A Weekend of Thanksgiving

It seems like every year Thanksgiving weekend is an extremely busy time for us, but this year it was busy for a different reason for me – I have a job!  Reason enough to give thanks if you ask me.  While, of course I could use a little extra spare time right now, pretty much every morning I get up to go to this thing they call a job, I thank God that I have it to go to.  In light of that, since I had to work during the days surrounding Thanksgiving this year, we spent most of it in Gainesville.

On Thanksgiving day we celebrated with some family and friends at my Mom’s house.  It also happened to by my sister-in-law, Star’s,  birthday, so of course the day involved a little cake and ice cream in addition to the regular feast.  We had a not so thanks-inspiring turn of events, though, after our feast when my Mom’s well went out and left us without water.  The timing was ironic in that my brother had just started burning her large burn pile (made of yard clippings).  He pulled the hose out to keep it all under control and asked mom to turn it on only to get nothing.  All the boys, including the little guys, jumped right on fixing it, but it turned out to be a big problem that required a repairman (and lots of money) the next day.  Have you ever used a hose stretched from the neighbor’s house to clean up after a Thanksgiving meal?

Hmmm…what’s wrong with this thing?

All the boys on the job.  Brian Borges and his oldest two boys joined us for dinner while Julie slept at home to recover from a long night at work.  We put Brian to work while he was there.

Josiah is thankful for acorns.  He is an avid collector and they provide him with hours of entertainment.  You can see the remnants of our fire in the background.

Star’s birthday cake.  As you can see, she is only 12.

Jacob spent the next two days at the hunting camp in Appalachicola while I got to go to work.  As I said, I am thoroughly thankful for this opportunity, but I was also thoroughly worn out by then end of working. taking care of Josiah, being pregnant, and the holiday.  Needless to say, I was thankful to see Jacob’s face Saturday night.

Sunday we headed to the Tampa area for my annual family reunion and “turkey bucks auction”.  This is always a fun time with great food and catching up.  The Turkey Bucks Auction is where we all bring our unwanted stuff and bid on it with fake money.  This year I scored several baby items that were on my want list for Elijah.  Nothing like barely used free stuff!  Though not part of the auction, I also came away with the canvas of Josiah that my Uncle was printing up for me to hang in Josiah’s new cowboy themed room.  It turned out fantastic and I LOVE it!  I couldn’t be happier with it.  Now I’m inspired to get to painting and decorating his new room.

All the kids.  Josiah was the ONLY one who wouldn’t stand for the picture.  An older cousin had to hold him and this was taken moments before he started crying in protest.  From here they all dispersed and got really dirty as you’ll see below.

Uncle Teddy as our auctioneer.

Two dirty, but happy little girls.  Savannah and Audrey always have fun when they get together, can you tell?

And some more dirty but happy cousins.  These two both had to be bathed before going home.  The tub had a layer of dirt in the bottom of it by the time Josiah got out.

This is what a tired out little boy who didn’t have a nap looks like within the first few minutes of the ride home.  He’s such a sweetie and has permanently stolen my heart.

What’s Really In A Name Anyway?

Be forewarned…this got a bit more in depth and into personal thoughts than I intended.

We have finally come up with a name for this next sweet little boy we are having, but before I tell you what it is, let me just say that it hasn’t been as easy as naming Josiah.   We knew from very early on what Josiah’s name should be.  We both liked it and it felt right.  This little guy’s name didn’t come to us quite so easily.  He is so active that we initially looked for a name that meant happy or excitable, but “Festus” just wasn't working for us!

This time we didn’t like the names each other picked out.  Then, by the time we came around to liking the name the other picked, the original name-picker no longer liked it!  Two names, one  for each the first and middle names kept coming back up, so from that we have chosen Elijah Corban.  We liked them mostly for their meanings, which I will tell you about shortly, but also because they are not too common (though Elijah is rising on the popularity list).

What’s really in a name anyway?  I don’t know, but I like a name to do more than sound nice.  I want my child’s name to mean something and hopefully to inspire them sometime down the road.  While I don’t really believe that a person grows up to be whatever their name implies, I do know that it can be a source of pride and an example to some.

So, here’s why we chose Elijah Corban:

Aside from liking the sound of Elijah, which means “my God is Lord”, obviously he was also a great prophet of the Old Testament.  He is the one who, among other things, prophesied many things, challenged Baal, and saw God - finding him in a “gentle whisper” following a strong wind, an earthquake, and a fire.  Additionally, even while he was unsure of his future, God provided for his every need during a time of famine and while he fled for his life to escape persecution.  Even with all this, he was still human and had the natural tendency to fear for his life even to the point as to tell God he had had enough.  His great faith and steadfastness in a time when people doubted God, persecuted believers, and challenged his faith and prophecy is something I can aspire to, but most likely never match.  He didn’t keep God to himself, but taught boldly about him and shared his word.  In fact, he taught the prophet that was to follow him, Elisha.  I hope that my son is bold enough to live the life God has made for him.  What an awesome blessing (and challenge) that would be to him.  Besides, how cool is it that he is one of the very few that God took up into heaven without him having to die first?  (Thus there was never a need for him to have feared for his life!)

