Mothers Day 2012

from the first kick inside my belly with baby number one

to the current kicks of baby number four

none of this gets old

good, bad, clean, dirty, quiet, loud, easy, hard

all these moments

fill my heart and time like no other occupation or calling could

i am thankful for the gift of motherhood

a few of the outtakes

the winner [just pretend Moses is smiling]

Nation's card from church [4 spin questions]

Solomon's card from church

the kids half of the card [questions and answers with Charles and kids]

flowers from Charles

M is for Moon

M is for Moon

I am the light of the world.

Matthew 5:14-16

2 Corinthians 3:18

Last week we studied The Sun, this week we are studying The Moon. One of our activities was paint to A Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh [what we did yesterday]. I got the idea of tracing, mixing glue & paint, and using a fork from this amazing kids art book called Art Treasury. Nation and I worked on it together...he's really artistic! After that we played with moonsand [aka: I swept it up for hours after].

Today we learned about the phases of the moon and did an activity I saw on Pinterest. I never thought I'd hot glue gun an Oreo to cardstock. Little did I know!

Later this week we have an outdoor activity, month long moon chart, will be building a cardboard box rocket ship and making a phase model out of paper plates. Pretty sure eating the extra Oreo's today will have been Nation's favorite activity of the week though.

The Five books we are reading are:

1. Good Night Moon by Brown [Easy Reader]
2. The Moon Seems To Change by Brantley and Emberley  [informational, love!]
3. Fool Moon Rising by Fluharty [favorite! Christian fictional about the Moon not boasting in the Sun]
4. On the Moon by Milbourne
5. Wake Up, Sun! by Harrison [Easy Reader]

And we also purchased the Uncle Milton Moon In My Room for the kids! 

And enjoyed Magic School Bus' video: Space Adventures. 

Don't forget to check out YouTube for the clip of the man walking on the moon...very powerful!

--Find my M is for Moon on Pinterest Here---

End of the week update:

Having Nation color in the moon phases for the month every time we look at it. Moon Mobile on right.

Moonsand moon & tactile activity. Dot 2 Dot Alphabet letter M worksheet.

Cuisenaire Rods & Book

Painting, Sewing, Reading Oh My

I feel as though I might need to make a personal update here. I've been posting a lot of photos, informational posts and such.

Sundays...we've been attempting to get to church more on time, with little avail, but there is a attempt. Solomon almost always cries as we round the corner and starts saying "I don't want to see my teachers" or "I don't want to dance to the songs." However, I've never caught him doing anything, but having a blast in there. Nation still walks to the beat of his own drum a bit in class I hear, but has been in less trouble. Moses, he's my third, so he's easy and never cries. He's moved up to big baby room since he's walking [when he wants to]. We use to go out for lunch, but usually just go home now---have lunch, nap and play.

Mondays...I usually should be attempting to grocery shop this day [or the previous day], but other than that it's our day to clean our weekend house and figure out week out. The shock of Charles gone slowly sets in. Last monday evening I met some other homeschool moms of prek/k kids for coffee. We had a great time and learned a lot from one another.

Tuesdays...sometimes we do playdates, sometimes [like last week] we do 10 loads of laundry. Thankfully we were invited over for dinner this past Tuesday so after all the folding I didn't have to make dinner too.

Wednesdays...pretty much over the last year [minus Ohio] the four of us head out at 9:15 am [in theory] to be at our church from 9:30-11:30 for the women's Beth Moore bible study. Currently we're doing the study of David. Afterwards the kids and I almost always grab our weekly Chick-fil-A. Followed by a little outside time, nap and later that evening my Weight Watchers meeting & weigh in.

Thursdays...tend to be a bit like Tuesdays. If there aren't too many dishes or clothes stacked up we leave the house to do something fun. Last Thursday night I went to Sips N Strokes with a friend and painted [photo above.]

Fridays...tend to be like Tuesdays & Thursdays, but this past Friday I had a three hour tutorial on an embroidery machine I recently inherited. I have this to show for is:

Also, we have small group Friday evenings from 7-10pm. We take our kids over to play with about 20+ other kids. Our small group is quickly growing into a small church. Always a great time of worship, sharing The Word, and praying for one another.

Saturdays...are usually full of "around the house" projects and birthday parties. This past week I hosted my monthly [in theory] Christian Homebirth Meeting while Charles took the kids to a birthday party. I believe I had about 14 women over. Either way, my midwife was there and I miss her so in between babies. We discussed all things birth, and watched two birth videos [one which was mine]. Afterwards, Charles & I went out to dinner with a few couples from church. I heart date nights. I ate salmon instead of pasta with no dessert. I'm really trying y'all!

