My Little Cupcake

I can't believe Elizabeth is two and will be three years old in January. She is a very busy little girl and always getting into something. We have to move things, hide things, and keep her away from lots of food and household items. Since she has three older siblings, she thinks she can do everything they do and have everything that have. In my opinion, you do have to parent a little differently with your third and fourth child. They are just exposed to more things more quickly. I do try to shelter her as much as I can like with the tv/videos she watches and the toys/games she plays. Lately, I've been working with the boys on etiquette and it is going VERY slowly. I've been trying to teach them that you hold a door open for girls/women and allow a girl to walk through the door first. Lizzie has heard me encouraging them and she runs to every door and says, "Girls first!" She cries when the boys push past her. Although, she is very stubborn and knows how to get her way in many situations, she is also sensitive when her brothers or sister pick on her. I'm really enjoying watching my youngest and last child grow up. As I cuddle her, I whisper in her ear, "You can't grow up, you have to stay little forever." She usually says, "No mommy, I getting bigger" and sometimes she replies with, "Okay." 

We heard her giggling from our bedroom and
this is what we found. The next day she used
a black marker. There was punishment after
that incident and it hasn't happened since.



She's not afraid to get messy and gooey!

She might suck your blood if you get too close!
Mahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

She's good at organizing and she even shares!

She has a weapon and she WILL use it on you if needed.

Ahhh! My little cupcake! Doesn't she look
sweet & innocent!

Things That Make My Heart Smile

There are so many things that can make us sad, disappointed or angry in our world and in our own family. It is easy to get caught up dwelling on things that go wrong in our life or that cause us the most stress. Lately I've been negative and looking at what's wrong with myself, my kids, my husband, my life in general instead of focusing on the positive things that I have. Today I remembered a post that I started about a month ago and never finished. It was a good reminder of things that make my heart smile and here they are in no pacticular order....

Nicholas playing piano pieces and skipping ahead in his music book simply because he loves to play.

Victoria & Elizabeth swinging on the swings together and singing goofy songs.

Nicholas teaching Benjamin how to swing on the swings. (this is unbelievable if you know my boys)

watching all four of my kids compare two dead bees (not the death part, but the investigating part)

having fun singing, chanting, reviewing our Classical Conversation memory work with my older two(Ex: What are four types of tissue? Four types of tissue are connective, epiltheal, muscle and nerve. It is fun to see them learning.

watching Benjamin sing Thanksgiving songs with a bunch of other 4-5 year olds, he stood focused even with all the other distractions around him

Allan fixing another household problem - the bathtub plumbing. "Another satisfied customer," he says.

Snuggling with my two littles in their jammies as we snack on Kix cereal.

Playing Uno with Benjamin twice and the Ladybug game and he beat me everytime. I loved seeing his winning smile and dance.

watching humming birds visiting our backyard for nectar everyday, such amazing creatures

friends who pray for me and ask how I'm doing and then listen

washing dishes as Allan dries them and puts them away and we talk about our day together

There is so much for me to be thankful for! My family and I are all healthy! I need to keep these memories when I have hard days so I can remember all the things that make me laugh & smile. I thank God for creating me, my family, friends, and all the beauty that surrounds us. How fortunate I am to be living for Him!

One of those Mornings

Do you ever have one of those days? Or mornings? Or _______ you fill in the blank? You know when everyone is getting upset, things aren't going your way, someone gets hurt, no one will listen or obey..... That's the kind of morning I experienced. Everyone was mad at me and I was mad at them. Victoria was upset because she had piano lessons and knew that she had only practiced once this week. She was upset at herself, but that anger turned to me. She also couldn't find her recital sheet music which she realized that she had crumbled up out of anger a few days prior. It was now in the recycling bin.Nicholas was scrambling to find all of his piano music for his morning lesson. I think he is the only that didn't yell at me this morning. Benjamin became angry after getting a privilege taken away because of his disobedience. On the way to school, he told me he hated me at least twenty times. I think he sang it to me. Lizzie was crying because she couldn't have candy at 7:00 in the morning. Her fingers got pinched in the door right before we took Ben to school. So, I had Ben sobbing as he put on his shoes and Lizzie whimpering over her hurt fingers. I was angry the whole time trying to keep everyone on schedule to leave to take Ben to school. It was a very stressful morning!

If I would have written this in the morning I would have had even more details, but some of the incidents of the morning have been erased from my memory for sanity purposes. Unfortunately, I allowed the anger in me to take over. I allowed it to take over how I acted, how I responded, and how I cared for my children. I wasn't loving, gentle, caring, patient, kind, or peaceful. I certainly didn't demonstrate self control, so how can I expect my children to demonstrate those characteristics when I wasn't even modeling those for them. I know I need to be more prepared and organized for the morning and teach them those things as well. But there will be days that no matter how prepared, organized, or ready I am things will go wrong, someone will get hurt, or a child will disobey. It is up to me to respond with love and gentleness. It is up to me to pray for my attitude and behavior. I hope as someone is reading this that they can relate and say, "Yes, I've had one of those days before."


