Caught in Grace

Almost two

2012-02-02T15:03:00.001-06:00

In just a few days, my baby boy will be two years old. I can’t believe it! His little personality has been exploding over the last few months and it’s been fun to watch. But, man, he has a strong will and he knows how to test my patience and my perseverance. He also knows how to make his older brother and sister scream in pain, and he does it quite often. The only time our house is quiet is when he’s napping. He’s a busy little rascal, a rough and tumble boy, fierce and wild, funny and sweet, passionate and determined. He’s a fighter in every sense of that word. But maybe that’s to be expected, seeing as how he had to fight from the moment he was were born. I believe God has big plans for him. He’s a gift and a blessing and I’m honored to be his mommy.

Hudson’s Favorites:

1. Top Favorite thing: His blanket (Gi Gi) and paci (pa ba)

2. Song: The “Bubble Song”. He requests this song almost every day at naptime and bedtime.

3. Books: “I love you Stinky Face”, “Brown Bear”, “Oh My, Oh My, Oh Dinosaur”, picture books

4: Toys: trains, cars, and balls

5. Clothes: He likes to dress in clothes that match Tyson’s clothes and in button-up shirts like his daddy wears.

6. Activities: playing with his train table, digging in the dirt, pulling all the lids off of markers, pushing Peyton’s grocery cart around, running and screaming through the house with Tyson and Peyton

7. Food: raspberries, grapes, blackberries, blueberries, waffles, peanut butter, yogurt, potatoes, nuts, cheese… he eats almost anything

January Days

2012-02-01T07:35:00.001-06:00

I am still loving Instagram. I’ve barely picked up my Nikon all month and instead have been just using my iphone. It’s so easy and I’m finding that I take a lot more pictures this way. So here is a conglomeration of somewhat random photos from my phone.

Although this has been somewhat of a mild winter so far (we haven’t even had one little snowfall), we have had a lot of chilly, dreary,rainy January days over the last few weeks, which is making the winter seem long and making me dream of an early Spring, green grass, and colorful flowers.

Of course, cold and rain means long days, stuck inside. And all of you mothers of young children know this is not easy for anyone involved.

We try to make the best of it though. We find ways to pass the time and hopefully to even make it enjoyable.

McDonald’s playground can be a mother’s lifesaver when it comes to surviving rainy days with energetic kids.

As well as playdoh and games…

And when the sun finally peeks up to show itself, it is a beautiful thing!

Everyone was anxious to get back outside, to run and to splash through the puddles left on the ground by the rain.

The tooth fairy visited again recently. I love this boy’s toothless grin! I remember the excitement of seeing these teeth break through when he was just a few months old. Who knew it would be even more exciting to see them fall out. Wow, he’s growing up so fast!

Around here, the weekends mean extra time cuddling up with Daddy.

And lately, I cannot resist taking pictures of the sunrises. They are hand painted across the skies by God so beautifully and so uniquely each morning. Any neighbors that have seen me outside in my robe and slippers, holding my phone up in the air to snap a picture of the sky surely think I’m a nutcase! Ha! Oh well.

Rise and shine and give God the glory, glory!

Hope you guys have a great day!

Life in Instagrams

2012-01-20T20:12:00.001-06:00

So, it’s been a while since I last blogged. Our church is in the middle of 21 days of prayer and fasting right now and so I am purposely spending less time on the computer. It is so easy for me to get distracted with Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and blogs and so I’ve pulled away quite a bit in order to be more focused on the Lord during this time. It’s been good and refreshing.

But I thought I would just pop in for a quick little life update.

A few months ago, my old computer crashed and I got a my very first Mac computer. I immediately fell in love with it. And since one thing tends to lead to another, of course, then I wanted an iphone so that my phone and my computer would sync making life that much easier. For Christmas, my sweet in-laws helped make my wish come true.

After getting my iphone, I jumped on the Instagram bandwagon. Instagram, was another big reason I wanted an iphone. I love all the different ways you can quickly edit a photo right within your phone. Again, this just makes life simpler for me because I can snap a picture with my phone (which I almost always have nearby), upload it to Instagram, do a quick edit, and then when I post my photo to Instagram, it automatically saves the edited photo to my phone. And because my computer and phone are synced, my pictures automatically upload to my computer when I turn on wifi. So I love it.

I hope to take at least one Instagram a day this year. Who knows if I’ll actually stick with it for the entire year (it’s definitely not supposed to become burdensome), but right now I’m having fun with it. I love photography. It reminds me to look for the good,the beautiful, the joyful, and the blessings God pours out on us each day. Because, if I don’t purposely look for them hidden among the chaos, the messes, dirty laundry piles, long rainy days, never-ending to-do lists, and the everyday squabbles of life, they just pass me by, unnoticed. But His gifts and grace surround me, they whisper His love to me. And so each day, noticing them has become kind of like a little treasure hunt for me. It opens my eyes to His presence in our lives and brings me joy.

I love what Jesus says in Matthew 6 “Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light… If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!”. In another translation, it says, “A pure eye lets sunshine into your soul.” And so I can choose what I focus my eyes and my thoughts on each day. And my choices will determine the well-being of my heart and soul. Of course, some days are harder than others to keep my eyes focused on the pure and the lovely. But each day, I do have a choice. So with my “Instagram a day” project, I am hoping to become more purposeful in filling my soul up with sunshine.

My iphone did not arrive until after the New Year, so I got started a little bit late on my daily Instagrams, but here we go… this is our life in Instagrams.

1/11/12 I love that Peyton is “reading” to Hudson (who is actually sitting still and listening!). I love her curled up, painted toes, and wrinkly feet.

1/12/12 All bundled up for an afternoon walk on a blistery cold winter day.

1/13/12 Peyton got bangs cut in her hair. Pretty cute, huh? Love that smile!

