Friday, November 21, 2008

Busy, busy, busy!


So I have been a busy busy bee lately but still taking it alright. Kind of in stride. God is blessing me with balance although there have been some pretty tough and overwhelming days. Last week my whole family was sick and that made things really hard. But......the play is going great! It is a lot of fun seeing it all come together. Amazing and surreal really. We were able to practice on the stage this week and it was so great!

Hmmm.....what else is going on. Well, Bible study ended yesterday and I bawled like a baby. It was a good message plus I am going to miss it plus I am going to miss Debi Sweeney!!! I just love her! I can still see her at church but still, it's not the same.

I hosted a meeting last night for Women's Events and we started Retreat Planning! It's exciting and we got the new building! I can't believe it's almost that time again!

My kiddos are growing and changing everyday. We are dealing with quite a few issues right now with Jones and his behavior at school which is pretty difficult. Kind of "taking the wind out of my sails" so to speak. But we are not giving up and we will keep working on finding what works and helping him through. He is such a good boy most of the time, a great helper, loving, and so smart and I refuse to have him labeled as "trouble." He isn't yet, but pretty close. I have been reading RaisingGodlyTomatoes.blogspot.com which is giving me some great advice like "tomato staking" which is keeping your children close to you all the time (although I don't think all the techniques are for our family.)

So if you are reading this, feel free to pray for our family and if you have any prayer needs, leave me a comment. I would love to pray for you!

Well, that's what's up with me. Can you believe my little girl will be three in just a few short weeks?!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's so good to hear what is going on with you Erin! I wish I could see the play, I'm sure it is going to be wonderful!

I will be praying for wisdom as you help Jones grow in wisdom. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of EVERY child, not just mine or yours but ALL of them. :) Some display it differently, but one thing I was told that I really found helpful was that you need to make sure your child is clear that you are one hundred percent comitted to them NO matter what their behavior.

That they KNOW (and are repeatedly told) that there is nothing they can do that will keep you from raising them as God commands and that you are with them, regardless of their behavior.

Halle has said to me many times, "You are comitted to me mommy aren't you??" :)

Another thing I have been saying that I learned from Shepherding a Child's Heart is that by disobeying God they are running away from His Protection. That just as surely as I would chase after them if they ran into the street into the path of a car, I will "chase" after them when they disobey and run from God's protection into sin and disaster.

The staking thing is REALLY great. I find when my kids start having problems it is almost always because they have been allowed to get too far from me. Maybe that is something that his teacher could attempt to replicate as well??

I know you are probably super busy but Heart of Anger is a great book by Lou Priolo that helps to examine and teach your child what is driving their sinful behavior.

For example, a certain child of mine has been struggling to go to bed without complaining or arguing or manipulating.

So we have been praying, and disciplining and asking for God's perspective for this challenge. We have realized that is is a love of power that is driving the disobedience. So we have a better understanding of how to discipline because effective discipline has to remove the idolatry of the love of power from her heart.

We realized that a couple days ago. MAJOR improvements with her bedtime behavior. Thank you Jesus!

Just want to encourage you to keep after it biblically! There is so much junk out there on how to "fix" your kids, I'm sure that his teacher may even have some ideas, and no matter how sincere they want to help, unless the solutions are biblically based, I am learning, they are a waste of time at best, and dangerous at worse.

I'll step off my soapbox for now. :) Sorry about that but you know by know this is kinda a passionate topic for me! :)

I'd love prayer for relentless energy when it comes to discipling my little arrows. That I would see them with God's eyes and be able to nurture, discipline, instruct and encourage them accordingly!

Love you. Willow

Stephanie said...

You know I am praying for you and Jones. I can see Caleb being the exact same way when he gets to school. I love the tomato site, their message boards are outstanding and just packed full of Godly women who aren't afraid to say it how it is.

Hope to see you soon, love you lots!

Stephanie said...

I also wanted to say that you look BEAUTIFUL in that picture!!!