Yay! I went out to check on the garden, and this is what I found! My first ever itty bitty green tomato. :D
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
Momma's Other Little Helper
Grace wanted to pour her own syrup on her waffles. She did a great job...and then she thought she needed some more!
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Celebrating 175 Years
We headed to John Deere and watched daddy do his presentation on the cold room. Then, we watched the joy stick test next door for about 15 minutes for John. I'm pretty sure he would have been happy if we spent all day there. Libby's favorite was the sound room. After that, we hit the midway where all three kids won a few prizes. Lunch was next, along with a watermelon eating contest for the girls. They were so cute! We finished off our day with bouncy toys and cotton candy. It was awesome, and I'm sorry you didn't get the good version of the story!
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Sunday, June 03, 2012
Growing Up!
My little Libby isn't so little anymore. :( She is growing up! She has been driving the lawn mower for quite awhile now, but today daddy thought he might teach her to actually mow the lawn with it. :) Although she is growing up, she is still just a touch too short, so you can see her s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g her leg out to reach the pedal in the picture. She is doing a great job for her first time at mowing!
Thursday, May 31, 2012
This Is My Town
I absolutely love living in Dubuque! I love that we are an older town rich with history! I love heading over to the Fenelon Elevator to take the short ride up and look out over the beautiful Mississippi! I love looking out over all of the buildings in downtown! I love the architecture in this town! I love where God has placed me to raise my children!
Fenelon Elevator
Looking out at the bridge that crosses the Mississippi to Illinois.
Looking out at the bridge that crosses the Mississippi to Wisconsin.
Mississippi River
Our Courthouse
A random building with beautiful architecture.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Summer Thoughts
Now that the school year is over, the rushing to Ohio and back is finished, the lovely visit from a dear friend has ended, and the house is clean(er) I have some time to sit and reflect on homeschool, on my kids, on life.
Probably the BIGGEST lesson I learned this year is that I REALLY NEED THAT HOMESCHOOL CONFERENCE IN APRIL!!! Seriously, I never intended to go to a homeschool conference every year, but that might change now. The last six weeks of the school year were so hard to struggle through. I honestly felt like I was "the teacher" whom made me want to NEVER put my kids in school. Really? I don't ever want school to become about check marking tasks off and just. getting. it. DONE! How sad! I don't want my daughter to groan because we HAVE to go do school for the day. I want learning to always be exciting!
That leads to my second discovery...I might WANT school never to be a drag, but I am still a sinful human being...which means some days will be a drag. My attitude will get in my way. Some days it will be Libby's attitude (or even Grace's or John's) that gets in the way. We are human! I tend to be an idealist and that makes it even harder when we have a bad day (or week, or off and on for a month)! My dream-world tumbles and I tend to exagerate and cry out, "I'm such a failure! I can't do anything right! I can't even teach my own children!" Yeah, because choosing to take my children's education on my own shoulders is such a light task. Right? Yeah, I don't want to have those days...but, I'm going to have those days!
I also remembered how much Libby (and most children) love to explore. I need to do more sensory boxes for John...he LOVES them! I need to hide words around the room for Grace to find...she would learn her sight words a lot faster that way! I need to do a nature hunt with Libby...we learned so much about the plants in God's world this past year...why not put it into practice?
I am also realizing some of the responsibility in schooling your own children coincides with responsibility in parenting. There are just some things my kids DO NOT like to do...like clearing their dishes off the table after a meal. I constantly have to remind them. (I am hoping some day they will just do it on their own?) Well, math in school is the same way. Libby wants to just get it done. She says it takes her forever (and it does), but that is because she piddles and watches what her brother is playing with or yells at her sister for touching her desk, or...well, you get the point. Then, when she does finish, some of her answers are incorrect. She knows how to do the problems, she just didn't take the time to make sure the answer was right. I NEED to stay on her case so that this changes. She has to learn to be responsible for her work. If I continue to give it back to her so she can correct it I am making ME responsible for HER work. Something is wrong with that picture. We are going to try to remedy this by positive/negative consequences next year. It will be interesting to see if there is a change in this area next year at this time.
The most important thing that has been reiterated to me, though, is that life is a journey! We are going to have our ups and downs, we are going to have our educational strengths and weakneses, and our emotional strengths and weaknesses. God WILL be faithful on this journey, though. He has proved that to me over and over. This year he has brought some absolutely amazing people into my life. I don't know what I would do without them, and sometimes I feel bad for them because I feel like I am a drain on them. I cannot believe the things that God has brought me through this year, and I cannot wait to see how He will work in my life in the year to come!
I am one blessed momma!
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
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