With Great Joy

2012-01-11T21:38:00.000-08:00

Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does... (Eph. 6:7-8)

We've had a challenging couple of weeks-- just fighting a virus that is making it's way through everyone in our house and lasting a long time. I am weary- feeling pretty miserable myself and yet constantly up and tending to the needs of everyone around me-- wiping noses, praying, taking temperatures, giving medicine, rubbing backs, making a cozy spot for a lethargic child, getting another drink, praying some more... and on it goes. On top of all of the stuff I normally do. Then nighttime comes and what with all the coughing and congestion and these bothersome sore throats, the kids are up so much more and hence, so am I. :) Last night Audra was up at 11:30, 12:30, 1:00, 2:00... just waking herself up with her coughing and wanting some comfort, wanting to be held and prayed for or for me to just lie beside her and hold her hand. Poor sick little sweetie. Finally at 2:20-something I brought her back to bed with us- and we all slept much better from that point on. Anyway-- as a mama I'm pretty tuckered out and am really going to try not to take it for granted when we are all feeling well again.

So recently when I read that verse--- it brought me such encouragement: God sees. He knows all that I do. Every single act of service will be not just acknowledged, but rewarded.

And it was also encouraging in reminding me that it is GOD I am serving, not man. It's all about Him. My acts of service to Mark, the kids, others... it's all an offering to God. (So, note to self: *Do more of it!* and with a right spirit, not a grumbly, complainy heart.)

* * *

Also, just a quick note to let you know that I'm going to be taking an extended break from the internet. I won't be blogging or checking blogs. I will be checking email, so you can reach me there and if you comment here on the blog I will get it via email. Blessings to all of you! ~Stacy

The Four Stages: Revisited

2012-01-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

Awhile ago I shared that Mark and I are in this stage of communication:

Stage 4: Talk to your husband?! What is that? Because there are all these other little people talking or interrupting CONSTANTLY. You can't even *think*, let alone have a conversation.

From the sounds of it, a lot of you are there, too.

It has been a challenge for us to try to figure out ways to maintain a good level of communication-- which I would define as: uninterrupted time to talk; the opportunity to share on a deeper level than just the daily conversations surrounding the management of the house and kids.

Just so you know, we're not experts by any means. We are smack dab in the middle of this stage, struggling to figure it out ourselves. I do feel so blessed to have witnessed solid, faithful, decades-and-decades-long marriages in two sets of grandparents and in my mom and step-dad. I have also seen the devastation of divorce- years ago- with my mom and biological dad. I know that my parents' divorce has shaped me and has made me even more purposeful and protective of my own marriage.

Here are two reasons I think this communication-thing is so important:

1) Titus 2 talks about how the older women are to train the younger women (that would be me) to love their husbands. I can't love my husband very well if we're not communicating; if I don't know him, if I'm not working to strengthen and nurture our relationship. It's my responsibility as a wife to do so.

2) The enemy prowls around, like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. His goal is to kill, steal and destroy. I see so clearly that he is working to destroy Christian marriages, and while that should not make us fearful (because greater is HE who is in us than he who is in the world!), I think we need to recognize that there's a spiritual battle going on over our marriages, and we have a responsibility to be prayerful and vigilant.

It's always my goal that our marriage is thriving, not just getting by. Now for some practical stuff:

I think a key to thriving in your marriage is prayer. Pray for your spouse*, pray with your spouse, pray over your struggles, pray for the strength of your marriage, just pray already! So many times in our marriage, God has answered specific prayers and I can look back and see His faithful hand in our relationship. He is good, and He desires good things for my marriage and for yours.

The main thing I recognized that needed changing in our home in regards to our communication troubles was this: the constant interruptions from our kids. As a mother, our time is very rarely our own. Throughout the day, we are continually being interrupted by our kids- for a drink here, a snack there, a diaper change over here, a squabble that needs sorting there, a heart that needs mending, a hug, a word, an instruction, a prayer, a meal. You name it: as mothers we are on call, all hours of the day. But when Mark comes home, I need to mentally shift from being available to the kids to being available to him. That's a difficult thing when all day long your focus is the kids. That doesn't mean that I'm no longer available to them- but it does mean they may just need to wait.

What that means for us is that when Mark comes home from work, we make an effort to sit together or work alongside each other to talk about our days. {This is often a time when I'll say- "Okay- everyone outside for 20 minutes!"} When the kids run in- and they do! numerous times!- to say this or that, we are learning to tell them to wait; to not interrupt, to please let daddy and mommy talk for a few minutes. I think it's important for our kids to see, too- that we are loving and honoring one another that way. And for us, taking that initial time together to cover the basics opens up our evening time to get to more quality conversation.

[One other thought I'm going to tuck in here, and that is to encourage your husband. Compliment him, tell him every single day how thankful you are for him, for his hard work, for his provision for your family. Speak well of him to your children and to others. Tell him you love him, and show him with service and thoughtfulness and kindness and affection. Greet him warmly at the door, give him a hug and tell him you've missed him. Okay- that could be a whole other post entirely, but that's all I'll say now.]

The other thing we are always trying to be more diligent at is having planned at-home date nights. (If you have a sitter and can afford it, by all means: get out of the house!- but if you're like us: just plan dates at home.) I emphasized the word planned because it makes all the difference for us. When there is a regular night set aside for that- written on the calendar, anticipated and assigned (either Mark or I in charge of the plan for the evening)- we have far greater success at those date nights actually taking place. Or- at least they're not a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants "Oh yeah! It's date night. What are we doing? Who was supposed to plan tonight?" kind of an evening. If I know it's my night, I am far more intentional and thoughtful about what we'll do and what we can talk about.

One more thing: because we rarely have an opportunity to get away, Mark and I try to go away for even one or two nights once or twice a year. This has become eagerly anticipated by both of us.

I'm counting on your inspiring ideas in the comments of this post, too!

*Here's a link to the list I posted in 2006: Praying for my husband.

Praying...

2012-01-08T15:34:00.000-08:00

(Will you join me in prayer for this dear family?)

What is there not to love about two?

2012-01-03T16:15:00.000-08:00

Just today, from my Audra Joy:

"I wuv you. You're my sweetest mommy in my whole wide world."

Then again, later- as we discussed whether to bring Ella to the doctor or not, she chimed in:

"I think we should see Doctor Baker." This is who she's referring to:

I sure love my sweet girl. :)

A chapter a day...

2011-12-30T15:11:00.000-08:00

That's my read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year checklist, and all those boxes are checked! {Thank you, God, for giving me the perseverance to stick to it!}

It is so gratifying to be sitting at the end of this year knowing that I read every single word of God's Word this past year. I love that. I love His Word, and my time reading the Bible always expands my worship of Him. I am so thankful.

I feel compelled to take more time this year for prayer, so I'm not committing to reading through the entire Bible again this year. I want to grow in the discipline of prayer and of listening and responding to God's Spirit. I've been thinking so much lately about how easy it is to feed on God's Word and build our knowledge-- but how often God moves/leads *when we pray*... there are just so many examples in the NT of the disciples meeting and praying and knowing where to go and what to do and seeing God work and move *because* they prayed, and I want that, too. I want to spend my days being led by His Spirit and doing His work. This past year I spent way more time reading than praying, and I really missed that sweet intimacy with Him that comes from time spent in prayer.

I am working on a plan for reading-- it will just be at a bit slower pace. I've decided to scale back and read "a chapter a day" this year, which will allow for more time of focused prayer and also the freedom to dig in and study. And- Mark is going to do my chapter-a-day plan with me. Sort of as an afterthought, I asked Ella and Isaac (our able readers) if they wanted to do it, too. Ella is very excited and agreed without hesitation. (Her comment: "Then we can all read the same thing and talk about it!") Isaac is still deciding. He told me he's in the middle of reading the Psalms right now and isn't sure he's ready to commit to more reading. ;) I know Isaias would like to, but he's not quite at that level of reading yet, so we'll just have to do a lot of narrating what we read to him so that he can participate in our conversations.

Reading a chapter a day means that we will read through 11 books of the Bible this year. These are the books I chose:

Joshua
1 Kings
2 Kings
Psalms
Proverbs
Isaiah
Zephaniah
John
1 Corinthians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians

That's exactly 366 chapters- out of 1189 total chapters in the Bible. (At this rate it would take us a little over 3 years to read the entire Bible, but: one step at a time. This is our goal for *this year*, and we'll see what next year holds.) I've already promised to email a friend my chapter-a-day checklist, so if any of you are interested, just send me your email address and I'd be happy to email it to you, too. :)

Early morning gratitude

2011-12-28T14:51:00.000-08:00

I was up early this morning with the girls while everyone else slept. They were vying for a position on my lap- both were sleepy and wanted to snuggle with mommy and Audra did not want to share lap space. Adelia is very sweet about sharing, so for the most part she will let Audra have me to herself. This is quite unfortunate because I *love* it when Adelia just wakes up from a night of sleep or from her nap. It's the only time she will sit still, and she wants to be held. (Audra, on the other hand, wants to be held fifty times a day!)

***

(Case in point: as I was typing that statement, Audra came over and said, "I want to sit on your lap." ;)) So: I closed the laptop and set it aside and pulled her onto my lap.

Anyway~ back to what I started to say earlier: I sat this morning on the couch, taking turns with the girls- when Audra was off playing happily, I'd pull Adelia into my arms and vice versa. At one point, Adelia was snuggled in beside me and Audra sat on my lap, facing me- squeezing my cheeks and poking my eyes and giving me tight hugs and chattering about all sorts of things, (if she says 'Jofuss' (who goes with Mary and baby Jesus for those of you who don't know who 'Jofuss' is) I might actually die from cuteness overload.) And I thought: "This is the greatest job in the world." What other occupation could you be in where people approach you several times a day just to tell you how much they love you, and to cheer you with countless hugs and brighten your days with smiles and laughter? What wonderful years these are! And how gracious God is to allow us- as mothers- to get to play such a big part in their lives.

I was overwhelmed with thankfulness this morning. How dear my children are, how much I love them and delight in them, and how grateful I am to get to be their mommy. Yes, the days are long and often challenging, but God is gracious and is so faithful to give strength and perseverance with each new day. It is such rewarding work, isn't it?

Blessings to you and your children today. (Don't forget to tell them how much you love them!)

Happy day-after-Christmas! (& our Handmade Christmas recap)

2011-12-26T23:12:00.000-08:00

I kept meaning to get on the computer during the past couple of days and wish you all a Merry Christmas, but... there was just no time. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and reveled in the amazing gift of Jesus!

We have had a great week together as a family. We began our festivities on Sunday night- the week before Christmas- by pulling our mattresses into the living room and sleeping by the tree. Then we surprised the kids with a Pajama Ride announcement (which included a trip to DQ and a drive to look at Christmas lights.)

Settling everyone into bed before our Pajama Ride.

Then we spent a couple of days doing the finishing touches on our handmade gifts for one another and other odds and ends (wrapping, grocery shopping, baking, etc).

Doing some knitting with the girls. (Doesn't Audra look so wiped out from her knitting project? ;))

On Thursday night we celebrated my grandpa's 91st birthday-- which doubles as an extended-family Christmas party. There were over 100 of us there- and it was a joyous occasion. So many aunts and uncles and cousins and their kids and my grandpa smiling with happy tears in his eyes through it all.

Friday was our own family Christmas. We had a yummy breakfast of coffee cake (birthday cake for Jesus~ candles and all!), sausage, bacon, and Orange Julius-drinks in the blender. Oh, and hot cocoa, too- with dollops of vanilla ice cream. Then we read from Luke and prayed and opened our gifts for one another. Here's the rundown of our handmade gifts:

Audra drew Adelia's name. Mark and I puzzled a bit over what she could give Adelia- since, at 2- she can't really *make* many things. One thing Adelia loves is food- so I contemplated making homemade crackers until I decided that I was spending enough time in the kitchen and why complicate things when she'd be just as happy with popcorn? But then- THEN: Mark had the brilliant idea of making a "snack mix" for Adelia. Bingo. I grabbed a few bags of snacky stuff at the grocery store, and Audra did the work of dumping out the bags, stirring, and transferring into a container. Then I made a label for the top that said Adelia's Snack Mix (made by Audra), and Audra happily colored all over the label. We wrapped it up together and we were done.

She was so focused.

When Adelia opened it, she pretty much thought it was the best.gift.ever, and ate it throughout the rest of the day.

Adelia drew Ella's name, and she had a lot of help from me. I gave Adelia some paint pens she went to town decorating a blank canvas that I had. Then I found a picture of the two of them- Ella holding Adelia as a baby- and used some stickers and scrapbook paper and mod-podged it all on the canvas. It turned out pretty cute. I don't have a picture of the front of it, but here's the picture of Ella opening it:

(I had also knitted up a hat for Ella and sewed a bird ornament from this book so I had Adelia give those to her, too.)

Isaias drew Audra's name, and he drew her a paper doll- knowing how much she loves getting into Ella's paper dolls. It was such a sweet, thoughtful idea. Mark and I helped him come up with an additional idea, too (just in case she wasn't quite as enthused with his torn-out stick-figure paper doll as he might think she would be). Mark sat down with him one afternoon and looked up coloring pages online and let Isaias choose a bunch of them for a coloring book. He did a great job- choosing nativity scenes, kitties, Hello Kitty, Little House, and all the things she loves. We printed them out, 3-hole punched them, and he wrote Audra's Coloring Book ~from Isaias on the cover. Then Isaias selected some crayons and put them in a baggie and wrapped it all up for her.

Audra looks at her coloring pages as Isaias looks on.

Isaac drew my name- and he had remembered me saying a couple of months before- on a day when I was craving something sweet but we had nothing at all sweet in the house- "All I want for Christmas is some Swedish Fish, some Skittles, and some chocolate." (Immediately after that little declaration, I regretted it because I saw a slight look of panic on Isaac's face and figured he had 1)drawn my name, and 2)was trying to figure out how on earth he was supposed to make mommy some Swedish Fish, Skittles, and chocolate!) He did great. His idea was to make me a treat jar to keep by my bed, so he decorated the outside of a jar and then made a LEGO smiley face and taped it on top of the jar and filled it with Swedish Fish. He also drew me several small pictures (he called them "pennants") that I can hang up on a little string near my treadmill so that I have something to look at while I'm on the treadmill. (Is that not the cutest thing?) I loved it all. :) And the Swedish Fish are all gone.

Ella drew Isaac's name and has been thoughtfully saving the tickets she's earned from school store in anticipation of gifting them to Isaac who is saving earnestly for a LEGO set he desperately wants to purchase from school store. (Mark found a nice LEGO set at a garage sale ($3) and added it to our school store but priced it *really* high (100 tickets)-- knowing that Isaac knows how much that set is worth and recognizing that Isaac will have to buckle down and save for-- something he is not very good at doing. He wants that set more than anything but keeps getting distracted with other school-store purchases, so he's only saved up about 30 tickets for it all year.) In the past two months, Ella has carefully been putting away nearly 40 tickets for her gift to Isaac-- to add to his saved 30.) This was the gift I was most anxious to see opened-- it was such a thoughtful gift from Ella and I knew Isaac was going to be overwhelmed with the magnitude of all of Ella's tickets. Both Mark and I were teary-eyed and Isaac was literally speechless when he opened his gift. He really could not believe that Ella would be willing to give up all of her tickets for him.

Isaac, staring at the container of Ella's tickets

(Ella has also been knitting Isaac a green and gray striped scarf, but she didn't finish in time for Christmas, so she drew a picture of it and told him that it was his when she finished. (He's seen her knitting it and had hoped it was for him and is excited for her to finish!))

I drew Mark's name. (I had thought that drawing one of the kids' names would be so easy-- I could sew for the girls or knit for the boys, but-- MARK? What could I make him?) I Googled "handmade gifts" and it took me just a couple of minutes to decide on an idea of a Memory Jar. I sat with my journal for several quiet-times and wrote down memories, then eventually transferred all of those ideas onto slips of colored/patterned paper and filled up a Memory Jar- 365 days worth of memories for Mark to open.

Mark- trying to figure out what his gift was

Finally (and you're amazing if you're still reading because I know this is a long post!), Mark drew Isaias' name, and puzzled over what to make him until he settled on a football theme (Isaias loves football) and decided to created a game for him. [If you have boys who are into football you're going to want to pay close attention and do this for them or have them do it.] Mark cut out a picture of a player from each NFL team from a Sport's Illustrated NFL Preview Issue (free at the library!) and then printed out corresponding team logos (from online) and made a deck of 64 cards. Each card was given a value of 1-10, based on the actual offensive and defensive ranking for the teams this season. We used clear contact paper to "laminate" the cards and on the back of each card it said: Isaias' NFL Challenge, along with some football clip art. Rules of the game are similar to the card game of War, where your cards (or in this case, teams) face off, and the highest number takes all cards. When there's a tie (or in this case, "overtime"), they play it out just like you do in the game of War. This was a HUGE hit and our three older kids played this for literally hours that day and days since. (I KNOW. How creative is my husband?! He should patent this.)

Isaias opens the box and all the cards tumble out

Two hours later...

So that was our handmade Christmas gift exchange. We all want to do it every year, and we will. We did our Samaritan's Purse giving later.

Saturday we spent the whole day (10:00 am to 10:00 pm!) with Mark's wonderful family- and the kids had a blast with cousins and uncles and aunts and grandpa and grandma and pizza and lots of laughter and games (Twister! Hide and Seek!) and gifts.

Sunday morning we did our stockings here and then headed to my mom and dad's (joining my brothers) for a full day of Christmas there- complete with a huge breakfast and snacks all day and games and puzzles and singing and prayers and gifts and lots of laughter.

We are so, so blessed to have such wonderful family so near. Mark goes back to work tomorrow and we have one week to undecorate, rest, tidy, and ease back into a more scheduled life.

What was your favorite gift to GIVE this Christmas? (Mine was probably my gift to Mark- because I knew he would be blessed and it is such a fun gift because he gets to keep "unwrapping" it for a whole year!)

Why I said yes

2011-12-15T23:56:00.000-08:00

It was on this date, December 15th, fifteen years ago, that Mark proposed to me.

As he knelt to express his love for me and his desire for me to be his wife, I happily said yes. We had been dating for three years and I knew him well.

I knew that during Mark's first couple years of college, he was also taking care of his grandma who had Alzheimer's. He spent his weekends caring for her. In her tired, confused mind- she often called him the wrong name- and she could be awfully stubborn about things. Sometimes on a Friday or Saturday night, his grandma would insist that it was "time to go to church". He would patiently explain, "No, Grandma. It isn't Sunday. No one is at church right now." But she would get herself all ready for church, and insist upon going. So Mark would carefully help her out to the car and he would drive her to church. They'd reach the dark, empty parking lot, and she would have a puzzled look on her face and realize that no one was here for church, and they'd go back home.

I remember thinking then- when I heard the stories Mark would tell me of his time with his grandma- that he was a remarkable man. What guy in college is spending his weekends taking care of his ailing grandma? My Mark was.

When we began dating, I was eighteen; had just moved out of the house- and had two little brothers still at home. Micah was seven and Seth was two. Whenever we'd go to my house, Mark would end up on the floor with my brothers, playing with them. I loved this. I knew he wasn't doing this to impress me or anyone else- he just genuinely liked them and got down on their level to play with them.

