It's been awhile. Like a LONG while. There's actually so much to catch up on that I don't even know where to start. I feel the need to write though. For one, I miss it... but more importantly, there are so many memories and cute sayings and moments with the kids that I want to capture. I want to remember. So I decided to start by taking one kiddo at a time and recording some of the things that have been happening this year.
I'm pretty sure I told you about Casey in the kindergarten line already. It's the sweetest thing I've ever seen. He waits with me everyday until the last minute... then when his teacher comes to get his line, he reluctantly goes inside the gate. Don't get me wrong, he LOVES his teacher, Mrs. Henry. I'm pretty sure she's the best kindergarten teacher on the planet. She is the perfect mix of being completely lovable and having the class under control at the same time. She smiles and sings and has the cutest, most creative ideas like family art day and a manners tea and she even wrote me an email to check on Casey when he hit his head at school. The class is so in love with her that they pretty much do whatever she says. Anyway, back to the kindergarten line. Maybe it's because I never got to experience this with Jacob and Gavin because they took the bus in kindergarten? After the teacher greets each kiddo and gives them a giant hug, the line starts moving inside. Meanwhile, Casey (who always stands at the end of the line) walks backwards, yelling, "BYE MOM! BYE! BYE MOM!" and blowing me kisses until I can't see him anymore. Then usually, right before he is out of sight, he will blow me one. more. kiss. My heart.
Adam asked me one day, "What takes you so long to drop the boys off at school?" I told him it was because I waited with Casey everyday until his teacher walked him to the classroom. He just didn't get it. I said, "I know from experience... this time of hugs and blowing kisses in the kindergarten line is short. I know because Jacob was just like Casey at that age. Next year, he'll be with the big kids and I won't be able to watch him anymore. So I'm going to stand there everyday until I can't see him anymore... because it's the best 20 minutes of my day." Then it happened. One day, before going in the gate, Casey pulled me aside and said, "Mom, I have to tell you something very important. I don't think I'm going to say goodbye anymore because I sink I might be embarrassed." (I think he was starting to realize that he was the only one yelling out to their mom amongst all of the kids in his class.) I could feel the tears start to sting in my eyes and I gave him a hug. "Okay buddy." I said. "I love you." This was just a few weeks before the last day of school. To my relief, he still blew me those kisses in the kindergarten line until the very last day of school (although he used to be oblivious with his loud goodbyes, they turned into a soft, quiet, "Bye mom.") That last day was especially emotional... because normally, you don't know when the last day of something special will be (http://hannahhelpme.com/blog/when-did-I-last-wash-your-hair/)... but this time, I did.
Thankfully, he still wants to cuddle at night. As much as I feel like I want to collapse on the couch, I take him up on it almost every time. Again, because I know the nights that he will want to cuddle with me are dwindling. The routine is pretty much the same each night. He hides Wolfie somewhere in his bed and asks me to find him. Then sometimes he asks to brush my hair. Sometimes he asks me to pray for him. Sometimes he asks me to tell him something about when I was a little girl. But we always talk and cuddle and tell stories... and I cherish this time with him. One night, he said, "Mom, I don't want to go to school because I don't want you to leave me." Then I responded, "I don't want to leave you either." He said, "Then why do you drop me off??" Sometimes when I am lying there, he will gently put his little hand on my back. It's these moments that make me want to freeze time more than anything... to somehow feel that gentle touch on my back forever. If Adam comes to sweep me away to bed and Casey isn't asleep yet, he will grab me and plead for me not to leave him.
I love how Casey isn't afraid to talk about God, even at school. He tells me that he asks his friends if they know Him. When they had to fill out turkey feathers for what they are thankful for, Casey wrote God and Jesus. At first, he was the only one in his whole class. Then, I noticed on a different project where the students were writing what they were thankful for, other kids started to write God and Jesus too. Making an impact in kindergarten... so cool. Then, a few weeks later, Mrs. Henry invited the parents to the classroom to show a slideshow of what each student wanted to give their mom for Christmas. Casey wrote, "I want to give her a cross necklace and a God and Jesus heart."
Another thing I love are his cute mis-articulations. Like he says "I sink" for I think. Momma, I siiink we should go to the pool? Then he would follow it up with, "Could that be cool?" Or he would say, "Mom, the thing is..." all the time. Which I never knew where he got that from... until I caught myself saying it one day. I also loved it when he calls the Super Bowl the Super Goal. And how he calls pizza sauce potato sauce. And he says Walmark for Walmart. So cute.
He tells me I'm the best mommy even when I don't deserve it. One day he said, "You're the best mommy in the world. I'm not the best kid but you're the best mommy. Daddy is one of the best daddies, but you are the only best mommy." Another day, I was telling him that I was taking a class at church that teaches me how to be a better mommy and he said, "Why? You already are the best mommy!"
Thursday, January 11, 2018
When you are the one learning from your kids
I am in awe of my kids. They make mistakes, sure... and so do I. When it comes down to it though, to me, the most important thing is not how well they play sports, not how gifted they are in school, not how popular they are. It's their character. It's their heart. We teach them about God's love and God's character, we read the bible with them, we pray with them.... and we have seen that as their relationship with God grows, the more his character spills over into their life.
