Maternity Photo Shoot

 

We did a little photo shoot this week at the George Washington Birthplace. Leon's Aunt has taken up photography as a hobby and we just had a ball all over the park posing, laughing, and snickering as she came up with all sorts of ideas for us to try out for the pictures.

 

She did a beautiful job... I'll post a few snapshots....  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



All about Lea

As I was parsing through some pictures I realized that I hadn’t blogged about my Lea when her birthday passed in August. So, the subject of this blog entry is all about my Lea. My sweet, smiling Lea. She turned 7 this August.

 

We keep birthday celebrations pretty simple in our family and the girls seem to embrace the idea. We’re not one for big parties. We typically ask the girls where they’d like to eat out and let them pick out a special gift of their choice. This year Lea picked Red Robin and wanted to shop for shoes. When Lea was about 2 or 3 years old she used to have this thing about shoes. She just loved shoes so much that she would actually sleep in them!

 

We would try and convince her that shoes were not designed to be worn to bed, but she couldn’t be convinced. And so, we just let her sleep in them and when she got out of bed in the morning, she stepped out with shoes on!

It’s so funny the things that kids get in to. As we enter our 3^rd week of homeschooling I bask in the joy of having so much time with my girls. As I anticipated what sort of “students” my girls would be, I assumed right with Lea as she has turned out to be my “buddy” student. She loves to have Mommy at her side as we school throughout the day. Before starting homeschooling I was curious how I was going to manage doing individual time with each child when necessary and keep the other child occupied long enough so that they got something productive done.

Lea is my child that loves when it’s her turn for Mommy one-on-one time (Love does too, but Lea just wants me sitting next to her even if I’m not working with her). Lea has always been the cuddle kid and I love it cause I love to snuggle. She still loves to crawl up in our laps. She’s the kid that gives those neck-breaking hugs and wants about a gazillion kisses throughout the day and especially before bedtime.

I’m thankful that as a Mom you never run out of an inventory of hugs and kisses cause my Lea sure wants her share everyday!

 

 

 

Overrated

Sleep was so over rated in my past life.

Its 6 a.m. on a Sunday morning and I’m up blogging about sleep. In my past life this would never be. Sleep in all honestly used to my most favorite part of the day. I remember the moments of counting down until it was time to put the kids to bed so that I could tuck my ownself in and fall off to sleep. I’ve come to the conclusion that I was just an exhausted woman back then.

What a gift it is now to nap and sleep when I need to and I’ve seen the blessing this gift has been in my kid’s life as well. It still seems weird to be at the park past sunset and not feel the pressure of having to rush home for baths, doing hair, and story time so that they could be somewhat rested for a 6 a.m. dash out of bed to get ready for school. Nowadays I don’t even need to stir them in the mornings before school, they actually wake up on their own. I know this may seem awfully weird to some, an appreciation of what the gift of sleep can do, but it still boggles me.

As my pregnancy draws to its end in the 3^rd trimester, I have to get up multiple times in the night to relief myself as the baby dances on my bladder. This break in my sleep through the night sometimes causes me to be a bit groggy in the mornings for school and there are days that my body yearns for more sleep as we do school in the day. What a sweet, lovely, gift it is to be able to finish school up by 1 or so and then crawl into bed for a nap. A nap in the middle of the day. How divine!

I retreated from our homeschool room on Friday last week to crawl into bed while the kids cranked up their tunes from VBS (vacation bible school) to have a dance party (this is their daily end of the school day ritual). They invited me to join them, but as the baby proceeded to have a dance party in my belly as I’m standing (I really don’t the recall my girls moving so much even when standing…..geesh), I asked for a rain check and headed for an hour or so of sweet slumber. I woke up to find them nestled up around me when I woke up as they watched cartoons.

I shared all that to say, now that sleep is no longer one of the biggest highlights of my day I’ll have to find another.

All about Love

Love had her first violin lesson on Tuesday.

 

 

Similar to myself when she gets into something new, she likes to immerse herself in all things that have anything to do with the subject. When she first asked if she could take on the violin and her Father and I started to discuss it, it seemed that all she could think about was violins! She visited her violin teacher’s website and read up on the “Suzuki” method that her teacher will use for her lessons. She also found the website of the violin shop in Richmond and read up on what they have available. When we visited the library she spent an hour or so looking up violin books to check out. She ended up settling on a violin mystery book.

My Love enjoys art. One day she whipped out a canvas, found a violin picture online and sketched a violin scene to later be painted.  The funniest thing that she did in her violin pursuit has to do with her fingernails. I never really considered that fact that long fingernails get in the way of strumming the strings, but her teacher told her one Sunday how she’s never been able to really grow out her nails. So, that afternoon my Love proceeded to bite off all of her fingernails so that if, when she ever got to a violin she’d be ready! So funny…

My Love has been a character since birth. Today she was a 1-woman actress, portraying the characters from a literature snippet and poem that she read today.

 

Where on earth does she get her ways from??? I wonder…

 

This makes me relish in the fact that God made each of us unique in our very own ways. Not one of us are alike and God blesses us with talents and gives that we can use to honor God. It is my prayer that as my children grow they will use their uniqueness for God’s glory.

This is the Day that the Lord has Made

We survived our first day of homeschooling today.  

It was a fun day. We started out with a picture so that the girls can look back and see themselves at the end of the year and reflect on how much they’ve changed. They woke up very excited.

