Posted in Parenting

Tonight the Holy Spirit gently nudged my heart and reminded me that if I want my children to know Jesus, I must be Jesus to them.

As bedtime approached, my husband and I had 2 out of 3 children crying in their beds. We were very frustrated because it seems that sometimes they cry and carry on for no reason...or reasons that we don't deem important. Let me tell you, so many, many times I mess this up. But tonight, praise God, I heard the gentle nudge of the Holy Spirit as He whispered to me to love on my children. As I lay on the bed with my nearly 3 year old son, singing song after song...the Lord reminded me that Jesus doesn't think like we do.

Jesus doesn't respond with...stop crying and go to sleep! I'm sorry you are hurting, but go to sleep and stop crying! I'm going to go do my own thing and you go to sleep! Stop crying, you are really frustrating me! Not now. I'll do it later. I can't listen to you now, I'm busy. Wait a minute, I can't tend to you now. Stop bugging me. I'm losing my patience, stop crying!

Can you just see our beloved Jesus opening His arms to the children...saying, let them come unto me! All those who are broken hearted...come to me. All those who are lonely...come to me! All those who are weary...come to me! All those who are hurting...come to me! All those who are thirsty...come to me!

I thank God that I have a Savior who is always waiting with His arms open wide to comfort me, listen to me and sing softly over me as I cry. I am so grateful that He isn't telling me to stop crying because He is losing His patience with me. Thank You, Jesus.

Posted in Parenting

Remember when I asked you to remind me of THIS BLISSFUL MORNING the next time I had a bad day? Well, that day has arrived! Let's recap our morning, just so you don't think that ALL our mornings are bliss around here.

*Kids slept in...blissful beginnings!

*But the bliss ended quickly, I decided to make pancakes on this blissful morning...bad idea! My regular "pancake pan" was dirty, so I tried a different pan I hadn't made pancakes on before. I'm blaming a pan, folks! Not one of the batches of pancakes I made turned out! The first batch was crumbly, the second batch burned, the 3rd panful was a mixture of both...and then I gave up! I threw them all in the trash.

*Meanwhile, the kids were waiting, pretty patiently I might add, and they LOVE pancakes! All 3 of them do, which is pretty rare. So, when they saw me dumping pancakes in the trash, they commenced to whining, crying and bickering.

*So, I said, bagels it is! I fixed them a fast bagel and then made a strawberry smoothie for all of us to drink. Of course, now that their patience is long gone, they aren't really thrilled with anything I have to offer!

*I decided to make the smoothies after the kids already had orange juice on the table...so speaking of orange juice, while the girls were waiting patiently for their pancakes, they had brought a few dolls to the table (which usually I don't allow on the table!) Welllllll...I should have not allowed the toys this time as well, reaching for a doll, Hannah knocked over her OJ cup and now we have burnt pancakes, whining and crying and OJ all over the table, floor and chair! Calgon...take me away!

*So, I clean up the OJ, and we all sit down to eat our bagels and drink our smoothies. (no more OJ for anyone! Now sit down!)

*I decided I would try and make the best of our rotten morning, so now that we're finally sitting down to eat (like an hour later) I pull out my Bible and we start saying some of our scriptures we are working on. Oh, did I mention that our scripture passage for this month is 1 John 4:7-11 ---- LOVE ONE ANOTHER. Let's just say, none of us were feeling too loving at this point!

*We get through our scriptures and I pull out a few dinosaur books to read...while still at the table. Usually we're at the couch, but I thought we'd change things up a big and hope for the best today. Caleb wasn't interested in listening - which is fine, sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. But, he decided that if he didn't want to listen to the books, then no one else should either! He's a smart little cookie and knows just how to push my buttons. He started asking questions about the dinosaurs and would comment and talk very loudly everytime I turned the page --- Mommy, I see a dinosaur! Mommy, there is a green dinosaur! Mommy, that one is orange! Mommy, it is BIG! Mommy, mommy...MOMMY!!

*I admit, I wasn't so loving either, I slammed the books on the table and got up and put on a movie for the kids. I GIVE UP!

UPDATE: I had a shower, sent the kids out to play and am feeling about 10% better. Still not to the blissful feeling...but you can't have it all, right?

