Teaching Them Young

** Warning: This post started in my head as a cute story about my kids but ended up "on paper" as a preachy sermon type blog post...I think working for a pastor has gone to my head, all of a sudden I feel I can preach!

I pray a lot about parenting. I just want to do the best possible job with the kids God has blessed me with. Lately, God has been showing me what it means to truly be a servant; to serve Him and serve others. As I examined my life, I realize that I have lived a pretty selfish life. In the past I have been greedy with my time and talents and have either been blind to people's needs or just plain lazy. There are so many places to serve in the church and yet many people who attend feel that their time is too precious to "waste" on other people.

I don't want to live like that anymore but even more, I don't want my kids to live like that. Life is so much more meaningful and fulfilling when I live it selflessly instead of selfishly. I find that when I use my time serving others, I am much happier. I am in awe of a certain family at my church who has raised all of their children with this selfless spirit. Their first instinct is to always help others. Their kids have all been raised in the church and although not all are adults yet, they all are in love with Jesus. My biggest prayer right now is that my children will fall deeply in love with Jesus and will walk with Him their entire lives. So, this particular family inspires me and gives me hope in the midst of a dark world. But, I think a big part of why these parents have been so successful with their kids is because they taught their kids the value of serving others. At church, they are the first to volunteer for everything and are the most reliable people. They are so committed to each of their ministries and just desire to use their gifts to serve the Lord.

I want my kids to experience the joy of serving the Lord like those kids have. I want them to see that it truly is better to give than receive. I want them to understand the value of using their time to serve others. This starts with me and my husband. We have to step up and be the example. Now, I constantly look for opportunities to teach my kids this lesson. This weekend, Crossroads (my church) provided a great opportunity to do this. They needed help screwing light bulbs on and fluffing the branches of our 50 ft. Christmas tree! It was a BIG job which required lots of people. My husband and I and the kids jumped in on the assembly line and explained to the kids that we all needed to "help!" We all had a wonderful time "helping," meeting new people, building community with those around us, and just laughing together. I was so blessed by one young girl, whose job it was to transfer the finished branches. She was so sweet, allowing Noah and Maia "help" her carry the finished branches to their correct spot. They really felt like they were helping and did not want to leave.

If you're a mom, I encourage you to look for ways to serve others with your kids this week. It is such a bonding experience but it is also a valuable lesson to teach our kids. Let's be people who go against the grain; instead of making our children into selfish people who think the world revolves around them, let's make them into selfless fulfilled adults who regard others as more important than themselves.

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but to the interests of others." Phillippians 2:3

A Dirty Bath

I've neglected my blog the past couple of weeks, not for lack of material but rather for lack of time. I feel the need to commit to being a more faithful blogger at least for this week. Okay now on to the dirty bath story.

Yesterday morning I had to get myself and my two kids ready for family pictures by 9:00. This was a daunting task...one that I was not looking forward to. I made out my minute by minute schedule and also prepared a Plan B. However, it turns out I should have had a Plan C; a plan of action in the case of a "floater."

I woke up, got myself half ready...you know, half dressed, partial make-uped, and semi-blow dried when the kids called for me to come get them out of bed. I got them out of bed, fed them breakfast, and coaxed them into the bath tub. I was proud of how efficient I was in getting them soaped and rinsed. Just as I was patting myself on the back for my efficiency, Maia gave me a pained look, and grunted "poooop." "NOOOO," I scream! I had just put shampoo on my hands and I felt paralyzed for a second. For some reason my first instinct was to put the shampoo in her hair to get it off my hands before grabbing her out of the bath. In hindsight I should have just picked her up as fast as I could and put her on the toilet. Well, I didn't do that and in the time it took to rid my hands of the shampoo, Maia had made a nice, solid, green deposit into the bath tub. Noah, reacted as though the Boogie Man had just jumped into the bath tub with him. He screamed and scooted as far away from the green deposit crying and yelling, "I DON'T LIKE POOP MOMMY! I DON'T LIKE POOP! GET IT OUT!" I quickly swooped my daughter out of the tub onto the toilet to no avail. In the midst of the lift she made more deposits onto the bathroom floor. None of the "stuff" made it into the toilet. I quickly fished out the floater and cleaned up the floor all the while willing my gag reflex to go away and thanking God that the deposit in the tub was indeed solid and in one piece. I had Noah drain the tub and I did a quick disinfectant wipe up of the tub while my kids stood wet, and freezing with soapy hair waiting to finish their bath.

