distracted

Can't turn my back for 30 seconds.  Jackson sure keeps me on my toes!  Yesterday I was trying to get the boys out the door for some open gym time with friends at Jamestown.  (It snowed yesterday.  Ugh.)  So, there's always just a little chaos with getting kids out the door.  I was distracted for just a bit and Jackson managed to get in trouble in the bathroom.  I found him busy unraveling a toilet paper roll into the toilet.  The bowl was filled, but thankfully I caught him before he tried to flush! 

He almost made up for it tonight at supper by saying, totally unprompted, "Thank you [for the] broccoli, Mommy. Best mom EVER!"  Melt my heart. 

Also, tonight at supper we were having a good spiritual conversation.  That's one really neat thing about the boys getting older - I love having good talks with them.  It's so exciting to see what questions they come up with, what observations they make, and what they remember from previous conversations/lessons at church or school/etc.  Mike had a good talk with them earlier this afternoon and he was retelling it to me at supper.  They each shared about when they had accepted Jesus as their Savior, something Caleb and Logan have said they did before but hadn't really mentioned when.  Caleb says it was around Christmastime, prompted by something he heard in church.  Logan says it was quite awhile ago when I was helping him with his Word of Life devotions.  Then they were saying that Levi did just a few mornings ago when he was with them.  We were very excited and talked about how neat that was.  Our conversation continued and after a little while I could see Levi was upset about something.  I took him away from the table and asked if he wanted to talk about it.  He said he did, which just that alone is pretty huge.  When he's upset he totally shuts down and you can't get any response out of him whatsoever.  I took him in our room and wondered if he would actually open up to me, and he did!!  He was crying and said to me, "I didn't TOTALLY ask Jesus in me heart!"  I asked if he wanted to pray about it to make sure, and he did, and I asked if he'd be okay repeating after me, and he was - another HUGE thing because when he was really little he would pray out loud, but a few years ago he stopped and absolutely refused.  So he repeated a simple prayer (so thankful for the simplicity of the Gospel!) and then he felt much better.  Of course, inside I was freaking out.  This parenting thing is exhausting!  :)

break

It's Spring Break already!  What happened?!  The weather's chilly outside, but at least sunny for now, so the boys can get in plenty of outside playtime.  (Okay, that was yesterday when I started writing this...now it's cold, rainy, and thundering!)  I still don't take Jackson outside to play much; I know, I'm terrible.  It's just so much work....in the house he's at least somewhat contained, you know?  He's hard enough to keep track of as it is - if I take him outside who knows what ideas he'll get (and he's fast!). 

The rest of March passed by without too much crazy.  We had Boden and Heidi overnight once (not TOO crazy), I had my last few volleyball games (so fun), I helped with a couple things at school for Reading Month (popcorn and ice cream), Levi had a friend over to play (Liam), Caleb and Logan moved up a belt in Martial Arts (gold), we went to the school play (so funny), and banquet for school (Dr. Thornbury and Jonny Diaz), Levi went to a friend's birthday party (Catch Air), Mike made a trip or two up to the cottage to help Harold (looking good), and of course there's always work on the farm for Mike to do with my Dad (moo).

A couple fun Jackson things from lately.  One of his recent favorite books is Good Night, Good Night, Construction Sight.  There's a page where the dump truck is snoring, and there's a guy shouting from a building, "Hey, pipe down!"  Now Jackson loves to go around telling people to pipe down.  Ha!  Also, I love how he literally tries to get into the books we're reading - he'll lay the book on the floor and jump into the water, ride the camel, or climb the ladder.

Jackson is quite attached to Caleb and Logan's stuffed animal monkeys that they received as a gift when I was pregnant with them - Bob and Larry.  Jackson especially loves Larry and generally takes him everywhere.  When we're out in public sometimes he'll hold out Larry to show people (so not shy).  The other day it really cracked me up when a couple different people asked what a monkey said, and instead of making a nice "oo-oo, ah-ah" noise, he did a loud howler monkey noise.  Took them off guard a little bit.  :) 

Jackson is definitely trying to become more independent.  We're in that fun stage where he so badly wants to do things for himself ("Jackson do it!"), and there are some things with which he's successful (buckling his booster seat at the table), but there are plenty of other things that he insists on doing himself but cannot and then gets frustrated but still refuses help (putting on his shoes). 

Caleb, Logan, and Levi all had great 3rd quarter report cards!  We are so proud of them, and it is fun to see what areas they really enjoy.  They are doing well in all areas, but Caleb is really getting into reading, and he also enjoys math.  Logan loves science, and does really well in art.  Levi really seems to like math the best so far.  They all love having chess on Thursdays, and are very excited about chess camp this summer.  Caleb and Logan have Drama on Friday's, it sounds like they have fun with it, and they really got a kick out of seeing the school play.  Love being at a small school where they know almost all the kids in the play, even though they're mostly high schoolers.  They especially enjoyed seeing their cousin Jason.  :) 

I love seeing their creativity and imagination when they play outside.  The last couple days their project was building a jump for their bikes.  The other day they were nailing boards on one of the trees to build a ladder.  Quite often they are working on something in the dirt (mud).  The fresh air and free play time is so good for them!