WRAD Memories

The first time it dawned on my was when Elijah was 6 weeks old. The first 'real' smile from our baby and Graham had gotten it. I was mad! I was also hurt, angry, confused... Why had HE gotten the first smile when I'm taking care of this baby 24/7? I'M the one that is up all night with him. I'M the one spending hours every day feeding him, changing his diaper, etc. But that's when I realized it- I was spending so much time 'taking care of' my baby that I forgot to enjoy my baby. And that's all that Graham did. Once I realized what I was doing (or rather NOT doing) I made some changes and eventually got my own smiles. But somehow, over time, I've fallen back into that rut. I've been so focused on the tasks of parenting that I've been missing out on the relationships of parenting. Teaching manners, training in chores, getting their school work done, music practiced- you know the parenting drill. Working for perfection and mis...

September was a bit of a blur- which you probably noticed since I really didn't post much of anything during the month. Things and life had me distracted and I couldn't figure out which way was up. My 90 Days Through the Bible is taking longer than I'd hoped- mainly because instead of doing my reading every night I've been doing other things (like creating a Lego scrapbook for the boys. Pointless? Of course! Will they love it and fight over the 1 copy that I ordered? You betcha!). But doing things that I'm not supposed to be doing means that I have to say NO to things that I should be doing. Things that if they don't get done mean that days are really, really rough. Like figuring out a schedule for our school days, or even what we're supposed to be doing for school each day! Thankfully, after meeting with my home support teacher, I have a new plan for the work and I just need to figure out a schedule. And very timely, this post here ( Punching th...

I got to have a nice long visit with a friend today. We've only known each other for just over a year, but in some ways it seems like a lifetime. We are so similar in so many ways it's almost scary- our husbands even have similar occupations (professional drivers)! Once of the many things that I appreciate most about her is that we can be real with each other. On recent visits we have joked that we're such good friends that we no longer feel the need to clean our houses before the other arrives (you know the cleaning I'm talking about- the 'I've got to impress' kind of clean as opposed to this is life kind of clean). But deeper than how clean we try to get our houses, we can be real about life. How our days are going, frustrations with home schooling or children or whatever. Thankfully though, we don't leave it there. We know that the other person will pray for us in those situations and challenge us to make it better by remembering to keep bringin...