Meet the Students

This week, iHN is hosting a “Meet the Students” round up.  Last week I missed out on the share your classroom because:
1.  My classroom didn’t change from last year
and
2.  It was so messy I didn’t want to share it. [I briefly thought about reposting pictures from last year, but didn’t].  And Mom before you email me, it’s only about an hours work to get it fixed, it just hasn’t risen to the top of my things I desperately want to do list.
oh and
3.  I want to rearrange it, again.  You know for the millionth time.

But, I love to brag on my kids.  I do it all the time.  So here they are from oldest to youngest.

Superman loves to play with Legos.  He’s taken to carrying around his box of Legos with him everywhere, you know, in case he doesn’t have anything to play with.  He loves to play with his brother and on Lego video games. Superman is going to work with his Daddy when he grows up and be a programmer, then he’ll come home and work on making things.

Batman is all of 2 minutes younger than his brother.  He’s my idea kid.  Batman always has a plan for something to do, and he wants to go and do it now.  Right now he wants to be an inventor when he grows up, but he’s not sure if that’s all he wants to do.

Princess is all girl.  She loves to play horses and “family,” and loves to be right in the thick of things.  You’ll frequently hear her crying out “Brothers” as she wanders through the house looking for them.  She’s my social butterfly and is 5 going on 13.  Start saying prayers for me, because when she hits 13, watch out.  She’s never going to give in to peer pressure, but she might be the one who leads the kids in a hair brained scheme.  When Princess grows up she’s going to do something with her brothers, but she doesn’t know what.  “There’s just so many things to do Mommy.”


Aren’t my kiddos adorable?

Come back next week and if I’m feeling brave I’ll show you a day in our life………..  Of course that requires I’m organized and actually write down what we do………..

Behold the toothless wonder

Or is that toothless wonders?  Do you know how many pictures I had to take to get a good shot of this?  It was A LOT.

Just had to share my favorites, now to print them up.

 

Oh, and so I can pretend I didn’t want to just show off my cute kids, here’s something blog related:

I can’t wait to see what’s in it, how about you?  I know some of the ladies I’ve bought from before……….

God gives us what we can handle

I’ve heard that before.  I’ve certainly said that before.

Than my boys spent a week away at camp, and I spent a week with two girls.

They are both as sweet as can be.  They were fun to have, and I mostly enjoyed the change of pace.

I also discovered there is a reason God gave me the family I have.


Little girls have drama.


Little girls want advice on what shoes to wear, or what outfit looks cute.

When I first found out I was pregnant with twin boys, I said, “Really God, you sure do have a sense of humor.  That’s a lot of boy in the house.  Boys do not want cute little dresses.”

And then I had my boys, and I spent mornings sword fighting and playing super heroes.  Then I got my little Princess.  I spent the mornings having tea parties, and singing, and dancing.

I found out the week my boys were gone there’s a reason I have ONE girl.  I like one girl, that’s about the amount of girl drama I can handle.

I wouldn’t trade my kiddos for anything.  Black, black, no trade-backs.

Though I must say I was glad to get my boys back.

Backyard Flood 2012

About once a year our backyard floods.  Serious flooding.  I have pictures from the 2009 flood, and the relatively mild 2010 flood that broke the fence.  No flood last year because there was no rain.

So, I gve you our flooding for this year.  By the end of the night the river had died down to some puddles, but for that hour or so we played outside it was a nice river.

Now, what isn’t obvious from this is the quick moving current in there, which led to many experiments.  I have science posts for a couple of weeks from this

 

We made the trek over to discover it’s about knee high on me.  The broken fence you see if from a previous flooding.  The kids have been slowly demolishing it and using it for projects.

Princess spent time changing outfits, first her dress, then shorts, but those got wet, so finally she just changed into her swimsuit.

Meanwhile the boys played and chased Mac, and just had a lot of fun.

Flood 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

While Mac had fun running around, I’m not quite sure he approved of it all…….

My boys’ baptism

Today was one of those super proud Mommy days, you know, the ones where your kids take big steps forward in maturity, or you suddenly realize they’re growing up in a way you weren’t quite prepared for.

Today my boys got baptized.  This does not save them, they are not magically perfect, or anything like that.  Instead, it’s just our way of saying what we believe and that we want others to know it.

 

Rather than overwhelm you with the seriously almost 100 pictures I took (I had my camera on burst setting for the baptism so I could get the full thing).  I’m just going to share some collages.

In reverse order of age:

Batman

Superman

You know, I was in such a hurry to share this I forgot to put in the part afterwards where we then went out with all of our family, both blood and chosen, to celebrate!

It’s been a great day!

How to encourage free play while waiting at the doctor

Princess has started speech therapy.  She mispronounces her C’s and G’s, and while I think it’s adorable she’s starting to get frustrated with people not understanding her.

 

So, every week she goes and “plays with Aunt Tara” for 30 minutes while the boys and I sit and wait.

