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."

Way to go Tuckahoe Tigers!

This morning was week 3 of Owen's basketball season. Asst. Coach Purdy was on the sidelines today - he has a nasty cold again and wasn't able to coach, but he was able to be a daddy! Owen was on the court and doing AWESOME! It has been very very neat for Matt and I to watch Owen the last three weeks.

As the weeks go by, he becomes more and more confident in himself (taking shots and passing more often), bold (really diving for the ball and going for rebounds on defense...even stealing the ball while the other team is dribbling which is actually a foul in this league, oops!) and joyful (often times he is jumping up and down on the court while his teammates go for the ball or take a shot - the excitement it so intense!). We are so proud of him and can't wait to see how the rest of the season goes. Last week he scored one basket and this week he scored two or three. Way to go Owen! We love you buddy!

p.s. I hope to take some pictures next week - there is so much going on on the sidelines to keep B and L occupied and such a huddle of kids all over the court that it will be challenging to get some good pictures, but I'm up for the challenge!

Simple Truth

It's been a while since I have forced (I say forced because it had to be a really concerted effort to go sit and read instead of go sit and zone out) myself to sit down in the middle of the day (during rest time) to read the Bible and spend time with the Lord. When rest time hits, I either have a list of 101 things I want/need to get done in the hour and a half (or so) ahead of me OR I am so tired from the day that I just want to sit and zone out at the computer or lay down and rest. Now, the reality is that each day I WILL have something to get done AND it is good to zone out a little and lay down a little. Those are all important parts of the day. I was just doing those and neglecting the time in the Word.

So today sat on the couch with my Bible and my journal as soon as I got everyone settled in rest/nap time and got the downstairs straightened up. From 1:35-1:48 I read my Bible, I wrote some things out about what I was thinking/how I was processing the things I had read, and I prayed (a little).

I have to say, it was the most beneficial 13 minutes of my day AND there was still plenty of time to get things ready for our school day tomorrow, iron Matt's shirts and fold the load of laundry I did this morning. AND what is better than that is that I am able to be more aware of the Lord and more sure of His presence with me and more empowered by Him instead of living in my own little world on my own strength.

I was thinking mostly about verse 10 in Psalm 46, "Be still and know that I am God." Talk about simple! Yet it's also quite profound. I was encouraged to remember that I am not God (I can not do all things, and that is ok. Sometimes we need to remember the frame He has given us....one that needs to sit and rest, one that needs to call out for His strength, one that needs to be recharged and encouraged. We can not do this on our own, He has not made us to do this on our own. He has provided His Spirit and His Son and each other to help us!), that this is His world (so I can trust all things to Him and I can follow His ways instead of try to make my own way), and that He is to be trusted and that He loves me and cares for me. He is God, and that is good news for me today. I am not. I can go do my chores and go love my kids with and for Him.

Tuckahoe Tigers

Owen started his very first season of basketball this past weekend. He is playing through our local YMCA on the Tuckahoe Tigers. Daddy is the assistant coach on his team which both Owen and I are excited about. Matt and Owen really loved the first practice! I asked Owen what he liked and he said "I'm ready for next week!" We are really excited about this for Owen - to be able to be on a team with other 5 year old boys, taking direction from his coach (and assistant coach)! And also we're excited for this chance to be used as a light with other families who may not know about the Gospel. It's neat to help Owen learn about that, and learn right along side of him!! Here is a little bit of a blurry picture of him waiting to practice his bounce pass :) I'm sure there will be more pictures to post and scores to report as the season goes on. :)

Some school fun...

Here are some of the things we've been up to in school recently! We were able to take a 2 week break which has been nice, though I'm getting excited to start back up again. I've been planning our "spring semester" and am looking forward to what it holds! I may do a second post with some ideas I have for the spring for those of you who enjoy things like that :) But for now, here are a few things we enjoyed right before Christmas...

This was SUPPOSED to be green boxes which would look like a Christmas Tree when assembled, but I didn't have the energy to wrap 6 boxes in green paper, SO...we did clear boxes. Still fun. We used the words from John 3:16 (part of our Why Advent?! time in school) and they had to put them in order and then assemble the "tree." Owen could do it by reading the words to the verse, I put numbers on it for Baxter so that he could participate too. I got this idea from the Impress Your Kids website.



