We are moving in 10 days!! Pete and Aidan have both been sick and are almost over their colds. I'm smack in the middle of mine. Thankfully, Iona has been doing OK. She seemed a little congested today, but nothing too bad.
We are taking a 3-week break from homeschooling. Everyone is excited for this break, but packing and unpacking is keeping us busy. It's so nice that we can flex our school schedule with life! Once we return to schooling, we have about 6 weeks left until we're done for the school year. I have lots of fun, school-related things planned for the summer, and I'm REALLY looking forward to planning out Aidan's 1st grade year. I'm itching to get started now, but I need to get my new house unpacked first. :) I read an amazing article on 1 Cor 13 for homeschool moms today...
I have not been able to run now for almost a week. I am feeling woefully underprepared for this half marathon coming up...
Iona has been VERY curious lately, and the boxes everywhere add to it. A common phrase out of her mouth lately is "What's that?" Over and over. She discovered where I keep her "pretties"--her hair beads and other hair supplies and has been found, multiple times, with bags of beads open and "stirring" the beads with her beading tool. I finally had to put it up and out of reach. And tonight she was caught curiously examining food in the garbage...the stray pieces of carrot and cabbage that I shredded, and the eggs that had been cracked... Ick. She's also been wanting me to hold her and rock her like a baby...she pretends to "sleep" in my lap or next to me on the couch, covered with a blanket and thumb in mouth. So cute!
Aidan started AWANA a couple of weeks ago and is having a blast! He just got his vest and new book and is working hard on learning his verses. I can't wait until Iona can join him when she turns 3. He seems to be taking the move fine. He's excited about the new house and his new room and new swingset. He's expressed some sadness about leaving our house, especially his stick and rock collections. :)
T minus 10 days and counting...
Monday, March 15, 2010
considering homeschooling?
When I get interested in something, I read everything I can get my hands on to learn about it. When we decided to homeschool about a year ago, I spent spring and summer reading as much as I could--books, Web sites, magazines, etc. I wanted to pass along some of my favorite homeschool resources.
Books (get the most recent edition):
Books (get the most recent edition):
- The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling by Debra Bell
- 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum by Cathy Duffy
- The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise
Helpful Sites and Blogs:
- Home School Legal Defense Association
- Donna Young
- A Holy Experience
- The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
- Heart of the Matter
- Harmony Art Mom
Favorite Curriculum Suppliers:
I also order directly from the company if needed.
My favorite tip is to place holds from home on library books you want. You can do this for books the library owns or on ILL books. When they are ready, the library will call! This has saved me SO much time!!
Monday, March 1, 2010
How He Loves
I have been running a bit lately, getting ready for this 1/2 marathon. I love to listen to worship music when I run--don't care so much about the tempo, but I just want some lyrics to think on as I pound the pavement.
Today I've been pondering some things with God and wrestling with Him over some idols, and this song came to mind. I LOVE running to David Crowder. LOVE LOVE LOVE his lyrics. Funny, I saw him live in Seattle and didn't think much of him at the time, but he's really grown on me. Some of his lyrics are really deep!
Wow.
Today I've been pondering some things with God and wrestling with Him over some idols, and this song came to mind. I LOVE running to David Crowder. LOVE LOVE LOVE his lyrics. Funny, I saw him live in Seattle and didn't think much of him at the time, but he's really grown on me. Some of his lyrics are really deep!
Wow.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
handwriting
Handwriting has been really hard for Aidan. He got glasses when he was 4, and it was amazing to see how well he could draw shapes after that!
This year for homeschool we decided to use Handwriting Without Tears for his handwriting curriculum. Can you believe we finished the kindergarten curriculum last week? Aidan has consistently wanted to move faster through the workbook than the "schedule," so I've let him. He loves to do the workbook page and then color the pictures.
Now that we're done, I have him writing his uppercase and lowercase alphabet on separate days as practice. For the other 2-3 days, we're working through book 1 of Draw Write Now. LOVE IT!! We're using HWT's Draw and Write Notebook to do the lessons.
I bought book 1 at the beginning of the school year because I thought it would be a fun activity book for Aidan since he LOVES art. I wasn't sure if writing the 4 short sentences for each lesson would be too much for him, but he is doing so awesome with the drawing and the writing. Today I let him color his drawings with colored pencils, and you would have thought I had given him the moon!
Yeah, my boy LOVES art. Any kind. We bought him a STACK of $.10 notebooks at the beginning of the school year and it was the best purchase! He has filled about 10 of them with his drawings...they started out as just ninja turtle after ninja turtle, and now he draws creatures he makes up, draws his toys while they model for him, and lots of picures of the family.
I think I'm going to buy the complete set of Draw Write Now books this summer and then sell this copy of book 1. We can work through them slowly over the summer and then when we finish our first grade HWT cirriculum early...
It's so amazing to see his progress in handwriting after all the specialists we've seen for his motor skills. God is so good, and Aidan is so determined! He is such a huge blessing.
Meanwhile, Iona has taken to drawing because she sees her beloved big brother doing it. She scribbles all over a paper and then says, "Ta-Da! Mommy, see!"
This year for homeschool we decided to use Handwriting Without Tears for his handwriting curriculum. Can you believe we finished the kindergarten curriculum last week? Aidan has consistently wanted to move faster through the workbook than the "schedule," so I've let him. He loves to do the workbook page and then color the pictures.
