These are busy days with full hearts and minds, tired bodies, and a final push as we enter the last nine school days until Spring Break! We are looking forward to a break from school, a break from baseball practices, and a break from early morning hours of getting up. This mama is looking forward to sleeping in a little bit over spring break- like at least until 7:30am!
This past week brought helping with a bridal shower last Sunday, preparing for choir as the choir will sing this Sunday, fellowship with some friends after Sunday night church, tutoring, achievement testing for the kids, LONG hours of baseball practice, two baseball games, Wednesday night church, two days of running/walking with some friends, and just the daily day-to-day moments.
Last Sunday afternoon I helped out with a bridal shower for some friends of ours. Mostly I just helped with decorating, cleaning, serving food, and putting stuff away. It was a full afternoon as I didn’t leave the shower until 2:30pm, and then back to church at 5:00pm for choir practice. After Sunday night church, we had the Everett’s over for supper and fellowship. Our kids can spend hours shooting hoops in the driveway, playing games, talking, eating, playing some more and more eating! I have faint memories of my parents having friends over after church when I was young and the nights of popcorn and games and laughter. I feel like we are creating that for our own children, and it’s been good for them. The Everett’s and Roger and I just kinda rotate houses on Sunday nights or we’ll switch it up and go out for ice cream or something. The hours of fellowship are sweet and dear, and in our technology driven world, I feel like it is becoming increasingly important for our children to have real and tangible relationships with people. I know we’re weird, but none of our kids have any social media accounts, Garett has a phone that will only call and text people (and I can look up all the texts), and we are okay with living our lives like that! The nights of Sunday fellowship with no one needing a phone or technology are instrumental in showing our children that real relationships are important! Okay, hopping off my band wagon now!
On Monday after school, I did a little bit of running/walking with my friend, Tamela. Since we have to be there most afternoons waiting for baseball practices to end, we might as well try to be productive about it! I enjoyed running cross-county in college, kinda got away from running with having four kids in four years, got back into it, life, and running/walking just kinda weaves it’s way in and out of my life. I like to exercise, and on Monday afternoon I needed to work off some pent-up stress. I had had a rough day with trying to figure out how to help a student, and I was weary. Walking/running with Tamela definitely helped me work through some of that brain fog- at least enough so I could figure out a supper plan!
The school had achievement tests this week. Our favorite part about the week was that there was NO HOMEWORK! I am not a fan of homework, and I doubt I’ll every change my mind. We have a few kids that really struggle with school academically, and Travis has had his third rough school year in a row, not just academically. We continue to pray that God will show Himself strong and mighty to Travis. He could use a special dose of encouragement in his life, and I don’t always know how to help him with that. It’s hard to know how to help the kids that are quietly struggling, and don’t make a ruckus in class, but so often have to absorb the consequences of other students that don’t make the right choices. Please pray with us that Travis will understand the school work, but also that his young heart will be encouraged. So many things are hard for him, and being on the tail end of three older brothers also has it’s challenges. Please just pray for him.
All the boys had a baseball game on Tuesday so it was a full afternoon. The younger boys play on the middle school team, and to be honest, they aren’t very good. However, this is the first year that the school has had a middle school team in a while, and with every game they get a little better. It’s discouraging to lose, but for the most part, they have good attitudes. They seem like they are enjoying it. The younger boys also had a game on Friday afternoon, and so did the older boys. However, the younger boys were playing at home and the older boys were playing about an hour away from the school! There was no way to be in both places at one time. I decided to go to the younger boys game since they have less games in their season, and I knew my friend, Laura, would take good care of my older boys at the other game.
