It's Just A Santa Ana
On the last go home weekend for the kids S (the older girls dorm mom), L (the assistant dorm mom) and I made plans to go out to dinner after the girls went home. S and L went to the store (45 minutes away) to get their shopping done while the girls were at school. When they returned they told me we couldn’t go out because it was too windy. They explained the trucks were waving as if they were going to tip over and it was hard to keep the car on the road. From the way they explained the wind I’m thinking we’re getting ready for a tornado or something.
I braced myself as I went to pick my girls up from school and there were strong winds, but I thought, “This isn’t worse than a Santa Ana.” I looked up how strong the winds were and they were 25mph with gusts of 35mph. Santa Ana winds are in the 40mph range... this is just a mild Santa Ana wind and not worth canceling our plans.
When I told S and L we could still go out and I would drive they told me they were staying in and they got snacks and a new movie while they were at the store. We ended up watching two movies and making beanies. Although I’m not supposed to tell anyone, S (who is not a crafter) made a beautiful beanie. So, please keep this talent of hers between us. ;)
Last night while walking to dinner it started snowing. I had my winter coat on, but forgot my beanie. It was cold, but I figured if I had my beanie I wouldn’t be so cold.
This morning there was snow on the ground and I remembered my beanie, however, I was still cold. While walking back from taking the girls to school I ran into S and I told her how cold I was even with a beanie. She responds with, “This, oh, it’s just a Santa Ana. This is nothing!” S is from Pheonix, but spent two years in Michigan and is very aware of cold weather.
Touché, S. This is just a Santa Ana wind to your cold Michigan weather.
The Mom White Board
I don't know why it's taken me seven months to get a white board, but boy am I glad I did! I don't know what I did before! With nine girls it's hard to keep track of consequences and rewards. I forget which girls owe me time from open gym or who has to go to bed early or who did extra reading so she gets another stamp on her reading chart. I tried writing things down on pieces of paper, but I wouldn't have a pen near by or the piece of paper would be lost or I'd forget to toss the note and think it was new. Finally I realized I just needed a white board that I could write down the week's schedule and jot down these things that needed to be jotted down. This has been so wonderful! The girls will even come in and remind me of how much time they owe me for not getting their shoes on when told. I'm sure this novelty will wear off, but it sure is helpful!
I have the special activities I transfer from the calendar, but weeks like this where two basketball games were moved or canceled it was nice to just erase and write in the new info. I can also jot down the activities we normally don't have (like the concert and games) that I need to remember. I think as far as things I've bought this has to be one of the greatest investments I've made as a dorm mom. I'm sure every mom out there is thinking, "Duh, you should have gotten this in August!" But, I'm just now joining the white board band wagon and I'm going to enjoy not racking my brain for who's doing what and who needs what.
SOAP Journal
Each morning the girls get ready and then meet in their living room (as opposed to my apartment living room) for SOAP journals. I learned this technique for devotions while I was in college and I like the way it's laid out and easy to remember what to do. SOAP is an acrostic for Scripture, Observation, Application and Prayer. We use the Jesus Calling for Kids daily devotional and while I'm reading the devotion the girls write down the verses in the margin before deciding which verse to focus on. The devotion also helps the girls to understand the verses and the overall topic of the day. I like Jesus Calling for Kids because it puts the devotion into things they can relate to. Often times they will be encouraged to think about their relationships with their friends or parents (I add in dorm parents as that's who they encounter on a daily basis), school, sports and other things that they can relate to. It's really a good daily devotional on it's own, but I like the SOAP method because it gives the girls a chance to personalize what they've just heard. They can choose to show me their journal entry or close it and put their pencil in the spiral which lets me know they don't want me to read their entry for that day.
I wrote out what their page should look like along with explaining what each step meant and hung it in their living room. It took the girls a while to understand what Observation and Application meant, but most have a handle on it now and are able to do their SOAP Journals without help. I do get a lot of "What does this word mean?" questions. My favorite is when one girl asked what testicles means. Baffled and unsure what to say I asked her to show me the word. When I told her it was actually treasure (from Matthew 6:20) she looks at me and says, "Oh, I know what it means now!" Although we've had very candid talks on the birds and the bees being caught off guard was a bit shocking - especially when we're in the middle of our morning devotion time.
The older girls breeze through their SOAP Journals while the first and second graders struggle a bit more. I have one first grader who struggles with writing. When the first grader sat next to me one day I noticed she wrote "God loves me." under her Observation and "I love God." under her Application after spending a significant time writing out the Bible verse I asked her to explain to me what the verse meant. She told me she didn't know. We worked through it verbally and then I asked her what she was going to do to apply this to her life. She again looked at me with a blank stare and said she didn't know. I asked her questions of different ways she could think or act and she responded by adding her own ways to apply the verse to her life. The next day she sat next to me again and I noticed she did the same "God loves me." and "I love God." response after spending a long time writing out the verse. I told her she needed to write out more and to tell me about the verse for "O" and then what she's going to do in "A." She started to cry and told me that it takes too long to write it all out. I told her that this is a time for her to be personal with God and to be honest. I explained that writing "God loves me." and "I love God" is a good start, but she needed to relate to the verse and listen to what God was saying in the verse. I then told her that if it would help she could just write where the verse is found and not write out the whole scripture this way she'd have more time to write "O," "A," "P." She agreed that would help her. The following day she wrote out the most honest, beautiful "O," "A," "P" I had read from the girls. I told her that it wasn't a matter of racing to finish, but to be real with God. If there is one thing I pray these girls take away from this year with me it's to be real with God. Be honest with God and let God guide you.
