Kids dressing themselves #2

"Jack will you see if you can put your pajamas on all by yourself tonight?"



"OK Mommy."





(shorts underneath pull-up)

I don't see any point

in spending the extra 75 cents buying the "Marie Calendar's chicken pot pie" when you could just get the Banquet one. They taste about the same. They are probably made at the same plant just boxed up differently. Ya know, like lunch meat. It's all the same thing.

This is my first day back since the "stomach bug." I'm so glad I'm better. It was awful. First time in almost 4 years that I've been SICK. I was too sick to watch my boys. It only lasted 24 hours, but have you thought about how many minutes there actually are in 24 hours??? It's a ton! And hurting for almost all of those minutes? It's bad. I may be a little bit dramatic when I'm sick (I like to groan). But it is always warrented. Mike called a sitter over for the day. I left the bedroom twice all day and just cause I was bored.

Today I woke up feeling absolutely fine --with about 25% of my normal energy.

The boys went to MDO. I checked them up and down for any trace of sickness. I didn't see any. I don't believe in sending sick kids to public places where other kids can get sick. It's just not nice. I'm really hoping my boys don't come down with this cause I'll feel bad that I exposed other kids.

I've been washing sheets and door nobs today. I also went to the Commisary (grocery store on base) for food. Jack asked me this morning if I would please go to the store and buy some more bananas. I told him I would.

I love seeing how his reasoning power is improving:
I'm hungry --> I want a banana -->
There are no bananas in the bowl --> We must be out of bananas -->
Where can I get a banana --> Mom gets them at the store -->
I'll ask her to go buy some.

It's great. Gotta watch that kid though.

Sweet Boy

Ty is such a loving little child. He hugs and kisses and snuggles like nobody. He is pretty emotional. He often cries over little things or when I mow the yard. But overall he is a very kind, loving child. He loves to have fun and to laugh. Here is a video of Ty being himself.

Ty, when you are older don't get mad at me for calling you emotional, remember who brought you into this world, who bought you a wipe-warmer for the cold months (despite your dad insisting that it was frivolous), who uses her pinkie to clean boogers out of your nostrils, and who loves you despite your tendency to overreact to things...

But, if it makes you feel better we'll say you're "spirited" not emotional.

I love you.

Line 'em Up

I can remember Dad telling us that he was just going to line us all up and spank us. Please don't think bad thoughts of Dad. Really, it's a good idea. Lining us up would help make sure everyone got their deserved spanking and that no one got spanked twice. Good plan Dad. Mom and Dad have 8 children. I can't imagine having that many kids that are whiny and unhappy enough to need to be "lined up" and spanked.



Here's our line up.



Ty automatically says "cheese" any time a camera comes out. Even if the circumstances don't warrant smiling.

Jack doing a little better.

"Now you two be nice to each other and no more unkindness."

Rain

I went upstairs to write on my blog and didn't get very far when it started raining. Pouring. It made me think of Hannah, who can be found every time it rains --without fail, sitting on the back porch holding a coffee and a blanket.

So now I'm on the front porch sitting in my lounge chair typing on my iPhone. It is raining hard! It shouldn't surprise me though because weather bug said it wouldn't rain today. I checked the weather this morning also while on the front porch only then the sky overhead was clear. I could see thick black clouds in the northeast just as the first light of the morning was peeking over the houses on our street. Lightning was making one section of the clouds glow. I checked the weather and... no chance of rain. Hmm... Ok. Sure enough that cloud missed us, must have passed by east of Abilene.

It is barely sprinkling now. The boys are asleep and supper is in the crock pot. Things are calm, and I am calm. Usually on Fridays I am anxious for the weekend; excited to see Mike and ready
to have people over.

I feel very much at peace and content.

I'm coming off of several weeks of searching my brain to try and figure out how life (air force life) is going to work out: mike being able to spend enough time with the boys, me getting some QT with Mike, Instructor school housing arrangements, Mike getting to have a little free time, training a little boy who has been throwing some screaming fits.... I just didn't understand how it could all work out correctly. Has God called us to air force life? We believe He has. Has He called Mike to raise Christlike children? We believe He has. Do I need a little bit of time alone with Mike? I think so.

You get the picture? I have been frustrated and irritated that I couldn't see any way that our family would benefit from the conditions we seem to be in right now. And when would it end?

About a week ago it dawned on me that maybe I was trying to be god again, making the plans for us, "working out everything for the good." I wasn't doing so good. It's a big job to run your own (and your family's) life.

