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Getting Fit With Your Kids

May 2, 2012 by Laura 11 Comments

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My great friend and personal trainer, Jen, of Getting Fit With Jen, has said it to me time and again:  “Sometimes, working in time to exercise can be as easy as getting up and playing with your kids.”

The statement makes perfect sense and ultimately, I agree. But I also have to say that doing this has often been a struggle for me. I’ll admit that I don’t often just stop and “play”. There is work to be done!!! Often, I find that the best time to get that work done is when my kids are off happily playing…on their own. Happily playing children means that I have a moment of peace to focus on other tasks. To take the time to stop my cooking, laundry, website work, house work – and instead go play with my kids? It almost feels as if I would put myself behind in some way. That I would be more stressed out because of the growing “to-do” list that didn’t get finished.

All of that may be true sometimes. There is nothing wrong with taking advantage of quiet moments and content children when there is work to be done. But – I promise you that I have never, ever regretted time I have taken out of my “very busy schedule” to go play with my kids. And when that play involves some sort of exercise? Well, I do believe we can call that multi-tasking. :)

Remember the day I scored five!!?!?!? (Why yes, I did just give you the link to that post so that I could brag some more in case you forgot that story.)  It was a great workout, and wow did we all have fun! A few days after that, while waiting for our seven year old to warm up for his soccer game, I headed over and kicked a ball around with our 10 year old. You should have seen his face light up once he saw me and recognized that I was there to play with him!! Golden. Never will I regret taking advantage of opportunities like this to play with my kids.

Remember how my kids were doing this:

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And then they talked me into doing this:

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I loved every minute of that – and so did my kids!

Jen is right. Now that I’m being more intentional about being active with my kids, I’m finding that there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy spending time with them in this way. And lo and behold – all of my other work still gets done somehow. ;)  After playing, I get right back to the house work or computer work – this time full of extra energy because I’ve just been up moving around!

Here are some specifics Jen had to share on this topic:

Anything that involves moving for several minutes at a time will increase your heart rate and be beneficial for your health. Go outside with your kids. Kick a ball around, chase them, play some sort of tag, play catch, go for a walk or bike ride – the ideas are limitless. Your kids will love this time with you and you will be burning calories, building muscle, and increasing your endurance level.

Do recognize your limitations so that you don’t injure yourself. Don’t break into a full on sprint to chase your kids if you aren’t used to running. Pace yourself, maybe taking short breaks between play times. Remember, even 10-15 minute segments of activity will be good for your body.

Your example to them will encourage them to want to be fit as well. Get out there and be active with your kids!

Be sure to visit Getting Fit With Jen to learn more about how you can make fitness a part of your life.

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Gratituesday: The Fall I’ve Always Wanted

October 24, 2011 by Laura 24 Comments

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No, I didn’t fall. Well, actually I did stumble down a few stairs a couple of days ago, and managed to look perfectly ridiculous in front of my teenager, without hurting myself (thankfully). Eh, it was good for a laugh.

The fall I’m referring to in this post is the season. Just about every Autumn I can remember in Nebraska has seemed to only last for a grand total of 20 minutes. We typically go from very hot to very cold with a very short time of “perfect fall weather” in between.

This year has been absolutely gorgeous!!! We’ve had day after day after day of beautiful weather that is in the 60’s or 70’s. I’ve been so thankful for this, and was reminded again today of the blessing of such pretty weather. Even after the sun started to go down tonight, it was still warm enough for us to play outside comfortably. In fact, we all headed out for a little trampoline time (which I am likely to pay for tomorrow – but shucks, it sure was fun).

Here is Elias in mid-flip, which I have to say, was not easy to capture forever on camera. I think I finally got this picture after about seven tries. It’s a good thing he enjoys doing flips.

Brace yourself for the next one. We found that if Malachi would lie down in the middle of the trampoline while I jumped in circles around him “bouncing him” for a few minutes, a little static electricity action began to take place. We laughed so hard at this, I almost fell off the trampoline. But I didn’t. That’s not the kind of fall I’ve always wanted. ;)

I’m grateful for this wonderful fall, and all the joy and fun that has come with it.

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for!

If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!

