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I was driving with the kids the other day and Evelyn asked me how much money I made every day. I told her and she said "Wow, that's a lot" ("A lot" is a relative term). Then she said "That's pretty neat. You know why?"
"Why?"
The kids all responded at the same time with similar answers. Something like the following:
"Because with that much money you can help a lot of people."
*******
This was one of those parenting wins where it shows that something is getting through. We have tried to involve the kids a lot lately when it comes to our giving- from filling boxes for displaced families in Syria to buying Christmas presents for local families in need, to earning extra money so that we can take impoverished teens on much-needed shopping trips for new clothes, our kids have been a part of all of this and more, and have been able to see first-hand how their good fortunes can lift others as well. More importantly, they are starting to realize the contentment that comes from putting others' needs above their own. "Where much is given, much is required" is a mantra that will resonate in our home. At least that is my hope.
*******
This last weekend has been really good. On Friday and Saturday I had study club, where I got to do my first sinus lift surgery. Things went great, and hopefully within the year I will have done enough of these to introduce them as a regular part of my practice. This is exciting for me. I think I've mentioned it before, but ever since dental school I have wanted to drive my career toward the oral-surgery end of dentistry, and these plans seem to be falling into place nicely. Also, study club weekends are always rejuvenating. The camaraderie of the other doctors, the academic discussions, the reduced-fee services to our patients (we are learning, after all), and the hands-on clinical portions all mix together to remind me how much I really do love what I do.
On Sunday after church, Rachel and I took turns taking the older kids to Pizza-Hut to celebrate their reading achievements from school. I really like these one-on-one times; they are all too infrequent in a big, busy family, and it is nice to be able to have elongated conversations with the kids while doing something fun together.
I also took the older kids this weekend to see the NIC Chamber Orchestra perform their "Music Around the World" concert. It was fun, and the kids were surprisingly attentive. Toward the end they got a little restless, but hey, what can you expect from three kids under the age of 8? Jackson's biggest gripe was that they never had a song that featured "his" instrument- the drums. We'll have to watch some music videos of Rush for him to get his fill, I guess. (Mission accomplished. Neil Peart is officially my sons biggest hero).
Sunday evening we had a family Seahawks party on our new movie screen (yes, we have a movie screen in our house) with home-made pizza and ice cream with Seahawks sprinkles on top. Again, our kids were surprisingly attentive and asked intelligent questions about the game. It is fun having them grow up a little bit.
Today (Monday), Rachel and I finished going to all their parent-teacher conferences and came away feeling very lucky to be the parents of some pretty amazing kids. Like I said last week, Evelyn is way above grade level in pretty much everything, and is starting to really come into her own at school. She virtually danced around the classroom as she showed us all of her projects and her teacher said that she is almost always happy and fun to be around. This is welcome news to us, as you might remember me talking earlier about how Evelyn was going through a hard time (9/14).
Addy is also doing great, academically. She especially likes reading, has already passed off all her reading stuff for the whole year, and enjoys one-on-one reading time with the teacher while the rest of the class works on easier assignments. She is also making lots of friends, which is good to hear. "She is just a very sweet girl," is what her teacher had to say. And it's true. "Sweet" is probably the best word I could think of for her.
Jackson too, is doing well. He is a little quieter in class, but is very focused and extremely creative. He has formed a group of friends that his teacher calls "the art boys" who she has a hard time getting to finish assignments because of their excessive attention to detail and need to get things "just so." He is keeping up in other areas too, and has become the teacher's special helper when it comes to cleaning up. The one thing that he needs to work on is that he is really hard on himself when he doesn't get something perfect- an attribute that I think will push him to succeed, but which needs to be kept in check to avoid discouragement.
Well, the kids are starting to finish up their quiet time, so I'm going to go hang out with them for a while before Rachel gets home from work. They are out of school already for Thanksgiving break, and I have a shortened work-week which will be nice. We are looking forward to back-to-back weekends in Utah (with lots of driving in between), and the friends and family that we will be able to reconnect with during this time. It really is a good time of the year to be giving thanks- we have a lot to be thankful for.
Have a good week, and we'll be seeing some of you very soon!
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| Here's me and Ev when we went out to pizza. It's also our only picture for the week. |
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