Weekly Wrap-Up: Nov 3, 2013

by Meghan // November 11, 2013 // Comments off

Welcome to our weekly wrap-up! This is for the first week of November.

This week we continued what we worked on last week:
Reading Katy No Pocket, working on sight words, writing her name and family member’s names. She is pretty much obsessed with sight words and writing names. Shes finds sight words in every. single. book she reads, or we read together.

Lexie did a great job! She did this while I was making their lunches…
She is obsessed with writing!

Rainy day fun- bubbles!

this week Max started coloring with crayons. He mostly just wanted to eat them ….

Lexie’s bears were riding on the “bus”- that’s daddy bear, middle size mama bear,
and little Lexie bear hopped on next.

This week we made our blessings tree. It looks a little bare, because J.Tom was out of town when we made it, so his hands weren’t up. We managed to get one handprint of Max’s, but it wasn’t on yet either. Lexie decided Max would be thankful (if he could tell us …) for: his lovey, dog dog, dada, Lexie, Mama, and bubbles. In that order.

We started our conversation about Thanksgiving, but will dive in more the week before thanksgiving. We are only have 2 BFIAR books to complete, and then we will start working on Five in A Row, after Christmas. We will spend December mostly doing Advent and learning about Jesus, like we did last year. Then in January we will being Five in a Row, and I cannot wait!

This week I finished a peasant top that is now offered in my etsy shop. Lexie LOVES this blouse; she thinks it is just so pretty, and had to wear it to violin Friday. I can’t wait to make her some solid white ones to go under dresses and jumpers for the winter. I will soon have the ruffle pants in the shop as well!

I hope everyone had a great week!

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Weekly Wrap Up: October 27, 2013 {Katy No-Pocket, Before Five in A Row}

by Meghan // November 5, 2013 // Comments off

This week we read the book,Katy No-Pocket. Lexie really enjoyed this story. When we read it, Max decided he needed to go get our kangaroo stuffed animal and make it “hop hop hop.”

tracing the number of syllables, the drawing of her apple,
and just some doodles with the letter L

This past week, we started clapping out syllables. Lexie is really into words, and how they sound so I thought it was something she would either A) enjoy and understand, or B) enjoy and not really understand, or C) tell me she didn’t like it, didn’t understand it, and we would move on.

Well, she mostly understands it! She has a hard time sometimes telling me how many times she clapped (like, she doensn’t keep count while she is clapping) but she always claps the syllables correctly … I was very proud of her! She told me this morning, “I really like doing activities. But syl-lal-bles are hard.” But she continued to do them.

Here is a loose outline of our week:
BFIAR Story: Katy No Pocket (we used this lap book printable)

Memory Work:
Psalm 118:24 “This is the day the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Naming 5 senses (review)
I’m Glad, poem by Christina Rosetti (review)

Habits/Character: Generosity
Deuteronomy 15:8, ties into Katy No Pocket
1 Timothy 6:18
Bible story Luke 16:19-31

Phonics/Reading:
counting syllables (LOVES this!)
Letter Aa, sight word at (review because she already knows at) but this leads up to the -at word family for next week which she also knows, but review is good.

Copywork:
her first name, introduce writing last name
Letter Aa, sight word at
Lexie has been requesting we write all of our names on her dry erase board, so she can trace them, spell, and read them.

Science/Math/Geography:
fall, senses
Singapore Math Unit 2 contd. begin Unit 3
Australia (Katy No Pocket), review NSEW, north and south poles, continent song, Oceans (all review)

arts/crafts/extracurricular:
do a dot paints, paint on easel, sensory bath with peppermint oil, violin lessons, gymnastics,
and of course paying outside as much as possible! =)

Max is mostly just learning his animal sounds (which he knows), reading books, doing sensory activities like the bath play, stacking blocks for fine motor skills, etc. I think this week I may let him do messy play with dairy-free pasta. If you have ideas for dairy free, safe, messy play for a 13 month old, let me know!

I can’t imagine Lexie without her learning time- she would be bouncing off the walls! She just loves learning time; she craves the structure, the challenge, and the one on one time with me. It is just so good for her, and I feel very blessed that I am able to enjoy it with her.

