Rain Forest

One of the images that tends to be front and center when it comes to home schoolers is that of phenomenal projects and great learning experiences. That can be quite intimidating, especially for those of us to whom such creativity does not come naturally! But, every now and then an idea does come to me. (And, I look forward to Olivia continuing to grow and learn because I think her creative mind will be a treasure-trove of ideas.)

When I realized that we were going to be spending a week and a half on rain forests, an idea amazingly popped into my mind. Create a rain forest! The girls had been drawing pictures of what they were learning. What about cutting and molding instead? So, off we went. The result was a much less than perfect and very disproportionate rain forest creation of which I am incredibly proud! The girls worked so hard, didn't back down from challenges, and learned a lot about rain forests in the process. We put it all together on Monday - here are the pictures!

Painting the backdrop.

The finished backdrop Angie's sloth

Olivia's gorillaThe rain forest scene - notice the addition of colorful plants to the backdrop - cacao pods on one tree, bananas and banana flowers hanging down, an enormous bromeliad on the right, and some rosy periwinkles here and there.
Close-ups of...

Angie's tiger jumping out to attack Olivia's okapi with a snake nearby in the undergrowth.

Angie's sloth hanging from a tree near a bunch of bananas.

Yep, even Steven got in on the action! Here's his snake perched on a limb.

The proud girls with their finished project.

Flowers

Spring is so beautiful! These roses were gone by the time we moved last summer, so we didn't know what to expect. If we had thought about it, we would have pruned the bush back over the winter, but we just didn't pay much attention. Saturday morning we went out and got some pictures of the kids with the roses and picking daisies in the front yard.

"For you, Mommy!" :-) How precious is that?!

School Tidbits

I frequently have in my mind a picture of how I would arrange the perfect school setup - what I would need and how perfect this or that would be.

The perfect school setup would, of course, include an incredible outdoor learning area. Naturally, we don't have that imagined school setting. But, not having it is kind of like not have toys that do everything. Sometimes not having is so much better than having because we are forced to use our God-given creativity! Like using a toy-storage tub and a couple of kid-sized chair to make a perfect outdoor work place. True, I don't exactly fit, so a lot of our interactive teaching time had to be done inside this time around, but the girls had a great time doing their independent work outside the other day! God is so good to us!

Something else that has been fun with school lately has been watching Steven grow in his ability to be involved in school. He's progressing from rambunctious toddler to learning preschooler, and I love it! The toddler years are so much fun to me, but this is the first time I've actually had the chance to be homeschooling grade school with a preschooler around since Livie and Angie are fairly close in age.

Steven loves history and read-alouds as much as his sisters. He even participated in creating our rain forest (more to come on that this week!), and yesterday he picked up some scissors and began to cut. And did quite well, I might add! Yes, we need to work on his grip, but he had a little strip of construction paper less than half an inch wide, and he was cutting little grooves in it! Occasionally he'd cut a piece totally off, but for the most part he did quite well just cutting those little grooves. As you can see by the grin on his face, he was very proud of himself! I just found a tip on making a rice tub for preschoolers, so I put that together earlier this week. It's a tub full of rice in which we will hide things, put cups for filling and emptying, and play matching games. I'm excited about introducing that to him. Learning is so much fun!

I'm in the process of slowly going through next year's curriculum, gaining familiarity with the books, planning some of our extras, and creating a picture book wishlist. We're having a great time finishing up this year, and I'm sure next year will be just as fun, if not even moreso!

Yum!

Well, for those of you who haven't caught it on Doug's blog, he did make it home on Wednesday! Angie's dentist appointment went well and she was fantastic through it all (thank you for the prayers!). We were done in perfect timing to go pick Doug up in Little Rock. YAY! It was definitely wonderful to have him home. We all slept much better Wednesday night!

