I aboslutely love my job. I love staying at home with my babies and taking care of my husband and family. I love having the time to learn new hobbies, read books on many different subjects and really invest in my families lives. Today, I just had a verse going through my head so I thought I would share it,
" Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. " Galations 6:9
The most beautiful and frusterating thing about raising little people for God's glory is not seeing immediate gratification. However, if we stay steadfast into what God has called us to do then we will reap....but ONLY if we remain on course and constant. Ironic, we all grow weary but the bible addresses that as well..." They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength" " The joy of the Lord is my strength" " I can do all things through Christ who give me strength" " Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest for my yoke is easy and my burden is light"
God knows that life can be hard, frusterating, overwhelming and tiring. However, the bible mandates that we not lose heart. However, the only way to humany accomplish this is to supernaturally rely on God's strength, " For in my weakness He is made strong"
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
How do you fill your time???
This past week has been incredibly busy for me, my family. It has finally stopped today and I am looking forward to this upcoming week with not too much on the calendar. I am really into books that force us to think out of the box from the status quo toys, " Elmo, Mickey Mouse, Dora, etc" and make us channel our childrens energies into more creative, unhibited play. I do not think there is anything wrong with branded toys as my sons have a slew of Thomas the Train Wooden Railway sets and trains. However, I read in this book once that when children are only given toys that they have seen on tv, videos, etc...they loose that ability to make it their own. They no longer desire to give it , it's own personality but rather the personality that was chosen for it by the producers or creators of the product. I kind of go in spurts of what is my passion to read and research about. For awhile, it was just focusing on the lost art of play. I try hard for my kids to do puzzles, play dough, color, read, dress up, go outside. Do not feel condemed if you have a playstation, but I personally feel that my boys, especially, will have so many opportunities for those types of games that I would rather get down at their level and play " Rat a tat Cat", " Silly Faces" or" Go Nuts" ( just a few of my millions of favorite games with my babies) .
I love watching their faces discover, to go outside and explore and learn. To build confidence outside the confines of a television. Do my children watch movies, absolutely, but for the most part, there are exceptions, it is a very small porportion to what else they may have done on that particular day. I encourage you to allow your children to explore, to not stock up on the branded toys but rather invest in some quality NON noise making toys and watch as your children light up. I am a huge advocate AGAINST the pressure to enroll your child in many different activities. I was not always like this, I wanted Jayden and Austen to be in everything. They will be involved and enjoy being involved at church, soccer, co ops, etc. However, I highly recommend the " The Hurried Child" as well as " Einstein never used Flashcards". These are great books that really put into persepctive how we, as Americans, force ourselves into the mindest that we needed to always be going and doing and being involved.
I am fighting hard against that; especially after this week. I love being busy to an EXTENT. I do not want my schedule filled every day, every hour. I want my children to be able to play together and not live out of a van. Is it so important that we enroll our babies in sports at 2/3 or that we foster a loving relationship with them and delay the enrollment to , gasp, 7/8???? Just some food for thought. I do enroll my boys in soccer and they are not 7/8 but we also say no to some things too. We need to use our time wisely. Especially those of us who are homeschooling. This is such a critical and important time, not only in our childrens' lives, but ours as well. Enjoy this time, don't spend it being overstimulated and feeling pressure from society to have your child enrolled in the highest this or the best this. Spend your time cuddling up and reading together, simmer some homemade hot cocoa on the stove, pop some old fashion popcorn and breathe. Laugh. Realize this is life.
