My kids love to sing in the car

We always have some kind of music playing in the car.... I mean who doesn't?

When the kids, or actual the first kid only, were young, I started with nursery songs and when they got older with children's song. Christian and non-Christian, English and German (and other languages).
But at some point, I just couldn't hear it anymore. I KNOW that every mom knows what I am talking about.... so I decided (and the kids took it well) that we are also listening to the radio or non-kids CDs in the car.

And now, I love when I hear my kids sing along with the praise and worship songs in the car. They must have heard them often enough. And Coqui has a few favorite ones that he actually asks for. Peanut loves to sing the songs from this summer's VBS "By faith I pray, in the name of Jesus" - she says it so clearly and it warms my heart to hear these words out of my two-year old's mouth.

So when I was driving in the car on Thursday, my new favorite song came on. It's "Purified" from Michael W. Smith. I heard it for the first time a few weeks ago, and instantly fell in love with it. Here is a link to it on youtube. If you've never heard - it's worth it.
So it was playing and all of a sudden I hear Coqui sing the words "I am purified by you".... and I started crying. It just totally overwhelmed me to hear those words out of his mouth. It is so true and yet, I don't always think about it.....

I am blessed with children that love the Lord and shout their praises out loud in singing (even if they are not always aware of their worshiping and only do it because they are copying us).

Loving My Kids On Purpose

This is a book title.... and I have to say, after just reading the first chapter, I can see all the things that I do wrong as a mother, sometimes. We are reading this book for our book club right know.

Here is the link to the book on Amazon. But I am sure you can find it in other places around your town as well.

I never wanted to make the same mistakes like my parents, and yet, there are days where I catch myself, thinking how did I turn out like them (at least for that particular day). And it scares me, because that is not where I want to be.

Don't get me wrong, they didn't do everything wrong, I mean after all, I did turn out quite alright, right?

But there are things that I don't want to do the same way.

I had my children, because I wanted them. 

I want to be with them. I want to teach them in order to become wonderful children of God and eventually outstanding people of our Father. I want them to prosper. And I don't want to stand in the way of God's blessings in their life by not giving them freedom to choose.

A huge difference to my parents is that I am a Christian parent. A new Christian that is still learning. But nobody said that being a Christian makes you automatically a better parent - it's something that we have to make a conscious decision about, and then act upon it. That's why I love our church so much, because all of them, but especially the people in the children's ministry, know how important it is to raise these children IN the word of God. Our children are not hushed during service. They are a part of it. And I love it. When we have prayer meetings, we actually want our kids around us, so we can be examples for them. After all, kids will copy our behavior - the good and the bad. When we thank God for our food, one day, it will be natural for them to do so as well. If we don't' yell at each other as parents, the siblings (hopefully) won't yell, or at least it's a behavior easily corrected. I mean the list can go on.

SO what's my point of this message?

I am guilty of not following God's plan in raising these kids. And I want to improve my parenting style. I love them and I just want to pour love over them. That is a key in the book.
The amazing thing is that after only two days of just loving them and accepting who they are (and who God wants them to be), I can see a difference. More so in Peanut than Coqui - I guess he has been around my (wrong) parenting style for too long.

Our connection to our children is more important than their obedience. In pouring unconditional love over our children, we give them a safe place to grow up and to make mistakes. When you feel you are loved, it is easier to obey. We are suppose to guide our children, not control them. That was eye-opening. I am a big control freak and always thought that I needed to force them to obey, or else.... I am not saying that I did not love them, but I expected obedience. I didn't give them the freedom to make a choice to obey or not and then live the consequences. When I just gave them more love in ALL circumstances, I gave them more grace (and they were less annoying). I also gave them more freedom to have a choice.... or more freedom to be just a kid! Kids make noise and kids make a mess....

Yesterday, on the way back from the book club meeting, we just goofed around in the car. Coqui started this game "have you ever seen a walking chair" and then you give him and answer. And then I ask him "have you ever seen a floating cow"? It's just being super silly using all kinds of transportable objects. We laughed all the way home. It was liberating not having to yell at them to be quiet, and it felt good to be just that: silly. No purpose but pure fun.

I let him help me more. I mean this is something that I always tried to do, not wanting to discourage him. But we all know: kids make messes, even when they try to 'help' us. So it's hard to say yes, when you really want to shout 'no'! But I said yes each and every time he asked me to help. I did. And he was helpful and he learned. God showed me that I can relax more and the outcome will be awesome. I don't want to be the one holding him back. I want to give him freedom, in this case freedom to make messes and clean them up.