Yesterday we had more cause for celebration. We found out it was National Cherry Cheesecake Day! We haven't been on top of the celebrations lately (you can probably tell from the sparseness of the calendar below), but we just had to celebrate this one. So, the kids and I dropped Doug off at the dentist and then headed to Walmart for the necessary ingredients. Although we like just about any type of cheesecake you put in front of us, we prefer the refrigerated over the baked. So, we pulled out our trust Homemade Gourmet cheesecake mix, added the cream cheese and Cool Whip, and produced a nice creamy cheesecake for our evening dessert. So, it wasn't the most beautiful cheesecake in the world, but it sure did taste good!

Update

Just to let you know, Doug made it safely to Kansas City. He was pretty tired last night, but seemed to have a good trip and a good evening. He had some meetings last night and today is touring around Kansas City looking at some missions opportunities. He is sitting down right now to an Indian taco (American Indian, that is). He just sent me a picture of it. It looks pretty good!

We're doing well around here. Last night around supper time, Steven knew that Daddy should be home but wasn't. So, he walked over to my phone and said, "Can I talk to Daddy on this phone?" Once he talked to Doug for a minute, he was fine. This morning he was pretty emotional when he realized Doug wasn't home when he got up. But, he got to talk to Doug about an hour later and has been fine since. The girls have commented that they wish Daddy was home, but they don't seem to be having problems. God has definitely been keeping things nice, even, and calm around here. Thanks to all who are praying!

Yesterday afternoon was a beautiful "play in the yard" kind of afternoon. Here's Steven practicing his tennis serve...

Tidbits from the Week

It's been a week for fun little things. I like weeks like that! Come with me and take a peek...

Princesses in school - check! We've had a lot of cloudy, rainy school days which kept us from being able to enjoy the great outdoors. So, sometimes being able to dress a little differently is just what we need to add a little diversion.

We started learning about the rain forest in science this week. We are making a display of sorts to show off some of the things we learn during this section. We'll have a backdrop of trees, make some plants out of construction paper, and make a few animals out of clay. Not exactly proportionate, I can tell you that now! But, our goal is more to reinforce what we're learning than to make a perfect display. These are just a few sneak peeks - stay tuned for the finished product, which will probably come sometime next week.

Meanwhile, there's Steven. He's such a hoot! Here are some of his antics for the week...

- Skipping through the house saying, "It looks like I'm skateboarding!" (I had no idea he even knew what skateboarding was! Apparently some of the boys at church skateboard. And, he adores those big boys at church!)
- Informing us all that he's a "Pooka Person!" During our morning devotional the other day, we were talking about different races and people groups, including our own. After a bit of discussion, Steven said, "I'm not a white person - I'm a Pooka person!" (Pooka is Steven's nickname, by the way.)
Meanwhile, there are the helmets. Steven has been wearing his big sisters' helmets for a while. I always assumed that it was because he'd seen them wear them when they rode their bikes, so he wanted to do the same thing. We weren't too sure about our little boy wearing pink and purple princess helmets, but he didn't seem to care. So, we figured we'd let him do it until we found him one of his own.

Then the other day he walked in and asked me to put a helmet and his knee pads on. He said, "I need my helmet so I can go throw my football!" So, now I know!

Meanwhile, while we were in Wal-Mart today we came across a Hot Wheels helmet set on close-out for $5! Yep, that's just what we needed. Steven, of course, thought it was wonderful and couldn't wait to get home and get it out of the package and onto his head (and elbows and knees). Ain't he cute?




Doug's parents came up today and we headed up the road to a quaint little community called The Village. It is a collection of shops and restaurants run by a group of people who live, work, and go to church all together in their little community. It was quite the fun experience.

We started with a delicious lunch at the barbeque restaurant and then went and browsed the shops. It was a nice outing and an enjoyable visit with Grandma and PopPop.
Looking into the upcoming week, we do have a couple of prayer requests...

Doug leaves in the wee hours of Monday morning (2:00ish, actually) to head to Kansas City for a couple of days. He will be joining a few others from our association to explore missions opportunities with the Kansas-Nebraska State Convention. He'll be returning midday on Wednesday. Please pray for the team's safety as they travel and for a very productive trip. Pray for the rest of us, too, as we're not at all used to Daddy being gone!

