Ethan's Natural Talent

Well, this is a new one on me! Ethan wanted a needle and thread to "finger sew" his monkey that was torn. I humored him, I knew that my Mom had taught them a little sewing when they were at her house for a week last year, but I didn't know if he really learned much or just tried really hard. Wow, he can sew! I am amazed! His "finger sewing" is excellent! He fixed his monkey and then went on to fix his snake, who was badly in need of repair. I am so proud of him! My Mom couldn't believe he remembered how. This apparently is a natural talent of his.

Teach them when they are young...

Rob has his quiet time in the morning, usually before any of us are up in the morning, every once in awhile when he sleeps in, Zach will see him sitting in his chair having his quiet time. On this morning Zach just happened to be up early and Rob decided to have his quiet time at the table, while Zach ate his breakfast. As soon as he finished his breakfast he went down to our room and found another bible and brought it up to the table to have a "quiet time" too. It was the most precious thing to walk in and see them reading God's Word. Since that morning, Zach has been getting that bible out and "reading" it almost every day! He sit down and gently turns pages slowly, studying each one! I think it is definitely true, even for a two year old, teach them when they are young...

Grace's First Day of Home School

Let's just say, not how I imagined it to go! It went something like this...

..."I don't want to get up"...
(grunts and groans)
Prayer
Pledge of Allegiance
Time for Bible class
..."Workbooks are stupid!"...
(tapping a pencil)
..."I'm not smart enough to do this work!"...
(crying)
..."This is going to take FOREVER!"...
(more crying)
..."Can't I just get held back a grade"...
(a lot more crying)
..."FINE!"...
(5 minutes later)
..."Done Mommy."

Can I just say that between my pregnant hormones and her nine year old hormones, the morning did not go well! I am going to sleep tonight praying for a better second day!

I have, through a lot of prayer and thought- both head and heart, decided to put everything else aside (MOPS & bible study) and focus on getting this home school thing down. I am going to find an evening bible study/support group that will not take away from school time. This job, I'm learning, maybe just beginning to grasp, is very important. More than even before I am having a huge impact on the way these little adults turn out, I don't want to mess it up!

It has become even more apparent how important prayer and personal bible study is EVERY DAY to being prepared for this job I have. I'm nervous, excited, scared and challenged by what is in front of me and if I knew the extent maybe I would be terrified. For now, everyday, every step, in the Lord's hands and I can do it!

The other subjects went a little better, but I hope I will see daily improvement, okay, weekly? I'm staying positive-daily! Together, we'll all get this thing down, I just have to give it time!
A great feeling is that I have never been so sure that I am doing the right thing for my children as I am right now. This will be great-for all of us!

For the Birds!

Home schooling is going well, Ethan is over the "honeymoon" phase of it and realizes that it is school. We are studying birds and we painted a bird feeder, this is the highlight of most days now-watching the birds. The first day, when we hung it up Ethan stood by the window, for the longest I've ever seen him stand in one place, waiting for a bird to come! He insisted that they would find it while he waited, I persuaded him away from his perch to finish his school work and the next morning, there was a surprise for Ethan, a big Cardinal sitting at his feeder. Ever since, our feeder has been quite the "hot spot" for the neighborhood birds, and we are loving the view!

MOPS Serving

Our fantastic craft coordinator at MOPS has done it again, a really great project, but I could not leave at that, I came home and kept going. I am pleased with the final outcome now, so here's the big reveal! What was once an unfinished wooden tray is now a stained, wallpapered, and hand-painted, well, tray! There are a few things that always catch my attention, they are leopard print, cherries, Eiffel towers, and monogrammed stuff (even cheap crap looks expensive when you monogram it!)! So, I was drawn to the wallpaper that looked like it had little cherries on it, and it "became".
Ethan wanted to know what it was for, so I told him what we learned about serving others, and he asked if the tray was for us to use, when I told him yes, he said,
"Good, cause I'm gonna be sick tomorrow, my throat is gonna be sore (pause) and my scab is gonna fall off, (pause) and I will have a fever (pause) and a stuffy nose!"
"Sounds bad!", I said.
"Yeah, so you can bring me breakfast in bed then!", he said with a grin!
When I was getting out my paints, I saw this little plaque that I got at the Dollar Store and I had primed it but never painted anything on it. So it "became" too! I saw the idea in a magazine and thought, I am not about to pay 20 whatever dollars for that, I can make it! So, I did! I even put some cherries on it, which is the theme I have going in my laundry room, it is actually leopard and cherries, I know that sounds a little strange, but I LOVE it, and it really works. It goes really good with the clock I painted cherries on.Ethan needed to paint too, so he gave his log cabin (out of craft sticks) a paint job too, we just happily painted the afternoon away while Zach snoozed. We really had fun, Ethan got to use the paints that he drools over every time I get them out, I got to let the creative juices flow, all was right in our world!

