Hey, I've got an idea!

I  cannot keep count of how many times in a day Ben says, "Hey, I've got an idea!" It is always with the same excitement and a little twinkle in his eye. He has an idea for anything and everything. It can be an idea of how we can get out of the trouble that he just got himself into. It can be an idea of something we should make together or cook together. Just this week we watched a couple of kids overnight. We have almost nothing girly in our house so Ben went to my craft closet and was trying to find something pink that I could sew together as a bedspread since we had a girl in our home. She didn't end up with a pink blanket, but his kindness didn't go unnoticed.

Ben is super independent and confident when he is in a familiar place and very shy and reserved when in unfamiliar places. He regularly pushes Nate forward and tries to convince Nate or me to answer questions from strangers. But when he is comfortable, he knows what he wants and how to get it without blinking an eye. He is quite sneaky when he wants something he knows is against the rule - like messing with stuff in rest time or getting into my closet.

He is also well versed in the art of lying. We are working very hard to remind him of the importance of telling the truth. Currently, when asked to admit his guilt he will look me right in the eye and ask "will I get in trouble if I say I did it?" I remind him that the punishment is far greater for telling a lie. He usually comes out with the truth and takes the discipline for whatever crime he has committed. Teaching my child to have Godly character is a responsibility I do not take lightly. It is demanding and often hurts my heart, but I pray he will benefit from it as he grows. We also speak much about being kind. Wow. So many encounters in our day to day life seem so unkind now that I have kindness on my mind. How we treat each other, especially if we have wronged them, the person in front of us in the grocery store line, the kid that fell and is sad, etc. In all things, kindness! We are working on it together.

Ben is getting very excited about school. We chose to keep him home one more year and he will start Kindergarten next fall (2014). He loves to learn and soaks up tons of information. He loves to read and is happy to sit still and work patiently on something. I felt like he is getting the social education he needs from our missionary community and our weekly Bible study that has a very structured kid's program. I do my best to encourage his love for learning, but I feel like a piece of his childhood is slipping away. Something about starting school just makes me think he is all grown up. I don't even begin to think about him driving a car or leaving for college. Hopefully, I will have grown up enough by then to digest that!

My compassionate, tenderhearted little boy is growing up!