1/14/12 Our faithful dog napping in the sunshine.

1/15/12 Family Shadow

An afternoon hike through the woods next to our house. The sun flare was amazing.

1/16/12 Two little monkeys jumping on the bed. Joyful moments.

1/17/12 All three happily playing together with blankets and pillows.

1/18/12 A trip to the library, gathering a treasury of new books to read. Some of the best moments of our days are spent snuggled up on the couch reading through our stacks of library books.

“There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.” – Jacqueline Kennedy

1/19/12 A new day; the break of dawn.

“Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you.” Ps 143

“His mercies are new every morning.” Lamentations 3

Our new couch and freshly painted living room.

My silly, happy boy. He makes me laugh.

1/20/12 It was a rainy day, so we stayed inside and everyone enjoyed playing together with Tyson’s marble rollercoaster.

Are any of you guys on Instagram?

Christmas Eve/Christmas Day

2011-12-28T20:44:00.001-06:00

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year. Several times, God dropped surprise blessings in our laps. For us. For the kids. His gifts reminded me that He is a God that delights in giving good gifts to His children. For He knows each one of us intimately and He fills the desires of our hearts. He is the perfect gift giver and His abundant love never ceases to amaze me. Of course His most lavish gift of love was the the gift of Jesus that He gave us so long ago, wrapped in swaddling clothes. And that is our ultimate reason for celebration and thankfulness. Jesus, who gave up everything to come. Who was born to die. And who, through His death and resurrection, gave us the gifts of salvation, redemption, freedom, righteousness, and adoption as God’s very own children. There are no greater gifts.

I took many many pictures over Christmas, so I’ll share some of them and just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Christmas Eve Day

Christmas Eve

Christmas Day

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas too.

Holy Night

2011-12-23T21:16:00.001-06:00

Silent Night

Holy Night

All is Calm

All is Bright

And the angel said unto them,

“Be not afraid; for behold,

I bring you good tidings of great joy

which shall be to all people:

for there is born to you this day

in the city of David a Savior,

who is Christ the Lord.”

Luke 2:10-11

Puddle Jumping in December

2011-12-21T21:30:00.001-06:00

Pictures might be worth a thousand words, but they only tell part of a story. Here’s the real story behind the pictures.

Puddle Splashing Scene One:

Three happy kids run splashing through puddles left by warm December rain. Three year old girl hits a pothole with her tricycle and goes careening over the front of it, landing with a belly flop in the puddle. Mom comforts screaming, crying, cold, soaking wet little girl and sends her inside to change. Then mom picks up one year old boy and follows sobbing, sopping-wet girl inside. Small boy fiercely protests leaving the puddles with kicking, biting, hitting, and crying. Mom lugs writhing, screaming boy upstairs while simultaneously dodging his flying fists. She helps wet girl remove pants, shirt, underwear, and socks and throws dirty clothes in laundry room. Five year old boy outside screams at mom wondering when everyone is coming back out to play. One year old boy inside screams at mom and throws a punch as mom walks past. Mom re-dresses girl in clean dry underwear, pants, shirt, and socks. Mom and children go back outside to continue the puddle jumping fun.

Puddle Splashing Scene Two:

Three happy kids go back to running and screaming through the puddles. A few minutes later the small girl trips while running and again lands a perfect belly flop in the middle of a giant puddle. Mom comforts screaming, crying, cold, soaking wet little girl once again. Then mom takes off little girl’s sopping-wet shirt and tries to tell her that it will be fun to keep playing in the puddles. Girl shivers and protests with more crying. While mom continues to try and convince the girl to splash and have fun, the one year old boy takes off down the road. Mom chases after him and tries to turn boy around and point him back to puddle splashing. Boy refuses to be deterred from running down the middle of the road. Mom picks boy up and carries him back to house. Spitting-mad little boy responds with fighting, screaming, and a violent temper tantrum.

Puddle Splashing Scene Three:

Mom gives up on a fun morning of puddle splashing and tells everyone to go inside. Five year old boy protests with loud whines of disapproval. Mom insists that puddle splashing time is over. Mom helps all three now crying kids take off their wet pants, socks, shirts, underwear, and rain jackets. She takes the large load of dirty, wet clothes upstairs to dump in the laundry room. Then she goes back down to lug the crying, screaming, fighting, biting, kicking, clawing, fist-throwing one year old boy upstairs. She tells all the cold, dirty children to get in the bath to clean off and warm up. The still fired-up toddler proceeds to bully and punch his older siblings while in the bathtub. They respond with loud cries and shrieks. Mom pulls the wild child out of the tub and tries to calm him down in his room. While mom is pre-occupied with angry boy, the three year old girl and five year old boy have a gigantic splash party in the bathtub, completely soaking the entire bathroom floor. Exasperated mom at her wit’s end throws clean towels on the floor and makes the splashing children get out of the tub and clean up their mess.

Puddle Splash Scene Four:

As one year old boy cries and flings his lunch on the floor, Mom loads wet clothes in the washing machine and wonders if she’ll ever take her kids out to splash in puddles again.

Elf Antics

2011-12-17T14:24:00.001-06:00

Christopher Pop- In-Kins has been at our house this week. And he’s been up to all sorts of elf antics.

I’m sure most of you have already heard of Elf on the Shelf. This is basically the same idea, just a little bit of a different version. I chose Christopher Pop-In-Kins because there isn’t as much focus on him watching the kid’s behavior and then reporting back to Santa Claus. For us, it’s more about starting a new tradition with a lovable little elf that comes to visit each December and does fun things with/for the kids.

The first night he was here, he turned the kid’s milk green to surprise them the next morning.

Tyson (who loves milk) wasn’t so sure about green milk though.

But Peyton, who is generally not a milk drinker at all, liked it and even drank Tyson’s milk. Go figure!

