Christmas Countdown: Day 21

Christmas Countdown: Days 4-20

I am not very good at blogging in December. Okay, I probably could have stopped after the word "blogging", but in December it is especially hard for me. There is just so much to do and to enjoy, that it is hard to find the time to get on the computer. I'm sad that I haven't taken more pictures over the month, but I thought I'd include a little bit of what we've been doing this Christmas season.

Sleeping next to the the Christmas Tree.

Sitting on Santa's lap at our Church Christmas Party. That night when putting Little C. to bed, she told her dad, "Sorry I freaked out on Santa's lap dad." She was really worried she was going to be put on the "naughty list" after that. We had to assure her that Santa understood. How cute are 3 year olds?

Making gingerbread houses with Grandma.

Attending the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. That was a highlight of the month so far. The music was beautiful, the spirit was so strong, and Doug and I had a wonderful evening with H-Man, and I-Mac. I'm so grateful we were able to get tickets this year.

There have been so many more things we've enjoyed this month, but unfortunately that is all I have captured on camera. 

I love Christmas time.

1 Down 179 to Go!

(First day of school 2010)

We did it! We officially completed our first day of the new school year! We started a little earlier than normal because we will be taking off a week and a half in September to go to California. I felt so underprepared heading into today that I was rather nervous and stressed out last night, but now that the day is over I think things went pretty well. 

Little C. started school with us today and was incredibly excited for her first day of "school". I am doing Before Five in a Row with her, and started the reading game I made and used for all of our kids (I'll post more on that later). She just turned 3 last month, but she so wanted to do school with us this year, that we are just going to take it slow and have a lot of fun. I can tell it will be a good thing for her to get this special one-on-one time during the school day because she was able to play on her own so much better today after having her time with me. I was able to focus more on the boys and not have to spend as much time worrying about keeping her busy and happy. Hooray!

G. Diddy isn't thrilled about starting school, and we had our battles today, but he did a great job on his Math-it game and it was fun to see his sense of accomplishment in that. I-Mac wishes summer wouldn't end, and just can't wait for our California trip to come, but he is so easy going that he just does what we ask without complaining. We are reading some fun books together right now, so that is always a draw for him. The three of us will be studying about American History this year (my favorite subject) so we should be reading a lot of interesting books this year, which we are all looking forward to. If everything goes as planned, we will be taking a trip to Washington D.C. at the end of this school year to wrap up our history studies. Everyone is excited about that prospect.

H. Man was excited for school to start today. He is entering his "Middle School" years this year, and that is one of the main reasons I have been so stressed. His work load is a lot heavier this year, and I'm not sure I'm fully prepared with what I need to do on some of his courses. Luckily, most of his work is done independently and he is a very motivated student so hopefully everything will go smoothly.

Although I have thoroughly enjoyed our summer, and it didn't seem to last long enough, it is exciting to be starting our new learning adventures this year. It is so fun to watch the light bulbs turn on as a child grasps a new idea, to learn about people and places you've never heard about before, to feel the wonder with your children as you ponder on the many amazing things God has created for us. For these reasons and so much more, I am grateful for the blessing and challenge of homeschooling my children. Here's to hoping I can remember to savor those moments all year long.  

Birthdays, and Blessings, and Baptisms, Oh My!

This has been one full and amazing month for our family! It started with Claire's blessing,

and was followed by G. Diddys birthday a few weeks later.

This was the birthday he has been waiting for forever. He turned eight and got to start scouts and get baptized! (More photos are coming of that event.)

The next week was H. Man's birthday.

 

This was also a "big" birthday for him. He turned twelve and got to receive the priesthood!

We were so proud of him. It was so awesome to watch him as he worthily passed the sacrament this Sunday. I can't believe we have a twelve year old child!

The week after H. Man's birthday, G. Diddy was baptized.

He was so excited! The day was awesome and he just radiated joy all weekend. I've never seen him behave so well in church. He read his new scriptures through most of sacrament meeting, and bore a wonderful testimony.

The final event is I. Mac's birthday today! 

He turned 10 and is an amazing child. We're getting ready to go swimming this afternoon and have his birthday dinner at Grandma's this evening.

The overwhelming feeling I have had over this past month is how much Heavenly Father loves His children. I have been struck by the fact that although these are my children here on earth they were His first, and it is my responsibility to do all I can to help them get back to Him again some day. I am so blessed to be the mother of these wonderful children. I hope I can be the mother they deserve. 

