My title was supposed to sound like a song, but it didn't work to well.. can you guess which song? Just for fun?
ANYWAYS....
I woke up yesterday morning at 7 am. Our church service starts at 10am, and every week I think to myself that I have plenty of time to get myself and my two little boys there on time. My younger son slept in until almost 8:30 so I used that time to get my face on and decide what I'll wear - believe it or not, that can sometimes take a long time as I'm not the most fashion savvy gal out there. Before I knew it the time was 9am and I had myself ready - though not dressed yet because that's just a bad idea to wear your Sunday best an hour before church starts when you have boys - and I had clean clothes pulled out for the kids, socks included. I even had an idea of where their shoes might be located. That was just an idea, though... All that was left to do was get breakfast for me and my slumber king who slept in, dress the whole lot of us and then whip up a quick salad for our church potluck. I had an hour. Thought that was pretty good.
Breakfast, 20 minutes.
Get dressed, 3 minutes.
Dress slumber king, 5 minutes (he's wiggly)
9:28, still doing pretty good.
As I was getting Jackson dressed my older child did a very timely BM and needed cleansing. While I was cleaning him up, Jackson ran into my bathroom and grabbed my toilet brush and it's carrying pot thingy... pulled out the brush and dumped whatever evil was in the carrying pot thingy all over the ONLY pair of nice pants he has that fit him. I'm pretty sure they're ruined. Now I have one poopy child lying on MY bed and one pouring pure evil all over himself. The question that didn't even have time to cross my mind was, "which child do I help first?" If I stay with Linden, Jack could get hurt cause there was probably bleach in that carrying pot thingy. If I leave Linden and help Jack I get poop on my bed. I chose the latter because, well, bleach. Now my boys weren't going to coordinate their clothes, not that they cared, and Jackson had to wear ankle biters to church.
Time? 10am..
I got the boys in their carseats and promised I'd come back in a minute or two. I still had to make my salad. Pulled out everything I needed and started making the dressing. No olive oil. No salad. I decided that we'd have to be the family that shows up to a potluck empty handed today.
By the time we got to church it was 10:20 and I was spent. Thankfully, we had a beautiful missionary couple visiting our service, some good friends of ours. It was such a delight to hear their update and see the video of the work they're doing in India. I was quickly reminded that all of my complaining is so unnecessary and a little poop on my sheets and toilet brush juice on my son's nice pants is not the end of the world. I just wish I could laugh more in the moment then after the moment. There was even plenty of food at the potluck and I got to catch up for a few minutes with my missionary friend.
Good morning? You bet. Sometimes there are plenty of reasons to keep us from joining in the fellowship of our friends and loved ones. Sometimes you just gotta get there. No matter what. I'm so glad I did.
Blessed, Laura
Monday, November 29, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Oh darn. That backfired.
I'm learning.
I tend to be a person who over teaches things. When someone else is not understanding what I'm teaching I find it much easier - though I'm not proud of this - to just finish it myself. An example would be my 3 year old wanting to put his own shoes on. It takes 1 minute for me to put his shoes on, it takes 10 minutes for him to put his shoes on and even then we have to take them off and fix it. I'm learning to let him try it on his own and celebrate the little achievements along the way instead of insisting on the correct outcome. So he puts them on the wrong feet... that's OK, he managed to get the velcro done up properly on both sides. Great job! He did it himself. All by himself. Maybe he'll get them on the right feet tomorrow.
On the topic of shoes, that very same 3 year old (Linden) likes to take his shoes off in the van while we're heading somewhere. I have told him many times to keep his shoes on. Today was no exception. Well, there was an exception. Mike and I are watching a DVD series right now on parenting. It's called, "Loving Our Kids on Purpose" by Danny Silk. Last night we were taught some simple ways to help children learn and take responsibility for their choices and actions. So, today I was armed with tools to help Linden learn a valuable lesson. Mr. Silk taught that it's a lot easier as the parent to just get angry or upset and say, "I don't have time for this!" while jamming the shoes back on his little feet (He was telling a different story, but insert our reality here). The child gets a stern talking to but still gets his shoes back on before heading out of the van. He's happy. No wet feet, got to have his shoes off, and see a pretty good reaction out of mom.
