PRAYER REQUEST
Our girls are in CO. It has begun to snow. They leave tomorrow to drive across CO, WY and MT. They have no snow tires - they are in WA. They have very little experience driving on snow and none going over big passes in the snow and ice. Please be praying for them on Saturday and Sunday.
Friday, September 22, 2006
PLAY STATION – WooHOO!
Zander has earned 30 – 60 minutes of Play Station time. I really thought and prayed about how to handle this after posting about last Saturday’s obsession.
I think it is fine for him to play for a reasonable amount of time 2 times a week. On the trip, when we were giving him tickets to teach him instant obedience, he earned 20 tickets a day. I set his goal at 60 tickets for 30 – 60 minutes of play time (others play with him). He has been GOOD and done what I asked, but it took him all week to earn the 60. We may lower it so that he earns it in 3 days.
In praying about this I wanted to be sure the tickets were not punitive. I was aiming for reality discipline/training. The things that earn him tickets are the things that he “slides” from when he’s “off program”. In this way, when he’s having a good day and can HANDLE the PS he has earned it…and if he’s having a bad time, he won’t be able to handle the screen time and he doesn’t earn it.
I don’t give him many tickets any longer for instant obedience. He really has that down. I do give him tickets for making his bed, getting dressed and KEEPING his clothes on all day, brushing his teeth, cleaning his room….etc. You know – those “social things”. An unexpected benefit of this is that he has kept his clothes ON every day ALL week. He has a sensory thing and really has trouble with clothes.
Here Zander shows off his tickets!
Zander has earned 30 – 60 minutes of Play Station time. I really thought and prayed about how to handle this after posting about last Saturday’s obsession.
I think it is fine for him to play for a reasonable amount of time 2 times a week. On the trip, when we were giving him tickets to teach him instant obedience, he earned 20 tickets a day. I set his goal at 60 tickets for 30 – 60 minutes of play time (others play with him). He has been GOOD and done what I asked, but it took him all week to earn the 60. We may lower it so that he earns it in 3 days.
In praying about this I wanted to be sure the tickets were not punitive. I was aiming for reality discipline/training. The things that earn him tickets are the things that he “slides” from when he’s “off program”. In this way, when he’s having a good day and can HANDLE the PS he has earned it…and if he’s having a bad time, he won’t be able to handle the screen time and he doesn’t earn it.
I don’t give him many tickets any longer for instant obedience. He really has that down. I do give him tickets for making his bed, getting dressed and KEEPING his clothes on all day, brushing his teeth, cleaning his room….etc. You know – those “social things”. An unexpected benefit of this is that he has kept his clothes ON every day ALL week. He has a sensory thing and really has trouble with clothes.
Here Zander shows off his tickets!
I thought it was cool that Josiah came up with the idea of copying the tickets on to sheets of paper. Then we only have to glue a ticket on, he doesn’t loose them, and we can all watch his progression.
Arielle and Nolan are currently earning tickets towards a BIG prize. When they earn 500 tickets Arielle will get a Kit Doll and Nolan will get a robotic dinosaur. They get tickets for eating fruits and vegetables and for trying a new dish. {G} At this rate it looks like it will take them far over a year to earn their goals…an apple a day. :::snort::: I really thought they could do it in 3 months.
Now for those of you who think we are bribing the kids….I disagree. We are training them. I LOVE this. Within one week Zander was obeying instantly and didn’t need tickets any longer for that. Yes, he still has “days” but we deal with it. We also noticed that he DID obey a lot during the day….giving him a ticket for good behavior instead of watching for bad behavior changed the atmosphere of our home for the better. LOL I don’t know, the food one is more like bribing…..but it was a price we are willing to pay…and their choices will determine how long it takes them to reach their dream…so it is still reality discipline/training….
I’VE BEEN SNAKE BIT!!!!
