Mom of Boys

Someone recently asked me if I could connect her with a mom of boys. A 'boy mom'. Um. Hello, I have four of those fantastic creatures. She assured me I was not what she was looking for. She was looking for a 'real mom of boys'.

Say what?!?!?

When my boys burp in song, I conduct.

On Saturday, I said, and I quote, "Grant, shoot that gun more to the right so you don't shoot your sister's eye out." Don't freak, it's airsoft. We totally lined all the boys up and shot them before we let them play with them the first time so they would know how it feels. They all giggled.

When we make bean soup, the fun lasts long after the soup is gone. For days the fun continues.

Here is the thing, we are teaching our boys there is a time for everything. A time to be free and act like a boy and a time to tighten the reigns a bit and act like a human being. Notice I said 'teaching'. So far we haven't convinced each of them of this, but we are working on training their inherent boyness. Let's just call it a work in progress.

Some things we are working on right now?

Girls. Sheesh, one of them is girl C R A Z Y. We have been talking a lot about listening. We have been talking about different love languages. One of our boys is a total words of affirmation guy. We are teaching him that his future bride may speak a different love language that doesn't come easy for him. But he will need to do his best to be fluent in her love language. We have been teaching them about caring so much about her needs, their needs kinda take the back seat. And speaking of back seats. Yeah, we are teaching them that area is off limits. Which is really hard in this world of technology. Internet everywhere. We have a computer program called Covenant Eyes. LOVE! I couldn't figure out why we were getting warning/red flags on our weekly reports. Until I started clicking. At first glance totally innocent sites. Sports stats. Nothing wrong with keeping up to date with sports stats. Then my eyes shot over to the ads on the sides of the page. Woah. Insert song 'Oh, be careful little eyes what you see'.

Everyone has their own family convictions. We are not encouraging the elementary school/middle school or even early high school 'girlfriends'. Since I had one old enough to sit in a high chair I would smile and feed them and say 'no dating til you're 16 buddy'. Seriously, I did. They have heard this and other family convictions spoken to them often their whole lives (okay, for Kendric since he was five, cause that's when he joined the pack). Have they tried to buck the system in regards to dating? Yep! When one was 14 (haha, if you know my kids ages, you know which one!) he came into the kitchen on the phone and said, 'Hey mom, did you hear 14 is the new 16?'. I said, 'no, but I did hear 18 was the new 16'. To which he said to the girl on the phone, 'I told you, when she says it, she means it, she won't budge'. That is as big as the trying to buck the system in regards to dating has been around here. I do have a feeling my girl crazy one will be more of a, let's say... challenge!

So, just because I don't have ALL boys, I do have FOUR. And this mom of boys is doing the best she can to raise them to love Jesus, to love others, to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with their God. And to not eat bean soup within a week of any first date.