I am reading a devotional on Time Management for Moms, and here are my takeaways:

1.  It is a waste of time to foster guilt, comparisons, regrets, worry:  There is no condemnation in Christ.

2.  My priorities are to come in line with God's priorities:  I am not to be conformed to this world's extremes of workaholism and laziness.    The best way to avoid these two are to walk in the Spirit--make a plan and be disciplined about it, but trust and obey God in the midst of interruptions (rather than escalating them to more stress than necessary). I can take my to do list and bring it before God and ask for His guidance about my day.

3.  There is a season for everything.  Having small children is a certain season of life, and to take full advantage of the opportunities here and now--be content.

4.  Time is pregnant with opportunity--look for ways to do good to others.

5.  Rest is a command.

I am going to prepare most of  tomorrow's Sunday dinner tonight, so that tomorrow will be more of a Sabbath than usual.  I think I'll set the table, too, come to think of it.  

Earlier this week, I printed out a large pictorial version of my MOTH schedule for Christopher, and having him know what the plan is has helped me to keep closer track of time.  He is truly a numbers guy and loves to watch the minutes on the clock. 

Some of the highlights are the two times during the week I've scheduled to spend with them playing their choice of game for 15-20 minutes each.  It's a very small investment, but they get a big kick out of it, and always join in for the other's time.

I also put away about three more boxes of books from the attic, so our bookshelves are filling up, a little too fast, I think.

I spent a nice amount of time working on their creative memories albums, but am still only just past the birthing event for both.

I re-organized their art/school areas in the kitchen, and set up a few drawers and shelves full of activities that they may initiate, play with, and put away by themselves.

I'm thinking about organizing an event at our church to make up activitiy bags for preschool children.  If each of 20 (or so) women make 20 bags of the same self-checking activity, then we will be set for the summer--BUT I'm not sure if I can manage something like that.  I also would like to host an event for some international students living in our area.

All for now--

Lori

Two days ago, our kids played nicely with each other for TWO HOURS while I plowed through a heavy sea of e-mail.  Yesterday, they played nicely for another hour on our bed, while I attacked my closet and leftover travel mess with the "neat" gun.  They were playing in "boats" (the laundry basket and a discarded box) in the ocean--it still makes me all mushy when I think of how much fun they had together, not to mention the pleasure I have from having our lovely room back.  Then they watched Signing time with very little nudging while I unloaded another box of children's books from our attic into their appropriate and organized shelves.

I woke up this morning an hour before everyone else.  It was heavenly.  I folded laundry like a madwoman and demolished, ka-BLAM,  the huge pile accumulated  since we flew home on Monday, and subdued it out of sight out of mind, neatly in everyone's drawers, I put another load through, and had two and three on the way.   I separated all my calandar pages I printed out the other day and put them in my planner, I brought another box of books down from the attic to be put into our bookshelves, and I spent some time reading the Bible and meditating on Ecclesiastes, trying to figure out how I should manage my time better. 

I was fantasizing about taking care every scrap of laundry in the laundry--you know--hand washables, special spots, delicate dresses, mending--that have accumulated for some time, when I remembered it was Good Friday.  The day Jesus died.  For me. 

I suppose Good Friday is not a Sabbath, but it seems kind of lame to be fantasizing about and expending lots of energy on a completely empty laundry bin when it's time to be thinking about the most essential event in history.  Why is it so hard to turn off the drive to be neat right now?  How can something as fine as trying to manage and create a peaceful home become a stumbling block to me? 

I sat through our Good Friday service, wondering what God expects of me, and how I'm going to manage everything coming down the pike in the next five months, and how do I reconcile that the only real redemption in this world is through Jesus Christ while the every day aspects of redemption--establishing shalom in our home and relationships that require a tremendous amount of work? 

It came to me in the middle of it:  Fully Rely on God.  Very simple.  Ambiguous, Concrete.  There is nothing He expects of me that He will not enable me to do, but I must be a willing and active vessel.

Dear God, I praise You for the many blessings You have given me--primarily Your love through Christ's atoning work, plus many emotional and material blessings--my cup is overflowing!  Thank you also for the challenges that grow me, and point me to You.  Thank You, Jesus, for caring about Your creation enough to die for us. 

Amen.

Highlights in February:  The new blinds arrived, and I finished arrangements for the curtains in our breakfast room to be completed. 