Or at least I thought I was. It turns out I was only cacti bit on the last cache of our day. It hurt…and I couldn’t see a thing…but when we got my shoe off….we found it. We really were doing “urban caches” today…..but this last one was up on a bluff overlooking the Concho river. It was an old home site and the cactus had taken over. All but Josiah gave up – he found it! At one point he slipped and fell – I had visions of having to go to the ER. “Josiah’s accident was private….very private” as the local bill board says. :::snort:::
To back up – this was a productive day for us. Josiah showed me the trick to finding caches for us that were in the SAME area. No more driving to hills behind the lake and then to Wall in the same day! :::snort::: While Josiah and Jamin worked: I watched the little ones, gave them a pep talk, found books for the first two weeks of school that the library had, ordered a couple of books from Amazon and found caches that centered in three areas of town. The areas are around our home, in a North park that we have never been to, and down by the river, where Kid’s Kingdom is. Adrienne called and wondered if we could meet at Kids Kingdom today. I told her we were going to cache but we’d drop by for an “hour or so”. We began. We found 3 cache’s….then got a call that Adrienne was going to be later than expected. Found another cache and went to the park. Kelly and children were at the park. The younger ones and I stayed.
Josiah and Jamin took the library list and went to pick up books. Josiah loves to do this chore for me – I love to have a driver in town…I miss leisurely browsing a library. I may have to take a few hours once a month and get out by myself to do this sort of thing. One book I was glad the library had was “The Great Feast of Redwall”. This is a picture book by the author of the Redwall series. My older boys have read this. My younger ones have not. We have been invited to a Redwall feast so I wanted to get the younger ones a bit more familiar with the happening of Redwall.
Adrienne and children arrived at the park and we visited while they played. The older boys came back and went to find a cache that was right down by where we were.
It was fun that Mandy and Martin showed up. She told me I had the “most distinctive…” I expected to hear vehicle as folks always know where I’ve been because they note the van. She said “family”. It seems she was driving over the bridge, looked down and saw the boys. LOL It was fun to visit with her for a few minutes. Remember, that her family just moved here earlier this month. Her dh is our newest chaplain. We talked about getting together for breakfast. The TLF (Temporary Lodging Facilities) are finally starting to close in on her. She’s a trooper – they close in on me much quicker.
After the park, we went to find one more cache that we had looked for earlier in the day. We were within 500 feet – but it was across a river. We found it – it was the one above.
Mike reminded me this a.m. that our goal was 120 caches by Jan 1st. Hmmm…..he is sure we can’t make it. We are accepting the challenge. We found six more today. I am in communication with a man who makes geonickels. I want him to put our AK logo on a wooden coin for us to leave spots. OH – Arielle got a beautiful bracelet today. I’m thinking we need to get supplies and make a bunch to leave in caches. She was thrilled to see something besides plastic spiders, frogs and super balls. We had left a couple in our first caches and they went FAST.
As I looked for the way home I said, “Does anyone know which direction to go?” and Zander yelled, “FOR – WARD, MOM!” Jamin commented that that is the only direction Zander knows…..and I must add it is always full speed ahead….but this day we wore him out!
On to the evening.
Or at least I thought I was. It turns out I was only cacti bit on the last cache of our day. It hurt…and I couldn’t see a thing…but when we got my shoe off….we found it. We really were doing “urban caches” today…..but this last one was up on a bluff overlooking the Concho river. It was an old home site and the cactus had taken over. All but Josiah gave up – he found it! At one point he slipped and fell – I had visions of having to go to the ER. “Josiah’s accident was private….very private” as the local bill board says. :::snort:::
To back up – this was a productive day for us. Josiah showed me the trick to finding caches for us that were in the SAME area. No more driving to hills behind the lake and then to Wall in the same day! :::snort::: While Josiah and Jamin worked: I watched the little ones, gave them a pep talk, found books for the first two weeks of school that the library had, ordered a couple of books from Amazon and found caches that centered in three areas of town. The areas are around our home, in a North park that we have never been to, and down by the river, where Kid’s Kingdom is. Adrienne called and wondered if we could meet at Kids Kingdom today. I told her we were going to cache but we’d drop by for an “hour or so”. We began. We found 3 cache’s….then got a call that Adrienne was going to be later than expected. Found another cache and went to the park. Kelly and children were at the park. The younger ones and I stayed.
Josiah and Jamin took the library list and went to pick up books. Josiah loves to do this chore for me – I love to have a driver in town…I miss leisurely browsing a library. I may have to take a few hours once a month and get out by myself to do this sort of thing. One book I was glad the library had was “The Great Feast of Redwall”. This is a picture book by the author of the Redwall series. My older boys have read this. My younger ones have not. We have been invited to a Redwall feast so I wanted to get the younger ones a bit more familiar with the happening of Redwall.
