Summer Fun

I will probably start school again towards the beginning of August this year. Every homeschool family plans their year differently, but I am leaning towards taking less time off in the summer and having the days available during the school year. We definitely prefer to do our appointments in the morning, so if we keep some flex days available it really helps.

So . . . July. To keep July from feeling like a month of waiting for school to start up, the kids and I have been trying to plan something little each day that we can do here at home. The rules? It has to be inexpensive or free. (Free is always good, right?) Here are two projects we did recently.

Spongeballs

Like snowballs for the summer, these are great time-fillers for kids on a hot day. We spent very little money buying some simple sponges. Next we cut them, tied them in the middle, and pulled the ends out to make them fluffy. It was something both of the girls were easily able to help with, which is always nice.
Peanut Butter Playdough

Allie had been begging me to let them make this for a while. The kids love using cookie cutters with this stuff and then eating it. Here's the recipe:

1 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup powdered milk

Mix, play, and eat!

Overwhelmed and Undeserving

There are times when I feel God's love and am completely overwhelmed. This week there have been two significant moments. Two families with unselfish hearts have blessed us in ways that we never could have imagined. I am touched beyond words. I know Ethan doesn't mind if I share this, but we were incredibly disappointed. Besides the bathroom incident, our food disposal stopped working. There are some other details of things that made it seem we had no choice but to use a credit card to get by. I know it probably seems silly, but we have been fighting so hard to not use credit because we feel convicted about it. Ethan really wanted to ignore our committment to God to honor him with our finances. (Again, he said it was okay to share this because he knows other people have struggled with the same thing.) So we prayed about it instead and asked God to please make a way. Within two days, I think, these families came alongside and showed God's love to us.

We are so undeserving! Yet our merciful Father in heaven doesn't just provide us with our needs, but many wants as well. To the kind friends -- we will never forget your amazing kindness and love for us. You have blessed us beyond measure!

How is it possible to have such peace and joy in the midst of this world? Give it all --your worries, frustrations, fears -- to Christ. It is not worth it to hold tight to my plans and desires. I am nothing. He is everything!

Website For Book Lovers!

I am so excited to share a blog with all of you. Particularly those of you who love reading like me. And ESPECIALLY for anyone who loves reading and wants books that are clean. No language, gore, sex scenes . . . just a good story.

So enough build-up. Go visit Homespun Light and get some good ideas for summer reading!

News!

No, we're not expecting. Ha. But I've decided to start taking piano students again! I never really wanted to stop teaching but it seemed like there was no choice after Ryan was born. Now that he qualifies for services due to his disability, I can teach while he's receiving therapy hours. I am super excited too, because a mom in our homeschool group is going to teach karate lessons to my munchkins in exchange for piano lessons for hers. Win-win!

So, if you've ever thought about starting piano lessons for your little ones, give me a call. :)

When It Rains, It Pours

I'm an idiot. No, really. Saturday night was a busy night. After dinner we had to

1. bathe five kids
2. pack Michelle's suitcase
3. nurse the baby
4. mow the lawn
5. get ice cream from the icecream truck (because we PROMISED, darn it!)

So Ethan headed out the back door to mow the lawn. I started Ryan in his bath and left Allie to supervise him, which she does well. I came downstairs to nurse the baby. At some point Ryan was done in the bath and I had to take a break from Samantha to dress him for bed. At some point the girls heard the ice cream truck getting closer to the house and were running around like crazy. At some point I started Emmie's bath. At some point I put Ryan to bed, paid for icecream, got interrupted by neighbors, had the four year old neighbor girl running around my house, and got back to Samantha to finish feeding her. Guess what I didn't do? STOP THE BATHTUB! Yeah. It flooded our entire bathroom. Big time. I about threw Sammie off my lap when I remembered. I ran upstairs and started putting towels all over the carpet, trying to sop it up. Then I heard Ethan yelling for me, because water was coming through the ceiling of the garage! Turns out we are going to have to re-build the floor of the bathroom.

Ugh. I wish I could say that our crummy weekend ended with that. But as luck would have it . . . Sunday afternoon Ryan (during an unsupervised moment) plugged our downstairs sink with a towel and flooded the downstairs bathroom! Ethan and I did our best to dry it up with all the dry towels we had left, which wasn't many. We don't know the extent of the damage there but have decided we'll wait until the upstairs repair is done before we find out.

I don't know if there's any chance our insurance will help with this, but I'm afraid we won't be going to Lagoon this year after all. Thank goodness we had saved up some money for a vacation or we'd really be in trouble.

This weekend we were like the poster family for not having a bunch of children, but luckily life is not usually so chaotic! Gotta love it.

Adventures

Well, since my last post Michelle seems to be doing better. She cried again the next night at bedtime and I went in and sat with her, but since then she has been much more cheery. I would cry too if I was so far away from home and so young.

The director of the exchange program, Michelle's principal from back home, and another couple who work with the program made visits to all the families last week. Our visit was on Friday. It was interesting. The principle and the other couple are all Korean. They speak some English but not a ton. So it was kind of awkward. They basically came out to see how we were doing and to get some pictures to send back to her parents. We got her mom's email so we can "visit". I tried using an internet language conversion site, Babblefish, but when Michelle read the English and then the Korean version she said it didn't translate very well. So I may just send a simple note in English and maybe her parents will be able to figure it out. I think they can read some English.

When Ethan and I first talked of doing this I said, "Well, it's gotta be a lot easier adding an older kid to the mix, and not a baby." Ha. Famous last words. :) She is easier in some ways, but she still forgets to flush the toilet and leaves clothes on the floor. Kids are kids!

Maternal Instincts

As I'm typing this our poor little exchange student is in the bathroom sobbing on the phone to her mom. My heart is BREAKING. She has been holding up really well but fell tonight at the playground and skinned up her knee. She didn't cry then but I knew it bothered her. I'm not sure if the kids at school have been very friendly either. The first day when I picked her up a couple of the girls from her class were kind of snotty to her when we walked past. This is SO much harder than I thought it would be. You wouldn't think that your heart would break so much for someone else's child, but it does.

Update . . . The girls and I prayed for her upstairs before they got in bed. I came down and she had just finished her call. I gave her a hug, but I don't know if that was any help. (She was trying to look like everything was okay.) She really needs her family. Please pray for her!