We went maple sugaring at Tyler Arboretum, and got to see where maple syrup comes from, and to taste some as well.

We made crepes.  I couldn't believe how easy it was, and here I always thought it was something amazing.

We got to visit Joe and Joan and their little one, plus Lisa, all old friends from Baltimore;  Capi and Nathaniel and Janalyn, friends from before I was born, stayed with us for a fun weekend, too.  It was good to catch up.

March began with a bang with a trip to babysit our rental unit in Baltimore.  John joined me to make a weekend of it, visiting old friends at Faith Christian Fellowship, and tooling around the inner harbor in the Water Taxi.   We are officially now a two-unit rental, and hopefully the inspection board in Bal'more will leave us alone.  It felt like home to visit our old church, and re-connect with special friends and of course, show off our children. (:

Hannah, the 16-year-old daughter of  friends of ours passed away after a four-year bout with an auto-immune disease.  Hannah exuded love and joy in  her interactions, and encouraged others whose situations were much easier than hers.  She carried in her medicine pack a FROG, to help remind her to Fullly Rely On God.   The other theme running through Hannah's life was "His Banner Over Me Is Love." from the Song of Solomon.  Hannah lived with an eternal perspective and rare faith,  yet the positive impact on the here and now in my life, and in the lives of my friends is tangible and positive.  I am a better person because of her example, and the example of her family who is mourning, yet not without hope.   Hannah is no longer suffering, but rather rejoicing with Jesus.  Her funeral defies description--I wish that the whole world could see the triumph of love and faith in the face of human suffering in this precious family's life.  I am humbled and in awe of their humanness and God's grace and power in their lives. 

A very special treat this month was to have John's dad visit for 13 days!!!  (:  It was wonderful to have Grandpa here, who is always up for a tease or good joke.  He and John spruced up our garden a bit, and Hal planted many bulbs, getting by with a little help from his single-digit friends.  We all went down to Orlando, FL for about half of his visit, where we stayed at Regal Palms Resort which was a very inexpensive place to stay, with great facilities and little service, which is just about right. 

We did visit the Kennedy Space Center, which has ignited our interest in outer space and rockets, and other than that, we mostly visited the pool, which was equipped with an awesome twisty water slide, a "river" loop, and a hot tub. 

The weather was mostly pleasant, and Christopher learned to put his face in the water and blow bubbles, go down the slide by himself, and propel himself by kicking (all pre-swimming activities).  We went to a Lioncito (The Lion's Den), for Mexican food, which was really good, and we went out to various other places, although mostly we were able to eat at the townhouse we rented, since it had a fully-equipped kitchen.

I can't believe I've stayed up all night.  I still have 7 pages of e-mail that require some sort of response, and I have the art class coming in a few hours--four and a quarter to be exact.  Maybe I'll sleep for a half hour, and run out and buy some Red Bull.

Take care!

Lori

Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE! 

This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.

This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program.  Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking.  Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included!  For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports. 

To win this most excellent program -- in the language of your choice -- copy these (blue) paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post -- then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/  and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it.  And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it.  And good luck!  The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg.   And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win.   Yay for free stuff!

Materials:

1 practice sheet of paper
18x12 sheet white construction paper
Crayons or oil pastels
Green paint
cutouts of palm leaves (I googled palm leaf under images, and printed and cut out the leaves)

Read Matthew 21:1-9

Model drawing an outline of a person with raised hands (almost circle for a head, and two long parts raised on either side for the hands, and straight or slightly curved lines down for the body).

Have children practice making people

Children draw lots of people in different shapes and sizes, overlapping, high, and low

Put the palm leaf cut out on the paper where you want the print, and paint over it  with a brush.  Spray paint would also work, but you would have to go outside to avoid the fumes.  I think you could also put thinned paint in a spray bottle, but we liked painting it--it did require adult help and supervision.

Repeat to desired effect.

Aviva was very interested in making her picture realistic so that the palm branches were placed near the hands of each person.

Toby did some very nice work here.

Christopher was interested in writing large numbers (in Dinglish, maybe?) on the page to indicate the age of each person he drew.

 Benjamin was very prolific and worked great independently.

Tomorrow, we are making stained glass window crosses.  I'd better get the prototype made soon--ack!  Look at that clock!

Last Week:  Snow Flake Mobiles

Literature Prep:

Isaiah 1:18 18 "Come now, let us reason together,"
       says the LORD.
       "Though your sins are like scarlet,
       they shall be as white as snow;
       though they are red as crimson,
       they shall be like wool.

