In Christ Alone

This Easter is very different for us!

Our past traditions fade into sweet memories, we ponder new ideas for our family. And are enjoying spending time with family that we usually don't get to see at Easter!

As I have been fighting this feeling of being "displaced", one of my favorite worship songs have brought my heart back to the message of Easter...

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.


Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.                                                              Romans 5: 6-11

Praying that you would know the amazing love of Christ seen in His Sacrifice of himself and the amazing hope in power of Christ as He defeated death!

And looking forward to starting new traditions that bring our hearts closer to the Lord through the Easter season.

Another Brother Married & Simple Family Times

Last weekend we traveled to my parents for some time to celebrate my brother's marriage. He and his girlfriend decided to tie the knot and then planned a meal with both families to celebrate.... nothing fancy, just gathering together around a meal Sunday afternoon.

My brother Brian married a sweet gal named Kelly. So now we have two Brian & Kelly pairs;) And Kelly is taking my brother's last name, so (besides her middle name) she has my maiden name which is fun! It's also interesting that Kelly and I attended the same undergraduate college and were there and graduated the SAME years, but we didn't know one another.

I look forward to getting to know her more and getting to see their family grow together!!

I was thankful though for some uncle time with my brothers and cousin time with Hannah Grace Saturday afternoon... we all enjoyed a relaxing afternoon just hanging out.

{pretty}

{happy}

Hannah Grace and Nate playing together and sharing;) So nice;) Much better than at Christmas when they pushed for what they wanted and snatched toys from one another... it's cool to see them at little older and playing together more. 

 

With food allergies we don't get out much to eat! We were so pleased with the restaurant Kelly's family had chosen, they were very accommodating... cheeseless pizza (Anna had grilled chicken and steamed broccoli) and strawberries for dessert:) 

 

{funny}

We had a last minute idea to bring some of Chris' weapons... his Nerf guns and a pair of swords that Uncle Brian got him for Christmas. I was a little hesitant because I didn't want the weapons to be an issue, but they weren't. In fact we spent a good amount of time outside playing with Chris' toys:)

Wesley looking up at Pey and trying to taste him when he leaned in for a kiss;)

Keeping Nate entertained and contained at the nice restaurant was a challenge. It's totally our fault... we don't go to nice restaurants without playgrounds (LOL!!) often due to little kids and food allergies! Between visiting the restroom (and attempting to potty.... still no success), taking walks with Grammie and Pey and watching the chefs at work....we managed!

{real}

A picture with Pey and the boys scatter and little Hannah Grace is still not totally awake or wanting the attention from family:)

My only regret....

I didn't take enough pictures. I know some in my family aren't the picture-loving type (and we were in a nice restaurant, too) , so I was a little reserved! But now as I look back over the pictures, I'm wishing I would have taken more... more of us... all of us. Besides a couple of hours on Christmas, I can't think of another place all four siblings and all six grandchildren have been gathered together. While we waited for food, it would have been nice to get some "six cousins" shots... I have none :(

Or sibling and parent shots... again, none:(

Of course, there are times to take pictures and times to NOT. And I totally understand NOT wanting a camera in your face all the time! But I wish I would have been more willing to suggest pictures! I definitely will the next time! And until then, I'll treasure what we have:)

Who Likes Peeps???

This weekend while we were out we were handed a box of Peeps! No, really we were :)

So this week after a very nutritious lunch, I pulled out the Peeps to see what the kiddos would do:) I have a couple marshmallow lovers and so I really thought they would be a hit.... I mean once ever year isn't bad;)

Since it was Nate's first time with a Peep... I had out the camera and caught his Peep experience:)

LOL!!! His poor little face. To me it says something like "I've been tricked, these aren't good!"

My middle two who have both have a "sweet tooth"... loved them:)

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

And Then She Snapped and Live and Love...Out Loud !!!

Tiny Talk Tuesday: More Than Porta Johns

A couple of weeks ago when we checked our property and saw Porta Johns.... it was kind of exciting because it was a confirmation that the ball was rolling on getting our house on the property.

But for some reason Anna began called the Porta Johns "Papa Johns"! I have explained to her a couple of times now who Papa John is (the pizza guy) and that the portable bathrooms are called Porta Johns.

