Jasper would be 5 today. We are headed to a WIC celebration this morning that is for Breastfeeding Awareness week and then this afternoon we will do our annual baking of dirt and gummy worm cupcakes for our little boy's birthday and sing to him. I had a dream this year about Jasper. It was really great. I didn't tell anyone about it because it was so special to me. But I though in honor of his birthday I would share it here. I wish I could have it again and when Robert read my journal entry he wished he could experience the dream too. I believe the dream is a beautiful picture of redemption. The Lord even redeems death. And salvation IS redemption from death! One day Jasper's broken body will be whole. One day we will hold him again.
A journal entry from this year: April 8, 2015 I had a dream about Jasper last night. It’s the first I’ve ever had. I’ve often prayed to dream of him but never have in 4 ½ years. But last night…. He was dead but we still had access to his body. His body looked the same as it did right after his birth. Broken and ugly but so similar to his older brother Cal, if he had lived. I went to see his body and hold it. His body still felt scary. One of the scariest parts of the experience was how his body felt in my arms. Boneless and empty. I held him wrapped in the same blanket. But something changed, a miracle happened. Slowly, bit by bit, his bonelessness and empitness changed to solid and full. He slowly started to feel alive. I sat holding him, marveling at the change, relieved that the scary part was disappearing being replaced with life. After a short time he opened his eyes and was a whole living beautiful baby. He then started to grow. Again slowly but within a few minutes he was the age he would be today if he hadn’t died. He was 4 ½ years old and he didn’t look exactly like Cal, like I had always pictured. He looked like Cal but was smaller like Deakin, with shorter, straighter hair like Deakin. And he hopped off my lap and we left the room. We went home and I took all the kids to church. I kept watching him running and playing with his siblings as if he always had. They acted like it was no big deal that their baby brother came back to life and was now a part of our earthly family. I kept thinking that I would have to prepare to have 7 children when this baby was born instead of 6. Everyone we ran into at church I kept pointing at him and saying, “Do you know who that is?” And they would look at Jasper and study him and realize he wasn’t one of my normal clan and shake their heads and I would reply, “That’s Jasper. The Lord brought him back to life.” And they would look at me in shock. For some reason my sister was there with her boys and I told her. And then we finally found Daddy, I got to tell him that our son was alive. And I kept looking at him and wondering if he would get to stay with us for a long time or a short while or just for today? I realized, I ask the same thing about my living children often in real life. And then I woke up.
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In an effort to answer in a traditional way, we have a 6th grader, a 3rd grader, and a 1st grader this year! Realistically we have curriculum from several different grades depending on where the child is at the moment. But I've encouraged the children just to answer according to the age and what they would be in public school when strangers ask what grade they're in. And technically Wild Man would be in preschool but we are doing very little structure for him right now. I lean far more toward "unschooling" with my preschoolers and kindergarteners. I find that if you leave the TV off and supply lots of fun activities they learn very well, they love to learn really. Although, I am allowing Wild Man to do starfall.com almost daily and he is benefiting from that a lot! So here is where we have landed this year. It's quite similar to last year's line up except for a few things. Bible- We just read through books of the Bible for this. We endeavored to make it through the Gospels last year but still have John to finish. And then I will attempt the Minor Prophets....I think. I still have to do some research there and get ready but that is what the kids want to study. We do praying during Bible and catechism and our Copy Can too. The Copy Can is filled with bible verses and famous quotes from men. The Boy hasn't graduated to the Copy Can yet, so for now I have him just copying down the date and his full name for practice. But I think he is just a couple weeks away from being able to handle the Copy Can. The Boy is too easy. Science/History- We alternate days for these. And we are using the same curriculum as we did last year because we enjoyed it so much. Answers in Genesis for Science and Beautiful Feet Books for History. I can't sing BFB for History enough! It's so good! We may try their Geography set next. Reading, English, Spelling, and Penmanship- Are all Rod and Staff. I just really appreciate the simplicity of Rod and Staff. Only Tender and Hurricane are doing English for now and I'm not totally sold on Rod and Staff for English but it's working for now. I'd like to veer away from it but for now we are sticking with it. As for Penmanship and Spelling I'm totally married to Rod and Staff for those!! So simple, totally accomplish what I want! Hurricane and The Boy are the only ones doing Penmanship right now and really, The Boy's penmanship is so good I will likely not push it too hard. Hurricane and Tender are the only ones doing Spelling. And I found Rod and Staff's Reading curriculum at a garage sale and wanted to get it for Tender so we are doing that too. I'm glad I got it, it's been helpful. For The Boy's reading we use the Alpha Phonics book. For those of you that are familiar with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, it's a lot like that but WAY more simple. And The Boy is tearing through it. He is literally doing a lesson right now as I type this with myself just glancing over to make sure he gets the words right. He is a new breed for education, this one. And I nice one at that! Math- We have Teaching Textbooks for the girls still and will stick with it. And for The Boy I just got him Singapore math because TT doesn't start until 3rd grade. I also purchased the whole elementary set for Life of Fred and we are doing that on Fridays. Right now the girls want to do it everyday so we may transition to Life of Fred mainly eventually. I'm praying about that. As for organizing all this chaos I am using a system that I started late in the year last year. Below is our big schedule and it is my favorite organization tool! It is a pickler to put together because it's like a complex jigsaw puzzle to figure out how everyone's schedule fits together but once it's done it is my biggest ally! With this little piece of paper I know where everyone is and what they are (or should be) doing at all times! If you have more that two homeschoolers I don't know how you could survive without it! I got the idea from Teri Maxwell's book Manager's of their Homes. Although mine is little different than what she outlined. Plus, the kids love the predictability! It makes them feel safe to know what is happening next and when I get lazy it holds me accountable. If one child has attitude problems and goes crazy slow on a particular subject then they just work through a break and it typically gets them caught up. Below is one of our file boxes. I got the idea for these from simplylivingforhim.com. She is all about simplicity and I really like the file box ideas. It puts the kids in charge of organizing their own work. They have a file for each subject in their box and that is where their complete works goes. I also made them personal schedules for their boxes if they want to check off with a dry erase marker what they have finished for the day. Here we have my new drawer organizer. I noticed last year that I am doing a poor job of grading in a timely manner so that my responsible children can file their work. ; ) So I got this for that purpose. When they finish a subject that needs to be checked by me they put it in their top drawer (one color per kid) and when I'm done checking it or grading it I put it in their bottom drawer. They are labeled "Finished Work" and "To-be filed". Plus it's on wheels!! So when the kids go to bed I wheel it into the living room and check work while the hubby and I watch tv or chat comfortably on the couch! Above is the human body poster we made a couple weeks ago. It was so fun and I was VERY impressed with how much they had learned from our most recent Science book on the human body. Wild Man didn't actually help, but we let him be in the picture. I've no doubt he learned by just hanging out with us while we worked.
