Today marks five years for Gabriel and me. We were married June 26, 2004. One year after we started dating. We had been going to the same church for years, but were too shy to talk to each other. When Gabriel put his son Rueben in school, he was in the class that I taught. Then we had to talk at the parent-teacher conferences, so Rueben had a lot to do with us getting together.
I am so glad that God brought us together. I love being a wife and mother. It is way better than teaching, and I enjoyed teaching. Just come look at my family room that is all set up as a classroom. Teaching is part of me, but I will not sacrifice my children to pursue a career in education.
I am very thankful for my husband who works hard to provide for our family. I’m glad I can stay home and care for the home and the children. Gabe thinks I have the best job in the world and I agree with him. He often tells me that I am doing a good job with the kids, which is very nice to hear. There are days when I wonder if I’m doing anything right.
Last night we went out for a few hours. It was a nice break from the kids. My mother-in-law came to watch the kids. Between her and Rueben, I knew they would be fine. It was the first time I left Beth with anyone. She is now five months old. 100% home grown – as my husband calls her.I have enjoyed the past five years and hopefully the Lord allows us to enjoy many, many more years together as we watch our children grow up and serve Him.
Showing posts with label Rueben. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rueben. Show all posts
Friday, June 26, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
When it rains, it pours
I have been busy with the new baby, keeping things running in my home, and trying to come up with a new routine/schedule that works around nursing. When I am not busy, I am sleeping. Since the birth of Elisabeth I have not had much energy for doing extra things. Even some of the basic house cleaning has been slipping. My wonderful husband does help out in the evenings after he comes home. This past week and a half has been especially rough.
Rueben had all four of his wisdom teeth removed a week ago, so he was sleeping and not feeling well. I miss his help. Usually when things get out of hand I can count on him to get a child or two out of trouble while I take care of another situation. I try not to interrupt his school work too much, but it is great to have some back up when I’m busy with one and someone else has an emergency.
Yesterday he went back to have his follow up appointment. His left side is infected, and they lost his chart. He had to get antibiotics for the infection. I am glad my mother-in-law was able to take him. He was there over three hours already, but that is what you can expect from government run health care.
The day after Rueben’s surgery, Abby woke up complaining of a headache. I didn’t take her seriously at first. I thought she was trying to get attention like I was giving to Rueben. I had plans to take all the kids to the local museum which has a great play area for toddlers. I tried to encourage her to get her chores done so we could go, but then she threw up so I knew she was serious about not feeling well. She spent the next two days laying on the sofa and throwing up anything she ate. I did what I could with natural remedies to help her feel better, but I was trying to help Rueben remember to put ice on his cheeks to reduce the swelling, and get him to eat.
About the time Abby was starting to feel better Robert started complaining about a headache. He had it only one day since I had figured out what helped Abby, I started Robert on it right away. Believe it or not teething tablets helped them with the head ache, and a bath with a few tablespoons of ginger helped the fever. Then the “Baby Love Toy Trains” DVD kept them entertained or put them to sleep. Watching toy trains go around and around with classical music, is a great way to fall asleep. It always does that to me, but the kids only fall asleep if they are sick.
Josiah woke up this morning crying with a fever. I gave him his cup with mint tea and teething tablets. By 9:00 he was feeling fine and asking for “moat-meal”. He is the one who is still cutting teeth. He has been having “teething” symptoms for a month now. I did get him to open his mouth so I could check his teeth. I had Abby and Robert open their mouth so I could “count” their teeth, then Josiah let me “count” his, too. I saw one tooth part way through, but he still has another tooth to cut.
Not all has been bad, but it seems to have come in one big bunch. And I believe we are through the toughest part of sickness and teeth problems.
Elisabeth is almost one month old. All the kids love to smoother her with attention. When she is awake she enjoys sitting in her swing or seat and watching the activity around her. She is healthy, eating well, sleeping well, and growing.
The kids are waking up from their naps, so my quiet-time for writing this post is over. :)
Rueben had all four of his wisdom teeth removed a week ago, so he was sleeping and not feeling well. I miss his help. Usually when things get out of hand I can count on him to get a child or two out of trouble while I take care of another situation. I try not to interrupt his school work too much, but it is great to have some back up when I’m busy with one and someone else has an emergency.
Yesterday he went back to have his follow up appointment. His left side is infected, and they lost his chart. He had to get antibiotics for the infection. I am glad my mother-in-law was able to take him. He was there over three hours already, but that is what you can expect from government run health care.
The day after Rueben’s surgery, Abby woke up complaining of a headache. I didn’t take her seriously at first. I thought she was trying to get attention like I was giving to Rueben. I had plans to take all the kids to the local museum which has a great play area for toddlers. I tried to encourage her to get her chores done so we could go, but then she threw up so I knew she was serious about not feeling well. She spent the next two days laying on the sofa and throwing up anything she ate. I did what I could with natural remedies to help her feel better, but I was trying to help Rueben remember to put ice on his cheeks to reduce the swelling, and get him to eat.
About the time Abby was starting to feel better Robert started complaining about a headache. He had it only one day since I had figured out what helped Abby, I started Robert on it right away. Believe it or not teething tablets helped them with the head ache, and a bath with a few tablespoons of ginger helped the fever. Then the “Baby Love Toy Trains” DVD kept them entertained or put them to sleep. Watching toy trains go around and around with classical music, is a great way to fall asleep. It always does that to me, but the kids only fall asleep if they are sick.