The older boys aren’t enjoying the baseball season as much as I would’ve hoped or liked, but that’s the way that life is sometimes. Sometimes you commit to something and then find it that it’s not all that you thought it would be. I think part of the struggle is that we actually like to be home. I’m a very, very firm believer in the fact that kids need to be kids. They need time to wallow in the dirt, go fishing, fix a dirt bike, fight with each other (insert eye roll here), mow grass, do chores, play, and all other kids of activities. But if children don’t get enough time to actually be children, do you know what you end up with? You end up with fighting. Yes, just fighting. We savor these Saturdays at home to allow the kids to have some unscheduled time in their lives. It’s hard when you leave for school at 7:00 am, school is done at 3:00pm, baseball practice starts at 3;15, baseball practice ends at 6:30pm, home at 7:00pm, supper, homework, shower, Bible time and bed. Yup, I see pent-up energy and unnecessary stresses. But good news- spring break is coming! And then there’s only a few more weeks of school! Oh, praise Jesus! So we encourage, press-on, and perhaps plan a little differently for next time.
This past Wednesday, Wyatt wasn’t feeling that great so we allowed him to stay home. Roger has been working every day (he did have off last Sunday due to rain), and I didn’t feel like I could miss school. Wyatt didn’t sleep well and then woke up with a headache. He stayed at home, and he did fine. I’m sure it was a very boring day, but it is what it is! Wednesday is also the day that report cards came out! So off we went to Krispy Kreme after school with the Everett kids. Krispy Kreme will give out a doughnut for every “A” on the report card. Some of my tribe didn’t have very many “A”s, but between all our kids (except Wyatt) the kids had 28 donuts! Laura and I both had one, and the kids brought home 5! So basically, they scarfed down a bunch of donuts!! Haha! Oh well! Laura took two of my kids home with her for the afternoon, and I took one of hers home with me. We’ve stopped figuring out who has who’s kids as long as the total number we need to have is right! Since we were coming back for Wednesday night church, we knew that we’d get all the kids back to their respective parents eventually.
On Friday, one of Laura’s kids stayed with me for the home game, while she went to the game and brought home our two older boys. The middle school team lost 0-15, but the varsity team did win. Chandler didn’t get to play so that’s always disappointing and part of growing up. Garett did get to bat. He did strike out, but he did get to try. Wyatt did catch a great pop fly during the middle school game, and that was fun to watch. I do see improvements in their playing skills. I do feel for kids that spend a lot of time on the bench. It’s a hard to watch kids constantly sit the bench who also pour hours into practice not get into the games. We will see what happens as we continue to move forward.
Roger has had to work most weekends unless it rains. He was able to come home a little early on Saturday and the Everett’s came over for dinner and a fun game of softball. We took all our kids to the park to play softball. Since we have 12 people between our families, it was six versus six. The adults had a good time. Some of the kids didn’t enjoy losing and seem to think that the mistakes were all someone else’s fault. Ha! The truth of the matter is that we all made plenty of mistakes, but we had lots of laughter and fun along the way. Next time we will have to find a few more families to play with us as a few more players would help the game move along. We had a great time, it was a beautiful afternoon, and we have enjoyed making memories.
Roger had to work on Sunday, but the rest of us were at church at 8:30 am, for choir practice. The older boys are doing quite well at adapting to singing in a choir. Garett hears the notes a little easier and Chandler does better when he stands next to someone who can sing the right notes in his ear. But they’ve not complained, and they come to choir practices with me every week. It did rain on Sunday afternoon, so Roger was able to make it home in time to come for Sunday night church. Our pastor was out of town, so there weren’t very many people there for Sunday night church, but we did get a blessing. We live in a land where we have the privilege to attend church freely, and I want to treasure that freedom. Sometimes we have dinner with someone in our home, extend hospitality to someone or go visit someone on Sunday nights.
We’ve had some real and deep conversations with our older children in recent days. I’m constantly reminded of how depraved our world is becoming as people reject God and His Word. These are challenging times that we live in and sometimes I feel overwhelmed. But, as I read God’s Word, bathe our children in prayer, and cry out to Jesus, I am reminded that God created them for “such a time as this”. Our children are created in God’s image and He loves them. He desires for them to love and serve Him, but He will not force His way into their lives. We pray for God to work in the lives of our children that they will be softened to the Holy Spirit and yield to His control.
Here’s another song that I really like:
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