Days

We are settled into school pretty well right now. Settling into a busy daily routine. I wake them with kisses and try to gently get them downstairs for breakfast, getting dressed, brushing teeth and getting to the car. J has been trying to come to the kitchen during our routine and read a devotional to them while they are about their business. On the ride to school we talk about and practice their Bible verses. L has finally stopped praying for God to help me while I'm home alone, but they do commonly ask what I will do. I get L at noon but most days she really just wants to go out to lunch with a friend. Several days the disappointment as been long and tiring when we come home, but many days we have enjoyed a few hours here to play and read. She is requesting that J pick her up one day and take her to lunch all by herself and then I come to get her so J can return to work. The afternoons are filled with reading, math facts and spelling words; soccer and dance, choir and soon a piano lesson; we really try to eat at home when we can which some days is at 4:45 :) We have had the most fun taking time with each of them for their devotional instead of meeting all together. They are so calm and attentive when we lay down with each one. H has started being able to read the young Bible stories and he had the most amazing conversation with J the other night that J has got to write about. Life is busy but sweet.

Goal

Alright! Can I do it?? My goal~~ 365 posts for 2011. That doesn't rhyme. Can't think of anything that does. I think I will back track a bit though. And I want a picture for every post. So here is my excited face as taken by Ek while waiting for our ENT appointment last week. Or a really nice shot of my teeth. This could take us into 2 different directions of recalling the last month. But I'll stick with my purpose of this blog. To count every day as blessing. To recount with great Thanksgiving the work that the Lord has done. To remember all that the Lord has done. To give a gift to myself and my family, present and to come, of knowing what our daily life looks like. Oh I hope I can make 365!!!

What keeps me busy...

Several weeks ago I had one of the craziest weeks with my kids activities. They had me on the go!

Monday, L was off from school for her fall break. You know those preschoolers, they really work hard and need a break from school!! It did give her some time to work on her new photography hobby.

Tuesday, H and I were off to a field trip to an awesome farm. We rode the

school bus together, played, and ate our picnic lunches together. We had a blast.

Wednesday was L's fall fun day. Maybe thats why they needed Monday off, to rest up for the big party! She dressed in my cheerleading outfit and had the most fun. She played every game at least 5 times. Pumpkin bowling was at the top of her list.

Thursday, Ek and I went to the same farm H went to. At first I thought I was seeing the same permission slip over and over again, I finally had to put the 2 side by side to convince myself I was going to the same farm on an hour school bus ride twice in 3 days. And yet, it was soooo much fun. Ek loved it too.

Friday was H's Farmer Brown Day at school. One of the most fun activity days of the year. It is very simple and very fun.

Saturday I stayed in bed all day. No not really. It was a really great week.

Not quite what I expected

Yesterday Ek, H, L and I were out in the yard for an end of the year leaf project (that's another post completely). We walked the whole yard looking for our 5 types of leaves to collect, taking pictures, studying, exploring, trying to be good little scientist. We needed pine needles. Um, has anyone seen how tall pine trees are? Couldn't exactly grab a few. And I can't wait for a good wind to blow some down. Don't have a ladder tall enough. So I look into our lot next our driveway and see a small-ish pine tree. I give the kids a big spill-- "Ok kids, remember snakes are out, there are probably lots of snakes in there. I do not have boots on and neither do you, so you must, I repeat must, stay out of the woods, I will be very careful but I just want you to stay in the yard, Agreed?" They all nod with great reverence. "Good" I think and off I go, one step at a time being so careful to not step on a sleeping snake. Ek says, "Lets see what's growing in the garden!!" H and L follow with joyful, "yeah!!'s" Thirty seconds later, I'm not kidding, Ek says, "Mommy! There is a snake in the garden!"

Yep. There was, alright. Add it to the wildlife list (along with our various cats and turtles that I left off the last list.) I come out of the wilderness and back into our civilization to find a 3 foot long king snake slithering around the garden and my 3 children standing 10-15 yard away staring at it. Had it bed a 3 pound dog they would have run into the house screaming, but a snake, they stand and stare. hmmmm. Not sure about that one. So since he is a "good snake," we watched him slither back into the wilderness and we went inside, that's enough leaf collecting for one day.

