'd be done): Down by 8:45. Up by 3:20. I told our friends that I was going to let her cry for 5 minutes. That's just want she did -more like screamed-so I went in. 8:00 up for the day.
Claire,
You. are. something. Every ounce of you has personality and everyone notices. You light up whatever room you are in! Often times, people don't believe me if I say that you've been fussy. You have this switch that goes off when you're in public. You're a perfect angel (for that I'm thankful)! I love watching you grow and change. I feel like I can't even call you a baby anymore because you're doing so many new things every day. I could seriously eat you UP!!
I love you!
Mama
Claire loves: mama and daddy, eating real food, other peoples' attention, paper, crawling to places she's not supposed to, making funny faces, books and eating paper
She does not love: getting teeth, long car rides
She's tried almost all foods (no honey). There's not much she doesn't like, but she loves cheese, puffs, fruit, and deli meat the most. According to my scale at home she's 20.8lbs.
- She started crying and peeking over her bumper watching for me to come in and get her.
- She pulled herself up to a standing position while holding on to her walker on 6/22.
- Got herself from the crawling position back to sitting up on 6/24.
- Got herself from laying on her belly to sitting position on 6/27. She loves to use this new trick in her crib!
- Pulled up in her crib on 6/29. Had to lower the mattress.
- She dances every time she plays with her walker or piano.
- 6/30 started trying to bear crawl.
- Now that she can sit herself up, she likes to play in her crib and has started "playing herself to sleep".
- As of 7/1 she still has both bottom teeth buds and the top right front tooth is budding. No breakthrough, but lots of restless nights and nap times.
- She loves clapping her hands together or holding things and clapping them together.
- She LOVES music. When she hears it, she dances. She has a piano and drum that she likes. She dances when she claps toys together.
- She waves.
- She responds to different parts of TV shows.
- She makes a "hi" sound, a "da" sound and "mm" when she's sad. She talks a lot.
- She's learned how to make a sucking sound with her tongue and how to blow raspberries.
- She had her first Fourth of July and got to celebrate with the Curtis/Hodges family. All of the cousins got to meet her and she got some great snuggles.
- She was a CHAMP with late nights and crazy days while we moved.
- We packed up and moved into a new home.
- She's starting to flirt and become bashful at the same time. She lays her head on my shoulder when people talk to her.
- As of 7/6 she has taken 4 "crawls".
- Crawled across the room looking at herself in the iPhone on 7/9.
- Found out she had Hand Foot and Mouth Virus. She had a couple of days where she was very whiney. She also wasn't nursing well and was waking at night every 2.5-3 hours. I was ready to let her cry it out to get back on a sleeping schedule, but decided I should make sure she wasn't sick first...turns out she was. She had sores in her mouth and bumps around her mouth.
- When she sees me getting ready to feed her, she laughs and makes a sucking motion.
- She cocks her head to the side almost anytime she sees someone.
- She mimics growls, laughs, claps, and "spits".
- Went to a drive in movie to see "Inside Out". She didn't sleep a wink, but was a very good girl.
- Her front bottom left tooth popped up on 7/11.
- She eats and plays with everything she's not supposed to. She's a tad mischievous... She laughs when I say "no". I even had to seat her hand once and she giggled.
- She looks at Andrew when I say "where's dada". She gives me a kiss when I ask, "Can mama have a kiss?"
- Now that she crawls, she loves to find the vent under the refrigerator, paper, shoes, cords the vacuum and door stoppers.
- When I come home from being away (very rare occurrence) she does this laugh/cry mix when she sees me.
- We met Cash Seals and Claire met Brooke for the first time on 7/15.
- I tried giving Claire a formula bottle to see if it would help her take a bottle. She didn't hate it, but didn't finish it. Then she put up everywhere...
- She pretends to read books.
- She nods yes when she sees something she wants.
- We started "sleep training" again on 7/18. We had an open full week of nothing to do before guests were coming.
This is how it went:
NIGHT ONE: out later for a birthday party, down by 9:30. Up at 1, started to fall back asleep around 1:20, but woke back up with a vengeance! Asleep around 2. Up at 5:40 for a short time. Awake by 9 (she woke up sad). NIGHT TWO: Down at 8:30. Up at 7:30. NIGHT THREE: Down by 8:30 (she took 2 amazing naps this day and 1 cat nap around 6:30). Up at 2 for around 15 minutes. Up again. I have no idea what time because I was too tired. It WAS thunder storming! NIGHT FOUR: Down by 9. More thunderstorms. Up at 12 but only for a minute. Up at 5:30 and 7:15. NIGHT FIVE: Down at 8:45. All night until 7:30! NIGHT SIX: Down by 8;45. Up at 3:30 for very short. 7:45 up for the day. NIGHT SEVEN (we had company spend the night, so I was REALLY HOPING she'd be done): Down by 8:45. Up by 3:20. I told our friends that I was going to let her cry for 5 minutes. That's just want she did -more like screamed-so I went in. 8:00 up for the day.
Claire,
You. are. something. Every ounce of you has personality and everyone notices. You light up whatever room you are in! Often times, people don't believe me if I say that you've been fussy. You have this switch that goes off when you're in public. You're a perfect angel (for that I'm thankful)! I love watching you grow and change. I feel like I can't even call you a baby anymore because you're doing so many new things every day. I could seriously eat you UP!!
I love you!
Mama
Grandaddy and Papa
Pulling up
With Harlow and Amelia after making cards for the Veteran's Home.
Swimming with Rachel and Knoxx Stanek.
Pulling up in the crib.
Ready to bear crawl.
Helping mama pack.
She pulls hair 24/7.
Claire and Macy celebrating July 4th!
Swimming at Bogg Springs.
Last nap in the Pine Creek house.
Helping mama unpack.
Playing with the refrigerator vent.
Meeting Brooke and Cash Seals.
Baby bookworms with Madalena Dixon.
When she DOES sleep, she sleeps hard.
Meme got her a play yard!
With Thomas Whittington
Bow hair
Pensacola Beach 2015
Every other year, my parents provide a vacation for our whole family to enjoy together! They get a house in Pensacola Beach, FL that is big enough for our whopping 18 person clan. This year was different for us because we were 100% responsible for a baby! She was going through a face of waking a lot at night, and that stressed me out. I didn't want her to disturb others. Naps were also a struggle because she didn't want to miss the fun and the room was bright compared to her black out room at home. She didn't like to ocean or the pool, but she LOVED watching from the sand! We took a blow up pool, her portable exersaucer, extra clothes, dry diapers, sunscreen and baby powder. We probably spent 3 hours total on the beach every day, but it was awesome and full of good memories. As an extra fun thing, I got to go parasailing with my dad! It was something that we've both wanted to do and it just so happened to be the month for his 60th and my 27th birthday!
I will say that Andrew and I going on our babymoon last summer was a fantastic choice, because beach vacations will never be the same!
(profesional photos by Images by Randy)
I will say that Andrew and I going on our babymoon last summer was a fantastic choice, because beach vacations will never be the same!
(profesional photos by Images by Randy)
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