Family Vacation

Except for math, we have ended our school year!  To celebrate we scheduled our family vacation to Tennessee.  We have driven through Tennessee a couple times on our way to Florida, this year we decided to spend an entire vacation there.  We stayed at a condo in Fairfield Glade.  We really wanted a laid back vacation with little running around - we wanted to enjoy nature and just hang out.  

Our first full day was spent visiting a local attraction.  Less than 10 minutes from where we were staying the worlds largest tree house was built by a local pastor who felt that God had directed him to create an attraction that would be free to families.  It was huge!

The tree house was 10 stories tall!  It was very rustic.  So rustic that there were several places I questioned how safe it really was  :)

On this vacation we discovered that Sweet Baby has some real fears.  This particular day we realized her intense fears of heights (she gets that from her dad).  She has never liked walking up or down stairs that do not have risers on the backs and she really did not like each and every story we continued to climb in this tree house.   It was necessary to do alot of cajoling to get her to take the stairs up each story.  When we hit about story 6, she would not go any further.  I stayed back with her while the rest of the gang continued going up.  Amid the backwoods/rustic feel of the tree house, this beautiful stained glass window hung.

When you reached the top (or nearly the top) and looked out the one side of the tree house, you could see this mowed into the lawn.

The older girls did not mind the heights at all until they reached about floor 8 - it was at this point that both daddy and Peanut decided they had gone far enough and then made the descent.  

This backwoods Tennessee attraction was complete with a swing....a very "hillbilly-ish" swing.  It was made from a lawn chair, rope and duct tape - yep, duct tape! 

In the following picture you can see Sissy taking a ride on the swing, though I really thought you would enjoy another view of the tree house.

To end this day we made our way back to the condo  and changed to go swimming.  If I asked the girls what their favorite part of our trip was, more than likely they would all say swimming.  They are all like fish!  Sissy perfected back flips underwater and the other girls just enjoyed splashing around.  Now...if you asked mom what her favorite part of the trip was, I would have to say, sitting in the hot tub each night watching the girls swim.  Ahhhhhh.......

Teeny Diaper Delivery

This past week I took my first group of teeny diapers to one of our local hospitals.  In February I did a post that told you about Teeny Tears and their mission to provide preemie and micro preemie diapers for stillborn babies and their family.  The baby is dressed in a diaper and then a second, matching diaper goes to the family as a keepsake.  Being someone who does not sew, it took me a couple week to get these few done, but it was much fun!  Aren't they the cutest?  I'm looking forward to sewing up some more, as well as looking forward to seeing flannel go on sale so I can pick up some more. 

Just before taking the diapers up to the hospital, the girls and I sat and prayed for the families that would be receiving a diaper.  As I was walking out the door Sissy said, "Wouldn't it be neat if a family needed one of these today?"  The innocence of a child right?  Of course it would not be "neat"...sadness, grief and destroyed dreams accompany these diapers, but yes, it would be neat to fill a void for one of those families.  My biggest prayer is that God provide comfort to a family that suffers an infant loss and if the family is not a believer, that somehow, God uses their experience to draw them near to Him.

The Door in the Wall

We have been working on two read-aloud's over the last month and have recently finished up.  Yesterday we finished The Door in the Wall by Marguerite deAngeli.  This is a sweet book about a young boy, Robin,  who desires to become a knight, like his father but he has become sick and lost the use of his legs.  His father is gone fighting the Scots and his mother is traveling with the Queen.  A kind and loving friar, Brother Luke, cares for Robin until he can be reunited with his family.  A message arrives that Robin must meet his father at Castle Lindsay.  For a young boy with physical limitations, the journey is going to be quite difficult - and dangerous.  However, with his traveling companions, Robin learns alot about who he is and what he can accomplish.

The girls really enjoyed this book.  I was a bit afraid since the verbage can be difficult at times.  Here is a quick section from the book: 

    "If they hands are busy, time will pass more quickly.  Dost like to whittle?"

    "Of course," answered Robin.  "Who does not?  But I have nought to whittle." 

    "I shall find thee a piece of soft pine and will lend thee my knife. 'Tis sharp and of good steel.  This

     bench will fit against thy back to support thee."

