16 years

16 years ago today you came into this world standing tall!  No really! 16 years ago at this exact time I was laying in a hospital bed, beginning the first stages of labour.  My water had broken at home, noting our cue to head to the hospital.  To our surprise and horror, the doctor soon realized that you were not about to follow the rules of being born and you decided that you were going to come out feet first instead of head first.  This makes me laugh right now because with your personality it doesn't surprise me.  There is no way you would dive into anything head first.  You have been a cautious boy since the day you were born.  It was such a struggle dealing with your fears and your worries as you were younger.  Sometimes it still is, but those fears and worries have made you think things over carefully and they have given you strength in the decisions that you make.  You are very strong willed young man.  When you want something you go for it.  You have a tender heart and you like to hold emotions in so no one can see how much you really are hurting.  It took me 14 years to really see that.  The day your Opa moved to heaven was the hardest time for you and it broke my heart to see you weep as hard as you did.  I want to you to always remember ... It's ok to cry.  It's ok to show that you are hurt.  Never let go of your tender heart, it's what gives you compassion.

When you were only 15 months old you quickly became interested in insects.  It came to point that you were always out searching for insects.  Soon ants became your passion.  To this day, I have no idea how these ants will come to play in your future but for 15 years we have watched you develop an understanding and research these creatures so much that you are actually able to breed them.  This to me is crazy.  Your sense of adventure is lacking but your wisdom to research everything is crazy.  Keep searching, gaining knowledge is what will help you get by in your life as an adult. 

I am proud of you for standing tall in what you believe.  I am proud of you for not touching alcohol, or cigarettes.  I am proud of you for following our rules about dating.   You are an amazing young man.

Keegan, let me share something with you.  16 years ago we stood in front of the church and dedicated  you to the Lord.  We promised God that we would raise you in a home where Gods name would be spoken regularly, a home where we would go to church as a family and feed you spiritually.  We pray that we have done our part well enough that you will have the foundation that you need to move on into adult hood.  You are going to fail.   There will come a point in your life where you will make a bad choice, or do something terribly wrong.  Remember in that time.  GOD WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU!! WE will ALWAYS love you! Remember to ask for forgiveness for your mistakes.  Remember to keep God close to your side.  The world may crumble around you.  Your friends may leave you, and your family may not understand you but God created you the way you were meant to be.  He has a purpose for you, and he will NEVER leave you.

On the very day that you were dedicated, our pastor wrote you a letter that was to be opened on your 16th birthday.  I kept that letter safe for 16 years.  I never opened it once.  To sit with you this morning and open that letter and read the words that were carefully thought out for you brings tears to my eyes.  I can't imagine what the world might be like for your child.  I can't imagine the things that your child might have to endure or see.  I pray that you will be a good father like your father has been to you.  I pray that you will be the spiritual leader in your family.  I pray that God will be the foundation of your life.  

Hang on tight my boy!! We have many more birthdays to go.

Love, Mom 

Where does the time go?

Again I find myself admiring the kids and their little quirks. Each month is like a new deposit to my memory bank.

This weeks deposits ...

It amazes me how every night Ginny prays that we will have "a great time, and a fantastic time tomorrow." I wonder if she ever thinks "Wow that day sucked. God sure didn't answer me last night." Ginny is our athletic one. Every day after school she asks to go roller blading. We knew she wanted roller blades but we really had no idea at how much she would LOVE them. It amazes me at how well she made new friends in our area. What a sweet heart she has. Funny thing that she has troubles making friends at school though. When we ask her how come she can't seem to find anyone to be friends with out of twenty some students her reply is ... "Well, all the girls in my class just walk around at recess. No one ever plays on the monkey bars or the swings like I do." She was ecstatic to find that over a weekend they put up monkey bars and a swing set on the older kids side of the field.