We'd file into church next to my family on a Sunday morning and Seth would reach up to Mark, wanting to be held. Mark is so tall that his arms offered the best view. Seth liked to be held in a sitting-up position, but facing outward. (Not real comfy for whoever was holding him.) Mark would steadily hold him just that way, facing out, during the whole of the worship service.

For years Mark taught the two-year-old Sunday School class, and those two-year-olds loved him. They would climb all over him and he made them laugh and they were just so taken with him. He loved each one of them.

I watched Mark with my brothers, with his nephews, and with his two-year-old classes, and knew he would be a good daddy someday.

During college I worked at a Christian bookstore. Usually I had the closing shift. We closed at nine o'clock, and I was by myself, vacuuming, closing out the tills, and locking up. Not so when Mark began dating me. He would drive out to the store about half-hour before closing and just browse the bookstore while I closed up. He wanted me to be safe: it was dark, I was alone- and he would just show up. I never asked him to nor did I expect it of him. He just showed up one night and kept coming, each night I was closing. And I felt treasured by him.

I lived with a bunch of other girls through college. We had meals together each night, and divvied up the household chores. Chores were always expected to be done on Saturdays. I worked Saturdays, so when I came home from work those nights I had my chores to do. I remember coming home from work one night (with Mark) to discover that my chores had all been done for me. I wondered aloud which of my roommates had done this? I think I even asked a few of them, and it was one of them who told me that Mark had been by earlier in the day to do my chores for me. (I think that week my chore was the living room/dining room area and the kitchen). He did it simply to bless me, knowing I would be tired when I got home that night.

He was the most romantic guy-- he courted me with near-daily cards and flowers and thoughtfulness packed into every date. When he knew I would be celebrating my birthday while on a missions trip, he tracked down a birthday card well in advance and sent it along with me. I still remember being on a sleeper-train riding through Poland, and opening my birthday card from Mark- which was a Polish card! How he found me a Polish birthday card, I'll never know- but somehow he did.

I watched the way he interacted with his siblings and the way he honored his parents. He loved them. He spoke well of them, and there was great fondness and camaraderie in his family. I loved that.

He spoke well of everyone, actually. Any time I would complain to him about anyone, he always- annoyingly- believed the best in a person; giving them the benefit of the doubt and encouraging me not to be quick to judge someone else's motives.

Mark quickly became my best friend.

I was deeply afraid to get married. I was so fearful that someday I would be left-- the way my mom had been left by my dad. It was my greatest fear. I wanted to know, for sure- that this would not happen to me. I wanted assurance that this man, Mark, would never be that man.

But that day, on top of that hill- fifteen years ago, I was unafraid. I knew Mark. I knew his character. I knew he loved and feared God above all. I knew he loved me. And I trusted him. That's why I said yes.

Fifteen years later and he's still the guy who will lay aside his own interests, his own time and comfort, for someone else. He is still selfless- always thinking of others before himself. He is still great with children: he is an amazing daddy to our five. He still courts me with cards and flowers and thoughtfulness. He still loves his family and others well. He's still my best friend. He is trustworthy. He loves and fears God more today than he did back then, and I admire him more than anyone on this earth.

Christmas gift-giving

2011-12-12T05:45:00.000-08:00

The view from my favorite spot on the couch

We're doing Christmas a little differently at our house this year. We decided to draw names amongst ourselves and give homemade gifts (using what we already have) in lieu of purchasing presents for one another. (Stockings are still fair game, but the only presents under our tree for one another will be homemade.) The reason we decided to do this is twofold:

1) None of us need a thing. We are so rich already.
2) There are so many people on earth who truly DO have needs- real needs like food, clean water and clothing.

So we decided to start this new tradition in order to be able to give more generously to those who do have needs.

Our kids were completely on board. The idea of making a gift comes very naturally to them-- and they have been full of creative ideas for their name-draw and that alone has been such a joy to behold. I love it that this requires us all to be more thoughtful, and I think much more time is spent thinking of the individual we're giving the gift to (as we mull over what they would like, and as we put in the actual time of making the gift.)

I can't wait to tell you all about the handmade gifts we've been secretly working on around here-- after Christmas, of course.

Oh! And-- I must tell all of you fellow book-lovers about this idea (one that I first heard about at Amanda's blog, at the end of this post): You know the moment when you get out your bin of Christmas books to enjoy for the season? Wrap each book in wrapping paper, and then put them into your bin and let your kids open one each day leading up to Christmas- so that they can have the joy of rediscovering their treasured Christmas books all over again! (Isn't that the BEST idea?) I can't wait to do that next year.

Two other Christmas gift-giving posts, from the archives:

The Part of Christmas I'm Most Excited About
Our Favorite Kind of Gift-Giving

Wednesday, December 7th

2011-12-07T15:52:00.000-08:00

Last night we had a bit of a long night. Audra (2) woke up sometime around two o'clock, hollering for daddy, and he went in to settle her. (Me? I went back to sleep.) I don't know how long he was in there, but I heard her calling again at around 3:40. Mark was getting out of bed to go to her and told me then that this was the fourth (!) time she had called him since that initial two o'clock wake-up. I was awake, then- and listening to all the goings-ons, and hoping she wasn't going to wake the other girls, and ready to assist if he needed me. Then I heard Ella's voice, and Audra asking, "Daddy? Will you please scratch my back?" ;) He did that, yes he did, at 4 in the morning, because that's the kind of amazing daddy that he is.

We all went back to sleep sometime in the 4 o'clock hour. I left a little after 6 to exercise and when I got back, I came back to bed. I then asked Mark for a recap of the night (in my foggy middle-of-the-night state I hadn't understood why Audra had initially called out-- Did she have a bad dream? Was she sad/scared?) As Mark was giving me the timeline of events, he said that after the second time he'd soothed Audra back to sleep, he went back to bed only to hear Adelia (3) calling out for him. He went in to her- quickly- as to not wake Audra again- and Adelia asked him to find one of her stuffed animals that she likes to sleep with. (I think he said no, he could not find that right now, as it was dark, and to please go to sleep.) He went back to bed, and then Adelia began calling "Dadddddyyy"- quietly at first, then more loudly.

Then Mark overheard Audra, now awake, holler from her bed to Adelia: "He's MY daddy!" Mark heard them bicker about that for a few minutes (Adelia replying, "He's my daddy!" and so on...) and then they quieted. Mark and I were laughing about it this morning- it reminded me of the whole idea of getting your dance card punched- it was as if Audra was telling Adelia that she had daddy reserved for the entire night and Adelia could not use him. Silly girls. Wonderful husband and father.

Default: theirs and mine

2011-12-06T16:27:00.000-08:00

One day as I was trying to get the kids ready to go somewhere--- which always seems to be an extremely Long and Trying Process at our house, and one in which I'm usually exasperated at my children who want to play or goof around instead of getting on their hats and coats and shoes or boots, or in which I'm usually exasperated by the child (not always the same child, mind you) who is not at all ready while the rest of us are standing at the door ready to go--- I had a thought.

It was simply this:

Their 'default' is play.

It's the way God created them, these children of mine. And it's a good and beautiful thing. They naturally, inherently just want to play. (My personal default happens to be work, hence the exasperation on my part.)

My boys in their room together-- with clear instructions to clean their room-- will inevitably end up in some drama or giggles or play-fighting or jumping or climbing or a dumping out of a toy bin in order to build or play something. That's just the way they were made. They look for it, they celebrate relationship with each other by playing together. Any two of my children who pass by one another in the process of doing their individual chores will interact with each other on some level and that will lead to a disruption of my personal work-default and an entry into their default of play. If I want to leave the house, and right now, please, or we're going to be late!-- one of them will find something to do instead of getting their shoes on and will end up sitting comfortably on the floor, playing. It puzzles me, truly- and I usually think it's absurd: Hello? We are leaving. As in, now. Do you see us? How could you possibly be [sockless, shoeless, coatless] and PLAYING right now?

And yet: it's their default.

Now- I'm not eschewing obedience or my desire and intention for my children to learn responsibility and a good work ethic. I want those things, and we are fully in the process of teaching our kids those things. But it is helpful for me to remember that it is a process. They are firmly, cheerfully situated in their God-given play-mode and it will take years of gentle, faithful, patient instruction and our own example to teach them and show them that there is real joy to be found in work-- and in the reward of getting to play when your work is finished.

In the meantime, I am finding great joy in observing their playfulness-- in everything they do, and I'm marveling- truly- at their ability to pause in any given moment and laugh and play and relate to one another, forsaking all work. I think I could (re)learn to do a good deal more of that myself. I am- more often- settling my exasperated self with the truth of how God has designed them, and by realizing that more often than not- they've gotten it exactly right.

Adoption link

2011-11-30T14:42:00.000-08:00

If you've read here for any length of time, you will know how much I admire David Platt. He's the pastor of a church in Alabama, and whenever I have the opportunity to listen to a sermon online, I choose one of his. Don't ask me how I stumbled upon him-- some link somewhere led me to the church's website one day and I listened to him then and I think he's an excellent communicator of God's truth. I read his book Radical last year and loved that, too.

Anyway: David Platt, his wife Heather and their two boys are in China right now. They've just adopted a little girl and he has been blogging about their experience.

Today I read his posted entitled The Gospel and Adoption and I just know some of you are going to want to read it.

Here's just a snippet:

In the gospel, you are reminded on a daily basis that there was a day when you were a child of wrath, filled with evil desires, totally unable to control your sinfulness, and desperately in need of Savior, and God reached down His hand of mercy past the depth of your wickedness in order to adopt you as His own. When there was no initiative to draw you to Him, He initiated a relationship with you. So now, when you see a child with minor or major needs, you reach out to that child, simply because you realize you are that child.

and another quote:

We adopt not because we are rescuers. No, we adopt because we are the rescued.

Yeah. Go read it.

If you're interested in starting at the beginning and reading their entire adoption journey, start here.

Also, for any of you fellow AGCI adoptive mothers, this post in particular reminded me so much of our experience in Guatemala, meeting Isaias' Special Mothers and saying thank you to them- especially this young woman who nurtured him the most while he was at Hannah's Hope.

Good read

2011-11-30T05:26:00.000-08:00

This was the best blog post I read all week.

Go read it, and then go see your kids-- really see them.

{Thank you, Tonia~ for the link}

School-to-vacation transition

2011-11-28T12:22:00.000-08:00

Each year we take the whole month of December off-- no school at all. We spend December decorating and playing and resting and singing and reading through all of those Christmas books we bring out once a year. We wrap and we buy or make gifts and cards and- the month flies by. Several times over the past few days I have chided myself for not just beginning our vacation time at Thanksgiving. Why didn't I plan it that way?

{last night, decorating the tree}

This past week was filled with family gatherings and we leapt into vacation mode. Yesterday we got our Christmas tree and brought the decorations out but today we have to pull back and get busy with school for our final week. I've decided this was poor planning on my part. (I keep wondering: has this not bothered me in previous years, or this is new?) Anyway: new note to self: When Thanksgiving hits, start vacation.

This was my solution this morning:

I took out our schedule and highlighted the "have-to's" for the week and listed them ALL on the board, with a note on top saying: "When you've crossed off everything off your list, you're on vacation!!!" I'm pretty confident this means we'll have a day or two of school frenzy, but then we can start celebrating already. (We'll see. Isaac and Ella are already about halfway done with crossing off their lists, but Isaias opted out of school for the day in lieu of watching The Sound of Music with the little girls (movie.of.choice these days)).

How was your Thanksgiving? [What was the best thing you ate? The stuffing was my hands-down favorite this year.]

Good read for adoptive parents

2011-11-21T15:05:00.000-08:00

“ I followed a God into this story who heals and redeems, who
restores wasted years and mends broken places. This God specializes in the Destroyed. I've seen it. I've been a part of it. I have His ancient Word that tells of it. I love a Jesus who made reconciliation his whole mission. My children will not remain broken. They are loved by too good a Savior. I will not remain exhausted and spent. I am loved by too merciful a Father. ”

* * *

Read the entire post, called After the Airport, here.

Blueberry-banana muffins

2011-11-21T10:06:00.000-08:00

{what we had for breakfast this morning}

Blueberry-banana muffins

(preheat oven to 350, yields 20 muffins)

Puree or blend together, then set aside:
1 1/4 cup frozen blueberries (I set these out for about 15 min so they were slightly thawed)
1 banana

Mix together:
3 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 beaten eggs
berry/banana blend
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup applesauce (I buy this applesauce in bulk and substitute it for oil in all baking recipes)

Scoop into buttered/floured muffins cups and bake @ 350 for 12-13 minutes.

Remembering my life two years ago

2011-11-13T21:26:00.000-08:00

I came across this photo the other day and I kind of marveled at this snapshot of my life just a couple of years ago. This picture was taken when Adelia was 16 months old and Audra just 4 months old. (And people comment *now* that my hands are full!) Um, no. Those were the days when my hands were positively the fullest: two babies, both of them so needy for their mama. Nevermind three older kids that also occasionally needed me. ;) I spent the days juggling these two and trying to determine which child was the neediest at that moment: usually one of my little girls. So many times it was both of them- they both needed me to hold them, to soothe them, to feed them, or to change them. I *often* walked around the house like this- one of them in the Ergo, and the other on my hip, or we'd settle on the couch and look at books together. These were exhausting days, and I felt utterly spent by the end of each one of them.

I know there are some of you who are in this season right now. I was trying to think of what I could say to encourage you. Most importantly, this: God is faithful. It is He who has entrusted these little ones to *you* and He will be faithful to equip you. He will strengthen you and help you.

Some practical things: it was during this season when I dropped everything that I didn't absolutely *have* to do. I didn't intentionally drop these things- it just happened naturally. Things like getting the kids dressed for the day, going places, sending thank you cards (or any cards, for that matter), organization of the clothes the kids had outgrown, balancing the checkbook, etc. (The list goes on and on and on.) You just do what you have to do to make it through these days.

Try to get as much sleep as you can, accept any help anyone ever offers, try to spend time with Jesus each day, take breaks when you are able (when your husband comes home you can run errands all.by.yourself: it's dreamy), pray out loud- with your kids, make simple, easy meals (or get take out), and just love your children well. Find delight in these little persons God has given to you: laugh and play and tickle and cuddle and be silly and read another story and change another diaper- and don't forget to kiss their bare belly when you do- and watch and wait for daddy when he comes home and sing songs together and just love them. They truly are a joy. Embrace this season. It goes by so quickly.

I LOVED this book.

2011-11-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

You do read Katie's blog, right? Now that I've read this book, Katie Davis is officially my new favorite person. You must read this book. (Have I ever let you down with a book recommendation?) I love this girl. I love her heart, I love her dependency on Jesus, I love her simple, pure faith. I was challenged and inspired and convicted and blessed so much by this book. Ella (9) is reading it now, and I hope the truths in this book impact her for a lifetime.

While you are waiting to get a copy of the book, go watch this video. (It's not even 4 minutes long, and it's well worth your time, but my *favorite* thing she says is at 2:52.) See? -why I love her so much? You will, too.

Copywork selections

2011-11-07T10:53:00.000-08:00

We're 10 weeks into our school year and it's already time for me to refill Ella's Copywork Jar. I changed it up a bit this year- there are no longer different categories for different days of the week (Mondays-Poetry, Tuesdays-Quotes, etc); we just have several selections tossed in. The other change is that I really aimed to make the copywork selections shorter, so that Ella will not get bogged down with a long passage (as was the case last year) and neglect neat handwriting. Our focus is on quality, not quantity. So far I have had her print each one, but the next "batch" she will do in cursive. She often draws a little picture to go along with it. It's been going really well! I've listed her copywork selections below if any of you are interested in using them for your own children:

Thirty days hath September, April, June and November.

January brings the snow, makes our feet and fingers glow.

*

February brings the rain, thaws the frozen lake again.

*

March brings breezes loud and shrill, stirs the dancing daffodil.

*

April brings the primrose sweet, scatters daisies at our feet.

*

May brings flocks of pretty lambs, skipping by their fleecy dams.

*

June brings tulips, lilies, roses, fills the children's hands with posies.

*

Hot July brings cooling showers, apricots and gillyflowers.

*

August brings the sheaves of corn, then the harvest home is borne.

*

Warm September brings the fruit, sportsmen then begin to shoot.

*

Fresh October brings the pheasant, then to gather nuts is pleasant.

*

Dull November brings the blast, then the leaves are whirling fast.

*

Chill December brings the sleet, blazing fire, and Christmas treat.

*

Many hands make light work.

*

Practice makes perfect.

*

A man is known by the company he keeps.

*

A child should always say what’s true
And speak when he is spoken to

*

O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!

*

A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea.

*

Red sky at night, sailors delight;
Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.

*

Adopt the pace of nature: Her secret is patience.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

*

Never let us reflect upon small annoyances, and we shall be able to

bear great ones sweetly.
    ~Charlotte Mason

*

All beautiful and noble possibilities are present in everyone.
    ~Charlotte Mason

*

Kindness is to make everyday life pleasant and comfortable to others.
    ~Charlotte Mason

*

A grateful heart rejoices not only in the gift but in the giver.
    ~Charlotte Mason

*

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.
    ~George Washington Carver

Roasted Vegetables

2011-11-02T08:23:00.000-07:00

I promise I haven't forgotten about a follow-up to this Four Stages post. I'm working on it. I just haven't been on the computer much and when I am, it's easier to post a photo and a few words or go with a post I've already written.

We have been enjoying this lovely Autumn weather. And- it's notable that my older children have begun teasing me because of my exclaiming over every single colored tree we pass on a walk or bike ride or drive. It's true- I am always pointing out that tree and those colors and this tree-lined road-- so beautiful! and "just LOOK at all those crunchy leaves on the ground and don't you all just want to go make a giant leaf pile and jump into it?" I can't help myself. The other day I heard from the back of the van all these little voices exclaiming about that yellow and those oranges and just LOOK already at that tree! and I couldn't help but laugh. :)

Speaking of Autumn, here's one of my favorite meals for the season, and our VERY favorite way to eat veggies.

Just cut up whatever you have in the form of vegetables- in this pan there are grape tomatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, potatoes, onions, whole garlic cloves, butternut squash, and some broccoli. (Anything goes, though- just use what you have.) Put it all in a baking dish, drizzle with olive oil- maybe a tablespoon or two? Sprinkle some salt over the top and stick it in the oven. Bake on 425 for about 45 minutes or until the vegetables are tender (I always check the carrots; they seem to take the longest.) If you remember, while it's cooking, open up the oven and stir the vegetables once. But I usually forget and they turn out fine.

When they're done, you can eat as is or sprinkle with parmesan, smoked paprika or whatever else you like to eat.

Okay... I'm off to put a chicken in the crockpot for dinner, make some coffee cake for breakfast, welcome a new student to our school for the day (! Ella is having a friend over to join us in our school day-- how fun is that?) and enjoy the rest of the day with my kids. Hope you have a great day!

Butternut Squash Lasagna

2011-10-30T23:09:00.000-07:00

There's a restaurant in town that makes Butternut Squash Lasagna and it used to be Mark's favorite thing to eat. That is, until we discovered the Butternut Squash Ravioli at our favorite Italian restaurant. Delish. Every time I've eaten either one, I spend a good deal of time savoring each bite and trying to determine *exactly* what is in it and how I can replicate it at home. (Does anyone else do that?)