Sunday we were at RBC in G-town. Pastor Kevin preached on trusting God. I shot God a glance from the pew. I think He shot me one back. I took good notes. I wrote down the references to all the Scripture He used. I looked them all up later. But the main passage He used was Proverbs 3:5-6. It says, get this, it's great.

It says: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own UNDERSTANDING. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths." I

know, this is one of the verses everyone learns in 1st grade. I probably could have told you the verse if you'd asked me to quote it. I could quote it, but did I KNOW it?

All week I've been very intentional with my thoughts. I've prayed over and over for God to make me trust Him. "Do whatever you need to." I told Him. Those are dangerous words, I know; and I meant them. I don't want to halfway follow Christ. God promises peace and joy to those who trust and obey Him. I want peace and joy.

It has taken several days, but I now feel much less self-inflicted pressure. Ahh! It feels much better. This is probably just a taste of what God promises the man whose faith is in Him.

I hope I get it this time and don't have to learn how to trust God, again.

I hear springs creaking. That means someone in the next room is jumping on their bed --oh, I'm back upstairs now. Forgot to tell you that.

Need to go love on my babies now.





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Updated: 20 minutes later
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Every calm moment in a Mom's life is quickly followed by cleaning up whatever unauthorized mess was made during said calm moment. The longer your break and the more relaxed you are is directly correlated to the size of the mess and the depth of the trouble the kids are in now.

Case and point:

Remember I said they were supposed to be napping? Hope you people don't mind getting presents wrapped in wrinkly wrapping paper.

Good Job Mom and Hannah

Last weekend we got to go down and see Mom walk across the stage at Texas A&M Univ. Commerce. She finished her masters in library science. Way to go Mom!

Hannah (my sis. #4) graduated with her bachelors the same day. I don't know what her major was. She changed it lots. I think something to do with marketing or P.R.

Since the graduation ceremonies were the same day we Bosharts (and former Bosharts) split up and conquered. We went to Mom's. Here we are in Commerce.

I will follow you

I wish you could have been there, standing next to me, in the pew on Sunday morning.

It was beautiful. I have had the scene replayed in my mind over and over the last two days.

I had the privilege of sitting next to a little girl, maybe 5 or 6. Her Daddy was standing on the other side of her. We started singing the song, "Rescue."

She knew the words to the chorus.

You could tell she loved to sing. She sang loud. I could hear the band, the worship leaders voice, the background noise of the congregation singing, but through this, the clearest little voice rang out saying:

I need you, Jesus, to come to my rescue

where else can I go?

There's no other name by which I'm saved

Capture me with grace

I will follow you. I will follow you...

I will follow you.

I just keep hearing: I need you Jesus to come to my rescue. I will follow you.

I agree. I need you Jesus.

I always need rescuing. Over and over again self comes back and tries to take a piece back that I have given to God. Every time I need Jesus to rescue me. Where else can I go?

I will follow you. I will follow you. I will follow you.

Why do I have to keep giving it up? The better question is why do I take up sin again? I've been saved. Why can't it all be over with once and forever?

I am so weak.

This world has nothing for me.

I need you Jesus.

I will follow you.

Help wanted, I mean needed

I don't understand why we have such a hard time getting workers for AWANA at church.

Awana is a Gospel centered children's program that lots of baptist churches use to reach and teach the younger generation.Mike and I have both worked with with awana and agree that it is highly affective.

When we looked for a church in Abilene we looked for one with this program because we think it is such a wonderful way to help children memorize scripture. At South Side we get children with no bible background and we get kids who know lots. Each child be benefits from learning about the bible (1 Tim. 4:8). This is why it baffles me so much that every year we wonder if we will get enough workers to pull it off.

Why aren't Christians beating down the door at this opportunity to serve? God commands us to serve. He instructs us over and over to teach the younger ones his laws and commands. (deut. 4,9). What other things are we finding is more important than this? Is work? Family time? Personal down time? Kids gymnastics? Bible study?
I think the enemy often tries to get believers to feel that any time they have an opportunity, that they should be learning more and more about the bible. --instead of teaching it to others. We feel like we don't know enough. But God has made it so simple for us:
He loves us.
We turned away.
He made a way back to himself (through his son Jesus).
We need to follow him with our whole life.
Tell others.

If you know that, then you are ready to get to work telling others.
Satan would rather us spend our whole life becoming an expert than to know little and tell what we know. Why does (on average) half the church not serve --or serve once a month in the nursery???
Has no one ever told them that that just won't cut it? People!!!

You have GOT to be serving.

