It all depends upon your perspective

After finally deciding to pull our house off the market and stay here, we actually had a flurry of real estate activity in our neighborhood.  Homes that had been listed for along time, like ours had, suddenly sold. We are excited to have new neighbors, but one of the new residents keeps two drag race cars with flame stripes down the sides parked in the driveway at the front entrance of our neighborhood.  I have no problem with drag racing. I even have hearing loss and reduced nasal lining as evidence of my past attendance at a drag race during my years as a professional in the automotive industry.  However, our golf community is generally very conservative in look and feel, so those two cars really stand out as people drive in and out of our neighborhood.  As I drove past the cars recently and winced, my son said, "Mom, those cars are my favorite cars in the neighborhood.  I really like them because they look like my hot wheels cars." 

Beauty is all in the eye of the beholder, I guess.
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While putting ornaments on our Christmas tree, our 7-year old said to me, "I think everyone needs to be on Santa's naughty list."

Similar looks, different perspectives

"Why would you say that?" I asked.

She replied, "Because Romans 3:23 says that 'all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.'"

God often gives me fresh perspective through the lips of my children.

Matthew 21:16
“Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read, “‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’ ?

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Japanese terms are difficult for our daughter.  While working through a Japanese history lesson with me, she referred to the Samurai as "the Sushi" and called Sumo wrestling "tsunami" wrestling.  

(Now that is an interesting perspective!)

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While driving all over town with the kids trying to see doctors and get antibiotic prescriptions filled the day before Thanksgiving, I listened to a sermon by my childhood pastor on CD. When the CD ended, I asked the kids which of their fun kid friendly CDs they wanted to listed to next, and they both said, "We want to hear another CD with that same guy teaching!"

Those kids know a good sermon when they hear one.  Interestingly, when our son had listened to another sermon by this same pastor earlier this year, he told me the speaker was losing his temper.  (More on that story can be found here.)

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We have tried to teach our kids to be modest.  They now know that they should go to a private place where no one can see them when they need to change clothes.  So, I guess I should not  have been surprised when I took my 5-year old in for his yearly check-up, and he made me stand outside while he changed from his street clothes to just underwear and a paper robe. The pediatrician got a good chuckle when he saw me knocking on the door asking, "Can I come back in now?"

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When I was in grade school, I relished snow days. I would keep my nose pressed to the window until late at night hoping to see a few snowflakes since that's all it took for schools to close the next day.  I loved it when Mom would stay home from work on snow days, and I loved having the break from school work.  Christmas breaks, teacher workdays, and spring break were also long anticipated events to celebrate. 

We sent our daughter to school this year expecting her to finally realize that all students have to work hard and study, not just homeschooled kids.  I expected her to find the days long and tiring compared to the much shorter days required in a homeschool environment.  We chose a very unique private school for her this year, however, where kids are allowed to be goofy, play fun games, work at their own pace, enjoy interacting with kids of all ages, and grow in their love of learning.  School is only required four days a week, and their school year is considerably shorter than that required by public schools and most other private schools.  She already gets plenty of time off as it is and really misses her school friends when she's home even if not being at school means traveling to Disney World or other exciting places.  So, when the school announced this week that they would be extending their Christmas break by an additional three days, she was not elated as one might expect.  In fact, she was quite disappointed.  I have a lot of fun activities planned for her, but sometimes I feel like she would rather be at school that at home. :(

Homeschooling parents told me that the best way to help her appreciate homeschooling is to send her to school for a year.  While homeschooling is going swimmingly with our son who wants to continue homeschooling again next year, I guess it isn't the right fit for my right-brained first born.  I'm just thrilled to see her thriving and so happy at school.

Presenting at a school praise assembly