Busy week.

I don't think I shared what Beth did. I promised I'd take a picture of her because she wanted to tape it to the book she's making, and I finally got around to taking one (I took a bunch and she picked her favorite), then had it printed at Walgreens. She quite happily taped it to the back of her book, and I think it was adorable that she wanted one on her book. She has dreams of publishing her work, and who knows, maybe she'll be the writer in our family.



I also did a photoshoot with the girls this past week. I've been wanting to do one with them for some time, and finally got around to doing it. I got some great pictures, but my favorite is this one. I'm going to blow it up and we're going to frame it for the wall.



I'm starting school with the girls tomorrow. I'm mostly excited, though there are a few things I still have to get taken care of. Kate is the only one who's not excited, but I think as soon as she starts, she's going to love it.

Quick recap.

Back at the beginning of the year, I made a loose resolution to keep up better with this blog. As you can see, that resolution went the way of many New Year's resolutions. I'm trying again, though. Life has been very busy this summer, and yet in another way, it's been a good one in which to relax.

My mother-in-law has lived with my husband and I for the majority of our married life. It's too long to get into tonight, but she's lived with us in this house for almost six years, and she just moved out last Tuesday. It's been really nice having the house to ourselves. It was nice having her here, too, but with her gone, we have more room. Each girl can have her own bedroom, and Jon and I moved things around in the house.

This summer, I also made a homeschooling friend. She has two kids, similar in age to my younger two. She's not a Christian, but we get along well. I met her at the library, and we've been trying to get together semi-regularly.

I stopped working this past July and I have enjoyed this summer home with the girls. We've gone to the beach, hung out with friends, the older two went to camp for a week, and done many crafts; the only thing we haven't done is camped out, and we may be remedying that this week. Jon's having a great year at work, for which we are all thankful. I'll be starting school with the girls in the next week or so. I don't know how excited the girls are, but I know it's time. And getting back into a regular routine will be good for all of us.

I know I shouldn't sign off without a picture, so here you go.

Again, my fabulous friend wrote an outstanding blog post about realizing your true worth, even if it's just to your own circle of friends and acquaintances. Pop on over there and tell her if you liked it!

http://dontstopbelieving.me/2015/03/do-what-you-do-be-what-you-are/

Mom, winter, and a cruse.

My mom's birthday is next week, and she hasn't seen the girls in a long time (well, she saw Jill just last year when Dale died), so she flew out from Arizona to visit with us for a week. Of course, being CT, we have several feet of snow wherever you go, and the bitter wind bites into you when you step outside, so I can't take Mom everywhere I want to. We're still managing to have fun, though.

Jill and Beth went to art class this morning, then came home and started school. Just 'cause MawMaw's here doesn't mean school's out of session! We're only doing a half day today, though, and I know they quite like that. Mom took us out to McDonald's for lunch--the girls each had a Happy Meal and ice cream, something that almost never happens.

Speaking of winter days, I've actually not battled depression this year. I do every winter, and I think it's because I've been working. So I'm staying busy, and getting out of the house multiple days a week. I think I won't like work quite as much when the sun in shining outside and those perfect spring or summer days beckon, though.

Oh, and I know this update is sort of all over the place, but I have one last piece of excellent news. Jon, because he's had so many excellent months at work, won a cruise. We're going in April for a little over a week and I CANNOT wait. I've never been on a cruise, and I've never been out of the country, and I'll be doing both. :D

I don't link to other things a lot with this blog, but I thought this was beautiful. My friend Brenda wrote it, and if you've ever felt discouraged in your Christian walk, you should definitely read this.

http://dontstopbelieving.me/2015/02/lessons-and-love/

I woke up to a winter wonderland this morning. The sun hadn't fully risen, so the world had a blue cast. No animal or man had broken the snow, so it coated tree branches and blanketed the ground, pure and clean. I didn't have an opportunity to take pictures, but it was beautiful. I hope to get out later today with my camera and capture at least a little of what the world looked like this morning.

