The other day I had my 2 girls "picking up" ... you know, getting all of the mess that they had taken out during the day back into their rooms and in the right spots. I overheard Lil Princess grumbling to Sunshine Girl, "Yeah, we're having to be servants to Mommy ... having to pick up all this stuff and work for her!" Guess we now have the new meaning to "child labor"???
Revival services have been just tremendous this week at Oakwood. Loving the speaker, the spirit of the people, and most of all how the Lord is convicting me of areas in my life that I need to change in. One song that the choir sang has been on my mind a lot, just a phrase or two here and there ... "May all who come behind me find me faithful ... may the footprints that we leave lead them to believe and the life we live inspire them to obey ... " (at least that's the way I think it goes). Anyway, I think of those who will come behind me, my children and possibly grandchildren one day far into the future ... Is the life I am living right now worthy of being copied? Am I being faithful to the One who loves me most and gave Himself for me? Where does my passion lie? Is the example I am setting one that I truly WANT to be setting? I fall so short in so many areas of my life ... sometimes I think I am a complete failure as a mom and that it will only be by God's grace that my girls turn out half normal. My prayer is that God will use his word to teach ME how to more closely follow Him, to ignite the PASSION in my life for Him and that my girls will see that in me and desire to follow me in my pursuit of God.
It is nearly midnight as I write, and my two girls are in Sunshine Girl's bedroom GIGGLING!!! UGGGGHHHH!!!! The girls have slept in there for nearly 3 weeks together and this is the first night that it has been like this ... I love to hear them giggle with each other, but I have a feeling the giggling at this time of night will make for grouchy, whiney girls tomorrow! Simple pleasure of my day is hearing them and I can't seem to make myself get up and get it under control!
Good Night, all!
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Inventions
The other day, my girls and I were with my mom in Columbia doing the thing that Sunshine Girl hates the most .... shopping AND trying on clothes for the fall. It was truly a double whammy for my oldest! (She must not have gotten her genes from her mother!) ;O Anyway, my 'Lil Princess is a Diva Queen and LOVES shopping ... could do it all day long if given the chance (and the money!).
But I deviate...
As we were in the dressing room with both girls, Sunshine Girl tried on all of her finds (which were not many considering she is moving from the "little girls" department to the 7-16 size, UGGGHHH!!!) and was growing quite bored with the entire experience. The chairs in the dressing room had these holes bored in the seats. She was on the floor and dug through my purse for a tablet of paper. She began tearing out sheets of paper and balling them up. I thought she was going to make a total mess, but she created a game for her and her Nana to play while waiting for me to finish with Lil Princess. The two balls of paper became the markers and the holes in the chair were the spaces on the game board. She then tore paper into squares and wrote numbers on them. They took turns drawing numbers and moving spaces until a winner was determined ... whoever made it to the end of the rows of holes first was declared the winner.
Who said homeschoolers were not creative? I was impressed that she had the mind to occupy herself instead of whine because it was taking the shopper so long to try on things!
P.S. After what felt like hours of shopping, we ended up with only 1 outfit for Lil Princess and 2 long sleeved t-shirts for Sunshine Girl. Not a good sign for their wardrobes this year!!!
But I deviate...
As we were in the dressing room with both girls, Sunshine Girl tried on all of her finds (which were not many considering she is moving from the "little girls" department to the 7-16 size, UGGGHHH!!!) and was growing quite bored with the entire experience. The chairs in the dressing room had these holes bored in the seats. She was on the floor and dug through my purse for a tablet of paper. She began tearing out sheets of paper and balling them up. I thought she was going to make a total mess, but she created a game for her and her Nana to play while waiting for me to finish with Lil Princess. The two balls of paper became the markers and the holes in the chair were the spaces on the game board. She then tore paper into squares and wrote numbers on them. They took turns drawing numbers and moving spaces until a winner was determined ... whoever made it to the end of the rows of holes first was declared the winner.
Who said homeschoolers were not creative? I was impressed that she had the mind to occupy herself instead of whine because it was taking the shopper so long to try on things!
