I was painting out my canvases. I like to use oils. I set my brushes to clean out on the front step overnight, making sure to remind myself to move it in the morning, so as to not have little hands interact with said brushes. I forgot! I know you are completely shocked.

You will be proud of me. I took a picture. He came in with a brush in hand saying, “Look Mommy, I paint just like you.” I knew what I was going to find before I even walked over. So I kilzed it and painted it out.

My evaluation went splendidly. I was happy about that. For some reason my son read better for her, on and on an on then he ever has for me? He is a turkey. I did something new for me too, but I will tell you more about that tomorrow.

Peace to all~

Well, We did get the garage cleaned out. Well, about 97%. The remaining 3% are the three boxes I need to sort through before I bring the stuff back in the house. They are sitting in the center of the garage so I can not park the car in the garage until I get it done. So maybe this week it will happen!

We did get our family pics rehung after Peru and added a few new ones. I found some frames for a great price at goodwill so I am adding all the fun family pics that you are supposed to have around the house. I also am painting out my re purposed recycled canvas frames.

For my birthday, my father in law painted me a Peru door picture that we have a photo of. I am happy to have a piece of his art in our home. This is it!

Today, we go for our home school evaluation. My portfolio is together and looking oh so organized. It actually looks like I know what I am doing. Pray for me.  I will keep you posted.

Peace to all today~

We started our week enjoying a lovely little lagoon by our home with close family friends. It feels a bit more like a lake except for the gentle current. It is actually a tidal creek, so lots of natural marine life can be found there. We even saw a Manatee swim through. A large sand bar in the center, mangroves surrounding the exterior, it is a little slice of paradise. Think “Gilligan’s Island” with bathrooms.

I work very hard to have school work completed by lunch time so that we can go and enjoy all the beautiful things we have around here. Outside time is so important for all of our sanity:-)

All three of our children are roughly 18 months apart. They do almost everything together and are becoming close friends. It is fun to see and at times, Mike and I refer to them as the “three amigos” or “the brat pack”. Make no mistake. There is a reason we call her “scrapper”!

Book ended by two boys, she has to be tough to survive! I shudder to think of the things these three will think up to do together. It doesn’t help that our daughter has no fear. We are training the boys now to protect her and take care of those who are smaller and weaker then they are, hoping and praying that it will run through their minds at different points in their lives.

It was a beautiful, sandy, wet and breezy time. Great memories! Wish you all could of been there!

Peace to all beach rats today!

Do you teach print or cursive first? Internationally, typically cursive is taught first. Some progressive public schools in the states are teaching cursive right out of the gate in kindergarten. I’ve read different studies about it and didn’t really have a strong conviction about it, one way or the other, until this morning.

Jackson learned print in his Montessori preschool before he came home for home school. They actually preferred the idea of teaching cursive first, but went with print because so many kids left them and went to public school. They needed to make sure kids where doing what was normal here. They mentioned how it was easier for most children to learn cursive first. I never really thought of it, but think of it. All the starting and stopping. Picking up their pencil every stroke. Especially for a boy who doesn’t like to sit still in the first place. It must be very frustrating.

I must say, He has hated writing this whole time. His concentration and fine motor skills have really developed this year, and he was able to write “pretty” print writing but he was constantly frustrated, with b’s and d’s and reversing letters here and there. For about 6 months he has been asking to write cursive. I have held him off, because in my mind, I wanted him to have mastered printing before we tackled a new skill.

A few weeks ago, I lamented a sheet that had all of the letters on it both print and cursive. I would put it on the table as he was writing for him to reference hoping that it would help him with the letter reversal and alleviate some of his frustration. So the other day, I gave him his copy work and asked him to put his name and date at the top before he began like always. When I came back, he had done it in cursive, all by himself.

Today, I actually said “OK Bud, today you get to write in cursive.” He did all of his copy work (several lines) in cursive with very little help from me. When he was done he said, “Mom cursive is so much easier! I can do it faster and it looks better. They all have a little hook that tells me which way the letter is supposed to be facing so I don’t write any letters backwards.” Not to mention he felt like learning cursive was a signal that he was no longer doing “baby” work but beginning to do big kid work.

In hind site, I think I should of started him with cursive earlier. The reality is, he will be moving to typing in a few years, and do much of his writing work, via the keyboard. Is it that important to have gorgeous penmanship? I mean (no offensive honey) my husband’s handwriting is horrible and he is 35. Moving him to something that is less frustrating and gives him success and confidence, in my mind is MORE important than doing print work because that is what everyone else does.

