Keeping Homeschool Simple

As I was reading my daily blogs I stopped by Happy Hearts At Home and there was a link to a wonderful article called Helpful Advice For Homeschooling Elementary School Aged Children. The article is about keeping homeschooling simple and I was happy to read it.

There are so many things to think about when it comes to homeschooling. It's nice to have a reminder that simple homeschooling can benefit everyone.

Traveling on The Homeschool Road

The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. ~Sydney J. Harris

After much thought and prayer my husband and I have decided to homeschool our children again

We homeschooled for one year and towards the end of that year I believe I was experiencing what other homeschoolers call "burn out." Along with the feeling of being burnt out came the feelings of being an inadequate teacher and every negative comment that was said by others pushed those inadequate feelings even further to the surface. I was also expecting my 5th child and the thought of dealing with a newborn, homeschool, and the feeling of no confidence was overwhelming.

I told my husband we were putting the kids back in Catholic school. The school they attended is very good so we were not that hesitant to put them back.

During the year they were back at school, I noticed that my children were at the same level, and above in some areas, as the peers in their grade. That gave me a little boost. I really did teach them something the year they were home! I also noticed my son did a lot better when he was home. His teacher recommended tutoring in math, but when I pulled out his math work from being homeschooled it showed something different. It showed A-B work, not the C-D work he was bringing home from school.

Whenever I would look at their work they brought home from school, I couldn't help but think, "Oh I can teach them this!"

People in my life usually ask the question why when I say I am going to homeschool. There are many different reasons that I can explain, and then there is the feeling of being drawn to it that I can't explain.

Another factor in our decision was when I asked my oldest daughter how she felt about homeschool, she responded in a positive way. She was all for it and ready to say goodbye to away school. A reaction like this coming from my daughter really made me think. What was missing for her that she would so readily leave her classmates and "social life" behind so quickly? Maybe I was good at homeschooling and she really enjoyed it!

A Catholic education is top priority in our family and in these economical times tuition for 5 children is not possible for our family. And knowing I can give my children that kind of education at home for a fraction of the cost is also appealing.

I think I am more prepared this time around. I have seen that my children did learn while being homeschooled. I look back and see that my children got along better, they weren't consumed with what they didn't have and what other kids did have, and we really did have a good time.

I have also noticed that when we said we were homeschooling again and I received blank stares or the whys, it didn't bother me in the slightest, that is a good sign. :)

We are going to do things a little different this time around. We are going to use Seton and enroll the oldest two. I think this will help me to be more organized and accountable. And the good thing about homeschool is if it doesn't fit we can change it.

The most important thing is that we grow as a family and that we give all we can to our children, right now for our family that involves homeschooling.

Prayers and encouragement are still very much needed and very much appreciated.

How to Raise Good Catholic Kids

I love this painting. This is what I want, to take my children by the hand and lead them straight to God.

Sometimes it's easier said than done. I use the site ehow.com for lots of things, like how to make a skirt, or how to fix the noise my washing machine is making. Who knew the site would have simple tips everyone could do to make a start at raising good Catholic children.

I love the side bar that tells you what you will need. The list includes- perseverance, Bible, and Rosaries.

Take a look at the four steps it takes to get your children on their way to becoming good Catholics HERE.

You can always look at How to Avoid Grizzly Bears While Hiking later.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

I was looking through my older posts and came across this post where I announced my 5th pregnancy. I can't believe it has been over a year since I announced I was pregnant with baby number five. I asked for prayers for the health of our baby and for the strength to be a mother of five children. I thank all of you who prayed and I thank God because those prayers were answered. Benjamin is a healthy baby boy and I am a cool, calm, and collected mom. Ok I may be exaggerating the last part.

It does seem with every child we are blessed with the easier it is. The baby is always more relaxed and calm, it may be because mom and dad are more relaxed and calm.

Benjamin has brought so much joy to our family in the four short months he has been with us. My five year old is constantly telling us how glad she is that we had another baby, even if he is a boy. She says she would like us to have another baby only if it's a girl. I tell her she will have to settle for our dog and bird who are both girls for right now.

As I looked back on the posts before my pregnancy announcement I came across a poem I posted. I am not sure if I knew I was pregnant when I posted it, but I know I didn't know Little Ben was going to be a boy.