I encourage you to be wise with your time and not waste it foolishly. Many times, when God calls us to our families we are able to say no to some things now so that we can open our hearts and say yes to many things now. I have trusted God with this area of my life and feel such an immense peace that I do not want to use this precious time of staying at home filling it with as I like to call " fillers". A perfect example as of recent. My children and I are members our cities science center. We were able to go get a preview of the robotic exhibit as well as SID the Science Kid( I told you I was not completley against branded things) . Well, Sid was arriving mid afternoon which meant that we delayed arriving to the museum until smack dab in the middle of nap hour. Oh joy. We drove an hour to the science center, spent the time amongst hoards of children, lines, and parents trying our best to get a chance to do some hands on activities. My oldest son melted down only about a thousand times, and he does NOT do that often. My middle son was amazing and my daughter ran away countless times, throwing herself to the ground, me picking her up, her squirming to get out of my arms, all while we waited IMPATIENTLY for Sid and a simple picture. I was irriated, tired and grumpy. My children were as well and we snapped a lovely picture of the boys with SID as Riah screamed from stroller and left immediately to enjoy a silent hour ride home.
I say this to make this point, was it worth all the hassel, the driving and the stress just to "do something" Sure Sid is great, but we spent about 5 seconds with Sid and about 4 hours of high stress with my children, traffic and a slew of people. My conclusion is no. This was one of those times where I chose to do something not based on what was best for my family or myself but what I thought sounded like a good idea, a great opportunity. It turned out frusterating and deflating. What have a I learned, once again, priortize my time, spend it in prayer and say no to opportunities, there are not such things as "once in a lifetime opportunities" if it is not the right timing. We drove home, the kids all fell asleep and I stopped and bought myself a java chip frappuccino...ahhh, now that was bliss!
I love watching their faces discover, to go outside and explore and learn. To build confidence outside the confines of a television. Do my children watch movies, absolutely, but for the most part, there are exceptions, it is a very small porportion to what else they may have done on that particular day. I encourage you to allow your children to explore, to not stock up on the branded toys but rather invest in some quality NON noise making toys and watch as your children light up. I am a huge advocate AGAINST the pressure to enroll your child in many different activities. I was not always like this, I wanted Jayden and Austen to be in everything. They will be involved and enjoy being involved at church, soccer, co ops, etc. However, I highly recommend the " The Hurried Child" as well as " Einstein never used Flashcards". These are great books that really put into persepctive how we, as Americans, force ourselves into the mindest that we needed to always be going and doing and being involved.
I am fighting hard against that; especially after this week. I love being busy to an EXTENT. I do not want my schedule filled every day, every hour. I want my children to be able to play together and not live out of a van. Is it so important that we enroll our babies in sports at 2/3 or that we foster a loving relationship with them and delay the enrollment to , gasp, 7/8???? Just some food for thought. I do enroll my boys in soccer and they are not 7/8 but we also say no to some things too. We need to use our time wisely. Especially those of us who are homeschooling. This is such a critical and important time, not only in our childrens' lives, but ours as well. Enjoy this time, don't spend it being overstimulated and feeling pressure from society to have your child enrolled in the highest this or the best this. Spend your time cuddling up and reading together, simmer some homemade hot cocoa on the stove, pop some old fashion popcorn and breathe. Laugh. Realize this is life.
I encourage you to be wise with your time and not waste it foolishly. Many times, when God calls us to our families we are able to say no to some things now so that we can open our hearts and say yes to many things now. I have trusted God with this area of my life and feel such an immense peace that I do not want to use this precious time of staying at home filling it with as I like to call " fillers". A perfect example as of recent. My children and I are members our cities science center. We were able to go get a preview of the robotic exhibit as well as SID the Science Kid( I told you I was not completley against branded things) . Well, Sid was arriving mid afternoon which meant that we delayed arriving to the museum until smack dab in the middle of nap hour. Oh joy. We drove an hour to the science center, spent the time amongst hoards of children, lines, and parents trying our best to get a chance to do some hands on activities. My oldest son melted down only about a thousand times, and he does NOT do that often. My middle son was amazing and my daughter ran away countless times, throwing herself to the ground, me picking her up, her squirming to get out of my arms, all while we waited IMPATIENTLY for Sid and a simple picture. I was irriated, tired and grumpy. My children were as well and we snapped a lovely picture of the boys with SID as Riah screamed from stroller and left immediately to enjoy a silent hour ride home.
