Tiny (but determined) Talk Tuesday

I think Nate is already showing promise as a lawyer.


Nate (4 yrs): Mom, do you want me to get in an accident and the police to come when I drive  a car?

Mom: No.

Nate: Well then... I need to watch Mickey Mouse Club because that tells me how to drive stuff.


LOL!! A very convincing argument, aimed straight at this mom's desire to protect her children. He is good! And extremely persistent.

On the tough side of Nate's "gift" of argument... is the argument part! Phew!

Teaching and trying to mold his heart  (his desires and then his words)  every.single.conversation  all.day.long  is exhausting.

It makes me thankful for the mommy wisdom God has allowed me to be exposed to these last few months through a conference, carving out time for reading my Bible, some pretty inspiring blogs and godly motherhood books.

Now just to continue to apply all that wisdom into our days.  Not to grow weary, but to press on! Love, correct, love, referee an argument, love, guide, love, cook dinner, love, bathe, read, love, snuggle and tuck them in for the night;)

You will always harvest what you plant... 

 So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. 

At just the right time we will reap 

a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.

Galatians 6:7b,9

Throwback Thursday

I'm kind of in the "throwback" kind of mood lately :)

I just get soo wrapped up in TODAY that sometimes I miss out on "right now". Like today while trying to "school" the kids, they were just soo stinkn' giggly. The giggles that start because "nothing was funny but everything was funny". And I tried to be patient and play along... really, I did. And I loved the smiles and the laughter. But I was caught up in the tasks of the DAY and not the goofy kiddos in front of me.

If I can only hold onto those precious giggly kids... not always be pushing to the next task!

A picture from 2008 at Scott and Bea's wedding!  It's truly unbelievable that they've been married 6 years...

and that those sweet little chubby faces were so young, acting soo grown!

Those 6 years went WAY too FAST!

Little Thoughts and a Tea Party

He loves the phones at the science center... two at a time!

"I'll never be 4!! Why can't I be 4 right now so I tan play soccer?" - Nate pondering one night as he was getting still before falling asleep:)

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And Nate's new phrase when he doesn't get his way is "That's not fairw!" He crosses those little arms and plants his feet firmly in place... serious stuff !!

Lots of  training still ahead for this not-so-little guy!

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One morning Nate and I found a few moments of quiet. I thought it was a perfect time to review some of the verses we've been memorizing together:)

So I quoted Romans 3:23 with Nate adding in words as he knew them. We talked about what "sin" was. And then I asked him,"Do you sin? Have you done something that made God "sad"?" (Trying to use very simple terms with him!)

He was quiet for a minute really thinking! And then he blurted out, "Chris does sins!"

LOL!! Isn't that our human nature? Pointing out the faults and problems of others while overlooking our own issues. Brings us right to the ideas that Jesus taught about in Matthew 7:3-5!

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And the kids were super sweet Sunday afternoon and made such a special memory for us all:)

During lunch they decided that they needed to make us a dessert!! So Chris and Lydia got into the kitchen to make cookies.... gathering the ingredients, doubling the recipe, following the directions... just good practical learning stuff;)

While Anna was secretly in the school room decorating;)

Flowers from a Sunday school project and then two of Chris' zucchini plants:)

What are you kids saying and doing??

Milk Bubbles

In an effort to let my kids be kids... to let them have "kid moments".

And the Boyz seem to find these moments more than the girls... although the girls have their own, too:)

So one morning as I was coming in from walking the dog, I found my oldest boy making milk bubbles.

Having the best time!

And a wide-eyed smaller, but just as adventurous, brother watching his every move!

And then it got a little crazy.

But the smiles were great:)

Just another moment of forgetting the "to do" list, the mess, poor table manners...

just a minute to smile and giggle...

take some pictures to remember (and prove I let them!!!).

Hugs, Kisses and Animal Mtg at the Manger

This morning I was greeted with a little toothy smile:)

And as we snuggled for a bit before we started the day, Nate asked, "Where is Daddy?"

Brian put the kids to bed last night while I attended a meeting, so Nate remembered being with his daddy as he fell asleep. Then Nate had slept in until 8am which is when Brian starts his day at work so he missed seeing Brian in the morning.