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The Joy of Boys

August 21, 2011 by Laura 79 Comments

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The following is an article I wrote for our local paper a couple of years ago, but never actually posted here. I’m often asked if I regret not having daughters. Though my life is void of pink hair bows, sweet dresses, paper dolls and braids (all things I dreamed of enjoying with my little girls before God gave me this passel of boys), I can answer truthfully that I do not for a minute doubt that God knew exactly what he was doing when he continued to bless us with boys. My life is full of joy – The Joy of Boys…

The Joy of Boys

When our first baby was born a boy, I was very happy knowing that any other children we would have in the future would be under the protection of an older brother. When our second baby was born a boy, I was glad our oldest son now had a brother to play with. When our third baby was born a boy, I decided that God must have something special in mind for our family. THREE boys?

When I was pregnant with our fourth baby, you can just guess what everyone around me was saying. “Finally going to have a sister for all those boys?” or “I bet you’re sure hoping for a girl this time!”

When our fourth baby was born a boy, they laid him on my chest, and all my husband and I could do was laugh for joy that God had given us yet another son!

Boys are so sweet. Boys love their Mamas like crazy. Boys think their Daddys are the best. Boys….ah boys. Boys bring such joy.

The Joy of Boys

I love how boys play (now that I’m used to it!). Our house is usually noisy, rough and fast – there’s not a lot of tip-toeing or sitting down quietly to color pictures at the table.

Generally…I find that the male greeting (between my boys and all of their friends who come over to play) has little to do with words and a lot to do with grabbing onto and pulling one another down to the floor into an immediate wrestling match.

I’ve learned to look the other way, smile, and shake my head about so many things that I used to fear would turn into a trip to the Emergency Room. Boys play rough – they can’t help it. They make noise. It oozes out of their pores. Rolls of wrapping paper become swords or light sabers. Toast and grilled cheese sandwiches are chewed into the shape of little guns. Math books become drums. Little pink erasers become race cars.

Everything (everything) becomes a competition:  who can finish their milk first, who can put their jammies on the fastest, who can get from the kitchen to the living room without touching the floor.

It’s one big, loud, ball game at our house all day long – and I wouldn’t trade it for all tea parties in Boston.

I consider it a huge honor to be the mama of boys. Boys who we pray will grow up and be Godly leaders some day. Boys who we pray will be Godly husbands and daddys some day.

Oh, and some day, when my boys grow up and get married…I’ll have daughters. I’ll take them shopping and we’ll cook and do hair together.

Until then, I’ll just continue to feed mountains of mashed potatoes and huge stacks of pancakes to all these boys while they make all the noises with their armpits that they are so good at making and while they laugh at all the things boys can’t help but think are funny.

They are…boys.

Boys who have completely and totally won my heart.

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Do You Have Time to Home School?

August 10, 2011 by Laura 112 Comments

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How do I find the time to home school my kids?

This is a question I’ve heard quite a bit recently from some who are considering home schooling – or from several who looked at our home school schedule for this year and felt overwhelmed.

Yikes, I sure didn’t mean to overwhelm anyone. Nor did I mean to make you picture me slaving away beside my children all day. I simply shared my schedule because many requested to see it, and because I personally needed to outline my day for the sake of my own organization.

What you need to know is that while we try to hold to this “ideal routine”, there is lots of wiggle room in there. I schedule in thirty minutes each day to read History/Geography to my two middle boys, but sometimes it only takes ten minutes of my time before they take off on their own to finish the lesson. Sprinkled all throughout our routine is plenty of dish washing, cooking, laundry folding and other household chores. I just school my kids around and during our daily life activities. And guess what? They are home to help me with these chores, which means I can actually accomplish more while we home school than if they were away at school!!! Mwoohaha – their laundry folding ability is the real reason I like having them home with me all day. (Not really.)  (Except that it really is nice.)

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I truly don’t believe that home schooling has created extra work in my life. Yes, it is work. Yes, I have to put forth the effort and spend dedicated time educating my children.

But I’ve been reading to and teaching my kids since they were newborns, and I didn’t consider that “home schooling”. I considered it parenting.

When our oldest son became a home schooled kindergartner, not much changed in our lives. We continued to read together and squeeze in all varieties of lessons and activities during the days, just like we had done before – working around nap times and meal times and play times and grocery store visits and all life activities.