For years I have determined to come up with a butternut squash recipe that is at least similar to one of those two entrees. I stumbled upon a recipe last week for Roasted Butternut and Sweet Potato Whole Wheat Lasagna and decided to try it.

It was amazing.

And if you try to tell me that you do not like squash, I.will.not.listen. This was SO yummy and you must try it.

I made some changes to the recipe. We didn't have whole wheat noodles, I used more mozzarella cheese, etc. So the recipe below is how I made it, but it is adapted from this recipe from How Sweet It Is.

Butternut Squash Lasagna

12 cooked lasagna noodles

1/2 large roasted butternut squash (Slice it lengthwise, bake @ 400 degrees for about 40 minutes or until it's soft when you poke a fork into it.) I bake my squash face up on a cookie sheet, and brush squash with a little melted butter.)

2 medium sweet potatoes (Cut in half, lengthwise and stick these on the pan with the squash- they will likely be done before the squash, though- so watch them.)

16 ounces mascarpone cheese, at room temperature (Trader Joes has this)

3 T butter

1-2 shallots, thinly sliced

3 cloves of garlic

1 cup parmesan cheese

1 1/2 cups grated mozzarella cheese

1/4 tsp nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

a bunch of fresh sage leaves, chopped

When the squash and sweet potatoes are cooked, scoop out the insides and puree or blend or mash somehow- whichever method you'd prefer. (You can do this step earlier in the day or the night before, too.)

Saute shallots and garlic in the butter for a few minutes. When cooled, add mascarpone cheese, sage and half of the parmesan.

Layer lasagna in a 9x13 pan. First mashed squash/sweet potato mix, then noodles, then cheese. Repeat until you run out of ingredients. (When I got to the cheese layers, I spread the mascarpone blend and then sprinkled a bit of mozzarella and parm. Make sure to save some to top it all off.)

Bake @ 350 for 30 minutes.

{this moment}

2011-10-28T10:31:00.000-07:00

linking up this week's moment to Soule Mama

Eight: a happy birthday

2011-10-27T07:28:00.000-07:00

Dear Isaac,

Early yesterday morning you bounced into our room and said, "I'm eight years old!" Never have I seen anyone so happy about a birthday. All day long you were positively wiggly with excitement over turning eight. :)

You opened presents shortly after that trip to our room-- some LEGO mini figures, a model, a LEGO set, a game, a book, some treats chosen by your sisters~ and then you were off to play with it all.

You chose homemade doughnuts* for breakfast. You had seen a picture on the cover of a magazine I had lying around and decided- months ago- that that's what you wanted for your birthday meal. (Later, I baked your other request: chocolate cake with lime frosting. ;))

You stood next to the back door so that we could mark your height, and you were so smiley about the fact that you are taller than Ella was at the same age.

You are growing, my boy. So often when I look at you now I am struck by how tall you are, and how my little boy just isn't so little anymore.

You still like building LEGO creations- and you're a really inventive builder, daddy says- but many days the LEGO bins stand untouched because you're on the couch with a book in hand. Your favorite books are The Narnia series. Daddy read those aloud a couple of years ago, but you read them on your own in just a few weeks. You love to ride your bike, too. It's one of your favorite things. You like to climb (trees! on top of the swingset!) and find bugs (not spiders) and explore. You love the woods: there's so much to see and find and so many things to climb. :)

You are silly and imaginative and are always ready with a "What if...?" question. You smile often. You laugh just as often. You are a kind older brother. Audra has learned to ask you if she needs help making something or finding something: you are always happy to drop what you're doing and help. You are thoughtful and willing to play things the little girls might like to play, even if you're not very interested in it yourself.

You ask me- several times a day, always in the kitchen- "Mommy, what can I do to be your helper?" You know that mealtimes can be a busy time for me- getting everything ready and on the table- and you are always there, waiting for me to tell you what you can do. You offer to take groceries in for me all the time and you *always* take the biggest load- even when I try to talk you out of it. ;)

You love Bible time- and especially the Old Testament stories. You are truly captivated by what God can do and how big He is and how He chooses to work. I love how much you love that. As I prayed for you today, I asked God that with each new year, you would love Him ever more than you did the previous year. That is my heart's desire. You think eight is good? I can't wait to see what God has for you in the years to come!

You are so loved, my sweetest budders. You are truly a gift, and I am so thankful God made you!

Love,
Mommy

*Doughnut recipe here.

Playdough!

2011-10-24T21:17:00.000-07:00

One day last week I woke up with a really bad sinus headache. So... we skipped school for the day. I spent 20 minutes in the kitchen that morning making playdough and it provided the kids with a good hour and fifteen minutes of fun (and respite for mama). :)

Three batches of playdough

= happy kids.

If you haven't made playdough, it's super easy and fun!

Playdough

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 cup water w/ food coloring of your choice
1 T oil
2 tsp cream of tarter

Combine all ingredients in a pan and stir. Cook on med-low heat. The mixture will form into a ball after about 3-5 min. Cool and store in a sealed container or a ziploc bag.

Blessed

2011-10-17T23:07:00.000-07:00

I took the kids to the vegetable store today- at 5:00pm- to get some celery that I needed for the cornbread stuffing I was making for dinner. Once there, I couldn't resist those happy orange pumpkins, so I told the kids they could each choose a small sugar pumpkin. They were delighted.

Each pumpkin cost me a little more than a dollar and the kids were over the moon about them.

Isaias, in awe: "I've never gotten to choose my own pumpkin before!" In fact, he has. He just doesn't remember. And usually we have pumpkins growing in our garden, so we don't always buy them. But not this year.

Shortly after I took this picture, I handed out Sharpie markers and they drew faces (and scribbles) on their pumpkins.

I look at this picture and I feel so, so blessed to be mother to these five. I love them so much and I truly just delight in who they are and who they are becoming. I see God's faithful hand leading me as their mama and I am so thankful for His provision and for the ways He answers prayers in my life and in theirs.

I think about how Isaias prayed tonight at the table: "God, I thank You that daddy and mommy know about Jesus so that they can teach me about Jesus" and his earlier comment about how he's glad we adopted him so that he didn't have to stay in the orphanage and so that he could have the joy of playing with Adelia and Audra and be trained and taught about Jesus.

I think about how when Mark came home from work, the kids all shrieked and ran over to him to tell him about their pumpkins and that when he came in, Audra clung to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.

I think about how Ella has posted a song sheet by the washer and dryer- so that when she does her laundry chore she can sing songs of praise. I heard her today, joyfully singing as she worked.

I think of my hard-working husband who comes home each night to us.

I think about how we all remained at the table after dinner for family worship and then we prayed together and how much I love that.

I think of all these little moments that string together to make our days and how each one is a gift from God, and I am so thankful.

{Thank you, Lord!}

Octobers

2011-10-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

"Oh, Marilla," Anne exclaimed one Saturday morning, coming dancing in with her arms full of gorgeous boughs, "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn't it? Look at these maple branches. Don't they give you a thrill-- several thrills? I'm going to decorate my room with them."

* * *

{Things I like in October}

-apples, especially honeycrisp

-clean, brisk air

-huge maple leaves

-crunchy leaves to step on while walking

-pumpkin-y candles

-chex mix

-living in a neighborhood with trees all around us

-the colors of the trees: reds, yellows, oranges, browns, and fading greens

-leaves falling into our yard

-the return of socks and slippers

-knitting

-lotion

-boots

-cozy hats

-blustery days

-butternut squash

-pumpkins on porches

-wearing these shoes again

-sweaters

-soup

-homemade bread (which I have yet to make, but I have every intention to do so, and soon.)

-snickerdoodles

-pumpkin-y baked goodness (breads, cookies, scones, cakes)

-chestnuts

-scarves
-how pretty the grass looks with the colored leaves on it
-1000-piece puzzles

(#'s 1679- 1705, One Thousand Gifts)

What would make your list?

{this moment}

2011-10-14T08:47:00.000-07:00

linking this week's moment to Soule Mama

The Four Stages

2011-10-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

I've decided there are four stages* of communicating with your spouse when you have children:

Stage 1: You talk often and freely, because your children are so young, they can't understand a thing you're saying anyway.

Stage 2: You talk a little less often, because now your children are in the chattering stage. Sometimes you speak in code: you omit names and you wish your husband was better at reading your lips across the room, but it's hopeless: he cannot do such a thing. (Every time you try, he looks at you like you're speaking Russian.)

Stage 3: You talk, yes- but every third word you spell. So you have to be a good speller for this stage. And you have to be a quick study to be able to decipher which word is being spelled. Also, in this stage, you learn the trick of doing any serious talking while driving in the van: with the music turned up just enough so that your kids in the back can't hear what you're saying.

Stage 4: Talk to your husband?! What is that? Because there are all these other little people talking or interrupting CONSTANTLY. You can't even think, let alone have a conversation.

We're in Stage 4. What stage are you in? (And do let me know if I've missed any stages you happen to be all too familiar with.)

Don't worry. It's not as desperate as it sounds. I'll post soon on how and what we're doing to survive this stage. ;)

*So far. I'm sure there are many glorious stages to come in the years ahead!

How God is Filling our Africa Jar

2011-10-09T23:37:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I was talking to my kids about a book I was reading and we also talked about the famine in Africa right now. My generous Ella (9) suggested we begin saving money in a jar for Africa. (You can read that post here if you missed it.)

Ella decorated the jar and we have been adding money ever since. I've been excited to tell you how God has worked in our family to fill our little jar! Right away two of our kids nearly emptied their piggy banks into the jar. I worried a bit initially about how our Africa fund would grow. (It's not like our kids get money on a regular basis. They get some on their birthdays from great-grandparents and that's it- and birthdays were still months away at that point.)

I rarely have cash on hand and felt bad that I wasn't adding to our jar, too. Then God reminded me of this: Every single time I go to the grocery store, I use my debit card. And every time I do that, there's a prompt that asks if I want cash back. So I started pressing "YES" and began adding more money to our jar. (I will often hand that money to Ella to add to the jar-- she gets so much joy from doing so.)

Then there's Mark's story. He agreed to write it out for you: "For those of you who don't know, I am a mail carrier, walking from door to door. Whenever I find coins or a dollar on the sidewalk or in the street, I pocket the money. (And I usually leave it in my shorts pocket as a reward to our laundry washer, Ella.) When we started our Africa jar, I decided to put any money I found on my route into the jar. Recently, I was out on my route and saw a $20 bill lying on the sidewalk. I was thrilled, because I never find so much; it's usually just change. I've found a $5 bill once or twice in over ten years of delivering the mail, but $20 -- unheard of. I pocketed it and then set it on top of the fridge when I came home that night, thinking briefly about putting it in the jar, but selfishly not doing so. I left it there for a week, every now and then wondering what I could treat myself to with this unexpected cash. I mean, it was something extra, outside of our budget... was there a CD I'd been pining after or ...? Then one night before going to bed, I saw the money on top of the fridge and God reminded me that I had committed to giving 'whatever I found' to the Africa jar. Not only did He remind me of my commitment, but He also squelched my selfish resistance by saying, "Trust me on this. I'll take care of your needs; so just put the money in the jar and watch what I do." I promptly dropped the money in the jar. The very next afternoon, I was back on my route and as I stepped from my truck to go into a business, I was shocked to see another $20 bill in the street! I probably had a pretty silly grin on my face for the rest of the day, amused and amazed at how quickly and specifically God responded. The first thing I did when I got home that night is to have Stacy drop that $20 into the jar."

[Stacy here again.] Isn't that great?! ;) I love that story. The kids said they're going to start praying that daddy will find hundred-dollar bills from here on out. :)

We've decided as a family that we are going to give our jar money to Make Way Partners. The president of Make Way Partners, Kimberly Smith, is the woman who authored the book Passport Through Darkness (linked to earlier in the post. You can read about their ministry here if you are interested in learning more.) Recently I read on Kimberly's blog that their annual orphan-food-purchase quote is a staggering half-million U.S. dollars. (Two years ago they paid about $90k. Last year the price was $150k). This year, the drought has made the food prices escalate. Our contribution is a very tiny part of what they need, but we're praying that God will use it and multiply it and we are so grateful that we are able to give even that small part.

I want to add, here- before I finish this post- that I hesitated to even write this. I don't want it to seem at all like I'm "tooting our own horn" by sharing about this. And I am mindful of the verse in Matthew that talks about giving in secret. I earnestly hope and pray that God is glorified through this. My motivation for writing this here is twofold: 1) Maybe you will be encouraged to start a giving jar with your kids and 2) Perhaps someone reading this would be encouraged to give to Make Way Partners or another such organization. (Or maybe you can just start praying with us that Mark will find a stash of cash on his route! ;))

Thoughts on planning meals

2011-10-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

I forgot how simple making dinner was each night if I just have a plan. It's not like this is an entirely new concept to me. I did it this way for years, but these past couple years it's been more of a struggle. The girls were more demanding of my time during that dinner-making hour (and- let's face it- all the other hours, too! ;)), so meal-planning become more sporadic. I cooked, and we ate- but meals were thrown together, last-minute, and we were relying more-than-usual on others (hello Papa Murphy's, Trader Joes, and take-out Thai food!) to make our food for us. ;)

Also, summertime is always a little more challenging for me to think up meals, so autumn is a good time to get reorganized.

Just writing it down and posting it where I can see it throughout the day is enough. That posted plan serves as a reminder to me. My children, too, will see it and say, "Oh! We're having _________ for dinner tonight?" And I think, Oh yeah. I should take that meat out right now while I'm thinking about it.

I'm three weeks into this new system and I'm thankful. Thankful for the food God provides, thankful that I am able to cook for my family (and enjoy it so much), thankful that I can bless Mark by having a hot meal ready(ish) for him when he comes home from work.

Here's what my list looked like this week:

Monday | Tortellini -from Costco, we add pesto & parmesan cheese. (I was gone, Mark did dinner.)
Tuesday | Chicken fried rice, sliced apples and almond butter, greek salad (peppers, sundried tomatoes, cucumbers, some greek yogurt, lemon juice, and feta cheese)
Wednesday | Butternut Squash & White Bean soup, cornbread
Thursday | Shipwreck Casserole
Friday | Italian Chicken Soup (Pioneer Woman), a side that I will come up with when inspiration hits
Saturday | Breakfast (my list says: waffles? sausage? omelettes? yogurt biscuits?)
Sunday | Pot roast with carrots and potatoes

My goal is to start posting either our meal plan or a recipe once a week. I really enjoy seeing other peoples' meal plans or links to recipes, as it helps me get fresh ideas.

I hope you all have a great day!

Current read-alouds

2011-10-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

Mark has been reading Little Britches to us in the evenings, and we're all *really* enjoying it.

Here is a portion of what we read tonight:
But first: The background to this excerpt is that the narrator, Ralph, a boy of eight~ has lied to his mother. When she finds out, she makes him stand with his face in the corner and wait-- missing supper-- until his father comes home. His mother briefly fills his father in on the situation, and then this:

When he spoke, his voice was deep and dry, and I knew he must have been coughing a lot on the way home. "Son, there is no question but what the thing you have done today deserves severe punishment. You might have killed yourself or the horse, but much worse than that, you have injured your own character. A man's character is like his house. If he tears boards off his house and burns them to keep himself warm and comfortable, his house soon becomes a ruin. If he tells lies to be able to do the things he shouldn't do but wants to, his character will soon become a ruin. A man with a ruined character is a shame on the face of the earth."

I loved that illustration about the house, and I intend to use that in the future.

For the past few weeks I have been reading the.most.annoying.book.on.the.planet. I know. I thought this one took the cake. But oh no. This is far, far worse. Surely you've heard of it: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland? Oh my goodness gracious, it's no wonder I never read this as a child. Do not ever read it. Trust me. It's just... odd. All of it. For some reason the kids want me to finish it, though I can barely stand to. But I think we're now two chapters away from being done with it so I will.

In the meantime I've also begun reading this to them

...because it's my all-time favorite book and I used to want to be Anne in the worst way. I wanted to be Anne Shirley even more than I wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder, and that's saying a lot. (And- truly: who doesn't want a Matthew Cuthbert in their life?) So ~*happy sigh*~ that is making up for the insufferable Lewis Carroll book. (My apologies to anyone who adores that book. I simply do not.)

What are you reading these days?

Good link

2011-09-28T12:34:00.000-07:00

The Global God Who Gives the Great Commission is an excellent message from Louie Giglio, from the 2011 Desiring God conference. If you've not heard Louie speak, you should. Mark and I watched/listened to it last night while we worked on a puzzle. Compelling. (The truths he shared, not our puzzle.)

Choose this instead of that TV show you were planning on watching. It's far more important.

Sample reading lesson: First Grade

2011-09-26T13:03:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I think that because of all the planning and scheduling I do, people probably think that we do a LOT of school. We don't, really. We do short lessons for each subject- 10-20 minutes- and it's my goal to be finished by noon. (Of course, today it's 12:35 and Ella is still working on her Math... so there are exceptions, but that's the goal, and we usually achieve this goal.)

So, today I thought I'd give you an example of how simple our schooling really is. :)

Each Monday I give Isaias (6) a reading lesson- which is not to say that he doesn't practice reading on other days of the week- it just means that on Mondays we have uninterrupted time- just the two of us- to work on his reading.

This is what we did today:

We got all cozy under a blanket and he read a BOB book to me. Up, Pup is what he read, and it has sentences like Bud was Pug's pup and Bet sat on Bob in it. (And as he was reading, I was thinking that reading teachers or kindergarden teachers or first grade teachers or whenever and whoever has this as their job in public school-- (See? I'm so out of touch I don't even KNOW anymore!) have a difficult job, because listening to beginning readers stumbling over words all day long might make me pull my hair out.)

You'll be happy to know that I did not pull my hair out because I only have one beginning reader and I can handle that. As he read the book, I could tell that he was struggling with a few things:

*occasionally he would use the short e sound (e as in elephant) instead of the u sound
*he was mixing up the uppercase B's and P's-- sometimes he was using the B-sound for the P, and vice versa
*he was mixing up his lowercase b's and d's- as ALL of my kids have done- (and no. I have no tricks. I've tried everything. They just get those two mixed up and eventually learn.)

So we read the book again, and he did much better the second time around, and he was quite pleased with his success- that second time through he was a whiz!- and he knew it.

Then I got out my binder, in which I have several pages of short-vowel sound words (three and four letters long):

I pointed to each "u" word on the right hand side and he read those- easily, this time.

Then we talked about lowercase b's and d's and I pointed some of them out on another page of words, and then I asked him to make the "b" sound each time I pointed to a b, and he did. I pointed to about 5-6 b's. Then we did the same thing with d's.

I said "Great job!" and we were done. Reading lesson over. (Next week we'll do something else entirely, but that was it for today.) It took about 20 minutes and we were done. Then he scurried off to do some table work- Explode the Code and copywork- and then he was done for the day. (We'd already read an excerpt from our history book at the breakfast table and had done Bible and memory work, too.) See? Easy, peasy.