Nate continued, "So you are going to stay with us today, while Daddy is at work?" LOL! It was funny that he was asking this.... hmm, we have the same arrangement 5 days a week;)

Then he added, "You can stay with us because we give you hugs and kisses!" Definitely the BEST way to start the morning and the BEST reminder of the blessings of this season of getting to stay with them:)

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I'm totally not ashamed that we still have up Christmas decorations!! I love Christmas and taking down all the pretty and meaningful decor makes our house look soo bare. They will come down sometime this week (or next week!) though:/

Meanwhile, Nate is still playing with the Little People Manger set we bring out every Christmas!! He loved the set this year. He's take it out of his "busy bin" and ask,"Will you tell me the story?" Music to this momma's ears... just beautiful and simple! Christmas!

This week I found a meeting happening at the manger scene... a meeting of animals.

I had to see what the "hub-bub" was about :)

I know it was a silly arrangement of Nate's, but in that moment it really hit me when I saw they surrounded Him... Baby Jesus!

I was still... I was reminded of how we should have Jesus in the middle of it all. That even a small child knows that Jesus is the most important person! And in this case Nate thought even the animals gave Jesus all the attention.

I love stopping to see sweet moments instead of just rushing through my days and tasks. I am VERY guilty of always being in a rush with an impossible "to do" list each day. And I am thankful for the encouragement and reminders I get when I take the time to stop and enjoy and even look for the small blessings among the messes and the every day moments with my kids.

Link up or share in the comments if you also have some "tiny talk" moments this week:)

Tiny Talk and Catching Fireflies

Said by Nate has he zoomed past me on the bike, "Me getting so big, me tan ride dis bike all by me self."

And does he ride...

zooming around under our paved carport

on his hand-me-down bike with training wheels:)

He loves it!

And sources have informed me that his oldest sister has been working with him on riding a bike without training wheels...

I'm not sure any of us are ready for that... just yet!!

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During our horrible week and a half I told you I was challenged to "have fun" with the kids. We were stuck at home, tons of laundry, baths, cleaning, most of the time with Brian at work or out-of-town, urgh! I wasn't sure when to "have fun" it seemed the tasks of the day demanded all my time.

Finally, I got it! The kids helped with the kid-jobs so I could  tackle the adult-jobs. When we got most of our list done (since housework never gets totally done) we got to "play". The kids made thankful journals to list things they are thankful for. Nate and I filled water balloons so we could have a water balloon battle:)

And one night after dinner and baths we went back outside to catch fireflies;) I loved hearing the kids voices out in the yard!!







  Only one problem with being outside on a summer evening- mosquitoes!  Although it was kind of cool to see the bats flying around... kind of cool, kind of creepy:) Chris sporting a bite on his forehead

Don't you know when Daddy returned home from his trip one of the first things they talked about doing was catching fireflies one night!! Simple and a good reminder to this momma to "make time for simple fun"!

It's your turn:)

The Blessing of Seeing the Fruit

This week we did a Spring tradition for us....

STRAWBERRY Picking;)

Chris in 2008 - eating from my picked bucket:)

We've done it every year:) Every year....

 I've done it preggo and  with a 12 month old. And then the following year with a 24 month old, 6 month old and preggo with another one (LOL!!). The next year it was an almost 3 yr old, 18 month old and 5 month old (that was just crazy!!)....

and on and on....

There were some years and times I thought I was crazy... no, I knew I was crazy! The pictures were adorable but often it was
LESS than fun. Remember.. pictures are only 1/50 of a second or less... they don't always capture the whole story;)

And the mess... I just came to expect it:) But the kids were messy! I just smiled and remembered that the hose at home was easy to hook up and everything was washable:)

This year was different.... WAY different!!

We'd had a long afternoon running errands and meeting up with people. The kids were tired, thirsty and tired!! And really, the idea of strawberry picking was quickly becoming "a bad idea". But the kids begged to go (mixed in with Nate's fussing b/c he was tired).

I lowered my expectations to... lets get a few strawberries, some "strawberry pickn pics" and be on our way... quick, easy, no quota:)

I was quickly surprised at the kids' abilities. They knew what to do, what NOT to do, they went down the rows looking for the ripest berries like pros, no complaining...

IT. WAS. AWESOME!!

