As I sat watching Felicity play it was like a whole different world. She was pretending. She was playing with Kaomi's large, brown stuffed horse. Jeff was playing his guitar in the background. She was talking to Penny, as she was calling the horse. She moved it around to where she wanted it and carefully removed the bear that was under it to make it more comfortable. She gently stroked its back and talked to it more. Then she climbed on its back, but promptly got off and got one of Clark's blankets for its back. Then she climbed back on. "Bldip-bldip-bldip-bldip" she pretended to ride it. Then she got off and put the blanket "away". She sat down next to the horse talking to it and playing with it...over and over.
While she continued to play with the horse Kent came up to me and Clark. Clark was sitting on my lap. He was engaging Clark and pretty soon Clark was laughing at the sounds and things that Kent was making and doing for him. His giant grins showed how much he loves his big brother. I refrained from making Kent stop getting in Clark's face, because Clark was loving it.
Then it was time for Jeff and Kent to leave. The fun stopped, Felicity really wants to go with them, sad that she needed shoes and they left before she had them on. So sad, need shoes, go outside with Daddy 'n "Tent". Tears.
Just watching, observing without intervention brings joy to my heart. I truly have been blessed by God through my children.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
10 Things This Mommy Needs - Part One
As I'm being pulled in at least 7 different directions, sometimes I wonder how important everything is. To be able to do everything that I'm expected to and want to do I need to be able to stay on top of what is going on and prioritize. Sometimes it's hard to really accomplish whatever I need to do when I allow my own needs to take a back burner. So I thought I'd begin to share a list of my own needs and solutions to trying to meet those needs. I realize that someone else's needs may be completely different than mine and that is the joy of each person's life and how God has created us.
I haven't listed my needs in any particular order, so here are the first three needs of this mommy.
1. A consistent time to read my Bible and pray to start my day off right. I know when I am consistently in God's Word I feel more complete throughout my day. It's hard to fit my quiet time in when I have to start my day off running. Since this is the way it seems to be lately, I've been reading a passage of scripture to the kids and a story to go along with it in the morning. This doesn't really fill this need, but I feel that it is a step closer when I'm reading my Bible and praying, even with the kids. It seems with various seasons in life that I find a consistent routine and then it changes. Some days I try really hard to get my quiet time in, while the kids are going about doing their morning activities. Sometimes, when I find a verse that I find encouraging or that I need to work on something I write the verse on my white board in the kitchen. Then I can meditate on it often, sometimes for several days.
2. Lunch everyday. I mean a whole meal, not just a bite of something before running on to the next thing I need to do. I do eat throughout the day, but lunch can be hard because the kids want to eat, then Clark wants to eat, then somebody needs me for something, then Felicity wants to get down, then its time for me to read to the kids, etc. Then I am starving and don't know why I'm so hungry until I go to make supper and realize that I never really ate much for lunch. Some days it works great, like when we are all having the same leftovers I only have to fix one thing. Most days I fix sandwiches for the kids, but I'm not all that interested in eating PB & J most days for lunch. I like my peanut butter at breakfast.
3. Sleep. I find I can function better if I am rested. It's hard to get enough when you go to bed late and get up a couple of times to feed a baby. Then everyone expects you to jump out of bed raring to go first thing in the morning. I've been trying to go to bed earlier, but somehow Clark has noticed and doesn't want to let me do that. Naps are a thing of the past. If I wanted one, I either wouldn't be able to fall asleep or someone would wake me up. Besides, after I take a nap I feel worse than before. I have found that when I am on a decent sleep schedule it is much easier to get up early enough in the morning to consistently read my Bible before my day starts to fly.
Join me next week for Part 2.
I haven't listed my needs in any particular order, so here are the first three needs of this mommy.
1. A consistent time to read my Bible and pray to start my day off right. I know when I am consistently in God's Word I feel more complete throughout my day. It's hard to fit my quiet time in when I have to start my day off running. Since this is the way it seems to be lately, I've been reading a passage of scripture to the kids and a story to go along with it in the morning. This doesn't really fill this need, but I feel that it is a step closer when I'm reading my Bible and praying, even with the kids. It seems with various seasons in life that I find a consistent routine and then it changes. Some days I try really hard to get my quiet time in, while the kids are going about doing their morning activities. Sometimes, when I find a verse that I find encouraging or that I need to work on something I write the verse on my white board in the kitchen. Then I can meditate on it often, sometimes for several days.
2. Lunch everyday. I mean a whole meal, not just a bite of something before running on to the next thing I need to do. I do eat throughout the day, but lunch can be hard because the kids want to eat, then Clark wants to eat, then somebody needs me for something, then Felicity wants to get down, then its time for me to read to the kids, etc. Then I am starving and don't know why I'm so hungry until I go to make supper and realize that I never really ate much for lunch. Some days it works great, like when we are all having the same leftovers I only have to fix one thing. Most days I fix sandwiches for the kids, but I'm not all that interested in eating PB & J most days for lunch. I like my peanut butter at breakfast.
