Homeschooling Adventures

This morning I was trying to find something to entertain James with while we did school. I pulled out the pots and pans and spoons. All 3 kids then decided to form a band. It was pretty fun! Mornings here are often loud, this morning especially! :) Some days here are hard, obviously some are not...but I really wouldn't trade it for anything. I love that I get to stay home and I'm so privileged to homeschool my kiddos! This is a favorite song around here. I thought it was fitting to post the lyrics! If you haven't heard Sandra Boynton's "Dog Train" Cd you need to. It is so much fun! :)

Pots and Pans

I've got ONE pot.
A metal spoon
What've you got?
You've got a rhythm tune.
You've got a pot. Spoon.
Rhythm tune.
You've got a pot
AND spoon
AND rhythm tune.
You've got a little, got a lot,
got a musical pot.
Now what? Now What?

I've got pots: Pots and pans.
I've got pots: Pots and pans.
Yeah, that's the way
that I like to play-
banging on pots and pans.
Yeah, banging on pots and pans.

Now another pot.
A wooden spoon.
What've you got?
You've got a rhythm tune.
You've got a 2-pot
2-spoon 2-2-tune.
You've got a little, got a lot,
you've got whatever you got
Why not? Oh, yeah, why not?

I've got pots: Pots and pans.
I've got pots: Pots and pans.
Yeah, that's the way
that I like to play-
banging on pots and pans.
Clanging those pots and pans.

--Sandra Boynton, from Dog Train

Dreaming of you

My dear Sweet Pea,

The house is quiet, your brothers and sister are sleeping soundly in their beds. Daddy is in the other room working on a project in his office. It's just you and me. I am enjoying feeling your ever growing hands and feet pressing against me from the inside. I know that your time dwelling in my womb is coming to an end. Soon you will be here in my arms. Each day we draw closer to meeting you, my heart grows more excited. I love being your shelter, the place where God is fashioning your small body, but I am beginning to become anxious to see your sweet face.

I want to soak up this moment right now...just you and me....the bond between baby and mommy is one that cannot be expressed. I have not met you but I am so full of love for you, my sweet daughter.

I close my eyes at night and dream of you, knowing that shortly you will bring so much joy to our family. Carrying you inside of me has been such a privilege and blessing. You may be my baby number four, but the delight of having another child is just as special as when it was number one, two or three. You are a miracle...God's gracious gift to us. The timing of your arrival is perfect. God chose you for our family and we are so humbled and thankful.

I wonder at what you will look like. Will you have those dark brown eyes like your siblings, or will you have your Daddy's hazel ones? Will you be small like your sister or big like your brothers? Will you have the dark olive tones like the rest of the family, or have my fair completion? I know you are beautiful. You are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Your room is ready, our bags are packed, and now we wait for you to make your appearance. We have your name picked out. We have been praying about that for so long. We cannot wait to behold you and give you your first gift...your name. You are a gift to us, and we will give you a name that will honor The Giver.

All your days have been recorded before they came to be. Isn't that amazing? Like with your brothers and sister, I am excited to see all that God has in store for you. My greatest desire for all of you is that you come to know and love Your Saviour. I pray that He will use you to impact eternity.

Tonight I sit here, just you and me, waiting, and praying...resting in the moment... looking ahead to the future...full of joy and wonder.

Good night beautiful daughter; we shall see you soon...

Time for a hair cut?

It may be time to cut my baby's hair again! I know the scruffy long look is in, but I think we may have overdone it with James. :) He is just so cute though!Yes...it's that long! I did this just for a picture, to prove how long it was. I don't normally go around putting pony tails in my boys hair. Obviously James wasn't too happy about it! :)

Things that happen around here

A snippet from my life...

About a week or so ago, I went to Target when they had like 5 isles of toys 75% off. I found a few things that my sister in law (Tara) had been looking for so I picked them up for her. When we got home I fed the kids their lunch then turned on PBS for them while I did a few things around the house. I decided to run outside real quick because I had left the bags in the car, and I knew Tara would be coming over any minute to pick up her stuff. As I opened the car door Tara pulled into the driveway. We stood there talking for a few minutes. I didn't think I was out of the house that long...it was freezing cold and I hadn't put on my coat, so I was in a hurry to get back in.

As soon as I walked into the house I sensed that something was awry. I see Anna and Ryan huddled next to each other, Anna phone in hand. She looks up and lets out a little gasp. And then in an almost scolding way asks, "Mom where were you?"