We picked and picked;) No quota but we came home with plenty for the weekend:)

And if only the berries and great attitudes were the measure of a great time than is was a successful trip, but I heard from the back of the van, "This has been a great day!"

I could concur:)  I was thrilled about something else too.

I was seeing the fruit of those many crazy years of dragging little ones down the strawberry rows so we could "stock the freezer". In my head I knew that the years were "training years"  but often my heart was distracted by the behavior or trying to make some "quota" or accomplish some temporary goals.

You know... those years were hard! I didn't always have the right attitude. I didn't always have a good game plan trying to go in between naps and meals. But I still tried year after year... doing something that was supposed  be fun... wondering if it ever would be "fun"!

I was exciting to see the fruit of those training trips!!! I look forward to more strawberry patch trips this season... and  maybe get to stock the freezer???

But it definitely challenges me to keep training...

I'm not  out of those "training years" yet! Motherhood can be challenging but I wonder how many more things we will soon be able to enjoy more as a family if I remain faithful to train my precious crew!!

For those who care there are also more pics of our picking this year... including Anna's biggest berry, Nate looking grown and  a furry member of the family who also likes strawberries:)

The Week the Started with Play-Doh & the Civil War

Last week was tough as we started back into schooling after the Christmas Break and everyone getting over sicknesses. But this week was unique, too... isn't every week. It started Monday with the kids getting into the school room before me and pulling out the Play-doh. I would definitely prefer them to work on bookwork first to get it over with..... but the last thing I wanted on Monday morning was for a "battle"! So I went with it:)

They played with Play-Doh and I did our devotional times, read history, later in the week I gave them their spelling works to practice with Play-doh and a knife and did our Grammar lessons orally. It was amazing how much we read this week and how quickly and smoothly our school days went! I told Brian a few days when he returned home from work how much we completed BEFORE lunch!!  I'm definitely willing to add in some Play-doh every week although maybe make the Play-doh after the basics?

And just as an FYI... they all sat at the table and worked on mats. Before we started bookwork all the Play-doh was cleaned up BY THEM. And they usually were the ones asking to complete their other work. To make history come alive a little more, since we're not able to visit some of these places right now.

Bible
This week we discussed working together, helping one another and accepting help! The biblical passages were mostly about cooperation in the church, but it's easy to see that we need to use these principles in every group we are a part of... church, family, or office/class.

Language Arts

spelling in Play-Doh... why not;)

Pronouns! pronouns! Pronouns!! LOL!! Just amazed again this week how much First Language Lessons vol1 &2 combo has prepared Anna for Grade 4 Grammar, definitely a GREAT reason for us to enjoy our time with FLL with Chris and Lydia;)

For writing we completed some story narrations from Writing with Ease (probably not going to use it next year.. or ever again) and then wrote more Thank You and pen pal letters;)

For individual (or with Momma) reading, Anna is still working through Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. Christopher is working through Just a Few Words, Mr Lincoln by Jean Fritz. And Lydia has gotten lost in the American Girl series... this week she finished Changes for Samantha and began working through Josephina books;) It's very exciting to have little readers and hear them explain the stories they are reading about!

Math
We had 5 full days of schooling... so lots of Math... lots of word problems, math facts and some assessments:) Thankfully we all got through it well and had a BIG accomplishment:) Chris finished Saxon 2 on Friday:) He started Saxon halfway through his Kindergarten year so he is 1/2 year ahead in Math. But for Chris to do the work successfully is exciting... he likes Math and obviously is getting it DONE:) Congrats to Chris!!

History
This week we started The Civil War. Story of the World vol 4 only has one week of material for the Civil War... I just felt like there was soo much to cover that ONE week wasn't enough. I was hoping to find a  recommended book to act as our spine, but I found a book I had reviewed a while ago and so I divided the topics chronologically and into separate "do-able" weeks.

So this week was our first week. Our topics were Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis and the build up and  causes of the War. We colored a map of the US to show how the states alined themselves - Union, Confederate and Neutral.

We've read some fun Abraham Lincoln books;) In 2 books we read about some of Abraham Lincoln's homes. Chris wanted to build one... a lean-to:)

 

Definitely a highlight of his week to use my glue gun! 

