Today I saw a cop car parked in my next door neighbor’s and as I tried to stealthily pull into my garage without attracting attention, part of me was fighting down panic.
Because the way my morning was going with a certain oldest daughter, my neighbor very well could have called the cops on us and all of our commotion.
Ok, so it wasn’t really that bad, but part of me did wonder. I actually kept my cool much better than usual because I’ve been trying to be really vigilant about how I’m raising my voice to the kids and losing my patience, but good heavens, this morning was rough. So much sassiness and smacking her sister and one incident involving chasing her sibling with an actual power tool.
Sigh.
Aside from a much-needed lovely break through lunch at a friend’s house (Someone made me lunch! And coffee! And I almost got to drink it all while it was still warm!), I also tried to sit down for some one-on-one time with the girls and focus some time and energy into Easter this week. I find myself popping into each holiday without really talking about the meaning behind them with the kids, so I tried hard to be intentional about Easter this year and actually explain to them that we don’t just celebrate for baskets full of chocolate and jelly beans.
Easter Cross Countdown Garland
*Construction paper
*Scissors
*Glitter glue
*Tissue paper, cut into squares
*Glue sticks
*Tape and string or ribbon for garland
*Marker or pen
I cut out crosses for our Easter “countdown” and then we talked about focusing on one thing that we could do every day to honor Jesus and put that across the middle of each cross. My plan was to have the girls take down the cross for the day and we could talk about how we could perform that “task” for the day.
Mya chose “Playing” and “Be Good” for her crosses.
Ada chose “Forgive” and “Love” for hers.
And mine, was, of course, “Obey.” Hey, I’m the mom, right?
After we talked about some ways we could actually do those things (Play nicely and not chase our sister with power tools comes to mind….) the girls decorated their crosses with tissue paper squares and glitter glue, and we strung them across some ribbon to hang in front of the fireplace.
Voila!
Not exactly Pinterest-ready, but something easy and meaningful for Easter.
That will hopefully prevent the neighbors from calling the cops on me.
Anything to keep the cops away, right? 😉
But seriously, that sounds wonderful! You talked to the kids, you engaged them in the task, they got to do something concrete and meaningful to them, and let’s hope that they actually learned from it. Tell Ben about it—it’s seriously the kind of thing a teacher can love.
Hope you and the kids have a very blessed Holy Week!