Thoughts

DH is such a wise man. I love the way he leads our family and spends time praying about things and talking about them with me. Tonight we were having a discussion about our family. DH pointed out that we only have 9 more years (including this one) of having all of our children under one roof. Wow. He painted a picture for me when he said, "In 9 years we won't have 5 sleeping children in their beds in this house. Three of them will be in college." Wow. I can hardly believe that. Our time as parents at home of these precious babies is halfway over for our oldest three. That is crazy. Lord, how can that be? It seems like just yesterday I was using one spoon to quickly feed three babies their squash baby food! Now they are going into the fourth grade. The time does pass too quickly.

Therefore, we are going to carefully choose how we spend our time. Certainly we have tried to choose wisely how we spend our time in the past, but now we are going to go forward being even more careful. This is it. This is our chance to help our children grow in their love for the Lord. This is our chance to KNOW them well. One day they will leave us and no longer live with us. One day they will be adults. Gasp! This is our time to love them, know them, enjoy them, and to teach them about our dear Lord and all that He has done for us. We get one chance. DH and I don't want to miss a minute with them. Of course we will miss minutes with them, but you know what I mean.

If we spend time away from our family, we want it to be time well-spent. We want to enjoy our time with those who have been true friends, but life is too short to be with those who would not choose to be with us. Our relationship with the Lord and then each other is most important, but our children are next. They have been entrusted to us for a short time. While the days of summer can be long, I am trying to relish these sweet moments of swimming in our pool, going to the library, painting horses, and cooking meals. With the Lord's help, I am trying to carefully discipline when I see disobedience and to leave the room when I'm too angry. I am trying to mold the heart of a stubborn but precious 4 year old and to help a 7 year old with her reading. I am encouraging lots of reading, piano, and math facts. We are talking about the Bible, reading the Bible, and answering catechism questions. We are learning the 10 Commandments thanks to encouragement from Covenant Kids Class. Dh is also reading the first "Harry Potter" book to our oldest children. We are night swimming, playing on the beach, drinking an occasional sprite, and having too many popsicles. We are thanking God for every day we can enjoy these precious children!!!