Homeschool Diva

Thanks Sarah for the idea this week.  Here it is a bit of whimsy.  Song to listen to while viewing.  Crank it up Peeps!

Show me your whimsy~  Have a great Friday~

Oh another fun installment of the funniest things kids say. One letter can make all the difference.

Today I took our 4 year old for a check up.  Afterward, we went to the grocery store.  As we moved along, we came to the cheese aisle.  Hudson picked up a round of cheese and asked what it was.  I said “Gouda” and Chloe said, “Mom that is what some people worship instead of Jesus?” with the most perplexed look on her face.

I said “No honey Gouda, not Buddha.”

And I tried not to laugh as we set it back down and put the eggs in the cart.

Really people this is the most fun ever!

Awwwww, nothing like some free balloons to get a kid to really be a kid.  Of course there are tons of adorable images on my flickr.

I am also switching some things up around here for a few reasons.  Firstly, I love the process that Blogging moves me through.  It has been a blessing over the years to see that my little meanderings have been helpful for a few.  But as helpful as my words have been, I am hoping that my lack of words will help as well, in a round about way.  Now I am going to practice a little virtual silence.  Relax, let me explain.

I will keep blogging regularly, but want to throw a “Wordless Wednesday” component in.  I will just post a pic of something I shot in the previous days or weeks that is NOT on my flickr.  I will not say a word.  I will let the image speak for itself.  Maybe it will be deep or whimsical, maybe I will just like it just because, I don’t know. Kind of mysterious isn’t it?  If you want, you can say a word, comment, laugh whatever, but I will practice the discipline of silence, at least in the post.  I still have not decided if I will respond to comments.  I am kind of thinking of Wednesday as fasting from words day, so I need to feel that out.  I am steadily working at weaving this space together into one seamless expression of who I am and where I am at, and being silent is one of those things.

Shocking I know, but silence is really a good thing. Maybe this will inspire you to carve out some time where you can just be silent and listen to the Father instead of always asking, asking, asking….moving, talking, fidgeting and filling your life and mind with noise, noise, noise that never lets you hear, hear, hear and be still, still still.  Ummm, sorry that was just for me. So I will see you tomorrow, silently!

Blessings~

catches the worm….Didn’t Benjamin Franklin say that?

Somehow, with all of the running, I have learned to enjoy waking early.  IF it is of my own volition, I enjoy it. When I am forcefully dragged from my bed against my will, I am grumpy nearly the whole day.  It is a character flaw I know.

This  year, I am beginning to think towards finishing a local mini triatholon.  I have started running alongside the kids as they ride their bikes and instead of sitting on the side of the pool while they splash and play, I decided I would swim a few laps.  Throw in some intentional bike riding in and there you have it….triathlon training.

It is a great way for all of us to get out and enjoy the great weather, and for me to be with them while I am getting my run in and they are getting some exercise.  Serious multitasking for sure, but it is working for us.  I am having so much fun now that all of our children are at the stage that we all can get up and go together.  Hang on all you Moms with those still crawling at you feet.  It 0.2 seconds they will be riding their bike right next to you. I realized the other day that  swimming, running and biking is what makes up 90% of a child’s life so maybe me training for this is in a way helping me be like a little kid again, getting to play.

Heaven knows that grown ups need to play a bit more and stress a lot less!  So that is my prayer this week, that I will play every chance I get, enjoy the kids right where they are at, and let God handle all the rest.

Join me wont you?

So, I almost forgot that it is Friday.   Our lives have been moving at lightening fast speed these last few weeks.  I haven’t even taken any images just for fun in about a week.  YO! that is not like me, and my flickr is having withdrawals.  I am going to go out this afternoon with my camera just for principles sake for Pete sake, ohh or maybe afternoon tablescapes at my dining room table.  Oh well, we will see, check the flickr later and see what I came up with.

