Haircuts and Grace

The more you practice sitting still, the easier it is. Tonight is the first night I didn't have to hold the baby's head while Jared trimmed around his ears. He's growing up. Now if we can teach him to sit still during Bible story time (he is improving) and church (not so good)...  Practice makes perfect though. We will keep working with him. 

One of the hardest things in parenting is recognizing when your kids are old enough to be able to handle a certain task and actually taking the time to train them. Left to their own kids will always take the easier route because they are sinners like us and we like ease and comfort. We want to be in control of what feels good to use at the moment. Parenting takes effort. It is hard work to train up a child and to teach them self control. So many days you feel like you are fighting the same battle over and over and over again. As an adult I often want to do what is easy - let my kids do what they want, but I know that won't be good for them in the long run (even though it seems fun now). It is a blessing to see the fruit of your work in small things, such as sitting still for a hair cut and listening to almost all the Bible story quietly.

Press on. Your labors aren't in vain. God uses broken people for His glory. I am so glad He is in control because I so often fall short of being a good parent, wife, friend, etc. He is always gracious. I am so glad. 

Simple game

I have been waiting for Easter clearance since last year, when I missed it, to make this game. Two packs of eggs cost me $0.89. I owned the Sharpie already. 

First, Martin lined the big ones up. 

And then he found the matches.  I tried to make similar letters on different colors. 

He finishes them all, but he takes a lot of breaks in between letters to roll around the floor and sing the alphabet song again or sit in my lap. 

And sometimes he does this and laughs. 

I wish the colors were not as similar. I should have bought a pack of pinks and traded them out for some of the blues. But otherwise, it works as well as I had hoped. 

And this is probably my Friday post, but if I wait until Friday I will probably forget. So, I am just posting today. :) 

These chickens...

Half fluff and half feathers is a bad look for anyone. I can't believe they grow so fast. Today is their two week birthday. 

They try to hide from me behind their waterer. 

Look, I got a group shot. 

Grow, chickens! Grow!

In only a week they have almost doubled in size. They are also starting to get ugly feathers that are popping out of their fuzz. 

I spend most of my time cleaning out the wood shavings from their waterer and feed dish. Silly birds. They love to practice scratching. I can't wait until they eat bugs in my backyard! 

They have started practicing flying and they jump on the waterer quite often. Sometimes two of them jump up and push each other around.  

And they eat all the time, which I guess is why they are growing so much. We bought them a 50lb bag of feed today.  It is supposed to last until they are almost ready to lay eggs...in another 18 weeks. :) 

It has been such beautiful weather this week. I spent the afternoon edging some of the flower beds and trees, after I replaced the wheelbarrow's wheel, which I broke on Thursday trying to clean out some of the flowerbeds. 

And I've been trying to finish a Charles Dickens book, Martin Cuzzlewitt. I finally finished last night! That makes my 12th book of the year. I need to update my book list. 

So, those are my excuses for not having a post up yesterday. 

Chickens

Look who is here! 

Spring forward

I have a question today. If you wake up in the middle of the night, do you look at the clock? 

I do not. It stresses me out knowing what time it is, how long it was since I was last awake, and how long I have until I have to wake up. 

Jared, I find out this morning, is stressed out by not knowing what time it is when he wakes up. He likes to know if he has 5 minutes, 30 minutes, or several hours of sleep left. 

So, which camp do you fall into? Do you avoid the clock or look for it? 

Friday post

The boys had colds and fevers again. I've been doing a lot of this and reading books. So, maybe I'll have a real post next week. 

The chickens are coming!!

I went around the front to pick up the mail and when I came back I found this. It was a gorgeous day to spend outside and burn extra energy. 

He probably worried about being replaced by our latest additions. We are finally getting chickens. I am so excited!  We (Jared) is working on building the coop this weekend and next. He has some extra time since they just live in a plastic tub for the first few weeks. I can't wait to for my first eggs ... In about 20-30 weeks... 

Green smoothie

I made strawberry banana smoothie yesterday. I didn't have any spinach, which I normally add to all smoothies.  Martin told me, "I don't want a pink smoothie. I want it to be green. I don't like this."

Ha ha. I guess this isn't a bad problem to have.