Since this is a public blog, I don't want to say too much, but Jon may have a work opportunity coming up that I would appreciate prayer for.

He was on vacation this past week, and he's been very busy on the house. The walls are sanded and painted, a new light and a new fan are hung, and our house is starting to look nice! We're hoping to get our floors done this summer, and if we do what friends of ours did, it won't cost too much to get it done.

I'm almost done with school!! I finished all my classes weeks ago, but I've had this one test hanging over my head (it's not graded, but all seniors take it and its given to many colleges); MBU is in the top 10% of school (I think it might be higher, actually), so I'm feeling pressured to do well. I have to have a proctor and someone at the school will be on the other end, I don't know, making sure I don't cheat? Anyway, since Brenda (my pastor's wife) has proctored all of my tests, Jon and I wanted to get her something nice. I can't wait to give it to her! It's a nice set of knives that Jon got at Penny's; with the sale and a coupon, he got a set of almost $300 knives for $100.

My husband, the father.

They say that you'll fall in love with your spouse more when you see how they act with your children. I believed the saying even before I had kids, but 11+ years later, it still holds true. When the girls were babies, Jon didn't interact very much with them. He'd hold them and change them, but it wasn't until they started moving around and making noises and becoming little tiny people that he really bonded with them. Now he'll come home from a long day at work and tickle them or read a story to one or the other, he'll help them with their music practice if they need it, and he'll do it all gladly.

He's silly with them, he shares his interests with them, and I can see his love in the way he acts around them. He's genuinely glad to be around them. Before marriage, I knew he was good with kids because he and I used to babysit kids of a couple we were friends with. But he amazes me--even when he's tired or grumpy, he still shows he loves them every day, and I'm beyond thankful for that.

*blows off dust*

Hi, there! Remember me? I used to post here semi-regularly. With a new year upon me, I'd like to do so again. It's been so long, though, that I'll just hit the highlights.

Jill is ten years old. I don't know when that happened. I think I might have blinked, because it seems to have gone by just that fast. She plays the flute and takes voice lessons, loves all animals and insects, loves nature shows on TV, and would read all day if I let her. She's a funny mix of kid and not-kid, and as she figures out who she is, some days I have a grumpy kid and other days I have a fantastic kid. But I love her and enjoy this crazy ride she's taking me on as her mom.

Beth, at eight, is almost always sunshiney. But that's always been her personality. She makes friends with every person she meets. She plays the piano and harp, loves all insects and animals, and while she likes reading, she prefers graphic novels and stories over regular novels. She also has a passion for art, and if it came to a choice between art or reading, she'd choose art every time.

Kate, my baby at six, is definitely a youngest child! She loves attention, and while she's typically pretty happy, knows how to turn on the whine to get what she wants (which, funnily enough, doesn't work, so who knows why she still tries!). She's a sweet kid, and adores her big sisters. She plays the piano, and while she also loves bugs and animals, she also loves dressing up and pretending to be a princess or a super hero, whichever strikes her fancy.

These kiddos are crazy, always-busy, and make me smile each day. Sure, we have our hard days or our frustrating days, but I wouldn't trade them for the world. I love watching my girls grow and change every day.

Jon and I are doing well. I have a part-time job, but I'm trying to get a writing job of some sort since I just finished college and now have my Bachelor's in English. I love writing, always have, so I hope I can find something. The thing about writing is so often, you need experience to break in anywhere, but no one will hire you since you don't have experience.

I plan on taking up the clarinet and piano again. My clarinet is being serviced, and I don't know what happened to my piano book, but I look forward to reimmersing myself in the world of music. Also, now that I'm done with school, I can read books again. I checked out almost half a dozen just today! And I can keep the house clean and spend time with my girls and jut live life.

I'm hoping to start writing in here more regularly, so stay tuned!

Thornewicke.

I recently read Charity Bishop's book, Thornewicke. In full disclosure, I received this book free for an honest review. I give it ****.

