We're Scaring Our Kids

I got this link from a pastor at our church.  It's an op-ed piece written by Peggy Noonan about how we're scaring our kids.  What she wrote is so right.  I know people who have the t.v. going constantly in the evening.  How much can our kids take?

When our oldest was five, we also had a two year old and a newborn.  After a long day, I enjoyed sitting down and watching the 30 minute news program.  It was relaxing to me, and I didn't really think the kids were paying attention.  I don't really remember tuning in Walter Cronkite when my parents watched him, but I may have listened more than I remember, I don't know.  Anyway, our son started having nightmares and being generally worried about life in general.  My husband and I were starting to wonder what was wrong with the boy when I read an article that said that our young ones should not be exposed to the news until they are 11 or 12ish.  So I stopped watching the news, and First Son began to relax and the bad dreams went away. 

Since then, we have sheltered our kids like nobody's business.  Our kids do not watch Saturday morning cartoons, a huge majority of movies that come out that LOOK LIKE kids movies, the news, magazines, newspapers, and they are not allowed to listen to the radio.  And ya know what?  Our kids are happy.  They enjoy their days, and I'm glad that my daughter is not all wrapped up in looking like the latest American Idol contestant.  Who thinks that American Idol is family-friendly????  First Son was told by a friend in the neighborhood that he liked playing with him because unlike the 11 year olds in his public school, First Son did not act "all cool."  There is really something to be said from sheltering our children from our very worldly popular culture.  As our pastor wrote in his email, it is so important to preserve the naivete and innocence of our children.  Why should we be embarrassed that our children are labeled "innocent", "naive", or "sheltered?"  Shouldn't we be glad when our kids don't understand jokes that are off-color?

Romans 16:19 says, "For the report of your obedience has reached all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good, and innocent in what is evil."

These are the things from which we do not shelter our children:

1) Life doesn't end when we die.  There's more to come, and they have a choice to make about what happens after this life.  They can either spend it in Heaven with God, or in Hell apart from God forever.

2)  There are Christians in the world who die for Christ.  They are tortured, ridiculed and killed because they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.  We regularly read our kids stories about martyrs for the faith.  We talk about it.  We pray for those who are suffering today.  You may think this is just an adult problem, but what about the children whose parents are killed?  I would guess that it is certainly an issue for them.

hsmomof2 also wrote a post about how we scare our kids with global warming info.  Her blog entry, plus the article from our pastor, really got me going.  I pray that we would all protect our kid's innocence.  They are so precious. I like what Peggy Noonan wrote:

"[Our kids] need a stable platform on which to stand. From it they will be likely to step forward into steady adulthood. Without it, they will struggle; they will be less daring in their lives because life, they know, is frightful and discouraging."

Rangers Game

Monday night was Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Quarter Finals between the Vancouver Canucks and our Dallas Stars.  What an agonizing series!  My husband was geared up to babysit the t.v. until the game came on to make sure no one messed with his TIVO settings.  He wasn't going to miss a minute of this very important hockey game.  Hockey is HIS sport.

But the night before the big game, a friend offered free Texas Rangers tickets.  The boys heard me mention it to their Dad and they immediately started jumping up and down saying, "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!"  My husband only heard their excitement about live baseball and said it would be great to have the tickets.  By the next morning, my husband realized that the baseball game was clashing with his hockey game, so he did what any Dad would do.  He asked the boys if they were SURE they wanted to go to the baseball game.  God bless him - First Son said he would rather stay home and watch the hockey game, but my husband knew he was saying that just because he knew that was what his Dad wanted.  Second Son had no issues - he said he wanted to go to the baseball game. 

So my husband gave up Game 7 of the series between the Canucks and the Stars for his boys, and they loaded up and went to watch the Rangers lose to a bad team.  ;-)  He is such a great guy.  I sent the camera with him so they could take pictures so I could always show the boys and remind them about the great Dad they have.  They made it home with one picture, and my husband isn't even in it, but I guess even one picture can serve as a good reminder for a wonderful sacrifice that was made for them.

