Mermaid Princess was adamant that she was getting married today. Fortunately for me, Flash was adamant he was not as he was apparently the only "man" around to marry.
Seriously cute. As long as no one's eloping.
I come from a family of readers. Big E. and I are both crazy readers. In fact, we are such avid readers that in our goals as parents, we had only three rock bottom things we knew we wanted to accomplish.
1. That the kids have a solid foundation in Christ - what they choose to do with it will, of course, be up to them, but we will have done the part God has asked us to do.
2. The kids are in heads up mode when choosing spouses - that we teach them that marriage is work, and to understand themselves well enough to understand what is important to them in a spouse. And that marriage doesn't make you complete - the right spouse, however, makes the journey a lot more fun.
3. And finally, that they love to read. Books have broadened my experiences, taught me new skills, honed my mind, sustained me, inspired me, provided rest, provided motivation... it is a tremendous gift, to love to read and to be able to do it without struggle. I am so thankful that I am married to a reader, and doubly thankful that it seems to be a generation of readers coming up alongside us!
These were taken today after we learned our new spelling words, Mermaid Princess read me a story, and we played a game. I sent them off to go have some well deserved goof off time, and came around the corner 15 minutes later to find them all in the family room doing this. Be still, my heart...
I just had to give a shout out to my sister, who made this adorable hat last winter for Flash. Flash has a frog blanket that sleeps with him EVERY night. It is so Velveteen Rabbit-ed that it has about 4 holes in each foot.
As a result, he loves all things frog. But particularly this hat.
If you can't resist, post a comment and see if she'll make one for you too!
Part of our homeschooling involves reading from the "Everday Children's Bible". We're supposed to read from it a little every day, but it never works that way at our house. Once I start, there is great clamoring until the week's worth of reading is done.
We recently reviewed the story of Joseph and the coat of many colors. This had led to a spate of ,
"Mom, if you pretend you are going to drive the car into the lake again, we are going to Sell You As A Slave." (This is uttered from the third row with great enunciation.)
Today, I just had to ask.
Mommy: "How much would you sell me for?"
MP(with great certainty): "Forty-six dollars."
Mommy (choking on laughter): "Really?"
MP (thinking it over): "Okay, maybe forty-six one hundred dollars."
I wonder what she would do with forty-six one hundred dollars?
The posts below are sweet, joyous, and include photos of the kids. If you aren't in the mood to hear (read?) my ruminations today, jump ahead. You won't hurt my feelings - I think the kids are pretty cute too!
See, as I posted the photos below, I realized that they are all from Sunday. And that months after working on keeping Sunday as a day of rest, I had one that really created a peace that has carried me all day.
Who would have thought that choosing to take a day of rest would have become such a struggle? I'm not talking about the old-fashioned, George Washington, have-to-sit-inside-all-day-reading-books-and-being-quiet day of rest... we just set out to have day with no errands, no chores, no email, minimal cooking, and lots of unplanned family time.
What we did NOT take into account...
My border collie personality that will herd tennis balls if that's all that's left to do.
Sundays were making me miserable. I was trapped in a house where I could see a million things that needed doing and unable to do any of them. By 5:00pm, I would be pacing the yard, hands behind my back, muttering under my breath. Around this time, Big E. would send me to my room for a breather -- for everyones sake.
Still, we've worked at it. For one thing, because we realized a few years ago that when we don't, the weeks just roll into one another and life slips by without purpose or evaluation. And for another, I wanted to establish a sacrosanct family time now before birthday parties and soccer games started appearing on Sundays. But mostly, because God included it in the Ten Commandments, up there with Do Not Kill and Do Not Commit Adultery. And we just felt that if He ranked it that high, we should probably do our best to have it at a high priority as well. We started in obedience. Actually, I continued mostly out of obedience, but I think the corner into joy has been turned.
We've hurt some people we love by refusing engagements. We've taken some flak from business associates who already think we coast easy with Big E. working from home.
But this Sunday, I noticed that the kids were content. We watched some football, we played some games, we went for a walk in the woods, we ENJOYED one another. I took my eyes off my house and shifted them to my family - how could I fill their hearts today? And I shifted them to my Father - have I thanked You enough for the blessings you have poured upon us?
And it worked! I rested, not in stillness, but in the lap of my Father and my family. Now that's a place to call home.
This is my Flash - given a choice, he'll take the option to build something anyday. His two grandfathers both love to build; Flash has it running through his veins and I'm looking forward to cultivating this talent. I have some home repairs I think he'll be ready to tackle in a year or two!
Building stuff is fun, but twenty times as fun when Daddy helps.