Not today. Today when Linden took his shoes off I didn't respond. I just got the grocery cart and lifted him out of the van onto the pavement. His reaction scared me. "Cool mom! I get to walk in my socks!" I thought to myself, "Oh darn. That backfired." He was supposed to tell me that he wanted his shoes back on so I could tell him that he made the choice to have his shoes off and he'll have to keep them off until we get home. We walked into the store and Linden got in the cart, we finished our shop and as we were leaving I lifted him out and said, "OK Linden, ready to walk to the van?" to which he replied, "YA!". We got outside and it was raining. It only took a few steps - and a few evil glares at me from concerned citizens - before Linden stopped and said that his feet were getting really wet. I responded calmly and lovingly, "Oh no! Boy, it sure is nice to wear shoes outside isn't it? We better get back to the van. Maybe next time you'll choose to keep your shoes on." Linden looked at me with a confused, blank look and then kept walking to the van. Lesson learned? We'll find out tomorrow when we're driving, hopefully his shoes will stay on his feet. (Just so you know, we were parked in the best parking spot available, close to the entrance. I didn't let my child get hypothermia)
If I constantly am solving all of my kids problems for them, the problem may be resolved, but the child doesn't learn anything. Kids are smart. They need opportunity to use the beautiful brains that God gave them and we need to not be afraid of what will happen if they mess up. I hope that the result of our little learning opportunity today will be that Linden thinks before he takes his shoes off. I hope he doesn't think, "If I take my shoes off, I'll get in trouble." I hope he thinks, "If I take my shoes off, my feet will get wet." Then he will be learning to think for himself and not just follow rules cause he has to.
This is my learning journey. I am loving this series so far and I know Mike is too. Hopefully I will be able to give some great updates on our progress and bring you along on the journey.
Journey is a funny word. Journey. Jour. Ney. Jeeerrrrrnnneeeeey.
Laura.
I tend to be a person who over teaches things. When someone else is not understanding what I'm teaching I find it much easier - though I'm not proud of this - to just finish it myself. An example would be my 3 year old wanting to put his own shoes on. It takes 1 minute for me to put his shoes on, it takes 10 minutes for him to put his shoes on and even then we have to take them off and fix it. I'm learning to let him try it on his own and celebrate the little achievements along the way instead of insisting on the correct outcome. So he puts them on the wrong feet... that's OK, he managed to get the velcro done up properly on both sides. Great job! He did it himself. All by himself. Maybe he'll get them on the right feet tomorrow.
On the topic of shoes, that very same 3 year old (Linden) likes to take his shoes off in the van while we're heading somewhere. I have told him many times to keep his shoes on. Today was no exception. Well, there was an exception. Mike and I are watching a DVD series right now on parenting. It's called, "Loving Our Kids on Purpose" by Danny Silk. Last night we were taught some simple ways to help children learn and take responsibility for their choices and actions. So, today I was armed with tools to help Linden learn a valuable lesson. Mr. Silk taught that it's a lot easier as the parent to just get angry or upset and say, "I don't have time for this!" while jamming the shoes back on his little feet (He was telling a different story, but insert our reality here). The child gets a stern talking to but still gets his shoes back on before heading out of the van. He's happy. No wet feet, got to have his shoes off, and see a pretty good reaction out of mom.
Not today. Today when Linden took his shoes off I didn't respond. I just got the grocery cart and lifted him out of the van onto the pavement. His reaction scared me. "Cool mom! I get to walk in my socks!" I thought to myself, "Oh darn. That backfired." He was supposed to tell me that he wanted his shoes back on so I could tell him that he made the choice to have his shoes off and he'll have to keep them off until we get home. We walked into the store and Linden got in the cart, we finished our shop and as we were leaving I lifted him out and said, "OK Linden, ready to walk to the van?" to which he replied, "YA!". We got outside and it was raining. It only took a few steps - and a few evil glares at me from concerned citizens - before Linden stopped and said that his feet were getting really wet. I responded calmly and lovingly, "Oh no! Boy, it sure is nice to wear shoes outside isn't it? We better get back to the van. Maybe next time you'll choose to keep your shoes on." Linden looked at me with a confused, blank look and then kept walking to the van. Lesson learned? We'll find out tomorrow when we're driving, hopefully his shoes will stay on his feet. (Just so you know, we were parked in the best parking spot available, close to the entrance. I didn't let my child get hypothermia)
If I constantly am solving all of my kids problems for them, the problem may be resolved, but the child doesn't learn anything. Kids are smart. They need opportunity to use the beautiful brains that God gave them and we need to not be afraid of what will happen if they mess up. I hope that the result of our little learning opportunity today will be that Linden thinks before he takes his shoes off. I hope he doesn't think, "If I take my shoes off, I'll get in trouble." I hope he thinks, "If I take my shoes off, my feet will get wet." Then he will be learning to think for himself and not just follow rules cause he has to.
This is my learning journey. I am loving this series so far and I know Mike is too. Hopefully I will be able to give some great updates on our progress and bring you along on the journey.
Journey is a funny word. Journey. Jour. Ney. Jeeerrrrrnnneeeeey.
Laura.
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