Carsten the Big Boy

Well, we've done it! We moved Carsten to his big boy bed! He's sharing a room with Justin, so they're both having a great time. They're not getting very much sleep, but they are enjoying themselves. We made the transition a several weeks ago.

(As a sidenote, in case you're worried that Carsten looks like a girl, his hair has been cut since that picture...)

And, about 4 weeks ago, one of our cats had a kitten. Mittens is doing well despite her mother's inexperience and general meanness, and the kids are, of course, in love with her. Justin carries her around, and lets her hang on his shirt. She looks a lot like her dad, so we're hoping she hasn't inherited her mother's personality. She's very curious now, and ventures further around the house every day.

The Martha Syndrome

August has been quite a busy month for our family and, according to the calendar, it'll be getting quite a bit busier. All the school year's events have to be planned and coordinated. Meetings have to be held and activities and classes scheduled.

Along with this, of course, comes the inevitable recruitment. We all want other families involved in our activities, and, most of all, we want HELP! None of these things can happen without a lot of man(and woman)power to get them moving.

Now, we're all busy. Most families these days have a host of options when it comes to activities and other events. Very few of us find ourselves with a great deal of leisure time. This isn't really a bad thing. After all, we have to do something with the hours God grants us each day. We just need to be certain that our priorities reflect the plans that God has for us. It is our responsibility to make sure that what our families do glorifies Him.

At any rate, we often find ourselves inundated by requests for volunteers and participation. And for every request we receive, we're sending out requests on behalf of our own pet projects and groups. Each person feels that his or her request has great merit. "I am doing a great work," we think, "everyone should be involved." Then, as we realize that the volunteers aren't materializing as we had hoped, we often descend into self-pity. "Why does everyone expect ME to do all of this? Why aren't they doing their fair share?" Sometimes, we trudge resentfully on. Other times, we contrive ways to force unwilling people to serve. We have developed the Martha syndrome.

Martha was very industrious. She was busy working, cleaning, cooking- seeing to the needs of Jesus and His disciples. She was carrying on a very commendable work. Often, she is portrayed as a harried and unspiritual woman- an interpretation that had always made me feel a little unsettled. Several years ago, my grandmother, both a prayer warrior and a great Martha said to me that she believed that Martha's problem was not that she was working. After all, Jesus and His disciples were hungry, and meals (particularly 2000 years ago) do not make themselves. Her mistake was in looking around and being resentful of someone with a different calling. "Lord, tell her to help me," she said of her sister. And isn't this precisely what we do today?

What we don't see, because we are human, is the totality of what God is doing in another's life. While God has called us to one project, someone else might be busy working for Him in another area. Or perhaps God has called us to a season of quiet and rest. He gives to each one grace to do exactly what He has called him to do. As long as we carefully submit our time to Him, He will make sure that we have "all things that pertain unto life and godliness." (2 Peter 1:3) That certainly includes the strength, time and patience to accomplish His work.

So, as I send out my requests for help, and receive requests from others, I'm going to pray that the I will trust the Lord to give me, and my many friends involved in so many worthy causes, "all things." I, for my part, will extend grace to others and hope they do the same for me.

Summer Days

Well, it has been HOT here- over 100 most days, which means that it can start hitting 90 as early as 10:30 in the morning. Nevertheless, there's been a lot going on in the (air conditioned) Bain household. We're starting school again next week so that we can take time off after the baby's born, so this is a good time to give a summary of our summer activities.

We finally put in a playset! The kids have loved that, even though they've had to go out early to play now that it's so hot.


Carsten is surviving the heat just fine, and giving an entirely new meaning to "riding bareback."

He is also working on moisturizing his curls with- you guessed it- Vaseline. Despite repeated washings in Dawn and soaking in baby powder, that stuff sort of just has to wear off. His hair looked wet for days.

We made jam and Carsten and Nathan were on hand to help out with that.

Of course, VBS is a big part of summer each year, and this year's VBS week went really well. It was a blessing to both workers and kids. 200 kids came, 15 children accepted the Lord, and the kids raised $1695 to give to a new church in south San Antonio. (They raised this money all in coins! The girls and boys compete for the heaviest bucket.) I taught 3 year olds, and Justin was very happy to have Mommy as his teacher and Aunt Sara as his assistant teacher. My friend Kim helped out too, and we had a great time.


