Some fun pictures

Does anyone else ever take a picture and think, "This could come in handy later!" because that's what I was thinking after taking this picture of my boys with their "pretty bows" in their hair.

Here's a recent picture of our little Miss Bridget, looking sharp as usual. It's not quite fair that my daughter seems to dress better than me and she is only six months old!

And finally, the mohawk twins. They were lovin' this bathtime 'do!

I hope everyone is having a fantastic week!

scripture in parenting

Deuteronomy 11:18-21 "Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the Lord swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth."

We love to teach our kids memory verses for many reasons. Some we have taught them just so they can hide the word of God in their hearts. Others we have used to help them see their sins. Still others we teach them to show them God's love, power, sovereignty and mercy.

When I'm teaching the boys scripture, I usually follow a pattern. First I'll tell them that we're going to learn a new verse. I'll say the verse, then ask them if they know what it means. That usually sparks a great conversation and we can talk about why this specific verse is important. Then I'll make them repeat it after me a number of times. If it's a long one or one that has more difficult words, I'll either chant it or sing it or make up simple hand signs to go along with it. Those little things seem to really help the kids retain the verse. We'll keep repeating it until I think they have it on their own and then I have them say it alone a few times. When they have just learned a new verse I like to find ways to talk about it throughout the day. I'll point out situations where it is relevant or just have them say their verse to people we see during the day to really solidify it in their lives.

The very first Bible verse that we taught our children is Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." I worked with Henry on this one when he was two, and it is one of the ones that he has never forgotten. I love this because it provides such a solid foundation to build on!

One of the next ones that Henry learned is Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." This one comes in handy whenever one of the kids utters the words "I can't...." Another one with the same theme that I recently gave Henry is Matthew 19:26b "With God all things are possible."

A reminder to be obedient is found in Ephesians 6:1 "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." Both my boys know this one very well!

Two that both boys have recently worked on are Philippians 2:14 "Do everything without complaining or arguing." and Philippians 2:5 "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus." These seem to go hand in hand and are repeated in my house DAILY!

One of my sons is a brave little boy who often tries to hide a lot of little fears. One that I've taught him (and remind him of when he is scared) is Isaiah 41:10a "So do not fear, for I am with you," and another is Psalm 28:7 "The Lord is my strength and my shield." The past two weeks in church they have been working on another that I really like for these situations too: Ephesians 6:10 "Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power."

Okay, I'm almost done here. I'd like to mention just a few more. One that I've just found to use with an angry child: Jonah 4:4 "Have you any right to be angry?" I have a child that I think will greatly benefit from learning this one, but I haven't needed it just yet.

Another two that I think are just great and remind us to be thankful are Psalm 118:1 "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever." and Psalm 118:24 "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." I say these two with the boys every single day.

So these are just a few of the verses we have worked on with our kids. Some come up more often than others and those ones are the ones the boys know quite well. Others they might need prompting or a little help with, but they really do understand the meanings.

Are there scriptures that your family uses? I'd love to know which ones are important to you and how you use them in your parenting!

a conversation with Henry

Henry: "One of these days, Daddy's going to take me to see Atwoods!"

[Atwood's is the name of our local ranch/farm store--Sam's favorite place to putter around.]

Me: Honey, we were just at Atwoods. What do you want to see there?"

Henry: "No, Mommy. I'm talking about At Woods. You know, the golfer?"

Me: "Oh, you mean Tiger Woods?"

Henry: "That's what I said!"

Welcome to Texas.....

Apparently it was time for another reminder (to myself) that I NOW LIVE IN TEXAS.

Because when I lived in Montana, I never opened up the blinds in my children's room and found MOLD GROWING ON THE WINDOW.

Yep. Mold. Lots and lots of it. In Bridget's room. Oh, and in the boy's room too. After SCRUBBING their windows clean I didn't want to take a close look at any of my other windows.

Seriously? This is gross.

We had an RSV scare with Bridget a while back, so we put a warm-mist humidifier in her room. It helped her breathing so much that we thought the boys needed one too....so off to Target I went and got one for their room. I'm hoping this is why I would have mold in the windows. And really, spring isn't that far off for us Southerners, so I shouldn't have to run them for too much longer. And then there won't be any more mold. Right? Right.

(Please don't burst my bubble by telling me this isn't the case!)

Guess I need to be more specific . . . .

The boys were wanting to watch a movie last night that they had borrowed from the library. I wanted to get the kitchen cleaned up from dinner, so I told them that if they would pick up the living room and playroom while I cleaned up, then we could all sit down and watch it together. This is a chore that they do quite often and really only entails putting toys away.

Well, they dawdled. They played. They did everything except clean up.

By the time I was done in the kitchen, I thought they had wasted enough time. So I told Henry, "You are in charge of this clean-up. If you want to watch the movie, you boys need to pick up your toys! I'm going to go fold a load of laundry and when I come back ALL of the toys need to be off of the floor. If they are, then we'll watch the movie. If they aren't, we won't. Deal?" He agreed.

The boys dove into their job. I went to work on the laundry.

When I came back, all of the toys were actually off the floor! Yay for the boys!

The only thing is that every matchbox car, every stuffed animal, every plastic hammer and screwdriver, every dinosaur, every single toy they had played with yesterday was now lined up on either the coffee table or the couch or the train table. They didn't put a single toy away, but they did get every toy off of the floor!

Next time I'll remember to be more specific. This time....we watched the movie. :)

Parents University-Faith

Another installment of Parents University, once again hosted by the lovely Kat. This week's topic is Faith.



Wow, this is a VERY big subject, and one that I can get really excited about.....but I'll try to keep this short. One note, for anyone who doesn't normally read this blog: My children are still very small! My oldest is only 4 1/2, so I haven't really dealt with any older issues. Also, the things I have to say about what works for us are just that....what works for us.



Mark 10:14-15 "When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.'"



The first thing that I would point out is that children trust us as parents. They know that we have their best interest in mind and they know that the things we say are true. So what better time to fill their minds with the word of God than while they are young!



Children are like sponges, right? They soak up EVERY word we say (even if we don't want them to!). So in my mind, it is so very important for us to always lead our children to the Lord.



One way that we do this is to point out their blessings to them. The kids are having fun playing outside? We talk about how God created everything (the sun that is warming us, the trees providing us shade, the flowers they are picking out in yard, etc...), and we take the time to thank Him for it.


We also have noticed that our four year old has an amazing memory. He can remember entire books, the whole plots of movies, pretty much everything that has happened in his life. One thing we do with this is to provide him with memory verses. I'm always amazed how many he can remember at a time! But even my two year old is good at remembering verses. I try to choose shorter ones for him, but sometimes we just have to work longer on the longer verses. We do this so that our children can store up God's precious word in their hearts.....Psalm 119:11 says, "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you."



We also try to keep our children surrounded with books, movies and tv shows that have a Christian theme, as a way to teach them and get them familiar with Bible stories.



I don't think there is a more important job for us as parents, than to teach our children about our Mighty God and his desire to know each of us personally!