"I can spell your grown-name! It's S-U-S-A-N" declared our six-year-old Kindergartener

I've been washing all the dishes by hand lately because I ran out of dishwasher detergent and am waiting to order some from Melaleuca later this month.  And although it takes longer, it gives me time to pray and reflect.  

This move has shown us that as long as we get plugged in and connected to a great community of believers, the trauma of moving away from the familiar is less painful. I love Andrew & Melissa Brownback (Andrew is the HS Pastor and Melissa is Krista's small group leader at youth group) and their hearts for teens.  I see Krista flourishing because of their leadership and love.  Promiseland and all its amazing staff (Mr. Jon was instrumental in persuading Michael to try out and remain in the children's program at Promiseland!) and volunteers have made such a difference for Michael now that he's more mature and adjusted to being away from us during church.

And since coming back from our trip down south over Christmas, we've had friends over every weekend.  I love having people over and having the space to accommodate everyone is a blessing!!!  It's been so much fun building relationships and getting closer to our small group and other sweet friends from church. When we first started going to Willow, several wonderful men and women intentionally reached out to us and introduced us around.  Now, it's our turn to introduce our different groups of friends to each other and it's been a blast discovering what a small world we live in (right, Linda & Lily?!?)!!!

Both Krista and Michael are adjusting well at school---a total God thing.  I have to confess that I wouldn't mind doing K12 with them again, but Michael surprised me the other day in this conversation.  He said, "I love my school! I don't want to home school anymore." This was surprising because he is such a homebody!  Of course, I asked him why and this is what he says, "You make me do more work when I'm in home school! In my school, I only have 2 1/2 hours of school, but with you, I have to do more school work like the whole day! So true, so true! It amuses me that he remembers that fact! And he added, "And now that I'm in school, I have so many more friends that I did in California.  I have a whole class of friends now and next year when I'm in 1st grade, I'll have even more friends!" Who knew I had such a social butterfly?!? Especially since he was so anti-social when we were in California! 

When I ask Michael what my name is, he always replies, "M-0-M-M-Y!" Since Kindergarten has been in session, he also enjoys spelling words in conversation with me.  It can go like this... "M-o-m-m-y, can we s-t-o-p at Trader Joes and get a s-n-a-c-k? Y-E-S or N-O?" And then for the first time yesterday, he excitedly told me how he knew how to spell my grown-up name! I was curious over what he considered my "grown-up name" to be, so I asked him to spell it and he did! Of course, I had to ask him if he knew daddy's grown-up name and he proceeded to spell Jacob's name correctly. I wonder when he made the connection about "grown-up" names? 

While driving back from school a few days ago, Michael and I had an interesting conversation.  It went like this...
MICHAEL: I wish I was Peter Pan. And I'm thinking, how in the world do you know about Peter Pan?!?

ME: Why?!? I didn't even know you knew about Peter Pan!

MICHAEL: I know about Peter Pan.  He never wanted to grow up and I don't either!!! Wow. I wonder what else goes through his little brain...?!?

It's already the 16th day of the new year and I'm wondering what happened to the other 15 days of the month...?!? It has gone by so fast!!! I look at Krista and I can't believe she's going to be 16 on her next birthday.  Michael is 5 6 (going on 36...!) and soon he'll be a little 1st grader and not just a cute little Kindergartener.  His logic can surprise us or make us laugh! He was pushing and squirming his way between Krista and I on the couch and this is what he said to her, "Krista, I get to be by mommy.  You've had her longer than I have so I want to be next to her now!"

The other night Krista and I turned off the lights, lit the candles and just sat on the couch sipping our tea while talking.  I love uninterrupted time with her.  Nowadays, interruptions from Michael and a constant boatload of homework take up the majority of her time so I savor these moments.

I'm reminded that every moment is a God moment (from my Age of Opportunity book study by Paul David Tripp).  As parents, who've been given the gift of our children, we have a responsibility to remind them that we live to glorify God with every moment of our beings through His power! So I'll end my blog with Ephesians 1:18-19 from the Amplified Bible...

"By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones),
 

And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength,"

I also like how the NLT version puts vv 19b-20: "This is the same mighty power ²⁰ that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms." Now, that's some power, right?!?