I do have to schedule home schooling into my days, so that we can be more productive. But what I don’t have to schedule in? Getting my kids up and out the door with matching shoes and combed hair each morning by 8:00 (or earlier). Driving my kids to and from school. Preparing and packing lunches. Figuring out how to be a room mom (especially back when I had napping babies at home). And homework. When I hear my friends talk about how much time they spend helping their kids with homework at the end of each school day, I often think, “Wow – we spend the same amount of time (or less) on our entire school day.”

Because we’re so flexible and laid back about our home school routine – I actually consider my life to be quite “cushy” and easy compared to moms who have to get up at the crack of dawn to get their kids off to school, and stay up late with them finishing the reports and projects have to be turned in. I personally consider my home schooling life to be easier than the alternative, simply because I get to run the day the way I want to run the day.

So yes. I have time to home school, and it’s not because I have more hours in my day or more patience with my kids or more energy than any other mom. I am simply doing what I’ve always done with my kids – except for instead of reading books about shapes and gingerbread men and the little engine that could, we’re now reading about the constitution and the way a marsupial feeds its young.

I love it.

P.S. Did you know that you could fit twenty baby opossums onto a teaspoon? That’s how tiny they are when they are born before they crawl into their mama’s pouch to continue their development. We read about that just today. See how smart I’m getting to be?

This post was written in an effort to dispel some of the many misconceptions or fears people might have about taking on the task of home schooling. As with all my home school posts, my intention is to simply share my thoughts and offer encouragement – not to convince everyone that home schooling is the best and only way to educate your kids. You do what you do, and I’ll do what I’ll do and we’ll all do it to the glory of God!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Gratituesday: Cooking for Three

July 4, 2011 by Laura 20 Comments

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We’re experiencing something this week we haven’t experienced for 12 years – we have only one child in our house.

Yep, Asa’s at church camp, and Justus and Elias are spending a fun-filled week with grandparents. Left at home with the parents:  Malachi.

It’s quiet, there’s not nearly the volume of laundry or dirty dishes and wow – I can’t believe the tiny amount of food we’re eating. Yesterday I got out eggs for our breakfast, automatically getting out an entire dozen. Oops. All of our biggest eaters are away right now. We may actually have leftovers this week!

I got to visit with Justus and Elias on the phone this morning and it sounds like they are having a blast. Papa had bought some fireworks, Grandma Tacy had made cinnamon rolls and “a really yummy egg casserole thing”. There had been a potluck after church yesterday and last night they got to eat pizza.

Funny how much of the conversation revolved around food. See? Told ya my biggest eaters were out of town. (I’m sure Asa’s doing a pretty good job of chowing down at camp too!)

So what’s Malachi doing? Well he’s got big plans to invite over some friends this week to play with, he’s getting a little more PBS Kids time than normal – plus we’ve played at least six or thirty rounds of Blink. We’re reading Mr. Popper’s Penquins together and last night, he fell asleep in my arms while we read. Bliss.

As the youngest boy, Malachi hasn’t had much one-on-one with the parents. He’s living it up!

I’m thankful for this time with him, and so grateful that our other boys are being loved on and are making great memories this week.

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for!

If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!


Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Teaching Little Ones About God? Podcast #7

January 28, 2011 by Laura 13 Comments

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Did you wonder if I’d ever get around to recording another podcast? I have lots of excuses as for why it’s been weeks and weeks since recording. Maybe I’ll write those down for you in my spare time. ;)  But lookie what I got in the meantime! Char, my wonderful friend and talented designer, made me a pretty podcast graphic. I LOVE it!

If you’re new to the Heavenly Homemakers site and would like to check out my previous podcasts, you can find them all here. As always, I encourage you to grab some laundry to fold while you’re listening, hop on the treadmill, or do something else equally productive so that you can multi-task. For the record, I believe that sitting down and putting your feet up to rest and listen is very productive as well. Rest is a good thing.

