Spring has sprung around here as evidenced by the first rose bloom of the season on the kids' rose bushes. My parents came up to visit us this past weekend for our 15th annual yard day. Ever since I bought my first house as a single gal in 1997, they have driven their truck to my (now our) house (over 4 hours each way for the first few years) to assist in spring landscaping. This year's yard day involved:
- Trimming shrubs and rose bushes
- Cleaning natural areas of limbs, leaves, and golf balls
- Procuring and spreading 70 bales of pine needles
- Procuring and spreading 4 loads of mulch
- A trip to the county dump to dispose of yard debris
- Filling 4 large planters with seasonal flowers
By the time we finally got the kids to help us with the work, it began to rain heavily and furiously. We all got soaking wet, particularly the men who unloaded the last of the mulch from the truck before coming inside. My parents are so awesome to continue this valiant effort each year, especially considering that they are both in their 70s. It has been said that gardening promotes longevity, and I believe it. Unfortunately, we run a botanical hospice around here, so we usually opt for other forms of exercise.
Since I just mentioned our tendency to kill plants, perhaps I should mention our kids' unique treatment of plants. I keep a very ugly, obviously fake plant in a large planter in our recreation room on the third floor where few guests will ever see it. I keep this fake plant because it cannot die and it helps hide a shoddy wall patch. (Sorry, Honey, you did the best you could with what we had). The kids must think I keep that plant there for their personal whimsical use. In December, our son decorated it with Lego men and Hot Wheels cars as if it were a Christmas tree. Recently, our daughter must have thought it either needed decoration or would be a nice place to store a few pieces of costume jewelry.
I have often heard parents telling their grown children as they begin their own families, "I hope you have a child just like you!" while holding back a bit of sinister laughter. My first born is that child who, just like her mother at that age, is filled with wild exuberance and energy that simply cannot be contained. I get dizzy and tired just looking after her each day. Her explosive energy never wanes.....except when I instruct her to complete an unpleasant chore upon which she bemoans her utter exhaustion and inability to lift even a finger to complete the task. Like both her father and her mother (when we were her age), she doesn't seem to need much sleep, so our moments of rest and tranquility in the house are few.
While she is certainly an enthusiastic, carefree, happy child, she is also a thinker, so she usually wears a serious expression on her face instead of a smile. During the AWANA awards night this past week, I commented during the slideshow presentation that I sure hope I see a picture of her actually smiling. Then the very next slide out of the hundreds of slides of hundreds of kids was a close-up photo of our daughter wearing a serious, grumpy expression. I could not have timed my comment better if it had been my 100th viewing of the slideshow instead of my first.
When my parents arrived on Saturday, my mother asked our daughter, "Why don't you smile more often?"
Our energizer bunny replied, "Smiling just takes up too much energy."
As if our daughter EVER runs out of energy.
Instilling better work habits in our kids has been a key focus in our parenting lately. We have used countless methods and tips from our favorite parenting authors, but getting our kids to complete their chores thoroughly, consistently, and with a happy heart continues to be a big struggle. I suspect I was no different at their age. I have previously posted about my attempts to get the kids to eat more vegetables. The trick for motivating my son to eat his vegetables was allowing him to use snazzy kitchen tools to prepare the vegetables. Recently, he offered to help me prepare lunch if I would let him use the vegetable peeler. He grabbed the peeler and a bag of carrots and said, "Mom, I will sharpen the carrots for you." I love the way he described peeling carrots as "sharpening" them. Not only did he "sharpen" those vegetables, but he ate them too!
Then, the boy who fails 9 times out of 10 to remember to clear his dishes from the table, despite the loss of privilege that occurs with each failure, offered not only to clear the dishes from the table but to also rinse them and put them in the dishwasher, if I would allow him to use the "water gun spray thing" (aka kitchen faucet sprayer). When parenting boys, it's all about having the right tools!
With spring in full bloom, a number of our weekly activities are coming to a close for the summer until they resume next fall. This past week marked the first week of the LAMBS (weekly Bible study for ladies and kids) summer break. As soon as I woke up that morning, my son rushed into my bedroom and announced, "Mom, since we don't have LAMBS this morning, you don't have to comb your hair and all that other crazy stuff, so you can make me breakfast right now."
Soon after breakfast that same morning, he complained, "My throat really hurts, Mom, when I'm not eating. But when I'm eating, it doesn't hurt." That boy is ALWAYS hungry. Reference: "The way to a man's heart".
We're also still (and always will be) working on training our kids' hearts...which came out of the womb hopelessly selfish. This afternoon, the 5-year-old lamented over the fact that his sister got to enjoy an ice-cream sundae party with her children's choir without eating vegetables first. No desserts or treats are allowed in our house until some portions of the meal and all of the vegetables on each kid's plate has been eaten. So, he said to me, "Mom, please make sure my sister does not get any treats after dinner even if she eats all her vegetables because she has already had ice cream, and she better not eat all the ice cream and fixings, so she can bring home some for me."
I then reminded him that he should stop thinking so much about himself and think instead about the interests of others.
He replied, "I am thinking of others. I'm concerned for my sister!".
My husband and I served as substitute teachers today in our son's Sunday school class. Our daughter asked if she could help. We all took turns teaching and entertaining the kids, but the 5-year-olds (nine boys and one girl) listened much more attentively to our daughter than to us.
They thought she was more fun on the playground too. She led them in games of tag and enjoyed the playground equipment along with them. At one point, she exclaimed from the slide, "I almost feel like a little kid again!" ..as if she isn't still a little kid.
I sure do love my silly kids.
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