Keegan got a snake on Sunday. His heart did a double beat when we finally, after years of begging agreed to buy him a corn snake. The only reason I said yes was because I felt so sorry for the salamanders that he was trying to keep. For some reason spending $5.00 a month on pinkies seemed more reasonable than $15.00 on crickets that died before they even made it home. He is still such an insect lover. Last night I was reading the bible and came across something about ants. I had to call him out of bed just so I could read to him and show him that God loved him so much so that he even put ants in the bible for him. :)

This is week one that Malakai has been on his medicine for ADD. It was a hard choice but after struggling for so long I decided we had no choice but to accept this and try whatever it took to deal with it. So far, it hasn't altered his mood or his apatite. The only thing it really altered is his sleep. This evening as I was banking online he proceeded to yell down the vent ... "Mom, I have a song to sing to you ... Then he proceeds to sing down the vent "Open the eyes of my heart Lord, open the eyes of my heart, I want see you." It was an awe moment for sure.

Tonight my memory bank is full and overflowing.

Somethings just stay the same.

I have a big confession to make ... For years I have been a tad on the OCD side. I have improved immensely, especially considering how bad I was when Keegan was born. I wouldn't doubt if half of his problems were because of the way I was in his growing up years. :) Take when he was just nearing two years old for example. I was a stay at home mom and I would often spend all my free time cleaning and organizing. In fact I did so much organizing that it was a common thing for people to stop in for a visit and make a comment about me re arranging the rooms or the furniture. Still to this day if something stays the same for more than 6 months it is something to boast about. Either that or keep quiet because saying something might cause me to want to change things.

I remember one day in particular though. I had cleaned Keegan's room and was just finishing up down stairs when Keegan so proudly toddled down the stairs and announced "Mommy, tome see, I dorganized my room". Fear clutched at my chest as he wrapped his pudgy little hand around my fingers and took the stairs one step at a time. When we reached his room everything in me wanted to scream. There in the middle of his room were all his stuffies, all his toys and all his books in one giant heap all piled on his favorite blanket. I can still see his big smile and his bright eyes as he was so proud of himself, all the while making me want to cry.

last week Keegan had no school for two days so he was at home alone. When I came home on my lunch break he met me at the door and was so excited to announce that he unloaded and loaded the dishwasher and he cleaned his and Ginny's bedrooms. My immediate thought was panic but when I looked at his masterpiece it was a bit of Joy, humour and sadness all mixed in one. I was joyful because the bedrooms were actually clean and he was capable of doing a good job. Humour because of his unique skill that he took in making sure it wasn't just clean but a masterpiece and sadness because once upon a time, 10 years ago a little boy was so excited to make his mommy proud and at that moment she was anything but.

One of those days.

Last night I was up at 11 pm and at the hospital till 12 am with a bladder infection.

Today I am feeling under the weather, in pain and tired.

Keegan wasn't allowed to play in the Teacher/Student baseball game because he didn't read his homework properly and didn't get it all done. I was playing with the teachers so that made it especially hard since he wanted so bad to verse me. I cried, he cried and I blamed myself for not making sure he had it all done.

Someone came in today and GRACIOUSLY blessed a friend of mine for all that she does.

God forgive me for feeling jealous.

Life is sure tough today.

Tomorrow is another day ...... I HOPE. :)

At least I can still smile at my own comments.

Faith at home

In cleaning out our office, I stumbled across a book that had fallen into the black hole. It was one of those books that came home in a particular busy month, week or perhaps day. I never read it so I decided to crack it open during a nice hot bubble bath.

Faith At Home ... hmm, I read some and was intrigued. It talks about the startling statistics about late teens who have for some reason dropped their faith and just no longer care. A great percentage of these teen were raised in families that left faith instructions for churches and clubs. It goes into detail about how we (parents) are responsible for teaching and instructing and practicing faith as an example to our children. The coolest part was that the author understands why faith at home fails and has recommendations on how to stick with it and make it work.

