Learning

The past two weeks have been a new adventure for Jennifer and I as we endeavor to teach 2nd grade to K! I am learning science words and math words and things I had never even thought about studying before in Spanish :) Also trying to figure out the balance of making her concentrate and study while the baby is screaming in the background. There is so much of life for her to learn that sometimes adding and subtracting take a backseat.  But I have been encouraged in that she is starting to remember some things that I think she learned before in school and she loves to draw, and is good at it! She makes me laugh because if I ask her to do 5-3 she has a really hard time.  But if I say "You have 5 eggs and eat 3 of them, how many do you have left?" she knows it right away.  The opposite of most kids who hate doing word problems.  But she has learned math in the school of life. :)  Also yesterday we started reading a story from the Jesus Storybook Bible during school.  Although she told me she didn't like it because it is a cartoon book, she paid attention and didn't want the story to end.

We were talking yesterday about the maturity level of the girls in the house in general and how much that affects their ability to be patient with their children. Doña Oneyda was giving the example of W.  He has recently been having a really hard sleeping because of big thunder storm that we had.  He woke up crying and scared and now doesn't want to be in his room by himself to go to sleep.  In a 20 year old mind, his mom is ready for him to be over it and doesn't have the patience to sit in there with him for a little while or give him a few extra snuggles to calm his nerves.  So its been a fight with her to teach her to be compassionate towards her son as this is not disobedience, but real fear.  We see this in K with breast-feeding.  If the baby lets go one time after 2 minutes she is convinced he doesn't want anymore and then he cries for the next hour because he is hungry.  So we're working on pumping and being patient and devoting herself to real feeding times.

And I get it.  Being a mom is hard and some days I am selfish and I want to stay in my bed in the morning instead of getting up and getting breakfast and helping pick out clothes.  One day last week didn't feel good so I just let Lesther take the kids and didn't get up to help.  When I went to pick up Nicolle I was mortified at the outfit she had put together for herself... oh 6 year old style.  But I didn't get up, so I can't be frustrated with her.  So yeah, I get it.  Its a daily fight to love our kids well and give up our desires to be able to serve them.  I'm so thankful that the Lord made me a mom because it helps me minister better to these moms.  Empathizing with them, and yet challenging them to fight to be the best moms they can be with God's help.