God Loves Me

That is the title of Jadon's first book. On Friday Jadon didn't have school, he was out for a teacher work day. So, he spent the day writing a book. He spent all day and night writing. The idea for the book, every thing he wrote and the spelling was all him, no help. 

On Sunday Jadon decided that every person in his class should have a copy. So, he and Todd spent the evening making copies to hand out to his friends. While waiting for the bus on Monday he was holding his stack of books, he didn't want them put in his backpack to get wrinkled, and he said, "I think my class will like this, if I was given a book like this I would read it every night before I went to bed."

Jadon came home carrying the same stack of books minus 1 that his teacher kept. We received a very nice letter from his teacher explaining why the books couldn't be handed out during class and offered to help him give them to his friends after school.

Todd and I knew he probably would take his stack of books and not be able to pass them out. But we pray daily for our children to have boldness in their faith. We were able to have great conversation about how some don't believe these truths about God, but that we are still called to go and preach the good news, tell friends and everyone about Him.

One of my favorites is where he wrote God is Good and the illustration to go along with it is a picture of a person hurting (bleeding). God is good even when you are hurting. Amen.

Lemonade Stands

Jadon has been wanting all summer to do a lemonade stand. The problem is we do not live in an area that works for having a lemonade stand. When Donna and Karla decided to have a garage sale Jadon took the opportunity to finally have his lemonade stand. Donna made cupcakes for him to sell along with the lemonade.

He did a great job. He proudly sat at the stand and when someone bought a glass from him, he got the ice, poured the lemonade and even counted the change if needed. He did very well at it too, making $13. After putting some back for God, reimbursing me for the lemonade and paying Haven for helping him, she went around asking people if they would like a cupcake and helped him serve, he came out with a net profit of $9. Not too bad for a lemonade stand in the country.

When Haven was not helping Jadon she was enjoying time with Buddy, the Guinea Pig. She loves him and is completely convinced that when she is not there he misses her.

Jude took a time out from looking for frogs to hold Buddy.

I Love Kindergarten

I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I have been excited about Jadon starting Kindergarten for some time now. I have thought about how I could volunteer at his school and go on field trips and be a room mom, all the fun stuff a mom gets to do when their kids start school.

I have joined the PTO and so far since the first day of school have been up there weekly doing something. I have helped work the Book Fair, which I made friends with other moms and the wonderful Librarian.

I worked school picture day. My job was to line the kids up for the photographer and check the kids over for messy faces and hair. It was so cute watching the Kindergarten classes and the cute little faces with big smiles. At the end of the morning I was blessed with the fact that my picture package for Jadon was free for volunteering. What a huge blessing that was. The week of pictures was not a great week for purchasing pictures. We went ahead and bought a package because I really wanted Jadon's Kindergarten picture and then to find out we got them free was a huge blessing. I called Todd when I found out and we had a little praise service.

On Tuesday I was able to go to the school and do copying and three hole punch papers for Mrs. Daugherty, Jadon's teacher. At the end of the day she asked if I would like to read the class a book. I loved it, Kindergartners are so fun to read too. Then they showed me a matching game they play on the smart board. I was also there when they called Jadon's name over the school's speaker system for winning a poster from the Book Fair. My heart was very proud watching him go out of class by himself, walk to the Library and pick out his poster, come back to the class and Mrs. Daugherty letting him tell his classmates about his poster. After he spoke his teacher had the whole class tell him "congratulations." I wondered at that moment, how did he get so big.

So, Jadon has loved his first month at school and I have loved my first month of being a school mom. I'm ready for more.

Butterscotch

When we were pregnant with Jude Todd and I talked about the probability of us having 3 kids that preferred sucking their thumbs over a pacifier. At that time both Jadon and Haven preferred the thumb, even with much effort on our part to get them to take the pacifier. I didn't work.

I'm pretty sure that Jude was our earliest thumb sucker too. Great, another one to have to break from sucking their thumb.

I know some parents I have talked to would have preferred thumb suckers. Their reasoning is that it's hard for the child to lost the thumb. I agree with that, we never had nights of crying because they couldn't find their pacifier or having to wonder around retracing steps to find where they lost it.

But that's our argument for being against having thumb suckers. You can't just get rid of it when they reach a certain age. It can continue to be a struggle for them long after you think it's over.

We have been in a back and forth battle with Haven for about a year now trying to stop her from sucking her thumb. We have tried putting band-aids on her thumb, she just took those off. We tried putting hot sauce on the thumb and band-aid, she just waited for the hot sauce to be wiped off. We tried putting hot sauce directly on her tongue when we caught her and even though it caused her to throw up a couple of times she continued on.

Finally, I offered her a present. I put an offer of a stuffed horse on the table along with putting athletic tape on her thumbs and using the hot sauce on the tongue.

It finally has worked. She has been free from thumb sucking for a whole month. So, we went and she picked out her horse, Butterscotch. I am so proud of her.

Here she is with Butterscotch and her unicorn that she's had for a while now, Pinkie Star also known as Alice on occasion.

Jude wanted to get in on the pictures too.