Caught!

It's no secret...I love to read! I have many, many books and I still have to watch myself because I want to buy more and more. Chris is just waiting for the day he can start a nice toasty bonfire with them all. ;)


That being said, I am so thrilled that all of my munchkins enjoy books right along with me. Libby has been a little on the sad side that she has to do some of the reading herself, but give her a book of her choice and you can't stop her! Grace enjoys the snuggle time while reading a book together, and John absolutely loves his board books about vehicles!

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow

So, with all of the snow outside, John had fun with mommy's sunglasses.


Look at how cool I am!

Grace is ready for some sun, too!

Let it Snow!

Tis the season for snow! We managed to make it through October with NO snow to momma's contentment. The girls, on the other hand, have been begging for some white stuff. They got their wish this morning.

At about a quarter to seven Libby was exclaiming quite excitedly to the lump on my bed (a.k.a. me) about the snow that was coming down. I just wanted to roll over and go back to sleep. She was going to have none of that, though! So, I slowly, but surely rolled out of bed (eventually) as she excitedly got dressed to go play in the snow. I didn't become thankful I was awake until I heard another little voice from the girls' bedroom utter the words, "It snowing! It Christmas...it Christmas...it Christmas!" That was too precious! So, Grace was dressed in a jiffy and ready to play with her sister.

Of course, John had to get in on the fun! He wasn't sure what to think of it. He liked that he could play in it, but he certainly didn't like how cold it was...especially coming down in his face.

Mommy's hair kept dripping once we came in. It was kind of funny.

Libby was just cold and miserable and wanted hot chocolate!

Grace was still quite charmed, though!

And, our snowman was quite happy with the chilly temps. ;)

Words

I am awestruck by the power of words! When Edward Bulwer-Lytton penned the phrase, "The pen is mightier than the sword" he wasn't kidding. Words have the power to uplift someone to higher realms than they ever thought imaginable and words can drag others to the depths of the ocean blue.

I have been on both sides of these words. I have phrases that run through my head from years ago on down days. I have to remind myself that the truth of who I am comes from God and not those belittling words which were spoken in haste about a raw situation. On the other end of that deal, I have a special note from a teacher in high school that I love to sit and read, and re-read, on occasion just to remember how much potential I had...and, honestly, still have. Words, my friends, are powerful!

On a daily basis I am reminded to put thought into my words as I deal with my children. I am reminded that James 3:5-6 says that the tongue is small, but can set the whole body aflame with its boasts as I lash out at my children in a moment fraught with anger. I am constantly trying to remind myself of 1 Thessalonians 5:11 "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." Sometimes I am doing the encouraging part, but sometimes it is a struggle.

This takes me back to my thoughts. Luke 6:45b says, "For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks." This is so true. So what is on my inside? When one of my kids bump me the wrong way, what spills out? My aim and my hope is that Jesus flows out. I am human, so I fail miserably sometimes, but I try to let my thoughts run along the lines of Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

The power of words, one way or the other, is staggering. I am so thankful that God left us with an entire set of words to guide us in our choice of words to ourselves, and others. I am blessed to have His Words to guide my life. I sometimes take my Bible forgranted, but whenever I take the time to dig in...I am always amazed!

The Arts

Let me preface this post with the fact that I have been desiring to use the Atelier program for art for a LONG time now! It is a pricy program, but so worth the money!!! A few months ago it went "on sale" at a bulk homeschool website (basically even though I am only one homeschooling mom, all of us together make an army). It was the lowest price I have ever seen it, so I got permission from Chris and made the purchase. I decided to be a bit daring and I bought level 2 in hopes that my friend (and fellow homeschooler), whom I knew had level 1, would be willing to do a switch with me. Thank the Lord, she was!

So, today was our first art lesson. My intentions were for Libby to do the program, but Grace was so excited about it that plans quickly changed and I grabbed her a marker and some paper, as well. Today's lesson was on "line" so the girls made a catepillar and filled in each circle with different types of lines. Libby was a tiny bit disappointed that she didn't have the chance to use color, so I promised her that sometime next week we will do this activity all over again, only this time using "color" rather than "line". I think both girls are looking forward to another chance to make some art!

Here is my "art" project for the day. We are having friends over for dinner and I thought that rolls sounded so yummy...but there were none in the freezer. Well, I have had a couple packets of yeast just sitting around here for awhile, and I have always wanted to try my hand at making bread from scratch, but just haven't taken the time to do so. With those two things in mind...I just decided to do it! First of all, I didn't realize how EASY making bread is. Secondly, it turned out SO delicious! I don't think I will ever make bread in the bread maker again. Seriously, anyone want a bread maker?

Psalm 23

The best part of Libby hiding God's Word in her heart? I am learning, too! :D

Trick or Treat!

The Looters

The Loot

I don't remember so much chocolate when I went trick or treating. It's a good thing I can make up for it now. Ha ha! Seriously though, John owes me...I ended up carrying him the whole time. While I heard several complaints of being cold, that certainly didn't cross my lips. :)

Big Shoes to Fill

I am glad the camera was close by for this fun picture. He seriously walked almost all the way across the house in my shoes. He, of course, kept tripping and falling, but he'd get back up and go again!

Oh. My. Goodness.

"Mom, come quick! I found a sundew in our backyard!" called Libby. I grabbed John and headed outside to see Libby's "sundew". I was fairly sure she didn't find one in our back yard because I don't think our backyard is the proper habitat for a sundew, but I wanted to support my daughter's enthusiasm by checking it out with her. Sure enough, Libby's stickly "sundew" was really a burr, which are suited perfectly for our backyard.

What is a sundew? A sundew is a carniverous plant that DOES have points on it, but the end of the points have dew (or as Libby likes to call it, goo) on them. It is a sweet smelling dew that attracts insects, but it is a super sticky dew that traps insects. Once an insect has landed on the sticky dew the plant tells it to produce extra dew that engulfs the insect as the plants tentacles wrap around it to digest it.

Why the excitement over a carniverous plant that most people have never heard of before? Well, Libby studied this along with three other carniverous plants (venus fly trap, bladderwort and pitcher plant) just last week. They sounded pretty cool, but for the information Libby gained...well, she thought a burr was a sundew. I showed her some pictures on the internet and life went on. Next science lesson!

Today, though, it all became real for her (ok, maybe I was just a tad bit more excited than her about this). We went BACK to the museum we went to yesterday (you can only buy a two-day pass...might as well get our money's worth). I knew we had missed a few exhibits, and I knew one was entitled "The Animals of Halloween". No big deal...until I saw inside one of the exhibit boxes about six each of sundews, pitcher plants and venus fly traps! So cool!

Now Libby knows exactly what a sundew looks like and how different they are from burrs. I love the timing on when she had the opportunity to see the plants! Seriously, I didn't know there were carniverous plants besides the venus fly trap until last week either. What was the likelihood of us having the chance to see them right now? God is so amazing...not only in the He designed this earth and its plants, but in His timing, as well!

Turtle

We went with some friends to the Mississippi River Museum today. The kids had an absolute blast and John learned some new words. He is just now hitting that period of language development where he is gaining all sorts of new words. I absolutely love this period and was happy to catch a bit on camera.