Of Nothing in Particular

And another month has slipped by.



But we have been busy. Really we have.

Lots of riding bikes(in our dress up clothes, tiaras, and too-big shoes)...

Lots of learning....

We made raisins(talking about the sun)


and applesauce(talking about apples) in homeschool co-op.

And the J-Man is reading. kind of. He has figured out the red BOB books are easier and likes to read those. The pink ones "are too hard". He can read them....he just doesn't like to take the time.

Hmmm...in other news...

We had our Annual Harvest Festival at church last weekend. We went as the cast of Peter Pan. Aren't we just precious!

I think he makes a pretty stinkin' cute pirate!

And a new favorite of mine....

Those eyes!

Grace and peace...
Carrie

Of "cwafty things" and a Brave Mama

My parents put together a very clever Christmas gift for the J-Man and the Diva. A container of "cwafty things" as the J-Man calls them. Two huge organizer thingys full of just that - items to be crafty with: pipe cleaners, stickers, glitter glue (ugh), beads, felt, glue, etc....

They LOVE the "cwafty boxes". Before I pull them out of the LOCKED cabinet, I have to read stories about bravery. Think little train engines that could, brave little toasters, and so on. I have to give myself the pep talk. I am sure other moms have given themselves the same pep talk: " I WILL be that kind of Mom. I will be the kind of mom that let's her kids create, experiment (ie MAKE A MESS)." And it is all worth it....but goodness is it scary.

Just in case you were wondering if her dress was dragged through the glitter glue on her paper here: it was. And if you were also wondering if it washed out: it did!

The Dive is especially fond of the glitter glue. Fond enough to glob 3 tubes on one piece of unsuspecting construction paper.

The Tank likes it all. Particularly if she can color it or adhere it to her body. *Sigh*

The J-Man is a "just-so" kind of person. He will fuss and fuss with re-arranging his craft box half the time, and spend the other half gluing things together. Loves those Popsicle sticks.

And because I want my kids to be THOSE kinds of kids that know how to clean up after themselves, we begin the "Cleaning Up from the Crafting Expedition" energetically. And then I realize that really, they have helped clean up enough and I can get it done a lot faster. But I bite my tongue at stick it out to the bitter end, helping them "clean" up after themselves. All of this WILL pay off in the end....that's what I am telling myself anyway.

And because no post is quite complete without a picture of ALL my Precious Little Ones, here is my only kiddo not currently into "cwafty things"....

He sure has the being cute thing down, though!

Of Sibling Affection

Please tell me my kids are not the only ones that argue. Fight. Find joy in harassing one another. There are days when I truly think I am not a mother, but a referee. If they had their way, I would be more of a statistician - who won which round and in what kind of record time - that kind of stuff.

But there are moments. Those amazing moments when I actually hope. When I see little glimpses of the best friends I want my kids to be....


He is so good at entertaining his little brother whenever we ask!

Here The Tank is "reading" to the Pooter. These two have a very close relationship. He just gets this goofy grin whenever she happens to look his way. Love it.


This one is post library trip. Checking out the new books....wearing dress up clothes. They do this just about every week...pour out all the books and take turns swapping. They usually each come up with a favorite....The Diva's favorite will always be a pink book. That's how she picks books at the library...if they have a pink binding, they get checked out. Hey....at least she's not judging a book by it's cover! Ha.

This is my new favorite of these two. Can you see the mischief?

Of Yummy Cookies

The kids and I made the most delicious cookies ever. Well, the two older kids helped while The Tank was napping. Only on rare occasions am I brave enough to bake with her help:

(and this was just an ordinary coloring session! Black eye compliments of the playground...)

Imagine letting her near the eggs or a canister of flour. Yeah, it's about as scary as you can imagine....if not more.

Anyway.... we made these:

Animal Cookies. These are not your typical sugar cookie. They are much more liked frosted animal cookies...with a coating rather than a frosting. These paired with a chilled glass of milk was pretty much worth the 5 miles that I had to run to burn the calories.

The J-Man thought they were pretty tasty too...

And the poor Pooter. He just watched us eat them with very longing eyes....

You can get the recipe Here

However...rolling it out in between the wax paper was a bust. Much better to let the dough chill, then roll it out and cut.

Of Swim Teachers Who Wander into Our Lives "by chance"

Sometimes you just have to sit back and say, "Well, now. That could only have been done by the Lord."

