All About Lanelle

Because we don't want to let the middle child feel ignored,
because I have so many pictures of her lately,
and because she is just so cute.Not that this one could be ignored,
she makes herself heard when she wants to be. She has a nap on the front lawn if she wants,
because she doesn't want to come in,
and its so warm laying in the sun.

There once was a girl,

who had a little curl

right in the middle of her forehead.

When she was good

she was very, very good.

And when she was bad she was horrid.

Okay, I may not remember that poem quite right, but it came to me when I saw her little curl at supper one night (and we laughed, because she was being very close to the horrid description).

no hope?

I see that there is no point in hoping my boy will not be a hunter. If you can see, he found a pack of batteries and a screwdriver and made himself a gun. I mean, who wouldn't think to make a gun if you saw those items?!! Not to mention that his room is now decorated to inspire him. Yep, I'm afraid there's no hope.

The Unseen

Being a stay at home mom this year is wonderful. I am learning to do it better. Somedays I feel that all I did was clean, feed, tidy up, laundry, clean, do dishes...and on and on. I had come to a place where I was being very aware of how much "maid work" I was doing, because it is never ending. So I tried doing it less often. But, letting things get out of control is not fun, especially when you are living in it everyday. So, I felt stuck in a cycle where there is no solution. I'm figuring it out, slowly, maybe I am. This post by an amazing lady has helped me in just the way I needed. It gave me more words to what I've been thinking about. This morning when getting ready for the playgroup to arrive, some of her words came to mind. Focus on the unseen. Let go of the idol of "the seen". My house doesn't have to be super clean. Crumbs, dirt, dust bunnies are all just a part of life. So, I stopped what I was doing. I went to where I kept my Kids of Integrity plan (which had almost been completely abandoned). Glancing at it, I was reminded of the next activity I had wanted to do. Then it happened, the perfect moment for that exact lesson I had just glanced at. I asked my kids, who kept turning on the water in the tub, to not run anymore water. I heard the very ugly words come from their frustrated mouths, "Fine then, we don't love you." I got the dead houseplant and used the analogy of how we need to "water" people with kind words. Look at what happens when a plant doesn't get water and imagine what happens to a persons heart when they don't get "watered" with kind words. So, I was glad that they got the lesson. I loved when they were asking later in the day, "is that watering you?" And, I was glad that I got a lesson reinforced - being able to focus less on the seen and more on the unseen will bring us blessings.