Family Bible is her favorite, and she loves the Noah’s Ark picture.

She loves doing the poke pages from Reading the Alphabet, and this is how she is learning her sight words. So far she knows: look, at, I, see, and the by sight (most of the time haha).

Poke page from Reading the Alphabet by: This Reading Mama

Later in the week we decided to cut open the pumpkins we had on the front porch, and do some exploring. It was a LOT of fun! Scarlet, the dog, enjoyed cleaning up the mess…

Snuggy day with babies. Lexie likes to read to Max, when she is feeling snuggy and calm.

A week after recovering from colds, eating sourdough pancakes and kombucha- full of probiotics to help recovery.

At the end of the week, we went for haircuts {before family pictures}. I always enjoy getting Lexie a haircut- I love those curls short and bouncy! (and manageable!)

The night of DST, we were keeping the kids up a little later so they would sleep to regular time the next morning. We had been wanting to take them bowling, so we chose that night to try it. It was a HUGE hit! We will definitely be going more often!

And that was most of our week. As usual, Lexie did great at gymnastics and violin. She really enjoys her time with Ms. Brianna at violin. She gets to practice using her bow this week, so we are looking forward to that!

Still trying to figure out Mister’s naps; he is almost ready to drop the second nap, which is causing early waking in the mornings, and it takes him longer to fall asleep at naps. His naps determine Lexie’s learning time and activities, and also when I can get blog posts written! I am still debating on trying to wean him onto one nap, or just going cold turkey (which is more my style…). This weaning process makes me nervous and feels hectic, since I never know what time he will finally fall asleep or wake up. Not fun …

And that’s it! We are expecting lots of rain, and possible “wintery mix” today.

Have a great week!
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Weekly Wrap Up: Homeschool Preschool Week of 9-30-13 with Sensory Play

by Meghan // October 4, 2013 // Comments off

Here is our weekly wrap up for the week of September 30, 2013

This week we continued reading about apples and fall. We also started discussing the 5 senses. I LOVE to hear Lexie describe things! She does a great job, and just loves to talk,
Bowing- we always begin violin with a bow, and applause

Our Bible verse for the next few weeks is I John 4:19. She requested I take these pictures, as she “wrote,” while I read the verse from our Family Bible. haha

I am trying to convince her to hold her marker correctly … she says it feels better when it sit on her pinky finger. Any ideas?!

Lexie is very much into tracing, so instead of coloring the cross, she wanted to trace it!

We have started unit two of the Singapore Kindergarten Early Bird book. Again, she didn’t want to color, she wanted to trace the rectangles, so I let her. This math is going to get pretty tough here soon, so we will probably either skip around, or just do our own thing, then go back and review.

To prepare for a beginning letter sounds activity, she wanted to cut out the pictures.

We talked about the five sense, and continued the discussion during play. Lexie described her counting bears to me this morning, using all her senses. They “felt hard, are kinda bumpy, didn’t taste like anything, smelled like plastic” (haha), and when she looked at them she “saw lots of colors and faces.”

This week we played with vinegar and baking soda, for sensory play. Lexie LOVED it. As in, eventually I just put her in the tub with a bottle of vinegar and a bowl of baking soda. haha She liked the gritty feeling it had, and enjoyed the vinegary smell. She didn’t mind tasting it etiher.

For Max, I prepared a baby sensory bag of shaving cream and paint. Then I taped it shut and let him enjoy.

Lexie loves her letter building set, and has played with it a lot this week.

Lexie and Max dumping the counting bears (this is when we used our sense to describe them).

Today we went for a 3 mile jog, and ended it with 2 hours of outside play. We stopped at the end of our run to pick leaves that are changing colors already! We just love fall!

Then we collected a caterpillar in hopes it will make a cocoon and become a butterfly. It is in a jar on my kitchen counter as we speak. =)

That has been our big week! What have you and your family done this week? Share in the comments!

I link up at:

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Weekly Wrap Up: Week of August 11

by Meghan // August 26, 2013 // Comments off

This is a review of what we did the week of August 11th … we are only a little behind! =)

We started the week by going to Lincoln for a dentist appointment. The kids got their teeth cleaned and all checked out. Everything turned out great!

