Jason's Recovery

Hi everyone! Just wanted to let you know that Jason is doing very well two days after surgery. He is moving around without crutches and bearing weight on his knee. Each day has been a little better after a scary Friday when he felt terrible and was nauseous almost all day long and had a low heart rate. He will be heading into work tomorrow, but no running for a least a few weeks. The doctor suggested an exercise bike as a good option. Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers.

Thought for today....

Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. James 5:13-16 NIV

Please think of Jason today as he has arthroscopic knee surgery to fix a torn meniscus.

Go Green!

Last week at school I was talking to my students about the term "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". We read a great non-fiction book by one of my favorite authors, Gail Gibbons. The kids were all excited about composting and recycling. They love facts, so when I told them that it will take 3, 000 years for plastic to biodegrade they were shocked, or that Styrofoam will never, ever biodegrade it really got them thinking.

Then this weekend I got my latest addition of Country Living magazine and inside there was an article on an Eco-Challenge. It is a challenge to reduce our households environmental impact in just one month- without giving up modern conveniences. The challenge is to make one of the 30 small and easy changes listed in the article each day in April for major results. The complete article is on the Country Living website.

Some of the items on their list of suggestions Jason and I have already started implementing in our household. For example some simple things are driving with cruise control on the highway which allows you to drive 10 percent farther on a single tank of gas. We have switched over to using compact fluorescent light bulbs. Yes they cost more than your average light bulb but, if every American household replaced one standard bulb with a CFL we could save enough energy to power three million homes a year. We have also gone completely paper-less with all of our bills. We also use our dishwasher's air-dry cycle which can cut our per-wash energy use by up to 50 percent. Speaking of washing, we only use cold water for our laundry. Finally, we have our own supply of reusable bags for our grocery store or Target trips. We keep ours in the back of our vehicles so they are always there and ready for use.

There are many other suggestions on the Country Living website- you should definitely check it out.

A Tale of Potty Training

Well it's been a while since I blogged about our potty training experiences here at the Bakke house, so here is an update. Both Kate and Annika are potty trained! Annika started going on the potty around the start of this past December and has been doing really well. Of course there are times when she gets so busy playing that she forgets and has a little accident, but then she will run and finish up in the bathroom. Kate started doing the pee pee on the potty dance, as we call it, around the end of January. We really didn't have any magic tricks to get the girls to go, they really were excited about the whole experience because their best friend Natalie was already potty trained this fall at daycare.

Kate did struggle. Kate was "stressing" about going and so she would hold it for long periods of time and then not want to let it out. We tried blowing bubbles on the potty, reading books, singing, playing Barbies on the potty but nothing would relax her. There were many tears. Finally our school nurse suggested just bribing her with something. We usually don't tempt the girls with anything- we simply expect them to make good choices and if they don't there is a consequence. But, we caved! That night we set our little potty seat right downstairs in the family room and turned on Kate's favorite show...Diego! We sat there and sat there and sat there for what seemed to be forever. She was starting to get worn out, so Jason just held her in a big bear hug as she sat there waiting to pee. Well....it paid off. She went and was SO excited. We did our pee pee on the potty dance and ever since she has been going like a big girl.

Kate being second to be potty trained was expected. It's pretty typical for major events in their lives...Kate was first to be born, but second to do everything else: sitting up, rolling over, crawling, walking, etc.... It seems fitting that she followed closely behind Annika in her next milestone. And for those who are wondering, both girls are trained for pee pee and poopy on the potty. Yippee! The girls are wearing big girl panties during the day but still wear a pull-up at night, for sanity reasons. Annika will wake up soaking wet, while Kate is dry every morning and goes potty right away each and every morning. We are very proud of our big girls, who by the way will turn three years old in less than a month. Oh my goodness!!! I can hardly believe it.

Kate

Annika

Whew! What a week!

I am so glad that this week is over! I had two more nights of parent teacher conferences this week and I am just worn out! I am very happy that this weekend we have absolutely nothing planned. I need a little recuperation time before next week. We have two more weeks until our school's spring break week and it can't come soon enough. This school year has been especially tough. It's my tenth year of teaching and I have never had a crew of students that has tested my patience so much. Usually first graders get into the routine of school and our classroom expectations by about October and then we are good to go. But this year I feel like I have said the same thing for 125 days. And it's starting to wear me down. I know that God gave me this group of students for a reason- to be a light for them, but I am feeling a bit weary.

