Lovely Leaves

They have this wonderful system of leaf collecting here in Grand Forks.  Twice in the month of October, city workers come with a massive vacuum hose attached to a dump truck and suck up the leaf piles you have made for them on your berm.  Can I just say that up until this year I never knew there was such a word, berm, for that little patch of grass between the sidewalk and street.  Uffda, I'm such a country girl!  Anyway, I have a weird obsession with raking leaves and refuse to use anything with a motor when I collect them.  Just a rake, gloves and the much appreciated muscles God gave me.  I even made Brent promise not to steal my thunder and take this job from me.  So, imagine the giddy world I've been in lately with last night's final rake making it a total of five hours spent raking this fall!  The first rake was just for fun so that I could make a huge pile for the girls to play in.  We even situated their plastic slide so they could land right in the middle of all the deliciously crunchy leaves.  They took turns hiding a treasure in the leaves while the other had to find it and of course, the pile was heaped up over and over only to be crushed again as flying little bodies found a cushion for their landings. 
I knew the magic leaf truck would be making its final pass in the next day or two so last night I worked for an hour to pile the trees most recent purges.  I like to make mounds throughout the yard and then use a giant bag for loading the mound and pulling it to the growing wall of leaves on our berm.  The girls were busy coloring and playing inside but after awhile they were curious as to what I was up to.  I had two piles left to load and drag and Sage and Clare were eager to help.  They scooped up armfuls of leaves and packed them down so enthusiastically that half of what they put in flew out again.  Once the bag was full I asked to see their muscles to determine if they were strong enough to pull the bag themselves.  They passed the inspection and grabbed hold of a handle as I grabbed hold of Clare's hand and pulled her as she sometimes tends to veer off course.  :)  Their whole bodies leaned forward to pull that big bag all the way to to its final destination and there the girls worked together to dump its contents, giggling as the leaves dribbled around them.  We continued this process until we reached the last mound.  The girls faces dropped as I explained that we would not be playing in the leaves anymore this fall since the magic vacuum truck would be taking them all away and just as I was about to start scooping up those last leaves I stopped and said, "You know, I think this pile really wants some kids to jump into it first before we take it away."  Well, you can imagine what happened next and I will have the memory of their delighted faces and giant belly flops for always. 
This morning Clare and I had just gotten back from dropping Sage off at school when I heard a rumbling in the front yard.  We ran to the window, threw the curtain back and gasped when we saw...the magic vacuum truck.  In less than a minute it sucked up all my hard work, not leaving a trace behind, then moved on to the next house.  It's a reminder that this season is quickly ending and soon snow piles will be keeping the girls entertained while I am once again giddy doing my other weird obsession...SNOW SHOVELING!

Courtesies

This week I went to a mom's group that our church holds once a month.  They have volunteers who watch our kids (God bless them!) while about a dozen of us listen to the speaker, usually one of the pastor's wives, for about 40 minutes and then we break into groups of 3 or four to have a casual discussion while to we try to apply the message to our own lives.  I've tried the other mom's group out there and while I certainly had fun, I find for myself that this smaller (and quieter) group of women who enjoy digging into God's word to guide them as mothers and wives all the while remaining light enough to enjoy some good laughter together, recharges me so much more.
Anyway, the real topic of this post is the handout that was given at our last meeting.  Being the first meeting of this year, it was a sort of the expectations of our conduct being laid out.  All week I've been rereading this and not because I'm nervous about breaking one of the rules but because what it says is so simple and yet so very profound in how we treat our relationships today.  I hope Andrea doesn't mind but I just had to document it somehow for my girls.  Sage and Clare, someday when you read this I hope (really hope) that you can truthfully say that I held up these "courtesies" in my relationship with you, your Dad and everyone else, and that this will always be the desire of your heart to treat others in this a way--even when such honor is not returned.  I know that I will fail at this more than once and when I do, I pray God or you will show me the fault I hold and I promise I will say I'm sorry and ask for your forgiveness.  What teaches people the most is our own actions towards them and when the actions do not coincide with the words of our mouth, lessons will go unheard and never applied.  I can never make you choose to live any certain way but for better or worse, I know my actions will remain an example to you for the rest of your life.  With that thought, I know I need to pray A LOT! 

With some editing (italics being mine), I give you--

Mom Time Courtesies

  At the heart of any courtesy is putting the interest of others above your own, or "doing unto others as you would have them do unto you."  -Mathew 7:12

    

     1.   Be as consistent as you can.  We know that things come up and when they do, just let others

           know your change of plans.  Work at making your yes' be yes and your no's be no.