This poem will forever be Ben's Christmas poem, to him from me.

The Mothers Song
Eskimo poem translated by Peter Freuchen

It is so still in the house
There is a calm in the house,
The snowstorm wails out there,
And the dogs are rolled up with snouts under tails.
My little boy is sleeping on the ledge,
On his back he lies, breathing through his open mouth.
His little stomach bulging round-
Is it strange if I start to cry with joy?

Zzzzzzzzz

I am one tired Mama.

Oney likes to wake up before the crack of dawn. After we finish school and eat lunch I can barely keep my eyes open.

I explained to my kids that when a baby is first growing it makes mom very tired and I need to rest.

For the past two days my wonderful children have let me do just that. I put Oney down for his nap after lunch and then I get in my bed for a little rest. My bedroom is in the basement. One side is our room the other is the kid’s playroom. Miss, Lil D and Bug all come down stairs and actually stay quiet and play nice while I nap!

There has been no fighting, no disturbances at all during this peaceful time. God is good, and so are my kids!

Yesterday Miss fixed all the covers and pillows on my bed so I would be more comfortable. She is so excited about this new baby and has poured her affection onto me.

It has only been two days of this much-needed napping bliss, I don’t know how long it will last but I had to write about how sweet my children are to me. God bless them.

Lucky Number Seven

Our family has received an early Christmas present. We have just found out that we will be having a baby!

I am very early in my pregnancy, and I am feeling pretty good so far.

The baby should be here some time in August I will have more details once I go for my doctor appointment.

I have so many feelings about this pregnancy, fist being joy and thankfulness.

When I first found out I was pregnant I looked around my three-bedroom house and thought where in the world am I going to put a baby? How am I going to deal with five children, can I do this?

As soon as these thoughts came to my head they were swept away with thoughts and feelings of instant love for this little one, love for my husband, and love for my growing family.

Every baby brings lessons. This baby is already preparing me to put my trust in God, take one day at a time, and to be aware of every blessing that comes our way.

No wonder a child is one of God’s greatest gifts, look at how much insight and love God sends with a new baby.

I would like to ask for your prayers that this little one remains healthy and that any anxiety that may creep in be lifted from our family.

Peace and God Bless

Memories, a Cherished Christmas Gift

Christmas and babies are a beautiful combination. When Christmas comes around and there are babies in the family it makes the holiday that much more endearing.

I think it is because Christmas is a miracle in itself and when you can ponder this miracle and can be around the miracle of a child it brings Christmas to a new level.

Some of my fondest memories at Christmas time are when my children were babies. At night when the house was quiet and the only light was from our Christmas tree I would sit and rock my babies. Sometimes I would have Christmas music softly playing in the back ground, other times it would be completely silent except for the breath of my sleeping child.

These were times when I could feel God so close to me and my heart was full.

I have a Christmas book that I checked out from the library for my kids. As I was looking through the book I came across this poem. It is a beautifully perfect Christmas poem that reminds me of my favorite Christmas memories.


The Mothers Song
Eskimo poem translated by Peter Freuchen

It is so still in the house
There is a calm in the house,
The snowstorm wails out there,
And the dogs are rolled up with snouts under tails.
My little boy is sleeping on the ledge,
On his back he lies, breathing through his open mouth.
His little stomach bulging round-
Is it strange if I start to cry with joy?


May your Christmas be full of miracles, memories, and the fullness of God.

Little Moments From God

Lil D is preparing to make his First Reconciliation. Yesterday we learned how to examine our conscience.

We went through the Ten Commandments and broke each one down to understand what each one means on kids terms.

It went something like this…

Me: “You shall have no other gods before me, that means to love God more than anything, like video games, playing, television etc…”

Me: “Keep the Sabbath day Holy means go to Mass with joy, pay attention and participate.”

We did this all the way down the list, when we were done there was silence. Then Miss spoke up.

Miss: “I think I need to go to Confession this Saturday.”

Me: “I think I do too.”

The Crush

I can remember when I was in middle school and started to develop crushes on boys. I can remember giving and receiving little notes that said, do you like me? There were two boxes that the recipient of the note had to check either yes or no to the above question.

If the yes box was checked then you had yourself a boyfriend or girlfriend. This meant that you would send notes to each other and maybe play a little bit on the play ground together.