Meal plan printables

2011-09-24T11:22:00.000-07:00

When I had the idea recently to post our dinner plans on the fridge, the first thing I did was Google "printable meal plans".

Here are a couple I found that I thought were cute, if you're interested. They're free, and easy to download and print!

*
Meal Planning Form
There are two options here from The Project Girl. I like them both. The first one covers breakfasts, lunches, and dinners and has room to list ingredients bottom of the form if you want to do your planning/grocery list all on one page. The second one is also cute- the meal section isn't divided up for breakfast/lunch/dinner, and the shopping list remains.

This Week For Dinner
This one from Thirty Handmade Days is for dinners only- in two options: bright or pastel.

*

Very cute, both of those. I wanted dinners only, so I didn't choose the first one, and as for the second option: my printer does black and white right now because I'm too cheap to buy color cartridges. So I quickly made my own, inspired by hers.

Oh, and I'm happy to share my Very Basic Meal Plan Form if you want simple, and your printer also prefers black and white. Let me know if you'd like me to email it to you.

"Classroom Rules"

2011-09-22T12:17:00.000-07:00

Recently Kendra shared about a book she's using in Circle Time this year called The Essential 55. The book outlines the classroom rules of teacher Ron Clark.

I checked it out at our library, and jotted down some of the rules that I would like to discuss with the kids over the next few months. At the outset, many of these seem pretty obvious: the "rules" are simply guidelines for common courtesy-- but my kids definitely benefit from having these explained to them, and I like to do a little role-playing, too- and try to give them examples of how they could be courteous in their everyday interactions with others.

I've tweaked the wording of some of the rules a bit, and combined a couple, but here are the rules we covered this morning:

1. When responding to an adult, answer by saying either "Yes, please", "No thank you" or "Yes, Mr. Smith" or "No, Mrs. Johnson". (He requires his students to say Yes, ma'am and No, sir, but that has always felt a bit awkward to me, so we're sticking with Mr. and Mrs. and pleases and thank you's.)

2. Make eye contact. When someone is speaking, keep your eyes on him or her at all times. If someone makes a comment, turn and face that person. (I find this one is difficult even for me! I am so in the habit of counting my children or keeping my eye on them when I'm talking to someone, that even when the kids are *not* with me, I always seem to be looking around when I speak.)

3. If someone wins a game or does something well, congratulate that person. Say "Great job!", clap or show enthusiasm for their good work. Do not get angry or cry because you lost. Conversely, if YOU win the game or do well at something, do not brag.

4. When you are asked a question in conversation, you should ask a question in return. It is only polite to show that you are just as interested in them as they are in you.

Surely this will help me in the meal-planning department

2011-09-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

...right?

A new sheet taped up on the fridge

+ some of my favorite pens to write down meal ideas with...

= a good plan, at least.

(I'll let you know if the list inspires or gets ignored.)

Scenes from life with my seven-year-old boy

2011-09-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

"Isaac, time to clean up!" (I said while passing through the room after quiet time.)

Five minutes later, I rounded the corner to find this:

"Uh.... bud? Is this 'cleaning up'?"

Isaac: "Yep. I'm lining them up and then they're all going to jump in the bin."

Ten minutes later, the guys were still not in the bin.

me: "What's up, budders? Seriously. You need to get this cleaned up."

Isaac: "They've just got to be armed before they can go in the bin." (as he affixes helmets, shields and swords to each of his men.)

me: "Why do they have to be armed before they can go in?"

Isaac: "Because the dragon went in first, and they'll need to be able to fight him."

My independent two-year-old

2011-09-14T18:00:00.000-07:00

My beautiful Audra (2)

Audra is a gem. She delights all of us, every single day. She is so articulate and says the cutest things. She is constantly encouraging and complimenting, and is just so sweet and expressive. The other morning she saw me and said, "Mommy, I love yours pony tail!" Recently we got a new screen door and almost every time we go outside, she says: "I love our new screen door!" Or "I love those pretty flowers." She adores her brothers and sisters, and is often doling out hugs and kisses. She's such a little sweetheart.

She's got this other thing going on, though- where she wants to do everything all by herself, without any help from anyone. (You'd think after five children I would have remembered this stage, but I had entirely forgotten it, and how frustrating it can be. These past couple of months I feel like I've been in a training intensive for how to handle this stage. I'm slowly learning.) I am all for letting her be independent and try to do things by herself, but the challenge lies in the fact that she wants to do things that she is simply not able to physically do.

Yesterday the older kids were all heading outside to play, and decided at the last minute to don some coats and jackets (even though it was quite warm) because they were going to be firefighters. Well, Audra decided that she wanted to go out, too. Unfortunately, she had noticed everyone bundling up, so she wanted to get a coat on, too. I knew where this was headed, so I tried to convince her that it was warm and she didn't need a coat, but she would hear nothing of it.

I was making dinner as she attempted first one sweatshirt, than another, than a coat, then Ella's sweatshirt, than Adelia's coat, and so on. I kept watch from the kitchen where I was making dinner. Each time I looked in on her, she was determinedly trying to force her little arm into the scrunched up and inside-out sleeve, or she had the sweatshirt on but upside down, with the little hood hanging down by her bum, or one arm in but unable to twist her body around to reach the other dangling arm of the sweatshirt or coat. I offered, casually and from a distance, once or twice: "Honey? Do you want mama to come and help you?" To which she stoutly replied, "NO!"

She was quiet and determined for the first 15-20 minutes, but then she began to get really frustrated because she simply could not do it all by herself, although she desperately wanted to do so.

Then she started crying and throwing sweatshirts on the floor in frustration and so I tried to gingerly approach and offer assistance, again- to which she shouted: "No! I don't want you to help me! I want to do it. I'm doing it." Mmmhmmm. I have been learning that if I wait it out, continuing to gently offer help or assistance-- from afar-- and then leave her to herself, she will eventually let me help her. She may not ASK me to help her, but she will eventually give in and recognize that she needs it. But for the most part, I try not to intervene but to observe silently and wait for my moment, and then tread carefully.

So... yesterday, finally- after almost 40 minutes of her standing by our front door, sweatshirts and coats of all sizes and colors crumpled around her feet- she had one arm partway into a sweatshirt and was exasperated to the point that she accepted my request for help. My goal at that moment was to do as little as I could, all the while encouraging her that she was indeed doing it! So I said things like, "Oh, this is tricky, Audra. It's inside out! Mommy is just going to turn these sleeves right-side-out for you and then you can do it.... there you go. I'm just going to hold it up so that you can get your arm in there by yourself. Good job! You did it!... Now, oh- zippers are hard, honey, aren't they? How about if I hold one side and you can hold the other and I'll show you how you can zip it up? Good job, honey. I'm just going to help you get it in there... good! You did it! Do you want to zip it all the way up, all by yourself? Good job! You did it!"

And then she goes on her merry way, feeling like she did it all by herself. That extra patience and understanding on my part goes a long way in avoiding complete meltdowns by one or both of us. :) The other- and more important- thing I've been doing is praying for her in this frustrating little season of wanting so much to be grown up and doing all of these grown-up tasks all by herself- but struggling so much to actually accomplish them.

{ a p p l e s a u c e }

2011-09-13T22:04:00.000-07:00

We made applesauce today. Last week I purchased three 25lb boxes of apples and those boxes have been sitting on my kitchen floor, just waiting for me to give them the time of day. (Until today, the only attention I'd given them was to shove those boxes over so that I could open my bottom cupboards and then shove them right back.)

On my list after we finished school today was this: "Make applesauce". I knew I would have a helper in Ella. She has been so anxious to start peeling those apples! I even bought her her very own peeler this year.

Imagine my delight when I received this email from my mom this morning:

If you need help with making applesauce, give me a call okay? "Many hands make light work!" It could be like the old days when the generations gathered in the kitchen to work together. (:

I know (!) (How much do you love her?!)

So Ella called her and told her we were starting and she showed up 30 minutes later. She's a whiz, too. Hand that woman a paring knife and she goes like there's no tomorrow. ;) We made it through 2 full boxes in about an hour and a half.

We made a lot of applesauce. Isaac was my taste-tester, and kept thinking I should add just a tiny bit more sugar (!) Audra kept asking for slices of apples while she built a castle with Isaac's MathUSee blocks. Adelia asked for so many apple slices I finally handed her a gigantic apple and sent her outside. Isaias perked up at that so I offered him one, too.

These (and many more that you don't see pictured) were placed in our freezer tonight, alongside our rhubarb sauce and the endless jars of strawberry jam.

Chore chart, 2011

2011-09-07T11:54:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo of our current chore chart, which is hanging on the fridge:

Sorry it's not the clearest picture. If you click on it, it should enlarge.

The key to assigning new chores is to do it BEFORE school starts: to get all the kinks worked out for a couple of weeks and get into a good rhythm before school. We did that this year and it really helped.

We've started Adelia (3 1/2) with some chores of her own this year. She's supposed to clear the table and wipe it with a rag, which happens about 40% of the time. She usually forgets or quits it halfway through. She really wanted to have some jobs to do all by herself, so I tried to oblige~ but... now I'm wondering if maybe I should have buddied her up with one of the other kids. Oh well. Maybe she'll grow into it. Audra is tagging along with Ella on Ella's laundry chore, and that is working well.

One thing I have learned (and it took me a good while to learn this) is that 3, 4 and 5-year-olds do work befitting a 3, 4 or 5-year-old. I used to have *much* higher expectations for their work (my poor older children!), but I have learned to lower those expectations. When Adelia does clear the table, I give her lots of hoorays and smiles and tell her what a great job she did. When she doesn't, I do it. When Adelia wipes the table, I wait until she scurries out of the kitchen and then I go along behind her and do a more thorough job of it. There is a time for training kids to do chores the way you want them done, and I'm all for that, but... not when they're so young.

For the most part our kids' chores stayed the same. I did ask them for suggestions/preferences before I made the chore chart. They expressed that they like working together on things, like the living room, so we kept that the same. Ella also wanted a partner for laundry because she gets lonely, so that's why I assigned Audra to her. Isaac wanted to keep sweeping but I could tell he'd rather not keep clearing/wiping (hence: Adelia), so I plugged him in for collecting and cleaning the eggs and helping with the dishwasher. Isaias is still doing the garbages. He wanted to be Ella's partner for laundry but I knew that combo wouldn't fly (they'd goof around too much) so we nixed that idea.

We've been at it for a little over a month and it all seems to be going well!

Recap of our first day

2011-09-01T17:51:00.000-07:00

Or rather: Recap of our first week.

{an especially squinty Audra}

It's actually been a great week. I am really glad to be so organized this year, because that has made things go more smoothly. I'm satisfied with how much we're getting accomplished each day, and am relieved that I didn't overshoot it. (I didn't plan too much.)

Things went pretty much according to my plan here, except that so far the girls have played (fairly) quietly during our reading time for History and so they've stayed with us and I've postponed their video time a bit later during our table time.

The only thing I may be unprepared for is how fast they're going through the books to read on their Assigned reading shelves. (I selected several books for both Isaac and Ella over the summer that I wanted them to read throughout this school year, and I think they've read three books each. This week. Nice.) I mean, I'm really thankful they're such avid readers, but I was sort of hoping those books would last them a little longer!

The dishes sit while we do school and the house is more cluttered. The little girls have been in pajamas all day long this entire week, and I am exhausted by the end of the day. But we're good. We're reading and learning and relating and praying and singing and in each others way and by the grace of God, I'm handling those (many) interruptions well and we're all loving it. Truly. Is there anything better than being with these dear children every day? I love them so much. I feel so incredibly blessed.

"Snapshots" from the week that stand out in my mind:

*Isaac snuggled up to Adelia on the couch with a stack of picture books- reading aloud to her during their buddy time.

*Ella's first dication lesson: complete with tears at the start, but by the end of it? "I really love this, mommy! This is fun! Can we do this every day?"

*Pointing to a blank US map and quizzing them on states and capitals. They SO know more than I do.

*Isaac announcing how much he loves math and he wants to order the next book.

*Daily readings from this book:

(You know how sometimes you just find the perfect book for your kids' ages and imaginations at that particular time? This is it. They are so captivated by this story, all of them- and it's been really fun to read aloud.)

*Audra's new term: "Pocka does" (otherwise known as "polka dots"), and how many times a day she says it. Apparently she loves pocka does right now. And I love her.

*Adelia's desire to be apart of every.single.thing.we.do- including asking all sorts of seemingly studious questions about our picture study piece. Love that lively girl.

*Lessons on my bed with Ella, then Isaac~ for one-on-one English time, and Ella's cheery, "I'll bet most girls don't get to snuggle up all cozy on their mommy's bed to do English!"

*Reading lessons at the table with Isaias, and how delighted he was when he read a whole sentence!

I am blessed. So blessed.

The flow of our day

2011-08-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

Okay: here's the order of our day as planned. This is all subject to change if it all falls apart and I realize this will not work at all. *grin*

-"3 things" Each of the kids is responsible to accomplish their "3 things" before they come to the table for breakfast: 1.Make your bed 2.Get dressed 3. Brush your teeth. We've been working on this habit this summer, and it's gone well. (Note: this is optional for the 2 little girls. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. But for my school-aged kids (because they can do it by themself!) it's mandatory.

-breakfast @ 8:30

-Bible, memory work, Composer/Picture study (@ table; 20-30 min)

-chores (20 minutes)

-History (in living room) I read aloud, the kids can play quietly (as long as they're listening!) This will likely be the time when I put a video on for the little girls. (Because yes, I am planning on a half-hour video being a part of their daily schedule.) (20-30 min)

-individual times for English with mommy (one child per day). The others will pair up as buddies during this time (20 min)

-Copywork, Math, Phonics (@ table) This is where the kids do their individual work. These are short lessons: about 10 minutes for each subject. When they are finished, they head outside to play until lunchtime. Math is usually a bit longer, and sometimes Ella will opt to break and play and then finish up her math on her quiet time.

-lunch (@ 12 or 12:30)

-chores (20 min)

-naps/quiet times (2 hours)

-Assigned reading/literature, Narrations, Handicrafts to be done throughout the rest of the day. The kids will likely read during their quiet time, narrations usually occur at a mealtime, so if we didn't get to them at lunch we'll do them over dinner, and handicrafts {for Ella: embroidery, knitting, friendship bracelets, whatever craft she's into!} will likely happen while Mark reads aloud in the evenings. {Hooray for cozy, candlelit autumn evenings of knitting with my girl while Mark reads aloud!}

Approaching our first day of school with a right spirit

2011-08-29T05:25:00.000-07:00

Today is our first day of school. I'm in a good place right now, but I wasn't just two short days ago, and that's what I'm going to tell you about.

On Saturday Adelia was her wondrous, lively, *challenging* self. That girl. She is... three and so stubborn and willfull and passionate and defiant and just so very loud about it all. :) I love her so much and I know God has great plans for her life and all of that passion and I'm trusting Him to shape her and mold her for His purposes. But some days are just plain exhausting, aren't they? Being a mama? My goodness!

my beautiful girl in a (rare) moment of stillness: at the zoo, holding a small bird

Anyway... so on Saturday she was in full defiant mode and by lunchtime we'd had two major sessions of disobedience (and a few minor ones, too) and I went from fighting back tears to a full-fledged sob session over all of it. What it all kept coming back to in my fit of tears was: HOW AM I GOING TO DO THIS?! ("this" meaning: start school on Monday). How does this kind of a morning fit into a school day? How can I be a diligent mama in training my little girl and be an attentive mama with my school-aged kids? Sigh.

Thankfully, once the girls were down I crept into my room for some daily peace and quiet, and resumed my Bible reading. I was in Psalm 99 and began journaling as I read:
The Lord reigns. Great is the Lord. Exalt him and worship him. He is holy. I was instantly reminded to take my eyes off myself and refocus them on God. So I did. I kept writing and just focused on His greatness.

Then I kept reading: "Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel was among those who called on his name; they called on the Lord and he answered them. He spoke to them..."

And God reminded me that He hears when I call upon His Name. He hears and He answers. So I called Him right on up ;) -- scribbling out prayers in my journal about all that I felt overwhelmed about. And He reminded me then of two verses-- one in Matthew where it says "do not worry about tomorrow" and another, in Philippians, I think, that says "do not be anxious about anything but in everything, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." (or something. I'm paraphrasing, I'm sure.) So I asked Him to help me not to worry and to just do the *next thing*; that thing right in front of me right now, and to do it well and to trust Him for the rest of it; the stuff that comes next. I trust that He will not give me more than I can bear and that He is with me, leading me and guiding me. I asked for wisdom and strength. I specifically prayed for my girl; that God would teach her self-control and that He would help ME correct with wisdom and gentleness and in kindness.

I am so thankful for God's word and how instructive it is. I was reminded that day- in just a few short verses- of the truth. I needed to take my eyes off of myself and the circumstances of how impossible things seemed today. I needed to refocus my heart and mind toward thankfulness and praise (the Psalms are so great for this!) and I needed to be reminded not to be anxious, but to call on God and trust in Him to answer. It just righted my whole attitude, that time with Jesus. I know it will be challenging, this day. But I know He is good and He is with me and I trust Him with all of it.

Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 100:3-5

Amen. Here's to a great first day!
I'll post tomorrow on the flow of our day, (and, ahem- quite possibly how well that didn't work for us!) and will follow in the days to come with our chore chart and all the things Michelle requested. ;)

Love to you all...

Canning

2011-08-27T11:58:00.000-07:00

first pickings from our garden~ and purple beans!

Canning reminds me first of my grandma. She canned beans, peaches, pears and tomatoes. Maybe more, but that is what I remember. My mom used to take us out to grandma and grandpa's house when it was bean-picking time. They had a huge garden, and there was always extra for anyone who wanted some. I don't remember the picking part of it. I must have played with my cousins while my aunts and mom and grandma picked-- but I do remember sitting with bags full of beans in my grandma's yard, down on the grass near that big old apple tree, snipping the ends off of those beans, or snapping them in halves or in thirds. I remember that part. I remember the chatter of my grandma and mom and all of us working together toward a common goal.

my wonderful helpers!

In later years I remember our home: the laundry room full of ripening fruit; all laid out carefully on newspaper on the floor. I remember our kitchen all a bustle as my mom canned the same things her mother had canned. I remember how excited she would get-- we would all get-- when those jars sealed.

So it's tradition, why I do what I do. It's why we have a garden and it's why we preserve. And I've come to appreciate it so much. It is truly satisfying to plant a garden from seed, tend it and watch it grow, and then harvest it and eat from that garden throughout the year. We nowhere near put up enough food to last us through the fall and winter months. Maybe someday, but for the time being that's not our goal. But it is important to me to keep that tradition of my mom and my grandma, to be good stewards of the land God has given to us- even in our own back yard, to teach my children to garden and preserve food, and to take advantage of the opportunity to work alongside one another toward a common goal.


the beans we canned last night- Mark and I sat in the kitchen and waited until we heard the last jar seal

Our lesson plan: {sample page}

2011-08-23T16:20:00.000-07:00

Someone asked to see my lesson plan, so here is a sample of one of our weekly plans:

[I truly hope you can see that. It took me about 30 minutes to even figure out how to add that onto the blog!]

