365 Project | Week 35

This Mommy is rejoicing in the privilege of homeschooling our children. I felt like we finally settled into our routine this week, and it was lots of fun. :)  It's really exciting to see the kids growing and learning and expressing themselves creatively! :) Praise the Lord!

 

Day 239. Sunday afternoon snuggles with Daddy--made better only by a great rendition of Paul Bunyan's tall tale. :)

 

Day 240. So, Matthew and homeschooling. I've had multiple people asking me how that works. Most of the time, he does great. Monday morning, though, he was a wee bit distressed. He didn't know what he wanted and absolutely nothing Mommy suggested was an acceptable peace offering ... until I mentioned stickers. Of course, I thought he might enjoy putting the stickers on a piece of paper, but no, decorating our arms is much more fun. Who knew? ;) So thankful he found his smile again!

 

And yes, this snapshot pretty well sums up why he was a wee bit distressed. Nap time could not come soon enough. :)

Day 241. Puzzle box + blanket proved to be a very effective combination for the rest of the week. We start our school morning with some special story time for my littlest learner, but I'm very thankful that he's generally able to occupy himself for a reasonable length of time after that.

Day 242. Lunch time! :) Can I say how much I enjoy not having to pack lunches for my crew? But the best part of lunch time is our memory box which you can see the middle--we're actively working on memorizing more Scripture, and Hannah and Peter are amazing me by how quickly and well they've been able to learn longer passages. It's very exciting! :)

Day 243. We're blessed by a random vine which has voluntarily chosen to grace our porch railing ... and brings us beautiful white blooms at the close of summer.

Day 244. Go BJU Bruins! We thoroughly enjoyed supporting our Alma-mater at the inaugural games of their intercollegiate sports program.

 

#27 is our sister-in-law's sister! Go Annie! :)

It was so much fun hearing the crowds erupt when the men scored their first goal!

Fireworks and a blue moon kept the skies interesting as well. :)

Day 245. Continued remodeling progress ... Chris and the kids set up a painting booth to make it easier to spray paint the doors. (Pre- and post-picture, I was inside folding a week's worth of laundry ...) I am so thankful for a husband who slows down enough let the kids help him in projects--and his patience with them when they were little and really not any help at all has resulted in a 5 and 7 year old who are great helpers! Thanks, honey! :)

 Overwhelmed with joy and thanksgiving for the blessings of the week. So thankful.

365 Project | Week 34

Praise the Lord! No "emergencies" this week (unless you include a twisted pair of eye glasses, but hey, no ER involved there!) :) The days march on, and I am starting to believe that we've actually settled into cooler weather for the season. It's wonderful to wake up to temperatures in the upper-60's, low-70's! :)

 

Week 2 was better (easier, less stressful) than week 1 of homeschooling, and I've hopes that week 3 will be better yet. We're slowly tweaking our routine, and starting to figure out what works and what doesn't. I'm blessed with good students who catch on quickly, so that definitely makes the teacher's job easier. :) I personally am loving teaching my munchkins. :) It's such a blessing to be HOME and focusing my efforts on these precious souls the Lord has entrusted to us.

 

Day 232. I was quite excited to discover a purple mushroom in our yard--I had never seen one quite that color before, and it spurred a photo session. Peter and I tramped all over the yard in our Sunday clothes, photographing the rainbow in mushrooms. Lots of fun, and a special memory with my young man! :)

 

Day 233. Somehow it seems that no matter how hard Mommy tries, Daddy can always give bigger and better pushes. ;) We enjoyed having him home for some evening fun in the yard.

Day 234. Miss Hannah-bug lost her seventh tooth this week! And when tasked with using her imagination to draw herself in a special place, she chose the top of a tree. She dreams of being able to go as high as the squirrels and the birds. :) For this same project, Peter drew himself in an army helicopter. :)

Day 235. Speaking of airplanes, Peter and Matthew spent the better part of an hour this week enjoying Daddy's album of airshow pictures.

Day 236. 8:12 a.m. as Mommy is preparing breakfast: "Mommy! You have got to come outside. I have a surprise for you! And bring. your. camera." Who can resist an invitation like that? :) Not this Mommy. :)

Peter had discovered a cool yellow mushroom and knew that I would be excited to see it. What he doesn't know is how much more Mommy enjoyed the fact that he had found something special and wanted to share it with me. :)

For those who are interested though, the underside of this mushroom was amazingly bright! And no, we did not add it to breakfast. ;)

Day 237. Waving good-bye to Daddy as he heads off to work ...