Meanwhile, Angie goes for her frenectomy, filling, and dental impression on Wednesday morning. Pray that it all goes well. We will find out on Wednesday when we'll have to go back in to get her appliance. Thanks for praying!

Well, the expected thunderstorm has rolled in, so it's time to shut down the computer. Hope you all had a great week! Have a blessed Sunday as you begin your new week!

Girls

Here are some more Easter shots of each of the girls. Oh, and just to let you know, it was NOT night time when we dyed Easter eggs! That's just how dark and stormy it was here Sunday afternoon!

Steven

Here are some Easter snapshots of just Steven.

Easter Pictures

Okay, so you didn't really think that the few pictures I posted on Monday were the only Easter pictures I took, did you?! RIGHT! Yeah, like I could even consider restraining myself. I don't even consider myself a true amateur photographer, but I just can't help trying to snap those cute posed pictures every Christmas, Easter, birthday, and any other chance I get.

Here are my favorites. I originally was going to put them all in one post, but there were just too many. So, today, tomorrow, and Friday will be dedicated to posting all of my favorites. Thanks for indulging me! :-)

Easter Egg Hunt

Saturday morning we joined some other families at church for an Easter egg hunt. It dawned on me that although we've hidden eggs on our own for the kids in years past when weather and timing have permitted, they've never really participated in an all-out group egg hunt. They seemed to enjoy themselves.

Younger kids ready to hunt.

Older kids chomping at the bits ready to go!

After the hunt we went inside for a light lunch and a bunny craft. (Just for the record, Angela is almost always in the midst of a group of three or four little girls when we're at church!)

Happy Easter!

Yes, I know it's a day late, but I want to wish it nonetheless. We had thunderstorms throughout the afternoon yesterday and kept the computer off, so I didn't get to post.

Did you celebrate? Did you rejoice? We did! We didn't do anything fancy, and we didn't have any company. Every year I say I'm going to do something with the kids like make resurrection cookies or start a new Easter tradition, but every year we seem to focus instead on keeping what could become a hectic day as simple as possible. And it was beautiful.

As we were sitting around the kitchen table enjoying our grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, Angela said, "Look! It's the empty tomb!" Her sandwich had one bite-sized gap in the bottom which she was covering with a chip. Then she pulled away the chip to reveal the "entrance" to the empty tomb.

We went to church and then dyed a few Easter eggs, and that was it. But, knowing that the discussion, prayers, praises, and even kids' play throughout the day revolved around the truth of the empty tomb was a beautiful thing to me. Knowing that my children rejoice in the empty tomb is a beautiful celebration.

I pray you each had a very blessed Easter and that the empty tomb is as glorious to you as it is to our family!

He is risen! He is risen, indeed!

A Little Problem

You know, it dawned on me yesterday that I've had a problem for the last little while. My problem has been identifying my children. "What, you don't know your own children?" you ask, incredulous. Well, in a way, sometimes that's how I feel.

You see, Olivia has gone through a growth spurt in so many ways. She's getting taller than I think she should be, and she's also beginning that gradual process of putting away childish things. She's capable of more, and she's desiring more.

Meanwhile, Angela has put aside the preschool child in just about every way possible. She looks like a school-age child, has had a shift in interest now that she can read, and has grown in her vocabulary immensely as books have opened a new world of learning to her. The other "problem" is that she looks like Olivia should look right now! She's wearing the clothes that Olivia has worn in recent years - some just last year. Her hair has grown so long that although it's not quite as long as Olivia's was before we cut it last year, it's definitely very similar in style and texture. So, I look at her and see where Olivia should be and expect Angela to look younger.

Then there's Steven. I look at him and realize that where I used to see all toddler, now I'm seeing glimpses of preschooler. The toddler is still there, don't get me wrong! But, it's definitely giving way more and more to the preschooler in him.

So, I see Olivia and think that there's no way I have a child that big; I see Angela and think she's Olivia; I wonder where Angela is; and I see Steven and try to soak up those last beautiful glimpses of the "toddlerness" I so greatly enjoy.

