Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to us!

You know, Gregg and I have been married 7 years now and lately we've been finding that some of the stuff we got when we were first married is starting to get worn out and needs to be replaced.

So, this year for Christmas, we are going REAL practical... Merry Christmas Gregg - here's your new toaster! (thanks for the suggestion Jenn). And Gregg will be saying to me, Merry Christmas Kristie, here's your new knife set!

And you know what, that's okay 'cause practical can be a good thing - especially in economic times like these!!

Alyssa story

Okay, here's a story I just found written down from November that I had forgotten about...

The kids and I were at my parent's house in November and Alyssa had made a gift for me that she wanted to wrap as a surprise. So she was downstairs with my mom and Matthew wrapping this gift. She told my mom that Matt couldn't keep a secret so, according to my mom, she went up to Matt and said with a straight face, "If you tell mommy, I'm going to stick something up your nose & put tape over it!"

How nice - such sisterly love!

Josh's new words

Josh seems to have an ever-expanding vocabulary. It is sooo fun to get him to say no words and see what words HE begins to say on his own. Right now his new favorites are "no" (yeah) and "cookie" as we have been having sugar cookies around.

Cool Experiment

We have been studying water the last few days - talking about what it's like as a liquid, solid & gas. Today we were talking about it as a gas and we did the following experiment - it was totally cool! Of course, my kids kept leaving the room thinking it was going to explode or something but I thought I'd share it because it was easy and fun!

With a funnel, put 2 Tbspns baking soda in to a balloon. Then fill a 2 liter soda bottle 1/2 full of vinegar. Pull the opening of the balloon over the top of the bottle, stand the balloon upright so the baking soda falls into the bottle. When the 2 mix, a gas forms (carbon dioxine) and the balloon will inflate.

I ran out of vinegar but we're going to get more and try it again...

Christmas

We're 11 days from Christmas...

As we come into the last week or so before Christmas I've been thinking about what's been significant for us this Christmas season, what funny stories have there been, what have been some of our favorite moments, some of our maybe not so great moments. Actually a friend of mine blogged on a disappointing experience she had with Christmas lights a few weeks ago and that got me thinking, so here goes...

A couple of our most fun pre-Christmas times:

- Last night we took our annual family Christmas light tour/Live Nativity outing. It was fun. We took along some unfrosted sugar cookies (frosted ones would've meant much trouble in our van), the kids got in their jammies and we took off. We went to the live nativity we always go to in New Brighton. It's one of my favorite parts of our tour because the kids all crowd up in front with Gregg & I as we go through all the scenes and read the Bible story they have posted. It doesn't take long, but it's always fun to see the kids' faces. They love the live animals & seeing actual people portraying Mary & Joseph, the wisemen & shepherds & angels. One of the other places we always go is a place in Shoreview that has their lights blink to music on a certain radio station. This year we took a wrong turn so instead of taking 10 minutes it probably took closer to 25 minutes to get there (oops!) but it was fun - another time of everyone crowding up into the front to watch all the lights & listen to the music. We also saw plenty of gaudy lights, inflatables and so forth and one house completely decked out in LED blue lights - not gaudy in the least, actually very well done, but so BRIGHT I could hardly look at it!

-Another fun moment for us was joining our friends down at the Macy's 8th floor Christmas display. We always go on a weekday morning right at 10am so there is no waiting and we can cruise on through. This year's theme was A Day in the Life of an Elf and really, it was probably my favorite one I've ever seen. It seemed short because there were less individual displays but the detail that went into it was amazing and it was just fun! We ended up going through twice and at several places the kids just stood and looked and looked, noticing all the details.

- And of course, Alyssa and I enjoyed Christmas caroling at the nursing home and hope to do that again next year - we just hope to not repeat driving into the ditch next year!

A bit disappointing:

-You know, I have to say putting up the Christmas tree was disappointing this year. I think it's because I forget how long it takes. The kids were all ready to put up their ornaments but it takes FOREVER to put up our fake tree (it's huge and we literally have to unflatten every tree branch before putting it on). Then the top of the tree was broken so Gregg had to hot glue it. THEN we had to put the lights on and of course some of the strings didn't work (it didn't help that we were doing this during a Vikings game either - you know how focused Gregg was as he is the official light guy!) So anyway, literally 4 hours after we began getting the tree out it was time to put on the ornaments. Poor kids - they were still excited and gladly put their ornaments on but I didn't put mine on until they all went to bed! (by that time I needed a little peace & quiet!). So, next year, we've got to rethink how we put up the tree...

This year...

This year, Pre-Christmas has seemed a little different. I've been trying to figure out why... Has it been the unknown of where we were going to spend Christmas? The fact I purposely didn't do a lot of stuff before Thanksgiving like I have in the past? Is it because for some reason I haven't been feeling stressed about getting out Christmas cards, doing ALL our family traditions, getting goodies out to all our neighbors, making a ton of Christmas cookies? Has it been because a lot of my focus has been on our MOPS meeting & planning homeschooling, that I haven't had a lot of leftover energy to worry or plan Christmas stuff?

I'm not sure but it's been good. I've gotten my shopping done (still have a few projects to complete and of course all the wrapping), my Christmas letter is just about completely done and out, we've made a couple of kinds of cookies over the weekend but I did something else for my neighbors so there's been less stress about baking (and a lot less baking this year), and we've got about 3 more days of school school and then we're just focusing on Christmas - and then we're on break!!

Anyway, enough going on about my Christmas experience... While we are doing a lot of driving over Christmas this year, I hope that through it all my kids (and me too) are able to just enjoy the coming weeks and remember WHY we prepare and what the real focus of this time of year should be!

The toaster oven bit the dust!

Our toaster oven's been on its way out for a while but yesterday, it officially bit the dust! It started out on a good note in the morning when it actually toasted the toast for the first time in a couple of months. I thought, great, maybe it suddently fixed itself. Well, that evening I was making chicken nuggets (standard toaster oven fare) when I looked at the toaster oven and one of the pieces in the top of it was literally making sparks & looked about ready to start on fire!

