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No, I'm not sick again. Just overwhelmed. Recovering from a long illness is almost as exhausting as the illness itself.
As you might imagine, many behavior-training opportunities have presented themselves, what with Mom in bed for many weeks and the children trying to cope while Dad was at work. So we have some new issues to deal with and some old ones that need re-training.
At this point, we haven't even started back on our schoolwork. The character training is top priority right now. After all, how do you homeschool with 4 children when attitudes constantly flare up and disobedience rears its ugly head? Answer: you don't.
For some encouragement and refresher courses on this matter I've gone back to some old and trusted sources as well as some new ones:
Raising Godly Tomatoes has very down-to-earth advice for training the younger set. I'm currently 'tomato-staking' a couple of mine.
Raising Godly Children in an Ungodly World is a great DVD series with many hours of practical advice on raising and encouraging your children in obedience, character issues, and responsibility.
For Instruction in Righteousness is a great tool for everyday situations. It is organized by behavior/character issue with scriptural references for all of them.
Character Sketches is a series my Mom used in our homeschool when I was young. It looks at character issues through the eyes of the Bible and in nature.
I don't read all of these every day, but I turn to them a little at a time for encouragement. A peaceful home is our goal.
On top of this monumental task, my 2-year-old has heard about the 'terrible-twos' somewhere and decided to try it out. He's one of the reasons I'm constantly occupied.
AND he is my first child to start potty training before I got out the potty chair! One day, after watching his big brother (4), he announced, "I wanna tee-tee in the potty!" How could I say no to that? He wants to use the big potty, just like brother, so it requires a complete removal of his clothes, close supervision, much applause, a wipe-down of the potty and the floor, handwashing, and getting dressed again. He's doing great, but I wasn't quite ready!
Soooooo . . . please bear with me as I think of great posts in my head and keep putting them off for a future date. My full-time job is in overtime right now, and as James Dobson once said, "Raising children is the most important job in the universe."
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