Tuesday, February 12, 2008

It's about time!

Finally, I am almost done with all the dental errands with the kids. Fred had her last filling done yesterday afternoon and swears to me that she is going to be super diligent in caring for her teeth from now on..... the boys I'm sure will still need to be threatened heartily reminded daily. With a very brief respite from all the running to and fro in order to provide the kids with healthy teeth the next thing on the list is to get them all to the orthodontist. I'm already cringing at the thought of paying for it but Caleb especially needs to be seen. Fred and Jared's glasses will be finished in a couple more weeks and then they will both be able to see clearly and can no longer use eye strain as an excuse to put away their school work early.

In between all of the errands I'm still trying to get my house cleared of clutter and in some sort of organized state before mid March gets here. I know that if it isn't done by then and the kids aren't completely caught up with their schoolwork by then I will be in total meltdown mode by the end of March. March is the month when we get extra busy with the bees and the garden and the missions conference at church and extra meetings in other churches and Resurrection Sunday also comes in March this year. I still have a long long way to go to be anywhere near finished with that so please if you have a minute pray for me that I will get caught up with all of it so that I can go into our Missions Conference at church this year with an uncluttered mind and heart and be able to fully focus on what the Lord would have me to do for missions this year!

Troy started his new job a few weeks back. He loves it!!!! I could not be happier for him either, his old job was just making him sick with worry all the time. This place seems to be a much better fit for him and he's excited with the new work and the company. I talk with my friend Willie often about how sad it is that companies don't hire employees for the long term anymore. It used to be that a good loyal employee was considered a long term investment by most companies and they were treated as such, but that is the polar opposite of the situation today it seems and it gets harder and harder to find a decent job all the time.

Fred is on track to finish her first year of high school this May. I'm so proud of how hard she studies and her eagerness to learn, but it's sad sort of to see my last baby girl grow up. She has such an intense interest in so many things and is always ready to study any subject into exhaustion.... I hope she never loses that love of learning new things.

Jared is growing like a weed and sometimes I it seems as if he is just shooting up more by the minute! That boy is so sweet sometimes .... it's almost like seeing a sweet, cute little 3 year old in a body the size of a full grown man. A lot of the time he is really annoying (without meaning to be of course, he is after all a 13 year old boy)... but there are the times when his sweet streak takes over. Our family has the first two seasons of the old tv show "The Waltons" on DVD and we all enjoy them. We also babysit for some friends on Friday evenings and their kids have also enjoyed watching that show with us. Well, Jared had saved up enough money to buy the next season for us and he did that yesterday as a gift to the family. I know that there are lots of things he would have loved to have bought himself but he chose to spend the money on something that we would all enjoy together and with a huge grin on his face said he couldn't wait to watch them with our friend's kids.

Now before everyone gets the wrong impression of our family's relationship with the tv let me say this. Friday nights are our family's night to unwind and relax. We keep a crazy hectic pace 6 days a week with barely even taking time to just stop and gather our thoughts. I'm not complaining, it's pretty much always been this way for us and we're used to it. So when the kids were really small me and their daddy started "junk night".... on Friday evenings when nothing else pressing is going on we all just sit around and stuff ourselves with goodies and watch something as wholesome as we can find together on the tv and visit and chat and catch up with each other and sometimes play games. When the kids were really tiny we watched cartoons or something like the Waltons or Little House on the Prairie. As they got older they got to choose some of the shows and for a seemingly long while the boys always chose westerns or something totally goofy and me and Fred always wanted to watch action movies. Now we have just kind of relaxed back into something that is sweet and simple and we like it that way. It is a once a week indulgence into laziness and peacefulness and unless there is a church activity that we need to be at or we have a job scheduled that has a very pressing deadline we try to let nothing interrupt our Friday evenings.

My youngest child is getting tall now too. Caleb is nearing my height and has that strange fuzzy spot on each corner of his mouth that tells me he is getting too close to grown up to suit me. He looks more like his daddy every day, but still has his own personality that is part fire, part sweet breeze and part spring rain... there just is no other way to describe him than that to me. He's growing up.... it's bittersweet like the rest of raising kids I guess.

Well, now that you are so very completely caught up little blog of mine. I must go declutter the bathroom today!!

2 comments:

Ginger said...

We don't watch network t.v., but we also have movie nights with the family. We love to watch old movies and eat popcorn. With BUTTER....yummo!!!!

Jeannie said...

OH YES!!! Hot buttery popcorn... sometimes if you dump a bag of m&m's in the bowl with popcorn while it's still really really hot you will hear my sweet dd Fred squeal trying to get it eaten all by herself before the boys get any. Also very yummy with red hot candies tossed in.