Our Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!!

Here are a few pics of our New Year's Eve / Day celebrations (such as they were).

Robert's brother and his wife are in Alaska on a mission trip, so we invited their three kids over to enjoy fireworks with us.

Caleb was the only one brave enough to do the sparklers.

Here's what Mattie thought of the big fireworks. (Strangely enough, she asked for them more than 10 times today!)

This was a stark improvement over our July festivities! (In July, he spent the entire evening inside... this time he was happy as long as he was on the porch and kept his ears covered.)

Gotta love those big brown eyes...

And here's Jacob keeping his ears covered. He did enjoy them a lot more than this face looks like.

Emily liked watching them from on top of the car!

All the happy kiddos on the porch (as far from the fireworks as possible!).

That was it for our New Year's Eve party. We put the kids in bed by nine. And I got to experience the ultimate event: going to Wal Mart by myself... with almost no one there!

Then I came home and we vegged on the couch long enough to see the ball drop. Don't you wish you were so cool??

Then today was my day to help with the kids, so we made pizza for lunch and then did some New Year's Day learnin' and fun. We talked about the calendar starting over and looked at our 2007 calendar. We closed it after December and opened a new one. (I bought Jacob his own calendar to keep on the wall this year.) This seemed to help the kids understand it was a new something. We also did a printable book from enchantedlearning.com and colored a bit.

Once I got the little ones in bed, we made fireworks with glue and glitter! The older three loved this!

Happy New Year!!

P.S. I know I have some issues with my night pictures. It's not the camera's fault... It's quite difficult to take a picture with a heavy camera at night while holding a toddler clinging with a death grip!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

From us and our cousins!

We've had a great day today! We started out sleeping later than I expected... that alone is cause for celebration! Then we opened stockings, had breakfast, opened kids presents, had some snacks, then opened adult presents.

Jacob has a couple of presents left (that may get held until his birthday at this point), and Mattie still has a ton left! She was so content to open slowly I didn't push her at all. Jacob's favorite was the ascending track risers that he got. He also got a Thomas and Friends video game that he hasn't played yet... I'm pretty sure it will move into the favorite spot as soon as he does!

And Mattie has been so overwhelmed with the twenty people in the house, she's hardly noticed her gifts! Plus she only opened about 5, so she has a lot to go. One major hit was a set of animal finger puppets from IKEA that Kjirstin got her. They are SOOOOO cute! She is also enjoying a teddy bear that lights up and changes colors. (Thanks, Danny!) And I'll let you know more when she's finished! Now that I think of it, she also loved the Thomas tee shirt my mom and dad bought her. She's had it on all day!

My most exciting gift was... a new camera! (A picture of one anyway.) Mine has been dying for a month or so. And I've been wanting one that focuses almost instantly and has a great zoom, so I'm getting to move up a bit! I'm going to get the Canon Digital Rebel XTi. :) Thank you, Honey!!!

And Robert got seasons 1 & 2 of The Office and a great back massager that fits in a comfy chair, so we're set for comfortable entertainment for awhile!

After all of that, we went caroling. We have a family that is gifted musically, and with all of us together we have a pretty solid choir! So we went to carol for one of Mom's friends who lives alone and is in bed with a back injury. Then we went to a nursing home right down the street. We walked in and there were 8 or so people right there, so we jsut stodd right there and caroled for them! A few of them sang along with us and smiled, and a few of the others just sat quietly, but they all enjoyed it. We gave them hugs as we left and they hugged us like they'd known us for years. That's worth getting out of my comfort zone. That is what it's all about...

Tomorrow we have more family coming, so we're having our traditional meal and Happy Birthday, Jesus! party then.

I hope all had a great Christmas day celebration as well!

Sweet sleep breathing

I was finding a bit of joy on my journey last night about midnight. Jacob has been having a really hard time sleeping the past two weeks as a side effect of some medicine. He's been awake for several hours each night anywhere between midnight and 6AM; it's different each night. He is getting better about not coming into our room repeatedly as he's realizing there is nothing I can do for him, but I do think he gets lonely upstairs all by himself for that long. So, last night I let him start in my bed and told him I'd move him into Mattie's room on the floor after she was asleep. Well, I went to bed soon after they did and was afraid she wasn't asleep yet, so I just let him stay in my bed (which is a major treat for him!). When Robert is home I don't sleep a bit with a kiddo in the bed, because it's just too crowded, but without him, it's not bad at all, though not a habit we want to get into.

Anyway, as I was lying there awake last night I was just watching his sweet little face with his thumb in his mouth and "Joe" right next to his face, his sweet, steady breathing sounded so restful. (I wanted to get up and take a picture, but I couldn't make myself get out of bed.) I had just some time to realize what good boy he is. He's sensitive, thoughtful, helpful, bright, giving and tries so hard to do the right thing so many times! And then I remember he's only 5! Only 5. As a mommy I spend so much time correcting behavior, sometimes it's hard to remember what good kids I have. I do have two really good kids.

