Jan
31
2012I know: Hobby Lobby is a store…but for us… it’s like a free giant preschool playground.
(Well, it’s only free if I leave my purse in the car… otherwise something comes home with us…)
We work on vocabulary. We work on sensory things like: soft/rough and lite/heavy. We run around like banshees and push brother in the cart.
But rather than tell you all about it… I decided I would show you some of the ways the girls learn.
Here’s how you can entertain two toddlers at Hobby Lobby for at least an hour and a half!
(Warning… this is pretty video heavy!)
Jan
28
2012
My toddlers love crayons, pens, and pencils. Unfortunately, they’re not so skilled at keeping their coloring on their paper. My table is often covered with crayon marks.
But it gets better.
Whenever my girls find a writing utensil and are left unsupervised, they will test it on the nearest wall.
A stray blue crayon on my coat closet floor probably from when we moved in: all over my living room walls. Flat paint. Ug….
A little red wax heart from the center of a candle left too close to the counter’s edge: all over my kitchen and living room walls. You’ve got to give them some credit for creative use of objects!
A pencil from who knows where…. all over the playroom wall. You get the idea….
There is one product that can get these and even the worst toddler food stains off your walls and dinner table.
Mr. Clean’s Magic Eraser!
One caveat: when your toddlers figure out they can unplug the Christmas tree lights and use the plug ends to draw on the wall… well, Mr. Clean isn’t up to that task. When you find something that works… will you let me know?
Jan
24
2012A few days ago, I gave a little speech/testimony at a MOPS banquet about my involvement in the group. (I’ll include it at the end of the post.)
I was surprised by two things.
First, the power of words.
People laughed. People cried. People nodded their heads in understanding.
It felt good. Encouraging people with words interwoven with bits of my life.
Second, I might just have a gift I haven’t counted.
So many people came up to me afterward and thanked me for sharing, but the last sticks out the most. She was an AP English teacher and she sought me out and told me I had such a unique voice. She told me I ought to be doing more formal writing than just this humble blog. And that I ought to do it now while it’s raw.
I wanted to cry.
You see, when I was younger I wanted to be a writer. I filled journals with details of my thoughts. I wrote bad poetry. I wrote two horrible novels before 8th grade. I went to a summer camp for writers. But I couldn’t find my story. I couldn’t find my voice except on rare occasions. I couldn’t put it on paper and I knew it and my teachers told me so. So I stopped writing. Except here.
But maybe my voice just need to mature. To experience. To grow and blossom.
Maybe my voice needed to connect to my life-story. To connect with that raw place without pretense and reach the place where it elevates words to encouragement.
And maybe that’s what I ought to be doing. Maybe I ought to jump to action. Or maybe I just ought to think this writing thing over and hear what a different Voice might have to say about it.
My Little MOPS (Mom’s of Preschoolers) Banquet Testimony
As I sit outside to write this little blurb with my snot nosed twin daughters playing in the back yard, my infant son inside the house just in earshot, and all four of us still in pajamas, it occurs to me that maybe there would be better people to speak to you tonight: women whose house is clean, whose kids are dressed before noon, and whose two year olds are fluent in at least three languages. Or at least a woman who isn’t writing this while one of her kids has dirt hanging from her snotty nose. But maybe that I was asked to speak precisely because I am in the thick of life with preschoolers and I don’t mince words.
I’m pretty honest about how hard this raising little people is so, without hesitation, I’ll tell you that when Mandy Deming first invited me to MOPS, I came because there was free child-care. I didn’t care that I had to sit in a meeting with women I didn’t know as long as someone was wearing out my kiddos and my 8 month pregnant body was getting to rest. In fact, I might even admit surprise at being in a room with people who could speak in complete thoughts. Even more so that they were willing to admit some of the same struggles with child rearing as I do.
The camaraderie was instant. They understood what it’s like to have to discipline your child every 5 minutes for an hour and a half because she won’t stay in her toddler bed. Or what it’s like to have two melting down children clinging to your legs while you try to just get anything edible on the table. And some of the mentors are far enough from these moments that they can laugh in memory.
About 2 months after I attended my first MOPS meeting, my 3rd baby was born, giving me 3 under 26 months of age. Like I mentioned, I only really knew one person here. MOPS steering team set up a meal delivery schedule and loved on me through food.
I vividly remember Joni coming over with her sweet Addison. I was wearing PJ pants because nothing else fit. My twins had managed to pull down, plug in, and burn themselves with my iron while I was nursing the baby. Moments before Joni came, they had emptied a travel sized toothpaste all over themselves and my bathroom while I was tossing in a load of laundry. Joni just laughed and called my girls “minty fresh” and gave me the perspective to see humor in the day. She gave me the courage to make it until my husband came home.
So what is MOPS to me? Well, it’s a group of women who love Jesus supporting one another as best as we can. And hearing the words, “I understand,” while I’m wearing PJs at noon on a Thursday really makes a difference when I’m in the thick of it.
Thank you for being here to support the ministry of MOPS in my life.
Jan
23
2012Sometimes I just need to slow and savor some little moments. Even if the days are overflowing with a screaming baby, whining toddlers, and an anger prone momma.
2885-2920 Savory Gifts from Him
- Smell of Roast in the crockpot
- Yarn hanging from the needles
- The way Sedryn Boy loves his changing table and his tummy rubs
- Those eyes
- Waking drowsy daughters
- Extra nighttime sleep
- Getting to sleep pretty consistently until 4:15
- My story blessing others
- Two girls holding hands on their own
- Hobby Lobby: I promise it’s like preschool for us!
- All 3 napping together for 90 minutes for the first tiem this week
- Sewing little girl panties from old t-shirts
- Sedryn’s little baby head smell
- Having “Mrs. Jen” over from across the street to hold screaming stuffy nose Sedryn while I cooked dinner
- Having Jen tell her story
- Aeralind learning to roll a summersault all by herself!
- Girls who ask for what food they want
- Not peeing in my pants while nursing in the middle of the night
- Small-Batch Brownies
and chocolate sour cream frosting. Yum!
- Casting off the body of my first sweater
- Voluntary Aeralind snuggles
- Bronwyn grinning silly while kissing both my cheeks and asking me to do the same
- husband snuggles
- Little blue eyes
- Bags of homemade chicken broth
- Freedom to vote
- Sedryn’s happy eating noise
- The girls responding well to the responsibility to stay in their beds until the ocean music stops at nap time or until the alarm beeps in the morning.
- Derek warm and in bed waiting for me to finish nursing
- Smell of Bacon permeating the house
- Running the oven on cold days
- Girls asking for me to take them to the grocery store
- Sedryn finally taking 2 hour naps- even if they are at odd times!
- Sedryn’s little fist in his mouth
- Confused trees starting to bloom
- girls bouncing on a naked bed