What do you think. Should we start with cursive first?

Jackson~ 6.5 years old

“Mom, why do they have a k in front of knife? It doesn’t make any sense! It looks like it should say ka-niffy. I am just going to erase that k so it makes more sense.”

Me “Jackson we can’t erase the k. The word is knife and it is spelled with silent k in the front.”

Jackson “Why did they do that Mom?”

Me “That is a good question son. I really don’t know.”

Do any of you know? Is it a Latin root or something left over from old English? While I am waiting for your pithy responses I will go Google it and see if I can figure it out on my own.

Peace to all confused spellers today~

The house is open, the wind is blowing, the kids are catching bugs and blowing bubbles, I am listening to KT Tunstall, cleaning the kitchen and thinking about things like….

• follow through - without it the best laid plans are impotent.

• the horribly disrespectful action of multitasking…..I do this too much!

• the power of recording your story/journey through various mediums. Leaving tracks is a good thing for me.

• how recording your family life with images, helps you remember when your memory fails…..I have to do my family photo albums, not so much for me and Mike but for the kids. I want them to remember their life too, how they were loved, and what we did and how they were formed. Can you say nostalgic, I am not sure if this is good or bad.

• frustrated that I can’t find our wedding pictures “lost” in the mess of our garage (I HAVE TO CLEAN THAT OUT!) I just can’t do it by myself so I am waiting for help from my better half. Our 13th anniversary is on our doorstep and I like to look through the album and remember the night I married my prince charming.

I thought I would record some thoughts, and then flesh them out later. What are you thinking about today?

Peace to all chick rockers today!

This year, our homeschooling has primarily focused on our oldest with our middle child doing small bits of work but nothing required and our youngest just learning to sit and focus on a small task for a bit of time. He is my ALL boy so he needs lots of outside time and loves any type of water work and trucks. Lots and lots of trucks.

Last night when they were getting ready for bed, I sang them the ABC song as they swished their fluoride and for some reason, this was the time he wanted to know all about the ABC’s. He went to bed singing the song and it stayed with him until morning. He brought me the sandpaper letters and asked to learn his ABC’s. So we sat down and had a little phonics lesson with our little 3 year old. The older two were pleased as punch to listen to him doing “big kid” work and he was rather pleased with himself as well. He is sure to remind me daily he IS NOT a baby anymore. I have to remind Jackson to stop correcting him or giggling at him, and Chloe to stop helping him and just LET HIM BE! Oh the poor third child has so many Mommies.

I am also experimenting with starting Jackson on a work plan idea, so that I can sit and work with the younger two. The idea being, I give Jackson his list of things to be done for the day, and he begins working on the things, that he can do without my total aid and support, giving me time to work on other things with the younger two that he already has mastered. Today I saw a little glimpse of that working out. I walked around today like I was the most organized innovative teacher around. You’d of thought I won the Noble peace prize or something.

Give me the props peeps!

So, as you can tell, I ‘ve been

• playing with our camera (The header is an original shot.)
• playing with paint shop pro (free test version to see if I like it. YES I LIKE IT!)
• playing with new skin ideas
• because of playing with the skins, learning basic coding CRAZINESS (which makes my eyes hurt) .

and now that this is up, I realize the sidebar is WHACKED! So now, I am going to practice the art of walking away, and returning later, with a fresh attitude and desire to conquer a new skill and now I will go play in the pool with the kids!

Peace to all wanna be web designers today!

I am becoming like my Dad!

There are 3 things we heard as kids growing up more than once from my dear Dad.

• I wish the house had a floor drain, so we can hose the house out after you kids eat.
• Just give me a yard of cement and paint it green. Yard work is the pits.
• Humans are not meant to live with animals. They need to stay outside.

I have on more than one occasion said each of these things to our children. Heck, we bought a townhouse so we didn’t have to keep up with a big yard. (That and we couldn’t afford a house here.) Weekends are for playing NOT doing housework or yard work. I do wish I had a floor drain or maybe lived on a house boat. Spills and crumbs would just be hosed right out and now, our daughter asks daily, several times a day for a dog and a cat. She even tries to pet our Beta fish, and all I keep thinking is “Humans are not meant to live with animals. They need to stay outside.” That and, I surely don’t want to add that into the work mix, at least not right now.