If you just drop the kids off in the nursery then attend the worship service then leave for the week, you have not benefited the body. Are you just visiting? Have you been "just visiting" for six months? Plug in. When you are attending a local church and are not serving you are hurting the body. Any time you aren't serving, that means someone else is being overworked.

Or, even worse, programs like AWANA aren't being staffed.

There was word earlier this year that it looked like we didn't have enough help for the younger kids. As a result there would be no AWANA for the little ones, only childcare for workers kids.

REALLY???

Why do we refuse to obey God's commands? What are we considering more important?

We need to step up. Your little one isn't going to die if they don't go to bed on time on Wed. nights. Mine kids got off their sleep schedule last year and they lived.

Yours will too.

Mud

Don't trust weatherbug. The weather app for the iphone. It's not very accurate.

What started out as an afternoon activity of dirt playing turned into dancing in the rain then into a mud bath.

FUN for the boys. All it took to clean 'em up was a water hose, a bath and some q-tips.

Another milestone

Jack had a little accident so I sent him upstairs to put on some more underware. He's a big kid now and has learned how to look for the tag, put it on the floor, turn his underware so that he puts it on right side up. I'm so glad he has learned how to do it himself. It's just one step closer to being a self-sufficient adult.

Today though. I send him up for underware and he came back down DRESSED.

Head to heal.

Dressed.

Check out what he picked out as his first ever Jack designed outfit.

I know...

You are thinking it is my fault for having such ridiculous looking close in his closet. But really, the shirt looks good with shorts and the pants are still too big for him, he'll grow into them eventually.

..He told me he liked his "flower shirt."

FYI the odd pose his him saying, "CHEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The heart is deceitful...

I often have to remind myself of how thankful I need to be. I have been so very blessed, more than others and definitely more than I deserve. So as a way of reminding myself of all my blessings I am going to tell you all of the things I have to be thankful about based on this picture (taken moments ago from the downstairs bathroom.)

• We have indoor pluming
• We are able to afford toilet paper in bulk!
• Sams club is just down the road
• I have children
• My children enjoy playing together
• Jack knows about the need to wipe his rear after a poop
• Jack didn't get poop everywhere!
• I don't have to take the next square off of the roll, I can choose whichever one I want
• I have a good daddy who made the boys a stool
• Jack has shorts in case he chooses to wear them
• I obviously got a little break from watching the kids
• TP is easy to clean up
• It wasn't a full roll
• I have 27 double rolls stored in the garage plus some under the sink.

Why do I keep so much toilet paper???

As overheard at the Commisary

Girl on the phone in the baking aisle:

"You gotta be careful out there with who you marry.

You gotta look people UP before you marry 'em."

For Noelle

Jack on the lead vocals and Ty with the back up.

Behavior issues

Jackson Edward Ellis.

You Sir, have been a handful for the last month. Most of your life you have been very sweet, loving and content, even considerate. The week you turned two, it was as if you knew. You knew it was time to be a "Terrible Two." That lasted six months or so, then you just came out of it.

Your new thing has been throwing fits. Really. Fits. Tantrums.

It's not pretty.

Up until now I thought that if I just disciplined you consistently enough that you would learn that it is better to just obey than to experience the pain that comes with a spanking.

But Jack, I've decided that most of the time you are not acting like this out of rebellion, but out of frustration. You are a little person. You experience all of the emotions that big people do (anger, sadness, disappointment, joy, acceptance.) The problem is, you cannot yet communicate your feelings very well. All of these negative emotions get expressed the same way, and it's not pleasant.

So here is what I've been doing for you, Jack. One day you may have a little one of your own who is having a hard time and I want you to know what worked with you.

I don't take you into the bathroom with the paint stick. I simply try to calm you down and do damage control. I speak softly, get down eye level with you, and gently hold your hand or rub your back. I want you to know that I am "for you." Just like God, your other Daddy, is for you.

I want to be able to understand what is making you so upset. It is amazing how well you respond to this. You almost always calm down immediately. I ask you questions like: "What happened? or "What made you so mad? or "Why are you crying?" You will give me a simple answer that tells me what act triggered the outburst. Now it is my job to look deep and find the root of the problem.

For example, I have company over, you have been playing inside. We walk out to the front porch to tell my friend "Goodbye." They drive off, I say, "Come inside boys." You flip out. I ask you what is wrong. You tell me, "I don't want to go inside."

Sounds like something you need to get over since I'm the mom and you are the child, right?

What I did in this situation was tell you again to come inside and remind you of what happens when you don't obey your parents. That did no good. You lost it. I carried you inside where you, me and the paint stick met in the bathroom.

