Colorado: Family Vacation 2012

September 9 marked the children's first plane ride.  We flew out to Colorado Springs to visit family and enjoy a once in a lifetime experience for two amazing weeks.  It was a wonderful break from the norm!  The kids were psyched, and their excitement was contagious.  I was excited because they were excited.  Fall is well underway out there.  I missed seeing red leaves mixed with their yellow and orange ones, but the landscape and scenery encouraged me to pull out my fall decor as soon as we got home. Heading down from Pike's Peak.  Hannah fell asleep on the way down because the sudden increase in elevation, 14,110 feet up, was too much for her system.  

Taken while I was trying NOT to look out the window to our impending doom! The bicyclists skeered me a little bit... a lot!  That black shadow in the background is the shadow of a cloud.  Awesome doesn't begin to describe it!

I took several hundred pictures.  Digital photography is great.  Such instant gratification.  Now, I need to go back through all the pictures and choose a few to share.  We went almost everywhere, and it just occurred to me that we never went back to the candy shop where they made the most amazing peanut butter cups.  They were more like peanut butter cupcakes.  They were huge!

US Olympic Training Center...although most athletes were at home recovering, I assume.

San Diego

Leave it to Deron to make friends with the most eccentric and interesting 70 year old lady on his flight out to San Diego.

First off, it was hard for him to leave because Grace begged him to take her with him.  She assured him she'd let him pack her up in his suitcase if she could go.  I'm not sure if she wanted to get on a plane or if she actually wanted to go with her daddy.  We told her it was against the law to get on the plane inside a suitcase and that she had to have a ticket.  She decided she really didn't want to go to jail, so her desperate plea soon ended.  Sweet little thang.

So he's on the plane ATL to SAN. It was a crowded flight, and he happened to sit next to "one old SC lady."  That's what she called herself.  She's a counselor from South Carolina.  Right now, she counsels soldiers who are adjusting to life back home after being in a war zone.  Once they were in the air, she insisted on finding the only serviceman on the plane and continued to insist on buying him something to eat.  He told her it wasn't necessary, but she wouldn't take no for an answer.  She gave the money to the flight attendant and made sure it would be spent on keeping this man from being the slightest bit hungry.

She sat down by Deron and peppered him with questions about his life, his family.  And she proceeded to counsel him.  First, she was listening to something and put the earbud right in his ear and said, "Here.  Listen to this."  What would you do if a grandma came up to you and told you to listen?  You'd listen.  So he did.  It was parenting advice.  Amazing parenting advice.  Basically it was all about listening to your children.  

Let me pause this story to say that I completely understand how hard that can be.  My attention can be pulled in so many directions all at once, but somewhere inside me I know that if I want my children to talk to me, then I need to be listening to them.  Sometimes it's hard when they talk all. the. flippin'. time.  But nonetheless, I must listen now when they want to talk about their childhood, what they're interested in, what they like, what they don't like, how they feel, what is truly important to them.  I must be attentive.  I must not give flippant answers when I haven't been paying real attention.  They know, and if we're not listening they'll stop talking.  

It takes effort, or at least, it does for me.  My four children talk a lot. They seem to want to tell me something all the time.  And for a person who is refreshed in the quiet, it's difficult to have four little people who want my attention.  It wears me out to listen and hear all that they have to say.  But I know that there is a time coming when they won't just want to talk.  They'll need to.  And I want my kids to know that I'm here for them anytime, anywhere.

Back to the SC lady.  She said that so many times, children can reason through things as they talk to someone, but as parents, it's hard to just listen.  We want the path with least resistance.  We want to fix things quickly so we can move on.  We want them to adopt our point of view just because. 

And because I want to raise children who can depend on me and yet not be dependent on me, I need to help their minds process things.  I need to help them communicate effectively and part of communication is listening. As the saying goes, more is caught than taught.  If I listen, really listen to them, maybe they will learn to listen to the people they encounter in their own lives.  Our time at home with our children is limited.  May we be truly present for them.

