The main purpose of this blog was to help me remember various thought that I knew would get lost in the day to day chaos that is my brain! Now as we contemplate the changes coming our way I want to remember somethings about having my in-laws live with us these past few months.
I want to remember the way my mother-in-law bent over backwards to give us our space. She made every effort to not intrude on our lives. I want to remember the humility she expressed without complaint every day. I know it was hard for her to go from running her own home, in her terms, to making it fit with our lives. I want to remember her selfless willingness to watch the kids, to talk to them no matter what she was doing at the time. I want to remember how good it was to hear her laugh and see her smile, how her eyes light up when she is doing something creative, how she treats her husband with the utmost respect. There are not words to express the lessons being lived out in front of me and my children in her life.
My father-in-law is such a hard working person. I see exactly where my husband learned his solid work ethic. His integrity in the workplace is a rare thing. I pray he is always valued for the great worth that he has. I want to remember the sense of humor that never sleeps-that my husband also inherited, that could not really be forgotten anyway.
None of this is to say that it has been easy. "Crowded" begins to describe our living conditions, on their part as well as ours. I felt such a sense of their intruding in my life, my house, my space. I have seen first hand that I place far too much value on "my," "me," & "mine." I have prayed that my bad attitude would be changed and that it would not make them feel uncomfortable. I have prayed that I would not wait until years go by to be grateful for this time with them.
I want to remember how this morning she hugged my eldest son, who is almost as tall as she is and with emotion said, "When I don't live with you anymore I'm sure gonna miss getting hugs and kisses everyday."
Showing posts with label in-laws. Show all posts
Showing posts with label in-laws. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Just a week?
I know the last post said I wrote it a short while ago, but that just doesn't seem possible.
We are living at that place where the baby cries so much that even when he's not crying, our ears still hear it. I guess it is colic, or baby-reflux (which I have never heard of till now) or just a baby crying because he can. Whatever it is I have had enough. I told Jeremiah that, but he didn't seem to pay me any attention. He just threw his head back and cried.
Can you tell I've progressed passed the point of frantically trying to find out why he is crying? I do try to tend to all his needs. He is fed regularly, burped, diapered, smiled at, held, sung to, bathed, burped more, introduced to his mobile and laid to sleep in a safe, clean crib. So when he cries still, even after our best efforts to console him, our eyes sort of glaze over. My husband said that this will either drive us insane or enable us to deal with incredibly stressful situations. I let you know which of those is the end result. We have spoken with the doctor about it, we are trying a medication for baby reflux, it is too soon to tell if it will be helpful.
For two weeks now we've been attempting formal homeschooling. Math the first week, Math and Spanish this week. This week we've also focused on getting the kids back on a chore schedule. We've been trying out "Handipoints," an online site for managing chore charts. They can keep track of what they've done, make saving goals and play online games with points they get just for doing what is on their charts. Kaity loves the online games, Charlie doesn't. It seems to be working well, as opposed to me forgetting to print chore charts and forgetting to ask them to complete them. We usually do two morning and two afternoon chores, just simple household tasks. They also have things that are automatic, like keeping the bedroom clean and keeping toys and shoes picked up from around the house.
The school room is no more. It has made its transformation into a bedroom for my in-laws . I am confident that the school storage I have in the dining room will be more than enough. It will also force me to clean up school after each day, a habit I should've been making myself learn anyway! I'd like to use an modified "workboxes" method to organize our daily work, and I have some drawer space set aside for that, but have yet to organize that. In the weeks to come I will, for now I am focusing on day to day goals for myself and for our schooling goals.
Day to day. God's grace is enough for today. I'm confident I will be able to say that about tomorrow too.
We are living at that place where the baby cries so much that even when he's not crying, our ears still hear it. I guess it is colic, or baby-reflux (which I have never heard of till now) or just a baby crying because he can. Whatever it is I have had enough. I told Jeremiah that, but he didn't seem to pay me any attention. He just threw his head back and cried.
