Learning to Rollerblade

Joffre Jr. turned 6 this past week and one of his presents was a pair of roller blades. I had found pairs for all the kids but him at the thrift store for a mere 2 bucks. So he and George were sharing a pair. I was delighted that the day before his birthday I found a nice pair for him. So our driveway has turned into a roller rink. Even Ward is wearing a air of roller skates originally for George. Next I am going to get hockey sticks for some street hockey.

Potty Training Time

Sigh, yep, it's potty training time. Ward is learning to go potty and we give him M and Ms if he goes on the potty. So this morning he started to really get the point but wanted confirmation, "I get M and M if I got on potty, right Mom, right? " Right, Ward.

So he goes a tiny bit on the potty. I give him M and Ms ( I'll up the ante later.).He goes into the living room and announces his achievement and gets a round of applause from his brothers and sister. (Potty training is a family affair in our house.) 5 minutes later- "I get m and Ms if I go on the potty, right Mom, right?" Yes, Ward.

He goes a little bit on the potty. I give him M and Ms. 5 minutes later....you get the point. This cycle happened about 4 times. Talk about pee control! Then during breakfast, "Oh no Mom, I pee pee in my diaper!" Of course it was a full on pee not these tiny pees he was doing for M and Ms and applause.

Groan. We'll get there. So dang cute.

Sunday breakfast

On Sundays I like to try to make the meals special- it's our feast day, but not too complicated-it's also our rest day. I try to make a more exciting breakfast for the kids than eggs and crackers or oatmeal (our usuals). So often I make cinnamon rolls the day before or pancakes or waffles, but I get tired of all the sweet. It's hard because I love omelets but the kids don't so I only make them occasionally. This morning I decided to make eggs and cheese biscuits. Not too much work and we all loved it.  I just added cheese to a normal biscuit recipe and used butter instead of shortening in the biscuits because it is sacrilegious to use shortening if you have butter.

Seeking Peace

"We tend to want our hearts and minds to protect the peace of God within us. Paul actually reverses this and says that the peace of God protects our hearts and minds. But this does not happen simply because we present our petitions to God. It is quite possible to be anxious on our knees. We might list all our concerns and have it be nothing but a worry session in prayer. Paul says, in effect, that the thing necessary to keep this from happening is thanksgiving. We must present our petitions with thanksgiving" (Beyond Stateliest Marble, p. 215).

I read this quote this week and it was a huge blessing to me. I have been having a rough time this year with worry (always a favorite among my sins) and I found that when I forced myself to thank God for things in my prayers I could feel my mind and heart turning toward peace. Then I knew how to seek peace and pursue it.

My Birthday Present

So I have had about 100 blog posts in my head and have not found the time to sit and write them out. So today you get 5 at once.

Here is one of my birthday presents:

I am very excited about this. I have made a few clothes for myself and have a had some nice successes but some really need to be altered to fir my goofy body type. I have to try to make the top petite and the bottoms long. I am hoping this book will really help.

I also got a cute pair of shoes .
I am also getting a rain barrel. I know that is not on everyone's wishlist. =) But I am very excited about it. I am hoping to redo some of my garden this year with raised beds and a better watering system. Yea!

It was a very nice and mellow birthday. I took a  hour and a half long bath with no interruptions and read a book. Very nice.

The Boys

My boys have been really into hats lately and especially these crocheted one my sister-in-law made. Thought you'd appreciate seeing this, Jen.


I also woke up to a really cute scene the other day. I walked into the bathroom and found George standing in footy PJs with his hair with the usual rooster tail sticking up from twirling it so much, sucking his thumb, and staring into the mirror with a furrowed brow. Then he got out a hair brush and kept trying to brush down the rooster tail on the top of his head without success. So cute.  

Homeschooling

We pulled out this geography game, Where in the World, and wiped the dust off it. It is from when my husband was homeschooled. Joffre played just the S. America (still the same) portion with the kids, and Joffre Jr. learned all the countries only playing twice. Even George was getting them. We got Joffre Jr.( he really loves games right now) the updated version for his birthday next week. It even has the languages, major exports and imports, reigon flags etc.. information in the game. You can play a bunch of different games according to the level of your child with it.  This along with Kathy Troxel's Geography Songs are my Geography curriculum right now.

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I also found these kid's art books by Bob Raczka recently and LOVE them. He has a bunch of them and I was bummed because the library didn't have the one I really wanted to see but these are great. One, Unlikely Pairs, is just a fun book of pairs of famous works put together to make something fun. For example, one is a statue of an archer pointing toward a target painting by Jasper Johns. A great way for kids to get exposed to famous works and enjoy them.

The second one, Before They Were Famous, is a collection of biographies of 7 famous artist and includes some of their works from when they were children. Very fun and just the right amount of information for a child.

New Necklaces

I really love the bottom one it is very shimmery.

Long Worship Services

Toby Sumpter, a friend and my former pastor, has a great post about lengthy services that I really enjoyed. A good summation is that we pay money to go to a movie and sit through 2 hours of garbage but we won't enjoy 2 hours in the worship of God?

He also has a great quote from Donald Van Dyken about how the evangelism of our children is like farming. We know God is the one who saves just as we know he is the only one who can make plants grow, but the Holy Spirit has bound himself to us as a means. So we don't just sit back and watch the crops grow. We plant, water, weed, fertilize (organically ,of course=), and take careful care of our crops.