We did a "blends scavenger hunt" that I saw on education.com. I wrote out some blends that we had been working on in Owen's phonics book (fr, cr, st, sk, and so on) on index cards and laid them out on the floor. Owen had to go around the house and finds things that started with those blends and bring them to the school room. A few things were too big to bring, so he brought the index card to the item (ex. the FRidge and SKim milk).



Brothers! They continue to grow in relating with one another which is one joy in having Owen home this year. They fight and squabble like brothers, but they are also growing in friendship!




We got this idea from Owen's preschool teacher from when he was 3 (she is now Baxter's teacher and offered to get coffee with me one day to share a few math ideas from her days teaching Kindergarten/1st grade. I quickly accepted and we have LOVED her ideas! Thanks Mrs. McGurn!!). This is a race to $1.00 - you roll a dice and take the same amount of cents for the number you rolled. As you go, you trade in 5 cents for a nickel, 10 cents for a dime, etc all the way up to $1.00. Tons of fun for my math-minded boy!

Merry "Croup"mas in pictures...

Though it was a Merry "Croup"mas this year, we still enjoyed one another and were thankful for Jesus being born...FOR US!! Here are some pics...

Pre-Christmas celebration with Gramma and Grampa:



Owen has wanted this Hokie Bird pillow pet for a while...he was thrilled to open it!



A ThirtyOne bags gift for my parents...a LARGE utility tote for all of the knitting/books/food/etc that they generously tote to CT, FL and VA to their kids and grandkids. AND for an "occasional" trip to Costco :)



Following a breakfast of oatmeal and MONKEY BREAD :) we opened our stockings...



Let the 104.8 fever begin...







And present opening. The kids each get 3 gifts from us (just like Jesus got 3 gifts from the wise men) and this year they gave each other gifts. It was fun to "set them loose" in Target with a $5 budget for each sibling and see what they chose. We felt like it was a neat way to help them to focus not only on getting gifts, but also giving.

Lu

We were just having some family music time singing "For all the Saints" - a great hymn that our family has loved for a few years. At the end of each verse, you sing "Alleluia, Allelu." After one verse, Baxter commented (after the Allelu) "Hey...Lu, we call Lucy that. I call God Lu too." Then each time we'd get back to the end of the verse, he'd say "Alleluia, Alle God Lu."

One of those things that is hard to explain, but worth writing down! Thankful for time together and thankful that B is on the mend! What a boy!

Merry Christmas

We have been anticipating this day for weeks and weeks. Celebrating Advent helps us to look forward to Christmas Day with more anticipation than we would otherwise. We have been talking and singing and celebrating all month - that Jesus came to earth...born a child and yet a King.

So, today has finally come, and it's not what we were expecting...three kids with a bad cough/virus, one of whom spent Friday night and part of Saturday at St. Mary's hospital following a 911 call and ambulance ride because of breathing difficulties related to croup.

This is not how we expected to celebrate Christmas, but it is how God planned for us to celebrate and He has been with us in it all....from the amazing fire men and nurses and doctors who lovingly helped Baxter to the friends who came and helped with Owen and Lucy so Matt could come to the hospital and relieve me, to our special Purdy Family Christmas Eve service at home, to our sweet/coughing/102 fever/special morning of opening presents. We have been able to just enjoy each other and in some ways I think it helps us remember what Christmas is really all about. Sweet Baxter was so fever-ridden this morning that he didn't want to open his gifts. He would take off the bow and I'd open it for him. I can't wait till the real Baxter is back, but he is still precious even when he's quite sick!

These pictures were taken Friday evening - the evening before we were in the hospital all night - on a family Christmas outing. We enjoyed dinner out and then went downtown to see some fun Richmond Christmas decorations. We are thankful to be together and have each other and have a Savior! Merry Christmas!

Mission of Motherhood

I have been slowly reading through a great book called "The Mission of Motherhood" by Sally Clarkson. I highly recommend it!!

I was re-reading a chapter (Ch. 4) called "The Servant Mother - Mothering with the Heart of Jesus" this morning in my "bagel time." It really hit me right where I am at this week. I was feeling very "poured out" this week - the constant 24/7 nature of my job as mommy/homemaker/homeSCHOOLER/wife has felt more taxing this week than others. Don't get me wrong, I love all of those jobs and I see them as what God has called me to and I find joy in that...it was just a tiring week!

