fireflies

11 things I will never regret doing with my kids

1) catching fireflies Summer has gone again and with it those magical, electrical flying insects that once filled our backyard with such vigor and joy. As a child, I made a game out of capturing these miniature fairies and when you pair this activity with a warm summer night and bare feet, it's quite ethereal.

2) reading to them

There's nothing as sweet as your precious child coming to you, book in hand, and cuddling on your lap. I am an avid reader myself and my heart sings when my children ask me to sit down and read to them. I will be extremely excited if a few, if not all, of my children learn to love reading as much as I do someday.

3) teaching them to pray

Some parents teach their children little prayer songs or choruses and the children usually sing them thru before a meal or compete to see who can say it thru the fastest. While these are cute and fun, I personally discourage my children to pray this way. I always tell my children to talk to God as if He was in the room with them. Tell Him what's on your heart, praise Him, speak His Word, LISTEN!:) Pray with them and lead by example. My prayer is that praying (to my children) will come as naturally as talking.

4) help me cook

It may take twice as long, okay maybe four times as long, to complete the recipe, but the time spent with my kids in the kitchen is frustratingly priceless. Not only are we getting some fun quality time together, we are potentially learning something useful for their future as well as a little math lesson too! And mommy learns extra patience too when said offspring cracks the eggs too hard and the inevitable occurs.

5) rough housing

It's like magic. Mommy sits in the middle of the floor and kids just attack. It's so much fun to tickle, play airplane, spin them around, and giggle with them. It just never gets old.

6) spontaneous dance parties

When the boys were really tiny, like both under 3, we would have the BEST dance parties in the kitchen. I really wanna tear up right now thinking of it because it was so long ago and it was the highlight of everyday for me. Now, I can barely beg them to participate, but now I have Avery and Olivia to revive that favorite kid/mommy pastime with!

7) having an occasional sweet frog dinner

I absolutely love surprising the kids every now and again with a sweet frog dinner. They think I'm the coolest for letting them have "ice cream" for dinner and I get another fun mommy/kid memory to forever keep in my heart. If only they knew it was healthy yogurt and not ice cream.;)

8) leading them to Christ

This one is self-explanatory, but there's NOTHING on the planet like leading your own child to salvation in Christ. I am so thankful for a multigenerational heritage that proudly displays Christ's love.

9) buying lots of art supplies

While I'm no artist, I mean, I'm so art challenged that my stickmen wish I would put clothes on them, I do love being creative. I always love putting down a bunch of random things in the middle of the table, give them their supplies and let them create. No matter what the mess, or how many glue sticks disappear, it's completely worth it.

10) letting my boys dig in the backyard

This one has backfired a bit considering we would like to move sometime in the nearish future, but I honestly love watching my boys play in the dirt. I love letting them drive their cars thru it and make roads and tunnels and ramps. It's something I hope they are able to do unrestricted when we get that farmland property we are praying for one day.

11) taking way too many pictures

I think I take more pictures of my kids in one month than was taken of me my whole childhood. I know that cameras are pretty much fastened to our palms at all times now, but I take JOY in snapping sometimes 100 pics a day of my brood. Now to win the lottery so I can print them all for them.

-Alicia