I plan to transcribe the letter the old SC lady gave him on the plane soon.  It's mostly about life and marital advice.  She was something special, and I never even met her.  But I know this, she changed my life.

The Backyard Congo

Ethan bought Grace a small pool for her birthday.  An expensive pool.  He spent $20.00 on that pool, and they turned it into a boat for our bigger pool. 

The pools are now a part of the imaginary backyard Congo.  They have a toy alligator that they throw in the water and “catch.”  My two longest towels have turned into anacondas that they capture, repeatedly.  They wrap their anaconda towels around their bodies and allow themselves to be "constricted."  Then, another kiddo rescues the victim and pulls them into the boat.

I wonder if I need to be concerned… Daniel alternates using a Swamp People accent and an Australian accent down in the Congo, so I know one thing.

We need to work on geography but not their ability to use their fantastical imagination.

Sisters.

Happy Birthday, Grace!

My precious Grace,

Four years ago, God blessed our lives in a mighty way.  You joined our family and life was never the same.   

It’s wild that when you joined the family, it’s like you were always there.  It’s difficult to even remember what life was like without your sweet voice, without your sweet smile.  Like our lives were missing you, and we didn’t even know it.

This has been a wonderful year of growth for you, my dear girl.  Although you talk nonstop at home, you hesitate to be a social thing.  You like to hang with your mom, and I’m totally cool with it since I know in my heart of hearts that this is a stage, and it is passing, quickly passing.  You are growing up, and you don’t need my presence to feel safe as often as you used to. 

This year has been marked with a significant growth spurt.  Your legs have gotten so long.  You’re still a slender little thing, and your feet are still as tiny as they were last year.  They may have grown a half size.  You’re going to be a skinny, long-legged girl with teeny feet.  You cut your bangs a few weeks ago, and I thought I was going to have a stroke!  They’ve finally grown out…{sigh}

You’ll start preschool this coming school year.  You sat in with Hannah and the boys for a good portion of our year last year, but you have your own things for this coming fall.  That excites you in a magnificent way.

 

I love the way you dance around the living room and the way you jump into the pool without a concern in the world. I love that you tried to convince your swimming instructor that you wanted to be a mermaid when you grew up, and you needed to know how to swim with your ankles crossed.

 I love the way you paint and color everything pink because your world is pink and in your eyes, everything ought to be pink.  

I love that you trust so completely and that everything in your little world is impressive and exciting.  You are a joy and you find joy in your life even at four years old.  You seem to celebrate the little things as you explore your world. I hope I can encourage you to continue that attitude since you inspire me to find all the joy that you find.

The Lord has certainly blessed your heart with a sweet, generous spirit that genuinely cares about the people around you.  Last week, as we took care of your little cousins, you awoke in the night worried that one of the boys would wake and be afraid in the night.  So you went to spend the rest of the night sleeping by him.  In the dead of night, you thought of him.  That, my dear, is a moment of complete selflessness. 

You are precious, and I love enjoying childhood with you, my little one.  May the Lord bless this year in a special way. 

I love you,

Mommy

2011-2012 School Year Wrap up

We finished our school year May 9^th.  This year was our best year yet.  I’m not entirely sure why because there were so many days that were more or less “Plan B” days. There were days that didn’t go according to plan or according to my schedule or the schedule I thought sounded good…the schedule that looked like a dream come true on paper. 

Life rarely goes according to schedule, and one of my goals is to teach my kids to be flexible, to adapt.  My own personality really, really wants things to go smoothly, according to MY plan.  I like to plan.  I like to make lists, and I want to check off everything on my list. 

I want things to go perfectly.  But life is not perfect.  Things rarely go perfectly.