This fast-paced novel can be read over a couple days. The atmosphere is perfect; seventeen-year-old Evangeline goes to stay with her Aunt Henoria at the gloomy Thornewicke and learns that neither she nor her family is what they seem.

At its crux, this is a book exploring the battle between good and evil. Though the dialogue tends to get bogged down with sermonizing a few times, for the most part it’s snappy and the characters are all fleshed out, from Evangeline’s friend, Lena, to the inventor, Nikola Tesla. Evangeline must discover who she really is, who her aunt is, even who the seemingly-innocent Lena is in order to save herself and Thornewicke.

I would recommend this book to those who like darker books, or those with a spiritual meaning behind the story. Fans of C. S. Lewis would probably enjoy this story, as well as readers of Victorian stories.

Beth recently bought a scarf loom, but bought the wrong kind of yarn. I made the first scarf for her, and finished it for her today; she bought more yarn and has started a second scarf. It only took a few minutes and she had the process down. I expect this scarf to take her a few days since one step is hard for her, but I can't wait to see the final product.





Like so much of the rest of the country, we have gotten a lot of snow, and it just keeps coming. The girls aren't tired of it, but I am. I'm trying to have a good attitude about it, though, so the other day we made snow cream. The girls loved it, and I made it again yesterday.







Every year in Expeditions, there's a Grand Prix. The children get blocks of wood and carve them to look like whatever they can imagine. Jill is making a turtle, Beth a jet, Kate a rocket ship, and I'm making mine to look like one of my textbooks. The weigh-in is next week, and I always love seeing what all the children and leaders come up with.

This past Sunday was a good one. There's a couple in my church who joined a short while ago, and we had them over for lunch. Jon made chicken Parmesan, salad, and pasta. Jorie brought over brownies and ice cream, and all of us had a good time. We put the girls at the table I use for homeschooling, so we grownups got to talk and the kids enjoyed themselves.

After Jason and Jorie left, Jon took Jill out for fish (wow, all those j's sound like a tongue-twister!) for her aquarium. She had fun this past week cleaning her tank and filling it, and she picked out three pretty fish yesterday. She's been having bad luck with fish, though. First, she got a Betta which died the next day. Then, she got another Betta which died two days later. Now, she has an aquarium and one fish has already died. But at least the two she has left seem to be doing well!



Our kitties also seem very interested in the tank. It's a good thing there's a lid!



School is going well enough, though there have definitely been tears over new concepts this week. Sometimes, you just need to stop and go over the concept again and again until the fact is cemented in the little brain. Thankfully, Kate's finally getting how to put a whole word together without having to sound the whole thing out. She still mostly sounds out her words, but even that is progress. And she's still excited about reading, and I know how important that is.

School for me continues to go well. I have a strong A in British Lit, and I'm hanging on to my A in Astronomy, though I don't know how. I can definitely see God's hand in that class!

We have snow, like so many other parts of the country. I'm definitely a person who needs sun, so I'm thankful that we haven't had too many dark, cloudy days. I'll be glad when our snow is gone for good, though I know the girls will miss it. Jon and I played with them the other day and made a fort and took them on the sled in the yard.

This girl of mine, my firstborn.

As my oldest shoots toward her tenth birthday ("Two digits, Mom!" she likes to tell me with a huge grin on her face), I find myself looking back on her short life. This time ten years ago, I was in the final months of my pregnancy. I didn't know if I was having a boy or girl, I didn't realize quite how much having a new baby would change my life, and I had no idea the joys she would bring to my life.

She was a happy baby, a sweet (though headstrong) toddler, and she has always been a very independent person. She's changed from my chubby baby to a string bean (much like I was at that age). She's interested in bugs and mud and books when many girls her age are fascinated with dresses or boys or shopping. She's ready to grow up, but in so many ways, she's still very much a little girl. She wants to be an entomologist when she grows up and she plans to have a house filled with bugs, fish, and adopted children. Sometimes she wants to get married, but usually she doesn't.

