So THIS is going to be a post all it's own! A couple months ago Bryse got down right obsessed with birds. She prayed for knowledge about birds while trying to catch one in the back yard. In the last week The Lord has placed two mama birds in our front yard each with three eggs (the robin's eggs already hatched). And we have found two discarded nests in our backyard and leftover shell from a robin baby egg. God has practically written a curriculum for us! We have our noses in books and are scanning the Internet every day! Bryse is planning on making a slide show and teaching a class to her friends. More on this later!
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This is one of Wild Man's favorite busy toys. He plays with it almost everyday. I bought a package of all different colored and sized and shaped buttons at Wal-mart for about $5 and used old kitchen containers. I cut different sized slits in the lids and surrounded the opening with tape (to keep him from cutting himself on sharp plastic sides). We lost some of the old containers so I recently added a couple new ones. As you can see by The Boy's blurry container, they sometimes get turned into musical instruments. Either by shaking or banging with a stick or hand. The big silver container has a metal bottom and is really fun to hit with a stick of some sort. It's covered in dents on the bottom.
When they are done playing it all goes back into a canvas bag and hangs on the wall in the background like the other canvas bags. The other canvas bags have other busy toys. One has first aid toys for playing "Doctor". Mostly stuff found from around the house. An old dropper, medicine cup, old thermometer, washcloth, and fabric cut into strips for bandages. The other has a hammer, tacks, small shapes with holes in them and a cork board. You put the tacks through the holes in the shapes and nail them to the cork board with a hammer. This I did not make, I bought it through Oriental Trading Company. Love that company! Could spend way too much there! So that is some of the stuff we have on hand for playing with in the homeschool room. It helps with keeping the Littles busy while Tender is working but they definitely don't get ignored at other times too! Sorry I missed last week. Technically it's before midnight so I'm squeaking through in time for Friday! First the update on the fam.
We have started our summer around here. But we are still doing some lessons and will continue all summer. I have set a few goals for myself and the kids for the summer. For Tender, I hope to teach her how to meal plan one day a week. She has been cooking breakfast every Sunday for about 5 months and loves it. She is always asking to do more cooking. So I stole an idea from another homeschooling mom's blog and decided to help her to be able to meal plan for every Wednesday. Which will include her making her own grocery list, my giving her cash and her trying to stay within her "budget". When we go grocery shopping she will have her own cart for her own groceries. She is super excited. We hope to start this next week. In preparation for this task she has been practicing her typing skills by typing up all the kid-friendly cooking meals I have. One a day and then she hole punches it and adds it to her recipe binder. I am also keeping her doing basic math everyday. And she does her Bible study after math. Other than that, we just don't turn on the tv and keep them exploring the world around them. I am also hoping to get her on more of a schedule for doing her laundry. She has been doing it herself for over a year but she waits far too long to do a load. So I'm putting her on a schedule of every Thursday. Hurricane's goal is to get to the place where she can do her own laundry. I realized Hurricane folds better than Tender I figured Hurricane was ready too! So I bought her a pink laundry basket with wheels so that she can pull her laundry down the hall, down the stairs, and to the laundry room. I also bought one of those shirt folder contraptions for the girls to use. Don't know if it will work but they are excited! Hurricane does lessons when she feels like it. She writes all day and her spelling is getting better all the time. She's pretty easy because she wants to learn all the time. I couldn't stop her if I tried. We are always doing experiments that she thinks up and googling things or getting library books on topics that she wants to learn about. So we will continue that this summer as well. The Boy has a screening this week for his speech. He has already had his hearing checked and has very good hearing. So the next step is getting him into speech therapy. I have also scheduled the whole summer with weekly playdates with the other women in our Friday Bible study. We are meeting at a different park each week for a picnic lunch and The Boy is excited about this! All the kids are, actually. Wild Man is officially in the bottom bunk bed and doesn't fall out every night anymore. : ) And it is my goal to get him potty trained soon. He has been telling me when he goes poop for about five months now. But I'm waiting for better timing. It is also my goal to get him passed this screaming stage. Now to the prayers! This is the most important part, folks. Robert needs prayer. A lot. I pray for him all day and the man is almost in a constant state of prayer lately. He is feeling very burdened to pray about entering ministry. Since the deployment he wants nothing to do with psychology. He is willing to go back to it if the Lord tells him to but right now he feels like he isn't suppose to. Not to mention, we feel like we are suppose to stay here but there aren't any openings anywhere. We are totally willing to move but, like I said, for now, we feel like we are suppose to be here. I've never seen Robert so burdened. His last day in the military is August 10. Please don't be offended if you call him and he doesn't answer. He is very focused right now on listening to the Lord and figuring out what His will is for our family. Please pray for the Lord to lead Robert and to be blunt with him, to make our next step obvious. Pray for me to be encouraging and supportive while he is going through this. Pray for Robert to have confidence in what the Lord is calling him to do. Thanks, friends! I was in 1 Kings 3 today. It's the part where King Solomon asks God for wisdom and God gifts it to him. It's a super natural wisdom and discerning mind. It was a gift from God and the only thing Solomon asked for when given the opportunity to ask for anything. And he wanted this gift for the sake of God's chosen people. This request meant a lot to me because it's so personal. I want this wisdom for the sake of my children. Not so they can have a more comfortable life or be wealthy or famous but so they will know God and glorify Him with their lives. Because, let's face it, any secular mom can feed her kids and teach them "right from wrong" and educate them and buy them clothes. Any secular mom can work hard and raise kids that make an impact in the world. But something deeper happens to lead a mom in how to raise children that fear the Lord. A mom doesn't have control over that one. She can't save her children, only God can. And being famous or talented or wealthy, that's all temporal. But loving the Lord and living for Him, that is eternal.
So my version goes something like this: "I am a child, Lord. I can't even cook breakfast or change a diaper. And here I am, entrusted to raise four children to love and fear you! Remind me that I belong to you and please give me understanding of what each of my children need. Give me a discerning heart that knows when they need a hug, when they need me to pray with them, and when I need to back off. Make me bold in showing them what is evil and what is good. Give me confidence in which way to go. Because this job is too big for me. I am unable." |
LindseyI'm the mama and wife. Updating you on our life! Archives
January 2022
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