Take It Easy On Me

There is a song with those lyrics in them. However, that is the only part I can remember. They are the ones that speak to me the most. Especially since my mom reminded me to go easy on myself. Which I am learning to do more often, mom! Yet it is a struggle for me still. So I plan to follow my holiday thriving plan from Christmas which starts with embrace imperfection and goes on to leaving one thing undone each day on purpose. With school about to get started up again and summer frolicking about to end, I need to remember to not push myself to the point of a breakdown. I must stop and have fun each day. So, I am planning to do just that and document what fun I have each day. It may be a list at the end of the week to share with you or maybe I'll post it each day. I may be having so much fun I forget to share!! Anyway, let's see what tomorrow holds.

My God Will Deliver and Guide

My God will deliver and guide me. Even on a day like today when it feels like I must be the worst parent in the world. I am not giving specifics but it seems like two of the kids are needing a lot of training in specific areas and the other poor child, who we keep forgetting to do his eye exercises with, is seeing two of most everything again. And we were so excited when he began seeing one of everything on Thursday!!

It is not any fun getting crazy irritated with your kids. I am supposed to be spending this day loving and enjoying them. Reading together and playing together. I have been loving them but with training more than the fun sitting down and cuddling stuff. It is so hard to move past the irritation when it gets this bad. But as I sit and write I am reminded that God is bigger than this. I have irritated him like this many times and he still cherishes me. He stuck with me and waits for me to grow and takes the time and great effort to change me into a better person. I choose to do the same for my children. I choose to take this difficult day and fill it with love until we go to bed tonight. I choose to get myself calmed down and let God fill me with his love and patience. I choose to seek God's wisdom in shaping and molding my children. And I choose to begin right now in prayer!

Lance the Dog

This is Lance! He also came home with us this morning. It took him awhile to warm up to us but he seems quite happy now. He and his brother wrestle and play.

This is Rex!

This is Rex! He came home with us this morning. He is the more bossy one often taking his brother's toy or trying to get the attention for himself!

Routines

Summer is such a hard time to have a routine. You know I planned on having a lot more school time than we have had. Guess I didn't plan very well. The kids are happy about that. But I do sneak things in and try to use our everyday activities to teach them new things. Like this adventure with the dogs.. We will be learning about hard work, preparation, responsibility, and the rewards of these characteristics. Don't you think these are so much more important than learning which bear is the largest in the world? Sometimes I forget that the most important lessons for my children are those that teach them how to be more like God, how to be pleasant to be around, and how life works better when we behave well and work together. I will be spending a lot more time on that this year. Don't think I will neglect reading, writing, and arithmetic! We will get it all in. And we will use it in our day to day activities! I really want us to explore life and experience our surroundings and events!

Back to the routine idea! I don't like routines! Coming up with them isn't the problem. It is doing the same things over and over again. I can come up with routines and schedules and I can follow them for a while but then life takes over along with my desire to have fun and the routine gets left behind. Then I start to notice that chaos creeps in. We've been so busy having fun that we don't know what to do with ourselves. We thought we didn't need to drink that water as much or eat like we should until we start snapping at each other and forgetting what we wanted to do for fun in the first place. That's when we realize that we've got to reestablish some kind of routine. So, that is where we are right now. I have made a routine for us. Between getting enough water, doing Allen's eye exercises, watering my plants, and going on trips I have to have a plan to keep it all going! So I have made one! Let the calmness of routine, mixed with fun of course, begin!

Dogs and Life

Well, here we go on a new adventure! In a couple of weeks we will be dog owners! And are we going to step in lightly with one dog? Of course not, we are jumping in with two German Shepherd puppies. If it were only Jeff and me, we would not have a dog. We have had our adventures dog sitting in early marriage and quickly decided we are not a dog couple. But then came the kids... Those three boys full of life and energy who all want a dog or an animal of some kind. For so long we told them no because the yard was not fenced and we were certainly not having an indoor dog. I had even begun to think about a hamster or gerbil. But now that we have a fence and partly because our kids never begged for the dogs, we have decided it would be fun for the boys.

Jeff has never had a dog that he really remembers so I think he is a bit nervous about what to expect. He and Benjamin will be building a dog house tomorrow. Isn't Jeff ambitious and courageous!? And we will be reinforcing the fence to make sure our dogs stay home! Also the boys will have to learn to keep their toys put away so they don't get chewed on. Then there will be learning how to train the dogs. And I am sure we will have many fun adventures to come! I'll let you know how the dog house building goes.