Keeping Busy While Daddy is Away

Derek is away at a retreat.  Let me tell you, I was not looking forward to this weekend.  I love the weekends when he's home and I can get a little extra rest and catch up on some sleep  Well, to my surprise, I've had a lot of energy and we've been having a great weekend so far.

The night before he left, we met with our small group.  We are going through a parenting book and it challenged us to divert daily with our kids -- do something different.  Don't get stuck in the routine and the to-do's.  Parenting is a relationship.  I felt convicted about how I've been spending my time lately.

So going into this weekend, I decided I wouldn't worry about cleaning or tidying the house and making dinner.  I would just spend some quality time with the kids.  In turn, I've had a lot more energy than I usually do and the kids have been great.  Some of the things we've done include washing the van, painting toe nails, reading books and going to the park.  

I can't avoid the household chores forever (I've already had to lower my cleanliness standards and it wasn't super high to begin with!) and I can't pop a frozen pizza in the oven every night.  But it's been great for this weekend and I now realize how much of my energy is spent on chores.  I'd much rather spend that energy on my kids and moving forward, I'm going to try!  

Here are some pics of the park we went to today.

Conversing with Karis Happens Best in the Car

Karis helping me re-park the car in the garage

At home, Karis' hearing is quite awful. If the TV is on, it is as if she is deaf. She gets so engrossed in her shows (lately they are: Clifford, Curious George, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas) that she is oblivious to us calling her name... no matter how often or how loud.

HOWEVER...

In the car, we've had some pretty great talks. Here are three bits of a recent chat.

Momma was driving the family home from sister Julie's house. They picked me up from my final seminary class of the semester on the way. Lena packed a to-go meal for me.  As always, Karis didn't eat enough of her dinner with her cousins around, so she immediately asked if she could eat my dinner. I advised her that I would feed her once we stopped the car implying when we reached home. She directed her next comment to her mother saying, "Momma, stop the car please." The adults had a good laugh at her problem solving skills.

As I was eating, Karis asked "You eat it all, Daddy?" I told her that I hadn't yet finished my dinner. She then implored me, "Save a piece for me, Daddy." I did feed her a couple of small bites of the lasagna in the car.

Later during the ride home, Karis received a couple of pieces of gummy fruits. I politely asked if she'd share one with Daddy. She quickly obliged and handed me one piece (apparently she follows in her dad's footsteps being so literal). Although still thankful, I did share with Karis that the piece she shared with me was already half-eaten. Without missing a beat, she very genuinely replied, "It's okay Daddy."

AND FOR TODAY'S HUMBLING CAR CONVERSATION...
The girls were being a handful around noontime today. I thought the promise of going to the "bumpy slide" park would help their spirits (and, in turn, mine). Not so.

After getting them locked into their car seats, Makena started fussing loudly about her right shoe. It was half on her foot. As I tried to push it back onto her foot, she screamed at me. So I went in again to remove it. Again she screamed at me. I put it back on her foot about half-way and she continued to cry hysterically. Frustrated, I left her alone and prepped for the ride. In the process, I shut Karis' door a bit too abruptly.

As I sat down in my seat, Karis calmly said in a soft and gentle voice, "Don't slam door, Daddy. You could hurt my two fingers." [Sister recently had two of her fingers shut in a bedroom door by Karis' friend.] Of course I had to get out of my seat, kneel down so I'd be eye-to-eye with Karis in her car seat, tell her she was absolutely correct, and then apologized for my inappropriate behavior.

Sometimes, kids are the best source of truth for me and reflection of where I need to work on my character.