So now, do we buy another toaster oven or do we buy a new toaster? Right now we are leaning towards toaster since about all we do in it is toast & chicken nuggets. Anyone have good suggestions for a good 4 slice toaster with maybe the capacity to do bagels? I'm hoping at this time of year we can get a good deal...

Did I really just do that?

Before I begin, I need to say that we are fine & Gregg says we're buying new tires for the van...

Now, to tell you about my morning. Alyssa & I went to a nursing home in Roseville to sing Christmas carols with our homeschool co-op. It was really fun. We got to sing a bunch of carols & many of the kids played the piano as well. Now Alyssa wants to take piano lessons some day. Anyway, while we were there it started snowing. Beautiful snow. The kind you love to look at out your window. Not the kind you want to drive home in though.

We were driving home and of course, I took the wrong turn so we went home a way we normally wouldn't have gone but no big deal. As I was turning onto 35W from 694 however, we began to fishtail... and I couldn't recover. Soon, we were taking a drive into the ditch and I was praying fervently that we wouldn't flip over. Thankfully we didn't but I also couldn't drive out. After a call to 911 who put me through to the highway patrol who put me through to a towing company, I was soon pulled out. Lost a hubcap & one of my tires didn't look so good but otherwise we were okay. We had to go up to another exit to fill out paper work (they wanted their money of course) and just as the tow truck was driving off, I looked at my instrument panel and saw this cute little symbol had turned on. Wondering what it was, I called Gregg & he told me it was the tire pressure gauge. I looked out my car door and sure enough, my tire that had looked a little iffy before was now half flat. Of course the tow truck was long gone!

Well, we decided I should try to make it to a gas station so I could fill it up with air and try to get home. I thought I was going to have to drive a ways to fine one but thankfully, just as I turned the corner, there was a gas station. I filled up with air & slowly drove home. Yeah, we made it!

From there, Gregg changed the tire & he has since decided we need all new tires so tomorrow he will take it in to get new tires & to have it looked over to make sure everything else is okay. So, guess what I'm getting for Christmas?? :-)

Through all this, if you know my daughter (who is VERY cautious and I'm finding a bit of a worry-wart), you know she was going somewhat hysterical on me - and deservedly so but she tends to be a little extreme. I tried to convince her this was an adventure, but I don't think she bought it. She was already a back seat driver but I have a feeling for the rest of the winter I will be hearing a lot of "Slow down mom."

Thanks God for safety & for helping us get safely home!

Updates

Here are a few updates of recent posts:

Regarding my camera, eureka! it is fixed! Gregg, having nothing to lose, banged it around a bit and now, whatever was jarred has been jarred back and all seems to be working well! Thank you God! Now, we just need to buy a new toaster oven but that's another story and something we can limp along without for a while...

Regarding our leaf "tree" on our mantel, here is a picture of what it ended up looking like. It's a bit hard to tell in this picture but you get the idea. I also forgot to say that this idea was based on an idea I read by Julie Barnhill in her latest book...

Now we need to take it all down so we can decorate for Christmas!

Bummer!

Yesterday I dropped a bin that contained our camera in the garage. I didn't think anything of it until later when I tried to use the camera - it's broken! Ugh! This was an EXPENSIVE camera. To send it in to the manufacturer to fix it will cost us almost $200. So now the dilemna, do we fix it or get a new one. We won't be able to afford what we paid for this camera but maybe we can still get a nice one for about the same as fixing this one?? We will definitely be shopping around and if need be, I may be getting up VERY early on Friday to try to get a deal - ugh!!! Not what I want to get for Christmas! :-(

Thankfulness

As we come upon Thanksgiving I have been thinking about my life and how blessed I truly am and in some ways how easy my life is compared to that of others. Alyssa and I have been reading a book about the pilgrims' journey to America and their life those first few years in America. It's a book geared towards elementary children so it doesn't go into great detail but it does talk about the persecution, hunger, fear, sickness & death the pilgrims went through while they were in England and then suffered to come to America. I can't imagine living through a winter with hardly any food to eat & people dying almost every day, including your own family. All to find the freedom to worship God in their own way.

Tonight we read about the Pilgrims celebrating their first Thanksgiving. When they saw the abundance of the harvest, their first thoughts were to give thanks to God and they actually chose to celebrate for a week to give God thanks. They were coming upon winter again and even though they had more food, they knew winter was a difficult time with sickness, cold & still the possibility of not having enough food by the end. Yet, they chose to give thanks, invited many many extra guests and put on a lavish feast that lasted 3 days!

In my younger years I have to confess Thanksgiving was one of my least favorite holidays. Growing up I didn't like turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie or cranberries. So, I didn't like Thanksgiving. As an adult I can't say that I like those foods all that much better (although I am more willing to eat them) but I do like the holiday a lot more because I've caught the spirit of WHY we celebrate Thanksgiving. It's not so much about the food as it is about truly being THANKFUL and giving God the glory.

This year, more than most, has made me realize all I have to be thankful for and has given me maybe a bit of a reality check. Between watching my sister agonize over decisions that need to be made for her son & listening on a caring bridge site to another mom's agony over losing her 6 year old daughter this summer, I continue to be reminded to cherish my kids, cherish my husband, cherish my life, hold on to God & to not get so bent out of shape by the little things of life.

This month I wanted my kids to catch a little bit of the spirit of Thanksgiving so we began writing down what we were thankful for each day on a leaf and made a Thanksgiving tree of sorts using our mantel to hang leaves. At first, the kids had a hard time thinking of something to be thankful for but as the weeks have past, they have gotten better about thinking of something without a lot of prompting from me. It has been interesting to hear what they are thankful for.

We plan to read them all off on Wednesday and have a little time as a family to thank God for all his blessings. My hope is that this month of thanksgiving will help all of us be more aware of our blessings and we will remember to be more thankful throughout the year!

