Christian Momma

Michael turned 14 years old today!

It’s amazing how much he’s growing!  Happy Birthday Michael!

I cannot believe in 15 days, Daniel and Andrew will be joining their class on the stage to graduate from Preschool.  They are so excited to be graduating too…they keep singing their songs all day.

They’ve learned their ABC’s, their numbers, and so much more!  This summer we are going to work on reading…hopefully when they get into Kindergarten they will at least have their sight words down.

In March, I signed Michael up for High School…I just can’t believe that!  (oh and the twins were signed up for Kindergarten 2 weeks later…who does that?).  My boy will be in high school!  After looking over all of his schedule, we decided to have him take a class online this summer to free up one of his periods for Spanish.

As for Noah, he’s been working so hard on his reading this year.  I have seen a lot of improvement!  He’s going to be going into the 5th grade next year.

When did my boys get so big?  When did they grow up?

Michael is in the Liberty Junior’s production of The Beauty and the Beast.  They have been practicing for a couple months.  This week is play week…he has dress rehearsal on Monday and Wednesday for sure and possibly on Tuesday too.  Opening night is Thursday night.  There is also a play on Friday and Saturday night as well.

Since I’ve volunteered to help out with the hair and make-up, my schedule is jammed packed with dress rehearsals and running a child here and there.  We got a letter yesterday stating that Michael would need a tux shirt from Hobby Lobby…we forgot to go on Saturday, they are closed on Sundays, so that leaves me tomorrow after I drop Daniel and Andrew off at school.

Monday night is our first meeting for our Women’s Retreat planning.  And since I’m the one who will be leading that meeting, I guess I’ll have to attend that as well!

Wednesday is Daniel and Andrew’s Preschool Parade at the school.  I don’t think they understand what will be taking place, but once they figure it out, they will be excited.  And of course, the mom that I am, I will be there helping!

It’s funny, you schedule things in advance and it never fails that everyone falls in the same week!  I think I’m ready for this week to be over…we haven’t even hit Monday yet!!

My oldest turns 13 today!  WOW!

The one thing he has been begging for since his 12th birthday was a Facebook account…I guess it’s time to set one up for him!

Happy Birthday Michael!

I’ve been pondering this post for quite some time…I didn’t want to rush into this post only to realize it wasn’t what I thought.

For some time now, I’ve been noticing a change in Michael (my oldest).  They’ve been little things, things I thought were just the signs of maturity…as in he’s getting older, (remember I said LITTLE)…but now, I’m not so sure it’s JUST that, I think it’s more of God working in him.  It’s great to see!

Michael has been really diving into what God wants for him.  In his youth group, they went through the gifts and had each of them really take a look at what they think their giftings are and then have their parents look it over and give their insights as well.  I took a look at the papers that Michael had.  He circled a “Maybe” for Encouragement.  Yes, I can see that.  He does seem to come up right along side his brothers when they are struggling and help them along.   So yeah, he might have some of that in him…

He had originally circled a “Maybe” for Helping, but then changed it to a “No”.  I think he was right the first time…he does have some of this gift in him as well.  I’ve seen him helping behind the scenes a lot here lately…I’d love to give an example, but I don’t think I will…a few already know what he’s been helping with and I don’t want him to get a “big head” about that.  But he asks to help, it’s not them asking him to help.

Leadership was another “Maybe” he had circled.  I think that as the oldest child in any given family, they tend to have a leadership quality.  So, yes, he does have a little of this quality as well.  I’ve even had some of his 6th grade teachers tell me that he has this as well.

The thing he circled a “Yes” for has been the one thing that has struck me the most.  I don’t know if he has this gift, but I’m not going to say he doesn’t.  That’s really not for me to say, that’s between Michael and God.  God will be the one who has to confirm this gifting.  Michael circled a “Yes” on Pastoring.  He has told me that he thinks he wants to be a Youth Pastor.  This floored me.  I had no idea…I told him that this is something I cannot confirm or deny for him, that it was something he was going to have to pray about and get confirmation from God.

A Youth Pastor.

WOW

God has really been moving in his life!  It’s exciting to see.

Today is my oldest’s birthday…12 years old!

Happy Birthday Michael!!

2008 has come and gone already.  It sure seemed to go by quickly…sometimes a little too quickly!

January

The year started out with me beginning to work on Power Lab VBS (Ah Ha!).  I was also homeschooling Michael.  We were pretty on top of our schooling and things were going pretty smoothly at the time.  I was also beginning to work in the K-1 Sunday School class room at church.  That, wasn’t going as smoothly as I had wished.