Psalm 51:7  Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
       wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Proverbs 25:13 Like the coolness of snow at harvest time is a trustworthy messenger to those who send him; he refreshes the spirit of his masters.

Two things we can think of when we see snow:  Be a faithful messenger, and God makes our hearts CLEAN! 

Materials per child:  

Four 4" light blue paper squares
Four 3 1/2" white paper squares
String
2 popsicle sticks, hotglued together, and crisscrossed with string from which it will hang.
Hot glue
Elmers Glue/water mix
Thick ribbon
Stapler
Hole punch

Process:
1.  Make two snowflakes:
       Fold white paper two or three times diagonally, depending on child's skill
      Cut out little shapes.  For younger children, draw the shapes on the folds that they can cut out.
      Unfold and paste the snowflake onto the blue sheet and repeat with another
      Paint over the snowflake with the glue/water mixture to leave a little gloss on the sheet

2.  Make ribbon squares:

Cut 8" ribbon and fold in half. 
Slip blue paper square in between the ribbon.
Staple
Punch holes in square and thread them.

3.  Cut the other two snowflakes and paste them on the back of the other snowflake/blue square sets when they are dry.

Punch holes in them and hang from the popsicle sticks, and hang the other blue squares.  Put a dab of hotglue on the thread at the top when you have them balanced.

Notes:  The blue construction paper wasn't strong enough not to curl, so I either need to flatten them between heavy books before the art show, or if I were to do it again, I would flatten them for a few days after drying, and before threading them.

This Week:  Night Cities.

Materials:

1 12"x18" sheet of black or blue construction paper
oil pastels
glitter
glue
scissors

Intro:  Read Good Night Philadelphia and discussed the familiar buildings and places.  Went back and looked at the various skylines, and had the children look for outlining shapes.

1.  Fold a dark blue or black 12"x18" piece of construction paper in half, lengthwise.
  Measure 1 1/2" down, and fold again. 
  Measure 1 1/2" on each side of the paper, and fold again.
  Make a 1 1/2" slit on each of the middle edge folds as shown

2.  Use the side of dark oil pastel crayons, and make the upper half of the paper dark, using black, blues, purples, etc.  This will be the sky.

3.  Fold up the lowest section of paper, and do the same with the oil pastels, using blacks and browns.  These will be the buildings.

4.  Draw in the city outline

5.  Cut it out.

6.  Using bright oil pastels, make little strokes along the edges of the buildings, bleeding onto the "sky".

7.  Add in windows and doors, elevators, etc.

8.  Add glitter glue as desired, for stars

9.  Glue the flaps together, to make the box.

Ideas adapted from Art Today and Every Day: Classroom Activities for the Elementary School Year  by Jenean Romberg and Miriam Rutz

This week, we acted out Elisha raising the widow's son.  The kids' favorite part was the little "room" we built for them on top of the house (which was really only two plush armchairs places face to face), which made a cozy place to snuggle and lie down.  Both kids wanted to be Elisha, so Daddy offered to be the little boy, and Mommy was everyone else plus the narrator, and we played through it once for each child.

Art class the last two weeks has consisted of making valentines.  The first week, we made a single, huge valentine, and the next week, we cranked out a bunch to take to neighbors, which they enjoyed.

The smart card converter for my camera's memory card  melted, so I am awaiting a replacement from the company, but I can't download any pictures until it does.

For school, we are learning one lower case letter per week.  Christopher actually already knows them all now, except he mixes up b, d, p, and q--not too surprising.  His fine motor skills are coming along nicely with various KUMON books.  I have been having trouble finding books to go along with each letter, particularly excellent ones.  The best one was Clara Caterpillar, which still lives on as a night time story and favorite acting out playtime activity.  The other really great ones were Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear and Blueberries for Sal  for "B", and How to Make Apple Pie and See the World.  It's been kind of downhill from there.  If anyone has any leads, please let me know.  Christopher hated Daisy Comes Home, Chester ("F" for friends), The Dish Ran Away With the Spoon, and just about all the other books I've read for "school" since.  ):  He really  likes completely wholesome stories, and dislikes sad part.  He will even look away Today is Monday for the Saturday page when the fox has the whole chicken in his mouth.  He kept asking, "Mommy, how is that chicken going to get away?" 

