Love thy neighbor

About 3-4 months ago, new neighbors moved in to the house next to us. This house is for renters only, so, for the past almost 9 years that we have lived in our house, we have seen many types of families come and go.

This particular family is from Pennsylvania. The mom homeschools thier 3 children, 6,2 and 16 months and another on the way, due sometime late summer. Their first and second kids are boys, so, we like that, since I have boys almost the same age. When they moved in, it was around Christmas time, so I welcomed them with a Christmas card and a nice, jar of homemade Cranberry Apple Butter. With this past winter being kind of out of the “norm” for us Tennessee folks, we hibernated and just kept to ourselves, and did not have any communication with the new neighbors.

Fast forward to March

With the weather now warmer, and kids are enjoying playing outside longer, we have begun our play time with the two neighbor boys. First day they played, they got along great. I was outside with them and actually played with the 2 year old, while thier mom was inside making dinner.

The dad comes home, says “Hi, this is great to have the kids playing, where we used to live we never really talked to our neighbors, so, this is new and exciting for us.”

Me.“We are happy to have somebody to play with that is around the same age. They all have been playing really well together.”

A few days go by, and the boys are playing outside again. My boys start climbing a tree in their yard. Dad YELLS at my boys,“That is not our tree! Get down from there now!”

Ummmmm…..ok. No need to yell at my kids. But, I asked my boys nicely to get out of the tree.

So, here we are, today, March 26. A nice, yet, chilly Friday. All five boys are playing outside again. My boys know to stay in the front so I can see them. They are all in the front yard of the neighbors’. I am inside making dinner, but, I will peek outside, to make sure everyone is still in the front. Then, my boys come inside the house. They had told me that the other boys had to go inside, so, they were done playing.

BANG! BANG! BANG! The dad was very loudly and forcefully pounding at our front door.

He wasn’t yelling,but, I could tell that he was pretty ticked off.

“We have a little problem here. Your boys were “mooning” my boys. This is not acceptable behavior, especially when I have little ones around.We cannot have unsupervised play time. So, from now on, we need to set up boundaries,  your kids do not cross into our yard, and my kids will not cross into your yard. Is that ok with you? Does that work for you? There will be no more playing with my kids.”

So, I said, “You’re right, it is not acceptable behavior and I am sorry that they did that. And that is fine, you do what you feel is right.”

My boys got punished.

I am very upset with what they did. And now, I feel like I need to explain myself to the dad. Meaning, telling him, my boys are good boys, they are very caring, helpful, sweet boys. But, they are typical boys, they are active, they are silly at times.

I don’t know what to do. I am not at peace about this.

What would you do?

Another day, another hurdle

I’ve been up for 3 1/2  hours now. And this is my day so far…

Keeping the jesters 2 &3 home from preschool because they have a cough.

Jester 3 woke up with toothpaste all over his face, pajamas and sheets. (He has some kind of love for toothpaste. Must hide toothpaste.) Therefore, I have to wash his sheets today, which normally my sheet washing day is on Saturday. Not to mention the fact that my hamper is already overflowing from my neglect of doing laundry yesterday.

Jester 2 asked for a ham sandwich for breakfast….so, I made him one…and guess what? HE DIDN”T EAT IT!

Jester 1 also had toothpaste all over him, because he had shared jester’s 3 bed last night.

The princess got new glasses yesterday. She has had them for 14 hours, and this morning there is a nice, big crack in the right lens. She says, “I don’t know how it happened! I did not drop them!” Right…. Since I didn’t notice her cracked lens until we got to the bus stop, and since she didn’t tell me, I sent her to school with her new cracked glasses. We will have to deal with it after her play practice that lasts until 5:30, and has been everyday after school for the past month, and will continue until the end of this month.

Trust me, I have had worst mornings, that involved issues of spills, vomiting, falling down stairs and teeth have been knocked out or a broken bone. And I am pretty sure every single morning somebody is crying or whining about something.

I will conquer this day.

To be continued…..

Beautiful day

Took jesters 2 and 3 to the park today. Gorgeous weather! We stayed for 3 hours!

We had a picnic. Hiked up the Fort Granger trail. It was perfect! We were the only ones up there. So, we stayed and played frisbee to.

Then we hiked back down. Well, I mean rolled down…

They had so much fun! Excited to go back with daddy, jester 1 and the princess!

Parenting Challenge #9,527

As a mom of 4, there are many challenges that I have faced already in the  different stages of raising my kids. Newborn, baby, toddlerhood, terrible 3’s (yes, there is such a phase), preschool, elementary school-age  and everything in between stage. Where I am now are in preschool and elementary school age stage.

My oldest is 9. A daughter. In 2 short years she will be starting (gulp) middle school. I have heard from some friends of mine,whom do have children in middle school that they have already had “the talk” with their child.

WHAT!!!??

That scares me. I cannot fathom the thought of talking to my sweet little girl about “that”. But, it needs to happen, she needs to know.  My parents never had the sex talk with me. I’m the youngest of 7 kids….I’ve learned what not to do from my older siblings…HA!

I’m taking a Bible study at my church, Clearview Baptist . It’s a study by Kay Arthur,whom is a respected Bible teacher and speaker through Precept Ministries. The study is called, Return to the Garden, Embracing God’s Design for Sexuality. She touches on a lot of important lessons to be learned and taught.

• The Beauty of a Women’s Sexuality
• The Gift You Can Only Give Once
• Man:Predator or Protector
• The Seductress(And How Not To Be One)
• The Way Love Should Be

I saw this study, and thought, “you know, this is how I want to teach my kids about sex. Through God’s Word.”

At the age of 24, I was dating my now husband, Matt. We had been together maybe 6-7 months. One time, one night and BAM! I got pregnant. I was so ashamed of myself. But, my family was very supportive. His, not, so much. In the midst of my pregnancy, before I knew I was pregnant, we had broken up. Then, when I found out that I was carrying his child, things became difficult. But, here we are almost 10 years later, and we are good, still together. Anyways, I brought that up, because I don’t want my daughter to have that happen to her.

I also think about my boys. One is 5 and twins, age, 4. So, we have awhile! But, when I read about Man: Predator or Protector, that really hit me. I don’t want my boys to become predators of women. And I don’t just mean the creepy, stalker kind. I want them to learn to treat women with respect and learn to protect women. And Kay does a great job talking about that.

In this study, Kay has many Bible scriptures that she backs up with each lesson/topic for each week. I really encourage you to check this study out, share it with your spouse. This study is so encouraging and I think will make “the talk” more comfortable for you and your child.