It has been a great, full week here at the Dorminy home! Our first full week of school went very well. I have enjoyed being back into our school routine. I absolutely love the “no screen” time!! The kids are so much more creative this way. Molly is quickly learning that her whining, “What can I doooo? I’m so boooorrreeed” is met by me answering with a list of cleaning opportunities for her. She sighs and walks away. She also likes to ask, “Do you have anything, like for an adult, that you don’t use anymore?” I tell her no. She asks again anyway. I then tell her that I have a broom (very much an adult thing) that she can use….unless she’d rather use the vacuum cleaner or the dust spray. Again, she sighs and walks away.
We have had a little friend outside our school room window each day. Ruby has even given him a name, Chunky. It’s a chipmunk! He eats all sorts of things from the ground.
He was quite the distraction the first day for all of us, but we’ve gotten used to his shenanigans. Today, Ruby noticed a flock of birds had landed on our back lawn. She said, “Oh, look. They’re having a social in our back yard.”
The kids started Timothy on Tuesday; it is a co-op where they each take a few classes.
Ruby (10), Molly (almost 9), Mack (7)
Mack and Jack are buds, so it was fun to run into them on the way out.
One day is was beautiful, so we took a jaunt to the pool.
Molly finished the bag for Ruby!
This little girl turns 9 on Monday! She cannot wait. Sweetie sent a Target gift card and some clothes in the mail for her. I let her open it because I love opening packages, Sweetie didn’t say she had to wait, and I do not think I could have taken the begging for the next four days. So, of course, we had to go to Target! You can’t just hold onto a Target gift card. Ruby decided she would take some of her birthday money from May with her. Mack, who spends every dime he ever gets, was just along for the ride. Broke and heart-broken! He could not wrap his mind around how I could possibly allow Molly and Ruby to each get things they wanted while he left with nothing. He made this clear to me by how he whined and cried the. entire. time. we. walked. around. I gently (and eventually quite firmly) told him he didn’t get to buy anything because he didn’t have any money. I wasted my breath by telling him how he could save his money that he works for, so that he can actually have money for our next shopping trip. He continued crying and crying. He finally said to me, “Mom, just slap me in the face.” I looked at him, quite puzzled and said, “No! Why would you want me to do that?!?” Very somber was his response….”I just need to get it together, Mom.”
It was like he knew he was out of control. He knew he shouldn’t be crying like this, but he couldn’t stop on his own. He needed someone to slap him across the face so he could pull it together.
Of course, I didn’t slap him across the face. I squeezed his cute, freckled cheeks and told him I loved him and couldn’t slap him. He looked at me and said, “Really, Mom. Just slap me.” I laughed and laughed. I can relate, too. There are times that I know my emotions are out of control, my actions are immature and selfish, yet I keep doing what I don’t want to do. I need to have someone slap me in the face so I can “get it together.” I won’t be offering this opportunity to my children, however. I am just going to need to remember that trip to Target! And thankfully, just like Mack came to me, his parent who loves him, I can go to my Heavenly Father, who loves me and tell Him all about my out of control self.
And I am just now reminded of a lesson from summer Bible Study and one from Sunday School and one from church…sometimes in life the Holy Spirit tells us “Just stop it.” There are some things that I don’t have to ponder and pray over. There are some things that it’s just time to STOP. I have heard this more than once. My mouth starts running with frustrations and complaints, and immediately I hear, “Stop it.” I then have a choice. Ignore the command and vent, only to live with the consequence and put disobedience between God and me OR Stop It.
And one final tidbit about Mack. He is obsessed with Nate the Great. He likes reading his stories and wants to be a detective. He couldn’t find a hat like Nate’s hat, so he made one with two other hats. He has a magnifying glass and wears Ruby’s house robe around the house as his detective jacket. It cracks me up. He asks us all from time to time, “Lost anything???” Ruby graciously creates a mystery with clues for him. It’s so cute.
The days are full. Sometime they are hard and demanding. But I wouldn’t trade them for anything.
Sitting on the couch with Mack dressed as Nate the Great while he reads and rubs his chubby feet together, back and forth, back and forth.
Walking with the kids this morning in the neighborhood while Ruby chats and chats with me, telling me how she admires Molly for being so adventurous and seeming to not care what other people think of her. I loved hearing what Ruby would like to be when she grows up.
Watching Molly set up a restaurant for some play time with the other two….making sure she uses her label maker, her restaurant guest checks and her receipt book. She has requested office supplies for her birthday. I’m not sure what to think about that.
These kids crack me up. I’m thankful for the time that I get to have with each of them.