Here is one from my archives.  Selfies are fun.  I shot this one while our dear kids were splashing away at the pool and if you don’t know this about me yet, I am addicted to modern black and white images. One day I will do a 365 experiment of selfies.  Basically one a day.  But right now, I can’t add one more thing to my plate. I am too busy planning a worship night with some friends and painting like CRAZY!  So show me your selfie, and let me see a little glimpse of you.

It is funny how life takes you full circle.  I am enjoying so many new things lately that are really old things for me, just reborn in a new way.   Speaking of old as new, I have to run, the kids and I have recently found the retro channel and are watching Leave it to Beaver.  (Ha I left a link in case some oh you have no idea what in the heck this show is) It is still just as silly for my kids as it was for me as a kid and I think my parents when they were kids.  Every well adjusted American child needs to have an understanding of slow paced, black and white classics mixed in with all this high-def, high tech madness.  Keeps em grounded.

Latah peeps~

I am beginning to work my children into “work plans”.  They wear a watch and I list for them the things we need to accomplish in a day.  Chores, school work etc.  Then I tell them, you need to have x and y done by such and such time. They love it and so do I.  The younger two are still a bit lost, but my oldest is tracking right along.

It is a marvelous method of making them responsible for their life and their work.  In time, I hope to be organized enough to have a book that I hand them, kind of like a day planner that has their “plans” for the day, and then they work through it and bring it to me to sign off on.  In my artistic imaginations, it would almost be  a small art book that I make for them, that they can explore throughout the year with notes of love and inspiration from me, pictures, etc.  I guess I can start to work on that in my free time;-)

A goal for next year. Peace to all managing their time well today.

 and the pool is heated!

I think one of the hardest things for young Moms to reconcile, is the passing of their old life and the demands of their new Mommy life.   Little break, little sleep, lots of thankless unseen work. I remember thinking “What in the heck have I gotten myself into?” when I had a 2 year old, a 9 month old and was pregnant again, throwing up constantly.

I did a ton before I had kids, and then I had our children one right after the other, with little rest in between. We planned it that way for various reasons.  I love our children, I LOVE being with them and homeschooling them. But, I will be honest in saying that I have often wondered if my pre-Mommy life and my amazing post Mommy life would ever synthesize or would one give way to the other.

Then an amazing thing happened about a year ago.  I started to breath again because our youngest was then 3 and the infancy/pregnancy years were subsiding.   Now we all move along splendidly.  Like today, I took the boys on their bikes with me to the beach, I ran and they road along side for 3.5 miles like we had done it our whole lives. I am here to say to all you younger Moms out there, your old life will come back in time but better and more robust.  Actually right on time, if you are open to letting it.  Don’t make your children an idol in your life.  Love them, nurture them, care for them, learn for them, don’t get your identity from them, or from being a Mom. You know why?  Because one day they will toddle right on off and your role will be shifting and morphing and if you haven’t sewn into yourself along the way, you will be in bad shape.

One of the things that is re-emerging in our family life is music above and beyond just kids music.  But a 4 piece team, with 3 part harmonies and thick rhythms, working out transitions type of music that was so much a part of Mike and I pre South Florida.  It is so strange, because about 6 months ago, I was talking to a long distance friend about music/worship and saying how fun it was to play in that way I just described, and how that wasn’t a part of our life anymore.  And as I said that, deep in my spirit I heard God whisper, “I am going to give that to you again.”  I kind of laughed and thought “whatever?”.  And now 6 months later, Mike and I turned around, and here it is, in our living room, just growing up, right in step as if it has always been there, without us going out and looking for it.

Kind of like a flower blooming right in our own little garden.  I have often felt strange here, like the real me hasn’t yet come out.  That so many of my friends here, don’t really know me. Isn’t that strange?  So much of us went into hibernation upon moving and birthing our three marvelous offspring.   The new improved synthesized us, is waking up and saying hello.  It is kind of like hugging long lost friends that you have not seen in a few years, but can just pick right back up with as if no time has passed. I remember talking to a friend who had raised his children when we were just starting down that road, saying how lonely it was, and he said, It won’t always be like that, it moves quick.  He was right.