While I was in high school I got a card from a friend and it said, "If I could wish for my life to be perfect, it would be tempting but I would decline, for life would no longer teach me anything." - Allyson Jones. I use that card to bookmark one of my favorite verses. "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139: 23-24. I am trying to keep these two verses in mind as I work my way through the rest of this school year.

Some unfortunate news about Jason. He will be having knee surgery next week on Friday. He has a torn meniscus. He's not even sure when or where he hurt himself. But he has been unable to run for several weeks, which is driving him crazy. He finally went in and got an MRI last week. It is supposed to be a out-patient surgery here in Burnsville and hopefully will not take very long. But next weekend he will be taking it easy.

This weekend we are going to enjoy some of the simple pleasures of spring in Minnesota... puddles and mud. Fun!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy Birthday Jason!

On Saturday the girls and I surprised Jason with an early birthday present- a weekend getaway! Earlier in the week Jason had received a phone call from his mom telling him about an 80th birthday party for Jason's Great Aunt Lois in New Ulm, MN. Jason got off the phone and tried to convince me that we should go...maybe get a hotel with a pool...it would fun to visit with family. Well... I tried to persuade Jason it wasn't really a good idea, but then the following morning I called his brother Chad and did a little scheming. We booked hotel rooms at the Holiday Inn in New Ulm and got Jason's mom and grandma in on the surprise. The whole week Jason brought up the topic and even Chad told him that it wasn't going to work out. So Friday night, while Jason was reffing in Rochester, I packed everything up in the truck so we were ready to head out right away. I told the girls on Friday night that we were going to a hotel for a birthday party- they were jumping around all night- they were so excited!

Saturday morning after we had all woken up, the girls told Jason where we were heading.....a hotel! To go swimming! A birthday party! He was a bit surprised! The smile on his face was worth all of the work to coordinate everything. Well...we had a great weekend! We even got to spend the weekend with Jason's Uncle Dale and Aunt Dollie from Milwaukee. We swam, ate, played with birthday balloons, ate some more and had a great time. We never do things like this- we usually celebrate birthdays at home and save money by making dinner on our own. It was so much fun!

Yesterday we headed back towards Lakeville, taking a break in New Prague at Uncle Chad and Aunt Jenny's house. The weather was beautiful so we stayed and played outside for a bit. We grilled steaks and ate some more birthday cake. I don't even think that I have to make an actual birthday cake for Jason's birthday tomorrow- Jason's mom and grandma baked up a storm. We have a mock angel food cake, shamrock sugar cookies, an angel food cake, snickerdoodles and apricot kuchens. Yum!

The girls were exhausted when we finally arrived home and went to bed at 7:30 p.m. and slept until 7:00 this morning. Jason appreciated the weekend so much! His ideal birthday is nothing fancy, nothing extravagant, just time with family. He was so thankful he even had tears in his eyes. What a blessing for our family that we have a husband, father, son and brother that cares and loves his family so dearly. Happy 36th Birthday Jason! We love you!!

Thought for this morning.....

Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"
John 11:40

Thought for the day....

LOVE generously. PRAISE loudly. LIVE fully. - Porter

Playdate!

Last weekend Kate and Annika has their friends Natalie and Leah over to play while their parents went out for a dinner date. The girls were so excited for Natalie to play with their toys and have baby Leah here. We went down into the crawl space and dug out some baby toys. Annika thought it was so much fun to lay on our Baby Einstein playmat, just like baby Leah. While the girls were here they read a ton of books with Jason and took Natalie on her very first bear hunt. It was a lot of fun and we are looking forward to another playdate soon.

Annika's Run-in with the Piano

Saturday night as Jason and I were cooking supper we heard a crash in the living room. I knew the sound right away....it was the piano bench hitting the piano. Then we heard screaming. We ran in to find Annika crying and holding her head. Immediately she had a huge goose egg on her forehead. It was enormous! I couldn't believe how fast the bump swelled up. Thankfully she missed her eye and we could sit calmly and ice it for a while. Two days later it is now a pretty nice looking bruise. She thought it was funny this morning when she could see purple on her face. So funny in fact that she colored marker all over her hands and arms to match. Thank goodness for washable markers. Now tonight it is already turning yellow and green.