Adrienne and children arrived at the park and we visited while they played. The older boys came back and went to find a cache that was right down by where we were.
It was fun that Mandy and Martin showed up. She told me I had the “most distinctive…” I expected to hear vehicle as folks always know where I’ve been because they note the van. She said “family”. It seems she was driving over the bridge, looked down and saw the boys. LOL It was fun to visit with her for a few minutes. Remember, that her family just moved here earlier this month. Her dh is our newest chaplain. We talked about getting together for breakfast. The TLF (Temporary Lodging Facilities) are finally starting to close in on her. She’s a trooper – they close in on me much quicker.
After the park, we went to find one more cache that we had looked for earlier in the day. We were within 500 feet – but it was across a river. We found it – it was the one above.
Mike reminded me this a.m. that our goal was 120 caches by Jan 1st. Hmmm…..he is sure we can’t make it. We are accepting the challenge. We found six more today. I am in communication with a man who makes geonickels. I want him to put our AK logo on a wooden coin for us to leave spots. OH – Arielle got a beautiful bracelet today. I’m thinking we need to get supplies and make a bunch to leave in caches. She was thrilled to see something besides plastic spiders, frogs and super balls. We had left a couple in our first caches and they went FAST.
As I looked for the way home I said, “Does anyone know which direction to go?” and Zander yelled, “FOR – WARD, MOM!” Jamin commented that that is the only direction Zander knows…..and I must add it is always full speed ahead….but this day we wore him out!
On to the evening.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Thursday –
Jamin woke up feeling sick today. I called House of Faith to let them know he wouldn’t be participating with his club today.
Debbie H came by and we went to lunch. At all but one assignment we’ve been told that “Olive Garden is coming”. We’ve yet to see an Olive Garden. LOL You can imagine that we were skeptical our first week here when someone said, “Olive Garden” is going to build here”. BUT they did. Debbie and I were there 15 minutes before opening today. Yumm. I couldn’t help but remember the last time I was at an Olive Garden with Darshia, Carleen and Nichole in Ashville, NC. Memories (hear the music).
I came home with enough time to make sure all children were properly clothed and headed out to House of Faith with the younger ones and Jared. We dropped Jared off. We ran to Mike’s office to pick up some Bible Study books he wanted me to mail to him. We were going to go run some errands….but I ended up calling Adrienne and going over there instead. Tricia did the same thing and we had a nice visit. Adrienne’s mom is down from Eagle River – ah I miss Alaska….and I miss that season of our family life.
This evening Arielle, Nolan, Zander and I went for a long walk. We fed the deer. There are some new babies. I thought that happened in the spring but there are a LOT of new babies. They are actually more fearless than the adults. There were two guy deer{s?} with new sets of antlers duking it out.
We solved the mystery of where the Narnia book went. It’s in Kuwait with Mike. :::snort::: We have switched to that other literary classic “Hank the Cow Dog”. I read 3 chapters tonight.
Bre called. They went to Witte’s End today. They say we HAVE to plan another trip to the Springs and take the little ones. I think we will….any reason to travel is fine with me….particularly in August…who wouldn’t want to leave a walk-in oven for the Rockies? LOL
I’ve been able to talk to my family today and am praying especially hard for them. It’s times like today that I despise being so far away. With Mike overseas I simply can’t fly to WA….but I’m trusting God’s timing in my sweet Aunt’s homegoing…and praying for Dad and my cousins…..
Jamin woke up feeling sick today. I called House of Faith to let them know he wouldn’t be participating with his club today.
Debbie H came by and we went to lunch. At all but one assignment we’ve been told that “Olive Garden is coming”. We’ve yet to see an Olive Garden. LOL You can imagine that we were skeptical our first week here when someone said, “Olive Garden” is going to build here”. BUT they did. Debbie and I were there 15 minutes before opening today. Yumm. I couldn’t help but remember the last time I was at an Olive Garden with Darshia, Carleen and Nichole in Ashville, NC. Memories (hear the music).
I came home with enough time to make sure all children were properly clothed and headed out to House of Faith with the younger ones and Jared. We dropped Jared off. We ran to Mike’s office to pick up some Bible Study books he wanted me to mail to him. We were going to go run some errands….but I ended up calling Adrienne and going over there instead. Tricia did the same thing and we had a nice visit. Adrienne’s mom is down from Eagle River – ah I miss Alaska….and I miss that season of our family life.