When I began reading, I honestly thought I would not get much past the 2nd chapter, I was afraid the verbage would prove to difficult in reading and for the girls comprehension.  It was actually fun to read and the girls did not struggle to much.  Even Sweet Baby would beg for me to start a new chapter each day. 

This fit in wonderfully where we are in our study of medieval times.  Now, on to something new.  I have yet to decide what our new read aloud will be.  Sweet Baby is lobbying for another Ramona Quimby book, something lighter.  I'll let you know what I choose when I decide.

Studying the Stars

The little girls are currently studying our universe. Peanut is especially excited since this is the topic she chose about this time last year. I do not know why I am surprised since she is the one that gets excited over anything new she is learning about. She is truly a homeschooling mom's dream.

We are using God's Design again and have only just begun. We have discussed rotation and revolution and how that determines our seasons and this week we began discussing the stars. I found an amazing book at the library titled, The Glow in the Dark Night Sky Book by Clint Hatchett. As its title states, the stars glow in the dark. The book has the night sky divided into what you should see at various times of the year - early summer, late summer. In addition, each season uses 2 pages to show the constellations. One page shows the constellation with its names and the stars connected like a dot-to-dot, while the other page shows the constellations drawn inside the mythological creatures they represent.  The girls loved "charging up" the pictures and then running down to the school room to turn off the lights and look at the images.

I found a cute constellation book on Pinterest that I decided to try.  the book was made with white card stock cut about 3 3/4 x 5.  I scored the pages at equal intervals and made an accordion book.  The girls then used the glow in the dark book to choose several constellations to make in their own book. 

Sweet Baby used star foil stickers for her pages....

She is so goofy!

Peanut wanted to punch holes in her page so she could see the sun shine through.  It SOUNDED like a good idea.  A regular hole punch would not work so I thought we could use my eyelet hole punch that was not getting much use.  I went through the rules of proper usage - specifically that you MUST always keep the mat underneath it.  After all, the punch can take a chunk out of a dining room table if not used correctly.  After doing several together, I handed over the hammer and the reminder about the mat.  Here she is giving it a shot.

All was going well until, when I was working with Sweet Baby, the sound of the hammering changed.  A sound that was, louder.  Needless to say, the mat was no longer under the place she was punching, so at this point, it became apparent to me that we needed to do Peanut's book a bit differently.  **There was not a chunk taken out of the table, just a small circle indented into it.  And, I kept my cool.  I'm pretty proud of that.  :)  **

We decided to use Stickles.  This is a glue/glitter combo that if handled correctly is neat and not at all dangerous.

Peanut worked on a poster board for American Heritage Girls that shows the various colors of stars and how it relates to their size and how hot.  In addition to our regular God's Design program we are adding just a couple activities so the little girls can earn the Space Exploration badge.  Peanut will present her poster to the troop next week.

Vikings and Castles, Oh My

We have been plugging our way through our history program...we have finished our discussions about Vikings.  We learned about where Vikings originated, why the were called Vikings, about their terrible demeanor and about their ships.  The kids worked on drawings of a Viking ship.  The first one belongs to Peanut.  Out of all the girls, she most loves drawing and anything artsy.

Sissy also tried here hand at drawing a Viking ship. We have several of the Draw and Write Through History books and this is where they found the step by step drawing of the Viking ship. Here is Sissy's ship.

After talking about Vikings we have since headed into the Middle Ages.  We have had much fun learning about knights, kings, castles,monks and all that goes with it.  We use God and the History of Art, which not only has the kids trying their hand at various drawing and shading techniques, but they learn the history of certain art techniques as well.  We had been discussing stained glass when I found this adorable "stained glass" cross idea on Pinterest.  It was very easy and so the girls decided to make them.  We used black card stock for the outline, colored tissue paper cut into squares for the "glass"  and clear contact paper.  The clear contact paper goes over the cross and as the kids fill in the cross, the tissue paper sticks to the contact paper.  Such fun and lovely!

Here is another drawing..this one by Peanut again.  The assignment was to draw something from the middle ages, and she drew this picture of knights in battle.

 

February 15th...A Tragedy or a Blessing?

No photos with this entry, just testimony.

11 years ago today our family experienced a tragedy.  Of course now, 11 years later, I question whether it was actually a tragedy or rather, a blessing.  11 years ago today I was pregnant with our 2nd child, Emma Catherine.  We were just days away from being 36 weeks pregnant when I woke up and realized that I had not been woken up all night by her movements.  A bagel, glass of o.j. and some time flat on my back did not change the fact that this otherwise active baby was not doing the "good morning " dance.

