December 5, 2016

Wild Kratts upon waking because I just get tired of saying NO.  'What's in the Bible' Christmas edition before breakfast because, well, it's hilarious and informative.  Practicing Christmas program songs at breakfast that involved a heck lot more noise than necessary because Luke busted out the musical instruments - he can't NOT bust out musical instruments, it's just his thing.  Fighting during bed-making and getting dressed; lots of character training on treating others the way that YOU want to be treated.  Handwriting lesson got changed to copying 1 Corinthians 16:13 ("Be watchful. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men. Be strong.") and standing in the kitchen shoulders back, hands out of pockets, clear and strong voice reciting it over and over again because you're a Gouveia, you're created in God's image, and you are being raised to be of strong character. 

Advent lesson on how Christmas actually started with creation; Luke won't sit still or pay attention or stop interrupting.  This happens every morning during our Bible lesson and I'm tired of it.  Levi reads our read-alouds haltingly, which makes 'The Grinch Who Stole Christmas' much longer than normal and Luke's not pleased with that either - and sounding out every third word is daunting but at least Levi is learning to read.

Because the boys are fighting again they must serve each other by making each other's snack.  This actually goes pretty well.  Practice new Spanish words over bowls of Honey Nut Cheerios.  Haul out Levi's math materials and begin the next unit.  New math concepts on Mondays makes the lesson go more slowly and he keeps writing his numbers backwards.  Finish math and pull out the paints; they are going to paint Christmas trees that we will hang our advent symbols on.  Levi splooges paint all over the table.  Luke pitches a fit because his tree didn't turn out the way he saw it in his mind, so he refuses to paint anymore.

Round everyone up to head out for errands.  They are put off because we aren't going anywhere 'fun'; I remind them that if they want to watch Wild Kratts and fight and goof off when I give them their chores and slide off their chairs when we are doing lessons, we run out of time to do fun things.  Pouting ensues.  Luke wants a bath while I make lunch and both get in the tub.

About two minutes in, Luke socks Levi a good one and I haul him out of the tub and dress him again while he screams in my face with tears streaming down.  He's sent to his bed to lie down and think about being in control of his body when he's angry.  He perks up after he's eaten and retreats to his room to play with Duplos and listen to his favorite worship CD.  Levi wants to read chapter after chapter of 'A Tree in the Trail.'  We look up the Santa Fe trail on the map.  We read about Christmas around the world.  The dishes are piling up.  The paint brushes are drying out.  The mail is spread everywhere.  Duplos are breeding in every room including the bathtub.  The bathroom faucet won't stop dripping.  I never rearranged the Christmas ornaments after the boys decorated the tree.  Baskets of laundry are hidden in corners.  No makeup is on my face. Dinner is still in the deep freeze.

But.

We read about Jesus and how He spoke everything into existence but KNIT us together with His hands.

We practiced reading and did it well.

We practiced writing and did it well.

We did a math lesson.

We painted.

We read some more and did some geography.

We busted out instruments and danced and worshipped.

We reinforced the same character lesson over and over again.

We served each other, apologized, asked for forgiveness, and extended it.

This is life and school and church and learning how to love others and my house is a mess.

March 22, 2016

I realize that I need to just use this blog as a Doogie Howser-style online diary, because I don't have time to load pictures and spin the tales of each day that I so badly wish I could remember.  Since I do want to remember them, I need to just sit down at the end of each day and just list out the highlights, even if that means that I can't weave it with witty prose.

Teaching these two to obey is going to be the end of me.  I am writing about it because I know I will have a chance to read this one day, someday in the future, and I will laugh...either because A) we are well past that, they are very obedient, and it's all water under the bridge. Or B) we have far bigger problems than obedience and I wish I could tell my younger self to enjoy these "little kid" problems.  I offered the boys stickers for each time that they obeyed the first time I told them to do something.  This resulted in significant improvement in their turnaround time because they now have something to motivate them. I offered no other reward than the chance to show Papa how many stickers they earned all day, and how proud of them he will be for being such good and helpful boys.  For the most part, it worked.  They did silly things like take the tracks off their toy bulldozer and throw them up on the roof of the garage, and then try to get them back down using all of our yard tools with long handles...but that was more comical to watch than anything.

Luke called Levi an "old lummox."  Only it came out "old wummox."  I had to look up 'lummox' and then I laughed when I saw the definition.

We had Levi's parent-teacher conference with Mrs. D this evening. Of course he is doing fantastic in preschool. He writes his name, knows all of his numbers and letters, etc.  He counts by rote to 100. He asks great questions and encourages other students and plays with a variety of friends. He prays and sings and praises God and shows his love for Jesus.  Wow.

Tonight I tucked the boys in and did our usual singing routine.  Luke picked "Moon moon moon" and Levi wanted to sing Rend Collective's "My Lighthouse" and then we landed on "Awesome God."  I don't usually talk much to them after singing, but felt compelled after singing Awesome God to tell Levi that that song is so significant to remember because he is going to see a lot of changes in the world during his life - even as a kid - and it's going to feel like God isn't there, let alone in control. But he is...and he knows what's going to happen, and he's going to use even the bad stuff to show that he IS the One in control, he truly is our awesome God.  Without missing a beat, Levi said, "Yeah, like this one time, Jesus was out on a boat with his disciples and this HUGE STORM came up, and the disciples were like, 'Jesus, don't you CARE that this storm is happening?' and Jesus just said 'hushhhh' - and the storm stopped. Just like that."  My eyes were filled with tears.  My precious boy has the faith of a child and he ministered to ME tonight.