Valentine's Party

On Wednesday, our sweet neighbor Rebekah  invited us over for a Valentine's Party.  It was so much fun, and such a blessing to me.  After teaching in Immokalee for four years (where Valentine's Day is way, way crazy--the toughest holiday for me by far as a teacher!), I am not thrilled about having Valentine's Day Parties.  I was so happy to go to one that was not planned to by me.  I am so happy to go to ANY event not planned by me!

 First, they made Valentines' bags, of course.  Josiah is doing great with crafty stuff--even glue sticks!  He loves stickers, markers and crayons.  The things you see in the middle of the table, as a centerpiece, were little ribbon wands for each of the kids.

 Chloe and Lilia, two of our best backyard friends!  I love Chloe for her special 5 year old leadership.  Maryn usually lets Chloe be in charge of their play and leads the smaller kids in all kinds of pretend play, and I appreciate that a lot.

 Above, Miss Bekah was helping the girls (Ella, Ella Grace and Maryn) make bracelets.  I love this pic just because you can see all Maryn's curls!

 Love her.

And here is Josiah playing with his first sensory  box.  I filled a box with rice, measuring cups, heart shaped things, some plastic animals, etc...and he has been having a great time digging, dumping and finding hidden things in here.  A total winner.  I love this.  I love it, love it, love it.

Today we had Ella and Ella Grace over for some more Valentines activities.  We made sun catchers, filled big pieces of paper with all kinds of fun things Aunt Cathy sent us (crepe paper, stickers, foam hearts, ribbon, lace, foil, etc.), and did a few fun papers (dot to dot hearts, gluing on flower petals).  Then we read some books (Where's My Sweetie Pie? by Ed Emberley, such a good one) and played and played and played.  Then we had lunch with Miss Elise, Eli and Julia who came up and shared some of their lunches with us.  It was a great neighborly event.  Aside from the fact that all the little girls were pretty tired and were not getting along very well :)

I love our neighbors!

PS:  My hips hurt.  It took me about 2 hours just to "pick up" our house...not even really clean, just pick things up and sweep, wash dishes, etc.  UGH!!!!  I'm tired of this.

Children's Ministry is such a joy :)

I do not feel joyful to teach Cubbies tonight.  Last week this one little boy hurt my back in all of his craziness, and I pray he isn't even there tonight.  Ugh!  I wish my heart could get right.  I'm definitely needing the Holy Spirit today.  And maybe some Percoset.

Who likes tacos?

In case you are wondering why all our pictures of Josiah are of him sitting his high chair, it's because he takes 100 years to eat a meal!  But he does eat it eventually.  He's not very neat about it, but enjoys and savors his food and makes an adventure out of the little things in life.  :)  You just gotta love him.

My Missy Dee Doodle

I thought it would be fun this year to take Maryn out on dates for Valentine's Day.  A date with Mommy, and a separate date with Daddy.  I've been thinking about what to do for our date for a long time.  The first thing we did was stop at our small, locally owned party store that's right near us, Witty's Party Supply.  Maryn got to choose a balloon and a new beanie baby.

 Then we drove to the mall.  She and I have both been dying to buy her new clothes!  She's moving into size 4T, so she does need some new clothes.  For pretty much the last two years, I've had to suck it up and walk right by The Children's Place (our favorite place to get her clothes).  But TODAY we were able to spend $25 there and we totally rocked it.  She pretty much got all the things she wanted and we spent $22!  It was awesome, and she is a great shopper.

I LOVE and appreciate hand me downs, but buying our own clothes is awesome!!

 She got two new headbands, a necklace and bracelet, fingernail polish that smells like strawberries (!!!), with a strawberry nail file, and two cute new T-shirts.  So sweet.

 With our leftover $3.00 we got a chocolate milkshake with a cherry on top, no whipped cream.  Which she ordered herself like a very big girl.  "A chocolate milk shake with a cherry and no whipped cream!"

When we got home, Daddy made chicken tacos for us, with yellow rice (her favorite).  And then we made no-bake cookies.  What a great day.

On Friday night, Maryn and Daddy are going to a very special Daddy Daughter Dance.  She's been talking about it for weeks.

We love you, Missy Dee Doodle :)

Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood

Before you sponsor a candidate or fund a charity or give anyone money, you should know their history.  You should know exactly how they use the money they collect.  Tax dollars go towards a lot of things I don't like.  But Planned Parenthood is one of the worst (if not the worst).