Grace and Peace to all those reconnecting and praying that reconnection will one day happen~

The other night I went out with a friend for coffee, and the light glancing off of her shiny nails just caught my eye.  Finding something pretty in the smallest of details.

We had fun doing some low light work downtown.  It is always good to practice in challenging situations.  I am hoping to upload the rest of the images from that night on my flikcr.  The day is just flying away…but I hope to get it up there soon.

What tiny little thing have you found beauty in lately?

Peace to all~

Yesterday we spent the entire drizzly afternoon at the beach.  The wind was blowing, the tide was low and we were able to go out and observe a reef that was partially exposed just a few yards off the beach.

We had fun looking at all the life that grows on a coral reef. Snails, barnacles, sea fronds and other fun discoveries. Did you know that live coral feels funny on your feet? Not at all like mountain rocks.  Kind of crinkly and squishy. We hunted for driftwood and seed pods, we dug holes, built castles, and strung necklaces out of shells and sea grass.  We even ended our time with a treasure hunt.  The hunt started with the children having to work as a team to find several natural items and building activities to do together.

Today we go about the task of drawing what we encountered on the reef yesterday. It will be fun to see what we can remember.  All of this goes along nicely with our Pagoo reading. Flickr has pictures from our day.

Its going to be a great day.

So, right now, I want you to pretend that I am a girl scout selling cookies and you want to support me even though you don’t really want any cookies right now, it is for a good cause in all.  I talked months ago about starting an artist collective.  After much time, and some artist friends artistic donations, I have an etsy store up and going.

So take a few bucks and buy some art for a good cause. It costs less then a dinner out and looks a heck of a lot better. While you are at it, tell a friend to buy some art too. If you want to donate something, just send me a note.

Thanks to Beth and Pat for your donations.

Okay, now the ball is in your court.  Peace to you all!

Ever met someone that just got your mind to thinking?  Engaged you in a way that made you want to be better and when you left being with them, you felt empowered to go out and do something amazing?  Ya, me too.  That is just how I felt when I got to document this super woman’s blooming form.  Her first 3 children are GAW-JUS and I have no doubt the 4th will follow suit.  You can’t imagine how special it is for photographic artists to capture natural beauty.

Women go through many seasons and I see strength in so many ways peek through my lens.  Pregnancy is just one of those seasons but not the only one. Think about what season you are in today, and how you are able to be strong in it.

Give me your best super woman shot today. Come on… you know you want to play.

This particular connection  has been inspired by worship. We received a Seeds Family Worship CD for a gift this Christmas.  If you don’t have one, I would say you should grab one or all of them.  You know me and worship. I am always working on ways to expose our kids to great worship.  There is nothing more tender, then hearing and seeing your children sing the words to deeply powerful songs to our King.  These are all scripture verses set to music so we are all memorizing away as we listen.

They may just like the beat, or are absently saying the words.  But, most days, there is a word or two, that they ask me about, like Mom what does sacrifice mean? or Mom why is it saying “fear God”?  We are not scared of Him?

Kids put it together if you feed them enough good stuff in order for them to do so. I was telling you yesterday how I am seeing all types of fruit in regards to connections with the kids. Remind me to tell you Chloe’s response to her Dad about government a few days ago.  A few months ago, Jackson heard the word sacrifice in a worship song and asked about it.  I explained what it was and related it back to some things we had been learning about pagan peoples in world history.  Then about a month later we read a story in Trial and Triumph about a “craazeee monk” who went “postal” during the crusades inciting zealous crusaders to start killing Jews in Germany on their way to the Holy land, because they killed Jesus.   Jackson stopped the story with a frank statement,”Mom these crusades were not a good idea.  You can’t make people follow Jesus?” I agreed and continued on with the story until he stopped me again with an incredulous, exasperated statement, “Mom, this makes no sense. They killed Jews because they killed Jesus? Didn’t they know that  Jesus had to die, to be the final sacrifice?  If he didn’t die, then none of this would of worked.” I said you are right buddy, people do funny things sometimes, our history is a strange thing. Then a few weeks later, during our advent celebrations and reading he set a small lamb on my desk.