 

 

After breakfast and some pictures, we started out with Bible and prayer time. For parts of our Bible time we’re using a book that was a gift from a friend entitled, “The Life of Christ” by John McArthur. The book is a collection of scriptures that capture the life of Christ in chronological order beginning with the Creation of Man. Scriptures from throughout the Bible are organized in a way that you’re able to read complete themes on certain topics (e.g., creation, the fall of man, etc.) using scriptures that span from the Old Testament to the New Testament.

After prayer and Bible time, they both worked in their handwriting books. Lea will be learning cursive writing this year and Love will continue to just brush up and refine her cursive writing.

I introduced “copy work” which is a technique presented through the Charlotte Mason philosophy of teaching where “copying good work encourages good writing”. The notion is that if a person copies the work of writing that is not just editorially sound, but full of meaning and fruitful context then they will adopt the sound principles that are gained from copying good writing. With copywork you can copy any sort of writing – Bible Verses/passages, poetry, literature, etc.

The time seemed to fly by as the girls wanted to take their time and be neat as they wrote and I tried not to hurry them along. Before we paused for lunch we did an hour or so of math, reviewing the areas where they left off in 1^st and 3^rd grade. While I worked with one individually, the other read a “Life of Fred” math book. The Life of Fred math books are literary books that teach the reader varying math concepts through storytelling. He’s an interesting little guy that will have you laughing. It’s always nice to have a little comic relief when you’re learning math.  

After Math we had some lunch and then had our time of reading and comprehension. Some of the time was spent with me reading out loud to the girls (“we’re reading the 2nd book in the Little House series) so that they can hear the expression and proper pronunciation as I read. And, after our together time of reading they each have their own books where they can do their own reading and afterwards, they each presented their understanding of what was read. Love of course didn’t disappoint us as she reenacted the 1^st chapter of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.

By the time we got through reading and comprehension it was nearing 1 p.m. and I thought we’d finish for the day, but we squeezed in our spelling time with the “Sequential Spelling” curriculum and the girls ended the day writing in their journals about their first day of school. With this particular curriculum the student learns foundational root words and with each lesson the consecutive words that they learn builds off of the root word.

I had to shoo them outside after we were done. Love wanted to drill a little more on her times tables. Geez.. I hope this “problem” continues. I decided to save our history lesson for tomorrow. It was after all the first day of school (Love reminded me the week before we started, "Mom, you know that in school you don't do anything the first week, right?" I had to inform her real quick that this was not her typical school setting =)

Overall, it was a blessed day. It still seems surreal that I’m at home and not at work today. To just walk in the room and see them curled up on the couch reading and writing just warmed my heart. It’s a feeling that no amount of money could ever provide. I’ve experienced that feeling of enjoyment from giving to people in the workplace, but when its your kids its just priceless because its something that I hope they will never, ever forget. And, just maybe they’ll be inspired to give this same gift of “mom at home” to their own children one day.

 

 

1 school day down…. 1 hundred... seventy.... uhm.... who's counting.... yet?!?!?

(ask me again later if I've started counting =) 

SAHM

(written on Aug 21 2013)

I got the chance to write the words, “stay at home Mom” for the first time a week or so ago when we took Love to pick up her violin. I had to write down my occupation. At first I skipped the line and wrote down hubby’s occupation and then went back and thought, “What am I supposed to write?” Technically, today I’m a working Mom for 3 more days, but for the purposes of renting the violin I needed to document the fact that I will not be employed for the long term.

It was sort of freeing to write it down. I’ve been reflecting for the past week or so on the stay at home role since my co-worker gave me a book about SAHMs last week. I’m not sure if the author is a Christian, but she raises some interesting points that reflect the morals of a woman that chooses to sacrifice all else to stay home and raise her children. The book is called, “In the Praise of Stay-at-Home Mom” by Dr. Laura Schlessinger. I’ve only gotten through a few chapters. The author apparently is known for her radio broadcasts where she counsels and encourages SAHMs. So far, its been an encouragement as the author raises a number of benefits to staying at home and its rare to find an author that dedicates a book to praising an unpopular profession.

This coming school year if Love would’ve remained at FCS, she would’ve had the opportunity to select an instrument to play in the school band or winds orchestra. I’m not sure exactly what specifically drew her to the violin, but she is oober excited to start learning the play the violin. A dear friend of ours, Sarah, from our Church is a beautiful violin player and Love took it upon herself to write her a letter (in her 9 year old speak) asking her if she’d be willing to teach her. Sarah was oober excited that Love was interested, so she gave us the hook up on a great little shop in Richmond that rents violins for a very affordable price.

I’m not sure how long the excitement will last… we’ll ride it for as long as her interests continues.

 

 

40 Years of Love...

My parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary by renewing their wedding vows at the end of July. It was a really beautiful event.

To see them walk down the aisle together, in love as ever, just made me blush and be so proud to call them my Mom and Dad. I get my sense of affection from them I know this to be true.

When I was in school my friends would tease me after seeing my parents out in the mall together walking hand in hand like school age sweethearts. It was a wonderful example of true love within a marriage as I grew up. That's all I knew as a child in regards to what a marriage should look like and for that I'm grateful because it laid a desire in my heart to love and cherish someone in the same way with boldness and without fear of what others may think.

My hubby and I celebrated 13 years together on August 19th. Every year that our anniversary rolls around I relish in the fact that it feels like I just got married yesterday. I love that man with that giddy feeling that makes you blush just as I did 13 years ago. He and I have grown and matured together over the years - in mind, body, and spiritually together as we've strived - together - to grow closer to the Lord as husband and wife. This spiritual growth that we've had together has deepened our understanding of who we are in Christ. and, I have to say he's even more handsome because of His love for God.

Marriage is a beautiful thing...

At Firebirds for our 13th Anniversary Dinner