I say this to make this point, was it worth all the hassel, the driving and the stress just to "do something" Sure Sid is great, but we spent about 5 seconds with Sid and about 4 hours of high stress with my children, traffic and a slew of people. My conclusion is no. This was one of those times where I chose to do something not based on what was best for my family or myself but what I thought sounded like a good idea, a great opportunity. It turned out frusterating and deflating. What have a I learned, once again, priortize my time, spend it in prayer and say no to opportunities, there are not such things as "once in a lifetime opportunities" if it is not the right timing. We drove home, the kids all fell asleep and I stopped and bought myself a java chip frappuccino...ahhh, now that was bliss!
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
This past week has been amazing! My Mother in Law visited for about 9 days and we had so much fun. One of the greatest benefits of homeschooling is the flexibility in our schedules. We were able to taylor our needs to what the day held. We spent an afternoon hiking in Payson. It was beautiful and the boys found a snake skin, lovely, lizards, sticks, and cool air. I enjoy getting away from the city much of the time and welcome these retrieves into our daily schedule. I also started hand sewing a special project for Moriah's Christmas present. I am not posting any pictures until after is complete, but I am quite impressed with the progress this little project has made and thankful to my MIL for helping me along the way. I am not naturally a seamstress; God knows that better than anyone; however, I truly enjoy learning new things and hobbies. Jayden is onto letter "U" and we are almost done with the inside race track for SSRW. I am very excited about this as I am ready to move on to new things. I love homeschooling. There has defiently been some frusterating moments; however, the great ones truly outweigh the others. Jayden is now in two different co ops, activities at church and soon to sports. Austen is also enjoying being apart of all of his best friend's activities. Today, we worked on many different activities, one being his science experiments for his co op. We are observing dried peas compared to fresh peas and making comparisons, etc. It is pretty interesting and simple. I checked out a million and one books from the library yesterday; not a huge surprise. I am getting ready to incorporate a whole new section to our workboxes and I have only a trillion ideas to go on. One book, The Dangerous Book for Boys, is full of great ideas ie: rope tying, cooking, nature collecting, etc. that will be so much fun to add. The possibilities are endless. God is so faithful, if we hold true to him and allow Him to guide our steps life will be so much less frusterating, maybe not more clearer but less frusterating and full of peace.
I am gearing up for Oktoberfest; not because I am into beer, I am not, but because I am proud of my German heritage and will pass this along to our children. I am so excited to try different German recipes, listen to the music, learn some new words and embrace my culture. Will post pictures later this week or early next week.
I am gearing up for Oktoberfest; not because I am into beer, I am not, but because I am proud of my German heritage and will pass this along to our children. I am so excited to try different German recipes, listen to the music, learn some new words and embrace my culture. Will post pictures later this week or early next week.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Today was an absolutely crazy day! It started off early and I had to get my workout in and shower before pictures, lunch and a new science co op that Jayden has started. I had the kids pictures taken today and it was an absolutely hillarious event. We arrive and the photo studio is actually running on time , which doesn't happen all that often. I have the kids color coordinated to the T and they are looking so adorable. I was only concerned with Austen because last year, we had to crop his picture from the picture of all three of the kids due to his less than desire to smile. He, however, suprised me as he flashed smile after smile and was winning my heart every second. The one that suprised me was little Miss Angel girls. She would not stop crying after the sibling shoot. There was no ball, "tickler", flower or doll that would soothe her heart. She wanted nothing to do with those devices, rather she only wanted me. There is one shot that is totally heart breaking and hillarious at the same time. There she is, with her little head wrap on, tears streaming down her face, her mouth open and turned down, looking up at the camera. SNAP. A moment in time that I will not forget. She looked so pitiful I could only laugh and hug my angels. She is growing up so fast. She says "hi", " Mumma", " Dadee" " ank you" and a few other words...how did this happen so fast? I love watching her walk, read stories to herself and love on her animals. She is such a mamacita and it is so precious to watch her and her gentleness.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
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