The power of presence...

Normally when my kids are in the bathtub, I am right outside the room with my laptop. Today I decided to sit in on their bath and a wonderful opportunity came up!

Kylie told me that I was the best mom ever! I asked, what makes me the best mom? These were her answers
~ I pray with her
~ I spend quality time with her
~ I read to her
~ I give her yummy treats to eat
~ I hike with her
and others but you get the gist. Those are her exact words and not embellished by me! I was shocked at the maturity of her answers. Her answers were humbling as usually I feel that I am pushing her aside to do the things that I want to do - check email, make one more blog post etc...

So our conversation then turned to the spiritual side of life. She spoke about hell and heaven and what you had to do to get to both places. She accepted Jesus into her heart at 3 but Luke has not - until today that is! So right after bath time Luke prayed something that went like this:

Dear Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for me. Thank you for taking away my sins. Jesus, please come into my heart. Amen.

That is something as a parent you treasure. Luke, I pray that you hold fast to your faith, that you continue to love Him and in turn love others.

On a lighter note, Kylie asked me if Daddy had Jesus in his heart. I said of course honey! Somehow the conversation then turned to future spouses. She said that she will make sure she asks the man before she marries him because she will not want to have a husband who does not love Jesus! After a minute or two, she said "Mommy? What if he is so handsome I forget to ask?" I about died with laughter! That's my girl!

She can read!

Today while doing Kylie's Reading Made Easy book, I noticed that the light bulb finally turned on! She officially "gets" blends. They had been giving her a hard time and after a few fits and starts, we are rolling now with RME. I am so thankful to have a reading program that when we go through the lesson, Kylie is genuinely happy!

That wasn't the case a few months ago. We would start and she would just dive into the couch crying. I would encourage her to press on but it just didn't work. I think taking a good 6 months off worked well! I know there will still be challenges but it seemed to pay off.

After today's lesson I broke out the BOB books. She was blending with ease so I thought we would try it. My goodness the girl went through 3 books! The smile on her face was precious as she was so proud of her accomplishment. Way to go Kylie!!!

Today at the park...

 

We went to the park today and my sweet husband took some great pictures of the kids!

I have gotten a bit behind of some quality shots of them so I am thankful for these!
 

  This park sits right next to the St. John's River. The rain from Tropical Storm Fay continues to effect many here in this local area.

Homes along the river are flooded as well as neighborhoods next to chain lakes. Pumps run 24/7 throughout the city to pump some of the water away from the neighborhoods. It is so sad to see how such a storm has effected so many. These pictures were taken today - not when TS Fay hit over two weeks ago.
 

I just thought this sign was a bit humorous.

Kids version of a perfect date night...

So because both kids are in AWANA, we have every other Wednesday when we are off as a date night! I asked the kids what we should do and they suggested that we turn off the lights - sounds good there! ;)- and have a flashlight party - uh, not so fun...

I think we will go to Olive Garden instead and maybe have a flashlight party some other time!