Slowing down to SEE...

  

Eight year old fingers tapped out "Old MacDonald."  The four year old is galloping around the back yard, boots on, cape flying behind him as he takes his sturdy stick horse for yet another lap.  Middle son and I sit at the coffee table playing with our math blocks and working on math problems.

The girl is conflicted.  Play with math blocks or try to play the piano.  She ends up trying to manage both.

Keegan 'gets it' and starts to speed through his problems and for the first time in a while, I just sat back and watched each of my children.  Sure there were dirty dishes in the sink, piles that needed to be sorted and items either discarded or put away...  But for few minutes, I just savored.  And as I drank in the moment I was struck by its beauty.  What a great privilege I have to be with four of my favorite people, 24-7 - loving them, training them, learning along-side them.

Xander scooped up his sister so she could really start playing at the piano.  The recent return of sleepless nights {trying to cut those first teeth} fade from my memory as I watch my two book-ends giggling and playing together.

Why don't I SEE this more often?

As I mentioned on facebook, we had a hard start to our week.  I had slipped into one of those wheel spinning, but not progressing kind of modes.  God in his kindness pulled me out.  It is funny how sometimes the way to have forward progress is to slow down.  Slowing down to think, pray and SEE allows God to provide clarity and direction.

Thanking God for renewed vision and strength to delight in the everyday, aware of the Spirit at work in our lives and eager to participate in His plans for our days. 

Attacking Crazy Birthday Week...

Duuun dun, duuun dun... {cue theme song from JAWS.} **  Selfishness was alive, well and on the hunt.  I just chuckle as I think back to the silly angst I felt at wanting to make sure I would have my own birthday 8 years ago.  He ended up making his grand entrance into the world 8 minutes before sharing a birthday with me.  Of course that was only because the doctor told me I could have him on the next push, if I would consent to an episiotomy.  With one look at the clock and the prospect of the 1.5+ hours of pushing being over, commonsense was over-ruled.  

Two years later and God had used motherhood to change my perspective.  I received another handsome birthday surprise when Keegan was born a week before my birthday.  By this time, I was actually hoping that he would come the day after my birthday so I could be sandwiched between my two boys. 

Before kids, I thought I was losing my birthday. Now I'm realizing more and more how blessed I am by my two birthday buddies.

While selfishness tends to be ruthless and frequently in attack mode, I'm so thankful that God does not respond in kind.  Instead He is marked by patience, gentleness and consistency as he peels back our layers of selfishness bit by bit...  He's been showing me a few of those areas this last week.  And as always, He is so faithful to lovingly, but firmly help me to let go.

So bring on 'crazy birthday week' - a beautiful reminder of God"s wonderful gifts and how patient He is with us... 

The boys requested a trip to our 'Arizona Beach', aka 'the Lagoon', aka my grandfather's community pool. We obliged and gave their birthday celebration a 'shark' twist!

I was inspired by these felt shark fins pinned on t-shirts, but when 'party hats' were requested, they quickly evolved!  Even the two cousin babies got a bite of the action!   I'm currently in love with felt!

** Believe it or not, I did not see this movie until after Rich and I were married.  Thankfully, we watched it AFTER our beach honeymoon...

Community Matters

Community matters.  And I'm a firm believer in not putting all of our {relationship} eggs in one basket.  While I adore my online community, I also love having {in real life} community.  And my kids really love it too.  In this digital age, I think it is easy to try and fill our relational needs with virtual community.  Now there are perks to online community, but nothing really replaces the value and necessity of {in-person} friends. 

Over the last couple of years, I've just been blown away by the wonderful friends God has brought into my life: friends that love me through thick and thin, friends that anticipate what I'm going through, friends that pray for me and regularly let me know they are doing so.

As we get deeper into homeschooling, I'm also increasingly thankful for local support groups.  Last month at our mom's chat during our afternoon PE class, we all swapped field trip tips and ideas.  A friend of mine mentioned taking the light rail downtown and grabbing lunch at the TGIFriday's at the ballpark.  With Mima coming in town for a visit, I thought this would be the perfect outing.  It was a huge hit and I'm thankful for friends who share good ideas of things to do locally.  If we do this again, I want to also take one of the free tours that are offered of the ballpark or possibly come down before a game and watch batting practice!

This week, I picked up my real notebook to once again turn my eyes to Jesus and actively recognize God's many gifts in life.  I also pick-up my 'virtual' gratitude list and continue to make my online count towards 1,000 gifts...

937. beautiful homeschool community.
938. friends that love me for who I am and regularly check up on me.
939. boys and their love-affair with everything 'train'
940. wide-eyed boys taking in the empty ballpark.
941. special time with Mima.

942. a mother-in-law who loves me as one of her own, despite my quirks and strange ways of doing things.
943. baby girl giggles.
944. chubby hands waving
945. smiles that greet me each morning and after every nap!
946. gentle conviction every time I read the Word.  Ever-so thankful it is gentle.
947. meeting my new nephew - fresh out.
948. grace and peace even when life doesn't go as planned.
949. the thrill of inspecting tiny toes, fingers, ears, skinny legs and an impish little nose. 
950. soaking in the wonder of new life -the tangible reality of two becoming one.