To his dismay, the green milk had a disastrous effect on poor Christopher Pop-In-Kins though. That night, he got a terribly upset tummy and ended up spending the entire night in the bathroom.

It was a long night for him and he made a big mess of things, but at least, he helped clean it up the next day.

The kids obviously find this sort of bathroom humor hilarious (and sadly, so do we).

Later that day, when his tummy was feeling much better, he wanted to make Christmas cookies with the kids, so he secretly rolled out the Gingerbread dough and surprised them.

Tyson and Peyton were happy to jump in and help cut out the cookies.

The next morning,he had hot chocolate waiting for the kids when they got up. I think he went a little bit overboard on the marshmallows and sprinkles though.

He even generously added a big dollop of cool whip. As Tyson was drinking his hot chocolate, he asked me, “Mom, how does he always know just what we want to do?”

And then that afternoon, Pop-In-Kins got everything ready to decorate the gingerbread cookies with the kids.

So everyone helped.

Even Hudson got into it.

(Tim gave him a haircut and it is waay too short. Thankfully, it will grow back, but I miss my little bald boy’s hair!)

Who knows what Pop-In-Kins will be up to next?!!

The makings of a gingerbread house

2011-12-14T20:39:00.001-06:00

One of our Christmas traditions each year is decorating a gingerbread house. Over the years, I’ve learned a thing or two about doing this project with the kids. I’ve learned that it’s best to put the house together and give the icing time to harden before getting the kids involved to decorate it. This way the odds are much better that our gingerbread house will still be standing at the end. Otherwise, it’s very possible that all we end up with is a pile of broken gingerbread pieces crumbled up with globs of icing and slobbery, half- nibbled bits of candy. And this year, I also made sure that we did it on a day when Tim was home. Things go much smoother when there is an extra set of hands helping out.

Candy!

The only thing Hudson was interested in was stealing the candy pieces.

But when it came to decorating, these two got right down to business.

It definitely wasn’t all work and no play though. Plenty of breaks were taken to taste test the icing or sneak a piece of candy.

But then it was right back to work.

And it was serious!

I think our gingerbread house turned out pretty cute this year. I would even say that it’s our best one yet.

We’ve been keeping it on the dining room table for all to admire. The problem with that is that more and more pieces of candy and chunks of icing have been quietly disappearing off of it each day.

I do believe I have some candy thief culprits on my hands.

And don’t let her innocent smile fool you, this one is my prime suspect!

A visit with Santa

2011-12-10T07:30:00.002-06:00

Last night, we went to a Christmas party for Tim’s work and Santa Claus came and visited all the kids. He read them books, pulled each kid up on his lap to get their Christmas wish list, and handed out bags of candy afterwards. And let me tell you, he was the real deal. In fact, I think I believe in Santa again.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.

A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.

His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

Peyton told Santa she wants a tiger and baby doll. Tyson wants a remote control airplane and a hot wheel car. And as hard as Santa tried to win Hudson over, Hudson refused Santa anything but a high five this year. Maybe next year Santa. As Santa was leaving, Peyton asked him if she could watch him fly off in his sleigh. He told her he only does that once a year. Good answer Santa, way to be on your toes!

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

Fun and Educational

2011-12-09T15:36:00.001-06:00

A while back, I mentioned that right now we are allowing Tyson (who’s 5) to learn at his own pace about things that interest him, enhance his love for learning, and peak his curiosity rather than using a set curriculum and following the more traditional form of homeschooling. So today, I thought I would share a few things that we have found to be really fun and interesting for him as well as educational.

One of his favorite things to watch right now are the Popular Mechanics for kids DVDS. He’s really into mechanics and how things work. He just has questions about everything these days, so these dvds are right up his alley. So far, he has only watched the few episodes that we’ve found at the library. But he loves them so much that he watches them over and over, literally soaking everything up. And many times we’ve ended up re-checking them back out to watch over and over again. He is learning so much from them and after watching them, he will tell us the most random things. Like, “The dome is the strongest shape there is.” Or the other day, at lunch, he was putting his fingers in his juice and pushing the ice cubes around and he said, “Science tells us that water is displaced.” Mine and Tim’s eyes about popped out of our heads when he said that and we were like, “How do you know that?!”.

For Christmas, he is getting this set of DVDs

Another line of dvds we found that he loves are the The Big Adventure Series. Although I linked to the website, you can find most of these on Amazon for much cheaper. These dvds take you behind the scenes to explore how things work, how things are made, and how things are done. We’ve found that they are not only interesting for the kids, but also for parents too. So far, his favorite is, The Big Auto Plant in which you “watch how a car is made - from the engineers' drawings to the final touches on the assembly line”. He is fascinated with cars and gears. The other day, as we were getting into our van, Peyton asked me how a car works. I said, that I didn’t know. Tyson immediately perked up and gave us a full rundown on what happens with the pistons and gas explosions in the engine. Yet again, I was blown away with what has learned.

Here are a few dvds, but there are many more on the website and on Amazon.

Recently, I came across, The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library. These are fun rhyming books packed full of information about the natural world like bugs, seeds, mammals, our bodies, reptiles, and outer space. They are both entertaining, fun to read, and educational. We love them and we read these over and over too. I’m in the process of building these into our home library.

Another book we love that is also highly educational is The Berenstain Bears Big Book of Science and Nature. Those lovable, silly Berenstein Bears give a great introduction to simple machines, forms of matter, energy, months of the year, and seasons.

A fun way to introduce your kids to classical music is with Beethoven's Wig. It takes “snippets of 11 classical music staples--Beethoven, Bach, Mozart” etc. and puts them with silly lyrics that will have your kids giggling and squealing with laugher as they sing along…. at least that’s what mine do.

