$4 Fun

What do you do when you find  a package of adhesive mustaches for $3.99?  You buy them of course!

I "mustache" you a question!

 I "mustache" you a question!

 I "mustache" you a question!

Don't I just have the most adorable silliest kids EVER?
They ran around the house for two days with mustaches telling me.
I "mustache" you a question!  Do you love me?
YES!!! Yes I love these two crazy kids!  It was well worth $4.
I "mustache" you a question.
How do you spend $4?

Goals for my kids

We have been reading Sheparding a Child's heart.  This week we read about the goals we have while raising our children.  I never really thought about it in those terms before.  I think up until this point my "goal" in raising my kids has been this.  I want my children to know God and get through childhood with as few "scars" as possible.  I guess that is not really one of the best goals.  I think this will be my new goal. 
2 Timothy 1:5  I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 
That really boils down to the goals that I have for my children.  I want the to KNOW God. To trust him.  To have a faith that can not be swade. Do I want them to be respectful, obedient, successful, loving, kind, smart (in problem solving and logic not necessarily in 4.0 GPA)?  Of course but I think that above all else, I want them to have a faith that will get them through life.  I want them to know that in God is comfort. I want them to know that in God is strength.  I want them to know that in God is life!
What are your goals for your kids?

Rainbow fairy play map

I have been having a blast painting fairy land.  I really don't think I am super talented but I do think I have done a pretty good job.  I copied the map out of  the front of the rainbow fairy book.  I took the map to school and made an overhead.  I traced the overhead onto a sheet (1/8 th of the sheet).  And then I painted.  I don't think I did too bad a job.  Don't laugh at my cows!  What do you think for scene number one for books 1-7 the Rainbow magic fairies?  I hope she like it!

10 Reasons

I was reminded this evening that without the stories my children have given me I would probably lead a VERY boring life.  I do think that is true, so in honor of my spunky kids...
10 Reasons I love Charlie
1.  She loves to be girly.  (Drives me crazy but I love to give her special little gifts that I know she will love.)
2.   She sees magic and wonder in EVERY LITTLE detail of the world, like Florida having straight tall trees.
3. She LOVES God and isn't afraid to let everyone know who he is and what he has done for them.
4.  She more than not points me to Christ reminding me that I am missing something but does it in a manner that really isn't rude and disrespectful but honest. 
5.  She has the BEST laugh.
6.  She loves to do special things for others to let them know that she loves them.
7.  She listens.  I mean really listens to what you are saying.
8.  She loves stories.  Not the ones found in books but the other ones, the oral ones about life. 
9.  She really takes to heart correction. She has such a repentant heart.
10.  She is mine!  All mine. She is creative, fisty, friendly, and I just LOVE her to pieces.

10 Reasons I love Brantley
1.  He LOVES life. 
2.  He loves to help (pick up toys, do dishes, sweep, mop, laundry.  He is going to make a great husband someday.)
3.  He says "Hey mom, I love you."  As he dashes out the door.  I am praying that I get random "Hey mom I love you" calls when he is an adult.
4.  He LOVES his sister.
5.  He loves to laugh.
6.  He sings EVERYTHING!  He knows the words to every song no matter if he has heard it   a 100 times or 1 time and ALL styles of music.
7. He says " I am going to put this in my music bucket mom." about anything that makes a sound.  He loves to bang things together or move them just so to get a sound out of them.
8. He just likes to be with the ones he loves.  To the point of suffocation at times, but, I love that he loves me!
9.  He likes to play the "I don't love you game." Which when he first began playing it I had no idea.  He says "I don't love you."  I say "That's okay, I love you enough for both of us."  He giggles, then he says "Now you say it."  I tell him "I am not going to tell you that I do not love you.  I don't every want you to think that it might be true."  He laughs and says "Yep you love me nuf for boff of us."
10.  He is mine!  And as I am writing this I got to thinking yes, he is all fast and loud and doesn't seem to know how to slow down.  I should have gotten some kind of warning from that while I was pregnant. Any time something with a beat (music) came on he would begin to turn summer saults.  His delivery was 3 hours start to stop.  He came before the bed was prepped.  He came before the doctor was in the hospital.  He came in just enough time for the nurse to catch him as she came in the door.  Why would I not think that he would live his life hard and fast. 