"The Greatest Show" that makes up my days

I guess with 3 children in the house I'm going to have a lot of happy and sad days in the same day. Today was one: L did amazing using the potty today, I am so proud of that little girl with her tiny little fanny! that is enough on that topic for the night... Ek came home from school hardly able to hold her eyes open. Bless her heart, she was so tired! She laid down to watch a cartoon and woke up with a fever. sigh. I'm hoping it was a one afternoon thing, we will soon find out. She perked up very quickly after some Tylenol and chicken noodle soup and went to bed looking forward to her day home with me tomorrow. H was so excited and has re-capped all afternoon Smokey the Bear's visit to his school. He retold the Smokey story and his attire all day. So glad he had such a great day at school. So there you have it, one with a huge growing up day, one with a sick day and one with an exciting day. I started singing the circus music this evening at one point, I felt like a ring leader!

a few notes

a few notes from around our house...

Ek has danced 8 hours in the last 5 days, over 4 lessons. she is so excited about the Nutcracker! I may very well see every bit of the scene, all parts, before it happens! So glad she is having fun.

I changed L's allergy medicine from Zyrtec to Singular today, hoping to stop the faucet that is attached to the front of her face. poor thing.

L is the friendliest thing right now. She draws so much attention everywhere we go and especially loves to tell everyone we see to 'have a good day!' love it.

Today was College day at school in the Homecoming week celebration. Ek wore her cheerleading outfit and H wore his jersey. One of Ek's friends told another friend that she was spoiling UGA day by wearing her GT cheerleading outfit! Boy these girls are trained well by their daddies. Ek tried to make peace between them, so proud of her for that. She is so excited about wearing her poodle skirt tomorrow for decades day.

I have 2 friends going in the hospital tomorrow... one to have her baby boy and anther to have her baby boy's tonsils removed. I think i may need to go make the rounds in the morning!

I love when H gets in the car to report he didn't 'get to' stand on the fence. Today was one of those days. ya-hoo!

I sure am thankful that my amazing husband helps me with the dishes. If he didn't this blog post would not be written. Sounds like he is rinsing the sink, I think I'll go hug him.

Family

I am just amazed by 'family.' So grateful for mine. I know the word for so many people does not invoke many happy thoughts, and for those I am just beyond horribly so sad. My family is such a gift. My mom and dad are way too far beyond amazing. My brother could not be a greater brother or friend or leader or inspiration or encouragement to me. I am just so grateful. I just think that family is this gift from God and a pointing from him of who to love well. I am so grateful that there are these people that are so far away, that I have seldom seen in all my life, yet I love. I got to see several of those today as I went to Macon to see Meri, Meredith, Teresa, Addison and Avery. Meredith is about to move to LA (and no, not Lower Alabama) and yet I know I'll see her again, she is family, family doesn't give up. And now my family has grown, well now almost 10 years ago. 10 years! Gracious! Ok so I have another year to get there, but its coming. And this new family I love like crazy! A whole new set of never giving up, will know and love for ever people. And then it is also a year away since I got a sister! A sister! I mean how did that happen?! How did I get so blessed to get one as amazing as she it?! And their boys that I just feel like I could explode love for! And then I look at these little people who have filled my life. And I just think, wow!, how did this happen? How did I get so blessed to know these little people? How did I get so blessed to be trusted to love them? They feel like my own little dolls and yet so not my own. I do not control them, God has their plan. Oh, I hope I am loving them well enough. because I really do.

Yesterday's Busy afternoon

...after this afternoon, its no wonder why I didn't write this last night!!

3:00 pick up Ek

3:15 snack

3:20 practice spelling words

3:30 play

4:00 start oven

4:10 put casserole in oven

4:15 visit with neighbor

4:30 bike ride

4:45 change clothes

5:00 dinner

5:15 load car

5:30 drop off Ek to Christy to take to dance

5:50 arrive at soccer game

6:00 soccer game

7:00 leave soccer game

7:15 grocery store

8:00 pick up Ek and Caroline

8:10 take Caroline home

8:30 bath

8:50 pajamas and teeth

9:00 practice Bible verses and pray

9:10 lights out

This could happen...

I read the below story recently and it has made me laugh and laugh. This happens to me all the time. I get very distracted and go from one thing to the next. I could write one of these everyday, it is based on a series of children's books that I love to read my kids.