     2.   Be as prompt as possible.  Girls, I will work at breaking a generational habit of being late by

           showing up when you expect me and getting your where you need to be when you need to be,

           remembering what it feels like to walk late into a quiet room full of  people.  As you get older,

           more responsibility will fall on you to get yourself ready, but right now at your age, it is

           only my fault if you are late for something.

     

     3.   Be trustworthy.  Please treat information shared in discussion and prayer requests as

           confidential unless a person gives you permission. 

           "Honor one another above yourselves"   Romans 12:10

     4.   Listen.  Often in discussion people only want to be heard.  Be a good listener and only give

           advice if asked.  Be encouraging. 

               a.  "My dear brothers, take note of this:  Everyone should be quick to listen, [and] slow to 

                    speak..."   James 1:19a

               b.  "He who answers before listening - that is his folly and his shame."  Provers 18:13

               c.  "In humility consider others more important than yourselves"  Phillipians 2:3

               d.  "...stop passing judgment on one another."  Romans 14:13

               e.  "Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the

                    Head, that is, Christ."  Ephesians 4:15

     5.  Be real.  Be willing to be open with your life.  Openness requires transparency and

          authenticity.  Remember, God is not looking for perfect wives or mama's; He is looking for

          those who know they are not perfect.

     6.  Work for Unity.  Unity is a priority and a goal. 

               a.  "Be humble and gentle.  Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's

                    faults because of your love.  Always keep yourselves united in the Holy Spirit, and bind

                    yourselves together with peace.  We are all one body, we have the same Spirit, and we

                    have all been called to the same glorious future."  Ephesians 4:2-4

     7.  Don't Slander.  Although we encourage all to honestly share challenges and struggles during

          discussion and prayer times.  Please do so in a way that protects the reputation of your

          husbands and children.  This is not a place to recklessly vent complaints.  Take great care when

          your share about or pray for your husband and/or children (and friends) so as not to slander

          them.

               a.  "Do not slander one another"  James 4:11

I don't know how to end this post other than to say I love you girls and I'm so proud to be your mama.  More than you'll ever know.

Be Flexible Thursday

Thursday has become our here, there and everywhere day.  It starts out with dropping Sage off at school and then at 9:30am I take Clare to gymnastics.  I usually try and knock off some errands in that 40 minute window.  After lunch and Clare's nap, we pick Sage up from school, run home for a quick snack, a change of clothes and then whisk her off to her hour long gymnastic class at 4pm.  We meet Brent back at home a little after 5pm and then head off to our home group bible study (kids included) that goes until 7:30ish.  I always feel exhausted by the end of this day but it's worth it to me to be able to contain so much in one day so that the rest of the week is much more relaxed and freed up. 

I took the camera to both of the girl's gymnastic classes yesterday.  They go to Red River Valley Gymnastic which has an amazing facility and they both seem to really enjoy it.  The funny thing is that Clare's class is the only one going at that time and usually there is only about five kids in it (although yesterday there were just two) while Sage's class time has many classes going at the same time and yesterday I counted up to 70 kids and I know there was even more than that.  However, they've really mastered handling that many kids and the student to teacher ratio is still low enough that you never feel the sense of chaos.  It's incredibly impressive and I think I should maybe start taking some notes! It's fascinating to me that both of the girls have a strong desire to take gymnastics when I was so much in love with it myself when I was a kid.  We're really opposed to pushing the girls into being involved in only the sports and activities that we love or did as children because we like to encourage their individuality and interests in order to help them gain confidence in themselves and in the choices they make.  So before they are signed up for any class, we'll go over all the possible options out there, from swimming, to soccer, to t-ball to ballet.  Only one activity can be chosen and so far, this is what they really want to do.  I'm going to just enjoy it while it lasts and maybe brush up on some old skills in the meantime.  :)

One thing I want to mention about these pictures is that I wasn't allowed to use a flash in the gym which made it difficult to get a crisp image--especially during Sage's class so my apologies to you if you're forced to squint.



The lady in the pictures with Clare is Miss Jenna and she is her teacher and often Sage's as well. 
She seems to know the name of every kid that comes into the building and every kid knows hers and loves her.  She will demonstrate for them one time a long circuit of skills she wants them to work on and at the end she'll always say "Okay, go play." and I'm always shocked when I see the kids going through everything she just asked of them and remembering how they were suppose to do it all the while having a fun time.  I cannot say enough great things about her.



This is a balancing exercise where Sage is playing catch with another girl while on a balance beam.  They play this for awhile until the teacher tell them to switch and then they'll go to the next beam for a different exercise.