The purpose of our podcasts is to encourage us all on our journey as Heavenly Homemakers while I answer some of the questions I receive from readers. Today’s question is regarding how to teach our teeny-tiny kids about God. I don’t have any teeny-tinies anymore (says the lady whose oldest son can almost look her directly in the eyes)…but I think it was just yesterday that I did. I share in the podcast some of the ways we talked to our kids about God from the time they were newborns.

I’ve gotta throw out a huge thank you to my husband Matt who does the majority of the work to make these podcasts happen. I record myself…then  he spends the time to splice in the music and make everything time out just right…and he is kind enough to edit out a ridiculous number of “ums” and “you knows” that I you know, don’t mean to um…say. You know?

Simply click on the link below to listen. This particular podcast lasts a little over seven minutes.

Heavenly Homemakers Podcast #7

I mentioned Songs for Saplings in the podcast so I thought I’d post the link here to make it easy for you to find if you’re interested! Also, I mentioned reading Bible books to your little ones. I love all of the Little Golden Books that are Bible related, so I’ve added that link too:  Children’s Little Golden Bible Books

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Gratituesday: No Regrets

December 6, 2010 by Laura 50 Comments

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Brace yourself for a longer than normal post. I had to stop now and then in the middle of writing to jump up and down with excitement, so it took me a little while to get through this.  :)

We never really know what God is going to do in our life in any given season. If there’s anything I’ve learned during the past few years of changes and challenges, it’s that God’s ways are best no matter if they are painful to go through or joyful.

This newest change in our lives? Oh so completely joyful.

And born out of some pain and challenges.

Which is what makes this change so joyful.

Want me to tell you about it? Oh good, I would love to.

My husband Matt is very “visionary” as in…he is a guy full of great business and ministry ideas. Constantly. All the time.  One of his ideas a few years ago was to look into opening a restaurant. He had loads of business ideas for a restaurant and knew that it would be a great way to be with and serve people in the community. 

Then last year, someone offered him a position as assistant manager of a brand new restaurant opening up in town. It was a perfect opportunity to try out his restaurant dream without having a huge financial investment. He would be working for a fellow church member and we would have a steady income. We went for it!

Within the past fifteen months as Matt has worked out at Southside Grille, we’ve appreciated so many aspects about the job. We’ve been so thankful for the consistent pay check, for the chance for Matt to be out in the community visiting with people, for the opportunity to pursue a dream. God has been so good to give us that. And yet…

Our family time has really been suffering. Matt’s schedule has been a tough one, which has caused his life to feel unbalanced. He found that week after week as he helped figure out the work schedule that he’d have to choose between missing a church event or a family event. How’s a guy supposed to choose between going to a mid-week Bible study or going to his son’s soccer game?

Little by little we recognized that this lifestyle and job didn’t match up with the desires and spiritual goals we have for our family, and there didn’t seem to be any relief in sight. We aren’t quitters, and yet, we began to see that for Matt to stay with this job would mean that he would continue to miss out on and neglect so many of the things we feel are most important. 

Three or four months ago we began to talk about and pray about the possibility of Matt doing something else. He was continuing to miss time with us that he didn’t want to miss any more. At the end of each day (and at the end of his life), he wanted to have “no regrets about how he spent his time”. 

And so.

Four weeks ago, Matt resigned from his job at Southside Grille, effective December 18.

Can I just say, we are so full of joy and peace over this decision and the possibilities it presents that we are bouncing off walls and doing back flips?!! God has given us this opportunity and we can not wait to see what He has in mind for our family.

So, the question many people around here have, and one I would assume you are wondering as well is:  What is Matt going to do now? 

We aren’t able to put our finger on any one thing, because there truly isn’t just one thing. We plan to go back to being exclusively self-employed and have multiple streams of income as there are many things we are interested in doing. Most of them involve working togther as a couple and often will include the kids. In addition, we own and rent out storage units, which are now paid off and creating income. Matt has had a snow removal business for the past three years that he’ll continue to grow – although this particular business tends to be quite slow in the summertime. :)   He plans to join forces even more than he already does here at Heavenly Homemakers, working some of the business and marketing end of things so that I can focus more on writing.

And…we plan to dream together.

My visionary husband is going to keep dreaming and pursuing some new dreams. I am so, so excited for him.

We’ll be “doing teamwork” while we homeschool and train our boys. We’ll be pursuing some of the ministries that are on our hearts but that have been on the back burner for a while.

