Stomach Flu?, Parenting Conference, and Meeting Your Spouses Needs.

Okay, so if you haven't figured it out from the random title I decided to post "Motivated Mommy Monday's" post and "Taking it to Him Tuesday's" post with today's "Wedded Wednesday" post. I've decided to start with "Taking it to Him Tuesday" because "Motivated Mommy Monday" and "Wedded Wednesday" kind of go together this week.

Taking it to Him Tuesday:

This week I am praying for family health. The reason: 2010 has not been good to the Goolsby family's health. Thankfully, we have not had any major illnesses. However, we have all had several sinus infections and colds. We even had laryngitis at one point! Things have been so blurred together that it was hard to pin point when one virus or infection ended and the next began. We finally got over all the congestion and throat problems last week, only to be bombarded by a stomach virus this week. It just hit in the early hours of this morning. At first I thought it might just be the Stomach Flu, but now I'm not so sure.

Warning: If my post last week about puke disgusted you, you may want to skip this paragraph.  @ 4 this morning Cherish woke up and walked to my room. I could hear her crying followed by the pitter patter of her little feet coming down the hall so I got out of bed to open the door and find out what was wrong. I thought maybe she wet her bed or had a bad dream, boy was I wrong. As soon as I opened the door I was hit with the smell of poop. Disgusting! She immediately turned and walked towards the bathroom. Of course, I followed and flicked on the light. That's when I saw that her pants were pasted to her legs with diarrhea. Again disgusting! I immediately stripped her down and set her on the toilet while I cleaned her clothes, her bed and the floor (bathroom, hall, and kid's bedroom). When I got her off the toilet to clean her up I discovered she had done it again. Thankfully this time it was in the toilet! But it doesn't stop there; my husband and I both were feeling rather weak this morning, which made me think we were all coming down with the stomach flu. However, it is early afternoon now and Cherish has only had one more incident since this morning. Plus I'm feeling much better now. So, I am praying it was just a 24 hr. bug. * Things are looking up. I just got a call about a friends little girl who was in the same class as Cherish yesterday when I went to my M.O.M.S. study. She had a bout of diarrhea yesterday afternoon, but was fine over night and fine this morning.*

Anyways, with the weather changing around here I really want for all of us to get better and stay better so we can go out and enjoy the wonderful Texas spring. So that's why this week's prayer focus is on family health.

Motivated Mommy Monday:

So, as most of you know I went to a parenting conference this weekend with Dr. Richard Marks. As promised, I wanted to share with you a little about what I learned. First, I will say most of what he taught I have heard before and already know the importance behind it. However, I still feel like I walked away a better parent.

Here's why: He drove home the truth behind the statement "Pain seeks pleasure."

Here's how: Dr. Marks talked a lot about how our society just wants us to "STOP IT!" without ever figuring out why we are behaving a certain way. Think about it, as parents we say: "Just stop whining!" or, "Stop hitting your sister", sometimes its "Stop throwing a fit", even "Stop getting into that", "Stop it, stop it, stop it!" I know I am guilty of saying some of these things to my kids. Dr. Marks is one who believes we have to stop that and figure out the heart issues behind these actions in order to deal with them accordingly (I will talk more about this in a few weeks when I go to Ted Trips Shepherding a Child's Heart Conference). For now, I want to focus on the unique point Dr. Marks made. His point was that we need to figure out if our childs actions are reflecting an emotional need he or she has. If so we need to attempt to meet it, because *if we fail to meet that need something or someone else will meet it!* As I mentioned before, pain seeks pleasure. If our child has pain from an unmet need he will find someone or something to fill that void with. This is exactly how kids fall into sin and addiction. It is also how they end up in destructive relationships.

So my question to you is does your child have an unmet need? If so is someone or something other than you and your spouse filling it? How can you attempt to change that? If it is not happening now how can you prevent it from happening in the future?