I will go take her over to our neighbors to walk their dog and see if that pacifies her a bit. Better yet, maybe I should send her over to Grandpas, because even though I never got it when I was a kid, Lord knows, he would run her down to the first pet shop around and buy her the first puppy she saw.

Anyone else out there, ending up to be just like their parents?

It’s time for quiet time kids. Up to your rooms. I’d give her a 10 for being quiet, because I swear I never heard her!

Another 10 for creativity. Panties on her head and her brothers PJ bottoms on make the most creative and ingenious super hero outfit.

10 for athletic prowess. Leaping buildings and in this case bunk beds in a single bound is a prerequisite for any super hero. Not to mention the extreme strength to get the mattress off the bottom bunk. She must of enlisted her brother’s help. (Hey at least it wasn’t off the top bunk.)

So for overall task completion she scores a 10. Go to your room and entertain yourself quietly for one hour and Mommy will get you when the time is up. Like I said 10, 10, 10.  Remind me to tell you of the time I climbed up on our families roof when I was 4, oh yeah and brought all my friends with me.  Good Times People!

(I only knew to grab the camera when I saw her sneak from her room in her “outfit” to use the restroom. All I could think was, I better grab the camera quick because this one is gonna be good.)

Yeap that is what the salesman said when he sold us our , then new, microfiber, brown suede sectional coach. That was 4 years ago, and it looks almost brand new, well kind of. OK let’s be serious, we have three little kids running around, nothing is brand new in our home.

Our previous coach we had moved from Gainesville, had been slip covered, reupholstered and finally left out for the trash. I wouldn’t dare give it to goodwill. So when we went searching for a new coach, the one requirement was it must be kid proof. This couch, like many of our possessions, is a pure workhorse. Don’t even get me started with our minivan and dining room table. I must be a horrible mother that I can not contain the mess, nor discipline, train, beg and plead the young members of our clan to stop being so messy. Oh well, it is what it is.

Dark trendy brown, not because that color is a hot color now, but because it hides the many stains

.

This microfiber can almost be hosed off, which in our case is a very good thing. A scrub brush, a bucket of soapy water and Folex cure all evils on this bad boy! (Trust me cats - BUY THE FOLEX! - it is worth every penny for so many reasons!) The cushions become a sailboat for hearty travelers many times a week much to our chagrin.

We store many, many, many little toys amongst its comfy cushions and underneath its carriage.

I have to vacuum it out often, because, even though we have a NO FOOD ON THE COUCH rule, there seams to be unending food product wedged between its cushions.

So, Lora asked me to join a group of moms who list some of their favorite things each week, and as I replaced the cushions once again, to this couch, I knew this was a definite favorite thing. Families with young kids shouldn’t decorate without it!

I got my new birthday present today, a Nikon D60. I had fun and here is the proof.

Chloe had her first ballet class today!

Jackson lost ANOTHER tooth!

Hudson was throwing up all morning and running wild all afternoon.

and the sunset was stunning.

Peace to all~

I was miserable the first 3 days of this fast and kept asking my husband to check something online for me. He kept responding with “I’m not your dealer!” ouch! loved the media fast. I stayed away from doing anything that resembled a “have to” like cleaning the garage got so much accomplished. I will go without phone, tv, cable, and a dishwasher and dryer but don’t take away my online access can’t wait to do one again!

Seriously, after I stopped pacing in circles, and relaxed, I found all sorts of wonderful things to do. I painted, and I sewed 3 new things for my mini-me. (”I’ll post pics later) Mike calls her “Mommies little dress up doll”. I listened to a series by Eugene Peterson from Regent called Jesus and Prayer. It was great. I highly recommend downloading some of their teaching series.

I also did something surprisingly healing for me. You may be shocked and horrified to know, I don’t have completed baby books or albums for our dear children. So I wanted to create a framed group of pictures of all of them from birth to now, one for every year to see their progress. I was SO THANKFUL that my dear, amazing husband documented all of the early years with photos and videos and has them neatly archived on our computer. I have just recently been able to go back through them all and enjoy them instead of being overwhelmed. It was so fun to see their growth and our families growth all in a very compressed 2 hour period. I got to relive the time without the pain, sleeplessness, vomiting etc. and remember the beauty and joy of it without needing to have it back again. Wow it is amazing how much older we look in the past 5 years. I had been freaking out dealing with the fact that our middle child turns 5 in a few months and I am sadly solidly out of the baby phase. After reviewing the pictures and family videos, I realized I was as present as I could be and enjoyed every minute to the best of my ability and hope to keep that in view as we move forward. Life is alwasy changing, I can’t hold on to any season, I just need to be present in every season so that I will live with no regrets.

