“Mom, I know…”

This year, I’ve seen my ten year old grow leaps and bounds.  I know that there will be times when our kiddos do that, but it seems like ten was a big year for us.  It started on Easter.  Every year, my sweetie and I decided we wouldn’t buy cheapie pre-made baskets for our kiddos and that we’d make our own. 

Our family is HUGE on family traditions so I’d make the baskets and set them outside our front door.  Believe me, our kiddos know the true reason to celebrate Easter and the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, however, it is fun to be able to provide them a gift on that wonderful day as well.  This picture was from 2010.

 

A week before Easter this year, my Lil G and I were running errands and he said in the car, “Mom, I know…”  To which I responded, “what?”  Then he dropped the bomb. “I know you’ve been the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy all this time.” 

My heart sank.  Is he mad at me?  Did he feel deceived?  I didn’t know what to expect.  I tried to hold back my tears but it just began to stream down my cheeks.

Softly he said, “I never wanted to tell you because I knew it was special to you and I didn’t want you to feel bad. I see why you do it and the hard work you put into our baskets and it’s special to me too.”

I pulled the car over and we hugged.  I told dad what an amazing child we had and how our very mature and amazing son handled it.  Over the summer as my sweetie and I reflected, we realized he didn’t mention Santa in his news.  Did that mean he still believed?  We decided to let it slide.  Perhaps we still have a little innocence of make believe in our ten year old baby after all!

Then… it happened again.

“Mom, I know…”  We were heading out to our special date night.  We are starting a new tradition of taking each one of our kiddos on a special date night to get to know each one individually better.  We wanted to make sure to invest one and one time with each of our blessings and my hubby had Lil Dude and it was my turn with Lil G.  “Mom, I know Santa is Daddy.”  “How long have you known?” I responded.  “Over a year.” 

Wow.  That night as we sipped up our Jamba Juice we laughed and giggled over our new little secret.  Lil Dude still believes and Lil G wanted to still have some time enjoying knowing something Lil Dude didn’t. 

Then I recalled Lil G insisting that we go for another ride on the Polar Express this year.  We’ve gone every year since he was 3, but I thought this year we’d skip it (we traveled so much this year, I figured we could bypass it).  However, Lil G insisted we go even if it was on a weeknight and wouldn’t be able to stay the weekend.  I wondered why he insisted since he already knew Santa wasn’t real?  To which he responded, “Mom, it’s a tradition.  It’s OUR tradition and that’s what our family is about.”

When an exciting Family Joy opportunity goes WRONG…

On Saturday, we spent time as a family cleaning up the house and organizing.  The boys worked so hard! So my sweetie and I decided we would pull an awesome prank/reward on them for a great family memory.  I got the idea from the book Building Family Ties with Faith, Love, and Laughter in which I reviewed here.  Here is an excerpt of the book:

“If you have young kids, some of your spontaneous activities will not require much advance planning. Take advantage of that luxury now! Come bedtime, say, ‘Get your PJs on and meet me at the car. We’re going to the drive-through at Krispy Kreme doughnuts.’”

So at about 9pm we helped the boys get ready for bed:

• Bath/Brush Teeth
• Pajamas
• Tucked them in to bed and prayed our bedtime prayer

After that, we were SUPPOSED to just close the door and then open it back up again immediately and yell “Surprise, we are going out for ICE CREAM!”  That was the PLAN.  But somehow, my dear husband didn’t understand the implications of his stalling.  Just when I was about to open the door back up again, he said, “hold on, let me put my shoes on” in which he casually went to get his shoes. THEN he went to throw some thing away.  THEN he wanted to put a different shirt on because we were heading out.  THEN he went to grab a quick drink of water.  Wha?!  I’m standing at the door thinking, Oh my gosh my sweetie is taking sooo long!  I want to do the surprise now!  FINALLY he was ready.  It seemed like only minutes but apparently they were crucial minutes.

I count to three silently and we open the door and yelled, “SURPISE we are going to get some ICE CREAM!”

I looked at what I thought would be giggling excited faces… to find that my two boys screaming in a panic and TERRIFIED!  I wish I could have recorded this. Lil G screamed so hard he started crying.  Lil Dude thought he was getting ROBBED (so he says).  Lil G turned ghost white. They trembling and were shaking.

