To make Potty Training FUN get your child's favorite stuffed animal in on the action!  Use a stuffed animal to help to make sure that the child learns all of the potty training steps in proper order Potty training is a game.  




Here's what you will need:
  
          Child sized potty chair
·         A stuffed animal that is big enough to wear panties/ underwear
·         A pocket full of raisins
·         Toilet Paper
·         Water
·         Extra Undies
·         1 diaper
·         Little treats

This week (2009) we were potty training Susie, she just turned two, here's the story:

Parents always have goals for their children.  But when Josh and I began to write out the goals for our little ones, we found that we were not writing out goals for our children at all.  We were writing out our personal goals as the parents!    We want them to have good health, to grow up to have happy marriages, strong families of their own, we want them to have good work ethics.  

So how we accomplished our goals in the lives of our children?   By being an example?  By teaching them?  By giving them the tools?  By providing books?  By listening to them?  Spending time together?  Yes, all this and so much more. 

  When Isaac was five years old we wrote out our goals as parents.  Now we have nine children our goals haven't really changes much, so here's the list...

Our family of eleven now lives in a little village on a hill in Northern Italy.  It's a beautiful and harmonious life, and there is never an average day. On most days my 12 year old daughter, Estera,  wakes up first, she’s “the early bird”.  She loves to cook so she always prepares breakfast and brings me a cup of tea to start the day.  She likes to do her online schoolwork before the other kids wake up.  At 8:20am she lets everyone know that breakfast will be served in ten minutes.

After we all have breakfast together we gather in the living room.  My husband brings his guitar and Bible.  We sing some songs and then we read the Bible together.  The four oldest children each read a few verses.  Next we all talk about our favorite parts of the Bible story and we pray asking God to bless our day and our loved ones. If it isn’t raining my husband takes the little children to the park, on Tuesdays and Thursdays we often go to music lessons and the public library.  Sometimes we clean the house and then we take a train to the mountains or a historic town. Yet on most days we just...

My husband and I kissed our big kids good bye hopped onto a plane to spend eight days camping in the US Virgin Islands.  I was about 5 months pregnant with baby number six, and ready for a relaxing time in the Islands with my Love.

My husband was dreaming of going to the beautiful beaches of the Island of St. John.  But we couldn’t afford the hotels and all the campgrounds were booked.  Then I found out about a camp in the Rainforest on St. Croix… It sounded like heaven to me…and it was, even with the night crowing roosters.

We spent the first four days exploring the Island, learning to drive on the wrong side of the road, dodging free range farm animals, and trying out the local food.  I would not eat the bull hoof stew, but Josh did.  We quickly learned that we were on an island ruled by wild chickens.  I quickly discovered that in Saint Croix people don’t build fences to keep their animals in… they only build fences if they want to keep their neighbor’s free range animals out. 

 By the time I was 20 years old I had seen 48 states, and more than a dozen countries.  I was learning to follow God and be brave.  I was beginning to set out on my own, and go out into the world to do a little mission work. On my way to Russia I learned a great lesson about the life of faith: “When my plans fall apart, and life seems all mixed up, it's time to get ready for an adventure.  God is on the move.”

I’ve heard that things always get mixed up when you make plans to go on a mission trip to Russia.  It was June 1st.  I held an airline ticket in one hand, and my travel visa in the other. My ticket to Russia said "June 4th", my Visa said I could not enter Russia until July 1st.   Opps!  I had a flight to catch in three days, but I wouldn’t be allowed into Russia without that visa.  Things were all mixed up.

We heard the sound of the approaching train as we waited at the small Italian station  Just as the train slowed to a stop an announcement was made over the speaker. We didn't understand the language, but we should have gotten a clue when half the waiting crowd relocated to another platform.  We got on the train anyway.

Well, the train ended up traveling in the opposite direction of our destination.  We had that familiar feeling that we were in for an adventure. Over the hills and rivers, past towns, through tunnels and out of Tuscany. The train whizzed through several stations rarely stopping, barely slowing down.  We soon realized we were on the fast train to Rome.

November 10, 2009 ~ This morning I woke up to the sweetest words “My wife, my lover, my friend.”  He whispered to me,  I snuggled up closer to him and he kissed my forehead.  
“Friend”  I smile sleepily, he called me his friend.  He loves being with me, sharing a life, a home, a family, a mission, and about a thousand dreams. 

I closed my eyes once more as he stoked my cheek, and I wondered to myself  “How is it that I am so loved?  How is it that I am so happy?  How is it that my heart is so full of delight as I wake up every morning?  How is it that my heart is so full of peace as I fall asleep beside my husband in this room with yellow walls, in this house with seven children, in this marriage of ten years, in this Victorian home on  Main Street?”

 Here’s a poem I wrote in my Journal back in 2001, when I was 24, a busy young mom with three little children.  It’s all about the dreams in my heart, and my hopes for the future…  

Tomorrow I want to paint my walls with hills and trees, butterflies and clouds, and sing the songs from “The Sound of Music”. Tomorrow I want to ignore the laundry and play outside with my toddlers. I want to be close to creation. I want to feel the wind and the rain and watch the sky.