2 Months

I can't believe our little C. Bear is two months old today.  It's hard to believe that two months ago I felt like I would never be able to get on top of all of the house work and gardening again. Well, I'm a far cry from being on top of things, but I did get to spend several hours working in the garden this weekend, even though Doug was gone for most of it. After a rocky start, she has finally settled into a decent schedule. I'm able to put her down for naps in her own bed several times a day, and she even sleeps for a good 6 hour stretch at night and then another 4.

She has gotten to be so much fun too. She gives you the biggest, brightest grins at the slightest urging, and loves to carry on conversations with anyone willing to coo-along with her. The boys are convinced that she can say "hi" already, and I have to admit that when you say, "hi" to her, it sure sounds like she is saying, "hi" back. She has the most kissable chubby cheeks you ever saw, and although we may be biased, around here we think she is the most adorable little ball of chub we ever saw.

Week in Review

This was a great week!  That probably stands without saying, because I'm not likely to be posting about it if it wasn't, right?  Anyway, this was our second week "back to school" since C. Bear was born, and things really went pretty smoothly considering.  We finished our family read-aloud, Just David, this week and the kids loved it.  I read this book on my own a couple of years ago and posted a review about it here.  I was excited to share it with the kids and was glad that they enjoyed it as much as I did.  We were all sad when it was done.  It was one of those books where we felt like we were saying good-bye to a good friend when it was over.

For our character training this year we have been reading from the book Created for Work during our "School Opener" and we read a couple of great chapters from it this week.  You never know how much your children retain from things like this, but it is good to see them making connections with great ideals and you hope that through repeated exposure they will eventually incorporate them into their lives.

We purchased a new camera this week so that H. Man could be Doug's  "Campaign Photographer".  In addition to his regular studies H. Man has spent the week learning everything he can about photography.  He read the entire camera manual in two days and has taken hundreds of pictures.  He really is showing a lot of talent, and I am now constantly asking him how to do "this" or "that" on the camera.  Here are some of his candid shots of our school week. I hesitated to post them, because I don't like seeing pictures of me, but they give a good taste of our school week, so here they are:

(Writing time.  In my defense, this was our transition from snack time to writing time.)

We did spelling every day this week, which is a real accomplishment since we have had the tendency to skip it on hectic days.  We have loved The Writing Road to Reading this year.  Not only has the boy's spelling improved a lot this year, but I-Mac's reading ability has really flourished as well.  For those of you who don't know,  I-Mac is dyslexic and we have tried so many different things to help him learn to read proficiently.  This program is the first that has really seemed to click with him.

We are reading about The Renaissance and The Reformation in history right now.  The kids loved the chapter about Michelangelo and DaVinci in A Child's History of the World.  We spent some time after reading, looking up various works by each artist and we all hope we can get to Italy some day to see them in person.

G. Diddy did a great job of sitting still and paying attention during our reading times this week, which is a huge achievement, because he's our child that I'm sure would have been labeled with ADHD and been medicated, if we had put him in the Public School system.  

I. Mac on the other hand gets tired of listening to Mom lecturing. ; )  Actually, I think this was exasperation because H. Man was taking his 50th photo of him for the day. 

In addition to school work, we spent lots of time outdoors in the beautiful spring weather, working in the gardens and just having fun.

We even fit in a field trip to the park this week.

H. Man also got to take a "field trip" with his dad this week to Fillmore, Utah to hear him speak at the Millard County Constitution Party Convention.  

H. Man got his first experience as Campaign Photographer,

and they met some wonderful people.

Granted, our house could be cleaner, and the laundry is piling up, but we accomplished a lot this week. With a new baby I find the need to take joy in the things I am able to do, and try not to worry about the ones I'm not.  That could be a good formula with, or without a baby.  I just hope this next week can be as productive.

Outdoor Hour Challenge: Autumn Series-Cattails

I have been missing Nature Study with the kids, and finally decided we needed to make room for it again in our busy schedule.  We chose to start with the first of Barb's Autumn Series Challenges and study Cattails because I was certain I knew where to find some.  Our search didn't prove to be as prosperous as I had hoped, but we had a wonderful time nonetheless.  We went to one of our favorite nature study locations, our local river trail.

For some reason I was under the impression that I knew just where there was a large patch of Cattail growing.  We got to the spot and there were no cattails just lots of these plants.  I'm not sure what they are, but they are pretty.

We continued up the river, but never did find any cattails.  We saw lots of golden grass,

and these prickly plants,

but no cattails.  We got to a bend in the path where I told the kids we would turn around if we still didn't find any cattails.  There weren't any there, but we did find a little side path that led us right down to the water's edge.

The kids were thrilled.  Skipping rocks is better than cattails any day. . .

Once the boys depleted the supply of skipping-quality rocks, we headed back.  At the very top of the hill, quite a ways from the water, we finally found one small patch of cattails.