Let's see if any explanation is required on this:

*This is week 8 of our 36-week schedule. Basically, I just took a thorough look at each of the kids' books ahead of time, and divvied up the lessons I wanted to cover over the 36 weeks we'll be doing school.

*The symbols represent each of the school-aged kids- it was just easier and took less space this way. [Ella is the flower; Isaac, the star; and Isaias, the diamond-thing.] Anything that does not have a symbol is something we all do together.

*The reason I chose this format is simply because my goal was to get each week onto one page. (Success!)

*This is a really full week of school for us. Most weeks Mark has a day off, and on those days the only school subjects we tackle are Nature Study and English (he wanted to continue the kids' one-on-one English time and have the opportunity to do it with them.) So, usually we truly only have a 4-day school week with Saturdays being the "catch-up" day.

I don't think having everything planned out so completely is necessary for every homeschooling family. But it helps ME; and it has benefitted our family. I have found that the more organized I am upfront, there's less of the frenzied decision-making I have to do throughout our days-- (Ella sitting at the table waiting for me to tell her what she's supposed to do next, but I'm changing a diaper and then I have to deal with a correction issue and aack!... there Ella (or Isaac or Isaias) sits, waiting on me.) This solves that connundrum for us. Our weekly schedule will be available for the kids to see and they will know what needs to be accomplished that day and will be able to roll with our school schedule if I'm not available at any given moment because I'm tending to the little girls.

It's also helpful in that I know that planning it all out this way means that we will get through all that I want to get through in our school year. Instead of the other alternative- one I'm all too familiar with- of... getting to the end of the year but only being 1/3 of the way through a book! ;)

If you have any questions about anything you see on the schedule, feel free to ask in the comments and I'll respond. :)

In addition to this schedule, I have a chore chart posted up on the fridge for the kids, a "master binder" for the year, and an "order/flow of our school day" listed for my own brain that I'll consult for the first couple of weeks until we get into a good routine and it's second-nature to me and I won't need the list anymore. :) If anyone is interested in seeing any of those things, let me know and I'll post pictures or the list.

Thoughts on the start of a new school year

2011-08-21T15:09:00.000-07:00

In just one more week we'll start school again at our house. We are all very much looking forward to it! So much careful planning has gone into selecting books, choosing curriculum and creating lessons, but really all of that takes a back seat to what is forefront on my mind as we enter this school year.

Academics are always second to our main goal of guiding our kids to love God and to love their neighbor. That's what we really care about around here. And so we read the Bible every day and we talk about what we've read. We memorize verses together-- because what we learn about God fuels our worship of Him. We pray together and we point out things He has made or what He has done and we get excited about those things together. We talk about things we have read or seen or heard and we pull those things into the context of what He says about them; what He would call us to do in that situation as followers of Jesus.

The second part of that verse~ that part about loving your neighbor? That begins right here, too. God has given us a rich environment to learn how to love our neighbor because we've got a lot of neighbors (we call them siblings ;)) right here under one roof! Each of us- Mark and I included- have unique personalities, preferences, quirks, and sins that make life full of opportunities for growth in loving your neighbor.

Proverbs 16:9 says "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."

I want that verse to be on the forefront of my mind in the days and months ahead. While I have planned our course for the year, it is the Lord who will determine our steps. I want to hold my own plans loosely and be willing to adapt to the ways in which He will guide our steps each day.

This is a constant struggle for me. I always have a plan and I want to move on it, and now! Perhaps a plan of mine is that I would like to move from the breakfast table and begin chores at such-and-such-a-time, but then that plan is interrupted by one of the kids doing something or saying something that I have to do something about. Honestly, my initial response is usually grumpiness. (While I don't always verbalize it this way, my thoughts might be: This isn't the plan! This interruption isn't accommodating my timeline or my list of things to accomplish right now. If we don't get this done right now, we'll be behind in our next task!)

I want to enter this year with eyes to see those "interruptions" as God determining our steps and our course of study. He knows exactly what we all need and how we might best grow, and I trust Him to do it. In the example above of getting-interrupted-during-our-transition-from-breakfast-to-chores, I need to trust that He has something far more important to accomplish in that moment than what was on my schedule. Maybe what He wants in that moment is my obedience to Him in a right response of gentleness, patience and self-control. Maybe what He wants is time taken for an expression of love and/or forgiveness in a sibling relationship.

My prayer is that I would rest in His sovereign purposes-- being completed in me and in our home, in the lives of our kids-- *through* the interruptions, the distractions, the messes. I want to embrace the opportunities He brings to stop and close my planner- so to speak- in order to correct or nurture or explain or take time for a much-needed hug or a conversation or simply to stop and rest in the delight of that moment, to be silly and laugh together a little longer or to take time to carefully and diligently discipline, rather than reacting in anger or impatience.

Anyone want to join me in this goal? ;)

Rhubarb Sauce

2011-08-19T13:52:00.000-07:00

Some people complain about having too much zucchini in their garden. I used to, too, until we stopped growing it. (There are only so many uses for zucchini, people.)

What I've got a lot of is rhubarb. It positively thrives in our garden. I peeked inside there this morning and I swear those stalks are tree-like in nature: very tall and sturdy!

I knew that I needed to harvest it, and soon. Last year I tried to freeze pieces of rhubarb and then use it throughout the year in crisps/pies, but I wasn't happy with the consistency (kind of squeaky/rubbery... ew). So... this morning I decided to use up that rhubarb in the form of sauce!

Rhubarb Sauce

~Wash stalks and cut into chunks. (8-10 cups worth)
~Heat 1 cup of sugar* and 1/2 cup water to boiling, stir to dissolve sugar
~Add rhubarb
~Simmer 10 min. or until rhubarb is tender
~Cool
~Puree (my kids don't like chunks)

~Freeze
*you can add more sugar if you want it sweeter

I expected it to be a little jam-like... but it reminded me so much more of applesauce! My kids all had a bowl-full for lunch and I plan to thaw it and serve it up throughout the year as I would applesauce, or use it for muffins or as a sauce over pancakes or waffles or ice cream. Yum!

Hair Day: Photos

2011-08-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some recent photos from our most recent Hair day, which is a day in which all we do is wash and style Adelia's hair. ;) Adelia loves Hair day because she gets to watch lots of videos and eat lots of snacks, and basically gets waited on all day long by her siblings: they bring snacks, drinks, and movies upon her request.

The first thing I did was give her a bath and condition her previous style: which was mostly braids (with a few cornrows along the front). I got her hair all wet and we lathered conditioner on it, rinsed some of it out, and then towel-dried it. Then I sat on our bed with the little girls and they watched a movie while I started taking the braids out. Ella joined me a bit later, and she worked one side while I worked the other side.

After our morning sessions (30 minutes on my bed, another hour on the couch), the kids all played outside, we had lunch, Adelia napped, and then we resumed braid-removal after she woke up.

{Photo: in progress}

I am so very thankful for Ella's help. She works diligently, enjoys doing it *and* it saves me a lot of time!

{Photo: So that you can get an adequate picture of what we're dealing with.}

Adelia has been blessed with a beautiful head of hair. So much hair. :) I love it.

In the photo above, Ella is still removing braids on her side while I've started sectioning out my side for the next style. It probably took us about 2 1/2 hours total to get her braids out, with both of us working at it.

We took another break for playtime, then dinner, and then I set to work on the new style.

{Photo: pajama break! New style almost done}

I did flat-twists on the front (parted in the middle with eight sections across the hairline), and then tried a new technique called African Hair Threading (tutorial here). I am so thankful for video tutorials. It was actually very easy to do and she ended up with these thick, boingy curls. Very cute. This was much quicker than braiding or cornrowing, and will take very little time to take out, which is a huge bonus.

{Photo: finally done! I think it took me about 2 hours to put this style in.}

I have no idea how long these will stay in, though, or what they will even look like once she's slept on them (I'll post updates in the comments for anyone who is interested). I'm hoping I can get 2 weeks out of this style, but I'm sure I'll have to pull it back in order to keep it in that long.

* * *

Snacks today: pistachios, string cheese, and fruit leather. (Always she requests the fruit leather.)

Videos today: Good Morning Maisy, Elmo's World, Psalty.

Best helpers: Ella, for braid removal. And Mark, for lots of books and songs for distraction during the after-dinner hours.

New hair tools: Tangle Tamer brush, weaving thread, and new rat-tail combs. Good purchases, all. I was particularly pleased with the brush-- it really worked to remove tangles and it didn't bother Adelia at all. Also, she thought the brush was cute and was able to use it herself which she's never been able to do before.

Fair day!

2011-08-15T20:26:00.000-07:00

We went to the much-loved fair today. This is the first year our kids entered anything into the fair. Ella entered a watercolor painting, and all three older kids entered something they'd built with LEGOS. They were so excited to see their things exhibited, and it made an exciting day even *more* exciting for them.

Here is Ella, proudly standing next to her painting (and blue ribbon!)

Then we rounded the corner to see all the LEGOS,

and discovered this:

Isaac's bald eagle entry won Best of Division and Best of Show (!)

Here is Isaias' wagon- earning him a second-place ribbon:

and finally~ Ella's hen and baby chick, earning her another blue.

The kids were overjoyed. :)

Sunday afternoon tradition

2011-08-14T20:17:00.000-07:00

While the kids are napping or having their quiet times, Mark and I sit at the table and play a game together. Usually it's either Scrabble, Settlers, Ticket to Ride, or Carcassonne. Sometimes we work on a puzzle.

Today it was Scrabble.

He's pretending to be giddy about those last 5 letters but he's really not.

We're serious Scrabble players, too.

Mark is the kind of guy who lays all of his letters and gets an extra 50 points-- OFTEN. ~sheesh~
But this game, I won. It's worth recording because it happens so infrequently. ;)

Quote from David Platt

2011-08-13T14:44:00.000-07:00

"Intentionally work to rise above the trivialities of this world...

Don't let the adversary so fill your mind with that which does not matter
that you have no room left in your mind and heart for that which matters forever."

~David Platt, The Household of God (sermon here)

Weeding and cultivating the soul

2011-08-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

These are the verses I've been reflecting on recently:

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to unglodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope- the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (from Titus, chapter 2, verses 11-14)

I love so much about that passage- the phrase "the grace of God that brings salvation"... which teaches us to say no... "while we wait for the blessed hope- the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ"... "to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good."

I want this so much in my own life-- to be *his very own*; purified for him, eager to do what is good. To say no to ungodliness and worldy passions and to live a self-controlled, upright and godly life. I wrote this passage down in my journal and then made some lists- where do I see ungodliness in me? (and goodness gracious that list was long!) and what are the worldly passions that I am most attracted to? I intend to pray over those.

Then this morning I read a post by Sally Clarkson called What do you want to be when you grow up? in which she talks about how to cultivate the garden of our souls- what are the things we should plant and what weeds (sin, bad attitudes) need to be plucked so that we are continually growing more into His likeness? She asks, "What five attributes do you want to characterize your life?" These are such good things to ponder and I love the idea of being intentional about what we feed our souls (what am I watching, listening to, spending my time doing?) and what things we need to pray that God would weed out (sin)? I'm going to be pondering my five in the days to come. (Sally posted her five, but I haven't read hers yet because I want to come up with mine first.)

I hope you all have a wonderful day! We were up late with the kids last night, getting their entries ready for the fair (art and LEGO creations, of course). And then- at about 10:20, Mark and I started rearranging our bedroom (I had a hankering for a new look!) Audra is up now, so I'm off to keep her quiet until the other kids are up.

Blessings to you and yours...

On marriage

2011-08-08T16:49:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about marriages, and how so many people we personally know are in marriages that are falling apart, or devastated by infidelity or addiction.

It deeply saddens me.

I've started and stopped this post several times. I'm just not sure how to best tackle this thing that weighs so heavily on my heart.

I love my husband Mark so much, and we genuinely have a happy marriage. He is my best friend and I have utmost respect for him. I am so very, very thankful for my husband and for the blessing of our marriage. But I know that's not everyone's story.

Maybe it's not your story, either.

Maybe you are one who feels stuck in an unhappy marriage. Maybe you are discouraged. Maybe you and your husband keep fighting over the same issues, and you feel the chasm widening between the two of you. Maybe you feel unloved, or never able to measure up, or constantly disappointed. Maybe you feel as if you're shouldering a burden that is too heavy to bear.

As I prayed this afternoon, this verse came to mind. You're likely familiar with it:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

~Matthew 11:28-30

That's a promise. Jesus will give you rest in the deepest parts of you, no matter where you're at right now and no matter what you may be struggling with. Just go to Him and pour it all out and lay it down at His feet. Ask Him to mend the broken parts, ask Him to restore and to heal and transform it all. He can do it. He is Almighty and He can do it. And then go to Him again, over and over and over, and keep laying it down and asking for His help.

There are three other things on my heart:

1. After you ask for Jesus' help, ask Him to reveal to you who else you can tell, and then go to them and tell them. I can't emphasize this enough. If you are struggling in your marriage right now, please go and tell a trusted friend or a member of your church body and ask them to pray for you and your marriage. Go ask your pastor's wife. Go ask that woman you've seen in church-- maybe you've never even spoken to her before. It doesn't matter. Just ask her. Don't be too prideful or too afraid to express that you have a need. We ALL do. It may not be the same need, but we've all got them. And we need to get over our pride already and be willing to say "I need help. We need help. Can you pray for me?" I think that we as a Church need to get a whole lot better at this. We need to be willing to be vulnerable and transparent and willing to show ourselves for the mess that we are, and ask for help. (Isn't there something just so refreshing when you're with someone who acknowledges that they DON'T have it all together? It allows the rest of us to put down our own walls and say, with a great sigh of relief, "Me too." Then we're on a level field-- wobbling sinners who need Jesus so much, and we can pray for one another toward that end.)*

2. Pray specifically for your marriage. By specifically I mean: don't just ask God to help you love your spouse, but ask Him to show you how to love him; ask God to give you a tangible way to show your husband that love, today, and then do that one thing. If you feel like all you ever do is criticize each other, ask God to help you think of one thing you can verbalize to your spouse today that would be kind; that would show respect and love, and then say it. If you want your husband to grow or change in a particular area, express that to God, and wait and see what He does. God is a God of details. And He answers prayer in very specific, tangible ways. I think He loves to surprise us and bless us by answering our specific prayers. Even if you're at a good place in your marriage right now, you just keep right on praying. Pray that God would strengthen your marriage. Ask that He would guard both you and your husband from temptation. Ask for ways to nurture your marriage and cherish this man God has given you.

3. And this, too: pray for the marriages of those around you. Recently, some very dear friends of ours went through a very difficult time in their marriage. Everyone who knew them was shocked. No one had any idea to the degree in which they were struggling. It prompted me to start praying for all the married couples we knew: our friends, our parents, our extended family... every marriage I could think of, I started praying for. I truly think the enemy is working overtime to try to tear apart Christian marriages. The Bible is clear that he comes to steal, kill and destroy. So let's intercede on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Christ and pray over their marriages.

Because this is the way my brain works, I decided that on Mondays I was going to pray for Marriages, and I do so. Some Mondays I pray for a specific marriage that God has laid on my heart, sometimes I run through the list and pray a general prayer or verse over all of those marriages, and some Mondays I forget entirely, but Mondays are "tagged" for praying for marriages. Perhaps you'd like to join me in that and pray for those in your life on Mondays, too?

*If you're reading this and you need prayer but you feel like you don't have anyone else to ask, email me and I will pray for you.

{Best thing I saw today}

2011-08-06T15:42:00.000-07:00

While sorting through some papers on the kids' school shelves, I discovered this:

A note from Ella (9) to Isaac (7), that reads:

I love you Isaac. Your My Favirite Playmate.

(I tucked it into the front of his school binder so he'll see it often. :))

Three good books

2011-08-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

Three good books I'm recommending from my summer reading:

Raising Real Men

I came away from this book with a fresh perspective on my boys. I was reminded to celebrate the qualities God has given them that will result in them being strong men someday, (Lord-willing); qualities that may drive me crazy in the here-and-now-- but that are purposeful in the long run.

Passport Through Darkness

I already shared a bit about this book here. This is a difficult book to read in that it is about child-trafficking and its horrors, but I think it is an important book to read. There's a passage in Amos 6 that talks about those who are complacent, those who feel secure, who lounge and dine and drink wine and do not grieve over those who are in need around us. May we not be guilty of this.

Unbroken

If you've had a conversation with me in the last week (since I finished this book), I've already recommended this one to you. It's possible that I'm the last person to read it, since I've been on the library hold list for this one for several months. But I finally got it into my hands and then disappeared into its pages for a few days until I'd finished it. This is a remarkable story that is so well-written and it is easily my favorite book of the year.

I hope it goes without saying that I'm all ears for your recommendations!

Grateful: Monday, August 1

2011-08-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

{ snippets from my list over the past few months }

1519 | apple blossoms

1522 | tiny strawberry plants

1524 | picture books strewn across my bed from some early-morning reading with the girls

1539 | color. vibrant, beautiful color

1544 | the tiny bouquet of lilacs- light and dark- sitting on the patio table

1559 | bare feet, five sets of them- scampering through the yard

1565 | our beautifully blooming Hawthorne tree

1566 | the slope of our front lawn, perfect for little bodies to roll down

1567 | pansies in terra cotta pots at the front window

1569 | that He does not treat us as our sins deserve

1571 | the way Audra calls "hair pretties" (barrettes, elastics, etc) "pretty hairs", as in: "Mommy, I have pretty hairs in!"

1572 | waking in the mornings to Adelia and Audra singing worship songs

1573 | the way they play together: tucking dollies into beds, singing songs, jumping, dancing, exploring...

1579 | coming home
1602 | Audra's prettily-painted fingernails that were done at a library craft fair the kids attended yesterday with grandma. Several times I've seen her splay her fingers out in front of herself and admire them. And several times she has told me about how two girls without tutus (skirts) did that (painted her nails.) In her world, not wearing a tutu is a serious offense.

Practical solution for a 3-year old's clothes

2011-07-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

About a year ago we put Adelia's clothes in these (cheap IKEA) bins as a temporary solution while we figured out where to permanently put them. It only took me a month to decide that this was indeed our permanent solution. I love this storage option, and if we had more room underneath the beds I would do this for Audra's clothes, too. It's so simple.

Two bins.

One for tops, one for bottoms.

Very visible, those clothes, which is great for my little girl who likes to change her outfit every 12 minutes.

Tidiness doesn't matter so much. If the clothes are in the bin, I'm happy.

She can easily put her own laundry away.

The bins have wheels for easy access.

They slide right back under the bed and are out of sight!

It works for us!

View of my bed these days

2011-07-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

{as I plan out next year's school schedule}

If you can believe it now that I've shown you the pictures, each year I do get a little more organized. I'm just a visual person and need to have it all laid out in front of me as I go. ;)

Instructions from a six-year old boy

2011-07-13T06:30:00.000-07:00

...when the tooth fairy has failed to show up for two nights in a row.

"To pack" list for young children

2011-07-11T12:31:00.000-07:00

We have a few trips we're taking this summer, and in an effort to be more efficient, I made a "to pack" list for each of the kids, specifically thinking of the non-readers in our home.

Actually, I made a master list. That way, I can keep the master list and just make photocopies for when we need to use this list again! I left a blank line for them to fill in their name and blank lines so that I can fill in the quantity of items they will need to pack.