How did Planned Parenthood begin?  Take a peek at some quotes from their founder, a real "heroine" according to society today, Margaret Sanger.  And if you aren't satisfied with just quotes (hey, maybe they were taken out of context, right?), just do your own research about her.  I dare you.

I read about this woman, and it's like I'm reading about Hitler (read more here).  I always thought maybe Pro-Life speakers were going a little overboard when they called abortion a modern day holocaust, but when I read about the history of Planned Parenthood and Eugenics, it really is a holocaust.  It's terrifying, really.

"The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it." Margaret Sanger, Women and the New Race (Eugenics Publ. Co., 1920, 1923)


On blacks, immigrants and indigents:
"...human weeds,' 'reckless breeders,' 'spawning... human beings who never should have been born."  Margaret Sanger, Pivot of Civilization, referring to immigrants and poor people
On sterilization & racial purification:
Sanger believed that, for the purpose of racial "purification," couples should be rewarded who chose sterilization. Birth Control in America, The Career of Margaret Sanger, by David Kennedy, p. 117, quoting a 1923 Sanger speech.
On the right of married couples to bear children:
Couples should be required to submit applications to have a child, she wrote in her "Plan for Peace." Birth Control Review, April 1932
On the purpose of birth control:
The purpose in promoting birth control was "to create a race of thoroughbreds," she wrote in the Birth Control Review, Nov. 1921 (p. 2)
On the rights of the handicapped and mentally ill, and racial minorities:
"More children from the fit, less from the unfit -- that is the chief aim of birth control." Birth Control Review, May 1919, p. 12

The Alligator and the Elephant (A Story Written and Illustrated by Maryn)

"This is an alligator trying to eat the paper flower and sneeze the flower down all by hisself.  The elephant came and said, 'No!  I made this flower all by myself and I don't want this flower to be sneezed down by you because you are a very bad alligator!"

Other funny things Maryn said today...

Mommy:  What kind of miracles did Jesus do?
Maryn:  He fed FIVE people!

Elijah (same age as Maryn) was eating pizza.
Me:  Who made your pizza?
Elijah:  God did.
Me:  Well I mean who cooked it for you?
Elijah:  God did.  God made pizza.
Maryn:  God makes sausage and pepperoni but who MADE your pizza for you?  Whoooo maaaaade iiiit?  Your mommy?
Elijah:  God did.
Maryn:  Who put it in the oven?
Elijah:  Jesus.
Maryn:  SIGH (Smacking herself in the forehead)

Today we were looking at some animals and Maryn was pointing at a bull dog and said, "Is this called a walrus?"  And then she pointed to a walrus and asked, "Is this a sea horse?"

I guess it would make sense for a walrus to be called a sea horse, they're so large.

Hearts

Today I am grateful for my husband, who wraps baby shower gifts for me.  I tried to get the trickiest things to wrap and he still managed to do it well.

 I am grateful for two children who could not be more different.  Maryn (in a Peter Pan pose?) practicing ballet and Josiah is his "car" that he and Maryn designed.

 Josiah.  Oh, how he loves dirt.

This has been our life.  We've been outside a lot the last few days, so those times are very relaxed and carefree.  Two hours at least, typically, of my sitting on my rear talking to the neighbor ladies while our kids play and play and play.  Josiah really doesn't get into any trouble, he just loves dirt.  Yesterday as you can see, someone brought out water and he was having a good time making mud.  I did stop that.  I think mud should be saved for spring and summer, just my opinion.  Not quite ready for mud yet!

When indoors, Maryn asks to spell things so she can type them on her little computer or on Microsoft Word, or write them on her whiteboard or paper.  She is such a little nerdy pants (like her mama).  Her favorite word to type and spell and sound out is Antarctica.  Beyond that, I just try to keep her busy so she stops asking to watch shows.  She paints, she does crafts, we play Barbies and make alphabet soup in her kitchen.

And Josiah just throws the ball around, chases cars, pounds on toys, leaps from furniture piece to furniture piece, sometimes making some seriously bad judgments on space and how far he can jump.  He has also started getting a little rough with his sister, and has bitten her a few times now, usually pretty hard.  He has vampire teeth, so it really does hurt BAD.  I've experienced it myself a time or two (oh yes, and it was the reason I stopped nursing a bit early!).  Today he got a long time out in his bed for leaving teeth marks on her arm.

