Fruit Inspection

I am taking a parenting class on Wednesday nights at our church. We are not using any particular “how to” book. Instead, one of the Youth Ministers in the church, who has 2 teenage children of his own, is leading a group of us with his own suggestions on raising Godly children we can enjoy in all their many stages, based on his own successes and failures as a father.

On the first night of class he asked us to come up with a way to spend more quality time with our kids. THEIR time. Not one on one time with them while you run YOUR errands, but actual time that THEY want to spend and how THEY want to spend it. He offered up things like game night on Fridays, 15 minutes before bed reading stories and talking about their day, daddy/daughter date nights, etc. Being that I am with my kids all day, every day, I feel like we do have a good amount of quality time together, but I wanted to particiapte and come up with something new, so I began thinking…

It took me until the 3rd week of class, but finally I had it! No movies in the car for one week.

When Jeremy and I got our first vehicle with a DVD player in it I thought “I’ll never use this thing, except maybe when we go on vacation or something”. Boy, was I wrong. I became totally hooked on playing that thing everytime we get in the truck. I justify it to myself by saying that I only play educational DVD’s, so that makes it okay. But the deep down truth of the matter is, when I turn it on, the kids stay quiet. And occasionally, it has been known to keep my youngest awake when errands run into naptime and I need to get him home to his own bed for a full 2 hour sleep-a-thon.

So after class last week we piled into the car and the first words out of their mouths were “Movie Mama” and “Ooo-Mee, Peese”. I gladly informed them of the “No Movies This Week” rule and explained that they were not in trouble. We rode home that night listening to the radio and the occasional “Ooo-Mee, Peese, Mama” from Emery who has no concept of the term “week”.

Today the week is over and I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed the time in the car with the kids. After the first couple of days, they even stopped asking about turning it on. We talked about things outside such as birds and tractors, and one morning I got into a long conversation when Savannah asked about the men working along the side of the road in the black and white striped pants and shirts.

But the most surprising thing that happened all week was when we would all just be quiet and listen to praise music, either on the radio or on the kids My First Praise CD. As if it wasn’t sweet enough to hear my 4 year old singing softly to songs such as “Blessed Be Your Name” by Tree63 or “My Savior, My God” by Aaron Shust, she started asking me questions about the lyrics. “Mommy, what does it mean to bow down before Him” or “Mommy, why do they want to lift their hands in praise”? Wow! What an opportunity to share Christ with her. It was totally unexpected and I am so thankful I turned off the Brainy Baby DVD and got to experience it!