God bless you all this Thanksgiving and I pray you will remember all that God has done for you the past year, even in the midst of the trials, and find your ways to celebrate and be THANKFUL!

Matt's Birthday

I've been waiting to blog about Matt's birthday until it was over. Now, a week later, I think it's over. Whew! It's been a whirlwind, so here goes!

On Tuesday, Nov. 18th Matthew turned 4... What a cutey - we celebrated at home with muffins. We don't have pictures of him blowing out his candles ON his birthday (he hid everytime we sang Happy Birthday to him all week) but this was one of his birthday presents - a play dough caddy...

Then on Saturday was his "friends" birthday party where we were all pirates! It was a lot of fun (if it was a bit crazy - I am not used to boy birthday parties with boy energy!). We had the kids decorate individual pirate chest cakes to later eat (thanks Carolyn for the idea). We had a treasure hunt, played Tick Tock Find the Croc & another game, watched part of the Pirates who Don't Do Anything & hung out. It was truly crazy and I'm not sure if we will be doing this again next year or something a wee bit simpler but Matthew has already informed me he wants a dinosaur party next year. We'll see... :-)

We actually made a treasure chest cake (thank you Gregg) but decided to save it for our NEXT celebration on Sunday!

I felt bad for the kids on Saturday as they all wanted to eat it BUT... Gregg's nephew's son Kyle also was turning 4 & visiting Minnesota so we had to get together to celebrate one more time!

Happy Birthday special boy!

Christian Community Fair

Tonight I bravely took all 3 of my kids to the Christian Community Fair at the St Paul Rivercentre. I figured if we were going to go, tonight was the night to do it when it probably would not be too busy. So, off we went! It was actually a lot of fun. They had probably the best petting zoo I've ever been to, lots of inflatables, a craft table, a fishing "pond" where the kids got to actually fish for a while, Bob & Larry, Sharky, TC & a couple other big furry friends I didn't even know. We even took a picture with a couple of adorable bunnies (made me want to get a bunny!). It wasn't exactly "free" as we did have to pay for parking & food (& for fishing & the bunny picture) but the kids had a blast running from inflatable to inflatable - especially Matthew). Actually, I kept losing Matthew because he would run off to another inflatable without telling me (guess I need to have a talk with him about that)...

Here are a couple of pictures...

Matt was the only one who would come with me to see Bob & Larry. Unfortunately, it took too long to get this picture taken and he became an unwilling participant. I STILL needed the picture - I got to hang out with BOB & LARRY!!! Yes, I was more excited than they were - and I am not ashamed! :-)

Super cool petting zoo with LOTS of animals - even tortoises & a camel! There was also another area with lots of snakes & reptiles and we got to pet a baby crocodile! At one point Josh was in his socks while we were at the petting zoo and when I went to put his shoes back on, yep, he'd stepped in something! Actually, that reminds me, it's still in the diaper bag!! Gotta go!

Josh's new word

Josh has learned a new word -- "mine!"

Freeze Out

Last night saw me doing something I haven't done in 20 years - literally. Sitting at a high school football game cheering on my hometown. It was the quarter-finals of the Iowa High School 1A play-offs and my home town, now the Aplington-Parkersburg Falcons, were taking on the Emmetsburg E-Hawks. Since Emmetsburg is only 75 miles from where my parents live and we were visitng them this weekend, we decided why not? and went to cheer them on. It was seriously FREEZING but we put on lots of layers and my dad & I sat in the stands cheering on our old home team. Lots of clothes & a few cups of hot chocolate and we lasted the game (it helped that because both teams pretty much only run the ball, the game was over in less than 2 hours!).

This year was a little different for the football team. Parkersburg experienced an F5 tornado that wiped out 1/3 of the town including the football field & school last May. While the high school is temporarily located in the middle school in Aplington while it's being rebuilt (and the middle schoolers are at the Aplington elementary & the Aplington elementary is at the Parkersburg elementary WITH the Parkersburg elementary) through donations & a lot of determination, they decided to go ahead and get the football field ready to go in Parkersburg and play football there this fall. I can't imagine what it would be like to play with the rubble & the beginnings of the new school in the background but that's what they did. They were ranked #1 in the state & were undefeated. Pretty much they've been playing for the town and giving them a bit of hope amidst the rebuilding....

Unfortunately, they met their match last night with Emmetsburg (also undefeated). It was a very low scoring game for both teams but Emmetsburg ended up coming out victorious.

I'd say A-P was victorious too - victorious in giving their town hope in the midst of disaster.

Leaking Joy and mentors

A while back I blogged about my quest to find more joy in my life and figure out more of what it means to live a joy-filled life. That quest has been an on-again, off-again quest but yesterday I feel like I came upon another nugget of truth in that search.

I was reading a chapter in the book Balance that Works when Life Doesn't. I've referenced it before and it's been a book that I keep working my way sloooowly through. Anyway, in one of the chapters she talks about our thought life and she made a reference to a carton she once watched where the main character gets shot with arrows but goes about his business. A while later he goes and drinks a glass of milk and then all the milk leaks out through the arrow holes. She talked about her inconsistent thought-life keeping her from filling those holes. When we have wounds that need healing or areas we need to work on, our joy can just keep coming out even when we're pouring more truth and God into our lives. That struck a chord with me as that's the way I feel in regard to living a joy-filled life.

She went on to reference Phil. 4:8 - "Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise."

As she unpacked each of the things we are to have our eyes fixed upon, it made me realize how my lack of self-discipline in my thought life was probably one of the major ways I was continually losing my joy. Continuing to be intro-spective or stuck on a way someone hurt me, gossip or thinking about someone else's weaknesses, negative thoughts in general, down on my kids, beating myself up with my short-comings and failures all keep me from living in a state of joy. Wow! Talk about a "Aha! moment."

