Summer Learning

Ahhh, just one more full week of school left this year.

I'm looking forward to the slower pace of summer. And having my babies home again. Maybe as much as they are.

On the other hand, my kids have been fighting a lot lately. And it's really getting on my nerves.

Some of it is just that they are overly tired and we're running around too much. But some of it is simply that they're being brats. I do not like it when my kids behave like brats.

I've come to the conclusion that no matter how great we discipline in this house, the kids are going to be punks some times. Free will, you know, and all that goes with it. I'm beyond taking it personally. To a point, they're a reflection of Bruce and me, but mostly it's their own responsibility to behave when they've been taught to do so.

I just spent a few minutes decluttering the bulletin boards in our kitchen. Wiping spelling words off the dry erase board. Taking down the classroom schedules for each child. Getting rid of the paper that shows the school schedule for this year.

I don't plan to let learning slide this summer for the kids though. (Or for me. I've already started the Beth Moore study on Esther, and it's going to be good!)

We're going to do the summer reading program at the local library again. And I told the younger two that I'd post some sight words for them to learn this summer to prepare for first grade.

Beyond that, I'm planning to keep ahead of the curve with some godly sex ed for all three of them. We're going to dive right back into the God's Design for Sex series.

Clay is going to read the third book, because he is curious about these things.

As a precursor, I recently briefly explained to him about the monthly "friend" that visits women. (No, he's not too young. Once this year while having lunch with him, I noticed an older girl who had obviously "started" but had no idea. I told the lunchroom monitor, but Clay didn't know what I was talking about.) Clay was a little astonished when I brought it up the other day and asked, "Do YOU do that?" "Well, yeah, honey. I am a girl, you know." I showed him our calendar, where I keep track. And I explained that he would probably notice, like his daddy, when these times come up, because I get grouchy.

Flash forward to yesterday afternoon at snack time. The kids were wound up when they got home. Everybody wanted to tell me something, all at the same time. They were hungry and impatient to get a snack. On the other hand, I'd had a nice quiet few hours before their assault on my senses began.

I snipped at them to quit interrupting each other and to be patient because "I'm only one Momma and there are three of you!"

Clay whipped his head around and started searching the calender for signs of what he thought was obvious. (I need to explain that he should never again do that to either his mom, sister or wife, because if he's right about the timing, he could suffer greatly. Another lesson for summer learning.)

I'll read Spencer and Allison the first book in the series again, and then maybe move on to the second one by the end of summer. They aren't all that interested, probably partly because mom and dad are no longer in the baby factory business, so they don't get to see a pregnancy on a daily basis. But because they have an older brother, I have to push the envelope a bit more with them so I can beat Clay to the punch.

It's so important for me that the kids hear about God's view of our bodies and sex before someone else comes along and pollutes the beauty of it. I struggled so much as a young person with body image and keeping the opposite gender in perspective. The fact that I wasn't a Christian then only aided in further warping my mind and heart.

But back to our kids. I always stress to them that while I am teaching them these things, they are private things, not to be discussed with their friends. Because that is for their friends' parents to do when they think their children are ready.

Plus, I don't want my kids messing up something and "educating" all their buddies. I don't need any outraged phone calls.

We're also going to focus on some Bible verses this summer. Maybe we'll memorize them, maybe not.

Two of them are already printed on the dry erase board. They are there to aid in making this summer more fun for our whole family.

"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." Romans 12:18.

Including your siblings. And your spouse, because Bruce and I don't get a free pass.

"Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe." Philippians 2:14-15.

No grumbling when you take out the trash. No fighting about who has the highest mound of Cookie Crisp in their breakfast bowl.

No more blaming someone else for this and that, and such and such.

I'm praying we'll soon all be shinier stars in this crooked and depraved generation we live in.

Just seven more days of school. Yay!

Waiting

I'm not a patient person. I don't wait well.

However, I feel like I wait a lot.

To figure out a major. To graduate. To find that right person. To get married. To have babies. For those babies to be potty trained. For the first day of school. For the first day of summer.

To go back to work, now that all our kids are in school.

