Learning move about parenting

So I listened to a good radio broadcast from Family Life. Link It is on discipline. The point is to address the heart. Get the child to answer easy questions and admit disobeying. One thing that caught my attention is when they talk about how much you have to do it, and how exhausting it can be. So they offered this verse, which I think I'll work on memorizing this week.

Gal 6:9

"Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary."

I decide to add verse 10 after looking it up.

" ¹⁰So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith."

Galations 6:9-10

"Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith."

Gal 6:9-10

Verse 9 seems to say more about being a parent, but verse 10 really belongs with it, and I feel the verses still apply to parenting just fine. It might be somewhat harder to memorize, but not that bad.

New Project

Need some design help. The main idea is a castle bed for Katie on her 3rd birthday. May end up waiting longer, not sure. I have a main structure idea and hopefully will get around to posting some pics of my sketches, or even screen shots of the model.

I have three towers that I'm not sure what to do with.

I've thought of boring things like shelves or drawers that will be useful for organizing things, but it would be nice if it was geared more to play. A tower is about 2ft square, so there isn't a whole lot of room to work with.

Maybe a ladder on the inside that goes up to a trap door to enter the top bunk?

Maybe a fireman's pole to slide down?

What other features are there to make this more interesting.

The reason there is no forth tower is that I plan to make a tunnel to a slide in the back right corner.

One tower I plan to cut windows in to climb up from the outside. This would be the main way of accessing the top level.

I would like to make a sliding door/secret passage, but not sure where to put it.

What about some board space? Chalk board, white board? Should I put a metal plate behind it so you can stick magnets on it?

What about doors? I was planning on making the front just an open arch, but kids seem to love doors. Windows to the outside of the house will be in the back center, so I was wanting to do some cut outs that would project a fun image inside.

What about a light switch that controls a rope light that runs around the inside?

Right now the design is for the top bunk to be empty, but what about putting a tower or room up there?

Climbing net? Maybe a rope bridge between two towers instead of a wood platform.

Fake fireplace would be fun, not sure where to put it, but probably in the lower section. Though that area I want for sleeping mainly.

So I could use some more ideas as I design this. I have a basic structure design that I like, but want to add more.

What Should I Do?

In the most general since your purpose is to glorify God.

How you go about this is the harder part. I would say one way is to invest your life in others. This is where stay at home moms really stand out. They realize the importance of children, and desire to spend time with them. Unfortunately so much time with kids can be really exhausting, so it is nice that others can spend time too.

I think one thing our culture lacks is the real feeling of community. The church has moms n' tots once every other week, which seems way too infrequent to me. But when our small groups meet, it is only twice a month, which in my opinion is pretty bad as well. fortunately it seems most small groups meet more often, but I'm always discouraged by the turnout.

Maybe my perspective will change when the kids are actually in school and have friends in the neighborhood. Though that seems far away fortunately. Sometimes I wonder how my kids will do in their purpose to glorify God. Right now they need so much more training it seems, but I don't know if that will ever change. I think I always feel like I need to learn more, so I look at others the same.

Choosing Your Battles

So while I was mowing a couple days ago I was thinking about Sunday School. We have been teaching the four year old class for the past two months. Some of the behavior issues are truly amazing. So I was thinking on how I can raise my kids to be well behaved and obedient.

You have probably heard the advice that you should pick your battles, but while I was mowing I was thinking how that probably isn't good advice for a parent. Maybe for a child, but as a parent don't the battles involve obedience? Isn't that worth fighting for? If I want to raise obedient children, then I think I will have several battles to fight.

I met with a father of four, and he agreed for the most part, but mentioned that he believes the mother contributes about 80% to their behavior since she is dealing with them most of the time. So that means I need to get Wifey on board. This is mainly because my son is not doing a very good job listening and obeying, and I think that problem will wear us down faster than if we just spend the extra energy up front to deal with it now.

Variables in Life

Establishing good habits is great and all, but there are some variables that make it difficult. The variable that I find the hardest is children. There naps aren't really consistent, but more of a general time. You put them to bed, and hope they go to sleep. Then you hope they don't wake you up in the morning. These things aren't that common, and maybe if they were common it would be easier to work around.

