I realized today that children who are not in the house cannot mess up a clean house. Brilliant, huh? I wonder why I never thought of that before! Let’s go to the park until just before Daddy comes home. (works unless Daddy comes home early)
Filed under: Chores
What do my children imitate in me? expressions, verbal clutter, mannerisms, habits (good and bad), food tastes, and many other things I’m sure we could identify. Today we went to the dry cleaners. I needed to get a suit of Lee’s cleaned for his graduation on Thursday (and inspection on Wednesday). We realized on Sunday [...]
Filed under: Prayer
Since David is my firstborn, and I’ve never had the chance to monitor the progression of attention span development in other children, I’ve been learning a lot about my expectations and reality in this area. I was starting to get worried about David. He has the ability to do a fairly large puzzle for his [...]
Filed under: Attention
I’ve been thinking through a recent motivation challenge with our three year old. David has been given a number of really cool t-shirts. Sometimes when we’re putting away laundry, he sees a shirt he would rather wear than the shirt he chose for that morning. I’ve never allowed him to change, telling him instead he [...]
Filed under: Potty Training
Nothing like getting things accomplished to feel more motivated, eh? While we’re talking about motivating children, it’s easy to forget how we ourselves are motivated. A few things that motivate me: Making the choice to do right. Somehow when I start avoiding my problems, they get worse. I had a friend tell me that she [...]
Filed under: Discipleship, Emotions, Introspection, Mom Time
What are some ways that we can make an unpleasant task more fun? I haven’t forgotten about Tammy’s legitimate concern that we don’t eliminate needed discipline from the equation. Let me be up front and state that I don’t think these issues are biblical– we don’t have a verse that says, “Thou shalt discipline thy [...]
Filed under: Chores
David has been going potty for all his toileting needs for the last several days, with a few “age-appropriate” lapses. I believe we have reached a tentative milestone. What made the difference? I don’t think it was maturity. I don’t think it was a new desire for the diecast airplanes Grandma bought him for each [...]
Filed under: Potty Training
I’m somewhat fascinated at the lack of attention some give to the idea that there is no good thing in us, unless God puts it there. Now, theologians can talk for hours about this, particularly in how it relates to our salvation, but somehow this doctrine gets lost when we talk about pre-salvation children. Here [...]
Filed under: Salvation
I thought of all you pilot wives whose husbands are gone for a few weeks and then come home. By the end of last week, I could tell they were ready to see their dad. Was it some new phase that David was going through where he really didn’t want to be cooperative in ANYTHING? [...]
Filed under: Family Devotions, Introspection, Military Life, Mom Time
The last few times I have asked Bethel to come, she’s come happily and been rewarded with big hugs and kisses. “Mommy is so happy when you obey!” I still need to be asking her more. I forget. I deliberately avoid times when I suspect she won’t obey quickly or happily (when she’s grumpy or [...]
Filed under: Obedience
