Simmer Down

Sometimes (often times) my older son and I clash.  We are both strong-willed, and we get each other going before we even realize what happened!  So there's this morning, when I mentally congratulated myself for diffusing a battle before it started raging by being first very firm, and then making my child laugh.  Lately I've been consciously employing strategies found in Dr. Dobson's The Strong-Willed Child and meeting with more success.  I'm thankful. 
Because then there's this late-morning, after some "preschool" and "baseball" and cocoa, when my son decides to disobey, blatantly, about something very trivial: pick up those little pegs you just threw all over the room.  And the battle rages.  Sigh.  I am getting better at keeping myself "cool and collected," and I do win, because part of my job is to shape his will and teach him about authority and obedience and those sorts of things.  But it is so draining. 
And it leaves me...let's say peevish. 
But then the sun comes out, and we take the bike trailer to the farmers' market, and converse with pleasant people and buy colorful veggies and press our own cider.  And then we drink our cider in the sunshine, and I think to myself, "I am happy."  What a wonderful world this can be, and what a wonderful gift to be reminded of it.

Distracting Myself

The boys and I are on our own for the evening, and because we know Daddy won't be home for dinner tonight, it's been kind of a rough day.  When I say our boys hang their hopes on daddy's homecoming, I'm not exaggerating all that much!  So there's that. 

Also, my babysitter cancelled for the afternoon, because, get this: she was bitten by a brown recluse spider.  Oh, creeps!  I mean, OH CREEPS!  I am completely freaked out about that, because over the past few weeks I've seen 5 or 6 spiders around our house that drove me to Google Images in the fear of just that.  The ones I've gotten a good look at are more likely Grass or Funnel spiders (still mildly poisonous)...but then to find out, yes, they really are in our area...  Anyway.  I can't even sit at this computer without feeling little creepies on my feet under the desk here.  I stopped watching scary movies a long time ago because of my wild, realistic imagination.  I wish I could stop seeing spiders. 

I need to be distracted.  So, I've lit a candle, put the season's first pumpkin recipe in the oven, and am watching The Office when I'm free to fold laundry.  Go away, crazy fears!

Big Night

I haven't written you a status update in over a week.  And before that, it was a week again.  My life has certainly been more eventful than that, but it's also nice to not care much whether anybody knows about it.  

But tonight!

Tonight I sat on my front porch with a boy in my lap marveling at the fierce storm blowing through.  It left us with a very thorough double rainbow, the main bow of which also had a "shadow" effect of two spectra splayed out beneath it.  My photo is pitiful; I'm sure it's user ignorance of settings. 

After supper, my sister-in-law and I went out jogging, and I could hardly take my eyes off the sky.  Every part of that glorious sky held different colors, textures, types of clouds, all lit up by the sunset.  Watching the retreat of a spectacular storm is a spectacular way to run.  SO GORGEOUS!  I thought of my friend Leanna, who would have recorded that beautiful run on her iPhone.  But non-data-plan-me just gets to remember it all :0)

After the boys were in bed, I took the plunge (a surprisingly weighty-feeling, nervous plunge) and purchased a preschool curriculum to begin working on with Lincoln here at home.  There may be more on this later.  For now, I don't care for the public preschool options Lincoln could be involved in over the next couple of years, and I'm going to try some low-key homeschooling, see how it goes.  I'm nervous about it, for basically selfish reasons; I happen to be comfortable with the ease of not really planning our daily lives and letting time slip by while I read other people's status updates.  But I know that it is not the best I can give my children, and so, by purchasing a curriculum, I'm committing myself to give them more of my best.  Among many reasons homeschooling is of interest to me, I'm realizing that the most important reason I would choose it over public school is to equip my children with the tool of a Biblical worldview.  Worldview is Important.  Capitol I.  My Father's World curriculum is designed for exactly the purpose of "raising up generations of families who see the world through God's eyes and live according to that knowledge."  I'm diving in. 

 And tomorrow!

My husband begins his 12th year of teaching, and it will suddenly be a new season for all of us.