Amara.Eternally.Beautiful

Finding beauty from ashes

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

To Everything there is a Season



    To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under the heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1


 

   We are in this sweet season right now in our little family. A time where my biggest is not too big to enjoy sharing everything with mom. I still know best and they think I'm pretty cool. My children are still asking questions and baking cookies with me. I only have one in diapers but yet still get to enjoy the pitter patter of little feet. My heart is full. 
  
  Tonight I was so blessed by our bedtime prayer time. I always ask if there is anything they want to pray about. Which turns into bits of there day and glimpses into their hearts. I am so thankful some things have stayed the same amidst all our changes.
  
   I had written previously how I had requested for God to, once again bring order to my chaos. So I figured I'd share a little of what I am doing to achieve that.   
  
   Every school year I have always started with prayer, then appointed a goal(s) for what I want to instill in my children. I believe in doing things on purpose and parenting is one of them. 
  
   Our goal last school year were to learn responsibility. What I wanted to teach my children was to see a need and fill it. Especially without my prompting. I made up this list and went over it with the kids. Things are still far from perfect but I do not expect perfection. Just values instilled now that hopefully will become second nature later on. I love looking back and seeing God's faithfulness. 



Some of the ways I found responsibility more evident in our home over this last year were:
 My oldest, Trae has the chore of mowing the yard. Instead of having to nag him to get it done he now sees that it needs to be done and does it. He also started his own summer lawn mowing business, complete with a homemade sign in our yard. Tevan, my little chef, has surprised me more than once with lunch made for the whole family.(His chicken lettuce wraps are amazing) Kyran is my Mr. Fix it. Things run smoothly when he is around. He changes batteries in toys (without my prompting) and unplugs the vacuum. Bria, simple things, like vacuuming her room and organizing the bookshelves. Emari..well lets just say at the wonderful age of 2, she tests her siblings patience.  

 Now that we have found a new rhythm, I finally feel kinda, sorta sane. It's now that I can step back and see some good in all of this change and come up with a game plan for the year. I may not be doing lesson plans anymore but I sure can still implement some of the same homeschool strategy. 


    Our goals for this school year are simple. I want my kids to:    


    1. Learn to clean up after themselves.  I am pretty sure I might be dreaming here ;-) I realized with all their daily/weekly chore charts I have been pretty consistent about teaching them how but I've slacked with just normal "pick up after yourself". I find myself in a constant, "Hey pick that up!" "What happen to this bathroom?!" Instead of actually taking the time and effort to teach them how. So here we go. 
    2. Start every morning with prayer and devotions in His Word.   I want to instill in my kids the importance of being fed daily by God's Word. Also how important it is to be in constant prayer. My hope and prayer is that what starts as a routine "chore" will turn into a treasured start and end to their day.                                             
     


    So how do I go about making this a reality?
     We have two rules in our home. No complaining. If you complain about your chore.etc. you earn an extra one. And if you have nothing good to say don't say it at all. If they break that rule then they have to say five things they love about that sibling to their face. Talk about humbling. It works pretty well. 

    What I have started for number 1 is just being more consistent with reminding them to pick up their things before. Like before we walk into the house I remind them to put away their coats, shoes, and backpack. I try to refrain from telling them again. Once is enough. If they forget then they earn another chore (we are in endless supply of those)added to just picking up the shoes. I've learned from previously teaching them how to do chores that if I am consistent, then it will become second nature to them..eventually.

    Number 2 we have already started since my kids were able to walk. We've consistently had prayer time before bed and I love speaking the Word into every part of our day. That way we can be rooted and grounded in the truth. Years ago when Trae was in first grade, I asked my boys what they thought would be a good New Years resolution..to my surprise they said to read the Bible every night. So I started to. It was a chore at times because bedtime is so chaotic anyway but we achieved our goal of one year. From then on I just made it part of our homeschooling. Now we have our morning devotions and daily memory verse. I am simply going to try to remain consistent with this. Also I feel like with sending my kids to school I have a lot of teachable moments with real life stuff. We've been praying for a couple of Trae's friends that are now rivals to become best friends. I know God can work miracles. Trae has seen it also. Our prayer has been for him to be a "peacemaker". Hey you never know. Our God is big. 






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