I love my kiddos.  I'm so excited to have a MAY baby, so I'll be able to just go outside and let my older two play and play and play.  I'm thinking we might need to get a new, stronger baby monitor so that I can hear little Owen while we are out.

Happy Spring!  Oh wait, it's February.  :)

Sunday Sweetness

John and Maryn made omelets after church.  We also ate the cheesy potatoes I made late last night and of course, leftover Krispy Kremes!

Look at our tiny kitchen.  Our little house is starting to bother me as I get bigger and bigger.  It seems everywhere I walk I have to "squeeze" through something or use special martial arts skills to get where I need to go.  I've been tripping all over the place (including over my own children), hitting my head on things, and running right into walls sometimes because I underestimate my size and ability to balance.  Too much counterweight.

Dreams
It's harder to be content when I'm tired.  I had the craziest dreams last night.  I dreamed that all these people, probably every person I know, was coming up to me and asking me questions.  The questions didn't make sense, but I was trying to answer them.  Worst dream ever!

Then I had a dream I went to a trendy new church and their Sunday School Classes had names like, MMA and WWE.  MMA stood for "Mixed, Multi-Age," WWE was "Women" something.

Our church's Sunday School classes are called ABFs (Adult Bible Fellowships) and in Florida our Sunday School classes were BLGs (Bible and Life Groups).  I don't understand why they can't just be called Sunday School.  What's wrong with Sunday School?

Then I had a dream that one of our neighbor friends was storing her fingernail polish remover in Pez dispensers..  We went to her house and a little girl friend of Maryn's was opening the Pez dispensers and spilling fingernail polish remover every where.  It was a huge mess!  And her mom was so mad at the little girl for getting into things, and I just kept thinking, "But why is she storing her fingernail polish remover inside Pez dispensers?"

I'm tired, uncomfortable, kind of in pain, annoyed and frustrated, and emotional, but usually quite happy.  It's been a great weekend, but cold.  My joints hurt a lot.  I could hardly make it up the stairs and my hands are freezing up on me at times.  Our sermon and Sunday School class today was about contentment.  I think I'll go look over those notes and re-read the passages we covered.  :)  Happy Sunday!

pregnancy has its perks :)

Painting with pink pudding!  Yum!

Rudolph the Butter-Nosed Reindeer!

Today was another day John let me sleep in till 9:00 while he got the kids up, fed and ready for their day.  I was still pretty worn out by 4:00.  No matter what, I always hit a wall at about 4:00, but it used to be 2:00.

Then came a series of events...Kroger, Target, Seminary bookstore and rec center, naptime, Mister Rogers, dinner, Blockbuster, Kroger again, and then DONUT SHOP!  John and Maryn got the groceries, John made lunch AND dinner (for us and for a family who just had a baby), and he says today was more exhausting than a day at work.  Hard to believe huh?

Shwew!

Daddy is our hero!

Daddy took us bowling.  This was Maryn and Josiah's first time in a bowling alley.  What fun it was!  Our kids didn't quite understand that they had to wait their turn before running around on the alleys...or that no, you can NOT chase those big bowling balls right down the alleys!  

This is one of my favorite pictures ever.  Ever, ever.

 And this is what I found when I woke up yesterday morning.  When John is home from work, he's been letting me sleep in till 8, 9 or later as he feeds the kids breakfast and does all the morning stuff.  Yay!  I've been super tired.

I had my first WIC appointment for myself (during this pregnancy) this morning.  I've gained 17 pounds!  Which is normal but it's so, so weird to see that number on the scale.  I weigh HOW much?!  What!?

Life is good.  So is pizza.  And fried food.  ;-)

Valentine's Day EASY Craft!

I found this idea on Pinterest today and we put it together!  This was one of those days I was glad some people see me as crafty.  We used a lot of things donated or given to us by others for this craft I was able to pull together in minutes.  Get the directions here.  Ours doesn't look nearly as neat as the one on the Martha Stewart blog.  But we had fun with it anyway.  Thanks Beth and Donna for your contributions to our craft today!

This is my third blog of the day, just FYI, in case you missed one :)

Bible Lessons

Maryn loves to spell.  Look what she put on our craft for our Bible lesson today.  :)

I really find most Bible study curriculums and ideas for preschoolers and toddlers kind of lame, or confusing for small kids.  This kind of leaves me to do things on my own.  I always wondered what other families do with their kids for family worship time and Bible lessons, so I just thought I'd share how we do it.  Although it changes all the time.

