One Step Report #9

Well, here I am again with my weekly report.  To those who read my blog and are tired of these little lists of small things I’ve done each week, I apologize.  I confess that this week I’ve felt a bit tired of it too, as the little things have certainly not added up to solve any of the big things we’re facing, BUT I made a commitment to myself.  If I do nothing else this year, I will finish this.  It is my act of faith in God’s ability to make me equal to the task of raising my children at a time in my life when I feel so inadequate.  To anyone who wonders what on earth this list is for, you can read my explanation here .

This week:  88 steps.  I was surprised by this so I went back and read through them more closely than I sometimes do.  It interested me to note how many times I recorded the experience of having feelings of frustration or discouragement boil to the surface, filling my eyes with tears, then pausing to close my eyes and pray for strength to carry on.  I have mixed feelings about this pattern.  On one hand I feel happy that I’m learning to go directly from the feeling to the solution, to recognize that God is my strength, and to seek it instantly.  On the other hand, it’s a little disturbing to have a record of just how often those feelings rise to the surface.  Can I be getting worse and better at the same time?  I’m not sure I want to think too much about that one tonight.

A few highlights:

I managed an effective positive reinforcement campaign with the kindergarten carpool this week.  They’re putting on their seat belts and keeping them on much more cheerfully.

Mr. Wonderful’s aunt was in town this week.  She came over on Tuesday night for dinner (pizza).  She is single and has no children, and this was the first time she has EVER witnessed our family in real life mode.  She has only seen us in vacation mode.  Bless her heart!  The night she came over we had different children committed for activities at 4:00, 5:00, 6:00, 6:30, 6:45 and 7:00.  I’d love to be a fly on the wall and hear how she described it to someone from her perspective.  We did manage to snap a photo at one point in the evening with whoever was there at the moment.  Can you tell that some of them were a little wound up?


One of the activities going on during the above mentioned evening was taking my oldest daughter to New Beginnings, a special activity each year for young women ages 12-17 and their parents.  We were invited because my daughter is (gulp) turning 12 later this year and she was being presented.  Wow.  I’m pretty sure I’ll be ok with the transition because her birthday isn’t until November and she talks about it at least twice a day, but this activity caught me off guard.  It ended up being a wonderful night, and I was very grateful for the chance to attend.  Here we are together before leaving, and she’s still a little wound up.


This week I tried to enjoy my time spent in the kitchen.  I put more effort into our meals, and also into having the children help with the dishes.

I spent lots of time marveling at my littlest one.  She’s so mobile now, rolling and scooting and army crawling all over the place.  She’s experimenting with the hard floors, and ALMOST doing the full-on crawl.  One night in particular I kept her up later than the other children and the two of us snuggled and giggled and gave lots of kisses and smiles.  Truly magical.  I love her so much it hurts.


I did a little rearranging of things in my bedroom and I’m pleased with the results.

I started binding a quilt.  This one I’m doing by hand because it’s a scalloped edge (my first try) and I hope it turns out.

We tried hard to listen more carefully to our oldest and do lots of building so that the little requests for improvement will hopefully be taken better.  This whole world of communicating with teenagers is tricky, but we’re hoping to get good at it!

We spent lots of time talking with our children about some of their cousins and the things going on in their lives.  One little cousin had a surprise surgery this week, and another newborn cousin is still in NICU with some serious things to work out.  The lives of two other cousins will be decided by a judge in a custody ruling.  It is precious to hear your children pray for other children.

Last night my husband turned around and saw this hysterical commentary on the local collegiate rivalry.  Our 7 year old daughter had come up with it completely on her own.  I hope you can read it.  Let me know if you need any spelling translations.  I can’t stop laughing at her list of compliments and insults.


With that, I’ll wrap up this report and wish you a wonderful week.  May all your steps be good ones!
Hopeful Homemaker