Lexie has never been one to want to draw. She sorta freaks out because she “doesn’t know how” to draw pictures like she sees in books. SO we have been walking through the things that pictures need. She comes up with some GREAT stuff! =)

This is a picture of Daddy with big daddy hair haha

She really enjoys our patterning block cards. Thanks to my mom we have what seems like hundreds of patterning blocks! (There’s nothing like having a teacher for a Mia!) They are so much fun to sort, stack, and make pictures!

We got all ready for gymnastics one Thursday, only to arrive and realize the last week for summer session was the week before! So, we decided to hit up the library where she got books all about what? Why, trains of course! And I grabbed the wonderful book, “The Well Trained Mind,” which is about classical education.

She loves free time downstairs with all our learning toys. One of her favorites is the etch a sketch, which was mine and my brother’s when we were kids. One day she brought it to me and said, “Look! I made a Nebraska and Arkansas!” Arkansas is reversed, but I gotta say, it looks pretty good to me!

ANd in our free time, we watched daddy work on his smoker:

We made pallets on the floor to watch The Sound of Music, Lexie’s favorite!

Max got his first peanut butter: Yum!

Max learned all about driving the Cozy Coupe:

And eating mud:

Then at the end of the week, we built a fort in the living room!

So, that was our week for the week of August 11th! What have you and your family done this month? Share in the comments!

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Shaving Cream Play

by Meghan // May 26, 2013 // Comments off

While it was still cold and snowy, we had a lot of fun with shaving cream. This is from the first time we did shaving cream in the new house; we have fun adding toys (mainly engines) into the shaving cream fun.

I moved her little table from the living room to the kitchen. When she got up from nap, this is what she found:

She was one happy girl that afternoon! She loves any type of messy play. She squeezed and squished the shaving cream between her fingers. She especially loved the scent (menthol) of it.

It is super easy to clean up off the floors, and of course to rinse off her.

We do shaving cream play a lot- it is a favorite of Lexie’s (and mama’s too, because there is no mixing or recipe to follow)!

What is your favorite messy play?

Homeschool Preschool:What we are learning this week

by Meghan // May 24, 2013 // Comments off

This week (and last week) we have been rowing The Big Green Pocketbook. Like with all our BFIAR books so far, Lexie LOVES this book. We haven’t done a lot of paper activities with this one, mainly because it’s hard to find any. I don’t know how to create files for activities, but I want to learn! I have so many ideas and applications in my head; I just need to get them on paper (or screen, rather).

This is such a fun book, and there are so many real-life learning opportunities for it. It’s about a girl who takes her big green pocketbook while she runs errands with her mama. They ride the bus from their house in the country, into town.

Many families who have rowed this book took their child on a real bus ride … but we don’t have a bus system here in York (ha!). So, I am thinking if we have time, when we visit Memphis we may ride the trolley! I know she would love that.

This week we have sorta changed up our routine. We have been doing our Bible at breakfast (like always) but then do our BFIAR story (and other favorites) followed by calendar. She has been wanting to read in the big chair downstairs, vs the rug. I love that time together. Max either sits in my lap, or plays on the floor. Since he is crawling now, he is much more into the floor than he is sitting in my lap.

The great thing about schooling at home is learning doesn’t have to look like it does in the public school classroom if it doesn’t fit our needs. As a trained teacher and product of a wonderful public school, I naturally gravitate towards the order and routine of a classroom. But we don’t stick to it like a schedule. We do what works, some days we don’t do it at all and just read books all day, play with manipulatives, etc.

I’ve mentioned before, Lexie LOVES the routine of “school.” She has (on her own) started putting on her little backpack for our learning time, so we can do “school.” I never wanted to put a label on what we do, but I guess because she has been in preschool before, she put the similarities together? I know not all children just love learning, reading books, or doing “activities,” and that all of mine won’t be. That’s the great thing about homeschool- we can modify and adjust to fit everyone’s needs easily.

But Lou is like me, she’s type A and loves school and learning. We will do what she enjoys, so her love of learning doesn’t dwindle.

