Spotlight: Strawberry

Today I'm going to focus on Strawberry.


Strawberry got her nickname due to her red hair. She is 3 1/2 years old, but seems much older. She is the 2nd child and only girl, sandwiched between a bunch of boys. She can play hard but is also very (read: VERY) sensitive.

She is a caretaker of her brothers, whether they like it or not. She is always filthy, always. She eats with her hands, despite numerous reminders to use utensils, she is usually covered in marker and can't even look outside without being covered in dirt. Yup, she's our princess! Daddy and I often joke that in the future, she'll have to be in a pretty serious relationship before they ever do any type of "food date" just to be certain the suitor doesn't scare off too easily.

She loves her Daddy, she is definitely his little girl. She hates bugs, like really hates, she has a full on anxiety attack over a fly near her. She can be clumsy, and something always "hurts". We were in the van the other night, and just for fun I said, "[Strawberry], what hurts right now?" Her response, "Nothing.....just my knee a little". She likes to count her booboos, and says, "here is one, if you look really really close, it is just a wittle one".

She has Daddy and her brothers wrapped around her little finger. They would do anything to protect her.

Strawberry with her Knights in shining armour.

She is a sweet little girl and will be starting homeschooling this fall, she is so excited to do her own school, not just busy work.

She has a desire to manage a home already, she enjoys observing and helping me with the Stewardships (chores) around the house and I am trying to remember to train her in these areas.

It will be fun to see who she grows into, we have no doubt she'll be pretty sassy, though. Must be the fiery red-head in her!



For His Glory!

Spotlight: Dude

I was thinking that I would write a little bit about each of my kids. Then I realized this would be a good exercise for me, personally, to think hard about each of my children and what makes them who they are. This could be fun!

Today, I am going to focus on Dude.

He is our first-born, like me. He is 5 years old. He is stubborn and strongwilled, er...like me. He is full of Energy. All. The. Time. He has always been incredibly active. He started walking at 8 1/2 months old and has never looked back. He has his own way of doing things and is passionate about it (read: strongwilled). He is compassionate and sweet.

He loves playing with his siblings and has a special relationship with each of them.

His little sister, Strawberry, looks up to him and wants to please him and do everything he does. They are the best of friends....until they disagree.


He is a protector to his younger brother, Linebacker. When we went out to a store last week, he took it upon himself to hold his hand and get him in and out of the store safely. It was such a sweet moment.


He is just getting to know his littlest brother, Boy Wonder. He enjoys spending time with him and loves to work smiles out of him by doing crazy dances and funny faces.


Dude can be very difficult to corale some days, but I was listening to Focus on the Family's radio show last week and it gave me hope that this Strong Will is going to be a positive thing one day. We just have to get there.

Dude is going to be working at a 1st grade level this fall, he has a love for learning that we hope to maintain and build on. He is very inquisitive right now and we are doing our best to satiate his need for knowledge. I can't wait to get to know who this little man is going to grow into!


For His Glory!

Friendship

I have really had a chance to reflect, lately, on what my idea of friendship is. It's funny how over the years that definition has changed so much.

We make our first friends as young children, they are usually from school or, in our case, church. We play with them when we are around each other, but they don't really have any influence on our lives. Then, when we are a few years older, we play together, have common interests and maybe make plans to get together outside of church/school, but they still don't have much influence on our lives.

Once we reach the teenage years this starts to change, our friendships start to have an emotional aspect involved. We can relate to our friends, we may imitate some of their characteristics and they definitely have an influence on us. This is when my friendships took a notable change, less real friendships with classmates and more true friendships with my youth group friends. I think this happened because of our similar beliefs, I didn't share similar beliefs with school friends but I did with my friends from Church. I think fellow Christian believers are very important to keep you accountable and to keep you on the right path. I am still friends with a lot of these teenage friends, but none from school.