I usually just read along in Maryn's Bible story books (either The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes or The Jesus Storybook Bible) with whatever they are working on in Sunday School.  Maryn's Sunday School class sends home a great newsletter (kind of like a Weekly Reader) that has a Bible story, little games, activities, mazes, poems, songs or hand rhymes and other ideas for parents.  Josiah's Sunday School class sends home a great newsletter too with the sweetest little hand rhymes and songs, and simple little activities.  These two resources help me tremendously.

A few weeks before Christmas, we started reading about the birth of Christ, so we read Luke 2 again and again, about once or twice a day.  That's how Maryn learned it almost by heart.  Kids memories are incredible.  And we did little crafts and things as we went along.  I find most of those ideas now on Pinterest or dltk.com.  DLTK has a bunch of coloring sheets--probably a waste of paper for most kids, but you know how Maryn loves to color!

Then we learned about the wise men, Jesus as a boy, John the Baptist and Jesus' baptism, and then the calling of Jesus' disciples.

We just read a Bible story from her books or the actual Bible during our breakfast (my kids won't sit still any other time of day besides meals as they stuff their faces, and I find they do listen better).  OR we do the Cubbies lesson/practice the verse of the week for Cubbies.  OR we finish the newsletters from church, and discuss the crafts and things she made at Sunday School.

I'm getting way off topic.  Sorry!

So anyway, I wanted to share this CUTE disciples song we learned last week.  We don't sing the last verse.  But I love this.  Maryn is so cute singing it!

Tune of "Jesus Loves Me"

Jesus called them one by one,
Peter, Andrew, James and John,
Next, came Philip, Thomas too,
Matthew and Bartholomew.
Chorus-
Yes, Jesus called them,
Yes, Jesus called them,
Yes, Jesus called them,
He called them one by one.


James the one they called the less,
Simon, also Thaddeus,
Twelfth apostle Judas made,
Jesus was by him betrayed.
Repeat Chorus.

Matthias then took Judas' place,
To preach to men of every race,
Paul three preaching trips did make,
And went to Rome for Jesus' sake.

Now this week I'm trying to do all the most famous Peter stories or disciples and Jesus stories.  That's why we made the boat you see above.  I think we'll use it do the Jesus Calms the Storm story and the Jesus (and Peter) Walks on Water story.  We have a good Keith and Kristyn Getty song called "Once Upon a Boat," that's about Jesus calming the storm.  It's pretty cute.  I need more kids' Bible songs because I know very few.

Isn't it a lot harder to teach New Testament stories to preschoolers?  Teaching about the walls of Jericho falling down and Noah's Ark and the parting of the Red Sea was a lot easier and more "fun!"  But I think the best Bible lessons, even at age 3, are simple and straightforward.  I really hesitate to do anything too abstract., like some of the lessons I see online.  But since Maryn does love to color and do crafts, I try to get fun stuff like that sometimes in our Bible lessons.

yucky sick Monday

 Our sweetie pie Maryn has been feeling ill for the last week or so.  Not necessarily sick sick, but not herself. Not sleeping well, or less of an appetite, etc.  On Saturday she ate almost nothing.  I think she had two bites of solid food all day.  She didn't want cookies or mandarin oranges!  I planned to take her to the doctor if she didn't get better by today (Monday).  Then she woke up with a fever this morning, after a long night of very little sleep and lots of bad dreams.  But she seems much better now, just tired.  Too much information, sorry.

Here's our little prince eating pasta.  "More in my nose please, Mommy!"

Future Chef?

Just look how excited he is to "cook!"  Josiah has been a very enthusiastic chef in the real kitchen, in the Play Doh kitchen and in Maryn's play kitchen.  He loves to cook.  And the best part, he loves to share his creations with others.  I love it.  And I love my sweet little guy.

 Yep, he is totally psyched the entire time he cooks.

Josiah's sleep schedule got so messed up this weekend.  I tried to change his nap time to 1:00 or so, but um...that didn't work out so well.  He was up till 10, 11, 11:30 pm the last few nights.  Last night I just went with it, and spent some great quality time with my baby (sniff, sniff).  He LOVED baking cookies with his mama!  This is something Maryn and I usually do while he sleeps.  So this was a very special treat.