Thinking Blogger Award

Well, it was so nice of hsmomof2 to nominate me as a thinking blogger.  I'm supposed to nominate my own five thinking bloggers, and hsmomof2 is at the top of my list.  I love the way she writes about the day-to-day stuff of her life, making it sound so profound.  That is a gift!

So here are the rules for this gig:

If you get tagged with a Thinking Blogger Award, you are then supposed to do the following:

1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

Okay......my five favorite thinking blogs.....

1.  My son, over at Benjamin2.  I love that boy.  I love reading his entries.  You may not think they are the stuff of Tolstoy, and really, I don't either, but this is a kid who spouts off football trivia 24/7.  My husband and I have decided that if we cut his head open, we would find a Nerf football.  ;-)  With all his chatter about football, he rarely talks about a lot of day-to-day stuff, and I find it HIGHLY fascinating to go to his blog and see what he thought was so important that he wanted to write about it to the world.  Did I say that I love that boy?

2.  Now, this is a pre-Thinking Blogger nomination.  My husband, is thinking REAL HARD about what his first blog entry is going to be.  He has his blog set-up and ready to go, and we're all waiting with bated breath to see what he has to say.  So this is really just a punch-in-the-arm to get him going.

3.  Next is my pal over at the Fisher Family blog.  It's hard to know if I could honestly say that I know anyone who so wholeheartedly seeks God and the best for her family as this chica does.  She encourages me.

4.  At The Simmons' Scoop is a friend who moved from TX to CA a few  years ago.  I love reading her blog because this woman ENJOYS life.  Everywhere she goes, she makes it an adventure and reading about all the fun things she and her family have done since moving to CA is just pure fun.  Near run-ins with celebrities, kewl restaurants, fun vacations to explore CA before her husband's company transfers them to the next place.  She also has a wonderful sense of adventure with just the day-to-day stuff of life that makes me want to "be festive" like she is.  ;-)

5.  Finally, someone you probably all know about is LindaFay at HigherUpandFurtherIn.  I aspire to all things Charlotte Mason/Bluedorn TTT and LindaFay helps me out with the CM stuff.  Her posts are practical and have helped me as I seek to truly implement the CM way into our homeschool.  She has already been nominated as a Thinking Blogger, but I can't help but nominate her again!  :-)

I'm Pregnant!

My  husband said he knew two weeks ago, and of course I said, "Why didn't you TELL me?"  LoL  I honestly did not suspect a thing until about Wednesday/Thursday-ish of this past week.  I took a test on Friday afternoon.

We took the kids to dinner to celebrate and to tell them the good news.  They are all so precious.  First Son teared up.  He's not always an easy one to read, so I asked him if those were happy or sad tears.  He said "happy." 

My sweet daughter screamed so that just about the entire restaurant could hear her.  She hasn't been able to stop hugging me since and has been carrying around her dolls all day today, telling me that she can't wait to be a mom, too.

Second Son was oblivious to Dad's announcement.  When our food came, he was going to pray for it, when I said, "Don't forget to thank God for our new baby!"  He said, "What new baby?  Henry?"  doh!   I said, "I'm pregnant!  We're going to have a new baby!"  He said, "No you're not!"  Totally shocked.  He has joined Sweet Daughter in the constantly hugging me.  He is so excited.

Of course Third Son has no clue that he is about to be de-throned from his special perch as the youngest.  Ignorance is bliss, right?  ;-) 

I Need Thee Every Hour

This hymn, written by Annie Hawks, touches me deeply.  I feel exactly what she was writing about.  This is what she wrote about the hymn:

"One day as a young wife and mother of 37 years of age, I was busy with my regular household tasks. Suddenly, I became so filled with the sense of nearness to the Master that, wondering how one could live without Him, either in joy or pain, these words, “I Need Thee Every Hour,” were ushered into my mind, the thought at once taking full possession of me."

I feel that way every day - that I need God every hour.  I can never do this mothering/homeschooling/wifey thing without God.  The kids and I sing a few hymns during our Bible study time and I love it when we sing this song.  Here are the words:

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.
I need Thee, O, I need Thee; every hour I need Thee!
O bless me now, my Saviour, I come to Thee!

