Month: May 2012

Carter participated in a program at church called Knights/Princesses of the King (or something like that) for 4th and 5th graders. They spent a day learning about manners, friendships, becoming a man/woman of God, etc. At first Carter was disappointed when he found out that there wasn’t going to be a class on making swords, but he ended up having a good time and learning a lot anyway.

As a celebration at the end of the class they had a family dinner where the students made a public pledge to follow the Bible’s instruction as wisdom for life, to treat others the way they would want to be treated, to give others grace, to be mindful of how their behavior affects others, and so on. You would think I could remember all the details of the pledge since I heard it repeated so many times, but for much of it I was herding Camille in the foyer. The program didn’t start until 7 so I had this grand plan of taking 2 cars, having Camille ready for bed, and then slipping out as soon as Carter finished his part in the program. Unfortunately he ended up being almost last (of course!) so we didn’t get out of there until after 9pm, but it was worth sticking around for.

After each child said his pledge, a parent came up to give his/her child their blessing. This is what Josh wrote and said to Carter:

Carter,
know that you are a blessed son of the Living God, Creator of the
universe and Creator of you and that you share in the same
inheritance as Jesus Christ His Son, in whom and through whom I bless
you tonight.


Nice, huh?

  

Yep, that’s my girl. She’s quite the lady-like princess.

All the knights and princesses

Caleb and a friend were making faces at each other and Camille started copying them. It was about 2 hours in and they just couldn’t sit still any longer. At least they were being quiet . . .

Since the day that I posted my Declaration of Surrender, Camille has been sleeping like a new child. It hasn’t been perfect (life never is), but she is actually sleeping most nights without a big screaming fit at the beginning and waking up happy at the end. It’s like a switch has been flipped and she’s entered the world of normal toddler sleep.

So what caused the change? I was sitting around thinking about this coming summer and what I was going to do with the boys. When we moved here in April last year we had a really hard transition. No friends, trapped in the house, and once Lucy came along they didn’t even have any chores to do. They moped around the house because they had nothing to do. They were unhappy because they had no purpose. I looked at Camille wandering around the living room with that same unhappy look on her face and I realized that she had no purpose either.

When the boys were little, I incorporated them into my daily life because I had to: “Time to clean the bathroom! Here’s a rag. Help mommy by wiping the edge of the bathtub.” Going to the grocery store: “See if you can find the apples for me. Should we get red ones or green ones today?” Since I went everywhere with three young children, I knew that things were going to take longer and I didn’t mind the extra “help.” But with Lucy around the time I spend with Camille is less directed. “Why don’t you play with your toys while mommy sits next to you and reads her book?” I do not like playing. It drives me crazy. I’m happy to be in the room and do things side by side, but I am not the kind of mom that is going to get on the floor and play pretend. So she whines about her toys and I whine that she’s not letting me read my book. Two peas in a pod.

Even when I had things to do like running errands or going to the grocery store I usually left her at home with Lucy because I figured she’d be happier there than being dragged from place to place. And when I did take her with me it was more of a “hang out on mommy’s back while mommy works” kind of outing. What I realized is that she needs to feel useful as part of our family and she needs to have time each day where she moves around under her own power outside the house.

The first day we went to the grocery store together. She walked while I pushed the stroller that would hold our groceries. She helped pick up the milk and carried it about 7 steps before it became too heavy. Then she held the bag while I put the apples in. While Josh waited at the deli counter, we went to find pretzels for the boys’ lunch. That’s all it took. That night she was asleep in minutes, satisfied after a productive day. The next day Josh had to go pick up something from the mall and he took her with him. Since we’ve been so used to moving efficiently through a store it takes a conscious decision to slow down and let Camille direct her own steps for a while. It really is like trying to herd a cat as she runs from one thing to the next with her funny looking full body wiggle.