My math education professor neighbor gave me a packet of descriptions of math games for pre-schoolers, and I'm pretty excited about it, but I have to get a bunch of change from the bank, and assemble the bags.

We have been going through Beginning Math Reasoning  for math, which Christopher really likes.  At the beginning of this year, we had a lot of fun with an abacus, and he was really interested in number places, but we haven't done much recently, but now that I think of it, I'll incorporate that back in.  We also have used Mighty Mind alot, which I would recommend, although the pieces seemed a little small at first.

We are doing a lot of Kumon, which Christopher loves--we finished both first cutting books, and the tracing book.  He loves the dot-to-dot picture and color-by-number picture book, the mazes book, and the folding book--all which provide interesting, miniscule steps for skill acquisition.

For reading, we usually read twice a day (at Natalie's nap and at bedtime).  We are going through the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum for pre-school, which I recommend, plus we get extra practice with the Kumon Upper case book and Lower Case book.  We use the wooden pieces and cards a lot, but I've given up on the Roll-a-Dough letters for a while because it actually requires a lot of perseverance and fine-motor skills to complete.  He's probably ready by now.

For Bible, we read a new Bible story each week, and repeat it each morning with Flash-a-card  pictures.  Then we review our verses for Sunday School, and our Catechism.  We took a trip to the airport to every single terminal, and to most elevators in each one, and the hotel at terminal B, to celebrate that Christopher knows #1-20.  When he gets to #50, we will go to Central Park in New York.   For his verses, we will take a trip on the the L train when he can recite the entire first page without prompting, the L train, trolley, and blue line, when he can do the second page, and icecream party for the third page.  (:  We also pray a positive character trait for one friend who has signed up to do a character trait prayer exchange with us, and we look at our Values Book, which teaches the Kempen Family Values.  Christopher seems to be able to read his verses--or at least need no prompting when he's reading them, so this also supports his reading skills.

For music, we have circle time every day, and we are using John Fieiraband's curriculum for infants and pre-school.  We do infant's lesson one day, then the pre-school lesson the next day.  That way, they get each one twice.  We end with dancing to music with scarves, which allows mommy to fit in a little exercise.   I used to do solfegge every day before I started with a formal curriculum, but I have slacked off, mostly because I get distracted and forget.  I must remember to do it each day. 

For Phys Ed, we are starting swim lessons in two Saturdays for each child, and I am looking into tennis lessons for Christopher.  I sure wish we lived close to the gymnastics gym, but I think we'll have to pass on that unless we find a co-op closer to that.

For Science, I bought four books (the only ones I could find for this age), and they are Touch It, Move It, Change It,  and Build It.  I have only done one lesson so far, from Touch It, and it was age-appropriate.

For art, we have Thursday art class.

We don't do much for history or foreign language yet.

We don't do every single book every single day, or we would be fried, but we do Bible and circle time, plus some work book time each day.

All for now--if I have time later, I'll go back and put links on the various resources, to make it useful for anyone else who is interested.

Lori

This weekend, we did not have time to act out our weekly Bible story, so we did it this morning.  Christopher was Elisha, I was the widow, and Natalie was my son.  Natalie and I came to Christopher telling him that we were in debt, and had not food.  He told us to take our oil and pour it into all the jars, pots, and jugs we could find.  So then the three of us began knocking on all of our kitchen cabinets, telling our plight, and getting all the containers we could find out to put our oil in it. 

Since Mommy isn't God, we pretended to fill them all up with our pitcher of (pretend) oil.  Then we ran to Christopher and told him what God had done for us, and he told us to sell it and take care of our debt and food. 

I didn't want to scrimp on getting the jars, since I wanted to object lesson to obey God enthusiastically and with trust and expectation.  I think I could use a little of that myself. 

I was reminded that you can't out-give God, that His commands are kind, and they may require a little more effort than is easy to put forth, but you will never say, "Oh, I wish I hadn't been so obedient to God!" 

Okay, it's technically not still Friday, but somewhere in the world, it still is.  After my Retro-Blogging entry, I was looking over kellieann's Flashback Friday post, and figured I was so behind I'd be in the right ballpark for a flashback.