I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby;
Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh.
I need Thee, O, I need Thee; every hour I need Thee!
O bless me now, my Saviour, I come to Thee!

I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain;
Come quickly and abide, or life is vain.
I need Thee, O, I need Thee; every hour I need Thee!
O bless me now, my Saviour, I come to Thee!

I need Thee every hour, most Holy One;
O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son.
I need Thee, O, I need Thee; every hour I need Thee!
O bless me now, my Saviour, I come to Thee!

Teaching the kids hymns has been such a blessing.  I never realized as a kid how chock full of doctrine and truths they are.  Sometimes when we are singing our hearts out, I look at the kids and pray that God would burn the words to the songs on their hearts and minds so that they can call them to mind whenever they need them.

If you're interested in, or are already singing hymns with your kids, feel free to check out my pdf document that I have put together for our own little songbooks.  I have a hymn book and just flip through the pages until I come to a hymn that I already  know and add that to our own songbook.  I like to add pictures of the people who wrote the words and music of each song, as well as a little background info if I can find any.  I usually go to CyberHymnal for that.  I add 10 new songs at a time.  Right now, we are up to 80 songs.  I will be adding more, soon, so will be updating this file.  I'll let you know when I do!

Beware: I grew up a Southern Baptist preacher's daughter, so the hymns will reflect that.  ;-)

Healing the Bones

Tonight I went to a movie with my good pal, K.  We were celebrating our birthdays, and had a great time together over Ho Ho's, water to wash them down with (YES, we ate more than one! ;-) and then the movie.  We saw Amazing Grace, the story about William Wilberforce's fight to end the slave trade in England.  Great movie.  I would have liked for them to hit us in the head a little more with William's conversion to Christ (no, I'm not being sarcastic, I really mean it), but one step at a time, eh?  Maybe seeing this movie will lead someone to study more about Wilberforce's life and they will learn more about Christ that way....

POTENTIAL SPOILER:

The turning point of the movie for me was when Barbara, William's future wife, encouraged him not to give up.  He was so beaten down and tired.  Everyone around him was telling him that someone else could fight the good fight - it didn't have to be only him.  Yet Barbara was able to see that while the fight had made William tired and sick, the fact that the fight had not been won after begun would have been worse torture.  So she told him not to give up.  She made him get back into the fight.  And then of course, victory came.

What happened in the movie sounds so movie-ish and unreal, but this has happened to me before.  Not on the huge scale that William was working with, but in my own life, I have felt as if I were at the bottom of a barrel of smelly, slimy fish.  I felt like dead weight.  And yet there I was, with my husband and precious friends (you know who you are)encouraging me, reassuring me and praying for me.  They would not let me give up.  And I held on to their words, even though it took awhile for them to take effect, and here I am today, alive to write about it.  :-)  God is good! 

I don't think I will ever be known for being responsible for changing the world, but who knows.....one of my children might.  I can dream!  And pray!  I wonder if I would be in the state of mind I am in today without the encouragement of my two friends and husband, and on the days when I feel as if I'm not doing all that great, I know that I can still receive the needed encouragement to continue on.

Who can you encourage today?  Someone needs a kind word from you!  You may never know this side of heaven what you could possibly be doing for that person, that person's children and that person's spouse just by saying one tiny encouraging thing.  It seems that more than ever, a kind word is precious gold.....or a honeycomb?

Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.  Proverbs 16:24

Breakfast at the Beards

Breakfast is a big deal around here.  Everyone is usually hungry first thing, and it has been my goal to serve something other than cold cereal for breakfast.  There's nothing more annoying than the kids begging for snacks all morning because their Cheerios didn't stick to their ribs longer than 45 minutes. 

Here is our newest recipe.  I found it while I was looking for camping recipes and decided to make it for my crew to eat for breakfast while they were gone.  It was a huge hit and lasted both days of the campout, making breakfast a no-brainer for them.