I've been asking God to make me more aware of how I let my thought-life stray and he's been showing me. It's saddening to realize all the time I take my eyes off Jesus and how much of the time my "eyes" seem to be fixed on me and my problems. Definitely not giving them to God, but thinking through and worrying about how I am going to fix them. Seeing how, after someone hurt me, I kept thinking about it over and over. I realize not all of that is bad and that sometimes you do have to think about life but I spend much of my day doing that instead of fixing my eyes on Jesus...

I'm not sure how well I've been able to write down my thoughts from yesterday or what God seems to be revealing to me and honestly, I don't think I completely get it yet either. I'm still processing and probably should reread the chapter.

I am excited about receiving this nugget of truth and even more excited that I think God has more in store for me to learn and apply. I have long desired to have a mentor. I have prayed about it for a long time. The thought of having someone come along side, hold me accountable and allow me to be me, provide wisdom & guidance and just allow God to work in my heart, healing, restoring, and help me to "fix my eyes on Jesus" is hugely appealing to me.

At Constance, where we go to church, they have a mentoring program. I am soooo excited! I met today with the leader of the group and another woman who is a perspective mentor about entering the program. It's a 1-on-1 mentoring program where you meet weekly and go through a series of books put together just for this purpose. I am going to pray about it and look through the books this next week but am very excited to have this opportunity. So pray for me that God would put me together with the "right" mentor and that He would just help me dive deeper in my walk with Him!

Trick-or-Treating Memories

Our little munchkins out gathering candy. Alyssa was a black cat, Matthew was a pirate, Josh was a pumpkin & Grace was an Olympic gymnast.

It was such a beautiful night so we went out trick-or-treating and ended up pretty much filling up our candy buckets. Grace, my niece was with us. We had a fun time. Pumpkin Josh pretty much hung out in his stroller eating a sucker almost the whole time. He looked like a very plump, relaxed pumpkin! The other three were running from house to house, complaining about how heavy their bags were getting with candy! Can't say I was too sympathetic.

I think the tally, at least for the girls, was about 100 pieces of candy, a toy & some McDonalds coupons. Sorry Jenn - Grace is bringing all hers home!! :-) They will have fun choosing candy for a couple of days, then it'll go in the cupboard for "sugar" days, I'll freeze some of the chocolate for later & eventually the candy will just "disappear" - just like last year!

I definitely got my exercise today - between raking & walking around our neighborhood. I always feel bad for my neighbors because they don't get a lot of trick-or-treaters so we try to do our part (and for some it's one of the only times I get to talk to my neighbors! Of course, that's how we got so much candy too! :-)

Raking Leaves

Since we live in a townhouse, we don't have to rake our leaves. So, we decided to rake someone else's leaves. Through our church and a county program called Chores & More, we volunteered to rake someone's yard who couldn't do it themselves. With the beautiful weather we decided today was the day to fulfill our raking duties.

We had so much fun! We started off our morning picking up the kids' cousin Grace (who is 8 & from Wisconsin) in Woodbury. We get to have her with us until tomorrow while her dad is visiting his parents. We then made our way to the outer limits of Andover and tackled a pretty big yard (and while we all helped as much as we could, Gregg did a lot of the work!). The woman we helped was wheel chair bound but very kind and welcomed us and all our kids. The kids helped rake for a while and made a big pile of leaves to jump in and then enjoyed exploring her large yard. After lunch they also got a tour and learned more about what it's like to be in a wheel chair - how she can drive, get in & out of her shower, get downstairs via an automated lift and so forth.

We came away having helped someone else and learned a lot in the process too! I didn't take too many pictures, but here are a few...

Bad Haircut

Ever get your haircut and regret it? I must say, the haircut I got yesterday fits that category. Over the last few months I've been letting my hair be a little longer than usual, even though I've gotten it cut several times. Finally it got to be too much and I felt I HAD to get it cut shorter (but not super short). However, the woman who cut my hair totally chopped my hair waaaaay shorter than I like. She asked me how I liked my bangs. I said not too short. Well, if this is not too short, I'd hate to see what short is! I'm kinda bummed because I don't like it at all and there's not much to do but wait and let it grow. Thankfully I have a feeling in about 2 weeks it actually will be okay and then I can go somewhere else for my next haircut!

Visit to Kelley Farm

Yesterday I took Alyssa, Matt & Josh to the Oliver H. Kelley Farm with our homeschool co-op group. It's a historical site run as it was run 150 years ago. I'd never been there before and it was really neat.

My kids were a bit young but we were part of a tour so we just followed along and participated when we could. When you go for a tour you go to different parts of the farm, meet with a farmer & help do some of the chores that were done 150 years ago. So, the kids got to thresh wheat, help make gingerbread in the house, help pick lima beans in the garden & help chop stalks of corn for the pigs & cows and then we got to visit all the animals. The best part is that if we come back again next summer, we'll get to do something else.

I'm glad we went even if I had to be on my toes to keep the kids from touching the hot wood stove when we were inside the house and Alyssa was very nervous at first - unsure about the pigs & roosters roaming freely, just unsure of everything because it was new. By the end of our time there though, she decided she wanted us to have pigs & sheep at OUR house and seemed much more at ease.

Go Vikings!

Couldn't resist adding this picture (and yes I do have a Vikings sweatshirt but someone had to take the picture!

Happy Anniversary...to us!

Today is Gregg & my 7th wedding anniversary. Seems like just yesterday and seems like a lifetime ago. I remember on my wedding day feeling like a princess and Gregg was my prince. It was such an amazing day - probably the most precious day of my life thus far (even trumps the birth of my kids...by just a little). Little did I know all that would unfold in the next 7 years!

Much has changed since we got married; We've got a mini-van instead of a beat-up, oil burning, seen better days pick-up truck. We have a computer that was made in the 21st century. I'm a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom instead of working downtown and Gregg is working 2nd shift instead of 1st shift. We've changed churches. Gregg's dad & my grandpa passed away during the past 7 years. 9/11 had just happened so our economic & world climate is different. Of course, the biggest change are the 3 beautiful, funny, high-energy kids we have been blessed to have.

