Stars and Stripes....and laundry

We have this presidential placemat ( you can see the corner of it under the flag) that has all the presidents on it. Every night that Alaric has it, he gets to pick a president and we talk about that president. Brian gets to flex his history muscles and we all get to learn alittle bit.

The other day, the kids were setting the table and fighting over who got the president placemat and why there were flags on it, etc.

This time of the day ( between 4-6PM), is known as the witching hour at our home. The kids are hungry. They can't watch tv. They want full attention and I can't give it to them. This is the time I try to get creative and get some sort of intense project started for them so they'll leave me alone to get food on the table and also give them something to do that they love and remember.

This time, since Brian had dinner covered in the kitchen, we made it a teachable moment ( God I love those). When our best friend Justin ( Alaric's Godfather) was deployed to Iraq, we prayed every night for him and the other people away from their families. We sent care packages and cards and as much love as we could from Monticello. When Justin got home, he honored us with a certificate of support ( of him and the troops) and also an American flag that he flew and saluted. We were overjoyed to have it but honestly, hadn't done anything with it. Until tonight...

We laid it out on the ground in the dining room and talked about respect for the flag and how to and how not to treat it. We counted the stripes and talked about why there were only 13. We counted the stars. We talked about colors and shapes. We touched it and loved it and folded it up again, keeping it safe.

What a wonderful lesson for us all...and a great reminder of our presidents, our soldiers, our service people, and our country. It only took a few minutes but made a huge impact!
Then there are laundry days....a few times a week, I wash every dirty thing in the house and spent the whole day folding it all on my bed. It takes over the whole room. When Mara is needy, these days are hard. We compromised this time and I put her in the middle of the bed with a coloring book and some crayons and let her work. She colored while I folded. She looked up at me lots to be sure I was still there and I talked to her about our day and what was to come to help her feel more secure. We made a good team!