To Challenge or Accept?

One of the neatest aspects of parenthood is getting a front row seat to your child's ever developing personality. I really like my children--of course, I love them but I also really like them as people. The younger two are just plain cute and entertaining as babies and preschoolers are. The older two, however, are constantly surprising me with their uniqueness.

Jason and I are getting a better idea of their strengths and weaknesses--the former being extremely exciting and the latter being downright frightening! I see character issues in them that keep me on my knees praying for them (I guess that's a good place to be--on my knees before the Lord :)) But sometimes I feel like I'm holding my breath--like I'm watching a movie and hoping with all my heart for a good ending! Will this child mature out of her laziness? Or despite her training will she grow up undisciplined and unmotivated??? One child has a tendency to blame everyone else for what goes wrong in her life (from a spilled glass of water to not being able to finish her sentence). Will she grow up never taking responsibility for her own mistakes??? AAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH! It's enough to make me bite my already too short nails to the quick!!!

No matter their flaws, I want my children to know how much we love them. And that we love them not for what they do but for who they are. They are precious gifts from The Lord and to be treated as such. They are not to be molded into what Jason and I desire them to be but into what The Lord designed for them to be.

So that brings to my dilemma. Is it my job as a parent to iron out these little wrinkles that they come with? How do you decide what needs to be "fixed" and what needs to be accepted? One of my kids is extremely helpless when it comes to age appropriate tasks. If pressed, she will make a pathetic effort. And then when I lovingly correct her she falls apart. Now, I believe that she needs to work on recieving correction and she also needs to persevere (and for Pete's sake...quite whining and complaining!!). But I also do not want her to feel like she can't do anything right and all that comes with that. I want to expect excellence from my children but when does that turn into creating children who "perform" well but have many grievious attitudes hidden in their hearts?????

We want our kids to grow up to be functioning members of God's family. They need discipline--desperately. They need to be taught integrity. So many valuable character traits to impress upon them and really, so little time (the years whizz by--I know this). They need to see these character traits modeled in their parents' lives.

Anyway, I'm just typing what is on my mind. I'm really needing some guidance and wisdom from The Lord on this issue. He's the Master Parent :) The kids are asleep now so I think I'll go upstairs and check on everybody. I love to see their sleeping faces :)

The view from where I sit ... the Dyson staring at me (why bother putting it away?), my handsome husband playing his guitar.

Outside My Window...eerie wind sounds--storms are in the forecast tomorrow

I am thinking...about everything that I would like to get done tomorrow. Also weighing very heavily on mind is the disolution of a friend's marriage. How can someone treat another person so terribly? How can a father's heart grow cold towards his children? How this must grieve our heavenly Father. How I'd like to be the one to deliver swift justice--not my assignment though. Too bad.

I am thankful for...the personal growth I've seen in mine and my husband's lives recently. So thankful that God is in control and that He is SO good!

We are learning...about ancient China for the next two weeks. So fun! We are also studying the courtship habits of birds and all about eggs and baby birds. A certain five year old girl is beside herself with joy. She and I are both wishing we could raise a few ducks. Maybe next year?

From the kitchen...scraping by with what is left from our grocery budget. Brinner tonight, chicken tomorrow. Challah bread too! Our family consumed 11 eggs with our dinner tonight. Jason and I each had 2. The girls polished off 7 eggs between the three of them!

I am wearing... my standard day time uniform: jeans and t-shirt.

I am creating... a plan for tomorrow.

I am going... to vacuum out the car tomorrow if it doesn't rain. I'm trying my best to include this in my monthly chore routine. It must be timed perfectly though--baby napping, weather decent, older girls not needing anything.

I am reading... "A Painted House" by John Grisham. Read it once, did not care for it but I don't remember why so I'm giving it one more try. 100 pages in and not much is happening.

I am hoping...that Penny sleeps all night long tonight.

I am hearing...the same song over and over again while Jason learns it. I'm guessing that this song will be in the background of my mind for the next 3 or 4 days.

Around the house...diapers hanging to dry on the back of our kitchen chairs, seedlings meandering out of the seed tray, pencil marks on the wall that have an appt with Paige and Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser.

One of my favorite things... my husband playing the acoustic guitar. Very relaxing!

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: library tomorrow, sort baby clothes, mail thank-you notes.

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

Trust and Obey

"Trust in The Lord with all your heart; and lean not on your own understanding." Proberbs 3:5

Boy that is a tough one, especially in today's culture. So many of the things that God tells us to do are completely opposite of what the world says. Tithe and give when you should be saving up big time for the retirement fund you started a decade later than you should have. Don't reply harshly when someone REALLY deserves it. Pray for your enemies. It all goes against the super strong (weak) human nature.

