Posted By admin on July 7, 2010
The Glinchkidz May, 2010
I have a dream that one day… little black boys and black girls
will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers (or in our case – cousins).
Martin Luther King 1963
Posted By admin on July 6, 2010
The training pants are ready.
The motivating marshmallows are stocked up.
The potty (in front of the TV, of course) is in its spot, complete with the pee pee guard.
The Thomas underwear are waiting.
Let POTTY TRAINING 401 commence!!
Posted By admin on July 5, 2010
Summer brings to us many things….cookouts, days filled with swimming, fresh garden vegetables, bugs, frogs, and weekly yard work.
Some of that is fun. Some of that brings with it a little dread. (Specifically the frog part…lots of dread. But who knows, that may just be me.)
The weekly yard work is another one of those tasks that isn’t very much fun. It is a hot sweaty job, that none of us really enjoys.
HOWEVER…
Eight and a half years ago, we began fashioning a wonderful aid to yard work. We molded, guided, taught and raised our little man to become someone who could help his Daddy out in the yard.
Yesterday, our efforts paid off.
We put that boy to work!
Ok, so it was hard work. It was hot. He was tired.
But he was pretty proud too, to be able to help out with the yard work.
And Dad was proud of his man, and loved getting to share the responsibility.
In fact, he liked that shared responsibility so much, that he has begun the training of another future yard aid. This one should reach his helping prime in another 6 years or so.
Until then, this guy will be the primary helper.
It is hard work, but I think he is up to the task.
Posted By admin on July 5, 2010
You mean you don’t keep a potty in the middle of your living room? Huh…
The gun next to the potty is just a bonus – we really are not trying to raise a redneck.
Posted By admin on July 4, 2010
Posted By admin on July 3, 2010
…Can we watch some TV?
Have you heard that this summer? I came up with a great option that is working well for our house!
“Sure…grab a laundry basket and start folding. You can watch TV while you fold!”
Yes, they are watching the Afro-painting guy making happy little trees. It was their choice – they love him!
Posted By admin on June 25, 2010
It is summertime.
It is exceedingly hot.
Hotter than normal.
Hotter than August should be.
And yet, as it often is with children in the summer, we spend many hours a day outside.
We’ve been swimming, playing, bouncing, hiking.
We have picnicked, done yard work.
We have laughed, sweat, cried, whined…(the heat has made the children uncomfortable too!)
We have been thirsty.
I went to bootcamp the other night, and we spent our workout outdoors. In the heat. The fact that it was evening should have cooled us off, but it was still 90+ that night, so we weren’t enjoying the cool evening breeze.
It was an endurance contest and I didn’t feel as though I was winning.
On the way home I had to stop by the store. We were out of bananas, bread and there was a sale on chicken.
It would be a quick stop, so I took my drippy self into the store, rather than having to run back out once I was cleaned up.
Oh how far I’ve come. Normally I would never let myself be seen so sweaty and yucky!!
While in the store, I grabbed the items that I needed.
I also found juice boxes for the kids. 3 bottles of juice that we couldn’t live without.
Then there was the bottles of Vitamin Water that I had to seek out. I bought 5 of those.
I was thirsty.
Today, we got home from the pool and I right away poured myself a cup of water. Rather than drinking it, I went on with changing everyone out of their wet things. Upon my walks through the house, I found my water bottle. I went and filled it up, and then hurried outside to hang wet towels, forgetting to take a drink.
Later, I found my 2 drinks sitting side by side, still full waiting to be drunk.
And I realized that I was thirsty.
Our spiritual life is like that too.
We spend our time out in the heat, working, playing, being busy.
And we forget that our spirit is getting dehydrated.
We fill up all the cups, ready to drink them, but get busy with life, with duty, with then unimportant – the things that could wait while we refill and refresh – and we forget to drink, to fill our souls.
I find that the summer time is one of my most difficult times in my walk with God. I am busy entertaining my children. There is no structure at our house. There are hours of running, doing and little time for just being.
I forget to be still, to pray, to draw close to my Savior, and I get thirsty.