The weather is also an interesting variable. This morning it is raining, but I was pretty sure it would be, so I was pretty much planning on driving instead of riding to work today. Though with the rain came a drop in temperature, so it is a little sad I'm not riding in the cooler weather.

Well, speaking of kids, I hear by baby girl, so I should probably go get her.

What are some variables that make good habits difficult for you? Or what excuses do you use to get out of your workout?

What a start for the day

Well, for some odd reason the baby boy woke up at 5am and wouldn't go back to bed. So I got up with him, and should have done my quiet time, but didn't. So I don't have a memory verse for Pange. Wait, I can do this from memory. Joshua 1:8 "This book of the law shall not depart from your lips, but you shall meditate on it day and night, being careful to do all that is written; and then you shall prosper, and then you will have success." Josh 1:8

Ok, so now I'll look it up, because I'm pretty sure I messed up.
"This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. "
Not bad, several word/phrase changes, but pretty good.

So I decided to check out this MyFitnessPal.com because it sounds interesting. I wonder how I put in my biking, and how much that is worth.

Update for mid June already

If you aren't reading http://blog.jasonkearney.net/ you really should. Right now free wheel Oklahoma is going on and I like reading about it. I'm thinking of going next year, but that also requires training. Also need to rope as many others as I can into doing it.

Lately things have been really busy. I've been spending my time with my wife and kids, and other family, but I have also spent it playing video games. Had my quiet time this morning which has been lacking. Just this month I have missed so many, I had a QT on the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and now today. That is pretty bad, but at least I had it today. And now I'm actually posting on this blog which has been even longer. If I was riding my bike to work I wouldn't be posting, but I used the last of the dog food this morning for her breakfast, so I need to grab a bag on my way home. Then I need to mow, so I didn't want to wear out my legs.

Over all things have been going really well. Work is a lot of fun, we have our new boards in that I've been testing and writing down needed changes. We have some good goals for the end of the summer, so I'm excited about accomplishing them. We have three old products that we are redoing and it is exciting, we are making some great improvements. The hardest thing is trying to keep the size and cost down while expanding the features.

Now that somewhat bad news. Katie's birthday is in September, and kids need to be at least one year old with good neck/head control before riding on the bike, so she won't be able to ride this summer. That is really sad. We need to get riding to train for freewheel next year. I also need to make sure I can take a child carrier trailer. That may be a deal stopper, but I think it is permitted.

I need to post some pictures of the kids, we have been having so much fun interacting. I'm really enjoying them growing up and developing more.

So what has been happening

Not sure why I haven't had time to post anything, but I've been meaning to. The boat bed is done and looks great. I've been trying to get some pictures to post here, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Angie and Jason did a wonderful job painting a faux wood grain. David loves his new bed, I have some video of him on it, maybe I can try posting that too. Though that won't be till the weekend when I transfer the tape onto my hard drive.

Started riding my bike again. My annoying cough that has been lingering is finally gone, so I don't mind breathing in the cool morning air. Today it was about 48 degrees, and I over dressed. I'm thinking just my work pants and not the windbreaker over them. Also a lighter top layer, I wore my yellow long sleeve pull over.

Easter was a great time, but very exhausting. We have way too much chocolate too. David loved it, but I think we had too many eggs for the kids. He would pick one up and try to open it instead of gathering them all first.

DFL is going well, but I think I need to have my quiet time on top of doing my DFL. This will require a lot more time, but I think it is needed. I have really missed have a more relaxing QT.

Our house is still somewhat of a wreck. Especially the garage. I need to get it cleaned up from the boat bed project. We also need to get our house cleaned up from having company stay with us. But hopefully that can get done this weekend.

The kids have been doing really well. Katie is sitting up easily, David is talking more and more, you can now ask him if he wants water or milk. Katie rolls over, but doesn't seem to be that interested in crawling yet.

Things have been pretty busy at home, and I need to take advantage of the time available to get things done. We have been failing at doing any workouts which needs to change. Hopefully this weekend we will get the rest we need and be able to get the house in order.

