God's Goodness and other ramblings....

God is so good. In all of His power and sovereignty, we can be sure of that... He is good. He takes life, He gives life, He heals, He even allows bad things to happen... but He is good.
R and I are testaments to His goodness toward His children. Do bad things happen? Of course. But God has been so faithful to us. He answers our prayers, even in the smallest of things. I never want to take those for granted. He provides. He is my Provider. He is my portion forever. I cannot go into specifics on how He has in the past and in the present but He has. He will not fail me and I can trust in that.

And oh how it hurts that I am not always faithful to Him. I do not deserve His goodness.

I am so thankful for His goodness and faithfulness to me.

Psalm 104:1 ~ "Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, You are very great:
You are clothed with honor and majesty"

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Now, for some Luke and Eli news....

Here lately Luke has taken some big steps where eating is concerned. I think I've mentioned that he now eats PB sandwiches. Peanut butter may not seem like a big deal but it is to me because he doesn't eat much meat. Last night I decided to try raw carrot sticks. I cut up baby carrots into thing 'matchsticks' (which was kind of a pain) but he ate them! I gave them to him plain but when he saw me dipping mine into my dressing he had to have some too! He had some for lunch today too. Tonight for dinner we had the honeyed pork chops, which were ok (more about that on Monday), potatoes and broccoli (instead of green beans). I kind of changed up my veggies for tonight. Instead of having mashed potatoes, I just cut up potatoes & onions and tossed them in a little olive oil and salt & pepper and cooked them, covered, in the microwave. My mom does them this way sometimes and they are really good. I also steamed some broccoli, ok.. I put one of those steam fresh bags of broccoli in microwave.. same difference though, right? Anyways, I added a little butter and some lemon pepper seasoning to them. Well guess who ate all of their broccoli AND potatoes?? Luke! I can't tell you when the last time he ate broccoli was. He actually had two helpings! And he normally will not eat any kind of potato unless it's in the form of a french fry or tater tot! He wasn't all about the pork chop though. So, in just two days he has tried and eaten three things that he normally doesn't eat! (and they were all 3 healthy!)

In other Luke news, he can now identify 2 shapes: stars and circles. He will sometimes get triangle right. Actually today at lunch he was 'drawing' circles in his ranch dressing while saying 'circle'. What a smart boy! He can do almost all of his puzzles by himself and he can do his shape sorter perfectly. He is also pointing out red and orange things, but he doesn't always get them right when you ask him. It's almost like if he notices that it is orange, he will tell you.. but if you ask him, it throws him off. I try not to push this kind of stuff on him because I believe that kids learn best when playing and just during daily life.

In not so exciting news, I think he is regressing in his sleep. For the past two weeks he has cried a lot after he is put to bed. I think there have only been maybe three nights in the past two weeks where he has gone to sleep without a whimper. I confess, I have rocked him to sleep several times. I know some people don't necessarily agree with the 'cry it out' method but it really did work with Luke when he was younger. I firmly believe that a child (my child) needs to learn to sleep on their own. But when he started crying this time he had a cold so I just started rocking. Well, now that he feels better, he knows exactly what he's doing. So tonight, I rocked him for a while but I finally just had to lay down the law. Luckily, he cried for only about 5 minutes. Now he's sound asleep.

My other little guy, Eli, has been making himself known as well. His little movements are getting stronger. He also doesn't like for me to eat big meals. I guess that's good for me. It's very different than Luke though. I ate tons with Luke, but I just can't this time. I've got to start working on getting things ready for him. I don't want to wait until the last minute! I will be 21 weeks tomorrow and even though that's only a tad bit over half way, I know it will be here before I know it! I can't wait to meet this little guy!