Oh My Gosh. I messed up.  They apparently were so tired, they were already drifting off when my dear husband decided to stall.  I ran over to hug Lil Dude while my sweetie hugged Lil G. We explained what we were up to.  We wanted to surprise them and take them out for ice cream.  Then we finally got the giggles.  Then Lil Dude said, MOM!  You are CRAZY!

We laughed and got our shoes on and went to get ColdStone.  The boys giggled the whole way there.  I can’t stop laughing. I keep laughing while I am writing this post.  They forgave us and now it’s one of their favorite stories about their crazy mama and daddy.

Foto Friday

When the kiddos are quiet, our mama instincts kick in and we try to figure out where our kids are, right?  So when I couldn’t hear Lil Dude, I went on a hunt to find him.  Where did I find him, you ask?  Sneaking behind the coffee table to READ!  Yes, my Lil Dude loves to read.  So why would he hide to read?  Because he is reading his big brother’s old chapter book.  Lil G LOVES Captain Underpants and has his own collection.  Lil Dude was afraid he’d be in trouble for reading big brother’s book.  Instead Mama was so giddy she had to get her camera.

Here is my forever memory of my second grader reading a fourth grade reading level book!

Building Family Ties with Faith, Love, and Laughter

 

“Laughter and Joy shouldn’t be guests in your house; they should be permanent residents in your everyday life”

I received Building Family Ties with Faith, Love, and Laughter (Faithful Families) by Dave Stone from Booksneeze yesterday and read it one day!  I just couldn’t put it down.  I felt it reaffirmed my own personal parenting purpose.  Throughout each day, we have to be intentional and ensure that we are building a joyful, secure home. 

Here are some book highlights:

The book talks about developing a family mission statement and how this will give your family direction, a focus that holds your family together. Secondly, I like how Stone talks about the importance of a family dinner table time.  While we do this at home, we are quite lax when the boys want to be excused after eating.  Stone through his insightful stories, helped me fast forward in my mind the teen years when our boys might try to get away with this and how that can be risky during those critical years. He gives ideas on how you can establish routines during dinner including developing fun and silly questions ahead of time to create bonds with your family.

I’m excited about implementing Stone’s Good, Better, Best  principle in our family.  It’s a method in which as a family we discuss what is a Good response to a situation encountered and what would be a better or best response?  The author gives the example of being a friend’s house for dinner and a good response is, ‘thank you for dinner, may I be excused?’  A better response is, ‘this dinner was really great! I liked the chicken, May I be excused?’ The best response is, ‘Thank you for dinner. I really liked the chicken. Do you need any help cleaning up?’

This book is jam packed with stories and ideas of how to develop and strengthen your family.  I highly recommend this parenting book.  It is a quick read and you can determine which methods to implement.  As for me, we might be implementing them all . 

 

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Pillow Talk First, Fun Pillow Fight Afterwards

Image courtesy of Photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net"

I saw Pillow Talk Questions for You and Your child on Pinterest the other night and I just had to go and try out these questions with our boys.  It was a humbling experience to hear some of their answers.  Here are just a few that will forever be engraved in my mind…

• What do you like to dream about?

Lil Dude: I like dreaming about becoming a super hero and helping people

• Who is your hero? Why?

Lil G: My hero is my dad. He is wise and I like how he works helping kids.

• How would you describe your family?

Both: Crazy! Fun! and… sometimes Angry.  (Ouch. It was super hard for me to swallow that one.)

• If you could change anything about yourself, what would it be?

Lil G: Being timid and shy. I don’t like people thinking that I don’t want to be their friend...

• What are you most proud of yourself for?

Lil G: Trying new things like joining a Performing Arts class because I am really shy.

• Who is the kindest person you know? Why?

Lil Dude: My mom. She snuggles and watches tv shows with me even when I know she has a lot of things to do. (I melted right then and there)

Afterwards, you can engage in a nice little Pillow Fight
One thing for sure is that your kiddos will be honest.  Brutally honest.  I’ll admit that my sweetie and I have some work to do on the “Anger Management” department.  But it felt really cool to hear their thoughts.    These questions were so awesome and we did half of them the first night and the ten on the second night.  By the third night they wanted more and I had to search for more ideas!  So I encourage you to try this out with your kiddos.  They are great conversation starters and you never know what they might say!