Here is a very old picture of me as a baby:

My mother did try to get me to stop squinting when I smile.  I did try, but everytime I'd end up looking and feeling rather scary--a little like an insect about to eat or be eaten.  When I saw this picture as a teenager, I was so pleased to find out that my natural way of smiling is with my eyes mostly shut.   She also tried to get me to close my mouth when I laugh.  Tee hee!  Don't worry Mom--lots of things you taught me, did "stick"--I even (try very hard to) clean up the kitchen as I cook now! (: 

And, Kellieann, thanks for the inspiration, and I really, really, did try to leave a comment on your blog, but the post a comment page(s) I tried to open are still frozen and churning somehwere in cyberspace, but not opening on my monitor.  I'll try a howdy another day!

Take care, ya'll!

Lori

I must begin by announcing the scapegoat responsible for my lapse in blogging ...

My husband, of course! (;  That man had to go and get me this for my birthday.   I didn't say scapegoats were always bad.  Some of them (mine especially) are darling and thoughtful.  Thank-you John for my (our) birthday (and our Christmas) present. (:

I've been enjoying going through the manual (very) slowly, and have finally uploaded some Thanksgiving pictures onto the computer (no snickering or whispering, all my up-to-the minute born organized blogging friends!):

All the cousins looking very cute (even Natalie manages to look glamorous with a little green stuff coming out of her nose). 

Making Turkey (ginger) cookies with Aunt Laurie.  I love all the hair textures here, but none of them ended up in the cookies, I might add.

 A warm fuzzy moment with Marius (that's me, there!). 

Don't worry, Grampa--all will be included, but I will close for now).

Betty, at FloridaSunsets tagged me with these instructions:

Find a book nearby (with at least 123 pages).  Open to the 123rd page.  Go to the fifth sentence.  Copy the next three sentences.  Here goes a very bad advertisement for a wonderful book:

"Cheaters sometimes win. One-dimensional people often end up with more money.  Selfishness, cunning, and backstabbing are often faster tracks to fame." 

I just can't resist typing the next key section: "Grace dictates that we keep achievement goals in context with the children's bigger role as members of God's chosen people.  They need to see their commitment to achievement as a way to glorify God as well as a way to make them more valuable to others.  Grace helps us keep achievement in its rightful place, as a means to an end."

The book is Grace-Based Parenting by Ted Kimmel.  I saw it on a shelf of a friend whom I respect and devoured it.  I have been disappointed with the approach of grace-based discipline as I have seen it in various forums, and wondered if this would be in the same vein.  It's not.  It's an extremely challenging book, and my "take-aways" were:  1).  Do not parent out of fear of the world/the flesh/the devil--Our God is powerful and mighty.  2).  Our children have three driving needs: the need for secure love, meaningful purpose, and strong hope.  He points out that Satan understands these needs, and will provide counterfeit solutions to meet them, and that grace applied in a solid framework of moral truth will equip us and our children to resist them.  3).  Let your child be "himself" as long as he is within biblical moral guidelines, and delight in those things that make your child unique (even if it's a little embarrassing/irritating, etc).

Thanks, Betty, for tagging me. 

(:
Lori

This past week, I have been working on expressing love to our children when I discipline them.  Last night, I watched Shepherding  A Child's Heart  Video #2, the third session, and my main take away from that was to say, "I am not mad at you, I love you, and I love you too much to ignore that behavior."  Today I put it into practice, and I realized there were one or two times when I had to pause before I could say "I am not mad at you," because I really was frustrated.  It forced me to get control of my spirit and even then saying the words reminded me how much I love our kids, and why it's important to be faithful to discipline them. 

I am amazed at the heart response of our oldest son, especially.  He expressed so much love and responded so warmly the whole day.  At one point, both children were playing "kiss" with me. They would kiss me, and I would shriek, "Oh, NO! They GOT me!!" and they would laugh and kiss me again.  At some point, I said, "Well, we'd better finish cleaning up the jars and pots, or we won't be able to make the buttercream frosting!"  and I got up, and Christopher began crawling around, acting like his favorite ktity (Satsup), and was following me around, kissing my shins and knees.   One time, both were crowding around me, and I dropped a large lid on Christopher's head, and he began to cry.  I felt so terrible!  I picked him up and hugged him, expressed how sorry I was and asked him to forgive me (for being careless)."  He said, "Mommy, I forgave you already, right when you did it."   He is an incredibly dear child.

Little children crack me up.  Especially four-year-olds.

This morning, Christopher complained about his foot.  "It hurts, Mama!"  As he was lolling in front of his cereal, he said, "Mama.  My foot is telling me not to eat the cereal.  It goes right down to my toe and makes it hurt.  And then it comes up and down and up and down."  Turns out he had a fever of 104.1, so I gave him some leeway on self-reported pain.

