Noah Goes To Kindergarten

Today was Noah's first day of Kindergarten!  I really cannot believe he is old enough to be in school.  How in the world did that happen?!

I got to take him to school today.  I thought I might be a mess.  I rarely ever cry or get emotional.  Can't even remember the last time I really cried.  But, what happens is that it just builds and builds.  (Quite understandable when you maybe cry once or twice a year.)  So when there is something that makes me emotional I have the ugly cry every time.  Kinda like 365 days of crying comes out at once.  I was hoping that my ugly cry took place before today, or it would have been REALLY ugly.  Thankfully, I got that out of the way yesterday.  So no tears today.  For me or Noah.  Score.

Noah was so excited to go to school.  He was jumping up and down, literally.  He got to meet his teacher on Friday and he loved her.  She is super organized and dresses pretty (his words).  They are going to get along juuust fine.

I have concluded that after being in the classroom just five minutes Ms. Pearson is going to have an interesting year.  There were two boys in the class that did not stop talking the entire time I was in there.  One was going on and on about his brother's first day of school (in a hilarious southern accent) and the other was saying, "Ms. Pearson, do you like my shoes?  Ms. Pearson do you like this color?  What are we going to do to today? etc etc"  They weren't being wild, just talking and talking and talking.  I started to feel like I was at home, but minus the screaming and sounds of things slamming into the walls every two minutes.

I left him in the room, already anxious to hear about his day.  I thought about him all day long.  I missed him.  I wondered what he was doing.  I wondered if he was having fun.  If kids were being nice to him.  And it seemed like 3 pm would never come!  It finally did, and then the bus was 25 minutes late.  So I finally got to see him around 3:30.  He was so excited he practically ran all the way home from the bus stop.

Tonight at dinner he got to eat off of our family's "You Are Special" plate.  (A little tradition of ours.  We have a special plate and you get to eat off of it on your birthday or for special events in your life.  The kids get so excited when that plate is used.)  Kenneth then took Noah to pick out some ice cream for the family and we ate dessert to celebrate his first day of Kindergarten.

Here are some pictures from Noah's day.  Probably one of my favorites is the one where he is with his new friend.  When I dropped him off today I took a picture of Noah at his table and a picture of Noah with his sweet teacher Ms. Pearson.  Then this kid said, "Hey!  Will you take a picture of me?!"  I said, "Sure!" He hopped out of his chair and ran right over to Noah, posing for the picture.  It was so funny.

What God Does

I don't even have the words to describe what I am about to attempt to post.  Know that much.

A while back I wrote a post about all the car troubles that we have been having.  It has been exhausting and expensive.  We have put nearly $2,300 in that car (in repairs) in the last year.

We began praying when this happened: Car Drama  ...and then this.  We prayed for the Lord's wisdom and provision.  We prayed for His perfect timing, even when we wanted it to be our timing.  We have been praying almost daily since April.  Within a few weeks of the first incident I began sensing that God was going to give us a free car.  A few weeks after that I confided in Kenneth, and to my amazement/encouragement he said that he felt the same way.

Now, I am going to be the first person to tell you that I don't go by feelings.  Rarely ever. One of my favorite quotes is, "Feelings will deceive you.  God's truth never will" by Sarah Bragg.  Lots of rich truth in that.  I tried repressing this feeling about a free car, but it just kept coming to my mind every time I prayed about it.  Still I was hesitant.  But then I thought, "You know what?  If God wants to give us a free car.  He totally can.  I wonder where this is going to come from.  Wonder what it is going to be?"  I felt so strongly about this that I even neglected to look at cars available.  I did agree to allow Kenneth to contact a wholesaler to begin looking for a good deal at the auctions.  Because, after all, my feeling could be wrong.

We waited and waited.  We never heard back from the wholesaler after the first few conversations.  I felt the Lord saying, "Just wait on Me."

....And then it happened.

Kenneth got a call a couple weeks ago from a man in our church (I don't even know this person).  He asked Kenneth if he would be interested in a car that his daughter and son-in-law were looking to get rid of.  Kenneth said he would be interested.  Then he said, "Well, they want to sell it to you for one dollar."

What?!

Okay, so maybe it wasn't free.  But seriously!?!  $1!!!!!!!!  FOR A CAR!!!!! That is free if you ask me!  (This is crazy, radical stuff, isn't it?)

Kenneth told me he just sat there and then finally told the guy that we have been praying for months about this.  And he simply said, "Well, consider your prayers answered."  Thank you, Lord.
Kenneth went to pick the car up last week.  It is a 2004 Chevy Trailblazer. 

I am reminded so much of James 1.  That whole  Count It All Joy thing (James 1:2-5), and now the whole "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change" thing (James 1:17).  If we had not gone through those trials we would have never experienced this good and perfect gift from God.  Had God not brought us through some exhausting and expensive stuff we would have never been able to experience Him in this way.  Sometimes I wonder if God just listens to our prayers and says to Himself, "Oh, you just watch what I am about to do.  Girl, you don't even know.  Juuuust watch.  I got this."  He must, right?!

Once again, He has proven to be our perfect provider, having the perfect timing.  And He indeed supplies ALL of our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).  Oh, how I praise Him!  Won't you praise Him with me?!  Look what He can do!

At Least My Floors Are Clean

So today was a pretty typical day.  I feel like I have been in a funk the last couple of weeks though.  The kids are being pretty unruly which not only is hard to deal with but is exhausting.  I hate having to discipline ALL.DAY.LONG.  I want to be consistent, so I cannot let stuff slide that they know is wrong.  I feel like I have been totally impatient and tired.

They feed off one another.  Aiden is always hitting and grabbing which makes Asa or Nathan or both scream and cry.  Which then leads Noah to his favorite job of tattle telling.  And so the constant whining is just like nails on a chalkboard to me.  I just want to start whining and crying with them.

But, in all of this, I know that discipline is necessary.  To discipline them is to love them because I cannot allow them to continue in their sin.  I want to shepherd their hearts that they would grow to love the Lord and be obedient to Him. 

And so I have to discipline myself and practice lots of self control for moments like this...

I was sitting outside today watching the boys play in their pool and run around the yard.  Next thing I know, I look over and see Asa holding something in both hands.  Is that???  Surely not.  O yes, it is.  Oh.mi.goodness.gracious.  There is Asa holding two ginormous pieces of his own poo.  One in each hand. 

That was fun to clean up.

And then there was this fine moment...

Asa was put in time out.  He didn't like it.  He decided to get us back.  I walked in to get him out of time out and saw him sitting in a pool of his own urine, running his hands through it, playing.  On the hardwood floor.  And to make it even more awesome, Nathan was playing in it too. 

Floor was mopped.  Kids given baths.  And then the crowning moment...

I was upstairs putting the kids to bed and walked into our master bathroom.  Looked down and saw that Sophie had decided to use the rug as her urinal.  Of course it bled through onto the tile, and stained the grout. 

Floor was cleaned.  Grout was scrubbed.  Rugs put in the washer.

I think I am going to sleep well tonight.  Thanks to Asa and Sophie most of the house is sparkling clean.