Ramblings of a Wife and Mommy

Dinner Time Randomness

2016-05-07T19:00:00.001-07:00

Have you ever seen the Johnny Depp version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

During one of the opening scenes, three of the grandparents are all laying in their shared bed reminiscing about the old days of working at Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. The fourth grandmother, who had just been quietly laying in bed, suddenly chimes in with her two cents of, "I love grapes!"

There's sort of an awkward pause. Because no one was talking about grapes or fruit in general. But then the other grandparents smile, and move on with their conversation.

That grandma, and her random love of grapes, reminds me of my four year old son Max.

Now, please don't misunderstand me. Max is a very much loved and adored member of our family, and we are beyond crazy about him.

It's just that...he does have a tendency to say some of the most random things. And most of the time, those random things he chimes in with have to do with either a. dinosaurs, or b. monster trucks. Occasionally he will mention something about trains or construction vehicles, but the vast majority of the time it's about dinosaurs and monster trucks.

Take, for example, the other night at dinner.

The kids were all talking quite loudly about some different ideas they had.

Amid all the conversation about if you really could build a bridge from our little town in the midwest to Paris, Max was just sitting quietly, taking it all in, and eating his taco.

At some point there was a pause in the conversation, and Max suddenly exclaims,"When I grow up I'm going to live in Mount ___(insert name of town that his Meemaw and Papa live in.)

Intrigued, I asked him why he wanted to live there.

"Oh because of the dinosaur that lives there."

Cue confused looks between my husband and myself, and finally one of us said,"Buddy, the dinosaur doesn't live in Memaw and Papa's town. The dinosaur lives at the Science center."

All of the kids were back to talking all at once again. And Max went back to eating his food, deep in thought.

Finally, just as the kids were discussing what game they wanted to play before bed time, Max spoke up again.

"When I grow up, I'm going to work at the Science Center! I'm going to take care of the dinosaurs there. I'm going to feed the big T- Rex, and I'm going to help the triceratops feel better. And then I'm going to take them home, and let them sleep with me, and... I'll be like their dad!"

After this proclamation, there was a brief period of silence. Then Jack exclaimed as he was getting down from the table,"I think that's a great idea, Max! You'll take great care of those dinosaurs!"

Max's eyes lit up from the praise of his older brother. Then he looked at me very seriously and said,"Mama, can I please ask you something?" Which is how Max almost always begins his sentences.

"Of course, buddy,"I say, assuming he's going to tell me more about the dinosaurs he's apparently going to be a father to.

"For my birthday...can I please have a remote control monster truck? And then can we take it to Aldi and have my party there?"

Again, Erik and I exchanged a look, and then I finally said,"Well...I guess we'll have to just wait and see, buddy, but that does sound fun!"

And with that, Max got down from the table so he and Luke could go back to their game of playing dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs, monster trucks, and Aldi.

If nothing else, at least he's an easy boy to please.

Christmas 2015

2016-02-07T14:44:00.002-08:00

Yes, I realize I'm just now getting around to posting pictures from Christmas on this here neglected blog of mine.

What can I say? Christmas came and went(well, "came and went" is a bit relative, as we had at least five different Christmas celebrations this year.)

Then January was full of trying to get back into the swing of things and trying to keep my New Years resolutions of being more organized/getting up earlier/ being a better wife/mother/ and homeschooler.

And now here we are. Tomorrow Lily will be turning six (sob!) And in a week it'll be Valentines Day.

But since this blog is more a place for me to document our families memories and stories than anything else, I figure posting about Christmas almost two months later is still better than not posting about it at all.

So, here we go.

Christmas Eve of 2015, will forever be locked in my memory as one of the most special and sweetest days with my kids.

This year we did "Secret Santa" with the kids. We had never done anything like this before, and weren't sure if the kids would be able to keep who they were buying for a secret, but as far as *I know* they did.

After we got home from church, we told the kids they could open their gift and find out which brother/sister had bought for them. I don't know why, perhaps it was because I was so excited for them to open their bigger gifts on Christmas morning, but I was so surprised by how genuinely excited everyone was to open their gifts from each other.

There was so much excitement, and shouts for joy over opening the five dollar gifts they had picked out for each other, that I can say with absolute certainty that this will be something we will do for many more years to come.

And as if that wasn't enough to make my heart want to burst with joy, after everyone had opened their gifts from each other, Lily announced that she had a surprise for everyone.

She walked back to her room, and a few minutes later she came out carrying a big box full of presents only a five year old girl could have wrapped. Then she handed everyone, including Erik and I, a present that she had made each of us. She told me later that she had been working on these presents since the Monday after Thanksgiving and had been trying to think of things everyone would like that she'd be able to make.

She made me a pair of earrings out of construction paper, scotch tape, and Frozen stickers.

But, the best gift that she gave of all though was the one she gave Erik. The last time we had visited my mom and dad, she had insisted on bringing home a trophy leftover from my gymnastics days. I had honestly forgot all about it until she pulled out a heavy bag and handed it to Erik.

Sure enough, she had given him the trophy, along with the explanation that,"Daddy is the best daddy ever...and it's hard to think of anything to make for grown men!"

After that, we read the Christmas Story from Luke 2, put the kids to bed, and then got to work setting up all the presents so that they'd be ready for the next morning.

Being Santa is exhausting, I tell you.

But it is oh so worth it.

Christmas morning, after the gifts were opened, and the french toast casserole was ate, we spent the rest of the day just hanging out in our pajamas and playing together. I'm not always very good about sitting down and just being with my kids, so it was nice to just relax and watch them enjoy their gifts.

I hope the rest of you had great Christmas too!

That time the Squirrel Dropped Dead

2015-11-08T19:07:00.002-08:00

One Saturday morning, a month or two ago, while I was putting away laundry and the kids were playing outside, an ecstatic Anna came rushing into the house.

"Mommy! Mommy! You have to come see! It's so amazing! The squirrel that I was talking to up in our tree, fell down, and now she's laying next to me and playing with me!"

(Before I go further into this story, let me just briefly explain that Anna is our one true animal lover in this house. Every spring when the birds, rabbits, and squirrels start appearing in our yard, she sits under our tree in the back yard and talks to them and even names some of them. Her favorite this past summer was a barn swallow that sat in our tree chirping that she named Mrs. Cheep.)

Anyways, with that in mind, I'll admit that my kids come inside excited to show me anything remotely different that they've found in the backyard, and there are times when some could consider my enthusiasm and interest somewhat....lacking.

This time though, I suppose, there was something about Anna's excitement-not to mention the fact that she was insisting that a squirrel of all things was laying next to her- that I stopped what I was doing immediately and followed Anna outside.