It is a little, wooden lamb I made 4 years ago when he was  3 in order to help him meditate on the Good Shepherd Parable.  He had taken a red marker and colored a huge red mark on the lamb. I was just about to “pop off” because he had colored on this work when he said….”Look Mom, the blood of the lamb.” and walked away. I bit my tongue, guess he was thinking about sacrifice and many other things that the Holy Spirit was whispering deeply in him.  This was all over several months time, but I could clearly see the thread working away.  The connections happening one by one. I am passionate about exposing our kids to great things, not just things they like.  How will they know if they like it or I know if they like it, if I don’t expose them to lots and lots of varied things both historically and culturally.  Jackson loves Shakespeare and poetry particularly Shel Silverstein, I wouldn’t of known that if I just gave him things to look at and read about having to do with legos and karate.  Chloe loves painting and Monet (she loves his flowers), and Hudson is mad for U2 and Handel…who knew.

All of these things, are tools that point right back to God and relate to our life in Jesus.  It is amazing for me to go through this with them as an adult.  I have a deeper understanding, and connectedness to our whole story through me working through it with them. So after school, I crank the tunes and let them play and clean and work with an environment soaked in worship.  Not to mention it keeps me right in tune with the one who called me and the one who is calling them. So go look for a few connections in your home today.  They are so fun to find.

Grace and Peace to All~

One of my heroes retires.

Thank you Gordon for blazing a trail.

The children are all moving along with the basics: reading, writing, math.  We are moving into deeper science exploration, not just the Burgess Books and they are loving that. What I am most pleased with is how they are moving along with ideas.  One of the MAIN things I wanted to do was make sure our kids got the “connections” between things.  When you feed them rich and noble things to think about, they do that…you know…make connections.  I will tell you a connections story tomorrow, I just need to figure out a picture to go with it, which is a fun stretch for me. I am seeing tons of little fruit in that area, and they are getting it in relationship to our faith in Jesus and how it all works with the world.  It is amazing and fascinating to see all at once.  Really, if you are at all thinking about homeschooling, look into it, check out what we use. (We love it and it is awesome) Pray and ask God to show you what is best for you kids.  I promise you, you can do it.  You can take being home with them all day.  It isn’t as hard as you believe it will be. Okay let’s be honest, there are hard days, but let’s be real, there are hard days with whatever you choose to do. I just wanted to send a little cyber encouragment out there because I know so many Moms think about it and then think they NEVER could pull it off.  In fact if I had a dollar for every time I heard that, I would be rich.

So I have to tell you a story.  This morning at 6:30 I walked in the door from my run and our youngest (4) walked downstairs and sat on the couch and said, “Mom, I don’t know how to read yet, you need to teach me.” I said, “Sure bud, I am happy to teach you.”  (All I can think is give me a minute bud, I am hot and sweaty, and it is still dark out, do we have to do school right away, the whole house is asleep. This goes along with him wanting to know everything right now, phonics, writing, math.  He really wants to start to sit and learn with the big kids, and do it NOW.)  “Will you read me  Jax’s Christmas book?”  Sure…and I am still thinking it is the Christmas I Spy book we got at the library. As I sit down he takes out the beautiful leather bound copy of “Treasure Island” that Jackson got as a Christmas present.  I started reading it out loud to Jackson last night as the “littles” sat on the floor and played checkers with their Daddy.  I thought they were not listening.  NEVER assume they are not listening. I didn’t really believe he wanted another chapter in that book until he narrated perfectly, and in precise detail the chapter I had read the evening before. I was a little stunned, and then chuckled out loud and started reading. Well cuz that is just how wez roll around he-ah!