In March, we signed the J-Man up for swim lessons at our local community pool. David usually took him as I was hugely pregnant and not too keen on sitting outside in the "heat". J-Man really liked his teacher, Miss C. In fact, he liked her sooooo much that when she was absent one day and had a sub, the J-Man had a melt down and didn't even do his lesson. We ended up having Miss C come to our house and do lessons in our pool with both the J-Man and The Diva. I liked her instantly. The Diva adored her. She is pretty convinced that Miss C is secretly a princess. Some days, Miss C is "Earl" (Ariel) and others she may be "Bill" (Belle). Through the course of the summer, we came to find out that Miss C was homeschooled, came from a large family herself, and was just a wonderful godly woman! No wonder we all loved her! And she even talked about God while giving swim lessons!




We had our last lesson for the season last week. We already miss her. But I think it is so cool how she just "randomly" happened to be Jack's teacher that first lesson. What a coincedence, huh?

Of Dancing Divas and Library Books

We were recently given a HUGE bag full of dress of clothes. The kids have very much enjoyed them. The fireman costume has been a huge hit and I have been "rescued" from countless "fires" around the house by the oh-so-brave J-Man. There was one dress, however, that The Diva initially had discarded and it made its way to the bottom of the dress-up tub. It resurfaced the other day and you would think that this girl had been given a check for a large sum. She has worn this dress-up costume (a bride get-up, I am assuming) and has been alternating between being a Domestic Princess:

And a World Class Ballerina:

We did discover that trying to go to the bathroom in all of this fluff is a challenge. Definitely a two-woman job. I find it so amazing to watch my girls, though. Why is it that some women find it necessary to argue that there is no difference between the sexes, when there so clearly is. I find it amazing how girls are so clearly attracted to femininity, even from a young age. And yet, we try and take this from them, all in the name of so-called equality?! Both of my girls like to fuss over their baby brother, like little mother hens. This is not to say that the J-Man does not care for his baby brother, because he does. But it is a more protective, looking-out-for kind of care.

Anyway....I will step off of one of my many soapboxes now.

I was recently reading a blog post of an old friend and she was talking about library books and how you never know what you are going to get: a bomb or a gem. We had this book come home with us last week:

While I don't know that I would call it a 'bomb', it certainly lacked in creativity and story line. Bob is a rather dull bear and likes it that way. His friend "Jack" is the wild and crazy one who likes to surf, visit alligator swamps, etc. Bob prefers dusting his house plants and sitting in empty parking lots. The J-Man became a little agitated the first time we read this book. He found that though he shared a name the the bear named "Jack", he related more to "Bob". Not that my J-Man is dull, but he does thrive on routine and knowing what is coming next.

"Mom, I think I am 'Bob', not 'Jack', in this book." Funny how kids can be so in tune to their own personalities at such a young age!

Of Teaching Boys to Spell

Here is it August, nearly September, and I haven't posted since June! Wow. Wonder what the heck I do with all my time. What's that? I have 4 kids, you say? Ahhh, yes. Perhaps THAT is where my time goes.

We started homeschooling the J-Man this month. I use the term loosely at this point, since he is just at that pre-school age, but we do sit down for 1 - 1 1/2 hours several times a week and "do school". Superman and I have spent a plethora of hours discussing homeschooling as of late and are now 100% convinced that we are totally thrilled, excited, pumped, and also a little terrified of the fact that we feel the need to homeschool.

Anyway, the J-Man had known SOME of his letters in no particular order (and by some, I pretty much mean he knew "J" since that is what his name started with). He was never very interested in letters and such. Not if there were tools to play with or messes to be made. I wasn't concerned. And rightly so.....for in the two weeks that we have been working on it, he knows all his letters and most of their sounds. We started "spelling" together on Thursday. You know, the kind of spelling where the child asks "how do you spell 'Mom'?" or "what letters do you use to make the word 'cat'?". well, the thing is with boys...they don't really want to spell "mom" or "cat". The words J-Man wanted to spell extended beyond the 3 letter, short-vowel words I wanted him to focus on. After working on MY words of choice for a bit (cat, bat, pig, bug), we worked on HIS choice.

Fast forward to Friday. I get out his magnetic letters and the old cookie sheet and then get called away by the need to rock the Pooter back to sleeop. When I come back, I see that word. Not "bug", or "cat", or "mom". But THIS word:

Of ALL the words he remembered, it had to be this one?! Really? Teaching a boy to spell is going to be interesting, to say the least. I even questioned him, wondering if it was purely coincidental that this word appeared. I asked the J-Man, "What is this word here?"

"Oh, that spells 'poop', Mom. Two "p's" and two "o's". That's how you make the word 'poop'."