Just a couple thoughts....

Just a few notes to jot down after a WONDERFUL day with my kiddos (they all were in bed by 7:15pm which may or may not have influenced just wonderful the day was):

When you have a child like my sweet Robby, you get used to very little listening/learning moments.  It is so difficult for him to focus enough that many times I feel like lasting life lessons are difficult to come by.  Today I did have one of those "AHA" moments that made me feel a little better as a parent.  I decided that although it is pretty special to me, I wanted to share it simply so that I will also never forget this tender moment.  We were at BJ's shopping and had just got to the car after completing our checkout.  Robby was looking at our receipt and freaked out demanding "I don't think we paid for our stuff Mom".  He kept repeating that all we had was a list of the things we bought and that they had not taken our money.  After several reassuring words he finally calmed down and we talked a tiny bit about being honest and not stealing.  I told him that "not stealing" was a very important thing to me and that I always make sure I pay for things before I leave a store.  Then in a semi-joking manner I asked him if he thought I was always honest and paid for everything.  He nodded immediately and reminded me of a situation from back in August.  He said "Mom, I always know you are -nest (honest) and not steal because you went back into Kohl's and paid more money, remember? We had to pay for the socks that were silly and got stuck in the shoe bag."  {we had just shopped at Famous Footwear that day, before walking next door to Kohl's.  There was a pack of underwear--not socks-- that I was buying for Robby.  He was holding them in his hand and unintentionally placed them in the shoe bag he was also holding.  By the time we got to the front of the store, I had enough items that I never realized the underwear weren't in the pile to purchase and he had long forgotten about them.  Right after we got back in the car, we discovered the unpurchased underwear package and I ran right back in the store and paid for them.}  In many ways, I am so grateful that this situation occurred.  I had the opportunity to show my children how important honesty is to me--in actions rather than words.  More than that I am glad that Robby still remembers that moment.   

Robby soooo wants to be in school right now and has decided that the daycare place at the CCBA (YMCA-type gym we recently joined) is his "school."  He insists on packing himself a lunch in his tin lunchbox and is so proud to walk in there with his backpack in place.  How I wish I could find a preschool that suited our needs in Hanover. Until then, he is doing FANTASTIC on this new website I found called "Reading Eggs" and I just introduced five sight words to him today.  My goal is to have him reading easy beginner books by the time school starts and to have at least 50 sight words under his belt.  I just know that once he learns how to read, he will be a bookworm like Miss M!

I have really been trying to increase our spiritual focus in the home as of late.  I have been doing my best to be diligent in our family scripture study, family prayers, prayers at ALL meals, my own personal prayers as well as saying personal prayers with each of my children individually at night, and keeping more spiritually minded topics going in our home.  It may be starting to wear off a little bit on Robby.  Now with everything we encounter Robby asks me if Jesus has the same thing up in Heaven.  Just today he asked me if Jesus has thunder and food up in Heaven.  We had a long conversation (well 3 minutes is enormous for Mr R) about why we can't see Jesus and then why we pray when we need help.  We talked about how we can't see air or wind, but we can feel it against our skin.