Back to School

After a loooonnnnnnggggg break from school, we're finally back to the desk.

Some days it's good. Some days it's bad.

Guess we all have days like that.

The five weeks in Russia went so quickly, and we only accomplished two weeks worth of work.

We were far too busy playing pool to teach school.

The two weeks at Jason's sister's house we were too lazy. I think we got about one weeks worth done.

Now we're home, and we really have no excuses to not have school on a daily, or near daily, basis.

The boxes are nearly all unpacked and I'm pretending that the stacks of stuff lining the walls in Will's bedroom don't exist. Our schedule is nearly back on track. We're all caught up on sleep.

And so. School is in full swing. We still have ten weeks worth of lessons to do.

She's learning much actually. At the beginning of the year, I couldn't even get her to remember her letters from one day to the next.

Now? She's reading. Very slowly. Very, very slowly. But she's doing it.

I truly do believe in miracles.

Just two and a half years ago, she was on the level of a one year old child. Within a year she had nearly caught up to her own age. Now at nearly six, she's just about right on target. Sure, she still has a serious infatuation with pretending to be an animal (is she the only nearly six year old to do that?) and she still loves to pretend that she's a baby. Both of those things drive me crazy, and then I feel bad. She missed out on being a baby and aparently she still needs some of that. The animal thing? I just plain don't get.

Anyway. She's come so far. Just two and a half years ago she looked like this....

Today she looked like this. Reading her own little story about 'Sam's Pet'. She was thrilled.

And I was thrilled too. It makes the "I can't remember what a 'p' looks like" moments a little easier for me to handle if she can sit down and sound out a story. Granted, there were only 23 words in the story, but it was still a story!!!

The bad days are usually directly related to how much of this is happening..

As sorry as I feel for her when she cries and says that she can't concentrate, I do think it's good for her. She's learning to block things out in order to get things accomplished.

All in all, school is going great.

I didn't know if I'd ever be able to say that when we started in last fall.

The Great Flood

It was indeed a great flood. Just a couple days prior to the rain that melted the snow I snapped this picture from the bridge that spans our creek.

Then the rain came down and the floods went up. (As the song keeps going on and on through my head. Note to self: I need to teach that one to my children.)

To say there was a lot of water would be an understatement. When we got up in the morning...which was only a couple hours after we placed pans around our bedroom to catch the drips from the ceiling (a new leak)...and looked out the window, we could scarcely believe our eyes.

The creek had more than overflowed its banks. It was a raging river....taking out quite a bit of the fencing along the creek. The pasture was a giant lake.

Thankfully our house sits on a hill. It escaped the flood this time! Except for in our bedroom. And that was only an inch or so of water in a few pans.

Jason was disturbed when he discovered that he now has to rebuild some fence.

The children, though? Oh no. Not disturbed in the least about the flooding.

First thing in the morning they spotted a puddle in the yard in the circle drive. They started making plans.

Breakfast over, they raced out the door to "do our chores". I think the chores may have been completed, but they certainly didn't spend any extra time visiting with their animals.

Within minutes they were lugging pieces of wood to throw in the puddle as their fish.

And, of course, they had to 'fish' them back out again. Which, of course, requires some hip wading. Except it was only up to their knees.

It was a little humorous to see. Two little munchkins, bundled up in snowpants, hats, mittens, boots, and heavy coats...wading in a puddle that was way deeper than their boots were high.

The lady who stopped in to drop something off didn't seem overly impressed that I would allow my dear, sweet children to romp in a mud puddle. Much less one that was deep enough to go over the tops of their boots. In fact, she was talking to my brother as she pulled in she told me and informed him that there was no way she was at the right house..."There are two small children wading in a knee deep mud puddle." He assured her that she was at the right house. :)

They had the best time...until they decided that it was pretty chilly outside. Then things went downhill pretty quickly. They discovered that wet snowpants don't come off very easily. They discovered that mittens don't do much good when they are dripping wet. They discovered that it just simply isn't fun to tote all the drippy garments to the basement to be washed. Again.

Too bad puddles are so enticing. The next time there's a puddle, they'll be right back in the middle of it, water gushing over the tops of their boots.

For their sakes, I hope that it's a little warmer outside the next time!

By the way. Before this posted, we had yet another great flood. The water was even deeper than it was the first time around. They remembered how chilly they had gotten, and decided (all by themselves) that it would be best to stay out of the puddle this time!!

And. With the second flood our bedroom ceiling didn't leak, but Jason's pick-up roof did. What is it with us and floods? In the past six weeks, we have had a flooded house, a flooded pasture, a leaky bedroom ceiling, and a leaking pick-up roof.

We're working on our ark.

Rockin' and Readin'

First off....HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my nephew, Collin!!