That's why Proverbs 3:6 is so comforting:
"in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight."

He WILL make your paths straight if you seek Him in ALL of your ways. I love it! All of your ways!

These two verses in particular have been racing through my mind night and day recently for it's been on my heart to trust God in areas that I had not really considered handing control over to Him before. I wasn't conciously disobeying--I was following what the world tells us is just plain good sense! Most definitely I was leaning on my own understanding though--and had never before thought to see if my ways were lining up with God's thoughts on the subject. And if I'm completely honest I will admit that the reason I didn't want to seek God's approval was because quite frankly the issue was too scary to inquire about! And by the way, I'm not quite ready to go public with my struggle and subsequent submission yet. But let me say that I feel like a burden has been lifted--a burden that I had not even thought was there!

I'm going to enjoy my current "so light I could fly away" feelings because I know that soon i will be tempted to question my obedience. I've actually been wrestling with those temptations already but by clinging to God's promises have been able to beat the enemy back. I know what God wants me to do and I'm going to do it.

Butterfly update

These aren't our caterpillars (b/c I STILL can't find my camera memory stick--the Iphone pictures did not come out very well) but this is what our caterpillars did before they went into the pupa stage. Did not know this but when caterpillars decide to change they do it FAST! In a matter of hours (less?) our little guys went from hanging upside down like this to this:




We should begin to see some butterflies hatching over the weekend. We are on butterfly alert :)

Rare Central Texas Snow Day

This week's surprising snowstorm was such a fun event. It's been an unusually cold winter here in central Texas and we have heard several snow predictions. So far they've all been a bust. So when the weather was calling for snow the next day I didn't pay much attention.





Tuesday morning brought the screams of four (myself included) happy girls who didn't even wait for breakfast before venturing out into the winter wonderland. We had but a dusting and I figured what we were seeing was all the snow we would be getting.



But no! We received shower after shower of big fat snow flakes! The day went like this: we'd suit up and run outside and play until our warm-weather-loving selves were soaked and freezing and then troop back in and throw all of our wet winter gear into the dryer. Another snow shower would blow in and the race to get outside and experience the falling snow would begin.



I must add that the snow was a fun opportunity for the the girls to learn more about God. That He is a kind, loving, creative, powerful God. They learned new things about the beauty of His creation (snow). We also talked about how nice it was that God gave us all of this snow to enjoy! And that if God wants it to snow in central Texas then well, He has the power to do that! Pretty neat!









The final snowfall total was 2.25 inches for our yard. Oh--one precious picture that I failed to capture: Penny sitting in front of our glass backdoor, absolutely mesmirized by the falling snow. :)

Winter Butterflies

Reese: "Little smooky caterpillars grow bigger every day"
Hailey: "Yay! They are bigger and there moving!"
--excerpts from the girls' butterfly journals

Observing caterpillars has been one of the coolest things we have done this year. At the moment we have five Painted Lady caterpillars crawling around in a little jar. Since we received them in the mail (bugs in the mail--who'd a thought??) they have nearly tripled in size. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are visibly larger with each day that passes.

The two oldest girls each have a little notebook where they are keeping track of their daily observations of these little baby butterflies. This is one "assignment" that I do not have to remind them about! Any day now the little creatures should begin to tuck themselves into their chrysalises. Super exciting time around the Garrett household :)

So frustrating--I am without a camera right now. The memory card for our camera is M.I.A. I really don't want to drop $30 on a new one but if another week goes by and it doesn't turn up I'm going to have to. Caterpillars and butterflies be darned--we have a little human who is going thru plenty of changes herself. I don't want to miss too many photo opportunities. We already struggle with the "fourth child syndrome" where there is far less video of Penny than of the other three. Don't want to follow suite with the photos!

What else we have been up to...

Wow. Clearly I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to this blog here. Let's try this again...

We have had the best school year yet! We have found the right curricula for our family. Everything is "working". This is a fantastic feeling. As a mom and a homeschooler I am overcome with thanksgiving to our Lord for the happy home we are enjoying.

I had purposed to update this blog with our school experiences--a sort of record. School has been great and we have done many fun and interesting things but that stuff has not made it to our blog. I'm out of practice with writing and just plain BUSY wifing/mothering/teaching. I read what I have written, don't like it, and decide not to post it. I'm going to try not to be so picky from now on.

We are nearing the end of our first unit of Tapestry of Grace. We are planning an end of unit celebration. My plan is to do our school update around that time. And then when we begin unit two I'm going to update regularly (I will!).