I’ve recently finished reading “Life Together” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (I highly recommend it) and was convicted on a number of things. My ongoing struggle is consistency in the word and in prayer. There is an entire chapter of this book devoted to an individual’s time of prayer, reading the word and meditating on it. This book pointed out to me how much of an impact my personal time alone with and relationship with God can have an effect on the church as a whole. “The individual must realize that his hours of aloneness react upon the community. In his solitude he can sunder and besmirch the fellowship, or he can strengthen and hallow it. Every act of self-control of the Christian is also a service to the fellowship. On the other hand, ther is no sin in thought, word, or deed, no matter how personal or secret, that does not inflict injury upon the whole fellowship.” Lately, I struggle to get up early and spend time in the word because often Ian keeps me up in the middle of the night for random reasons. When that happens, I generally put off my quiet time until the evening when the kids are in bed but I find that the mornings are really the best time and most spiritually productive. My current prayer is that regardless of what else happens in my life, I will keep that time sacred to God. Bonhoeffer states “We have a right to this time, even prior to the claims of other people, and we may insist upon having it as a completely undisturbed quiet time despite all external difficulties.” I totally agree but I wonder how do I insist upon it to a 2yr old when he wants to wake up at 5am?
Yesterday I registered Ethan for our local school. I also drew up a letter describing Ethan to them to help them determine the best teacher placement. It was a bit challenging because I didn’t want to overwhelm them with too much information but just enough so they would get the general idea. Today we had a meeting at the school district to review the testing and teacher observation report and determine eligibility for the gifted program. Ethan’s now officially accepted into the gifted program with the school district and our next step is creating an educational plan with the school. I took advantage of having the psychologist there and talked with him about Ethan’s drawings and he was helpful. So he’s official and I was glad to hear he wouldn’t have to tested all over again before being placed in a full time gifted program in 3rd grade. Ethan’s really excited and looking forward to kindergarten in the fall. Our prayer is that he is placed with a teacher who is a Christian. Now if I can just keep from crying everytime I think of him being in kindergarten!:)
George’s mom came for a visit and was able to see the boy’s in the fashion show. The next day we went to play in the fountains and at a beach on the river, Chick Fil A for lunch, followed by swimming at home. I’m tired just typing all that!
Ian turns 2 and a half today. He is growing so fast I can’t keep up with him! He’s been talking in sentences since he turned 2 and he continues to amaze me in the things he says. He is potty trained, which means no more buying diapers-yay! He knows all his letters and the sounds they make and has read a few two and three letter words to me. He knows his numbers 1-12, loves to do puzzles, and loves to play games. He especially loves to play with his brother. Half the time I find him dressed up as a fire fighter and he really loves to wear his fire rainboots. We love our little guy and look forward to seeing what he’ll being doing at 3.
The boys were in a fashion show last night. It was a fundraising event for a local school. Originally Ethan was just going to be in it but then Ian decided he wanted to as well. They were very cute I have to say:) It was quite chaotic backstage and I thought for sure Ian would back out. He was so freaked out by all the noise that he was chewing on my arm. But he made it through and went on stage. Ian was so tired about halfway through the show that we had to leave before the end of it. Unfortunately he screamed the whole way home but on the bright side, he slept soundlessly all night.
Ethan loves to draw and spends most of his free time doing it. I posted some of his pictures recently. He gets upset if he colors outside the lines and it could mess up his day if he doesn’t get a drawing just the way he likes it. One of his drawings today had me a little concerned because it was kind of morbid and my first response was to tell him to stop drawing pictures like that. My experience with art therapy involves interpreting drawings of kids who have been abused or who are violent to others so I need to look at Ethan’s drawings differently. He always draws things he is interested in, something he’s seen on tv, a book he’s read, etc. When we first got the Wii, he drew pictures of tennis matches, baseball games, and golf courses. After he got the Battleship game for Christmas, he started drawing aircraft carriers and battleships and fighter jets dropping bombs on the enemy. So the other day we read a children’s history book on medieval castles and there were pictures of canons in the book. So now he’s drawing canons. I haven’t come across info. on gifted kids and their drawings so far but I’m on the hunt for it. I don’t want to stifle his artistic interests but I’m not sure how school would take his drawings. I think he is a kinestetic learner and I think drawing what he has been learning is one way he processes what he has learned. I think I need to get him interested in boring things like rocks so he would start drawing them instead:)
Today I had to keep Ethan out of school to take him to a pediatric urologist, about an hour away. Turns out he has Urinary Frequency Syndrome (catchy name, I think). Apparently this problem happens with kids who have high sensitivities. They can feel when their kidneys empty into the bladder (which is all day long) and so they think they have to go constantly. It’s a sensation they feel more often when sitting or lying down (which is why he goes to the bathroom at least three times after we put him to bed). Anyway, she doesn’t want anyone to restrict him from going to the bathroom when he says he needs to. She did say that if he could wait until his bladder fills up a quarter of the way, the sensation wouldn’t bother him so much. At least now we know why he goes so frequently. Not sure how they’ll feel about that in kindergarten though.
Last week, during our romantic date, we bought a new washer and dryer. We decided to take advantage of the rebates that were offered on getting energy efficient washers. And so we’ve been waiting all afternoon for it to arrive. We had to disconnect everything last night, so I have laundrey waiting to be done. I know that by tomorrow the two loads I needed to do today will mysteriously turn into four because I didn’t do laundrey today. I spend a huge amount of time on laundrey everyday and am thrilled with the thought of being able to wash and dry more in less time. (my blog is titled “My Life as a Mom” after all and laundrey is my life:) So happy mother’s day to me!
George’s office has an annual mini golf tournament where each office designs their own hole. The employees are encouraged to bring their kids to play too so the boys went and played on Friday and again with friends on Saturday.
