Light at Home: August 2019

Getting to the Heart

Posted by My Heart Song

8/15/2019

A quick, but deep, thought about motives and the heart.

When I see this picture, I see each individual child and their uniqueness. The one who struggles with fear, the one obsessed with outward beauty, the one who hates hypocrisy with a passion, etc. But I am only human and my parenting is imperfect, especially at figuring out what is happening in their hearts, at the root of choices they make.

We were recently discussing Hebrews 4:12 about the Word of God being able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Oh, how thankful I am that God is able and His Word is able to discern motives and thoughts! It's not my job. It doesn't rest on me! I don't have to be perfect at it. Because God is! What a gift His Word is, if only we'd treasure it and allow it to transform us!

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Swim Lessons

Posted by My Heart Song

8/6/2019

The last few weeks, two of my kids participated in swim lessons at a nearby gym. I am highly satisfied with the results!

My 5 year old girl takes to the water like a fish. She has been asking to take swim lessons for months and months. She loved the lessons, smiling the entire time. She had no concerns dunking her head, blowing bubbles under the water, etc. She did great and is begging for more swim time and more lessons.

My 3 year old son is a different story. Last December he had a near drowning incident at a hotel pool. He remembers this vividly, though not in a terribly negative sense. He talks about it calmly, but nonetheless connects all water with "that one time I went in the deep water and couldn't see anybody and threw up all over Dad's shoulder."

So it was understandable that he was hesitant about swim lessons. He cried. He repeatedly told me that he didn't want to go. He pouted. For the first few days, anytime we made eye contact, he would pout and give me a big thumbs-down sign to show me how much he was not enjoying lessons.

However, by day 4 (halfway through the 8 days of lessons), things had changed. He started to smile a little bit during lessons. He wasn't as fearful. He was enjoying himself a little bit. And by days 7 and 8, he was laughing and joking with his instructors. He would smile at me when I looked his way. He gave me a big thumbs-up sign.

He's not able to swim on his own yet. But he is able to replace his entirely negative water experience with a positive pool memory now. I'm well satisfied with the swim lesson experience and the instructors who didn't give up on my boy, though he was definitely the toughest kid in the class.

We celebrated with ice cream after this big turnaround!

One of the great things about this particular gym/aquatics center is that they allow parents and younger children not taking lessons to play in the rest of the pool, children's swim area and lazy river. So I was hanging out with my 2 year old son in the water the entire time lessons were taking place. He, of course, loved this.

Big thumbs-up for swim lessons!

PS: I know the pictures in this post are not great. Oh well. They are the best we could do at the time.

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Happy Birthday, Bright Eyes

Posted by My Heart Song

8/5/2019

This girl has turned 16!

Sixteen feels like a big birthday on the road to adulthood.

Last week we opened up a checking account for her.

She'll be getting her driver's permit this week.

And she's on the look-out for her first job.

So we celebrate her!

For her birthday menu, she chose:

fried potatoes for breakfast, pancakes for lunch, watermelon and Pringles for a snack, Hardee's for supper and ice cream cake for dessert.

We took time to share, each one in our family, some of the things we love about the birthday girl. She says that words of affirmation is her love language, so she should be filled up after hearing all of us share things we love and appreciate about her. The little ones also shared some favorite memories and activities they enjoy with big sister.

She received some gifts from her siblings, including silly string, an Emoji cup, a coloring book, gum, a homemade slime kit and a keychain. For bigger gifts, she received an art easel (for her canvas painting, which she is really into these days) and a keyboard stand (to hold the full-size piano keyboard she got a few months ago).

A few weeks ago Grandma K visited from Wisconsin and gave her some gifts at that time, including blank painting canvases and some blank canvas shoes. She pondered how to decorate the shoes and came up with this design. Very pretty and colorful!