observations

I received this in an email and thought it was a good point.

"Are Your Kids Overscheduled?.......Despite what many people seem to believe, busyness does not necessarily equate to success—and it most certainly doesn't lead to happiness as a family if we spend half of our time in a car shuttling our children from one outing to the next."

~So true. Who wants to be on the road all the time--it can be hard wtih small children. That's what I've been trying for years to say to those who've been so anxious for me to drive around all day, taking the kids here and there--lol.....(and while I'm on a similar subject.....I'm going to remember this when our kids have kids....it's so much easier to have home visits for parents with small children occasionally than bringing the whole crew, especially with toddlers and babies--it's hard to hold a baby where there are no offers of help, being entertained by the parent, who at the same time is struggling to make conversation and trying to keep baby/toddlers happy for long amounts of time, and keep the small kids out of stuff that the person doesn't want them touching like perfect little angels--not as easy as it looks:) (kid-friendly places are fun where it's not such an issue, but otherwise.....we've always enjoyed and encouraged visits at our house.
That way, things are set up for kids and no worries about all that other stuff that bothers people...even though we'd love to sit down to a nice meal in peace and I don't care where we eat...since our presence, sometimes for whatever strange reason, seems to cause so much drama, we have our own food here to get away from all that nitpicky, food policing....so there's no comparing who's eating what better (that nasty competition pitted against kids which I seriously hate) or we're not made to feel like we're eating all the food up because of the size of our family, even if we're already aware that people think this and therefore don't eat much or not at all based on this observation when visiting--lol--we've always made it a practice to stay at the back of the line if we do eat at gatherings, church or otherwise, and don't pile plates up unless it's going to be eaten....I was taught it's the polite thing to do). The point is when people say they want you there and then make things very uncomfortable, it makes me think they really don't want you there after all.

Anyway, back to the point of being overscheduled...we try to let the kids be kids when they're small, doing normal kid things, and then when they start getting older, (i.e. life gets easier) they start venturing out more, finding things they're truly interested in and not just based on what others wants them to do. It makes sense to me and life is easier.

~We've been observing several building spots on our property if any of our children want to build in the future, so why would we be building a row of houses anywhere else....that's why we purchased land;) Anyway, it's nice to have if they want it, but it's up to them. And there'll be no strings attached or hard feelings whatever they choose.

~To know the real story, maybe come to the person behind the story to hear their version. And consider the source where it's coming from. If two or more women spend a lot of time in a huddle with their arms crossed and hips jutted out....in deep, whispering conversation, when someone walks in the room (sometimes even when you're sitting right beside them), it might be possible they're gossiping. If the body language is there--it's usually a dead giveaway. But I would be careful how I would take any information coming from a bunch of gossipy women as total truth. That's what I've taken away from my observations over the years.

~I've observed this too. Some Christians who become too judgmental toward people based on appearances or lifestyle and their self-righteous attitude turns people away. That's not how it's supposed to be. People who notice what someone is wearing, style of clothes, tattoos or whatever....or what they might do in their personal time, based solely on appearance, and make judgements about a person based on that, are really missing out on a lot of good relationships/friendships. And it's so wrong to do that. (And I say Christians because sometimes they seem to be the worse when it comes to this type of stuff--the thing I hear from people who get away from church is that they are tired of hypocrites who look down on them like they're better because they think they've achieved a higher level of morality. Appearance or how much time spent at church doesn't make a better person. Isn't being a Christian a heart issue and not for someone else to judge based on outward appearance? Some churches (not all, because there are some good ones) have been unwelcoming because of a few people looking down on everybody else who aren't like them (and add in the cliques/family/gossip circles who really don't want you there. Who wants to waste their time with that? Wouldn't it be easier to have a relationship with God apart from all that negativity? I remember when I showed pictures of the kids from Africa several yrs. ago to some horrified ladies at a church and the jaws dropped all the way to the floor. From my observation, it must have been an awful revelation to them. I must be naive but I thought that was one of the meanings of being a Christian was to help children who needed help, which is what we did, color of skin not being an issue. But it sure did make a lot of people at Christian places uncomfortable and set up a lot of debate too. And I could go on and on about observations even besides the adoption that have made my jaw drop.

Some observations about my day: Jonah's chasing Audrey and the dog. Running's not allowed in the house though.
~Ben's trying to build a model car and the directions got lost. It's hard to build a model without the directions but who knows where they are? Before kids, I knew where everything was....not so much anymore.
~I washed my bedroom curtains yesterday after procrastinating for way too long. Now I'm glad I did--they look so pretty and fresh.
~The painter is painting the building. He gave me some good advice on painting the house for future reference and ways to save on health care, i.e. go to a university hospital. You learn something new everyday and I appreciate good advice!
~My wildflowers are blooming like crazy. They're so pretty! I'll have to take some pictures.
~The chickens are roosting on their tiny roof. Kenny took their shelf down and instead put a pole in for them to sit on, but for some reason they like piling on the small roof. Ben misses the other chickens--Snowball loved getting to the scraps of food first and then running with it before the other chickens could have it and Matilda had the prettiest feathers.
~Livy's painting her fingernails.
~Savannah's watching her favorite shows in her playpen.
~We're all missing Brandon and Laura at camp.
~I need to get busy and read a book or something while everything's quiet for a minute:)