Strawberry Pickin' at Fulton Farms

We had a great day! This Ohio summer weather is absolutely gorgeous and we went to Fulton Farms with a few friends this morning. We have never done this before since our move here almost 3 years ago. WC is at the age where she would actually enjoy something like this!

We loaded up a few buckets of berries and now I have lots of things to make :)  I'm going to make jam, strawberry shortcake, strawberry ice cream, and a few other delights along the way! The berries are so sweet and now I'm not so sure I could ever buy store bought again....

 WC kept yelling, "Straw-da-berries mom!!!!" She tasted one, but quickly spit it out. She said she was going to eat it but I knew better..........

 There were so many strawberries to be picked! I don't see how people do that for a living. My back was killing me after only 30 minutes.

Natalie at 8 Months

Sighhhhh....my 2nd offspring is now closer to one than newborn. She is growing so fast and I really have been trying to just soak her up before she looses the "baby" part of her.

She's our "smiley girl" and "boo head" (a random nickname...) and she really does light up a room with her smiles. Natalie thinks that everything WC does is HILARIOUS (which I don't find so funny sometimes) but I love the bond that they already share. They're favorite time with each other is in the car. WC will just act a fool and Natalie always lets out her belly laughs...so of course I can never get a video, because I'm driving!

At 8 months, Natalie is completely on table food and breastmilk. It's been about 2 months of her being on table food after only doing baby food for a few weeks (following her sister's footsteps here) and I can never give her her food fast enough. She wants everything on your plate and she wants it now!!

She is low-crawling and will regular crawl for about 3 feet. But she's really slow at that so she just flops down on her belly to go really fast :)

I think she will be giving up her 3rd nap soon.....but she's a really good napper now, so I am very thankful for that! I haven't even begun night training yet for sleep. I have a tender heart when it comes to crying it out at night. She is waking every 4 hours and every now and then I'll get a 6 hour stretch. I know she can do it...and she's ready, but I'm not I don't think...almost there though!

Natalie is really easy to be a mom to. You can give her a bucket of toys and she'll entertain herself for at least an hour...then she'll move to the entertainment center and pull out all of the DVD's. Rosie is her pal, and she loves to eat her food and her hair. Lovely.

Natalie has made such a happy addition to our little family :)  She is the spitting image of Chris, but definitely a momma's girl!!

Parenting by The Book

I've been very convicted lately by my newest read, Parenting by the Book, by Dr. John Rosemond. He is one of the "old school" docs along with Dr. Dobson and Dr. Lehman :) And much kudos to my awesome brother-in-law for surprising me with this book through the mail :) It was a nice package to open!

Before reading this, I had never thought about how parenting has drastically changed since the late 60's early 70's. I have wondered, "Why in the heck was it SO easy back then to parent? Why were children much better behaved?". It's because of  "psycho-babble" and "ADHD" and all that other nonsense. Post-modern Psychological Parenting (PMP) is the term he has coined for the way parents parent their children now a days. Long gone is the advice from "Grandma" and how quickly parents send their kids to therapists for "behavior" issues when the real issue is parents don't know how to parent. Not to say I do this perfectly. HA HA is what I have to say about that if you know my amazing but stubborn 2 year old.

I'm not going to keep babbling about the book...because I could bore you on things that may not be of interest. But I do have to mention 10 verses that Dr. Rosemond pointed out about "what the Bible says" about discipline. I am not afraid to spank. I'm not afraid to discipline. I'm doing it out of love and out of obedience to My Heavenly Father.

1. Discipline and love are two sides of the same coin.
         The Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in  (Proverbs 3:12)
2. Punishment is NEVER pleasant but produces great benefit for the person punished
         No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of    righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it  (Hebrews 12:11)
3. Punishment is essential to proper discipline
         Because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son (Hebrews 12:6)
4. Proper discipline validates a child
        If you are not disciplined....then you are illegitimate children and not true sons (Hebrews 12:8)
5. Obedient children are pleasing to their parents
       Discipline your son, and he will give you peace; he will bring delight to your soul (Proverbs 29:17)
6. Children are to obey their parents
       Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord (Colossians 3:20)
These six stood out to me. And I copied everything he said...so yes I'm plagiarizing but I'm admitting they are not my own thoughts!

God has really been working in my heart about turning to the Word for EVERYTHING. It's a good practice to start and I've seen a dramatic change that He's made within me.

I highly recommend this book. It is biblically sound...a little old school, but hey.....I would rather be "old school" than considered part of the generation now that I am in. Parents have it all wrong....I wish I could just tell everyone about this!