Teenage attitudes. . .

I am the mother of a teenager.  There really should be a special support group for parents of teens.  I know I am not the first and won't be the last and that my problems are not the worst.  We really need to band together to fight the nasty, smarmy, poor pitiful me attitudes of our teens.  I love my teen but he really knows how to push those buttons with his brother and with me.  He really is a great kid in general but, when those teen hormones start rocking he turns into an alien. 
My teen before he was a teen; he was smiling and happy, he would talk to me about things going on at school, and in general was mostly pleasant to be around with the exception of torturing his brother.  The later I could accept as normal sibling rivalry.   As a teen he has morphed into this smarmy, sarcastic, frowny faced, and brooding young man.   There are days when I see a glimpse of that pre-teen young man but they are few and far between lately.  He is still a good kid, please do not misunderstand me, and I love him dearly.   I know we are all suffering growing pains but, as a mom I want to fix everything and I want a quick fix.  I know that is not possible and I know that this is something we must all endure. 
I still refer back to my, "Power of a Praying Parent" for comfort and prayers.  If you are a parent of a teen I highly recommend that book.  The Author, Stormie O'Martin, gives you specific prayers to say for certain areas of your child's life.  She also recounts some of her own road blocks as a parent and how she prayed through them.  I always say as parents we should spend our time in battle on our knees.

to close for comfort. . .

I had my wake up call this morning.  While taking the kids to school this morning we were just about hit by an SUV.  I am thankful the Lord was with us and watching out for us because the person driving the other car was not even looking.  If we had been hit it would have hit the passenger side, where the kids were.  I am so thankful my little blackberry is short.  That and the Lord above is the only reason we were not hit.   This was a two way stop right of way issue.  Anyone out there a cop or have knowledge of the traffic law, I would love to hear your thoughts. 
I am still a little shaken.  I am worried about the kids too.  I asked them if they were ok and they said they were.   I know that sometimes things like this linger with kids and then sometimes they don't think a thing about it.    I am hoping these two don't think about it again.  I hate it when things like this happen, obviously it lingers with me and I will worry about this for months.   I worry about the fact that Jack will get his permit in 2 and a half years  and his license in 3years.  This is a bad intersection right above our house that my kids will pass through  many times a day once they have their license.   I know I am a worry wart.  That's my job, I'm  a Mom!

Thankful thoughts. . .

I saw on facebook this month that everyone is posting thankful thoughts, I have not.  I am very thankful but, I do not see the need to post something everyday just because everybody else is doing it.  That to me is adult peer pressure.  I will not fall to that, however, I am going to post some things here and talk about how thankful I am.
I am thankful for my family and that my parents have been able to see their grandchildren grow up.   My grandparents all passed away before I was born except my grandmother on my Mothers' side.  She passed away when I was in elementary school.  I do remember going to her house and playing and seeing her on Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I remember  her house and playing in the apple trees in her yard and this huge weeping willow tree.  The willow had the best branches for climbing and swinging.   I also remember how much I loved her dressing she served on Thanksgiving. 
Thomas and Jack are very lucky, as am I that they have their grandparents to spend time with.  When we go to Moms' they go to the barn with Poppy and Gee and help feed the horses and kitties and play with them.  They also get to see the goats at my sisters' house.   This year Thomas was sitting at the table having lunch with my mom and he saw three deer run through her back yard.   We usually see some deer, turkeys, raccoons, foxes and an albino skunk all while sitting at the kitchen table.  
I am very thankful for my family.  I am also thankful for how the Lord is working in our lives.  So many little things that have happened and I see the Lords' hand in all of them.  I am thankful for the great conversations that dear hubby and I have had with our kids about the Bible and God.  I love to see these things through my kids' eyes.  They see things that we as adults do not and in different ways too.   I learn something new every night as we read devotions and the Bible.  Some nights after reading we just have great conversations about their day and what happened at school. 
For all of this and so much more I am truly thankful!!

More Thomas isms. . . .

I was talking with a friend at Church the other day, that is also in charge of our Grateful Choir, she was telling me about their latest adventure.  Our Grateful Choir is made up of our youth and they go around to local nursing homes and sing.  They also sing for our congregation too.  Jack loves to sing, Thomas on the other hand, not so much.  Thomas does not like to sing in front of people.  He says he is shy, I am not real sure about that one.  They have made Thomas a roadie for the choir.  He totes the instruments and he also takes pictures while the group is singing.  He has become quite the little photographer, so I have been told by my friend.  She said the other day he took over 100 pictures at their last event.  She did have to delete several.  They had his thumb in them.  Luckily our Church has a digital camera and it is easy to delete his mistakes. 
I asked him the other day about going to the Nursing home and singing.  He said, I don't stand up there and sing.  I do sing while I am taking pictures though.  That could be why my friend is having to delete some of those pictures.  He said he likes going and visiting with the "old" people.   He said he goes around and talks to them.   He seems to be gaining some confidence about himself by doing this.  I know he takes pride in his picture taking, it is very serious business to him.  Even though he does not get up there and sing with the group he still feels like he is a part of it.  That is important to me too.  He looks forward to their events.
The Grateful Choir will be singing at our Thanksgiving Eve Lovefeast  this year too.  Maybe Thomas will get his nerve up and stand up there and sing as well.

