BENNETTISMS

Some sweet/funny things from my buddy:

1. He loves going to child care up at the church when I go to Summer Spectacular practice, and when he hears I'm going that night, he says, "Mom, please can I go to Summer McSpacular with you?" Michael and I crack up laughing every time.

2. Today we were all packed and ready to walk out the door to go to the water park for the first time, but in five seconds flat it started thundering, lightning and pouring down rain. We went out on the back porch to watch it and talk about our other options for the day when Bennett starts to spontaneously pray, "God, thank you for the rain, but I don't need it right now, so could you take it back? You can make it rain somewhere else if you want to, but I need to go to the water park today."

We had a conversation about how God wants us to pray and talk to Him about what we want and need, but He's still God and He still knows best, and sometimes the answer is no. It was a good talk/life lesson.

3. When Jasper gets hurt or is crying, Bennett often says, "Awww, baby, are you okay? Did you hurt yourself? Yeah, yeah you did," and on and on in this high pitched little voice I can only assume is supposed to resemble my own :).

4. For over two months now, the kid has asked me at LEAST three times a week when we're going to have another baby. More recently it's turned into asking me if I have a baby in my tummy yet. He initiated the very idea with NO suggestion, mention or encouragement from me or his dad, and he continues to initiate every one of these conversations all by himself. He makes sure that I know that "Jasper John is growing up. He's not a baby anymore, so it's time for us to get a new one." I've told him I'll get back to him on that one. It is so interesting to me that he loves babies so much - he's truly mesmerized by them - because he never sits still and is such a typical rough-and-tumble little boy, but when it comes to babies, he has an extra soft spot in his heart. He has asked me numerous times when he will be old enough to get married and have his own kids, and he's told me he wants five children of his own. Dude. Someday I'm going to get to see my buddy payin' for his raisin'. HA! I'll enjoy every minute!

WHEW!

I apologize for my lack of blogging these days. Life in our little family has exploded in the past couple of months, and I've been using every minute of my spare time just keeping up with ordinary, every day stuff, like cleaning and cooking dinner.

This year I'm involved in the huge production our church does every year called Summer Spectacular. It's like VBS on steroids. Very big, very powerful steroids. I practice three days a week (sometimes more), and it reminds me of my Spring Sing days at Harding, but even more intense because there's more music, more dancing, and more script to memorize, along with the fact that I now have a husband, house and children to take care of. Whew!! It's SOOO much fun when we're practicing, but sometimes I feel like a chicken with my head cut off when I'm at home dancing around in my bedroom while the boys are napping, trying to remember lyrics and dance moves and dialogue. It's a three night show that runs twice through over the course of an entire week in the middle of June, and this year we're doing the story of Noah. It totally rocks, and I can't wait for all the kids in our church and community to get to see it (and adults, too).

Other than that, I've also picked up a couple extra hours a week teaching children's bible class at our church, and next weekend I'm singing in a wedding of two wonderful, beautiful friends of mine who are marrying each other. The guy, Austin, is on praise team with me, and the girl, Anita, was the first person to evaluate Jasper months and months ago; she gave me the feedback I needed to pursue ECI occupational therapy with my little guy. I owe a lot to her. So I've been working on the song this past week when I'm not working on Summer Spectacular insanity :).

Also, to give an update on what's going on in our household, after a lot of prayer and quite a few conversations with family (and friends who are experienced in the matter) we have decided that I am going to homeschool Bennett next year. Saying this makes me almost laugh out loud because I NEVER thought I would do this, but there is so much peace and excitement that comes with this decision, that I know it's the right one for our family at this point in time. There are several reasons for my/our decision, and if you're interested in hearing them, I'd be happy to share in person. I'll say right now that I have no idea how long we will do this. For now I'm taking it a year at a time, and I'm super excited about doing it next year. This year Bennett was in a 3's class that we really loved, and we loved his teachers, and I also did some curriculum on the side with him at home on Mondays and Wednesdays. One of my concerns about homeschooling was that my buddy and I would really butt heads because we're a lot alike in a lot of ways, but from the work we've done together this year, I know that's not the case. We work well together in a school setting, which is exciting. I will also say that I am so very thankful for one of my good friends who lives a couple minutes down the road. Her laid back approach coupled with the way she loves and supports her children is a phenomenal example for me to look to, and since she's already homeschooled for three years, I'm able to learn from options she's already explored. So needless to say, I've also been busy, busy, busy with researching curriculum, attending an awesome homeschooling convention, and making plans for next year.

On top of all this, I painted and redecorated and shifted around the boys' bedrooms (see previous post), which also kept me busy for a week or two.

So pardon my lack of blogdom and please see fit to extend a little grace :). I should be back in the regular swing of things around late June with updates on me, the boys, and all our summer fun.

BUNKING UP

We got Bennett's big boy room all set up, minus a couple of things for the walls that I'm still in the process of making/affording. I'm a little bummed about it because I don't just love the wall color (not quite what I was going for). I'm the world's WORST at picking the right shade of paint. But it matches and looks decent, so for now, it stays.

The comforters on the bunk beds are ones that I bought over a year ago, knowing already the look I was going for with the boys' shared room. For now, Jasper is still in his room (which I also redecorated, using Bennett's old nursery/little boy stuff). The plan is to move him with Bennett around Christmas time. The full size bed from Bennett's room has been moved into Jasper's room. We can actually have guests, and when they come, they'll have a BED to sleep in, rather than the couch! Amazing concept!

The boys love their new rooms, and in preparation for them sharing in a few months, I've already combined their clothes into one closet, and have reorganized our toys and storage. It's working GREAT, which is always nice :).

And here are the pictures I promised (you'll have to excuse the TERRIBLE quality - Michael had our nice camera at work, so I had to use our old faithful little digital camera, and the pictures really do look like poop), and everything we did, we did with nothing out of pocket because of our garage sale and getting rid of a couple of things we just didn't need on Craigslist. Fabulous!

Big Boy Room

Jasper's Room

THREE THINGS WE CAN BE SURE OF

Michael told his students something at school today that I thought was really funny/clever. Of course, now that I've said that, your expectations will be waaay too high. But I thought it was clever enough to write it down.

He said, "As of today, there are three things we can be sure. Number one, there is a severe drought in Texas. Number two, global warming is causing the earth's temperatures to rise dramatically. Number three, they'll never catch Osama bin Laden."

(This was said with an extremely heavy dose of sarcasm, in case you weren't able to pick up on it here in blog land.)

Take into account that today it was 55 degrees outside in May, in TEXAS, and there are flash flood warnings all over the place because of the rain that hasn't stopped for two days. And the bin Laden comment speaks for itself. HA! Just goes to show you that you really can't know what will happen tomorrow!