Don't Make Me Call You a D**** H***!

Eating cold pizza, still in my jammies, one's in bed and the other's watching Sesame Street, and it's after 9am...I LOVE SUMMER! The relaxed schedule, the laid back nature of the world...it's wonderful. I say that and instantly feel a little pang of guilt because this is the time of year my husband's blood pressure and anxiety go way up. I just do my best to keep the girls preoccupied, the home calm and my schedule open and accommodating for ways we can help him. This week has been the first week of Summer and everyday, we've had someone drop in for us to watch for a few hours. The girls have enjoyed having visitors and I enjoy our home being a place where people know they're welcome. Last Friday, we went to Beatle's awards assembly. Thank the Lord for the Good Citizenship Award! It gets us through every time. :) Last Wednesday, at gymnastics, they were giving out trophies and certificates to everyone. They were doing a fantastic job of assigning specific awards to kids to highlight their strengths. They got to stand on a platform, just like at the Olympics. Everyone had received their award when the instructor said, "Last, but not least...Sarah So-and-So." There I was with video camera in hand, puzzled. Oh, man. They forgot B. I knew they'd make it right afterwards but she wouldn't get her moment in the sun. Beatle held it together, she didn't get pouty or upset even though she later admitted all that was running through her head at the time was, "Oh man, I must have been a really bad student if everyone else got an award but I didn't." They were lining the kids up for a group picture when the instructor noticed Beatle didn't have anything. It wasn't too late! They sat everyone back down and made it right and she got the Awesome Attitude Award. Now, like I told her later, wouldn't have that been interesting if she had just thrown a ring-tailed fit because she was overlooked just to jump up there and get the Awesome Attitude Award??? Awkward! I'm proud that she's received awards that relate to her good character; those can translate well into life. Changing the subject, but you can't tell because my browser no longer supports the new Blogger and I can't create a new paragraph... :) On the evening of last Friday night, we threw a killer end-of-the-school-year party for these little First Graders. Brent was going to be on a retreat but it got canceled and Zac and Suz came to visit so I had a crew of WONDERFUL helpers. I had fully intended to do it on my own but it would have been a stressful nightmare. Having the adequate help I needed, the School's Out Sligh-ma-thon was a BLAST! We played messy games and it ended with an Oatmeal fight--students vs. the teacher and her family. We had a jam-packed weekend with Zac and Suzy but it was so fun having them here all to ourselves! Last story of this blog, I have a friend here who teaches Beatle sometimes and I teach her son in one of my classes. I've found that a wedge is coming into the relationship because she insists on telling me everytime that Beatle steps over the line or pushes boundaries in her class. To me, your job as the present adult is to reel them in and if it is consistently happening and they have a flagrant disregard for the teacher's instructions, then yes, talk to the parents but it's hurtful having all of these weird little conversations when, being ugly here, there's a lot of conversations we could be having about her son too! But the other day, when she was gone and a sub was in place, I realized that there's something else that we're being robbed of while she's tattling on Beatle--the ability for the Holy Spirit to work. If these children are Christians, they have the same Holy Spirit we have and we need to give It some room to work instead of smothering them with virtue and manner teachings. We were riding in the car home from the church activity with the sub and out of nowhere Beatle says that she needs to tell me something because she's feeling really guilty. There was a new boy there and he was taunting Beatle and she started calling him bad names back. I wanted to cringe but I was so excited to see the Spirit working and I want to encourage honesty--and c'mon! We all do crap like that and admitting that we did something wrong is hard! So, I was listening (so proud that I wasn't lecturing this time) when she was rattling off names like "sissy" and "fancy pants" but she was hemming and hawing about the last one. I was a nervous wreck as she was working up the nerve to tell me the last and most horrible name...finally..."Mom, I called him...a...dream head. I know! I know, it's bad!" I wanted so desperately to giggle with relief at this most ridiculous of accusations. Thank the Lord it was just Dream Head and thank you Lord for your power of conviction; may she always be sensitive to that feeling.