If You Give A Mom A Muffin

Original Author Unknown

If you give a mom a muffin, 
She'll want a cup of coffee to go with it. 
She'll pour herself some. 
Her three-year-old will spill the coffee. 
She'll wipe it up. 
Wiping the floor, she'll find dirty socks. 
She'll remember she has to do laundry. 
When she puts the laundry in the washer, 
She'll trip over boots and bump into the freezer. 
Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan for supper. 
She will get out a pound of hamburger. 
She'll look for her cookbook ("101 Things To Do With a Pound of Hamburger"). 
The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail. 
She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow. 
She will look for her checkbook. 
The check book is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two-year-old. 
She'll smell something funny. 
She'll change the two year old's diaper. 
While she is changing the diaper, the phone will ring. 
Her five-year-old will answer and hang up. 
She'll remember she wants to phone a friend for coffee. 
Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup. 
And chances are… 
If she has a cup of coffee, 
Her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

Thanks for the encouragment.

The Lord gave me some encouragement today from a new book I bought the kids. It is called "Mama, do you love me?" It is a dialog between a little Eskimo girl and her mother where the little girl is testing her mother's affection through various scenarios. One goes like this, "What if I turned into a polar bear and I was the meanest bear you ever saw and I had sharp shiny teeth, and I chased you into your tent and you cried?" The mother replied, "Then I would be very surprised and very scared. But still, inside the bear, you would be you, and I would love you." The picture is of the mother lifting up the bear's claw to see her daughter's sweet face hiding underneath the bear. At first I thought, 'Yikes!' But today I felt like the Lord kept reminding me of that scenario and I thought, Oh, H. and then 'Thank you Lord.' As I said yesterday, H sometimes loses it. Sometimes he is as scary as a polar bear, when I think of what this would look like on a teenager! And then I remember, he's not, he is 3, and the Lord is going to help us raise him up to be able to make better choices. And then I think of my sweet blond-haired blue-eyed boy with crocked teeth and his big sweet smile and he's not really scary at all. He is H. My sweet little H. God will help him. God will help me. And I do really love him. God has given him to me as a gift, and I receive him everyday as one. even if at 7:30 he is screaming as he did today (because of his shorts). We made it through. God will help me through. I just need to remember some days to lift up the paw of the bear and see my sweet boy's face.

Mother's Day

Ahh, mother's day. I think a lot on mothering. I don't think that anything else in my life has changed me as much as mothering. Maybe change isn't the right word because I'm not different, but I am deeper. Before I was a mom, or a 'mama' as I hear most of the time, I thought that the interpretation of the curse in Genesis 3 that says 'in pain you will bring forth children' had to do with the actual birth. Now I know much better. If only that was the only pain we mothers feel, mothering would be a piece of cake. But because I have children I feel like all of my emotions are so much deeper. I hurt much more when they make a bad choice or someone hurts them than I even felt with myself. I laugh so hard and feel so much joy because of them. And I just don't love them deeper, I love my parents and friends and family deeper because of my children. I tear up at any emotion and boy- sometimes -do I get frustrated. No, I don't think it is just childbirth that brings pain, but amazingly so much more has come too, when these 3 amazing children came to me by God's grace. And they are truly gifts. I should be celebrating them today. I did giggle at Ek today telling H that 'Daddy said we need to be kind to mommy today because it is Mother's Day.' HA! They made cards for me at church and Ek made a card for me at school. It had 2 pictures of herself, one she drew the first week of school and one last week, she is precious in both. And tonight she picked me some flowers tonight and put them in a bucket of sand. Fabulous. J planted 3 new dogwoods in the backyard, oh I hope these make it! I am grateful today to be a mother.

Power for the simple

According to Titus 2, its pretty simple,
Love John,
Love my kids,
Be self-controlled,
Be pure,
Work in the home,
Be kind,
Be submissive to John.

Boy some days it seems hard! I'm so glad to hear from Kay Arthur today that grace is our power! We do not deserve the love God gives. But when we focus on the cross and what Christ has done in the resurrection, we change from just good people who are striving to do better to changed people who have the power to glorify God with our lives. Help me Lord!

Making lemonade from lemons

Recently I wrote about embracing seasons that God brings to our lives. He reminded me of that today. H had a bad day yesterday. It was capped off by throwing a full shovel of dirt on Ben P. at FUMC on the playground. It doesn't sound that bad if you didn't see Ben, he was covered in dirt it was all over his face and his clothes, oh and screaming. I was pretty upset with H. I marched him straight to the car and gave him a spanking. I tried to talk with him all the way home about what a bad choice that was. Finally when he wasn't crying I asked him why he did it. "Because we didn't want him to play with us." Oh H. That was even worse than the offense! J remembered, when I told him what H had said, that that is what H has heard a lot of this year on the playground. So enter new season, now H is bigger than someone. How will he handle this? How will he respond? So a new training season began yesterday. Well not really new, just new emphasis on old lessons. I encouraged him to find Ben on the playground today and play with him, but they don't play at the same time. From H and my dialog today, I think he may have learned a thing or two from his bad choice. I know I'm not done, I envision this lesson to be a theme for a long time, but a good one. Love everyone. Be kind to everyone. Go out of your way to be kind to those who nobody else will be kind too. I told H today that if just our family was kind to all kinds of people that the world would be a better place. hopefully.