But much hasn't changed. We still live in our 2 bedroom townhouse (that is almost paid for!!), we still love watching football together on Sunday afternoons, we still love God... & I am still married to the sweetest man I ever met.

We've had our ups and downs over the past 7 years but time has only deepened my love for him. While we don't always have time these days to do all the fun, crazy things we did when we were dating, he is still my guy and my rock. He grounds me when my emotions want to go out of control. He has been there with me through 3 pregnancies, 3 births (that I would not have made it through if it weren't for him!), 3 infants & now 3 little ones. He is so wise when it comes to spending money and making decisions and I am so thankful for that! God knew I needed someone who was easy-going and laid back to balance out my more type-A, emotional personality.

Thanks God for Gregg and for 7 years of marriage! I pray for many more years of Sunday afternoon football, love and laughter together!

Thoughts from a homeschooling mom

Well, we've been homeschooling for almost 2 months now. How's it going? If you've read previous entries you've known that we've had our share of challenges as we've started out on our homeschool journey. While we still get the occasional resistance I have to say that things are going really pretty well right now.

Alyssa has fallen into a routine and she knows what we always do when we start school time. She seems to be doing better about trying out and enjoying the crafts, experiments, books & so forth that we use to explore whatever unit we are talking about. We've fallen in a routine and for her, it's what she's needed. Like I said, occasionally I have to encourage her and she is still struggling with telling me back a story after we read it but we're working on it.

Overall, I think we really enjoy homeschooling. Alyssa does ask about going to school like many of her friends & her cousins and wanting to try it out someday. She really enjoys when we go to co-op but that's only twice a month. I think I shocked and made her day when I looked back at her in the car yesterday and said, "Alyssa, I want you to go to school someday, I hope that you do - just not right now." She had this huge grin on her face & she said something like, well, maybe after 5th grade I can go to school.

I told her the truth. Right now, we want to keep her home with us longer. I want to be her teacher, and we want to teach her more than math & reading but about character, having her siblings be her good friends & playmates (as well as other children) and teach her a solid foundation about what we believe about God, encouraging her to develop & grow in her relationship with Jesus. We don't want to exactly protect her from the bad parts of the world but prepare her to be able to do what is right and to know and be able to stand up for what she believes in before being confronted by it. Yes, we can do those things while she also goes to school elsewhere, but this is how we've chosen to do it - and honestly, I love it.

We take this one year at a time, both in the curriculum we choose & in where she goes to school. As long as Gregg works 2nd shift, the choice seems pretty clear cut for us (having Alyssa only see Gregg on the weekends isn't an option). Right now, it's at home and we will continue to pray about it and follow God's lead. And she was accepting of that. Matt put in his two cents and said that when Alyssa went to school, he would stay home and do school with mom. :-)

Here are some of my 2 month-in ponderings about homeschooling:
-Is it okay to teach school wearing your pajamas & looking like the bride of frankenstein because your hair is all over the place (I seem to do that several days a week)?
-I am so glad Gregg is here during the day - we would definitely be doing this differently and be on a different schedule if it weren't for him taking care of Josh and sometimes Matt while we do school! (I think God knew I needed him around during these first & early years to keep my sanity!!!)
-How much chocolate is too much chocolate to eat in one day (not sure what that has to do with homeschooling, but I'm definitely learning that this fall!)
-If you leave water on the table while homeschooling, it will be spilled on your project!
-My kids regularly tell me that it's a "gibbous moon" out today! Kinda fun to learn along with the kids about stuff I'm not sure I ever learned in school.
-Sometimes I do feel like I'm with my kids ALL of the time! (fortunately I am getting out more and am pondering joining BSF in November for a morning out & a way to grow with God...)
-Am I teaching everything Alyssa needs to know for kindergarten?? (every homeschooler's thoughts I think)
-We are really enjoying reading together - we've come across just some fun books this fall
-What is the balance of being the encouraging mom & being the teacher that has to ocassionally correct her? I have really discovered how both Alyssa & I are such perfectionists and I'm having to be careful not to discourage her in the process of correcting & teaching her. For a while when we were working on handwriting, I would correct her & she would start saying things like "I'm no good, I can't do it..." and I realized that she was being hard on herself, wanting to be perfect. I really backed off because honestly, she writes great for her age - I just was showing her how to do it "perfectly." :-) It's a balance I'm still working on!

School Days

Here are a few pictures of school taken over the past week.

This week we have been studying apples so one day we bought one of each type of apple we could find and tested them out. Then we made apple sauce & apple pie. Now I know why I didn't like apples growing up - red delicious apples (the type we had growing up) have no taste! What were Alyssa's favorites? Braeburn, Honeycrisp, & Golden Delicious.

Saturday was such a nice day we did school outside. Yes, normally we don't do school on Saturdays but because of MOPS we missed enough school days that I felt we needed to do a little something yesterday. Alyssa enjoyed finishing up her handwriting workbook sitting outside.

Joshua's favorite word

Joshua is just about to turn 18 months old and so far he doesn't really have too many words we can understand. He does however have a favorite word - "whoa!" He says it a lot and it is so cute!

Geese Pond

Today, we made our second trek to the Geese Pond as we like to call it. It's really a pond not far from our library where geese and ducks congregate - especially at this time of year. We bring our old bread crusts (some which have been in the deep freezer for over a year just for this purpose) and have fun feeding the geese & ducks. We sit on top of a picnic table and fling bread to our heart's delight. This time Josh got involved and actually threw bread as well although I had to watch which pieces of bread I gave him as he also tended to sample some of it too! :-)

We still have more bread in our freezer (I don't think we made it to the geese pond much last year since Josh was so small) so hopefully we can made one more trip this fall before it gets too cold!