Worry

So, I have anxiety issues. It is something that just adds stress to my life that I don't need. yesterday when David got up from a second nap he had some weird bumps on his face, so we thought maybe he got some sort of bite while he was in his crib. We checked the crib and didn't find any bugs or anything, so we took pictures of his face and watched him for a bit. The bumps went away within 10minutes and weren't that bad to start with. We also checked his belly and back for maybe some sort of allergic reaction to something, but fortunately found nothing.

Well, during bath time I noticed some more bumps on the back of his legs. Then I noticed a whole lot on his little left butt cheek. Well, this was a bit freaky, so I called Julie in to look at it and she didn't know what ot make of it either. We cleaned him off and got him out of the bath and paged the doctor, but now I'm pretty sure it went wrong because we haven't heard back yet. So last night I was very parinoid. I would have liked more time to watch him, but felt he needed to go to bed. So I put him to bed and turned on the monitor. I was about to get in the shower when I thought I heard some weezing, so I put on a robe and called Julie and grabbed David. Who was completely fine. I'm pretty sure everything I'm so worried about is just in my head messing with me. So I prayed with David and Julie after I got him up. It helped me relax a bit. David was up a little more just hanging out, I checked him again and it looked like the bumps were going down a bit so I read to him and put him to bed again. Now I'm trying my best to wait and not wake him up since he went to bed so late, but for some reason I still worry about him.

Context of 2 Cor 5:17

Time to look at the context of a verse.  2 Cor 5:17 was written by Paul to believers in the church of Corinth.  Second Corinthians addresses unity to Paul's ministry and offers perspective on the ministry of the gospel.

So today we need to read 2 Cor 5.  But focus on the verses surrounding the memory verse.

Christ the Center

2 Cor 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.

2 Cor 5:17

Oh, and baby update.

Katie went in for her two month checkup and was 22", 12lbs 6oz.

Surprisingly Easy

I'm finally taking the time to post on this blog again.  Not sure why, I don't have a lot to say.  My daughter was born and is really cute, and amazingly easy.  

People kept saying how easy we had it with David, well Katie is much better.  Since we have been home I have been sleeping really well and not disturbed by the baby in our room.  She is so quiet and sleeps great.  Our biggest struggle is trying to keep her awake during the day to get some stimulation.  

I've been working half days this past week to help out at home, but I'm thinking it wasn't really needed.  We were able to get things done around the house, but it was more of the major cleaning and not really working to keep up with two children.  

Still not sure how Julie is going to do being a mother of two, but for now she has help when I'm away.  That should change in about a week, so hopefully she will make some progress on how to handle a toddler while she is feeding the baby.

I should also mention how appreciative we are to have visitors.  For some reason we really didn't need a lot of rest at the hospital, so it was nice to see people.  

Get organized Part 4: Dependent's Stuff

I made this section because of my baby boy. He can really make a mess, and he has a lot of stuff. Being so little he lacks the ability to truly organize. At this stage all he can do is put stuff in a bin. The problem with this is he thinks putting anything in the bin is good even if it doesn't belong in the bin.

How do you decide if an item is a keep or discard. I usually can't make this decision, but Julie can since she deals with him all day long each day. With a child you have an extra option. You can discard, keep, or hide it for later. The hide it for later typically takes care of itself in our house. David will run around and put things where they don't belong. Then when we get around to really cleaning the house we will find these toys just scattered here and there.

I don't have a whole lot to say on this subject since I lack experience in the area. Maybe my parents can post some tips or something. At this age David doesn't really have just a favorite toy, so anything is up for grabs with him.

Ah, so I thought of something worth mentioning. I like how many of his toys are kept in his room, but we also have this ottoman that can store things. This is great for the living room. We can store several toys for him to play with. And the thing with his toys right now is that it doesn't have to be very organized, the bin works great because he enjoys digging through it and seeing all the toys.

Now I want to talk about his room. This area is more difficult because he likes to make a mess. Julie had the wonderful insight of putting things in small bins on the shelves to help keep it organized, and this helps David just from seeing it all on the shelf and throwing it on the floor. He typically will leave these bins alone. The closet is a wonderful thing because the door allows you to block access to those things, but at the same time it is also harder access for us to use.

Well, I can hear my baby boy even though it is way too early for him to be up. So i guess it is time for me to go.