What do you allow, as gate-keepers if you will, to put daily into your child’s body? This is fully, 100%, your choice, your responsibility, your failure if you are not actively choosing wisely. As parents, we tend to claim God’s protection over our children, but God never intended for us to blindly follow the world in any way, no, not one aspect of our lives. I am noticing a failure among us to educate, and continue to educate ourselves about anything and everything regarding these children given to us for a short time that we are responsible for nourishing. He intended for us to use discernment, use His teaching, to bring us to an educated understanding of what is best for us. This is not happenstance. This is not a lottery to see if we “get” healthy kids. You play “the” role, not just “a” role, in providing for these children as the Lord has provided for you. « Continue reading »
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First day of school was this week! I am always excited to pick up the kindergarteners after their first day. Not only do I get the honor of experiencing their excitement but I usually see children that went to my school at one time that now are in “big school.” Monday I got a thrill when I saw a kindergartener that had gone to my school from when he was 2 yrs to when he turned 4. He was so excited to see me and with the biggest eyes ever, he said “Mrs. Jami, I thought I would never see you again” and gave me the tightest hug. I teared up as this exchange reminded me as early childhood teachers we are not just preparing them for “big school” we are building relationships and memories that don’t go away when they leave us. Our time with them is their first experience with being in school and my hope is that I am providing wonderful memories for my little friends as well as a love of school that last forever even if they “never see me again.” If there is anything we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could be better changed in ourselves. Like coal miners, parents plunge deep into dark and untrammeled spaces, searching for nuggets of goodness and truth along the way. And sometimes, like coalminers, we get lost. We hit a dead end. And the canary chirping happily in it’s swinging cage, goes silent. This summer, I lost my way as a parent. Between moving and leading a top-to-bottom renovation of our new apartment, between writing grant applications and taking care of legal issues related to my nonprofit, I took a few wrong turns, caught up in the To Do’s and Didn’t Do’s scratched onto my notepad. Thankfully I have not one, but two canaries on my shoulders. When they stopped tweeting, I knew it was time to pause and reevaluate. « Continue reading » It was a sweet and simple ceremony. Perhaps it was the beauty of the day with its cool pre-summer breeze and sunny afternoon , but most likely it was the picking of the pretty yellow flowers in the backyard that prompted the sudden proposal. “Mom, let’s get married,” he said holding the big bunch of yellow beauties. A few days before, I had noticed the shock of yellow in the corner of our backyard that we refer to as “the swamp”. I knew it was some kind of weed, but I had no idea the magnitude of it until I was right up on it. It grew high and had coiled, thick, purplish vines with the sweetest little yellow flowers with orange centers. I had asked Riley about coming with me to cut the flowers and he happily agreed. We grabbed a scissors from the kitchen and meandered our way to the swamp avoiding doggy land mines to reach the mammoth weed. He didn’t know, nor did he care what it was, he was just as enamored with the yellow flowers as I was. And, I suppose, that is was prompted his desire to wed. So, there it was, actually the third proposal of my life (but that’s another whole story!) and I thought, do I decline? « Continue reading » I recently had an inspiring parenting moment with my 3 year old daughter. It was late and I was tired after a long day. I made a conscious decision to get down on the floor with her and play, even though I really wanted to be distracted by the 10 other things on my to-do list. While Lucy and I were playing with one of her favorite toys, she became frustrated about something and walked out of the room. « Continue reading » Tonight I am up late… remembering. I love the power of memory as it intertwines with emotion to form a temporary reality. In quiet solitude, this gift of memory allows me to sit for awhile with my mother who passed away many years ago. It gives me glimpses into moments I will forever cherish and allows me to relive past experiences that define the meanings of my life. Tonight an open window in my mind has taken me back to a very special place where I learned a new meaning to the word “love”… « Continue reading » I sat with the sand between my toes last week, watching my kids tumble in a pile across the beach on a lazy vacation day. It was the first time in years that I can remember being able to read my own book while they played amongst themselves, happily. My eyes wandered a lot, to them, and their growing, tumbling, sand-covered bodies, fearlessly conquering the waves of the Atlantic. « Continue reading » My mom passed away two months ago. I have not been the same since. Not just because I lost her, but because of what I learned about my two college age sons. The first thing they each said when I told them of her aggressive cancer diagnosis was, “How soon can I go see her”, halfway across the country. Neither had the time or money and neither gave it a second thought. They spent an entire weekend devoted to creating last memories with her, building a snowman in her front yard as she watched from inside with her oxygen and cane until she couldn’t contain herself anymore and ran out in socks to have a picture taken with them and the now famous snowman. They baked Christmas cookies and threw pieces of dough at each other until she joined in laughing. When they had to say their final good-byes, both were incredibly strong. « Continue reading » |
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