Our very loose learning plans/activities for this week included:

Bible
Fruit of the Spirit lessons from Raising Arrows (Lexie is loving this!); Galatians 5:22
Luke chapter 15
The Parable of the Lost Coin- originally just a one day reading, she requests this every single day!

Fruit of the Spirit chart

Reading
The Big Green Pocketbook– We did a few rowing activities with this book, but just for coloring/fine motor practice. Everything is just for fun at this age =)
Introduced “No, David!” (this is not my typical type of book to read or enjoy, but when I worked in childcare my 3 & 4 year olds LOVED it. and I know Lexie is old enough to understand the character lessons in the book as “not good choices” vs things we should do).

Phonics/language
Talking about the short vowel A sound (very loosely, nothing formal)
Tracing letters P and A- tracing in shaving cream, on ipad app, with crayons, etc
Building letters with letter construction set
Rhyming words

Science
Growing lettuce and our KiwiBox (which is planting seeds)
Weather
water beads/absportion

Art/Crafts
KiwiBox
making green paint by mixing colors
water beads with shaving cream on light table- we also mixed food coloring to make everything orange (her favorite color) … as it turns out it colors the water beads, permanently!
oobleck in the bathtub

Math
Sorting by size and color (with sorting bears)
making numbers with playdough
building with magnatiles (as always …)

Life Skills
Talking about good manners while on outings (like the girl from our BFIAR story)
Table manners (she tells me “I can’t talk, I have food in my mouth … haha)

We have done a lot more indoor activities this week because it has been cloudy and damp outside. We need the rain, so complaints here! Plus, we didn’t do much last week because we were outside so much.

Putting the goodies from out story in her Big Green Pocketbook

Having a picnic with Bubby

Messy fun

What fun did you have with your littles this week, at home or out and about?

{BIG} Magnet Fun!

by Meghan // May 13, 2013 // Comments off

Oh the magnet fun has began! I remember in elementary school, the kids who took the circle magnets off the chalk tray were envied by all the good kids, too scared to do it themselves.

How the magnets attracted each other, rolled across the desk, how they felt in your hands. Aah. Magnets were. So. Cool. (or was it just me?)

My dad mailed us some magnets from his shop.

Saying Lexie (who will be 3 in September) is obsessed is an under statement! As she excitedly opened the box and unwrapped the magnets, she kept saying, “ooh, what is it? Its for Essie? What did Payne send, do you think?”

We spent 2 hours playing with these magnets the day she got them in the mail. They come out of truck parts (engines, transmissions, oil things, and what not? I don’t really remember all the things my dad said they come out of ..). But Payne is a mechanic, and a build-it fix-it guy to boot.

These magnets are so strong, even I have a hard time pulling them apart sometimes. Seriously.

You can tell all those little plasticized, weak, kiddie magnets we won’t be buying them, because we have awesome magnets to play with!

We decided to set the bigger magnets up across her table and predict which one the smaller magnets would roll towards. Then she would flick the small, cylinder shaped magnets towards the row of bigger magnets and see where it went.

Sometimes the magnetism just made them all crazily attract to each other, and we would suddenly have a huge clump of magnets!

I had as much fun as she did. Very cool. So thanks Payne. 🙂

Here is a video of her playing with them- she can’t get enough!

How do you use magnets for learning fun with your children? Let me know in the comments!

Learning this week: Winnie the Pooh, coloring, and playdough

by Meghan // May 10, 2013 // Comments off

I am starting a new weekly/bi weekly update series on what specifically we have done this week in our homeschool or learning in general. Fun crafts and things will usually have their own posts, depending on the time and energy I have to blog them.

This week, Lexie is 4 months away from her third birthday! Oh em gee. I really cant believe my baby, my brilliant, strong willed, determined first born is almost three. (Remind me of this when she is turning 13, and 23….).

Last week we started reading our first chapter book- none other than A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh!

How appropriate, seeing how as a child my Memaw video taped every. single. episode. of Winnie the pooh (the new adventures mind you, not these ridiculous computerized versions… And long before Tigger or piglet had their own movies! I had the real deal, let me tell you).

