when we were in Little Rock this past summer they had some kids of staff members come share their experience in moving to Little Rock and their adjustment to life there. every one of them mentioned that during their family’s fundraising process their parents made some kind of chart for the whole family to see how much progress they’d made.

but for the Laras, we didn’t want to simply do some “boring” thermometer. we liked the idea a family had of making a large magnet of a map from their home to Little Rock that they stuck on their fridge and had a little car magnet that traveled down the road.
but we wanted something even BIGGER. so we figured, “hey, we’re not going to stay in this house forever. why not go crazy and make a HUMONGOUS map on the living room wall.”

so that’s what we did. we announced to the girls that they were going to write on the walls, through a projection of the US on the wall, handed out pencils, and then let them go at it. after we’d put them to bed, mom and dad stayed up outlining it in Sharpie markers, and then we colored in the highway to Arkansas with them in the morning.

take a look for yourself.

(youtube link)

This past week, during my Bible reading, I’ve read again the story of Esther. This book, in the Old Testament, tells of an incident that occurred in Jewish history. The king of Persia, having disposed of his queen, was in search of a replacement. The king’s attendants suggested that the entire empire be searched for beautiful young women; the young ladies would then be brought into the royal harem where they would receive beauty treatments. Following this time of preparation, the girls would be presented to the king. The woman that pleased the king the most would be made queen. The second chapter outlines how Esther was brought into the fortress of Susa, the location of the king’s harem. Esther found favor with the attending eunuchs; she was treated kindly, given a special menu and received twelve months of beauty treatments in the best place in the harem. When it was her turn to meet with the king, Esther was ready. She had been coached and prepared. She smelled good. She looked good. And she had the aura of royalty. The king loved her, even after their first meeting. He was delighted with her and promptly declared her queen.

What does this story have to do with parenting? A lot. It has changed how I have been parenting my six princesses this past week.

My home, anyone’s home, is like that fortress. We all belong to God, but when He calls us into action, will we be ready? Will our children be ready? Will the King be delighted with what we have to offer? Will we exude an aroma of praise or possess an aura of pride? I can prepare myself to meet with the King by reading His Word & practicing a lifestyle of praise.

What about my kids? As a mother it is my task to help my daughters become presentable princesses. They must be ready to listen to HIs voice & eager to obey; they must be beautiful with gentleness & kindness. They must know that their time is coming soon- the KIng will call for them. They must be ready. When a child is alone or hurting, will our children allow God to love others through them? Will our kids be characterized by obedience and gratitude?

There is another, more masculine, example to follow. The book of 1Samuel shows how a mother gave her son to the Lord, to be “the Lord’s helper,” (1Sam 2:18). And, when the Lord called on Samuel to be His prophet, Samuel was ready & obedient.

We are raising royalty. Will our charges be ready when God has need of them? No longer are we nagging parents; it is our privilege & responsibility to make sure that our children are aware of the fact that they were created for a purpose. I am not parenting for my own enjoyment; the mandate is much higher. The King desires that our children know Him and His commands. As parents, we cannot simply feed & clothe our children until they can do it themselves. We must give them the best ‘diet’ & ‘beauty treatments’ so they will be pleasing to the King when He calls for them.

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i’m amused for a couple reasons. the first is because there’s like a bazillion things on the list that i never needed when i was in grade school.

secondly, because the kids read the lists and get all in a tizzy if the parents can’t get something on the list. as if they really needed a box of wipes, 4 DOZEN pencils, box of goldfish crackers, 6 – 1 inch 3 ring binders, and a big box of Kleenex for their education on the FIRST day of school.

sometimes the store has run out of an item (like big erasers, in our case), because there’s a bazillion other parents all getting the same items on the list. or perhaps because the parents simply can’t afford to get everything. including backpacks our family spent over $150 on school supplies this year. and that was for only 3 girls. i can only imagine how much we’ll spend once all 6 are in school. or sometimes it’s because the parents protest to buying everything on the list because they don’t think it’s needed for their child on the FIRST day.