And when I am thirsty for God, everything suffers until I take the time to refresh in Him. My temper flares, my house is messy, I am tired, cranky, emotional. I am in need of a break and dissatisfied with my life.
And I don’t want to be thirsty anymore.
I want to run, to rest in Him.
To drink my fill and be refreshed.
John 4:13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Posted By admin on June 24, 2010
I know that my days are numbered with my little ladybug saying her funny things. Somehow around this age, they tend to outgrow these things. I will miss all the funny things that she has to say, and her interesting way of looking at the world.
“Bust my Buffers!” We watch a lot of Thomas the Tank Engine in this house. A lot. We love Thomas. We consider him a member of the family.
“Brogie, do you know the strongest part of your body? Point to it.”
Brogie points to his knee.
“No. Not your knee. Your tongue. Mommy, do you think that I could lift 3 heavy boxes with my tongue?”
“Well, I don’t think so, Emmy.”
“Have you ever tried?”
“um…no.”
“I think I will try when we get home.”
5 minutes later:
“Mom, when you get home will you try to carry your purse with your tongue?”
“Really? Ok. I’ll try it…”
“But what happens if it is too heavy and you fall and hit your head.”
“I guess that would hurt.”
“And then you would say, ‘Emmy, you should have never made me carry my purse with my tongue, even though it is strong, because I hit my head’?”
Posted By admin on June 21, 2010
Several months ago the opportunity arose for Abby to sign up to go on a mission trip with her Sunday School class in church. It was going to be a week long trip to Charleston where she would be able to do yard work, stock food pantry shelves, play with underprivileged kids, visit with the elderly in an assisted living facility…you get the idea.
And of course…my Abby jumped at the opportunity. (For the record, I think it may have had just as much to do with a trip to Charleston sans parents as it did the chance to go on a missions trip!)
After some discussion and time to think about the fund raising aspect of her trip, we all decided that she should work and raise as much as she could. We believe that she would get so much more out of the trip by earning the money herself than by having it donated to her, and that with 4 months of time available, she could get close to her goal. Privately, we knew that anything that she didn’t raise, we would cover, but we wanted to see how close she could get.
And so…she set to work.
She made candy hearts to sell at Valentines Day.
She washed windows.
She cleaned out cabinets.
She scrubbed floors.
She made decorated clipboards and then sold them to friends and family.
My girl worked.
And by the beginning of May, she had earned all $300 dollars required to go on her missions trip.
And honestly, the fun for her began back then, at the beginning of May, in knowing that she had managed to raise that kind of money all by herself (and with the help of the wonderful friends and family who let her work for them and bought what she was selling. Thanks so much for encouraging and supporting Abby!)
It was so fun for Brenden and I to get to see this side of Abby. She was an entrepreneur! There was nothing that she wouldn’t do. Her mind has been (because it still is!) running constantly with other things that she could make and sell. She has since learned to crochet and has made hair scrunchies, wash cloths, head bands, blankets…all to learn better how to crochet so that she could potentially sell more.
The girl’s gotten a taste of blood (or perhaps money!)
She left yesterday on her trip. She was bounding and squealing – ready to leave.
I watched her load up in the van, excited to get going and I saw who she was becoming. It is so easy sometimes to hold your kids in a box. Keep them at a younger age. To mire down in the everyday rather than standing back and watching in awe at who they are becoming.
I was given a gift yesterday to see who she is becoming and to fall in love with that girl.
My prayer for her is that in this, her first week away from us, that she will be swept away by her creator. That she will come to know Him in a different way, and that she will love that. I pray that she will adore the opportunity to serve other people, those less fortunate than herself, and that she will crave more of that.
I am praying that when she returns, she will see how blessed we are as a family, and that she will be thankful. I know I am.
Will you join me in praying for her this week?
Posted By admin on June 19, 2010
Emmy’s ready to take it to the streets on her bike. A little cautious, Emmy hasn’t wanted to take off her training wheels, “just in case I fall”. She finally felt ready. And check her out, rather than fall, she figured out how to ride up onto the grass when she felt ready to stop crash.
