Not What We Planned

We had awesome plans on Wednesday.... playing at a new park, picnic-ing with friends, swimming/wading in the river to cool off:)

We may make a lot of plans,

but the LORD will do

what he has decided.
Proverbs 19:21

After staying up late to prepare our lunch (cookies to share, grilled chicken for lunch) and pre-pack our bags, we all woke up looking forward to our little trip.

But then Anna came limping into the kitchen to get her breakfast???

I called my momma to ask what I should do. And then called the phone nurse to get another opinion (not that I didn't believe my mom, but she was unsure, too). Both basically had the same concern....

the bee sting from last week!! We must not have gotten the stinger all the way out!

So instead of being here with Andrea, Alicia, and Shannon and their crew;)

We were here...


I'll just be blunt and honest.... I was NOT happy we were having to go to the doctor! I had started the conversation about meeting and swimming!! And I had been looking forward to hanging out with these other families!! It just bugged me that we were missing out on such a fun time!

I KNOW that Momma's tone about each situation sets the tone for the kids. They look to me to see how they should react. If I have a bad attitude, they easily have bad attitudes, too!! Talk about convicting .... can't really discipline their bad attitudes when I have one:/

But ....

That morning I had prayed that during our day I wouldn't be soo distracted by the "mommy conversation" that I would overlook the precious and fun time with the kids.

Interesting how that applied today:)

So THAT became my focus... spending time WITH my kids, not just being with them.

At the doctors, Chris and Lydia kept busy only how Chris and Lydia stay busy.

Nate napped.

And Anna tried not to be worried.

They did amazing... even though they never could get anything out of Anna's foot :( But we know it's not anything too serious, it's just waiting for it to heal.

We went to a indoor McD's playground with our picnic lunch!! The kids thought I was coolest mom and I was purposefully interacting with them!

And since it was after 2pm as we headed out of town.... SONIC stop:)

We had a great day... considering the initial disappointment! But we did what we had to do and we'll try to meet up with our friends again another day:)

WFMW: Simple Secret Messages

The kids and I broke out some "school work" today... after a couple weeks of hiatus, we all needed a little bit of structure:)

So we started with history!! We were soo behind this year with history that it was going to be obvious that our summer would be filled with ANCIENT TIMES!!

Today we talked about the Nazca Drawings from ancient South America and we did the easiest and fun activity:) Those who are familiar with The Story of the World (by Susan Wise Bauer) might remember this simple project/illustrtion. Thought I'd share:

Draw a picture or write a message with white crayon on white paper.

Then paint over the paper (or just the message) with watercolor.
And it appears:)
The kids had a lot of fun with this simple activity. And Anna made a secret message for Daddy, so he got to join in on the fun too;)

More summer "Mom, I'm Bored" ideas this week at We are That Family:)

And if anyone is interested we DO plan to "school" during the summer... but it's going to be really laid back. Here's what we have planned to work on:)

• Finish The Story of the World: Ancient Times (it's a goal!!)


• Anna wants to learn cursive:)


• Work on Addition & Subtraction Facts (anna)


• Anna has 3 math Dollar Tree workbooks (grade 1 &2) and a phonics review workbook - maybe do a worksheet or 2 each day


• Chris- continue to work through the BOB books - set 2


• Lydia - finish her pre-K workbook and continue playing with letters/numbers


• Continue to work through our Science plant activity book


• Daily reading (we're doing the library's reading program... so their books, One Year Bible and they are reading the Chronicles of Naria with Daddy!!)


• Memorize a passage of Scripture.... I really would LOVE for the family to memorize passage, like start working on Psalm 119. Anyway, we haven't decided what to memorize yet... really want something foundational for the kids. Any ideas????
  

ART.... I mean color-by-number

I am such a newbie when it comes to homeschooling and all the simple resources that are out there that can be used to teach our kids.... especially preschoolers:) I know the value of art for hand-eye coordination, learning colors and appreciate the beauty of differnt mediums and styles....

But today I learned the value of color-by-number:) These coloring sheets have been around forever, I know!! Today being Friday I wanted to have something fun and seasonal for one of our "school activites" so I printed off an online color-by-number sheet!!

And we tied painting with watercolors to our FIAR(five in a row) Book and matching number and colors with Chris. For Anna, I quickly realized she didn't recognize the color words (put that on our to-do list)!!! But they had fun and we all learned something:)



Christopher didn't paint, this time. He enjoyed his lolipop for another potty success and colored some... I couldn't keep his work today because it was covered in sticky drool.... ewwww:)

But he enjoyed working on it and he enjoyed his lolipop... so what else could I have asked for???

Keeping the kids busy:)

Well a friend posted in her blog the other day an appeal to other moms about some new ideas to keep her little kiddies busy during the cold winter days:) Somedays the day goes sooo S L O W when I don't have a set plan or I find myself just cleaning up after "the three tornados" all day.

So as I found myself doing "strange" things to keep the kids "busy" during the day I started to mentally list them....he hehe. Scary, euh?

I think I blogged this the other day. But yes...I got so desparate I pulled out the messy Play-Doh. But what I didn't mention in the last blog was that it was A lOT cleaner this time because Christopher wasn't licking the Play-Doh :)

And here is Christopher in the bath tub "painting" with Daddy's shaving cream. OK...here's the deal don't do it with little ones who will put their fingers in their eyes. And make sure you rinse them off with clean water :) Don't want their soft sweet skin reacting with the shaving cream! Oh and make sure Daddy has plenty of shaving cream left:)

Ok, so this one wasn't my idea :) We have a friend staying with us some this weekend and during Lydia's little birhday party I caught the boys blowing bubbles in the house:)Ok, not normally done in the living room but I have done it in the bathroom :)