Here's what we need to do: Teach our children to SPEAK up and tell us what they need from us. For example: "I like it when" or "I don't like it when." Wow, doesn't this go against a lot of what our parents taught us about how children are to be seen not heard!  Then we need to learn to LISTEN to them. I mean truly listen. Think about it, how would you feel if no one ever cared what you had to say about something, never took the time to listen to you? Don't misunderstand me here; I am not saying understanding where your child is coming from means agreeing with how they behaved. If you disagree you simply say, "Son, I understand why you felt like that and reacted that way, but that does not make it right, so here is your punishment and here's why. Finally, we all need to COOPERATE with each other. This can mean compromising on certain issues but it doesn't have to mean that. What it usually entails is the child cooperating with the parent's rules and the parent in turn cooperating with the child to meet their needs.

Wedded Wednesday:

It didn't take me long to realize that the above "pain seeks pleasure" truth relates to all relationships not just parenting. We can also apply it to our marriages.

Here's how: we need to figure out if our spouse's actions are reflecting an emotional need he or she has. If so we need to attempt to meet it, because *if we fail to meet that need something of someone else will meet it!* Again, pain seeks pleasure. If our spouse has pain from an unmet need he will find someone or something to fill that void with. This is how married men and women fall into sin and addiction. It is also how they end up in extramarital relationships.

So my question to you is does your spouse have an unmet need? If so is someone or something other than you filling it? How can you attempt to change that? If it is not happening now how can you prevent it from happening in the future? Also, do you have an unmet need you need to express to your spouse before you fall into sin? Have you already fallen into sin? If so, how can you come clean with your spouse and leave the sin behind?


Here's how: SPEAK to your spouse about your needs and let them speak to you about theirs. Also, LISTEN to their heart. Truly listen. Finally, COOPERATE figure out how you can meet each others needs.

Just some thoughts,
MEL

TGIF

If you can't tell I am soooo glad this week is coming to an end! It wasn't all bad, but none the less stressful. First, we continue to have problems with our computer/internet, though, nothing as bad as last week. Second, our refrigerator in the garage were we keep our stock pile of food went caputs (?) along with everything in it. To top it off, we just bought groceries Saturday and discovered it was shot on Monday. Third, our difficult eater Jeremiah (Cherish will eat anything put before her in seconds flat) after months of improvement has decided to revert to his old behavior.

Wednesday night Jeremiah got sent to bed early for not eating his tuna steak. He hates all things fish and seafood, so I shy away from cooking them. I even stopped cooking my husband's favorite dish Shrimp Victoria all together, because Jeremiah has thrown up every single time he has had to try it. Trust me it is not an allergy! It's the texture. Anyway, my husband has been craving tuna steaks for weeks, so I finally got up the courage to make them, knowing it would to be a fight to get Jeremiah to eat. Since our rule is to eat everything on your plate I mostly gave the boy salad and beans (both of witch he LOVES, thank goodness). Then I split the smallest steak between him and his sister giving her the bigger piece. To no avail though, he chose to go to bed over even taking one bite. Well, I guess technically he did try one bite, but then he spit it out! So off to bed he went.

Last night, I made Mexican lasagna anticipating no problems, after all he loved it last time we ate it. In fact, he had seconds and thirds!!! Much to my surprise, this time he didn't even want to touch it. So, after an hour or so of threatening bed @ 5:30 he started eating tiny bites (the only reason I didn't make him just go to bed is because I would be the one getting punish when he woke up @ 4 a.m.). Finally, he got down to two bites, but then he decided he was done. Of course, we were like you have TWO bites left (pea size I might add), just finish it! When I proceeded to put the next bite in his mouth he started gagging and THREW UP all over the dinner table! UGH!!!! I think I have mentioned before that he has the most sensitive gag reflex, so when I say he threw up I mean he threw up everything.