And last, but not least, Tyson is loving the Little House on the Prairie audio cd right now and often asks to listen to it when we’re driving in the car. It’s a heart-warming classic based on the real-life adventures of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I read these books growing up and I love sharing these stories with my kids. It takes us back to a time in which houses and furniture were built from cut trees, cooking was done over an open fire, and run-ins with Indians and wolves were daily occurrences.

The Christmas Card

2011-12-07T08:10:00.001-06:00

Our Christmas cards have been sent out (with the exception of a few that I was waiting on addresses for) and hopefully have arrived by now with their recipients. So I thought I’d share it with all of you, my faithful blog readers.

From our family to yours, we wish you a very joyful Christmas this year!

Front:

Back:

O Christmas Tree

2011-12-05T20:41:00.001-06:00

Ever since we put our tree up a few weeks ago, Tyson has been begging and pleading to decorate it. But with Thanksgiving and family visiting and then Tim working late every night last week, we just haven’t had the time. Finally, over this past weekend, Tim got down all the boxes of ornaments and we let the kids go at it. I’m not sure it could have been any more chaotic as all three kids were opening bins and digging out ornaments. There was lots of oohing and aahing over all the different ornaments. A few got dropped. Several got thrown. And one very fragile ball got squeezed to death. I lost track of how many ornaments got injured in the decorating process, but oh well. Most of them can be salvaged with a little hot glue. It really didn’t matter to me anyway. It was a lot of fun to have all of the kids getting into it this year. Even Hudson was quick to catch the excitement and jump in on the fun.

Besides moving a few breakable ornaments up higher on the tree, I really didn’t have anything to do with the placement of ornaments this year. The kids basically did it all and it’s very obvious when you look at our tree. There are spots that are completely bare and then spots that are overloaded with ornaments. In the past, I would have discreetly rearranged everything after the kids finished. I would have hid the hideous ornaments in the back or removed them all together and displayed the nicer looking ones in the front. But this year, for some reason, our imperfect tree isn’t bothering me. In fact, I kind of like it. This year, when I look at our tree, I can see the beauty in it. And I find joy in all those imperfections.

There is a kind of beauty in imperfection. -Conrad Hall

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2011-12-02T14:32:00.001-06:00

All of you probably know by now how much I love fireplaces. But to my dismay, we don’t have one in our house. Last year, I bought an old fireplace mantel off of Craigslist, so I could at least pretend to have one. I even put a chalkboard behind it and drew a fake flame on it to create ambiance.

It helped, but it really wasn’t enough for me. So when Tim asked me what I wanted for Christmas this year, I told him I wanted a real fake fireplace and that I wanted it before Christmas so I could actually enjoy it all season long.

On Black Friday, we ordered an electric fireplace. It arrived earlier this week and I loooove it. The flame is fake, but it looks very real. It also has a heater, so it warms up the room just like a real fireplace would. I have used it practically non-stop since it arrived. Tim even turns it on for me before he leaves for work in the mornings so our living room is warm and cozy when I get up. I’m watching the flames jump and flicker now as I write this blog. It makes me happy.

Did you notice that Frosty is back again this year? I’m not sure if it was the heat from the fireplace or what, but sadly we had to amputate his legs last night because they had started leaking and rotting all over our hardwood floor. We fondly refer to him as Stumpy now. Isn’t he cute?!

Since we’re on the topic of Christmas decorations, I’ll just go ahead and give you the ~~grand~~ tour.

This year, I mixed turquoise in with my Christmas color scheme. I like the color too much right now to pack away all my regular turquoise decorations for Christmas. I’m really liking how it looks with the red. It’s a little bit merry and a little bit bright.

There was a blank spot on my wall that needed a touch of Christmas. I really didn’t want to spend any extra money for something, so I got creative. I sawed branches off a tree, cut them up, spray painted them white, tied them together with twine, and stuck a sweet gum ball on the top. And Ta-Da!

I think using found things from nature is a great (and affordable!) way to decorate. It’s also kind of Pottery Barnish.

Free tree clippings from the tree farm.

More tree clippings tied together to make garland, as well as pinecones, and acorns put in old bottles.

Wood and tree clippings stuffed in an old bucket.

I guess that’s about it, or at least that’s about all I’ve taken pictures of around here. Our tree is up, but we haven’t decorated it yet. Hopefully, we’ll get to that this weekend.

Christmas Card Outtakes 2011

2011-11-30T14:25:00.001-06:00

Over the Thanksgiving break, we attempted to take our annual Christmas card picture. It always hangs over me until I get it done, so this year, I wanted to get it done first thing. I had the brilliant idea to give each of the kids a letter ( J , O , and Y ) to hold up in the picture. The problem was that Hudson didn’t want to hold a letter and he didn’t want to take a picture. If you have a toddler or if you have ever had one, then you know how their moods can take a complete nosedive in a millisecond. Hudson was fine and then he was not fine. And so all of a sudden, we were dealing with a crying, screaming, full-blown tantrum on the middle of a railroad track.

Fun.

While Tim attempted to settle Hudson down, Tyson and Peyton enjoyed playing on the train tracks (after we assured them that they wouldn’t get hit by a train).

Although Hudson’s mood didn’t really improve much, we continued on with the Christmas card photo shoot since we had gone to all the trouble of getting the kids dressed up, loading them in the car, and then driving to a train track.

Trying to get three kids to look happy and hold up their letter at the exact same moment (without covering up their face) is ridiculously hard. It’s actually probably impossible. I’m not sure why we attempted it.

Between bouts of crying, Hudson was mostly interested in throwing the O.

We tried setting the O down.

Then Tyson offered to hold the O for Hudson.

And we tried just laying the O in Hudson’s lap.

We became desperate. They kids became bored.

Hudson became inconsolable.

