Dinner and a Lesson

Tonight as I was making dinner, Little G got on a stool at the counter to help. I had a bowl and spoon already used sitting on the counter and she decided to start stirring. I thought nothing of it as she does this often. However a few seconds later, I noticed that she was pouring some granulated garlic into the bowl! It was in the cupboard right in front of her. Then, she wanted to pour more stuff in. I stopped her before she could pull out a new bottle of something expensive. I gave her an empty spice bottle and told her to use that. She looks at the bottle, looks at me with a confused look, shrugs her shoulders and starts to open the bottle and start pouring. But of course nothing comes out. She hands me the bottle and says, “All gone.” And then opened the cupboard for more things she could add. I scramble to find something almost empty and found the extra cinnamon bottle. She sprinkled that in, stirred, sprinkled some more and then decided the concoction needed something else. – Meanwhile remember, I was making dinner. The potatoes I was chopping up to make loaded mashed potatoes are just sitting there patiently waiting. – She found a basically empty bottle of nutmeg and poured that in. Then after contemplating a few seconds, asked for the salt and pepper. I obliged (at least that stuff is cheep) and let her add a bit. While she stirred everything together I went to finish those patient potatoes. I glance out of the corner of my eye to see her dumping in the almond extract. Oh geesh, this has to stop right now or we aren’t going to eat until next month and I will have to take out a loan just to buy more spices. I redirected her into the bedroom where her kitchen stuff is so I could at least finish the potatoes. Normally I let her stay but this time it was getting expensive.

It was so much fun watching her pretend to do what I do. She knows where everything in the kitchen is because I let her hang out with me while I cook, do dishes, sweep… She was understandably upset with me kicking her out tonight but with all the time we do spend in the kitchen together, she won’t remember after a while.

Kids watch us like hawks learning everything they can about what to do when in certain situations, how to clean, cook. Or alternatively how to sit at the computer all day or watch TV or whatever it is we are doing. They copy us like little Xerox machines. I have noticed this so much more with Little G (probably because I am paying more attention to the little things). She emulates what she sees her Daddy and Mommy do all the time. She doesn’t take her eyes off of us; she doesn’t want to miss anything.

As God’s children, are we like that? I was thinking about it tonight. Do I watch my heavenly Father like a hawk so I can do as he directs. You know the over used phrase, “What would Jesus do?” I am sure I need to ask myself that more often. Now, I do a lot of what Jesus would do already. But how often do I fail to have the right attitude? My action may be right but how is my heart? When my attitude and heart are not in the right place it means I stopped watching. I took my eyes off my Father and didn’t follow His example. How awesome that as I am teaching my kids, my Father is teaching me.

Some verses for thought:
1 Corinthians 13
Galations 5:16-26
Matthew 5:1-12

This and That

We have had some unseasonably warm weather here. Seriously, we are in the 70’s and I think even pushed 80 at some point. On Thursday, we took the kids to the park. Little G was feeling so much better and all the kids just wanted to run. So, we took a ball and decided to teach the kids kickball. It was so much fun and we even had Little G kicking and running. After we played, we let the kids just play on the play equipment. I tried to take a few pictures but they were all moving so quickly I didn’t get anything good. After all, it had been a while since they could just run.
When we got home, poor Miss H came down with Little G’s fever. So, Friday was a sick day and now today, my one and only plan is to finally take down Christmas. Between everything that has been happening (tons of family, the computer crashing, Little G getting sick…) I haven’t even thought about the decorations until yesterday when the little tree we have on a table fell on top of Little G. So today, I take down the tree and put the stuff away. At least that is the plan, I hope it works out. Oh, and, I have to get the mini-books for the rest of our human body unit remade. Before the computer crashed I had the entire unit's mini-books prepped. But then lost all of it. I was making them up to accommodate the kids learning levels. We had taken a break for a while to do some seasonal units and I really want to be finished with the Human Body this week. Okay so two major tasks planned for one weekend. Can I pull it off? I sure hope so.

Time to Potty Train?

I wish I had a cute pic of Little G to post but I haven't gotten that far with the computer restoration yet. But at 25 months I am sure it is time to potty train her - actually I think she is herself.
A few months ago, she decided it was time to sit on the potty. We have the little seat you put on top of the toilet. She would sit there for a few minutes then insist on ummm "wiping" and then get of, flush, put the seat away, wash maybe brush her teeth... do her hair... put on lotion... well needless to say that this step started taking quite a bit longer than I was liking and started pushing her out the bathroom door before she could wash. (I know bad mommy but seriously if I didn't we would be there for 20 minutes.) Then she stopped doing that about 2 weeks ago.
However, two days ago she started a rather expensive habit but promising at the same time. She would stop what she was doing. Wet her diaper, then immediately insist on taking it off. If I didn't change her right away, the diaper ended up on the floor regardless of the prize inside. I cannot count how many diaper changes we have done in the past two days but I know it is a lot as I need to buy diapers.
None of the others started this early. The other girls were almost 3 when they trained and it was quick. Little Man however, did not want to be bothered by such unimportant tasks while playing so I couldn't get him trained all the way until he was 3 1/2. No incentive was big enough - not even Thomas the train. (He obsessed over Thomas until he was 7, now he still likes him but not obsessed.)
After Little G is back up to par, I guess I must start the potty training officially. At least I'll save money on diapers. :)
BTW - Little G's fever is much lower than it was but hasn't fully broken. She slept for 5 hours last night! And today wasn't nearly as fussy but still a bit fussy. She is congested a bit and during her nap today she was moaning a lot. Right now, she is sleeping soundly and I should be too probably as who knows how long that will last. I am still praying that she doesn't get fully congested as that will pretty much guarantee an infection of some sort. God is good and can keep it from going that far. I have faith.

Such Is Life

It has been a while since I have had a few minutes to gather my thoughts and blog. As I sit here it is passed midnight but it was several hours ago when I decided to just touch base and write something. So... what has been going on to make me unable to blog lately?
Well, after Christmas, my aunt and her son came to visit for a few days. I love having them here. My aunt and I are very close and we really should be sisters. I call her son my nephew and he calls me his aunt. During and after they left, Daddy Reg's brothers who live four hours from here were up here with their wives. So, we spent a lot of time hanging out with them at his parents' house. Then, just as life was settling down, the computer crashed. We ended up loosing a lot of stuff. I am just so sad about it. I am thankful that the disks with our pictures on them work. But the disks that we had saved our documents on, didn't actually save like they said they had. After a few days watching my hero remove everything off the computer and reinstall everything - my man is awesome. I have been trying to find all my favorite links and rewrite a lot of school stuff. I am so glad that I participated in Weblink Wednesday last year and had many of the links I love posted here. And, Weblink Education has most of the other ones. Thank you Valerie for that! You are a blessing. :) Then, to make life more busy, Little G has had a fever since Friday and has been cranky and not sleeping. Today the nurse said that there is a nasty virus going around that starts with a fever and just gets worse from there. I am praying that is not what she caught and that she feels better very soon.
On a much brighter note-- This is National Delurking Week in the blogosphere and I would love to get to know you. This week I am making a point of commenting on blogs that I have not commented on. And, I am going to try harder to respond to comments, last year I was so bad at that and I really need to be better.
On that note, Little G is up again and I must tend to her.