And wouldn't you know, there most certainly was a squirrel laying conked out in the grass right where Anna had been playing.

Immediately the urge to yell "Squirrel!!" at the top of my lungs and rush everyone inside came upon me. That and the overwhelming desire to not let anyone outside until Erik came home from work and let him "take care" of what appeared to be a dead squirrel laying in the middle of our yard.

But my kids had completely different reactions.

"Oh, mama, can we keep him?!"

"Mama, I think he's sick can you go get him some medicine?"

"Mama....did he die? Is he going to be all right?" asked Anna.

"Oh, I think he'll be all right,"declared Lily,"we just need to give him food and water!"

All the while I'm thinking, "You guys. Seriously. This is a dead animal. And it almost fell on your sister's head. This is disgusting, let's get in the house, and wait for daddy to get home."(Insert clenched teeth.)

But, I'll admit that seeing them get so concerned about something was pretty sweet, so after I told them not to get too close to the squirrel, I begrudgingly let Anna, Lily, and Jack fix him a plate of food and a cup of water.

Then they prayed for him, and Anna sang him a song.

And then, finally we went inside, washed our hands, and waited for Erik to come home from work.

The only problem was that Erik wound up having to work longer than expected, and ended up having to spend the night where he was working. But since it was a beautiful day outside it didn't feel right to make the kids stay inside all day.

So, finally, I went out to the back yard mentally preparing myself to have to pick up a dead animal out of our yard. But to my delight, the squirrel was gone!

Did a bird pick him up? Did he just simply take a hard fall out of a tree and get knocked out for awhile? I have no idea.

All I know is that my kids were overjoyed that the squirrel was probably all right, and that they(at least in their minds) had helped him recover.

And, really...that's all I need to know.

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How our Family of Seven Saves Money(but still has fun!)

2015-10-29T13:24:00.000-07:00

My husband and I often laugh about how our kids are going to give us such a hard time when they grow up and they realize all the things we did to save money on things.

I mean, seriously though, when it easily costs 30 dollars to go to a fast food restaurant, you learn to get creative.

We do Bookit! and Read to Succeed in order to get free six flags tickets every summer.

We love our local library.

We belong to a homeschool co-op that allows us to get discounted tickets to events and cheaper classes at the Y.

I make a lot of food from scratch, and we buy most of our groceries at Aldi.

We've dressed our kids(and ourselves) up as cows for free food at chik-fil-a.

We've taken advantage of happy hour at Sonic many times, and when they run their special for 59 cent corn dogs, we are. so. there.

But, really, that's just the tip of the iceberg of the things we'll do to save some money but still have fun together.

One of the funniest things we did was this past summer. Some friends of ours had invited us to a local water park that their parents' church had rented out. At the last minute, however, our friends weren't able to make it. But did that stop us from going to a free night at the water park? Even though we weren't going to know anyone else there?

Not even a little bit. ;)

Honestly though, some of our favorite things to do as a family is to pack a picnic and head to a local park or go on some local bike trails.

On the rare occasions that we all do go out to eat, our kids know that they are usually going to have to get water, and that happy meals are reserved for special occasions(grandparents in town, birthday, etc.)

But even though going out as a family can be a lot of fun, there's also plenty of fun things you can do together at home.

With the cooler weather coming on, we love to pop some popcorn, drink hot chocolate or cider and have movie nights as a family(we just put a sheet down so we don't make a huge mess everywhere.) Since some of my kids are so young, we don't play board games too much yet, but I definitely foresee our family having many game nights in the years to come.

Sunday nights are a favorite among our kids because we usually eat a big batch of pancakes for dinner. And then, because pancakes are clearly not a special enough treat(ahem), my husband instituted the idea of having a special desert on Sunday nights. We try not to give the kids a ton of sweets throughout the week, but I'm pretty sure we make up for that on Sundays.:)

Then after we've had desert(and gotten the kids hyped up on sugar...) we go into the living room and the kids have a dance competition. Sunday nights used to be the only time we'd let the kids play video games, so we used to have the kids have a dance off, and whoever won(which a lot of times we'd just say everyone wins) would get to take an extra turn playing the game. Sadly our xbox broke last month, so we haven't been able to continue this tradition, but hopefully we'll replace it one day.

There are so many ways go out and give your kids fun memories without having to break the bank to do it.

What are some of your favorite ways to have fun on a budget?

This post was inspired by the people of personal capital. They offer some great, free wealth management tools if you're looking to track your finances.

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Homemaker's Friend Planner Giveaway!!

2015-09-27T20:06:00.000-07:00

Planning ahead has never been my strong point.

Oh sure, I like daydreaming about the days, weeks, and years to come, but when the time comes to actually sit down and plan for them, my brain just kind of shuts down from all the details.

Besides, I tend to like to be flexible. I kind of like not always knowing what or where we're going each day.

However, this year I have started to realize I can't just "fly by the seat of my pants" and expect our home school days to run smoothly. Especially not when I'm trying to homeschool three different kids, keep up with two preschoolers, and manage a home.

Thankfully the kind people at Homemaker's Depot graciously sent me one of their homemaking planners to review. They are also generously offering to give away a 2015 and 2016 planner to one of my readers here.

The Homemaker's Friend planner is divided into seven different sections(year, month, pages to plan each week, a place to plan specific projects, a section for personal contact info, and shopping lists to take with you.) Each day also has a place where you can write down your menu plan.

If you'd like to win this beautiful, easy to use planner, enter below! You can also follow Homemaker's Depot on Pinterest here, or subscribe to their newsletter here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

5 Ways I Plan to Enjoy the Homeschool Year

2015-08-05T07:25:00.000-07:00

This coming school year, I will have three kids in my official homeschool. All of them will need my help and undivided attention in just about every subject.

Factor that in with the fact that I have a four year old little boy who is obsessed with all things loud, and a two year old who sees it as his main mission in life to destroy everything in sight.

And of course, I still have a house to keep semi clean, laundry to do, and meals to make.

Oh, and still be a loving wife and mama.

Somebody hold me.

Now, to be fair, I realize that I am being a tad over dramatic(just a tad!)

But I will still admit that the thought of homeschooling this year has been seriously intimidating me.

Because, these last few years I have come to realize something very profound.

Homeschooling....is hard!

That's not to say I regret our decision to homeschool, or that I'm doubting where God has led our family in this area. Just because something is hard, doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, right?

Coming to the realization that this is going to require a lot of hard work on my part, is actually a good thing. And it's caused me to evaluate some ways that I can try to enjoy this coming school year.