I've prayed about that last one for a couple of years.

Look, I know I am blessed to stay home. But it was a sacrifice to do so. And I don't mean just financially, especially in light of Bruce's recent pay cut. I sacrificed a big part of who I was when I stopped my career.

But now I'm someone different. And it's not about just me anymore. Journalism can wait. And it might not even be journalism that I go back to when I jump start a career again.

It's not even solely about Bruce and I as a couple anymore. New furniture can wait. Alone time will come more frequently again in the future.

For now, it's largely about three little people who we are responsible for nurturing in the best way that God has enabled us.

At Bible Study Fellowship recently our teaching leader said something that really hit me during lecture time. We've studied the life of Moses this year, and as the year wraps up, we're nearing the end of Moses' life. She pointed out that Moses didn't start slacking because of his age, or hanging up his responsibilities just because he had already accomplished so much. She said, "A person who serves the Lord is indispensable until the Lord says his task is done. You have no right to stop serving God in your current position until God makes it clear that it's time to move."

I have no right to stop serving God as a full-time mother to my children and as a full-time homemaking assistant to my husband... until God makes it clear that it's time to move.

And after praying for the past two years about going back to work, I think He's made it obvious that it's not yet time for me to move in that direction.

But I'm waiting on the answer to other prayers now. A big prayer that I've shared with only a couple of close friends. Prayers that concern my children's perception of the Lord. Smaller prayers even, about trivial things like where to vacation next summer.

Aren't we all waiting for the answer to some prayer?

Waiting does not mean we get to sit idly by. We still need to continue serving in the places God has placed us.

I don't want to stagnate. Or worse, move backwards.

I love this song by John Waller. (His voice is instantly recognizable to me because of another song of his that makes me weep each time I hear it... "Still Calls Me Son".)

This one is "While I'm Waiting."

A Moment of Down Time

This morning's soccer was cancelled because of the ridiculous weather we've had lately, with more storms in the forecast. I'm so grateful, because I was supposed to be a substitute coach for Clay's team. Trust me... those kids know way more than I do about soccer.

I let Bruce sleep in, but when he came downstairs ready to face the day with some coffee, Spencer was already sitting on our porch swing while I made breakfast. So Bruce went out to join him.

They were having a very serious conversation about being baptized.



But then it got a little silly.

Spencer said that being baptized would be fun. Bruce asked why, and Spencer said, "Because you get to go under water."

Well, duh!

SCOSA

The kids have been playing soccer with the Sullivan County Soccer Association this spring. We haven't taken many pictures. Mostly because Bruce is coaching Spencer and Allison's team, while Clay's team plays at the side of the fields the farthest away, where I sit and watch him.

I did take the camera one day and got these.







This Saturday should be interesting. Clay's head coach and substitute coach, who are both excellent at the sport and at coaching, are both going to be absent.

Guess who's filling in.

I was hoping Roy would be there to help, because he is good to give Clay tips on the side of the field. But the Moodys are going to be in Cookeville.

I hope I don't ruin those kids!

UPDATE:
Soccer got rained out! I didn't get to make my coacing debut. I'm so relieved!

Are You Praying?

Today is our country's National Day of Prayer. It's the 58th annual observance. And this year's theme is "Prayer... America's Hope" which comes from Psalm 33:22: "May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you."

I seriously hope that you'll take the time today to do more than shoot up a quickie prayer. If you don't believe our country needs God's help, then I have to wonder if you've watched the news lately. Even without headline news, I only have to listen to my third grader tell me things he's heard his classmates say to realize we're in trouble.

This article by CNN also spoke to me the need to pray diligently, because we don't appear to have our current president's full support in unified, public prayer for our country.



I looked at several YouTube videos before finally posting this one. Every one of them that I found always posted a picture of George W. Bush when the lyrics mention praying for those raised up to lead the way.

But Obama has been raised up to lead for now. Let's pray for him, too.

And let's do it without judgment or condescension as we try to guess at the state of his heart. That's not our job.

Praying is though.

Get to it.

A Simple Plan

Know what bugs me?

