Wow! It’s hard to believe more than a month has passed since I last blogged. Looking through my pictures for the month, I’m amazed at how much as happened!
First, my dear sweet husband bought me a new washer and dryer. They are so cool! Or as one friend would say, “WAY COOL BEANS!!” They both have glass doors, so you can see what’s going on in there. The kids absolutely love it! They will spend 30 minutes or more watching the washing machine (if I let them). And they fall all over themselves asking to be the one to help turn them on or put the soap in or get the lint out or put the clothes in or take the clothes out. Even Brian was helping today, taking clothes out of the dryer one piece at a time and handing them to me with a smile as I folded them. Both machines have a timer that shows how many minutes are left before they are done. The kids love to watch it and wait for the nifty little tune that plays when the load is done. Much nicer than a loud BUZZZZZ!
Now, if I could just them them that excited to FOLD the clothes and put them away…Or since Travis is always talking about inventing things, I should tell him to invent a machine that automatically folds clothes and puts them away. And while he’s at it, he could invent something to empty the dishwasher for me too. :-)
Oh, and an unexpected benefit of getting a new washer and dryer…I got the opportunity to rearrange my laundry room to make it more convenient and to eliminate the constant irritation of having no place to put laundry baskets as various loads are awaiting attention. Don’t have a picture of it, but I was able to scoot the dryer closer to the washer and put in a set of nice white metal shelves between the dryer and the wall with the door. That was a God-thing! I found the shelves at Lowe’s and they were a good price, fit perfectly in the space I have, they look nice, and my baskets fit perfectly on them!
Actually, Travis has been quite helpful of late. Often, he will cheerfully help set the table for a meal (and now the others often come running asking, “What can I do?”) And he does a better job than me at putting the silverware away…
And yesterday after lunch, I was wondering what he was doing in the bathroom. (He was supposed to be brushing his teeth.) Turned out he had taken everything off the counter and was busily cleaning the mirror, counter and sink! It had not even entered my mind to ask him to do that! I made sure to thank him profusely and express my amazement… and to tell Daddy at supper time what a great thing he did. I could just see him beaming and grinning!
We went with some friend to the Houston Livestock Show. It was so neat how God provided! We had to changed dates because of a conflict in Ronnie’s schedule, but it turned out that the day we went was a “value Wednesday”, meaning that all the kids got in free and the adults were only $5 each. Pretty cool deal to do all that for only $10!
The kids got to practice milking a (fake) cow…
… and sit on a real tractor…
Who are those cute farmers?
Just clowning around…
Ok, I know we’re an Aggie family, but surely Ronnie won’t mind a picture of a REAL Texas Longhorn?
Everyone but Heather enjoyed the petting zoo..
Ronnie introducing Brian to the goats…
That’s Ronnie under that hat. The baby deer were pretty aggressive… trying to eat anything and everything … coats, shirts, shoelaces, zippers, cameras…
The wild-eyed wallaby. This fella got loose and was zipping around the pen like everything. Kind of scared some of the kids.
We have been enjoying watching God renew the earth with the miracle of spring! It truly is amazing to watch the yard change from totally brown to mostly green in less than a month’s time.
It has been amazing to see the snapdragons in our flower beds go from this…
to this…
And my precious, brave little blueberry plants showing hope for the future..
We can never get enough blueberries, so I added some more, for a total of 11 plants now…
Thanks to my friend Pony, we are making another attempt at the garden. At the end of February, she planted some tomato and strawberry and green bell pepper transplants, as well as cucumber and bush bean seeds. In just a couple of weeks, we had this…
Last week we found this…
Last night we found these (strawberry blooms)…
And these…
I’ve been enjoying quiet Sunday evenings with just my two youngest boys while Ronnie has taken the older two to Awana. A couple of times, I took them for a ride in the stroller (and me on my roller blades). One night, we went up to the elementary school’s playground and enjoyed a fun two-year old directed playtime.
He’s so adorable! How did I get so blessed?!?!?
We had a break from Awana one Sunday night (for Spring Break), so we took a picnic supper up to the park and had a pleasant evening in beautiful weather. An added bonus: I got to get my beagle “fix” by petting a super cute beagle who reminded me so much of my old dear Marley.