1. As much as I can, I will pick a curriculum that excites me. Last year I made the mistake of ordering school books based more on other people's recommendation than on my own teaching style. I'm not a super organized person, so any curriculum that has a bunch of tiny pieces that goes along with it is not going to work very well for our family. I am also not a very crafty mama, so buying books with a heavy emphasis on crafts isn't going to work well for me either.

I decided to evaluate what I actually enjoy doing with my kids and ordered curriculum based on those preferences.

2. I will stick with the curriculum. Confession time: I am a curriculum junkie. I'm constantly second guessing my decisions, and comparing what I'm doing with what my friends/mentors/strangers on the internet are doing with their kids.

Last year we did a program called classical conversations(I also tutored for it.) I also found an older edition of Adventures in My Father's World for a really low price so I bought that to go along with our CC. The problem with doing that(for me at least) was that I was constantly stressing myself out trying to keep up with both schedules. This year I'm going to try and keep things as simple as I can. This year, unless one of my children is really struggling and legitimately needs me to try something different, I'm vowing to stick with what I decided on at the beginning of the year.

3. I will continue to institute daily quiet times. My kids have had to take naps(or rest times when they grew out of naps) their entire lives, and it has been an awesome blessing for all of us. Sometimes I feel guilty that we do this, but honestly, we all benefit from a little alone time each day.

4. I will remember that this is a privilege. A few years ago, I had a conversation with another homeschool mom that has always stuck with me. We were discussing all the issues that go along with homeschooling when she said,"Really, I think I need to just put a suitcase by the front door to remind myself that one day my kids will grow up and won't live here with me forever. Ten years from now, it's not going to matter if they learned a certain math concept in a day or if it took them an entire year. The thing that matters most is their heart, and letting them see that you're always going to be there for them.

Spending all day with my kids and being able to give them a Christian education is a blessing. This season of life isn't going to last forever, but I will always have a relationship with my kids. I want to remember to embrace this time in my life.

Not only that, but I have a supportive husband who helps with school when he can, and takes the kids frequently so I can plan(or just so I can have some alone time.)

5. I will make time to refresh my soul. Some days my kids wake up before my alarm and by the time nap time arrives I hardly have any space in my brain to study scripture. Sometimes I let these facts of life excuse me from spending time in the Word. Truthfully, on those days, I might not be able to spend as much time as I'd like reading and praying, but I can certainly get creative in making it work. My kids can be taught to have their own quiet times while I have mine.

And on those days when I really need to dig a little deeper into something(and drink my coffee in peace) I can give myself grace to turn on Netflix for a few minutes while I retreat back to my room(the kids will survive!)

Ultimately though, I can't do any of this without remembering to rely on the Lord's strength. As I have prayed and thought about this coming school year, this verse keeps coming to mind:

" But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Corinthians 12:9

That's my plan for trying to enjoy the upcoming school year. I'll let you know in a few months how it's working out. :)

What are some ways that help you enjoy homeschooling?

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14 days of Dinner Inspiration

2015-08-03T18:33:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else ever feel like dinner time sneaks up on you? Or as if you’re just making the same things over and over again?

Recently, I’ve been feeling as though I’m in a cooking rut, so to speak. And while I have a pinterest board full of recipe ideas, most of them, when I start to really look at the recipes, sound a little too time intensive for my season of life.

With school getting ready to start, I’ve found that it’s extremely helpful to have a simple menu plan that can last me for two weeks...

Read the rest over at Raising Homemakers!

Surviving a 12 hour road trip(with no DVDS)

2015-07-05T19:38:00.000-07:00

Last fall, when Erik and I started telling people we were taking the kids down to Florida, we were met with a variety of reactions.

We were told everything from,"That's so awesome! You guys will have such a great time!" to the surprised, slightly bewildered questions of,"You mean..you're going to take five kids to Florida? Like...alone, and stuff?"

But, probably, the most common question we were asked was if we were going to take our van on a 12 hour road trip. Seeing as how it's a twelve year old van, this was a perfectly legitimate concern, er, question.

When we first started planning our trip, we actually were planning on taking our trusty old Odyssey down to Florida. Erik's plan was to do a bunch of work and updates on it before we left, and my plan was to pray it all the way there and back. ;) But, as luck would have it, my mom and dad decided to buy an almost brand new van this past year, and graciously insisted that we borrow it for our vacation.

Their van was perfect for our trip, not only is it a bigger van(that actually seats 8 people, instead of 7 like ours) it was also very dependable and got great gas mileage. So when people heard we were taking my parents van instead of ours they would say,"Oh well, that's great! Is there a DVD player in it?"

But when I would say that,"No, there isn't a DVD player in our van or their van," I'd be met with more blanks stares and questions of how we were planning on doing such a long trip.

Now, let me be honest, and say that I was nervous about how this trip was going to go too. I'm not anti television, by any means, and my kids definitely enjoy watching their shows. I will also admit that the trip, particularly the last two hours on our way down to Florida, was a little rough with children-and parents- just wanting to.get.there.already.

But, thankfully, we were able to come up with a plan, that made taking a 12 hour road trip with five kids under the age of seven go fairly smoothly.

1. Buy some new coloring books/sticker books, and hand them out over the course of the trip. The Friday before we left, I made a dollar store run, where I stocked up on several activity books for the kids. I also splurged a little and bought Jack, Anna, and Lily an Usborne sticker book.

2. Pack special snacks and pass them out throughout the trip. For us that meant that fruit snacks, goldfish crackers, and teddy grahams were being passed out frequently. :)

3. Make your car as comfortable as possible. Our van was pretty much packed to the brim, but we gave each kid their blanket and their favorite stuffed animals to try and keep them as comfortable as we could.

4.Audio Books! We love audio books around here, and we are blessed to have a library that carries a great selection. Some of our favorites have been, Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Sign of the Beaver, and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.

5. Tell stories to them about when they were babies, about when you were little, and make up some silly stories with them being the main character. This was something that just randomly happened on our drive, we started telling one of them a story about when they were babies and it quickly turned into more stories about when each of them were babies. My kids especially love it when we make up stories about them(i.e. Once upon a time there was a dinosaur named Maxosaurus and he loved to give Princess Lily rides to South Dakota. My kids really like South Dakota for some reason. Also, as you can see from the above story, I may lack a little bit of creativity when telling my stories.)

All in all our trip to Florida went really well, and now that we are home I can admit how surprised I am that it went as smooth as it did. ;)

What else would you add to this list?

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Ripples of Faith

2015-06-30T06:52:00.000-07:00

I first heard of Elisabeth Elliot when I was sixteen.

