Didn't your Mom teach you?

Another humbling moment last night. As the kids went to church choir and AWANA, I had a chance to spy in on their classrooms and see how they were doing when not under my supervision. Hmmmm.

It was get your new T-shirt night at AWANA since the order had been delayed and there was a long line at the T-shirt table. As soon as some got dressed they went on to class, but I needed to stay behind and help a younger one who accidentally picked up an adult medium shirt instead of a youth medium. A helpful sister threw the correct T-shirt over the stall where the younger child was changing....and it landed in the toilet. After some mass hysteria, we collected ourselves, put other clothes back on and made it to class.

It was my day to be a parent helper and I quietly crept into the back of choir. There in the front row was one of my kids goofing off with another boy he had met. The teacher was not pleased. He wasn't the only one, as I can testify since I was helping boys in the back of the room focus on the task of learning a new song instead of wrestling one another on the carpet.

Tired teacher then took a few questions. My child's hand shot up with great enthusiasm. When she called on him, he said in broken English...."How long singing? I hate singing!"

This was offensive to the choir director who firmly said, "That was NOT a very nice thing to say. DIDN'T YOUR MAMA TEACH YOU THAT IF YOU CAN'T SAY SOMETHING NICE THEN DON'T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL?"

My face grew hot. She didn't know who I was, or that he belonged to me. I wanted to scream .... "He's adopted!!! This is REALLY boring if you can't understand the words. We're trying!"

I thought back over the day. This morning he was very tired and had a hard time getting out of bed. He quickly pulled some wrinkly clothes on over his head before we had to head out the door. When we arrived, I noticed what looked like a piece of Reece's chocolate cereal stuck to his shirt and began to scratch it off with my fingernail. "Mom," he said, "that from my nose".

I almost puked. I had been scratching a large booger off with my fingernail with no way to wash before we went inside. Sigh.

No, we did not have the lesson about kind words and having a filter. We were too busy learning not to wipe our noses on our shirts. We were fishing t-shirts out of the toilet. We were making sandwiches again for dinner.

But, I have faith that booger scratching counts as kindness to God, and we'll work on respect next week.

Meanwhile, another child blew us out of the water with her amazing ability to memorize. She memorized twenty scriptures the first week of AWANA. It has nothing to do with my parenting or teaching skills. It just comes easy for her. She practiced on her own and was applauded by her class.

So, I am trying to delight when things go well, and trying not to take things so personally when they do not.

I was comforted when wild child's AWANA teacher said that she didn't even notice that he was learning English and didn't know that he was adopted. He really has come so far. If I could just step back and gain perspective.... We are making progress.

Creating a model of an insect...head, thorax, abdomen, six legs, and antenna

 

Guard what has been entrusted

Guard what has been entrusted to your care.

I Timothy 6:20

The peace of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:7

I'm asking for peace to reign in our home. I can't do this on my own.

Sarah Young's Jesus Calling reminded me this week that there is no real peace from trying desperately to control everything around me. Only God's control truly brings peace. I relinquish all to Him.

A Walk on the Beach

Topsail Island

 

Wise counsel

Clear understanding

Simple trust

These are the first three gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:8, Message translation

I would love to be the one who is able to give wise counsel.

I would love to be able to communicate godly principles with clear understanding.

Today, it seems, I am better suited for simple trust. Faith that God has led us, and will continue to lead us, step by step, with the energy that each day requires.

This weekend He provided rest and the company of good friends.

 

I took a walk on the beach Saturday morning ALONE with God. If you could have overheard our conversation it would have sounded something like this.

Me: God, I wish I were a better person. I wish I weren't tired and grumpy all the time. I wish I could give my kids and my husband more of what they want. I wish I weren't so easily annoyed. I'm a big mess.

God: I like messes.

God never seems alarmed when I dump out my frustration before Him.

Dependent. The best word I can think of to describe this stage of our adoption journey is dependent. I am dependent on the Lord for His mercy as I have no acts of greatness to point to. I am just trying to faithfully do what He has asked us to do.

Humbled. I am humbled by my lack of saintliness. I wish I always FELT joy. Some days I have to "count it all joy". I am seeing myself as I really am, and not the self I like to present when I am all rested up.

Stretched. I cried when we couldn't figure out when to celebrate our 13th anniversary...which is not until October. Frustrated tears that seem to think that life will always be this crowded. My heart of hearts knows that this is a season. I can logically reason that things will be different when our kids are in school part of the day, and when we have been together longer. Sometimes I just need to walk on the beach alone with God and remember.

One day I may cry because there are not enough challenges. Until then, I will try and walk faithfully the road ahead of us.