February

VBS started to consume my thoughts.  I was having dreams about not being ready, and just an overwhelming sense that I’ve bitten off more than I could chew.  AKA…I wasn’t relying on God to help me, I was relying on my own strength to do it.

February also brought about Daniel & Andrew’s 3rd birthday as well as my 34th birthday.

Michael entered his first Science Fair and ended up with a Superior rating!  I was proud, but knew full well that if he had applied himself earlier in the month, but he decided to wait until the last minute to do it.  Then we hit a rough patch in our homeschooling…a bad one.  Causing me to question my ability to teach him not to mention my basic parenting skills.  But, through the Grace of God we got through it with help from some friends in our church.

March

March brought in a lot of saddness.  My grandmother’s health begain to fail drastically.  And a friend of mine lost her child in a horrible accident. My heart ached in ways I never knew it would.  Things in me shined trhough as well.  I didn’t realize how “in tune” I was to other’s saddness.  Michael had a meeting with the staff from his online school and things turned out so much better than I had originally anticipated.

April

In April, I took a blogging break…school slipped behind and I had to push Michael to get as much done as possible a day!  Spring seemed to bring out the worst in his schooling abilities and slowly we fell behind.

May

I won this Word Press blog…I’m ever so greatful to Lisa for hosting the giveaway that allowed me to win! The final push to get VBS was upon us.  VBS was scheduled for the 2nd week of June.  My grandmother passed away that month as well.

June

VBS week came and went without too much problems.  Yes, there were a few bumps in the road, but overall things turned out GREAT!  I was elated that things went as well as they did and relieved that it was all over with as well.

July

We celebrated Michael’s 11th birthday in July along with Kevin and I’s 14th wedding anniversary.  In between those 2 events, we threw my mom and dad a 60th Birthday/40th Wedding Anniversary party.  We were very impressed that we were able to pull it off!  Mom and dad had only suspected that we were planning on all going out to eat together, not that we would have all of their friends and family at a hall waiting for their arrival!  We even got one of their friends from High School to travel from Chicago to Ohio to celebrate with them as well!

We also got to see Extreme Makeover Home Edition in our town.  My mother drove down the night before to stay overnight and we headed out to the new house to watch the bus move.  That is a day that was HOT, but I wouldn’t have missed for the world.  To see something like that is a once in a lifetime thing.  Michael still claims to have High-Fived Ty!

August

We went for our 1 and only camping trip of the year.  We had so much fun, and would love to go back to the Michigan Dunes again.  Our church also had a Worship Night.  Something changed in me that night and I have been forever changed!

September

School started right after Labor Day!  We decided to send Michael back to public school since things weren’t working out the best for us at home.  We are happy to report that he is doing wonderful in the public school!

We celebrated Noah’s 8th birthday in September.  We also found out that an eight year old child, when given $20 in cash and not watched very closely at the grocery store (because mom and dad were busy ringing/bagging groceries), will spend the whole $20 on lottery tickets!  And before you ask…YES it’s illegal for him to purchase them, but when they have a “vending machine” of lottery tickets just sitting over by the bubble gum machines, it’s just calling for a child to play with it!  And he only wond $2!

October

In October, Kevin and I started going to a new Bible Study.  I was elated that Kevin wanted to go to one since he has never really showed any interest in going before.

We also walked, for the first time, in the JDRF Walk for a Cure for my Niece.  We were so proud of her, she ended up getting 2 awards…one for the amount of money raised and the other for the T-Shirt design!

November

We celebrated Kevin’s 38th birthday.  How?  Well, I went to a Arbone party and he watched football…now that’s love!

We had our traditional weekend after Thanksgiving shopping adventure.  My parents’ took Michael, Noah, Daniel, & Andrew for the weekend (it ended up my parents had Daniel & Andrew and my sister had Michael & Noah).  We always enjoy that weekend away from the boys.  It’s nice to pretend we are childless…even if it’s just for the weekend!  But we are always so excited when they return.

December

We spent most of the month either running from Christmas Program to Christmas Program or from Christmas to Christmas.  However this year it seemed to be a little less travel than usual.  We only spent 1 night up at my parent’s house and we actually had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at home for the first time in a long time!

For 2009, I’m sure there will be new things that God shows us along the way, new challenges to overcome and new friends to meet, but I trust that God will be joining us along this journey and we will rest in the knowledge of Him.

A few weeks ago, Michael came home from school and I noticed that his backpack was pretty full.  Here’s how the conversation went…

Me: “Michael, what’s in your bag?”