My good friend had loaned me the book,”I kissed dating goodbye,” in an effort to show me there was way more to life than having a boyfriend(which at that point in my life, was a fairly inconceivable notion.)

While reading that book, I kept noticing references to this book called, “Passion and Purity.” The author referenced it so much, that I ended up borrowing it from another friend of mine.

I don’t remember how much of Passion and Purity I actually read, but I do know that God used those two books to help shape how I viewed relationships before marriage.

Read the rest over at Raising Homemakers!

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Vacations, Family Pictures, and Princess Elsa

2015-05-27T15:18:00.002-07:00

Two weeks ago, Erik, the kids, and I took a family vacation down to Florida.

It was our first family vacation we had ever taken "just" the seven of us, and we had such a good time(and now that it's over I think I can finally admit how surprised I am over how smooth it all went.)

We spent most of our time hanging out on the beach and enjoying some down time at the condo. Although we did take the kids to an aviation museum, and splurged a little on a dolphin cruise(the kids love dolphins, so we thought that'd be a fun treat for them...and in all honesty it was a treat for me too.;)

On the last night we were there we took the kids on one final walk on the beach. As we were walking along the shore I warned Erik that I was going to be one of "those" tourists and make the next stranger we saw take a family picture for us.

He sighed begrudgingly, but lo and behold when we finally came across another family walking along the shore, he snatched my camera out of my hands and walked up to them and asked them to take a picture of us(I love that man.)

I had no presumptions that this picture would turn out well, but I wanted to have something to prove that we'd all been at the beach. Getting all the kids to look at the camera at the same time is challenging to say the least!

But just as I was about to tell everyone to say "Cheese!" I happened to notice that the lady taking our picture was wearing an Elsa shirt, so I immediately yelled,"Everyone look at Elsa!"

And wouldn't you know, we actually got a picture where everyone is mostly looking where they are suppose to. One of my friends pointed out that Max looks like he's about ready to attack something. What can I say? He's three and he thinks he's a dinosaur. We still have years to teach him the proper way to look at ladies. :)

So now I know. If I want the kids to look at me when I take a picture, I need to wear a Frozen shirt.

Luke Turns 2!

2015-04-21T18:46:00.004-07:00

I can hardly believe our little Luke turned two years old last month! These last two years have flown by so fast!

Luke is such a ham. He's very verbal, has a lot of energy, and is always trying to make everyone laugh(that is, when he's not trying to steal cookies out of the pantry...;)

On his birthday we just had a laid back family day. His birthday was on a Sunday so we went to church, took naps, had pancakes for dinner, and ate hulk cake for desert.

Seriously, what did we ever do without pinterest?!

Luke loves the Hulk. He loves to stomp around, and growl, "Hulk Smash!" So I knew I had to try and make him a Hulk cake. It might not be as beautiful as the picture I saw on pinterest, but it worked. :) Also, it cracks me up that when Jack turned two, I made him an Elmo cake, and I'm pretty sure he didn't even know who the Hulk was. And now Luke doesn't know who Elmo is, but loves the Hulk.

I'm kidding, Luke definitely knows who Elmo is. :)

Yes, even though it was "just" the seven of us I(with help from some excited brothers and sisters) still made an entire cake and 24 cupcakes. I go overboard sometimes, have I mentioned that?

All of our Avengers. :) At every meal the kids would sing "Happy Birthday" to Luke, so by the time it was actually time to sing to him he sang right along with them.

These last two years have been gone by so fast, but what an incredibly blessed two years it has been. Luke has brought so much joy and laughter to our home.

Happy Birthday, Luke! We can't wait to see what the Lord does in your life!

My "Complicated" Life

2015-04-20T14:28:00.000-07:00

Some days I giggle over how complicated I've made my life.

Motherhood is hard work, so we have five little ones in five years.

And then, once some of those children begin to reach school age, we make the decision to homeschool.

And, as if that didn't already make things "busy", we decide to seriously limit how much television and video game playing the kids do, because we can tell such a difference in their behavior when we limit those things.

Then there are the days, I find myself complaining about how hard this all is.

I whine about how needy they all are, and how I don't feel like there's enough of me to go around. I get frustrated by the messes, the child who isn't understanding a certain math concept, the other child who refuses to potty train, and the fact that I want some more time to sleep

It's a good thing God pats me on the head and tells me that I'm totally justified in my feelings.

Oh. Wait.

Actually God says he will supply all the grace I need to get through the day. He gently reminds me that when I am weak(which is always) he is strong. I hear him whisper to my heart that I can do all things through him who gives me strength, and to work like I'm working for him.

These children that he's given my husband and I to raise and train, are gifts from him.

This is the life we have made for ourselves. And I wouldn't trade it for anything. No one is making me do this. This is the path that God has led us down.

That doesn't mean it's not hard, or that I'm not an exhausted, weary mess most of the time.

But God, in his mercy, provides all the grace I need to get through these days.

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Easter 2015

2015-04-11T19:12:00.000-07:00

With each passing year, my desire to create lasting memories with my family grows stronger.

I blame the book Treasuring God in Your Traditions.

Or maybe the fact that my mom was pretty big on holidays, and it's now been passed onto me.

At any rate, we love holidays around here(well....my husband might not love holidays like I love holidays, but he's a good sport and goes along with my rituals and ideas.;)

On Good Friday we dyed eggs.

They were very excited. :)

Max was completely mesmerized by his purple egg(he was also a fan of throwing the eggs on the floor, just to be sure that they really wouldn't break, ha!)

We also talked about how our sin is dark and ugly. To demonstrate this we rubbed some mud on our arms. Then we talked about how sometimes we try to fix ourselves and make ourselves better, and rubbed a mud soaked rag on our arms to show that even when we try to fix ourselves we can sometimes make things even messier. Finally we washed our arms with clean water, to remind us that only Jesus can wash our sin(thanks for the idea, Mrs. Gore!) I was pleasantly surprised by how much the kids seemed to understand and enjoy this analogy.

On Easter morning we made resurrection rolls .like we did last year, and read the Easter story.

After we rushed around trying to get everyone ready we were able to get some pictures before church.

Sweet sisters. :)

Silly brothers.

The combination of beautiful weather and melted marshmallows for breakfast made for lots of dancing, singing, and giggling. :)

Maybe one day, we'll be able to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time. :) I hope everyone had a great Easter!

How we do Homeschool

2015-02-26T20:11:00.002-08:00

Every once in awhile, I'll receive an email from one of you asking how our family does this "whole homeschooling thing." While I'm happy to answer these questions, I'll be the first to admit that this has all been a huge learning process for me, and that I'm always open to trying new ways of homeschooling. And obviously I've only been doing this for two years so I still have plenty to learn in this area. :) I have tried several different schedules and routines, but for now this seems to be what I default to.