UPDATE: Today we rode with Susanne and kids to the strawberry farm. Not 5 minutes after we got there, I spotted H coming out of a playhouse holding Ben's hand. whew. He really was kind to him all day. I was trying to encourage him by telling J later in the day and H said, "Yeah, there was no sand there." Oh, H.

On a much smaller scale

John and I walked downstairs several nights ago after tucking our children into bed giggling at God's sense of humor. We started back over their Bible Story book and read the Creation Story. That day had been our big spring break trip to Macon :) to make a new friend at the Build a Bear Workshop. We had a ball! We went with Ek's friend Caroline's brothers and her mom, my friend Christy. Ek came home with a new friend, Pelly the cat and H came home with Samson the dog. Really- for a boy whose face turns into 12 faces of fear at the sight of a dog, he sure loves to talk about one. And he has on a full football uniform. Pelly is completely girly with a sparkly dress, sparkly shoes, a pink headband and a cell phone. Yeah, I know. So we are reading that night about God creating the world and it was just too easy to talk about what we had done. We gave them a heart. And God gave us a heart to love him. We gave them a bath. Jesus has washed us clean from all our sins. We clothed them. Jesus clothes us in righteousness. We named them and now care for them. God created us and knows us by name and cares for us. It is always great to be able to teach them from their day and that day was way too easy. They are such a joy to be around and a joy to talk to. We had a great time with our friends! And Pelly and Samson are adjusting to life here pretty well.

Wednesday afternoon bowling

Today I took my kids bowling. Yeah, that was kinda random. Wednesday afternoon bowling. We picked Ek up from school and met up there with Ek's friend Sophia and her little sister and mother. (Side note, at Moe's afterwards, H went up to Sophia's mom and said, "Can I sit with Sadie?" in his sweet shy voice, oh that just is too much) We had a great time, the kids laughed and it was just fun to be with them.
I listened to a sermon recommended by Kim last week that was talking about the difference between being childish and childlike. Childish, in my week later summary, is selfish and whiny. Childlike is trusting and dependent. Our goal is to be like the children, like Ek was on our travels, peaceful in the care of her father, in regards to our Heavenly Father. In the sermon though he talks about pursuing relationships with his kids, taking them out for late night donuts and searching for bugs with flashlights. That was extra encouragement to go bowling on Wednesday. I really want my kids to know I love to be with them, I love to play with them, watch them and hear them. Then hopefully they will listen to me too. Now I know I don't need to do big grand things with them to spend time with them, I just wanted to today. So we bowled.
I just finished a good long study of Esther. It was such a great call to seek God where He has you to live with boldness there, today. Now its the day after and that is always a bit of "now what God?" And I think the answer is the gospels with these thoughts: If Jesus said, "Follow me" where does that mean he went, you know- so I can go too. And If Jesus didn't ask us to do anything he didn't do, what did he do?- you know so I can do it too. By his power. To my neighbors which include a great husband, 3 really sweet children, an amazing family and a whole host of friends and a bunch of strangers. I think it has a lot to do with spending time with the right motive. Which is why I bowled today, just to spend time and love well, encourage, cheer, watch, laugh, high five.
So before I go read, a few more notes on bowling... because the camera was a home, along with my socks, ewww, I stopped off to Susanne's to borrow some. giggle. Bowling was a hit, or a ball, puns intended. Ek did great, with bumpers of course, but she and Sophia had just as much fun giggling, tap dancing, running around, doing cheers from cheer camp, pretending their pretzels were people and on and on in between turns. H loved bowling, he was a bit almost nervous to be with all girls, we usually have a boy around for him, he asked several times for Jack and Ben to come, and they couldn't come but he bowled very well, loved watching the pins fall (we had to remind the girls to look back to see theirs fall), and toward the end he bowled a lot of my balls as well. His daddy would have been proud. How did I do? very well actually, oh wait, we did have bumpers... never mind. L didn't seem to feel all that well, she kept sneezing and massive amount of snock (thank you Ek) would go everywhere, sorry- maybe too graphic. Then we were on to Moe's and home for small group. Ek and H are busy talking in H's room, maybe they will be asleep here pretty soon. I know I'll be.

