Congratulations! You are grounded!!

I have been a parent for 23 years.  In that time, I have had disorganized ideas of discipline.  Some things stuck, some ideas didn't.  I am not a huge fan of spankings, but believe me, I have delivered my share.  I like the idea of timeout, but really, I think I might be the only one who benefits from those.  Now that the littles are older, I have implemented grounding all over again.  That always worked with J.  Not so much with H.  H wasn't into TV or computers or games, so what was I grounding her from?  Not much. With J, I always unhooked the PS2 or the Xbox 360 and the TV until he earned it back. With the littles, for some reason I had a hard time making it stick.  Or I could never come up with the right amount of time.  

After perusing the Internet for summer fun a month or so ago, I ran across this little goodie:  Grounded??  I immediately got started on my own list.  I copied some from her list, used some from her list with different point values, and came up with some items of my own.  I know this list is a work in progress, for example, I am thinking I really don't want my 5 year old to fix dinner for us by himself or do a load of laundry from start to finish.  

I debated whether to have them earn 500 points.  It seemed too easy.  But really it isn't as easy as one would think.  Just because I would rack up thousands of points a day doesn't mean it is easy enough for the littles to do it.  However, this is discipline, a punishment for not-okay behavior.  It shouldn't be easy.  So I am going to go ahead and stick with 500 points for now.  They still have to do their regular chores - straighten up their room, pick up their toys, etc.  These are in addition.

A is already up to 140 points since this morning.  I now have empty trashcans, 2 clean toilets, the living room/dining room dusted, and a sweet note (even if she wrote it to get points).  

Oh my goodness.  I am not going to lie.  This is my new method of discipline.  A clean house?  Yes, please. I kinda hope they get grounded every week.  (jk, really, I promise...)

I did it!!

Our family began a new little adventure this year that I am sooooo excited about, yet soooooo scared of!  We planted a garden.  Well, really two gardens.  The littles have their own garden, about 4 ft by 4ft, filled with carrots, radishes, green beans, cherry tomatoes, and a mystery plant!!  It never dawned on me to write down what we planted in there.

This picture is about 2.5 weeks old, so they have all grown so much.  We have even already pulled about half of the radishes up.  YUM.

The big garden is much larger.  It has 8 pretty long rows.  Or it HAD 8.  We had a lot of rain a few weeks ago so row 8 is in row 8 and in row 7 and I think maybe even a little in row 6.  As of today, the plants were getting higher and I had two tomatoes and two jalapenos.  I am soooooo excited and dreaming of salsa!

So then it dawned on me I MIGHT have a lot of tomatoes.  And green beans.  And other things.  What do I do?  I bought a pressure cooker.  And it sat in my garage for the last 2-3 months.  Because I am terrified of that thing.  I want to do it but It. Is. So. Scary.

But I pretended like I was going to do it anyway!  So I bought a bunch of jars from a lady here in town, I bought the lids, I bought some fruits to make my own jam and apple butter.  I did everything but pull that thing out of the box.  'Cause we all know that I can't make homemade stuff like that, or can, or pressure cook!

BUT...I did it!!  I made my own strawberry jam and apple butter!  (I did cheat a little, as these don't require water bath or pressure canning.)

Feeling pretty proud of myself, I must have decided to go for broke.  I pulled out that pressure cooker.  I READ all the instructions.  I cooked four packages of chicken quarters, pulled the meat from the bones and froze them, made homemade chicken broth (these I had done before), then put the broth in jars and pressure cooked them!  I didn't even burn the house down!  Or blow anything up!

So now that I have that first batch under my belt, BRING ON THE GARDEN GOODIES!!

If I keep this up, I am going to get the hang of this domestic life thing.  Just in time for the hubs to say I have to go back to work. 


 

My attempt at being a SAHM

The jury is still out on my skills as a SAHM.  My house is not as clean as I had expected.   My husband's dinners are not always waiting for him when he gets home.  My kids still watch more TV than I would like and don't want to go outside.  Of course, who could blame them in this heat?  I'm almost glad they aren't playing outside, because then I would have to go outside. 