So, you see, it is working.  It is fun, they are well adjusted and socially in touch with other kids their age and hungry for deeper things of God and life. This is sooooo fun. Truly fun on so many levels.    I am not nuts.  I heard right when God said stay home. I swallowed my fear and said “Yes Lord!”. I  think I can….I think I can….. Just like the little engine that could.

Blessings to all those being obedient today~

Well, you know what they say “it pays to save”.  Yesterday we opened the kids savings accounts.  They all received a gift of money for Christmas and have been saving change.  So, I offered them a deal.  You know me and deals.  Well maybe you don’t know me and deals, but I love a little incentive to do something I wouldn’t push myself to do otherwise. Remember, I ran a half marathon just for the goal to keep working out even when I did not want to. (Little tip, it works…for me at least.)

Did anyone else read the report on children who were trained to save early?  It was fascinating.  Money management and saving is actually a skill that can be learned and learned early. So I am attempting to impart that to our  dear young ones.  They were sitting at the dinning room table thinking of all the stuff they would buy with their loot.  Well, there is not a thing in the world they really need in the way of toys right now, so I threw down a gauntlet.  I said, “You can buy whatever you want, or I will pay you $10 right now to save it and put it in the bank”.  They all slowly sat for a moment thinking about it.  They did the math and added up how much that really meant, and then like dominoes, they all went for it.

With great ceremony we went to the bank.  I took pictures. All the tellers oooed and ahhhhhd and told them how smart they were.  Then I handed them their ten smackers as they deposited their loot, and counted their coins out loud to the lady.  They even signed their names on official paper work….4 times.  They were so proud.

My next real world math plan is to give them 5 bucks in various types of bills and coinage.  Give them a list of 3 things they need to find, for something we need to create or build, then take them to our local good will and let them shop and buy for real with real money.  I just need to think of something we can make together, that we can buy items to work with. Any ideas?

Well the day is too pretty to be wasted, we are off the beach to collect some shells.  See you tomorrow.

Peace to all savers today!

Things are changing! Life is not what it once was…carefree and gluttonous.

I am sullen, and sulky…and groggy. I am cranky and unmotivated….

I have a headache and I feel a little sick……

I feel like the opening paragraph in the terrible no go horrible day book……

I am detoxing from sugar…..Great Scott it is the scourge of the earth.

Pray for me….First week is a bear. Why do I do this?  I get off sugar and caffeine and feel great, and then slowly I say, oh it is no big deal, and then one day I realize I want dessert for breakfast lunch and dinner, and then here I sit having to control myself and say NO, NO, NO.

Paul, I am getting you man…”do what you don’t want, don’t do what you know you should” stuff is discipleship 101.  So I am submitting what I put in my mouth to the master King and asking for help.

A good discipline for sure.

Peace to those conquering their addictions!

Well, I have had a nice little blog/online break.  We have slept in, and spent tons of family time, as my husband has been home for the last two weeks.  We watched a few family movies and just generally relaxed with not much schedule.

I did some much needed reorganizing around here.  Cleaned my desk area of junk mail etc., cleaned out my hard drive of all the junk you accumulate over a years time, got a stack of papers ready for the kids to shred, organized my year of photos worth keeping and ruthlessly pitched deleted the rest, reworked my photography site online, cleaned out one child’s closet, got several boxes together to go off to goodwill, and last but not least thought through some things I want to add to our homeschool in the Spring. I guess I do my spring cleaning….in December.

Last night Mike and I went out for a date and saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  I read the short story almost a decade ago and due to having all of these children, and my old age;-) I could barely remember the story.   I did, of course take along my camera to grab a few night images.

So, I am off to enjoy my last vacation day.  Next week back to my normal schedule.

Grace and Peace to all this year~