Time Flies

Several years ago I kind of fell into keeping a blog.  It seemed like a good way to record family history, and I'm a spontaneous type of girl, so off I went.  As life picked up steam it became harder and harder to devote time to it.  I eventually decided it wasn't a priority, so I stopped blogging.  But earlier this week a dear friend asked me about our family blog.  I looked it up to make sure I was giving her the right address, and now I'm regretting that I let a year and a half pass without recording anything.  Life is still as busy as ever, but I'm going to try to record some memories here!

On Memorial Day we took the kids for a hike.  They all did really great, despite the girls' fear of seeing a rattlesnake or getting into poison ivy (which were both legitimate concerns).  We attempted to go up to this cave at one point, and I was climbing while supporting Calico.  My enthusiasm outweighed my abilities and before I knew it she and I were sliding down the side of the hill, with nothing to stop our fall.  Hello road rash!  I was so grateful to Spunky, who is the planner in our family.  She had packed a full first-aid kit and it came in handy.  Calico skinned both elbows but was so excited to be out on a hike that it barely bothered her.  She is becoming quite the brave four-year-old.

What Seeds Are You Sowing?

This morning was one of those mornings where I thought I was going to ship my girls off to public school if I heard them argue one more time.  They were just. not. getting. along.  We were taking a break from studies and tidying up when I heard another argument break out.  Frustrated, I told them to separate and then meet me in the kitchen in 10 minutes.

A while back we ordered a book that a friend had recommended called "For Instruction In Righteousness".  There are some beautiful ideas in this book for using God's word to guide our families.  I decided to work with my girls on one of the ideas from the book.  So .  . .

When the girls met me in the kitchen I handed them two containers and had them go get some fresh dirt.  When they came back in the house I had them sit down and told them we were going to plant some seeds.  I handed them a packet labeled "Strife and Contention" with pictures of angry flowers.  (Since I only spent a few minutes making the packets it wasn't like they were perfect, but they worked.)  On the back of the packet the description read "Guaranteed to produce large, stinky blooms.  Long-lasting quality.  Ingredients: selfishness, anger, spite".

The look on their faces was pretty cute.  Giggles was alarmed that they might actually grow stinky flowers.  I urged them to open up the packet and get to work.  (The packet contained grains of rice.)

After they had planted their "seeds" I held up another packet labeled "Peace and Joy".

"Now, girls . . . this is what kind of flowers I want you to grow.  The description on the back here says that these flowers will smell sweet and be pleasing to the eye.  The ingredients are selflessness and humility."

They just stared at me for a second.

"Okay, start growing these flowers!" I urged, pointing to the "sweet" flowers.

Giggles looked confused, "We can't grow that; we planted the wrong seeds!"

This naturally led to a great discussion about what kind of "seeds" we plant each day.  I swear I've talked with them about this kind of thing before but have never seen such interest.  Gotta love hands-on teaching!  Some verses we studied after this were Proverbs 16:28, Proverbs 20:3, and Proverbs 17:14.

I hope that this might be a help to some other parent, because it certainly made a difference to us today!  :)

Lest I Forget . . .

My babe (Calico, age 2 1/2) has made some adorable statements lately.  A sampling:

Broccoli is "flower power".

Instead of simply being cold, we often hear, "I so feezing!"

Of course she wants to pray for dinner like everyone else, so on her last rotation her prayer went something like this . . . "Thank you for the God, and thank you for the Jesus."

I took a Sunday afternoon nap recently and was woken by my sweet girl and her handful of Polly Pockets.  While relaxing with her I yawned and she stuck a Polly Pocket in my mouth.  After I sputtered and told her not to put her toys in my mouth, she marched her Polly back to the other dolls and said, "Hi girls!  I just went swimming at the pool!"

Whenever she is asked about her age, her prompt reply is, "I am seven."  She thinks her 7-year-old sister, Giggles, is the coolest thing ever.

I was going on a quick trip to the store, sans kids, and had barely made it to the door when I heard a screech.  Calico came running to me, picked up some new (to her) Nike tennis shoes she had just gotten, and exclaimed, "Take me and my pretty shoes with you!"

During school the other day I was reviewing our science lesson with the girls.  I asked them, "Nicolas Capernicus rightly assumed that what was the center of the universe, that everything revolved around?  Before either girl could speak up, Calico shouted "me"!  (Side note: I really don't think she had a clue what we were talking about and just has excellent timing.)

One more.  In the above photo she had exclaimed, "I made a snowman!"  If you look closely, you can see the milk spill in the shape of . . . yes, a snowman.  :)

Camping's For the Birds!

Well, we finally did it.  The hubby and I braved the woods with our little crew of munchkins.  Thanks to an extremely kind friend we were lucky enough to have a camper to use.  We were also lucky enough to get to go with some good friends we met at co-op last year.  So. . .

We headed out bright and early Saturday morning.  Due to a last-minute change in vehicle, we ended up putting the dog in his kennel for the ride.  (He loves his kennel.)

 

He seemed just fine, but when we got to the campground we got him out and he had blood all over his head.    We weren't sure how it had happened but we tried to clean him up as best as we could.

For some reason we ended up getting to the site at the absolute hottest time of day.  I had planned to lay the little two down for naps, but it wasn't a reality with the heat.  So we wandered down to the beach to cool off.