She loves her sisters, but gets along better with Beth. Kate is still too much a baby for the two of them to get along for long periods of time. Jill's imagination is always running away with her; she daydreams and makes up stories, but she loves doing things with her hands, too. She painted and assembled a solar system model, has fallen in love with her weaving loom, and loves her science kit.

In school, her favorite subjects are science and history. She tolerates math, and almost hates grammar and writing(nooo!!). Though she's like me in many ways, she's also an enigma. I can't always predict what she'll like or say or do, but when I look at her, I know I love her. Though I love all my girls, Jill will always hold a special spot in my heart. She is my firstborn, the one I made (and continue to make) all my mistakes on, the one who frustrates and fascinates me by turns. She is truly herself, and she won't change for anyone.

What kind of parent are you?

What kind of parent are you? Are you a tiger mom? A dad who practices attached parenting? Do you hover, or let your kids range free? Do you practice RIE parenting, or use Dr. Sears as your parenting Bible? Do you spank? Put your kid in time out? Let him throw tantrums? Parent her gently?

Why does it matter? Why do so many of us feel we have to define our parenting? As a Christian, I look to the Bible for guidance, and try to train my children to love God and serve him, but even non-Christians are trying to train their kids to be good citizens. As moms and dads, we want the best for our children.

What does the mom want who lets her kids roam free with minimal supervision? To have good kids. What does the dad want who lets his kids work through their emotions with his support? To have good kids.

I firmly believe that all these parenting “styles” can lead to division if we allow them to. I can see so much good in so many of these ways of parenting, but really, I think when it comes to your kid, you have to do what you feel is best. So if that means spanking, then do so. If you feel the need to stay near your child on the playground, go ahead. But please don’t label your parenting style. I know for me, sometimes what works one day doesn’t work the next day, and I have to really know my girls so that I know how to parent them. Also, what works for my oldest doesn’t work for her sisters, so if I chose to only parent one way, I might be doing my children a disservice.

I say all that to say this. Do the best job you can and throw the labels out the window. If you’re a Christian, ask God for help. The task of raising children is a hard one, and I’ll take all the guidance I can get. And whether you’re a Christian or not, ask for help! Surround yourself with friends. Most importantly, enjoy your kids. They’re only little once, and even though some days seem to last f-o-r-e-v-e-r, the years seem to fly by at light-speed. Take the time to notice your child’s strengths. Take him out for ice cream. Take her to the park. Do things with your children that you enjoy and teach them to enjoy the same things! And at the end of the day, know that though you’ll make mistakes, if you’re doing the best job you can, your kids will be fine. They’re warm, they’re fed, and they’re loved. And in the end, that’s really all that matters.

So proud of Jill!

Jill reminds me a lot of me. She likes solitary activities, so she's thriving in swimming, loves to read, draw, and paint, but she's taking basketball and she's not good. She has no coordination, so today when I sent her off with her granny for practice, I expected nothing special.

After practice, she burst in the door grinning from ear to ear. "Mom," she said, "you're going to love this! I can't wait to tell you what I did!" Well didn't my daughter score not one but two baskets today!! I'm waiting for her to tell Jon tonight. He's going to be so proud of her, and I bet her coach was this afternoon. :)

Sorry I don't have any pictures for today. I'll get some up next time. :)

Long time, no see!

It's been over a year since my last post and my, how has life has changed!

We tried Christian school for Jill and it didn't work out, so she's at home, doing fourth grade. Beth has become quite the reader, and Kate likes school some days, not so much on other days. I am also finishing my degree online and have a year and a half to go. I'm hoping to keep up with this blog a little better this year, so hopefully it won't be a year until my next post. :)

A scare.

I took the girls on a walk today with the dog. We went down to the dog park, then walked back. The girls know to stay on the inside of the sidewalk and not to cross any roads without my permission.

