Jacob

Where oh where do I begin with Jacob...

We're one month in to the new school year and things are going GREAT so far!  He is in the 5th grade, which meant he moved to a new school in our corporation.  His teacher has provided me with nothing but positive feedback.  Throw in his currect grades, A's, one B, and one C (in reading), and that makes this Mama very happy.

Aside from school, Jacob stays incredibly busy with sports and extra curricular activities.  He's playing soccer, basektball, and his favorite... baseball.  He also showed cows and goats at the 4H fair this summer.

I can't wait to see what the future holds for my boy... But for now, I'll enjoy these days because Lord knows, these days will be over before I know it...

Kaylee

I'm going to dedicate a post to each of my kids, in hopes of catching you up on what's been going on in each of their little lives.  Since she's the oldest, let's begin with Kaylee...

She's 12 going on 17.  I love this age... I love all the eye rolls, I love getting talked back to, I love how tidy 12 year olds can be.  Like I said, I LOVE THIS AGE!

Uh hem... what I really mean is, I'm counting down the days until she can tolerate me again (and vice versa!)  Holy cow, not gonna lie.  Some days are T-O-U-G-H!  She's a great kid, don't get me wrong, but somewhere in the midst of her stretching her wings and gaining her independence, she's become a grizzly bear to live with.  The same kid who wants more responsibility and thinks she needs a phone, can't remember to hang up her towel in the bathroom or brush her teeth each evening... Really?  Because hanging up your towel and brushing your teeth is a new thing around here, right?  I know she'll get it, she will... And she and I will be friends again someday, right???  Hopefully sooner than later!

Kaylee is in the 7th grade this year... which I find very hard to believe she can be in the 7th grade since we just brought her home from the hospital, swaddled in a little pink blanket last week...  Where does the time go, really?  She is so smart... She loves math and hates to read.  (Not my kid, I was the opposite!)

She is in the midst of volleyball season right now and is looking forward to basketball season.  She gave up soccer this year since it coincides with volleyball.  She spent 5 days at Taylor University Basketball Camp this past summer.  She was not crazy about the idea of being away from home for 5 days, but the deal was if she went to camp and made it the full 5 days without melting down and begging us to come get her, then we'd get her a cellphone.  She was beside herself when I picked her up from camp with the cellphone in hand.  We were very proud of her for stepping outside her comfort zone and making it through camp.

She is still C-R-A-Z-Y about her cows.  Two of them are due to calve any day.  She's looking forward to that!  She will tell you 4H and showing cows is her all-time favorite activity.  She's a huge help to her dad on the farm.  Driving 4-wheelers has become a thing of the past.  She's now a pro with the pickup truck and tractor.  Having not grown up on a farm myself, she amazes me...

So that's Kaylee in a nutshell... Typical pre-teen I'm sure!

Ten Points of Joyful Parenting ~ By: Ann Voskamp

1. Today, I will make our home a house of prayer. I will pray at set times. And I will invite our children to come move into an interior space that lives with God.

2. Today, I will transfigure all things into beauty, and I will refuse to see anything else.

3. Today, I will not have any emergencies. There are no emergencies! Only amateurs hurry.

4. Today, when stress mounts, I pray to dismount it with gratitude. My stress management plan will be intervention with verbal thanks. I can only feel one feeling at a time, and I choose to give thanks at all times. Fight feeling with feeling!

5. Today, I will pray to speak words that are only STRONG words, words that make these children feel strong. Grace words. Grace is the only non-toxic air. All other words I breathe are death words.

6. Today, I will pray to be consistently consistent. I will create safe rhythms that our children can find security in. I will create daily ceremonies because everyday we are CELEBRATING the gift of now!

7. Today, the moment when I am most repelled by a child's behavior, that is my sign to draw the very closest to that child.

8. Today, I will hug each of my children as many times as I serve them meals -- because children's hearts feed on touch. I'll look for as many opportunities to touch my children today as possible --- the taller they are, the more so.

9. Today, my priorities will be all Things Unseen.

10. Today, I will laugh! And I will let the little children laugh! I will create a culture of JOY!

Copyright 2010, Ann Voskamp @ www.aholyexperience.com All rights reserved.

It's been a L...O...N...G winter

I'm ready for winter to be O-V-E-R! Colds go on and there seems to be a never-ending river on snot flowing out of our house. Sorry, really don't mean to gross anyone out, but that's what we're up to around here. Jake is now healthy, Kaylee (knock-on-wood) has remained healthy through all of this, but late last week, Jesse started in with sinus gunk, and now I've finally succum to it as well. I'm well on my way to loosing my voice. The kids are so funny. I try to whisper to them and they look at me and whisper back, "Why are you whispering?" Anyhow, hopefully next week will be better.

Short funny story about Jake before I go... you know I can't get on here without sharing something funny about my crazy monkeys. Two Sundays ago, he was a nightmare in church. It wasn't that he was loud or screaming or anything like that. He just wouldn't listen to us, was very mouthy, and I'd had it with him. Afterwards, we head out to the car and as we're driving home, I say to Jesse, "So what are you and Kaylee doing at 10:30?" Sidenote here, we have threatened (empty threat by the way) time and time again that if they don't behave in church, we'll go back to church for the 10:30 Mass; but we've never actually done it. So Jesse knew exactly what I meant when I asked him what he and Kaylee were doing at 10:30. He starts talking about going 4-wheeler riding, going down to Grandma's house, petting the horse... you know, all Jake's favorite things to do. Jake speaks up and says, "Yeah and me too!" I said, "Nope Jake, we're going back to church." You would have thought I had beat him to a pulp. He screamed, fussed, kicked, and threw himself around. So after getting no reaction from us, he finally settles down. 10:30 rolls around and we head back to church. He and I walk in the door and he looks around and says, "Were all these people bad in church?" It was hilarious. In his 4-year old little mind, he thought that there was a mass for people who misbehaved in church. How funny. I do have to say, he was the most behaved little guy in church that day as well as this past Sunday. Trust me, if that's all it takes to get him to behave in church, IT WAS SO WORTH IT!