And now for the daily reading.

For nearly one and a half hours each and every day, I sit in a rocking recliner and rock our little JN to sleep.

The special time doubles as my reading time. I love it.

Everything in me wishes that I had taken the time to rock Addie and Will to sleep for a while after we brought them home. Why didn't I? It's so fun. Most times anyway.

Sometimes he's flailing too wildly for me to enjoy reading a book, but usually he snuggles down in and in about 1/2 an hour he's snoring.

It's a very special time.

Not only is it a special time, but it's super good for my devotional life. I get in a rut. We get up early around here. The whole family, children and parents alike, are up and out of bed no later than 6:15. If I were a disciplined person, I would get up an hour earlier to spend my quiet time with the Lord.

However, I am not as well disciplined as I would like. I'm working on it, but I feel that I need sleep as well.

Anyway. The first time that I rock JN to sleep, I also lay Addie and Will down to rest. At 10:30 each morning, I finally have some quiet time.

For the past week I've been reading a book by Elizabeth George, "A Woman's High Calling". I know next to nothing about Elizabeth George, but I do know that I love her writing. She's so blunt. She's so practical. She writes on my level...which isn't overly deep, yet not overly shallow.

It's a super good book. There are so many good points. If I were a person who highlighted phrases in books, there would be yellow marks on every page. But I'm not a highlighting person. I love to re-read books, and if there are yellow splashes here and there I tend to only read those and never pick up new things.

"Beloved, this is how you and I are to live our lives as women with a high calling. You see, our calling is to godly behavior, to sacred behavior, to holy behavior. Our conduct must complement our high calling in Christ. It must match our calling to be engaged in sacred things, the things of the Lord. We are to walk through the minutes and the hours, the days and the decades, of our life as a priestess would walk through and serve in a temple. We must live our lives as if all of life were a sacred assembly. We must apply to all of daily life the reverent demeanor, the sacred conduct, and the holy behavior of a priestess in a temple. That, dear one, is our high calling from God, a calling to godliness."

Wow. What a calling.

She goes on with what I will call "The Eight P's to Becoming a Godly Woman".
1. Pray - Prayer wil most definitely affect our behavior.
2. Purpose - to be more aware of God's presence.
3. Praise the Lord!
4. And Praise the Lord some more!
5. Pick - a point for meditation
6. Prize - your high calling to reverent behavior.
7. Plan - to act in ways that attract attention to the Lord rather than to yourself.
8. Ponder - your behavior and your choices, for by them you tell on yourself.

(These were all taken directly from the book, pages 19-21.)

She ends this first chapter with a poem. She doesn't say if she wrote it or where it came from, but I love it.

YOU TELL ON YOURSELF
You tell on yourself by the friends you seek,
By the very manner in which you speak,
By the way you employ your leisure time,
By the use you make of dollar and dime.

You tell what you are by the things you wear,
By the spirit in which you burdens bear,
By the kind of things at which you laugh,
By the records you play on the phonograph.

You tell what you are by the way you walk,
By the things of which you delight to talk,
By them manner in which you bear defeat,
By so simple a thing as how you eat.

By the books you choose from the well-filled shelf:
In these ways and more, you tell on yourself.

Ouch.

That's all I have to say about that.

It's a book that I have read over and over, and every time something new strikes me. It's a book that is written in a way that I feel as if I am sitting at her kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee (which would be great if I liked coffee) while she is kindly, yet gently pointing out all the areas that need help in my life. It's a book that expounds on Titus 2.

So that's what I've been up to.

Reading and rocking.

And just a few hours later, you'll find me reading and rocking.

And come bedtime, you'll find me reading and rocking.

It's such a special time.

I hope he doesn't mind rocking til he's, oh, 15 or so.

Birthday Girl!!!

Today marks the big 3-0 for my dear sister in law. Or wait. It may be a little more than the thirty year mark, but I'd hate to say in public how old she really is.

There she is. She and her two littlest munchkins.

Happy Birthday AMBER!!!

Toddler Tornado

Seriously. I thought Will was always into everything.

Will was calm compared to Jack.

I need to hire a full time girl just to follow him around to clean up his messes.

If he isn't unwinding the toilet paper, he's pulling kleenex out of the box at lightning speed....

(That picture was taken in Russia, but it's happened several more times now that we're home again! Slow learning Mom.)

Cleaning out all my cupboards....

Or....the worst one yet....getting the box of my favorite cereal, Lucky Charms, and dumping them all over the kitchen floor.

He was thrilled. He found the biggest pile, plopped down in the middle, and tried to reach his goal of eating all the marshmellows before his Mommy found him.

What a sad time it was when I had to sweep up the piles. Of course, I let him truck around gathering all the marshmellows first. Isn't that what all moms would do? Hate to waste the best part of the cereal.