This afternoon, during school (he's feeling better, with a little help from our friends Mr. M and Mrs. T.  (Motrin and Tylenol).  We did the pages for "E" in Handwriting Without Tears, which uses all the same-size horizontal strokes.  Then I cracked the Kumon Upper Case Letters book for extra practice.  "Mama, why are these lines, Looong, Short, Loong???"  I explained to him that the same-size lines were correct and made for learning them easily, but that the others were slightly more correct and slightly more fancy.  After a moment of reflection, he responded, "I think these (the Kumon letters) were made in Paris."

(:

Natalie plays a little game where she grabs a part of my face and names it.  The other day it went something like this:

"Mama's mouf" (grabs my mouth).

"Mama's eye" (kind of gently pokes my eye).

"Uddah eye" (pokes other eye)

"Uddah eye" (pokes first one again)

Uddah eye" (poke) etc....

"Mama's 'ead" (gently smacks my head and kind of tickles it)

"Mama's uddah 'ead" (smacks the other side of my head)

Pause.

"Yun "ead!"  ("One head"). 

 By the way,

"MERRY CHRISTMAS Y'ALL!"

Inspired by Noel Piper's little treasure Treasuring God in Our Traditions, I have penned verses for Natalie's birthday, blatantly and enthusiastically copying her husband John's tradition for each of their children's birthdays.  So I present,

"Birthday Shoes"
for Natalie
December 21, 2007

Giggles erupting from deep in her belly
Jiggling her tummy, as sweet as plum jelly
Peals of laughter ring out, rivalling Bose,
Shaking with mirth from golden curls to toes
And oh, what sweet chubby toesies and knees
Irresistible, crying out, "Kiss...peeeez!"
"Da uddah one " now the imperious command
With pleasure, obliging, meet the demand
Bending, kissing and praying the while
"Dear Father, please make her Your child!
Black patent leather with satin bows are fine,
But the Gospel of Peace is what I have in mind
Prepare these feet to love your Good News
And spread it to others whereever You choose.
Protect them to go only places You will
To be holy, careful, confident, still.
May these little feet follow the Best--
Jesus' feet-- beautiful, pierced, triumphant, blest.
Walk with her, Jesus, guide each step of her way,
Light her path with Your Word, for each of her days."

What a fortnight!  Just after getting back from Seattle and visiting John's family for a week, We discovered that I was pregnant, I turned 40, John shocked me beautfiully by hosting a party for my birthday,  Christopher got gastroenteritis, John left for a 9-day trip to India, I got gastroenteritis, I began bleeding and was put on bedrest, our tenants got mice, I arranged to pay someone to meet the exterminators, the house disassembled itself while I did nothing but manage the children, a new "friend indeed" waltzed into my life, cleaning up and caring for our children, Mom came to visit and do everything for a few days,, Natalie got gastroenteritis, we lost our baby, our contractor sent his assistant to fix a door for our tenants, but came a day earlier than communicated and upset them by surprising them with his presence, I put away fall things and set out Christmas decorations, and just hours after I resolved issues with the tenants, the exterminators failed to show up..   John comes home tomorrow, Lord willing.  I am looking forward to seeing him.

Yes, we lost our baby--if it weren't for pregnancy tests, I wouldn't have known we were pregnant--I would have thought I was just late.  Now we have a teeniest little one in heaven.

Our children blessed me a lot this week.  My mom and my new friend blessed me, and God sustained me greatly.  I am grateful for His intervention on a number of occasions when I didn't know what to do, and I am very thankful for my health and ability to be off of bedrest.  It is a blessing and gift from God. 

TEXT PRIZE for LahBlueBonnet!

"Most intelligent children and thoughtful answers". 

Thank you for your thoughtful answers.  I'm sorry that my text prize is a little lame--not really worthy of your effort, but it really is the best I can do right now.  I do not know how to do cute little buttons, and I'm afraid I won't even pretend right now like I have plans to spend time figuring them out.  I have tried them a few times, and it just doesn't work, and I get more leery of trying each time. 

