Sometimes I drive myself crazy wondering if any of our homeschooling lessons are actually going to stick. Will my kids really remember the scientific method or this history lesson by the time next week rolls around? Will they even remember any of it tomorrow?!
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...Christian's birthday frog! It's squishy and rubbery and feels gross when you hold it-- all the things he loved most about it! This was perched atop his 3rd birthday cake and I remember him laughing and squealing with delight when he first saw it. He also enjoyed showing it off to his friends when they would visit.
The next treasure I discovered was this...
...Christian's once upon a time it was clean stuffed elephant. I think we acquired this when he was a baby-- perhaps a baby shower gift? I honestly don't remember. But I do remember Elephant keeping him company in his pack and play (ummm... we just didn't do a real crib this time around). And as Christian got older, this little guy was soft and worn and dirtied up just like his buddy Blankie. Except I just know Elephant was quite jealous of Blankie-- he just couldn't compete!
And as if that weren't enough blessings bestowed upon this mommy in one evening, God had this very last little guy waiting for me...
... Christian's bear! Yup, it's one of those cheap, tiny, and useless Happy Meal toys. (Please excuse Bear's nekkidness-- he used to own a little red shirt and only be half nekkid. I hope he's not embarrassed.) Some of our IRL friends and family might remember Bear. Christian carried him everywhere!!! I couldn't believe how attached he was to Bear. Maybe he liked it so much because of its small size and the ability to shove him in a pocket. Bear... wow, I wish I could adequately express the adoration that Christian had for him. It just really was his favorite buddy, y'all!
So where are they now?
Well, Elephant can be found lounging around my desk in the living room. Bear has endeared himself to David and imagines a life of travel to some exotic (and not so exotic) locales.
And frog? He sits on the kitchen windowsill just taking it all in and helping to remind me of one very real and important thing...
I have picky eaters in this house. They get it from their daddy. I have decided that each week, we will try to learn to like something new. This week, we are learning to like celery.
How did the boys respond to this today?
THEY LOVED IT, Y'ALL!!!
That was much easier than I anticipated. Now to think of what we'll work on for next week. Perhaps broccoflower might be pushing it... at least for now (and especially since I don't even know if *I* will like it!).
Did your parents make you learn to like certain foods when you were growing up? While my dad didn't exactly make us learn to like cow tongue when we were little, he did force us to try it! Blech!!! Although I do believe that my sister Lele threw a fit or maybe ran away or something to avoid having to eat it. She was always smart like that. There are definite drawbacks when grandma and grandpa have a farm and cows.
"It is possible, for those who really are willing to reckon on the power of the Lord for keeping and victory, to lead a life in which His promises are taken as they stand and are found to be true.
It is possible to cast all or care upon Him daily and to enjoy deep peace in doing it.
It is possible to have the thoughts and imaginations of our hearts purified, in the deepest meaning of the word.
It is possible to see the will of God in everything, and to receive it, not with sighing,
but with singing.
It is possible by taking complete refuge in divine power to become strong through and through; and, where previously our greatest weakness lay, to find that things which formely upset all our resolves to be patient, or pure, or humble, furnish today an opportunity-- through Him who loved us, and works in us an agreement with His will and a blessed sense of His presence and His power-- to make sin powerless over us.
These things are DIVINE POSSIBILITIES, and because they are His work, the true experience of them will always cause us to bow lower at His feet and to learn to thirst and long for more.
We cannot possibly be satisified with anything less-- each day, each hour, each moment, in Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit-- than to WALK WITH GOD."
"We may have as much of God as we will. Christ puts the key of the treasure
chamber into our hand, and bids us take all that we want. If a man is admitted
into the bullion vault of a bank, and told to help himself, and comes out with
one cent, whose fault is it that he is poor? Whose fault is it that Christian
people generally have such scanty portions of the free riches of God?"
I think it's safe to say that spring is here since it has been quite warm for the past couple of weeks. Even the nectarine trees that we recently planted in the front yard have blossomed and filled out with bright green leaves. While these trees aren't officially planted in honor of Christian, I just can't help but smile when I look at them.
This past summer, Christian decided that he absolutely loved nectarines. I would have to sternly tell him No, you can't have another one-- you've already eaten 4 today!!! Yup, he probably would've eaten ten if I had let him. Do you know what that could do to the... umm.. bowels of a 3yo? A 3yo wearing big boy Red Power Ranger underwear?! Yah, not exactly pleasant if he's distracted on timing or something. ;-)
*sigh* I think about Christian all the time. Everything reminds me of him. I just miss him, y'all. I hope you don't get tired or depressed from hearing about him, but talking about him just makes me happy-- even if I cry at the same time.
(I know this isn't a nectarine, but he also starting having a major crush on pineapples too!)