Not only did I not want to waste them, but I was in the middle of fixing supper. Then how did he get the cereal box, you ask? Well, at that time, I was busy e-mailing my brother to get his pancake recipe. We had them instead of Lucky Charms for breakfast this morning.

Does this confession of my favorite cereal make me sound like I'm still a little kid? Guess I am. Lucky Charms truly are my very favorite cereal...and this box that he dumped? They were even name brand.

I spent four dollars on that box of Lucky Charms.

It was my welcome home gift to myself.

Yes. I shared them with my children. They love them too, and I'd be embarrassed if I had to say that I ate a whole box of Lucky Charms all by myself.

Life Has Resumed

Finally. Our life is back to what I could almost term as normal.

Whatever that is.

But really. It's back.

The children aren't so sure that's a good thing, I must admit. I do believe that they thoroughly enjoyed their seven weeks off from doing chores. Sure, they did some things while we were overseas, but their schedule mainly consisted of playing.

Now? The chore charts are back.

The charts aren't officially being used yet as they aren't hung on the wall, but Mommy found them in a box and that got her brain to turning. Chores were re-instated as of three mornings ago.

After much moaning and groaning, the chores were accomplished.

Before I get all kinds of comments about what a mean mom I am, let me clarify. I don't have them doing all the laundry, they just take it to the washer for me.

I don't make them fold every single piece of laundry, they just do most of it. :) Don't ask Addie, though. She has been heard to say that Mommy makes her do all the work. Don't let her fool you. As long as her baby can sit right beside her so she has someone to talk to, she enjoys her job.

They don't have to do all the dishes single-handedly, they are just responsible for the lunch dishes...and I do breakfast and supper. Only human dishwashers at this house.

They still have plenty of time to play....though I still haven't dug out their toys from the boxes since we moved back home one week ago.

Thankfully the weather has been nice. They spend much of their time outside....walking the puppy, brushing the pony, holding the kitty's. The life of a farm-kid.

Sometimes I feel badly about having them do chores like that. However, the days that I let them take off, they seem to have a hard time getting along. Why is that? I truly believe that when my children have a whole day to just play, they don't feel that they have as big a part in keeping our family running smoothly. I tell them often that I don't know how everything would get done if they weren't here to help. You should see the grins. A needed child is a happy child.

Anyway. So much has been happening in the past week that I'm going to have to do several posts to catch up a little. Snow, warm weather, more snow, flood, stick removal from the yard, boxes unpacked (though still not done). It's been a busy week.

To add to our new normal, Jason is no longer heading off to work every day. He is now solely a farmer, and I'll have to admit that it's taking some getting used to having him popping in and out of our house during the day. Right now he is down at his parent's working on farm equipment....getting it ready for planting....but he's home much, much more than he has been. We love it!! The children love to head outside with him, tagging along and asking tons of questions. I love to see them head out as he finally understands why I have headaches at the end of the day!!! Okay, so it's not quite that bad, but they do talk non-stop.

How's JN doing? Absolutely great!!! He's still a definite mama-boy, but is starting to take to Jason more and more. He's still learning how to not wet himself rather than sitting on the potty chair...but part of that could be that his Mommy is rather inconsistent with sitting him down. Oops. Haven't had a messy diaper for nearly a week now, though. Did you need to know that? His potty chair sitting certainly doesn't stop him from delving into all kinds of stuff. He's learned how to scoot that thing all over the house.

He's still the happiest little guy around. Smiles at the drop of a hat. Doncha love his hat hair?

He still LOVES his bathtime, even though bathtime takes place in the kitchen sink rather than in a bathtub. The only tub in our house is in the upstairs bathroom....and the water is no longer hooked up to that particular room.

He's met all our animals and is proving to be an animal freak just like his sister. Have to watch closely when the door opens as he watches for an opening constantly.

I should go. The children are all napping, which I have found is definitely my time to accomplish whatever I care to accomplish for the day. There's clothes flapping in the breeze that need to be brought in and folded. The dirty lunch dishes are still residing on the table. Supper is needing to be fixed. Boxes are still sitting around full of stuff...and it's starting to drive me crazy.

I. Must. Get. Busy.

I drew a name.....

.....and the winner is MELANIE!!!

Yep. Melanie. Kind of handy. She just lives right around here.

And no. I didn't stage it. I called Mom and she picked the number '7'.

And number 7 just happened to be someone that I see frequently!!

I'll get in contact with you, Melanie.

Maybe I'll deliver it to you Sunday?

Hope to have a post up later today.....after I head off to Bible Study and then clean Jason's sisters house. She gets home next week and I'd be mortified if she saw her place the way we left it.