Tithe vs. Offering

For the longest time I was confused when someone talked about your "tithes and offerings" because I always thought those were the same thing. The more I've thought about it, I've realized that tithes aren't an option. Tithe is the 10% you give back to God because He told you to. It's His money anyway. We've gotten into the habit of  giving our tithe every month and it's become so routine that it's no longer a sacrifice. I think that's where offerings come into play. An offering is what ELSE you give to God because YOU feel like it's what He wants you to give. Annie Armstrong, missions, Lottie Moon, etc. are offerings. I have to admit that we fail at this Christian discipline. I've really been convicted about this the past few weeks. The musicians played "The Wonderful Cross" today and as I was singing the words in my head the line "Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small..." really stuck out to me. The whole realm of nature would be too small an offering for Him and yet I'm not willing to give a few hundred extra dollars? What kind of Christian does that make me? In my head I think - if I give this $100 or so to Annie Armstrong, we won't be able to put it in savings or go on a trip or something else like that. It's the sacrifice that makes it worth doing. That's just something I've been thinking about lately so I thought I'd share.

Random Thoughts

• I really want to be more intentional about our family traditions so I'm starting one this year. We already have Kaleb's basket planned, but Eric and I need to do baskets as well. I'm thinking we can do each other's baskets with maybe a $30 limit each. It might be fun, right?
• I haven't even started studying for my comps yet. I don't feel too worried about it and I'm just going to cram closer to time. Honestly, I don't have time to study now anyway.
• Someone's coming to look at our house Wednesday so we're in super clean up mode today and tomorrow.
• I'm ridiculously excited about going to Nashville over Spring Break to see Haley and Josh...and to have a little alone time with Eric.
• I'm equally excited about going to California at the end of May for Brad's wedding. It's going to be  a short trip because of Eric starting school, but it'll still be fun.
• Kaleb named his truck Cardboard. What?!
• Exciting things are on the horizon!! :)

Easter Basket Preview

This year Kaleb's Easter basket is going to be really fun. He's at an age now where he can play with toys and try new things without me freaking out that he's going to hurt himself. So here's what we're planning for his basket this year:

 Play-Doh because he's never had any before. I've been too scared he'd eat it.

 A monster truck...obviously. We've actually already bought this from Cracker Barrel. It's not this exact one, but it's something similar, only yellow.

 A bat and ball. He played Wii baseball a little bit and thought it was super fun and now he's using a drumstick and bouncy ball to play. I think it's about time to get some a "real" bat and ball.

 Skittles are his new favorite treat (wonder where he gets that from). He gets them when he goes to the potty. He just saw the picture on the blog and asked for some. I don't really want to chock his basket full of candy, but he needs a little something.

We also already got him this. It's a big boy cars cup.

Depending on how full his Easter basket is after all of this, we may add some other things like bubbles, some clothes, and books. And who knows? He may get really interested in something between now and then. I can't wait to put his basket together and show it to him. Since I got rid of my fancy Internet phone and my camera doesn't quite work right now, pictures are on hold til I can work something out. :( sorry

At A Loss

Well, it's happened. My sweet, perfect little boy has become a biting, kicking, screaming, crying, stomping, hitting toddler. It started a little earlier when he would hit us or someone at daycare occasionally. We would reprimand him and tell him it was bad and that he should be a sweet boy. It has now become a more and more frequent occurrance. Today he got in trouble for it so much that I had to go get him from daycare. I don't want him to be the kid no one wants to play with, but I can't figure out what's going on. Right now we have two theories. 1- We spank him when he's acting out so maybe he thinks that hitting is acceptable when someone does something you don't like. When we ask him why he hits or bites he always says because s/he (insert something he didn't want to be happening). I guess in his mind if Mommy and Daddy can hit so can he. 2- He wants attention. Eric's gone alot for band stuff and I have homework and schoolwork so maybe he feels like he's not getting enough one-on-one time. In either case, what we're doing isn't working so we're going to have to change something. Instead of spanking or pinching we're going to try a different form of punishment. Anytime he hits, kicks, bites, etc., he's going to go straight to time out. If he gets a bad report from daycare or continues to do a behavior after being in time out, he's going to lose priviledges. He lost his trucks and Cars movies today. I don't know if he's old enough for this type of "grounding," but we're going to try it. When he's being good we're going to give him a lot of good attention. Eric and I are going to try to be more deliberate about the time we spend with him. We'll try this out and reasses at a later date.