(I think they'll think this is a fun game when it comes time to pack!)

Africa on my heart

2011-07-09T20:51:00.000-07:00

I'm reading a book right now called Passport Through Darkness. It is opening my eyes to the horror of what is going on in Sudan, specifically- but elsewhere, too. Read it and you'll see what I mean. I feel a little undone by it all~ praying so much and asking God what else we can do (we give a little, here and there, and we pray... but- surely there is something else we should be doing.)

Here are a couple of excerpts from the book:

We learned that while sexual slavery is most commonly associated with Southeast Asia, it is actually growing faster in Eastern Europe and Africa than anywhere else in the world. This is mostly because of the swelling population of orphans and street children, the "throwaways".

*

Most of the churches we visited focused focused on salvation, forgiveness, Bible studies, and doing good works-- almost exclusively programmatic things taking place within their four walls. We could find none that taught about the reality of extreme poverty, how vulnerable those conditions made women and children to trafficking, or about a biblical response required from the church.

*

In a ten-month period, we lost 278 orphans. The number-one cause of death was not thirst, not malnutrition, not disease. It was animal attacks, mostly by wild dogs or hyenas.

To keep from being eaten in the night, many of our homeless orphans slept in trees. Tragically, some of them fell from their bed branches to their deaths.

That image in my mind juxtaposed against the knowledge that my own children are tucked safely in their beds tonight in our home? It is so unsettling to me.

* * *

Today I clicked on a couple of news videos about the drought going on in East Africa and my heart is heavy for the people there, too-- specifically the women and the children.

Tonight I shared with the kids a little about the book I've been reading; I want them to know because they are faithful little prayer warriors, and their faith is great and they pray big prayers. I showed them one of the videos I saw today, and then we gathered on the couch and prayed together as a family. Each of the kids prayed, and then I closed in prayer. As I finished my prayer, Ella interjected one final prayer:

"And Jesus? When the (malnourished) babies do die, and they get to heaven, I pray that you would just take them onto your lap, into your arms, and tell them how much you love them. Amen."

I loved that, and I wanted to remember it.

Shortly after that the kids decided to start saving money for Africa, so there's a jar sitting on our table that now holds coins emptied from piggy banks and they are full of plans to decorate that jar tomorrow.

Narration ideas

2011-07-08T14:33:00.000-07:00

So often when my kids do narrations I forget that it can be so much more than simply a verbal retelling of what we've read.

Yesterday when I was cleaning out some stuff I came across these notes* I once jotted down of narration ideas, so I'm putting them here on the blog in case I need to find them again someday, and in case this list might help some of you!

You can have your child...

...Draw a picture
...Set up a scene with toys, and verbally act it out
...Put on a paper doll production
...Do a skit/play
...Draw/sketch the story on the dry-erase board or chalkboard, explaining what happened
...Create 3-5 questions and then have one of their siblings answer (or you!)

The times where I have varied it up are the most memorable times-- and the ones the kids still talk about. A few things we have done for creative narrations...

-After we've read something from the Bible or our history book, I've said, "Okay. Now act it out!" And off they go... choosing parts, playing it out, asking for their "lines".

-I have had them recreate a scene/story with LEGOS or Playmobiles.

-I've had them draw pictures.

When I found that list again yesterday, I was encouraged to get creative with our narrations for next year. And since I'm madly working on my "Master Schedule" for next year, I may even *schedule* what creative method I'll ask them to do for each narration.

Are there other things you've done in your home for narrations that I can add to my list?

*I can't remember where I read/gleaned these ideas from. I'm not even sure these are all from the same source. But if you have seen this list elsewhere, please do let me know so that I can credit the source!

Book list: Favorite read-alouds and Ella's list

2011-07-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

{read-alouds}

We read a lot of books this year, but here are just a few of our favorites:

Gentle Ben
The Secret Garden
Summer of the Monkeys
Winnie-the-Pooh (this is the second time we've read it, but we all loved it all over again.)
Otto of the Silver Hand

* * *

Ella, at 9, still loves to read. Unfortunately for her, I don't have a lot of time to preview/find new books for her, nor have we been able to spend much time perusing the library selection for books for her, so truthfully, the bulk of what she read this year were re-reads of what she already has on her shelf. (See previous book lists for those titles.) Her go-to repeat books are usually always the Little House books (including The Martha Years, The Caroline Years and The Rose Years books) and the American Girl books she has on her shelf.

I do still try to write down nearly every book she reads. (Heck, I figure I might as well only do this ONCE, right? I have two other little girls growing right up and they will need book suggestions, too.) A smattering of the books from this list I picked up at used bookstores/library sales, some were recommended to us and we checked them out at the library, and some of them we just discovered on the library shelves. Without further ado, here are the books I have listed that Ella read this past year (excepting the re-reads):

{book list for a nine-year old girl}

Socks by Beverly Cleary
Rosa Takes a Chance (Susan Martins Miller, Sisters in Time series)
Cricket in Times Square
The Little House in the Highlands (The Martha Years; Melissa Wiley)
Madeleine Takes Command (Ethel Brill)
The Skippack School
Walking the Road to Freedom (Jeri Ferris)
Lillian Thrasher (YWAM biography; Janet and Geoff Benge)
some Boxcar Children books she hadn't read before (#1, #117...)
Summer Days with the Moodys (#5; Sarah Maxwell)
Viking Adventure (Bulla)
The Blue Hill Meadows (Cynthia Rylant)
The Little Silver House (I discovered this gem at a library book sale. It's a sequel to the book The Golden Name Day. Lindquist; illustrated by Garth Williams!)
The Three Baers, The Triplets Fly High (Bertha Moore)
Stone Fox
The Little Princess (previously a read-aloud; she read it on her own)
Kidnapped by River Rats, The Chimney Sweep's Ransom and Spy for the Night Riders (Trailblazer books; Dave & Neta Jackson)
The Trumpet of the Swan (pretty sure this was actually a repeat, but she loves this book)
The Tanglewoods Secret
Little Visits with God
Trails to Treasure (Ginn basic fifth reader)
Bread and Butter Indian (Colver)
Bread and Butter Journey (Colver)
Indian Captive (Lenski)
Homer Price
Adopted Jane (Daringer)
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Tumtum and Nutmeg books (Emily Bearn)

Happy reading!

2010-11 Year in Review: Kindergarten

2011-06-30T15:08:00.000-07:00

Isaias (6) was my Kindergartener this year. I really hadn't planned on schooling him because- quite frankly, I didn't think he was ready.

Which is funny because I thought the same thing about Isaac at this age, too.

What happened is that while I didn't say anything to Isaias about schooling last summer, several extended family members did. Things like, "Oh, you get to be in Kindergarten next year, right? What a big boy!" and he got all excited. While I wasn't too keen on the idea of schooling him just yet, I knew that not schooling him would be a low blow to him after all those comments. I just couldn't envision myself bursting his happy bubble. Not because I can't say no to my kids (believe me, I can) but because I knew that for Isaias, a no about this would be devastating to him.

So Mark and I decided to go ahead and begin and call it Kindergarten, but to start really simple. The first week of school I had planned for him to practice forming his ABC's with his finger using a small tray of rice. I had visions of making it through the alphabet in a few weeks but he could seriously not even make a diagonal stroke for the A on the first day. (Told you he wasn't ready.) It was a little mind-boggling, honestly. I mean, I didn't think he was ready, but... um, I really did not realize how UN-ready he was.

So I scaled it waaaay back. We called it school and I made sure to write his name up on the dry- erase board each day with Ella's and Isaac's names and t0-do's, but his list would look like this:

Isaias
-Super Star Speech* with mommy on the couch.
-choose a (picture) book for mommy to read to you
-color at the table

*Isaias had trouble with some of his sounds and for a season, was pretty difficult to understand. I purchased this book two years ago and I worked through the exercises with him last year and at the beginning of this year and it really helped him. His speech is much better and I found this book really helpful for me to be able to narrow down which sounds he was struggling with and to pay attention to that in his speech and catch him on those things and work on practicing the correct sounds with him.)

I did a bit of searching for something for him to do that would feel more like official school to him and discovered this little pre-cursor to what Isaac was doing:
and scooped up this series and that gave him some book work to do at the table when E & I were doing theirs. It's very basic but was really perfect for where he was at.

We also worked on an All About Me book, did several ABC Hunts (uppercase and lowercase letters) for letter recognition, and he traced around metal insets. He played the dice math game, worked on various ABC puzzles/games that we have around the house, and did all of our Bible/memory work and history with us each day.

At some point during the year we went back to my original rice-tray idea and he easily formed the letters. At the end of our year he now is familiar with all the letters and their sounds and often writes and sounds out the words as he writes. He's come a long way and we're really proud of him.

* * *

I think all I have left for these Year in Review posts are the ones on Nature Study, which I began but decided Mark should do instead since he's actually in charge of it. Maybe I'll interview him and post it that way. Oh! AND I remember now: I promised a book list, so I'll do that, too. :)

When the laundry piles are enormous

2011-06-27T11:33:00.000-07:00

At our house we don't have a problem washing and drying the laundry. It's the folding and putting away that's a challenge. So, about 90% of the time we've got a couple of full hampers sitting around, waiting for inspiration to hit.

Usually we fold/put away a few times a week, but we're a little out of that routine now that school is done, so it's been piling up.

Occasionally I'll give a penny per item they fold. I don't do this all the time, but a few times a month I'll just announce, at laundry-folding time, "Everyone gets a penny for each item you fold!"

This morning- with several full hampers, I sweetened the deal:

1 cent for each item folded
2 cents for each pair of socks matched
5 cents for each folded stack of laundry put away in it's proper place

A half-hour and a couple dollars later and the laundry is all folded and put away, the piggy banks are a little heavier, and everyone is happy. :)

The stats:
Audra played dollhouse nearby.
Adelia (3) folded 1 piece of laundry (she's just starting to learn to fold). She didn't get any money because she doesn't care about money yet and she doesn't yet have a piggy bank. :) But we all exclaimed about how neatly she folded that one pair of pants.
Ella (9) folded 42 items, matched 19 pairs of socks, and put away 7 folded piles of laundry. Total earnings: $1.15
Isaac (7) folded 20 items, matched 16 pairs of socks, and put away 6 folded piles of laundry. Total earnings: 82 cents
Isaias (6) folded 7 items (um... he got a slow start: he's usually right up there with Isaac), matched 10 pairs of socks, and put away 3 folded piles of laundry. Total earnings: 46 cents
I folded right along with them (it's incentive to them to work hard because anything I fold takes away from what they can earn). When I matched socks I added to their piles, though. And I put away everything I folded. Total earnings: we all worked cheerfully at a task together and completed it, and I got to reward the kids and the laundry is done!

Thoughts on a sunny Tuesday

2011-06-21T21:24:00.000-07:00

~ Mark and I are celebrating 14 years of marriage today. How I *love* my husband! Mark blessed me with a bouquet of flowers at lunch today-- yellow and purple, the same colors we had for our wedding flowers-- and then a sweet card he handed to me when he got home from work this evening. Tonight we feasted on crab (with oodles of butter, garlic, and fresh-squeezed lemon juice), greek salad, and bread (with the kids, at home.) Yesterday my mom watched the kids so that just the two of us could spend the day together, which was such a gift.

~ Last night we took down Audra's crib and Adelia's toddler bed and moved up to a full and a twin in the room. Audra (2) and Ella (9) are sharing, Adelia is in the twin. The girls LOVE it. Seriously- they could not be happier with the arrangement. We're still transitioning the room so right now it's just mattresses on the floor. They've been a little rambunctious in there at bedtime (it's like a slumber party to them), but they're settling in...

~ I am cheerily planning our schooling for next year. (Have I mentioned how much I *love* planning?)

~ We received Ella's standardized test results in the mail and somehow I now feel "official" that Ella is getting properly educated. (This is silly, I know. I knew she was getting a solid education already. But still.) She tested very well.

~ Our garden is growing. I always feel so proud of those little shoots first coming up out of the ground. Our strawberries are ripening. My peonies are happily blooming.

~ I went away last weekend on a little retreat with these wonderful ladies and was so blessed. I have such respect for each one of them, and it was such a treat to get away and talk about parenting, homeschooling and our faith. And eat. And laugh. And rest.

(l to r: Cutzi, Sarah, Jodi, Amy, me, Rebecca with her newest little Reuben)

~ I said to Mark today: "Remember when I used to bake bread? And make homemade yogurt? And make our own laundry soap? Sheesh. It's been awhile... " I have definitely not done those things for a long while. I feel like we're entering a new season, though, in our family life... with the little girls being not as little anymore. Within the past couple of weeks I've gone out twice with all five kids to run errands or go grocery shopping. That is something that did not seem AT ALL feasible to me for at least the last couple of years. I joked to Mark that some of our neighbors were probably shocked to see us going out-and-about in the daytime hours. (It's just easier to stay at *home* with little ones, so that's what we do.) It makes me realize just how taxing the years are with little ones in the mix. All that to say that if you're in that taxing season, it *does* get easier. :) [Oh. And for any of you with inquiring minds that might be thinking: "Wait. They took down their crib and she feels like they're "entering a new season of family life"-- Does that mean they're not going to have/adopt any more kids?" Nope. That's not what that means. :) That's just where we find ourselves right *now*. We'd love more children!]

How are *you* today?

On how much I need Jesus

2011-06-17T11:13:00.000-07:00

The more children I have-- or the older I get, one of the two-- the less qualified I feel I am to offer any insight of any kind here on the blog. This is why: I am so very aware of my sin. I am sure of just one thing, really- and that is that I need Jesus. More of Him, less of me.

I've noticed lately that my daughters frequently sigh. (Well, Ella sighs and Adelia outright groans in frustration.) When I hear it, I am aware that they're simply modeling what they have heard from me. When I hear one of the older kids speak sharply to a younger sibling, I hear my own tone in theirs, and know that they heard it here first. Hourly I am reminded of how sinful I am and how grateful I am for a Savior who paid for that sin.

I need God to shepherd me in this role as a wife and mother. I was reminded recently of my position as a helper~ created by God to be a helper to my husband. Yet so often I want Mark to help me. He gets home and I want to be helped by him. Thankfully I have a loving husband who truly and genuinely *wants* to help me, so it does work out, but the problem is me; my attitude. I am self-absorbed and seeking my comfort and not his.

In the past few days a number of small distasters happened: Audra found my container of (loose) powder and dumped it inside my purse and make-up bag. To clean it up I had to wash each item, which ruined almost everything. Adelia squeezed an entire container of sunscreen out into the (full) basket of hair accessories (elastics, barrettes, headbands, etc). Audra unrolled a roll of toilet paper. Audra discovered Ella's big container of beads and dumped it onto the couch and all.over.the.living.room floor. Days later and I'm still stepping on beads. But it's all just stuff. I can buy new make-up, I washed down the hair elastics, we can still use that toilet paper and the beads were cleaned up.

What is not so easy to clean up is my response. I'd like to think that my response to my fifth child- when I saw those beads raining down on the couch and floor- is vastly different than my response would have been to Ella, my first-born, had that same scenario occurred. Surely with more experience as a mother I am less exasperated when those things happen, and was able to respond in kindness, graciousness, and love. Not so much. Most days that's not the case. I'm still me, five children later: a flawed and fumbling sinner who desperately needs to be transformed by God.

So I pray that He would shape me, transform me, and teach me how to train them. I pray that He would soften my cold and hard heart; that He would eliminate my pride and give me humility. I pray that He would show me how to lay down my life- my time, my comforts, my schedule, my way- for theirs. I pray that He would put life-giving words of encouragement on my tongue, that I would be full of gentleness and graciousness and love. I pray that He would root out my critical, fault-finding spirit. I pray that He would fill me with the fruit of His Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Oh, how I pray for those qualities! Because I am none of those things except for Him in me.)

I sit beside my Ella-girl and tell her that I have heard her sighing in an I-am-so-put-out-that-you-asked-me-to-do-that kind of way and that I know she has heard it from me because mommy does that too and can we pray together?- for more of God's Spirit in us so that we might bring glory to Him through our attitudes? So we do. And we come up with a little plan to catch each other in our sighing. Initially I do holler about the beads but then I go to my little girl, kneel down and hug her and tell her that I love her and ask her to please not spill out the beads in the future. I am sharp in my tone with the kids. They often hear that, but then they often hear me confess my sin and we pray together for mommy to be patient and kind and they know that I need Him.

I desire with my whole heart to love God more and to be more fully surrendered to Him each day. And I desire that for my kids more than anything else. Together, we are learning and growing and failing and reconciling and forgiving and persevering because we love God and desire to love one another- and to do both well.

I am so thankful for His grace.

Thank you for reading here as I journal "out loud" about all of this. I hope and pray that anything I say here on this blog serves as an encouragement to you as you seek to love your own family. We are each uniquely created by God. I love to think of the ways God has equipped *you* to serve your family. It probably looks a whole lot different than the ways He has equipped me, and I love that. Makes life so much more interesting, doesn't it?

Blessings to you and yours today!

On anger and expectations in mothering

2011-06-16T06:52:00.000-07:00

I can almost be assured that if I become angry with a child, it is because my expectations match my goals for him. It is essential that we have high, godly goals for our children. We want to lead them to the best of their ability spiritually and educationally. However, in this process of moving toward the goals, we must keep our expectations lower than those goals. When I expect my child to have reached a high goal, then I am likely to become angry with him if he hasn't. On the other hand, if I expect my child to have not yet reached the goal, then my spirit is at peace with the training and teaching process as we strive to reach those goals.

It is so much a matter of perspective. The Lord has given us a definite role in our children's lives. If they are spiritually and educationally mature as children, then why are we to train them up? Why are we told to discipline them? It is because children will spend their childhoods working toward the "high goals" the Lord has set for them. They will make progress toward those goals, but it may not be as quick or discernable as we would like it to be. Aren't we glad the Lord doesn't get angry with us every time we fall short of His goals for us?

~Teri Maxwell, Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit

I'm mulling over those words of wisdom today. I want so much to be an encourager of my children as they strive for those goals.

May God bless you today as you do the same!

2010-11 Year in Review: First Grade

2011-06-08T11:28:00.000-07:00

Isaac was my first-grader this year, and he had a great year.

I kept his "Table Time" (the work he does independently at the table) to three days each week, M-W-F. During this time he worked through his Explode the Code Book 2 and Rod & Staff math. I assigned word-building (more on that in a minute) or reading to him on these days, too~ meaning that he would read aloud to me from a book of his choice. Oh, and we all do history together on M-W-F, too.

So technically he does school every day (Bible, memory work, picture study, classical music, etc), but all of his grade-specific work is done on these three days and that has worked well for us.

Isaac thoroughly enjoys Explode the Code. We began Book 1 in Kindergarten and this year he completed Book 1 and book 2 of the series and is beginning Book 3. The style and format of the book is well-suited to my boy: he thinks the pictures and questions are amusing, and he has learned a lot, too!

He enjoys Math. I tried to remember to let him "build" his Math problems occasionally. I set aside a baggie of LEGOS reserved for math time and I would circle a row of problems on a page and tell him to build them~ he didn't need to worry about writing in the answers as long as he successfully built them.