Our First Respite Day

I am so tired! Today we had our first respite day... basically free babysitting for children with special needs and their siblings under 12 so the parents can have a break. We did it from 9-2 today...kind of a long time for our first one, but we wanted the parents to be able to go Christmas shopping. We had 11 kids (6 with special needs and 5 typical) and 6 helpers (yes, I know that sounds like a lot, but with three autistic boys and one more who are all prone to running off, and four kids who were not confident with pottying, we needed more help than we had! In spite of our exhaustion, we certainly decided it was a great success!!

The parents came back very thankful...one mom spent the day alone with her mom (something she hadn't done in more than 2 years)... another couple got their Christmas shopping done for all their kids!... another mom got some painting done... another went home to an empty house to enjoy it. All of these are things we sooooo take for granted!

We had free playtime, then a puppet show (performed by a 33 year old man with autism!) which was the highlight by FAR, then we did some crafts, read a book, had a pizza lunch and had a "Happy Birthday, Jesus!" party.

We're planning another one for Valentine's Day... with more helpers, another puppet show, and dinners in lunch boxes, I think. And because they loved the puppets so much, we're going to make a puppet with each child to take home. (Most of them were begging for more puppets! Mattie is still talking about them!) I think we'll have more kids then also, because we will have more time to advertise and these parents will have spread the word.

It was a blessing to be able to give these parents a break, and a blessing to be able to share the day with other believers as well! We had a great time.

The 12 Days of Homeschooling

Someone posted this on a message board I read tonight. I thought it was cute.


The 12 Days of Homeschooling By Anonymous

On the first day of homeschool my neighbor said to me,
“Can you homeschool legally?”

On the second day of homeschool my neighbor said to me,
“Are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?”

On the third day of homeschool my neighbor said to me,
“Do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?”

On the fourth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me,
“What about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?”

On the fifth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me,
“YOU ARE SO STRANGE! What about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?”

On the sixth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me,
“How long will you homeschool, YOU ARE S0 STRANGE, what about P.E. , do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?”

On the seventh day of homeschool my neighbor said to me,
“Look at what they’re missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!,
what about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, do you homeschool legally?”

On the eighth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me,
“Why do you do this, look at what they’re missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE, what about P.E. do you give them tests, are they socialized, do you homeschool legally?”

On the ninth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, “They’ll miss the prom, why do you do this, look at what they’re missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!, what about P.E. do you give them tests, are they socialized, do you homeschool legally?”

On the tenth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me,
“What about graduation, they’ll miss the prom, why do you do this, look at what they’re missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!, what about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?”

On the eleventh day of homeschool my neighbor said to me,
“I could never do that, what about graduation, they’ll miss the prom, why do you do this, look at what they’re missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE, what about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?”

On the twelfth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me,
“Can they go to college, I could never do that, what about graduation, they’ll miss the prom, why do you do this, look at what they’re missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE, What about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?”

On the thirteenth day of homeschool I thoughtfully replied:
“They Can go to college, yes you can do this, they can have graduation, we don’t like the prom, we do it cuz its best, they are missing nothing, we’ll homeschool forever, WE ARE NOT STRANGE!, We give them P.E., and we give them tests, they are socialized, AND WE HOMESCHOOL LEGALLY!

On the fourteenth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me,
“How can I get started, why didn’t you tell me, where do I buy curriculum, when is the next conference, WILL PEOPLE THINK WE’RE STRANGE? I think we can do this, if you will help us, can we join P.E. and we’ll homeschool legally.”

What would you do if an angel visited you?

This was supposed to be an opportunity for contemplation, I believe, as a part of a Christmas activity book Jacob was working on today while I was getting my teeth cleaned. Here's his unabashed response that made me laugh out loud!!! Actually, I'm still laughing out loud!!

St. Nicholas

We read this book the day we learned about St. Nicholas, December 6...aka St. Nicholas Day. I did explain that the concept of Santa came from Nicholas, but other than that we just learned about him. He did some crafts and stuff at Candace's the day before, so he and I just talked about him and tried to think of things we could do like St. Nicholas did... give gifts to others without revealing your identity in order to really do it just because it is "better to give than to receive." At first Jacob wasn't really getting in to this. He was fine with the idea of giving gifts, but couldn't really come up with anything to do for the people I suggested.

As we were riding to Grandmama's for a visit, he said, "Mom, I know what I could do. Colin [a 3 year old Thomas-loving cousin] really loves his blue track trains, so I could give him three or four of mine for him to have. That would be great to do for St. Nicholas Day." And sure enough, after much explanation that he was not getting these trains back (he even offered Thomas!!! which I turned down because it one part of it isn't working right) he impatiently said, "but Mom, I just want to give them because it would be kind... And I know Colin will be delighted when he opens them up and gets to play with them!"

