God's Grace and Goldfish

Yesteday, Philip and I began another year of BSF. This year we are studying the life of Moses (meaning the adults will be reading and studying every verse of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy and the children will be learning all the stories included therein!! I've done this study before and know just how great it is!). Kristy, the lecture leader, said a main theme for this year's study will be "God is faithful to His Word and to His people." I am so blessed to say Almighty God was faithful to even little me just this morning.

We had no real plans today so we all had Cocoa Puffs for breakfast (not Matthew; he's dedicated to his bran flakes and blueberries and way better off for it). Well, I'm not sure if that was the culprit or not but by 9:30am, Philip and Braewyn were irritating each other to tears every time I turned my back to them! I was almost to tears also and so called my cousin-in-law and confidante Mollie to ask her to pray for us. I said, "Please just ask God to pour down his grace on this house!" I prayed myself saying, "Lord, give me grace and strength to care for these children today." I was relying on Corinthians 12:9, "My (Jesus') grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

I poured out goldfish crackers for them to eat which calmed them both down for a few minutes. Next, I called a few friends saying we were headed to a local park but everyone seemed to have other things going on. No matter what, I was still going as fresh air usually always seems to clear a bad mood for me. However, just before leaving the house I remembered that the little train ran on Fridays and grabbed some change. It was a dreary morning so the park was empty except for the two train engineers. What a perfectly wonderful time I had with my two precious children and how sad I am not to have had my camera with me.

We first rode the train; engineer in the engine of course and us in the VERY BACK of the train as Philip wanted to ride in the caboose! There was about 20 feet between us and the engineer. He took us around twice as no one else was there. After arriving back at the station, he asked Philip if he would like to drive! We went around again with Philip on the engineer's lap (it's a SMALL train) and hitting the horn knob with his foot many times around the track!!

We then played for another hour as a light misty rain fell. Philip wanted me to push him on the big swings so I let Braewyn help push him. She thought it was wonderful and just laughed everytime her hand pressed on his back. Lots of energy out and fresh air in. God is so faithful and provided the perfect remedy for a weary mom and her cooped up kids.

When we got home around 12:30pm, Braewyn was asleep so I carried her in to her crib. Since we had all eaten granola bars at the park, the mood was good for "school" so I helped Philip work on an apple counting project Jo Ellen gave me yesterday (she accidentally printed an extra copy when printing one for Emma). Jo Ellen, it was a God-thing because today was a perfect day to do it. Philip cut all the apples apart using my 12" paper cutter and then completed two pages, putting drops of clue on the backs of apples to match the number on the page. We have 8 more pages to do, but it was really a breakthrough activity for me. He hasn't liked our "school" times recently because I present him with only a worksheet and a crayon. When I said today we'd use scissors and glue, Philip lit up and said, "It's a craft?!" Guess I've been boring my poor kid! Maybe he's just more of a hands on learner.