Texas Revisited

I'm back from MOPS Convention in Grapevine Texas (basically Dallas)! It was a lot of fun, had great speakers & music and I am really glad I went. Here's just a few highlights and of course a couple of pictures from the trip.

I went on the trip with my co-coordinator, Cara Bothun. It was a great time to get to know each other and dream about MOPS. We got there no problem but started out a little rocky as we were unable to get supper before the evening session (long lines, unsure where to go, etc...) so we were thankful to have cliff bars & granola bars to eat!

The Gaylord Texan is HUGE and beautiful with a river running through it and it's almost as if you are outside (although you're not) as you walk through it. Eventually we found a great restaurant for breakfast and a little coffee shop where we could get sandwiches, muffins, ice cream, huge chocolate chip cookies and so forth. We never had to eat cliff bars again after the first night if we didn't want to!

We also went out both nights to see a little bit of Grapevine Texas. We ate Texas steak (oh so delicious) on Friday night & tried out a place called Love & War in Texas on Saturday night. The atmosphere was great. There was a country western band that played all kinds of western songs including one of my favorites by Marty Robbins - what's it called dad? You know, "on a hill overlooking El Paso..."? Only problem was what we ordered (BBQ Brisket) was WAY spicy, at least it was true Texas food! :-) The dessert made up for it! :-)

Oh, as for the MOPS convention... we went to 4 main sessions as well as 4 workshops, walked around and saw numerous vendors, bought fun stuff at the MOPS shop, met some other MN MOPS moms & watched improv one night.

There were 4 general sessions and they were all great! (of course I took no pictures of the general sessions!) They started out as a circus so we got to watch 2 women from Cirq le manze (not sure how to spell it) do acrobatic maneuvers on silks & later a trapeze from up in the air. We got to listen to Jaci Velasqez & her husband, Avalon, Plumb & my favorite, Go Fish. My friend Cara thought it was hilarious that 4500 women were rocking out to music for preschoolers - you can't help but dance along to "Ten Banana Boogie" & "If you're happy & you know it!"

Great speakers, Erwin McManus who is the author of Wide Awake (asked questions such as "if your dreams became reality, would it make a better place? What dreams are waiting on the other side of fear?) as well as Patrick Lencioni who wrote a book called The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family & (asked questions such as What makes our family unique, what is our top short-termed priority? & using those questions to help your family run better). And Elisa Morgan (CEO of MOPS) talked to us about doing what we can by using an acronym all weekend for us to figure out SDWSC - "She did what she could" based on Mary, Martha's sister when she poured oil over Jesus.

Overall, the conference gave me a better idea of what MOPS is all about - bringing all moms one step closer to Christ. The gist I took away from the conference was to think about what passion God has put inside of me & how to pursue that passion, making the world a better place (basically not to feel like you have to wait until the kids grow up before you can pursue your passions). It's hard to write down exactly what struck me during the conference but it was good and I'm still thinking about it...

I also went to a workshop on learning my husband's language. :-) It was very reminiscent of a Love & Respect conference Gregg & I went to several years ago but it was such a good reminder and brought into focus ways I can show respect to Gregg & some ways that maybe I haven't done a great job of showing respect. Really glad I went to the workshop.

Overall it was SO good to get away. I didn't get to do a lot of "relaxing" (most relaxation I did was probably at the airport on the way home) but I find myself coming back refreshed and with a renewed sense of patience & joy with my kids. I really saw this on our plane ride back from Texas. On our way there we sat by this woman with a 6 month old little girl (she was not going to the MOPS convention but was a MOPS mom). My first thought on the way there was, "I don't want to sit with a baby, I'm going to Texas to get away from that!" Fortunately Cara actually sat next to the mom & the baby was an angel. Interestingly enough, on our way home we sat by the SAME MOM and her baby! This time I sat by her and I found myself actually happy to sit by her (okay, yes she was a really good traveller & that helped!). I held the baby at least 3 times and I would've held her more! Definitely a change from the way I was feeling on the way to Dallas! :-)

This is "Hank" the stuffed longhorn at the resort. One last comment. We wore home t-shirts that said "My Husband Rocks" - to show our husbands we loved them, of course! In the airport, the lady at the security station asked Cara (in her Texas accent), "Are your husbands in a rock band?" Ummm, no...

I'm going to take a little trip!!

I'm off to Dallas, TX for a MOPS Convention this weekend. Yeah!!! I feel bad that Matt is over-tired and will probably have a not so good day tomorrow BUT I am going to Texas! :-)

Loony Tunes

My kids have never watched Elmer Fudd or Wiley Coyote... until Matthew borrowed a Loony Tunes video from the library last week. They have thoroughly enjoyed it! It's been unexpected - I guess I've forgotten how much I loved them as a kid.

Tonight after supper Alyssa & Matthew were sitting at the table reminding each other about different stories on the video, "Do you remember when rabbit said...?" and then just cracking each other up remembering. Made me smile to listen to them. Way fun to see them having fun with each other.

Heavy Heart

This morning my heart was really heavy for my sister Jenn & her family. They have been having more issues with their son Caleb as well as recently finding out Joel's father was diagnosed with cancer. This morning I found myself really questioning God. I know he is a healing God, why doesn't he heal or even just regulate Caleb's seizures, etc... Why add cancer for Caleb's Grandpa, who is a huge source of help & encouragement for them into the mix? How does this glorify God? On the way to church I was looking out the window thinking how I can somewhat understand how some people who don't know God would choose not to believe (I was feeling pretty low).
We got to church (we're attending a new church, Constance Free in Andover) and went in to worship. During the first song, I just started crying (and I it's been a while since that has happened). I think it was a song about the goodness of God or something (I can't even remember what the song was). During the second song I went from crying to bawling as God touched my heart and gave me reassurances that he is in the midst of all of this & that he would sustain my sister & her husband. The song was Everlasting god by Chris Tomlin. I know I've heard the song many times, but the lines "strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord" just struck me today.

