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who cares about the rain when you have silly smirky girl!
this is the kind of smirk i get in the middle of the night, or when i am trying to put her to sleep or when ever she feels like it
me love!
so funny. such a happy baby
5 mins later she crashed
so i let her sleep in my arms
i also realised that this girl gets at least 100 kisses a day
how have i been spending the last 2 rainy days?
finally sorting, purging and cleaning the play room
i am almost done
too 3 huge over flowing bags to sally ann!
and i also decided that i will smack the next person (JONATHAN) who gives my son any toy that has more than 3 pieces
sigh
little, ity, bitty pieces of toys all over the house! gotta get the house ready for miss ellie and crawling!
that's us in a nut shell
back to the cleaning i go!
1 comments
Posted by
mel
at
6:13 PM
after school i decided to take nate out. just us 2. his choice of activity? go feed the ducks BUT first walk in the woods.
he gets the love of walking in the woods (not on a path!) from me. we could spend our out there. we did spend an hour in the woods. so much to see!
this beautiful path lead us to this green moss covered area. so vibrant. so calming. a perfect fall day
nate wanted to see how close he could get, not bad! next time we'll bring nuts for them and the birds
nate was very selective in who got the bread. only a small amount
after we fed them, we sat on the bench and just watched the ducks for a good 20 mins
not talking
just watching
nate said "mom, this is nice"
it was
then we headed out to get nate's halloween outfit
i saw superstore had all the costumes on 40% off with no tax
so we went
can you guess what he wanted???
guess how much i got it for!!!
it was reg 25.99 on sale for 15.99 but it did not ring up so they gave me 10.00 off making it 5.99 but there was not tax! so i paid a grand total of 1.24 for this 26 dollar costume! we were both thrilled!
1 comments
Posted by
mel
at
7:32 PM
can't you hear him saying "what do you want mom? i'm busy building a rocker ship to the moon"
new deck stain and new to us gazebo that our neighbours will no longer be ashamed of. haha
i love having chris home! yesterday and today he's took nate to friends of our who have a farm to help (i use that loosely) the guys clean up the farm area. ha
and i sit in the quiet (for now) house with my coffee and a pile of school material go dive into
my life is blissful and wonderful
0
comments
Posted by
mel
at
1:51 PM
eliana had her dr's appointy of mon for her shots. THREE of them. i never heard her cry like that, i cried too. my dr felt so bad. she is doing well, she's a bit under in the weigh category (not that i care for those charts!) and is taller than average. i also found out that clothing sizes are based on the average in the charts, e.g 0-3 months is the average size of 0-3 months. kinda neat! i packed away all of her 0-3 clothing, she's in 6-9 now. sigh.
her sleep is rock star style. she has been sleeping 7-9 hrs a night! whoooo hooooo with her 3 2-3 hrs naps. she's doing so well. the hard work is worth it!
i am still trying to figure out her personality. she is so smiley and loves interaction with ppl. she loves nate and flashes smiles and giggles at him. she is a total snuggle bug and i love it!
we are truly blessed to have had eliana join our family. she is well worth the wait!
1 comments
Posted by
mel
at
2:31 PM
i am blogging this cause i know there are a few others who ave kids who are learning to read and write. i find this to be so helpful so i thought i'd pass the tip along!
to help teach kids to write smaller. ha. cut up strips of paper that are about 3-4" and have the kids practice writing on the strip. i can see a huge improvement in the last few days
there is this great curriculum called handwriting with out tears that i want to get next yr but i found a freebie on line with the basic writing guide. so i printed it out and laminated it ( i am so the laminator lady) so he can write and wipe off with a dry erase pen
i had some colors kicking around so i did those too
today we focused on reading. i let the room for a minute and came back to this
his "reading room"
the dude is reading very well, but then i have no clue what to expect or what others are doing (nor do i care) but i find it fascinating to watch him sound out and read words
then, for fun he i did patternables.....for fun........and it was not a math day.haha. i seriously love patternables, again! why is this not in the school system????
4
comments
Posted by
mel
at
1:33 PM
i live very close to an airport and those who have joined us this summer in the gazebo have had to pause conversation at approxy 9:15-9:20 then again at 10:05-10:10 as the airplane flew over head...haha
so many times i will stop what i am doing as a plane fly over and say to well anyone who is with me "i wonder where that plane is going or i wonder what kind of ppl are on that plane"
chris showed me this web site last week and i am addicted to it! when we heard a plane we yell "where is it going?" and i go check. ha! we are such dorks. but still it's so fascinating to see all the planes from all over the world! or i think so
i got n's attention thurs night with printing this question
he sounded it out! the only word he couldn't read (by sounding out) was why?
he went to bed asking, why? why is the cat bad? what cat? where is this cat?
i told him he had to wait until tomorrow
for school
ha! it worked. he couldn't wait to find out
then i had him read a story...to find out why this cat is bad
(the cat was bad because it walked over dad's, waxed, car...can you guess what sound we are working on?!)
then he tested out his desk. it is SO much better! now to clean the toys out in the back and make a few more changes
ellie joined us and look what she did!
she discovered that those things that flap around her are hers! and she can grab things with them!
she did it!
sob sob
my baby is growing too fast!
then we moved along to his feelings book. we talked about what makes him mad, sad, happy and loved etc...
friday's school
which ended in play-doh playing (thanks penny!)
i still have some more changes to make, but don't we always adjust and readjust in life? over all home school is better than i thought it would be, scarier that i thought and more fulfilling than i dreamed. i end my days tired and sick of nate (being real here) but i wake up with grace to do it all over again
after 1 full week, i am shocked at my lack of patience, my ability to get bored fast, not surprise by feeling insecure and alone but i know other's have done this before me so i can do it too
my biggest surprise is feeling ok about it all. it's ok to not know the future, how it's going to work out, or how i will mess my kids up or how in the world i am going to teach the harder stuff! but so far i've taught nate how to use a sippy cup, dress himself, to go to sleep by himself, how to use the toilet and wipe his own bum (working on the flushing part) so i think i can handle the harder stuff like long division. ha if not i'll find someone who can. ha
in the midst of all life's adjustments and seasons i am not alone!
back to cleaning i go!