This evening Arielle, Nolan, Zander and I went for a long walk. We fed the deer. There are some new babies. I thought that happened in the spring but there are a LOT of new babies. They are actually more fearless than the adults. There were two guy deer{s?} with new sets of antlers duking it out.
We solved the mystery of where the Narnia book went. It’s in Kuwait with Mike. :::snort::: We have switched to that other literary classic “Hank the Cow Dog”. I read 3 chapters tonight.
Bre called. They went to Witte’s End today. They say we HAVE to plan another trip to the Springs and take the little ones. I think we will….any reason to travel is fine with me….particularly in August…who wouldn’t want to leave a walk-in oven for the Rockies? LOL
I’ve been able to talk to my family today and am praying especially hard for them. It’s times like today that I despise being so far away. With Mike overseas I simply can’t fly to WA….but I’m trusting God’s timing in my sweet Aunt’s homegoing…and praying for Dad and my cousins…..
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Wednesday – THE day…
Having a child leave home who is READY to leave home, who is following hard after God, who passionately loves God with all their heart…has to define the term bittersweet!
Today is a bittersweet day for our family. The girls are so ready to begin 2nd year at Master’s Commission. We want them to stay home…but really we don’t. We simply wish that the stage of life when all the little chicks were at home in the nest had lasted a bit longer. It all went so fast…beware…this is coming from a woman who will have children in her home for at least 40 years…the years go quickly. Roll your eyes now. But someday…you will know what I know. I’d give just about anything to have some of the seasons in life back. No, we don’t have major regrets…it’s only that I could have been more loving, I could have embraced being a mother much earlier…I mean really EMBRACED it instead of waiting for them to grow up so that I could “get on with life”. Ah well….as it is…I love the Lord wholeheartedly and my two babies do as well. Life is good. Life is painful but Life is good. :::sigh:::
I have found myself having internal conversations like this today “I just want my babies home”….”no, I really don’t want them home…it’s time for them to leave home”….”choose joy”….”I don’t like this one bit”….”choose joy”….”this is just not fair” (not sure WHAT that means!!! LOL)….”choose joy”….and life moves on.
Zander refused to get out of bed to say goodbye. He tends to get angry at those who leave. I was encouraged that he is talking to Mike on the phone. Yesterday (and I apologize to all from the Pacific NW for what I’m about to say)…..when I told Zander the girls would be leaving today to go back to WA he informed us that “WA is stupid, everyone who lives out there is idiots”. I asked him if those unkind words had left a bad taste in his mouth and he emphatically told me “no”. At least THIS time he appears to be mad at the state of WA and not at the girls themselves.
As we prayed this a.m. before the girls left…Nolan lost his tooth. That was exciting.
The appliance repairman came today. It turns out that I have a WARRANTY! I called yesterday to schedule them to come. I said, “I only bought this a year ago – but it’s broken down. I need to get someone over here”. I had no clue I had purchased the warranty – its Mike’s policy that we don’t purchase warranties. It did work out well this time. I don’t have to worry about trying to fix it or pay to fix it while he is gone. I’m still tracking down someone to fix the tub.
Josiah had the day off today. We decided to go geocaching. He found six of them that he wanted to try and we FOUND THEM ALL! We had a huge sense of accomplishment. Josiah showed Jamin and Jared how to enter way points and they navigated to a couple of the caches. This is good. We’ll be able to do more of this even when Mike and Cy aren’t with us. All of us were stumped with trying to figure out Mike’s GPS but it seems that Jared knows how to use it….we’re in business. We certainly did NOT find the direct routes but we found 3 caches out by the lake…..then we ran home to pick up the CAMERA, water and use the toilet (Arielle and I are not au naturale). We headed out and found another cache in a park. The kids had a great time playing for a bit. We ate the rest of the cookies that BreAnne and the little ones had made yesterday. Our last cache was cool. It was a spot that used to be a training ground for pilots here at our base. At some point the AF gave the land to the city and they made a raceway out of it. It turns out that the cars now go faster at the track than the airplanes did. We enjoyed the drive (it was in a small town about 10 miles from ours) and the history.