951. That still small voice that draws me into the Word.
952. Early morning light which wakens my little 'Devotions' buddy.

The Ubiquitous Family Photo

I guess there is something about Easter that just calls for the ubiquitous family photo... We do it every year. After something like 30 shots, this was the best we could muster!

After an 8am service outside, we headed to my parents for the day.  We missed having my sister and her family here.  We were blessed to have several people join us though for food, fellowship, celebrating, golf and games!

My mom put pennies (and a few nickels/dimes/quarters) in the eggs and then held her 2nd annual 'store'.  It was fun to watch the kids take stock of their cash and determine whether or not they would save the money or make some purchases.

And so I count...

sunshine

worshiping the Risen Lord under a clear blue sky

early services so we can escape the heat. (It reached the 90's yesterday)

baby girl dresses!

a blow-out ~ it meant we got to put on another cute dress!

little white dress carefully worn by a pleased 3 year old

spending time with a sister who is due any day now!

growing excitement over another new nephew or niece due in October!

blog friend, turned real-life friend!

getting to have her and her precious family join us yesterday!

white oxfords with khaki shorts

the grins of boys as they find our {little paper-mache} tomb empty!

my man - doing dishes

kids eagerly searching for eggs.

tiny fingers collecting and counting pennies

games with the family.

meeting new people.

sliced strawberries.

a delicious gluten-free pie crust that tasted better than the best graham crust I've ever had.

smiling faces of family and friends eating fresh whipped cream - even if I couldn't partake.

remembering that the old is gone and the new is come.

Gifts # 916-936

It's the Wild West!

We live in the wild west, so we decided to embrace it this weekend!  My parents surprised our little birthday man with a trip to Goldfield Ghost Town. 

We took friends there back in November and the boys were disappointed that their was no 'gun fight' that day.  They are disappointed no more.  Our ears are ringing and boys are beaming.

And so, I keep counting my way to 1,000!

904. beautiful Spring weather.
905. boys in cowboy hats, slinging plastic pistols.
906. getting a feel for Jail life in the wild west.
907. a little girl who snoozes away on my chest while we walk dusty paths and explore old gold mines!
908. chiropractic care that enabled us to solve most of her food-related and all of the colic issues so we can all enjoy outings like this, tear free!
909. a mother-in-law who gave us the nudge we needed to seek out this alternative care.
910. front row seats to the action of a shoot-out on main street!
911. old cowboys eager to talk with young cowboy impersonators.
912. laughing at how my dad maneuvered Trey into a picture with one of the cowboys.  His expression is priceless.
913. a husband who lugs the diaper bag around for the day.
914. memories made with grandparents
915. tired, but content boys.

Cultivating Gratitude

Expectations...

If you don't clearly communicate what they are (and add some practice role-playing in for the littles) disaster and disappointment can ensue...

I've had to chase down a certain 3 year old more times than I care to admit because I didn't clearly communicate before hand proper etiquette at the park.

So I've made a regular practice of RELATING expectations and REHEARSING proper behavior before we go anywhere!

Relate, Rehearse, repeat

This Christmas provided yet another opportunity to do just that.  We wanted to work with our boys on gratitude when it came to receiving gifts.  So on Christmas morning, before any gifts were opened we huddled close and I laid out the game plan:

We would open gifts, one at a time.  Afterwards they were to seek out the person who gave them the gift, look them in the eye (because they are famous for shouting a thanks, but not making eye contact) and thank them specifically for the gift.  "Thank you for _______.  I'm so excited to do ____ with it!"  As a physical expression of their thanks, a big bear hug was in order.

Since we have been making a habit of pausing and thanking God for his many gifts to us, we explained that this is a natural extension to pause and thank the person who gave us a gift...

Throughout all of the 'training' I've found it also important to season everything I do with regular reminders to the boys on 'WHY' we are doing what we are doing.  Jesus outlined the two greatest commandments when He said:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

This is the first and greatest commandment. 

And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Matthew 22:37-39

It is important for them to understand that everything we do is an act of worship and and opportunity to bring glory to God.  Additionally, these are opportunities to show love and respect for others.

And I have to say, I think the fruit of our little training session that morning was one of the biggest highlights of my day!  They were so adorable at our home as they put this into practice.  The excitement and gratitude were contagious.  Brothers giving each other bear hugs and getting held tight myself with beautiful eyes looking deep into mine made for a memorable morning.

Of course, they needed frequent reminders once we joined up with extended family and the distractions exponentially increased.  But overall it was so exciting to see so much growth!

We've been busy over here - trying to pull myself back into gear and still faithfully teaching and training my wonderful boys in addition to caring for the baby.  I'm in overhaul mode intentional training has been taking a growing role in our home that had grown lax in the first weeks after the baby.  So I've been taking the principles of RELATE and REHEARSE into many aspects of our lives...

Putting toys away, tidying up their room, going to the library, learning to listen for my voice and respond, and most recently in preparing for our upcoming trip to Disney World.  In fact, just today we rehearsed proper etiquette for visiting the doctor which made for a smooth trip taking my sweet little Greta in today.

And throughout all of this, I repeat my oft repeated mommy mantra...

training takes time, training takes time, training takes time.

I'm so thankful for the precious rewards that pop up in the process!

Where have you found it helpful to prepare and train your children?