P.S. After what felt like hours of shopping, we ended up with only 1 outfit for Lil Princess and 2 long sleeved t-shirts for Sunshine Girl. Not a good sign for their wardrobes this year!!!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Been feeling like I've got too many irons in the fire lately. My problem is (probably like most people) where/what do I let go? I guess I'll just keep them all hot and maybe soon the fire will die down and the irons will cool off some. :)
My kids and I hosted a back-to-school party the end of last week. It was a lot of work, but it turned out to be a lot of fun, too! My kids realized this time that parties don't "just happen", 'cause I made them help get everything ready for THEIR friends to join us!! We were running up to the last minute and my Sunshine Girl said, "Mommy, this sure is a lot of work for a party that isn't a REAL party!" I asked her why she thought this wasn't going to be a real party and her response (should have guessed it) was, "Well, because there aren't going to be any presents!" Gotta love them!
Anyway, we did some cute decorations and such, made a "back to school lunch" - PB & J, chips, carrots and cukes, applesauce and Oreos - and then turned the kids loose in the swimming pool. Eleven kids in my house at the same time! You'd have thought chaos would reign supreme, but the kids did WONDERFULLY ... they all played well together and I heard NO complaining or whining! :) THAT made me feel like everything was a success! Minus a few spills here and there, a couch cushion that got "painted" with lip gloss by one of the little ones, and a blue spot in Sunshine Girl's room that came from who knows where, the house really survived and we were able to get it back in order pretty quickly for our friends to come over on Saturday evening! Thank goodness it was a long weekend and I had Monday to try to recover from all the excitement before we started back to school on Tuesday! :)
My kids and I hosted a back-to-school party the end of last week. It was a lot of work, but it turned out to be a lot of fun, too! My kids realized this time that parties don't "just happen", 'cause I made them help get everything ready for THEIR friends to join us!! We were running up to the last minute and my Sunshine Girl said, "Mommy, this sure is a lot of work for a party that isn't a REAL party!" I asked her why she thought this wasn't going to be a real party and her response (should have guessed it) was, "Well, because there aren't going to be any presents!" Gotta love them!
Anyway, we did some cute decorations and such, made a "back to school lunch" - PB & J, chips, carrots and cukes, applesauce and Oreos - and then turned the kids loose in the swimming pool. Eleven kids in my house at the same time! You'd have thought chaos would reign supreme, but the kids did WONDERFULLY ... they all played well together and I heard NO complaining or whining! :) THAT made me feel like everything was a success! Minus a few spills here and there, a couch cushion that got "painted" with lip gloss by one of the little ones, and a blue spot in Sunshine Girl's room that came from who knows where, the house really survived and we were able to get it back in order pretty quickly for our friends to come over on Saturday evening! Thank goodness it was a long weekend and I had Monday to try to recover from all the excitement before we started back to school on Tuesday! :)
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Homeschool happenings, Week 2
Hard to believe the 2nd week of school is over and done with. A few highlights:
1- Lil Princess has decided that snack time is her favorite part of the school day. Her second favorite time is when school is over so that she can "do what I want to do"! Not too good for a K4 student to already have such strong feelings about school, huh?
2- On a good note, however, Lil Princess "read" her first book this week and really did sound out/read a few 3 letter words with the short A in them. That was very exciting for me to see that she really will be able to do this! :)
3- Sunshine Girl actually got excited to practice her Flashmaster. (An electronic flash card "game") Math has not been her favorite subject EVER, but we changed math curriculum's yet again this year and she says it is her favorite so far! That's a good sign ... just hope it lasts.
4- Been trying some new projects/art ideas with the kids. Amazing how long it takes them to do these! It is a test of my patience ... I know that I need to be teaching more than the academics, and they LOVE these projects ... I just have to endure it and enjoy the moments/minutes/hours it takes them to complete them! :)
5- Sunshine Girl decided that we need to visit Mount Vernon on our trip to Williamsburg in October after reading about it in her Heritage book. This trip is turning into more than what I thought ... I'll need a vacation from the vacation by the time I get back home!