But, I must admit, even though I sometimes have the problem of identifying my children, I definitely cannot say it's a bad problem. Will I miss some of the things from those bygone stages of life? Without a doubt! Will I shed a few tears as I try to keep up with their ever-changing identities? Definitely! But, I'm so greatly enjoying watching them grow. It's a delight and a privilege. And, if I make sure to pay attention, I can definitely remind them that they don't have to grow up too fast.

Now, to give a light-hearted ending to my somewhat serious thought-sharing, let me leave you with this...

Steven walked into my room this morning and said, "Mommy, the hippos are hungry! Can I play the hippo game (Hungry, Hungry Hippos) so I can feed them?" Now, how in the world can a mama say no to that? :-)

New Skills

I love watching my kids learn new things and show signs of growth. This seems to be the week for Olivia and Steven. (As I'm typing, Steven is talking about going "up to the sky! Okey dokey?" and I just caught him climbing and perching on his knees on the back of the couch! AUGH!)

Steven's new skill is dressing and undressing himself. Yay! Woo-hoo! How exciting! I've been working with him for a while, trying to get him to do some of it on his own, but he hasn't quite been able to manage more than just little portions of the process. Then, suddenly, this week it has "clicked." He still can't quite do it all totally by himself, but just an extra hold here or a tiny pull there from me gets the job done. And he's so very proud! He cackles with delight with each victory. What a precious thing to witness!

Olivia's new skill is an incredibly helpful and exciting one for me! When we moved last summer, I discovered that - for the first time in nearly two years - we'd have need of our vacuum cleaner again. My goal? Teach the girls to vacuum the kids' rooms. The problem? Well, between the heavy vacuum cleaner, the rather deep pile carpet, and the height - or lack thereof - of the girls, they just couldn't seem to manage the vacuum cleaner. So, I decided to postpone the vacuuming lessons and just ask them to make sure the rooms were ready for me to vacuum each Tuesday and Friday.

This past Friday, I had been told that the rooms were ready. I walked into the girls' room to discover that Olivia already had the vacuum out, plugged in, and ready to go. She then proceeded to turn it on and maneuver it beautifully across the room! So, I left her to do the bedrooms. Then, this morning, having forgotten her newfound skill, I asked the girls to have both bedrooms ready for me by the time I got out of the shower. I finished showering, got dressed, and walked into the hall to grab the vacuum - it was missing. I walked into Steven's room thinking the girls had moved it in there for me. Nope...but the floor did look strangely patterned and clean! Sure enough, the girls worked so quickly that they had both rooms ready for Olivia to get all of the vacuuming done before I ever turned off the shower! Now that's a blessing! :-)

I'm sure Angie will have a new skill to share very soon as well! Oh how fun it is to be a mom who can watch each phase of this growth. I am so blessed to be with my kiddos through it all!

Family Day

I remember a time in the recent past when family days were few and far between for us. We were fortunate to have them once every couple of months, and we had to turn down many a social opportunity just to make sure we got a family day now and then! What a blessing it is now to have regular family days. Our goal is to have one to two days every month that we are just home together. Often it's more, but we really start to miss it if it's less.

Saturday was one of those family days. We slept in, had a delicious breakfast prepared by Doug, and then headed into a very nice day. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so we all headed outside to work in the yard a bit. Thanks to storms and winds through the winter, our yard was full of sticks and fallen limbs. So, we gathered them all up for Doug to burn. Everything was so wet that it was a bit of a challenge to burn them, but Doug got it done, teaching Olivia a good deal about safe fire management in the process.

Two big helpers...

...and one really prissy one!

After most of the limbs were gathered, I headed back inside to make some loaf bread, French bread, and biscuits to freeze. After lunch we settled in for a relaxing afternoon.

I sat down on the floor to cut out some pattern pieces, and the girls began playing with the scraps. They designed all sorts of clothes and had a fantastic time! We enjoyed just being down on the floor together.
We ended the day with movie night at church. Although it was a small crowd, we enjoyed getting together for pizza and a movie.

All in all, a great Saturday...and a reminder of what a blessing it is to have the privilege of spending time together as a family!

