Pixiemom

Yesterday and the day before were lovely. We had the heat off and the windows open. My kids played as long as they were allowed. Amie and James are happy that they are allowed to be outside longer now. I used to call them in when the light started going a little. Now I let them stay out a bit longer and told them to come in before it was too dark. They have both done fine and not stayed out so long I feel the need to call them. Their play territory has enlarged as well. I told them that they could go play with some kids up the street as long as they let me know beforehand. There are about three different households of kids that play together about a block away and they love having so many kids to play with now. Amie really loves it because our neighbors are all boys and there are a girls in this group as well as boys. It’s nice to have a neighorhood with lots of kids around.

Last night, it started raining and bringing in a cold front. It was still nice out at 8:30 pm when we got out of church even with the sprinkling rain. I started dancing in the rain. It was fun. I think my brother-in-law and my friend were laughing at me, but that’s okay. I was enjoying myself. Today, it isn’t even 50 outside, so we had to turn on the heat again. It won’t be long before we’ll have those nice temps more often. I like spring so much. It’s always so beautiful.

I lost Noelle at Walmart today. I always try and count heads fairly often while we are out, but I had AnnaBeth needing to go potty pretty badly, so I was kind of trying to herd all the kids toward the front. Noelle had spotted a little boy with a ball she wanted to play with and I’d called to her a few times and she had turned and come in front of me at first, but I’m guessing she turned back. Once I realized she was gone, I turned around and started retracing my steps. Not long into my search, I heard the intercom ask for a lost mommy for a found child up at Customer Service. I sighed with relief and started up that way. I don’t think she was gone for more than ten minutes, but the employee who found her said it felt like it was a whole thirty minutes. She had been found nearby where the little boy had been playing with the ball. This is the Walmart which Andrew (Jeremy’s brother) works at and he knew it was one of mine as well and started toward Customer Service too. I encountered him on the way and told him who had wandered off and since he can walk a lot quicker, he got up there and had her happy by the time I got up there.

Boy, my heart sure had got fast before I knew she was safe. I haven’t lost a child since Christine was a baby and a 3 yr old Amie wandered off at the St. Louis Science Museum on a crowded Saturday. That search lasted longer and was much scarier for me.

We were talking about Matthew 5:16. “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.”

Her little booklet from Bible Drill asked her to write in her own words what the verse means to her. She asked me to help her, so we talked about what light does (helps us to see) and how people look at us and see what we do. Because of that, we are candles for Jesus and show them His ways by doing good and talking about Jesus and the Bible. Our flame shows the way to Him and sometimes it might not be as bright, but if we realize we aren’t doing as we should and repent, than our flame can become bright again. She ended the discussion by saying, “Then God is the Candlemaker, because He made us and we are His candles.”

Amie has been doing her best at getting her chores done and all her school work done quickly. She was pretty much done by 1 pm today. I’m proud of her. At first, she complained when Jeremy and I started getting a bit more strict with chores, but lately after I’ve showed her ways of getting them done easier, she’s been getting them done quickly. For instance, the dining room is also where we have the wooden play kitchen set with all the play food and dishes. That part of the dining room gets a bit messy. On the days that she has the dining room, after she cleans the table from breakfast, she takes the broom and sweeps everything into one big pile and then sorts them out as to where they go. That puts everything in one place and she can pick up all the play dishes at once and put them all away and then pick up as many play food as she can at once and put them away and so on. This helps her to get it done much quicker. She is then able to do another more thorough sweeping of the floor and is pretty much done. She had the bathroom today and got it done fairly quickly too. I’m proud of her. If she continues with this, I’ll take her out on a special day with just me.

I’m sad. There are no more babies in this house. Noelle is officially potty trained during the day. There are no diapers in this house. I’m glad not to have diapers to change, but it’s still sad to think of all my kids growing up.

The good thing though is that the day we used the last diaper, I decided to put the extra $20 a month which we used to spend on diapers into a savings account for an anniversary get-a-way sometime. Jeremy and I decided to use around $100-$150 of it a year for our anniversary and save the rest for the special years. We’ll use a bit more for our 15 year anniversary, maybe $200, and then when our 20 year anniversary comes around, we’ll see how much we have saved and what we can do with that.