January 2011

I always have a struggle with how much time to spend on the computer, corresponding with people via email, facebook, or blog versus just doing what has to be done to keep the household running (laundry, cleaning, teaching, sleeping, disciplining). 

Most of the time, updating the blog just doesn’t make it onto the priority list.  But it’s been so long, I thought it was time to share a few pictures and stories…

 

Since Christmas, we have tried out several new games, such as “Chutes and Ladders” and “Go Fish”.  It is fun to see how Travis and Heather are actually able to understand and play games now.  And it is fun to get to play with them.

 

With some cold and/or wet weather, we have devised some ways to work off energy indoors (I wish I could get an energy transfusion from them!) 

Hopscotch is good for counting forwards and backwards, hopping, and balancing.  Even Jeffrey was learning to count, and amusing us all with his “hops”.  (We used blue painter tape to make the hopscotch grid on the carpet.)  I knew this game was a hit when they continued playing on their own, even after I stopped.  We left it up for a couple of weeks, and several times every day I would hear “One.  Two, Three.  Four. Five.  Six, Seven. Eight.  Nine, Ten. HOME!”

 

Sack races with old pillowcases…amazingly, nobody got hurt!

 

 

Indoor obstacle course, designed by Travis and Mommy.  There were things to climb over, circle around, crawl under, jump over, pick up, crawl through, toss, and weave around.

 

We’ve also tried to do some creative/artsy things, such as making “sun bread” on a cloudy day…

Everyone got to make swirls for the “corona”.  Travis was very insistent that they had to be pointy on the ends. 

The finished product…eaten immediately for lunch!

 

And some finger painting… focusing on the “process” of creating rather than the “product”.  We experimented with what patterns we could make with different tools – small plastic animals, sponges, crumpled paper or plastic wrap, brushes, fingers, dog biscuits, etc.

 

And building things with blocks.  A friend from church gave us some really neat wooden blocks which have the books of the Bible etched onto them.  What a neat tool to not only build towers and cities, but to practice learning the books of the Bible.

 

We’ve also had some nice weather and had several trips to the park, and bike rides around the neighborhood several times a week.

    

 

Travis is 5 and 3/4 (though he insists he’s 5 and a half!).  He is ALWAYS thinking about something he is going to build or make.  Even as a young baby, he seemed interested in trying to figure out how things worked.  Even more so lately.  You rarely have to wonder what he is thinking, because he is constantly telling you.  This past year has been a big year for him.  He’s learned to ride a bike without training wheels, he’s learning to read and do math, he got his very own “real” Bible (complete with a cover with a handle!), and he has lost 4 baby teeth!  He is very brave and even let Daddy pull two of them out.  Travis loves to help (most of the time) and often offers to set the table, help me cook, or help people at church staple things or put away chairs and tables.  He even helps Heather make her bed sometimes and helps button Jeffrey’s pants.

       

Heather is my girly-girl.  She loves pretty things.  When she wants to, she can be very artistic, coloring things very neatly.  I recently have realized that she really seems to like to have “all her ducks in a row.”  For example, all the cards in her memory game have to be lined up straight, her bunny cookies have to be lined up in a neat line, and the toilet paper has to be coming off the top of the roll or I’ll hear, “Mommy, will you please turn the toilet paper the RIGHT way?”  She also has made great improvements in being able to make her bed neatly.  And she loves to mother her dolls or her little brothers.  I enjoy watching her and Jeffrey play by themselves sometimes (usually “house” or “picnic” or “tea party”).

 

Jeffrey is 2 and 2/3 and getting to be a very big boy.  Just ask him.  This past year he has started going to Sunday School (instead of nursery) and sitting in big church with Mommy and Daddy.  He loves cars and other motorized vehicles (see his beloved motorcycle below).  He also seems to have a talent for memorizing and singing.  As I’ve been helping Travis and Heather with their memory verses, sometimes he will blurt them out – and sometimes he knows them better than they do!  Also, on his own, he has been learning the Awana theme song and the Awana Cubbies song – and he can carry a tune pretty good.  He even tries to sing the hymns in church sometimes.  He has very quickly picked up the songs on our newest Steve Green “Hide ‘Em In Your Heart” DVD.

Jeffrey loves his little brother.  They share a room, and I often hear them talking and laughing together in the morning before I get them up.

Of course, Brian is just the cutest baby on the block!  Now 11 months old, he is crawling, standing, and “cruising” everywhere.  The poor fellow always has bad hair days…

Even when I try to flatten it down after a bath, it still sticks up…

And he’s discovered the cabinet with all the plastic containers.  I finally got tired of tripping over things and having to put them all back in the cabinet, so I moved most of them up out of reach and just left a few in there for him to play with.

 

 

Ronnie is enjoying being the Awana commander at church this year.  He recently challenged the Awana clubbers to memorize the entire chapter of Exodus 20 (containing the 10 commandments) for extra credit.  Then, since our pastor is preaching through Exodus and about to reach that chapter, he challenged the whole church to memorize it.

During the Christmas holidays, Ronnie enjoyed spending lots of time with the kids.  They bought rubber band powered airplanes, put them together, and went up to the local elementary school playground to try to fly them.

 

 

I’ve been playing around with my camera…I’m never in any of the pictures because I’m always the one taking them.  So, either I need longer arms if I’m going to do self-portraits…

 

… or a good place to set up the automatic timer on the camera.

I’ve been helping Ronnie with his Awana Commander duties, and I’ve found that I really enjoy doing things such as the weekly newsletter…especially after I discovered Microsoft Publisher (much easier than Word!).  I also put together a booklet to help the Awana kids memorize Exodus 20; then I made some more for the adults.

This past Sunday, it was Heather’s turn to bring snacks to her Awana Cubbies class, so we made cookies.  Everyone wanted to help cut them out… and taste them (before and after they were baked). 

 

At the beginning of the year, I was challenged from several sources (my pastor, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, and another mom friend) to put a priority on spending time with the Lord, reading the Bible and praying.  I’ve found that I get the most out of my time with the Lord when I journal and when I listen to worship music – two things I’ve neglected lately because it seemed like I just didn’t have time with trying to manage a household of four young children.  But I was starving spiritually and realized that if I don’t make that time to be alone  with God, I will not be much good to my kids and my husband, no matter how much I clean, cook, etc.  That stuff just never gets finished anyhow.  And when I get to the end of my life, will it really matter if the house was never dusted, the floor rarely mopped, the bathrooms sometimes cleaned?  No.  Will it matter to me (and to my children) if I never cultivated my relationship with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who loved me so much he died to pay for my sins so that I could be with him? Yes!  So, I spend some time (never seems like enough) before I get up reading, praying, journaling, worshipping – even if I have to ignore the racket my two oldest ones might be making (the two youngest stay in bed until I get them up, the two older ones get up to keep Daddy warm while he eats breakfast and say goodbye to him when he leaves for work.)

 

And I leave you with one of my favorite pictures of the month…all four kids quietly looking at books after lunch one day – on their own initiative!  This was reassurance to me that at least I am accomplishing one of my goals in raising/homeschooling my kids – instilling in them a love of reading!