 Anyway, the coffee, if I recall, was about room temperature or lukewarm at the most.  The juice, I believe, came from the fridge, and the water from the tap.  I didn't even think about trying to control for temperatures.  What a great idea!  The oil did not evaporate, by the way, but the soy sauce crystallized over the top, while the juice left below seemed to get murkier, if soy sauce could get any murkier.  I've always thought soy sauce would be healthful, but after viewing it post-experiment, I'm not so sure I'd like to force much of it on my kidneys, poor things have to work so hard as it is. 

Here are the photos

Water--mineral deposits left on the bottom (now that could have been a teaching point had I left my control bowl open)

Diet Dr. Pepper.  Hmmmm--Makes me think twice about drinking it--it's kind of a sticky, tacky substance at the bottom...

Apple Juice--evaporated nicely.  Clouded up at first, and grew a little mold, but the stuff you see there has a texture similar to maple syrup--thicker than apple juice concentrate

Pass the cheese please.  The milk was the second to complete evaporation, and the most deliciously yucky to watch.  It smelled sweet, like cheese, and I was (almost) tempted to taste it, but my overactive imagination overcame my curiosity.  It's a sad day for the existentialists.

Looks just the same.  Not even visible lint to make it interesting.

Soy sauce:  I made this picture a little bigger, as you can see the crystal plates better.   Before I tipped the bowl to the side, the crystal crust was reasonably solid, but tipping it forced the liquid up and broke it. 

Tonight I interrupted our son's treat of watching Bob the Builder DVD for suppertime.  I told him I would pause it, and he could watch from that point whenever we got to watch it again.

It's been visible on the computer screen, and I just logged onto the internet, covering the still shot of Bob.   He said, "OH NO, MOMMY!  Could you please put it (the screen) back the way it was?  You
un-putered it!"

 CJ:  "Mom, did you see the light scrunches?" 

(...What do light scrunches look like?)

CJ:  "Like stars!" 

I guess light scrunches are what you see when you look at a light with your eyes scrunched up.

Natalie has become aware of her nipples and was chattering about them tonight so I said, "Nipples". 
"Niboz" she mimicked, then added for short, "NIBZ!"  (:

You all have great imaginations--thank-you for sharing your ideas.  I liked the chocolate cupcake idea, especially, but then again, finding beauty in chocolate would not be unexpected (in my book, anyway).  Yes, I have made cakes that look a little like that, unfortunately...  I could use it as a candle vase, but it doesn't look as good in general, as you see below.  Now, it might be interesting as a little candle shade lamp, but I have no idea how to make that happen!

The picture is of the little bowl of evaporated coffee from our science experiment the other day.  I was waving it around for some reason, and it caught my eye when it caught the light.  I held it right up to the light bulb and SNAPPO--we have a fun picture.

Here is t he bowl when photographed in the normal way.  By the way, I'll give a text prize to anyone who can tell me any of the following:  why the coffee evaporated first, why the milk didn't stink, and why soy sauce doesn't evaporate at all.   I will post the rest of the bowls and the general results later.

I found beauty in an unlikely place today (no, I did not steal a photo of a damaged retina from my husband's office).  Can you tell what it is?

Art Class:

This is my favorite leaf project so far, and was a big hit with the kids and the parents. Christopher kept mentioning how he liked the color "copper", and asked to play with the acrylic paints again today, heh, heh.  I promise, however, that I will not use leaves again for our project next week.  I am hoping to avoid turkeys, too, but we will see.  (:

Materials:
Plain wood frame (5"x7") and glass per child--discard the cardboard backing
Extra (5"x7") glass fitted to frame (I used a plain clip frame that was cheaper, but my talented friend who has the glass grinder had to grind it down a little to fit perfectly)
Iron and towel (or board)
Wax paper
Leaves of child's choice
Acrylic paints in fall colors
Sponges of various textures

Instructions:
Step 1:
Paint the frame a dark brown, covering well
Use the sponge to dab the lighter colors (we used metallic gold, red, and copper) over the dark brown as desired

Step 2
While that is drying a little, go outside and collect at least five leaves that you love (exclude withered ones).  It's okay if you have more or less than five, but five seemed to be a good rule of thumb.

Step 3
Come back in and arrange the leaves on the glass.  You may not need to use all the leaves, and it's okay.

Step 4
Use a warm iron to iron the leaves between two pieces of wax paper.  This will help to retain the color and flexibility of the leaves.
Re-assemble the leaves on the (clean) 5"x&" piece of glass and place the other 5"x7" piece of glass over the arranged leaves.  Cut any leaves sticking out over the edge.  Fit them into the frame.