Side note: We are so weary of Jeremiah's gag reflex we even left the restaurant we had lunch at on Sunday before we had a chance to eat our food. See, Jeremiah had too much salsa and started feeling sick to his stomach so we boxed up our food and left. You might think we are crazy but we were not going to have him throw up at another restaurant! That's right he's done it before! Three times to be exact. The first time he got a chip hung in his throat at Chuy's. The second time he had a stomach virus, though we had no idea until he threw up at Cici's. Finally, the last time he got cheese from a cheese enchilada hung in his throat at Rico's the very restaurant we were at on Sunday. So now you understand. If not let me just say I probably cleaned up puke around 100 xs in his first 18 months of life. See, for the longest time he would scream and cry when we put him in his crib for bed. It didn't take long for his voice to get hoarse and for the coughing to start. When that happened, we knew it was all over. I was going to be cleaning up puke, if one of us didn't go calm him down and rock him to sleep. Thankfully, when we converted his crib to a toddler bed he stopped screaming and went to sleep without any problems. So we clean up a lot less puke these days. However, when we do have to I can almost guarantee you 90% of the time it is Jeremiah's. So there's a little background on Jeremiah's gag reflex.

Now back to this week, as you can see it was not exactly a fun week. Although, I will say we had a few highlights. First we had two fun outings to the park this week. The weather here has been GREAT! Surprisingly, in the high 60's to low 70's all week, after a little sleet and snow in some areas last week. See, Texas truly is the bipolar state! That's why we love it; it's never the same old thing around here.

Second, my sister in-law took some pics of the kids this week. I can't wait to see them after she edits them! I promise to post them when she does.  Third, my husband and the kids got around to cleaning my van yesterday after the dinner debacle and we had family game night after that. Oh and tonight and tomorrow Josh and I will be attending a parenting conference at our church done by Dr. Richard Marks. I hope to share some of what I learn on Motivated Mommy Monday. 
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Now to all of you from Friday Follow, I am so glad you stopped by. I hope I did not totally disgust you with all the talk about puke. Sorry, I just needed to vent a little. Anywho, please take some time to look around. I think you will like what you find (fingers crossed).

A little about me: I am a hard core servant of Christ! He is my life! In fact, I got a BS in religion so that I could write devotionals and Bible studies; although, for now I am a SAHM. I have two kids; Jeremiah who is 4 and Cherish who is two. Dispite this post I must say they are a blast! I love being home with them!!! In fact, they are the whole reason I have put my writing on hold. Well, not completely on hold, after all I started this blog so that I could still write a little. Though if you look around you will see my writing can be a little sporadic, I am still trying to figure out a blogging schedule that works for me.

Let's see, what else would you want to know? Well, I have been married to my husband for 5 yrs now and I love him more than ever. He truly is my best friend! I think if you look around you will see I mean that. Go ahead check out my posts on marriage (Wedded Wednesday's). You might also like my posts on parenting, prayer, and God. And there are even some posts for you readers and crafters. Please, feel free to look around and check things out.

 MEL

Taking it to Him Tuesday's: Philos.

We all know God calls us to pray without ceasing for ourselves, our enemies, our family, and our friends. Today, I would like to focus on that last part; friends, specifically Christian friends. I guess because it seems most fitting; see, all week God has been speaking to me about friendship and what TRUE friendship requires. First, as I mentioned in another post I am currently doing the Beth Moore study: "Living Beyond Yourself." This week is all about LOVE. Though the majority of the week is about agape love, day two which covered philos love really spoke to me (I think because I have a few friends who are dealing with a lot of drama right now and need TRUE friendship). Second, Sunday's sermon was on friendship (specifically that of Jonathan and David). Finally, I have a friend who is having brain surgery today and really needs prayer. So, you can see that God is definitely drawing my attention to friendship.

Now, I would like to share a few things that he has been showing me about friendship.

1. We are called to love our friends as brothers and sisters (1 Peter 3:8). The root word of philos literally means: "brotherly love." It is where we get the word Philadelphia which means "city of brotherly love." So you see we are called to love our friends as if we were blood related. If you think about it as children of God washed in the blood of Christ we are exactly that.

2. Friends have similar hearts. As Christians we are drawn together by a heart for God.

3. Friendship requires sacrificial love. After all in John Jesus says "greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend" and that is exactly what he did for us.

4. Friends are ALWAYS there. In the good times and the bad. Galatians 6:2 requires us to carry each others burdens and Luke 15:8-9 calls us to rejoice together.