Isaac really took off in reading this year, and it's fun to see him now choose to read during his free time rather than play LEGOS. He is now reading chapter books with ease and I love having two little readers in the house-- although I'm at a loss as to what good age-appropriate boy books there are out there, so I'm gearing up for a summer of finding some!

Some days I had him work on "word-building". I wrote words on the board or asked him to go get a picture book and choose a sentence from the book to "build" with our set of alphabet letters. Towards the end of the year he was creating his own sentences.

I'm certain that if I asked Isaac what his favorite part of school was this year, he would say Bible. (Which gives me an idea. I'm going to head out and interview him in a couple of minutes for you.) He just loves our Bible time, and is so captivated by the stories in the Bible and how mighty God is.

Okay, here's my spontaneous mini-interview (short and sweet, as you'll see by his responses!) with Isaac to finish out this post:

Isaac, what was your favorite part of school this year?
Can I say "The Bible"?

Yes.
Okay. The Bible.

How come?
Because I just really like the stories in it.

What did you like about Explode the Code?
I like those questions in it.

Did you like doing Math?
Not so much. But I like the thing about the frogs and the rabbits. [Counting by 5's and 10's].

What was your favorite part of Nature Study?
I just liked it all.

Memory work?
Memorizing capitals.

Picture study/classical music?
I like them.

Are there any things you wish we did more of?
There's something I wish we did less of. Catechism. We did a lot of that.

How about history? What was your favorite story we learned about in history?
The one about the mountain coming up. [He's referring to the time when, through the faith of Simaan El Kaharaz, and by the power of God Mokattam Mountain was lifted into the sky: Mystery of History, Volume II, Lesson 50: St. Simon and the Coptic Orthodox Church.]

Oh, how I love my boy.

Open House: Monday, June 6

2011-06-06T11:23:00.001-07:00

This morning after breakfast I set up an "outdoor paint studio" for the kids, and they loved it.

[If you look closely there on the right-hand side, you can see our garden is ready for planting!]

(I have not forgotten that I'm midway through my Year in Review posts, but we finished school and testing last week and the sunshine has finally (thank you, Jesus!) shown up here in the Pacific NW, so we're taking full advantage of it while it's here.)

Larry the Tooth Fairy

2011-06-01T09:42:00.001-07:00

Isaac lost his first tooth yesterday! He's extremely happy about it. (Isaias, who is a year and a half *younger* than him, has already lost four or five teeth (I lose track) and Isaac has been earnestly hoping his tooth would fall out.)

I asked him last night if he was concerned at all about the tooth fairy flying into his room. Isaac is my boy who can be a little fearful so I wanted to be sure he wasn't alarmed at the idea. He said he wasn't, and then I assured him that she was just a little thing with wings and that she wasn't anything to be scared of anyway. Isaac's response to that was: "She?! I don't want a girl tooth fairy."

Mark didn't miss a beat. "Oh, okay. So you're hoping for Larry the Tooth Fairy, then. He's a good one. Kind of big, though. Don't know if he'll make it through the door." Mark kept wondering aloud about which tooth fairy would show up.

Would it be Harry the Tooth Fairy? Harry's pretty hairy, though, and hopefully all that hair doesn't tickle your face when he comes over to slip money under your pillow.

Maybe it will be Jerry.

There's always Gary, too.

Then Ella and I caught on and started in on how sweet Sherry the Tooth Fairy is. And Carrie and Mary, too... and was he sure he didn't want one of them?

Isaac was giggling. He's a little iffy about whether there's a tooth fairy at all, but we sure seemed to know a lot of them- and by name!

Mark and I were talking later about how we should start leaving notes and signing them by the various tooth fairies that come to our house. (When they remember to come. Sometimes those tooth fairies are so forgetful! Sometimes our kids even have to write reminder notes for the tooth fairy and tape it on their doors! ;))

This morning at breakfast I asked Isaac if the tooth fairy had come, and- which one did he think came? He thought probably it was Gary the Tooth Fairy.

Then he said, "But daddy says there's one named 'Jack Squat', too, and sometimes he's the one that comes."

A couple hours later and I'm still chuckling that Mark told him there was a tooth fairy named Jack Squat.

Joy at home

2011-05-25T22:05:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

I was wondering today how many times in the last couple of weeks I've started a post, typed a sentence or two, and then have been interrupted with either the kids waking up or with one of them needing me for something. Lots of times.

Such is life, and I'm enjoying the living of it. There are moments when I feel incredibly overwhelmed with the amount of people in our home who need me for something-- and often all at once!-- or with the sheer amount of noise that comes from five little people. [I have been studying something and I am now certain of it: whenever Mark, myself or one of the older kids talks at meal times, both little girls have an automatic switch that turns up their volume so they instantly become louder than whoever is speaking.]

But oh, they're a delight! Just yesterday we went to the bank and used the drive-through feature-- where I talk to the teller via a speaker and send checks through the air-tube-chute-thingy-- and Adelia was trying to peer around me from her car seat. She asked, "Mommy? Is that lady talking?" I said no, not yet. Then she asked if the lady was going to stick her head out of 'that thing'. We all burst into laughter at the image of the teller sticking her head out of the chute! I guess she just thought that's what happened-- all she hears is some lady talking to me and I'm always looking towards the chute because the speaker is there.

Adelia (a rare photo of her hair not in braids/beads!)

Or... also yesterday, Audra and Isaac were being buddies and playing in the girls' room with all sorts of babies and stuffed animals: they were tucking them into bed and pretending to go to sleep, too and singing songs. It was so sweet. I went in to check on them at one point and Isaac was sitting on the floor, cross-legged, and Audra was standing behind him with a comb. I was thinking that Isaac is such a good big brother, playing so sweetly with Audra on her level and even letting her comb his hair. Isaac looked up at me and grinned and said, "She says there's a mouse in there." :) And we laughed together because we knew she said that because Mark and I are always telling her that she has a "rat's nest" in her hair because it gets so easily tangled.

Isaac is making a crayon structure or maze or something, here.

I love these kids so much and we have so much fun around here. I am so very blessed to have the privilege of being home with them-- there are so many rewards!

Hope you are all having a wonderful week,

~Stacy

ps I've decided to stop linking up to my blog from Facebook. I think I prefer the 'obscurity' of regular-ole'-blogging without the networking through Facebook. I don't know if that makes a difference to anyone that reads here but I thought I'd tell you in case it does.

2010-11 Year in Review: History/Math/English

2011-05-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

History
Last month I shared about our year of History, in Changing my mind about our history selection, so say much more about that, other than this: the change been good.

Math
This year we continued with our use of Rod & Staff for Math (for Ella and Isaac). What I learned last year is this important lesson: my children do not need to do every single problem on every single page of their math workbooks. (But because I was a little late in learning that, we began this year with Ella still only about halfway through her 2nd grade Math workbook. And I'm perfectly fine with that. She's into the 3rd grade book now, but next year we'll be doing the same thing, unless I do a major push to complete one book and be "caught up".)

*The kids love it when Mark or I wrote notes to them in their math books, and we received lots of cute notes from them in return.
*I learned this year that the glee over a scratch-and-sniff sticker has not faded since I was a child. (These are already on my t0-buy list for next year. :))
*We tried to be creative in the choosing of the problems they were to complete on a page. Sometimes it was just the basic "do every other problem" or "choose ___ problems to do", but more often than not we'd either draw a shape (a balloon, a heart, a bee, a flower, a butterfly, etc) and have them do only the math problems within the shape. Or we'd put a math problem on the top of the page and the answer to that problem equaled how many they needed to complete on the page. (Add up all the ages of all the kids and do that many, add your age and your birth date and complete that many problems, etc).

English
Same lesson learned here with the English book from Rod & Staff, and this year, Ella's 3rd grade year, we spent finishing her 2nd grade book. (We're a little laid back about stuff like this.)

The latter part of this year I spent more hands-on time doing English with Ella: sitting with her to get her started, reading some things aloud and doing some of the work orally with her-- rather than just assigning her pages and allowing her to work independently. This made a huge difference not only in her understanding, but in our relationship. I really came to value this time with her. And, truly- that's the GOAL with all of her work, but it hadn't really been happening consistently simply because it was not really possible with the little girls. This year it became possible, and I was grateful for the opportunity to be more available to Ella during this time.

2010-11 Year in Review: Copywork

2011-05-15T20:56:00.000-07:00

I am really pleased with our system for copywork this year... it was simple and very hands-off for me because I had most of Ella's copywork for the year selected ahead of time. (I did refill the jar once, during our December break.)

That's Ella's Copywork Binder. The first page of the binder was a page of instructions/reminders from me, things like: print as neatly as you can, leave space between your words, use good punctuation, use a pencil so that you can erase if you need to, and date the top of each page. The rest of the binder was filled with clear protective sleeves, which she filled throughout the year.

A couple of other things Ella did during her "Copywork" time slot this year: she kept up on her letter-writing (she corresponds with two pen-pals), she used that time to write thank you cards or birthday cards, and about once a week she did her copywork in cursive.

Note to self: Some of the copywork selections I chose were too long. I either need to choose shorter ones or add a day for "finishing" into the schedule.

C.S. Lewis copywork selection

2011-05-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

I was just reminded all over again this morning how much I love C.S. Lewis, with Ella's copywork selection today:

"I was the lion."
And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the Voice continued.
"I was the lion who forced you to join Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you could reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you."

~The Horse and His Boy, C.S. Lewis

And now I'm off to help my 3-year-old control her temper and talk with my 6-year-old boy, who is sitting on his bed on a timeout, right after I check in with Ella to make sure she is doing okay as she does school at the table. (The other two are contentedly being buddies. :)) Thank you, Jesus, for the gift of motherhood. Now, please HELP me! :)

2010-11 Year in Review: Picture Study

2011-05-08T21:00:00.000-07:00

Picture Study

Sheesh. Now that I have a whole blog post devoted to what we did for Picture Study this year, I realize that I don't have much to say* other than:

We studied Norman Rockwell this year.

We have a couple of oversized books on Norman Rockwell and I just went through and selected several of his paintings and we studied them. (You can read more about how we do Picture Study here and here.)

Norman Rockwell has literally thousands of paintings-- I didn't realize just how substantial his body of work is until we started studying him. This man was putting out a brand-new painting weekly for the Saturday Evening Post. That's an astounding accomplishment for a painter.

No Swimming, 1921

What I liked: Norman Rockwell is an incredible artist, and his paintings have a photographic quality that I love. His attention to detail is so realistic that some of his paintings almost appear to actually be a photo. His paintings are like a snapshot capturing an ordinary moment in time: parents tucking their children into bed at night, a grown son home from the war, peeling potatoes with his mother working beside him, a family piled into the car. Rockwell had a gift for capturing the joys and adventures of childhood. (My kids loved his work.) I liked the fact that I was able to easily select paintings for different seasons of the year.

Freedom From Want, 1943

The Problem We All Live With, 1964

Oh! I almost forgot to tell you about my favorite addition to our Picture Study this year:

This cookbook holder-stand-thingamajig. (I don't actually know the appropriate term for this tool.) I spotted this one day at Target and knew it was the perfect thing to hold our picture study books.

See? So handy! No more trying to hold these large books open to the right page while trying to hold a squirmy child or having to continually prop the book up only to have it fall right over again. Loved this. On the days we did Picture Study (once a week. That's for you, Michelle!), it sat on our table, and on other days I set it top of our piano~ open to the most recent painting we'd studied or another one in the book that we weren't going to study, just so that the kids could see more of Rockwell's work.

*clearly I didn't have much of a problem coming up with something to say, now, did I?

I want to add that when I was planning for this year, I only selected Norman Rockwell works through the month of February. At the time I figured I would simply select another artist sometime before the end our Rockwell study (or take a few weeks break and then resume) and we'd finish out the year with another artist. Not so. It just never happened. (Note to self: plan ahead.)

2010-11 Year in Review: Composer Study

2011-05-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

We are super low-key about Composer Study, as you'll soon find out. If you want some more in-depth suggestions, click on over to Ambleside and do what they say. :)

I began the year with a plan to listen to Mr. Bach Comes to Call and one other CD~ the Beethoven one, I think. It's a dramatized story with some history thrown in and, of course: the music of the composers. We did listen to Mr. Bach Comes to Call, but for some reason we don't do audio CDs well here. I don't know what it is-- we listen to music just fine but for some reason it always seems too distracting in our home to tune into dialogue on a CD. (Maybe it's because I don't personally love the additional noise it creates or maybe it's because when we quieted to listen, the little girls decided that was the time to get louder. :)) I ended up setting up the CD in another room with the older three kids and entertained the little girls away from them, but that sort of defeated the purpose of doing this part of school all together. And then- I wasn't able to hear it, so I couldn't follow up on what they had heard. So I scrapped this plan and moved to Plan B, which was *really* simple:

I simply checked out various classical music CDs at the library and we listened to them. We did that for awhile~ we'd fold laundry together and listen to classical music, or I'd play it while the kids were doing their schoolwork at the table. That's it. So not really Composer *Study*, then, more like Composer Listening. ;)

Then. Mark discovered a gem of a book at a thrift store and I was (still am) over-the-moon about it. He actually found four composer biographies for about $1.99 apiece. Neither of us had never heard of these, but he showed them to me and after a quick perusal, I knew they were a find! It appears there are several more in the set, and now I'm on the lookout for them because we love them so much. I took some photos of the Peter Tschaikowsky book for you:

This is what we settled into, and it just suits us so well. The kids loved this book! Each week I read a portion of the book, and as we read, we listened to Tschaikowsky on Pandora. Easy-peasy. :)

So that's that. Next year I plan to simply delve into the other biographies we have collected.

Note: If you're interested, Zeezok Publishing has republished these Opal Wheeler biographies, and you can find them here.

***

Click here for an earlier post detailing another season of Composer Study in our home.

Next post: Picture Study

2010-11 Year in Review: Memory Work

2011-05-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

Memory work (catechism, Ten Verses cards, theme passage, sign language, Apostles Creed, review)

Mondays we worked through our catechism questions. I never learned a catechism as a child, so this has been a huge blessing to me as well. Even Adelia, at 3- pipes in with the answers to some of the questions, and I love that. :)

Tuesdays we worked on the Ten Verses cards. The kids loved this concept but I think I was a little overly ambitious, for two reasons:

1) I have five children. Four of them were learning verses this year. That's four *different* verses to go over in one relatively small time-frame. It just always seemed a little crazy come Tuesday mornings when we pulled out the verses.

2) Several of the verses I selected were actually passages of Scripture, not just one verse. For instance, right now Isaac is working on Revelation 5:11-13 for his verse #5. He's been working on it for several weeks, and has gotten a little bogged down with the length of it. I wish now that I had given only a single verse. (Then, if I wanted them to learn a passage, I could have just broken it down into single verses: so, Isaac could have been working on Revelation 5:11 for verse #5, Revelation 5:12 for his verse #6, and Revelation 5:13 for his verse #7.) Lesson learned.

That said, Ella has made it to verse #8 (so far... five weeks left and I bet she'll do it!) Isaac is on verse #5 (but SO close to finishing that and four out of his next five verses *are* single verses!) Isaias is on verse #6. Adelia (and Audra, sometimes, too) is on verse #7. They all love saying their verses to daddy and they love choosing a sticker and putting it on their cards.

Wednesdays we memorized our theme passage for the year (it is so much easier memorizing something all together), and then we moved on to implementing it (which they LOVE.) Now, every Wednesday morning we draw a name and then spend the day honoring the person whose name we drew. They have done each others' chores, made cards, made each others' beds, helped a little one get ready, invited a little one to do something with them, made a special effort to play whatever that child likes to play, and generally have been especially kind to that person on that day. :) It's been fun to watch what they've come up with.

Thursdays we learned the alphabet in Sign Language, and this was something else the kids really enjoyed- I think largely because it was different than our other memory work (because it involved their hands and their minds!) They learned this pretty early on in the year, so then we spent our time practicing. Sometimes we'd just sing through the ABC song and sign as we sang. Other times I'd write a few words up on the board and we'd all "spell" the words using sign language. Other times I would spell something to them and have them tell me what letters/words I was forming.

Fridays we learned the Apostles Creed, and then we played Rich Mullins' song and Third Day's version of it. When we had learned that- just a few weeks into the year- I used our time on Fridays to review our memory work from previous years (OT & NT books of the Bible, Landmark cards, verses). I think reviewing previous memory work is really important for retention, and next year I plan to start the year devoting one weekday to *just* this.

On Saturdays it was always my plan to read poetry during this circle/table/breakfast time... and then have the kids choose one poem to memorize and recite, but... we read poetry only a handful of times and never memorized any of it. Oh, well. Maybe another year...

Next up: Composer study/Classical music

2010-11 Year in Review: Bible

2011-04-26T14:56:00.000-07:00

Our school year will be finished at the end of May. Then Ella has some testing and then we're DONE! On to summer vacation! We have no big going-away plans but all sorts of gardening and backyard plans, and we're looking forward to more playtime, more outside time, and more freedom to our schedule!

For the next several posts, I plan to do a "Year in Review"~ looking back at what we've done and making notes on how it went. This is largely for my own benefit: to remind myself what we did and how it worked, but I'm going to post it here in case it is of interest to you. (I also plan to put together a list of our favorite books we've read this school year, including a list of Ella's recommendations.)

First up: Bible

We read through Catherine Vos' The Child's Story Bible for our Bible time each morning, and we all loved it. This is the first year I used this and I'm so glad I did.

In previous years I have used Hurlbut's Story of the Bible For Young and Old (which I also love). I actually found a copy of this at the thrift store last week (79 cents! Hardcover!) and was thrilled.

Quick comparison of the two: Vos' is less reading for each chapter, Hurlbut's is longer and more thorough. When we read Hurlbut (last year and the year before) I had to stop mid-chapter and continue the following day. Or maybe that was just because the kids were all younger. At any rate, I rarely had to do that this year. Other notes: Hurlbut's has direct quotes from the Bible, while Vos' does not (to my memory. If there are, they are very few.) For the ages of my kids- and having the two little ones with us at the table while we were reading, Vos' was perfect for us. I plan to continue to use both- alternating from year to year.

Mark reads the Bible (NIV) with the kids in the evenings (most nights) before bedtime. They began this a few years ago and are now in the book of Proverbs.

Next post: Memory work (catechism, Ten Verses cards, theme passage, sign language, Apostles Creed, review)

{2011 Easter pictures}

2011-04-25T10:02:00.000-07:00

Mighty to Wave

2011-04-20T21:12:00.000-07:00

Song 1: Mighty to Save

Mighty to wave
forever, Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
He is mighty to wave
He is mighty to wave
forever... (repeat, several times)

Song 2: I Shall Not Be Moved

I shall not be moved
Like a tree, planted by the water...

Grateful: Monday, April 18

2011-04-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

{snippets from my journal: One Thousand Gifts... and still counting!}

1462 | Audra, in her pink tutu... twisting her hips and watching her skirt twirl

1463 | Audra, who is indignant if I happen to call her "baby girl".
"Mommy: I'm not a baby. I'm Audra."

1464 | the delight of Isaac, who finished his chore today in time for the timer! (Hooray, budders!)

1472 | Tonia's posts on peace: here and here.