Yes indeed. We get to be a team.  I mean, we’ve always been a team. But now, we get to work together almost constantly, getting the boys more involved with some of Matt’s business ideas and work. 

In case you’re concerned or wondering, we’ve been financially planning for this life change and would not be making this move if we were not prepared. That alone has been a wonderful lesson for our boys to learn.

I’ll continue to share during the next few weeks more about some of the goals we’re setting and give you an idea of how all of this is going to work for us. I will tell you right now though that one book that’s been a huge help as we’ve worked to take this leap of faith is 48 Days to the Work You Love by Dan Miller. It is an EXCELLENT book that encourages us all to find where God has gifted us and find work that will utilize those gifts and provide for your family at the same time. We recommend this book wholeheartedly as it has been quite instrumental in changing the focus of our lives.

While we don’t have an ultimate picture of what our lives are about to look like, without a doubt, we see clearly that this is what God wants us to do. And we know with full peace and confidence that He is going to provide everything we need while we work hard for Him…as a team.

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for!

If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!


Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Gratituesday: The Date

July 12, 2010 by Laura 26 Comments

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gratituesday

Everyone else had plans.

Malachi got to go to a birthday party. Asa and Justus got to go to yet a different birthday party. Matt was working.

That left just Elias and Mama. When does that ever happen? Mama with just one boy for an entire evening?

And so, I told Elias that he should use this opportunity to take me on a date. You should have seen his cute little eight year old eyes! And eye brows. And grin. You would have thought I had offered to buy him a toy store.

He didn’t say a word. He just wore that cute little joyful face and he just nodded. I could see the wheels turning inside his head, “Where should I take Mama? What should we do?” (And yes, he really does call me Mama. The older boys, and even Malachi have started calling me just “Mom” now…but Elias still says Mama. Yum, I love it.)

He decided to take me out to the China Buffet. We ate. We went back for seconds. We picked out desserts. We talked about silly stuff and serious stuff. We talked about what he might like to be when he grows up. We got tickled because we had the EXACT same fortune inside our fortune cookies. 

Daddy had slipped him a little cash to pay for our date, so Elias covered the bill. It was SO precious!!

I am going to work hard to make this happen with each boy as often as I can. Alone time with the kids is hard to come by. We’ll have to be intentional. But now that Elias has had his turn, the other boys are asking constantly about when it will be their turn to take me out. Since they’re so motivated, I think it will be easier to make it happen.

And hopefully, Matt will occasionally still be able to wrestle down the competition and take a turn himself. :)

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for!

If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!


Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Cell Phones for Kids – Question #66

June 25, 2010 by Laura 104 Comments

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First of all let me say that this question is not intended to bring up any judgmental ugliness within the comments section. Not that you all tend to have judgmental ugliness within my comments section. But just in case our opinions on the matter bring out any fiesty-ness…just remember that it’s just a question and I’m just curious about the differing ideas out there. 

I’m interested to know your thoughts about allowing kids to have cell phones. 

My thirteen year old is pretty sure he is the only child on the face of this earth (except for his brothers of course) who still does not have his own cell phone. We haven’t given him his own phone yet because we ultimately feel like he would rarely need it, unless of course he is all the way upstairs and I am all the way downstairs and he needs to ask me where his clean t-shirts are, in which case he could just walk all the way downstairs and ask me.

In other words…are you kidding me?

I don’t even feel like I need a cell phone at this point in my life. I’m home most of the time and oh never mind…I’ve written about this already. 

I know cell phones are fun for kids and sometimes, depending on your family situation and circumstances, giving your child a cell phone can be very, very useful and helpful. If it is a matter of safety and a huge time saver in tracking down your kids, I think cell phones are one of the best things ever invented. But we personally don’t think our kids need them yet.

We’ll probably look into it quite extensively when they each begin to drive. That’s when we feel like cell phones for our boys would become more of a need, rather than just a want. And then of course there is the issue of who pays the monthly fees… Ah, we’ll figure that out later.

So what works for your family? Have you decided to let your kids have a cell phone? At what age do you feel like your kids need a phone?