My husband and I got married quite young (in today's society) at the age of 20. None of our friends were married, and most not even dating/courting someone. This had a huge impact on our friendships. We drifted apart from most of these friends, just because our goals and lives were different at this point. We found a new great group of friends from our church, the young married crowd. We made some real lasting friendships with them even though they were all 4-6 years older than us. That gap was bridged by the fact we were all trying to learn how to be someone's partner. We spent a lot of time with these friends, but then they all starting having children (and we couldn't yet). They were busy with they're families and their flexibilities changed. But some of our younger friends were now in serious relationships or getting married, so we, again, were able to find common ground with them.

Once we had children, though, life changed drastically! You don't have the time or flexibility to get together with people and even when you get a chance to chat, it is not without interruptions. We have recently rekindled friendships with some of our good friends from the young marrieds group, and I am so happy about that, they are great friends and I have really missed the closeness we used to have.

At this season in my life, getting together with friends is not easy. I can't just go out and meet them, it has to be after the kids are in bed, and honestly, I just want to put my pjs on and chill with my husband then. At this stage, friendship is a truly emotional relationship. I want to surround myself with the right people, I want to be influenced by the right people and I want to have the people around me who are there for the right reasons and who support me.

Two years ago, I joined a group for pregnant Canadian women who were all due in May 2011 (me with Linebacker). I had no idea at the time, but this would not be just a fun thing to check out once in awhile. These women became my friends, I have met about 1/2 of them in person but I *know* all of them. We have been through a lot together, these ladies supported me through the difficulties with Boy Wonder's pregnancy and kept me strong. We have all rallied together on more than 1 occasion to help a fellow mama out in a time of need. These women are amazing and I don't know what my life would be like without them (besides really dull).

In this group, though, is one person who is special. She is an amazing mama, an incredible friend and just such a Blessing. We have connected through this group and have a lot in common (and just enough not in common to keep it interesting). She truly is my Best Friend. We *talk* everyday, and we never run out of things to say. She is my go-to for everything and she always has sound advice and is always just there.

One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and be understood
~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca

It's interesting how when we were younger, friendship was about how much time you spend together and who you see often, but now that doesn't matter anymore. My Best Friend lives in another province, we have spent only 1 week together in person, yet we connect and are closer then any friend I have around me. Up until the last year I never understood what I was missing by not having a good friend, but once you have one, you can't imagine life without.

Though miles may lie between us
we are never far apart,
for friendship doesn't count miles
its measured by the heart.

Now, to just get her to move here ;) It is amazing how God gave us both babies due in the same month and year, just to bring us together, God's Will is so interesting to see at work.


This is so accurate, God is Good!
There are friends who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother ~ Proverbs 18:24


For His Glory!

Looking ahead

I have spent the last few weeks getting things planned and in order for the fall. I am really excited to do more formal schooling with Strawberry in addition to Dude and have 2 kids to work with everyday. I have a lot of thoughts for this coming school year, and I think we will have a lot more intensity this year. This year kind of worked as our prep year to get the kids used to doing some formal activities and to start some scheduled times during our day.

I have laid out all my plans and here they are:


I have laid out a plan of action for each child. Daddy and I have to have, what I hope will become, our annual goal setting meeting. We will sit down and make a plan for each child as to what we hope they will accomplish in the coming school year and set some goals for each.

Our plans:

* Contiue using our Children Desiring God curriculum with Dude and Strawberry and include Linebacker informally.

* Continue using Math U See Primer with Dude

* Teach Strawberry to recognize and write her numbers, if accomplished start her on MUS Primer

* I took the plunge and ordered All About Learning Press curriculum last night (already got the shipping notice this morning!!!). Dude will be using All About Reading level 1 and All About Spelling level 1. Strawberry will be using All About Reading pre-reading level. Now, I just have to wait patiently for it to arrive....and check the tracking obsessively.

* I plan to use The ABCs for Godly Children (which was included in one of the e-bundles I've purchased) for Dude and Strawberry.