And Tim and I know when to give up. So we left. Once we arrived back in our neighborhood, we took the kids on a short walk down a trail through some nearby woods. We hoped the walk would put Hudson in a better mood and that maybe we could try again for a Christmas card picture.

Hudson’s bad mood persisted.

But we were more persistent and sometimes persistence pays off.

You’ll have to wait to see what we used on our Christmas card. After I send them out, I’ll put it up on the blog for everyone.

Thanksgiving Week

2011-11-27T21:49:00.001-06:00

As I write this blog, my heart is overflowing with gratefulness and fond memories of our Thanksgiving week. It was a whirlwind of family, food and fun. Family members trickled in all week long and by Thanksgiving night, we had a packed out house with people (and dogs!) sleeping in every room of our house (minus the kitchen and bathrooms). After all the beds were filled up, our guests graciously slept on blow-up mattresses, the couch, the futon, cots, and even the floor. All week long, we had an overabundance of good food and even more importantly, good fellowship. We had late nights filled with cookies, pies, toffee popcorn and cheesecake and early mornings with specialty bagels and Keurig coffee. The days were filled with sporadic football games in the front yard, cooking, walks, bike riding, afternoon naps, and of course, more eating. We ended the festivities with our traditional Black Friday shopping. Like I said, it was a whirlwind and all too soon, we were hugging our families and saying goodbye.

A few pictures from our week

Saturday afternoon, we officially kicked off the Christmas season and took the kids to a tree farm.

There are reindeer and free hot chocolate and apple cider at this particular tree farm, which is why we continue to go back year after year even though we’ve had a fake tree for the past few years.

And although we didn’t plan on getting a tree this year either, we found one that was so irresistible that we had to bring it home with us.

My girl

2011-11-21T12:58:00.001-06:00

If you know Peyton, you know that she’s not so much of a girly girl. She probably gets that from me (I was the same way and still kind of am). And just like me, she was born smack dab in the middle of two brothers. And sometimes in the midst of all the yelling, roaring and crazy testosterone behavior happening all around her, girly stuff gets pushed aside and forgotten about in an effort to join in all the boy madness. Peyton has even been known to raid Tyson’s and Hudson’s closets for clothes so that she can be more like them.

But on Sundays, she likes to get all gussied up for church. It’s fun to watch my precious little tomboy dress up in a frilly skirt and “put on” makeup. She even asked me to “make her hair hot” (use the straight iron on her hair). I know she’s doing these things because I do them and she’s watching me. And that kinda melts my heart a little bit. I absolutely love having a daughter.

Peyton, you’re gorgeous and I love you.

Leaves

2011-11-12T19:51:00.001-06:00

Fall. My favorite time of the year. Pumpkin spice coffee, knee-socks, boots, skinny jeans, and scarves are my daily companions. The days are bright, beautiful and perfect with big white puffy clouds that float lazily across the clear blue skies. The air is crispy cold and open windows welcome the fresh scent of Fall into our home. The leaves on the trees have turned from green to red and orange and golden yellow. The chilly gusts of wind have scattered them across our lawn.

They lay there waiting for us.

Can any child resist a pile of leaves?

We played until the day turned into dusk and the last bit of sunlight dipped behind the trees.

DIY Chunky Distressed Coffee Table

2011-11-07T08:06:00.001-06:00

You gotta love Pinterest. Recently, while perusing around Pinterest land, looking for coffee table inspiration, I came across this guy.

It’s made from old pallets. And you know me and my love for furniture made out of pallets. I drool. The great thing about Pinterest is that when you click on any pinned item you get a pop up window with the item’s original link. So, I followed the link on over to InspireMeHeather.

The inspiration for her pallet coffee table was this coffee table in Western Living.

Upon seeing these pictures, I fell in love. So much so, that I persuaded Tim to sit down with me Friday night and draw up plans for our very own pallet inspired chunky distressed coffee table. We stayed up late hammering out the details, dimensions, and board sizes. We work well together. I tell him what I want and he makes it happen. By Saturday morning, I had already changed my mind about some of the details. I’m a girl. It happens. Tim rolls with it nicely.

We spent all of Saturday morning chasing our exasperated kids through Home Depot while simultaneously trying to make big decisions on which bolts and boards to use to build our coffee table.

And the rest of the weekend was spent measuring, cutting, hammering, drilling (Tim) and staining, painting, and sanding (me). I’m not sure what our kids did that whole time, but thankfully they all survived.

I was going to take step by step pictures for you guys, but when I went to get my camera so I could document everything, the battery was dead. I apologize, but I couldn’t put a hold on our project to wait for the camera battery to charge up – we were on limited time constraints. If you want to build your own coffee table, InspireMeHeather has some great instructions on her blog that would be helpful (although we built ours a little bit different).

The great thing is that it only cost about a $90. That and a weekend full of blood, sweat, and tears (ok, not really). Well, kind of. I’m pretty sure Tim sweated (although I did not) and Peyton fell down once and there was both blood and tears. She’s okay though.

But, we now have a new coffee table that we absolutely love.

We love the big chunky legs, the distressed look, the oversized bolts, the cracks and imperfections in the wood (which not only add character, but also hides all our mistakes), and the combination of painted wood on the bottom with the stained boards on top.

While we were building it, I did debate painting the top boards a mix of mismatched, but similar colors like in the inspiration coffee table in the photo, but in the end, we loved the look of the stained wood so much, that we decided to keep it this way. At least for now. I can always change my mind later and go back and paint them.

