Out of Retirement

I'm coming out of teaching retirement as of tomorrow. Dusting off my violin (ok, not too much dust has accumulated in just 2 weeks, but still....). I am taking on a violin student - fresh meat, too, no experience - after a 4 year hiatus. I actually really love teaching and have thought over and over again the last 4 years to get back into it. But there always seemed to be a good excuse not to until this student fell into my lap a few weeks ago. Hard to say no when my heart is in it. :) And I love it when I get to work with a clean slate... Ahhhh and 'mold'able mind is a wonderful thing....

Memory Verses

The end of this summer our children's minister launched a campaign among the children in our church to teach memory verses on a regular, ongoing basis instead of sporadically or just in Sunday School. I must admit that when the idea first was explained, I had doubts that my 5 year old (and certainly NOT my 3 year old) could learn the long verses he had picked out. I did a disservice to my boys by not really pushing the verses to be learned too hard, because I thought it would be too hard and get frustrating for them.

Well, I was wrong.

Today over lunch Blaine, who was wearing a "I learned my verse" sticker on his shirt, said his shorter verse. We were proud of him. Then Braylon announced he knew his verse, too, so we listened. Here is the verse he recited with no trouble or hesitation:

"Hear O Israel. The Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." Deuteronomy 6:4-7

God keeps using my kids to teach me humility. Wonder when I'll actually learn it.

Bad Elmo

Yesterday a.m. before I woke Blaine up, I went into his room to get some clothes picked out for him. The next thing I hear is Blaine saying, "Stop it! NO," as he is sitting upright in his bed and punching a life-sized Elmo doll. I quickly rescued Elmo and picked up Blaine and his oversized brown bear. After he had time to wake up, Blaine admitted that Elmo was being mean to the brown bear and Blaine was breaking up the fight. Some dream!!

Here Comes the Bride

I had the privilege of playing my violin in another friend's wedding over the weekend. Always big fun (mostly - if you don't count the nerves that go along with playing in front of people). The bride was my best friend from high school and it was about a 3 hour drive through God's country to the little town of Marfa, Texas. I recruited a friend to drive with me and we had a grand ol time chatting and spending the day away. Big fun, indeed!

Parent/Teacher Conference

On Friday of last week I had my first parent/teacher conference. Brandon had a mid-term during our appointed time, so I went solo. Braylon's teacher had many encouraging things to say. One thing that stuck out was that she said, "You just can't help but to love that kid." Of course then she went on to say how frustrating he can be at times because he likes all eyes on him all the time. (No wonders where that trait came from....) The teacher noted that Braylon aced all his assessments like they were last year's boring lessons. She said she couldn't stump him even on stuff that most kids don't get right. That made me feel like we've gotten something right somewhere. All in all, a good first conference.

Penalty for Mom

To update, Braylon didn't get to play flag football this fall. I missed the deadline and there was such a heavy turnout of kids this go around that there weren't any spots to put him on any of the teams. In all sincerity, I'm saddened that I 'dropped the ball' but relieved not to have one more activity to worry about right now. We are considering putting him in basketball in January, but will likely just wait until April to try the football thing again.

Providence

Here's a new spin on the concept of providence:

Over the weekend Brandon's IPOD was stolen out of our vehicle in the driveway (boo hoooooo). We called the police and they promptly came out and took a report. Although we were able to supply the police the serial number, we are resigned to the idea that we won't see it again. We are hoping whomever took it will listen to the Christian rock music on there and grow a conscience. But anyway, I was talking to Braylon about it because he wanted to know why the police were at our house. I said, "The police are here so they can get information from us and hopefully they can find the person who took the IPOD." He wondered when the police will find him. I had to tell him that there was a good chance that the person would never be found, but that God would still know who took it.

Braylon, in sincere honesty, looked at me and said, "Well, will God tell the police?"

Pretty darn cute, if you ask me...

Go Fish!

We got our new Go Fish cd in the mail today - It rocks! Don't forget to go online and order yours. "Party Like a Preschooler." This would be a great opportunity for you to share it with parents of preschoolers - It makes an awesome gift and Christmas is just around the corner....

Mi Vida Loca

It's been a week since I last posted. Goodness me, where does the time go? That's the same thing I asked myself last night as I noticed that I had missed the flag football deadline by 2 weeks. Two weeks! I was almost sick to my stomach because I promised Braylon he could play this fall and we had been planning on it. All of his good friends are playing either soccer or football. We drove over to the Y this a.m. and were assured that there is a good chance that he can still enroll on Monday. The only problem is that Blaine learned that 3 year olds can play, too, so now he is dead set on playing. Sooooo, let's add another activity to our already hectic lives, shall we? Why not? Throw another shrimp on the barbie!