I also remember never bringing up my crushes that I had to my parents. This was a school thing. The boy never came to my house; we never talked on the phone. I didn’t know his parents he didn’t know mine. It was a private young crush.

This carried on into my teen years. My parents requested to meet whomever I was dating, but they did not know the young man or his family on a deeper level. My relationships were private.

I find new reasons to love homeschooling as we continue to live this lifestyle. Middle school kids will always have crushes. It is normal and I am not too concerned about it. My husband on the other hand may have more issues with it than I do. I think all fathers do.

The middle school kids that are in our homeschool group develop these crushes too. The difference I have noticed between their crushes and mine of the past is that these kids are open with their feelings. They talk to the adults about how they feel. They have no problem telling us parents who likes who.

Another difference is that the boy who may have a crush on my daughter or vice versa is apart of our homeschool family. I know this child, his parents and their values. Us mom like to refer to the kids in our group as being on the approved future dating list.

I am not saying that all the kids in our group will be arranged in marriage some day, but what I am saying is that I love the fact that I can be apart of these first crushes, even if I am in the background. I like knowing all my children’s friends and families, not as acquaintances, but as a family. This makes the realization that my little girls and boys will one day like the opposite sex a little easier to handle.

Even if my children find the love of their life in a different setting, Church, college, or wherever, I am hopeful that they will carry with them a respect for their families and themselves that they are being taught in these early years.

Homeschooling has so many benefits for education and the benefits of everyday human interaction that comes with it is one more reason I feel blessed that homeschooling is apart of our lives.

Reading Circle

I have always read to my children. It has never been a formal thing; a bedtime story or my kids will bring me a book they want me to read while I am sitting on the couch. It is usually during my favorite show that this happens. I think they see me sitting on the couch and think that must mean I am looking for something to do.

Lately we have been doing something different. Everyday after dinner I decided we would have reading circle. The kids and I get their reading books and each one of us reads a story from our chosen book. We lay in a circle on the floor.

I purposely told my kids about this plan because I knew they would hold me to it. Sure enough Lil D reminds me everyday that we have to do reading circle. I now look back on my plan and wonder if I really said everyday?

There are nights when I am tired. Nights when I really don’t want to listen to three stories and have to read one myself. Some nights reading circle goes great, other times there is bickering and tantrums from a three year old when she is told if she is going to bang on pots, throw toys, or do gymnastics she needs to go in the other room.

I will keep doing reading circle. I will try to do it every night. The kids do love it and it helps us to be close to one another. I will also keep doing it because there will come a day when my kids are teenagers and they will not want to lay on the floor with me and read aloud to each other.

One day all my babies will be grown up. I will have time on the couch by myself watching my favorite show. I will be able to read a book to myself in complete quiet. It will be nice. At the same time I can see myself looking down at the empty floor and longing to be lying in a circle, hearing stories from little readers. I will envision a three year old tumbling around us and a sweet voice reminding me that we must do reading circle again tomorrow.


What greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined for life - to be with each other in silent unspeakable memories. ~George Eliot

I Once Knew a Homeschooled Kid and They Were Weird

I was reading a post over at Conversion Diary (formally known as ‘ET TU”) the post is about how kids use their peers instead of their parents, family and other adults to find their identity, morals, and values. This post had me thinking of the comment I have come to expect from those who wish to express their feelings about homeschool to me.

The statement I sometimes get is, “I once knew a homeschooled kid and they were weird.”

I find it strange that people have known one homeschooled kid and this child was extremely weird.

Then I ask weird in what way? Usually they can’t give me a specific weirdness, so I come to my own conclusions. Are they weird because they respect adults, children, and the elderly? Are they weird because in social situations they want to talk about things that matter and not superficial ideas that society shows our children? Are they weird because some have a deep relationship with God? Unfortunately in today’s world this is weird.

I have not had the privilege to meet that one unique, weird, unsocialized homeschooled child that so many of my acquaintances have met.

I am sure there are traditional “weird” children who are or have been homeschooled. But have you been to a public school or a private school lately? I have known many so called weird kids and I was never homeschooled or even met a homeschooled child until recently. The homeschooled kids and young adults I have met have not had a sense of weirdness to them. They seem petty normal to me.Who knows, maybe I am the weird one.