Other things you could live without knowing...I'm making my way slowly through 1000 gifts. Have enjoyed using Prayers That Avail Much several times this week when praying through difficult situations. And am struggling to keep up with my Beth Moore homework from David. I love/hate the homework. One word: college. 

I'm also debating starting potty training [again] with Solomon.

What have you been up to? Whatcha readin'?

He is the Art of My Heart

Nation [my oldest] is 4.5 years old. He keeps me laughing.

You might have previously read about his necklace to get out of trouble, this week he said some pretty hilarious things too, including:

Me: "Nation you can get out of timeout"

Him: "But I'm not sorry still"

Me: "Okay, then I guess stay in time out" 

[??????]

That was Tuesday. Today, after he shoved his brothers face into the carpet [sigh], I sent him to timeout [which we use with other forms of punishment, but he hates to not be playing like everyone else, it's worse than any thing else we've tried...for him, but only since he's gotten older. Timeout did not work for him as an infant/toddler.

So, he's screaming in time out, I start to walk away and he points to our scripture verse on the wall [the one we read when we fight with our brother] and says screams...

"Mom read me what the bible says"

ha ha

He is such a sweetheart too. He wakes Solomon up so gently from his naps and brings him water and a snack. He speaks softly and kindly to him. 

Today he looked at the flowers his dad gave me and drew this picture for me. I suppose it's his first still art sketch. I am still having these moments were I go "Wow, is my kid nearing 5? He can actually draw a flower?" I feel like just yesterday I was trying to teach him to draw something that resembled a circle.

It's got grass and everything. Obviously, as his mom, I'm more enthralled-amazed-excited than you are, but I thought I'd share just a bit of my Nation with you.

Has your kid done or said anything lately that made you laugh or take a step back?

Chicago Day 3: Ninja Turtles & Sue at the Art & History Museums

 On Saturday morning, we had every intention of arriving at...

The Art Institute of Chicago at 9am, but our bellies stumbled upon this first...

Where I had the best French Toast of-my-life

It went from 72 to 52 overnight.

Probably my 2nd favorite fact of Chicago [next to the DMB one] was that the creators of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were sitting at the Bennigan's across the street from the Art Museum trying to come up with names for the three turtles when they looked up and got their inspiration...

Donatello-Leonardo-Michael Angelo

Here is some of my favorite art I saw [bonus points if you can name the paintings]

I also saw one of Claude Monet's Water Lilies, but didn't photograph it. The Art museum was interesting. It, like most I've been too, had some nice things, but also had a lot of things I feel like weren't really art. Aside from the fact that they came from important people or were really old, they weren't pleasant to look at. 

Art is in the eye of the beholder.

Nation kept asking us when we were going to do something, ha.

As you can imagine this museum was the kids least favorite part of our day. We tried to walk through it all quickly, having only spent $18 for our whole family to tour it wasn't too much of a waste of money. Again, I'd like to come back another time with just Charles. We had too much fun making fun of the art we did have a chance to see.

Something Nation that was funny...

Name that butt.

The museum also had this cool staircase with spiritual sayings on it...

Our next stop on Museum day was The Field Museum. It was the largest museum I'd ever been to. I wish we lived closer so I could go back weekly with the kids and teach them more as they grow up. It was enormous, did I already say that? It was a little more pricey so we spent 5 hours there [on accident] and still missed several sections of it.

Obviously one of their main attractions was Sue. The male dinosaur [originally thought to be & named female] that is the most complete dinosaur skeleton ever found. It was purchased 10 years ago by the museum for 8 million dollars.

The second coolest part about this museum was that it not only had a amazing collection of dinosaur skeletons, but also a robotic dinosaur exhibit. You really felt like you were standing next to an angry T-Rex about to charge you. It was very realistically designed. We also watched the 3D movie about Sue.

We had intended on visiting the Children's Museum as well that day, but I guess now we'll have to go back! We were all pooped [even though we brought the stroller this time] and headed back to the hotel early for Thai delivery and Iron Man 2.

Green Caricatures

Today we went to The Greene, it's like Atlantic Station in Atlanta. Outdoor shopping, restaurants, movie theater, music, activities, etc. It was a hot & humid day, but after lunch at Noodles [best mac & cheese ever], we let the boys cool off in the water squirt area.

Then we got a free caricature of the boys & Charles and I. It was my first, I told him I'm always afraid they will make me look fat so I asked him to not put a double chin. He drew me pre-babies.