Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. - Proverbs 22:6

Don't you sometimes wonder what kind of people you're molding as you work with your children in day to day life? I'm always wondering if I've taught them the important things, the things that they will need to be competent and successful in the world and in their life's purpose. Daniel likes to remind me that I my priority is to raise them to be good women and mothers. Seems easy enough until we have conversations like these:

Emily: "When my hair turns white I will turn it back to brown."

Morgan: "If my hair turns brown I'm going to color it blond."

Check vanity off the "to teach" list. Then there was this one:



Rylee: "Should I throw this jam away? I think it's bad." (referring to a batch of
homemade jam in the fridge)

Kari: "Why do you think it's bad?"

Rylee: "It's thick."

This makes me wonder if this is indicative of the homemaking skills that I'm passing along, that the only reason that jam wouldn't be totally runny is because it's bad. Then yesterday Taylor cleared up the whole matter for me in this conversation.

Taylor: "Strawberries are made of jam."

Kari: "Do you mean that jam is made up of strawberries?"

Taylor: "No, you squirt out the jam and roll it into a strawberry shape and cook it and then put it in the 'dawden' (garden) and 'den' (then) it will grow into a big strawberry plant."

So, it seems that sometimes we as parents learn as much from our children as we try to teach them. Obviously the reason that my jam doesn't set up is because I've been going about it all backward! I'm so lucky to have such clever children.