After a bit we came back to the camp and finished setting everything up.  We had discovered a leak coming from the trailer when we started using the water, so we scratched the idea of water.  I have to say . . . at this point I was getting a little nervous.  Yeah, I know.  Everyone who reads this has probably camped in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a sleeping bag, but I hadn't.  We had a faucet with water outside the trailer so it was okay, just different.  

A big hit for all the girls was biking.

After dinner was the most anticipated (by the kids) part of the trip:  s'mores!!

That night we put Bubba and Calico down to sleep first, which went fairly well.  Our plan was to let the kids spread out in the camper and we would sleep outside in a tent.  When Spunky and Giggles came into the camper to sleep, they somehow woke Calico.  She started crying and woke Bubba.  He was the one I was most afraid to have woken up, because once he's awake he can stay awake for hours.  True to form, he laughed, and walked around the camper, and laughed some more . . . forever!  He didn't want the camper door shut with us outside, so I decided to lay next to him until he fell asleep.  Unfortunately, it didn't seem like either of us slept much that night.

The next morning we just relaxed and finally made it over to another beach.  

It was so cute seeing the little ones play in the sand.  

We went for a nice, scenic drive.

And came back to camp for a little bit of packing up while the kids played.  

What I loved:  seeing how happy the kiddos were, spending time with our friends

What I was challenged by: dirt, little sleep, cooking w/o easy water access, dirt, the dog bleeding, dirt

Yeah. I need to embrace dirt a little more.   

The day after we got home two girls went to the doctor and the dog went to the vet.  One girl had an ear infection, one had pinkeye.  The dog had cut the tips of his ears on his kennel, and there wasn't really anything the vet could do about it.  (Offered a surgery but said there was no guarantee it would help.)  The poor pup is still bleeding, and it's been a week.

Sigh.

I really feel like camping is something I need to like.  So, I'm working on it.  Everyone camps, right?  Until next time . . .  ;)

Summer 2012

While it may seem tempting as a homeschool mom schedule nothing during the summer, I can't seem to let it all go.  Call me crazy, but letting the kids choose their own activities twelve-plus hours a day has not worked in our favor!  They, and I, need some structure.

Last summer we did something fun by diving into the Little House on the Prairie Series.  Besides reading, we had friends over to create pioneer crafts.  We still have the bonnets we made in our dress-up box.  This summer the girls have been asking to do something similar, so we may read through the Anne of Green Gables books.  And just to help us do some of the things we really want to do, we're trying a fun new schedule.  It looks like this (along with our plans for this week):


MAKE IT MONDAY

Create wearable shoes from specific amounts of cardboard, fabric, and duct tape.  Here's the link to our inspiration.

TIME TO READ TUESDAY

Obvious one here . . . visit the library!

WORK IT WEDNESDAY

Organize the school room - clean out those desks.  :)

THOUGHTFUL THURSDAY

Take treats to Daddy's work and gifts to M.  (Our little friend who broke her leg last week.)

FRIEND FRIDAY

Invited the W. family over to play!

Happy Summer!

Soccer

This post was supposed to have been written a week ago, but by the end of the story you'll see why I'm kind of glad I waited.  Last Wednesday our three oldest kiddos got to participate in a soccer program at our new church.  It's fantastic.  They learn the skills and get to play in teams for an hour, then they come in and have a time of worship and learning.  So, here they are:

Spunky in action!

Giggles taking a much-needed break.

And then we have Bubba.

Bubba absolutely fell apart last week at soccer.  At the beginning of the session I went out with the whole group of kids to do warm-ups with him.  Did he stay in one place to do jumping jacks?  No, he ran from child to child, kicking everyone's personal soccer balls and generally upsetting the other kids.  When they split into smaller groups he didn't want to go with the other five-year-olds.  When I walked over to the group another boy groaned and (using his real name, of course), moaned, "Do we have to have Bubba on our team?"  That, of course, made me want to go home and cry!  He gradually got more and more stressed out until he burst into tears and begged to go look at the railroad tracks.  (There are some railroad tracks just a short ways from the church.)  So this was a picture of him hanging out with Daddy, looking at the tracks.

Discouraged doesn't even come close to describing how Ethan and I felt on the way home that night.  We probably wouldn't have brought him back without the kind encouragement of a mom with an older autistic child. But we thought we'd give it a try.

Week two, last night, was a whole different story.  We started Bubba off with a buddy, a teen girl who must have an infinite amount of patience.  I was in a Bible study when Ethan texted a photo to me with the words, "You may not be able to see, but he's kicking the ball into the goal here!"  I thought I was going to jump out of my chair with joy!

By the end of the night, he was doing all the drills with the help of his new friend.  I get emotional even writing about it; it's such a big accomplishment.  This verse from Lamentations has been in my mind all day.

Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed,
for His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning,
great is Your faithfulness.


His mercies are new every morning!

Sister, Sister

Having never grown up with a sister, it was a huge delight when I discovered our second child was also a girl.  I dreamed of tea parties and secrets between the two little ones.  Friendship that would grow at the kitchen table and in the backyard . . . and last for a lifetime.  So it makes me especially happy when I see things like this:

It may be hard to read, but this was part of a beautifully decorated invitation from Spunky to Giggles.  An invitation to a slumber party, specifically.  It's been just over three months since they've shared a room but they were missing each other.  The invite included a list of things to bring, including a sleeping bag.  However, Giggles was a little put out that her big sister expected her to sleep on the floor!  So, the slumber party was short-lived.  :)

Someday I hope my girls will see what a privilege it is to have each other!