Will you be my friend?

When my husband and I were thinking about Homeschooling, my biggest concern for the boys was shyness. My boys were already showing signs of being shy and I didn't want that for them.

I've got nothing against shy people, but I was shy when I was little. Being shy is no fun. I used to hide behind my mom. The NOT shy people would take advantage of me. I would let my friends talk for me. (Most of the time). I wouldn't go and just do something.

It all changed when I started traveling for Wal-Mart. You can't be shy when you are in charge of at least 300 people and 7 members of management. So I became un-shy. But it was hard work. I was in my 20's when that happened and I missed out on a lot of friendships and adventures because of my shyness.

So when we were talking about it, I told Hubster that I wanted to see what we could do to get the shyness out of the boys. We were already facing some opposition from people who said that Homeschooling didn't let the boys socialize. Whatever!

If you were to meet my boys and not know they were homeschooled, you would be surprised. They are not shy at all. And they make friends very easily.

But I've noticed that when kids make friends, they are not like us adults. They don't care about little things, they just want a friend.

For example, when we adults meet another adult, we ask them their name. And then we try to up one on them. Not intentionaly, but we do. You know, when the other person says that they have a certain model of car, then you say you have this other model. When the other person says they have 3 bathrooms in their house, you say you have 4 even though you only have 2.

Kids don't do that. At least not all the time. One day I notice UB talking to a boy twice his age. He was laughing and talking to this kid. The kid was doing the same. Then they started playing with each other. When UB came over, I asked him if who the kid was. He said it was his new friend. I asked if this friend had a name, he said he didn't ask.

AB does that as well. When we go places, he usually makes a new friend. I ask the same question. What was his name? His answer is always the same. I don't know.

It made me realize that what seems to be important to us is definately not important to them.

They don't care if they know the person's name, they just know they made a new friend.

Why can't we all think like kids?

What movies are good for kids?

Today we are a going to talk about how you decide what movies your child should watch. This requires some participation from anyone reading this blog.

In case you forgot what "participation" means, it comes from the word "participate" which means: to have or take part or share with others. So sign in with your nickname or your real name and "participate".

Of course, I could just be writing to myself because I"m not really sure if anyone reads my blog.

OK, now that I've got that out of my system, let's start.

What type of movies do you allow your kids or nephews, nieces, grand kids to watch?

For example, my kids are 6 & 4. There are just some movies that we don't allow them to watch. Anything rated R or PG-13. Even some PG movies are a little strong. Hubster and I base it on what content it has.

Back when I was growing up, mom used to allow us to watch movies. I don't even remember if we had PG-13 back then, but the rated R movies were nowhere in content as the rated R movies are now.

I'm not trying to shield my kids from life issues. But I would like them to stay innocent as long as they can.

The problem is when they have friends over. My kids get harassed (not bad) about not being able to watch PG-13 movies. But Adventure Boy will sometimes tell them that God doesn't want them to listen to movies with bad words in them. Go AB!

We had some friends over and the 9 yr old wanted to watch a certain PG-13 movie. Hubster knew the content it had. This 9 yr old said that it had some sexual content in the movie, but it was OK because it wasn't much. They did however say lots of bad words and it was violent.

After hubster decided that we would not get that movie for our boys to see, even if it was a popular one, our friend told this little boy that they preview the shows first to see if it is proper for him to watch and then allow him watch all types of movies.

So what do we as parents, grandparents and such preview? How strong the sexual content is? What is appropriate to let these kids see? A naked body? Two adults naked in bed? Where do we draw the line?

What about the words that are said? If they don't say more than 10 "F" words it's appropriate? Or if only 2 people get beheaded then it's OK? I just don't understand.

Everyone will raise their kids the way that they see fit. We will continue to raise ours the way God wants us to.

And no, we are not holier than thou. We are just trying to do what's right for our kids.

So what is your opinion? Remember, PARTICIPATION.

He's home

"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?"

Isaiah 43:19

Isn't wonderful to know that TODAY, God is doing a new thing in our lives? If you are feeling down today because things just aren't going your way, just remind yourself that God is doing something new in your life today.



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Loren got home at 5am yesterday morning. I was a mean wife and left him at home alone to watch the kids while I went on a trip. A friend went with me to visit another friend in the hospital who has cancer. She was needing some items taken to her and I volunteered to take them to her, and my friend said she would go with me. We visited her at the hospital and because she was feeling good and was wanting to talk, we stayed longer than what we thought.



Of course our tummies were grumbling because it was lunch time, but we felt it was more important to stay and visit than it was to eat. When we did leave, we went to a Mexican Restaurant called Ted's. It's a place where you eat the never ending bowl of chips with never ending bowls of salsa and cheese dip and the never ending warm homemade tortillas. It is so yummy.



I order a meal, but am usually so full from everything else that I end up taking it home. But we can't have a meal without ending with some delicious sopapillas. Am I making you hungry yet?



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I took this picture of the moon the other day. I thought it was pretty cool, what do you think?