(If you’re curious, we used 6x6 boards for the chunky legs, which Tim cut to about 14 inches each. The sides around the coffee table are 2x6 boards. Tim notched into the 6x6s to get the 2x6s to lay flush into them. And the top is 5- 1x8 boards with 2- 1x6 boards mixed in. If I remember correctly, the whole things measures about 43in x 32in. )

Unschooling

2011-11-03T15:16:00.001-05:00

"Living is learning and when kids are living fully and energetically and happily they are learning a lot, even if we don't always know what it is. " John Holt

A few weeks ago, we put away the curriculum and jumped into the new (to us) world of unschooling. Unschooling is also known as interest-led learning or delight-directed learning. The term “unschooling” was coined by an educator named, John Holt. According to Wikipedia, ““He [Holt] believed that "children who were provided with a rich and stimulating learning environment would learn what they are ready to learn, when they are ready to learn it".Holt believed that children did not need to be coerced into learning; they would do so naturally if given the freedom to follow their own interests and a rich assortment of resources.”

Over the last few months, I have felt the Lord gently leading us to unschooling. I felt Him drawing us to let go of curriculum, formal daily school time, and set educational standards and to just trust Him with our children’s education. After all, He designed them and only He knows what His plans are for them, so it really is only fitting that He guide their education too. There is a verse in Isaiah that resonated with me as I was praying through all of this. It says, “All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great will be their peace.” Is. 54:13

To me, unschooling is allowing our children to learn naturally as we live life together because we view all of life as a learning opportunity. It is letting our kids learn and explore as freely as possible and it is trusting that because God is directing their individual and unique paths, He will draw them to seek out and learn what they need to know when they need to know it. It is resting in the fact that God’s hand is upon each of their lives and that much of our job as their parents is to recognize what God is already doing and then collaborate with Him. It is not a hands-off approach and it is not unparenting. We are actively involved in working with the Lord to guide, direct, teach, train, disciple, answer questions, present learning opportunities, provide an assortment of resources, and pray for them throughout the process. It just means that rather than allowing a core curriculum or state standards to decide what (and when) something is important for our children’s education, we are in essence, “throwing out the map” and trusting the Lord to be our guide on this journey. We are trusting in His agenda and in His timetable for each of our children and we are allowing their education to happen as naturally as possible. And although this process of letting go has been a bit unnerving (ya think?!), after taking the plunge, we have found greater peace, freedom, and joy in our daily lives (shew!). We have no idea where the Lord is taking us on this journey of unschooling, but we are excited.

“We can best help children learn, not by deciding what we think they should learn and thinking of ingenious ways to teach it to them, but by making the world, as far as we can, accessible to them, paying serious attention to what they do, answering their questions -- if they have any -- and helping them explore the things they are most interested in.” -Holt

And really, that is just the tip of the iceberg on unschooling. There is so much more information out there in books and on the internet if you’re interested in learning more about unschooling.

Here are a few links that I have found encouraging and helpful:

Christian Unschooling Blog

Another Christian Unschooling Blog

Some great books on Christian Unschooling:

Christian Unschooling: Growing your children in the Freedom of Christ by Teri J. Brown

Finding Joy: A Christian’s Journey to an Unschooled Life by Julie Polanco

Trunk or Treat

2011-10-30T20:31:00.001-05:00

We took the kids Trunk or Treating the other night at their old preschool. They had a blast seeing some of their old teachers. Tyson was Optimus Prime. Peyton was “Pider Man!”. And Hudson was a pirate. In preparation for Trunk or Treat, Tyson and Peyton taught Hudson how to say “ARRRRR!”. He was the ~~most ferocious~~ cutest pirate I’ve ever seen. And although he was a little bit unsure what to do at first, he quickly caught on and thoroughly enjoyed taking candy from people and then putting it in his goody bag. He didn’t quite understand that you don’t keep going back to the same person over and over for more pieces of candy, but that you keep moving down the row of cars, collecting more candy as you walk along. Thankfully no one seemed to mind the little pirate that took more than his fair share of candy.

One chilly afternoon in the Fall

2011-10-28T20:11:00.001-05:00

One afternoon last week, I took the kids to a nearby park. It was a pretty chilly afternoon and I almost didn’t take them because of the cold and the wind (and I wasn’t really in the mood to freeze), but we bundled up and went despite the nippiness in the air and ended up having a really great time riding and climbing and running around. The park was deserted that day, so we enjoyed having it all to ourselves. The sign said, “No bikes allowed”, but none of the kids can read yet and I didn’t read it to them.

Mary Frances

2011-10-25T13:55:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, I got to do a newborn photo shoot for another one of Tim’s co-workers. Meet, almost three week old, Mary Frances. She was such a sweet, easy-going baby and I had so much fun posing her and taking her pictures.

Mary Frances has an adorable three year old brother named Sam. Sam liked popping up right in front of my camera for his own picture every now and then.

This next picture was the last one I took and right after I snapped it, Mary Frances had a startle reflex and all of her arms and legs flew straight out busting her out of her little cocoon and waking her up. This ended up being my absolute favorite picture from the morning.

Camping we did go

2011-10-17T22:22:00.001-05:00

This past weekend, we met my brother, Jason and his wife, Ashley for an overnight campout. We’ve been wanting to take the kids camping for a while now, but never felt that all the “fun to be had” would outweigh all the “work to be done” in order to go camping. An extremely large amount of work goes into packing and preparing for a camping trip. And you can multiply that workload by three hundred percent when you are taking along children. I’m sure it gets easier the more you do it, but we are not campers, so we clearly didn’t know what we were doing.

I need to preface the rest of my blog by saying that Tim decided to “grow out” his beard all week so that he would at least look like a wilderness man while we were camping. So in honor of his facial stubble, I will be referring to him as “Wilderness Man” for the rest of this blog post.

Originally, we had planned to go for an entire weekend, but then we thought better of that plan. We decided that it would be best to start out small and just see how one night in a tent worked out before we tried to tackle an entire weekend of camping. Plus, I like my warm and comfy bed and my morning cup of Keurig coffee too much to voluntarily forgo them both for two nights in a row in exchange for sleeping on a cold, hard ground at night and drinking instant coffee while shivering around a morning campfire. So after packing up our entire house in preparation for any and every disaster that could befall us on our one night away (Wilderness Man finally told me I had to stop packing things because we had no more room in the truck), we loaded the kids up and set off for our adventure in the woods.