Here are a few TRUTHS that stood out to me from her writing (and from the Word that she referenced). Be encouraged!

--John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." Often times I feel like I have lain my life down for my kids, over and over and over, but I don't remember to do so with love! When Christ lay down his life for us, he did so driven by His love for us! Great reminder!

-- This next section was really profound for me!
"More than anything else, being a mother has helped me to understand this verse (the one above). I used to travel on airplanes, wear lovely clothes, speak in prominent places, enjoy find cuisine in the various cities in which I ministered. I used to love having long teatimes and conversations with friends and colleagues and a sufficient salary to spend on my whims and pleasures.

"Now most of the time I stay home. I spend a great deal of time doing things that will need to be done over and over again - washing clothes, cooking meals, cleaning messes, correcting attitudes, teaching and training - over and over and over again. I don't have much extra money to spend on my desires because with four children, most of my money is tied up in jeans, tennis shoes, Legos, dolls, piano lessons, doctor's appointments, and birthday presents. I have given up my personal rights to the priority of addressing my children's needs first."

--"The Lord conivcted me that the futre was not where real life began. Each day was God's perfect will for me. There would be no wasted years of "just taking care of the needs of my young children." On the contrary, these years would be among the most important of my life....In the end, what could be a better use of my time?"

--"I understood that the dependent stage of early childhood was only for a season. I could see how important it was to enjoy each day and treasure these moments of early life with my children, because the years did pass quickly. How I wished I could take back all the impatient words I had said, all the guild I had imposed on my older children just because they were acting their age and taking up my time."

Great Christmas Article

I just stumbled upon a GREAT article on the Desiring God website. (click HERE) Wow! It puts into words what I am feeling and what I bet a lot of us are feeling.

We have sought to teach our kids so much during this advent season about Christ and WHY He has come and read the story of His coming over and over again. We will continue to do so for the next 11 days (Owen has a constant countdown in his mind for this! He is discouraged that Walmart is counting down to Christmas Eve because of "Santa" while we are counting down to Christmas Day because of Jesus. Oh, how to train him that we are not right and they are not wrong...we're just counting down to different things! Anyway...). And yet, wet still struggle to love each other. Owen still pushes Baxter down when he is in his way. Baxter still makes an angry face when I tell him no. I raise my voice when my children are not listening to me. ETC, ETC.

As much as we are excited about Christmas and about Jesus and about presents and about God's love for us...we are still sinners. We are still in need of grace. Constantly! I think that is why this article really stood out to me. Take a few minutes to read it. You will be glad you did.

This is the part that stood out to me the most.

"We are acting out both the surprised shepherds in the fields with their problems and squabbles and regular lives, and also the heavenly host that came to them singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.” We can’t stop being the shepherds this side of glory, and God doesn’t want us to. He wants us to be the shepherds the whole way through that story. Listening, fearing, following, worshipping. We are bringing our children alongside us as we come in out of our worldly fields, smelling like sheep, to fall at the feet of an infant king in a trough, beside livestock and an exhausted teenaged mother. This is what Christmas is all about."


Thank you God that you are in the business of blending together the physical and the spiritual and redeeming it all as you go! We can truly say "Glory to God in the hightest!" And we can be thankful that He came to bring us "good news of great joy!"

Geoboard

Owen loves when our math curriculum calls for the use of his geoboard! He loves to stretch the geobands and make various shapes. After our lesson today I let him have some "free play" with his geoboard. I left the room for about 3 minutes to help Lucy and found that he was pretending to play football using two crayons, and his geoboard was keeping score...7-0. Of course, what else would you use it for?!

Lucy's 1st Birthday!

What a difference a year makes! It was such a joy to celebrate Lucy's 1st birthday today! It was both a great celebration of God's hand of protection last year when I was on bed rest, in the hospital and having a c-section as well as a great celebration of this great first year of Lucy's life. We started the day off with bagels at our favorite bagel shop (Cuppertino's NY Bagel and Deli for all you Richmonders who need a good bagel shop!). The lady who works there gave Lucy a cookie when we told her it was her birthday - Lucy loved it! After that, B went to school, daddy went to work and O, L and I came home for naptime and kindergarten! Both sets of grandparents arrived mid-nap and were here to greet Lucy when she awoke. Matt and B came home around 11:30 and we spent the rest of the day together enjoying our sweet girl. Instead of cake we did brownies which were much more anti-climatic and clean (though they were shaped like cute mittens for our winter baby) but she did enjoy a few bites. Gifts and baloons were also featured events. We are so grateful for the sweet girl she is and look forward to what this next year holds! We love you Lucy Grace!

