Week 2 -- White Flags and Words

We survived a whole weekend on a two partial rolls of toilet paper.  It was a mini-miracle accomplished with rationing, creativity, and trips up or down the stairs running streaming white flags to someone in distress.  My husband and I were both just too darn tired to go to the store.

Two more highlights: dancing with our kids in the living room after pizza and Ramona and Beezus.  It was past bedtime, but the kids really enjoyed being swung, whirled, or bounced (the baby would start to bounce if we stopped) around the room...the giggles were worth it.  The second one was hanging out in our backyard on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon-- lying in the lush grass, rolling a ball to baby, and playing soccer with the older kids.

Mid-afternoon on Sunday, I sat at my kitchen table to work on my parenting list and looked out my new favorite window.  Just tall yellow grass and a cherry tree, but beautiful all the same.

I realized that I don't have to figure this out myself-- I'm going to turn a little more to God for help.  I even tried a brief search of the Bible to see what terms came up most often in regards to children and parenting, which was encouraging.  

I decided to start with love.  I love the book The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell (I love the marriage version too by GC), in which Chapman describes how speaking some one's love language can help them feel more loved.  He defines the five love languages as: quality time, acts of service, gifts, physical touch, and words of affirmation.  Often we may be speaking a love language that we most appreciate, say, words of affirmation, when the other person feels loved through hugs/physical affection.  Chapman/Campbell say that children need all of the love languages until it becomes clear (after age five) what their language is (though we all need them all for the rest of our lives, we just have one that speaks louder to us than others).

Because I'm working on quality time right now,  I thought I'd also focus on a quality time aspect with my older kids:  paying attention when they are talking to me.  Even if its just a couple of minutes, I'm going to look up from the frying pan, the newspaper, or the diaper, give eye contact, and a smile.  (try to laugh, even if its a joke about a bum crack, like my son told me the other day)  I'm also going to give 5 extra minutes at bed time to listen and to help my kids pray, too.

Okay, time for quote of the day.  I'm enjoying some new extra reading minutes with my three and she is too.  We read a library book today about a man dressed in edible items who was surprised as various animals ate items of his clothing (like a cape made of lettuce) until he ran home in his birthday suit.  My little girl said "Mom, he only weared his belly button and a hat!"