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

In His Hands

June 23, 2010 by Laura 7 Comments

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Please join me in welcoming the final guest poster for this week:  Brandy, The Marathon Mom. You know how I have four boy children? Yeah…Brandy has SEVEN. Boys.  Uh-huh. And I thought my grocery budget looked scary for the future. You’ll love Brandy’s insights and thoughts entitiled, In His Hands.

As a mother of many, I find myself regularly facing the challenge of trusting God with my children. It’s an interesting place, being so close to my due date, trusting God for a wonderful birth and a healthy baby, and at the same time, trusting Him to help me guide my pre-teen son as he grows into a man. And not to mention, the 9, 7, 5, 4, and 2 year old boys in the middle, who I am also responsible for trusting to God.
 
It’s a struggle of the heart, for sure, as I want to pull my babies close, protect them, shelter them from the ways of the world, and for some ages, that is entirely appropriate. But at some point, as my child’s mother, I am confronted by the fact that all of the hard work, love, commitment, sheltering and training must come to fruition as I ultimately release my child from my hands and into the world, and allow him to go and do and be all God has called him to go and do and be. I am not quite there yet, even with our oldest, as it is a process. But God has definitely started the work in my heart and has even begun to illustrate for me quite graphically, what that process will look like as I begin to release my sons, one by one, into their God-given destinies.
 
God reminded me again last night that I could trust Him with my children, when one of our younger sons narrowly escaped a potentially bad crash on a bike. Our four year old, Drew, went ahead of me on his bike, still with training wheels, in the dark last night. Not far behind him, I assumed my normal position behind the stroller and watched as he began to coast. 
 
Downhill. FAST. FASTER…..and FASTER STILL.
 
And suddenly I realized, all within a split second, that there would be no way I could abandon the stroller and sprint with my 9 month pregnant belly in his direction to save him from a terrible fall right into the street. And I began to yell, “Drew, fall in the grass, FALL IN THE GRASS!!!” And the next split second I realized a car could be coming to meet him at the exact time of his crash. The other half of that second, I prayed the fastest and yet most heartfelt prayers a mother could muster up – out loud – “Jesus, protect him!!!” Boys from the neighborhood and some of our older sons saw what was about to happen and took off at lightning speed to catch up with Drew, but the momentum he had built up on his Spiderman bike was too much and they came to his rescue just a second after he was a pile of little boy, half on the curb, half in the street. And there was ….
 
NO
 
SOUND.
 
It was dark, so I couldn’t see him, and still trying to get down the hill, I began to yell again, “is he okay???” And then I heard him cry. The cry that let me know he was not seriously injured. “Thank you, God,”  I mumbled as I made it to my sweet boy who had screamed with blood-curtling shrieks of terror as he had flown down the sidewalk.
 
With only a few scraped toes, he had survived, and it didn’t take long for the lesson to sink in. As I questioned Drew for not listening to my instruction to fall into the grass, which would have perhaps saved us from some of the drama, I realized a few things. His response was, “I couldn’t hear you.” And he couldn’t because he was screaming in terror. His own fear actually prevented him from hearing the instruction that could have saved him from the whole experience. And next, he wasn’t trained. I knew I had never told him to fall into the grass if he couldn’t stop. I wondered why he didn’t use his brakes more, but he’s only been riding since this spring, really, so I knew  he was just inexperienced.
 
Clearly, there is an age when we can know that they know when  to brake so that they don’t go too fast and crash, and it’s obviously NOT at age four. Surely, there is a time when we can trust that we’ve done our jobs and recited with our children the rule that states, “when you’re about to fall, choose the softer landing…” Hopefully, the time comes when, as parents, we can be confident that we have trained them up in the way they should go, and that God is with them, that He will protect them, and that we can trust Him, and that our prayers are effective on behalf of our children.
 
God will show us as mothers, how to guide our children, how to train them. He will show us how and when we can and should begin to trust that they’re ready to fly on their own. Walking alongside, and even behind our children (in observation), God will show us where we need to place special attention to help prepare each of our children as individuals, so that when it’s time, they are fully equipped to go and do His work and His will.
 
Thank You, God, for this reminder. I couldn’t do this on my own.
 
Be sure to visit Brandy at The Marathon Mom!

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