Little Princess: Nose Extraction #2

There have been a lot of sneezes and sniffles around the Magruder home this past week.  Our Little Princess has been feeling pretty good, but none the less requires a Kleenex before bed each evening.  Little Princess is definitely a product of her mother and finds her 8:30 bedtime to be too early.  We often hear her talking, singing, and occasionally the pitter-patter of those little mischievous feet.  Saturday night was no different - that is until the Little Princess began a whimper that I feared signaled something more than sleeplessness.  As I climbed the stairs and entered her room she informed me that she had toilet paper in her nose.  I tried to coax her back to bed, yet she continued to tell me about her nose.  Recalling the previous lip-gloss bead in the nose incident, I turned on the light and looked into her nose.  I noticed a small white ball inside her nose.  I went for the small flashlight I keep downstairs and also found the baby "booger" suckers.  I tried for several minutes trying to suck out the paper or to get Little Princess to blow the toilet paper out of her nose - neither seems to help any at all.  I went downstairs and woke up Daddy for assistance.  Daddy tried my tactics in addition to the Neti-pot technique trying to flush it out.  I "googled" the event searching for parents with similar problems to no avail.  I could not decide if this was an emergency room trip or if this was one of those wait and see moments.    Daddy wanted to try one last method of extraction.  Little Princess laid abnormally still for her busy body as Daddy took out a very small set of tweezers from a Swiss Army knife and I held her head and the flashlight.  After a few minutes of careful extraction, Little Princess was freed from her pea-sized wad of toilet paper and sent back to bed.  Given the increasing difficulty of these nose extractions, we wait and hope that there will not be a blog titled: Nose Extraction #3.

Book Review: The Blessing

I recently had the opportunity to read and review the revised and updated edition of The Blessing by John Trent and Gary Smalley.  The Blessing is a parenting book unlike any other parenting book I have bought or read before.  I didn't find any chapter titles to turn to that address my whining child, my disobedient toddler or my over-achieving firstborn child.  Instead I found myself evaluating my words and actions toward my children.  The lessons I found within the pages of this book are far more practical and valuable than anything I have read previously.  The lessons within this book are lessons for a lifetime. The steps within this book can help me to create a lasting legacy for my children and the generations to follow.


John Trent and Gary Smalley describe their perceptions of the importance of the blessing based on biblical examples of the blessing.  They describe in detail the five elements of the blessing which include: meaningful touch, a spoken message, attaching high value, picturing a special future and an active commitment.  They provide help and healing for those who may have missed the blessing and offer a challenge to their readers to begin living the blessing challenge and pouring into our children's hearts our blessing over them.  The book offers additional resources and online tools to assist readers in living the blessing challenge.


I am excited to recommend this book to friends.  The information contained in this book is hopeful, helpful and encouraging along the often daunting task of parenthood.  

I received this book for free from Booksneeze.com for the purpose of this review.

Sometimes grown-ups get it wrong...

It never ceases to amaze me that God can use the smallest, mundane conversations to tune our hearts and ears to Him.  This conversation brought my mind back to a point from our recent Sunday School lesson.


Rockstar:  "Can I go get some crackers?"
Me: "No, I'm almost finished fixing lunch."
Rockstar:  "You mean dinner."
Me: "Yes."
Rockstar: "Sometimes you grown-ups get it wrong."


Yes, Rockstar sometimes we get it wrong.


People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."  Mark 10:13-14

Praying for Prince Charming

Last week I made out my new prayer "rolodex" using my 4x6 inch index cards and a small 4x6 inch photo album.  This idea came from a book I am currently reading, "The Mentoring Mom" by Jackie Kendall.  I'm so excited about having my prayer requests at my fingertips to flip through and keep in prayerful thoughts throughout my day.  As I made each of my girls a card of their own, I wrote the things most Christian mothers want for their children: a relationship with God, good friends, good health and so on...then I found myself writing down prayer for their future husbands.  WHOA!  One of them isn't out of diapers yet!

Recently Crazy Horse and Rockstar have been pretending to be adult moms with wonderful husbands who work multiple jobs to buy them fancy clothes and pay for their life in a hotel with maid-service and constant dinners out.  In addition, these wonderful husbands have time to care for their 18 children (YIKES) while they operate an animal clinic and do a handful of other things as well.  These wonderful husbands buy them jewelry and clothes and spend quality time with them.  Talk about some high expectations!  The other night, Preacherman and I were downstairs.  Crazy Horse arrived in a new outfit that "Justin" had bought for her and wanted our opinion.  We looked at her and I asked, "How often do you see your dad buy clothes for me?"  Crazy Horse quickly replied, "Dad doesn't even buy his own clothes!"  The only way to respond to that statement of truth was to break out in hysterical laughter.

The truth is, if my girls find a husband as great as their dad, they will be blessed.  I recently read an article about the lack of boys who grow into men in today's society and I realized that unless we as parents set out to change that trend, the number of good men available to marry my girls (and your girls) will be few.  This past week I have sensed a great need to be in prayer for something that is more than a decade away.  So as I pray for my girls to grow in their knowledge, love and service to God and to live lives of purity, I pray that they will be blessed to find the prince charming of their dreams.