Cash Clan Japan

As of about 15 minutes ago, another school year has officially begun. I’m a little nervous at all that’s going to come along with that (homework, soccer, piano, ballet, musical theater, Japanese lessons, Bible studies, Awana, ministry, etc.). The BUSYness that is about to ensue is more than a little intimidating to me. These last few weeks have been crazy trying to get everyone ready for school, but they’ve been busy together. Once everything starts back up, it seems like everyone starts “necessarily” going in different directions, and I have to admit, that makes me more than a little bit sad. I’ve been dreading it a bit, actually.

But this year, we’re doing a few things to fight for family time. Some things we’ve always done, like daily story-time, purposeful table-talk every night at dinner, and Friday night movie/pizza night (But this year, I will watch the movie WITH them no matter what it is, and NOT bust out a magazine, I promise! No matter how many times I’ve seen Happy Feet…).

But we’re also changing up a few things this year in the fight against busy. For one thing, we’ve purposely changed our weekly schedule up so that we’re home every night except Sunday nights. Also, since the kids are getting a little older, we’re adding an element to Friday nights–a game. Or if it goes well, maybe we’ll get rid of that movie altogether and just play games! (But maybe it’ll be another year or two before Adam and Ben are ready for that; we’ll see.)

Some things we’re adding this year– one night a week, I’m going to plan a themed family night, and on another night of the week, Keith is kicking up our regular family devotional a few notches for a more intensive, interactive family devotional (with songs, crafts, and who knows what else? He IS a pre-school teacher, you know…)

I think I’m blogging about this largely for accountability. If I write it down, I have to really do it, and not keep it in my head as good intentions! I’d really love to hear your ideas! What do you do together as a family?

In the meantime, here are some photos of Claire this morning, on her way out the door to SECOND GRADE!!! (How is this flying so fast? Lord, help me to enjoy every minute of it!) Here she is:

This morning, she woke up by herself and got all dressed and then she blow-dried her own hair. She has recently informed me that she wants her hair to be less frizzy, more smooth, so I taught her how to wield a blowdrier. She’s growing up so fast.

Last night as we were pillow-talking before bed, Claire confided in me that she “LOOOOOOOOOVES school so much.“ I confessed to her, that indeed, so did I, and that’s why I even became a teacher, because I loved it so much. She expressed complete dismay that there are some kids who don’t like school, and some who even hate it, and announced that she thinks they just need to change their attitude.

Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s been forever. I’m sorry. Let’s move on.

So we’re teaching about 120 kids at a local VBS all week. Keith and I have had the honor of getting to tell the Bible stories each day, in a highly-interactive format. We did it last year for the first time, and loved it so much that I think we’ll sign up to do it for as long as they’ll let us.

On Day 2 of VBS, we taught the kids about the first 9 plagues on Egypt (how many of the 10 can you name without looking it up?? Quick!). The 10th plague was reserved for the next day, when we would teach the kids about the Passover as well, naturally.

Okay, so after teaching them about those first 9, we dismissed them to their next station. At the end of each session, there are always several adults and kids trying to talk to us at the same time–it’s a little chaotic trying to get everyone to move along to their next session so we can get the next group in the room (in and out in 20 minutes). So on Tuesday, there was this one little guy, probably about 7 years old and absolutely adorable, who was going on and on about something, but I was too busy to hear what he was saying. So I did what most grown-ups do when they’re not really listening to what someone is saying. I said, “Oh, good!”

To which he responded incredulously, “Did you just say ‘Oh, good!’????”

Oops. I’d been caught. I wasn’t listening. I looked him straight in the eye and said, “I’m sorry sweetie. I wasn’t listening to you. What were you saying?”

And then he told me that he had been informing me that in tomorrow’s plague (the 10th), a bunch of babies were going to die.

Oops.