Christmas and Dave Ramsey. . .

No I am not spending Christmas with Dave Ramsey but I am using his principles this season.   Dear hubby and I have tried to save each year for Christmas and pay cash.  We have been doing that for around nine or ten years.  We would take $20 each week and put it in a cup and that would be our savings for Christmas.  There were always weeks we did not put that money aside but for the most part we stayed on schedule.   You don't have to follow Dave Ramsey to follow how that works out.   I feel great relief at the end of the Christmas season knowing that I did not blow our budget out of the water.   There are always things that come up and we end up using our debit (NOT CREDIT) card and that's ok because we had been using our cash up to that point.  Another good point of paying cash for everything is, you don't have to worry about those unscrupulous folks out there trying to steal your account numbers.  One couple in my Dave Ramsey class had their debit card number stolen while they were at the Beach.  A waiter where they had eaten was using it to pay for his car repairs.  The gentleman has friends in the police department and they were able to trace it back to their waiter.  They tracked him down and found he had a notebook with many other credit card and debit card numbers from other people just like you and I.   Another good reason to pay cash when eating out. 
Now back to Christmas, we have been saving this year for our Christmas giving and I hope we don't have to dip into the old checking account.  If we do though, it won't be that big of a hit.  Dave also has a special Christmas budget work sheet he has put on his webiste.  You can down load it for free.  www.daveramsey.com   and no I am not getting kick backs for recommending him, I just believe in what he is doing and want to share with everyone how great it is when you don't have huge debt looming over you all the time.   He has great articles on his website too.  If you are interested in his books you can find them at your local Library or at used book stores.   I am hoping this year will be a wonderful Christmas for all and a debt free one as well.   Christmas is only a little over 5 weeks away.

Nightly devotions. . .

Mark and I have always gone up together to say prayers with the boys and say good night before they go to bed.  We have also been doing nightly devotions with them for many years.   The first devotion book I bought was "365 days of Devotions for Boys."  It was great and the devotions were geared toward things boys face growing up.  I have repeated many of those devotions as things came up with the boys.  My friend Cheryll gave me a little monthly magazine that her Church gives their kids that has devotions.   These are great too and are so relevant to what is going on with my kids lately.  They have talked about bullying and being mean to others and we are dealing with that right now in our neighborhood.  My kids don't get bullied at school they get bullied in our own yard.  It just amazes me that parents do not pay attention to what their kids are doing at home.   Well, that is a whole other list of blogs for later.
The devotion I read last night to the boys was about Church.  The little boy was telling his Mom riddles and so she gave him one.  "What is CH_ _ ch?"  The little boy studied it and finally came up with Church.  But what the Mom was trying to get across to him was that Church is only Church if U R in it.  I know it's corny.  I loved it though.  These devotions have allowed me to touch on some very serious subjects with my kids that I may not have otherwise been able to discuss with them.
Mark and I cherish these little nightly talks that we get to have with the kids.  We have discussed things like salvation, Heaven, Hell, bullies, missionaries, ect. . .  I know that soon they will be too old or at least think they are too old for us to tuck them in and say prayers with them but as long as they will let me I will.    They are growing up so fast and I am so proud of the young men they are becoming. 

The Dentist

Since the boys were out of school yesterday I had decided that would be the day for their dentist visit.  This is a new dentist for them and Jack was not happy because it said "Pediatric Dentistry" on the sign.  He said I am too old to be going to a pediatric anything.  He said 0-12 was a child but that since he turned 13 a whole almost month ago he is now an adult.  Jeeeeezzzz!!!  They do not go to a pediatrician and never have.   They have always gone to a family practice physician so the whole pediatric thing never came up till now.  I tried to tell him that he could go to a pediatric dentist till he was at least 18 maybe even older.  Not sure about the dentist part on the age thing.  Anyway he was not happy and sat with a scowl on his face in the waiting area.
They called us back and they put the boys in the same room, another sore spot for Jack about going to the same place as Thomas.   The room was quite big and had two dental chairs and flat screen TV's suspended over each chair.  The hygienist set Jack up with head phones and started "Shrek 2" for him to watch while she worked on Thomas.  Thomas got to watch "Horton Hears a Who" while she worked on his teeth.  The boys had good check ups even though they had not seen a dentist in a while. 
These ladies at this practice were great!  I really liked the office and the staff the entire set up was great.  Jack was even ok with it after everything was said and done.   They took a picture of the boys with their dentist and gave it to us to take home.  I have to say it was a good experience for us all.  I even got a phone call this morning to make sure the boys had a good experience and we did not have any questions.  That is customer service.