A Few Snap Shots

I thought I would just share a few snapshots. I haven't had much time for anything lately I still have one post of Hawaii pictures to post and everything since then is just pilling up. But here are a few fun shots of the girls.

Enjoy!

They have decided to start taking naps together in Ballerina's bed.

Found Ballerina sleeping after she had been sent to her room for throwing fits . . . I mean for being an angel. We discipline for that around here ;)

I am pleased to introduce to you. . . . Ginger! I have been working on her for a long time and well that's not true she has been sitting in pieces in my crochet bag for a long time and I finally got around to finishing her. Either way here she is complete with a flower in her hair.

The girls LOVE these glasses.

Beloise had to come show me her glasses while I was on my sick bed. This child is always looking for a reaction. She is constantly hollering "ME, Momma, ME" which means: come here, I am sitting, standing, laying in or on something and it looks funny, come and laugh at me.

Our spoiled dog, Penelope Anne.

Sweet sleepy family.

Ballerina has been a little obsessed with "Mr. (or Uncle it depends on her mood) Nick". This is her impersonation of him.

A Day in the Life of a 3 Year Old

I have hi-jacked Mommy's blog. I, Ballerina, am going to tell you about a day as a three year old. It's tough work I tell ya'.

I start out my morning with a picture search.

As you can see I did pretty well.

Then it's time to have my toe nails painted. This is the only way I will let Mom near my toes. If she wants to cut my nails then she had better paint them when she has finished torturing me.

Then we pile into the car and head out to run some errands. My sister and I sit in the back of course.

Once we get to the store, I stay well hidden under the cart. Keeping a spy's eye out for good deals.

Ooooh rollers. I love me some volume!

More shopping

Finally heading home. Sometimes I think Mom would shop all day if we didn't stop her.

One of my slave labor jobs is to help Mom feed the chickens, Henrietta, Dora and Harriette.

Mom always has her camera with her.

No matter how many times I tell Belloise to keep her fingers out of the chicken cage she never listens. One of these days Belly, one of these days.

Uh oh here comes Mom. TTYL

Ballerina~

Convicted: Hospitality and Compassion

Oh Mercy have I ever been convicted lately. I just finished being hostess for two months to my sister-in-law. And I tell you what, I spent the first quarter of her stay being hospitable and the middle half of it being hostile and the last quarter finally returning to hospitable. I found that being hostile not only made me unhappy and hurt her, but my children were picking up on it and not treating her with the respect that an Aunt should receive.  It reminded me of a quote given to me in a homemade book of quotes at my baby shower for Emy.

"Of all the haunting moments of motherhood few rank with hearing your own words come out of your daughter's mouth." Victoria Secunda.

So I thought to myself , self: I really need to treat her with more kindness and respect.

I got out my bible and I searched out two words: Hospitality and Compassion. I used the topic search in the back of my bible and there were a few verses that jumped out at me. I'd like to share these with you. . . so here they are. . .

The first verse wasn't actually one of the verses listed in the topic search but as I was reading a bit more of the chapter for context I came across this and stopped cold.

Romans 12:8b He that giveth let him do it with simplicity.

For the most part of her visit I had been giving and then nit-picking how she used what I had given. Give and then wonder why she was taking. Basically I had this irrational fear that she was going to take advantage of our kindness and no matter how many times she said thank you or how much she appreciated our help I kept my guard up and stayed on defense.

The next verse that struck me was:

1 Peter 4:9 Use hospitality one to another without grudging. (emphasis added)

Oh the grudging! It hurts. It really does.

Then it was on to Compassion.

Hebrews 13:3 Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also one body.

Romans 12:15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

There were many more verses but the point that came across to me in the simplest form is feel others pain. Here my own family member was struggling, looking for a job, and I was being a sarcastic, begrudging, belittling twit.

So my next step was to apologize. Which I did profusely and my kind-hearted Sister-In-Law forgave me. So now all is well and we enjoyed the remainder of her stay. Somehow just reading how the Lord wanted me to react and treat her was all that I needed. So instead of "How dare she drink the last of the juice" it was "Here let me top you off, I'll just have some water."

Well that's all for now, I need to get this soap box back to the rental company before they close.

~And So That's What She Did.