1477 | Mark's friendship with Andy and Erik, and their weekly breakfasts together.

1488 | That Isaac (7) always takes my hand when he's walking beside me.

1489 | The cheery bouquet of daffodils Mark brought me. And the bouquet of lilies and freesias he brought at the same time~ all because I'd said a few days before that the only thing our living room seemed to be missing was some spring flowers (thinking I couldn't wait for them start blooming in our yard so that I could cut some and bring some in!)

1492 | Brisk, early-morning walks (and talks) with my mom.

1500 | Your faithfulness, oh God~ in helping me find things! (papers we needed for taxes: lost, then found!)

1502 | Audra's face... and hands... and legs... after about 15 minutes of finger-painting!

1503 | The sound of someone mowing their lawn (Spring!)

1506 | Waking up to the song of the birds each morning

1507 | Getting to meet Sandi, from A Mother's Musings~ someone I've been friends with online for *years*... (We met for breakfast, and talked and talked and talked...! It was such a blessing to meet her!)

* * *

Nature study with Mark: Spiders!

2011-04-12T05:28:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned before that Mark is the go-to guy around here for nature study.. A couple of months ago, they studied spiders. ~shudder~

I'm still getting over the fact that things like this were sitting on my kitchen table:

Sure. It may look tiny. But it was quite large, I promise you.

The first thing Mark and the kids did was head outside with spider-catching bravery and find as many spiders as they could, then they brought them inside and examined them, talked about them and drew in their nature study notebooks. For my part, I stayed very, very far away from all these goings-on.

Mark had drawn some spider images and written some questions on the dry-erase board:

I contributed question #7, which was:

Are they gross and creepy?
-Yes.

No greater measure of your worth

2011-04-11T05:30:00.000-07:00

Dear readers,

I was so encouraged by this when I read it the other day, so I wanted to start off this week by sharing it with all of you, in the hopes that it would serve to encourage your heart, too:

In Genesis 2:18 we find the first and clearest statement of why God created the woman:

THE LORD GOD SAID, "IT IS NOT GOOD FOR THE MAN TO BE ALONE. I WILL MAKE A HELPER SUITABLE FOR HIM."

There you have it- God created the woman to be a helper to the man- to complete him, to be suited to his needs. Her life was to center on his, not his on hers. She was made from the man, made for the man, and given as God's gift to the man. Her relationship with her husband was the first and primary sphere in which she was to move and serve. Her husband was responsible to work to provide for their material needs. She was to be his helper and companion in reflecting the image of God, taking dominion over the earth, and reproducing a godly seed.

Together, they were to populate the earth with future generations of men and women who would love God and seek to fulfill His purposes in the world. The woman was uniquely designed and equipped- physiologically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually- by her Creator to be a bearer and nurturer of life. In a multitude of ways, she was endowed with the ability to add life, beauty, richness, fullness, grace, and joy to the family unit. There is no greater measure of her worth or success as a woman than the extent to which she serves as the heart of her home. (italics mine)

~Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Lies Women Believe...And The Truth That Sets Them Free

Did you hear that? You, dear mother, have been uniquely designed to add life, beauty, richness, fullness, grace, and joy to your family. There is no greater measure of your worth or success as a woman than the extent to which you are serving as the heart of your home. Blessings to you today, as you love and serve your husband and children and bring glory to God in the process!

Five Minute Friday: If you met me...

2011-04-07T21:37:00.000-07:00

I saw this whole Five Minute Friday idea awhile back on The Gypsy Mama and thought I should try it sometime...

She provides a "prompt", you take it and write on it~ but only for five minutes.

Today's prompt is: If you met me...

go

If you met me, I hope you would feel like I was easy to talk to. I think we'd laugh. I hope I would be a good initiator of conversation; that you would feel cared for and encouraged. I would probably say at some point during our conversation: "I'll pray for you about that". (And I would mean it.) I hope that I would be a better listener than a talker. (But that's pretty iffy).

If you met me you would hear me talk about Mark and my kids, because I love them so much. We might talk about books we've read, homeschooling, adoption, parenting, and maybe even Survivor-- if you watch it, that is.

If you met me, I hope you'd like me.

stop

(Was I supposed to not edit that? At all? Because if so, I cheated a little. I figure I earned some editing time due to the fact that for the first two minutes I just sat here, staring at my cursor.)

Changing my mind about our history selection

2011-04-05T17:29:00.001-07:00

Last week I scrapped our history book for the rest of the year.

When I began homeschooling Ella in 2007, I was drawn to the Charlotte Mason method, specifically: living books, habits, picture study, narration, nature study, and the Book of Centuries.

As we proceeded through that first school year, I was trying to edit the Hillyer text and incorporate biblical history into our readings, and I became frustrated with all the work that required of me.

We switched to Mystery of History (Vol. 1) , and it suited us well. I really liked the simplicity of having one book to read from and I appreciated biblical history weaved into the text.

I purchased Volume 2 for this year and we plowed ahead. We have two months left and we'll be finished with that book.

The readings this year are waaay longer than they were in Volume 1. There is a lot of information packed into each lesson, and while it is very thorough and I appreciate that, it has been drudgery at times. I try to edit it down as we go, but that's difficult to do as I'm reading. I recognized this at the beginning of the year, and I went through the Mystery of History book and noted where I could replace a particular lesson and read from other sources, and we have done that from time to time.

Last week I pulled out our Mystery of History book and turned to the lesson. On the top of the page I had handwritten a note about reading from Our Island Story for that particular lesson, which was about William the Conqueror. I began reading.

This is what I noticed: my kids gathered around me and were captivated by the story. They were wide-eyed, curious and engaged. I kept reading into the next chapter. They actually *thanked* me. I read the next chapter, too. They were so full of the story and we talked about all we'd read and they all had things they wanted to say and by the days end, Mark and I had drawn up a whole new plan to finish out our year, using Ambleside's recommendations.

I had all of the books already, because I'd started down that path. But somewhere in there I had forgotten the power of a story to engage their minds. In a season of babies and very little time for planning, I opted for ease. (And honestly, I can't say I wouldn't make the same choice again.)

But I'm freezing that moment in my brain: those three eager faces, hanging upon my every word as I read the story of William the Conqueror~ and I know it would be a disservice to go back to more of a textbook-format. That day we read twenty pages, because they were asking for more. They narrated it very well to Mark at lunch. Their retelling of it was so much more than I'd been hearing from our Mystery of History readings.

I am so grateful to know my children well: to know how they learn best and to be able to make changes based on that knowledge.

I don't want to be down on Mystery of History. It is a very thorough text and I am truly grateful for what we have learned from it, but we're all excited to be digging into our new (old) history picks, and I plan to stay the course.

"Snacky lunch"

2011-04-04T06:02:00.000-07:00

My kids have dubbed this kind of lunch a "snacky lunch", and it is their favorite kind of lunch, by far. Basically, what it means for me is that either we don't have any leftovers, I don't have any inspiration for figuring out what to fix, or we're running late and I need to get something on the table, and fast.

Hence, snacks. For lunch. Whatever can be dumped into a bowl with little or no prep from me.

On the table this day: trader joes' honey dijon pretzel pieces, cheese sticks, trader joes' snap pea crisps, strawberries, and homemade sweet potato chips.

Other things we've eaten for a "snacky lunch": fruit leather, string cheese, crackers, sliced cheese, sliced deli meat, peanut butter, apple slices, carrots, banana chunks, orange slices, pistachios, craisins, chips, olives, and that's all I can think of right now- though I know there's more.

My boy and his chores

2011-03-30T10:51:00.000-07:00

In our home our kids do their chores after each meal. Our after-breakfast chores are the ones I am always in the most hurry about, because we have school to get to and I want things to move along. So our system is that I set the timer and give the kids 20 minutes to accomplish their responsibilities. If they finish in time, they each earn a treat (usually a piece of gum or a few jelly bellies or something) for their quiet times, later in the day.

Isaac's chore for the year has been this:

-Clear off the table (everyone clears off their own dishes; he does the rest)
-Wipe down the table
-Sweep beneath the table
-Help E & I tidy up the living room, if there's time left over

Here's the thing: Isaac rarely finishes his chores in time for the timer. Maybe once a week. I know he can do it; he has done it before in about half that time. I also know he earnestly wants that treat. But he just gets so utterly distracted from the task at hand, several times during the task, that it's as if he can't help himself.

A few mornings ago it was chore time, we were about 10 minutes in, and I found him in the bathroom, playing with a toilet paper roll. There was a pitcher of orange juice on the back of the toilet. (From the table: we don't normally keep orange juice in the bathroom.) The best I can figure it is that he couldn't find a spot on the counter for the pitcher and wandered around to try to find me to ask me where he should put it and.... this is the part I don't get... got sidetracked by seeing an empty toilet paper roll in the bathroom, set the pitcher down, and began to play with the toilet paper roll. And then kept playing until I found him there some minutes later, wondering why on earth he was there, with the pitcher, in the bathroom of all places, when the timer was steadily ticking away.

I get really exasperated with this kind of thing. I try not to, but I often fail. I sighed, told him to get back to work, probably mentioned something about not understanding him or told him that a treat was likely out of the question, and then stewed about it as I washed up some dishes, wondering what I could possibly do to get this boy to begin a job and then work hard until the job is complete.

About this time, Adelia went in and started pestering him and he was a little tearful, trying to finish and getting bothered by his little sister. I asked her to go into the other room and let him finish up. The timer went off, and once again, Isaac was not done.

By the time he finished, I was in the living room folding laundry and still feeling crabby at this boy who takes so long to do his chores and gets so easily distracted. Isaias and Audra had already started their buddy time and Adelia was waiting for him. Then God, in His grace, allowed me to be present and watching while the following happened:

Isaac walked into the room and walked over to Adelia who was running through the room headed in the other direction. He stopped, looked down into her eyes, and kindly said: "I get to be *your* buddy today?" She said yes, and he took her hand and led her out of the room. I heard him talking to her as they walked down the stairs, asking her what she'd like to do. Then he suggested something they had done together before that she had liked, and said, "Oh! Did you want to..." She agreed, and off they went.

It was a gift from God, witnessing that moment. It was like He reminded me who my Isaac was. I sat there on the couch, laundry all around me, and cried for the sweetness and kindness of my boy. Adelia had just been in the kitchen, minutes before, bothering him. He could have been crabby at her and not felt at all like being her buddy. He could have cried and been disappointed that he didn't make it in time for the timer or that he didn't get a treat... again. But he didn't. He lovingly turned to his little sister and smiled at her and delighted in her and went off to play with her.

I was so thankful that God took the time to show me Isaac's character. Of course I knew it already: I know my boy. I know who he is: sweet, loving and kind. But in my irritability about his chore I had forgotten it. I saw only his immaturity. Somehow I knew, then, too, that it would all be okay. He is only seven. He's a child; he will get distracted. He will forget what he's doing and move on to something else. Also: he will grow in maturity in this area of working hard and attending to the task at hand. I am thankful to see, though, that he is attending to the more important things in life.

"Jesus could have done the big thing..."

2011-03-27T12:12:00.000-07:00

Sally Clarkson has a great post up today called The Sacrifice of Love. Here's just a portion of it that spoke to me:

"Jesus could have done the big thing, and reached leaders all over the world and brought kings to their knees. But He gave his life to the personal, the love, encouragement, instruction, service of his twelve, the common people, those entrusted into his hands, that they might know and feel the love of God, the touch of God, hear the words of God. He laid down His life in the daily that they might live a life of faith and invest in His kingdom for eternity."

This is probably the concept from Sally's books I have most cherished: that just as Jesus had his group, his twelve that he poured his life into while he was here on earth, we as mothers have our own little group to instruct-- numbered by however many children God has entrusted to us. I have five lives to pour into, day after day after day... to serve, love, instruct, build relationships with, listen to, answer questions, tell stories to, explain, eat with, laugh, discuss, admonish, work alongside of, pray with, correct....

It may not seem like a big thing. It may seem insignificant or ordinary. But look at the difference those twelve ordinary men made in the world. If we could only see our role as mothers in that way! If we purpose to invest in the lives of our children the way Jesus did with his disciples, imagine the impact our own children will have as they grow into maturity.

I think of this often as I think of the own legacy of my own grandma. My grandma was a faithful mother of eight: four sons and four daughters. She stayed home, serving her husband and raising her children. She made meals, she cleaned the house, she did the laundry. She had a garden and harvested from it. She mediated squabbles between her children. She taught them about Jesus. She prayed for them. She served them, laying down her life for them, year after year after year.

All eight children grew, got married, and raised their own children. Their children had children. Do you see the impact that "ordinary" woman had? Her life, laid down for her children, who grew to love and serve God and raise their own families to love and serve God... and on it goes.

Motherhood is such a worthy investment, dear readers. Blessings to you for pouring out your lives for your children: for doing the difficult but significant work of laying down your life for the children God has entrusted to you. He is faithful to strengthen and equip us for those He has given us. He is faithful to give you what you need. As you're wiping that runny nose, changing the four-hundredth diaper, getting your weary body out of bed to tend to a child in the dark of night, answering the endless questions of inquisitive minds, praying earnestly for their hearts, putting in the next load of laundry, or preparing another meal to put on the table... may you see all of these things as an offering of love to God.

Blessings to you today!

Honoring daddy

2011-03-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

This morning we decided to take our theme verse* and run with it.

Our verse is:

Romans 12:10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.

I told the kids that we were going to choose one person today and we would all think of one thing to do to honor that person. We chose daddy, and each of the kids listed off what they were going to do to bless daddy today.

Ella is going to make a card for him. She's going to draw birds and write I love you on the card.

Isaac is going to rub daddy's feet when he comes home from work. He also wants to scratch his back and tell him he loves him.

Isaias is going to greet him when he comes home with a hug and ask him how his day is going, and then snuggle with him.

They came up with those ideas on their own, and I helped Adelia by suggesting that she could either:
a) go potty in the toilet because daddy would be SO blessed by that (he truly would) or
b) be a cheerful obey-er today when daddy asks her to do something, to say, "Okay, daddy!" and run off to do it right away.

She of course agreed to do both, but she may need some reminders.

Mark stopped in for coffee a few minutes ago and the kids all flocked to the door to give hugs and kisses and ask him how he is and tell him how much they love him. It was very sweet. They are usually very loving but they were definitely doling it out *extra* today. :)

Next week we'll choose someone else. :)

{this photo is from another day when Ella honored us by surprising us
with sweet notes on our pillows!
Mark's note says: "Daddy, I love you. Your handsome and your fun."
Mine says: "Mommy, I love you. Your beautiful and your cute."}

*You can read more about our theme verse here.

Books we're reading

2011-03-21T22:47:00.000-07:00

I always like to hear what people are reading. I'm always reading something, and it's been awhile since I've posted a list. Here's what we're currently reading at our house:

I'm reading through the Bible this year, and am on week 12 and am not even behind in my reading! (which never ever has happened when I've tried to do this in the past, so I'm quite happy about it!) I have this trusty little sheet in the back of my journal with all these rows of boxes to check off and I love filling in the little boxes. It's a good system. Generally when I read the Bible, I tend to "camp out" in one portion of Scripture for a length of time, so I found it challenging at first to be skipping around so much. Now that I have settled in, though, I'm really enjoying it. Because I just really love God's Word!

I've just finished reading Wendell Berry's Hannah Coulter and thoroughly enjoyed it. Probably not everyone's cup of tea, but *totally* mine. I kept reading aloud portions to Mark~ about love, home, community, work, family, children and the land. So good. I'll be reading more of his books in the near future.

I'm almost finished with Nancy Leigh DeMoss' book Brokenness, Surrender, Holiness: A Revive Our Hearts Trilogy and I have really enjoyed it. I've never read anything by DeMoss before, but after reading this book I have the utmost respect for her and her relationship with God. I highly recommend this book.

I'm also still in the midst of Ann's book One Thousand Gifts. Her book, like her blog, has encouraged me to stop hurrying around already, to slow down, to savor *this* moment, every one of them (even the difficult ones), and to be grateful.

The kids and I just finished the missionary biography Gladys Aylward: The Adventure of a Lifetime and we were amazed together at Aylward's tenacity. We love reading missionary biographies together, and the kids kept requesting "just one more chapter, please?" Music to my ears. :)

Mark just finished up a book with the kids and they're moving on to The Wind in the Willows next. Mark started reading it awhile back and then set it down for something a little more, um- riveting, (or maybe it was because I groaned every time he picked it up. Ugh. I have never personally understood the attraction to that book.) Isaac has reminded us for several months that we never finished it and that he wants to, so... I will contain myself.

The little girls adore all books. Audra especially wants to read any book that contains a lot of kitties within its pages, so that she can exclaim over each and every one.

Adelia is no longer content with me paraphrasing the words of each book. I often do that for the little ones, largely because I know they will not sit through all the words before they'll want to turn to the next page, so rather than get cut off in the middle of each page, I just paraphrase. Recently Adelia has begun saying: "Mommy. Are you reading that? Read that. What does it say?" Okay, then. My days of paraphrasing are officially over.

What are you reading at your house these days?

With Great Joy

The Four Stages: Revisited

Praying...

What is there *not* to love about two?

A chapter a day...

Early morning gratitude

Happy day-after-Christmas! (& our Handmade Christmas recap)

Why I said yes

Christmas gift-giving

Wednesday, December 7th

Default: theirs and mine

Adoption link

Good read

School-to-vacation transition

Good read for adoptive parents

Blueberry-banana muffins

Remembering my life two years ago

I LOVED this book.

Copywork selections

Roasted Vegetables

Butternut Squash Lasagna

{this moment}

Eight: a happy birthday

Playdough!

Blessed

Octobers

{this moment}

The Four Stages

How God is Filling our Africa Jar

Thoughts on planning meals

Current read-alouds

Good link

Sample reading lesson: First Grade

Meal plan printables

"Classroom Rules"

Surely this will help me in the meal-planning department

Scenes from life with my seven-year-old boy

My independent two-year-old

{ a p p l e s a u c e }

Chore chart, 2011

Recap of our first day

The flow of our day

Approaching our first day of school with a right spirit

Canning

Our lesson plan: {sample page}

Thoughts on the start of a new school year

Rhubarb Sauce

Hair Day: Photos

Fair day!

Sunday afternoon tradition

Quote from David Platt

Weeding and cultivating the soul

On marriage

{Best thing I saw today}

Three good books

Grateful: Monday, August 1

Practical solution for a 3-year old's clothes

View of my bed these days

Instructions from a six-year old boy

"To pack" list for young children

Africa on my heart

Narration ideas

Book list: Favorite read-alouds and Ella's list

2010-11 Year in Review: Kindergarten

When the laundry piles are enormous

Thoughts on a sunny Tuesday

On how much I need Jesus

On anger and expectations in mothering

2010-11 Year in Review: First Grade

Open House: Monday, June 6

Larry the Tooth Fairy

Joy at home

2010-11 Year in Review: History/Math/English

2010-11 Year in Review: Copywork

C.S. Lewis copywork selection

2010-11 Year in Review: Picture Study

2010-11 Year in Review: Composer Study

2010-11 Year in Review: Memory Work

2010-11 Year in Review: Bible

{2011 Easter pictures}

What is there not to love about two?