Keeping up

We're now into the 2nd week of school. And I'm super happy with how things are going. Mostly. There have been a couple little hiccups. Well, only one really. Relating to my pathetic pregnant/mommy brain. But it's sorted now. We're having lots of fun. Maria is so smart and is doing really well. We have 3 goals to work on this trimester. One is to ask and answer better and more. And not answering "I don't know" to everything. Two is to improve her drawing skills. It's not something I've focused on too much and it's something I think can be improved on. And lastly we're working on her shyness. And I KNOW that's the one thing people ALWAYS say to me being a home schooling mom. That she needs to be with other people to get over it. And so we'll focus on it and try and improve on it. And I'll be praying for wisdom in how to train her to be a polite little girl that is not too shy to be able to say hello to new people. If you are at all interested in what she's doing you can see our blog here: http://learningwithmaria.blogspot.com/ Not all of it will make sense. but I'll have some photos of what she's been doing that are fun. If you're at all like me I love all and any child's art. Here is a photo of some drawing she did today:

We found some caterpillars in the garden. They are fuzzy and orange and we think they might be saltmarsh caterpillars that will turn into moths. My friend Angela, and her son Jaxon, recently watched a caterpillar transform from caterpillar to moth and we're hoping to be able to do the same thing! They've eaten (and pooped!) a ton since we found them yesterday afternoon so I'm hoping that this is possible for us as well. We learned all about caterpillars and how to handle and care for them and are really looking forward to seeing what will happen. Maria named them Maria and Esther. Oh. And we just found one more and so we added to our collection and named it Daniel. we also found a small green one that we are keeping separately and that's been named "baby Rosie". Can you tell Maria wants a sister?? ;) This was taken just before we cleaned the bucket. Maybe you can see how much they had eaten!

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We made some grassheads today. Did you ever have them as kids? Well, we made our own. SO simple. Just a foot cut off of a pair of tights or stockings or whatever you want to call them. Two tablespoons of grass seeds in the toe, followed by a cup of soil. Then tie a knot in the bottom and leave a bit of a tail and put it in a cup of water, making sure the tail can reach the water to draw up water to the soil. If that makes sense. The we added some googley eyes and a smile and found a little cup (It said to decorate a yogurt cup but we didn't have any). And presto! You have a grass head. look here for the link http://deceptivelyeducational.blogspot.com/2011/08/let-me-introduce-grassheads-family.html















Things are settling again for me. For a while I really felt like I was taking crazy pills. Everything seemed to pile up SO much! And the stress and also not sleeping well (Daniel is back to waking A LOT in the night) were not helping. I spent almost all of Sunday just trying to sleep. And Monday I had a good 3 hour nap as well. So I'm feeling better but am really disappointed that we didn't get out and have a really fun weekend like we wanted :(
But at least I'm feeling better. On Monday B took all the kids out for a couple hours. And I took that time to thoroughly clean the house. And I'm really trying to make sure I stay caught up. I'm trying to figure out a bit of a weekly and daily cleaning plan to help me keep on track. We'll see how this helps as I finish writing it up. But I hope it will help as much as I want it to. I do really need help but don't feel ready or willing just yet to pay for a cleaner or mother's helper when I have no idea how we'll be doing financially in the next while. But we manage and Maria and Esther are really getting to be big helps now. What I normally do after Maria's morning school is I clean the kitchen and the girls tidy the living room floor and front area, and when I'm done I vacuum and it really doesn't take that long at all. Especially if I do it every day.

We've really been enjoying this nice sunny weather. The kids are outside constantly on the playground and in the pool and making mud in the sandbox. They love to water the plants around and pick stuff out of the garden. The garden is getting a little neglected. Our little fences weren't strong enough for the peas so that's a complete disaster. But the kids and Bryant still manage to get a lot of peas off it. One of the tomatoes got sick and I pulled it out. And the kids eat the tomatoes from the other two plants faster than I can get to them. But I'm happy to have them eating healthy food ;) Esther especially loves eating the green onions out of the garden. She is so like her dad who also loves onions. NOT like me! I'm also surprised at the amount of beans Esther can pack away. She'll sit and eat and eat and eat and eat. Definitely at least twice the amount that I would eat at any one sitting! But our one sunflower that did well is SO massive!! I'm slightly over 6 feet and reaching as tall as I can on my tippy toes I can't reach the top!! I'm quite excited :)
Danny has recently figured out the tricycles we have around. He doesn't pedal yet but he is able to get around. And he does. A lot. He's right in there with his sisters now. And is proving to be a driver more like Esther. Esther is always knocking into stuff and loves to ride up and down the little mini ramp we have back there. Dean often teases her and asks if she's a maniac driver. She laughs and says "No! I'm a sillyac!".
I'm trying to think of fun stuff the kids have said lately and am coming up blank. They go in phases, I guess. I wish Dan was talking more but he really isn't. I do hope he starts soon. He's better from the last time that I wrote in here and is doing better with having to share me. But he still is a lot to handle. He is so desperate to be big and makes such a complete mess of things because he thinks he can handle things the girls do. This morning I walked into the kitchen and he was attempting to pour himself a cup of juice from the pitcher!! And no. He's not allowed. He's so different than the girls in that he attempts so many things that the girls would never dream of doing. Maria still doesn't pour her own juice and I'm pretty sure she's never thought to try. He sure thinks differently! But then I guess this should be expected.


And I'm going to go ahead and write about some things that I am thankful for. It's so important to try and not get caught up in the little things and not enjoy life.
I'm at number 19 now. This may take a little while. But. I am thankful for Maria's thirst for knowledge and especially how she has been so into reading the Bible. We are reading the Jesus Storybook Bible where every story whispers his name by Sally Lloyd-Jones. And I totally, totally recommend it! It does point to Jesus in EVERY story. The connections really blow me away! And another fun thing is that Maria is getting so that she knows what will happen. Sometimes I stop reading and kind of hint for her to finish the sentence and often she can. This is very exciting for me.
20. I'm thankful for good friends. Especially my mom friends right now. Two of which are pregnant within a couple of weeks of me!! So exciting. Between the 3 of us there will be 10 kids! It will be busy. But I'm so very thankful for them and that we can get together so often.
21. I'm thankful that I live where we do. We talked briefly about buying our own place. But then changed our minds and decided to wait until our future was slightly less... unpredictable. But we love it here and the kids have so much room to run and play. And for some reason it's never really hot here. I don't have to worry about them getting burnt in the sun. I'm just really content here right now. And that's kinda a big deal. I can't imagine not liking where I live.
22. And I'm super thankful for all the ways that God is revealing Himself to me. I'm realizing how much I need him. I'm not feeling well a lot of the time and it's so easy to get cranky. He's been there in a lot of unexpected ways. So many little things came up and then were resolved so quickly as well. Which has been neat.
And that's all for today.
Thanks for reading!