Snow Days and a boy after my own heart...

For whatever reason I can't get the blogger to open up my pictures file so that I can show you the one of Will jackin' up his right leg to step on the retract button for my vacuum cord. The boy loves to be the one to retract that cord! As soon as he hears me turn off the vacuum, he comes a runnin'. "Me turn" he gleefully shouts, simultaneously running towards me, pushing any potential competition (i.e. a sibling) out of the way. Who knew 2 could be so tough? If, by some chance I didn't hear him hollering from across the house that he would be in charge of said cord retraction, well then good gravy, the world is most likely coming to an end. Right then and there. Of course there are days when he really surprises me and just says, "Oh shoot" which of course sounds like "oh sheet" of some reasonable facsimile thereof (nudge nudge wink wink). I can swear on a stack of bibles that this is not a case of a child repeating some expletive that he has heard from his parents. I cannot say the same for the time Ella-Kathryn said "damn it" when she dropped her peanuts all over the floor. Yes, please pray for us. Anyhoo, Will is at that stage where helping is still fun. It only lasts for about a year, so we take full advantage training our kids to do everything from clean toilets to changing the oil in our cars. Free labor people, that's what kids are all about. Of course I'm kidding. Sort of. We do seriously believe that it is our responsibility to train our children to be capable people. Capable of taking care of themselves, washing their own clothes, dishes, paying their bills, making smart financial choices. Of course, it is all age appropriate and of course they see us make mistakes and have to then deal with the consequences. Our hope is that God will grant us the grace to cover our mistakes with His grace and mercy and that at the end of day what our children remember is who we are as kingdom-minded people. We want our kids to be able to go out into the world and help others, but how can they do this if they can't even help themselves? Yet again, I am overwhelmed by the "job" of parenting, but am also growing in the peace that no parent is perfect, nor child, nor family, and when the crowd questioned Jesus, "What must we do to do the works God requires? Jesus answered, "The work of God is to believe in the one he has sent." John 6:28-29
So simple. Teach my children about Jesus. Who he was, is, and always will be. What his life, death, and resurrection mean for us here and now. How his greatest commandment was to love. Simply love. All.