January's Treasures

Gussy-poo and Gabby...

Sweet sleeping boys...

Gabriella's imaginary beach complete with the ocean (the blue towel), sand (the tan towel), seashells and water (in her bucket)...

Incredibly serious business...

Sweet Gabriella decorating a gingerbread girl at her dear friend Ayla's house...

Josiah insisted on wearing these exact (three) shirts in this exact order on library day...

Happy Birthday Aunt Ann!

We celebrate you!

One of Josiah's favorite things to do is to walk around and flip up every single light switch in the house..

Just because cards that Aunt Becky, Uncle Andy and Grandma June sent the kiddos...

Mikey's wet rag creation...

The school bus that Caleb has made famous...:) 

Sleep tight, sweet baby...

I love my babies! 

Mikey's work...

One day I'll forget what it's like to try and wriggle my arm free from under a sleeping baby...

Quite time is not easy to come by...

My reading buddy...

January, you have been jovial! 

Sew Happy

Sewing makes me happy. When I finish a project I feel like I've accomplished something. I really enjoy the feeling I get when I step back and take a look at something that time and a little work has put together. I now have random longings to peacefully stroll the isles of fabric stores, alone. That's quite tricky to pull off. Honestly, nearly impossible. But if I ever do get the chance to walk and daydream and enjoy the peace and quite, I do just that, enjoy it.

Over Christmas I worked on heart potholders for friends and family. I've still got a few more to finish up but oh, how cute they turned out. 

I've been wanting to make matching aprons for my little Gabriella and I and couldn't resist pushing this project to the front of the line. It was my first project that offered a chance for me to gather and use interfacing. It came with quite a few steps but in the end the aprons turned out well worth it. 

I had the chance to work on a football baby blanket with Natasha and oh, how fun it was! She gifted it to a friend of hers who is having her 3rd little boy. What a sweet, thoughtful gift! 

Nana had her dad refurbish a doll bunk bed that was hers when she was a little girl and gave it to Gabriella for Christmas. We will treasure that gift for years and years to come and perhaps one day Gabriella will get to pass it along. 

Nana mentioned that the only thing it needed was sheets. It took us some time to get to but we finally got some sheets made. I wanted Gabriella to be a part of the making so I cut and pinned the fabric and with a little guidance she did the majority of the sewing. It's so fun to watch her get so excited about sewing. 

I have a few other projects that I'd love to get started on and one is trying my hand at making a quilt. Since it intimidates me quite a bit I've decided to give it a whirl with the scraps of fabric from the doll sheets. The dolls need blankets, right? And they won't be too terribly upset if I mess up, right? :) I've started cutting 3.5x3.5 squares, we shall see. I'm excited!

I'd also really love to make the boys their own little chef aprons and maybe a Valentine's skirt for gabby, just for fun. 

Mikey's School

I must have been downstairs putting Josiah down for his nap when Gabriella and Alyana were busy with this. 

After lunch I always make sure to tell the girls and Isaac what I'd like for them to have accomplished by the time I get back from laying Josiah down. Sometimes I'll have a little something for Mikey to do and sometimes I won't. Today must have been one of the days I didn't "assign" anything to Michael but no worries, the girls did. 

They created him a little space for his school work complete with comfy chairs, a blanket, a few toys, books, a couple clipboards with paper and pencils and apparently even a scooter. Because we all need means of transportation, right?

It was a pleasant surprise for me to stumble upon when I arrived. Mikey was so very content in his little space and proud to shared his work with me. 

He said he was busy "writing his letters". Very busy indeed. 

He's so adorable. And so are those two sweet girls who love and care about Mikey enough to do this for him. 

Skip Counting

The girls are doing a really great job understanding why the concepts we're learning together in math are so important. It's important to me that they not just learn the skills but that they see value in them and understand how it could possibly help make our lives easier.

It's time now for skip counting and I almost can't believe how quickly they caught on. When I count a group of items by ones they are quick to tell me that skip counting is the much easier way to go. I love to joke around with them. 

They're doing a little review here, counting by twos. 

And here they're making connections with things we can count by 5's like our fingers and our toes. 

Telling time with an analog clock is right around the corner for these two and they're so excited. 

Better Late Than Never

After living in our house for a few months now, delivering warm baked goods to our neighbors feels way past due. However, I guess a little late is better than never. 

I must give my mom all credit though and thank her for sharing a super delicious cookie recipe with me that caused me to bake up an unspeakable amount of those delicious cookies in one single weekend. With all the Cookie Monsters that live in our house, ahh-hum...Gabriella, I've tried what feels like a few hundred cookie recipes and, for one reason or another, haven't ever been fully satisfied. Well, now I am. Thank you, mom! 

Although it was a chilly day in January our hearts sure were warm walking from neighbor to neighbor sharing kindness with a few smiles and a dozen or so cookies. 

