Every week I like to take a moment to showcase the moments that brought me the most joy. Sometimes they are awesome activities and other times it’s a sweet moment between the kids. There are always moments that can fill us with joy if we choose to see them with a thankful heart.
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It was a packed week as we closed out summer. I ignored a few chores and tasks that weren’t pressing issues in place of spending extra time playing together. There are just a few days left but they are filled with back to school tasks. The boys found out their teachers and are getting excited to find out who they will have in their classes.
1. Learning a new game
There are only so many games three and four year olds can play. We have several preschool games but they need my help to play so instead I’ve shown them a couple games they can “play” without my help. They are fascinated with dropping the checkers into the Connect 4 game and then dumping them back out. They may not play correctly but they get along and have fun taking turns. Works for me!
2. Bike ride
On Tuesday we took a bike ride up to a nearby park. Now that Mercedes has gotten more confident on training wheels I can take them all out on bikes by myself! I still have to bike a significantly slower pace than I would like but it’s faster than the last time I tried this when she was on a trike. And it’s faster than everyone walking so I’ll take it!
3. LEGO builds
In order to find time to work on writing a devotional I have to get a little creative. The kids want to be around me but I need to be at the computer. I’ve started pulling out a different LEGO bucket each day and letting them build. They are getting quite creative and it’s excellent fine motor skill work for the littler kids. It’s not distraction free for me by any means but that’s okay. Motherhood will never be distraction free.
4. New board games
The boys asked me to teach them to play two new board games this week – LIFE and Mall Madness. Every day during the little kids’ naps and at bed once the littler ones are down we’ve been playing. The last few weeks it was Phase 10 and Skip-Bo but now we’ve switched to board games. I love that they are old enough to understand fun games and I love this extra time with them.
5. She earned it!
We gave Mercedes a challenge this summer – learn to ride the bike we had on hand with confidence AND sleep with her lights off (she was sleeping with her lights on) for 30 days and she could pick out a new bike. I made her a sticker chart so every time she slept with the lights off she could add a new sticker. We tried to practice biking every weekend. It was rough at first with lots of tears and yells of “I’m scared” even though she was doing fine. On Tuesday when I took them for the ride to the park she didn’t freak out once, got back on the one time she fell, and never complained that she couldn’t do it. She earned her final sticker on Thursday night so Saturday she and Micah built her new pink bike. Sometimes we all need a little motivation to face our fears!
Where did you find joy in the chaos this week?
