Distractions!

This past Monday and Tuesday night we hosted (3) 14 year old boys that were in town for the Annual State Student Council Association. They were all from a town 1 hour west of here and just a lot of fun. I imagined what it would be like in 10 years when B is 14. They did not have much down time but what little they had B loved chasing them around and "gettin' 'em". We have been staying pretty close to home this week. The crisp cool days have been nice but after about 10 minutes the nose is very cold. Plus I have been thinking a lot recently about how busy everyone is - even us stay at home moms. There are so many good things to get involved with but what do all of those things take us away from. My hope is as the snow starts falling, that I will be diligent enough to get work around the house done in small pockets of time and use the other time to get on the floor and play, paint pictures with the boys, etc. I am just really starting to see how so many 'good' things in my life crowd out the best things. That is probably why I have not been on the computer as much lately. Seems like I save my big chunks of computer time for when the boys are in bed, but by the time everything is clean and I have made it to the gym and back, I am tired. Just unbelievable the society we live in (the instantaneousness of it) and how easy it is for us to get distracted and how Satan loves pulling us away from the important things and it opens us up to being more vulnerable. We take J in for his evaluation on Friday and I guess I am feeling like the last couple of weeks I have not spent as much time with him as I would have liked, trying to encourage words. It will all come in due time. The more I watch him though, I am pretty sure that his not speaking is a large part of his stubborness but we will see. J sure has his own opinions. Today we were heading to bible study and J had put on B's dress shoes. I attempted to take them off and he screamed until I quit. We tried to leave the house without his coat and he screamed until I put it on. He was sitting at the table eating snack and I grabbed a small bite. He screamed until I went and got him another bite of snack from the counter. He can now turn door knobs and climb on top of the bar stools. Any given point during the day you can see him pushing a chair, step stool etc across the room because he wants something. B is still enjoying preschool. We have started restricting foods again and it has made some difference in him - I just really miss the convenience foods (crackers with cheese, pasta, nachos, mac-n-cheese, yogurt) that are quick and no brainer to whip up. He has also started digging his little heels in. Today I found myself starting to get drawn into an argument with him. I finally stopped the car and turned around and told him to watch the attitude. He stared me down, let out a really deep sigh and started to roll his eyes. I don't know why some of his expressions just crack me up, but they do. I somehow managed to hold off the snicker and think I made my point, atleast for the moment. JR heads out to the mountains this weekend as rifle season opens up. We also have some gift certificates to the local hardware store so hoping to finally agree on a few colors to paint the downstairs and try to knock it out this weekend. JRs dad has started checking in on the blog. Since he can't read the text I am going to try to start having more pics and videos, so here is one of them roughhousing.