6:30/7:30- Kids usually wake up, typically the girls are the first ones up, and everyone eats breakfast as they wake up. Jack, Anna, and Lily do their morning jobs(pick up rooms, make beds, brush teeth), and I help Luke and Max get dressed and ready for the day.

As soon as Jack finishes his morning list, he comes and sits down to do his math and copywork. I'll try and get Luke, Max, and Lily set up with some water color paints or play dough, then sit down with Anna to do her math and copywork. Whenever Jack finishes, he reads to Lily and Max(we try to let Luke be in that mix too, but it doesn't work out too well yet.) Luke usually ends up on my lap playing with the math-u-see blocks while I do Anna's reading lesson.

Once Anna and I finish up, we all gather in the living room for "circle time." We start off with our Bible reading-which I usually have Jack read to us, although sometimes Jack and I take turns, then we move on to talking about the calendar and what day of the week it is. We might also try and do our Classical Conversations memory work if everyone's not getting too restless by the end of calendar time.

Circle time moves into reading time. We usually read some picture books that the kids have picked out, and then we'll read some books that have to do with the history and science we're talking about at the time.

By this point everyone's tired and restless(including me, if I'm being honest) so we take a break and have a snack, and the kids play for awhile.

At some point I'll have Jack read to me from his chapter book we're working on, and then Anna will usually request me to read some American girl to her, which Lily is always more than happy to sit in on. The little boys are usually alternating between clinging to me and playing trains and dinosaurs by now. :)

Twice a week, I aim to do spelling with Jack and Anna, and do some copywork with Lily. While I do spelling with Anna, Jack does letter flashcards with Lily(having an older child is so helpful!) Luke and Max ~~make huge messes~~ do blanket time during this.

By the time we make it through all this, it's lunch time and everyone needs a break. After lunch, I try to clean up a bit, and then spend a little time playing with the little boys before I put them down for their nap. Before nap I try(although I'm not always great about it) to sing and read them one more book of their choosing.

Once Luke and Max are settled into their naps, I pull out the legos for the older three kids and I read to them from our chapter book. Once a week, they'll do written/drawing narrations from what we've read, and depending on the day we might do classical music study, a science experiment, or an art project.

I aim to be done around 2, and then the older three kids go have quiet time. They usually draw, play legos, or play with their dolls. When it's nice out they play outside, but since it's winter right now, they have to make do with more legos and drawing. :)

And...I usually squeal and giggle as I walk to the living room, and collapse on the couch for the remainder of nap time, thankful to have made it through another day of homeschool. :)

Lily Turns 5

2015-02-24T18:33:00.002-08:00

Last week my spunky little Lily turned 5! Oh, my does this little girl keep us on our toes! :)

About a week before her birthday, I decided to throw a smallish princess birthday party for her during the week with a few of her friends. And then it worked out that both sets of grandparents were also going to be able to come in town on her party, and since her party wasn't even on her actual birthday, we had a lot of celebrating last weekend!

We started out the party by decorating cupcakes:

And, lest you think that there's a lot of kids in this picture...

We had the big boys decorate their cupcakes at a separate table. :)

Next we played the "Tangled" game, where the kids had to wrap each other up in Rapunzel's hair(also known as yellow crepe paper.) We tried to make it a race, but it got a little hectic, and then the kids decided it would be more fun to tangle up the moms.

Ha! Not a bad idea, I have to say. After the party my mom, mother in law, Anna and I took Lily to get her ears pierced..

But then she saw these Princess Elsa bears at Build a Bear, and changed her mind about getting her ears pierced. "I'll get my ears pierced next year!" She declared as soon as she saw the bears. Ha! I suppose if Disney doesn't come out with any new princess movies this year, that might be her birthday present next year. :)

On her actual birthday, we had a pretty relaxed day of church going and hanging out as a family. But we did eat nutella on everything for lunch, and had birthday strawberry cheesecake that night, so I think her birthday was a success.

Lily is so spunky, outgoing, and full of energy. Anna is her best friend, and she dotes on Luke. She has a big heart that loves babies, and she's always looking for ways to make us laugh.

Happy birthday, Lily, we pray every day that you will grow in your love for the Lord, and that you'll follow Jesus with your whole heart!

My favorite books of 2014(plus a giveaway of some of my favorites!)

2015-01-31T12:10:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things to do when I was a child was cuddle up in my moms lap and read books with her. When I got a little older, and entered elementary school, my mom took a part time job at our local library, and I literally spent hours after school and during the summer surrounded by good books. Eventually, it got to a point where I would spend most of my free time reading, even to the point of keeping a flashlight in our car so that I could read on long car rides in the dark.

I have always loved to read, and while I might not have quite as much free time to spend reading as I used to, I still managed to read some good books this year.

First up is a book I read over the summer, called Atlas Girl. It's basically a memoir of the author, Emily Wierenga's life. The story takes you back to her childhood as a missionary/pastors child in Africa, through her battle with anorexia, to caring for her sick mother who has a brain tumor. It's a raw story, and I was completely hooked within the first couple of pages. In fact I finished it within two days.

Another favorite from this past year was Treasuring Christ when your hands are full by Gloria Furman. Every page of this book is full of gospel truth, and how it applies to us as mamas.Gloria's heart for the Lord shines through this book, and it encouraged my heart tremendously to keep seeking him and pointing my children to him. It was a needed reminded to not focus so much on the here and now, and to "stamp eternity on my eyeballs." If you are a mama in the trenches, do yourself a favor and get this book.

This was more of a fun read for me. I grew up watching full house, and always loved Candace Cameron's character DJ. It was interesting to read about her childhood and getting a more "behind the scenes" look at what was going on while she was on the show. She also shares what life was like after Full House ended, and how she became a Christian. It's basically her life story so far, and it was a really fun and enjoyable read!

With 5 young kids and homeschooling, I think it's safe to say I have been in "survival mode" off and on for a few years, so I was excited to get to read this book by Crystal Paine earlier this year. Not only does she give you practical ways you can simplify your life, she also shares some of her own story of how she got out of her own survival mode.

Some other books I read this year were Trim Healthy Mama(loved it!), Educating the Wholehearted Child(also loved it:), and Large Family Logistics(this one was just ok.)

Would you like to win a copy of Atlas Girl, Treasuring Christ When Your hands are full, or Say Goodbye to Survival Mode?!

Just enter below and I'll pick a random winner by the end of the week. :)

Linked to the Modest Mom & So Much At Home.

