If you’ve been reading for awhile, you know about ice cream drills. Paul invented the ice cream drill back when we *just* had 4 kids. We find that we spend too much time saying no, being home, doing chores, and generally being boring. We’re busy and we get tired. Also, we knew people with a large family at the time who had a policy of taking their kids out for ice cream once a month, but only the kids that [...]
It’s Tuesday, and I had scheduled to go through mail, answer emails, clear my desk, update lesson plans online, do some housework. Tuesday is the day that I have caregivers for Caleb, I don’t have to go to work at the school, and Abigail’s lessons (Algebra II and piano lessons) don’t start until 3:00pm. It’s my detail conquering day. But alas, I will never conquer my emails or the pile on my desk, so this afternoon I gave up and [...]
I was at a Christmas lunch at the school where I teach and I was visiting with a mom of one of my students. She was telling me how one of her kids is always losing his papers, misplacing his books, and is very disorganized. She heard herself saying out loud at him,”Why are you such a mess? You are always losing stuff and making us late.” She wondered aloud how many times she had said something like that before [...]
I do love my boys. They are messy, wild at heart, tough, competitive, and funny. They are all boy, but might be known to break in to an musical number from time to time. You should see Josh’s interpretation of “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” – hilarious. Matthew isn’t into dancing or singing but he does like band and he’s playing the French horn. He’s just earned first chair in the French horn section of the beginning band! [...]
Joshua is really doing well lately. The insecurities that have plagued him seem to be improving. I think he’s moving into some higher level thinking developmentally, he’s had more time in a family to know what love is, and we’ve taught him some calming exercises that he is using on his own now. One of the exercises is from the book, “The Healing Code”, and involves thinking positive, true, scriptural thoughts to replace fears and anxieties while sitting quietly [...]
I am not a morning person. My body gets up, but the rest of me takes a while to get it together. I don’t do a whole lot of thinking about what I am wearing, other than if I need to dress for exercise or dress nice to go teach. I dress the little boys when all of us are half asleep. That’s one of the many nice things about boys – they don’t care much about fashion choices. So [...]
Yesterday Joshua and I had the chance to go to a local lake. Abigail has the most wonderful piano teacher, and her teacher recently moved to a house on a lake. It is beautiful, but the beauty of a place is so often dependent on the graciousness of the people there. Abigail’s teacher and her husband are the very definition of gracious. They are so grateful for their new home and the beauty that they get to enjoy, and they [...]
This evening, I read this book to Caleb. It was a gift to Carolyn, from her grandparents, when she was small, and all the kids have enjoyed it. The grandparents wrote a lovely dedication to Carolyn in the front of the book, which makes it extra special. Making reading a regular part of the the rhythm of life is important, and when it delays having to say goodnight, even better, from a preschooler’s perspective. Caleb loves to look at the [...]
I am not sure how many of my readers are familiar with orphan advocacy blogs/photolisting web sites. There’s a bunch of them out there. Pictures of kids in need and information about how to adopt them. They are run by ladies, mostly, with a heart for the orphan and they are publicizing the plight of many kids who need homes. I do think they are doing some good, and that kids are being found by families, and funds are being [...]
Went to bed last night thinking about my Abigail. To bring you up to date, I will tell you that she is in Ecuador and I am back in Texas. She has two bug bites from some nasty jungle insect that have become infected and she’s going to the doctor today for help, without me, but with Heather and Wanda. I laid in bed thinking through worst case scenarios. What ifs, and you know what I’m talking about. You’ve all [...]