I pondered this and while we definitely do not leave faith teachings for our church, we are still accountable for not being open enough about it with our kids. As simple as it is, spending 20 minutes a day instilling positive faith attributes could be trying.

But when I woke this morning I was determined to try this out. This morning was a new day. When Malakai lost his temper I explained how if God were watching (which he is) he would be sad to see him behave like that. We prayed (like we sometimes do) on the way to school and that was it until I found Malakai playing with play dough he "took" from the church. He was utterly disappointed to find out that he needs to take it back and ask Aunty Tracy to forgive him for taking something that didn't belong to him.

The best part was when God gave me what I call a "God treat" for the day. Keegan began asking about heaven and hell and about a show we watched months ago about 2012. He asked about being saved and asking Jesus into your heart. He must have learned something in school today that led to all of these questions. You know what???? I was able to answer them. I had confidence in what I knew and I answered every question he had for me. Then about an hour later, he asked if we could ask Jesus to forgive him and once again to come into his heart. I knew that he did when he was four but I was overjoyed to know that he wanted to again at 11. At this age it means he gets it and that he fully understands.

At the end of the day, I guess we are doing an A-O.K job at bringing faith into our home.
So, I guess you could say the Anderson's are doing the happy dance right now. Have I told you about the happy dance? Hmmm I guess I will have to save that for another post.

Your not going to kill the Easter Bunny too are you???

Last night Keegan came home with questions about the tooth fairy and Santa Claus. Apparently we have reached the moment that every parent dreads.

You know, this moment would never have to happen if "some" parents didn't have to be so "truthful" with their children :)

Anyway, Blaine and I called Ginny and Keegan into the bedroom and had the whole talk about the tooth fairy and Santa. To my shock and disappointment they laughed and thought it was pretty funny. When the lull came and I was going to tell them to go out and play, Blaine pipes in ... "what your going to kill the Easter Bunny too?" The kids looked wide eyed at Blaine and said in Unison. "are you kidding me?" So, the only one who lives in the wonderful world of make believe is our Malakai. At least until his brother and sister ruin it for him.

Which most likely won't be long since Keegan thought he was pretty funny when he hollered out to Santa asking "me" to buy him something he saw on t.v.

Kids will say the darndest things. Part ?

Let me begin by telling you that during the summer the kids planted star fruit seeds and some apple seeds from an apple out at my parents house. They started the seeds in the house and will be moving them out next spring. So, needless to say our kids have been trying many attempts to get seeds started in our house, all with the resounding "No, we are moving shortly, we do not need seeds in the house right now."

So, here I am laying on the couch when in comes Keegan through the front door.

Keegan ~ "Mom, when are going to have a baby?

I look at him with a very puzzled look

Me ~ "What?"

At that point I see a HUGE branch poking it's way into the door with Ginny right behind. Keegan proceeds to giggle and asks the question again.

It was then that I clued in and realized that Keegan was trying to distract me while Ginny brought in half of a tree to grow inside for the winter.

Three cheers and more for Keegan!!!

I wish I could have had my camera with me this morning when I was given this great news. Instead I found this great one of when he was little.



When I went to pick up Malakai for lunch keegan and his teachers aid were heading down the hallway towards me. I was greeted from a distance with "Mrs. Anderson, Keegan has some very exciting news to share with you". I took one look at Keegan and smiled. Here he was with his hair sticking up everywhere ( we woke up very late and for some reason he avoided the whole "get in the washroom so I can do your hair" command. Keegan smiled from ear to ear and explained how he did a test and got all of his grade 2,3, and 4 site words right. This is sooooo huge for him. Keegan has an I.P.P and has struggled since kindergarten in everything. Then, he proceeded to tell me that he has passed his goal for reading AND he wrote 3 paragraphs all lined up properly with proper punctuation. I am so proud of him. It is great when you hear praises,thus my reason for blogging this. I would like to have it down the road when the struggles come again. I know that he will turn out to be such a wonderful little man with great big dreams.