It's raining, It's pouring

 

Today I was thinking about what makes a child feel safe.  I want my children to feel like I am safe and that our home is a safe place.  As I was thinking about this concept earlier in the morning while at work, and thinking about Navy's ant fear yesterday, it made me realize she felt safe while I cuddled and comforted her.  My older kids don't want me to cuddle them constantly haha, but they do want to feel safe.  So what are other ways I can provide that for them?  I figured this would make a great FHE tonight, so I made plans in my head to do an FHE Lesson on safety in our home & family.  

Today afterschool I took Willow to Maverick because she'd talked about wanting to get a slushie this weekend (no slushie flavors available today that she was interested in so we opted for a lemonade).  We then walked to the library because she's been asking to go there for a week or so, and I knew Navy would love to do to that activity as well.  Willow picked out a few books and I grabbed some for Navy.  While Navy played with the trains at the library, Willow & I worked on her Ariel search and find book.  

After piano today Niko had to go to soccer practice & Willow went to dress rehearsal.  Kai, Navy and I hung out at the house while I made dinner.  Kai always likes to hop on electronics and doesn't really like to chat, but I had Kai at least do his electronics with me in the kitchen so we could visit.  We were able to talk about his field trip today and talked about how sometimes people at school do things he doesn't like, like tease him about his name and call him "Kai-a".  

We picked Niko up from soccer practice, picked Willow up from dress rehearsal, and everyone just seemed to be happy.  Everyone was happy to eat dinner on the porch together, laughing & eating.  After dinner we made a quick Dollar Tree trip because Kai has been talking about wanting to pick up hot cheetos for a few days.  As soon as we got home it started pouring so hard!

We all sat on the porch and just watched the rain, and listened to the thunder, and saw the occasional lightning.  It was quite the rain storm.  All 4 ran through the rain at some point with umbrellas, running through the front yard, getting drenched.  Even Navy was brave and would pop into the rain for a little bit, then come back and hide under the porch.  One of my favorite things is sitting on the porch while it's raining.  It's so peaceful.  We laughed watching Navy's expressions and hearing her talk about rain since this is probably the most rain and the biggest storm she's seen, and I smiled watching all the kids try to fit under 1 umbrella, especially with Niko being to tall and Navy so tiny.

It made me realize, I definitely didn't get an official FHE lesson taught to my children tonight, but this was so much better for our family than trying to get everyone to sit down for a lesson inside and sit still.  Our kids were finding safety in our home today.  Feeling heard, spending quality time together, getting small moments with mom, leaning on each other, feeling happy when we're all together.  Funny how a day like today and funny how a little rain storm is what our family needed.  We mentioned that those in heaven were bowling and Jesus was taking a long shower-so thank you for watching out for us up there :)