We decided to eat out tonight – no one had thought to prepare for dinner before we left. AT 6:40 we pulled into Burger King. I had a hard moment when I realized that a month ago we needed *FOUR* tables and tonight we only needed *three* :::::gulp:::.
Back at home, Arielle, Nolan, Stacia, Jamin and I went to feed the deer. I read a chapter out of Hank the Cow dog to Arielle and Nolan. We can’t find our current Narnia book. We tracked down the girls…evidently they left a message on our machine but it wasn’t ON our machine. I was getting worried. They DID get to talk to Mike at 4 this a.m.
Having a child leave home who is READY to leave home, who is following hard after God, who passionately loves God with all their heart…has to define the term bittersweet!
Today is a bittersweet day for our family. The girls are so ready to begin 2nd year at Master’s Commission. We want them to stay home…but really we don’t. We simply wish that the stage of life when all the little chicks were at home in the nest had lasted a bit longer. It all went so fast…beware…this is coming from a woman who will have children in her home for at least 40 years…the years go quickly. Roll your eyes now. But someday…you will know what I know. I’d give just about anything to have some of the seasons in life back. No, we don’t have major regrets…it’s only that I could have been more loving, I could have embraced being a mother much earlier…I mean really EMBRACED it instead of waiting for them to grow up so that I could “get on with life”. Ah well….as it is…I love the Lord wholeheartedly and my two babies do as well. Life is good. Life is painful but Life is good. :::sigh:::
I have found myself having internal conversations like this today “I just want my babies home”….”no, I really don’t want them home…it’s time for them to leave home”….”choose joy”….”I don’t like this one bit”….”choose joy”….”this is just not fair” (not sure WHAT that means!!! LOL)….”choose joy”….and life moves on.
Zander refused to get out of bed to say goodbye. He tends to get angry at those who leave. I was encouraged that he is talking to Mike on the phone. Yesterday (and I apologize to all from the Pacific NW for what I’m about to say)…..when I told Zander the girls would be leaving today to go back to WA he informed us that “WA is stupid, everyone who lives out there is idiots”. I asked him if those unkind words had left a bad taste in his mouth and he emphatically told me “no”. At least THIS time he appears to be mad at the state of WA and not at the girls themselves.
As we prayed this a.m. before the girls left…Nolan lost his tooth. That was exciting.
The appliance repairman came today. It turns out that I have a WARRANTY! I called yesterday to schedule them to come. I said, “I only bought this a year ago – but it’s broken down. I need to get someone over here”. I had no clue I had purchased the warranty – its Mike’s policy that we don’t purchase warranties. It did work out well this time. I don’t have to worry about trying to fix it or pay to fix it while he is gone. I’m still tracking down someone to fix the tub.
Josiah had the day off today. We decided to go geocaching. He found six of them that he wanted to try and we FOUND THEM ALL! We had a huge sense of accomplishment. Josiah showed Jamin and Jared how to enter way points and they navigated to a couple of the caches. This is good. We’ll be able to do more of this even when Mike and Cy aren’t with us. All of us were stumped with trying to figure out Mike’s GPS but it seems that Jared knows how to use it….we’re in business. We certainly did NOT find the direct routes but we found 3 caches out by the lake…..then we ran home to pick up the CAMERA, water and use the toilet (Arielle and I are not au naturale). We headed out and found another cache in a park. The kids had a great time playing for a bit. We ate the rest of the cookies that BreAnne and the little ones had made yesterday. Our last cache was cool. It was a spot that used to be a training ground for pilots here at our base. At some point the AF gave the land to the city and they made a raceway out of it. It turns out that the cars now go faster at the track than the airplanes did. We enjoyed the drive (it was in a small town about 10 miles from ours) and the history.
We decided to eat out tonight – no one had thought to prepare for dinner before we left. AT 6:40 we pulled into Burger King. I had a hard moment when I realized that a month ago we needed *FOUR* tables and tonight we only needed *three* :::::gulp:::.
Back at home, Arielle, Nolan, Stacia, Jamin and I went to feed the deer. I read a chapter out of Hank the Cow dog to Arielle and Nolan. We can’t find our current Narnia book. We tracked down the girls…evidently they left a message on our machine but it wasn’t ON our machine. I was getting worried. They DID get to talk to Mike at 4 this a.m.
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