Learning from a boy's joy...

Sunday was going to be my "day of rest."  I think we had something to do every day all week and for once I was going to listen to God and take it easy.  After 3 hours of "taking it easy" God intervened and had a friend call me.  "Do you guys want to go to the playground?"  I asked the kids and I think they were in the car before I could get an answer.  Apparntly I can't take it easy very well, and they were done with my antics. We had a great morning at the park and I thought "now I'm going to go home and rest."  The phone ringing in my pocket jolted me from my thoughts of rest and it was my beloved husband on his way home from work. "Do you think we could go to the beach?" Did I say rest? I immediately in my head went to that place I was talking about last post.  You know, that place where mom has to assume the worst.  I could hear the kids arguing in the backseat, the fighting over sand toys, the constant mom, mom, mom....  upon hearing all of this in my head I say "sure, we can do that!  What time do you want to go?"  Once again I was proved very wrong.  The car ride was quiet with Michael fast asleep and Emily listening to music. The beach was empty and the weather was great. 

 The best part was watching my son.  He is a boy that knows how to live life.  He put his toes in the water and his face lit up.  The water, very cold, did not scare him away. He proceeded to practice his "wave jumping" assuring me that he would stay "mostly dry."  Needless to say, he was drenched.  I have never seen such joy in a child at the beach.

It is a game for him, with the waves. How high can he jump, how many in a row? Ocasionally he would come to see his sister playing with her polly pockets but ended up knee deep back in the waves attempting to stay "mostly dry." 

He knew mom wanted him to stay dry, and his assurances although false, were his attempt to keep mom happy while having "too much fun!"  Lucky for him, but more lucky for the car, I brought clothes.  Lots of them. He was very happy to put on his sweatpants and sweatshirt for the ride home, and I was happy to be able to let go just enough to let a boy play in the ocean fully clothed in late September.  When we hold our kids back because it is more work for us, we take away a little peice of their joy.  I am trying, one "wave jump" at a time, to let them be happy instead of trying to prevent them from being unhappy.....

Walking

 Walking is something I used to do a lot of,  We used to do a lot of.  I think I should sit down some day and make a list of all of the things I did regularly before I had children so that I don't forget to do them again once they have their own grown up lives.

We try to walk with them.  We used to have an amazing stroller that went with us everywhere.  Unfortunately someone who has much smaller children has our amazing stroller and is probably walking everywhere with them.  They are now too big for the stroller, and too small to walk far enough to gain any benifit physically.  It has become apparent that Dave has been frustrated by our lack of walking.  It gives us time to talk, time to exercise and time outside.  Today he suggested we go to the track at the high school for a walk.

Why do I instantly think of every bad thing that could possibly happen. I instantly went to the "mommy I'm bored, I'm tired, I want to go home."  Although I wanted to tell him I didnt think it was a great idea, I didn't.  I reluctantly went along with his plan to bring the kids to the "racing track" as he told them it was called fearing the worst.  Kids whining, me annoyed that I was right and didn't speak up, and a husband who didn't get to walk.  As we were leaving the house Em asks "can I bring my hula hoop?"  At this point what difference did it make, sure bring the hoop...  Boy did I figure this whole thing wrong :)

They walked a lap with us then decided to practice long jumping and roll the hula hoop back and forth while we walked a mile and a half.  There was no whining, there was no complaining, and my children played together with no adult supervision and survived it! 



Why do we as mothers feel this overwhelming need to fix things just right to avoid any sort of conflict or discomfort?  Why do we discourage the ones we love by having to be in control of every little thing?  Why do we smother our children and never give them a chance to make up hula hoop games and jump in the sand?  We need to stop!  plain and simple.  I learned alot from my husband today.  We may not have been walking by the ocean or the resevior like we used to, but we were walking. Together.  We got to talk, the kids got to play and we are all better for it.  And the picture of the two of them?  No I did not have to bribe them with chocolate...  they were having so much fun together that they forgot they can't stand each other!




Because they were so great we took them for ice cream!   What else are you supposed to do after exercising????  I am proud to say that only the kids had ice cream. 

Mom, you won't beleive it!!!

Micael's (in the black shirt) preschool class paying very close attention to the fireman...

The Firemen came to visit the school yesterday.  Anyone that has ever been a kid knows how exciting that is!  Upon coming home I was instructed to replace our alarm batteries (ours are hard wired) and devise a plan to get my four year old out of his room when the house is burning down.  He says he could jump but it "might hurt a little."  To top off the night my son says:  " Mom, did you know Father Michael works for the church and he's a fireman?  He does everything firemanish! He is amazing!!!"  The kids then played "fireman" for 2 hrs with the assurance that they could continue in the morning when it was time to go to bed.  It was a good day :)

Fun at Church??? Why not!

It does not take much to make a little boy happy.  Give him sugar on a stick and you are all set!  They had so much fun at the church fair last week.  It is so nice to be part of such a great community such as St. Pauls.  Tons of food, tons for the kids to do, but more importantly tons of really great people.

To get people excited about the upcoming fair, the church held a poster contest.  The winning posters were displayed in the church for a month and they got presented with gift cards at the fair.  Here is Emily with Father Robert showing off her first place ribbon!  It seems as if I was meant to be at this church.  The preist, who just arrived a month ago, is the same preist that married my brother and sister-in-law and worked at one of my friends schools in Washington D.C.  This is the third time I have come in contact with him in 3 different places with totally different connections.  Sometimes God is subtle, and sometimes he just smacks you upside the head... 

Sibling love.. sort of

I look at those beautiful faces and can't help but be amazed. Amazed at how beautiful you both are and that for some strange reason, God thought I could pull this off!

In this rare moment of sibling love, there is hope that one day you will look back at my attempts to bring you together and be thankful. For now, it's okay that you will only sit together when bribed with chocolate or in fear of mom's wrath.

One day you will love each other and not be afraid to show it. I am looking forward to that day, but for now will keep the chocolate coming so that you can look back at pictures like this and possibly think you were willingly snuggling on the couch... forgive me for being deceptive :) It's for your own good!