Of course all this makes me more tired, but I’d rather be tired from my day’s “work” than tired because I’m not getting to sleep at night. Our next goal: a child that sleeps in. Happy at 5:30am is better than yelling at 5:30am, but barely. No child coming from my gene pool should be waking up with a smile before 7am. At the earliest. 

Today was the first of many farewells as we get closer to the end of our time here. This morning was the last meeting of our Muscat Women’s Fellowship group. This diverse group of women from all over the world meets twice a month for fellowship and service projects. As part of my “goodbye, ” I was given a beautiful pashmina with this scripture:

Isaiah 61:10
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
My soul shall be joyful in my God;
For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness.

I was also asked to share something that I have learned this past year. Here’s what I said:

Sometimes people put questions in the comments section and I never know how I’m supposed to answer them. If I put my response as a comment do people come back and read them? Do I email directly? Sometimes I do and other times I forget, but I wanted to answer this question because there’s a funny response involved.

Mom’s question about Caleb’s rugby award: It was not a surprise because he came home after his last practice and announced, “I’m getting the trophy for ‘best player.'” I asked, “How do you know that?” He replied, “Cause we voted today and afterward I asked everyone who they voted for and they all picked me.” This child certainly doesn’t lack in the confidence department.

Today Josh and I are going out driving. In a moment of insanity while we were camping I told him I wanted to learn how to drive in the sand. Bahrain is flat and doesn’t have hills and dunes so I need to seize the opportunity while I have it. There’s a place out by the hospital (about 10 minutes away) where people go dune bashing. A friend told me it’s much less scary being a driver in the sand than a passenger. We’ll see.

then she’ll compulsively sort through closets of clothing, collecting heaps of outgrown cast offs.


When she has those bags of clothes, she’ll probably get a wild idea to *make* something out of those pieces of fabric. You know, because she doesn’t have anything better to do.


When she has those pieces of fabric all spread out on the table and starts sewing away, she won’t make time for anything but eating or sleeping. Not even blogging. 


And then, when her project is finished, she’ll realize she’s behind on moving preparations so she’ll go back to the closet and find more clothes . . .

I have this fantastic, comfortable chaise that is perfect in every way except that it is covered in silver fabric that gets watermarked if you even look at it wrong. Add a little toddler drool and sticky fingers and my new chair looked beat to death in about 10 minutes. I’ve been wanting to get a cover for it and was thinking about having the tailor make one, but hadn’t gotten around to it. It was too much trouble to find a fabric, take measurements, figure out the best design for it . . .

When I was sorting through our linen closet I found an old jersey fitted sheet that had worn thin in a few places. The elastic edges gave me an idea so I stretched it out over the top cushion of the chair like I was putting on a hairnet. It was much too big, but I figured I could take it in in a few places and make it fit.

Then like all good crafty plans, the project got bigger. I had a bunch of Camille’s old clothes and had been kicking around the idea of making a crazy quilt with pieces of her baby clothes. I thought it would be cute and I’ve been itching for normal cotton fabric to sew with (so much of the fabric here is specialty fabric, poly blends, etc). So I set out to make a crazy quilt style cover for my chair.

 

It’s not quite finished. I ditched the jersey sheet in the first 30 seconds because it was too stretchy to use as a base fabric. I stole one of the boys’ fitted twin sheets, got out my scissors and started cutting and sewing. 2 days later and I’m almost there. 

 When it’s finished, none of the blue will show. The photo colors are coming out odd under our fluorescent lighting, but the colors of the fabric pieces are purples, pinks and browns.

  

Speaking of colorful style, Carter went to H&M and came home with these green skinny jeans and matching hat. The kid is so skinny that even skinny jeans are baggy on him. 

 

One more style update: Calvin got a haircut. Not by his choice, but it was either wear a sports band to keep his hair out of his eyes while playing basketball or cut it short enough so he could see. Now he can see. I’m also hoping that it will help him in other areas of life and he’ll suddenly be able to find his shoes, remember his homework, and write more neatly. I’m probably asking too much from a simple haircut, huh?

It may not have magical powers, but it looks good.