This week we were very glad to see more "progress". Anna expressed her delight, "I'm so glad we have more buildings now and not just two Papa Johns!!"

We DO have our house in pieces on the property now. They moved them on Monday!!

I couldn't wait to share with everyone that they were going to put the house together on Wednesday morning! We were all excited... Daddy had decided to take off work and I cleared the home schooling schedule:)Brian received a message today that it's NOT going to happen until next week :(

Can I just be honest and say I'm disappointed! I know I need to be thankful that all the pieces arrived at the site in perfect condition. And it was exciting to see the "house" on the land.

But I was really hoping to see this

here on Wednesday :(

Partially because after that major step we still have a 2-4 month wait... more waiting! I wish I could say I'm learning how to do that with more peace. Some days better than others:/

So I guess the kids have a couple more days to play in the foundation. Oh, to have the contentment of a child!

ordering food at the restaurant

pretending to watch TV where the living will be "soon"

Now it's your turn:

Weekly Wrap -Up & more Tot Activities

Some how in all the schooling I managed to take very few "schooling" pictures this week. Maybe it was because we were soo dedicated to our studies I just neglected the camera!

Bible
We have continued to work through the biblical stories of Jesus' life and teaching. We talked about the rich man unable to give up everything he had... not because we're supposed to give up everything... but because Jesus knew his heart was tied to his wealth. We're to be willing to give it all in order to follow God's call! God knows our hearts!

Just soo much discussing and teaching... I often fail  to bring faith conversations into our everyday activities. But I am soo thankful for these un-rushed, simply done times of reading Bible stories, discussing, applying, teaching and character forming. Just a few minutes each afternoon as Nate drifts off to sleep.

Studying Awana versus, Anna had a doozy last week!

Language Arts
We did plenty of reading, Grammar, spelling, some writing and trying to get Lydia and Chris into more independent reading.

Math
No pictures this week :( And it's all blending together for me :( I know we had out rulers, geoboard and linking cubes. Lydia had a clock or two, Anna had a lesson about setting up comparison word problems and Chris reviewed the adding and subtracting with 9's.

OH... one of Anna's lessons was about subtracting numbers from 100 mentally. It makes sense now, but I was a little hesitant beginning the lesson because mental math is not a strong trait in either of us :) But it was super easy and fun!! Here's what we learned:)

100- 72 =

use the ones digit to make 10, so 8+2 = 10
use the tens digit to make 9, so 2+7 = 9

And our answer is 28.

Easy!! And it makes sense why it works and it definitely helps when you need to make change from a dollar. How did I miss that "trick"?

History
As I mentioned last week, we needed some more practice on the different branches of government:) So we did a little guessing game with the projects that we put together last week!

Anna also made a timeline which included the presidents from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln.

She finished quickly and since Lydia and I were still working on "the pile", she read interesting (and silly) facts about each president. It was a reminder to me how normal (or abnormal... LOL!!) some of our past presidents were!

Our history reading this week has been a book from the Sower Series called George Washington: Man of Prayer and Courage. We've gotten about 4 or so chapters into it... I really like that series. They can get facts anywhere, but these books try to portray the subject as a real person.. with common events from their lives and highlighting their faith.


Science
Between the "looking for spring" walk and our Nature and Science Center visit.... science was very away from table work this week. Kind of nice because this week we are gearing up for our home schooling Science Fair... so we have plenty of work to do to get our project boards together!!



Tot in the Schoolroom
Some how in my neglect of getting the kids hard at work, I found plenty of pictures of Nate (23 months!!) and all of his busy activities:)

sorting the linking cubes by color... I'm still amazed how much he likes doing this!

making towers with blocks

riding the gator with his doggie and paci tucked next to him.... inseparable :)

water, cups and spoons in the sink.... totally a messy activity, but it's only water;)

Picture of the Week
Sorting through our "Finished" pile.... I had given up on the kids putting each assignment in the correct folder, so our finish pile had grown so large papers were sliding off :( I sooooo need a better system at the new house... wishful thinking, I know;)

So Tuesday afternoon... we sorted:/  And we have managed to put papers in the correct folder... for now!!

We're linking up to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and