(amazon links are affiliates.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Losing my Sanity for Downton Abby

2015-01-05T19:21:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I fear that those of you who read this blog, but that don't know me or my family personally, might be under the impression that I lead a perfect life with perfect kids who do cute and hilarious things all day long.

Obviously, that's not true, but it does seem to be a common pitfall of the internet.

So, in an effort to dispel these myths, allow me to tell you about today's grocery shopping adventure.

Typically I don't take all the kids with me to the store anymore. Usually I take one child with me after Erik gets home from work, we all go, or Erik does bedtime and I go alone.

But these last few days have been filled with kids who are under the weather, and a husband with the stomach flu, and honestly leaving the house after everyone had gone to bed sounded pretty dreadful.

But last night I realized I couldn't prolong a trip any longer. We were out of milk. We were out of bread. And we were almost out of coffee.

I figured that I could go today or tonight, but tonight was going to be pretty busy, so I thought today would be better. And when I say that tonight was going to be busy, I mean that I wanted to stay home and watch the new Downton Abby after the kids were in bed.

So clearly, I had no choice, but to drag my five youngsters to Aldi on a cold Monday morning and stock up on some food.

The morning started off rough. These last two weeks we have been on Christmas break, and I've been pretty laid back about what the kids have been eating and the amount of television we have been watching, so today I was determined to get back into a normal routine.

Today instead of doughnuts for breakfast there would be cheerios. We would be eating at the table, not in front of the tv. There would also be math, spelling, and a new chapter book, and everyone was going to love it.

Or else.

Oh, and we were going to Aldi. Sometimes, I'm a bit of an overachiever.

We finally left the house about 45 minutes after I was planning, but I was hopeful that everything would be all right since all the kids were eating a snack on the way there.

I even let Max take his little baggie of cheerios into the store, because I just wanted to do something nice for my little boy.

Almost as soon as we walked in, I realized what a mistake I had made.

"Why can't I have my cheerios?" Someone would whine.

"Can I ride in the cart too? My legs are sooo tired."

Reminders for being grateful for what we have and contentment were given, but I was a little bit distracted because my one year old was deciding that he wanted to stand up in the cart and not remain seated. And every time I'd sit him back down I'd be met with indignant sobs.

Meanwhile, Max was throwing his bag of cheerios on the floor of Aldi, and Lily was picking them up.... and eating them off the floor.

I took a deep breath, took the bag of cheerios back from Max, and put them in my purse, but unfortunately Luke saw them, so now he was crying not only because his mother was making him stay in his chair, but because he had seen food.

I tried feeding him some, but he kept screaming "No!"

Lovely.

He just likes to have food on his own terms, I suppose.

At this point I'm just ready to get what we need and get out of there as fast as I can. But it's crowded, and I'm lugging a screaming baby, a cart full of groceries, and herding my three older kids though the store, so it's not quite so simple.

And of course there's all the comments from strangers asking if all these kids are mine, whether or not my husband and I own a television, how I have my hands full, etc. etc.

I tried really hard to smile and just say,"Full of good things!" But I'm pretty sure my teeth were clenched, so I'm not sure how believable I was.

Then I hear Jack say, "Max! Stop!"

Sure enough Max is now throwing food out of the cart, and had just chucked a bottle of honey halfway across the aisle.

Thankfully he didn't throw the honey at anyone, but I was definitely at the end of my rope by this point, and we still had to make it through the checkout line and bag up the food.

With two crying boys.

Somehow we made it through, although the two little boys were not happy about the whole process.

But we made it. The house is now full of food and coffee, and we won't have to worry about grocery shopping for another week. I just hope Downton is worth it.

Linked to Modest Mom & A Wise Woman Builds her Home

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Christmas 2014

2015-01-03T14:02:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Christmas is over, and that it's already 2015! Since we don't live near family, we did Christmas with Erik's family the weekend before Christmas and with my family the weekend after, so for Christmas Eve and Christmas day we were home. It's really nice to be able to extend Christmas for an entire week, I have to say. :)

I really wanted to try and teach the kids about giving joyfully to others this holiday season, so earlier in the month of December we helped the three older kids come up with some gifts they could make for each other. They all made Luke and Max some homemade bouncy balls(which in all honesty ended up not bouncing, and looking more like pancakes, but hey, it's the thought that counts right?!)

Then we sent Anna back to Erik and I's room, and Lily and Jack(with my help) made Anna some lip gloss and a snow globe. Then later Anna and Jack made Lily the same snow globe and one of these yarn dolls. Erik took on the job of helping Lily and Anna make Jack something, and they ended making him this really cool foosball table.

And, yes, in case you were wondering, I did wonder why I did this to myself. But the kids had so much fun, and were excited to give something to their brothers and sisters, so it was worth it(I think, anyways.) ;)

We also started a new tradition of passing out cookies to the neighbors, librarians, and bank workers. The kids also suggested giving them out to the grocery store clerks at Aldi, but we had already made everything, so hopefully next year we can do that too.

Christmas Eve night we read the Christmas story out of the Jesus Storybook Bible, looked at Christmas lights, and finished off the night by watching a Christmas movie.

We had a pretty relaxing Christmas morning, opening presents, snacking on cinnamon rolls, and face timing my mom and dad who had sent the kids an xbox infinity to open up on Christmas morning.

So the kids got to enjoy playing that most of Christmas day, and in between turns the girls played with their "new" doll house that a friend had given us, and playing their new princess dresses.

Poor Luke had a fever on Christmas day, so he spent most of the day being held. But he did have a few moments of enjoying his and Max's trains and track set they both got.

How was everyone else's Christmas?!

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Linked to the Modest Mom.

Homeschooling when you have a Small Space

2014-12-17T05:50:00.001-08:00

We live in a fairly small house(3 bedroom, 1 bathroom, and about 1000 square feet.)

It works for us in this season of life we are in, as we try to pay off student loan debt and save money, but there are certainly times when I find myself drooling over friends homeschool rooms.

Thankfully, though, now that we have been homeschooling for a couple of years we have figured out a few things that work for us.

We don't have a lot of closet space, and what closet space we do have is used for clothes, toys, and bedding. For awhile, I would keep all of our school books in one big tote on the floor of the pantry in our kitchen.

Yes, I just said on the pantry floor of my kitchen..I can't believe I just admitted to you all that I actually did that....have I mentioned that organization is not my strong point?!

Obviously that method didn't work very well. Not only was it frustrating trying to find all the papers and books that we needed every day, but also random food crumbs(among other things) would occasionally fall into the school tote.