Jacob. At church, the fifth graders were making a huge banner with handprints and their favorite verses. As Jacob was telling me about it, I was so curious which verse he chose. I figured it was most likely John 3:16 or Proverbs 3:5 or Jeremiah 29:11. I think those were the verses I knew at his age anyway. He totally caught me off guard when he said, "I wrote two because I couldn't decide which was my favorite. The first was Psalm 27:14 "Wait for the Lord. Be strong and don't give up. Wait for the Lord. One day after church, one of his teachers told me that they were worshipping and his hands were raised... when nobody else's were.
Gavin. I went to this Financial class last spring (where they were teaching us how to teach our kids about money). Afterward, I was so excited and determined to set up a consistent allowance/chore chart for my kids. Up until then, we were paying our kids for chores they would do around the house that were above and beyond our expectations. Gavin is always the one who would volunteer to help vacuum, weed, whatever we needed help with. One day in particular, I remember paying him three dollars for vacuuming.
Inside Gavin's bible, there is an envelope for tithing. We have talked to the boys about tithing and explained how and why we give "money to God" out of every paycheck. They understand that God doesn't really need money, he is just looking for us to put him first and trust him with our finances. We talk to our boys about this, but we leave the decision of tithing and how much they tithe up to them. We want it to be a decision from their heart... not because we told them to. So a few Sundays ago, I was bringing Gavin to his class at church. On the table was a tithing jar and I saw him reach into his tithing envelope and carefully pull out all three dollars that I gave him for vacuuming that week. I couldn't stop my eyes from filling with tears. I couldn't help but think, "Would I have done that at his age? Give all three dollars?" I was flabbergasted. I remember bringing a quarter to church from time to time, but never anything that was a sacrifice. Just when I thought it would most likely be a one time thing, the same thing happened the next Sunday. Gavin filled an entire bucket full of weeds, only to take all of the money I gave him and give it back to God. Incredible. One of his teachers at church told me they were talking about wants and needs. Almost all of the kids were saying things like food and clothes (and video games ;), when Gavin said, "I think we just need God."
Casey. Casey has wisdom beyond his years. The other day in the car, a song was playing that said, "Do to others like you would have them do to you. It's the golden rule." Casey thought for a minute and said, "That's not really the golden rule, mom. The bible says to love God the most. That's the golden rule. So actually the words in this song should be the silver rule." When he had to make a tough decision, he said, "I heard God in my heart mom. And then I choosed the right choice." When we are reading the bible, he always has the most incredible questions and perspective on everything. He has always been timid to pray though. When we ask if anyone wants to pray, he just says no thank you... and we leave it at that. The other night, he wanted to pray though! You know how some kids hardly can say a few words and then they just start talking in sentences? Casey went from not praying at all to passionately praying the cutest, sweetest prayer! He was praying for protection for our family, and that his great-grandpa would know God before he dies, that God would help the people who are hungry and help the people who are sick to feel better... and all sorts of things! Amazing.
Ella. Ella has an incredible gift for dancing. Whenever we play worship music in our house, she will immediately go into this beautiful dance. We call it "dancing for Jesus". Her face is focused, yet full of joy. Her arms carefully swing around and her legs swiftly take her all around the kitchen. She sings too. The sing like no one's watching type of singing. We will be at the pool and she will belt out "YES Jesus loves me!" at the top of her lungs. She doesn't hold anything back. Then there are her prayers. She is always the first to enthusiastically yell, "ME!" when I ask who wants to pray. And God love her, she will pray for a loooong time. And half the time, we have no idea what she's saying. One time though, and I will never forget it, I was crying in the kitchen. Ella came up to me and said, "Mommy! Mommy no sad. It be okay. Ella pray for you mommy!" She softly held my hands and quietly prayed that God would please help mommy feel happy.
She has such a giving heart. We are just starting to give her an allowance each week and she wants to give it all to Jesus. We are teaching her to put aside 30 cents of her $3.00, but she continues to empty her piggy bank every week with SUCH a cheerful heart.
One of the cutest things she does is use the phrase "next year" instead of "tomorrow". Mommy? Are we going swimming NEXT year? I can't even correct it because it's so cute! She eventually started correcting it on her own and now she will say, "Are we going tomodow... after this day?"
Some of Ella's loves: Pretending... which is totally a new thing because I'm pretty sure our boys didn't pretend play EVER. She pushes her stroller and pretends to be a mommy. The majority of the time she wants to be a kitty or a doggy. Adam will play this animal game with her where they pretend to be a certain animal together and she will ride on his back. It's so cute. They also play a board game called Sneaky Squirrel every morning while the boys are walking to school (Daddy calls it Stinky Squirrel). She never gets tired of it. She also absolutely LOVES My Little Pony. She would watch it all day if we let her. (The funny thing is, Casey likes it too. I'm not sure if he would admit it, but he quietly sneaks in and is glued to almost every episode she watches.) You should see how excited she was when I got her a My Little Pony backpack for TK. Her eyes absolutely lit up and she was literally squealing with joy!