Peanut Butter Oat Breakfast Bars

1 1/3 c. peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)

1 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. butter, softened

1/2 c. honey

2 eggs

2 t. vanilla

3 cups oats (quick, or old fashioned work fine)

1 c. flour

2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

Preheat oven to 325.  Prepare a 13x9 baking pan with nonstick spray; set aside.  Cream together peanut butter, brown sugar, butter and honey.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Add dry ingredients, mixing until well combined.  Spread evenly into prepared pan and bake 30 minutes.

If you missed my last post with breakfast recipes, check it out here.

Beyond the Checkered Flag

There are many issues that my husband and I never imagined ourselves experiencing before we had our children, and one of those was that of NASCAR.  Second Son LOVES anything NASCAR.  He enjoys watching football and hockey with my husband and First Son, but his heart is really with NASCAR.

We should have known that he would be a NASCAR fan.  He has always loved anything that is fast.  Speedy Gonzalez is his favorite cartoon character and whenever I need to light a fire under him to get a chore done quickly, I scream out, "Arriba! Arriba!  Andale!  Andale!"  That gets him into gear better than anything.

Since he was two or three, he also loved making growling tiger noises.  (I am comparing this to the growling sound that a race car makes.  LoL)

He also has spent countless hours playing with his Hotwheels.  He lines them up, organizes them by color, number, size....you name it, he has thought of some way to organize them and display their speed.

I was at our local Christian bookstore last night and came across a DVD titled, Beyond the Checkered Flag: Champions of Racing.  They had Volumes 1,2 and 4 for 50% off.  Each DVD features three or four racers who share what Christ means to them in their day-to-day, and racing lives.  Darrell Waltrip is on Volume 1, and he shares a story from the time right after he became a Christian.

He was settled back in his recliner on a Saturday afternoon watching T.V. and drinking a beer when he looked out the window and saw his pastor and two of the deacons walking up his walkway for a visit.  As quickly as he could, he ditched the beer and grabbed a Pepsi.  When everyone was seated in the den with their own Pepsi's, his pastor broke the news that he was concerned that Darrell needed to take some bigger steps to show his newfound faith, including stopping driving the Budweiser car.  Darrell said he fussed and argued over that one, so his pastor said, "All right then.  We'll just have to pray you out of it."  He did.  Before Darrell knew it, he was driving the Tide Detergent car.  He said, "That preacher literally helped me clean up my act!" 

And who says that God doesn't have a sense of humor?????

Finding Time to Workout

After I wrote about my new exercize routine a pal of mine sent me an email, letting me in on her workout secrets.  Here is what she wrote:

I have leg weights that I wear all day. They’re 5 pounds each but after wearing them all day I can feel such a difference when I take them off at night.

I also have exercise bands. I lie on my back, grab the handle end and lay my hands above my head while the other end is wrapped around my feet. Then I slowly raise one leg at a time. Not only does it work my legs but also my abs. I do about 40 raises on each leg then 20 with them at the same time. It only takes about 5 minutes. (My legs weights are on when I do this so it adds a little weight.) That will help get your bottom half toned just as fast as your top half. ;-)

Bedtime Routine

This article is my submission to the blog challenge sponsored by Darlene Schacht , Author of The Mom Complex.

 I wrote this a few years ago for our homeschool support group's newsletter and this "Mom Moment" with my daughter has stuck with me as no other moment has because

1) it is the perfect testimony to my daughter's sweet character.  She's precious.

and

2) it is the perfect testimony to truly how God "gently leads those that have young" (Isaiah 40:11).

The other night as I was putting my daughter in bed, I was dawg-tired. You know what it feels to be dawg-tired, right? That’s how I felt…dawg-tired. I just wanted her to go to bed so I could go to bed. Guess what she did as I was walking out the door? She asked for a drink of water. Something so simple, but it seemed like the biggest request I had received all day. To get her a drink, I would have had to go all the way downstairs to the kitchen, then climb back up the stairs. And she never takes more than one tiny sip of any drink of water we give her at bedtime.  