If you have ever looked into homeschool curriculum you know that it's not cheap, and that food is one of the last things you want all over your books(especially if you're like me, and plan on using them at least five more times in the coming years!;)

Thankfully, my husband was blessed with the organized, type A personality genes, and happily stepped in and helped me figure out a system that works. The first thing he did was install some shelves in our room.

Then with some baskets we already had, we designated each basket to a subject. Right now, since I'm only doing "official" school with Anna and Jack I just keep their books together. Each basket has their math, spelling/english, and history. I also keep a stack of books for science and art next to the school books.

One of the harder things about living in a smaller house when you homeschool, is that often the entire house gets messy, and needs cleaned up every day. Case in point:

But, then again, one of the benefits of living in a smaller house is that it gets cleaned up pretty fast, too. Especially when you have five willing helpers. :)

Most of our actual school work gets done in the kitchen. Which works really well for us, since I spend a lot of my time in there anyways.

I keep a marker board and some old windows hung up in the kitchen, and write on them with dry erase markers for our calendar, scripture memory, and copy work sentences.

And about every other week, I order a huge stack of books from the library that have to do with whatever we are studying that week. Which keeps things budget friendly and cuts down on the clutter around here.

It's definitely been a process figuring out what works for us, and learning how to utilize our space, but I'm so thankful we have figured out some things that work well for us right now.

If you homeschool, I'd love to hear how you "do school" at your house. Do you have a school room? Do you just use your kitchen? I'd love to hear!

All Because of a 2.00 Jar

2014-12-15T21:04:00.002-08:00

Sunday afternoon found me roaming the aisles of Trader Joe's. Going to Trader Joe's is definitely a rare treat for me since it's about 30 minutes from my house...and also because, while admittedly the prices are better than most grocery stores, they aren't what, say, Aldi's prices are. And since I'm feeding a small army here, Aldi is almost always where I do our grocery shopping.

But I digress.

So, Sunday afternoon, after spending a fun afternoon in the city with my husband and kids, Erik suggested we stop by Trader Joe's and see if we couldn't get a few things. I happily agreed, gave myself a budget of twenty dollars, and ran in to see what I could stock up on(and promised myself I wouldn't spend it all on cookie butter!)

Just as I was finishing up I stumbled across some masala sauce. I love Indian food, and since I had enough money in my 20.00 budget I decided to buy it.

Later that night, as Erik and I were finally sitting down to eat dinner, an idea occurred to me.

"Tomorrow night is going to be Indian night!" I declared. "Tomorrow we will learn about India. We will have the kids dress up like people in India do...and maybe we can find a recipe for naan!"

And that's exactly what we did. We talked about what continent India was in, and discussed the Taj Mahal.

We looked at pictures of people who lived over there. We listened to the type of music they might listen to over in India during dinner.

We made Naan.

Before dinner we prayed for the people in India, and for the missionaries over there. Which allowed us to briefly talk about different religions, and how not everyone has heard the gospel, and about how not everyone believes in Jesus.

And, perhaps the best part- at least for my girls- was dressing up. Especially since dressing up in traditional Indian garb meant wearing a lot of jewelry.

Lily was so proud. Max was happy for her, but wanted nothing to do with changing out of his dragon costume. :)

Just a sheet, some scarves, and all of mama's jewelry. And, of course, your little brother dressed as a dragon looking out for you.

And what would Indian night be without some henna tattoos?

Such a fun, simple, and educational night. And it was all because of a $2.00 jar.

Linked to Titus 2 & The Modest Mom

The Thanksgiving that Almost Didn't Happen

2014-11-30T07:49:00.001-08:00

"THANKSIVING IS HERE!!!! I'M SO EXCITED!!! THANKSGIVING IS MY THIRD FAVORITE HOLDIDAY! TURKEY! PUMPKIN PIE! CORN CASSEROLE...SWEET POTATOES!!! I LOVE THANKSGIVING SO VERY MUCH!!"

I woke up to this song early Thanksgiving morning, being sung(loudly) by my six year old daughter. Smiling to myself I rolled over wondering how much longer I could stay in bed before Anna's song woke up the rest of the house.

Right as I was having that thought, though, Jack came running into our room, sobbing saying he had just gotten sick, and was about to be sick again.

Lily(who had been sleeping on the floor of our bedroom) shot up, cheeks flushed with a fever, and immediately started crying that she was about to be sick too.

Luke, who had been up all night sick with a fever, was in his crib screaming for someone to come get him.

Max- who wasn't sick- was pulling Erik's arm to get up and "come have Thanksgiving."

And Anna was in the next room declaring her undying love for Thanksgiving.

As Erik was getting out of bed, I couldn't help but giggle at the chaos going around us. This was going to be an interesting day, to be sure!

But first, let me back up a bit, to the day before. Wednesday morning, I woke up to something very strange.

Silence.

Like, no one was awake. And it was 7:30. This never happens in my world.

I crept out of bed, wondering how much time I had before little heads started peaking out of their rooms asking for breakfast, but decided to take a chance and try to drink a cup of coffee before the day began. And it was going to be a crazy day. We were suppose to go to the store, finish up Christmas gifts that we were making for my sister in law and her family, and get everyone packed and ready to go for our road trip to my inlaws house, where we were suppose to be spending Thanksgiving.

Erik was just as surprised as I was that no one was up yet, and on his way out the door he made the comment that he hoped no one was sick.

Sick? On Thanksgiving? No way. I mean, Anna had been sick on Sunday. And we had taken the kids to the Magic House over the weekend. And the grandparents had been in town and taken them to McDonalds for lunch. But. Still. This was Wednesday. Anna had been fine since Monday, and no one else had acted remotely sick.

But, as you probably have guessed, that didn't matter. As kids started staggering out of their beds, it seemed like maybe everyone had just been tired, but when Jack still hadn't woke up-despite his two younger brothers whom he shares a room with getting up- I finally tried to get him to wake up, and sure enough he had a fever.

As the day went on, it became clear that Jack was definitely sick, and that there was no way we could take him to my inlaws Thursday. So the next thing we had to decide was, whether or not we were going to try and have a thanksgiving dinner just our little family. What if more kids got sick? What if we got sick? Would we even be able to find a turkey this late in the week, and also I know nothing about cooking turkeys.

But being the holiday junkie I am, I told Erik I wanted to try. And being the wonderful man he is, he took my list, Anna, Lily, and Max, and ran all over town getting all the food we needed- and if you've ever been to the grocery store the night before Thanksgiving, you know that's love. :)

The girls and I made some pies Wednesday night. The kids finally went to bed around 10 that night. But a couple hours later Luke and Lily were up sick.

