Train Up a Child

It's finally occured to me that parenthood isn't just about training up a child, it's also about training up a parent. So many times over the course of parenthood it's really about keeping me accountable, holding me responsible, making sure I'm making the best decision possible for each specific child.

A good example is potty training. While it's a good idea to wait until the child is interested to start pursuing this opportunity, I think many kids are ready to begin this adventure months before their parents are. Really, who wants to jump onto the potty after every meal, every sip of water, before every outing, after entering each store, etc. Just thinking about it seems exhausting. Yet, doing this for just a few days can make a HUGE difference to the world of potty training. Doing it for a week or two and bam - you're little champ is trained.

Same thing with doing school work. Now of course it's about teaching the child the subject matter, having fun teaching and learning it, and building special stepping stones that will be used for the rest of his or her life. It's also very time consuming, stressful, takes a strong commitment, and is a lot of hard work. Training myself to make sure I set aside time (an hour or more most nights) to do math and writing work each school night and making sure the lesson plans I prepare are not only educational, but fun and engaging as well. Not just going through the monotonous motions of regurgitating what the teacher books say, but really getting the material on my girls level, making it applicable to them, showing them how what they learn is going to be used forever in their life. It's tough!

So my purpose in typing this, is that I hope to look back to it frequently and remember "Yeah, I am accountable, responsible, and can handle it." Giving it my all, working at everything I do as if working for the Lord, making the most of each opportunity and each day, that I will not only better my children, but better myself in the process.

My children are worth it. Every sweat pouring minute in the heat of the day, every tiring moment at the end of the day, and all moments in between. God is using each second to train me up in the way I should go, hopefully I too can train my children up in the ways He wants them to go.

Two down, Two to go

So we've come to the season known as "birthdays" in our house. It's nestled between late summer and early fall. Within 7 weeks, four out of the six of us have birthdays (poor me and Lulu, stuck all the way out there in November and February - smack right next to Thanksgiving and Christmas- caching). So thus the title, "Two down, Two to go." Next up is Ryan, my wonderful hubby and best friend. A few days later is Little Man. Now if we really want to complicate this we can add in days before Ryan's is my brother-in-law's birthday and right after Little Man's is my sister-in-law's, but that's just too complicated. :)

We're still adjusting to the new house - have hit a few snags, but are trusting in God for his provision and guidance. One of the things the kids love is all of the cows and goats (and even a donkey) that surround the neighborhood. There must be 300-500 head of cattle all within 3 miles of our house - it's awesome! The kids love seeing them, especially Buddy Boy who says "Look Mama! Cow! Cow!" So much fun :)

School is going well. The kids have had a two week "imagination" unit where they've created their own creatures (part animal, part ampliance - think "microphant" by Lulu; or two different animals - Eaglion by Doodle) and their own hamburgers. It's been so much fun! Last week we had our very own Crazy Burger night where the concoctions the kids created were brought to life and enjoyed (mostly) by all. I'll have to tell you about their unique burgers later - so cool. Tonight they're going to bring their crazy animals to life via clay. Can't wait!

I'm now reading through a study on Women of the Bible. I've done two of these types of studies before and always learn such amazing things - I'm only one week into this study and have thoroughly enjoyed it. So much to glean!