and that leads me to my third reason for amusement. because the fact is those parents have good reason to protest. most schools are facing budget deficits and they put these things on “the list” and then put them all into one “pool” for the class to use.

so what amuses me about this is that our church is currently collecting school supplies to hand out to needy families. and so parents (and yes, i’ve heard more than one) who are complaining about having to buy all these items on “the list” for other people’s kids – because their parents aren’t responsible enough to get them – are at the same time feeling good about themselves for buying some school supplies for “other people’s kids”.

it’s kinda funny. :)

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the List.pdf (47 KB)

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I love my family life.

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julia (5yr): dad, can I have a drink of water when we get home?

dad: maybe a little drink but not a big one because it’s almost bed time and we don’t want you to have an accident.

julia: but dad, at night I pray to Jesus and he wakes me up to go to the bathroom in the morning.

dad: that’s great jules, but what happens if you have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night?

julia: daaaaad, then my pee wakes me up. so see, I can have a big drink.

(as we arrive home)
dad: you’re gonna have to ask your mother.

julia: mom, can I have a big drink of water? I’m really thirsty

mom: just a little one because it’s almost bed time.

julia: but mom, at night I pray to Jesus and he wakes me up to go to the bathroom in the morning.

dad: yeah and tell her what happens if you have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night?

julia: mom, then my pee wakes me up. so see, I can have a big drink.

mom: did your pee wake you up last night?!

when bath time starts, EVERYONE wants to get in the water at the same time. even if there’s obviously no room. :)

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by the time i came home, the dots on Julia’s face were mostly faded. and it doesn’t say it in the note, but Anna peppered Julia’s face with dots via a marker while Julia was napping. thus the reason for the forgiveness note to begin with.

“Lord may I be so quick to realize I need forgiveness, and humble enough to ask.”

so what’s so different. for one, i actually like going to work now. and if some one asked i’d even say i love my job now. for those who don’t know, efcom is an Apple Reseller and Service company in yakima. and if you’ve known me very long you know that i like computers. but not just any computers, Apple computers. so to get to come to work and help others with their computer issues or helping them make up their mind about which mac to buy is just awesome. i’ve been doing that for years already and now i get paid to do it.

and now i’m getting to learn about taking apart the machines and doing hardware repairs. and i’ll be studying to actually become “Apple Certified” on the software and perhaps later on the hardware as well.

i actually really enjoy having a commute. i’m more of an introverted type of person. that may be hard for some to believe since i do such a good job of “pretending” to be extroverted sometimes. but i truly do love being by myself. and so i like the times in the morning and afternoon to just be by myself in my car with either nothing to clutter my thinking, or as a chance to catch up on podcasts or audiobooks i’ve been meaning to listen to.

there’s another guy that works here that lives about halfway between grandview and yakima so we’ve been carpooling from his house on. one week i’ll drive and then the next he’ll drive. so it doesn’t cut my gas bill all the way in half since i still have to drive to his house, but it does help cut it down a bit.

one of the things i was looking forward to about the commute was the chance to catch up on my un-played to podcasts and i thought that commuting with someone else would interrupt that. but trenton likes listening to them as well and even asked me to bring my shuffle and car adapter with me on the weeks that he drives. so that’s cool.

but i’d have to say that the biggest change that’s happened this past week is that i can now say i’m a “family man”. now for a guy with six daughters it might sound odd to say that i wasn’t a family man before. but i now see that at best i had good intentions, and at worst only vain words.

you see before i disliked my job, i felt the need to have my “alone” time to recharge, and yet still wanted to spend time with my family. but since i hated my job and hadn’t had time to myself all day i would come home seeking time to be alone. so every-time that my girls would run to come climb on me or want to tell me all about their day i’d be annoyed because i hadn’t had my time yet. yes, it’s probably selfish but that’s how i felt.