Josiah woke up this morning crying with a fever. I gave him his cup with mint tea and teething tablets. By 9:00 he was feeling fine and asking for “moat-meal”. He is the one who is still cutting teeth. He has been having “teething” symptoms for a month now. I did get him to open his mouth so I could check his teeth. I had Abby and Robert open their mouth so I could “count” their teeth, then Josiah let me “count” his, too. I saw one tooth part way through, but he still has another tooth to cut.
Not all has been bad, but it seems to have come in one big bunch. And I believe we are through the toughest part of sickness and teeth problems.
Elisabeth is almost one month old. All the kids love to smoother her with attention. When she is awake she enjoys sitting in her swing or seat and watching the activity around her. She is healthy, eating well, sleeping well, and growing.
The kids are waking up from their naps, so my quiet-time for writing this post is over. :)
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Rueben
Hurray!! He has finally finished his tenth grade work. He took his last test this afternoon. It took us 13 months, for several reasons. One reason was not finishing Algebra I during ninth grade. He didn’t do well with the complicated math. He knows his basic fact for adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. I made sure of that. I have been teaching and working with Rueben since he was in fifth grade. That is how his dad and I started talking and dating.
Rueben has a lot to do with our being together. Rueben rode the bus to church for many years. Finally his dad started coming with him. Gabe got saved after a couple of years of attending church here. I moved here from Florida to teach in the church’s school. Gabe and I went to the same church for four years. We rarely spoke because Gabe thought I was too good him, and I thought he wasn’t interested in me because I’m not Navajo. But, once Rueben was in my class we had to talk. : - )
When Rueben came into my class from public school his reading level was very, very low. He got a very poor foundation in reading from the public schools. Parental involvement is really needed in the area of reading. In Rueben situation, his mother had left and his father was working a lot so he was with his grandparents much of the time. We have worked on his reading over the past few years, and it has improved greatly, but he is still behind for his age and grade.
It is very hard to make up for time lost in the area of reading. If there is one message I could send to parents of young children, it would be do everything you can to give your child a good reading foundation. Start when they are babies and toddlers. Read to them. Let them see you reading. Teach them yourself. Don’t expect some school to do it for you, because it probably won’t happen the way you expect it to. In just about every student that came into my class from public school, they could not read well. The only exception to this was one family where the mom made her kids read to her and had worked with them on their reading. It was the parent that made the difference not the school, and she was a single mom working as a nurse.
The other evening Rueben’s younger aunt needed help with her algebra homework. Rueben looked at it and said he knew what to do. I was very excited to see him helping his aunt. It was great practice for him, and I could see that he had really learned something from the algebra that we struggled with for two years.
Rueben is my helper with the young ones. I try not to put too much on him, but is nice to have a back-up when it a tight situation. When I need to get all three out of trouble, it is nice to have an extra set of hands. When running errands I can take one child with me into a store, get what I need, and quickly get out again without unloading and reloading every one. He also is a great help with grocery shopping. I shop at the same store every two weeks (I don’t like to shop, so I try to do it for two weeks at a time). I have a list that I created on a spreadsheet that has all the aisles of the store and what items are on that aisle that I use. I make the items needed write in the things that are rarely bought, but needed that week. Then I can give Rueben half the list and one child, and he will get the items on that half while I get the other items. He does carry a cell phone so he can call if he has any questions.
We are taking the month of October off of school. Rueben will go to work with his dad for about five weeks. This will give me time to order his eleventh grade work, and he gets to learn more about surveying from his dad.
Rueben has a lot to do with our being together. Rueben rode the bus to church for many years. Finally his dad started coming with him. Gabe got saved after a couple of years of attending church here. I moved here from Florida to teach in the church’s school. Gabe and I went to the same church for four years. We rarely spoke because Gabe thought I was too good him, and I thought he wasn’t interested in me because I’m not Navajo. But, once Rueben was in my class we had to talk. : - )
When Rueben came into my class from public school his reading level was very, very low. He got a very poor foundation in reading from the public schools. Parental involvement is really needed in the area of reading. In Rueben situation, his mother had left and his father was working a lot so he was with his grandparents much of the time. We have worked on his reading over the past few years, and it has improved greatly, but he is still behind for his age and grade.
It is very hard to make up for time lost in the area of reading. If there is one message I could send to parents of young children, it would be do everything you can to give your child a good reading foundation. Start when they are babies and toddlers. Read to them. Let them see you reading. Teach them yourself. Don’t expect some school to do it for you, because it probably won’t happen the way you expect it to. In just about every student that came into my class from public school, they could not read well. The only exception to this was one family where the mom made her kids read to her and had worked with them on their reading. It was the parent that made the difference not the school, and she was a single mom working as a nurse.
The other evening Rueben’s younger aunt needed help with her algebra homework. Rueben looked at it and said he knew what to do. I was very excited to see him helping his aunt. It was great practice for him, and I could see that he had really learned something from the algebra that we struggled with for two years.
Rueben is my helper with the young ones. I try not to put too much on him, but is nice to have a back-up when it a tight situation. When I need to get all three out of trouble, it is nice to have an extra set of hands. When running errands I can take one child with me into a store, get what I need, and quickly get out again without unloading and reloading every one. He also is a great help with grocery shopping. I shop at the same store every two weeks (I don’t like to shop, so I try to do it for two weeks at a time). I have a list that I created on a spreadsheet that has all the aisles of the store and what items are on that aisle that I use. I make the items needed write in the things that are rarely bought, but needed that week. Then I can give Rueben half the list and one child, and he will get the items on that half while I get the other items. He does carry a cell phone so he can call if he has any questions.
We are taking the month of October off of school. Rueben will go to work with his dad for about five weeks. This will give me time to order his eleventh grade work, and he gets to learn more about surveying from his dad.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)