Falling Asleep in The Word

For the past few weeks at nighttime we've been letting John Caden "read" books in his bed until he falls asleep. I love sneaking in there after he's asleep, putting the books away, and turning off his lamp. What I love the most is consistently finding that out of all the books we've left for him to read, his Bible is usually the one that is left lying in his lap.

Gymnastics

The quality of these pictures is poor due to them being taken by a cell phone, but Anna was just too cute and little on this big pommel horse not to post this one.

And it's rare that John Caden's class works beside Anna's, but tonight they even got a quick wave into each other while they were on the beams.

Quite an Ice Bag

As a special treat, we took the kids to O'Charley's for lunch today. I had just a bite of grilled tilapia and rice left over so I asked the waiter for a "to go" box. Knowing that we were going to stop at Cold Stone on the way home to use John Caden's free birthday icecream coupon, I also asked our server for a bag with a little ice in it so that I could keep the leftovers on ice while we ran an errand. He was gone for a while--we wondered what was taking so long--when he returned we knew why--he had been making an enormous ice bag for us-- it truly was about the size and weight of John Caden!
"Wow," I told him, "We could drive all the way to Florida and back and my leftovers would still be good!" Tim was so embarrassed to carry the big bag through the restaurant that we ended up sneaking out through a back door (that is, after we left a nice tip for depleting O'Charley's of their ice supply).

A New "Chapter" in Our Lives

This summer Anna and I started reading children's chapter books together. How glad I am that she enjoys to read as much as I do. At the end of each chapter she usually pleads for us to read "just one more." Too eager myself to wait, we usually end up reading a whole book in just a few short days.

More Birthday Pictures

Lunch at "The Airport Restaurant" (Elevations in Kennesaw)

John Caden's Birthday

Doughnuts for Breakfast

Fun times at Sensations Therafun Gym in Atlanta



So excited...

and proud of his new guitar.
He already wore out his first one! The new one sounds even better!
Other presents...

Happy 3rd Birthday John Caden!

Confessions of a Homeschool Mom

I must admit, I always was afraid that God was going to call me to homeschool so I fought against it. When God finally won the battle 3 months ago, my attitude going in was, "Ok...I'm going to do it but I'm not gonna like it." Even though I truly heard God saying "This is the way, walk in it" (Is. 30:21) and was convinced that this was what was going to be best for our family, I never thought that I'd ever truly enjoy it. After one week of official homeschool I have found this quote from Oswald Chambers to be so true: "But as soon as we do totally surrender, abandoning ourselves to Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives us a taste of His joy." God has truly flooded my heart with excitement this week and has given me a supernatural joy for the journey that lies ahead. (A friend told me today that she wished she could record my conversation with her so that she'd have it to play back to me on the days I call crying). :)

It was fun to see this week how all of Anna's science experiments...

...turned into Anna and John Caden's experiments.

But also how John Caden's preschool work became appealing to Anna as well.

"Feed the animals" was one of their most favorite activities. On Friday, for a review of what we'd learned during the week, they were each given a stack of little cards (aka animal food). If they were able to identify the correct letter sound, shape, color (for John Caden) or correct word (for Anna) then their animal would say, "Roof, roof, yum, yum, yum" or "Meow, meow, yum, yum, yum" and they could slide the card through the animal's mouth. Thankfully, both animals ended up with full bellies (in other words, Anna & John Caden identified all of their cards correctly--so they did indeed learn new things this week)!

God was so sweet to drop one more blessing in my lap (literally) to end our first official week.

At the start of the week I was trying to come up with a way for the kids to clearly be able to distinguish "school time" from "play time." One friend told me that "shoes on" is school time in their house, "shows off" means that it's playtime. Great idea, but we don't wear shoes in our house. So I came up with the idea of me wearing an apron. When the apron is on, it's school time, i.e., Mommy is the teacher---when it's not then Mommy is Mommy and it can be playtime. (The pockets also are handy for putting my glasses in which I realize I'm needing to use a lot more of these days). I only have full aprons so I pondered borrowing a friends sewing machine to make one or asking one of my sewing friends to whip me one up real quick, but I ended up deciding the easiest thing would be to order one already made from etsy.com. The apron arrived today with the sweetest note of encouragement. I had mentioned to the seller my plan for its use. The seller (now a grandmother) unbeknownst to me happened to once be a homeschool mom herself and she shared this story with me: "I distinctly remember our first day of homeschool. Our books hadn't all arrived yet and I was terrified to start. The older kids had started school that day and I wanted to keep the same school calendar as them. So we took the 'first day of school' pictures and headed down to the school room---me with no true curriculum in hand. I had no idea what I was going to teach. My answer was waiting for me in the window well -- there sat a huge praying mantis. We caught it and did a whole day's research and projects about the praying mantis! It was as if God knew I needed a lesson plan so He handed it to me. He is faithful!"