"The Cutest Thing Ever"

Playing with dirt is fun. Playing with dirt AND water, fun, fun, FUN. 

Dig...splat...stir...smooth...scoop...plop...fun, fun, FUN! 

A little memorable side note: Gabriella found the tiniest of worms while digging and bursting with excitement, squealed "I found the cutest thing ever!". It really was a pretty cute little guy. He sure did give all of us quite the longing for spring. Soon enough, though. Soon enough. 

H.E.A.R.T: Martin Luther King Jr

Denise and I had the privilege of leading the 5-9 year old at our homeschool group this past week. We spent a lot of time talking about kindness and about how we can all work hard to be peacemakers just like Martin Luther King Jr. 

We did an egg demonstration for the kiddos (thank you, Pinterest) where I cracked open both a white and brown egg. We talked about how we may look differently than each other on the outside but that we are all the same on the inside. We all have a heart and we all have feelings (etc). What a powerful visual. I was close to "preaching" at one point when we started talking about where the eggs came from. They both came from a chicken just like we all came from God. He created us perfectly and in His own image. Uniquely and differently but perfectly and all for His honor and glory.   

Among a few of our other activities were cards with random acts and we sorted them as we talked about which were peacemakers and which were peacebreakers. I also shared a moving demonstration I found here about how our acts of kindness, no matter how small, effect the world around us. At the end of the demonstration I gave each of the kids a cube and we eventually all connected our cubes so that they created one large mass. We got the chance to talk about what kind of effect it makes when we come together as a group to do something kind for others and dropped that large mass into the water. What a splash it made! There is power in numbers. We have the opportunity to make a "bigger" splash when we join hand and hand with others for the same cause. 

Denise organized a craft that fell in line so perfectly with the tone of the day. You're so awesome, Denise! 

 

The kids took a lot of pride in their work and came up with some really wonderful ways in which they would change the world. 

Finally, I challenged the kids and their families to complete "100 Acts of Kindness" by Valentines day. (It's an activity we use to do in the classroom and I really enjoyed it). It basically consist of finding a way (anyway) to keep track of your family's acts of kindness. You could keep track with tally marks, filling a jar with pom-poms or even recording each act in a journal. 

I, personally, really wanted to use the activity as a chance to encourage my kiddos to look for the good in OTHERS. If I over think the idea too much I start to get leery, worrying it'll turn into some sort of competition or create unnecessary narcissistic behavior and bragging. In hopes to veer them away from those things, I laid a few ground "rules" but just didn't call them "rules". 

The following day after our homeschool group, our crew took some time to sit and talk about all the wonderful things we had learned. We decided we wanted to be peacemakers and do our best to be kind to others. It was then I got the chance to share the ground "rules" and explain how we were going to keep track of our 100 Acts. The smiles are their faces showed how excited they were. Even so, I noticed they weren't overly eager to begin looking for excuses to write something down just for the sake of writing something down. I counted that as a blessing and as a great start.

 

What a beauty, no matter how short or long, that chain is going to be for days and days to come. 

A little side documentation (since I always seem to be the student with the most to learn): I felt God nudging me through this experience. Nudging me to let go of all that over-thinking and control over what's going to happen to my kids if "I fail". Sometimes (a lot of times) I need to do a little (A LOT) less worrying and a lot more trusting Jesus. He knows my heart and my intention and will take care of the rest. I need to trust Him more and realize He ultimately has control over it ALL. 

Piano

Gram so generously gifted the kids with her piano about four weeks ago. What a tremendous blessing! There hasn't be a day that's gone by since then that I haven't heard those tiny fingers composing. 

Gram's only request is that we get the kids piano lessons one day and that they learn to play it. We are going to work extra hard to make that happen. 

The Writing Process

The kids worked hard all week long writing about their New Year's resolutions. We started brainstorming using with a circle map and all thought of three things we'd really like to accomplish this year. Isaac wanted to play more football, race more and go to the movies more. Alyana wanted to eat more vegetables, love Jesus more and play more. Gabriella wanted to be kind, exercise and not steal. 

I used the example of a stoplight to help us talk about how good writers have a beginning, middle and end to their stories. We all agreed that their titles and opening sentences were like green lights, letting our readers know it's go-time! Time to let them know what it is they are about to read and time for them to get excited about that topic. The yellow light is the body of our stories where our readers get to slow down and read carefully the chunk of our writings. That's were a lot of the excitement is in our writing so they've got to slow down to make sure they don't miss anything. Not one detail! Finally, the closing sentence is like the red light, letting our readers know that we've finished and helping them to come to a complete stop while giving them a sense of closure. 

There is just something extra exciting about working so hard on something and getting to share that work with someone. Half of the fun of writing is having an audience to share it with, right? We decided that since sending mail is ALWAYS fun (and an fantastic motivator) we'd send a copy of our final work to someone, anyone; aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, cousins and even friends. They were thrilled about the idea, finished their work up and sent their letters off. And I was just happy to see them happy. I really enjoyed watching them accomplish such a work. 