On the drive out to the campsite, Wilderness Man and I began thinking of all the things we forgot to pack. Thank goodness Jason and Ashley were meeting us there. They were our saving grace on this trip. I’m not sure how we would have survived without them. Most everything that we forgot, they remembered. It’s just a wild thought, but I’m going to bet that when you don’t have three kids distracting you the entire time you’re packing, you tend to remember to pack things like, oh, you know… water for your camping trip.

After arriving, all the men got right to work setting up camp.

And then we were off to explore the area.

We did a little fishing, but the fish just weren’t biting bread balls stuck on hooks that day.

Maybe we had the look of lost, stranded puppies, I don’t know, but our inexperience at camping must have been quite apparent (despite the rugged looks of Wilderness Man) because a very sweet and thoughtful older gentleman stopped by that afternoon and generously loaded us up with a pile of firewood to get us through the night. Before leaving us to survive on our own, he also made sure we had plenty of food to eat and kindly offered Fruit Loops to the kids (which we politely declined). And although we were extremely grateful for his generosity, there really was no shortage of firewood in the area.

Wilderness Man went right to work hacking away at the wood. I won’t tell you how many hacks it took him to split this log. Partly that is because Wilderness Man would like to look strong and impressive on my blog, but mostly because I have no idea. All I can say is that there were so many wild hacks that we lost count.

Of course, no campout would be complete without roasting marshmallows and making smores. This was hands down the absolute favorite part and top highlight of the campout for the kids. ~~Next time, we will just make smores in our backyard and then sleep in our own beds at night.~~

As night set in, the temperature dropped dramatically. We spent the evening huddled around the campfire, which Jason made sure to keep roaring at all times.

After our hair sufficiently smelled of smoke and our clothes were covered with ash dust, we let the fire die down for the night and headed to our tents to try to find warmth in our ice cold sleeping bags. It was a long night. The ground was hard and stumpy and the air was frigid. Sleep did not come easily and when it did, it didn’t last long. All night long, I worried that Hudson, who was sleeping in a sleeping bag for the first time in his pack n play, would wiggle out of his bag in his sleep and freeze. So every time, I drifted out of sleep (which was often), I would instantly think of Hudson and then force myself to get up and make sure that he was still curled up all snug and warm in his sleeping bag. Like I said, it was a long night. At one point, I asked Wilderness Man what time it was (he wasn’t sleeping well either) and when he said it was 4:30, I was so relieved that we were at least getting close to morning.

Morning came and the last thing I wanted to do was get out of my warm sleeping bag (that term “warm” is only in relation to the absolute freezing cold outside of my sleeping bag, I was never really warm), but the bladder waits for no one and neither would my grumbly stomach. Jason and Ashley were so well prepared and thoughtful that they had brought us Einstein bagels and Starbucks instant coffee for breakfast. After Wilderness Man burned the first batch of bagels on the grill, Ashley took over the bagel toasting, with much better results.

Tyson is becoming quite the little photographer lately and snapped this picture of me and the Wilderness Man. Maybe I’ll end up in more pictures now that we have another photographer in the family.

After eating a slow breakfast and getting warm and toasty by the fire, we all unanimously decided that we had had quite enough of this camping thing. We didn’t quite last a full 24 hours in the woods, but we left full of good family memories, which I guess is actually the point of camping anyway. Does anyone actually enjoy it?

P.S. Wilderness Man promptly shaved off his stubble after arriving back home.

What Matters Most

2011-09-22T21:22:00.001-05:00

Each weekday morning, the kids (Tyson and Peyton) are supposed to get dressed and make their beds when they get up. Then we have breakfast and start our school. Usually (but not always), this process runs somewhat smoothly without a lot of hassling from me to keep them on task. But the other morning, as I was trying to quickly get dressed during this time, there was a constant stream of interruptions at my door by dilly-dallying, screaming, whining, fighting, and crying children who were still in their pajamas and still had unmade beds. I was also experiencing the added stress and exhaustion that comes from being in the middle of two long weeks alone as a single mom while Tim is out of town. So I was already mentally and physically worn out, and for heaven’s sakes I just wanted a few measly minutes alone in the peace and quiet of the bathroom to get dressed. Is that too much to ask!!? (apparently so.) And so here we were, the sun had barely risen over the horizon, and I was already being forced to deal with meltdown after crying, screaming meltdown, and so, well, that was enough to send me over the edge.

I didn’t completely lose it at them, but I definitely didn’t speak in grace or love or walk in patience and understanding either. I was aware that I wasn’t handling the situation in the right way, but at that moment, I was more concerned with: 1) my inconvenience and frustration at having to deal with their attitudes, 2) how exhausted and tired I was with dealing with everything alone, and 3) my perceived burden to hurry up and get to our school work so we could get it done quickly because I had other things planned a little later that morning. Did you notice how all of that was about me? Yea, so did I. So anyway, I impatiently snapped at them and rushed them and trampled over their emotions and basically just “made” them get their acts together and straighten up. I demanded them into obedience. And it worked. And they got dressed. And they made their beds. And we got our school work done. And we made it to our play date on time.

But at what cost?

Later that evening, after I had tucked my precious kids into bed and finally had a moment to breathe, I felt the Lord gently whispering to me, reminding me of my purpose, my mission in this season of raising my kids. In all of the tiredness of the week and in the craziness of the morning, my focus had gotten off. My focus was on their frustrating, childish, and immature behavior that was ruining my peaceful morning and so I missed an opportunity to minister to the state of their hearts in that moment. My focus was on hurrying to get to their “real” education and so I missed what mattered even more than handwriting and math: discipling and growing them in godly character and training them in righteousness. My focus was on my needs and so I missed seeing their needs. I missed the opportunity to speak Christ’s grace and love into their little hearts. I missed the opportunity to bend down to their level, take them into my arms, listen to the cry of their hearts, show them kindness, understanding, and sympathy, pray with them, and then lead them in obedience. I was looking at the wrong things and in doing so, I missed the things that mattered the most.