What a great reminder of the verse that I've claimed for the year! On days when discouragement attempts to rob my joy I can look down at the apron, remember the story of the praying mantis and remember that "He who called you is faithful and He will do it." 1 Thes. 5:24

The Realities of Being a Homeschool Mom Sink in When...

You receive your Barnes & Noble Educator card and the word "Educator" is staring you in the face.

You now have covered up the walls of a room with school decor that you once put 5 coats of paint on a few years ago to get to the perfect color.

You get just as excited as the kids do when on the first day of school they open up their new pencil boxes with new crayons, pencils and glue sticks.

You become thrilled that, after teaching how the earth rotates on its axis and around the sun, your daughter points out that the office swivel chair could represent the earth and she could represent the sun and you could spin the chair around while moving it around her to "act out" the science lesson.

It hits you after the first day of homeschool, that the thing about homeschool is---well it's going to be a daily thing, i.e., you'll have to wake up tomorrow and do it all over again, and again the next day and the next and the next. (Amy H. --- in all of our homeschool talks why didn't you ever mention this one to me?) :)

But when you look at this face you are convinced that you'd have it no other way.

"He who called you is faithful and He will do it." 1 Thes. 5:24

Early Pumpkin Harvest

Anna's pumpkin vine could no longer handle the heat, so the pumpkins had to come off the vine this weekend. Thanks to Poppa for tending it in his garden over the hot summer months for her!

Anna loved the little baby one the best. See how proud she is! (John Caden of course was less than thrilled to have to sit and pose for a picture...I guess Tim thought wisely and put the largest one in his lap in hopes that the weight of the pumpkin might help hold him down for a second).
Not sure what happened with the one with all the "bumpedy bumps" as
Anna called them.

Nevertheless, it served as a great illustration of how God makes us all special and was perfect timing as we've been reading Lucado's children series of the Wemmicks. (Wemmicksville is a land created by Eli, the "God" figure of the story. He creates each Wemmick in Wemmicksville uniquely, each with its own look and personality, thus helping readers understand their value-not from the world's perspective, but from God's).

From You Are Special:

"Eli stooped down and picked him up
and set him on the bench. 'Hmm,' the maker spoke thoughtfully
as he looked at the gray dots.
'Looks like you've been given some bad marks.'

'I didn't mean to, Eli. I really tried hard.'

'Oh you don't have to defend yourself to me, child.
I don't care what the other Wemmicks think.'

'You don't?'

'No and you shouldn't either. Who are they to give stars or dots?
They're Wemmicks just like you.
What they think doesn't matter, Punchinello.
All that matters is what I think.
And I think you are pretty special.'

Punchinello laughed.

'Me, special? Why?

I can't walk fast. I can't jump.

My paint is peeling.

Why do I matter to you?'

Eli looked at Punchinello,

put his hands on those small wooden

shoulders, and spoke very slowly.

'Because you're mine.

That's why you matter to me.'

Punchinello had never

had anyone look at him like this--

much less his Maker.

He didn't know what to say...

'Remember,'

Eli said as the Wemmick walked out the door,

'you are special because I made you.

And I don't make mistakes.'

Never Underestimate A Child's Potential

Heading out the door to gymnastics today, I left John Caden in the utility room for a few minutes to be putting his shoes on while I pulled back Anna's hair. When I returned, to my surprise this is what I found---three neat piles of folded laundry! On his own initiative, he evidently opened the dryer and started folding his and Anna's laundry. I never would have thought that a 2 year old boy was capable of such! I guess it looked like a fun sorting game to him. Great idea John Caden!!! I think I'll incorporate this "sorting game" into a weekly homeschool activity for him. :)

Pool Fun

This weekend our sweet cousins allowed us to come swimming at their beautiful pool. Anna loved spending time with Nikki.

Tim and John Caden talked mommy into letting them be adventurous. The water slide became irresistible to both of them. John Caden sat in Tim's lap for the ride down and then Tim would hoist him over to me for the plunge.

5 Years

I remember when I received these five hand impression kits as a baby shower present that 5 years seemed so far away. Somehow our hand print memory project is now complete. :(