More later!

This week, I will be doing a media fast.   This week is spring break for us, I celebrate my 34th birthday and I hope to finish cleaning up the garage.  I say hope because I hope it will happen, but I don’t really want to do anything about it. hmmmm, we will see how that goes. This is a time to slow down, listen to what is bubbling in me, pray, create.

The point is, to not be pushing away what is going on with you with outside stimulation.  I’ve done media fasts before off and on over the years and they always prove to be fruitful.  So, no emails, no blogs, no reading just waiting and listening.

So, here I go, I am shutting the computer off and hope to see you next Sunday night with all the new things God has brought up in me.

Peace to you and all you love!

Today we read King Lear. You may be surprised to know that we LOVE Shakespeare.

However, we decided to do it at the beach!

We had to mix up all that tragedy with a little levity. I scheduled my homeschool evaluation with an old family friend who helped pioneer the homeschool movement here for the end of April. She was also our wedding coordinator, so I am excited to get her take on what we are doing. The fact that she loves Susan Schaeffer Macaulley is a huge relief to me.

On our way to the beach, we passed an officer who had pulled a young kid over on his bike. They boy was on his cell phone and the cops were obviously checking to see why he was out of school. I felt like rolling down the window and yelling, “I’d skip school too with a day like today.”, but I didn’t, I acted like a grown up. Shocking I know but there are days I rise to the occasion:-)

Peace to all~

If you have worked through the book The Artist’s Way, you are familiar with morning pages. Simply put, the author recommends that every morning you hand write three pages of whatever is on your mind first thing in the morning and with consistency you will begin to sort through your process in a deep and meaningful way, and that it will actually work itself into a form of prayer. I knew this to be true before I even began them. Since I was 18 years old, and maybe even earlier I have journaled as a way to get outside of myself and really own what I am going through…make sense of it etc. This blog is actually an extension of that.

I have fairly consistently done these morning pages, and have enjoyed what I see God guiding me in and to with them. It is actually very interesting to see yourself being moved in a direction you have NEVER in your life considered before, but somehow, now that you see it, it feels like it has always been there. I know that is very cryptic but hey, this is my process, I will flesh it out when it is a bit more tangible. Right now, I feel like a pot of water just before it boils. You see the small bubbles on the bottom and you know things are really getting ready to cut loose.

This is an exercise the author recommended. Join along if you feel so inclined.

Buried Dreams an Exercise: as recovering creatives, we often have to excavate our own pasts for the shards of buried dreams and delights. Do a little digging, fast and frivolous. Be sure to write your answers quickly.

1. List 5 hobbies that sound fun.

• sewing
• painting/photography
• scuba diving
• horseback riding
• flying

2 List 5 classes that sound fun.

• conversational Spanish
• painting
• pottery
• piano again after almost 20 years
• photography

3. List 5 things you personally would never do but sound fun.

• going to culinary school
• performing in a play
• surfing
• I don’t understand this one. Even as I write them I think, I am not sure I would NEVER do these things?

4. List 5 skills that would be fun to have.

• speaking Spanish fluently
• being able to reno an old house personally
• cooking for fun and not for necessity
• growing a fabulous garden
• rolling my own sushi rolls

5. List 5 things you used to enjoy to do.

• horseback riding
• flying
• diving
• dancing swing with my husband
• gardening (when I had a yard)

6. List 5 silly things you would like to try once.

• For the life of my I can’t think of anything silly to do?
• Maybe I am way too serious and not silly enough?
• Maybe it is because I think silly isn’t respectable?
• Oh my goodness I am a silly snob. Do I let me kids be silly enough?
• Oh wait I thought of one - perform in a circus - maybe there is hope for me yet.

I have been thinking about this a bit as I roll into my 34th birthday and reminisce about all the people over the years who have made me who I am today. As you see on my tag line, building relationships is very important for Mike and I. There are a few ways we go about this delicate task of offering a bit of our lives to people and accepting the portion of their lives they offer to us. Never taking more than they give, always offering ourselves in return. Throwing parties, having people over for dinner, inviting people in. Even blogging is a way for us to let people into our story.

For Mike and I, this is how we connect with others. We ask them about their lives and they ask us about ours. From there, you can ether go really deep or stay surface and it really depends on those conversations where relationships go. Some go deep in a short amount of time, and others, take years and years, non the less, all of them are valuable.

