Friday, June 29, 2012

Friday Free-For-All

This week has absolutely FLOWN by!  I mean, it feels like Josh just came and smacked my butt and kissed me goodbye.  (okay, so maybe he didn't smack my butt...THIS time, ha!) But he gets home TOMORROW!  For that I am thankful.  Really thankful.

My sister-in-law has been in Uganda working on bringing her daughter home from Uganda.  She will be flying home this weekend with her oldest biological daughter that joined them this leg of the journey.  Their case has been sent to Nairobi.  We believe it will only be a matter of time before Chloe joins them here in America, but there must be more waiting and praying first!  Now I know that rules and systems are in place to keep all the bad guys from getting all the helpless children, but really?!  Chloe just needs to be home already.

Josh and I have graduated to the next season of parenting.  We had our first discussion behind closed doors the other day about what in the world we should do.  We are dealing with habitual lying and stealing now and the consequences of covering up sin.  It's hard.  Really hard.  We sure are glad to have godly parents and friends with wisdom and experience to steer us as we seek to reach the root of the issues and the heart behind the sinful actions.  Have I mentioned that it's hard?  Really hard.

I've been reminded of God's grace in a fresh new way this week.  I've also realized that I'm going to have a really hard time when my kids grow up and deal with a similar situation that I faced when I was younger.  They will most likely do things differently and make different choices than I did.  Not that I made the wisest of choices all the time (right mom;), but stepping back and allowing them to live and learn through their own choices.  It's gonna be tough.  Really tough.

I've really started something this week.  We may regret it because it's a bit time-consuming, but it's been the perfect way to close out each day with each of my kids.  After the bedtime routine is complete (I've been trying to shred the time off of this routine for years but it still takes AT LEAST 45 minutes to get the kids ready for bed.  I believe it could be made into an Olympic sport, ha!)...I digress, ahem...they all grab a book (length approved by mom) and hop in bed.  I go grab the flashlight and turn the lights off.  I then climb in each bed, one at a time, and read a story softly to them by flashlight, careful not to rush through the pages and most certainly using my finest character voices!  They love it, it settles them down.  If they get out of bed and run around while I'm reading someone else their story they don't get that time.  The best part about it?  Not one of them has come out of their room after the door is closed since I started doing that!  I have blissful mommy time the rest of the evening:)

My to-do list today is quite lengthy:

I know it will be tough to stick to, but someone needs to soak up all that sun, right?

Happy Friday Ya'll!

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