I'm going to work!

Kyan sat down on his truck with my boots on and a bucket and said 'I am going to work!"

Don't worry we did go and change his diaper after the video! : )

Sticker face!

We were playing with stickers today, and I have, in the past, put a sticker on forhead to be funny.  Kyan really liked it!  So, this is what happened:

Love Budget

Back when Fawnda and I were planning on bringing Kyan home, I spent a considerable amount of time planning and budgeting to ensure that we would keep afloat financially with Fawnda staying home, and with us dropping down to one income. Over the past year, I feel that we have reaped some of the rewards of all of that careful planning, but after a few recent setbacks, I had to pull out my old spreadsheets and rework the numbers in an attempt to squeeze out a few more dollars each month.

It was during the course of all of this planning that I happened to read the parable of the rich fool again. This parable is only found in the 12th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, and it covers a mere 9 verses. I have probably read through this parable dozens of times during my lifetime, but this time this story took on a much deeper meaning for me. For those of you who might not be familiar with this parable, here is Jesus' telling of the story:

"The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."'. But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."

With all of my recent planning, I have to admit that I was a little envious of this rich man, who was at a point where he could kick back and take life easy. However, when I read that God called him a fool, I sat up straight, and scolded myself for feeling that way. I still wouldn't mind being rich though, so the phrase, "rich toward God" really caught my attention.

I had to ask myself, "what does it mean to be 'rich toward God'?" I can imagine earthly riches, but this seems to hint at something much different. A few of the clues to the meaning of this phrase can be found before and after this parable. Luke 12:15 says, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." This verse implies that these riches are separate from our possessions. Luke 12: 33 speaks of "treasure in heaven", which makes me think that these riches cannot be seen, and verse 34 states, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." The word "heart" is often connected with the term of "love". This connection really helped me pull it all together. I remembered that Mark 12:30-31 contains the greatest commandments, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these." The plain and simple truth is that God values love so much more than anything else. Just as a modern day currency could have its value based on gold or silver, heaven's currency is based on love.

When I think of love, I often defer to the definition of love as holding some one's best interests in the highest regard - often ahead of one's own. Lately, I have spent a lot of time focusing on how I earn money and spend money, but I don't remember a time in my life that I have ever been this focused on how I'm earning or spending my heavenly currency (love). I am forced to ask myself, "if I were to put together a financial plan for my heavenly currency, what would that look like?" That's when I came up with the concept of the "Love Budget" - hence the title. There's an old adage that states, "we manage what we measure". If we're looking to manage our heavenly riches, I'm thinking that we must make it measurable.

There are a lot of great books out there on the topic of love, and I felt that this was a fitting blog entry with Valentine's Day being just a few days away. I read through Gary Chapman's book, The 5 Love Languages a while back, and that is a great resource on understanding how we give (spend) and receive (earn) love. I'm thinking about putting together a plan including tangible things I can do to better manage my heavenly currency. King Solomon is considered to be the wisest man that ever lived, and he is the author of this proverb found in Proverbs 14:22, "Do not those who plot evil go astray? But those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness." If what I'm thinking is true, then love is the most valuable thing I can possess, and a plan (budget, if you will) to improve love in one's life is not only good, but it would result in finding love and faithfulness!

What do you think about this "Love Budget" idea? What are some ways that you could be even more "rich toward God" and increase your heavenly currency? I don't know about you, but I would hate to live my life pursuing the ambitions of this world, only to come to the end and be bankrupt toward God.

Kyan's Birthday Party

We had Kyan's 2nd birthday party on Sunday... His real birthday is Feb 10th and we are going to go to Underwater World with him on that day!



Here are some pictures from the party! It was Construction themed!

Here is the cake:

I had blocks for the kids to build with:

I had bag lunches for the crew!

a plywood board on saw-horses for our table:

Kyan loving his lunch!

We dress like construction workers!

Opening presents

Singing "Happy Birthday"

Kyan does not want to eat cake...

He would rather feed it to Pepaw and...

Then, play with his trucks!

We also decorated hard hats for the kids... but I forgot to take a picture of that!

We had a GREAT time!

Felt Play House!

I made Kyan a felt play house for his Birthday this year!  I am very excited with how it turned out and it makes me so happy that Kyan LOVES to play in/with it! 

Let me give you a tour!

Welcome to the front door.

Complete with a mail box...

...that opens and already has mail in it!

Let's stroll around to the side, with a tree and apples ready to be picked!

On to the back, where the tree and apples continue and you meet a friend Mr. Blue Bird.

Feel free to pick a basket of apples!