Last year...



This Year...

Why Advent?

This year for advent, we have taken a little bit of a different spin on things. We are doing the Jesse Tree along with our church (follow the daily blog HERE for great little ornaments, short devotionals and questions based an each scripture verse!). In that study, we are learning about the story of Christmas from creation all of the way through the cross. Creation, fall, Abraham, Joseph, etc.

But during our school days, we are focusing a little bit more specifically on WHY Advent?! It's been a neat way to really ponder and try to teach the boys to ponder the WHY of Jesus coming as a baby. Not just that He did, but why did He?

One day, I took a simple piece of white printer paper and wrote Romans 3:23-24 on the top. Then I wrote, "WHY ADVENT" under that and left room for the boys to each draw a picture or write about why THEY need advent. Owen drew a picture of a sad face (sin) and the cross. Baxter drew a picture of baby Jesus under a black blanket - he was just using black, but I pointed out that Jesus took our black sin on Himself when He died for us.

Another day, we did an exercise that I found on another website. Owen is working on copywork (using his best handwriting to copy something that I have written out or that is in the Bible or a song or a book). He copied Isaiah 9:2. When he was done, I got out our blindfold. Here is what followed:

"The people who walked in darkness, (notice how sad B is looking because he's in darkness)



...have seen a great light." (what a better thing to be in the light, thank you Jesus for being the light of the world!"




Isaiah 9:2 "The people who walked in darkness, have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shown."

Little Learner

This was just a random afternoon playtime, but I suppose it's a glance of what is to come when Lucy is old enough to be with us for school. Right now she is still napping for about 2 hours every morning while we are doing school. I know that won't last forever, and it causes me great anxiety! I don't know what school will look like with Lucy cruising around. For now I"m trying to enjoy the peaceful school mornings and trust God to provide just what Owen and I need as well as what Lucy needs.

Nonetheless, she is a precious student!

"Near the Winter" by Owen Purdy

Owen came up with this poem today, impromptu while getting in the car on our way to the library. These are the sweet moments...

"Oh it's so fun, looking at the trees.
Half empty.

Go on birds, you have to find food.
Get those worms.

There's not much time."

October 31

This week we enjoyed celebrating two things on October 31. We have never done much in the way of Halloween in our family - a few costumes through the years, but nothing much. We have honestly avoided it as much as possible. There is so much in the world that is just plain evil that is "celebrated" that day in one way or another. We just didn't know how to best interact with it. So we avoided it. This year, we decided to take part in it in some small ways. It was a blast! The kids all got dressed up - twice. We were invited to a playgroup (that we're not part of) Halloween party which was real fun, and then we dressed up on Halloween itself and went trick or treating with our friends. It was really fun to see the boys get a kick out of their costumes (they were "sports men") and their pursuit of candy. It was awesome.









We also celebrated Reformation Day. Funny to me that they happen to be on the same day. I always saw Reformation Day as the Christian world's way of celebrating something on Halloween without acutally celebrating Halloween. I was wrong. Reformation Day is awesome. What Martin Luther and the other reformers stood up for are a matter of life and death for us as believers. Here are a few of the things they stood up for in the face of the church of their day - salvation is through faith alone in Christ alone (no work on our part!!), we need the Bible in our own language (at the time they only had it in Latin and most people didn't read Latin...I don't read Latin, so I'm thankful it's now in English!), we need to repent of our sin daily, grace alone is what saves, etc. I found a couple of cute ideas on a website HERE.

This is our version of the Wittenberg Door where Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses. We taped ours :) And we didn't do 95.



Owen did a maze and a word search.



They did a water color painting of the Luther Rose - each color meant something different relating to the Gospel. This was Baxter's...he uses EVERY inch of paper.



When Luther was being tried for the "crime" of believing the things he believed, he was taken to a council/jury to be given a chance to recant. At the time they called this a "diet." They were in the city of Worms, Germany. Thus, we had a "diet" of worms for snack :) Again, not something I came up with, but so fun!