"I ran outside to get stuff out of the car." I replied.

"We didn't know where you were." Anna continues.

Still staring at the phone in her hand, I suddenly feel panicky, "What did you do?"

Anna starts to stammer a little.

"WHAT did you do?" I ask a little more firmly.

"Well, we didn't know where you had gone. Ryan was saying, 'mom, mom, where are you?' and we couldn't find you."

"Did you look all over for me?" I ask.

"No."

"WHAT did you do Anna?" I ask for the third and final time.

"I called Andy and left a message. We thought you had left us and we needed help. I told him emergency we can't find our mom can you please come over and help us?"

"Oh honey, what made you think that I would ever leave you alone? I would never leave you." At this point I was feeling a range of emotions. I was mad that I hadn't mentioned to the kids that I was running outside. I was upset that Anna had made an emergency phone call to a friend of ours. But, I was also relived that Anna hadn't dialed 911! I took the phone from her. We talked about what happened. Although I admitted to her that I wasn't exactly sure how to handle the situation.

I had to call our friend Andy and leave another message letting him know that everything was ok, and that it was all a misunderstanding. I decided to put the incident behind us and move on with our day.

A few hours had passed and the kids and I were sitting on the couch reading books together when the phone rang. I answered, and an unfamiliar voice came from the other end,

"Uh hi, I got this frantic message on my phone..." The stranger paused. Suddenly it hit me what was going on.

"Was the message from a little girl?" I asked.

"Yes." Was her reply.

I apologized to the strange woman and explained what had happened. (Oh my word, I wonder what she thought?) Apparently in Anna's rush to call our friend she had dialed the wrong number. Ugh! Now I had to call Andy back again and leave another message...What a mess!

What lesson did I learn from all this? Always tell the kids where I am going. :)

When all was said and done, it did make for something to laugh about. Some days are just like that! You never know whats going to happen next in our house...

Camping in 9 degree weather

Well, sort of! It has been so cold here lately. The kind of cold that makes you not want to leave the house until...until maybe spring...or at least until it warms up A LOT! This morning I got up and weather watcher said 9 degrees, feels like -5 degrees. It is supposed to feel like -20 degrees tomorrow. I have no plans of going out in that!!! Crazy cold!

Anyway, the kids have been getting restless cooped up in the house lately. So, today I dug the play tent out of the closet and set it up in the boys room. They had a blast! I think I should have done this sooner. We will keep it up for a few days while the fun lasts.

We had a good day today. We have had quite a few bad ones this week. We have had sickness and bad attitudes, and a tired mommy most of this week. Today was enjoyable. I enjoyed playing with my little ones.

Thank you God for play tents, and sweet kiddos to play with! Thank you for such a great day! It was a welcome relief. My heart feels full! I am so blessed.

Nesting?

I have been in a total nesting craze lately, I think. Oddly enough our house is such a mess right now with all the projects I have going on. But it is on it's way to being clean. I have become obsessed with cleaning. I think I have this fear that the baby is going to come and my house will be messy, and I will have to come home to a messed up house, and that just doesn't appeal to me right now. I cleaned out the basement and got rid of tons of stuff that we are no longer using. Yesterday I pulled the refrigerator out and cleaned out behind it. I decided over the weekend to paint the Nursery (formally known as the office) a light green color. I was hoping to be done already, but I have only had about an hour a day to work on it. This weekend it will be done!! :) I want to get the crib set up and the new bedding on. I bought letters for the baby's name (Yes we finally picked a name...and yes it's a secret!) to paint and hang on the wall. I feel good. Things are starting to come together. I washed all the tiny clothes for our sweet girl. Painting and decorating her room has been so fun and really relaxing. We are starting to get excited around here for baby girl's arrival....only 35 days to go...or less!

This is close to the color of the wall. The new bedding set for the crib.Me painting! My sweet hubby took these pictures. Notice he had to zoom in on my exposed belly! :) I think it's about time to have the baby...clothes are getting too small! :)

Even the Darkness...

"Even the Darkness Is Light to Him"

Even the darkness is light to Him

And night is as bright as the day,

So you are safe though the light grows dim

For even the darkness is light to Him

The Father above does not slumber or sleep

He wakefully watches our ways.

Then there's no reason for you to weep

For the Father above does not slumber or sleep.

So dry your eyes of angel blue

And trust the one who died for you.

