SNOW DAY!!

So this homeschool family decided to declare this a "SNOWY PRESIDENT'S DAY" and take the day off! Owen was really excited about the idea of having a day off of school and so we just went with it! I loved that we could spend an hour out in the snow playing with out worrying about getting back inside to get started with school. We did end up reading a book and doing an activity sheet about President's Day - but that is fun school :) and O didn't seem to mind.

The boys helped Matt clean the cars off before he went to work and then played in the snow for a lot longer than they normally have. It helps to have hand me down snow gear so they were nice and warm instead of wet and cold!

B loved carrying the little shovel around and O loved falling down in the snow and having the snow drip off the trees on him. They are so different! I had to fight my northern pride that was telling me "this isn't snow...it's 4 inches...this is nothing and it will be melted by noon!" To them, it was everything. Owen kept saying "mommy, look how far it comes up on me, it's so deep!" "Yes son, it is :)". Lucy liked it more than I expected - except when she tipped over backwards because she was so bundled up...she didn't prefer that!!

Thankful for one snow day this year - now spring can come! I hear it is supposed to be upper 60s later in the week, I like the sound of that!

Growing Growing Growing

There is a lot of growing going on here these days. Each of our kids is growing physically so much! Owen and Baxter get taller by the second it seems! Lucy is growing in interaction and getting close to walking (as she should be since she is almost 15 months!). It just blows my mind some days! No wonder I'm so tired, there are THREE children growing like weeds around me every day!!

Sweet Valentine

We had a really sweet Valentine's day. God gave us many chances to love each other and others, and to reflect on His love for us too. We have been doing a "Love One Another" exercise that I found on my friend's blog (click here to see it for next year...). On the back of each of the hearts is something that we can do to love others. So we had been talking A LOT about loving others - we love because He first loved us, let all that you do be done in love, through love serve one another, etc etc.

God gave us a very precious gift on valentine's day in the form of a broken down car. Not ours, thankfully! We were on our way to a Valentine's breakfast at our favorite bagel shop (what is a holiday with out bagels?!) and we noticed that some people had broken down in the middle of the road and the cars were slowly passing by. As we passed we realized that they were some friends from church. We pulled over long enough for Matt to jump out and I circled back and parked behind their cars. Long story short, Matt and a police officer who came along were able to help them jump start their car. INSIDE OUR CAR we were able to see in action all that we have been talking about. We had to sacrifice hungry tummies and time together to serve these friends. God gave us a very clear chance to respond to the love He has given us by loving this couple ON VALENTINE'S DAY of all days. It was so great! All of the other activities we had done were good and taught us a lot, (vacuuming the car for daddy, helping mommy clean the school room, bringing a treat to a friend who was sick, etc) but this one was not just something I thought of that would fit in our day well, it was straight from the Lord and the boys could see it!

The other sweet part was this great dress that a friend gave to Lucy. It is the kind of thing I wouldn't have bought myself - so it was a real treat!

Reading

Matt loves reading most of all in our home. Owen comes in a very close second place. Lucy is in third place (just this week she has started to get a book off of the bookshelf and crawl to you and hold it up like "please read this to me!" So sweet!). I think I am in fourth place (As long as I have a captivating book with great characters. Right now I'm reading "Unbroken - a WW 2 story of survival, resilience and redemption." It's great.). Baxter probably comes in fifth place - though his lack of love for reading is more that he can't quite read and I think that frustrates him. Once he can figure out the words I think he too will really enjoy it.

Anyway...

Here are some pics of an impromptu reading time this week. We are supposed to have silent reading, mommy reading aloud and Owen reading aloud as part of our school day each day. It often gets skipped simply because we read during so many other parts of the day! I need to keep it as part of our day more often, but I do love that they will pick up books randomly through the day.

S is for Store and T is for Tower

Sometimes I get in the rut of giving my kids lots of seat work - coloring. worksheets, workbooks, wordfinds, etc. All of these are great avenues of learning, but I need to get them up out of their seats too...especially when Baxter is home! After he threw his pencil across the table last week, following a tracing sheet that was just too long for his THREE year old self, I remembered "Oh yeah, he's three, he (and Owen too) need to do more hands on stuff mixed in there too..."

So, a few fun things have transpired.

During letter S week (each week has a letter of the week - primarily guiding Baxter's activities, but Owen has some letter related things too) Owen had a math assignment that was working with paying for items using pennies, dimes and nickels. He loves any time we get the money out, and so I decided to include Baxter in the fun too. Owen created a Store (s is for store) for Baxter to come shopping in. He chose the items, made price tags, and organized it all. Then Baxter came shopping. Owen helped him find the right amount of money to pay for each item. It was a great exercise in team work and creativity. They each pretended well in their roles (shop keeper and customer) and worked together fairly well.





This morning began T week. I bought a box of Dixie Cups and gave the boys each a huge stack to make a Tower (t is for tower). They had a blast! Baxter made one LARGE tower, and Owen made a little town of towers. I love to see their minds at work!







Another fun thing last week was the boys enjoying their first cups of "hot" chocolate. I have been telling them that whenever it snows, we can buy hot chocolate and marshmallows to enjoy while we watch the snow or after we play in the snow. Well, it's the middle of February and I am beginning to think we will not have any snow. So we went ahead and enjoyed some after rest time one day last week. They loved it and were really fascinated by the process....especially adding the marshmallows!!

THREE

Compassion

My parents gave me this great daily devotional for Christmas called "Edges of His Ways" by Amy Carmichael. Amy was a missionary to India (among other places). This devotional is full of her musings about the Word of God and some poems/songs she has written. Each day is VERY short and VERY deep which I love for the phase of life I am in right now. I'm sure you can find it on Amazon or Westminster Bookstore.

Today's devotional was about compassion. She quoted Mark 8 where Jesus speaks about having compassion on the multitude of people.

Here are some of her words:

"I have often found it easier to have compassion on the multitude than on the individual, especially a rather tiresome individual...When we next have to deal with a forgetful boy or girl, perhaps this way of His will (being merciful to his people) will help to guide our ways. It is so easy to feel inwardly impatient, but He whom we follow never did. 'Jesus Master, I would be More and more made like to The.'"

I was convicted of my lack of compassion towards my children this morning. For being impatient with Baxter because he didn't want to go potty before rest time (even though we do this EVERY day), for rushing Owen through a story he was telling me because I was ready to move on with our next assignment, for getting frustrated at them for fighting with each other for the tenth time today (AND we were on the way to the park on a beautiful day - how can you fight on a day like today when you're about to play at the park?!), etc.

And yet I was also encouraged that I see God, in HIS compassion, at work in me and in them. He is at work to soften my words - even when I am frustrated. He is at work to bend Baxter's stubborn will. He is at work to give our boys love towards each other. And He will be at work when Lucy starts in on all of this too...though I'm still not sure the baby girl of the family (ahem!) deals with this stuff too. Ha!

The words of this song were in my head this morning, and I think it's a good place to stop..."Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His love endures forever."