Recap (2018.09.22)

In my spirit

• I’m convicted of how often I despise the good gifts God has given me – particularly our children. Instead of thanking God for them and joyfully carrying out the tasks of mothering, I grumble and complain about how they add so much work! noise! clutter! Lord, forgive me!

In our family

• Beth-Ellen is officially standing – Daniel set her down on her feet (Monday maybe?) and she stayed standing there. Then, the next day, I was folding laundry on the floor and looked over to see her casually standing there next to me!
• Sleep training has commenced (and seems to be going well.) I held off for longer than usual since Beth-Ellen shares a room with the older two – but I was getting to the place where I was frustrated enough with the little girls’ daily demands that I didn’t have much compassion left for them – I knew I needed to do something to be sane enough to respond lovingly. Sleep training it is – and I’m already able to deal with them much more tenderly and compassionately.
• Daniel and I had a date! A mother and daughter from our church answered our SOS for babysitters and got background checked and all that so they could watch all our kids (including our foster daughter). Daniel and I enjoyed breakfast and then a lovely walk around a local nature preserve. It’s been far too long (at least a year, maybe longer) since we’ve spent time together completely sans kids.
• Tirzah Mae has pronounced her “L” as “W” since she started talking – and we’ve mentioned it to her a few times, coaching her on proper tongue positioning to get the “L” sound out. But she hasn’t really seemed terribly interested, and we haven’t pushed the issue. This last week, though, she decided that enough was enough and has been working hard to get that “L” sound out, stopping and sticking her tongue between her teeth before telling me a story about her “light-saver” (Nope, not going to correct her mishearing of light-saber – it’s tons cuter that she’s saving me light for winter with her golf-club turned light-saver/saber :-) )

In our home

• The kids and I eat Raisin Bran about once a week – and this week I decided I was over all the added sugar. I bought bran flakes, we poured them into a cereal keeper and added (unsugared) raisins and shook it up. Still tastes delicious, and plenty sweet from the raisins.

On the homestead

• Our neighbor gave me some daylily divisions when we first moved in – and, since I didn’t know where I wanted to put them, I put them in the holes of my concrete block raised beds. Then, since they multiply so rapidly and since the holes aren’t very big, I’ve had to divide them and replant them each year. This year, I finally figured out where I want them to be long-term, so I divided them and planted them this weekend! Now I can wait another 3-4 years before I should have to divide again. Hooray!
• We had a big decorative-looking grass growing by the garage door and I was thinking maybe we’d keep it – until I looked it up and found out that it is Johnson grass, which is considered a noxious weed and illegal in the state of Kansas! So Daniel pulled that and got it all bagged to send to the landfill.

In the library (currently reading)

• For Loving: Glimpses of Grace: Treasuring the Gospel in Your Home by Gloria Furman
• For Growing: Let Me Be a Woman by Elisabeth Elliot
  I’m appreciating these short reflections on womanhood.
• For Knowing: The Importance of Being Little: What Young Children Really Need from Grown-ups by Erika Christakis
  Unfortunately, my checkout period was over on Thursday and someone else had requested this book so I couldn’t renew it – so now I’m waiting for my own request to be filled.
• For Seeing: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  Because sometimes it’s good to spend a time with an old friend – and somehow Austen’s reflections are always insightful however often I re-read them.
• Princess Picture Books
  Tirzah Mae is on a princess kick, so we’re reading lots of renditions of Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and Rapunzel. (I took the Disney book back to the library as quickly as possible and checked out a whole spate of beautifully illustrated renditions instead.)