Justin had a little unsanctioned sleepover.

Carsten has made eliminating the flies that plague us his life's mission. Evan got a brand new fly swatter as part of his VBS crafts and he gave it to Carsten. It's his most prized possession right now. He runs around swatting (but never hitting) any flies that might sneak in the door.

No summer in a house with a 6 and 7 year old would be complete without a few missing teeth.

And, finally, when the heat keeps you this cooped up, you sometimes just have to climb the walls.

Baby Talk

Well, this week has been VERY busy- we had VBS! More on that to come...

But, I couldn't wait to blog a little about Carsten. He just turned 20 months today, and over the past few weeks, Bryan and I have been discussing his vocabulary, or, more precisely, his lack thereof. Now, experience has taught me that sometime between 18 months and 2 years, something clicks in their little minds, and they suddenly start talking. Still, Carsten has been relatively silent, and I was starting to get anxious to see some sort of progress.

Well, this week, the wheels started to turn. He's started repeating words and pointing things out. He's by no means reciting Shakespeare, but tonight, for example, when I asked him what he wanted he said, "Ba" and pointed to the ball. Major victory! He knows he can communicate! And he's very proud of himself. The other kids clap and cheer at his every effort- there's no lack of positive reinforcement here.

Anyway, we'll see how long it takes him to really make progress, but it's so cute to observe those first few attempts. In no time, we'll be wondering if he will ever STOP talking, and he'll be competing with his siblings for monologue time.

AWANA Derby Pictures

Here are the pictures of our kids at the Awana Derby, courtesy of our friend Tanya. (Yes, we managed to forget our camera...)

And the Winner Is...

May has been a very busy month for the Bain household, as the lack of new blog entries attests. All through the year, we carefully balanace the kids' activities, trying to make sure that nothing conflicts and nothing exhausts (at least not completely.) In May, however, all bets are off. Every activity needs to have an end-of-year awards ceremony or demonstration, and those things, of course, require rehearsals and extra practices.

The upside of all this craziness is that we get to see what the kids have been working on all year. And, most importantly of all, we take PICTURES!

First up was Megan's Keepers at Home club. This is a Christian scouting-type program. The girls earn badges for different skills: baking, sewing, pet care, and so on, plus stars for service hours. Megan is in the little girls' Pebbles group this year, and she earned 17 badges.

Next year, we're going to put together a boys' Contenders for the Faith group. Evan was especially excited about earning badges in "Pretenders."

Then, the kids had a gymnastics Fun Meet. Evan and Justin are with the preschoolers, and Nathan and Megan are beginners. The school age kids are not competing against the other kids, but they are scored based on their competency. All the kids had a good time (with one notable exception- see below).





And then, there was one more little one who thought the evening was entirely too much sitting and NOT getting to play on all of the wonderful equipment:

Finally, we had AWANA awards and the AWANA pine car derby. Nathan and Megan worked very hard on their Scripture memorization. They both finished their books, reviewed all the verses, and finished one extra workbook apiece. Even the little boys participated in the derby. Evan took 2nd place for speed, Megan took 1st place for design for her Calico Kitty car, and Nathan took 2nd place for design for his Lego Racer car. Daddy worked hard to make sure that all the cars were weighted just right.

Bad Dreams

Our boys are always chasing and being chased by "bad guys." And, of course, Megan plays right along with them. The only problem is that Megan's active imagination causes these same bad guys to chase her in her dreams.

These "bad guy dreams" were disturbing her sleep, so Bryan prayed for her during our family devotion time right before bed. The next evening, Megan was very excited that she had not had any bad dreams at all. Justin, listening to her little testimony, said, "I have bad guy dreams." So Bryan proceeded to pray for him too.

The next night, as Bryan was tucking Justin in bed, Justin said, "I still have bad guy dreams." Well, of course, Bryan immediately prayed for him again, and when he opened his eyes, Justin was looking at him with a very disappointed expression. "Daddy," he said seriously, "I LIKE bad guy dreams."

All depends on how you look at things, I guess.