Even those relationships that in the beginning seem draining to you….If you just wait long enough, and continue to be available and willing to walk with people, into their story to understand why they are the way they are, you end up with a magnificent gift. It is like a secret garden of flowers that all are beautiful in their own time. They all have different roles to play, you just have to wait around long enough for them to bloom.

We’ve learned over the years that less is more in regards to “calling people” out on “issues” in their lives. We believe the Holy Spirit is big enough and alive enough to guide and direct his people, and that at the right time, He will initiate a way to talk about whatever thing there is in a way that is helpful, meaningful and transformational. Let’s just say when I was younger, I did too much “calling out” in very well meaning ways but always ended in a relational train wreck and little helpfulness to show for it. I burnt my fingers on that stove one too many times.

So, for my fast approaching 34th year, I am committing to radically accepting people where they are at, loving them in the midst of sometimes painful process, not giving them answers to questions that should only be given by God and not one persons idea of what is right, and being open to “opening my mouth” only when prompted to by the Holy Spirit and quietly praying the rest of the time. I do this with no strings attached. I offer my friendship and loyalty with the full assumption that people will hurt me, (it is unfortunate that we do that to each other) and that in the process Jesus will teach me more about myself and who I was made to be.

So people, you have full permission to hold me to it this year!

Today I tried an experiment.

I spontaneously took the kids to an Art Gallery to see what piece of art they liked the most.

We all survived and so did the gallery.

I gave the children instructions on how to behave and that they should not run, or shout. The woman briefly scanned us as we entered.

Hudson liked a textured piece painted with a knife. He was desperate to touch this very expensive piece of art sitting right at his level. I practically had his hand in a vice grip to which he was non to pleased. Chloe liked the bright bold pieces, very modern, of flowers. Probably because it had hot pink and flowers in them. Honestly, it was my favorite piece too. And Jackson didn’t really have a favorite he liked them all, which to me, was code for, I am not very “in” to this Mom but I will humor you because I can see this is terribly important to you.

So, for the first time….we did OK. It was only about 8 minutes, but we did it and plan to do it again.

4:34

Chloe: “Mom, I want to take the training wheels off my bike.”

Me: “Well, honey the wrench is in the garage. ”

Chloe: “I know Mom, please I know I can do it.”

Me: “Well, the garage is such a mess, we may have to wait for Daddy to come home.” (I am stalling because I don’t want to do the running along side thing right now.)

Chloe: “Mom, I know where it is, PLEASE!”

Me: “Well, honey it isn’t like you are going to just get on and go like your brother does now. He had to practice to get that good. It is going to take some practice.” (I am still stalling)

Chloe: “I know that, I want to practice, right now.”

Me: “You really think you can do it?”

Chloe: “YES MOM I KNOW I CAN DO IT!”

Me: “OK - Let’s give it a try.” ( I finally get that there is no way we are not trying this, so I embrace it, and gear up mentally to do the run along side thing.)

4:45

The training wheels are off and we begin. After about three passes she has the balance thing, but we need to work on steering and breaking.

5:00 Daddy home, park the bike out front, eat dinner.

6:00 Family clean up time. I remind everyone that we need to put our outside toys away in the garage. She hops on the bike again and rides it around to the back alley where she sees another family with her friend, and then I felt it in her spirit. It was like “sea biscuit”. She said “Let go Mom I can do it!” and with all the force her little frame could exert, she was off. And not a casual pace, I mean I couldn’t even keep up running along side her, let alone stop her from falling. I gulped and said a quiet prayer and she rode away from me, like she had been riding her bike for years. (Wow that is a metaphor for parenting, isn’t it?)

6:15 All the other little girls in the neighborhood wanted their training wheels off too. (Way to lead by example Chloe!)

6:15 - 7:00 Riding, and Riding and Riding, steering and breaking are old hat.

Today we work on starting by herself and at 4 and three quarters our little Chloe is a dare devil on wheels!

Oh the days they are a flyin’ people! Next thing I know she will want the keys to the car!

True tagged me for a six word memoir. I must say it is hard to do, although I do believe Foster is right when he says an economy of words can be good for the soul so….

“Big changes are happening for us.”

I tag the following illustrious bloggers:

Elizabeth at MommyZabs

Jordan at Momma Blogga

Grace at Kingdom Grace

Amanda at Hidden Art

Kiva at Southern Girl Musings

Betsy at Lily’s Blog

Vicki at Simply Vicki