Summer Fun and Summer Training

School is done for this year! We are excited about the idea of no more setting the alarm clocks in the morning or being in bed by 8 at night! Where we live, it is not getting completely dark until 10 o'clock or later. The 8 o'clock bedtime thing flew out the window awhile back. At least now we don't have to wrestle them up out of bed despite the late nights! We are looking forward to swimming lessons, long walks, bike rides, picnics and lots of "exploring."

Even though our schedule during the summer becomes very relaxed, I am planning on using this summer to catch up on some character training. Yes...that never-ending job we parents have. The thing I have discovered with this training is that you can train for a month on one thing, but if you let it start slipping for even a week, your month's worth of work just went out the door! Unfortunately, due to mommy not feeling very well the last TWO months - well, let's just say, I'm feeling like a whole year's worth of work has gone out the door! :) Adding another little one to our family is definitely not going to help the chaos, and so I figure we better start working to tame the chaos now.

A few months ago, I wrote a review about the book ESP (Explain, Show, Practice) Character Training by Kim Doebler. I am going to try to begin to follow her methods again because they really did work well when we were consistently using them. We are also, as a family, going to study the character and attributes of God and memorize Bible verses that describe God. I am very excited about this! Someone passed along a list of different Bible verses they had found that described God. For my quiet time, I have been going through these verses and have found so many that I love! I am praying that our entire family will develop a personal, more devoted love for God as we get to know Him better this summer.

Well, I just thought I'd share some of our plans for the summer and encourage those of you are going through this character training time with your kiddos not to quit completely this summer. It will pay off. We are setting aside 30 minutes each morning for character training time and 20 minutes after lunch for our Bible time. Then, we also spend a few minutes at the evening meal practicing our Bible verse. An hour or less every day this summer spent on these things will produce some amazing results that I'm looking forward to seeing in our family! :)