Forgiveness

I do not know if there is a more humbling topic for me to teach our girls than forgiveness. This all came about tonight when Makayla and Hannah were taking a bath, somehow Hannah was splashed in the eyes with soapy water.
In no time came the tears, accusations, whining on both sides....drama drama drama!!! I hear Makayla say "I'm sorry!" and Hannah "aauuuahhhaaahhhhhhhhh," followed by Makayla's long, loud whine....."IsaidI'msorryandwhatkindofsisterdoesntsayitsokaywhenIsayI'msoooorrrrry!!!" Yes, it sounded like this!

Since I am a sucker for teachable moments I was thrilled to have a topic for the night time bible study. It was also encouraging that forgiveness has been a topic at MOPs the last 2 meetings. I initially thought about grabbing a study bible and looking up verses that talk about forgiveness. Instead, I tried the easy way out and googled something like "teaching forgiveness to children" and have a whole lesson plan ready for me to read to them. I had pages of psychological studies pop up about whether forgiveness is natural, whether we need to teach it to our children or if it was inborn and my favorite....teach your child to punch a pillow and take their aggression out there. I am not saying a good pillow boxing session isn't therapeutic but I have no interest in teaching them to be violent (anywhere) and I do not care whether it is inborn or natural. Forgiveness is biblical, it is commanded of us and absolutely necessary to obtain happiness on this earth.

I decided to close my computer and open up my bible. What a concept, I knew I should have done that in the first place. I looked up forgiveness verses and read a couple that I thought were most relevant for their situation and easily explained to a 4 and 5 year old. One of the moms at MOPs (shout out to Martha!) talked about teaching your kids to say "I forgive you." After we talked about the verses and why forgiveness is so important, Hannah asked if she could tell Makayla that she forgives her. They just melt my heart and I was humbled at how ready Hannah was to show forgiveness to her sister.

I am grateful for these teachable moments, I know how important of a role I have in shaping the hearts of my children. I love that through teaching them, I can be reminded of these things for myself. Most of all, I love that we have a God that is so willing to forgive our sins, no matter how big or small. I pray that I will be as willing as my children to forgive those who have asked for my forgiveness and not let my human nature bring it back to the surface over and over again.

Big girls, flowers and balloons

This is a picture of the big girls after the cheer meet Sunday. Hannah can be a super grouch about pictures and since I was taking the picture on my phone, I was a super grouch trying to have them not move keep the picture from being blurry. Someday soon, I will blog about the adventures in this new world of cheer we have entered. It is so exciting, the girls are loving cheering, the medals and treat bags and they are so cute in the process!


I am typically not a fan of posting pictures of gifts and surprises but oh well, I'm selling myself out and posting our surprise today! Greg sent flowers for me and a balloon for each of the bigger girls. They (we)were so excited, I cannot tell you how much I love the "just because" flowers. Both girls wanted pictures with the flowers and balloons so here they are :)



Hannah came out of Frog Pond today with a ribbon that says "ME." When I asked her what it was for she said "Because I'm proud to be ME!" I LOVE it

Baking.....Failed!

I had 6 bananas that needed to be used for baking or thrown in the trash. Yesterday I tried Banana Oatmeal Muffins. I generally consider myself pretty decent with my baking skills but the new recipes failed miserably. Greg came home and was excited about the muffins....they look pretty but taste.....wellll....only Hannah will eat them! Greg's words "they're not bad.....they're just...." Me: "Not good?" Haha, I was ok with it until today.

Today I thought I would make some Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies, notice the healthy theme here? I have only made bad cookies 2 or 3 times so I thought I had this recipe in the bag! Wrong, see for yourself. This should have been a dozen medium cookies.....
They are HUGE! And not cooked all the way through. Hannah was brave enough to try them and liked these too but I'm watching a little girl that refuses to even try them!

I am trying to focus on eating healthy and getting back in shape, maybe I did myself a favor! Oh well, maybe next recipe will be a success :)

Perfect Snow Day

This might be the only time I ever, and I mean EVER, say that there is a perfect snow day! But today is wonderful for it. It's sunny and 30(ish) degrees, the roads are clear but plenty of snow on the grass to play in and Makayla has no school! Thank you Casimir Pulaski for whatever you did, I am enjoying this "holiday" and having my girlie Makayla home with us today :)

The girls were begging to play in the snow and I almost did not do it since Claire has been so sick. Lucky for them, they are big enough to bundle themselves up, it's easier to say yes when the load is lighter for me! I bundled up Claire and threw on a jacket, gloves and scarf and headed outside. I'm glad I had my phone handy or I would have missed pictures of the fun.

The girls making snowballs to throw at eachother


Snow angels


The gift Hannah made for me :) If you have ever heard me complain about the train tracks by our house, this is why!! It's literally in our yard!


Makayla, right before she threw this at Hannah


Hannah looking cute


Claire, right before she fell asleep. She had been laughing at the big girls but tuckered out very quickly