Train a Boy

I'm undecided if this is a complete brag post or not, but I feel the need to document this in case I need a parent pick-me-up one day.

I, like most parents, love my boys unconditionally and think the world of them. They are extremely intelligent and kind hearted and funny and silly and absolutely perfect to anyone and everyone outside of this household should anyone ever ask me.

Now, I know they are full of flaws just like the rest of us. But this weekend, I had two separate conversations with each of them that have me a bit choked up thinking about, and making me feel like maybe they are completely perfect and better than every kid EVER... EVER.

It was Spring Break last week, and we did mostly nothing. No amazing trip to brag about  on Facebook or Instagram. No rodeo concert or carnival to "check in" to. Monday thru Wednesday the boys stayed with my parents and helped with yard work and earned some Spring Break cash. On Thursday I took them to the movies, and on Friday we were back at their Nana and Popo's house to swim in their new pool.

On Saturday, we ran errands and then had company over. This meant we did a huge house cleaning scramble, and all hands were on deck. The boys did their usual chores: clean the bathrooms, vacuum the stairs and all of the upstairs bedrooms, unload the dishwasher, and anything else ad hoc that I needed them to do as I tried desperately to make my house look presentable for our guests.

And they did it all with zero complaining, as usual. In fact, they would finish a task and say, "anything else I can do?" And the answer was always, "yes! Oh my gosh thank you so much for asking I love you so much! Please go and do blah blah blah!" And they would run off and do blah blah blah (with still no complaining!).

Bear with me here, that wasn't even the bragging part.

When the house was all clean, I told Joseph, "Babe, thank you so much for all of your help! That was huge and I couldn't have finished it without you!"

"You're welcome, Mom. Thank you for LETTING me help you!" <--- That was his response. Joseph's. My son. Who is 9...
Whaaat?! What 9 year old boy says that after he has scrubbed the toilets, vacuumed the stairs, unloaded the dishwasher and cleaned his room? And scrubbed the toilets? Sorry, I had to repeat that one. I was so proud of him. It was the sweetest!

(I thanked Isaiah later as well, and he gave me his usual silly, "No problem-mom-om-om." ♡)

So the party went off without a hitch, and we had a great time with some fellow Scout families. We grilled fajitas, made a Dutch oven enchilada casserole and a Dutch oven apple cobbler and played Mexican train until 1:30 in the morning.

Skip to Sunday night, and as everyone was getting ready for bed, I couldn't help but think of how crazy amazing my boys are. I thought, "I need to tell Isaiah how great he is and how proud he makes me."

I walked out of my bedroom, and he was walking towards me to say goodnight. I gave him a hug and kiss and held him for just a second longer and told him how proud of him I was at the young man he was becoming, and that I loved him so much.

His response? "Thank you, Mom. I love you, too. And thank you for MAKING me the young man that I am. I feel like it's a team effort." Whaaat?! Heart explosion. I love that almost 15 year old boy.

I laughed and high-fived him (because, I'm a dork-mom), and he proceeded to tell me how he just laid down with Joseph until he fell asleep  (since Joseph is still scared to go to sleep in his bedroom alone). He told me he also had just finished ironing his clothes for his first day back to school and was looking for his nasal spray so he could take it upstairs for his morning medicine routine. Again: Whaaat?! He just thanked me for being the world's best mom (or something extremely close to that, right?), and then told me he put his little brother to sleep and came downstairs unprovoked and ironed his school clothes.

That's right. My almost 15-year old son did that. After scrubbing toilets and vacuuming and unloading the dishwasher and SCRUBBING TOILETS just the day before for me. How crazy is that?!

I may be the only one blown away by this, and probably completely biased about it. I absolutely get that. But my boys truly are giving and kindhearted and loving and respectful, and it makes me feel like somehow Danith and I just might be doing something right. I wouldn't know exactly what that is. Maybe it's because we discipline our boys each in the way they need to be disciplined. We hear them. We spend lots of time with them. We laugh with them and joke with them. We trust them. We show them we value them. We pray with them. We say we're sorry to them when we have done wrong. We show them we're human too and acknowledge our mistakes to them. We are firm with them, but always fair to them. We speak well of them. We forgive them. We know them. We love them. 

Whatever the formula is, it's ours. It's not what everyone else says it is or should be. It's not in the books or magazines. It's not in the casual judgmental conversations of, "if that were my kid...!" It's our family's alone, just as everyone else's formula is their own as well. But surely, it's in much greater hands than ours, and I hope we never lose it...

Proverbs 22:6 Train a boy in the way he should go; Even when he grows old he will not depart from it.

Life Lately

2017. One full week of the New Year in the books. 2016 activity is on Facebook for the most part, so I can start fresh without too much catchup to do on the blog.

We're pretty settled in our new house, busy as ever with Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts and are trying out the year with less social media activity. Hence my blog/journal. I still have to document the great stuff in our lives! And doing it old school and handwritten wouldn't be as fun. :-)

Isaiah is a freshman in high school, and Joseph is in 3rd grade. A Star Scout and Bear Cub, respectively, and both continuing to make us as proud as ever!

So on to the New Year! We all returned to school and to work this week, which has  been mostly uneventful. Joseph came home with his straight A report card, we celebrated my aunt Ramona's 50th birthday, and then rounded off the weekend with a family board game. Mostly uneventful.  Not too much chaos just yet.

I know, however, that the year ahead will be as busy as the last one. We're up late tonight preparing for the week ahead. Our routine is pretty set: Isaiah's weekly Monday Boy Scout meeting is tomorrow evening, and Joseph's Den meeting will be at our house on Tuesday night. This one should be fun for the boys. They are having either a pizza or ice cream party, which they earned by selling the most popcorn in the Pack this year.