 He ate lots of cookie dough.  And he LAUGHED at every ingredient I put in the bowl, especially the brown sugar.  He giggled at the mixer spinning everything together.  How could I let this sweet child cry in his bed?  Why would I do such a thing?  We had loads more fun in the kitchen, and I didn't miss my television or facebook one bit, and the laundry got folded in the morning.

Maryn, almost 18 months old:

http://mandilu.blogspot.com/2010/03/i-love.html

Sweetness

Josiah frequently lays his head on his sister, and she coddles him like any big sister should.  :)

This is Josiah and his baby, whom he cares for so sweetly.  I am feeling so good about having another baby boy.  That being said, I do mourn the "loss" of the idea of having another girl.  Maryn and I were hoping for a little Lucy, but maybe some day, a few years from now, God will bless us with another baby girl.  Right now I truly don't think there's room for another female in our home (which I'll explain later).

 Here's Maryn (Rapunzel) and Eli (Flynn) attacking Elijah (a bad guy).  Don't worry, they didn't hurt him.  :)

The last couple days have just been hard on me.  All of us besides John had flu shots on Friday and it has wiped us out.  Josiah had four shots, and Maryn had three.  It was miserable.  I like to try to follow a slower vaccination plan, where each kid only gets two at a time, at most.  But as a one car family on a tight budget, we fell far, far behind.  So I felt it was time to load up.

Anyway, Maryn is just having one of those weeks.  It's like she has PMS once a month or something.  So moody, grouchy and intolerable.  I've been pretty much up to my eyeballs in Maryn madness.  Her hormones on top of my already out of whack hormones are not a pretty picture.  We really haven't been very nice to each other.  I hope she doesn't grow up to be a "mean girl."  I feel that she's headed that way sometimes.

Whatever happens with any  of my kiddos, I know that God's glory will shine through.  I do believe he works all things together for good.  And whether my kids grow to love Jesus or despise him, or live their lives to glorify him or live lives of sin and rebellion, His glory will shine through and I will try to show my kids the grace and love my Father shows me.  But I sure hope he helps me tap into his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in the day to day, hour to hour, moment to moment stuff.  Isn't that the hardest?

Parenting is hard.  hard.  hard.

Maryn and School Update

This post really is for my own reference, so sorry if it's so boring.  You won't hurt my feelings if you skip it.  ;-)

It's the way I think, and probably the way I always will.  Because I have always loved school (at least the idea of school), my mind works in semesters, holidays, common school themes and I will probably always have a list in my mind of developmental milestones because I had to take developmental psychology twice.  Not because I failed the first time, but my credits didn't transfer from the community college to Muskingum.  And you know what?  I was happy to take developmental psychology again.  That's what a nerd I am.

So when January rolled around, I started thinking about things to do with Maryn and Josiah.  Josiah, obviously, just plays while we do "school" stuff, and he reads with us, and plays our little games, is always the life of the dance party we usually have each school day, and loves any kind of hand rhymes or song.  

Maryn has been a lot tougher, because I have this notion that eventually I'll need to get a curriculum--either a comprehensive one like SonLight or a few different ones for individual subjects.  Since nearly all my friends home school, we talk about those curriculums a lot and I get to see them often.  But I just haven't seen anything I think will work for Maryn yet, at least not for reading.

I'm not sure why I worry about such things.  I never really used a reading curriculum as a teacher.  I much prefer doing my own thing, and I should be more confident in my abilities.  Early Childhood and Reading Specialist degrees aside, I am Maryn's mommy and therefore, I can do this.  Plus, it's Maryn.  I'm pretty sure she won't be illiterate.

Maryn keeps tricking me into thinking she's ready to read.  She asks what everything says, tries to sound out words, asks how things are spelled, and now even asks what "oo" says, or "sh," etc.  But when I try to sit with her and help her read a book, she's not interested.  

But this girl wants to know phonics.  She wants to know how words work.  I know, she's three, it's weird.  But I pulled this game out my Aunt Cathy sent us, and I was very surprised that Maryn could read every -op word, with just a little help.

I guess it makes sense why she would be a phonics girl right now and not a reading a book kind of girl because words like "you" and "the" certainly don't make sense to her.  She knows letter sounds, so she wants to be able to sound things out.  She's not ready to understand "the" or even "and."  So I guess we're stuck playing word games for a while, and reading lots and lots of books.

