Romans 8:26

²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

Amen and amen.

Just peeking in

Oh my. It has been a while hasn't it? Well you see I had a baby and all. However thanks to some dear friends Terri and Mickie who both recently joined the blogging community, I have been inspired to put blogging back in my life a bit again.

There have been times where I wonder what the point of blogging is, do people really need to know all this about me and do I really want people to know this much about me? What is the reason I have this online journal of sorts?

Mike and I had a really good talk about our life yesterday. We realized that I always say I want to have more structure in our life and he always wants to have more vision for our life. Then we realized that we basically mean the same thing. We both want to have a bit of a plan about how and why we do things.

He encouraged me that I am coming out of a really hard season: a taxing pregnancy (that was completely worth every second!) that also included some of the worst arthritis flair ups I've had, a long recovery from delivering Maggie, and the fact that we have two girls under two. But because we have been in some sort of survival mode since September, I am itching to put organization and structure in my life, our lives.

I am tempted to plan every detail of our life out on paper. Make charts of what needs to be done around our house, a checklist for what fun things to do this summer, and little lesson plans for Dorothy as she learns her colors, shapes, and numbers. That however is setting me up for failure. Sure I can make some lists, but every time I try to map our whole life on paper I just fail. So for the Cospers, we decided that casting simple visions of what our life could look like is the best way for us. Maybe not for everyone, but for us.

My vision casting is this...How can I live my life and glorify Christ in what I do. That means if I am a stay at home, which is my favorite job to date, then how can I do that and show Christ's love to my girls and those around me while we live our life? And as I blog about it how can I show Christ to those who read here?

So welcome again readers near and far. Faithful readers like Janie, Johanna, Alison, Emilee, Rose, and of course Ceece... oh and all you lurkers I may not know about. Leave me a note here or elsewhere and let me know if you are still reading. May I show you why Jesus Chirst is the most important thing in my life, whether I blog about changing diapers, sewing projects, or canning jam, I pray that I would not forget Romans 8: 1-4

¹Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ²because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. ³For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, ⁴in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

Just the other day I was telling a friend about my "planner". It is a big ole system I use to try to stay organized. I'll explain it someday. In the meantime, I was telling her that the teacher in me wants to plan teaching Dorothy. Writing down for the month ahead things I want to work on. I can easily set myself up for failure so I am simply just making a list of 5 or 6 things to think about each month or every couple of weeks. I know many people are strongly for or against homeschooling. That is not what I am even what I getting to (my sister in law does it and does it beautifully, by the way). I am talking about how we are our kids first teachers. They learn so much from us whether we mean for them to or not. One of my favorite professors in el. ed. always talked about, "We are always teaching". I just want to be more intentionally about it.

For example. A car in front of us almost caused a wreck and I yelled a "word" and my 11 month old yelled it back. Repeated it. I was teaching her at the moment whether I meant to or not. And when Mike and I raise our voices or yell (yes we do!). She follows suit and raises her voice and yells. We can become so numb to the tone of our communication, but having Dorothy has reminded me of the harsh tones and sarcasm I use ALL the time.

Because of this I have been meditating on James 1:19

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.

It has been very humbling and taught us to be mindful of what our words and actions are communicating to her.

So here are some of the goals I am thinking about as she turns one:

• Talking calmly and using only words that I don't mind my own kid saying
• Labeling items, "This is your sock, it goes on your foot"
  
• Model counting in every day activities
• Continue working on walking and other gross motor skills using this book
• Model prayer time
• Talk to her about Jesus and tell her simple bible stories about him

And our look back on D's first year for today!

This is on her quilt from her Great Aunt Jean (whose name is Dorothy Jeanette!) I love the skirt and those socks. Oh my sweet girl... I remember this day so vividly. This was the night we got to see Miss Ruby Laffin for the first time. Ruby was so small and Dorothy was SO big for her age. Now they are pretty close in size. We love you Laffins and Faiths!