Thinking of all the work this tiny sip would give me, I came up with a desperate plan. I walked into her bathroom, grabbed a spray bottle with water in it, unscrewed the lid, and offered her a drink. She didn’t think twice. She grabbed the water bottle, and guzzled half the water. No delicate sipping, but full-blown guzzling. Who would have guessed she was so thirsty? As she finished her drinking, she said with the sweetest smile ever, “Mom, that water doesn’t taste so good.” She was so sweet about it, and her sweetness, compared to my sour attitude about her drink hit me like a freight train. My reaction was to laugh uncontrollably. Since she is so sweet, she laughed with me, and we had such a great time together, laughing. We ended our laughing fit with a great big hug, loud smooches and wishes for Sweet Dreams. I came out of her room a new woman! 

I thank God for those moments when He reveals Himself to me through my children. He was so gentle in His correction of my poor attitude, using Lydia like He did. Isaiah 40:11 says, “He tends His flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart; He gently leads those that have young.” I walked out of Lydia’s room feeling totally loved and forgiven by her, and as the evening progressed, I realized that God had given me a lesson on attitude. I am not perfect; I am not always the only teacher in the house.   Thank God! 

 

Night Owl

I am definitely a night owl.  I love the quiet of night.  Having four kids, there is always someone talking to me about something, and of course then I have to respond.  I have no problems talking with my kids, but by the end of the day I'm ready to sit in the quiet and be quiet.  And I love to piddle around in the quiet.  There's always something fun to do here - knitting, a little housework, spending time with my husband, answering email, writing blog entries..... ;-)  Sometimes I don't get into bed until midnight.  eeeek!  Our 12-month old usually wakes up around seven, and if I sleep until then, I might as well kiss a morning quiet time goodbye.  So lately I've been wrestling with myself over my late night habits.  I've always wanted to be an early bird and ALMOST convinced myself that "I am what I yam"  until I got the latest "Dad's and Mom's Corners" from Steve and Terri Maxwell.  God bless them.  And especially God bless Terri for the article she wrote this month.  Guess what it was about????????? 

Here are a few paragraphs from her article that jumped out at me and hit me between the eyes:

"The mom who isn't disciplined to get up in the morning before the children is educating her children in her ways without purposing to do so. This mom will then face an ongoing, discouraging battle to try to get her children out of bed in the mornings to eat breakfast, do their chores, and start school because they are following her example." (oh my.  Has she been a fly on my wall???)

"How does one go from a night owl to a morning lark? I would expect that many more moms would consider themselves to be night owls than to be morning larks by nature. We have allowed ourselves to become those night owls by our personal habits. The starting place, I believe, is to admit that being a night owl is a choice and that we are only making excuses when we say it is the way we are naturally, especially if the implication is that we can't change. We might even go so far as to define it as sin if the Lord has been calling us to get up earlier in the morning, but we are still choosing to stay up at night."(It IS a choice!  I have done that myself.  It was easier to make the bad choice, and yet I've been stressing over a lack of time to do all I need to do in the morning - shooting myself in the foot!  What a goober! ;-)

So much to work on to become the mom I want to be.  Terri quoted 2 Corinthians 12:9.  "And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness."  God's grace and strength is really the only way that I can bend my will to His.  It's all so much bigger than me, and I almost feel overwhelmed at how big God is, yet at the same time, comforted.  I can give the issue to Him every day until He has changed my heart.

B-I-N-G-O

A friend sent me a really funny e-card for my birthday last week.  Click on the link and listen to it.  It is based on the BINGO song.  The kids and I listened to it over and over before I realized that they had no idea what the BINGO song even is!  A hole in their education!!!!!  So since last week, we have sung the BINGO song about a million times and had a blast with it.  Do your kids know the BINGO song, or are mine the only ones who were living in a bubble?  ;-)

They're Back

Well, the kids and my husband returned from their weekend camping trip.  They were tired, sunburned and grouchy.  And the best thing was finding out that my husband didn't have any of the kids brush their teeth ALL WEEKEND.  No shower, I can handle.  That's almost to be expected, but no teeth brushing????  Oh, man.  My husband is usually pretty good at getting stuff like that done, but just totally slacked it this weekend.  For shame!  ;-)  I've been busy this afternoon getting the car unpacked and have washed many, many loads of smoke-smelling clothes and blankets. 