Rainbow fairies

 Charlie loves the Rainbow Magic Fairy books.  We have read a total of 21 books so far.  For Charlie, they are great stories.  For me, not so much.  They are all the same.  Jack Frost (the bad guy) steals something and hides it.  The girls (Rachel and Kirsty) must go find it and return it to the fairies.  But, Charlie LOVES them.  So, I encourage her and her imagination.  She made these adorable fairies all by herself with help of my scrapbook supplies.  These are the rainbow fairies. 

 We have a total of 6 sets of books: rainbow, jewel, magical animal, night, petal and sport.  Each set  has a map in the front cover that shows where the story takes place.  I am going to try and make a play mat for each of the different maps.  I am trying to decide if I want to paint them on a sheet or make them out of felt.

Either one is going to take a while.  I am leaning more and more towards the sheet.  I think I will make them each as big as a poster board so that she can lay them on the floor to facilitate play.

The Hair Cut

 All kids cut their hair.  I know this.  Charlie is now on cut number 4.  This time she cut B's hair.  She got it good.  We are going to have to buzz it again before the end of summer to get it back to where it needs to be.  B does not look like himself with a buzz cut. 

All kids cut their hair.

My Short Comings

Frustrated with Brantley and the fact that I have been putting him back in bed since 8 o'clock this evening, I over stepped my "good" mommy.  I started yelling.  I really do hate it when this happens.  I really do want to not be that screaming crazy lady that seems to come out after an hour plus of disobedience. I really am so thankful that Charlie continues to pray that God will help me to not yell.  And, tonight I think I went over board.  I told B that I was going to walk out of his room before I hurt him.  I know that I don't want to hurt him.  I know that my intentions are never to hurt my child but when I am tired and have been dealing with 3 year old defiance all evening I am just at the end of me.  As I walked out of the room I told him (yes, this was not one of my better moments) that he really needed to sit and talk to God about all the things that he had done wrong today and see what God would want him to do to make amends for them.  Again, I am going to say that this is NOT one of my better parenting moments. I really do pray that all of my shortcomings do not scar my children.  He says, "God doesn't talk." 
I stopped in the doorway.
Softly as if telling myself to, "Buddy God does talk to us.  It may not be the way that mommy is talking right now but he does talk.  It can be in a friends words, in a song, in a story, or in a quiet voice we hear in our heart or in our head."  While I am telling him this I am hearing God telling me that he is enough, that he will answer my prayers, and that a soft answer is the best way.  (Why can't I hear this before I blow up instead of just after?)
"God is talking to me right now."
I wasn't expecting this. "What is He saying?"
"He is telling me that I have to make better choices."
"What kind of choices?"
"I don't know."
"Ask God."
"He is telling me to not hit my sister.  He says not to hit you."
"What else is He saying?"
You can see a look in B's eyes that show that he is really listening.
"He said I need to go to sleep.  But I can't."
"Remember that God will help you if you ask."
"God is talking to me again."
"What is He saying?"
"He is telling me that He is already helping me to lay quiet." B lays down.  He asks for his blanket and pillow (Which he left in his sisters room on one of his out of bed escapades.)
My prayer (after I apologized, admitted that I was wrong for yelling, and asked forgiveness from my son and God) is that God will call B to him.  That B will see the "bad stuff" in his heart and ask Jesus to save him.  I want him to see the Gospel for what it is. 

Lord,  thank you so much for the gift of grace that we (especially me) do not deserve.  I pray that B accepts this gift and you. 
Amen
Ephesians 2:8-9
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.