We came to a wide driveway and I said, "Cross." Beth turned and started to cross the road! There was a car coming and I yelled at her and she came back and in reality the car was traveling at the speed limit (a wonder, since no one ever does--it's 25 but people zoom through here like it's the Daytona 500) and she was fine but I saw her little life snuffed out in that instant.

My baby walked in front of a car today.

I don't cry as easily as I used to, but I broke down today, and again when we got home. I prayed to God and thanked him for saving my Bubby's life, for giving her another day.

Day 4: making a pie.

Step 1: Add the dry pudding powder.



Step 2: Add the milk.



Step 3: Mix.



Step 4: Lick the beaters and spatula while waiting for the pie to set.



Step 5: Enjoy the fruits of your labors!

Hi!

I can't think of the last time I did a real update.

Jon is still in love with the new (to us) organ at the church (we just got one in PA a few weeks ago--he's been praying for a new organ for years!). He fixed one of the pedals (it kept sticking) and figured out how to get the chime unit to work. OH! I keep forgetting to mention this! A few months ago, we got hand chimes (similar to hand bells, but way cheaper). We just have two octaves right now, but Jon'd really like to have three. Anywho, we played a couple weeks ago and it went really well! I was super nervous (my stomach was in knots), but I prayed and prayed and only made two mistakes (and both of those were not playing as opposed to the worse crime of playing the wrong note at the wrong time). It was the best I'd ever done, and I really think it's because God helped me. The piece we're working on now is easier, at least for me. I'm enjoying it.

Speaking of playing, I'm almost done with my piano book! My friend Kerrie encouraged me to finish it, so I told her I'd be done by her birthday (late next week). I have three songs left and I think I'll be done. It's just that the last two are really hard for me. It's going to take some real practice. I'd love to play in church before the end of the year, too, even if I am just at a beginner level. Maybe a duet with one of the girls?

Writing is going okay. I've been sending 500-ish words a week to a friend, and I think my story's coming along better than it would otherwise. I'm also doing it differently; every story I've ever written has been written from beginning to end, but this story, I'm skipping around in. I'm still writing the events in chronological order, but I feel less pressure this way.

The past few days have been hot, hot, hot! I guess a lot of the country had a major heat wave. Jon and I were given a a/c unit (just a window thing), and we used it every day for three or four days! So while the upstairs was baking, we enjoyed being cool downstairs.

Oh, and we signed up for huluplus. I don't like it as much as Netflix (it's not as user-friendly [should there be a hyphen there?]), but it has shows Netflix doesn't. And it's the same price as Netflix, so we're paying about $16 or $17 combined for a ton of shows and movies that we could even get if we had cable. Also, we're thinking of getting a good antennae and seeing what we can pick up. I would love to have CBS!

Anyway, so Jon had vacation these past few days. We took the girls to the beach (it was crowded and I discovered I'm even more introverted than I used to be) and they had a blast. I discovered I put on sunscreen better than Jon, though. I coated Kate, but he did the other two. Jill didn't burn, but Beth did on her shoulders, and I did all on my shoulders and back. It wasn't too bad, but I think I'll be doing the applying next time! :Þ

We've decided not to get a wading pool this year. Instead, I'll just take the girls over to Mohegan Park's beach two or three times a week. I know they'll enjoy that. :) And we have a sprinkler and a Slip 'n Slide for when we're home.

Next month promises to be crazy busy. Jill has camp, and there's also VBS (I'm super excited about that--we didn't do it last summer and I really wish we had).

Oh, and I just made a pudding pie with the girls a few minutes ago, but that's one of the 31 Days of Fun, so there'll be pictures later.

Day 3: water balloon fight.

What do you do when the pegs from your daughter's Slip 'n Slide are missing? Why, fill up water balloons, of course!

Day 2: movie night.

Most Fridays, we have movie night. Jon and I have cut out a lot of TV for the girls, so this night is special to them, and while I use some movies on Netflix, I try to get ones they love or haven't seen from the library. Tonight, they're watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. But I thought I'd add a twist to the normal movie night. Movie night in a fort!