My Plan A and Plan B did not make time for cleaning up poop, soothing my son from the traumatization of the "floater," and having to re-do my make-up, and re-dry my semi-dried hair due to the excessive sweating that had taken place during the whole ordeal. However, we did make it on time to our family photo shoot, but I am sure in all the pictures my face plainly says, "I had a very stressful morning."

What Am I In For?

I constantly pray for God to reveal to me the unique personalities of each of my children and to give me wisdom in raising them accordingly. I believe that He answered my prayer yesterday and gave me a glimpse into my future with my daughter. I have always known that Maia Belle is a bit feisty but after this particular experience I now know that she is independent, stubborn, strong willed, and determined.

We were at the park when Maia decided that she wanted to try and put the stroller buckle together all be herself. She got on her knees on the cement sidewalk in front of the stroller grabbed the buckle and began her attempt to put it together. She could not get it and so I asked if I could help her, "NO! I do it self." I sat there and watched her attempt this for 5 minutes. Her knees were getting tired so she tried to sit down but that didn't give her the right angle to work on the buckle, so she got back on her little red knees and continued her attempt. This time, I asked if I could show her how to hold the buckles to put them together. She screamed when I put my hands on the clasps and said, "I DO IT!" I left her alone, knowing that if I helped, she would have a fit. I watched for another 15 minutes while she kept saying, "Almooost!" Her poor little knees must have been in so much pain, but she was focused and determined. It killed me to not be able to help her. I know that my future will hold many moments like that for me; feelings of helplessness when it comes to my kids. I sat there talking to God in that moment asking him to prepare me for these those times and to give me wisdom to steer my baby girl's determination, focus, and strong will into the right direction.

She never did get figure it out. I finally had to forcefully remove her from the situation. She screamed, tried to bite me, writhed and cried in the stroller for the entire half mile walk home because she wanted to do the buckle herself. It was the longest 1/2 mile of my life...

Confessions From This Week

After eating chocolate chip cookies at 9:30 p.m. for 7 days in a row, I've decided to exercise some will power when it comes to late night sweets. It's not going so well. Last night I felt like a drug addict as I rummaged through the cupboards looking for something sweet and begging Ricky to run to the store and get me some dessert. I ended up settling for a lone M&M that I found decomposing in the very back of the pantry.

One morning this week, I spent about 20 minutes searching (tearing apart my room, dresser, hamper, and closet) for a shirt that did not exist. I thought I had purchased it during my shopping trip last weekend. Apparently I imagined that I bought the shirt but did not actually purchase it.

I almost cried last week when my house cleaner did not show up. My house was that dirty.

I cleaned my own floor for the first in 6 months that same day.

I am currently obsessed with Zinc tablets. I take them about 6 times a day and am convinced that they will keep me from getting sick. However, if at the end of the day I realize that I've only taken 3 that day, I panic and believe that I will surely wake up with the Swine Flu the next morning.

