More of Clark's and Quinn's Fun Stuff

Clark told me he was getting a hair cut.

Quinn thinks its fun to play in this car.  He can get in and out all by himself.

Late night giggles and snuggles are worth it.  Even if the baby gets wound up and doesn't want to go to sleep until after Mommy's normal bedtime.

Clark was practicing his name.  I told him to put the letters in order and this is what he did ALL BY HIMSELF.  He didn't even look at the placemat on which he usually matches up his letters.

Yesterday, Clark was playing with this wrench and then he told me, "I have a holly-lop."

Other happenings:
Quinn is taking more steps and realizing it is kind of fun.  It is fun to hear all the kids exclamations of "Quinn just walked!".

Clark put a sticker on his "eyeball" this morning.  It was really on his elbow.

Kent's 10th Birthday

This weekend we celebrated Kent's birthday.  He is now 10.  He likes Ford mustangs, so we thought we would use that as his theme this year.

We started the weekend Friday night with a campfire and s'mores.

 Saturday was Kent's actual birthday.  He had waffles for breakfast.

Kent's 10th special place setting.

Happy 10th Birthday, Kent!

After breakfast Jeff, Kent and Kaomi went to help with a shift cooking briskets for their Christian Service Brigade fundraiser.  On their way home they stopped to visit at Dad-Dad and Grammy's house.  Kent was excited about the gift from their family.

Kent's gift from Dad-Dad and Grammy.

While they were gone the rest of us went grocery shopping and when we came out there was a mustang parked next to us.

Happy Birthday, Kent!  We found a mustang.

We ordered pizza for lunch and then we took Kent to a local Ford dealer so he could look at a real mustang.  It is Mustang's 50th anniversary, so the dealer gave Kent a poster of mustangs from every year.  He also got a book about the newest mustang available.

After we returned home Kent played an x-box game that he wanted to play.  After a supper of hambergers and watermelon we sang happy birthday, ate cake, and let him open his presents.

Kent's mustang cake.

He was excited to get his first pocket knife.

We wrapped up Saturday evening with hugs and kisses and going to bed a little bit later than usual.

Bridge

We had the opportunity to meet up with some friends and watch a bridge being put into place a few weeks ago.  The bridge is over 100 years old and was moved here so we could enjoy it in our park.

My Life is Full - Part 3

In part one I share how my younger children fill my life.  In part two I shared how my older children fill my life.  This time I'm going to share the other things in my life that make my life full.

Jeff - My spouse fills my life with support for me and our family.  He's there when I need him whether in person or by phone.  He is a great help around the house.  He builds things for our home and play.  He watches the kids so I can take a walk some evenings after dinner.  He's strong.  He wants to be a good leader in our family.  He eats ice cream with me.  We sit together on the couch to watch TV.  He plays board or card games with me occasionally, even though he doesn't prefer to play games.  He helps the kids with their math if they are struggling with a concept.  He gives me a day or several hours a month to work on projects or do something that I would like to do by myself.  He does so much to fill my life that I can't write everything here or even think of everything at the same time.


My life is also full of the things I do for my home and family.  I shop, cook, and plan meals and snacks.  I make sure that the mountains of clean laundry get folded, eventually.  I like folding laundry.  I delegate chores to the kids that they can help with in the laundry room, bathrooms, kitchen or just around the house.  Then I try to do the things they couldn't do.  I try to keep decluttering things that I find we don't use, so that they aren't in the way.  I try to encourage the kids to play outside and I go out with them to keep an eye on the little ones.  I teach our homeschool and try to make sure that I am ready to start school on Mondays because my preparation seems to help everything go fairly smoothly.  I'm hoping to get my garden planted soon and then there will also be garden maintenance and harvesting when the time comes.


My full life helps me stay content in my home doing the things I'm supposed to do.  It's plenty of fun, has plenty of craziness, and yes, can even have days of struggling to make it to bed at the end of the day without going crazy myself.  I thank God for giving me this full life and as long as I remember to keep everything in perspective I'm happy with it.

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Raising Arrows     

In Celebration of Palm Sunday

Earlier this year during school Clark and Felicity were learning about Jesus riding the donkey into Jerusalem which has become known as The Triumphal Entry.  We acted the story out.  I thought you might enjoy the pictures.

Kent acted out the part of Jesus by dressing in a long white shirt and riding a stick horse. Clark and Felicity acted out the people by waving their palm branch crafts.

Tomato Sauce

About a month ago I had the opportunity to take home some tomatoes that were headed for the trash.

 They were starting to mold and had small bad spots.  I wouldn't have purchased them, but they were FREE to me.  I diced them up.

 That's almost twenty cups of diced tomatoes.  Did I mention I didn't buy them?

They turned into five pints of tomato sauce.  Which was on my shopping list to get and I got to cross it off without ever going to the store.  We've already used one pint and it was better than the canned stuff.  Yippee!!!

My Life is Full - Part 2

In part one I talked about how my three youngest children fill my life.  This time I'm going to share how the older three children also fill my life full.  They don't do all the fun little things that my littlest ones do, but there are plenty of fulfilling times that they add to my life in their own ways.

Kaomi - My quiet six year old keeps me guessing.  I often don't know what she is thinking.  She tends to be quiet and often doesn't speak up when she needs something.  She enjoys reading, which she used to struggle with.  She dislikes copywork so much that she will just sit and do it very slowly.  She likes to sit next to me when I am reading and she likes to have her back rubbed.  She likes to play dollhouse and set up scenes for me to look at.  She also likes to play pretend and help in the kitchen.  She likes babies, too.  She likes to try to get out of doing her chores by doing them very slowly or not doing them and hoping we don't notice.  She likes horses and got a chance to ride one a couple weeks ago and hopes she will get to do it again soon.