Posted in Parenting

There is a thread over on the FIAR boards that I frequent discussing first time obedience. It has been very interesting and eye opening to me. Especially these 2 comments from moms on the board.

How many of us can claim that we give first time obedience to our Father?

"The goal of parenting is not to have the best behaved child at any given moment on any given day, the goal of parenting is to one day have an adult child who loves the Lord, and is a responsible contributor to society." John MacArthur (this isn't an exact quote, but just what she remembers from it.)

Wow. This is freeing to me...why do I worry so about my children's behavior? Yes, I want to be a responsible parent, teach them about the Lord, show them my love for the Lord, instruct them...but, oh the times I have felt guilt for "bad parenting" because my children don't always obey the first time. I admit, I do struggle with guilt. But, these comments above are very encouraging to me. Not to DIScourage first time obedience, but to learn to extend the grace that my heavenly Father so freely bestows upon me.

What do you think?

Posted in Parenting

bliss  [blis]

–noun

1. supreme happiness, utter joy or contentment

2. theology. the joy of heaven.

3. heaven; paradise.

4. archaic. a cause of great joy or happiness.

Why can't all mornings be this glorious? (Well, I suppose I know the answer to that...if they were all good days I wouldn't appreciate them nearly like I do!)

First of all, all 3 of my darling children slept in. (Was I calling them darling yesterday? I can't remember.)  They all slept til around 8am...and then those same darling children came and climbed in bed with me...snuggling right up next to me without fighting! Caleb smushed his little cheeks right up against mine, oh how I love that boy. We must have stayed like that for about 30 minutes. Bliss...

Then, we got up and had an easy breakfast - yogurt and banana - and no one complained about the food! Bliss...

After breakfast I thought I would sit down and check my email just for a quick minute before starting our school morning. Well, low and behold, the kids were playing SO nicely together that I didn't want to interrupt them for school! All 3 of them were playing house in the girls rooms. Bliss...

I got a bunch of potatoes peeled for our supper of potato soup this evening and got the crockpot going. (potato soup, bliss...) I also got the ingredients into the breadmaker for some bread to be baking. And I even decided (in my bliss) to make a batch of brownies for our lunch time dessert. Bliss...

So, then I decided to interrupt all the bliss and get school started. We are in the middle of our autumn unit and I just could not skip all the wonderful fall activities. (another unit, maybe, but not my blissful fall fun school ideas!)

We read The Pumpkin Patch Parable - love that story! And a science book on a pumpkin growing from seed to pumpkin. And finally we read the Little Scarecrow Boy by Margaret Wise Brown. 3 wonderful fall selections! Then we read a pumpkin poem and a fall poem.

And bliss of all bliss (for the kids anyway!) we painted today! YAY! Even Caleb painted and even painted what was asked of the girls! A fall tree with fall colored leaves from our thumbprints! These turned out too cute! (pictures to come later...) I also gave them another sheet of paper and told them to fill it with fall colors. Bliss...

Now it's about time for lunch, what a wonderful morning. Why can't they all be this way? Oh yes, I've already reminded myself of that. Thank You, Lord, for the good days - be they few and far between at times. Help me to remember this morning the next time I want to run screaming out of my house and never come back again.

Posted in Parenting

I just read this over at Girltalk...they said it's been around for awhile, but I have never read this specific version. I am laughing outloud over here at my house, so I thought I'd share!

Preparation for parenthood...

It's not just a matter of reading books and decorating the nursery. Here are 12 simple tests for expectant parents to take to prepare themselves for the real-life experience of being a mother or father.

1. Women: To prepare for maternity, put on a dressing gown and stick a pillowcase filled with beans down the front. Leave it there for 9 months. After 9 months, take out 10% of the beans.
Men: To prepare for paternity, go to the local drug store, tip the contents of your wallet on the counter, and tell the pharmacist to help himself. Then go to the supermarket. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office. Go home. Pick up the paper. Read it for the last time.

2. Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who are already parents and berate them about their methods of discipline, lack of patience, appallingly low tolerance levels, and how they have allowed their children to run wild. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's sleeping habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior. Enjoy it -- it'll be the last time in your life that you will have all the answers.