There are a lot of things that influence children in school, some good and some bad. If teaching my children that the bad parts are in no way cool will make them weird, then they are going to be weird. If loving God and having respect for themselves and for others is weird then so be it. If teaching that family is the most important influence in their life is weird then I would like you to meet my four weird children.

You can read what another Homeschooler has to say about this topic at Weird,Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Child Psychology and Nonsense by G.K. Chesterton

My dear husband sent me this article by G.K Chesterton.

I found this article to be quite interesting. Chesterton explains why adults can sometimes be caught up in the ways they teach their children and forget that there is a child involved.

I think it is important when educating your child to think of them. What is on their mind, how do they learn? As I start to homeschool it will be beneficial to my children for me to remember this. Yes they need to learn math, English, science and so on. I want to do what I can to teach them the way children learn. I want them to enjoy it.

"In this age of child-psychology nobody pays any attention to the actual psychology of the child. All that seems to matter is the psychology of the psychologist and the particular theory or train of thought that he is maintaining against another psychologist. Most of the art and literature now magnificently manufactured for children is not even honestly meant to please children. The artist would hardly condescend to make a baby laugh if nobody else laughed, or even listened. These things are not meant to please the child. At best they are meant to please the child-lover."

One of the many reasons I decided to homeschool was because I wanted my children to love learning. I think that's why Chesterton's article hits home with me. I want my child's learning to please my child--not just the "child-lover." I think homeschooling allows just that.

Read the full article Child Psychology and Nonsense by G.K Chesterton

Qualifications

Starting on this homeschooling adventure I have read and heard many opinions on the homeschooling subject

I would like to throw in my two cents on some of the opinions I have heard about homeschooling. Some say parents without a teaching degree are not qualified to teach their children. This is something I thought about as our family was deciding whether to home school or not. I have only had two semesters in college. Big D will have his bachelors this November, but not in education. The question kept coming up. Are we qualified? Can I really teach my children what they need to know?

We taught our children how to speak. We taught them the alphabet, colors, shapes, and many other things they needed to know at that age level. But now we are talking about History, Math, Science, ect… Can I do this? Am I qualified?

My son will be in second grade and my daughter in fifth grade. I was also a child in these grades and I did pretty well in school at that time. I did all the work and I even received good grades. But does that qualify me to teach the subjects needed in those grades?

I really want to homeschool, but my first priority is my children’s education. So I went on with the doubt of my qualifications in the back of my mind. I picked out the curriculum and looked it over. The books tell you what to teach and how to teach it. But it gets better, if your child is not responding to the way the book suggest teaching the subject, you the parent can change the teaching method.

Now I was building confidence. I looked through the science book and thought hey I know this stuff! And the things I did not know I can read the textbook and learn it.

For subjects that I am not good at like Math for instance, my husband will step in. For Miss, her teacher at her old school tutors her in Math once a week and prepares her for the tests I give.

As I looked over my child’s curriculum and read the books, I remembered when we would sit on the couch when they were little and read books about colors and shapes. How we taught them their address and phone number and how to write their names. For a child who is 2,3,and 4 those are hard tasks. But all parents are qualified to teach these things to their children. Now that they are older the learning is the same only at a different level.

I do think all parents are qualified to teach their children. As long as the children’s education is top priority. I don’t think homeschooling is for everyone. But on this journey to the homeschooling lifestyle change, I do believe that Big D and I are quite qualified to teach our children. We have been doing it for years.

“Educating a child is a natural process. Home schooling is nothing more than an extension of parenting.” ~Sue Maakestad

Heliping Children Give

Since my talk with Lil D about giving more to people in need and our community I started checking around the internet to see if I could find some volunteer work or charities that younger kids can get involved with. I found some that sound great. Here is a few of the charities I have found that can be put into action by my children.


Color a Smile

Children color pictures and send them in. Meals on Wheels then delivers them to the people they assist. A fast and easy way to bring a smile to someone and brighten their day.

Snazzy Hats

Make hats for chemotherapy patients. This site gives you details on how to go about doing this, and places you can send your hats off to.

Make A Child Smile

Children are able to send cards, drawings, and little gifts to very ill children. Children who really need something to look forward to.