but now i have plenty of time to myself and can fully devote myself to being with my family as soon as i walk in the door. i come home everyday excited to have the girls run out and give me a hug. i walk in the door ready to help deb and lift her load after a long day alone with the kids.

in fact the week before i started deb and i were talking about how little family time i would be getting with the girls. i leave home around 7:30a, sometimes one or two of the girls are awake but not always. so i don’t always get to say “good morning” or “good bye” to them. and then i get home around 6pm. so we have dinner, have a little time together and then put them to bed around 8 or 8:30. so i only get to see my kids for 2 or 2 1/2 hrs a day! and then time alone with deb is just maybe a 0.5-1hr beyond that.

so i now i cherish every moment i have with my family. the downside to all this is that my blog has been neglected, twitter updates are becoming fewer and farer between. and honestly i’m not sure if either will pick back up again.

maybe i just need some time getting used to my new schedule and will find a time to squeeze in blogging somewhere. but right now that’s not the case.

so until next time (when ever that may be), so long blog world. i hope to get to know you again a little better sometime. but i can’t have you come between me and my family, so i’m gonna have to say good bye.

so do you have any tips on how i can balance life, work, family, blogging, twitter, etc?

——————–
// today i’m thankful for:
1. my family
2. my kids
3. my job
4. my sister’s birthday
5. my new car tires.

PS. my personal iPhone day is only 21 days away!!!!

i love it. let me rephrase that. i love it when i’m ready to play. there are times that i’m reading, writing, or just napping on the couch and they come running and i am most certainly not ready in those cases. but when i am ready – bring it!

the girls love being able to pretend that they’re beating up dad. they love being tossed around up in the air. they love being pinned under my leg and tickled. they love trying to “save each other” from the clutches of daddy’s grip. and they love squealing! oh, man, do they love to squeal. and believe me 4 little girls (yes rachel jumps in too) giggling and squealing with delight will rival the sound of any boys of the same age.

usually these go until one of two things happen. the first is dad is so tired that he’s just laying on the ground out of breath and sweaty. and the girls are all on top claiming victory over the giant foe. or the secondly, someone has gotten hurt by bonking heads, hair accidently pulled, or just generally too many knees and elbows so close together. someone’s usually crying, running to mom for comfort, or bleeding.

and yet, i think it’s good for my girls to have this time to “get physical”. a time to know that playing hard isn’t just “for the boys”. i love all my girls and i’m glad they have a dad who’s around to play with them. in fact as i write this i’m sitting at my desk typing on my MacBook Pro with the iMac behind it with a screensaver of our girl’s pictures scrolling by. it brings a smile to my face to see my girls so little growing up and becoming the princesses that God’s called them to be but who also aren’t afraid to jump in on the “DOG PILE ON DAD!!”

if you ever had a young toddler and a fruit bowl together in the same house then chances are you’ve used the bPhone. although it’s been around since the dawn of time it’s still a popular favorite with the 3ft and under crowd and those still developing their words.

sure it may not double as an internet browser or email machine, but then again when was the last time you paid $200+ for a banana? no, these ingenious gadgets of communication can be picked up in a bundle pack of 6 for less than $3 bucks at most participating retailers.

and you also can’t play music or watch videos, but you can watch the bPhone itself blend in the blender to make your favorite smoothie, or milkshake.

the reception is also crystal clear. (as long as you’re calling someone else also using a bPhone and they are within 5ft range of you physically)

to show you just how much fun you could have with your toddler and his/her new bPhone, i’ve included a short video of me and rachel using our own bPhones out in the real world.

rachel loves it so much she could talk for hours on her bPhone, plus the fact that it’s also great for breakfast or a late night snack.

PS. please be aware that even though you’re particular model should have a similar size and shape as the ones shown in the video, yours may vary slightly. also be aware that there is only a limited warranty on the bPhone, usually only 36 hours.