Our floor is cute!

The most recent cutology from Kaomi was yesterday morning.  She came into our bedroom and the first thing she said, to Jeff, was, "You have a cute floor."  Which is probably true due to the fact that we have had stuff sitting on that same floor for who knows how long and put a few boxes of books in my closet Sunday evening to get them off the bedroom floor.  We can actually see the floor now.

Safe Harbor

Tonight we watched the movie "Safe Harbor".  I really enjoyed it.  I recommend it for anyone who has a heart for those older kids in the Foster Care System or Juvenile Delinquents.

Moonrise

 We saw a cool moonrise tonight.  Then we took a romantic walk under it, while the kids ran ahead of us (Katy was pushing Felicity's stroller).

I was trying out some different settings on our camera to see what worked well or not.

Katy's Reading Review

Today I did a reading review with Katy.  She just finished learning about consonant blends.  Katy liked reading the little stories I wrote for her so much that she wanted to read them to Jeff tonight.  After her bath, she perched herself on a kitchen chair and read them to Daddy.  I enjoyed listening to her as she narrated almost every sentence before she read it.  It went something like this..."Bill and Jill fell off the bus.  Something bad happened, but I didn't read that part yet...Bill will help Jill.  I like Bill he is a nice guy...Oh, I remember this part it is about...This story is about Jeff, I can't call you that, but I can when I read the story...Oh, this is a fun story...etc.

I know she loves her lessons when she wants to share them with Daddy.
Tomorrow we will start learning about consonant digraphs.

Wonderful Weekend - Conference

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend a conference on Loving Your Husband at my church.  Jeff was able to watch the older kids and I took Felicity with me, as she would need to eat a couple of times.

(Now what I have written below is nothing new to me, but for some reason the way it was presented made me understand it even more.)

All the struggles we have are spiritual problems.

What really struck me was that Loving God is the Most important thing in my life.  In Matthew 22:34+ Jesus is asked "What is the greatest commandment?" and His answer was "Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, with ALL your strength, and with ALL your mind.  Do I love God like that?  No.  But I am supposed to.

Psalm 73:25 says there is "nothing [on earth] I desire besides [God].  Do I desire God more than anything else?  I should, but I don't.

Happiness shouldn't be my goal, as it is unattainable.  When you love God-completely-you will have joy.  Personally, I would much rather be filled with joy than to only have a few "happy" moments.

How little I love God, shows through my selfishness.

I want to love God, but talking and action are on opposite ends of the spectrum.  I need to make loving God my active lifestyle.  My life is not about me - it is God's life for him to use to show others who He is for His Glory.  I want my husband, children, and those around me to look at me and be able to say "She loves God."


Lord, help me to love you, like you desire me to love you.  Give me an attitude of love for you that radiates to those I come in contact with.

Friday Fanfare - Fabric

This morning we were able to quickly complete our tasks in the Children's Learning Center at our church.  Then we went to Walmart so I could pick up a few groceries so we would make it through the weekend.  While there they had 5 yard bolts of fabric for $5.  That's a really good deal on fabric.  I found two that I really liked.  One is pink, it is a loose weave similar to monks cloth (I'm thinking a light-weight blanket for one of the girls.) and the other is a pale green with green and pink flowers.  Katy found one that she wants to make a dress out of, it is green with daisies and blue, yellow and orange spots - I got the same pattern to use for the girls in pink with green, red, and yellow spots.  So I guess I may have some more projects in the making.  I'm thinking something with pleats for Katy...is that a hassle for ironing?  I hope not because I don't manage to iron very often.  Christmas is coming.  I should start working on them soon if that is what I decide to do. 

When we got home we ate lunch and the kids all went out to play.  We are enjoying today.  It's a reprieve from earlier this week when being a wife, mom and teacher wasn't going as smooth as it has been and the house was a complete wreck.  I have a wonderful husband though, who came home Wednesday evening and just started to help - he didn't even say anything about it.  Thanks Jeff, I was dreading walking back into the kitchen, knowing that I had no place to even think of making supper and it was already past supper time.  I was thinking we were going to have to have milk and cold pop-tarts on napkins for supper, but instead we were able to at least have PBJ and chips.