We are also working on making miniature mishoons. We learned about those canoes that are made from a single tree trunk by indians. And daddy has been doing lots of chopping down of extra foliage around the house so we decided to make some little ones to float in the spring in the backyard during big rains. When they are finished I will be sure to take pictures! That is all I suppose! Well, Robert starts seminary, Jasper, Hulk, and Wild Man celebrate their birthdays, and we have our 13th anniversary in less than a month! That is a busy month. I have been thinking a lot about contentment. About God's sovereignty and how my discontentment is a distrust in His plan for our lives. For instance, I'm lonely. We had some friends stop in during a move in early June but other than that we haven't seen good friends in a while. And when you have a family our size phone calls don't happen often, not really good phone calls anyway. For some reason, the Lord has seen fit to cave in any of the opportunities we have had to get to see beloved friends or family anytime soon. We will celebrate Hulk's special 1st birthday by ourselves and I'm frantically attending church play dates to try and scrounge up some friends for Wild Man to invite for his 4th birthday. Boo hoo, poor us. These are such silly, stupid, temporary things to get weepy over but I'm in my third trimester, so give me some grace okay?! I miss friends and family. We will make friends here. We have found a church that we are going to join and the people at this church are quite possibly the most friendly and wonderful people we've ever encountered in a church! So it shouldn't be long. I'm just being discontent with the life dealt me for now. Shame on me. Because...
We are so blessed. We have a beautiful home to live in. I'm married to a man who loves the Lord and puts His will above all else. On days that I feel paralyzed by the trials of parenthood I'm reminded that my older children don't throw temper tantrums anymore, so these younger ones WILL obey one day if I don't grow weary of doing good by raising them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.....right? We took a day trip to Cincinnati the other day and went to the Creation Museum! So cool!! We also went by Ikea which is Robert's new love. ; ) This new baby is growing and moving and healthy and we are so humbled by the blessing of adding another family member! Most of all, we have salvation through Jesus! If we had nothing but that we would have the highest blessing available, so undeserved! What am I to do with all these blessings and free gifts?! I know! I'll complain and be discontented. *sarcasm* Lord, forgive me. You are enough. Here are some pictures of just some of the stuff we have to be thankful for: I didn't post a picture of the guest room because it's not organized yet. And below are just normal random pictures.
Well, now, we have finished two weeks of swimming lessons for all four of the older kids. It was much needed with the pool in the backyard and I am very pleased with the results! All of them have gotten so much better in the water. We swim just about everyday. Although, mama is picky! Lately it has rained and not gotten much warmer than 80 degrees so the water isn't very warm, I just watch. Although, I know that in my last trimester that water will be my favorite place to be for the relaxation and weightlessness of it!
We are getting more and more settled into our new home. It has been a relief to be getting into a more normal schedule around here. I feel like I'm getting my feet underneath me. We are getting back to our studies now and preparing for the new "school year". I will likely go ahead and start our 1st, 3rd, and 6th grade curriculum as soon as all of it is delivered. The Boy has already started working in his new math book. I finished our new schedules (lessons, chores, cleaning) today and posted them around the house. I'd like to have things running smoothly by the time baby #7 joins us so that the girls, at least, can keep up with their learning without my hovering over them. I get far too excited about ordering them curriculum and books. I got them a new map for the wall and a marble run set and I'm still shopping around for a portable drawer organizer. Today the kids and I made four batches of play dough. We are trying to get things done but also spend time with daddy before his school starts. We are also still visiting churches. Daddy still needs to build one more book shelf and put together the guest beds and organize the garage. A couple weeks ago Hurricane bought a bird! She has been saving up for 4 or 5 months for this purpose. She researched different types of pet birds and how to care for them. We found a breeder about 40 minutes away and she bought herself a cage at a garage sale. Robert helped the kids make bird toys to hang in it and then we drove out there and she purchased a parakeet. His name is Ethan. I had my first prenatal with my new midwife last Friday and that went very well. Everything is going smoothly with the pregnancy. Growth is right on, heart rate is good, baby is very active. |
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