Mark 8:36 says, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world (worldly knowledge, education, status, power), yet forfeit his soul (a soft heart, loving and knowing God, wisdom, character, integrity)?” (words in parentheses are my interpretation for this incident)

Basically, what good is it if my kids master Biophysics or Chemical Thermodynamics if they don’t have the love of Christ in them? What good is it if they become an Aerospace Engineer or a Neurologist if they have a weak and selfish character? Now, don’t get me wrong, education is important and I want my kids to be well-educated. I do. But there are things that are far more important than worldly knowledge; eternal things, like their heart, the state of their soul and their character. The Bible says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge…” (Prov.1:7). So ultimately all knowledge starts with a heart that is turned towards God. And so that is the foundation that I must lay in my children’s lives – a heart for God is first. So if it comes down to choosing between doing “school” one day or taking extra time to minister to their hearts and build their character, I feel a responsibility to choose their hearts.

In Jesus’ parable of the four soils (Luke 8), he said, “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” The thing that made all the difference in the outcome of the seed that was planted (which is God’s message) is the state of a person’s heart. If a person’s heart is not soft and open to God’s word, then there will not be a harvest of righteousness in his life.

I believe that parents (and especially mothers) have a huge role in the molding, the shaping and the softening of their young children’s hearts toward God. “The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.” (Prov. 14:1) This means that I can either build my children up or I can tear them down. And how I hope and pray that I am building them up each day in the way I treat them, the way I talk to them, the way I take time to listen to them, and in the way I choose to put their needs ahead of my needs. The relationship I cultivate with them will greatly determine if they have a soft and open heart when I try to teach them about the Lord. I don’t have this whole motherhood thing figured out. Not at all. But I am learning that what matters most (in motherhood) is reaching my children’s hearts for Christ. I struggle and I lose my focus time and time again, but God is faithful and He is so full of grace to guide me back on track. He is teaching me to die to myself by choosing to lay down my own goals and desires so that I can meet theirs. He is teaching me to choose sacrifice and servanthood in order that I may somehow show my children Christ.

Butterflies, Soccer, and Pumpkins

2011-09-18T21:51:00.001-05:00

Summer is ending and Fall is just around the corner. I can already feel it. The days are becoming shorter and the mornings are crisp and cool when we get up. We’ve been enjoying the cooler breezy weather with more time spent playing outside, open windows, and breakfasts on the back deck. By far, Fall is my favorite time of the year.

Even Pudge seems a little bit friskier these days.

For the past week and a half, we have patiently watched and waited as our five caterpillars have formed chrysalises and then emerged as adult butterflies.

It is quite an amazing transformation to see. The butterflies that came out of the chrysalises were nothing like the caterpillars that went in. It wasn’t like the caterpillars just grew some wings while they were in there. They became completely different creatures. I couldn’t help but be reminded of 1 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

We learned so many interesting things about butterflies through this experience. But one of the most interesting to me was the fact that butterflies won’t fly much if they aren’t exposed to sunlight. They close up their wings and just sit still. And in fact, if there isn’t sunlight to warm them and if their bodies get too cold, they can’t fly, they can’t move their wing muscles at all. And then this puts them at a greater risk of attack from their predators. But as soon as they are exposed to sunlight, they begin to open up their wings, soak up the warmth, and when they are warm enough, they are able to start fluttering and flying around again.

Isn’t that a great parallel of the Christian life? In order to do what we’re created to do and to follow the call of God on our life, don’t we need regular time in the Son, spent soaking in His light, being filled by Him? And without time spent with Christ, aren’t we more vulnerable to attacks from the enemy? Don’t we also become immobile, ineffective, or paralyzed with fear? Isn’t Son light to the Christian just as crucial as sunlight is to the butterfly?

“…for He called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9

Tyson’s soccer season started up last weekend. And we’ve really enjoyed spending our Saturday mornings back out on the soccer fields watching him play. I always wanted to be a soccer mom.

Sometimes the game gets so exciting that we fall out of our seats (or maybe we just fall out for no apparent reason).

By far, the hardest part has been keeping up with Hudson during the games. He’s not one to sit still and just watch the game. He’s a ball fanatic and he would run out on the field yelling, “Ball! Ball!”. Never mind that he had his very own soccer ball on the sidelines. He wanted the game ball. Or maybe he wanted to play the game. I don’t know. So then Tim would go chase him down and haul him off the field, usually kicking and screaming and causing a scene. They did this several times before we strapped him in the stroller and took turns pushing him around for the remainder of the game. The joys of toddlers…

It’s probably a little bit early since it’s not technically Fall yet, but I already took the kids to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins. I rationalized it by telling myself that the sooner I get my pumpkins, the longer I get to enjoy them. I love pumpkins.

And I love that our pumpkin patch has such a wide variety of pumpkins with so many different colors and shapes to choose from. It makes the pumpkin picking a little more interesting. But Tyson still chose a regular ol’ pumpkin. He wanted to make sure we would be able to make a jack o’ lantern later in the Fall.

Last year, we started a tradition where we picked out a pumpkin for each ~~person~~ member of our family. We continued with that tradition this year. Here is our pumpkin family.

Do you remember Frosty the Pumpkinman? I plan to make him again this year. This way I get to keep my pumpkins around even longer since I seem to have a problem getting rid of them once Fall turns into Winter. Isn’t he cute?!!