Here are the lyrics (they get repeated a lot):

Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord

Our God, You reign forever
Our hope, our Strong Deliverer
You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint
You won't grow weary

You're the defender of the weak
You comfort those in need
You lift us up on wings like eagles

My prayer tonight is that Jenn & Joel, Jerry & Maryann will feel God's presence and the comfort that He brings!

Matt

Matt is beginning to want to do whatever his dad does. Almost every day lately he'll ask Gregg, "Any sports on today?" He likes to watch the Vikings with Gregg (although he doesn't last very long and he's on to playing with his sister) and loves it when Gregg plays outside with him.

Tonight Matt was playing with his brother. He tackled him and his comment was "tackle on the play!" It made me smile!

Alyssa's comment today

Alyssa & I were talking about her upcoming 6 year wellness check at the clinic & how happy she was not to have to get any shots this year. Alyssa was surprised to learn that I had shots when I was little just like her.

Her comment: "Did they have doctors in the old days?"

Hmmm...

Alyssa's Birthday Party

Sunday we had 7 kids over to celebrate Alyssa's 6th birthday. Her birthday is actually on Thursday but we ended up with a beautiful day to celebrate yesterday! We had a horse theme so we played pin the tail on the horse & painted a horse stained glass picture. Here are some pictures...

Aplington-Parkersburg Falcons rise again!

As many of you know my hometown was hit by an F-5 tornado last May. ESPN did a piece on the rebuilding of the football field. Parkersburg has a wonderful head coach of its football team who has been there for many years and while the kids can't go to school in Parkersburg this year they did go ahead and fix up the football field so they could play there this year to help give the town hope that they will recover.

Here is the link if you're interested in watching (its 11 minutes long but was well done). http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?categoryId=null&brand=null&videoId=3591008&n8pe6c=2

Homeschooling Alyssa

As I've mentioned before, homeschooling Alyssa has had its ups and downs. Yesterday we were finishing up our unit on the sun and after I listed off all the things we had done to learn about the sun, I asked Alyssa what her favorite part was. She looked at me and said, "My favorite part is doing it all with you mom." Yep, melted my heart. She can be such a sweetie when she wants to be!

Sailing with Matthew

Today Matthew has been sailing his "ship." He took a toy bin and turned it into his row boat. He's using a couple of rulers for rows and "rows" around the living room with the Little People carousel in his boat (not sure why but it's been there all day long & he pushes buttons and it plays its music every once in a while). It's so fun to see his creativity come out.

This afternoon he asked if I would play boat with him. Many times I feel too busy to stop and play but today I did. We went in his room and Alyssa & I used his bed for our boat & he had his boat out in the ocean. Eventually we all moved up onto his bed and we rowed, slept & saved Matthew and his Gecko, "Chip", over and over. Eventually he sat on the bed and regailed us with where we were and what was going on. We seemed to go to "Whale Ship-it" a lot, we swam with the sea turtles & the sharks, the jelly fish & the crabs.

I don't have the patience to play pretend all day long but it is so fun to take the time occasionally to just sit and play and giggle with them. Sometimes I just look at Matthew and think how these days are so fleeting and that he won't always want me to just sit and play pretend with him (or lay with him while he falls asleep, etc...). It gives me the motivation to make sure I live in the moment, stop the "important" stuff I'm doing and hang out with them now.

After three weeks

Well, we've been homeschooling for 3 weeks now. I really feel like it's been a huge learning curve for us and I guess I wasn't anticipating that it would be. This week found us at the beginning of the week very frustrated with Alyssa's negative attitude towards school, me giving her a piece of my mind & the two of us praying together. Seriously, I was thinking that if her attitude continued we would not be homeschooling for much longer. Something had to give but she was not really giving things a chance. While we prayed together it was like God was whispering words to me as I prayed, helping ME realize how much Alyssa needed to hear some of the things I was praying about - how much I had been looking forward to spending time with her doing school stuff, how sad I was because of her attitude & that I was willing to do something different if homeschooling really wasn't going to be a good fit for her.

For many reasons, the rest of this week has been really good. Alyssa's attitude improved a ton (I still get resistence every once in a while but NOTHING like on Monday & last week). Part of the change is that I began giving Alyssa a list of what we need to do every day that she could cross off as we did them. I also made sure that the first 4 things we do, we pretty much do every day. And we began studying topics. This week it was the Sun and therefore we read books about the sun, did science experiments having to do with the sun, painted pictures of the sun, we made sun bread and so forth and I think she's really liked it.

The other thing that happened this week is that we just happened to be at Messiah Lutheran Church cleaning some toys for MOPS (it's where we go to MOPS). One of the women I know there invited us to stay for the meal they have on Wednesdays and then invited Alyssa to try out the bells class they have for K-2 grades. She LOVED it and ran out the door afterwards saying how she wanted to go back again next week. It's early enough in the evening that I think we're going to do it - eat there every week & have Alyssa do bells while the boys run around with some other friends they know. Music was one area I wasn't sure about and I think this will really help her learn about beat & rhythm. And she loves music...

We are ending the week on a much better note than at any time in the last 3 weeks and am hopeful that we've turned a corner. Monday we go to co-op and I'm hopeful that she will enjoy it. She gets to play soccer in her P.E. class and she really likes soccer.

I've been tagged!

Thanks to Carolyn for tagging me!

Ten Years Ago
I was single living outside of Miller, SD at a Christian boarding school called Sunshine Bible Academy. I was a secretary & asst. volleyball coach there. It's an absolutely amazing place that was going through a very hard time the year I worked there but I really enjoyed getting to know the kids and many of the people who worked there (and still do). I had Chelsey, my faithful friend (& dog).

To Do List Tomorrow
-Take care of the kids, make breakfast, & keep the kids quiet until Gregg gets up
-Go to the library
-Return movies to Blockbuster
-Get cake stuff for Alyssa's birthday party
-Check out games for Alyssa's birthday party
-Hang out with my hubby for our weekly "date night"

Snack that I enjoy
Anything chocolate is always good...

