And it's Friday...

It's been a week. 

Life has decided to throw us some financial curve balls.  Life?  God, in His sovereignty is more accurate, I'd say.

But anyway, it's just been a car's in the shop, expenses adding up, stuck in the house, raining outside kind of week.  And, in the midst of that, my discipleship group is reading Trusting God by Jerry Bridges (love it and him!!), and it turns out, surprise, surprise, that God uses these situations to help us practically learn His word and, you know, sanctify us.

I am memorizing Philippians 4:4-14 for discipleship group (we each pick a verse/verses to go with our accountability question, and my question has to do with anxiety--shocker, right?)  So, intellectually, I have been saying out loud and in my head over and over, "Rejoice in the Lord, always, again I will say rejoice..." but this week, God said, "Rejoice in me always--like when your car is in the shop for the second week and you are climbing the walls and the rain keeps pouring and you want to scream--again I will say, Rejoice."  I didn't always have the best attitude this week, I confess.  In fact, at times, my heart was looking rather ugly.  But at the end of the day, I really, really mean it when I say, I want His will.  Whatever that is.  That's what I want.  No matter how uncomfortable; I want His will.  Because isn't that really the safest place to be?  Smack dab in the middle of God's will.  I think so.

So that was our week, and I haven't blogged because the blogging wouldn't have been pretty.  And now I have two parenting questions.  Advice, anyone?  Please?

First, dear, sweet, stubborn, baby John has decided that he will only eat toast, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and yogurt, which I mentioned a couple of posts ago.  I mean, he is also willing to eat cookies and goldfish and things of that sort, but of the things that I am willing to give him, He will eat toast, PB and J and yogurt.  I have tried avocado, strawberries, cantaloupe, grape tomatoes, bananas (which two weeks ago, he loved), lima beans (which he finally ate some of the other night), pinto beans, black beans, green beans, carrots (has willingly eaten these before, as well), eggs, and the list could go on and on.  He refuses.  I get frustrated, I am trying to force the food into his mouth because I know if he tries it, he will most likely continue to eat it, but I can't get him to try it.  He holds his lips closed as tightly as possible, turns his face away, and hits the high chair.  I have also tried just putting things on his high chair so that he can feed himself.  He just throws the food onto the floor if he doesn't want to eat it.  It is making dinner time quite stressful for me.  And as I have mentioned before, control is one of my idols.  And in motherhood, this often looks like me trying to make sure I am doing things right, and checking off all the boxes.  So I am feeling fairly stressed over the fact that John is getting no fruits or vegetables in his diet.  None.  I feel okay about the yogurt and the sandwiches because I give him Yo-Baby organic yogurt with plenty of probiotics, and I only give him 100% whole grain bread with no high fructose corn syrup and natural peanut butter.  In other words, I am trying to "follow all of those rules," but no fruits or vegetables.  What do I do?  And his being in the 9th percentile, makes me even more want to make sure he is eating plenty of the right foods and gaining weight the way that he is supposed to.  So...I just wonder if there is a way to make this less of a battle.  Will he outgrow this or will I be doing mealtime battles for the rest of his childhood? 

This is getting so long, that I think I will stop the post here without going into the Ada bedtime issue.  I'll save that for another day. 

But I really would love some advice or even a reality check when it comes to John's eating habits. 

p.s. I should add that John does eat other foods, like graham crackers and goldfish and cheerios, mainly to maintain my sanity and keep him from screaming.  He also eats the free cookie at Publix, so I willingly confess that my kids eat lots and lots of junk, but I try to make sure that the majority of what they eat is healthy, energy providing stuff.  And I should add, that I have even tried going back to baby food since he was willing to eat fruits and vegetables in that form, but of course he doesn't want baby food now.  So, that's where we are, and I am sort of throwing my hands up in frustration.  I am considering buying pediasure or something of that nature just to make sure he is getting the proper nutrients, even if they are artificial.