Weekly Wrap-Up

This week went much more smoothly than last week. We've had lots more fun and adventures together. It seems a bit of a blur now, but here are some highlights:

* spent Monday playing and resting from our travels over the weekend
* Had a big playdate (5 kids) on Tuesday. Jonathan did very well sharing and being kind for most of the morning.
* Weds brought fall weather and we spent the morning playing at a local park with friends. We had fun playing in the afternoon.
* Thurs we went down to Chicago to participate in a study conducted by the Infant Learning and Development Lab at the University of Chicago. Grace got to watch a short movie and they tried to see how well she could predict actions. Jonathan was excited to go down to the city and see tunnels, choo choo trains and big buildings. We had lunch at a tollway Oasis and both children really liked watching the cars travel underneath us.
* Today we've played and had fun and we're headed down to bring a meal to some new friends who just had a baby boy.

It's been a busy week!

As far as Warrior Prayers goes, I've spent the week praying that Jonathan would avoid foolishness and pride, and that he would have a servant's heart and be pure, honorable, loving, and joy-filled. Whew! That's quite a list. Taking from another mom's suggestion, I've started praying over Jonathan (and Grace) at breakfast time. We usually pray for the day, but now I've added the specific prayers for them.

And this week I've seen some more progress. We've made some changes too- instead of always telling him what he is not to do, I've started emphasizing what he is supposed to do. He is supposed to be kind (as opposed to hitting, or not sharing). He is supposed to be self-controlled (as opposed to throwing a tantrum). He is supposed to obey (instead of being defiant). These things have resonated a lot more with him than me always saying "no"-- and he's so excited to tell daddy what he did well each day.

Do we still have issues? Yes. Definitely. But there's some improvement too. When we left the park Weds, he threw himself down on the ground because he wanted to go play with something his friend was playing with. I told him "it's okay to be sad, but you need to obey mommy. It's not okay to disobey." And you know what? He picked himself up. He still cried on the way to the car, but he obeyed me. So that was a small victory. :)

Another thing that's helped is I just purchased the book A Child's Book of Character Building Volume 1. I think it will be a great resource for us-- it goes through twelve different virtues with short stories about how the virtue is lived out at home, at school, and at play. I'm really excited to start going through this with Jonathan. I'll post more on it later, but I think I may spend two to four weeks on each virtue.

So that's been my week with Jonathan! I'll be posting our "Tot School" adventures on Sunday so you can see what we've been learning about this week.




As far as the Homemaker's Challenge, there were a lot of things that really resonated with me. As far as homemaking goes, I wrestle with laziness (I'd rather play with my kids, read, or be online than clean, wouldn't you?), as well as the monotony of daily tasks and the fact that the children just pull everything out again! I try to stick to a cleaning schedule, but I'm not much for schedules. I know they will make my life easier, though, and give me more guiltless time to play. 
I usually just need to give myself a kick in the pants and just do something. Usually if I start one task, I can move on to the next. Once I sit down, I'm done. My husband and I recognize the same thing each night. If we turn the TV on before we clear all the dishes, load the dishwasher, and do all those end-of-night things, they won't get done. Or they *will* get done haphazardly at 11:30pm when you feel so grumpy about doing anything besides getting in bed. So we try to get things cleared up before we have couch/tv/computer time. I'm glad he struggles with the same tendency as I do, even if it's not to the same extent. 
I really liked Sarah Mae's vision for being a homemaker: "I want my life to me a light shining for my children. I want them to see a bouncy, jolly homemaker whizzing through all her tasks with the joy of the Lord." I want to be a model for my children, but apart from God's grace that's hard to do. I need to rely on Him for strength and motivation each morning. 
Anyways, this week I successfully: 
* purged some cabinets and drawers in my kitchen* maintained my kitchen (most of the time)* cleaned windows and dusted blinds in the living areas* dusted furniture in the living areas
I didn't accomplish as much as I'd like, but it's something! We'll see what next week holds-- we still will need to go to central Illinois at some point, but we're not sure when yet. 
Have a great week!