6- Pictures soon! :) This mama's too tired right now to get it all together.
7- Planning a back to school bash for the end of this week with some of our homeschooling friends. Time to get my creative juices flowing again!
1- Lil Princess has decided that snack time is her favorite part of the school day. Her second favorite time is when school is over so that she can "do what I want to do"! Not too good for a K4 student to already have such strong feelings about school, huh?
2- On a good note, however, Lil Princess "read" her first book this week and really did sound out/read a few 3 letter words with the short A in them. That was very exciting for me to see that she really will be able to do this! :)
3- Sunshine Girl actually got excited to practice her Flashmaster. (An electronic flash card "game") Math has not been her favorite subject EVER, but we changed math curriculum's yet again this year and she says it is her favorite so far! That's a good sign ... just hope it lasts.
4- Been trying some new projects/art ideas with the kids. Amazing how long it takes them to do these! It is a test of my patience ... I know that I need to be teaching more than the academics, and they LOVE these projects ... I just have to endure it and enjoy the moments/minutes/hours it takes them to complete them! :)
5- Sunshine Girl decided that we need to visit Mount Vernon on our trip to Williamsburg in October after reading about it in her Heritage book. This trip is turning into more than what I thought ... I'll need a vacation from the vacation by the time I get back home!
6- Pictures soon! :) This mama's too tired right now to get it all together.
7- Planning a back to school bash for the end of this week with some of our homeschooling friends. Time to get my creative juices flowing again!
Friday, August 20, 2010
1st Week of (Home)School
Dear Sunshine Girl decorating large 2 for 2nd grade
Lil Princess working hard on her K4
Lil Princess working on A and a by matching apples on the tree.
Sunshine Girl working in her spelling workbook.
Lil Princess loved making her A and a out of playdough "worms"
Lil Princess working on the number 1
My beautiful girls, given to me by God, to love and to teach!
By Thursday, we were back home and could really jump into
setting the schedule the way it should be. This is our circle time and
Sunshine Girl is doing some "math" during our calendar time.
Figuring out what coins would make up the date. For example:
It was August 19 and she had to come up with a way to make 19 cents.
Lil Princess going on an Aa hunt. She cut A's and a's from a newspaper
and glued them to her paper.
Sunshine Girl hard at work in her reading workbook.
Oops! How to fix a sideways picture? Maybe one day I'll figure it out. Anyway, Lil Princess formed the A and a with pattern block squares.
Making A and a with Do-a-Dot Markers. Cool stuff!
Of course, with learning the A, we had to have apple snacks this week.
On this day, the girls made apple smiles (but we only had green apples to use!)
Oh well, they still had lots of fun doing this!
Our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree to which we will add
Lil Princess's letter of the week. We LOVE this book at our house!
(Home)school Begins Again!
I am amazed at how fast the summer ended up flying by. We finished last year quite early (first week of May) and the time seemed to tick by slowing - until everyone else got out of school, that is! Our summer was filled with trips to Nana's, swimming in the pool, playing with friends, a visit to the beach, trips to the lake, visiting cousins in VA, and the list goes on.
As I planned for school to begin again, I knew that this year would be different from last because our youngest would be joining us full time. I think I planned all summer. Amazing how I feel I spent more time getting a curriculum together for my K4-er than my 2nd grader! To my credit, I came up with my own (borrowed ideas, of course) for her, but am using various premade curricula for the other. It has been fun this week to watch Lil Princess enjoy doing her school work with us!
