Misc. Pics from This Morning

Enjoying the beautiful weather today! Love just watching and listening to them play!

Big Sister has "my hunting pants on".

Just sitting and watching Momma.

Week of St. Patrick's Fun

I do not usually put entries into our blog about our homeschool activities because I create a year-end album, however, I decided it might actually make that project go quicker at the end of the year if I post some of the pictures here and journal about our activities, then it will just be a matter of cutting and pasting.

In addition to reading about the history of St. Patrick (sold into slavery as a young boy and grew up to become a follower of Jesus that returned to the country he was held captive to spread the gospel), we also did a few fun crafts, snacks, and activities this week to help celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

Rainbow Art with scraps of colored paper. Love the huge stash of random craft materials I have collected over the years - I knew the pre-cut scraps of paper would come in handy for something one of these days.

Our green smoothie that included pineapple, green grapes, frozen apples, yogurt, and spinach
(and whatever else the kiddos decided to toss in). Yummy!!

Science Day with Grandpa - OOBLECK
The project started inside and it was quickly realized it was more of an outdoor project.

For those that have not played with Oobleck before - this stuff is so interesting and literally the kids played with it for hours. It is a solid, I mean a liquid, or wait is it a solid. See the following pictures to see what I am talking about. Big Sister even thought it tasted good?? Just corn starch and water.

Form a ball...

and then let is melt out of your hands.

Pours like water, but you can break it off mid pour.

Then we added a little vibration and it took off dancing! A little loud, but lots of fun!

Big Sister with her hearing protection and face covered in Oobleck!

Thursdays activity was making rainbow rice - so easy and the kids were able to help. I did four cups of rice, 3 Tablespoons of vinegar and then about 6-7 drops of food coloring in a freezer bag. Kiddos squished it around for awhile and there is your rainbow rice.

The kids made some beautiful "rice" art - I just glued the tops on.

I decided to add in some "gold" so the kids could scoop and search for it.
Again, one of those supplies I have had on hand that came in handy when I needed it.

Friday I made rainbow pancakes (just a drop or two of coloring was I used).

And couldn't leave out the green eggs (friend's idea of blending the eggs with spinach before cooking).
The kids loved them.

New Ride

Big Sister got a couple of new rides this past week. Glad the weather was beautiful and she was recovering from her cold. I didn't get any pictures of her actually riding the bike as she was ready to move on to bigger and better things by the time I grabbed the camera. Seeing my 2-year old on a bike (although with training wheels) was a little scary since Big Brother just started riding his big bike this past summer at 6.

Big Sister absolutely loves her "pull behind". She giggled and giggled as Daddy pulled her around the cul-de-sac. You can see Big Brother in the background of the picture below riding down the neighbor's driveway. He has become a pro bike rider. He and Daddy even got to go on a long trail ride this past weekend. He had a blast!

NEW LIFE

Love seeing new life in bloom! What a great reminder of God's glory and grace!

A Lesson in Basic Needs

 The past two weeks God has been reminding me of my sole purpose for being home, and that is to care for the basic needs of my family - not only in their physical health, but also their (and my) spiritual health as well.

My poor sweetie had a 5 day run of a fever with runny nose and icky cough, to be followed with ear pain and additional runny nose and cough. Come to find out she had a molar coming in on top of a cold. She needed a lot more TLC and attention than usual. This was a great opportunity for me to just concentrate on her immediate needs of wiping her nose and just cuddling her.

Here she is feeling a little better : )

About 5 days into Big Sister's illness, Baby Sister decided it was her turn on a cold. We ended up needing to do some breathing treatments with her, but she sure was a trooper - each treatment was met with helpful hands and a need to chew on the mask. The next picture is of her actually falling asleep. Now, if anyone has had experience with a breathing machine, you know they are not quiet - we are thinking about running this all night so she sleeps soundly in her bed...

During the past two weeks, it would have been easy for me to get upset or irritated about the state of things in our home - to be bothered by the mess that was piling up around me or the projects that were not being completed, the constant lack of sleep with two waking up off and on. Now, not to say that I didn't have moments of self-pity during this time, but overall, God was showing me where my focus needed to be - caring for the basic needs of my little ones. It was in these days of just cuddling and caring for my little ones that I found times of quietness to just be in God's Word and again saturate myself with his truths. I once again found specific times of prayer that I had been lacking consistency on for some time since our newest addition. It can be so easy to get caught up in everything going on around us - the busyness of it all - that we can forget our most basic need of spiritual health. It is so important for me to be spiritually healthy in order for me to teach and train my children to know and love the Lord. When I am spiritually unhealthy, my children are seeing actions that are not Christ-like. Although I did not like seeing my children faltering physically, it provided me great opportunities to focus on the spiritual health of our family. God is good!

St. Patrick's Day - Printable

I was looking around for a St. Patrick's Day Subway Art printable and decided to create one for myself that was a better representation of the history behind St. Patrick's Day. I did a basic one and one with more added to it. I thought I would share with anyone that has an interest. I have a frame that I use to change out printables throughout the seasons. Fun way to add a little something to the room. Happy March!

click image. click to magnify. right click. save image as. save. then print on cardstock.

{for personal use only}

Weekend Family Trip

 Last weekend we made a trip for a family gathering and had a wonderful time getting caught up and, of course, the kids thoroughly enjoyed all the activities - indoor water park, arcade, go-karts, and lots of food.

Big Sister spent the first couple of hours on Daddy's back, but then starting really enjoying leading him around the water park area. She was exhausted by the end of the day.

Big Brother loves the water - he spent many hours playing!!

That is Big Brother at the bottom of the water fall! It was fun to get this picture.

Quote from Big Brother: "The slide was really scary - it was so fast...and dark...It took forever to get down it - around each turn I kept waiting to come out and then didn't." He loved it the second time around - knew what to expect.

Little Sister loved all the attention and also loved being in Mommy's Ergo most of the time.

Yes - this is Big Sister eating a cucumber instead of the ice cream cone in front of her. She did end up eating both, but I had to laugh - she loves her veggies!

   

Family Guidelines

This is our Family Guidelines project that Mommy recently completed. This is a list that Daddy and Mommy came up with that our family wants to make every effort to live by. The list below is the complete list - some of them are difficult to read in the picture.

LOVE GOD:

all of our hearts, minds, and strength

Slow to anger slow to speak quick to listen

Do everything without grumbling or arguing

Be CONTENT with whatever we have

Actions and words GLORIFY GOD

Conversations be full of GRACE

Focus UPWARD and OUTWARD, NOT INWARD

LOVE each other as GOD loves us

Spur one another on toward love and good deeds

‘It is more blessed to GIVE than to receive.'

FORGIVE as the LORD

has forgiven us

Choose JOY in all circumstances

Take care of what

the Lord has given you

Wife: Respect Him Husband: Love Her

Children, Obey Your Parents

Fathers, Do Not Exasperate Your Children

By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established;

through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.

Yes - We Sometimes Play With Our Food

Every time Mommy makes Chicken Noodles with Mashed Potatoes - Daddy and Big Brother build damns with their potatoes and vegetables before dumping on the noodles. They enjoy seeing whose holds out longer and how much they can put on before it breaks through.