I go nuts when simple things don't remain simple.

Things like a toaster not working. One plug. One button. No rocket science. And if it doesn't work, I get frustrated.

Because simple things should be easy. I don't expect working calculus to be fret free. I don't think brain surgery is a no brainer. Riding a unicycle even... definitely not simple.

But making bland postcard birthday invitations instead of purchasing a theme-oriented pack of cards? That should have been easy-peasy.

And yet, one full-fledged adult conniption later, I'm ready to admit that I should have let Clay make his own invites.

Problem number one? Our printer was out of ink. Things went downhill from there.

A quick trip to the local office supply store for the ink cartridges included a side trip to Hobby Lobby for some colored cardstock paper.

Home again, home again, jiggety, jig!

I printed the appropriate number of sheets and cut each sheet into four postcards with my handy dandy page slicer thingamabob.

Then I sealed two invites into addressed and stamped envelopes, put the bulk of invites into Clay's backpack for his teacher to distribute to the boys in his class, and took the last one to another friend of Clay's when I dropped Clay off for a play date at his friend's house.

And then I realized that I had planned Clay's birthday party for 2-4 p.m. on a Friday when school is still in session.

Everybody exit the building. No need to run, but proceed directly outdoors. Because MOMMA'S GOING CRAZY!!

All I can say is that I have too much on my plate, I'm taking muscle relaxers for this never-ending backache and they're making me loopy tired, and my oldest child's birthday falls during the summer. Always has, always will. I'm just not accustomed to working his party around this school business.

But summer break is the very reason we are scheduling my boy's party early this year. Vacationing friends leave slim pickings for party goers.

I called and retracted the date on the hand-delivered invitation.

Then I reprinted, with a revised date, new invitations.

And that's right about the time that the blade in my handy dandy paper slicer thingamabob went dull. After several ugly attempts to "make do" with it, I had some seriously hacked up invitations... and blood pressure readings that were equally as ugly.

Where are my scissors?

Oh. Yeah. Those.

The kids lost (hid?) those about a month ago and I have yet to recover them.

Fine. Kitchen shears will do in a pinch.

Just need to clean off the bacon grease from where I used them to cut open our pack of heart attack for breakfast.

Nobody said that postcard invitations had to be one uniform size anyway.

Now then.

Time to unseal the two envelopes holding the erroneous invites. (Because they were stamped, people! And the price of stamps just went up. It's like sticking gold filigree on envelopes.)

I could be a career criminal. I am truly that good at unsealing stuck envelopes. I'm not bragging. I'm just saying.

But my children would lead to my arrest.

Because I couldn't find a drop of Elmer's glue in this house with which to re-stickify those envelopes once I inserted my new, improved, date-corrected invites.

Again, I'm not shooting for perfection here. At this point, I just wanted to strike something from my TO DO list. Scotch tape would suffice.

Oh. Yeah. That.

The kids absconded with it about a week ago. Haven't seen it since.

Oh for the love of Pete...

I slapped on the widest piece of packaging tape I could find, put the invites in the mailbox and raised the flag.

The flag on the mailbox.

But if I'd had a white flag, I would have waved it in surrender.

I was done.

I just want simple things to be simple.

Spring Musical

All three kids were in the church's spring musical this year... and it might be the last. For a while anyway. Clay has successfully passed his desire to quit children's choir onto Spencer. Stinker!

Clay loves to sing. He does a mean rendition of The Jonas Brothers' song "Burnin' Up". Here's a video of the group singing it. It's funny.



Picture Clay singing that very last line. I just need to record him, if he'd let me, because he is spot on! (We're probably going to buy him a CD by this group for his birthday. For mainstream music, they've got a pretty clean image. Momma likes that.)

But Clay does not like singing in front of the congregation. So I think we're going to let them all pass on children's choir next year. And actually, that will mean a nice break for us as well. We have wearied ourselves this year, running the kids to various school, sporting or church events.

Here are a few pictures Bruce made while the kids were doing their final dress rehearsal before last night's performance.



The next two crack me up, because the boys have nearly the same facial expression.