I’m Blessed

Today is 2 posts in one.  There wasn’t 1 on Saturday, but keep reading and you’ll find out why.

There was a moment the other day when I was teaching Silje something at school, and she asked if other 2nd graders had to learn this too.  My heart twinges every time she makes references to her old school, or what she would rather be doing.

I don’t mean to give the wrong impression.  Silje loves school.  She always has, and hopefully always will.  She would love learning where ever she went.  It would have been easier to explain to her why we homeschool if we had had a terrible experience at her old school.  What made it hard to decide to homeschool was the fact that we do live in a good school district, and that she did love it there.

I was discussing this with a veteran homeschool mom at a get together last week, and she commented that what my kids were getting to the age where I had to make some tough decisions for them, and they may not always like that.  The more I thought about it, the more I wondered at what age I didn’t make tough decisions for my kids that they didn’t like.  I knew what she meant, though.

What we are doing for our kids is intended to be a gift.  Parents often want to bless their children, and we all bless our kids in different ways.  Although Silje loves doing school with me, and tells me that, there are times when she’s working on grammar that it doesn’t feel like a gift.  Let’s just say they’re not always overflowing with thankfulness.

The same goes for food, too.  Why is it my kids can’t stand the homemade macaroni and cheese I make with real cheeses and baked to perfection with bread crumbs playfully sprinkled on top?  No.  They like the little blue box with the fake orange cheese.  I want so badly to give them good things.  Sometimes they get the good things when they’d prefer the bad ones.

Maybe it’s because “good” has a connotation of “healthy” or “responsible” that goes with it.  Being a rebel is just that much more fun.  I enjoy it when my kids have fun.  However, them having fun isn’t my #1 goal.

Let’s move this to the context of God.  How does he like to bless us?  What good things does he give us?  I’ve been wondering this last week if there aren’t some things in my life that God intended as a gift.

I wonder if I, as a Christian, ask God for cookies when he gives me broccoli.
I wonder if I reject the real things God gives me in preference for the fake in the pretty package.
I wonder if I look around at what other people are doing, and ask “why didn’t I get that?” like my kids so often do.
I wonder if I get sold on commercials as easily as my kids do, and don’t recognize it.
I wonder if I’m letting the world define what I want, and then complain to God when I don’t get it.

Those are my thoughts on blessings this last week.

 As for part 2 of this post, it’s a huge praise that Silje was kept safe from the night on the bunk bed in the boys’ room for their sleepover together last Friday.  They had so much fun.  Around midnight, after they had been asleep for quite some time, Silje somehow fell off the top bunk, and we rushed in there and tried to figure out how hurt she was.  She didn’t cry at first, but then she was understandably very scared.  With nothing broken, and not a bruise on her, we decided to put her back in her bed in her room.  About 20 minutes later she started throwing up, and we noticed a rug burn on her face near he temple from where she had fallen.

So Knut stayed home with the other kids, and I took Silje to the emergency room to get checked out around 1am.  We feared she had a concussion, and they observed her for most of the night and released us around 5am.  The throwing up continued almost all night long, and they mostly treated that.

I had always thought that David would be my first bring-a-kid-to-the-emergency-room experience, but Silje surprised me.  Well, Elias has been to the emergency room before, but that was just a formality for being checked into the hospital for breathing issues when he was littler.

She is fine now, and doesn’t even have a mild headache.  When I think of how it could have turned out…
I try to stop thinking. 

I told her when we were in the emergency room and she was scared that she should think of something that she really wants when she gets home and we could talk about that.  She really wanted a bubble bath.  (Phew!  That’s all?!  Don’t ever tell her I felt so bad for her at that moment that I would have given her a kitten had she asked me at that point in time!)

She got 2 bubble baths when we were home on Saturday, and even 2 naps as well.  After her second bath she asked if I would brush her hair, and for once I was unhurried, and just wanted her to relax.  When I was done brushing it, she wanted me to keep playing with it, so I kept playing with it.

I was pretty proud of my play afterward, so I asked her if I could take a picture.

I have a daughter who lets me play with her hair.  I wish I took the time to do it more often.  I’m blessed.

If you want to join in this week and say how you have been blessed, don’t worry!  You don’t need to be as long winded as me!  Write what you want.  Please include a link to this blog in your post, and put a link to your blog below.  If you don’t have a blog, go ahead and just leave a comment sharing with others either what God is teaching you about Himself (the biggest blessing of all!) or how else He is blessing you.