What I am now learning I should have done: Asked you why you didn't want to go inside. I should have stopped and tried to think about all the circumstances that might give me some clue as to why you reacted the way you did. I could have thought about how you had been asking several times that day if you could play outside (and hadn't gotten to). I could have considered the time of day, (4:30) --standard meltdown time at our house. I could have thought about how you had been anticipating playing outside and thought the time had FINALLY come. I should have seen your disappointment.

I am now trying to teach you how to deal with and express your emotions. Jack, the Bible teaches us that: "A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control." Proverbs 29:11.

I want you to be wise. I want you know learn how to control yourself.

When I find out what is bothering you, I tell you back what I think I've understood. I want you to know that I know and care about your feelings. Now I usually have a child who is willing to listen to me. I'm ready to explain to you the proper way to handle the situation.

Most of the time you understand and decide to comply with whatever I have asked. Sometimes you don't.

Usually, when you still don't obey, I consider other factors: Are you hungry? Are you tired? Have you had an unusually stimulating day? Are you sick? Too hot? Have you just eaten a TON of sugar?

When the answer to any of those questions is, "Yes." then I do everything I can to help you to obey.

My job is to lead you to Jesus, not to stick a gun in your back and force you to march. I want you to be gently led by your parents the same way that God gently leads us.

But Jack, this doesn't always work. Sometimes your heart is rebellious and in need of some serious changing. There are also times when your dad and I speak sternly and seriously to you. There are times when you need to be left out of family activities so that you can learn that it is important to get along with people.

Eventually, you will be old enough that I will no longer have to teach you these things. At that point you will be held to a higher standard than you are now. At that point I will probably discipline you for throwing a fit. Or maybe... I hope... you will no longer act like this.

Jack, I am doing all of this work to prepare you for your adult years. I know you will one day be on your own and you alone will be responsible for your actions. But I want you to have practiced patience and giving and thoughtfulness and humility so many times that now it comes natural to you. I don't want you to struggle to make the right choice. Your Dad and I want you to be well equipped for the life of a Jesus-follower.

Just so you know...

It's a stinkin' lot of work.

Ya might as well read the phone book.

My blog has gotten so lame.

I haven't gotten on here very much lately because I just don't have anything important or funny to say.

What? There has got to be important and funny stuff going on around me that I could report.

I think my creative brain is switched off. But since Mike has been home I have had more sleep and shouldn't a rested mind be more creative???

Maybe not.

Martha Stewart, Jay Leno, and Thomas Edison all say that less than 5 hours of sleep is plenty and really... who is more creative than Martha Stewart? Funnier than Jay Leno? And Thomas Edison, remember him? He invented the light bulb so that he could stay up later and work on his other inventions.

So maybe I work better on 6 hours of sleep. Or, maybe it was the two hours of down time I got after the kids went to bed --time when I could be alone w/o TV and just relax.

Not sure what it was, but I definitely need to figure this thing out so I can be funny on here again....

At the pool today

Greek?

Guys,

I got an iphone. I don't really know what to think of myself. It doesn't seem to fit me very well, but Mike wanted the family to have one and wanted it to be my number.

So. I have an iphone.

I got a younger friend of mine to give me a lesson on how to use it.

It's pretty fun. Unfortunately I can't blog on there.

But they is a Bible app. you can download and then click a button or two and get the Bible in about 10 different translations --even Greek!

I should learn Greek. I'm sure there's an app. for that.

God made him do it

Jack came and told me that Ty had bit him.

Great... same song, verse 53.

So here we go again.

I take both of them to the bathroom. I show Ty where he bit Jack (on the chest) and tell him "We don't bite." He gets a little paddling.

I ask Jack why Ty bit him.

Jack: "I don't know."

Me: "Jack did you push him?" (I had seen Jack with his hand extended in Ty's direction, and Jack often pushes him. Those are my clues.)

Jack: "No."

Me: "Jack tell the truth. Did you push Ty?" (I didn't see him push, so I want to make sure I don't punish for something that didn't happen.)

Jack: "No."

Me: "Jack, why did Ty bite you?"

Jack: "I don't know."

Me: Getting slightly irritated that he won't fess up to it, and trying to find out the truth. "What made Ty bite you?"

Jack: His eyes darted up to mine and he looks me strait in the eye and says. "God!" Then a little evil grin creeps up on his face.

Me: Trying hard not to break into a smile, I tell him that it was definitely not God who made Ty bite him.


The little booger is getting smart.

Mom jokingly asked if I spanked him for blasphemy.