Now that we're done, I have him writing his uppercase and lowercase alphabet on separate days as practice. For the other 2-3 days, we're working through book 1 of Draw Write Now. LOVE IT!! We're using HWT's Draw and Write Notebook to do the lessons.
I bought book 1 at the beginning of the school year because I thought it would be a fun activity book for Aidan since he LOVES art. I wasn't sure if writing the 4 short sentences for each lesson would be too much for him, but he is doing so awesome with the drawing and the writing. Today I let him color his drawings with colored pencils, and you would have thought I had given him the moon!
Yeah, my boy LOVES art. Any kind. We bought him a STACK of $.10 notebooks at the beginning of the school year and it was the best purchase! He has filled about 10 of them with his drawings...they started out as just ninja turtle after ninja turtle, and now he draws creatures he makes up, draws his toys while they model for him, and lots of picures of the family.
I think I'm going to buy the complete set of Draw Write Now books this summer and then sell this copy of book 1. We can work through them slowly over the summer and then when we finish our first grade HWT cirriculum early...
It's so amazing to see his progress in handwriting after all the specialists we've seen for his motor skills. God is so good, and Aidan is so determined! He is such a huge blessing.
Meanwhile, Iona has taken to drawing because she sees her beloved big brother doing it. She scribbles all over a paper and then says, "Ta-Da! Mommy, see!"
Sunday, February 14, 2010
next adoption?
We've been getting really excited about starting another adoption this summer. Right now the short list includes Russia, Ethiopia, Thailand, and Swaziland. Not in that order.
Please pray for us as we pray through this huge decision! We hope to announce the news sometime this summer, after we move and settle in.
I just filled out a ton of paperwork to change our address for our foster care license. It doesn't end!!
Please pray for us as we pray through this huge decision! We hope to announce the news sometime this summer, after we move and settle in.
I just filled out a ton of paperwork to change our address for our foster care license. It doesn't end!!
SOLD!
We had an offer on our house in the afternoon after our open house. After going back and forth many times, we accepted a deal on Sunday morning!!
So we had our houses labeled 1, 2, and 3. While we were waiting for our house to sell, we had finally decided #1 was just too much money and out of our reach. Sunday afternoon we went to see #2 again. We were about to put an offer on it, but we were not at peace. It was a lot smaller than we remembered from the first showing. We went home and spent some time with our realtors, and we decided to go and see #3 again...of course we had to give the homeowners time to get out!! Finally, late afternoon, we went to see it again. WE LOVED IT!! We got to see it with the sun shining in the windows. We realized that once we took #1 out of the picture, this house looked a lot more appealing. We are very overwhelmed by God's grace, giving us the PERFECT house in so many different ways. Pictures are on Facebook.
We're still waiting to hear our close date. Our buyer wants in on March 15, but our seller would prefer to get out by March 30. Thankfully our realtors are working that all out. We have the basement almost completely packed.
The garage door turned out to be a relatively small fix, and our repairman was able to fix another problem with it at the same time. We're so thankful!!
We're taking a small break this week to go visit some adoption friends who are traveling nearby from MA. We're excited to see the Laughners again and anyone else who can come as well!
We had fun celebrating Valentine's Day this weekend with the kids. Aidan and Pete made sugar cookies with icing and got to use a bunch of fun cookie cutters. We gave the kids tiny boxes of chocolates. And tonight we had take and bake pizza for dinner. :)
Happy Valentine's Day!!
So we had our houses labeled 1, 2, and 3. While we were waiting for our house to sell, we had finally decided #1 was just too much money and out of our reach. Sunday afternoon we went to see #2 again. We were about to put an offer on it, but we were not at peace. It was a lot smaller than we remembered from the first showing. We went home and spent some time with our realtors, and we decided to go and see #3 again...of course we had to give the homeowners time to get out!! Finally, late afternoon, we went to see it again. WE LOVED IT!! We got to see it with the sun shining in the windows. We realized that once we took #1 out of the picture, this house looked a lot more appealing. We are very overwhelmed by God's grace, giving us the PERFECT house in so many different ways. Pictures are on Facebook.
We're still waiting to hear our close date. Our buyer wants in on March 15, but our seller would prefer to get out by March 30. Thankfully our realtors are working that all out. We have the basement almost completely packed.
The garage door turned out to be a relatively small fix, and our repairman was able to fix another problem with it at the same time. We're so thankful!!
We're taking a small break this week to go visit some adoption friends who are traveling nearby from MA. We're excited to see the Laughners again and anyone else who can come as well!
We had fun celebrating Valentine's Day this weekend with the kids. Aidan and Pete made sugar cookies with icing and got to use a bunch of fun cookie cutters. We gave the kids tiny boxes of chocolates. And tonight we had take and bake pizza for dinner. :)
Happy Valentine's Day!!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
sponsor a child
My friend Karen is organizing sponsors for a care center in Ethiopia. She only needs 5 more children sponsored!
We are sponsoring a 4-year-old boy named Zerubabel. He's the sweetest thing! He is in the back row of the picture on Karen's blog.
Be sure to read previous posts on her blog for more information on Kind Hearts, the care center.
Could God want to use you to care for orphans?
We are sponsoring a 4-year-old boy named Zerubabel. He's the sweetest thing! He is in the back row of the picture on Karen's blog.
Be sure to read previous posts on her blog for more information on Kind Hearts, the care center.
Could God want to use you to care for orphans?
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