Today, though, I attempted to be Betty Crocker and an arts and crafts kind of mom.  I did learn a few things: 1) make sure you have all your ingredients before you start mixing your wet and dry ingredients and 2) make sure when you divide your dough that it is at least close to half and half.  The BC baking thing is not a complete disaster - it tastes good, just a little crunchier on the outside than they should be (but moist on the inside so that is a win!!)  And to prove I actually did do this, here are my funny looking little zucchini breads. 

One is with raisins, the other is without. 

Later in the day, Amberlie and I decided to be craftsy.  I have been saving little containers - from chips to koolaid containers - in order to have a stash when we wanted to try our hand at crafts.  Don't get me wrong, I had no actual plans or ideas.  Today though, we decided to make "instruments".  Amberlie began painting away while I gathered the other items.

After her paintings dried, she pulled the wrapper off the containers and we taped the paintings to the sides. 

She put the rice in one container, pennies (after she counted them - instant math lesson!!) in another, and the corn in the last.  We then taped the lids down.  We talked about which would be louder and which would be quieter and she put them in order.  Then she tried them out to see if she was right.

Now, it is time for jam session, as Breckin is up and ready to make some noise.  He wouldn't let me take a picture though...

Library Day

Yesterday was library day.  I look forward to library day, it feels like my time to be "educational" rather than just a preschool entertainer.  I also like library day because the pressure is off, the kids usually find the computers and games, then look for books.  But the real reason I like library day?  I LOVE books.  I did find out that there are very few Christian fiction books in our library, at least of the authors I read.  And the ones they did have?  I had already read.  So I guess I will stick with my church library and my mom's church library for those books.  I did find a few good books though. 

You just really cannot go wrong with Veggie Tales.  Especially the ones that rhyme.  I am not going to lie, when I get to reading this one and I'm on a roll...let's just say I can talk really, really fast.  Love this book, def one of my faves.  The other three books we checked out for the kids were good, not fabulous, but okay.  Won't bore you with more details.

I did check out a book for me from the youth fiction section.  I am a fan of the early John Grisham books, not so much of his later novels.  But two of his newer books are youth books - those I dig.  I own the first one, Theodore Boone - Kid Lawyer.  Good read, not intense like the adult version, but enough excitement for this old heart that I read it really quickly.  When I got the email from B&N that JG had a new one out I was excited.  But as my good friend Dawn P pointed out, I can't keep acting like I am in a 2 income household.  So, sadly, I chose not to spend money on it.  So imagine my delight (and surprise) when I came across it in the library!  I started reading it last night before bed and am on page 152 of 217.

So now the dilemma is, do we do library days two times per week, instead of once every two weeks?  And do we take out the ten books the library allows at a time - who knew??

And to really get the creative juice (no, didn't forget the 's' - I am not creative), my good friend DP sent me an idea for a library bag.  While I don't plan to do that because I am not sewing machine inclined, I do plan to keep my eye out for a bag that Amberlie and I can do as a craft together, where sewing is NOT involved.  Thanks for the inspiration D!!  If anyone has any good ideas on that, please send my way.  Until then, I'll just keep reading my books and thanking God for this opportunity every day.

Books, books, and more books!!

We got our hands on some new books from Scholastic over the weekend.  Some of them are really fun and great reads.  One of Amberlie's fave new books is:

It is a fun little book about, you guessed it, Cinderella - with a little bit of difference considering she is a penguin.  

Breckin really liked this book (don't ask my why you have to turn your head - I didn't take the pic sideways...)

It is a fun little book about imagination and Daddy!!

One of my fave new books is an old, but good "classic".  Who can argue with:

(I even took this one a couple of different directions but no matter what, this silly page turned it sideways.  Does that tell me we are going to have a fun, sideways, imagination station kind of day?)

But last but certainly not least, the hands down absolute favorite fun little tongue twisting book for all three of us??? 

We simply LOVE the llamas!! 

The other books we received are pretty great too.  I think they may inspire us to make some pretty awesome pictures of our own very soon. 

Happy reading!!