5. Friendship REQUIRES freedom and safety. Freedom to be yourself and freedom to be honest in a safe environment, KNOWING what you say to your friend will stay between the two of you! That is why true accountability can only happen among friends, because we trust them enough to share our struggles.

6. Friends build each other up and do good to each other!

So today I challenge you to pray for yourself that you would be a TRUE friend and that you would find TRUE friends. Pray that the Christians you know would be TRUE friends to others. Also pray specifically for the needs of your friends. Finally, if you could say a prayer for my friend Jim who is having brain surgery that would be greatly appreciated. He is already in surgery and will remain there until around 7 p.m. Our Sunday school class has arranged for at least two people to be praying for him at all times during his surgery. I have committed to pray for him from 2-3 this afternoon, pray I do not get busy and forget.  I have already said a prayer for him and his wife Michelle but I want to remain faithful to my word.

Just some thoughts,
MEL

Motivated Mommy Monday: Frugal Fun 2

Okay, so last week I made a list of fun and cheap things to do with the kids this spring and summer. I decided to save some for this week because that post was getting a little long. And let's be honest, mommies have little time to sit and read even if it is something that will benefit the family. Anywho, I don't want to make this post super long either so lets get started:

1.  Find out if your local sports teams have club memberships for kids. Last spring a friend told me about Astro's Buddies. For $17 (I think it was actually like 15 and I had to pay a $2 fee for paying online.) we got 4 tickets to one of six club member games. In addition, Jeremiah got a special edition Astro's hat, a drawstring bag in the shape of Lance Berkman's Jersey, a Lance Berkman card, a sticker for the car, a subscription to their newsletter, and 2 tickets to an autograph party. At the autograph party Jeremiah got to play around in the dugout and on the field, and of course; he even got a few autographs and pictures with players.

 We went to the game with the friends who told us about it, which of course made for even more fun!

We also chose a game we knew would have a fireworks show. Even more fun!

Two days of fun for only 17 dollars!

Check around and see if your local teams have similar deals. Even if your closest teams are minor league teams it could still be a ton of fun!

2. Take them to paint ceramics.  We have a place in our local mall where we can do this. Check around and see if you have a place locally where you can do it. I have never spent more than $7 total doing this. All you pay for are the ceramics, which range in price depending on size.

a.) I only get the cheap ones for the kids!

b.) I also limit their color selection based on what they get to paint and where I plan on hanging it.

         1.) Last time we went Cherish was only aloud to have pinks and purples for a ceramic picture frame that now hangs in her room. 

3. Vacation Bible School!!! Of course, this is a must for us. The kids love it and it's a weeks worth of free fun! Find out if your church is having one and if so make plans to be there. I know of kids who love it so much that they attend every VBS in town.

4. Take them to the beach. Most beaches are free and kids absolutely LOVE them! The only time you should have to pay for access to the beach is if you are parking on the beach or if it has showers! Trust me if they're charging for any other reason it is not a beach you want to take your kids to. Most of beaches that charge do so because they allow alcoholic beverages. Likely that means you would be entering a party atmosphere with young kids. Sorry, but I don't want to explain to my 4 year old why some guy is tripping over his own feet! lol.

 If you live with in a couple hours drive of the beach this is a must!!!

5. Check out local water parks and community pools!

a.) Since we are entering spring and summer you should start checking into specials now! Like I said in part 1 of this series some of these places have discount days and group rates and if you Google them you may even find coupons.

b.) If you have a pool in you neighborhood make sure you get a season pass! They are often free as long as you are a resident of the neighborhood. However, even the ones you have to pay for are usually worth it!

c.) Check out other community pools in your area to see if maybe you can pay for a days visit even if you are not a member of that community. It never hurts to ask! Last summer we actually found out about a pool at a church in Houston that is set up like Noah's Ark. We paid $5 each, spent the day there, and the kids had a BLAST!

6. Check out community fairs! Be on the look out for these they usually take place around holidays like; Memorial Day, the 4th of July and Labor Day but some can be sporadic. These are great because usually the consumer decides how much to spend! Give your kids a set amount and tell them to choose wisely. Not only will they have fun but they might learn a thing or two about money!


That's it for now! Let me hear your ideas,
MEL