Lexie loves to read, and she absolutely loves to pretend to read serious, big word books. Her little (formerly my own) Precious Moments Bible is so worn, because she brings it to me and says, “what’s this say?” Then I will read it to her, and she goes off and “reads” it to her dolls or the engines. (Yes, the engines are part of our family now …)

Her devotional is literally falling apart. The cover is falling off, the pages are creased and crinkled. She has most of the pages memorized up to this date. It is by far her favorite book in the house.

We’ve had it since CHRISTMAS! It is 5 months old.

You must appreciate her passion for God and reading though…

So anyway, I thought with all these things combined, she would enjoy a chapter book read aloud.

Wow. To say the least.

I have to distract her ~~bribe her~~ so I can stop reading, or we would have the book read in a day. She likes to take the book and pretend she is reading it. What she recites is a mixture of Winnie the Pooh, meets The Little Red Hen, meets the Bible… Quite eclectic, and entertaining.

Lexie has started coloring inside the lines! I know coloring books aren’t developmentally appropriate and hinder creativity. I know. I know.

But she refused to draw! She is my little perfectionist, type A, right brained baby, and drawing pictures is not her thing. Two weeks ago she would shove a blank piece of paper across the table, crying and panicking, refusing to color! “No mommeeeeeee! You show me, you do it! Essie doesn’t know how!”

But give her a coloring sheet and she will color in the lines, draw pictures on top of it, make numbers and letters all over it … So maybe she has a blank paper phobia? (No, that’s not funny because it is a huge possibility.) But I understand her thought process; she doesn’t know how to draw a picture like she sees in books, and therefore doesn’t want to do it. Obviously I want to teacher her to do things out of her comfort zone, or things she doesn’t think she can do really well. Slowly she has started coloring on some blank spots on her papers, so I am going to try blank paper again and see what happens.

Last week we played outside a lot, so I don’t have many pictures of learning activities… But we did manage to squeeze in a little bit of intentional inside learning fun.

We used playdoh to create letters. Then we talked about the letter sounds, and different words that had that beginning and ending sound. It was fun and she loved it. We also cut out shapes with cookie cutters, and worked on her fine motor skills. She had a lot of fun!

We decided Max needed some “playdoh,” but since he obviously puts everything in his mouth, we had to be creative. Another mama online told me about shaving cream in a baggie. I had a really hard time keeping the bag taped to his tray; and eventually he chewed a hole in it… but he had a lot of fun! I added some non toxic paint in the baggie and let him squish it all around.

That has pretty much been our week. We haven’t done any Before Five in a Row in a week or two. I have ordered a printer and am waiting on it so we can do our lapbook/memory book activities to go with the books. Today she found and picked up The Big Green Pocket Book off the shelf downstairs, so we read it. Five times. In a row. Needless to say, that will be the next book we row! haha

What have you been doing with your children this week?

34-36 Weeks Baby Summary

by Meghan // May 10, 2013 // Comments off

*I have been building this post all week, so “today” isn’t actually today ….*

Max has grown by leaps and bounds in the last 5 days! He suddenly went for a bitty baby to a big boy! He is almost crawling (edit: AAAAh! He crawled 2 knees worth today!), waving hi, giving wide, slobbery, open mouthed kisses, and laughing more than ever. Tonight for bedtime was the first time he put his head on my shoulder and his arms around me while we sang for night night. I usually hold him like a baby while he sucks his thumb and winds down. He’s such a sweet bear. Today, he also went from the crawling position to sitting position for the first time.

…. see, lots of firsts!

He said Mama while we were playing downstairs, hiding out from the rain. I was so excited. He is trying really hard to talk. A lot. The past few days I have had the living room fan, he is mesmerized; and I know all babies love fans. But this boy like instantly smiles and is hypnotized by the fan! He likes to play games now, like throwing his head back so you will hold him upside down, and putting his chin up so you can tickle his neck. It’s so funny. These are all things Lexie was doing long before 8 months. But it’s like he just decided, “Hey, I think I’m ready to move and have fun!” Before, he was so lazy and laid back. He is still laid back, just enjoys moving around now.

He gets so excited and is so proud that he can get up and rock on his knees, push up on his toes, and crawl backwards sometimes. He will be crawling more by the weekend, we are sure! Lexie gets very excited with him. She likes to show him how to do it.