My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.
                                                               James 1:19-20

Help me! I have a NINE year old!

I have two October babies. Ben celebrated his 5th birday on October 5th and Nicholas just had his 9th birthday on October 20th. I can't believe he is nine. He is my hot or cold child. He is either really happy or really mad. He'll be really excited to go somewhere or to do something or he'll throw a huge fit because he absolutely does not want to go anywhere or do anything. I have to make him go most places and in the end he has the most fun out of all the kids. As a baby and toddler he always had something in his hand. He started with a baby sleeper and then moved on to a blanket. As a toddler and preschooler he would walk around with a plastic hammer and then downsized to a plastic kids spoon. He was the most difficult one to be potty trained. I'm glad that was over with several years ago. I love to see him excited about things. He enjoys playing the piano which he just started in February. In our backyard, we often find science experiments that he has been working. Allan wasn't so happy about the yellow grass or the messes that we find at the end of the day. We are so thankful for our 9 year old boy and how much he is learning and growing. He is halfway to manhood. He'll one day make a wonderful husband if we can just get him to do his chores more consistently. We love you Nicholas!!



Here Nicholas is helping Allan put together the girl's bunk bed.



Nicholas is waiting patiently to open up his birthday presents.

He picked out a chocolate mousse cake with strawberries on top.

Look who's FIVE!!!

I can't believe Benjamin is five today. He has been waiting for this day for 364 days. Since he has an older brother & sister, he always wants to be older, bigger, stronger, smarter, taller, faster, and the list goes on. So today he is officially OLDER. The last month or so he has had a lot of changes or accomplishments in his life. First, he learned how to ride a bike with no training wheels. I can't believe I don't have a picture of this to post. It is so cute to see him riding on his small bike. His pedaling reminds me of that old women/the wicked witch of the west from "The Wizard of Oz." I can hear the music playing now... Da, dat, da, dat, da, da, da.... He also learned how to swing himself by pumping his legs. His older brother patiently talked him through that. Another accoumplishment is that he learned how to travel across all of the monkey bars on our backyard playset. He has been practicing that for quite awhile. He started school this September. It is called Transitional Kindergarten for kids whose birthdays are in late summer and fall and their not quite ready for Kindergarten. He LOVES it! Mom loves it too!! Victoria & Nicholas love that their younger brother isn't bothering them. He has made a lot of friends! You know that show "Everyone Loves Raymond". Well that's what we say about him, "Everyone Loves Benjamin". He has that smile that can melt anyones heart. His joy and laughter are contagious. He also keeps getting taller or thinner. I'm not really sure which one. I'll have to measure him one of these days. I just know that most of his shorts & pants have trouble staying around his waist.
Today, as we were driving home from dropping Victoria off at choir, Benjamin asked me, "Mom, when will I turn six?" I said, "You won't turn six for another 364 days." He pondered that and responded with, "That's a LONG time mom." I told him to enjoy five, soak it in, just be five for awhile. Well as you can see we love this fun, energetic, cute guy and it is so exciting seeing him get bigger.

Here is Benjamin on his first day of school.
He even has a backpack & takes his lunch everyday.

Benjamin has just mastered going across the monkey bars.

Benjamin working hard on the swing.

Victoria & Benjamin - Don't they look alike?
Victoria made him an original, one of a kind
Bey Blade holder.

Organization Part 1

I love to organize! Since having my third and fourth child I feel like I've really slacked on keeping up with my house and general organization. I'm trying to get back on track a little at a time. Organization does take time, but it is well worth it!! I have friends ask, "How do I do it all and get things accomplished with four kids?" And the answer is I don't get to do it all. Many things that I'd like to do like keeping my closet completely clean & organized or having my garden free of weeds just can't happen all the time. I'm going to give you some tips that I've learned from others or from my own experiences on ways that my family tries to stay organized. Here are a few tips with photos to go along with it.

1.  Start them young! Teach them how to clean and organize.
I was just reading a book about how we have to show our kids how to do things the right way over and over and over and over again. They need lots of practice and we need to be patience when teaching them. If they are having trouble doing a chore like putting the dishes away, we need to physically help them, show them, and model for them how to do it. If they leave the back door open, call them over and have them practice closing the door several times. I get lots of whining about chores, but I remind myself that one day they'll thank me.



2. Use disposable plates
I read in a book about a women who
uses paper plates so they have less
dishes to clean. Since my kids are home
all day it was worth spending the extra
money on paper goods, so I'd spend less
time washing dishes. I know there is
the recycling issue, but our family is
really good about recycling everything.
We don't use paper plates for all meals.
Pictured above are thin paper plates
that we bought from Costco and then
we insert them into plastic plate holders
to make them sturdy. Those don't have to
washed as often.



3.  Use different colored cups for each
family member. Our family can go through
so many cups in one day, so we try to stick
with one cup per day. They each know their
color, so they can remember which cup to
drink out of and refill.

