Vocabulary Lessons

Believe it or not, this is another post about our Florida trip.  It's just one of those things we had fun following during our vacation.

We're Back!

After 13 days of road-travel from Albuquerque to Orlando and back, I have so much to say.  So instead of one looooonnnng tale, I'll try to get a few shorter posts out of this journey of ours.

Fruit of Our Children: Rose-Sniffing

The more pessimistic view of a rose-sniffer is that he is usually very slow and no matter how much we demand that O hurry things along, he can only go the one speed.  O is a boy and at that, a very active boy.  He rarely stops to rest.  Much like his brother, Z, he's always on the move.  But the way that O moves is what I'm writing about here.  There is no rushing the boy, because he appreciates each step he takes and the changing scenery from each new position as he crosses a room.

From O, I have been reminded that even in simple movements, I can slow down and really appreciate my surroundings.  This is the last (for now) in my mostly unread series about the fruit of our children, but I don't care.  Perhaps one day, my children will read these posts for themselves and see something in themselves that I see and appreciate.

Fruit of Our Children: Thoughtfulness

An online dictionary defines the concept of being thoughtful like this:

–adjective

1. showing consideration for others; considerate.

2. characterized by or manifesting careful thought: a thoughtful essay.

3. occupied with or given to thought;  contemplative; meditative; reflective: in a thoughtful mood.

I love all of these definitions.  It is exactly how I would characterize the fruit of our child, J -- most of the time.  And that's what I want to write about today in this next installment in the series.

Fruit of Our Children: Energy

One of the first out of bed each morning is our middle child, Z.  He bounds out of bed, ready to tackle the day with full-force.  And I thought I was a morning person!  No one keeps up with Z's crazy energy -- morning or night.  So to continue the Fruit series, I want to talk about the fruit of energy.

Fruit of Our Children: Creativity

Continuing on with this series, I guess I'll call it, our second child (oldest son), H, has taught me so much about the fruit of creativity.

Now, while most of our children have creative streaks, particularly one other child (our daughter, J), H just exhibits creativity almost out of necessity instead of enjoyment.  You see, H is red-green colorblind, so his whole world appears differently to him than it does to the majority of the population, with the exception of his brother, Z, who is also red-green colorblind.  This was no shock since they share the same birth mother and her grandfather was also colorblind, I was told.

Fruit of Our Children: Compassion

Most of you who read my blog have probably heard of a little something called, "Fruit of the Spirit," I presume.  If not, look it up in the Holy Bible in Galatians.  But basically, for those of you who don't know/remember/want to click the link, the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.  That is, when the Spirit (of God) lives within us and we are obedient to that Spirit, these qualities begin to pour out from us -- some days more than others -- and people are attracted to those qualities in us and hopefully start thinking, "Hey, I'd love to have patience like that..." which leads them a little further down the path opening themselves up to hearing from the brave ones among us as we shout from the hilltops about Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and all that.

And yes, I realize that was a terribly long run-on sentence.  Deal with it.

Commencement Commentary

We are fast-approaching the end of our school year.  However, the kids and I both know that we never really "end" the school year.  I continue forcing them to practice math facts, read daily and learn about stuff as opportunities present themselves all summer long.  I'm mean like that.  Believe me, we tried taking a whole summer off one year (the one when we moved from New England to New Mexico), and everyone forgot a bunch of stuff so that the first couple months were spent just reviewing.  No fun.  So it's worth it for us to keep up with the basics year-round.

Priceless

We had an unusual Saturday yesterday (not that any of our days are usual or that I even know what that would look like).  My husband bought a second-hand Atari console with like fifty games.  We have never purchased any video game console for our children beyond their school computer, but go figure, when we finally decide to go for it, we get one a century old.  Okay, slight exaggeration.  It's cool though and comes with all the good games of my youth: Pac-Man, Centipede, Frogger and the like.

Happy Mama's Day

I apologize for being MIA recently ... it has just been one of those* weeks for sure!  However, I couldn't possibly forget to make a Mother's Day post!