Our Journey to Virtual School

Over the years we’ve homeschooled using a number of curriculums. Sonlight, Apologia, Bob Jones, Teaching Textbooks and… so many more! This past year we made a prayerful decision for our family to find a better balance. We decided to go VIRTUAL. Yep. I said it. We are now official charter school students in a virtual schooling world.

We began our new journey in August and now that we are a month in, I have to say, I love it. We’ve been blessed with two amazing co-teachers for each of our boys (I call them co-teachers since I’m still the one teaching the lessons here at home). Connections Academy staff and teachers have been an amazing resource to me.

In the past years, I still wanted our boys to take the yearly standardized exams issued by the state. So even with a hodgepodge of curriculum choices, I made sure we were covering the relevant topics and used our state standards as my guide. Guess what?! We received Lil G’s scores last week and he received ah-mazing scores! He even received an “Exceeds” in Science! Insert proud mom beaming face here. So entering Connections Academy I wasn’t afraid that our boys were behind in any way. We just wanted to try something new that might be a better fit for our family.

So a quick Pros/Cons:

Pros

· I didn’t have to pay for the curriculum this year (we’ve spent an average of $700 each year on new curriculum. I know there are more budget friendly ways to homeschool on a shoestring budget, but we averaged this amount)

· I didn’t have to PLAN our lessons this year. As a result, I found myself to be WAY more creative. I’ve learned that I seem to have a limited amount of creative juices and after pouring all of it to my lesson PLANNING, I have a little bit of hard time finding extra teachable moments.   However, since now the plans are laid out for me entirely, I find extra teachable moments.  Sometimes during my very easy planning time (gathering materials for the lessons, reviewing what will be covered, etc.), I’ll pull resource books from our original homeschool library to supplement.  This makes our learning WAY.MORE.FUN!

· We’ve been more accountable with our lessons. I’d say in the past years we would say… hmmm we’re having one of those days. Why don’t we double our lessons tomorrow? Let’s cut our lessons in half, why don’t we and go to the park ;)

· We got an extra FREE computer to use in our home. Yep. Free.

Cons (these cons are actually the cons given to me by my old homeschooling colleagues)

· We have to stick to “their” curriculum timeline. So not really flexible in jumping around. But hey, it’s all good. I’m finding no stumbling blocks there.

· “You are now not official homeschoolers. You are involving the government in your education. With a computer in your home, you now have Big Brother in your home.“ My response: “Um… ok?”

· “What?? Virtual schools don’t teach from a Christian Perspective? They don’t have Bible study in their curriculum?” Hmmm. I consider myself a Christ follower. I teach from my perspective. We complete our family bible study together. In our home. Quite frequently might I add. Thank you very much!

So, according to my ex-homeschooling colleagues I’m not an official homeschooler anymore according to “their” definition. We are “schooling at home.” I find it so disheartening when people have to judge or find a way of making people feel like they are inferior for personal decisions they’ve made in their lives.

Oh and one more thing. Next year, things might change. I love that about us. We find every year that we are evolving and progressing and finding out what works for us. Without compromising our values, of course. So for now, we are checking this Virtual Schooling out. And so far… I am loving it.

Anyone else trying out or tried out a Virtual Schooling program? 

So Proud

Ever do things as a ritual and don't stop to realize the bigger picture?  I was visiting my sweetie at work and realized how crazy it was that he is now able to park in the "Reserved for Principal" parking spot.  I stopped and had to take a picture.  I know that my sweetie never thought in a million years he would be parking his car in such a spot.  Not long ago he called himself a "knucklehead" who didn't know if he was even going to make it to eighteen years old. Even at 21, he was still lost.  He told me that he had a life with nothing but prison or early death in his future. Now, he is parking his car in his reserved spot.

It's amazing how God works, isn't it?  I am so proud of my sweetie.  He has worked very hard to get there.  And while I know that these things are a wonderful testimony,  I'm thoughtful about our own reserved spot in heaven.  One reserved spot just for us that we don't even have to work hard for! Saved especially just for you! A reserved spot that is eternal.


Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you
 1 Peter 1:3-4

Have you made your reservation yet?




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