Katy - My competitive eight year old thinks like I do.  I understand her and can tell what she is thinking sometimes.  She likes help make lunch on the weekends.  She often fixes something for everyone to eat if she is given the chance.  Her independent streak shows when she wants to know how to do something, but as soon as she is shown she wants to do it by herself.  She enjoys embroidering and wants to learn how to sew.  She loves to help with Quinn and carry him around.  She likes horses and likes to read books about horses and really enjoyed getting to ride one a couple weeks ago with Kaomi and is looking forward to riding again.

Kent - My reluctant nine (almost ten) year old is beginning to show interest in doing things that show he is maturing.  He likes to help Jeff grill.  He thrives with structure for his day.  He struggles with change, but we work together to try and help him accept and adjust to it.  He tells every little detail about something he wants to talk about.  He likes to throw his football.  He enjoys visiting with our elderly neighbor.  I enjoy looking at his Lego designs from vehicles to sets for an action scene.  His ability to do a good job on his chores is improving and when he wants to do a good job there is little for me to have him finish.  He likes to go to CSB each week and is disappointed if something prevents him from getting to attend.  Kent also reads a lot.  Recently, he finished reading The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings series by J.R. Tolkien.

Next time I'll finish up with other things that fill my life in Part 3.

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First Major Storm of the Season

Yesterday we had thunderstorms.  One of the storms just popped up suddenly without much warning.  Kent had gone outside to play and came in saying it just started thundering and he wanted to know if it was going to last long.  I looked online at the radar and as I watched the pictures were making me uneasy.  I kept watching the sky, too.  There was a wall cloud forming to the south that I was keeping an eye on from the front porch.   The tornado sirens started going off and I saw a funnel begin to form, it started hailing, and I headed in to get the kids to the closet under the stairs.  By the time I walked through the door ALL the kids were already in the closet on top of the vacuum and other boxes that were there.  They heard the siren go off and took off for the closet as fast as they could go and even took Quinn with them.  They made me a little bit proud to know that they knew where they should go and they shouldn''t wait.  I moved enough stuff out of the closet so we could all sit on the floor, added blankets and my computer and we closed the door.  I told the kids the electricity might go off and that if it did it was okay.  I opened a bucket of stuff I have set aside and gave the little kids each a toy and handed out a few books to be looked at.  That helped distract at least a few of the kids.  The hail pounded on the house and windows and it was very loud.  It seemed like a long time, but it was probably only several minutes.  After, the noise stopped I ventured out of the closet.  The yard was covered with hail.   We continued to have hail two more times before the storm ended.  Our electricity did go out for a minute or two towards the end of the storm, but since my computer was on there was still light in the closet.  I didn't have a flashlight with me.  It produced large hail up to ping-pong ball size and possibly a few pieces even larger than that.  The tornado I saw isn't reported to have touched the ground, but it was the beginning of a nasty storm that moved east and did form more tornadoes.  The van has dimples all over it now, but the windows stayed intact and there appears to be no other storm damage to our property.  Jeff was in Denton taking shelter where he was before returning home.

We are thanking God for his safety in the storm and hoping that when other storms come they don't have the threat of tornadoes with them.

My Life is Full - Part 1

My life is full of enjoying my children.  I thought I would share some of the ways my youngest children constantly fill my life.

Quinn -  My sweet one year old fills my life with giggles.  He likes to be tickled and to tickle others.  He still nurses several times a day and once or twice at night.  With nursing comes extra snuggles and holding a sleeping baby who is sometimes just too cute to put down right away.  He is learning that it is fun to play with cars, especially with Clark.  He also gives lots of hugs to anyone who is close enough to receive them.  He isn't walking independently yet, but I think as soon as he realizes how much fun it is he will run as fast as he can to wherever he wants to go.

Clark - My very busy two year old fills my life with cute actions and sayings.  He loves to help me in the kitchen.  Lately, he's been helping me make lunch and he's been rushing in to set the table for dinner, even though it is Felicity's job.  He loves playing with cars, trucks, and airplanes.  He likes to build garages for his fire truck and police cars with Duplo Legos.  He snuggles with me when he has just woken up and sits in my lap during the older kids storytime.  Occasionally, he'll fall asleep while I'm reading.  He seldom takes a nap and his afternoon quiet time is full of play.  I just encourage him to stay in his room and stay relatively quiet.  He enjoys preschool time.  He really enjoys playing outside and I have to watch him closely if we are in the front yard as he has quickly disappeared before we realize he had even moved.  He loves to ride the blue tricycle.  He runs his feet up and down the sidewalk as fast as he can and doesn't often use the pedals which are still a little hard to reach.  He is learning to put words into coherrent sentences, but likes to make up his own words and pretend he is saying something.  He loves to "play" football, just like his big brother, Kent.

Felicity - My gentle 4 year old enjoys life to the fullest.  She spends time playing pretend with her dolls, animals and other toys.  She has fun building puzzles and her excitement is catching as she shows me how she finished the puzzle she was working on.  She loves to play with Clark and they are so much fun to watch when they are playing together.  She enjoys making crafts and coloring, often giving her beautiful masterpieces to me to hang on the wall.  We also enjoy having a snuggle with a story.  When she eats something that she really likes she has a special look on her face and sucks her bottom lip in enjoyment.  She's done this since she was a baby and it is still precious.  She also likes to play outside and rides her red tricycle up and down the sidewalk.

As you can see there is so much to take in just with these children, that I will follow up with My Life is Full - Part 2 about my older three children.

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Raising Arrows