As for Wednesday and Thursday, I'm sure something will come up that I'm forgetting at the moment... And Friday we'll rest until Saturday when we'll take a day trip to the Texas Battleship and San Jacinto monument.

Then Sunday we'll wake up for church and have just enough time in the day to clean our house, and then we'll be up late preparing to start the weekly madness all over again.

Somewhere in the middle of all of that chaos, I'll need to find time to visit with my counselor again to register for an accounting course this semester.

As crazy as it may seem, I wouldn't know what to do with myself if we had less going on. The boys' activities keep us on our toes, and together, and for that, I am so thankful.

Twelfth

It has been awhile since Danith and I took a trip together or been on a real date. For quite some time, our dates have been to the end of the driveway to check the mail together, or through the crowded aisles of the grocery store. I'm sure most parents can relate to that!

Last weekend, we finally enjoyed a little getaway to Fredericksburg to celebrate  our 12 year anniversary, and it was so much fun! We did a few wine tours, climbed Enchanted Rock and just enjoyed each other's company.

After several stressful weeks at work, it was much needed and long overdue! 

I will say, however, coming home was the best. The boys surprised us with a clean house and an anniversary cake that they baked for us all by themselves (well, under my parents' supervision). Those boys, they AMAZE us. 

God is so great. SO great.

Spring Is In The Air!

Spring is in the air! Literally. Pollen is everywhere, as are the June bugs, spiders, ants (a pile in our mailbox!), blooming flowers, itchy eyes, runny nose, stuffy nose.... ok I've drifted. The bunnies have returned to our back yard, and so have the Cardinals in the trees, the herons in the pond behind our house, and a good size little ninja turtle!

Joseph wanted to keep him! It was adorable how excited he was about it! But, funny enough, that turtle made a surprisingly quick exit from our yard.

As busy as we are at work this week,that was probably the highlight of the boys' Spring break so far... we definitely have to make this up to them!

Four Years Later...

We have a teenager in the house! And a very rambunctious 8 year old! Two young men who make life so much fun. They have their dad's personality: quick witted and always cracking jokes. They have Danith and me laughing constantly.

We have moved in to a new home. Other than the 3 obnoxious boxes left in the garage to unpack and several bare walls, we have been settled in now for a year come late April.  

These days our lives are very routine and (thankfully) not too crazy. Work, school, Scouts and soccer, eat, pray, sleep. Start over. Low key and comfortable and exactly how I like it. 

Closing Day!

13th BDay. I adore this boy.

Mr. Joseph's 8th birthday (and 1 of 2 of his Minecraft birthday cakes. I can't help but spoil him!)

And a fun Keo Klaus picture for everyone from the Children's Christmas Party we threw for the kids on our street.

Spring Break Fever!

This week is Spring Break, and I finally took a whole week off from work to make it a fun one for Isaiah and Jojo. I planned to take them to the rodeo carnival (with friends one day and with his cousins on another), for another hike, to the movies, and anything else we could think of.


On Monday, the four of us were able to go to the rodeo carnival with some friends and had a really fun time. Jojo rode his very first ferris wheel, and he ate his very first sausage on a stick. Isaiah had a friend that he's known since they were babies to hang out with, and they had an awesome time together! Then later Isaiah and I watched the Zac Brown Band while Danith and Jojo hung out more at the carnival. It was great!

He loved the ferris wheel!

Wes talked him in to doing this - he went higher than I thought he would!

The Keo and Kompelien Kiddos :-)

Zac Brown Band!

But unfortunately, the Spring Break fun ended there. Tuesday morning Isaiah woke up with a high fever, the chills and a cough. Today is actually day four of fighting a fever of 104 degrees. It has gone up and down, but creeps it's way back up that high regularly.

So of course there have been no movies, no hikes, and no carnival day with his cousins. At least we got to go on Monday! Since then, we have only taken a trip to the doctor and CVS Pharmacy (where someone --who shall remain nameless --backed in to a BMW with my SUV, which is spending the next few days in the collision repair shop... then that nameless person got a ticket for speeding later the same day...) sigh...

This too shall pass --sooner than later I hope!!

Camping Weekend

We have been busy busy busy. It's been the usual work, school, scouting and swimming -- in no particular order and all very chaotic. And this weekend, being no exception, we took an awesome (scout) camping trip to Pedernales Falls State Park. Camping has to be our favorite part of Cub Scouting. I'm definitely going to miss it when he becomes a Boy Scout!

This trip was to introduce him to the skills he'll need to camp in Boy Scouts. He had to pitch the tent himself (with the help of another scout, but without his parents)...

He learned different outdoor cooking techniques. He helped to make eggs for breakfast, fajitas for dinner, and two different cobblers for dessert.

And I was so proud of him for doing a skit with his friend for the camp fire!

Saturday afternoon we took about a 4 mile hike, literally over the river and through the woods. The weather was perfect, and even Jojo endured the hike. I was so proud of him for making it - no griping or complaining - he hung in there like he was a 4th grade scout himself.

Jojo crossing the frigid river just like the big boys!

He loved it!

My big boy scout after crossing the river :-)

Den 15 plus siblings!

He walks alone.

Stopping for lunch midway through the hike - ham and cheese sandwiches never tasted so good!

Crossing back over at the end of the hike.

The cold water definitely put the kick back in our exhausted steps!

Does this picture not say, "aww Mom come on, my friends are way ahead of us by now!"

But they were good sports and let me be that mom.

Shortly after the hike, we went to Pedernales Falls, the actual Falls, and it was gorgeous!!

View from the top - the water is obviously a bit low this year.

Can you spot Isaiah in his Houston Texans jacket? :-)

Snake!

Awesome, awesome, awesome! Other than the frosty nights, it was the best camping trip yet!!