Sonlight Offer

If you're a home schooler who's ever wondered how Sonlight might work for you but weren't quite ready to jump in, let me share this with you...Sonlight is doing a contest for a free full year of curriculum to a very lucky winner! As I look through our curriculum for this fall, I am once again reminded how blessed we are to be Sonlight users. I can't imagine anything better for our family! It's not for everyone, but I would encourage you to at least check it out if you haven't already.

How do you enter? Well, if you are a new customer who has never before requested a catalog from Sonlight, just click here to be taken directly to the sweepstakes. All you have to do is request a catalog. That's it!

And, even if you don't win the free curriculum, Sonlight guarantees their curriculum such that you can try it risk free.

This offer was too good to be true, so I just had to share it. (And, no, Sonlight has not asked that I share the news or offered me anything to do so.)

Happy sweepstaking! :-)

Our Week

How has your week been? Ours has been a little different...slow in ways, busy in others, and just, well, different. Allergies, storms, days off, and little adjustments. That has been our week!

Monday was normal enough. Tuesday dawned with Doug heading to Monroe early to pick up some donated items for Monticello's new crisis pregnancy center. That always makes things a little different - kids waking up to Daddy being gone. Then the storms hit, and the kids were a little nervous thanks to the exceedingly loud thunder. We talked about the clouds praising God, and that seemed to take care of it for them! After all, the Psalms talk abundantly about creation praising its Creator! :-)

Tuesday also brought our new cell phones. Doug had a time trying to convince AT&T that we really were eligible for upgrade and renewal (they messed up our contracts when we moved down here). Doug's current phone was falling apart. My phone, which had never been quite as good on battery power or reception, was very steadily declining in usefulness. So, Doug began to work with AT&T to straighten things out so we could replace our phones. Once he convinced them that we never signed a new contract when we moved, they finally agreed that we were due for an upgrade and renewal, but only from the physical store or over the phone. If you've never shopped online for cell phones, you've missed quite the bargain. A $350-400 phone bought off the shelf can reduce to about $70 in the store or over the phone, but it reduces to FREE online! So, once again Doug did a little convincing, and finally managed to get them to allow us to shop online to get our free phones! Woo-hoo! Free BlackBerry phones, nonetheless! We are a bit overwhelmed by the new technology but very excited at the improved quality - and very blessed that everything worked out well.

This week has also seen a change in my organizational habits. Doug and I have tried for years to use planners and such, but have never really figured it out. A couple of months ago, though, Doug got a planner that really seemed to fit the bill for him. Since then he's rarely gone without his planner, and he's been able to keep things so much better organized! Spurred on by his example and by the fact that good planners are greatly discounted right now because we're a fourth of the way through the year, I decided to try one more time. I started with an old cast-off planner before I agreed to let Doug buy me one of the bigger, nicer ones, but I quickly discovered what a help it would be to have the big one. What's the difference between now and all those other attempts? Well, um, we're using the planners "our" way instead of trying to fit the mold of organization experts. Sometimes we need to learn from the experts, but other times we need to be ourselves!

Wednesday we had a "just not up to it" kind of day. The girls had been asking all morning to get to play outside all afternoon instead of having school. Knowing it was going to be stormy on Thursday - and knowing that I just didn't have much in me thanks to the effect the azaleas near our carport had been having on my sinuses - I agreed. I checked a "just not up to it" day off our trusty "day off" chart, and we enjoyed the afternoon.

Thursday brought our second stormy day with nearly torrential rains (the subsequent heavy downpour seemed quite tame in comparison!) and plentiful thunder and lightening. I just had to grin when Steven ran in to me and said, "Mommy! The clouds are praising God!" He was listening!

We took Thursday off as well, and made plans to head to the church with Doug to help set up for this month's movie night. That's always a fun outting!

Which brings us to today. Back to normalcy, for the most part - and, yes, we'll have school today. The sun is shining and the weather is gorgeous, so I'm sure several various parts of our day will include some treks outside to enjoy the beautiful weather. Meanwhile, we look forward to our weekend and celebrating Palm Sunday. Have a beautiful weekend yourselves!