*update on ellie's sleep training. SO much better in 1 week! 3x 1.5-2.5 hr naps a day!!! bed time at 7! dream feed at 10-11 and working on bumping the 4 am feed to 5, then 6 then done. most naps take less than 5 mins to calm her, we leave the room only to pop back in at the 30 min mark to pop the sook back in. we will drop that in an another wk or so....there is a light.....some where.........ha ha. and if she's having a hard time getting to sleep, i just let her sleep on me. fine with my. i love my adorable cuddle bug!
6
comments
Posted by
mel
at
2:56 PM
funny how a smell, a flashback, a voice or even a song has the power to transform you to another time and another plac
a few wks ago it happened to me. i was driving in the car. alone. and doing what i normally do when alone, crank the radio. full blast, blaring on! the song changed, from what i don't remember...but the song that came on took me to a instantly took me to another place
after we lost our second born son, I took time off from church. Chris was the children’s pastor at the time. I stepped down from helping him, from teaching and from attending
chris was supportive of me
the first Sunday morning came, chris woke me up, I told him I was not going, rolled over and went back to bed
the second Sunday came and went. I stayed home
the third Sunday came, chris and nate went with out me
a month went by
the 5th Sunday morning, chris woke me up and asked “how about today?”
I said “no. not today”
I went back to bed
Some people were prob judging me and my decision to not attend
What they did not know was my hearts desire behind my decision to stay home
I was told that church was the place to be to get that healing, to go for support and help and love and encouragement and all that
But my heart said something else and I chose to follow it
My heart told god that I would not and could not go back to church with out being able to publically raise my hands and declare with my words that god is good. All the time.
The 6th Sunday came. Chris woke me and asked “today mel?”
I said “yes”
I remember sitting to do my hair, scared about what I was about to do. Not knowing if I would truly be able to go through with it
I got dressed, ate, got into the car. Chris held my hand as we drove. I looked out the side window
We entered the church. I was surrounded by people, hugs and support. I fought the tears. Held my head high and got to my normal, regular back seat.
I sat. I waited for the music to start
The worship team came up.
The first song was “how great is our god”
The congregation rose to sing
I rose
I lasted for about 1 minute
I sat down
My hair fell forward
Covering my tears as I closed my eyes and let the words flood over me
Grabbing the sides of my seat I cried the silent tears
The pain
How in the world could this be the FIRST song????
“how great is our god? Sing with me how great is our god”
My heart started to sing
My lips could not move
The song ended
They started it again
Slowly, I stood
Head down
I lifted my hands
And cried
I felt chris touch me
I sang with my mouth
“how great is our god…sing with me how great is our god…and all will see how great how great is our god”
My heart sang first
Then my mouth
I was able to do it
because it is true
how great is our god. Sing with me no matter what, no matter when or where, our god is great
this morning, nate was not doing his best i knew he could make a proper k. so i threw out my planned lessons
see below
and sat him on the couch to read. as i read i saw a light bulb go off. i've heard of this but to see it first hand, blew me away
as i was reading. nate said "mom, i know that word (pointing to the next word on the page that i did not read) says van"
i said "how do u know?"
he said "cause v makes the vvvvvv sound. a makes the aaaa sound and n makes the nnnnnnn sound. if you say it fast it says van"
ok. seriously?! then for fun i had him sound out the next page and wouldn't ya know the dude said some of them all on his own!
i got excited and said "dude! you're getting it!, keep going, now do you understand why your dad and i tell you that once you learn how to read your life will change!!!"
the light bulb went off
and i was there to see it
it's worth it!
i am using this above system to guide our days. each night i plan a lesson or a guide as to what i want to do that day. i allow nate the flex to mix it up but bible and prayer is always first
i have about 40 other icons to use...including out of school things like swimming, church, grocery store, library, field trips etc...
this am, i should have guessed his lack of proper pencil holding was a tip off that he was not into it
i love the flex about mixing things up. e.g school starts at 9, but today, after a late night last night we all slept in and started school at 10! ha!
yesterday we did math. we used the patternables. i even made some. fun! i realised that our set up is not great. not knowing how everything was going to work out i didn't set it up wks ago. i wanted to give myself some time to find out what works and what doesn't. i have decided to toss the desk and have a more table style desk brought in to work on
after i had nate make the pattern, i had him trace the shapes and add up how many of each he used to make the shape
then we did a shape hunt. i had him cut out shapes off all sizes and find them in the room. he had a fun time and so did i. haha
again, why isn't patternables in school? they rock! 4
comments
Posted by
mel
at
2:02 PM
i am a 40 something gal who is hitched to her bestie and together we are raising our kidlets to do great things. this blog is a lot like me, its about everything and anything and all over the place!
