A prayer for parents

As I indicated in previous post, it's been a rough couple of weeks.  Yesterday I searched online for a prayer for parenting, and I couldn't find anything I liked so I decided to create my own.

Lord, thank you for the blessings that are our children.  Thank you for the joy and laughter they bring to our lives every day, and thank you for the opportunities we have each day to not only be a teacher to them, but to be taught by them.  Please help us to not only acknowledge their differences but to celebrate them.  Please help me to be the different parent that each child needs.  Please help me help each of them be the best they can be, and yet be humble.  Please help me show them each how to take pride in who they are, and yet not be vain.  I pray that they are each mentally and emotionally strong, and yet that they will show compassion and empathy in everything they do.  I pray that we, as a parents, will be strong enough to make the tough choices, yet always loving and patient.  I pray that our hearts be filled with peace and open to His guidance.  I pray that we all be forgiven for our mistakes.  May we always remember our many blessings, and be grateful for the new opportunities each day brings.

I am trying to keep this close to my heart!

Parenting

I kind of didn't want to write today...and I still don't.  But, it's been over a week and I guess I should update life.

There have been good things happening...and not-so-good things.  Catherine's behavior was pretty rough last week, but other than that she is doing great.  Her determination for school is amazing.  She is doing yearbook and drama club after school and really enjoys her activities.  She is so goofy I often role my eyes, but there are other times her goofiness is exactly what I need at that moment.

Thomas is struggling with middle school in terms of his grades.  There is a lot less "hand holding" at this level and he needs to remember to turn the work in on his own and not wait for a teacher to ask for it.  He also needs to understand that the chrome books (from h***, as far as I'm concerned) is a tool for the classroom and not be constantly playing games.  He is doing yearbook with Catherine and has also joined engineering club.  I absolutely love seeing him grow up into the person  he is becoming.

Robert is still on crutches.  It's very disappointing because it basically means the end of cross country season after he had worked this summer and made such great strides.  He seems to be taking his disappointment out on his school work by not doing it anymore.  His grades have absolutely tanked.  Last evening was parent teacher conferences and it was not a lot of fun to be a part of that.  He has some very tough choices and hard work that need to happen right now or there won't be any dive this winter either.  He's also got some swollen lymph nodes and while the blood test came back negative, the doctor feels it needs to be explored further.  We go Tuesday for that appointment.  He's just having a tough go of it right now, and as his parents, so are Andrew and I.

This new computer isn't exactly great either.  I'm not sure why it seems to have so many bugs, but hopefully things will smooth out as it continues to update and I become more familiar.

Hard to believe the end of September is upon us.  We actually had the a/c on for about 36 hours but the weather has definitely changed.  Fall is here!

The phrase "GRRR" comes to mind

My computer absolutely bit the dust last weekend.  Dead and more dead.  Fortunately, I had received a warning that hard drive failure was imminent and made sure things were backed up...mostly...but that's another story.  We debated about simply replacing the hard drive, but the computer was 5-1/2 years old so we decided to go ahead and get a new one (Merry Christmas to us...cause that's the way it's gonna be!).  Of course, it means all new updates of programs, software, etc.  And I very, very, very much dislike change.  In fact, I really can't tell you how much I dislike it because it isn't nice to use the "h*te" word.  I've especially missed reading other blogs, and I'm really looking forward to figuring things out...hopefully sooner rather than later!  I had everything down to an absolute routine and it's suddenly gone...GRRRR!

The last two days have been fabulous

The weather the last two days has been almost absolutely perfect.  It is such an absolute blessing.  My heart could not be more full of gratitude.

My mother and paternal grandmother came down yesterday afternoon. It was such a nice visit. They stayed for several hours and we ordered some dinner in.  My aunt even came in to visit for a bit.

This morning was equally wonderful. It has been an absolutely insane couple of weeks, but with the house picked up for company yesterday, I really had nothing that had to be accomplished this morning.  I allowed me myself to go back to sleep after everyone left for school, and sleep I did!  Even after getting up, I've allowed myself to relax by reading some magazines and taking it easy. I've been enjoying the views, I and really just can't how grateful I am for my life!

Thankful for the ipad

Several years ago we bought a "family iPad" as a Christmas present for the kids. It has never been my favorite piece of technology, but today I am very grateful we have it!  Last weekend the desktop notified me that hard drive failure wads imminent...and yesterday it died. None of the laptops we have purchased over the years are working either, so while it isn't terribly convenient, I am extremely grateful I'm not completely cut off from my email...and blog!

One of those weeks

This was one of those weeks where nothing went terribly wrong (very grateful), but nothing was quite right either.  It was an extremely busy week as well, and I can't believe how much time I spent in my vehicle.

Robert is continuing to attend cross country practice even though he can't run.  He can ride the stationary bike and work on some core exercises.  He can still play his instrument, so even though he can't march, he's still at those practices as well.  Catherine & Thomas have joined yearbook, and Catherine has also joined drama club while Thomas has joined engineering club.  They also participated in the after school community bowling, and we had some doctor appointments to go with it.  Andrew worked one evening and had a meeting another, and I had a meeting myself one evening.  I also attended the football last evening to help out with some things and have spent some time at the high school helping with some things there.  And of course, I started my own new job on Monday afternoon, so it's been a very busy week.

On the upside, everyone is healthy, and we are together, so that is all that really matters!

The tooth situation got really ugly

Friday was T.O.U.G.H.  Thomas's tooth was still bothering him a great deal, to the point that I ended up taking him to school Friday morning because he was having a little bit of a meltdown.  He had a birthday party to attend after school, and then that evening all you-know-what broke loose.  He mentioned that "something yellow" was in his mouth, and I recognized it as puss from an infection.  After his shower, his mouth had blood everywhere and the gum was very swollen and deep purple.  If he hadn't already been on antibiotics we'd have gone straight to an urgent care, but I decided it could wait until morning.  And it was amazing...by morning things looked better and Thomas had no pain.  He took not one bit of pain medication at all yesterday and is back to being his chipper self.  I am so very, very grateful that we did get into the dentist when we did, and I feel badly for not getting him there sooner.  On the upside, he is doing well, and hopefully all will go well next week for his procedure!