3. To discover how the nights will feel, walk around the living room from 5 pm to 10 pm carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious noise) playing loudly. At 10 pm, put the bag down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1 am. Put the alarm on for 3 am. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2 am and make a drink. Go to bed at 2:45 am. Get up again at 3 am when the alarm goes off. Sing songs in the dark until 4 am. Put the alarm on for 5 am. Get up. Make breakfast. Keep this up for 5 years. Look cheerful.

4. Can you stand the mess children make? To find out, first smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer. Stick your fingers in the flower beds, then rub them on the clean walls. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

5. Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems: first buy an octopus and a bag made out of loose mesh. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out. Time allowed for this: all morning.

6. Take an egg carton, using a pair of scissors and a pot of paint, turn it into an alligator. Now take the tube from a roll of toilet paper. Using only Scotch tape and a piece of foil, turn it into an attractive Christmas candle. Last, take a milk carton, a ping pong ball, and an empty packet of Cocoa Pops and make an exact replica of the Eiffel Tower. Congratulations! You have just qualified for a place on the play group committee.

7. Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there. Get a dime. Stick it in the cd player. Take a family-size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seats. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car. There. Perfect.

8. Get ready to go out. Wait outside the bathroom for half an hour. Go out the front door. Come in again. Go out. Come back in. Go out again. Walk down the front path. Walk back up it. Walk down it again. Walk very slowly down the road for 5 minutes. Stop to inspect minutely every piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue, and dead insect along the way. Retrace your steps. Scream that you've had as much as you can stand until the neighbors come out and stare at you. Give up and go back into the house. You are now just about ready to try taking a small child for a walk.

9. Always repeat everything you say at least five times.

10. Go to your local supermarket. Take with you the nearest thing you can find to a preschool child -- a fully-grown goat is excellent. If you intend to have more than one child, take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goats eat or destroy. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

11. Hollow out a melon. Make a small hole in the side. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone. Tip the rest into your lap, making sure a lot of it falls on the floor. You are now ready to feed a 12-month-old baby.

12. Learn the names of every character from Thomas the Train, Dora the Explorer, and the Wiggles.

When you find yourself singing "I’m the Map, I’m the Map, I’m the Map" at work, you finally qualify as a parent.

Posted in Parenting

"Mommy, can I stay up for 5 more minutes?"

Not so she could play, not just to drag out bedtime...

But so she could READ! I love it! You all know how much I love reading, so to see Hannah beginning to enjoy it so much just makes my heart so happy! Nana let her borrow a Clifford book and she wanted to stay up longer to read more of it! How could I say no to that?

Posted in Parenting

This is just a quick run down of our morning thus far.

*We're trying to potty train Caleb without much success. The first week he did GREAT and went in the potty everytime without even being reminded. He was naked that week...now we've tried putting underwear on him and he wants nothing to do with any of that. Since putting him in underwear he has NOT ONCE gone successfully on the potty! And now, he doesn't even want to wear underwear. I'm on the verge of giving up...but I keep thinking back to last week when he did GREAT on the potty?!?

*Caleb peed once in his room, thankfully we have  hardwood floors, but still. Yuck.

*Caleb put a baby doll in the kiddy pool outside to give her a bath.  She isn't a doll that is supposed to get wet.

*Caleb stuffed his muffin completely down in his juice up and sat at the table yelling "STUCK" repeatedly.

*Caleb smashed goldfish into crumbs allllll over the kitchen area. I guess it's just fun to smash fish.

Posted in Parenting

To make a mommy go CRAZY!??!?!

Yep, it's been one of THOSE days.

The years are short, but the days are long.

Posted in Parenting

Tonight we have had an exciting night! Caleb went potty 2 times! Hip-Hip-Hooray!

I have actually been putting off potty training him for about a month now...knowing he was ready, but not wanting to put the work in myself. (bad mommy!)

But tonight after his bath he was running around naked and started talking about going potty...so he sat on it and went just a little bit! Then later he did it again! I'm so excited!

Guess we'll be potty training this week!

Posted in Parenting

Yet another wonderful article you should go read! It is about parenting, making choices and priorities,  simplifying our lives and glorifying God.

Children are Assets, Not Obstacles