What a week.

Caleb has gone days, weeks etc without stages. Reward: tonight, Free Pizza (I won a coupon at MOPS) and a Slurpee.

Jockey, well, he got a tiny tiny slurpee, admittedly so that he doesn't whine.

The weather was decent today, and the boys and I put the long bright evening to good use. Strawberry bed weeding. Oh my, it was THICK with weeds. Hard work and finished in the dusk, but the up shot is that the blueberry bushes have their little white bell flowers on them and several of the strawberry plants have their white flowers blooming too! The boys tried earnestly to learn what a weed vs strawberry plant looked like. In the end, they were very useful at picking up the weeds that I had pulled and tossing them into the "yucky" corner.

We had a long conversation tonight about some light and heavy topics. What eyelids and eye lashes are for, where crocodiles and Sharks live, Jesus protects us and as Jockey aptly calls it with Jesus' Blood Power, Caleb asked how come we can't see angels which lead to a "spiritual realm" discussion, we talked about angels and tonight for one of the first times I told them about demons etc. We talked about the power Jesus gives us and how we don't have to be afraid. Jockey has been seemingly bothered (or just complaining enough to try to gain permission to sleep in our room at night) about bad dreams and last night it was wolves. So we specifically prayed about trusting in Jesus to protect us from the wolves.

The boys were very good tonight about picking up their toys, blankets and gardening clothes, and pop cans, and dishes. I was surprised and relieved... I was feeling quite overwhelmed by it.

We have so much going on. A birthday party for one of Caleb's buddies tomorrow. All of Caleb's party to buy for and organize for tomorrow. Caleb's party on Sunday. Laundry to put away, and more to clean. Our vacuum cleaner has broke a belt and I have to source/install a new one so our carpets are miserable, our TV broke very suddenly and will need to be replaced somehow?! eyes rolling at this moment, Caleb will attend a zoo field trip and there is a project to complete before the event. I have a MOPS end of the year thing on Monday, days of work to complete this coming week. We are going camping for Memorial Day weekend. Caleb's actual birthday coming after that. And the list goes on and on.

The boys are just about keeping up with things, and it is remarkable to watch them grow. Caleb is taking on more responsiblity in the house and even showing initiative (which I think is huge!). Caleb has decided that he feeds the dogs, rabbit and waters the rabbit. WOW. Of course he still needs reminders, but it was self appointed to begin with. Jockey is showing willingness to clean and I'm moving him up in responsiblity to replace the things that Caleb has matured away from. I am astonished by how much they understand, talk and talk about, do and are capable of. (In a good and bad way... They can do so much constructively AND DEstructively...sigh). Caleb is getting the mail by himself now. I THINK with his birthday we will graduate out of car seats entirely (I better check that.) When I attend MOPS, both boys are eager to set out chairs, tables and supplies with me. I'm training them to clean the bathroom. Other than THEIR TOYS, THEIR CLOTHES, THEIR ROOMS and little helps... the Bathroom is going to be their big job. If a boy doesn't have 100% accuracy in that room... they should learn the results by having to clean it up.

Through it all, I'm learning that I have to TRAIN them, and that takes patience (I'm not good at this) and time which often feels like I never have enough of. Today's MOPS reminded me to SLOW DOWN my life, NOW is meant to be the time to TRAIN, TEACH, MODEL to my kids their skills for life, and of course, they weren't BORN knowing how to clean, act respectfully, kindly, perservere, how to build a relationship with God, it has to be taught. (Duh, right?!) The time spent, though long, cumbersome, patience stretching, mind boggling, and logic bending and perhaps even neverendingly boring, will not be a waste in any hindsight view, it might even be useful and valuable later. MOPS called it intentional parenting. Consciously determining goals and priorities of what you want the kids to come out knowing and then setting out to train/teach with noted effort. Intent. OK, I can do that. I tried that today. I tried to show them my relationship with God tonight in our bedtime prayers...show them how I trust God, what I'm grateful for, and asking for help in the areas I need help in. The BEST thing I came out of childhood with (thanks mom) was an enduring relationship with God. I can fail and might fail in everything else, but that one area (which ironically has eternal consequences) is one thing I feel steadfast in; Iwill seek to bring that to my boys. I knew this all before, but I feel reminded and energized to act on it with more INTENT.

However, as for this exact second, it's late and I'm headed to bed. Caleb will be roaring to go with excitement and I better get my sleep.
More later, and sorry for the ramble.