Teaching God's Love

I have been trying my best to be very sensitive to God's voice in my life, and I believe I heard Him loud and clear the other day, and at the risk of weird looks and possible embarrassment, I did exactly what He said.
I am teaching Ethan about God's love and showing kindness to others by using a gift to show the worth of a person. Tuesday morning it was a whopping 17 degrees out by 8 am and we were running AHEAD of time, that doesn't happen very often. None the less, we were, after dropping Grace at school we drove by a bus stop where there were several people, freezing, waiting on the bus, that's when I heard Him, I stopped at the gas station on the corner and bought four cappuccinos, and then told Ethan, we were going to find four people waiting for the bus or walking down the street and give each of them one of these hot drinks. Ethan thought this was crazy and asked why, of course, and then I got to explain how God's us and how we can show God's love to others by being kind and giving them a gift and today our gift was something to warm them up. Then of course, how would we give it to them, what would we say and so on.
The first person we saw walking down the street was a guy in his early twenties and I park in the parking lot next to him and ask him if I could give him something, I left the truck door open so that Ethan could hear what I said, I told him that my son and I wanted to help warm him up a little and tell him that God loves him. Of course I got the standard, "Are you nuts?" look, but he accepted and Ethan was thrilled!
Off to find our next recipient, a woman in her mid thirties, waiting for a bus, she was surprised, and accepted with a smile, Ethan was so happy and by now was bouncing up and down in the backseat anxious to find someone else in the cold!
Around the corner, we did! A young guy maybe 18, we stopped and told him what we were doing and wanted him to know that God loves him. Such a big smile came across his face, and he watched us drive off, waving to Ethan as we went, we turned the corner again and he was still smiling, Ethan was so happy and told me that "God's love really made that guy happy, did you see his smile, Mommy?" Seriously, tears in my eyes, "yes, I saw, isn't that great how we can show God's love", I felt great success in this lesson I was trying to teach my son.
Off to find the fourth person, we say an gentleman in very worn clothes, in an old jacket walking, he was actually the first person we saw on that street walking, I stopped the car and got out to talk to him, but he was not receptive, and picked up his pace and kept walking. When I got in the car Ethan has questions, I was expecting them. I tried to explain the best I could why someone would not want a gift that was free, which also tied in nicely to talking about Jesus' free gift for us!
The last person we found was a woman who did not seem to speak very good English, she was probably more than 50 and was Asian, at best guess. She greeted me with a smile, and I explained the best I could, but I'm not sure that she understood more than, "God loves you", which was all we wanted really wanted her to know. Our mission was completed, Ethan was very pleased and I felt that I had taught him this lesson to the best of my ability.

Thank you, God for such a wonderful idea and for your perfect plan for our Tuesday morning, what a blessing to share with my son!

Cookies and Clocks

Our home schooling is going well, first week, I was so happy with, second week, was more like I thought the first week would be, but we still did well. Ethan insists that we don't "do school", we "just play". Which I laugh at and I am perfectly okay with him believing that, I am using all his interests to teach him, and we are learning with his learning style in mind, so it really seems to be working well.
Ethan is in so many ways, your average boy, and in other ways, well, he just blows my mind! Take cookies for example, we baked, he loved it, he is very precise and careful to do a good job (If I could get his penmanship going that way-we'd be gold!). Reaping the benefits of course, were these oh-so-good cookies that he was very proud of and were enjoyed by our family over the next few days. Taking pride in his work, check, accomplished!We also made a clock this week, and we are working on learning to tell time. This is a bit more of a struggle, but having something he made, that he can use seems to work well for incentive. I have plans to make a wooden one with a working clock face later this year with him.
My favorite part I think is hearing my son recite scripture, and not just a simple verse, but one with some "meat" to it, what an awesome thing to hear from his lips!
I love having Ethan home, Zach took a bit to adjust sharing Mommy, but he likes it now too. I think we're going to just fine, Whew!

Report Card

I am going to shout it out! Grace got straight A's!!!! We are so proud of her! Yeah Grace!

Miniature House

Keith had a project at school, he had to build a structure, to scale. Yes, I was very excited! We had a great time putting it together. Real bonding, you know. Anyway, if this doesn't get him an A, well, I will have to talk to that teacher! He does good work! It has wood flooring in the Kitchen/Dining room, wallpaper throughout, trim around doors and windows and baseboards that we made from craft sticks and craft paper. I was kind of surprised that Keith enjoyed it so much, he wanted to do more on it, like a flat screen on the wall and a little toilet (things important to him!), but we really didn't have the time. It did take us nine hours to put together. All fun though! I think Keith's favorite part was the landscaping actually, he was very particular. It looks great, you can tell he thought about it.

Memory Verse

I am choosing a memory verse every week for us to memorize, I am surprised at how hard it is to choose one each week, there are so many I would love have the kids memorize, but, one at a time I guess!

This unit our character quality that we are studying is Alertness, so the verse God has given me is

Matthew 26:41

Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.

This concept of knowing what is right and still making the wrong choice is such a struggle for a curious five year old boy, who am I kidding, it's a struggle for all of us!

Home School

Many may know that I was home schooled from the third grade on, but maybe you didn't know that. As a Mom now, I know why my parents chose this for me and my siblings, there are such amazing experiences and values we gained from that time in our lives, knowledge that I draw on, on a daily basis, and not just scholastically. I have voiced my frustration of the public school system and my disapproval of many of the influences there, so now, I am going to do something about it! All the kids have had their struggles in one area or another and I am determined to learn to teach them each in their own learning style and instill the values and principles important to living a godly life.
We got ourselves registered with the state and Ethan is the first one to stay at home. We began yesterday, and I have to say, it went very well, he is very excited. Grace is anxious to start, and Keith is skeptical. I am going to use a unit study approach and see how that works for us, this first unit study is Little House on the Prairie, we are reading the book by Laura Ingalls Wilder, of course, but we are also going to study one room school houses, log cabins, and other aspects of that time in our Kansas History. Our animal that we are studying is the Wood Plains Bison, and wouldn't you know there is an entire herd living nearby that we are going to go see even!
We have chosen to use the year-round schedule for education, it just seems to offer more flexibility and I think it will just fit into our lives a little better, plus there isn't the time of review necessary after the long summer break.
Talk about your adventures, this may be the biggest one yet, time for school!