 

Every week I remind the boys before we head out to pick up something to play with.  They’ll pack a small “suitcase” full of Legos, or mini-figures.  The picture up above is their colonial action figures and some of our gaming figures.

 

Then you train them.  If they’re not used to playing on their own while waiting, then set timers.  Have them play on their own for a few minutes, and then do something with them.

 

I’m proud to say that I can now take my kids with me into the church office and work on making copies for something for 20 minutes and not worry about them playing with things on people’s desks, or interrupting them.

 

This wasn’t an immediate result.  It took time, and patience, and a lot of reminders.  But, I have high expectations for my kids.

 

I expect them to be able to interact with adults and answer their questions intelligently (and there are times we’re still working on that one).

 

I expect them to be able to sit at a dinner table with adults and be able to participate or wait patiently.  That may mean they need to figure out how to entertain themselves quietly.

 

I expect them to wait or play in a way that’s appropriate for where they are.  If we’re at an office or the library, they are quiet (usually).  If we’re at a playscape or playground they can be as loud as the next child.

 

They are high expectations, but you know what?  My kids are happy, and they are loved and they know they are loved.  So, I think they’re good expectations.

Please be careful this summer

This is rather near and dear to my heart today.  There was an accident in a pool this weekend, and my friend’s nephew drowned.  He was only a little guy, and full of promise.

So, before I post anymore this week, I wanted to share this article that’s an answer to prayer for me:

 

How to recognize someone is drowning.

My boys headed off to camp yesterday.  They tolerated for me to take two pictures.  After that they were too busy meeting new people and checking things out.  Actually, I barely got these pictures.

 

Their counselor is named “Skittles.”  And he seems a good fit for them.  Before I left, I got several worried whispers of “How do I tell them apart?”

 

I guess it wouldn’t have been helpful to tell them, I’d spent most of that day getting them backwards because one of the boys was wearing the same shirt his brother had worn the day before, and it really threw me.  God really must be laughing in heaven, because I swear this is why he gave me twins.

 

 

Princess, has a friend staying the week with us.  The younger sister, of the boys’ friend up there.  She is OVER THE MOON at the idea of having a girl all week long.

 

While she’s busy distracted with her friend, I have plans to organize my pantry, maybe even the dining room, and work on some Bible lessons to get further ahead…….. A girl can dream.  You know during all of the other things going on this week.

Changes for the better

We’ve had a bad habit.  It came about because I was tired or Jeff was tired, and we’d eat meals in front of the TV.

 

You see our family room furniture was a mish mash of hand me downs, kids’ furniture and our pride and joy:

Matching overstuffed recliners.  Yes, see there’s me in the chair I had staked out as my own.  When we ate there, I would sit in it with my plate balanced on my lap, and my Dr Pepper next to me.

 

But, I didn’t really like this habit, but it was SOOOOOOO easy to do.

 

Recently a nearby furniture store was closing and Jeff suggested I go by there.  The kids were more than game because it meant they could run around and try all of the chairs and make up games.  This is what they do when we go to Ikea.  It always cracks me up.  On our list of things we “are someday going to buy,” was a sectional sofa.  We kept looking at them, but not buying because they’re expensive.  Especially what we were leaning towards, so we were going to have to save.

 

Enter the store closing (and I promise I will get around to my point eventually).  I saw the couch we wanted, and it was a lot closer in price to what we might be able to afford, but it was still too high.

 

So, we went in and made our offer.  She countered with a higher one.  And then we talked and talked and talked and prayed.  Eventually she came back a little under our offer.  Then we talked and prayed some more, and we bought it.

 

It’s the most expensive piece of furniture we’ve owned.  We want to be good stewards as God has told us to be, so we’re trying to take care of it. Enter, the lifestyle change.

 

We’re no longer eating dinner or any meals really in the family room.

What changed? It’s certainly not my housekeeping, or how clean I keep the room.

 

Look at the middle of the room.  What is missing?

 

The coffee table.  There is no longer an easy place for us to have the kids eat while we’re in there.

 

Instead we’re eating at the dinner table.  And playing games there.  Okay, we were playing games there before, but I have a picture of playing games.  For some strange reason I don’t pull the camera out a lot while we’re eating.

 

This means we’re interacting and talking more.  We’re also watching less TV, and the kids are playing more.

 

Not that my kids didn’t play a lot anyways.

 

So what change do you need to make right now?  Is there a step of obedience God has called you to?  There are several small ones I’m working on right now.  Which will probably be several upcoming posts.  One of which I’m going to go do right now, which is getting places on time.  That means I need to get off the computer……..

Happy 10th Anniversary to me

At about this time 10 years ago today I was getting married.  That is, if I’ve remembered the time of my wedding correctly.  I think I am.

My brother Chad gave me away.  My Dad had died about a month earlier from cirrhosis, or as my kids call it bad roses.  It’s a little hard to explain to a 3 year old, which is when they first figured out there was no Granddad to go with Mimi.

