Sunday, February 22, 2009

We cannot direct the wind but we can adjust the sails. ~Author Unknown







What do you know--my computer is really letting me post pictures today!!! Yesterday was so nice out and I didn't just want to sit around the house all day, so I packed up the kids. We spent some time playing at the park. We had to play at Isaac's school, because they have torn up Sunflower Park. I don't know if they are putting in new equipment or what, but there was pretty much just a big hole there yesterday. After having a picnic snack, we got on the road and checked out Spearfish Canyon. I haven't been there in about 6 years, but it is so beautiful there. The kids had fun finding animals and climbing on the fresh snow piles.
Today is Sunday. Another morning of dreading taking my kids out to church. It is quite obvious that I am having difficulty managing my own children on Sundays as I have blogged about this for years, but now my children are getting older and not only do I feel that my kids should be MUCH more behaved, but pretty much the whole congregation thinks so too. I have finally decided that it could be my fault for taking the easy way out so many times before. We have often had a nursery to rely on and my kids did not have to sit through a whole serman when they were young. Plus in Montana they had Sunday School at the same time as the church service, which at first for me was wierd, but then I didn't have my kids screaming through the whole service so I decided it was great! Oh--do I dread Sundays--the wrestling, the screaming, the whining, the fighting, the hitting, the crying-- and I am describing the service not WWE RAW! How does God feel about me just worshiping at home? Would that really be so bad? But I feel this is important and I should work on it now instead of letting it get worse (Isaac nearly took out 4 people two weeks ago screaming and trying to run back to the car--not sure it can get worse). So last week after we got back from church I very calmly discussed this with Isaac. Zoey really didn't feel the need. I asked him if he felt he had been good and we found the things he did well and the things he needs to work on and then he gave himself 6 minutes on the naughty chair for misbehaving. We also wrote on paper, goals for this week, the rewards for meeting those goals and the consequences for not meeting them. So they have had a week to think this over. I know you are not supposed to use food as a reward, but I told them I would take them out for icecream if they behaved. Today went so much smoother!!!They did wrestle twice before the service was over, but they weren't fighting at the time--"Just playing Mom." I don't know. I hope this phase is over soon.
On a lighter note. Isaac is learning to read by leaps and bounds. They have him practicing writing sentences. When we read at night I have him read most of the book to me. I love to watch Zoey write her name. She always knows the right order, but sometimes it is written Zoye or ZoEye. Just like Isaac used to do she often times gets carried away with the upper case E and it will have like 10 lines on it instead of three.







1 comment:

Unknown said...

God absolutely does not mind if you worship at home. I'm reading this book, "So you don't want to go to church anymore" and it turns out there is no Biblical basis for being part of a church congregation. I forget the cite for the verse, but the Bible does say "wherever two or three are gathered in His name..." (and then some other stuff I forget)... and you are definitely two, or three!