When we got home, with no prompting from me, he chose the trains to give, wrapped them himself, decorated the gift tag with Thomas stickers and urged me to "hurry up" so we could take them to Colin. So we went over and left them at his front door for him to find. (Valerie walked to the window as we were running back to the car and Jacob ran behind the car to hide so he wouldn't be found out. It was so cute!)

Fast forward...next day: "Mom, I know Caleb [a 2 year old Thomas-loving cousin] really loves his wooden track trains, so I'd like to give him some of mine to play with." So, again, he chose them, wrapped them, decorated the tag and urged me to get them over there for him.

I am proud of him for his giving spirit. It was neat that he wasn't really excited about buying a favorite treat for Grandmama (because it had no value for him to understand), but was thoroughly motivated to give his trains to little boys that he knew would love them as much as he does. I guess that's how the Lord uses us when we're willing to remember how we feel in a situation and want to minister to others for that reason. He has always been a sensitive boy, it's just masked by the know-it-all, unreserved personality he has. It's been refreshing to enjoy this part of him this week! And it's always good for a reminder that we're all diamonds in the rough.

And back tot eh St. Nicholas Day tradition of dropping gifts off secretly... Jacob enjoyed this so much this year, I think I may make this our new way of giving gifts to our local cousins instead of at our family get together (which is so chaotic, there's no way the kids could even begin to contemplate the "giving" part of it all). It added an element of excitement to the giving for him, one that I want to keep!

Christmas Tree

The day we studied the roots of Christmas trees we read Eve Bunting's Night Tree. It is a sweet book where a family goes to a forest each Christmas Eve and decorates a tree for the animals. So we did a version of this as a family! We made ornaments with cookie cutters from white bread, peanut butter, and birdseed. And we made popcorn/cranberry strings. We took them all outside and decorated the leafless birch tree in front of our kitchen window. This was a fun activity, mostly because we did it one day when Robert was home to join us.

Mattie loving the cookie cutters


Jacob working hard on his cranberry popcorn string. (He surprised me at how well he did with this, needle and all!)


Mattie's contribution to the popcorn stringing.


Even Robert got in on the stringing and made us an 8 foot garland!!


Here's just a little proof that I exist.



Our various decorations


Who needs a ladder with Daddy around?

Our decorated tree!

And Silas getting in on the goods!! (Well, we said we decorated it for the animals, I guess...we didn't say which animals.) He got everything under 5 feet, I believe.

Our First Week of Advent...

has not gone quite as I planned, but we've still enjoyed it, nonetheless. I've discovered that I had too many things that didn't coordinate, so we're just not getting to them all. They are all things that will be fun traditions, but they'll have to be alternating traditions!

We have been doing the Jesse Tree, though a mini version of it. I think we're going to skip the prophecy focus for this year and do that next year when Jacob will "get" that concept better. We're reading One Wintry Night and correlating the chapters with our Jesse Tree devotions. That is working well. One Wintry Night is a very well written book. (This book, with many others that were special to their family, was a beautiful, treasured gift from Mattie's birth family when she was given to us. And they didn't even know we were book-a-holics!)

And we've been studying the symbols of the Christmas season using the Lisa Welchel book I wrote about a couple of posts ago. This book has been just what I needed. I have struggled in years past wondering what traditions to do because of all the things "they" say... Who are "they" anyway???? Is a Christmas tree really pagan?? Is Santa all that bad?? Does Xmas really a way to get Christ out of Christmas? (No, by the way.) Why in the world do people eat fruitcake?? (Ha! Just kidding on that one... no book could possibly ever explain that one!) Anyway, it has been good to learn where all of these things came from. (Martin Luther was the one who started the tradition of lights on a tree. Never knew that!) It has freed me to relax about much of the stuff I would have lumped into "commercialism," and feeling free is a wonderful thing!

So far we've learned about Christmas trees, lights on the tree, advent wreaths, Saint Nicholas, and Christmas pageants. Each day we read about that symbol from The ADVENTure of Christmas by Lisa Welchel, read some children's books relating to the symbol, and read a poem relating to the symbol if I have one. (Lois Lenski's Christmas Stories happens to have many poems that have correlated well with our symbols and Jacob has really enjoyed the poetry exposure.) Then we've done some activity relating to that symbol. It's really been a fun way to get our Christmas "things" done this year!

The symbols I have planned to talk about in the next two weeks are: nativity scene, ornaments, Christmas colors, candy cane, giving gifts, wrapping gifts, poinsettia, star, candles, angels, 12 days of Christmas, and the wise men. (Obviously, some of these roots are very clear already.)