Another simple, but fun activity was to see how tall Abraham Lincoln was. We printed off a head shot of Lincoln, measured his height of 6 foot 4 inches and then

For Jefferson Davis we had a coloring page of Davis and an issue of Cobblestone that we borrowed from our library! After all the reading the kids wrote out 2-4 sentences about each on the back of their painting/coloring page:)

Lincoln and J. Davis pictures painted with watercolor and Nate's contribution :)

We also found some short video clips at the History Channel and PBS to supplement what we already had read! I just want to warn that they were produced for adult viewers, so preview them before you watch them with the kids. And as an FYI, if you use Netflix there is an interesting PBS documentary called The Civil War by Ken Burns... it's like 8 episodes (we're still previewing it for the kids).

Science
We learned about what "work" was:) After reading about forces and work on physics4kids.com, we defined "work" and drew a picture of a stick figure kicking a ball.

Our experiment was called Falling Weight Does Work so we used a small plastic container of maple syrup and Play-doh, of course! I had a BIG rock to do the experiment outside, but we had a cool, wet morning, so I had to improvise.... and the Play-Doh was already out;) I wanted to show them a real-life example of  how this concept is used and How Stuff Works had an ok video of a pile driver at work.

Preschool Corner

Nate and I had two sessions of Before Five in a Row starting with his favorite book Goodnight Moon:) We have a few conversations about day and night, light and dark and finding the mouse on the colored pages;) It's one of his favorite books and he can often finish some of the phrases because we have read it soo much before this week;)

Since mid-November he has begun watching  Little Einsteins. Before then he was never still enough to watch anything on TV... which was fine! So now that he's watching (and asking to watch shows) we are introducing him to Leap Frog... can't believe he's already at this stage!

Next week I'm hoping to put together a few more plans for Nate using The Snowy Day by Keats. we'll see what happens as we ease into "pre-schooling" Nate.... hate to call it pre-school right now because he's young. But he's got his colors down, he's trying to count, he loves letters and maybe it's time to start doing some more slightly structured things with him... a little at a time;)

Photo of the Week
Walking into the school room after taking the dog out and I see this:)

Anyway, a GREAT Week... if you couldn't tell:) Add in a few visits with friends and Mommy finally going to the doctor for some meds... and it's a fun week:)

Linking up to

Chris' 7th Birthday & Vacation:)

While visiting with family over the Thanksgiving holiday we also got to celebrate Chris' birthday!!


 It's a mixed blessing having a birthday so close to a holiday.... Chris has yet had a birthday party with friends but he always gets to see family and so far has been at Grandma and Grandaddy's house to celebrate almost every year!!!

Even though he was hours from friends and we'll probably not have a "friend" party again this year.... Chris had an awesome birthday weekend:)

First we toured a huge aircraft on Friday:)

Then Saturday we went to play mini-golf,

ride the go cart with Daddy

and stop by Ritas;)

On Sunday, we had taco lunch, cake and presents at Gran-Grandma's.

And then they had a blast in Uncle Larry's leaves;)

We topped the birthDAY off with a quick dinner at McD's and a drive through a holiday light display:)

We had a great Thanksgiving trip and time with family. We stayed pretty busy but had a good time, too!!

And thank you to everyone who got to share Chris' birthday weekend with us:)

Chris' Stats
Chris is 47.5 inches tall and weighs  about 57 lbs!

He's doing 1st/2nd grade work... he's definitely liking Math more than Reading but we're making progress!! He's definitely our class clown only rivaled to Nate who is learning all Chris' tricks! And this little guy is the one who stretches his momma the most.... teaching her patience, grace and ways to creatively make home school fun for him:)

His favorites:

Color : Black
Food : Pepperoni Pizza (homemade without cheese)
Treat: Skittles
Subject: Art
Animal: Tyrannosaurus Rex
Do inside: Draw
Outside Activity: Play baseball
Toys: Legos 
Restaurant: Taco Bell
Book: anything about Dinosaurs
Movie: Lego Movies ?, Kung Fu Panda
PBSkids Show: Wild Kratts

Goals for his 7th year: Learn more Art

When you ask him what he wants to be when he "grows up" he'll respond "a paleontologist"!

What are your little ones saying this week? Link up or comment:)

More Wordless Wednesday at  NapTime MomTog, 5 Minutes for Mom,  Mama to 4 Blessings, Go Graham Go.