Would not Jesus safely keep

The little ones He loves asleep?

by Michael Card taken from Psalm. 139

This is one of my favorite lullabies. I think it is a good reminder that we can entrust our children to Him at all times. I remember those first days with a newborn are always hard to leave them "alone" especially at night. You want to be there to hear every sound and make sure that they are still breathing. It is comforting that we have a Heavenly Father who loves them even more then we do and that "...he who watches over you will not slumber." (Psalm 121:3) So I can close my eyes knowing that God who is light watches over my family even in the darkest of nights.

Something to think about

A friend of mine sent me this e-mail. Some of you may have read it already. I thought it was good. It gave me something to think about...

**************************

Think about this the next time you pour a cup.

A group of alumni, all highly established in their respective careers, got together for a visit with their old university professor. The conversation soon turned to complaints about the endless stress of work and life in general. . .

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went into the kitchen and soon returned with a large pot of coffee and an eclectic assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal - some plain, some expensive, some quite exquisite.

Quietly he told them to help themselves to some fresh coffee.

When each of his former students had a cup of coffee in hand, the old professor quietly cleared his throat and began to patiently address the small gathering. . .

''You may have noticed that all of the nicer looking cups were taken up first, leaving behind the plainer and cheaper ones. While it is only natural for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is actually the source of much of your stress-related problems.'

He continued. . .''Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In fact, the cup merely disguises or dresses up what we drink. What each of you really wanted was coffee, not a cup, but you instinctively went for the best cups. . . Then you began eyeing each other's cups. . .''

''Now consider this: Life is coffee. Jobs, money, and position in society are merely cups. They are just tools to shape and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not truly define nor change the quality of the Life we live. Often, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee that God has provided us. . . God brews the coffee, but he does not supply the cups. Enjoy your coffee!''

The happiest people don't have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything they have. . . So please remember:

Live simply . Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God!

A little quiet time

I walked into the living room to find this sweet scene. What Mommy doesn't love that?!

Blessing not burden

On Christmas day we went over to Bill's grandparents. It was a pretty big get together. His grandparents have like 9 kids (I think). Not all of their kids were there, but there were lots of grand kids, and great grand kids, and aunts and uncles and cousins. Our kids had fun running around with all the other little ones.

We don't see Bill's extended family all that much (at the most once a year), so I don't really know any of them very well. Although, I am not uncomfortable talking to any of them. Anyway, as I was standing in line to get food, one of Bill's aunt's turns to me, Our conversation went something like this,

"Oh, hi Elizabeth. I haven't seen you in awhile. How are you?"

"Good."

"I didn't realize you were pregnant again."

"Yep." I nodded my head.

And then without any reserve, and a little laugh, she says, "You need to tell Bill to leave you alone!"

I think I must have looked a little stunned...I didn't know how to respond to that. My sweet mother in law Kay, was standing nearby and replied,

"Oh___(Aunt's name), we are really excited about the baby."

Aunt___ huffs, "Well, come on really?" Implying that we already have too many kids, and one more is just absurd.

I think anyone who was in ear shot of the conversation was a little surprised....or at least Kay and I were. Thankfully another Aunt turned to me and started asking questions about the baby, and if we knew what the gender was and my due date.

I told Bill about the conversation later that day. I wasn't hurt by it, just a little bothered...it bothered me a little that someone would imply that our baby was a burden and that we had no business having more kids; Or that Bill and I had no self control and thus got ourselves into a mess. Granted, this baby was a surprise (I did not mention that to the unnamed Aunt), but certainly not unwanted. We are very much excited and cannot wait to meet our sweet girl. Bill reminded me that the person who made the comment to me does not understand the truth of God's Word. Sadly she is blinded, and only holds the opinion of the world. I do not say this to be harsh...the whole thing just made me sad...sad for her that she cannot understand our joy. She cannot see the joy that comes wrapped in a tiny bundle. Bill and I actually feel very humbled that the Lord would choose to bless us with such a gift. I wish I could have expressed that to his Aunt, but maybe it was for the best that I found myself at a loss for words.

Other peoples opinions of me used to bother me a lot. In the past I would have been upset that someone would think badly of me. Of course it's only normal to want people to approve of you. But, I find myself only saddened at the conversation because of her lack of understanding the goodness of God. I'm not sure if there is any point to this post, other then the fact that I think my eyes have been opened to not take things so personally...especially from those who walk in darkness. I pray that my heart will continue to feel burdened for those, and that the way I live my life would be a testimony...even if no one else understands why we do what we do.