Pictures from Pizza Night!

These two little people made pizza yesterday! =D We had a blast. Ellie helped me dump in the ingredients for the dough, and then I divided the dough into 3 balls to make individual crusts for each of us. Ellie got to roll out her own.



Getting ready to roll!









Putting the pizza crust in the oven! Mmmm!



3 little pizzas, one for each of us! Ellie made hers a heart. =D She was very excited about her heart pizza.



Made with LOVE! Mwaaa!

Pizza Night

Ellie requested pizza for dinner tonight, so I guess that's what we're doing. Today is a stay at home day (which was planned anyway, but especially with all the snow and icy roads!) so we'll be making the pizza together. It should be fun! Maybe we'll make the crusts together during the day and bake them, then let everyone put their own toppings on for dinner. That sounds good!

Now I guess the question is... what do we have for toppings? I haven't done a survey of the pantry/fridge since I got home from TX, so...

Toppings:
* Spinach
* Feta
* Greek Olives
(Those sound like they'd  make a good pizza for Leif!)
* Frozen peppers
* Canadian Bacon
* Onions

I really wish we had some pineapple! But alas, the pantry has none. I guess it goes on the grocery list!

So maybe Ellie and I will have Canadian Bacon pizza and Leif can have a yummy Greek pizza. I'm not big on spinach on my pizza or I'd have it too. I will puree some spinach and "hide" it in the sauce, though! =D

A is for All (Isaiah 53:6)

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way. Isaiah 53:6

This is the verse we are working on. I finally ordered and started using the ABC scripture memory book and CD from Scripture Memory Fellowship. I really like it! And this is the first verse. We started it on Wednesday. As of yesterday, Thursday, Ellie could say the first half of the verse (All we like sheep have gone astray) when I started her with the word "All."

I am convinced that the Word of God is alive and active and powerful, and that it is worth storing up in my daughter's heart. I cannot change her heart. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. I cannot save her. Only God can do that. But I can plant seeds in her heart and teach her scripture, so the Holy Spirit has another tool to use in her life, planted deep in her heart where the change must be effected.

And as I teach her that ALL we like sheep have gone astray, I can in turn confess when I go astray, and pray in her presence, asking forgiveness from God for sinning against Him, and then asking forgiveness from her. Teaching her this verse has already opened up avenues of conversation that were not there before, and given me opportunities to pray with my daughter. I expect to see a change in her heart with time as the Word of God becomes active in her heart. But I am also seeing a change in me, and a change in our relationship dynamic, after just a couple days of study. The Word of God is alive and active indeed!

Panties!

I think we are officially in panties. We may have accidents here and there, and we'll still do pull ups at night, but we have had 2 pull up free days out and about without accidents! So... I think we're just going to take the plunge and start wearing panties fulltime during the day. Even for naps, since she hasn't been having naptime accidents for a long time now. I should add that she's been dry at home during the day for a couple months. But until yesterday, when we put her in panties, she thought they were diapers and treated them as such. Something clicked, though, and yesterday she wanted to wear panties and KNEW they were panties, so we didn't have any problems.

So... today we took a little trip into Target and bought some cute "little girl" panties. (I can't call them "big girl" panties because she insists that she's not a big girl, just a little girl.) We already had 2 pairs of training panties and 3 pairs of regular panties, but this will give us a few more, so we can make it from laundry day to laundry day without problems. =D And I was glad to find cute little girl panties that weren't Dora, Disney Princess, or Barbie themed! Just pink, purple, and teal with designs. Whew!

So that's today's potty training update. I'll let you know how it goes from here!

Confiscated!

I have confiscated Eliana's markers. I don't know when she's getting them back, but for right now they are on top of the refrigerator. She's been fairly good with them lately, but this morning she colored on the carpet. It came out, but she's lost the privilege of using markers. That's just the way of things.

Dear Jesus...

Tonight Ellie was having trouble obeying and staying in bed after she was supposed to be going to sleep. So, after she got in trouble for getting out of bed, I asked her if she wanted to pray and ask Jesus to help her obey next time she was tempted to get out of bed. She said she did. So we rehearsed the prayer she should pray the next time she felt like getting out of bed instead of going to sleep:

"Dear Jesus, please help me to stay in bed and obey Mommy. Amen."

When we had finished, Ellie said to me, "No, Mommy, we should pray...

'Dear Jesus, please help Mommy's cooking.'"

Now... how is a mother supposed to take that?! I made her cheesy eggs for lunch today and they were just fine... she ate all of them! Well, it looks like I know what I should be working on when we get home from Texas...

Testing... Testing...

... is this mic on?

I am testing out Blogger's new email post feature. If it works, hopefully that means you'll see a few more posts from me! We really have been quite busy lately, so my blogs have fallen by the wayside. I am pretty much always on email, though, so if I can post to my blogs from email... that would be great!

So here we are...

Testing... 1... 2... 3...

--
Elizabeth Wickland

The end.

Yesterday when Ellie and I prayed together over lunch, she finished her prayer by saying, "The End." instead of Amen like she/we normally do.

Right now, this is approximately the prayer we pray with Ellie:

"Dear Jesus, thank you for today, thank you for the food, please help me to obey Mommy and Daddy. Amen."

I don't know what sort of prayer you're supposed to start a child out on. It's not something I've ever really researched, so I just chose something simple enough that she could understand it. I wanted her to grasp the idea that all we have is from God, both tangible (the food) and intangible (the day) and that we give Him thanks for it. I also wanted her to begin understanding the idea that when we do what is right (obey), it is by the grace of God, that He helps us follow His commands. So that is basically where the prayer came from. But, like I said, I've never researched praying with small children.

I'd be curious to hear other thoughts on praying with small children. What do you do? Do you have memorized prayers, or do you say a free form prayer that reflects what when on during the day? Do you have your children repeat after you, or do you let them say their own prayers, and starting at what age?

Ellie's Room

I've added a few more little decorative things to Ellie's room in the past couple months, so I thought I'd share. Nothing too big or fancy, but a few wall hangings I've been meaning to make for a long time and some little "lanterns" (that don't actually have lamps in them) and butterflies. I think my favorite part about the new decorations is that she now points to the wall hanging and reads out the letters of her name and then proudly declares, "That spells Eliana!" So who knows... maybe she'll learn to spell her name all because I finally put something on her walls, ha ha!