Counting Cheerios

Today Kent learned that the Mayflower could hold 180 barrels or casks.  So he counted to 180 using cheerios in groups of 10.  Then we compared them to how much space there was in the Mayflower using a picture that he had drawn last week.  The purpose of the exercise was to show how the boat would have been very crowded.

Working Weekend - Shopping

This weekend I tried to get some of my grocery shopping done while Jeff was studying.  First I went to CVS, to get some of the deals for the week.  About halfway through checking out, I realized that I had forgotten my wallet.  Of course it wasn't in the car, I had completely forgotten the diaper bag and had to go home to get it.  When we returned someone had dropped some pennies where we were checking out so Katy and Kent both picked one up.  Then Katy dropped hers and started crying because she couldn't find it.  There seemed to be a line a mile long and everyone was watching me try to juggle my coupons, CVS card, bag tags, wallet, a shopping cart with Felicity in it,  two shopping bags, hold Kaomi's hand, try to help Katy understand that the penny wasn't really hers in the first place, so she shouldn't cry, Kent trying to carry the shopping bag I handed him...

I guess it is usually like this, minus a crying child, but it sure made me want to laugh at what I imagined everyone behind me was thinking.

Then we went to Target.  One of the first items on my list was baby food.  You need to understand that I don't shop at target for groceries very often and I don't usually buy baby food there.  So I start looking for baby food and picking up other items that were on my list and adding them to the cart as I looked.  I finally had everything on my list, except baby food of course.  So I continue going up and down all the isles looking for the baby food I missed.  Meanwhile my kids have been acting up and I am getting a little frustrated.  Then I saw a mom struggling with her little girl (a screaming battle of the wills) and am thankful that I'm not having to deal with that right now.  I kept looking for the baby food.  I finally saw two guys just starting to stock cereal on the shelves.  So I asked, "Do ya'll have baby food?"  Of course they looked at me kind of strange, then one of them said, "Yep, it's in the baby aisle."  Well, duh of course it's in the baby isle why didn't I think of looking there.  I felt pretty stupid as I was thinking, I'm looking for baby food in the food aisles and now I have to go half-way across the store to get food from the diaper section.  I guess it makes sense...kind of.  Maybe they should move the baby section next to the food aisles so I can find it faster next time.

I wonder how strange it looks for someone to go shopping with 4 young kids.  I get lots of comments like "you've got your hands full" and some strange looks like "what in the world are you thinking".  I don't see too many others out shopping with that many kids.  I shop most of the time with all my kids, so I don't really think about it a lot.  I do know that we are often blocking the aisle and I try to be sensitive to other shoppers and move out of their way before they get to us.  I'd love to hear your ideas and tips for shopping with several kids.

How to Eat a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup

As the slogan goes...there is no wrong way to eat a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

Reflections from a Father

Today you can visit Jeff's Blog
He has some great 3 year old quotes from Kaomi

Rainy Day

Filling up my bucket.

That's a good idea, I'll use a cup.

Surprise!!

I guess this Wolf Spider thought it was a little drier on higher ground.

  We went out first thing in the morning in the pouring rain.  By the time we were back in the car from our 1 stop everyone was rather wet.  Puddles sure are fun.  The sidewalk had an unavoidable puddle that was about 2 inches deep, so even I had wet feet.  So when we got home I told everyone to go play in the rain.  After Kent dumped his cup of water on Katy, Kaomi dumped her bucket on Kent.  They had a blast and burned some energy before we began school.  This was their exercise for the day.

At the end of the day they all played a game of Candyland, by themselves.  And there was no fighting or arguing!?!!!  I'm not quite sure that Kaomi could help play any better by being the one to read the instructions as she can't read yet.

Thanks God for giving us a peaceful rainy day.  The rain was from Tropical Storm Hermine and it wasn't too windy.

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Kaomi's Chocolate Birthday

Celebration Pancakes an Chocolate Milk with her special place setting.

Playing Outside with Daddy

Trying out her new presents.  The dress is the project I was working on.

Her "Chocolate Birthday".  It's a brownie with dark chocolate icing, chocolate graham crackers, chocolate jelly beans, dark chocolate peanut butter cups, marshmallows, sprinkles and princess wands.

Kaomi's 3

Felicity is learning more

Felicity has figured out that if she bangs a toy on the floor it makes noise.  I guess I'll be packing up the bouncy chair, soon.  It doesn't look like she'll be bouncing in it much longer.