Come on around the the other side and stop to smell the roses!

It is NOT too girly, since one of the roses is blue!

Go ahead and pick a flower, and put it back for hours of fun... or use the flowers as drum sticks like my son likes to do!

Here is a close up of my MITERED edged Window... something a Carpenter would truly appreciate! I am very happy with how the windows turned out... I wish the ones on my house looked this good!

Another look at the apple tree.

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to visit soon!

Here are some action shots:

I really wish I could show you better pictures with Ky but he would sit still long enough to get any!  In 5 days Kyan turns 2! 

I know I need to post SOMETHING!

Yes, it has been a couple of week since I have updated our family blog...I have two excuses reasons!

#1 Not much has happened to post out to the world. After Christmas we crashed and have been pretty lazy!

#2 Kyan is almost 2 and that means he will not let me take a picture or video of him. I cannot not make him stand still for a picture and when I try to do a video he want to watch it while I am taping...

So,here is where we are at:

Ky is doing great! He is talking a TON! He loves to mimic us. He also has been interested in more "big boy" activities such as: Coloring, playing with play-dough, doing puzzles, building with blocks (And knocking them down!). He new favorite thing to watch on TV or the computer is Football Highlights... I am totally serious! It cracks me up!

Fawnda is doing good too. Back to work on Tuesdays, tutoring at the Home School Co-op. And volunteering on Wednesday nights in the youth group.

Jason is busy at work at usual.

See not much to report but at least it is something!

Merry Christmas from the Normans!

Merry Christmas! 

Isaiah 9:6

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

We had a GREAT Christmas morning here in the Norman house and we hope that you did too! Here are some pictures! The top pic is of our fam wearing our MATCHING PJ'S! It was a tradition that Jason started last year and I hope to continue for many years! I made the flannel pants this year so that we could all match on a budget!

Here are my boys, adorable in their matching PJ'S... don't cha just LOVE IT?!?

Ky opening presents with Mommy.

Opening some tools with Daddy.  I made Kyan a tool belt to go with his tools. 

Ky insisted on puttin on his hat (not a christmas gift) as well!  It is also a cute shot of the tool belt I made him.

Snowed in!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

We got over 8 inches of snow so far and it is still coming down! I LOVE a good snow fall but when it lands on Christmas Eve when we are supposed to be traveling to see family it is a bit of a bummer! We are sad that we cannot spend today with our family in Pine River but we will be up this weekend!

Here are some pictures of us playing in the snow!

Ky was not too sure of the snow at first and took a bit of time to warm up to it. He did not like the sled (again!) but I would put him on my lap and ride down the hill with him... each time when we got to the bottom he would say "All done!" But then, he would want to climb back up the hill. We are working on it!

On Dec 18th we went to the Holidazzle Parade in downtown Minneapolis. It is a parade of lighted floats that represent fun children's stories and Christmas themes. Only in Minnesota would we think it it is cool to have a parade in the middle of winter! Jason and I have gone with my mom and dad for several years now.  One year, Jason and I were even in it as Romeo and Juliet (how romantic!) It was fun to bring Ky this year. He loved it! Here is a collage of pictures from the parade… Just click on the picture to make it bigger!

Our Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Norman Family!

(This photo was taken last year on Christmas Morning.)

We had a WONDERFUL 2009. What fun it is to have a toddler in our house (I am not joking!) We are so thankful to have spent the whole 2009 with Kyan!

On February 10th Kyan had his 1st birthday!
We dress in tradition Hanboks to celebrate!

Ky had the "it's my party and I will cry if I want to" attitude when it came to eating his cake!

Kyan starting crawling in March and walking in June. This made our life more exciting for sure! Here is a cute video of some of Ky's first times walking:


In July we had our court hearing to OFFICIALLY name us as Kyan parents. It was a joy filled day that both Jason's mom and my mom were able to attend!

In August Jason and I celebrated our 11 year wedding anniversary... are we old enough to be married 11 years?!? No- we are not!

In September, I did not go back to school. It was the 1st time in over 26 years that I did not go to the first day of school. I am happy to be staying home with my son! I do have a part time job working for a home school co-op tutoring students in Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Advanced Math. It is a great 1 day a week job!

In October Kyan had his first Halloween in the USA! He dressed as a giraffe and roared the whole night.


On November 5th we celebrated Kyan's Gottcha day, the day that Kyan arrived home with us. I made him a crown and we went out to eat Korean food as a family.


Now, we are to the holiday season! We are looking forward to the fun we will have with Kyan this year!

We wish you a very blessed Christmas season!

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