He really enjoys playing in the grass. One of the great things about having a real lawn, is he can play and feel the grass without the fear of stickers.

I have him his first asparagus this week. He loved it! He also likes dill pickles (did I mention that last time?) and blueberries.

Lexie has been the sweetest most affectionate two year old ever this last two weeks. She is constantly telling me how much she loves me, hugging my neck tight, kissing me, playing and teasing, loving on her bubby even more, and just growing more kind and loving every day. Lexie has a tender heart; she doesn’t like for other people to be hurt or upset, but has had her share of not being so nice (like a typical two year old)… Pushing, chasing the dog, hitting Max … terrorizing the chickens comes to mind too.

But lately she has been so affectionate. Last night we were doing bedtime routine, and she just wrapped her arms around my neck, hugged me and said, “i love you more than this much!”

I’m sure my monster toddler will return soon, but until then i will take all these loves i can get! Her new favorite *obsessive* topics to talk about are the things that make God happy, and being grateful. It’s wonderful to see Christ in your child’s life, even before they completely understand the implications of their relationship with Him.

sweet Mister Bear

reading her Bible outside

talking to her buddy

I can do it, I can do it!

Heh

She is crazy about her umbrella!

Mmmm Blueberries!

Yes, I like them!

monkey girl

Mama, look where I can climb!

I’m doing it!

Did you see me?!?!

Mommy and Lexie

water play!

Musings and Ramblings: Unexpectedly Blessed

by Meghan // April 28, 2013 // Comments off

(originally written Thursday, April 26, 2013)

The days. They are so short, go by so quickly. Somehow Max is over halfway to his first birthday, and my baby bug is going to be 3 years old in 4 short months. What?! How did this happen?

I try to absorb each day; each blessed day I get to be with them, to play with them, clean up their messes, and help them reach new goals. Many days are calm, fun, and messy. Others are hectic, tear filled, and more than messy. That’s what it’s about though, right? I mean, whether you are home all day with your children or you work outside the home, life is all about the messy moments- whether they are controlled chaos or full blown out of control, whirlwinds.

It’s hard. I’ve never done something that was so challenging in my life. ~~except maybe learn how to drive a stick, at which I was never successful ..~~ There are days I need more control than I have, and others that I let go and just let it happen. Those days, I have learned, are the easiest. This morning J.Tom, Lexie, and I sat on the bed. I handed her milk and declared today a NO housework day. No laundry, no vacuuming, no house work day. I’ve cleaned up the crumbs, and picked up toys after we played with them. The rest of the time all my attention was with the kids. I say my attention was “with” them, not on them because though I was there watching and interacting I wasn’t hovering.

Sometimes I wonder if stay at home moms are misunderstood? Not that it matters, we all know why we are home with our babies, no matter the reason. But sometimes comments from others makes me wonder, what do they think we do all day? What kind of person do they think I am?! We don’t lay on the couch all day watching tv. It’s not so I can micro manage their lives and create a perfect specimen. On the contrary, for our family being home is about soaking in all the mistakes and character flaws, then turning them into lessons later. Not to mention just the time we absorb together, as a family, learning about the each other, Christ, the world. But you know, being a parent is somewhat about controlling what your children are exposed to, how they’re exposed to it, and at what age. If I am going to take full responsibility for my children, I think JTom and I probably need to take control of the paths we lead them down. I never wanted a family; my dream at 15 was to become a forensic pathologist and move to California where I would live in a house by myself, or with my best friend at the time, and live a lavish lifestyle. None of those things happened… my best friend went to medical school. I graduated highschool early, partied until I absolutely burned myself out, started college, met and totally unexpectedly fell in love with Jtom. And then everything else just happened. Nine years later we are married and have two children. Nine years of blessings and growing together.

Blessings abound all around our family; we have been talking more and more about those blessings to Lexie. When she is refusing to eat her favorite food, simply because she is being defiant not because she isn’t hungry, I explain that not every girl and boy get lunch every day. Or even food every day. The same goes for braiding her hair- not every girl has a mama to braid her hair, or give her a warm, clean bath. Those seem like silly examples, but she understands them. She’s 2.5 but she knows there is a world outside our four walls, and that some of that world isn’t as nice as hers. She will smile and say, “Jesus gave me a mommy and daddy and max and lunch!” *warm tingly feeling* (insert an edit: we went to the library this morning for story time. She told a mom there that “Jesus gave me a beautiful daddy.” The mom responded with, that’s right. Not every girl and boy have a daddy. You are so blessed.”)