Respect

Today I was blessed to be able to be a traveling companion to my sweet Ek to Macon to see a Dr. Seuss Musical. It was quite fun. Although I will confess, very difficult at times to stay awake in a dark theater while sitting still, not something I'm used to! Back to the show, the show was very fun, very lively and colorful and musical, as well it should be. The kids seemed quite entertained and got stir crazy at times, but always quiet and focused. I love, love the main thought of "Horton hears a Who," which was part of the story line: "A person is a person no matter how small." Now isn't that worthy of hearing! I guess it just strikes me that the little people in my care, and not for that matter, are worthy of my respect. I am worthy of theirs as well, that's just how God made it, but they are worthy of my respect. They need kindness, explanation, patience, a listening ear and well just time to grow. Oh and love, lots and lots of love. And I do, love them that is.

All aboard the Train

Several months ago mom called to say my former youth pastor was going to be speaking to a retreat of women from her church at Lake Oconee. "I'd love to go mom, that sounds great, let me check my calendar!" "Great! I'll sign you up tomorrow when I'm at the church." I love my mom. So it was Friday through Saturday. One of the organisers said they prayed that God would meet us where we were and boy did He! I just have felt a bit overwhelmed and lost lately in how to handle several issues with my H. Obeying quickly, Asking without whining and Pitching Fits. A friend of mine has teenagers and says to me way too often, "Big kids big problems, small kids small problems." I tend to disagree at this point. If I don't help H now, how will he look at 15 with these issues. shudder. Ok, back to the point. Mom and I were talking about it Friday night after the meeting. By the way the focus of the retreat was prayer. Mom reminded me that there is a difference between discipline and training. Which of course reminds me of the Proverb, "Train up a child in the way they should go and when they are older they will not depart from it." That statement coming from my mom open the floodgates for God to deal with me and teach me for the rest of the weekend. I felt like He completely changed my perspective on my role and H. H is not supposed to have it all together! He is 3! My role in his life is to teach him. Obviously this is not new information. LOL But, God spoke his word fresh with new life from the Living Word this weekend. I am ready now to help H, to train him to walk through this life well. To serve God and H in being his leader who disciplines but much more, to teach. And to look to Jesus who didn't expect his disciples, or us for the matter, to have it all together. But to take time, to love well, to pray, to serve, to teach and to lead by example. I really feel this is a big turning point in my life as mother. God took a verse that I have heard many times, and spoke it new into my heart. I am so grateful and can't wait to see what my daily life looks like now, as I submit to the Father, leaving my expectations on the floor where I pray in the morning, rising in the power of the Spirit to walk out in the fruit of the spirit to love my kids well with the goal of training them well to walk with Jesus too. Oh I am so grateful! So grateful to mom for signing me up. For those who prayed that prayer. And for God revealing His Word to me and teaching me!

Community

We got home late tonight because of a birthday party. L has had quite the social calendar lately. She was invited to bring the rest of us to a little friend's 2 year old party, he is the little brother of one of Ek's best friends. J was home sick with fever and sore throat, we were very sad to leave him home-- but we had such a wonderful time. The 3 little ones stayed under foot mostly playing and having a good time. L and the birthday boy are 3rd children and the other is a 4th child, so they are very similar in how they play. Ek stuck very closely to Caroline and H stuck very closely with the boys, 6 year old twins and 2 8 year olds. I would not have guessed that. We really didn't see much of the big kids, they played chase outside and Wii upstairs. We did see them for cake. :) My thought though, is how important community is. The father of the birthday boy was disappointed that his parents weren't there and oh goodness I would have been too. My kids are so blessed with their grandparents. I guess I am just struck again and again how wonderful it is to have others alongside while we try to raise our children. Others that will speak encouragement to them and us, who will help us see their uniqueness and how special they are, and to see how similar they all are and that we will survive-- and they will too. It is just wonderful to be with friends, and family, who love our kids too. I am thankful.

Octapus Envy

Earlier today I was sitting on the floor of the playroom while Ek was playing beauty parlor with high heals on fixing my hair and carrying on conversation about her and my little girl, H and I were playing ball, and L was sitting in my lap looking at a book. All at the same time. I thought of my friend Kelly who said, "if God could give octopuses 8 arms, couldn't He give mom's just one more?" If I had one more arm I could have taken a picture of the moment! It was very fun.