A lot happened just before school started this year ... and I know that is why I feel so out of sorts as we end our first week back. My girls had been at their Nana and PopPop's house for a week. They wanted to go to VBS with them since our church has children's revival instead of the traditional VBS. My husband and I went down at the end of the week for Family Day and the VBS graduation service/program. Arrived home around 10 that Sunday night. On Monday, I had a dentist appointment in the afternoon and made it home around 3:15 that day. Of course, I was in the middle of unpacking everyone, doing laundry, planning dinner, etc. My husband came home just 5 minutes after we did and had a grim look on his face. He proceeded to tell me that my dad had just had a heart attack and was at the hospital in Columbia. After a time of tears, I sprung into action and re-packed the bags that I'd just begun to unpack and we left to go back home. To make a long story short, my dad had a heart cath and they found the need to place 2 stints in one artery. He also had a blood clot dangerously close to his heart. I spent the week in Columbia and my girls spent that week with their Granny (my husband's mom). We came back home on Friday. The girls had a birthday party on Saturday and on Sunday we left again for Columbia to stay with my dad for a couple of days while my mom went back to work.
So, our start to our school year was not even at our own home, but I have to remember that this is the beauty of homeschooling. You can take it with you wherever you need to be! :) I love the fact that God is in control of everything and that He knew ahead of time that my "organized obsessed mind" would be completely scrambled this first week. I still feel behind and that things are not going just like I desire them to, but I am remembering that it is OK! My children's education will not suffer because of one week that is so out of sorts. My life will not fall apart because the suitcases from this week's travel are not yet unpacked and my house is not in "company ready" order.
God wants me to trust Him. I have to trust Him to take care of my dad as he is home alone and still recovering from all that happened last week. I have to trust Him to lead us as we homeschool our girls. I have to trust Him to meet our every need. I have to trust Him to give me a calmness in the midst of chaos. The Lord is good and He does not change. No matter the circumstances of my life, He is good. "O, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him." Ps. 34:8 God IS good. He has given me the opportunity to be close enough to my parents to help them when needed. He has spared my dad's life from what could have been potentially fatal. He has given me the privilege of being able to be home with my girls and to homeschool them. He has given me a husband who is understanding of my needs to be with my dad and mom during this time of health needs. He has given me a home where I can place all of those unpacked suitcases full of clothes needing to be washed, where toys can be strewn across the floor, and "stuff" be scattered around everywhere. It's God's nature to be good, and His nature does not change. God truly has been good!!!
As I planned for school to begin again, I knew that this year would be different from last because our youngest would be joining us full time. I think I planned all summer. Amazing how I feel I spent more time getting a curriculum together for my K4-er than my 2nd grader! To my credit, I came up with my own (borrowed ideas, of course) for her, but am using various premade curricula for the other. It has been fun this week to watch Lil Princess enjoy doing her school work with us!
A lot happened just before school started this year ... and I know that is why I feel so out of sorts as we end our first week back. My girls had been at their Nana and PopPop's house for a week. They wanted to go to VBS with them since our church has children's revival instead of the traditional VBS. My husband and I went down at the end of the week for Family Day and the VBS graduation service/program. Arrived home around 10 that Sunday night. On Monday, I had a dentist appointment in the afternoon and made it home around 3:15 that day. Of course, I was in the middle of unpacking everyone, doing laundry, planning dinner, etc. My husband came home just 5 minutes after we did and had a grim look on his face. He proceeded to tell me that my dad had just had a heart attack and was at the hospital in Columbia. After a time of tears, I sprung into action and re-packed the bags that I'd just begun to unpack and we left to go back home. To make a long story short, my dad had a heart cath and they found the need to place 2 stints in one artery. He also had a blood clot dangerously close to his heart. I spent the week in Columbia and my girls spent that week with their Granny (my husband's mom). We came back home on Friday. The girls had a birthday party on Saturday and on Sunday we left again for Columbia to stay with my dad for a couple of days while my mom went back to work.
So, our start to our school year was not even at our own home, but I have to remember that this is the beauty of homeschooling. You can take it with you wherever you need to be! :) I love the fact that God is in control of everything and that He knew ahead of time that my "organized obsessed mind" would be completely scrambled this first week. I still feel behind and that things are not going just like I desire them to, but I am remembering that it is OK! My children's education will not suffer because of one week that is so out of sorts. My life will not fall apart because the suitcases from this week's travel are not yet unpacked and my house is not in "company ready" order.