* I am going to use Expedition Earth (all included in the e-bundle) to help teach some geography

* I want to work through a book list with the kids and have some comprehension questions to go with them.

* There was a good resource in an e-bundle I have about notebooking, and so that is in the plan as well.

* I am going to work in some LOTW and RRSP activities for Strawberry.

* I want to prep some lapbook games and busy bags for their workboxes as well. That way I can plan one child doing a game/activity independantly while I work more intensely with the other one.

* I am also going to try to have a bit of a totschool routine with Linebacker

* I want to include Darlene's prayer cards for children into our morning prayer time. I have them printed and 1/2 cutout, just need to laminate and put on a ring for each child.


I can't wait! I have a lot to do to prep for the year, but I am an organizing junkie who loved school, so that shouldn't be hard for me. I am so excited to get in our new schoolroom with all our new plans and start....Hopefully the kids will be excited, too.


For His Glory!

We're getting a Schoolroom!!!!!

Can you tell I'm a little excited? Over the last 2 years I have tried different setups for our schooling and even though they worked, they weren't exactly right or convenient.

We started out with a schoolroom/playroom joint room, you can probably figure out how well that went. The other reason this setup failed was because the playroom used to be the formal dining room (which is fine) but there are no windows in there. I was going stir-crazy, secluded from the outside world.

Next we tried the kitchen table. This worked okay, but it didn't have storage for school stuff nearby, so I was bringing all our supplies back and forth and having to interrupt lessons because I forgot something we needed, also having to clear off all the time for eating. It just wasn't practical.

So, I made up my proposal, prepared all my arguments and got ready to talk to my Husband.
Me: "Honey, can we turn the living room into a full-fledged homeschool room? You see, the ......."
Husband: "Sure."
Me: ".....and we have to clear.....wait, pardon???"
Husband: "Sure. That's a good idea"
Me: "wait, really?"

The before:


Before it was a sitting room of sorts and doesn't everyone have their washing machine in their living room? The great thing about having a handy husband is that when something breaks he can fix it, it just takes a bit longer and he doesn't have a shop so, living room it is! This room looks out onto our street, big windows, lots of natural light, and I will feel part of the outside world. Our street leads into a dead end, so it won't be so busy that it distracts us either.

I moved some of our shelving that we had spread out around the house in there and organized it all.

After pictures:

I have organized all our books and supplies along this wall. I hung up our maps and another poster we had. Now, just to keep it neat.

I left the desk in there for me to use. The kids workboxes are under the window and I have since added one for Linebacker to do some totschool/keep him busy stuff. I Moved the chalkboard and whiteboard in there and all of our morning circle time stuff.

All we need now is our homeschool desk. I absolutely love Erica's desk. I vaguely described it to my husband and he drew up plans and is going to build us something similar, I am most excited about that! I can't wait to get the room up and running in the fall!

Now, I have a schoolroom plan and our study/curriculum plan for the fall is taking shape (more on that tomorrow). I love homeschooling!


For His Glory!

Laundry, Dishes and Mopping....oh my!

I was one of those people who's house was spotless before having my children. I enjoyed cleaning, and my house was so clean I would have to make a mess on purpose or invent something just so I could clean it. Fast forward 6 years and I can barely keep up! My house is "clean" but keeping it "tidy" is a different story. I am constantly picking up toys, books, socks and pieces of food all over the house. I needed to come up with something to keep me on task or I would spend everyday doing this repetitive motion without ever getting to the real cleaning that needed to be done.

A couple of weeks ago there was an e-bundle that a group of homemaking bloggers put together and had on sale for a couple of days. As soon as it was advertised, I was sold. I wanted it! Well, the day came and it was available. The price was really good, but I hesitated for a few minutes....I had to resolve within myself that I couldn't just purchase and download and read this bundle, but that I would actually implement it. I decided that I was going to get more productive with my time, I had too, I was falling behind.