Then there are moments when I feel completely overwhelmed, asking myself what am I doing?! How am I supposed to fit God, meals, play, learning, cleaning, and serving my husband- joyfully- all in 24 short hours? 7 of which need to be filled with sleep, so that I am able to serve my family. This morning I was in the pantry deciding which lunch bag to take on our picnic play date with J.Tom this afternoon. As a million plastic cups fell out of the lunch bag I’d chosen, I took a deep breath and looked around. I was standing in a pantry the size of a bathroom, filled to the brim with food for our family and craft supplies for Lexie. I’m not sure what we have done to deserve the blessings we have been given. We have a home big enough for the family we hope to continue growing. It’s warm in the winter and (hopefully) cool in the summer. You can’t feel the cold air blowing from the cracks in the doors and windows. The floors are safe and comfortable for the babies to play on. We have clean, running water, toilets that work (hallelujah!), and silent pipes! (meaning no clanging and banging in the walls that wakes up sleeping babes! We can flush the toilet after 7pm woo hoo)

Our old home wasn’t bad, it was a blessing as well; just a blessing that needed many hours and dollars worth of fixing up. We now live in a neighborhood with other young families. Our home is one street from the disc hockey park and community pool (which is more like a mini water park) so there are many places to run and play during these beautiful warm days. The people in Nebraska- beyond kind. I’ve not met one rude person, everyone waves and stops to talk. Blessings. They seem simple, but at the end of the day that went all too quickly, when my clothes are stained with spit up, and my hair is falling out of it’s messy pony tail, this is what it’s about. It’s not about excess. It isn’t about more than we need (though we do have more than we need in many ways). It isn’t about which group of friends you are a part of, or how many vacations you go on a year. It’s about how we spend our days, day in and day out, with each other. It’s about our kind words, soft smiles, and oh. em. gee. the hugs and kisses. It’s about Max finally learning to fall onto his booty from standing up or almost saying “mama,” but it comes out “na-na.” It’s about Lexie learning to write an M on her paper, reciting Bible stories to her brother, and showing him the “Moses’s river” she made at the park.

Today, like I mentioned, we met JTom at the park for lunch. He ate with us, played with Lexie and then headed back to work. We hung around for an hour longer; Lexie played with a little girl. Her mama was with her, and being followed by a court appointed supervisor. The supervisor was wearing a badge, and mama wasn’t wearing much of anything. Much to my first impression-ed surprise, she was amazing with the kids. She was down in the sand, building a mote and castle with them (which encouraged me to do the same). She had Lexie and her daughter sharing toys, helping each other. I probably seemed like a terrible mom, because I just sorta sat back in awe. This woman, in her skinny jeans and barely there top that matched her platinum blonde hair, seemed educated, funny, and in general like a good mom (not that any of those things would make her a bad mom-don’t misunderstand me. I was thrown off mostly by the supervisor needing to be there). She invited us to play with them and their chalk, she made pictures with the girls, and even started acting out Lexie’s favorite story on the playground bridge- The Three Billy Goats Gruff… I’m not sure where her life has been or where it is going, but today from 12:00-12:45pm I am pretty sure it was meant to cross paths with ours. On a day when Lexie and I were both feeling a little lonely, wanting a friend to play with at the park (Dayla and Ryker- we miss you!), she and her girl were a blessing. Looking back, I am not sure I had quite the same impact on her as she did on me. But I do pray that whatever her situation is, she can find more joy in park play dates with Kera, than she does in whatever got her supervised visitations.

We have had a beautiful, fun day today. I cannot wait to see what other blessings are in store for our family in the days to come. The great thing about blessings, you can’t just sit back and wait for them; you have to put yourself out there, serve others, and get uncomfortable sometimes. This introvert has learned a lot about that in the last 2.5 years. (I know this post was rambly. I warned you in the title!)