Successful Weekend

 I love every stage of my kids’ growth.  It’s fun to watch them as they tackle new challenges and then see them succeed.  Tate worked on the brooder box for our chicks and did a great job.  Tony guided him, but Tate did everything by himself.  In the end, he had something he could be very proud of. 

Speaking of Tony guiding Tate – Our church offered up a Passport to Purity weekend for father/sons and mother/daughters.  I highly recommend this resource to anyone training their pre-teens.  Passport to Purity is a curriculum for parent/child, but our church decided to offer it as a group.  They took off to a Christian camp about 1 1/2 hours away.  The topics were introduced to the group and then there were lots of parent/child breakout sessions.  One of the object lessons Tate kept talking about was when there was a maze of set mousetraps and the kids had to ask their parents to guide them through the maze while the kids were blindfolded and barefoot!  The point was that parents can see things that the kids will not always be able to see.  We are here to guide them and they need to come to us for help. 

That same weekend, I went to Dallas with some friends to go to Sally Clarkson’s Wholehearted Mothers conference.  That was so nice getting away with friends.  I think the biggest thing I took away from the conference was to stop doing things by Flesh and Formula and start doing things by Faith.  I am always trying to just do it all by my own strength (my Flesh) and feeling like a failure when I can’t.  And, I’m always looking for the perfect meal plan, cleaning schedule, curriculum, etc. to have the perfect Formula.  Instead, I need to just trust that God will guide me and provide me with everything I need to get what He wants me to get done.  This has come up so many times in my head since returning from that conference and has really helped me.  Hopefully, it will help you to. :)

The other kids were able to stay with my parents while we were away and they had a great time (of course!)