3. Sleep. I find I can function better if I am rested. It's hard to get enough when you go to bed late and get up a couple of times to feed a baby. Then everyone expects you to jump out of bed raring to go first thing in the morning. I've been trying to go to bed earlier, but somehow Clark has noticed and doesn't want to let me do that. Naps are a thing of the past. If I wanted one, I either wouldn't be able to fall asleep or someone would wake me up. Besides, after I take a nap I feel worse than before. I have found that when I am on a decent sleep schedule it is much easier to get up early enough in the morning to consistently read my Bible before my day starts to fly.
Join me next week for Part 2.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Intentionally Enjoying My Family - Projects
Over the last week I've been focusing on working on projects or spending special time with each of my family members.
Working on a family project is a great way to enjoy my family. With having so many little ones a large project isn't always very practical, but I can work on individual projects with different children.
I'm working on a sewing project with Katy and Kaomi. Katy said she wanted to make a sampler so before she can do that I thought that a needle book would be a good project so she has a designated place for her needle. Both the girls are working on making a felt needle book with me on Monday evenings, while Jeff and Kent are at Christian Service Brigade. They picked out the colors they wanted and we cut all the pieces. We sewed the tabs on for keeping the needle book closed and have started sewing around the edge with a contrasting color. I'm glad I chose felt as we've had lots of untangling which would be very hard with regular fabric.
I helped Kent work on a handmade birthday gift for Felicity. He is making her a bank, using a cylindrical can that had cookies in it. He picked out a fabric that he wanted to use to cover the can. He decided what part of the fabric he wanted then I put a small cut in the fabric where we needed the top to be and Kent ripped the fabric apart to make a straight line. He was a little nervous about ripping the fabric, but afterward he though it was pretty cool. When we had the right size piece of fabric we glued it to a piece of paper to make it easier to glue on to the can, which we did a couple days later. We asked Daddy to cut the slit in the lid. He still has to finish decorating it.
I made a special dessert for Jeff and served it to him with sparkling grape juice in the evening after the kids were in bed.
I've been taking time to color with Felicity. We were outside using sidewalk chalk and she wanted me to draw a camel. She liked it, which was good, because it wasn't a very flattering camel. I also helped her with some stickers that she put on a paper she was coloring. She thought the heart shapes were cool and kept pointing them out to me. I didn't even know that she knew what a heart was!
I've also been enjoying giving extra attention to Clark through tickles and toys that make him grin from ear to ear. I even got to have lunch out with just Clark one afternoon. He enjoyed the one on one time with Mommy.
I've also been making some extra time to read and snuggle more with Kaomi.
Another project which we've done in the past is to work on puzzles together.
You can read more about Intentionally Enjoying My Family here.
If you've been working on a project with your family let us know what you've been doing by leaving a comment.
I'm linking this post up with:
Working on a family project is a great way to enjoy my family. With having so many little ones a large project isn't always very practical, but I can work on individual projects with different children.
I'm working on a sewing project with Katy and Kaomi. Katy said she wanted to make a sampler so before she can do that I thought that a needle book would be a good project so she has a designated place for her needle. Both the girls are working on making a felt needle book with me on Monday evenings, while Jeff and Kent are at Christian Service Brigade. They picked out the colors they wanted and we cut all the pieces. We sewed the tabs on for keeping the needle book closed and have started sewing around the edge with a contrasting color. I'm glad I chose felt as we've had lots of untangling which would be very hard with regular fabric.
I helped Kent work on a handmade birthday gift for Felicity. He is making her a bank, using a cylindrical can that had cookies in it. He picked out a fabric that he wanted to use to cover the can. He decided what part of the fabric he wanted then I put a small cut in the fabric where we needed the top to be and Kent ripped the fabric apart to make a straight line. He was a little nervous about ripping the fabric, but afterward he though it was pretty cool. When we had the right size piece of fabric we glued it to a piece of paper to make it easier to glue on to the can, which we did a couple days later. We asked Daddy to cut the slit in the lid. He still has to finish decorating it.
I made a special dessert for Jeff and served it to him with sparkling grape juice in the evening after the kids were in bed.
 |
| Pretending to be surprised. |
I've been taking time to color with Felicity. We were outside using sidewalk chalk and she wanted me to draw a camel. She liked it, which was good, because it wasn't a very flattering camel. I also helped her with some stickers that she put on a paper she was coloring. She thought the heart shapes were cool and kept pointing them out to me. I didn't even know that she knew what a heart was!
I've also been enjoying giving extra attention to Clark through tickles and toys that make him grin from ear to ear. I even got to have lunch out with just Clark one afternoon. He enjoyed the one on one time with Mommy.
I've also been making some extra time to read and snuggle more with Kaomi.
Another project which we've done in the past is to work on puzzles together.
You can read more about Intentionally Enjoying My Family here.
If you've been working on a project with your family let us know what you've been doing by leaving a comment.
I'm linking this post up with:
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