Operation Goody Bag

Children can decorate brown paper bags, fill them with the supplies suggested, and send them to Operation Goody Bag. The Goody Bags will then be delivered to the military first responders, as well as fire rescue and any other people who risk their lives to respond first when we need them.

Cheerful Givers

Make Goody Bags for a child’s birthday. I think it would be good idea to have my children do this while we are planning for their own birthday. That way they are giving at the same time they are receiving.

These are a few of the charities I have found that are suitable for children of all ages, from very young to adult. The site that I got these from also has organizations for older kids and teens and how they can become involved.

You can view the list for more ideas at Go City Kids

If you have any ideas on how to get kids involved in their community or with charity please let me know.



Be a little pencil in the hand of God
who is sending a love letter to the word.
-Mother Theresa

Thursday Thirteen

13 Reasons I have a bunch of kids.

1.I have something to blame my few extra pounds on.

2.I have learned to find a dark amusement when my whole family walks into a restaurant and I see the look of horror on the wait staff’s faces.

3.I get many compliments on my children, even if I think they are acting up. People just assume that if you have many children they should be hanging from the ceiling or setting fires in the corner. I welcome every compliment.

4.People give me compliments like, “Oh you must be so patient.” “You really have it together.” I either roll with it or I fight back the urge to tell them I have not showered in three days, my house looks like a heard of goats came through, and I just got done telling my kids through clenched teeth, “You better behave or else.”

5.Easter egg hunts, tag, and duck duck goose are more fun to play because you always have enough playmates and they live with you.

6.I feel comfortable around families with 5 or more children because finally my family gets to be the ‘normal” one for a change.

7.More Mother’s Day presents.

8.I get to exercise my brain coming up with witty answers to questions and comments such as “Are you done?” “Are they all yours?” or my personal favorite, “Better you than me.”

9.I will never have to waste money on art or wall decoration. My kids make enough art for me to display to last a lifetime.

10.I really like the sound of the word Mama from many different voices.

11.Silence while good and comforting at times gets me antsy if it last to long. My kids don’t know the meaning of silence, so it works out well.

12.The more kids I have to teach me how to lead a good life the better. I need all the help I can get.

13.It is comforting to know that I have produced at least one child who will take care of me when I am old and in need of care. Maybe we should have a few more just to be sure.


Thursday Thirteen

Be Yourself

Miss is my oldest child. At the end of the summer she will be ten years old. I admire Miss for the person that she is. I could have only dreamed to have the kindness, confidence, and sense of self that she has at such a young age.

Miss gets along with everyone. It doesn’t matter the age, she fits herself right in to any group. She has a few little friends in the neighborhood that she goes to visit. One in particular I will call Y.

Miss and Y get along pretty well when they are together. But if you add any of Y’s friends from school into the mix it seems as though they leave Miss out.

They will tell her that we, her parents, are too strict on her. (This happened after I told Miss there was no way she was going to the park with a bunch of nine year olds at 8pm)

Y had a birthday party sleep over this past weekend and invited Miss. I told Miss that no matter what time it was if she wanted to come home just call and I will come get her.

Around two in the morning I get a call from Miss who is crying. She told me that all the girls are sleeping in a bed and are making her sleep on the floor. They were teasing her because I said no to the park trip, and they were whispering to each other about her.

I walked down the street to go get her. We got back to our house and sat on the couch where she cried and told me what had happened. As a mother I was getting upset with these little girls. Miss is a good and kind friend, and for someone to take that for weakness really got my blood boiling.

I asked her, “Did you come home because you wanted to?” She said yes. I was proud of her. Even though she was being ganged up on, and she could lose one of her only friends in the neighborhood. She stood up for herself and left. She could have stayed and took what these girls were giving to her, but she didn’t.

That night we talked about peer pressure. How some people can’t be themselves when other friends are around. I explained to her that some people act how others expect them to rather than how God intended them act.

I told her I was always proud how she never changed who she was no matter whom she was with. I told her that I admired her for that, and she was my role model in that way.

Miss got a big kick out of that, and she started to feel better.

When does the pressure of being the person others expect you to be stop? When situations come up around my adult friends and acquaintances there are times when I feel like a little girl at a sleep over being bullied into behaving a certain way. I will think of Miss in these situations and say and do what I know to be right. If they don’t like me afterwords, then they were never true friends to begin with.