Note to self: Don't ever send an afghan on camping trips.  I'm not sure if I will ever get the dead leaves and bugs off of them again.

After naps and church this evening, everyone was just about back to normal and started sharing the "your feet were in my face the whole night" stories which are the hallmark of any successful camping trip, so I think I can say with confidence that a good time was had by all.  :-)

I had a great weekend as well.  There is always so much going on around here that I don't always get enough time to plan for school as I would like.  When I wasn't hanging out with our baby boy, that's what I did.  I didn't turn on the t.v. or listen to music, or do anything but think, plan and read.  It felt GREAT! 

Other note to self: Start talking to hubby about "the next" camping trip......

Do You Love Your Job?

Love this quote that Picket Fence Mom put on her blog.  Check it out.  :-)

Fashion Experts

I was browsing around Target today, looking for a few shirts for my daughter.  I've just about given up on trying to find her skirts and shorts there - or anywhere - clothes today are definitely not modest.  When I buy her shirts, I buy her a size too big so that it will fit her like a "real" shirt rather than the skin-tight imitation of a shirt that is being sold these days.  Up on one of the walls, they had a display of shirts that had pithy little sayings such as,

"But DAD said it was okay!"

"1. I want it.

2. You buy it.

3. Any questions?"

"#1 Heartbreaker"

"I tried to fool Mom once....it didn't work"

"Fashion Expert"

It breaks my heart to see stuff like that, and I hope I never am around to see a mother allowing her daughter to choose a shirt like that.  There were a lot of other shirts like these, but I can't remember what they all said. 

A couple of weeks ago, L and I went to the mall.  She wanted to eat at the Rainforest Cafe for our special time together.  It was packed, so we walked over to the food court to eat.  We sat in a restaurant that looked out over the rest of the food court.  It was a Saturday night, so all the young teens without driver's licenses were there doing their thing.  I looked at all those girls and boys that were sitting all together, filling up a big table and my heart broke for them.  The girls all had on extremely tight clothes with lots of make-up.  They didn't realize what they were doing when they freely gave out hugs to their "boy" friends and then continued to stand there with their arms around the boys.  They probably thought they were behaving as "just friends" but those boys were loving every minute of the attention the girls gave.  I'm sure the girls thought that it was so KEWL to have all these boys who were "just friends" with them.  I used to think the same thing when I was their age, but now I know better. 

I looked at those kids and felt so sad for them.  To me, they were a deserted bunch.  Their parents dropped them off at the mall and left them alone to fend for, and figure out for themselves the intricacies of the big, wide world.  And what were they going to learn from each other???  Their eyes told me everything.  None of them looked content.  None of them could sit still.  None of them could sit and hold a conversation that took longer than a minute.  They spent their time trying to impress each other with their clothes and hair.  

So what does all this mean for my daughter?  I am going through a period of calling out to the Lord on this one.  We certainly aren't raising her to behave as the girls at the mall.  We are raising her to be a young lady who seeks after God, and to be a wife, mother, and faithful daughter.  Our biggest problem is that we don't really know anyone that is following the same path we are.  We feel as if we are the only ones in the world who has listened and taken to heart the great things that Doug Phillips of Vision Forum discusses on his CD's.  We have also read So Much More, Home-Making, and many other books on raising daughters.  We feel God has led us to these books and to this life we have chosen, but man, is there anyone else out there who feels this way besides the people who write these books?  :-)

I've noticed while surfing blogs that there ARE others out there who are taking the same path that we are with our family, and I have especially noticed some of the young ladies from these families who are blogging about this stuff.  Do they even realize their influence?  I am making plans to cruise some of these blogs with my daughter to give her some long-distance role models.  At this point, I'm not sure what else to do.  I am trying to be available for her in every way I can and to be a godly role model for her as her mother, but I don't want her to feel we are raising her in a vaccuum.