No, Passy?

Cross your fingers and say a prayer, but we are on day two without a passy. Yesterday, we felt it was time to take drastic measures about the passy situation. Sure, it got to where Katie would only need her passy during nap time & bedtime. We felt it was time for her to go to the next level. Last week, I was telling Katie she was a big girl. She was too big for a passy and that we needed to give her passies to little babies. "No," she said. Yesterday, I asked her if she would like a sand box. "Uh, huh," she said. I told her she had to be a big girl and not need a passy and Daddy and I would make sure she got a sand box. It wasn't easy at all during nap time yesterday and last night, she cried for over an hour. I nearly gave in because I felt so bad for her, but Doug's encouragement kept me strong. I would go into her room and console her, give her hugs, juice & tuck her in again. This morning, right off the bat, "passy?" I reminded her, we need to give them to little babies and she is a big girl. I reminded her about the sand box and her eyes got big. She asked for her passy once during the day and I just got her involved in something to take her mind off of it. We went to town this morning to get her sand box, so the excitement got her mind off of it. She fell asleep in the truck, so we just let her sleep (under supervision of course). She was a little cranking when she got up. I think she was wanting her passy then, but she never asked for it. She did however want her juice. Tonight, we read our bedtime story "Sleeping Beauty." She said passy just once, cried a little and wanted a hug. Bless her heart, I felt bad. I told her how proud I was of her and how big she was. She laughed like she knew what I was talking about and asked for some juice. She drank her juice while I tucked her in for the night. Of course, we have to go through the tons of stuffed animals in her bed and who was going to watch over her and where they were going to sleep. It's a big thing! This all took place around 9:00 p.m. and it's almost 10:00 p.m. now and still no crying. THANK YOU DEAR SWEET JESUS! I hope it gets better from here.

As you now know, we got baby girl a sand box. It's a green turtle from Wal-Mart. While she was sleeping, we went ahead and put sand in it. Wal-Mart sells these bags of sand toys (sand pail, shovel, molds & shifter). We made sure to get one of those to go along with the sand box. Since it was windy and cold (50 degrees) outside, I let her play with her new toys inside the house. After this little snap passes, hopefully, she'll be able to play in her new sand box.

So I could keep a watch on Katie sleeping in the truck, I decided it would be a great opportunity to continue to work on my flower beds. I got two more cleaned and trimmed up. As I was pruning the monkey grass, I got to thinking about the book "The Secret of the Vine" by Bruce Wilkinson. It talks about how God may have to prune us sometimes severely pruned in order for us to grow more Christ like. I guess I haven't pruned back my monkey grass in at least two or three years. It had gotten so ugly with the brown spotted leaves. The years of debris caught between the leaves and eventually packed down inside the clumps of grass. The decayed rotten debris had collected insects & grime. Yuck! I was reminded at times when I'm not close to God (when God doesn't prune and shape me) that is how my life ends up. One big rotten mess. Right now, my pruned monkey grass isn't pretty, but I know the new leaves will come out soon and it will look beautiful. God has to prune and shape us in order for us to produce fruit and be pleasing to Him. Just like our plant life pleases us. I can't quote word for word because I have the book loaned out. If your interested in learning more about why God allows hurt and sometimes suffering in our lives, this is the book for you. It's a very small book and you must be ready to use your bible as reference and have an open mind, so God may speak to you through this book. I highly recommend it, if you haven't read it.

Take care of each other and God Bless You!