Michael: “Newspapers, Mr. Stewart wants us to collect newspapers so we can recycle them.”

Me: Thinking this is a great idea…but we don’t subscribe to any newspaper subscriptions. “Ok, where did the newspapers come from”

Michael: After handing me the bag, “They were just laying in the yard next door, so I picked them up.”

Me: After realizing that this was the subscription type of paper and not the free one that gets distributed door to do “So, you stole these from the neighbor’s lawn?  When?”

Michael: Stunned that I called it stealing, “In the morning before school.”

I took his backpack and found a week’s worth of newspapers in his bag.  I pulled them out and showed them to him.

Me: “You do realize you are stealing the neighbor’s newspaper?”

Michael: Stood there staring at me like I was speaking another language.

Me: “You are going to take these papers next door and tell the neighbor that you stole these papers from him.”

Michael: “I don’t want to.  I promise I won’t do it again.”

Me: “You are going to take them back and tell him you stole them or you are going to show your dad what you’ve done and he will take you over there.”

Michael: “Ok”  He was fighting back the tears at this point…it wouldn’t be right for a 11 year old to cry in front of his mom.

We go over to the neighbor’s house and the whole time I’m hoping that it’s not the neighbors that don’t particularly care for children.

We get to the door and he stands there…

Me: “Ring the bell.”

We wait and hear the footsteps of someone coming to the door.

Neighbor: “Hello”  Looking very confused at this woman standing on his porch with a young boy holding newspapers in his hand.

Me: After a moment of waiting for Michael to say something, “Do you subscribe to this newspaper?”

Neighbor: “Yes.”  Still seems a bit confused

Michael: Very softly “I took these and I’m sorry.”

Neighbor: “That was you?” Laughing a bit, “I have been wondering where my paper went every morning, even getting up earlier each moring to try and get the paper before whomever is taking it gets it.”  Chuckling a bit more “Thank you for bring them back, but please don’t do that again.”

Michael: “I won’t.”

Me: Turning to Michael as we leave “You got off so easy this time…things could have been so much worse than that.  I don’t ever want you to steal again.”

Michael: “I won’t, I don’t want to do that again!”

I hope this scared the stealing right out of him.  I didn’t know what else to do to have him realize how bad stealing was other than to have him admit and appologize to the person he was stealing from.

Boy, I wish parenting would come with a manual!

Michael came home yesterday from school all excited.  He had been preparing for this trip since the beginning of school.  The time had come to pack his clothes to go to camp.

Mommy, on the other hand, has been worried about this trip.  This is the first time that Michael has ever spent the night away from family.  Now, he has spent time away from us, but it’s always been at Grandma and Grandpa’s or at his Aunt and Uncle’s houses…never overnight without a family member.

This morning, I got him up, he got ready to go.  We put Noah on the bus for school (Michael wasn’t able to ride the bus with his bags), and we headed out to the school.

This morning was a time for me to let go.  He’s growing up.  All those memories of me putting him on the bus that first day of Kindergarten came flooding back.  This felt the same way, except, I won’t see him until Friday afternoon.

As tough as it was for me to leave him at the school for this trip, it felt good too.  I know he needs this just as much as I do.  He needs to grow to be a healthy adult…I need him to grow and become his own person.

For Noah’s birthday, he got $20 in cash from his Grandma and Grandpa.  Usually when our children get money, we take it so that it gets spent wisely…you know on toys that we approve of or just a small amount of candy, not something that would rot his teeth completely out.

He was given this card with the $20in it at Dave & Buster’s and apparently stuffed the money into his wallet.

Fast forward to Sunday afternoon when we do our usual grocery shopping.  Kevin and I were at the check-outs and Michael and Noah were hanging out around those little vending machines…the ones you get toys out of for a quarter.

Do you know what is beside those vending machines?  A machine that sells lottery tickets.  I’m sure you can see where this is going.

We get out to the car and are loading up and I see this lottery ticket in the car…

Me: “Where did you get this lottery ticket?” I assumed they picked up a scratched up one off the floor.

Michael & Noah: “From the machine” As if it was no big deal.

Me: “Where did you get the money to buy this?”

Noah: “From Grandma and Grandpa”

Me: “She gave you dollar bills?” Again, assuming that they only bought 1 each.

Michael: “No, Noah put the $20 bill into the machine”

**gasping** My children who are 11 and 8 purchased $20 worth of lottery tickets!!

Guess how much they won?

$2!  What a great investment!!  I’m so proud! Can you hear the sarcasm?