Things that I would do if I was a millionaire
(in no particular order)
-Pay off our debt
-Let Gregg pursue his dream to golf
-Buy a bigger house with a backyard, swingset & enough bedrooms for all of us to sleep on the same level of our house
-Give some away to many different great organizations & ministries
-Help my sister & Gregg's family with expenses/needs
-Go on a date more often with my hubby
-Go to Hawaii
-Go to Israel
-Travel the country in an RV for extended periods of time marvelling in all that God has made
-Go on mission trips as often as God will let me

Places I have lived
(in mostly order & including places I lived for the summer)
Heidelberg, Germany
Cedar Falls, IA
Williamsburg, IA
Parkersburg, IA
Highland Park, IL
Galesburg, IL
Wilmore, KY
Richland, WA
Karaganda, Kazakhstan
Sibley, IA
Stillman Valley, IL
Miller, SD
St Louis Park, MN
Current Location, MN

I won't tag anyone but if you want to email me your answers, I'd love to hear them!!

Sun Bread

Today we read a book about Sun Bread and then tried our hand at making Sun Bread. Now, I have never made a loaf of bread from scratch in my life so I knew this process might have some glitches but we really had fun. The pictures speak for themselves...

Yep, I burned it! :-)

We had cinnamon bread(from the store) instead...

The Quiet Game

Remember the Quiet Game? We have started to play it with the kids and I have been amazed how much they LIKE it! In the game everyone tries not to speak or laugh and see who can go the longest. We have been playing it at mealtimes & for a few minutes it is so peaceful! Josh doesn't know what to think. He smiles, makes a few noises since no one else is saying anything but stays pretty quiet too usually. Aaah! We have found a game we ALL like to play! :-)

Brainerd weekend

Here are some highlights of our weekend in Brainerd.

Gregg helped his mom out with several projects including mowing her lawn & chopping down part of her crab apple tree. The kids spent much of the weekend trying to "club" crab apples off the tree with Matt's golf clubs. On Monday when Gregg cut off many branches, they were thrilled to have more crab apples than they knew what to do with. We also went to the beach & swam one afternoon (no pictures) as well as went miniature golfing at Pirate's Cove Adventure Golf. We also spent time with many of Gregg's family as well and we ended our weekend trying out a 50s diner & introduced Joshua to grasshopper malts.

It was a bit warmer than I would've liked and I ended up sleeping with Matt both nights (which means I didn't get good nights of sleep because he moves around A LOT) but we had a good time.

After the first week

Well, one week down. It's been fun, frustrating, interesting & exhausting! We have DEFINITELY decided we like Gregg working 2nd shift better! It doesn't help that he's working 10 hour days so he doesn't get home until after 5pm right now but we are glad it's only for one more week! We miss him being around - especially Alyssa has missed him, which I thought was surpising since she's such a mommy's girl. I have missed the ability to take naps in the morning when I've had a bad night of sleep!

Our first day of actually sitting down to do school, Alyssa threw a tantrum at one point and I thought, is this what it's going to be like every day? The lesson I learned was that I had left the hardest part of school, the part she had to actually work on & take her time on (handwriting) until last. She was hungry and her attention span was gone. We got it done but since then we have been doing that part first, even before we're ready to do everything else and that has made a HUGE difference.

On the other hand, on Wednesday towards the end of our class time, Alyssa exclaimed "I LOVE school!" That was so nice to hear! :-)

Matt has been doing a lot of "school" with us and I think Alyssa has enjoyed that. Of course, he does some things a bit different (and some things not at all) but he likes being in school with his sister. We've had a lot of fun playing abc games, illustrating each day of creation & Alyssa and I have even been trying to learn sign language for each letter of the alphabet.

Due to a thunder storm Wednesday night (the first one all summer), Alyssa & I were both up that night so between some early & late nights & Gregg working such long hours, I find myself really tired today and very much looking forward to the weekend and hopefully some relaxation as we head up to Brainerd to visit Gregg's family.

Thanks for your prayers!

Matthew

This morning Matt knew we were going somewhere but didn't know where. I told Alyssa that she needed to get dressed and Matt decided to go ahead and get himself dressed as well. When he came out he was wearing a bright green, blue & white striped shirt on backwards, cammo shorts on backwards, (later I learned underwear on backwards) and red socks. My first thought was, "am I going to let him go to the zoo wearing that?" My second thought was, "yep, I want to encourage him to get himself dressed." I was able to get his shorts & underwear turned around by the time we left but he wore the rest of the outfit including blue sandals (which really set off the red socks well. :-) )

We are starting a new way to help the kids remember their chores and one of their morning "chores" is getting dressed. Once they do the task, they can flip their chore card over for the day. Matt has told me that he is going to get himself dressed from now on so he can flip his card. Should be some interesting outfits coming my way in the coming days!

First Day of School

Well, today was our first day of (home) school. I thought I'd start a little early as I am planning to be done by the end of May. So, what did we do for the first day of school? Went on a field trip, of course! :-)

I debated about going to the State Fair but in the end decided to go to Como Zoo instead - much cheaper (esp. thanks to the pass from the library) & less stressful, especially when I had to take the kids by myself (Gregg is working 1st shift the next 2 weeks, great timing!).

Here are some pictures of Alyssa's first day of Kindergarten...

First picture is us on the train ride (not sure what Matt is doing but I should've expected as much!) 2nd picture - Alyssa on the frog jumper (her favorite ride now), she's 2nd from the left. 3rd picture - Matt & I hiding in the dinosaur skeleton at the ComoTown playland. 4th picture - the kids eating cotton candy for the first time. They've wanted to try it for a long time and today was the day. I haven't had it in a looong time and after trying it today, I know why! (don't worry, Josh & I sampled some mini donuts!). 5th picture - Alyssa took pictures of the flamingos, they even had a baby flamingo, which was gray...