Can you tell I've progressed passed the point of frantically trying to find out why he is crying? I do try to tend to all his needs. He is fed regularly, burped, diapered, smiled at, held, sung to, bathed, burped more, introduced to his mobile and laid to sleep in a safe, clean crib. So when he cries still, even after our best efforts to console him, our eyes sort of glaze over. My husband said that this will either drive us insane or enable us to deal with incredibly stressful situations. I let you know which of those is the end result. We have spoken with the doctor about it, we are trying a medication for baby reflux, it is too soon to tell if it will be helpful.
For two weeks now we've been attempting formal homeschooling. Math the first week, Math and Spanish this week. This week we've also focused on getting the kids back on a chore schedule. We've been trying out "Handipoints," an online site for managing chore charts. They can keep track of what they've done, make saving goals and play online games with points they get just for doing what is on their charts. Kaity loves the online games, Charlie doesn't. It seems to be working well, as opposed to me forgetting to print chore charts and forgetting to ask them to complete them. We usually do two morning and two afternoon chores, just simple household tasks. They also have things that are automatic, like keeping the bedroom clean and keeping toys and shoes picked up from around the house.
The school room is no more. It has made its transformation into a bedroom for my in-laws . I am confident that the school storage I have in the dining room will be more than enough. It will also force me to clean up school after each day, a habit I should've been making myself learn anyway! I'd like to use an modified "workboxes" method to organize our daily work, and I have some drawer space set aside for that, but have yet to organize that. In the weeks to come I will, for now I am focusing on day to day goals for myself and for our schooling goals.
Day to day. God's grace is enough for today. I'm confident I will be able to say that about tomorrow too.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
5 weeks old
Tomorrow Jeremiah is 5 weeks old. I keep marveling at how much such a tiny person can disrupt an entire family! He's had periods of fussy, colicky behavior. But it is not constant. He is healthy and is gaining weight very well. We can't wait to see him really smile.
I have to admit that this stage is not my favorite. The demanding, sometimes screaming infant is not exactly fun. It is a stage, though and the fun interaction is just around the corner.
Formal homeschooling is still disrupted. We've kept reading & doing some science from time to time. I'd love to add math to this next weeks list of things to do. We'll see. I just can't seem to get it together. Exhaustion, and the effects of that on my mind are the main reasons we've not started. I had hoped to start last week. My dear husband said to me last week that I should just ease up and not start school, not to stress myself about it. So I took his wonderful advice!
We've completely cleaned out my school room, to make room for my in-laws to move in in the next month or so. Now our school stuff is in a long shelf in the dining room and it was good to simplify my collection of homeschool stuff I might use "someday." My husband even got me to rid of some stuff I had started saving for Jeremiah. It will be years before he'll use it! I had to laugh at my pack-rat tendencies. I will try to only keep what we will use now. I will try. I want to write more soon about how we'll be reorganizing our schedule. For now we have to get ready for youth group tonight.
I have to admit that this stage is not my favorite. The demanding, sometimes screaming infant is not exactly fun. It is a stage, though and the fun interaction is just around the corner.
Formal homeschooling is still disrupted. We've kept reading & doing some science from time to time. I'd love to add math to this next weeks list of things to do. We'll see. I just can't seem to get it together. Exhaustion, and the effects of that on my mind are the main reasons we've not started. I had hoped to start last week. My dear husband said to me last week that I should just ease up and not start school, not to stress myself about it. So I took his wonderful advice!
We've completely cleaned out my school room, to make room for my in-laws to move in in the next month or so. Now our school stuff is in a long shelf in the dining room and it was good to simplify my collection of homeschool stuff I might use "someday." My husband even got me to rid of some stuff I had started saving for Jeremiah. It will be years before he'll use it! I had to laugh at my pack-rat tendencies. I will try to only keep what we will use now. I will try. I want to write more soon about how we'll be reorganizing our schedule. For now we have to get ready for youth group tonight.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)