 

I mostly remember everyone trying to stuff food into me as we got ready, because everyone was sure I was going to pass out from low blood sugar.  At the same time they were paranoid about anything getting on my dress or messing up my make up.  It made for some interesting attempts to eat.

 

It was kind of funny to look at the picture of my family.  It’s changed so much since this picture.  My brother Chad and his wife had a baby boy about two months before my twins were born.  They had another boy a little after Princess (if I’m remembering the timing right).  My brother Sean just had his first baby with his wife about a month or so ago.  A boy.  Poor Princess is the only girl grandbaby on my side of the family.

 

Another side note.  My train is called a “cathedral length train,” Jeff says that is incorrect because it was not the entire length of the church, so it is not cathedral length.  His theory is it should have been on a runner and unrolled as I walked down the aisle.  Then we could just walk back up it.  I thought the dress I got was hard enough to walk in, never mind his idea.

 

We had swing dancing at our wedding.  According to my version of how Jeff and I met, we met at a swing dance our church hosted in the same gym our reception was in.  Sigh, I don’t think I’d fit in that dress now.

 

That’s probably a good thing.  I was rather underweight from the stress of my first year teaching, and my Dad being sick, and various other stuff.  I needed to gain some weight, I’d prefer to lose 5 pounds of vanity weight now, but otherwise I’m at a much healthier weight now.

 

My computer crashed a few years ago, so on my computer I mainly have the pictures my Mom emailed me that were her favorites that she has.  I’ve got hard copies of all of them in my wedding album, and I plan on spending some time with Jeff tonight looking through it and my honeymoon pictures.

 

Pretend these are pictures from our honeymoon, and not from the trip we just took to celebrate our anniversary.  Those were all on film, and are quite nicely stored in a scrapbook.  Jeff completely spoiled me and we went to London.  We saw “Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Globe (PUCK!*  A thoroughly awesome production with an awesome Puck!).  We went to the British Museum almost everyday.  We saw the Peter Pan statue.  We went to a book store that was an ENTIRE CITY BLOCK and 5 STORIES HIGH!  When we returned our suitcases were stuffed to the gills with books and clothes.  We had to bring clothes back because it would have been rather silly to leave them there.  It barely all fit in the suitcases.

 

** Completely unrelated story, but I’ve found my new current favorite book series that has Puck as one of its main characters.  Any time you can throw fairies into a story, you can almost guarantee it’s good.  Almost, if it’s not then Jeff gets to hear me complain for a very long time.

Like Mother, like child

My kids set up the toys for small group a few days ago.  This is what they did.  They stacked two tables on top of each other and then created these homes for their dollies.

 

Why did I title this “like Mother, like child?”  Because Jeff went upstairs saw this and came down saying that.

 

See, back when Jeff and I were dating I had a BRILLIANT idea!  I mean BRILLIANT.  I was going to take my twin sized bed, and put it on top of a bookcase, and then two pillar bookcases.  The only problem is those pillar bookcases were rather shaky MDF, and the other bookcase was some plywood, that had been through a few too many moves.  Oh, and there’s a good chance they weren’t all the same size.

 

But, I was still sure this was a BRILLIANT idea, until Jeff started talking.  Then he pointed out the not so brilliant parts of this.  The shakiness of the bookshelves, the likelihood of collapse and a few other things.

 

I guess I’m a bit more introspective with my 10 year anniversary coming up.  This makes me think of two things:

 

One, how much of our kids behavior is nature and how much is nurture?  As far as I know my kids never heard that story, or any of my other BRILLIANT home decoration ideas.  Yet they came up with similar ideas.  There are many things I can see of me in my kids.  Phrasing and ways they talk, but there’s some things I have no clue where it came from.  Princess actually cares about clothes, she’s very picky about them and she LIKES clothes shopping.

 

The other thing it got me to thinking about, is how well Jeff was designed for me.  He provides a push when I need it, which isn’t often, but mostly he is the brakes.  See I come up with a lot of BRILLIANT ideas.  A LOT.  Thankfully, Jeff is around to tell me when that isn’t the best use of my time or talents.

 

Some things Jeff has stopped me from doing: volunteering to sew an entire bridal party of clothes, volunteering to lead several different ministries, volunteering to watch extra kids, and volunteering to do all sorts of things.

 

All right, my random introspection is over, and now I’m going to work on some Sunday school stuff.

Little known secret

There’s a great hiding space in my front yard.

 

But grown ups can’t fit in.  Princess told me.

 

She told me I was too big, “but it’s very cool under there Mommy.”

 

Overgrown bushes means you can get shots like this.  They’re standing on top of an electrical box.  Every year of so the power company comes and rips out that front bush.  You know, the one that’s about 3 feet tall right now.  As compared to the 7 feet the rest of the bushes are.

 

There are multiple entrances and exits.  This makes it easier for escaping when playing hide and seek or tag.

 

After a successful escape you must dance.  And twirl. Don’t forget the twirling.