I Plead Guilty

We went to Red Robin for dinner the other day because I'd had a bit of a crazy day (needs a whole post all to itself) and I didn't feel like cooking or doing dishes. As soon as we got there, Noah headed straight for the arcade games to "drive the car." I called him over as soon as the hostess was ready to seat us and he bounced over to me excitedly blurting, "There was Woody over there! I saw him!" I thought it was one of those plush toys in the machines but he insisted on going back over there. I told him to wait until after we ate, but he would not be quiet or stay still until I gave in. Ricky, could no longer handle his high pitch requests to go see Woody and gave in. About 2 minutes later, Noah comes running over holding up a toy Woody character from Toy Story and yelling, "I FOUND WOODY, MOMMY!" I shoot a questioning look over to Ricky and he says,"It was just sitting there on the chair, and there was no one around." Shoot! Noah is more excited than I have ever seen him in his life, but what if the kid who lost it comes back looking for it? I should probably take it to the front host table...but what if that kid already left and the toy just sits there forever...and Noah will be so disappointed if I take it away, after Ricky already told him he could have it...ARGH! I found myself in a moral quandary. I told Noah that he could play with it but that it belonged to another little boy and if that little boy came over to claim his toy, Noah would have to give it to him. Noah shrugged his shoulders put his hands up and said, "Oh that boy's not here. He's at home sweeping in his cwib. He can't get Woody."

Well, I ended up letting him keep the toy and no little boy ever came up to him to claim it. I have felt guilty ever since. I bet that little kid went back to Red Robin looking for his toy and it was gone...poor kid.

I'm Firing Myself

I cannot seem to master the art of taking my son pee in the standing position without making a complete mess. Today, he peed all over two pairs of shorts, two t-shirts, my truck, my purse, a trash can, and a wall.

This may be a totally inappropriate topic but I am just so frustrated that I must address it. I thought that I would start letting Noah stand up to go pee because that is what boys are supposed to do... and because it is more convenient when outside and when using public restrooms...you know, to avoid seat covers, germs, and diseases? Well, it turns out it is not more convenient. It is actually much messier and germy-er than I anticipated.

Today, while at Costco, I attempted this, and instead of Noah's pee stream going in the toilet it went all over the back wall, and onto the floor which resulted in me gagging and wiping down the wall and the floor in the stall with toilet paper. Later, while at my mom's I attempted this again, this resulted in once again completely missing the toilet and making it into the trash can on the side of the toilet, all over the towel cabinet adjacent to the toilet, and down onto the poor boy's shorts. However, the biggest pee failure of the day happened at the park.

We were getting into the car on our way home from the park when Noah says he has to go pee. I decide that it will be much easier to just let him go next to the truck rather than taking him all the way to the bathroom. I still have my purse on my shoulder, because I have not gotten around to putting it in the truck. I position Noah facing the truck so no one will see him. I don't even have a chance to get him "aimed" when the stream begins to flow. It shoots all over the truck and splashes back at us, I scream, he cries, my purse falls down my shoulder right into the pee stream, it ricochets back onto my arm and my shirt and even on my face and onto Noah. I get flustered and forget that I am holding his shirt up. I let go and his shirt and shorts gets soaked. I hear laughter. Ricky is watching the whole scene from the driver's seat via the side view mirror. I yell at him to stop laughing and bring me some wipes and then I continue on a rant about why he would let me take Noah pee when he is the boy, the one who doe this all day every day! I don't pee standing up, how should I know how to do this? Meanwhile, Noah is whining because he is soaking wet, and he thinks he's ruined the truck since he peed all over it.

So, my solution to all this is that Ricky must now take Noah potty whenever he is with us. If he is not with us, Noah will pee sitting down. End of story.

Halloween

Halloween was so much fun this year. We went to our church's yearly Trunk n' Treasure and the kids had a blast. The funny thing is that they got NO candy! Because they don't even know what candy is, they were not interested in it at all! They were more fascinated by all the kids and their costumes and with dancing! They had a DJ playing music and my kids spent most of the evening working the dance floor! The highlight of the evening was when Noah found "Jessie" from Toy Story. He was in awe of her and just wanted to be next to her (I think she was actually supposed to be Woody, but Noah was sure she was Jessie)!

As you can see, Maia's Elmo costume lasted all of about 2 minutes before she would not let us put the hat portion on her head anymore. She did start the evening with a face plant on the cement due to that much-too-heavy-Elmo head so I really couldn't blame her for not being fond of it.

Here are some photos of my little munchkins!