But you know, even with all the sickness, even though things didn't work out the way I had planned, we still had a nice day together. The kids stayed in their jammies, and Erik introduced the kids to the cartoon version of the Hobbit. Erik got to carve the turkey for the first time, and I got to experience cooking a turkey for the first time-the kids decided to name it beasty. :)

We had plenty of food, and have been enjoying the leftovers for the last few days so I haven't had to cook anything since Thursday, which is always nice. When the Thanksgiving dinner was over, Lily and I snuggled up in my bed and took a long nap, then watched the pioneer woman on Netflix.

So yes, thanksgiving wasn't a total disaster. It was actually really nice(despite the sickness.)

But, still, the week before Christmas we aren't going anywhere. ;)

Linked to the Modest Mom & A Wise Woman Build Her Home.

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Mommy's Always With Me!

2014-11-13T13:53:00.000-08:00

My wonderfully talented and creative husband painted this picture of me a few years ago. For the last couple of years it has hung in our hallway, but today in the chaos that is mornings around here, it fell.

And since my house tends to be ridiculously loud(what a shock, right?!) I didn't even hear or notice that it wasn't on the wall anymore.

That is, until Anna came and got me. She started excitedly pulling on my hand, begging me to come with her to her room so I could see her new "decoration."

I followed her into the girls room, where she proudly showed me that she had hung my picture right next to her top bunk(there was a nail already there, I did not let my six year old hammer a nail into the wall...just throwing that out there.;)

I told her I thought it looked great, and then I asked her if she wanted me to move it back to the hallway later.

To which she said,"Oh no, mommy. I want your picture right next to me, that way I don't ever have to worry about having bad dreams because now you're always with me!"

Goodness, she's cute. :)

HeartFELT Truth Advent Calendar Review

2014-11-13T06:05:00.002-08:00

Christmas came early to my house this weekend.. and we were all thrilled that it did!

Recently HeartFELT Truths sent my kiddos and I one of their beautiful advent calendars to review. Since I am always on the look out for kid friendly, Bible based items, I was thrilled to get the opportunity. All the materials are made of felt, and based on the Christmas story from Luke 1-2 and Matthew 1-2. The idea is to read a small section of the Christmas story each day from December 1 through December 25 to your children. Then when the reading is over have one of you kids place a new character that they just heard about on the felt board. By the time December 25 arrives, your children will more than likely be able to retell the entire Christmas story back to you!

Read the rest of this review over at Raising Homemakers!

Anna Turns 6!

2014-09-03T14:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, I think my mama heart has had just about all it can take with birthdays. Seriously, basically having at least one birthday a month from February-August is crazy. Who even does that? ;)

And not only that, but man is it hard to watch your babies grow up and realize that all those comments about kids growing up so fast are true! However, I will say that even though it's hard, it's also a lot of fun watching them grow into their own personalities and start developing their own interests.

All this to say is that my sweet Anna, my first daughter, and my second child, crossed over into bigger kid territory last Friday and turned six.

The night before her birthday we made some birthday cake cinnamon rolls, cupcakes, regular cake, and decorated. When she woke up this is what she was able to see when she came out of her room:

Yes, we continued the new tradition of writing on the balloons all the things we loved about the birthday person. It was pretty cute because Jack kept reminding me to do that, and even asked to help. :)

For Anna's birthday party we went to a local splash pad(it was HOT that day) and met up with a few friends. I was pleasantly surprised to see that these cupcakes looked quite a bit like Frozen themed cupcakes. :)

After a busy day at the splash park, we all came home for naps/rest, and then once Erik got home we took Anna out for her much anticipated birthday present...getting her ears pierced! All she has talked about for the last few months was wanting to get her ears pierced so Erik and I told her she could get it done on her birthday. We warned her that it would hurt a little bit, but she was too excited to really care about that. Poor Jack got really sad when it was time for her to get them done, though. He was afraid Anna would get hurt, so Erik took him on a walk around the mall so that he wouldn't have to see it happen.

After getting her ears pierced and eating some waffles for dinner, we had birthday cake. I've mentioned before that I'm not much of a cake decorator, but making a purple cake and sticking some My Little Pony's didn't prove to be too difficult for me. :)

Happy sixth birthday, sweet Anna! I can't wait to see how God uses you and works in you life...but if you could stop growing up so fast that'd be great too! :)

Thoughts on Homeschooling Last Year

2014-08-17T20:15:00.003-07:00

I can hardly believe that we've already finished two whole years of homeschool, and that we are about to start our third year in this crazy adventure.

I really thought by this point I'd at least have a little bit of wisdom to offer, and that I wouldn't still be such a major curriculum junkie. Or at the very least, that I'd have a good routine for it down.

Unfortunately, though, I can't really say that I have accomplished any of those things. As much as I believe that our family has been called to homeschool, and as much as I love the idea of being with my kids and learning along side them day in day and day out, I'll admit that it doesn't always come very naturally to me.

However, I will say that this past year of homeschooling was much(MUCH) better than the previous. Apparently being new to an area and having a baby in the middle of the school year can be stressful(who knew?)

This past year we used My Father's World for both first grade and kindergarten, and then we supplemented in the spring semester with classical conversations. I can't say enough about how much I love both of these programs. And more importantly, Jack and Anna both really loved them.

Classical Conversations is great because you get to be around other homeschooling families, and your kids get to be around other kids their own age. It also takes care of the science experiments and crafty stuff that I might not always make enough time for at home.

My Father's World turned out to be exactly what I had been looking for at the beginning of last year. I really felt like I needed something that would tell me what to do every day, and that's exactly what MFW does. It also gives a lot of cute ideas for crafts(which is not my area of expertise) and provides some wonderful book choices.

Most importantly, though, it's very Bible centered. And not only is it Bible centered, but they make it so that the kids really enjoy learning about the Bible. Every day this past year, Jack had a Bible and a Bible notebook that he wrote in, and he never complained about it, in fact he really enjoyed doing it. He tells everyone that the Bible is his favorite book. :)

My main struggles with homeschooling this past year was keeping the younger kids entertained while we did school(there were many days I'd give up trying to keep Lily and Max entertained, and tell them to go play in the kitchen sink until we were done), and sticking to a routine. Some weeks we'd do great sticking to one, and other weeks...we... wouldn't do so great.

I'm really looking forward to starting school again, though. We've had a nice break this summer, but now I'm ready to get back into it. And, of course, the break has been long enough that I keep envisioning perfectly beautiful school days with Max and Luke sitting quietly on their blankets playing with their special toys while I patiently teach a math lesson to the older kids(ha!)

Maybe it would be more realistic to do school during the little boys nap time? However, if that vision ever becomes a reality, I'll be sure to let you know and share all my secrets. :)

Linked to the Modest Mom.

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