I worry when the extras don’t fit in or when I only complete the extras.  I worry that we don’t do enough hands on projects, and on days when we are mostly hands on, I worry we haven’t had enough structure or bookwork.  I always worry that I haven’t done enough as a mom, as a home educator, that I haven’t been enough of what I need to be.  Have I, gasp, socialized everyone enough?  Or have we been out and about too much?  I have a hard time finding that happy medium when we’re in the thick of things.

Then, I hear my husband’s voice so many times cheering me on, telling me that the children are learning a lot more than I think they are…even when we haven’t checked off every assignment or gone over every little detail.  Now that we’re done with our official year, I can see the big picture of what we’ve learned a little clearer.  I am so thankful for this year and the time I’ve spent with the kids.

Highlights:

Time and time again, I’ve had one or more of the children begging for another chapter of whichever read aloud we’re doing.  I’ve also had them make nonchalant remarks about the things we’re studying and play games based on the ancient history we’ve studied.  Charades was a good one.  One had to act out a historical event, and the others had to guess which event that was.

I’ve had the kids in the kitchen more…which is a huge learning curve for me because I don’t really like the mess they make all that much.  They are learning a lot of new chores.  They’re folding their own laundry and cleaning their own rooms.  They’re vacuuming and doing the dishes. I’ve always done some chores, but they’re capable of a lot more than I was giving them credit for.  All of this should have started when they were younger, and I would let them try their hand at things sporadically. But sometimes I did it all so it would get done right the first time. 

Bad idea.  Then you have to train them how to do things they need to know how to do after they’ve formed so many bad habits.  So…chore lists for everyone.  And everyone pitches in. Period. 

Ethan is reading…really, reading.  It was a long road to get us to this point, and there is certainly room for improvement.  But isn’t there always room for improvement for everyone about something?  I am so happy for him.  It’s become one of his favorite subjects.  Other subjects are going well, but reading is definitely the highlight of our year for him.

Daniel’s reading is progressing well.  He’s reading some every night before bed to help him sleep.  He has a “thing” about going to sleep.  He gets so worried about being able to sleep, he has a hard time getting to sleep.  He’s pretty high strung, so it takes him a while to wind down. So the fact that he asks for a book to help him relax is a pretty major deal.

Hannah loves her school time.  She is ready and willing to do reading, math, handwriting anytime, anywhere.  She is the one who begs to have a reading lesson and then will proceed to ask me for one more.  So with her attitude, I think she’s already doing well.  She’s also my little helper and has a phenomenal attitude regarding chores.  She asks for her own list and gets busy.  

Grace was thrilled when we bought her a couple of books for next year.  She, literally, squealed when I brought her books out for her to browse through.  She’s so excited to be at the big table with the others and even more excited that she has her own things.  It’s a blessing to witness her enthusiasm.

So while I don’t believe homeschooling is for everyone, I do believe it’s for us, for now.

Happy Birthday, Ethan!

To my amazing firstborn,

Ethan, you have grown up so much in the last year.  One year away from double digits with feet almost as big as mine. Sometimes, I even “borrow” your socks.  And height…you’re so tall and broad.  You’re growing like a weed, and I know it won’t be long before I’m looking up to you.

But even while I watch you grow into the young man that God would have you to be, I can still see you curled up in my arms. An eight pound little miracle blessing, sleeping peacefully. How the last nine years have flown by!

You’ve completed third grade and, miraculously, have decided that reading is your favorite subject and that long division is completely unnecessary for your adult life. Right?  You love science and all things nature related.  Anything that takes you outside is good, and you’ve learned how to make anything into a lesson. I can hear your voice as you catch frogs and find snake skins.  “That’s schoolish. Right, Mom?”

You are a huge help around the house and really want to please people. Some days it seems as if you want to be in the midst of the younger children, but other days, you want to be hanging out with the adults.  There's a part of you that is longing to grow up.

You care about your siblings in a very special way, and I’m thankful you all like each other.   I know you love one another, but I’m grateful that you like each other…most of the time!

You are a precious child and I am thankful to be your mom.

I love you so much, Ethan!

Love,

Mommy