God wants me to trust Him. I have to trust Him to take care of my dad as he is home alone and still recovering from all that happened last week. I have to trust Him to lead us as we homeschool our girls. I have to trust Him to meet our every need. I have to trust Him to give me a calmness in the midst of chaos. The Lord is good and He does not change. No matter the circumstances of my life, He is good. "O, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him." Ps. 34:8 God IS good. He has given me the opportunity to be close enough to my parents to help them when needed. He has spared my dad's life from what could have been potentially fatal. He has given me the privilege of being able to be home with my girls and to homeschool them. He has given me a husband who is understanding of my needs to be with my dad and mom during this time of health needs. He has given me a home where I can place all of those unpacked suitcases full of clothes needing to be washed, where toys can be strewn across the floor, and "stuff" be scattered around everywhere. It's God's nature to be good, and His nature does not change. God truly has been good!!!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Why?
Why do I feel the need to add one more thing to my already busy life? As a wife, a homeschool mom, chief house cleaner, top dish washer, chef extraordinaire, friend, active church member, (and the list goes on) ... I think I have enough to do without entering the blogging world. You see, this blog is not for anyone else, really. Just for me ... just a place to enter my thoughts, feelings, frustrations, joys, goals, triumphs, and disappointments. If you happen to stop by and enter into my world, so be it. I need a place to reflect, to be able to look back and see that I have accomplished things with my girls - in school and in my home life.
When I saw the picture of the dandelions on the background page here, it made me stop and think of how my life is much like those dandelions. You see, our yard - at times- looks like a meadow full of dandelions. The little yellow flowers show up in the early morning but by the hottest part of the day have shriveled up to almost nothing. When the "fluff" comes on, just one puff of wind can blow them apart and the seeds scatter - and we never know where they all will land. I know that life as I know it right now can change as quickly as those dandelions do ... what seems like a hard thing now is just a season. My children will not be the ages they are forever and the difficulties I experience with them today will not last forever. They will change. I only have my "little girls" for so long. I must do my best to raise them the way God wants me to, for I may never see where the little seeds I plant into their lives will land and grow. Will they blossom into good things or will they just become "weeds"?? Oh, that I may take the time to teach their hearts. To spend time with them while they are here and not be distracted by other things.
Help me, Lord, to grow closer to You so that I can teach my girls to love you with their hearts, souls, and lives. May I plant the seeds of beautiful, long lasting fruit in the soil of my girls' hearts so that they will not grow up to be dandelions - here today, but gone tomorrow, scattered and blown about by the wind.
I do not know how often I'll post here ... maybe just as the desire to share strikes my heart. I don't want this to become another "have to" on my "To Do" list. So, I won't let it. I'll come as often as I need to or want to. Maybe someone, somewhere will happen upon this and will be helped, too.
When I saw the picture of the dandelions on the background page here, it made me stop and think of how my life is much like those dandelions. You see, our yard - at times- looks like a meadow full of dandelions. The little yellow flowers show up in the early morning but by the hottest part of the day have shriveled up to almost nothing. When the "fluff" comes on, just one puff of wind can blow them apart and the seeds scatter - and we never know where they all will land. I know that life as I know it right now can change as quickly as those dandelions do ... what seems like a hard thing now is just a season. My children will not be the ages they are forever and the difficulties I experience with them today will not last forever. They will change. I only have my "little girls" for so long. I must do my best to raise them the way God wants me to, for I may never see where the little seeds I plant into their lives will land and grow. Will they blossom into good things or will they just become "weeds"?? Oh, that I may take the time to teach their hearts. To spend time with them while they are here and not be distracted by other things.
Help me, Lord, to grow closer to You so that I can teach my girls to love you with their hearts, souls, and lives. May I plant the seeds of beautiful, long lasting fruit in the soil of my girls' hearts so that they will not grow up to be dandelions - here today, but gone tomorrow, scattered and blown about by the wind.
I do not know how often I'll post here ... maybe just as the desire to share strikes my heart. I don't want this to become another "have to" on my "To Do" list. So, I won't let it. I'll come as often as I need to or want to. Maybe someone, somewhere will happen upon this and will be helped, too.
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