Day 238. It delighted this Mommy's heart to watch Hannah sweetly and patiently helping Matthew learn how to paint this Saturday. We brought out the paints so that Peter could paint a rock for his snail he had buried earlier in the week, and I was multi-tasking between him and dinner, so supervising Matthew really wasn't feasible. I gave Hannah permission to paint, but realizing how much Matthew wanted to paint as well, she actually spent most of the time helping him. What a joy to see my little lady practice putting others first without being told to do so. ♥

 

Such are the snippets of everyday life in these parts.
I'm thankful for them.
And thankful for Project 365
which is helping me remember and document them.
And thankful for those of you are following me in this journey. :)

365 Project | Week 33

Well, if last week was a roller coaster, this week was exhausting. :) Granted, along with our first week ever of homeschooling, we decided to throw in two very late nights of work for Daddy, an ER visit, and a dead car battery, but hey! who's counting? :) Overall, our first week of school went really well, and Mommy is looking forward to starting week two with week one under our belts. :)

Day 225. Daddy made a trip to buy special start-of-school pencil boxes for the kids and came home with flowers for the teacher, too. :) Thanks, Honey! :)

Day 226. Mommy's crew on our first day of school! :)

Day 227. Hands-down, everyone's favorite part of the week--art class. :) After talking about composition, their assignment was to use ebony pencils to sketch something around the house, including the details around it like windows or doors. They both decided to sketch the bird feeder which hangs out the dining room window.

 I had to laugh when Peter explained that the bird was flying away because it was scared by the squirrel. :)

And Hannah amazed me with the detail she included in her picture! This was her third drawing based on that assignment, and it was really exciting to see how she developed even in just that one drawing session. :)

Day 228. We all enjoy taking a recess mid-morning ... and Matthew has decided that the "baby" swing isn't too bad after all since Mommy will push him much higher on that swing than she will on the "big" swings. ;)

Day 229. I must say that this wasn't in our plans for this week at. all. Late Wednesday night Hannah developed some intense stomach pain which continued to worsen. After consulting with our doctor, we decided that a trip to the ER would be necessary. Thankfully the pain subsided as inexplicably as it arrived about four hours later. Multiple tests came back normal, and we returned home at 7:00 a.m. Needless to say, our schedule for the day was a bit altered. :} So thankful that none of this was a surprise to our Father.

Day 230. Note to self. Leaving the key in the run position is bad for the van battery. And in case you ever wondered, the horn doesn't honk when the battery is dead. Just thought I'd save you the trouble of experimenting ... in case you ever wondered. ;) And no, this was not an intentional science experiment. In case you were wondering about that, too. ;)

Day 231. We now have a snail family numbering five: Pokey (AKA Snaily), Goliath, Minnie, Mickey, and Rainbow. We upgraded from a lettuce container with random yard dirt to a plastic shoe box with "EcoEarth" this weekend. :) Funny thing is, I think Mommy enjoys the snails as much as the kids do. :)

Thus ended a busy, full week. :)

Hoping to settle into a bit of a routine this upcoming week (minus the ER visit part ...) :)



365 Project | Week 32

I can best describe this week as a roller coaster, and I spent Thursday evening at the very bottom. By the time I went to bed in the wee hours of the morning, I was pretty well-nigh certain that this homeschooling business was a very. bad. idea. How quickly could we get them enrolled in a traditional school???? Thankfully, some sleep and prayer helped improve my perspective, and by Friday morning the Lord had helped me work through some organizational challenges that had given me mental block the night before. At this point, we are all really excited (and Mommy is ready!) to start school tomorrow morning. Ready or not, here we go! :)

Day 218. Okay, I am SO glad to have finally captured this face on camera. Daddy was the one directly involved in the situation, so I used my zoom to discreetly capture it from the kitchen. ;) When he has a mind to be, Matthew can be as stubborn as the best of them, but in general, he's super sweet and this face captures his heartbroken response to rebuke when he's not been trying to be bad. We love you, Monkey! We are so thankful for your sweet, tender spirit.

Day 219. Getting a new view on life. :) Mommy tends to find a pillow quite helpful for that, but hey, rings work, too. :)

Day 220. In a last minute decision, Mommy invested about five hours late Monday night getting six bins and two boxes worth of clothing ready for our local consignment sale. My crew enjoyed spending an hour with friends while Mommy dropped off the clothes. and I'm looking forward to picking up the check next week. :)

Day 221. Hannah enjoyed using her pastels to create a card for a little boy celebrating his 6th birthday. He is battling a terminal illness, and we are so thankful the Lord allowed him to reach this milestone!