After a call to my doctor I was told to head to the hospital where the nurses there would find her heartbeat and then send me home.  Needless to say, the day did not pan out the way the doctor expected. 

After trying to find her heartbeat and then being sent down the hall for an ultrasound, the doctors confirmed what her daddy and I were dreading.  Indeed, she had died at some point.  Thankfully my doctor agreed to a c-section so we did not have to labor.  I'm sure you are wondering why I would consider this day to have been a blessing at all.

At this point in our lives neither my husband or I were Christians; however, I did attend a M.O.P.S. (Mothers of Preschoolers) group which met at a local church.  When I called our Mentor Mom to let her know what happened, the entire M.O.P.S. group was praying as well as the charter church.  In addition more than 70 notes came to us from strangers at this church - strangers who were telling us about how much they were praying for us and sharing their stories and compassion.  Through this tragedy we were shown the true love of Jesus and it was just a a little over 2 months later that I was baptized - my husband just over a year later.

This tragedy has indeed been a major blessing.  Due to her short presence with our family, Emma and our Lord drew an entire family to Him.  We are forever changed.  We still think of her.  11 years later we still mention her at least weekly and mom still thinks of her nearly every day.

After 11 years I am encouraged to do something to help other mothers who are going through  a loss of their sweet babies.  It is a shame that it has taken me 11 years to find something to do in her name.  Check out this blog:  http://teenytears.blogspot.com/.  The founder of this outreach is actually a 2nd cousin somewhere on my family tree - a family member who I have recently re-established contact with.  Megan lost her sweet boy (a twin) 3 years ago and started this organization in his memory.  Teeny Tears makes cloth diapers for families who have lost a child due to stillbirth or early miscarriage.  Often these babies are to small for Pampers- even preemie ones.  Rather than introducing these angels to their parents with a naked bum, Teeny Tears supplies hospitals with 2 diapers per baby.  One for baby and one for mom and dad, as a keepsake. 

I am hoping to get started on a first batch of diapers for the hospital that lovingly took care of our family - so we can give something to the families that are suffering a loss, just like we did.  I say "hoping" because I am not gifted in the area of sewing, but my kindred spirit Megan assures me that it isn't at all difficult.  So, if you live locally to me and want to donate some flannel, feel free!

I often tell people that if Jesus came back today and offered to give me my daughter, in exchange for my family knowing Him now, I would have to say no.  I have no reason to exchange the rest of my years knowing my Savior for her because I am confident that when all is said and done, I will see her again in Heaven.

Mid-Year Ceremony

Excitement at our house again due to American Heritage Girls.....Our troop's Mid-Year Ceremony was Tuesday evening.

In addition to the girls being awarded any merit badges they have worked on, they received any service stars they have earned. Sweet Baby's unit has worked on the Best Me I Can Be badge, so all the girls who participated received that badge. In addition Sweet Baby had earned the Kid Care and Family Helper badge by working on it at home. She also received service stars for 20 service hours.

Peanut's unit worked on the Bible Basics badge. This is the only merit badge she earned thus far. She has started, and is nearly finished with, the Family Helper badge and the Gardening and Plant Science badge. She should be receiving those at the end of the year. She received service stars for 30 hours of service.

Sissy's unit has been working hard since this fall (when we took the girls camping in the fall) and they earned the Fire Safety and Building badge as well as the Photography badge. Sissy blew everyone away with 75 hours or service ALREADY this year! Many of those hours were earned with rehearsals for the church Christmas play, but a huge amount was also earned doing child care for some friends and not charging, and helping teach a bible class for pre-schoolers at our church this summer.

For the ceremony Sissy led the color guard (the flag procession) by reading through the flag ceremony. She even had to lead prayer twice - in front of about 150 people.

I cannot go on enough about how much we love this program. I have seen my oldest grow into a young lady who has drive and determination to earn awards. I have witnessed her learn demonstrate organizational skills I did not know she had, but most importantly I have seen her spiritual gift laid out time and time again. God has cultivated a gift of service in her. I love watching it grow.

The younger girls are just having fun and solidifying Christian friendships. I'm excited to watch the little girls grow through this program.