Of course we had to take home a souvenir of our find.

All-in-all it was a very rewarding day.  Spending time in the crisp Autumn air, playing with rocks, searching for an elusive treasure (a.k.a. cattails).  What better way is there to spend a beautiful October afternoon?

Joy in the Journey

I was sitting in church today, struggling with our extremely active Little C.  As the sacrament was being passed I thought about how I used to enjoy reflecting on my week during this time, thinking about what went well, and what I could improve upon.  It was always such a peaceful and spiritually renewing part of my week.  Now, in order to keep the peace, I am usually searching for numerous ways to keep Little C. distracted and happy so that I can at least stay in the chapel.  As I was longing for the time to rerturn when I could focus more on my spiritual growth, I was struck with the thought that this was my mission right now.  Loving and enjoying this prescious child of God is most important for me right now, and will ultimately bring me the most spiritual growth.  It seems simple and obvious, but I love it when the Spirit brings things into focus for us when our expectations get a little off the mark.  Motherhood is the greatest sacrifice, the most difficult challenge, and the most sweetly rewarding endeavor we could ever undertake in this life.  In many ways, the work we do as mothers, as we lovingly and submissively give our lives (through our time, energy, sleep, pursuits, and hearts) for our children, we come closer to emulating the life of our Savior than through anything else we could do.  The Savior spent time studying the scriptures, but the bulk of his life and ministry was spent teaching, loving and serving the people.  It was a sweet experience today to be reminded of this fact and rather than feel guilty that I couldn't sit quietly and focus completely on the speakers or ponder the feelings and thoughts of the spirit, I held my baby and thanked Heavenly Father for the opportunity to be a mother and be taught a little more about what it means to loose myself in the service of others.

What was he thinking?!

So, today G. Diddy came to me with grey sticky stuff all over his cheek and eye .  

Me, "G., what is all over your face?"  

Him, "Gum."  

Me, "How did you get gum on your face?"  

Him, "I put it there."

Me, "Why?!"

Him, "I didn't know it would get stuck."

I had to laugh!  He is 6 1/2.  I thought we were beyond incidents like this.  Apparently not... Thank heavens for peanut butter.  It got off most the mess.

He is missing half his eyelashes on his right eye though.  Kids!?!

Outdoor Hour Challenge #31 & #32 ~Trees~

We're back to blogging and back to Nature Study!  I hadn't mentioned it before, but Barb's "Outdoor Hour Challenges" were another contributing factor to my decision to start blogging again.  For some reason I can't motivate myself to do the things I know I should without some form of outside motivation...  

Well, I could tell we were out of the habit of "Nature Study" because when I mentioned that we were going to start doing nature study again this week I got lots lots of moans and groans from the boys.  I thought we had gotten past that by the end of last school year!  Oh well.  At least I have the hope that they will start looking forward to it again once we get back in the habit.

We decided to combine Challenge 31 & 32 so we wouldn't be behind to start out.  I am really looking forward to this challenge!  I love trees, but I really can identify only a few of them.

Here are some of the trees we saw on our walk down our street today...

This was G.'s favorite.  I believe it is a honey locust tree.  It is one of my favorites too.  I love the delicate leaves.

Here is G. resting in the shade of an apple tree.  This one doesn't have any apples on it, but the one right next to it does. 

I'm not sure why....

On to the Pine...  This tree is over the fence in our back yard.  I think this is an Austrian Pine.  It had two needles per bundle and they were about 3-6 inches long.  The needles were dark green.

I. found a young pincone on the tree that hadn't matured and opened yet.

We also found this pinecone at the base of the tree.  The kids were excited about their finds.  It felt so good to be out enjoying nature again.  We spent a lot of time outside this summer, but most of that was spent at the pool, or riding bikes and playing with the neighbors.  We ended up spending a lot of extra time out doors after we were done with our nature study, just playing and hanging out.  The weather was perfect!

The boys had fun doing crazy poses for me on the trampoline...

H. man,

G.,

and I-mac.  He is still holding his pinecone in his hand! =)

Little C. had fun mastering the slide.

again,

and again,

and again,

and again...

Then she and I-mac found some treats on our yellow-raspberry bush.

I-mac is such a good big brother.

Little C. had so many I was worried she might get sick...

They really are good though.  If you haven't tried the yellow variety, you really should get one.

Sorry this has turned into such a long post.  I guess I have harbored a lot of pent up blogging in the past three months, and I just needed to get it out...  (I also took 80 pictures today.  What fun!) All-in-all it was a wonderful day.  It's amazing what a little outdoor time can turn into!