4. Have some type of shoe organization.
We have three shoebaskets. This is Lizzie's basket pictured
 here. She is 2 1/2 and knows exactly where to put her shoes
away and where to get them to put them on. We have
another by the front door and one by the back door.

This is our shoe basket by the back door. I keep
my own shoes in my bedroom. We mainly keep the
kids shoes in the baskets. Allan shoes tend to end up in
the baskets as well. These are shoes that they wear
most often like flip flops, sandals or athletic shoes.

Shoes that are worn less often or that are dressier
are kept in their rooms hanging on the inside of
closet doors in the organization pockets. I put
Victoria's boots in a large plastic bin in her closet.

5. Separate underwear & socks in containers in drawers.
All of the kids have a drawer with 2-4 containers. I buy the containers
at Target or Walmart for about $1. One is for underwear, one for socks,
one for tank tops (boys), and one for other accessories like belts.
This makes it really easy for the kids to put away their own clothes
and I don't have to fold their underwear.

6. Have a bag for almost every activity.
I store our most used bags in this basket next to our piano.
We have Lizzie's backpack, a piano bag, Ben's backpack,
 Nicholas' backpack and Victoria overnight bag since she is
always spending the night somewhere. We have other bags
that are used less frequently stored in our closets. 

Well I hope that I inspired some of you to go and clean out a drawer, a basket, or a closet. These are all examples of what works for our family. You may have a different idea that would work better for your space and your family. I just hope that I got you thinking and organizing.

Our 2011-2012 School Year

This post is for families who homeschool or just interested in seeing what we try to accomplish in a year. I've had several people suggest I post what type of curriculum I use for school so other families can see what homeschooling is like. We have only completed one year of homeschooling, so I am in no way an expert. I have received lots of advice from other homeschooling families, from websites, and homeschooling conventions. I am learning some subjects right along with my kids as I teach them. Last year I used mostly ABeka and Saxon since my kids had used that at their private school they had previously attended. We were very happy with those two curriculum choices, but we wanted to try something new. We have joined a program called Classical Conversations(CC for short) which you can read more about at http://www.classicalconversations.com/. We will be meeting with a local community of CC every week for 24 weeks this year. I am looking forward to it and what my kids and I will learn from other homeschooling families.

Here is what our year will look like:

Bible-
Character Building for Families (Both) This a great book that uses specific character traits (ex: truthfulness) and then uses the Bible to illustrate that character trait. It guides the parent with a script on what you can ask your children to make sure they are comprehending the verses and the meaning behind the story/verse. There are also 1-2 bible verses that they would memorize with each character trait. I used this part of last year.

Language -
ABeka Language 3, Spelling 3 (Nicholas)
Essentials of the English Language (Victoria)
Our Mother Tongue: A Guide to English Grammar (Victoria)
IEW for writing (Victoria)
U.S. History Based Writing Lessons IEW (Victoria)
Vocabulary from Classical Roots (Victoria)

Reading-
I don't assign reading books. We go to the library every couple of weeks. My kids read a lot! I am fortunate that I not need to motivate them to read. If I want them to read a book, I will simply leave it lying around and one of them will pick it up and start reading. They get reading comprehension from their history, science, and language assignments. They like to tell Allan and I about the books they've read verbally as well. I will probably have them also do a few simple book reports.

Math-
Saxon Math 3 (Nicholas)
Saxon Math 6/5 (Victoria)

History-
We are studying U.S. History this year and will check out many biographies and books on U.S. history.
ABeka Our American Heritage (Nicholas)
Story of the World Vol. 3 & 4
Veritas Press History Timeline Series (from Old Testament to Present)

Geography-
will learn to draw and memorize all 50 states and their capitals

Science-
Classical Acts and Facts Science Cards: Anatomy, Chemistry, & Origins
201 Awesome, Magical, Bizarre & Incredible Experiments
My Body
We will also check out other books at the library on the human anatomy & chemistry. We'll be doing at least one science experiment per week with Classical Conversations. My kids love to do experiments, so I bought 10 experiment books for them to tinker with. I have just have to monitor Nicholas.

Extra-
Health for the Glory of God by Rod & Staff (both)
Choir (Victoria)
Piano (both)
Art - Drawing with Children (both), Discovering Great Artists (both), Classical Music for Dummies (both), will learn to play the tin whistle with Classical Conversations
P.E. - hiking, roller blading, biking, running, flag football(Nick), basketball, and other large motor skill activities
Computer - Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing Version 18
Latin - through our Classical Conversations program we will learn John 1:1-7 in Latin

As I scroll back through this list it seems like a lot. We'll see what we can accomplish. We are not planning on going through each book entirely in one year. I left out a little of what we'll be doing with Classical Conversations. The CC program is lots of memory work for all the main subjects (Math, English, History, Science, Geography, and Latin). They'll be memorizing weekly grammar sentences or words in each subject which will help them as they get older and need that specific piece of information. Also, for hands-on projects they do a weekly science project and something with the arts as part of the CC program.

I pray that most importantly I rely on Christ in everything I do and say with my kids in teaching them this year. I am excited about our second year of homeschooling!!