Day 222. It's amazing to me to see how the Lord can use His people to turn discouraging situations completely upside down. Tuesday afternoon, I had woken Matthew up early from his nap in order to take the kids to a Lego event. Sadly, I misread the time, and it was basically over when we arrived. :( The kids really responded well, but I was tired and more than a little discouraged about it. I was absolutely overwhelmed when a friend who had been involved in the event messaged me that evening and offered to let the kids borrow the Lego mosaics for a few days. What an incredible, unexpected blessing! The double blessing was that it kept the kids happily occupied for multiple hours on Thursday while I was working on homeschool preparations.

Day 223. What a joy it has been to watch this young lady grow and mature this summer. :) She is proudly holding her very first pan of brownies made completely on her own--she got the ingredients, read the recipe, measured and mixed, all by herself. I was in the kitchen, but my only contribution to her efforts was putting the pan in the oven and taking it out again. They turned out great! :) We love you, Doodle-bug. Your cheerful, helpful spirit is a big blessing to your Mommy and Daddy!

Day 224. This Saturday evening, we enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship with a family who has recently moved to our area. The kids had a blast exploring the yard as kings and queens and cowboys, while the adults enjoyed getting to know each other inside. It was funny though, because their mom and I both felt like we had known each other for a really long time, when in reality, it had only been a few hours. What a joy it was to realize we had discovered new friends. :)

And thus ended our last week before school ... looking forward to the adventures that await us! :)
And praying for grace for the challenges ...

365 Project | Week 31

Everybody's starting to get super excited about the start of school around here! Most of our books are present and accounted for, the shelves are ready, and Mommy's finalizing schedules for the year. By the Lord's grace, we'll be starting on August 13. Ready or not, here we go! :) And for the record, some days or hours I feel more ready (or not) than others. ;)

  

Day 211. Peter went to bed Saturday evening with a sore throat and woke up with it Sunday morning, so he stayed home so we could make sure it wasn't going to start looking like strep. He kept himself quietly occupied, which was a blessing for his Mommy who wore herself out with painting the day earlier. :) What do you think of his soccer field, inspired by a challenge in his Lego Kids magazine?

Day 212. I must say it's an encouragement to this Mommy's heart to see big brother and sister playing sweetly with their little brother. Just this week Matthew coined a name for Hannah, and he woke up Saturday morning hollering "Boo, Hans! Boo, Hans!" (She cheerfully obliged him with a game of crib peek-a-boo.) He's also become quite the parrot, and mimics us as we count or recite the alphabet for him. It's been fun! :)

Matthew obviously thinks his brother is pretty great stuff! :)

Day 213. It is so encouraging to see the Lord's hand in everything. Justin and Valerie coordinated a get-together for our friends, Jon and Crystal, who were visiting from Colorado. Sadly, their youngest got sick with croup, and Crystal was in the hospital instead of at the party. However ... the men agreed to watch the kids, and the ladies piled in the van to go visit Crystal. The Lord allowed Titus to fall asleep just before we arrived, and we enjoyed nearly an hour of sweet, uninterrupted conversation before he woke back up. What a blessing! Had everything been the way "we" would have planned it, Titus would have been healthy, and the mommies probably wouldn't have enjoyed the fellowship all together as we were able to in the hospital hallway. All things work together for good! (Thankfully, Titus is doing much better, and Valerie has since been able to return her home to its former neat condition.) ;)

Day 214. Our shelves are ready for school books, and the kitchen table will be our desk. A more "official" location is simply going to have to wait for future remodeling. Who knows? We may decide we prefer it this way. ;)

Day 215. We have two scholars very excited about their piles of new books! :)

Day 216. Another special blessing this week ... our family enjoyed the entire pool to ourselves after Peter's last swim lesson Friday evening! It made our family time with Daddy extra special. :) 

 Daddy makes BIG splashes! :)

 My cutie! So thankful his swimmie works as well as the ones I remembered my Grandma having for her pre-swimmers.

 Peter has one awesome cannon-ball!

 And here's my swimming girl! :)

Day 217. Along with the rest of the world, we've enjoyed following our favorite Olympians ... we just do it via the Internet with about a 36-hour delay on the full-replay of the races. Nobody minds too much! :)  (Earlier, Mommy had been working on homeschool schedules while Matthew napped and Daddy had the big kids at Home Depot.)

And just because ...

My rising 2nd grader ...

And my rising K5er ...

One more week till school ... :)