All my little (and big) monkeys climbing on the ropes…
(In case you are wondering, they are wearing helmets because they had just been riding bikes. In Jeffrey’s case, it’s probably a good idea to wear a helmet ALL the time. Not joking.)
Story time after we got home…
Fun with food… one night, I realized at 4 o’clock that I did not have the main ingredient for what I had planned to cook (macaroni for mac & cheese). There wasn’t time to go to the store, but I wasn’t sure what in the world I could do. But while Ronnie took the kids for a bike ride, I came up with this: “lid potatoes” (got the idea from a story from “The Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook” we had read the week before), with a salad, and turkey lunch meat and cheese “ka-bobs”. It was surprisingly well-received, even by the kids.
Another day, we read in a Highlights for Kids magazine about making “two-tone sandwiches.” You were supposed to cut a shape out of a piece of brown bread and the same shape out of a piece of white bread, then insert the opposite color shape into the other piece of bread. Travis wanted to do this, but I didn’t have any white bread. So, I thought, maybe I could do it with gelatin. I mixed up one pan of gelatin with grape juice and pureed blueberries, and another pan with white grape raspberry juice and pureed strawberries. Ronnie said it was the best gelatin I’ve ever made. (My other attempts have not been so good…)
Brian enjoys oatmeal and cottage cheese… inside and outside.
It’s very curious, the last two weeks I have combined two weeks worth of work from our curriculum into one week. And we’ve gotten it almost all done! Why did we always struggle just to get one week’s worth of work done before? Maybe I’ve been a bit more focused and motivated to try to get finished before the middle of May.
It has been an interesting year of getting to know my kids and how they learn and what they like and don’t like, what works and what doesn’t, and what motivates them (and me).
Travis loves math and is really good at it, but doesn’t like to write. So, it just finally dawned on me the other night that I could do the math lessons orally with him, instead of making him write all the answers. Wow! it really speeds things up, and makes him (and me) a much happier student!
He did a puzzle in his Highlights for Kids magazine where he had to help a bee find it’s way out of the hive by doing some addition problems. The next day, he created this “bee hive” with pattern blocks…
Travis has always been interested in building things. He’s been playing with screwdrivers since he was probably 6 months old! So, the other day I remembered that I had a toy when I was a kid called “Mecanno” with all kinds of pieces to screw and bolt, pulleys, etc. I got it out Sunday afternoon for him to play with during nap time. Boy, his eyes lit up and he immediately knew this would be a FUN toy. And he’s played with it every day since. 
Suction cup toothbrushes are a great invention! They even stick on mirrors if you want to keep your baby brother from licking them.
The baby brother is not quite walking on his own, but he is going everywhere… around and around and around… if he has something to push….
The specifications for a girl’s bike are much different than those for a boy’s bike. A boy’s bike need to be fast, cool-looking, and have gadgets. A girl’s bike need to be pretty. That’s my girly-girl. She didn’t get it from me.
I finally cut her back hair for the first time ever, to even it up. I like it. I think it looks much better when she won’t let me put a ponytail in…
And we got our family portraits done…
As for me, I’ve been enjoying learning the photo/video editing software that Ronnie got me for Christmas. I’m working on a video for our end-of-the-year Awana awards ceremony to show pictures and highlights from the past year. I’m really excited about it!
God has been giving me opportunity to practice James 1:2:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of various kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish it’s work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
This song by Jon Mohr, sung by Steve Green, sums it up for me, as I have gone through a second miscarriage in the past 4 months:
You are good always
And in all ways
You are working all things
Together for our good.
You are good always
In big and small ways
I know I can trust You
In everything You do
With the hard winds of life
Blowing out of control
It can feel like I'm all on my own
But You've given me Your word
And I know You'll never leave
And I've never faced a single storm alone.
I can't says it's always
Been a smooth open road
Or turned out the way I'd prefer
But one thing I'm sure of
You've been faithful to me
And I live to give You all that You deserve.
Awesome wrap-up!!
ReplyDeleteYou are a writer too...soooo talented = )
I wanted one of those drawer-shelf thingys to put between my washer and dryer but I lacked one inch of space...boo hoo!
Your garden looks GREAT!!!!
I forgot to mention that one of the reasons I have tried compressing two weeks of school into one is that Travis recently told me that he liked school, but the thing he DIDN'T like about it was that we didn't do it often enough! Hang on to your hat, son, here we go!!
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