I've decided to forget about reading curriculums, and just use Spalding Phonics to teach her to read and spell.  That's a program I learned while teaching that requires no materials aside from notebook paper, some flashcards that cost about $11 and maybe a book to help me remember what I'm doing, especially after first grade.  It's a program that goes right up through 6th grade.  Can't beat that!

I'm pretty confident in teaching kids to read just by using trade books, as opposed to special phonics books.  Think "Sig the pig did a jig on the rig."  And there's plenty of fun little worksheets, songs, rhymes, poems, games, etc. online or to make that will provide extra practice.

The problem with a lot of Pre-K and Kindergarten reading curriculums is that they focus so much on the letters and letter sounds, which Maryn already knows.  Yes, she could still use practice, but it would be a waste of time to spend a whole week on the letter Aa, for example.  And I'm not convinced that sort of idea even works very well.  Some of the best phonics programs (and I am very picky, you can imagine) are $200-$300.  Ack!  

If we got a comprehensive program like Sonlight, I think the math and everything would be right on for her, whatever age she is.  But the reading (the phonics) would probably be way off.  I much prefer doing our own thing, and doing what is right for Maryn and catering it for what she needs.  Isn't that supposed to be the joy of home schooling?

So far, I love home schooling.  I can already see the benefits so clearly.  John and I are already learning so much along with her.  I'm even making John do the "Drawing with Children" stuff with us, and just as I suspected, he can draw splendidly.  It gets my creative juices flowing and is helping all of us think outside the box and look for learning opportunities and teachable moments all the time.  So fun.  ;-)

Play Time!

 The last two days we had our new little friends, Elijah and Levi, over for play time.  Yesterday they were with us from 10 am - 2:30 pm!  We had so much fun.  All four kids played back in Maryn's room for an hour and a half.  I didn't even have to go back there at all!  I got some mailing stuff done, did some reading, and ate a few treats while the kids weren't looking.  ;-)

 Levi and Josiah really play well together.  Josiah LOVES having boys over!

 And um, Maryn loves it, too...

 After lunch (grilled cheese!), they colored and did Play Doh and played some more, and then we watched Tangled.  Because their nap time is usually at 1:00, and they were all starting to get a little feisty.

After I took the boys home, I told Maryn we'd make cookies.  So we got out all the ingredients, and guess who woke up?  Josiah, of course.  And obviously Maryn didn't want to wait too long to make those cookies (there were marshmallows and candy bars in the recipe, so she was desperate for a taste).  So I got to cook with two kids in our miniature kitchen, which I assure you is a great pleasure.  :-/

Above you see them helping me cook.  Looks fun, huh?

Today we picked up Elijah and Levi, and Elise Downstairs volunteered to take Maryn if I took her son Eli for some boy time at our house.  So I had the pleasure of having four boys at our house, ages 1, 2, 3, and 4!  It was so much fun.  I've concluded that boys are definitely louder than girls, but boys (the boys here anyway) are a little better at keeping busy and actually make less messes.  Because most of the time they were just chasing each other and sword fighting...not too messy.

When Maryn came back they spent an hour or so playing "Tangled," and she got to be Rapunzel of course.  Eli was Flynn, and he was being so sweet to her!  I am really happy about that because Maryn and Eli really used to clash.

Now we are getting ready for a big appointment at the seminary clinic.  Josiah is supposed to get four shots.  I usually limit them to two at a time, but we are so, so, so very behind and WIC and our pediatricians are starting to wonder about me.  Plus our little friend thought she may have whooping cough and I kind of flipped out since Josiah definitely is not fully vaccinated against that.  'Tis the season!  But we are staying healthy this year, so far.

Josiah has a pretty bad cold, but I am hoping this time it doesn't develop into bronchitis, pneumonia, etc. like it usually did last year, and Maryn hasn't gotten it yet.  Miracle!  I am using those Shaklee vitamins in their juice and letting them eat clementines all day.  They are both eating and sleeping well, so hopefully we can fight those germs.

Happy Play Time!  Serve your neighbors somehow this week.  It really is a pleasure.  ;-)

It's a great day to be alive.

I had a great day!  I had a rough day.  Here are some highlights.  I didn't have time to take pictures.

I love our neighbors.

I held a newborn baby, Roslyn.  She lives just across the street.  Oh my word, she is so precious!  Like the kind of precious that makes me just want to melt right into the floor.

