Little blessings
Whew! It's kind of a challenge to blog daily. It's not that it is hard to come up with content to blog about, just filtering it. If i didn't, I could write something about every moment of the day.
This morning, five kids walked out the door to go to school with Tim. Amelia was awake as she is now at that stage of waking at every noise and developing her little internal clock, so tomorrow morning (Saturday) regardless of the noise level in the house, she will likely be awake for the morning at 6:30. This means too that she's ready for a nap by 8:00 am. We're typically so busy that the morning flies by and it is time to go pick up Ben from preschool, but this morning at 8:30 I felt like I needed to rush to get out the door to go get him and then I realized..."it's ONLY 8:30!" I had accomplished so much in 30 minutes...what normally I would have just been finishing up by 10:00 or later! What a difference it makes when just one child is absent! I've said it before, the dynamics are so incredibly changed. You would think that when our dining experience changes from 11 to 9 (when Cash and Joe left) that it wouldn't make a big difference at all, but it really does.
Benjamin, Amelia and I went to the grocery store after school and took care of the shopping for the week at least. From there we went to the Pink Sister's Chapel for about 10 minutes. It is so quiet in there, so I told Benjamin that it was important to be very quiet to be respectful of anyone who may be there praying. He was agreeable, but Benjamin BREATHES loudly! He was very good, but after 3 minutes he was ready to go, but again agreed to give me a few more minutes to finish praying. When we were leaving I explained to him what the monstrance was and how special it is that we can come and visit Jesus and talk to him. It kind of fit into what he had learned at MOPS the day before, that Jesus loves it when we talk to Him and that we can talk to Him whenever and say whatever we want. Maybe next time we'll be able to stay for 12 minutes.
We then went to a friends house until it was time to pick up the kids from school. Ben and Celia played while Amelia went from toy to toy and finally settled upon a kleenex box full of tissues and created her own entertainment by rapidly pulling them out of the box and making a pile and then tore them into little pieces...this lasted for 15 minutes. Like I said before...who needs toys?? (The kleenex are in my pocket for later use...waste nothing.)
Tonight Tim and I took Joshua to basketball practice together and went to get a bite to eat and chat with each other. Julia stayed home with the kids. What a treat it has been to steal an hour or two here and there by just walking out the door. We will be spoiled in no time. What a blessing to have another body in our house. I'm quite excited just to have the opportunity to build another family relationship, and thrilled that our children can witness the open doors of our home, especially to family. Not everyone can say their uncle stayed for two months and their cousin lived with them for half a year (or maybe more).
This morning, five kids walked out the door to go to school with Tim. Amelia was awake as she is now at that stage of waking at every noise and developing her little internal clock, so tomorrow morning (Saturday) regardless of the noise level in the house, she will likely be awake for the morning at 6:30. This means too that she's ready for a nap by 8:00 am. We're typically so busy that the morning flies by and it is time to go pick up Ben from preschool, but this morning at 8:30 I felt like I needed to rush to get out the door to go get him and then I realized..."it's ONLY 8:30!" I had accomplished so much in 30 minutes...what normally I would have just been finishing up by 10:00 or later! What a difference it makes when just one child is absent! I've said it before, the dynamics are so incredibly changed. You would think that when our dining experience changes from 11 to 9 (when Cash and Joe left) that it wouldn't make a big difference at all, but it really does.
Benjamin, Amelia and I went to the grocery store after school and took care of the shopping for the week at least. From there we went to the Pink Sister's Chapel for about 10 minutes. It is so quiet in there, so I told Benjamin that it was important to be very quiet to be respectful of anyone who may be there praying. He was agreeable, but Benjamin BREATHES loudly! He was very good, but after 3 minutes he was ready to go, but again agreed to give me a few more minutes to finish praying. When we were leaving I explained to him what the monstrance was and how special it is that we can come and visit Jesus and talk to him. It kind of fit into what he had learned at MOPS the day before, that Jesus loves it when we talk to Him and that we can talk to Him whenever and say whatever we want. Maybe next time we'll be able to stay for 12 minutes.
We then went to a friends house until it was time to pick up the kids from school. Ben and Celia played while Amelia went from toy to toy and finally settled upon a kleenex box full of tissues and created her own entertainment by rapidly pulling them out of the box and making a pile and then tore them into little pieces...this lasted for 15 minutes. Like I said before...who needs toys?? (The kleenex are in my pocket for later use...waste nothing.)
Tonight Tim and I took Joshua to basketball practice together and went to get a bite to eat and chat with each other. Julia stayed home with the kids. What a treat it has been to steal an hour or two here and there by just walking out the door. We will be spoiled in no time. What a blessing to have another body in our house. I'm quite excited just to have the opportunity to build another family relationship, and thrilled that our children can witness the open doors of our home, especially to family. Not everyone can say their uncle stayed for two months and their cousin lived with them for half a year (or maybe more).