Washing Dishes

I was busy working on getting a late dinner in the oven when I heard her little voice speak up from behind me declaring, "I'm going to wash the dishes." I carried on as I watched her grabbed her apron and a chair. After she put on her apron, she scooted the chair right up to the sink and turned on the water. Away she went washing the sick full of plates and utensils while merrily singing Christmas songs. There was confidence and authority in the way she approached the task like she had done it millions of times before. She hadn't though.  I looked over my shoulder at her adorable self and observed how she tilted her head ever so slightly while scrubbing those dishes. She talked to her self between singing lines of Christmas lyrics about the running water, which dishes were easy to clean and which were more difficult. She made conclusions about what "scrubby brush" worked best. She walked away from the sink with a smile and a soaking wet shirt (and apron and skirt). 

The dishes weren't spotless and, yes, had to rewash them but I'd do that day after day after day if I could experience what I experienced when watching her like I did today. Experiencing her confidence, my appreciation, her selflessness and my adoration. She is such an amazing little girl. I hope we have many, many more times like this, together working in the kitchen.  

Clean-a-madacer

I asked the kiddos to straighten up a bit while I attempted to sweep the dining room floor and wipe the kitchen table off. 

Gabriella hardly every complains about helping out around the house. She is pretty much the only one who will ever do it without being asked. She even has this amazing ability about her to sense when I am stressed or overwhelmed with the tasks of keeping up with the home and will come around like an angel and ask what she can help me with. Sigh...she's so sweet.

Given so, I found it a little (just a little) surprising that she came around the corner shortly after I requested they straighten up saying, "I wish I had a clean-a-madacer (sp?) to clean my room for me." Haha! All I wanted to say or shout, rather, was AMEN, girl, AMEN! 

I loved this idea so much I asked question after question about her thoughts concerning it. She told me it would have a mop to mop, a broom to sweep, a duster, a washer for dishes and a few other things I can't seem to remember. I encouraged her to write down her ideas and maybe we could help her invent it one day.

She called this her "brainstorm".

I suggested she keep an eye out for items around the house we could use to build her clean-a-madacer with, like toilet paper or paper towel rolls. She quickly said that wouldn't do because it would just fall apart. She started listing of materials like screws, a hammer and wood. She's serious about this and was ready to make it happen today. I explained that sometimes ideas like hers take time to create and have to be worked on bit by bit. Little ones get so excited. I understand so well. She seemed to settle with allowing today to be her brainstorming day. We'll see what's to come of it. :) 

H.E.A.R.T.: The Water Cycle and Egg Drop

Our Raeford Homeschool group has changed their name, their location and the weekday in which we meet since our last meeting in December. We now meet on Thursdays at a wonderful church that provides us much more space with separate rooms for each of our age groups. We also now go by the name of H.E.A.R.T of Raeford. So sweet. It stands for Home Educators Advancing Relationships Together (H.E.A.R.T). I love it. I feel blessed to be a part. 

This week's theme was Science and Denise and I stepped up to lead the preschoolers. We had a wonderful time with our sweet group of five (well, seven if you include our littlest ones who were glued to our hips, ha!) We did a little lesson on the water cycle and finished with a rain experiment. The LOVED it.  

It took Josiah quite some time to feel comfortable enough to experiment but once he did, he sure enjoyed it. 

The 5-9 year old group as well as the 10 and up group experimented with the egg drop. They worked in small teams, devised a plan to keep their egg from cracking then build it. The preschoolers joined in when it was drop time to watch. It was a lot of fun to see how excited each group got about their creation. From what I remember only two of about 10 or so groups' egg cracked. 

This was also the first week that Isaac participated with the 10 and up age group. I wasn't at all prepared for that transition to happen and was surprised to feel quite emotional about it. He really enjoyed it. They are all growing up so fast!

Overwhelmed with Love for Him

We were in the middle of a normal school day. I was teaching Isaac, Alyana and Gabriella and he sat across the table from me. Time stood still for moments. Long moments. I've learned as a parent to stop when that happens and do nothing but soak it up. 

An overwhelming feeling swept over me as I stared at him. I admired him and his growing-three-year-old-self. He sat there with such purpose. I felt so grateful for him and what he gifts me with everyday, with the opportunity to be HIS momma. I felt the seams of my heart bulging and I allowed my self, for those moments, to be completely submerged in my love for him.  Among all the feelings I felt I even felt remorse, for not taking the time everyday to appreciate all he has to offer. He is so beautiful. He has so much to say, so much to be heard. At every waking moment he is busy soaking life up. 

I love you baby boy. I appreciate you and all you have to offer. I hear you and am listening. I want to dedicated the mommy-hood I'm given to esteeming you and building you up. You have such purpose. I love you so, my Mikey. So much.