Thursday Thirteen

13 Things Parents Say To Their Children

1.Because I said so.

This is something I swore I would never say; I always thought it was better to explain why rules are set and what they are for. After hearing "why?” for the 900Th time after I said no you can not have a third cupcake, I will admit I have used this phrase.

2.When I was your age…

As soon as I heard any type of conversation as a child that started with this, my eyes would glass over and I would drift off to la la land. Again I have used this on seldom occasions, for some reason when you become a parent you think your child cares that you did not have a computer, video games, or that you had to walk 5 miles to school.

3.How many times have I told you…

Do kids really know how many times we have told them not to do or to do something? I use this and it gets me nowhere. Miss will just say, “I don’t know.” But Lil D will actually hold up the amount of fingers that he thinks equals to the amount of times I told him something. Either way I am left staring at them with a blank face.

4. Wait until your father gets home!

OK, I know this one is supposedly not good. But when you have been playing the bad guy all day, sometimes it is relieving to give the job over to Dad. Even though he is innocently at work and has no idea the job that is in store for him when he gets home.

5. Were you born in a barn?

My parents said this to me when I would leave the front door to the house open. I never knew the exact meaning to this question. Is it because barn doors are frequently left open? Maybe someone can help me with this one.

6. Skin a Cat

This is a weird and twisted one. Maybe my family is the only people who use this. Whenever my Grandmother was undressing me, she would pull my shirt over my head and in a sweet voice say, “Skin a cat.” I thought it was funny as a little kid. It was not until I was older that I realized she was comparing undressing me to pulling the skin off a cat. I leave this phrase with Grandma.

7.You look like a dying duck in a mud hole.

This is another one of Grandma’s favorites. She would say this to us when we were sick. I might have said this once or twice. Sorry kids.

8.We are not heating/cooling the neighborhood

This was another thing that was said if you left the door open. “Where you born in a barn?” Usually came before or after this particular phrase. I have said this to my kids, and I am not really sure if the get what I mean.

9.Look what you did!

I am guilty of saying this to my children. If my son for instance writes on the wall, was he not just looking at it? Does making him look at it again make it any more definite that he has written on the wall?
In my mind it does, so I say it.

10. I am going to throw you in the garbage.

This is another weird one. This particular saying is used on toddlers in my family. Wait, before anyone makes a call, let me explain. When you play the, I am going to get you game with a toddler and you catch them you say in a sweet toddler talk voice, “I am going to throw you in the garbage." For some reason they think this is funny and get a good laugh out of it. I have used this in front of my mother-in-law. From the look on her face I don’t think she thought this was the greatest saying in the world. Maybe you have to be from a crazy family that talks about skinning cats to fully appreciate this one.

11. If you eat too much sugar you will get diabetes

This one belongs to my Husband. He used this in effort to keep our kids from eating too many sweets. I have to say I do not know if eating a vast amount of sweets will make you a diabetic, but I don’t think having one or two Little Debbie’s will be the deciding factor if you are going to get the disease. Lil D would ask me about it every time I gave him a treat. I had to put an end to this one. It made the boy a little too paranoid. Now we just use the saying, “No more treats.”

12. There are starving children in Africa…

As I child I would have this said to me if I did not eat all my dinner. I do think it is very important to teach your children not to waste food and that they are fortunate enough to even have it. But this saying only works well on certain kids. Miss would feel horrible about the African children and eat every bite. Lil D on the other hand would probably tell me, “Put mine in a box and send it to them.”

13. Don’t talk back to me. (Plus I added others for your enjoyment)

This is how a saying like this would play out.
The child has left the door to the house open while the heat/air conditioning is on.

Mother~”Close the door, were you born in a barn?” “We are not heating/cooling the neighborhood.”

Child~”Mom, you know I was not born in a barn, you were there.” “Leaving the door open for a second will not cool/heat the neighborhood, it will take a lot more than our heater/air conditioner to do that.”

Mom~”Don’t talk back to me.” ‘How many times have I told you to shut the door?”

Child~ Staring at Mom.

Mom~”Well, how many times.”

Child~”You said not to talk back to you.”

Mom~”You just wait until your Father gets home!”


