Joyfully Weary

Last week I met a mom friend and her kids at one of those inflatable play places. When we got there we were the only ones in the place so we let our kids have free reign of the two rooms. We walked around watching the kids and chatted as they played. A couple of our kiddos talked us into going down the big slide. Our kids were having a ton of fun and were obeying the rules. an old picture, from a previous excursion After being there for a little over an hour and a half we sat down on a bench to talk. We noticed that a few other families had started to come in. It was now a little past lunch time so we gave our kids a five minute warning. Then we started talking and lost track of the five minutes. All sudden a dad came up asking if we had a boy wearing green. My boys were in purple and yellow so I said no and didn't think anything of it until a couple minutes later when the dad became visibly upset and shouted "I guess that little sh*t is here all by himself!" It w...

It's been a while since I've posted a small graces but life around here has been good. Jeremy recently started working part-time at an architectural firm in addition to teaching full time at Judson so things have been a bit busy and hectic. You never seem to realize how good/spoiled you are until something changes and with Jeremy's work schedule increasing it means I've had pick up some slack around the house. Jeremy never turns his nose up at household chores and is great with the kids; I just feel like with him working two jobs I should take over where I can at home. It means I'm running a little harder during the day so I don't always have much energy left once the kids are in bed. I'm sure once we adjust to the new routine things will get better.  Little Lady had her fourth birthday a couple weeks back and it ended up being quite the celebration. It was actually a Christmas present but a couple days before her birthday she got to attend Frozen on Ic...

One of the boys' favorite activities is playing with baking soda and vinegar. A couple weeks back I surprised them with some heart shaped baking soda and they enjoyed it so much we decided make some more for their valentines. 

A couple weekends back we celebrated Little Lady's fourth birthday. When asked what type of party she wanted her response was always, " a girls only party". Jeremy and I frequently joke about Little Lady's passion for all things 'girly'. We not sure if it's just her nature or if it's a way to rebel against all the 'boyness' that surrounds her but she definitely has an attraction to all things pretty and pink. This year we decided to honor her birthday request for some girl only time and banned her brothers from the house for an afternoon. We decorated in pinks, reds, and purples and since Valentine's day is so close we also threw in some hearts. Little Lady loves to dress-up so we invited all of the guests to wear there favorite dress-up clothes. We also used a peg board to hang up some of Little Ladies dress-up items so the girls could change mid-party. 

Primary Literature Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson, a sweet rhyming story of a hibernating bear who's lair fills up with other animals as he sleeps. He wakes up to find them having party and is bit distraught until a mouse invites him to join the fun.  Vocabulary words to review. hibernate - to spend all or part of winter in an inactive state where heartbeat and breathing slows lair - den of a wild animal dank - unpleasantly moist scuttles - run from view nibble - small bites flutter - moving quickly titter - a nervous laugh slumbering - sleeping blubbers - crying noisily fret - irritated state Complementary Literature  We worked on memorizing When The Snow is on The Ground by Mother Goose The little robin grieve When the Snow is on the ground,  For the trees have no leaves And no berries can be found.  The air is cold, the worms are hid; For robin here what can be done? Let's strow around some crumbs of bread,  ...

In December we just finished Story of the World: Ancient Times . We greatly enjoyed this curriculum. However, it was sublimating it with other great literature and resources that made history come alive for Big Buddy. The curriculum took us almost a year and a half to finish because we enjoyed digging deeper into some areas. Below is a list of some of our favorite books and other resources. A few of these are recommendations from Story of the World's Activity Book: Ancient Times . If you do decided to use Story of the World as your history curriculum I can't recommend the workbook highly enough; it's filled with additional literature suggestions, coloring pages, maps, and learning activities. Kid's Animated History with Pippo: 16 Ancient Cultures - short videos introduce children to different ancient cultures is a humorous and engaging manner. These videos can be watched for free on Hulu . DK, Ancient Civilzations   - brief look at several ancient civilizatio...

I didn't really set any New Year goals. I do hope to keep up with working out and it would be great if I could get more reading done. What I'm really striving for though, what it feels like I've been working towards forever, is contentment or rather a sense of inner calmness/peace. See even though I didn't set any particular New Year goals I was ready to get moving this week: there were plans to be made, tasks to be checked off, etc. Then Jeremy's work got unexpectedly busy and he had to check out sooner than I'd hoped. We had to deal with some family illnesses. Nothing got planned! Very few of the tasks got checked off. I woke up this morning feeling behind and out of balance. I don't always deal well with feeling behind - I get edgy and mean. This has lead to many past regrets so this morning I prayed for mercy and strength. I was gently reminded that my main goal is to make my husband and my children feel like they safe and that they are loved. I memori...