And as for Corban…yes, I know it is a bit different.  We went back and forth on this one for many reasons.  It means “a gift dedicated to God” or in other translations “to the Temple” (as a means of dedication to God).  One reason I struggled with choosing the name was because I wanted to make sure I meant it in every way, shape and form.  I wanted to be able to fully “give” this little boy to the Lord.  That sounds easy on the surface, but it can mean a lot of different things…some easy to accept as a mother and some difficult.  And again, while I don’t believe your name is your “destiny”, as a parent I didn’t want to use such a name generically.  I want to give my little boy over to the calling God has for him so that he can be fulfilled and God can be glorified.  The other point of struggle that both Jacob and I had is if it makes sense to be able to give a gift to God that He already gave to us.  But I believe that is what parenting is all about.  He only really sends theses gifts of children to us to raise up to follow him anyway.  And the other point of struggle…Corban does sound a bit strange, doesn’t it?  But I think it sounds cool at the same time and it is certainly unique.

On a side note…Unfortunately, if you look “Corban” up in the Bible (you will find it in Mark 7:11), it is used in a somewhat negative context there, but that is because once again the people were manipulating God’s word to their benefit and Mark called them out on it.  Don’t misunderstand the meaning of Corban from that passage if you do look it up.

So, that is the name we have chosen.  Honestly, we are trying it on for size hoping we get a sense of settled peace with it or that God shows us otherwise.  I’m so excited to call him by name since I love the opportunity to form that bond and know him as personally as I can without actually laying eyes on him and interacting with him.  I’m tired of saying “the baby” or “this next one” or whatever.  Now it is just “Elijah”.

Family Pictures

Our church took pictures for the directory last month and of course we were gullible and bought some.  We were a little disappointed in the coloring as they seemed washed out when printed (these are scanned and touched up as good as I can get them), but the poses turned out nice and Josiah was in the perfect mood for it.  I have to say they did a good job removing the FIVE mosquito bites Josiah got on his face the day before.  People kept thinking he had Chicken Pox.  Isn’t that my luck?   The photographer attempted to take pictures of Josiah by himself, but they were mostly a blur as he hardly sits still these days. Here the ones we bought where he was contained:

And that’s my sweet family!  I can’t wait for it to be one larger!  (He is oh-so-close to having a name)

Halloween Fun

We got to have a little fun this weekend because Jacob’s parents came for a short visit.  Josiah always loves playing with him and he soaks up being the center of attention.  On Saturday after they left, we headed to Micanopy with Grandma for their Fall Festival which turned out to be much bigger than we expected and we ran out of time to experience it in full, but we had a good time anyway.  Afterwards we enjoyed a very yummy dinner at Ruby Tuesday.  Unfortunately I have no pictures of those events.

For Halloween we went to our church’s Fall Family Festival with my mom and niece.  Josiah LOVES to play with Savannah, so we had our very own party in the car on the way – lots of laughs!  Both of them refused to don their cute costumes, a Lady Bug and a Puppy, but we went anyway.  Josiah, a boy who has barely ever even eaten candy, caught on quick to what this whole trick-or-treating was about.  He latched onto the first lollipop he got and stuck it in his mouth, wrapper and all.  I tried to show him to put it in his candy pail, but eventually just unwrapped it and let him have at it.  Nothing else in this world mattered anymore but that lollipop and I had to do his candy collecting for him.  When he finished the lollipop, he got back into the trick-or-treating and grabbed the candy by the handfuls to put in his pail.  He was a trick-or-treat natural!   He was a disgusting sticky mess by the end of it, and so was I.  He had drooled all down his arms and even on my toes. 

Next was popcorn and cotton candy.  He scarfed down the popcorn, but just acted like the cotton candy tickled him every time it got close.  Then we did another round of trick-or-treating (for Daddy’s sake since he missed the first round) while we waited for Savannah to jump in the bouncy houses.  I was able to shoot a couple quick pictures then. Josiah usually loves breakfast time and begs to eat while trying to climb into his highchair.  This morning however, he pitched a fit when we tried to feed him his oatmeal with fruit.  It took us the longest time to figure out the problem…he saw his candy pail on the counter next to where Jacob was making his oatmeal, yet it wasn’t candy that we were giving him!  Poor guy.  He ate hungrily, though, once he realized he wouldn’t be getting his way.