During the beginning of skimming this e-bundle, I also discovered an alternative to the Home Management Binder. This was exciting to me because I have tried more then once to start and use a Home Management Binder and it never worked for me. This new system was perfect for me! It is the File Crate System and I love it! I didn't set up the file folders exactly like she does, but fairly similar with what I wanted to include each week. I found enough free printables online to use and it was very easy to pull together. It works so well for my day-to-day cleaning and homemaking, but also will be very beneficial to our homeschooling scheduling. I am a list person, so this setup is exactly what I needed.

I am able to list what I want to accomplish each day, keep track of it all, have my weekly meal plan, weekly calendar and my weekly blogging schedule (that should keep me regular finally) all in one place. Aaaahhh, I feel functional again!

Housekeeping comes easy to me, I love it, so that is not a huge problem. My problem comes when I just bounce around doing a little bit here and there and not actually finishing anything. Now, though, I have a plan everyday and I make it my mission to check off those little boxes.

I have found the key for me is all about the laundry. I hate laundry! I mean, I do it because I have to, but I would prefer not to have to :) I have to stay on top of the laundry to be successful. I am not the person who can do it all in 1-2 days and be done. I have to do 1-2 loads everyday or I won't bother. I start the load as soon as I come downstairs in the morning, then fold while the kids are playing together. Once they are occupied at the table for lunch, I head upstairs and put it all away. I have tried other methods such as assigning each person a day and doing all their clothes on that day, but if we are not home on one of the days, I am behind and can't catch up easily. This way I just wash everyone's together and your clothes are back in your drawer 12-15 hours after wearing them.

It's funny, but the laundry sets my cleaning *mood* for the day. If I get the laundry done first thing, I just feel more productive. So, the key to it all......is laundry? really? I guess for me, it is.

Since downloading the Homemaking e-bundle I have cleaned and purged my entire kitchen, the junk closet, the downstairs bathroom and what will be our new Schoolroom (I'll share about that tomorrow). I feel good, there is no clutter on our main floor where we spend most of our time, and that takes a lot of the stress away.

A key to completeing these mundane tasks for me is this verse Colossians 3:23 - "Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people." (NLT) I keep this in my head all day and keep thinking it when I get frustrated with doing these tasks. I have a friend/mentor who actually has a white glove that she puts in her pocket whenever she has the wrong attitude as a way to remind herself of who she is serving. I may steal this idea from her, just so I keep remembering why I am doing this.

Well, have to get back to my list and check some more things off.....Colossians 3:23......Colossians 3:23.....Colossians 3:23

For His Glory!

Introducing.......

Introducing the newest member of our family.........

Boy Wonder!!!! Born mid-March 2 days before his due date. I have nicknamed him 'Boy Wonder' because he is here despite all the complications we went through getting him here....he is my little miracle! God is so good!

He is such a blessing to our family and everyone is madly in love with him. Going from 3 kids to 4 kids has been an easy adaptation so far. I was used to being outnumbered already and Daddy and I were already using a zone defense vs. a man-to-man.

We have a pretty good routine going already, and even though he doesn't nurse at the same times everyday, he does go to bed at 10pm and sleeps until 6am every night for the last 2 weeks. Now, I'm not getting my hopes up too much; linebacker slept through at 6 weeks also, but we hit the 4 month sleep regression HARD and he was up multiple times per night until about 14 months old. So, I am excited that Boy Wonder is sleeping through but am prepared for what may lie ahead.

Other little known facts about Boy Wonder:
- He is my first child with dark hair like me
- So far he is the tallest child, but is long and lean
- He likes to be held (always a good quality for a 4th child)
- He is the 4th child, and 3rd boy
- He likes to eat!
- He is the first child I've had who actually gets upset because of a dirty diaper
- He is my 2nd thumbsucker (the other one is Linebacker)


We are so pleased with the way God has provided for us and blessed us with 4 amazing children.

(in light of some recent tragic events in our area that center around the online world, I have chosen to give my kids nicknames instead of using their real names. Just trying to be as safe and as careful as I can).


For His Glory!