Panicked

Seventeen days.  Part of me is excited to get started on this new journey. The other part of me wakes up in the early morning hours in a panic.  I know deep down that I should not be worried, but I can't seem to get that all the way through to my psyche.  I wake up thinking, "Oh no, I am not going to be the <  > anymore.  I'm not going to be involved in the <  > Program anymore.  I'm not going to have a JOB anymore."

Michael has been doing a Bible study on Joshua the last few months.  The lesson last week dealt with making decisions.  God doesn't always make it so evident what you are supposed to do.  That is no kidding in this instance.  Even though I prayed he would, I saw no billboard that said, "Rachel, make the decision to do ____."  So we prayed about it.  And made lists.  And prayed.  And talked to people.  And prayed.  And read the Bible.  And prayed.  And did the Crazy Love Bible study.  And prayed.  Neither choice I had to make was Biblically wrong.  There is scripture to support both I believe.  Yet we felt that we knew what the decision should be after much deliberation and prayer.

So why do I feel so anxious?  This is a huge life change for me.  It puts me at the mercy of a husband with a job.  It puts me in a position I have never been before.  While there will be many joys, I can't help but feel nervous, worried, anxious.  So I will just have to lean on my rock and my salvation to carry us through.  I know He didn't lead me wrong.  And He definitely lead me.  After a Crazy Love study one night, Michael and I both knew the answer.  It doesn't mean it is the easy answer.  It doesn't mean I won't be scared, or I won't panic.  But it does mean that I am following His will.  You can't go by feelings.  Feelings are fleeting; they are fickle; they can fool you.  But when you are in the will of God, you know it.  And you know that He will provide for your needs.  He promises to do that. 

I believe His promises.  I believe His word.  Panic can't hold me back.

Faith

Faith.  The assent of the understanding to any truth. Religious faith is assent to the truth of divine revelation and of the events and doctrines contained in it. This may be merely historical, without producing any effect on our lives and conversation; and it is then a dead faith, such as even the devils have. But a living or saving faith not only believes the great doctrines of religion as true, but embraces them with the heart and affections; and is thus the source of sincere obedience to the divine will, exhibited in the life and conversation. Faith in Christ is a grace wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit, whereby we receive Christ as our Savior, our Prophet, Priest, and King, and love and obey him as such. This living faith in Christ is the means of salvation-not meritoriously, but instrumentally. Without it there can be no forgiveness of sins, and no holiness of life; and they who are justified by faith, live and walk by faith. (Crossmap Dictionary)

There are different levels to faith.  First and absolutely most important is believing that Christ died for us in order to save us.  Acts 16:31 reads: They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Once we have this belief, that God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) we have to move on to deeper faith.  As the Crossmap Dictionary says, if faith has no affect on our lives, then it is dead faith.  Nothing is good to us dead.

Another level of faith is living faith.  Our lives change because of living faith.  I no longer desire what the world desires when I live with living faith.  What I treasure most changes.  What I desire changes.  The way I talk changes.  The way I live changes.  Romans 8:5 reads: Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 

Still another level of this faith is believing God's word and believing that He will be faithful as well.  Such examples of this faith walk the world around me.  I see how they continue day by day, even though life has dealt them some blows.  But they have faith in Christ that He will sustain them; that He will provide for them.  Others take steps of faith that God will sustain and provide.

As we take a step of faith, I worry and I fret over what will happen.  Did we make the right choice? What is going to happen?  Then I just have to remember God's promises He made in His love letter to us.  For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11).  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

As I take my first really ginormous step out on faith, I have to remind myself of these promises.  We feel like we made the right decision for our family, for our children, and for our lives.  It would be so unfortunate to do this, then worry about how we will make it.  Matthew 6:24-25 reads: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"

I have to remove all doubt and place my faith solidly on the Rock upon which I stand.  I believe with all my heart, mind, and soul that Jesus died for my sins.  I believe wholeheartedly that I must change my life and not be of this world.  Now I am choosing to believe His promises that good will come of this, that He has a plan for our lives, that we don't have to worry about our lives because He is in control.  He will sustain us.  He will provide.

I pray that each of us will take our steps of faith and that we can look back on a faithful life, and when this life is over we will hear "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!" (Matthew 25:21).