 

Sea stones, polished by the circular journey of the waves.

As I roll them over in my hands, I recall one act of God's faithfulness to me at a time...a walk of remembrance.

I have a husband who loves me and provides for us and mows the lawn at night with the back porch light on.

I get to be the mom of five great kids.

I am healthy and strong and can walk three miles to the pier.

I have been given great friends and have the privilege of celebrating milestones in their journeys too.

Wish my new attitude lasted longer than a pedicure.

 

How long?

How long is a minute?

Applying a temporary tattoo and watching the second hand of a clock to tell when it is ready.

P is for....play dough

Plant study....collecting leaves, identifying leaves of trees in the backyard.

Playing with leaf rubbings and exploring textures

Which are starting to reveal fall colors?

Longest? Shortest?

Which leaves have lines of symmetry?

Practicing sight words against the texture of the driveway....forgetting to explain that crayons are not the same as sidewalk chalk...having a little lesson on scrubbing up the mistakes

Tonight Andy and I went to three open houses at our children's schools. We were thoroughly pooped out when we got home, finished overseeing homework, and reminded kids to pack lunches or sign forms.

On days like this when we have for corndogs for dinner, I don't feel like a very good Mom. Sorry, no stories tonight for anyone. I'm all out of steam. I felt a little bit guilty talking to some of the great teachers we have who are also Moms, and somehow get it all done. How do they do it? I am going to whip up some pumpkin breads soon in appreciation. I wish I had more to give.

 

Gummy Bears

What to do with a bag of gummy bears?

Estimate how many bears are in the bag.

Count and see how close you were.

Turn the gummy bears into a graph by flavor.

Interpret your findings... Most? Least? Equal?

Divide the bag equally among five siblings.

Ponder what to do with the remainder. Cut them into fractions?

Laugh as your Mom swipes the remainders up in her mouth and walks away from the math lesson.

Save two gummy bears for tomorrow's science experiment. (Soak one in tap water and one in salt water overnight...compare changes.)

 

When I was in a high school math class, one mischievous student licked a gummy bear and threw it up onto the classroom ceiling where it stuck. Instead of getting upset, our young and fun teacher had us all predict how long we thought it would stay there. It lasted the entire year! Her response to that student forever made an impact on how I thought about math and making learning fun in the classroom...or home. Now if I can just learn how not to get upset when kids are being kids, I will have really learned something.

 

Life without cable

My children think we have returned to the dark ages. I love it! Our oldest has started making posters in protest, but the others are figuring out things to do.

 

Did you know that the Colonists played jacks?

Making some joyful noises

 

Measuring mushrooms after a good rain

Making a model of a cell from jello (cytoplasm), plum (nucleus), grapes (vacuoles), and sandwich container (cell wall)

 

 

Making time to sit down and write about what we're learning...this skill is so much harder than conversational speaking.

What to do while stuck in the carpool line? Snap a picture of the clouds, go home and label for the weather log.

The kids tried their hands at tennis today and had a great lesson.

A took B and another father-son duo to the USC game, so our household was all wondering, "What are we going to do today?" We're grilling out tonight, but as I had house organization things to do, I didn't plan on entertaining anyone all day. I was happy to see homework projects being done, forts built, dolls played with (!), and some creative movement.

We'll probably pop popcorn and rent a movie later tonight, but I was thankful for a chance to not go anywhere today.

Last night B had a scrimmage baseball game. As it ran late, we took the family to a nearby burger joint for dinner. One of our bunch declared that he had had enough to eat and promptly threw up all over the floor. We couldn't get out of there fast enough! Oops! In our hurry, another family member left a purse behind, so we had to go back and show our faces to retrieve it. It may be awhile (or never) before we return.

 

What I can do

Britt Nicole - Set the World on Fire
► 4:10► 4:10	www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb_UTj1mxq0Oct 23, 2007 - 4 min - BrittNicoleSparrow Album: Say It (2007)

 

 

I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.

Helen Keller

I read this quote off of a girl's t-shirt at Bible Study on Nehemiah tonight. It made an impression on me, so I thought I'd write it down here to remember it for later.

 

 

 

As ladies shared around the room, my mind wandered off to how much I would like to home in my bed asleep. I agreed with everything that they were saying, I just didn't have the energy to vocalize much.

 

 

 

Sometimes, faithfulness is quiet.

 

In my fatigue, it was hard to think about my heart breaking any more over the needs of the world. We have been moved to tears, moved to action, and now moved to the daily work of keeping our promises.

 

 

 

Perhaps in another season of life I will have great emotion too. Today, I am doing the laundry one load at a time, trying to faithfully love those entrusted in my care.