Saturday, November 29, 2008

Randomness

Hello all! Yes, I know, we seem to have fallen off the planet here at Chancellor Manor. That is (mostly) beacuse we have a virus on our computer, so I have to go elsewhere to blog, and I hate blogging without pictures for inspiration because I can never think of anything to say. That's my excuse anyways :)

Everything is going well here. Tony is gearing up for winter concerts week after next, and we're settling into severe panic about Christmas coming up too fast mode. It seems that I've started about 12 billion projects that I want done before Christmas and another 12 billion for before Cadence comes - we'll see how that turns out :)

We went to Tulsa for Thanksgiving this year, that was fun. It would seem that all the little munchkins in the world are growing up way too fast! When we got back we went to Mom and Dad's (remember the code: Mom and Dad are Tony's parents, Mommy and Papa are mine) to help decorate. Which reminds me, next time we're in Tulsa I'm rearranging the Nativity set, no matter what it looks like, becuase there is no way I'm letting Josh and Alex put it up two years in a row without some sort of arguement from me.

On the baby front, Cadence finally caved in and gave Tony two good kicks the other night, so he's not mad at her anymore :)
I pretty much have to wear maternity clothes now (after 6 1/2 months) and unless I'm wearing Tony's shirts you can definately tell I'm pregnant.
We finally got a closet rod installed for her clothes, and we kind of know how we're going to pain the nursey and such. Our theme is frogs - here's a link to the bedding set we got (mostly for Auntie's sake :)) We also are going to have a lot of pink, my brain seems to be going into pink mode - must be the hormones ;)


Okay, for some random thoughts...

So the other day I was pondering about being afraid of things, and how you should be able to have caution without overwhelming fear. One thing led to another, and I was soon running headlong down the winding road of speculation and worry. I wondered, how do you teach that concept of balance to a young child? How do you raise a balanced child? How do you allow your child to be free-spirited and fun-loving, yet instill in them self-discipline? How do you teach them a healthy caution without taking away their confidence and making them fearful? How do you gently show them the carnality and evil in man without making them unable to trust? It is these parenting challenges that scare me the most. Diapers, spit-up, toddler tantrums, lack of sleep – these are merely annoying in comparison. As I consider the specific challenges that face us in raising a girl, I have to ask even more questions. How do we raise a young lady who is feminine and womanly, yet tough and capable of taking care of herself? How do we raise a girl who likes girly things, and yet pass down to her our love of outdoors and adventure? How do we raise a young lady to be a II Timothy woman, with a sweet submissive spirit, and also a Proverbs 31 woman, with confidence and business savvy, not afraid to fend for her own?
I guess you just have to live your life as a good example for them, teach them the best you know how, and allow God to do the rest.

Well, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

2 comments:

Kristina said...

Well, I think our parents did a pretty good job of it. We're both willing to be feminine and womanly and confident and tough. Teaching your daughter that she can be all things will get the point across. You don't have to give up toughness to be feminine and you don't have to give up a submissive spirit in order to be able to fend for yourself. You just have to accept that those things can work alongside each other.

As far as caution without fear, a friend told me when her daughters were young, she always told them to be aware of where their feet were (instead of yelling "Be careful!" when they were on the playground). I think this is a good compromise. You allow your child to grow and explore and teach her to be aware of her surroundings and what she is doing.

As far as the self-discipline is concerned... When I discover mine, I'll let you know. Gabriel has much more self-discipline than I do. Xavier is working his way there. I think allowing your child to have fun, yet not keeping them from responsibility (even at a young age) helps ingender self-discipline. I recommend reading books on Waldorf and Montessori. Both of these philosophies on education have to do with teaching your children at a young age to take responsibility for themselves.

MC said...

Ok... I'm absolutely NO help to you on the parenting thing... lol... HOWEVER... if your computer isn't a school computer, I think I can help you out with an antivirus program. The one I have on my computer has 3 licenses... so... if you want one for yours... give me a holler... okie dokie? :-)