Chapter 1 Its your kid not a Gerbil

I found this book in the airport in Nashville and found it very thought provoking.  

1.  "The pressure to grow up fast, to achieve early is very great in middle-class America.  There is no room today for the "late bloomer."  Children have to achieve success early or they are regarded as losers."  This originally came from the book "The hurried Child" by David Elkind.  I know I will be putting this book on my wishlist.  This sounds interesting to me as my daughter started developing as early as the 2nd grade.  I just wasn't sure why.  She started shaving her legs by the 3rd grade.  I asked our pediatrician about this and he said that the pediatricians are finding that children are developing about 6 months before their mother's did.  Well, this would be a problem with me.  I was in the the 5th-7th grade.  This is quite the difference from 6 months.  Kids today are anxious about the society and how they are looked upon as parents.  Are parents looking for the blue ribbon to say you are The Best Parents?  I know of a lot adults that group up poor without tennis lessons and went on to be productive citizens contributing to society.  For goodness sakes they are holding a spot for their 2 month old in the most prestigious preschools in their area.  A school the child won't attend for another 3-4 years!  It was called Nursery University.  Check it out, I watched it on Netflix.

2. "Check out the magazine articles on squeezing the most out of every second, including how to lose weight faster, find the most healthy fast food, and make friends faster.  They're all aimed at our "instant" world." another quote from the first chapter of "Its Your Kid, Not a Gerbil".  

I remember when Oprah came out with her magazine.  I bought it with enthrusiasm just as other women around did.  I was very unimpressed with the media.  The magazine was filled to brim with ads.  Little content with a big price.  Yes, we live in an instant world.  I call it the "microwave age"  we want things done and appear now...not later.  So what are they doing?  Putting the parents on the gerbil wheel while the kids are at school?  Best Yoga place, best food for us to buy....really?  I am sure our grandparents when they were young only went to 1 store for all of their needs.  Everything else was made at home.

3. "At ToysRUs online, you can even buy PDAs for kids to schedule homework between soccer practice and Cub Scouts."  Really, people?  I mean we did participate in scouts when the kids were younger but I don't remember it taking up that much of our time.  About an hour a week I think?  

Just a closer walk with thee...

This has been my song for today.  I can't help what song gets in my head.  But this song brought me closer to more than just God.

You see...as I grew up with my grandparents I did things with them and we were very much scheduled.  Grandma had her hair done the same time each week.  They were in Walmart by a certain time and Food World.  They packed all of this in before 11am as they were normally sitting outside the Quincy's restaurant just before they opened.

Skip a few years and now they are living in Texas.  The schedule is very different and I haven't caught on to it just yet.  Today is Tuesday and I thought today they ate at the Cotton Patch but I found out that today they are eating at the Golden Corral.  But we

 did make a stop at Walmart just before eating.  I walked side by side next to my grandmother who is probably 2 feet shorter than I am.  She is pushing the grocery cart and I don't have a hard time keeping with her.  But as I was walking with her this song popped in my head.  Grandma told me they have a rule with each other (with grandpa) that they have to leave walmart by 10:40am in order to stop and get gas before heading to lunch.  On time they were. We get to Golden Corral and I thought being the good granddaughter that I try to be that I would help grandma get her meal choosings for her plate.  Oh no.  They know my grandparents so well that she has a waitress who takes her by the arm and guides her through the buffet to see what she would like to eat.  Then she brings her back to the table and leaves toget the normal stuff like butter and such for her.  It seems that my grandparents walk close to a lot of people who have a willing heart to help them out.  They still walk close to Jesus and I have always known that of them.   But we also need other to walk close to us as we enter our new days and on the journey that we make the choices to be a part of.

JUST A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE

Just a closer walk with Thee,Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,Daily walking close to Thee,Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.

I am weak, but Thou art strong;Jesus, keep me from all wrong;I’ll be satisfied as longAs I walk, let me walk close to Thee.

Through this world of toil and snares,If I falter, Lord, who cares?Who with me my burden shares?None but Thee, dear Lord, none but Thee.

When my feeble life is o’er,Time for me will be no more;Guide me gently, safely o’er

To Thy kingdom shore, to Thy shore.

I let the big one go..

So this week I am spending some quiet time in Texas without any children.  Judge took the week off so I could fly to Texas and spend some precious time with my grandparents, aunt & uncle...cousins too!  Its been a stress free week so far.  No outside stress just the constant battle I have within my self and my diabetes.

Last night my uncle and I went out to the fishing pier to catch "the big one".  He is a man of little words so when he talks you really do want to listen.  He instructed me on how to cast and lures and stuff like that.  Now I have been fishing all my life but this was not something I wanted to boast about to him.  I let him teach me.  My own comments were usually "Mmmm Hmmm".  He knows this pond and knows how the fish like to eat and which lures work at the certain time of day.  This is his fishing hole.  Not mine.

But I caught the "big one" that will last in conversation for awhile for me.  But in reality I caught 3 sunfish and 2 large mouth bass.  They were around 2-3 pounds.  He even had me grab ahold of the large mouth to put it back in the water...eww I said, It will bite me!!! But I did it!

Which brings me to think.  God wants us to catch a big one too.  It doesn't matter how big or small it is.  But to you it is the Big one!  God wants us to wait patiently for his direction.  Whether you acknowledge him with a "MmmmHmmm" because you are trying to just stay quiet or with a "Yes, Lord".

This week I will be blogging on the book of "Its Your Kid, not a gerbil by Dr. Kevin Leman while I am on vacation.

Random Acts of Kindness Thursday Study

I found out that there is a Random Acts of Kindness week but its in November.  Today is going to be our RAK day for teaching purposes.

We are starting with two verses from the Bible:
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.” (1 Corinthians 13:4)
“He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done.” (Proverbs 19:17)


We are using these slogans:
•"Kindness can change the world." 

•"Kindness begins like a ripple of water"...  

                          

•"Kindness makes your heart glow!"

•"The kindness in people is reflected back to them."

•"I believe in the magic of kindness."

•"Practice random kindness."

http://www.kidactivities.net/category/Random-Acts-of-Kindness.aspx

Kids are choosing which slogan they want to do and are going to be making a mini sized poster (blank printer paper).

I wrote the 6 slogans above to give them a choice on which one they wanted to do.

Before the poster they are writing on lined paper 10 ways to be kind for them to start brainstorming.

What triggered this idea (well, God of course) was two things as I walked in the house from being at Walgreens.  1.  Early this morning Jesse was a genius!!!  Elizabeth doesn't spell very well (neither does he) but this was something he could do for his sister.  He got on the desktop computer and made a folder on the main page with her name on it and inside of the folder were websites that she goes to a lot.  This saves everyone in the house time to have to spell out the whole website for her so now she can just click and go!  2.  Again, I came home to Jacob making ramen for Elizabeth.  Just because he wanted to.  Not sure if she asked him or not but this isn't a normal thing for him to just go and do.

I want the children to grow up and do things for themselves and others without having to be told to do it.  Take some initiative.  The feelings you have in your heart are way more powerful than someone praising you for doing something.  Not all the time will you get praised therefore you should be able to praise yourself with a pat on the back.

I will add pictures of their posters when they are finished.