It's Elise Downstairs' birthday, and she took Maryn for a couple hours this morning, wore her out thoroughly outside, and then watched Josiah during Food Line.

Bekah and Drew Across the Hall took Maryn to the playground through most of Food Line and then to their house, and then took Josiah so Elise could get ready for her big birthday date night.  Then Bekah and Drew Across the Hall took Maryn after dinner, along with Elise Downstairs' three kids, and wore her out even more!  Apparently they actually let their kids climb their loft we gave them and Maryn fell off the ladder.  I guess it's a good idea we didn't ever let Maryn do that...

Food Line day is hard core rough on the dinner time madness, as I usually get home at 5:30, am husbandless, and the kids are famished.  So I just used some of the canned goods as our dinner, which the kids loved.  I mean, these kids are insane about canned fruit.  Ha.  Who knew?

Maryn and I nearly finished off a whole bag of Hershey's Mint Miniature Chocolate bars because she kept asking for them, and let's face it, I wanted some too...so, I had to share.  ;-)

Then came the part when both of my babies fell asleep on me.

And now my in utero baby is bouncing around happily.

Life is good.

Hallway Play Date

We had our hallway friends over this morning for a little play date.  The kids usually behave pretty well and the mommies get to talk.  And no one even has to walk outside.  :)

Miss Elise being Miss Preschool Teacher :)

Ella Grace, her daughter, Ella, Bekah's daughter, and Maryn

 Elise's youngest, Julia.  They live right downstairs.

 Elise, Julia, Josiah, Weston and Miss Bekah (who lives across the hall)

Almost an update

None of my pictures will load!  Boo.  Guess you'll have to check facebook.

I'm planning a post about the book Drawing with Children by Mona Brookes for later.  I need to get my pictures off my phone first.  Then I'll be able to explain it better.  ;-)

We've been rather busy playing outside the last few days.  What a blessing that has been.

Playtime with Josiah

Josiah loves to rock in his rocking chair.  He loves to walk right into his Sunday school class all on his own.  He loves to stay at the neighbors' an extra hour after I go home.

 He loves his new toy shelf.  It's the ugly thing that used to be in our dining room.  It was very sad and pathetic looking.  But it looks all right in a little boy's room.

 John and I made a special effort to play with Josiah today.  The kids take opposite quiet times now, and during his nap, we play with Maryn and give her special attention.  But during her quiet time, we clean or get things done around the house, or facebook...etc.  Josiah is such a sweet little boy, but he kind of just does his own thing.  So it's easy to get side tracked, thinking, "He's happy.  He's busy.  I can get this and this and this done now..."  But play time is so important!

So here's to play.  I hope you get to play a little today, too.

Polar Bears and Wise Men :)

There's so many cool ideas for snow paint.  Here's one we tried today, and it dries so puffy.  It's so cool!  Only Maryn didn't understand that you need to leave globs of the stuff so that it stays puffy.  So I did the puffy snowman and she did all the scribbling.  :)  Oh well.

 Look at our cute wise men!  I don't think the handprints look like camels, but oh well.  We tried.

 And here's our snow bear.  Maryn cut out all the shapes and the sign he's holding is some of the basic facts we've learned about polar bears.  They are pretty interesting animals.

I love learning along with my daughter.  It's so much fun!

Happy New Year! 2012

We've been busy playing with our new toys.  Here's Maryn with her hair dryer in front of her mirror.

 We've been busy doing school.  Here she is making a pattern on the letter P.

 Here's John and Maryn on New Year's Eve.  Josiah went to bed before seven, and Maryn got to stay up till 8:30 (gasp!) playing games, watching movies and eating junk food with Mommy and Daddy!

 Here's Miss Maryn on New Year's Day, headed off to church.  She's wearing a new dress she got for Christmas.  And she has a ponytail, with a flower in it she got from Uncle Mark and Aunt Melissa.  Isn't she beautiful?

 My handsome guys.

 And the lovely ladies.  Except Maryn looks like she has a hangover.  :)

We will be blessed in 2012, whatever happens, and I hope you will be too!  Because all things work together for good for those who love God.  In the words of our friend Shaina (baby Chaia's mommy):  "May this New Year bring not only what we would want, but what God would have for us! He is truly good and faithful!"


And as you make resolutions, remember this:  Jesus wants you right where you are.  You don't have to clean up to come to him.  He will take you broken and dirty, lost, depressed, or anxious.  He does love you.