Monday, August 20, 2007
Reflections
My blog has a new look! The photo at the top is from a very special little stop on my journey. A year ago spring, Lee and I left the kids with his parents while we were vacationing in Georgia, and made a little getaway to Callaway Gardens. The azaleas were in full bloom--it takes my breath away just thinking about it! We spent two days walking the footpaths and taking it all in. Praise God for his amazing creation!
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Choices
Sometimes, it's just great to have a few choices. Yeah, I know, it probably has something to do with being a control freak. I prefer to look at it as creativity.
Ever since I got my Mac, I haven't been able to use the "compose" mode in Blogger. (Which you understand if you use Blogger!) If you don't use Blogger, that really just means that if you want to do anything besides just plain typing in the font they give you, you have to know HTML code. I just don't. I was a little bummed (but not bitter). I did learn enough HTML to create a hyperlink. So that was good.
Well anyway, all of that just changed! No, I didn't give up my Mac--are you crazy? But I learned that if I downloaded this free browser, Mozilla Firefox, I could access the lovely editing tools. I know...you're glad too. ;-)
Ever since I got my Mac, I haven't been able to use the "compose" mode in Blogger. (Which you understand if you use Blogger!) If you don't use Blogger, that really just means that if you want to do anything besides just plain typing in the font they give you, you have to know HTML code. I just don't. I was a little bummed (but not bitter). I did learn enough HTML to create a hyperlink. So that was good.
Well anyway, all of that just changed! No, I didn't give up my Mac--are you crazy? But I learned that if I downloaded this free browser, Mozilla Firefox, I could access the lovely editing tools. I know...you're glad too. ;-)
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Today's stretch of the road
So we're driving north on the now infamous 35W to Bloomington, a route we seldom take, to get the kids to basketball camp this morning. I take the 90th Street exit and Benjamin, who is going into 2nd grade, and apparently knows all of the best routes around the metro says, "Mom, why aren't you taking the 82nd St. exit?"
"Because basketball camp is on 84th Street, so we would be going too far north, and have to turn back south. And besides, there are fewer lights on 90th Street, and the speed limit is higher (which is significant because we are not exactly early)," I reply. "Any other questions?"
"Uh, no, I guess not."
It's good that a couple of those logical genes came from his mom. I'll be needing them.
"Because basketball camp is on 84th Street, so we would be going too far north, and have to turn back south. And besides, there are fewer lights on 90th Street, and the speed limit is higher (which is significant because we are not exactly early)," I reply. "Any other questions?"
"Uh, no, I guess not."
It's good that a couple of those logical genes came from his mom. I'll be needing them.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
A Parenting Moment
Is it just me, or has it occurred to anyone else out there that parenting would be better left to the professionals? I mean, seriously, it's about the most counter-intuitive thing I've ever done!
God gives you this baby who can't do anything and doesn't know anything, so you do what comes naturally. You protect him, you teach him, you help him, you work with him. It doesn't take long to figure out that if you really want him to get something, you probably have to teach it in one form or another a thousand times.
Thing is, there is no tally counter that beeps when you reach a thousand. Or two thousand, just for safe measure. It is just now occurring to me that when he is zipping across the street on his scooter and I see a car coming down the block, this is not the time for lecture #3478. It's the time to thank God that he sends his angels to tend our kids. The very thing that made me a good mom a few years ago, could actually hamper my child's growth today. How is that fair?
We have a really hairbrained idea. We are considering having a few days where we let our kids self-monitor their behavior. We'll let them decide whether they've earned dessert. And why. We'll comfort them if they've been wounded or had their feelings hurt, but if they want their sibling dealt with, they will have to figure out the most effective way to do it themselves. With any kind of luck they will encounter more natural consequences than they would if we were intervening. They will have no positive reinforcement for tattling or whining. And maybe, just maybe, they'll be honest enough to hold themselves accountable. Wouldn't that be miraculous! But mainly, we'll get a few days' reprieve from riding them and "being consistent". If nothing else, we'll have the opportunity to reflect on our own responses and adjust. To let our parenting "grow up" with our kids.
Stay tuned. And just in case, be prepared to send in the professionals!
God gives you this baby who can't do anything and doesn't know anything, so you do what comes naturally. You protect him, you teach him, you help him, you work with him. It doesn't take long to figure out that if you really want him to get something, you probably have to teach it in one form or another a thousand times.
Thing is, there is no tally counter that beeps when you reach a thousand. Or two thousand, just for safe measure. It is just now occurring to me that when he is zipping across the street on his scooter and I see a car coming down the block, this is not the time for lecture #3478. It's the time to thank God that he sends his angels to tend our kids. The very thing that made me a good mom a few years ago, could actually hamper my child's growth today. How is that fair?
We have a really hairbrained idea. We are considering having a few days where we let our kids self-monitor their behavior. We'll let them decide whether they've earned dessert. And why. We'll comfort them if they've been wounded or had their feelings hurt, but if they want their sibling dealt with, they will have to figure out the most effective way to do it themselves. With any kind of luck they will encounter more natural consequences than they would if we were intervening. They will have no positive reinforcement for tattling or whining. And maybe, just maybe, they'll be honest enough to hold themselves accountable. Wouldn't that be miraculous! But mainly, we'll get a few days' reprieve from riding them and "being consistent". If nothing else, we'll have the opportunity to reflect on our own responses and adjust. To let our parenting "grow up" with our kids.
Stay tuned. And just in case, be prepared to send in the professionals!
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Good grief, gator...
...our loss is your gain!
Some precious friends of ours are on their way to Florida. They say they're staying there. They packed some big pieces of our hearts into that moving van. To add irony to injury, when they were cleaning out their stuff they gave us a gator costume! Thanks a lot. Well, it is cute, and Bethany is happy with it.
Sometimes the journey has more to do with someone else's journey, and that's hard. But our sovereign God doesn't make it right for them without also making it right for us. We don't have to like it, but, once again, contentment is ours to choose.
So who out there lives relatively closeby and likes to play dominoes?
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