Reading this chapter and agreeing with (most of) it, is very liberating. Once you act it out - oh how liberating it is! After all, we all want freedom, and I want to give it to my children, too. I don't want to be the yellow truck (you will understand this one when you read the book).

Now, this was just after the first chapter - I can not wait to read the rest of the book.

When I am done with the book - I'll have a perfect family! Okay, I know, THAT is NOT the purpose of this book. I was just kidding. But we will have a BETTER family life....

Science Co-op and Science at home

This week at the co-op, we discovered the three states of matter. You know: solid, liquid and gas. The kids were excited and yet they all sat still listening to the teacher. Very exciting.

So when the teacher started to explain what the three states are, my son had something to say:

"I know all about gas already!" He exclaimed. "My mom is taking gas with her car all the time."
Just writing this I am cracking up, it's so funny. Do you want to know that at the time, I was in the bathroom, so I only heard it through the door, trying not to giggle too loud. I wish I could have seen the teacher's face....

Okay, moving on..... when you are done laughing. After the lesson and a story, we went over to the art center in order to make goo. The teacher used water and cornstarch - and for the 'Halloween-y' effect, they added green color to it.

Can I mention on a side note, that I am so glad that this is not happening at my house!? The teacher is a real trooper in my eyes, having ten to fifteen kids in her house each week, making a mess, sometimes small and sometimes big! But the kids loved it, of course.

When all done, and the goo was suppose to be put away, one of the boys from the class played with Coqui's goo, and of course, spilled it all over the table. So not only did he make a mess, but worse for my son, Coqui couldn't bring his goo home to show to Daddy. Bummer.

After recess, in Art, they made a spooky forest out of shaving cream and, again, green color. It is suppose to harden - but it was still way too wet by the time we had to leave, so we are gonna pick it up next week.

This was all yesterday, so today, I thought, I will just go over it again, maybe then it will 'stick' better. Also, he wanted to have his own goo at home. So to work we went...

I only had neon green. This is with cornstarch again. We also tried to see what would happen with baking soda, and made it pink. (for anybody that cares, baking soda doesn't combine well with water, it stays on the bottom of the container and the water is 'floating' above it.)

It was actually alot of fun for Mami as well.

Happy belated Birthday

... to me!

On Wednesday, I met Beth for coffee and she brought me my birthday present. I knew about it and I had chosen the fabric and color of yarn. Oh, yeah, it's a pocketbook, or handbag (how they call it down here in the south!).

It's beautiful, it's handmade, and it's mine!

Here is the link to her site: C. Beth Blog.

She has done her very own bag, and then a bag for her mom.

As I said I chose the fabric - it was love at first sight! Together, we went out to find a yarn that would match the fabric, but also that would be durable enough for a bag that is going to be lugged around quite a bit.

She did a fabulous job sewing and crocheting. I love the way it came out.

I immediately moved everything from the old handbag to this new one.... and used it today while going out. I am very happy.

I am so blessed to have a best friend like her! Thank you.

More Castle and Knights stuff

Remember, two weeks ago, we had our 'Castle and Knights' week? Well, it got extended far beyond what I had planned....

Well, while Mema was here, we didn't do much school, or say workbooks. It was just way too hard to get him concentrate while he heard his sister having fun upstairs with his most favorite relative. It seemed unfair to me. And so I decided to just cut it out while we had our visitor and we will just have to catch up later....

He did play though. He must have liked that week so much that he came up with his own crown and his own castle. Using simple construction paper, he cut out the crown in yellow - or should I say gold. And then he set to work on the castle.

It was fascinating for me to watch him come up with all kinds of things. Asking him questions seems to not get the right answers out of him. But seeing him work on an actual castle, I realize just how much he absorbed in that one week. He know what a floor plan is, what parts belong to a castle, and what an armor is made out. 

I love the decoration of it. You can see towers, windows, and a flag. On the outside, he included trees and a drawbridge even. I love that. So much imagination.
He pulled out his knights and wooden animals, as well as stuff we have from Playmobil or Lego. I mean it was a big mix of everything.
He played it with Mema over and over. He also learned what canons and catapults do.


He also had some sword fights with us (or his sister). He dressed up in the costume that I made him. And he did his race in a knights costume. So you can imagine that I am ready to move onto something else....