Life with Two Crazy Boys

Living with our two boys is always interesting. The other day I had to run down to the basement and give some donation items to a friend. This is what I came back to...(soap and water were everywhere, but I figured at least they had saved us the trouble of giving them a bath that night!)

We were stuck in traffic the other day, in the rain no less, with two hungry boys. I tried to distract them by playing with the camera. This is what I usually get. Crazy kids.

Another night we were stuck in traffic, in the rain again, and I gave the camera to the boys. This is Caleb's view from the back seat. And, yes, that is a man sitting in the back of that truck. That's how we roll in Singapore. It's also how we roll in Texas, but the truck would be way bigger.

A self-portrait of Caleb. All those marks on his chin are from the various bandages he'd had to cover the healing gash in his chin. (If you're not friends with me on Facebook, Caleb tried to body surf down our hallway using his pillow. It didn't work out the way he wanted, and he busted his face into the tile. Not pretty. But true to his I-have-no-fear-whatsoever personality, he was in the ER with his Daddy waiting to get his chin fixed and wondering what he did wrong. "Do you think if I wet my pillow it will work, Daddy?")

They keep us on our toes for sure! I'm always saying that my boys dream up stuff that my sister's girls would never consider...it's so true!

Life with boys is like living from one Emergency Room trip to the next.

I love them so.

A-Z

My friend, Andrea, posted an A-Z Cyper Internet Alphabet, so I decided to copy her. She said, "by typing one letter in the URL box, it brings up the site or sites that you’ve visited the most.

One letter.

Give it a try. Open up a new tab. Type in the letter ‘a’. What comes up? Now try the letter ‘b’. “c”. And so on. It really is a good way to see where you spend your time on the computer. And kind of like what’s on your calendar or in your wallet, it can really tell alot about a person."

A--Amazon, allrecipes.com, A Holy Experience
B--Book Depository, Bible Gateway
C--CNN, Confessions of a Homeschooler
D--Domino's Singapore, Dave and Lisa's blog, Dentons' blog
E--Everyday Mommy, Expedia, Evite
F--Five In A Row curriculum, Fox News
G--Golden Village movie theater, Groupon
H--Homeschool Creations blog
I--IMDB, IBC Singapore
J--my blog, Johnson's blog
K--my sister's blog, Kohl's
L--Living Proof Ministries, Lisa Leonard Designs, Lakeshore Learning
M--McDonald's delivery :-)
N--National Library Board-Singapore
O--Oriental Trading
P--Plugged In movie reviews, Pastamania
Q--QB Food, QVC
R--Rainbow Resource
S--Singapore Air
T--Target, Twitter
U-- (none)
V--Vimeo, Victoria's blog
W--Words with Friends
X--(none)
Y--Youtube
Z--Zuji (the Travelocity Singapore site)

Pretty interesting. What's yours look like?

Lately

The last few weeks have been difficult. I'm still working on getting fully back to normal after my surgery, and a couple of days after I had surgery Caleb and I both got a cold which I'm still dealing with now (just went to the doctor a couple of days ago!).

Levi now has Strep throat. Yesterday was pretty hard. He was miserable. The fever is gone, but he kept feeling like he had something stuck in his mouth and was trying to cough it out (probably the blisters on his throat). He also developed the strep-related rash and carried around a wooden spoon to scratch his back with, an idea he came up with all on his own, so I know he was miserable.

He is on an antibiotic that he must take twice a day with food. Yesterday morning after breakfast I went to give Levi his medicine, and he FREAKED out. He refused to take it. I actually had to hold him down and squirt it in his mouth. It was awful. It's not easy to hold down a 3-year-old to give him medicine. I told Justin what happened, so after dinner he said, "Are you ready?" I went in the kitchen to get the medicine and told Levi it was time to take his medicine. He said, "Is it orange? [yes] Ok." Then he proceeded to just drink it down. I could not believe it. Justin gave me a look and said something to the effect of, "I thought you said it was hard." I promptly told him to shut up. Why do the kids always make me look like an idiot?

This morning? SAME scenario as yesterday morning. Levi refused to take the medicine. (He finally did after much cajoling on my part and a threat to hold him down and squirt it down his throat.) I'm convinced Justin should work from home. I'm sure he'd get a lot done.

I still have a cough that's partly asthmatic and also some respiratory infection, and it has wiped me out. I have very little energy, and when I wake up in the morning I don't feel rested at all. It's not ideal for dealing with two active boys, one of which is sick.

Yesterday was not pretty. I was tired and frustrated and I yelled at the kids way too much. (I have a problem expecting them to act older than 5 and 3. I'm working on it.) At one point I apologized to Caleb for yelling and asked him to pray that Mommy would not get angry and yell, which he did (it was sweet). I don't want them to think my anger is ok; I want them to recognize that it's sinful and it's needs to be dealt with. I want them to know that Mommy struggles and desperately needs God's help and forgiveness and grace every.single.day.

I woke up this morning and read this post where Jenny talks about her anger problem. I'm definitely using these Scriptures to help me. Maybe you could use them, too? (Or maybe Jenny and I are the only ones who struggle with being patient with our kids?)

A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense. – Proverbs 19:11

It is to one’s honor to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel. - Proverbs 20:3

Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end. - Proverbs 29:11

In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. - Ephesians 4:26-27

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. – James 1:19-20

Here's to the grace of God and a better day.