Jacob. At church, the fifth graders were making a huge banner with handprints and their favorite verses. As Jacob was telling me about it, I was so curious which verse he chose. I figured it was most likely John 3:16 or Proverbs 3:5 or Jeremiah 29:11. I think those were the verses I knew at his age anyway. He totally caught me off guard when he said, "I wrote two because I couldn't decide which was my favorite. The first was Psalm 27:14 "Wait for the Lord. Be strong and don't give up. Wait for the Lord. One day after church, one of his teachers told me that they were worshipping and his hands were raised... when nobody else's were.
Gavin. I went to this Financial class last spring (where they were teaching us how to teach our kids about money). Afterward, I was so excited and determined to set up a consistent allowance/chore chart for my kids. Up until then, we were paying our kids for chores they would do around the house that were above and beyond our expectations. Gavin is always the one who would volunteer to help vacuum, weed, whatever we needed help with. One day in particular, I remember paying him three dollars for vacuuming.
Inside Gavin's bible, there is an envelope for tithing. We have talked to the boys about tithing and explained how and why we give "money to God" out of every paycheck. They understand that God doesn't really need money, he is just looking for us to put him first and trust him with our finances. We talk to our boys about this, but we leave the decision of tithing and how much they tithe up to them. We want it to be a decision from their heart... not because we told them to. So a few Sundays ago, I was bringing Gavin to his class at church. On the table was a tithing jar and I saw him reach into his tithing envelope and carefully pull out all three dollars that I gave him for vacuuming that week. I couldn't stop my eyes from filling with tears. I couldn't help but think, "Would I have done that at his age? Give all three dollars?" I was flabbergasted. I remember bringing a quarter to church from time to time, but never anything that was a sacrifice. Just when I thought it would most likely be a one time thing, the same thing happened the next Sunday. Gavin filled an entire bucket full of weeds, only to take all of the money I gave him and give it back to God. Incredible. One of his teachers at church told me they were talking about wants and needs. Almost all of the kids were saying things like food and clothes (and video games ;), when Gavin said, "I think we just need God."
Casey. Casey has wisdom beyond his years. The other day in the car, a song was playing that said, "Do to others like you would have them do to you. It's the golden rule." Casey thought for a minute and said, "That's not really the golden rule, mom. The bible says to love God the most. That's the golden rule. So actually the words in this song should be the silver rule." When he had to make a tough decision, he said, "I heard God in my heart mom. And then I choosed the right choice." When we are reading the bible, he always has the most incredible questions and perspective on everything. He has always been timid to pray though. When we ask if anyone wants to pray, he just says no thank you... and we leave it at that. The other night, he wanted to pray though! You know how some kids hardly can say a few words and then they just start talking in sentences? Casey went from not praying at all to passionately praying the cutest, sweetest prayer! He was praying for protection for our family, and that his great-grandpa would know God before he dies, that God would help the people who are hungry and help the people who are sick to feel better... and all sorts of things! Amazing.
Ella. Ella has an incredible gift for dancing. Whenever we play worship music in our house, she will immediately go into this beautiful dance. We call it "dancing for Jesus". Her face is focused, yet full of joy. Her arms carefully swing around and her legs swiftly take her all around the kitchen. She sings too. The sing like no one's watching type of singing. We will be at the pool and she will belt out "YES Jesus loves me!" at the top of her lungs. She doesn't hold anything back. Then there are her prayers. She is always the first to enthusiastically yell, "ME!" when I ask who wants to pray. And God love her, she will pray for a loooong time. And half the time, we have no idea what she's saying. One time though, and I will never forget it, I was crying in the kitchen. Ella came up to me and said, "Mommy! Mommy no sad. It be okay. Ella pray for you mommy!" She softly held my hands and quietly prayed that God would please help mommy feel happy.
She has such a giving heart. We are just starting to give her an allowance each week and she wants to give it all to Jesus. We are teaching her to put aside 30 cents of her $3.00, but she continues to empty her piggy bank every week with SUCH a cheerful heart.
One of the cutest things she does is use the phrase "next year" instead of "tomorrow". Mommy? Are we going swimming NEXT year? I can't even correct it because it's so cute! She eventually started correcting it on her own and now she will say, "Are we going tomodow... after this day?"
Some of Ella's loves: Pretending... which is totally a new thing because I'm pretty sure our boys didn't pretend play EVER. She pushes her stroller and pretends to be a mommy. The majority of the time she wants to be a kitty or a doggy. Adam will play this animal game with her where they pretend to be a certain animal together and she will ride on his back. It's so cute. They also play a board game called Sneaky Squirrel every morning while the boys are walking to school (Daddy calls it Stinky Squirrel). She never gets tired of it. She also absolutely LOVES My Little Pony. She would watch it all day if we let her. (The funny thing is, Casey likes it too. I'm not sure if he would admit it, but he quietly sneaks in and is glued to almost every episode she watches.) You should see how excited she was when I got her a My Little Pony backpack for TK. Her eyes absolutely lit up and she was literally squealing with joy!
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