Get the Thursday Thirteen code here.



thursday thirteen

God Bless These Chicken Nuggets

My kids teach me a lot of things. They teach me patience, I seem to be a slow learner at this, I keep tying. They teach me about love, kindness and they teach me how to have faith like a child.

Big D and I want to teach our children that you don’t have to hide your faith, we are open and talk about God with them everyday. These little folks are not reserved when it comes to talking about their faith or prayers around anyone, for this I am grateful.

The lesson they taught me happened one day at McDonald's I took them there for lunch and to run around in the play area. We got our nutritious meal of cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets and sat down in the crowded play area to eat. My kids know they have to eat all their food before they can play. I guess that gives me a point for being a good mom, even though I feed them fast food sometimes for lunch.

The place was packed. Moms, Dads, and kids filled the tables. There were also kids running around playing. We were about to start eating when Miss said, “Wait we have to say grace.” This was at a time when we had just begun making prayer apart of our daily lives. Being reserved in my faith, I felt uncomfortable. I did not want my kids to see I felt this way, I put my burger down and said, “Go ahead."

The kids quietly folded their hands and made the sign of the cross. In a normal voice they said Grace. I followed their lead. I had my head down so I don’t know if people were looking at us or not. I didn’t care; after we said Grace I could not have been more proud. I thanked God to myself. I thanked him for these children, and I asked him to help me to be like them.

That day as my children and I said Grace over our chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers I felt God was truly giving me a lesson through these little children. Have faith like a child, God is everywhere, (even McDonald's) and never be afraid to be who you are. Now our family always says Grace before we eat no matter where we are. I don’t feel uncomfortable about it at all.

My children taught me that.

Super Hero

The most important thing a Father can do for his children is love their Mother. ~Unknown

This quote holds so much truth. I think the reverse is true as well. What is more precious to a mother than her children? And what warms a mother’s heart more than a man who loves and cherishes those children.

A man who would sacrifice his own life to make sure those children were safe and sound.A husband can be such a wonderful title. Becoming a husband can bring out a man’s potential that he never knew he had. But becoming a father and giving his children all of himself makes that man different. It makes his soul shine, and his agendas worthwhile. It also brings out a love from his wife that she may not have known she possessed.

When I think of Big D as my husband and as my children’s Father, this is what comes to mind. A man that has been transformed into something he may have never thought he could be, a Provider, a protector, a teacher, a super hero, and a friend.

I loved my husband more than life itself the day I married him. When I saw the transformation from husband into father I did not know there could be such an intense love. Being the Father that he is to the most precious people in my life is something I will forever be grateful for.

He is our provider, our protector, our teacher, and most definitely our super hero.

Generation Gap

There are certain ages in my childhood that I can remember very distinctively. Miss is at one of those ages. The things she says and does brings me back to memories I have of that time in my life.

When we were watching the American Idol finale I thought she was going to have a spasm when the Jonas brothers performed. Big D kind of looked at her in a puzzled but amused way. I was watching her and it was bringing me back to when Michael Jackson performed Billy Jean on TV for the first time. I acted the same way. Screaming as he did his moonwalk, clasping my hands together while I had a permanent grin plastered on my face.

Yesterday when we were driving to the store, Miss was telling me all about the Jonas brothers, which one she liked the best, who her friends like the best. Giving me random facts about them. All the while I was smiling and thinking, I can really relate to her right now. I can share with her my childhood and how I felt the same way about Michael Jackson. This is how it went…

Miss~ “The Jonas Brothers are so cool.”

Me~ “Yeah, they are pretty cool.” “I remember when I was your age I loved Michael Jackson, he was the best.”

Miss~ “Who is Michael Jackson?”

Me~ “You know the guy who sings Thriller and Beat It.” I then went into my rendition of both songs.

Miss~ “You mean that weird guy with the long black hair?”

Me~ “Well he didn’t look like that when I liked him.”

Then there was silence for a while.

Me~ “I used to lay in my bed while I listened to his album and stare at his picture.” I said this with a worried laugh, thinking maybe I gave to much information of how weird of a child I was.

Miss~ “Really, that’s weird.”

So the whole relating to my nine year old didn’t work out like I thought it would. I think I will just listen to her and let her bring me back to the great memories I had at her age. I will still share some childhood stories with her, will she relate to them, maybe, maybe not.

At least she didn’t ask me what an album was.