Our family tradition started way back when my kids were tiny. I'd make each of my boys a school supply list, we'd head off to Walmart together, chaos would ensue, and each kid would get to pick out his fun notebooks and folders and crayons for the
year. Somewhere between glue sticks and rulers, I'd make everyone pause so I could take a picture.
Oh my little boys.
We've followed this tradition for years, so the day before we moved our oldest into his dorm room in 2015, of course I dragged everyone to Walmart and made
them pose for a school supply shopping picture. I cried the entire time, because somehow we'd arrived at a point where we'd exchanged colored pencils for dorm refrigerators and rugs, and it was time to close the book on this life with four boys at home that I've loved so much.
This year, we'll have a junior in college, a senior in high school, a sophomore, and a seventh grader. Tomorrow Asa
moves into his first apartment on campus, so "shower curtain" and "toilet paper" are on this year's school supply list. Justus needs a binder and our family needs a jump drive. Man, these supplies are so much more expensive than the notebook paper of yesterday!
Today we'll head out to do our "school supply shopping" which really is just all the boys humoring their mom because I just can't
stand not to take a picture of all of them in the crayon aisle. I motivate them to do this because we always head to Runza for lunch afterward - also a tradition. The "special lunch outing" tradition originated when our local library gave the boys free kids' meal certificates for Runza, so we saved them for our school supply shopping day and made a big outing of the entire event.
Now
though? Nobody eats for free and everyone eats a lot. Be still my pocket book. It's worth it though because THIS IS OUR TRADITION and I love it so much.
So that's what we're doing today, and that's why I need kleenex. The older my boys get, the more our special traditions and family outings mean to me. Family joy is found in the little things, which have grown
to become quite big in my heart. Wherever you are on your parenting journey, I'll leave you with this:
- Learn what your family loves to do together, and do it. Beautiful traditions and memories are made because of your intentional time together, even if it as simple as "sit around the table on Fridays and share a bowl of popcorn."
- Practice
trusting God with your kids hearts and lives daily. I wrote about my journey to learn this in The Prayer Mugs, which you can get right now (for only five more days) in the brand new Parenting Bundle. It brings me such joy to share that with you.
- Use scripture as much as possible as you train your kids for life on this earth. I wrote more about that
here and even have a great freebie for you!
May your day today with your family be blessed!
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