Making it work...

One thing I like about homeschooling is that we can tailor their education. Mary has been protesting my efforts to sit and have her read...unless there is some sort of incentive. I'm ok with giving incentives sometimes. That's why I love the Now I'm Reading series that comes with stickers! But I decided she's still very young, so we can learn to read in the bathtub. Thanks to an awesome Christmas present from grandma:

Thomas 8 months

Thomas is a growing machine! He is now doing what I like to call the "wounded soldier" crawl. Not quite army crawling where you get your arms bicycling, but where you use both arms simultaneously to drag your body across the ground. That top video was a few weeks ago. He has perfected the wounded soldier crawl and can actually move pretty fast with it. He's still content to just stay where he is most of the time though. He is usually super happy! But the past few days he's been a little cranky. I've given up trying to guess what makes babies have cranky days. Whenever I tell people he's been cranky they always throw out suggestions: teething? growth spurt? phase? Who knows. Those things can all happen at once or it could be something totally different with babies. I do the same thing though with other people. We want to be able to help so we throw out options.

Today I put on his onesie and realized that he is going to be too tall for 9 month clothes soon! His cloth diapers don't help, but he is definitely getting bigger. He still screams whenever he can't see one of us. If one of us is in the room with him he is fine (unless that person is Noah), but when we leave he loses it. It's like he knows that Noah is 2 and will be of no use to him in case of emergency. Plus Noah doesn't pay a whole lot of attention to Thomas at this point. Unless Thomas is trying to grab his toys! As you can see in the second video.

Watch out Mary and Noah, Thomas is mobile and he's coming after you! Oh, and he also got his first tooth last week. Luckily I don't think it bothered him much. The other two were cranky teethers. Thomas has been cranky AFTER his tooth came in...hmmmmm.

Feeling motivated today

So we actually sat down to do some learning with Noah! Organized and all. He is holding up the pretzel that I made him. That play dough mat was printed from homeschoolcreations.com and then laminated with my awesome laminator. Happy Tuesday!

Noah 2.5 years

During the first year of life I usually do a monthly update, since I take monthly photos. I think after that I'm going to start doing updates on the kiddos every 6 months. It will allow me to remember that time and I think it can also help others. As a mom I find myself asking other moms, "did your kid do _______ at this age?" I also find that when moms ask me that question I don't always remember! So I'm going to follow the format scripture lays out for how Jesus grew:
Luke 2:52 (NIV) And Jesus grew in wisdom (education) and stature (physical growth), and in favor with God (spiritual growth) and men (social development).

Let's see how long this lasts! This may be the only post that follows this structure but we'll see. I think I will like having sections because it will remind me of things I want to remember...

Anyway, Noah is 2.5! Here is more about his growth:

Education
I am going to start setting some weekly goals for him. Before this point I haven't done anything strategic with him, just the casual learning as we go. I mostly want to do this so I can figure out what he knows. I will occasionally point to a letter and ask him what it is and sometimes he knows, sometimes not. So this week we are starting with A, 1, and learning to talk on the phone. We also have a cup activity from Slow and Steady that we are doing to teach up and down. He is a smart little cookie and it is fun to work with him because he is so verbal for his age. He will also now sit for a story that has 2-3 sentences on a page! That is some progress for him!

Physical growth
He is starting to lose his toddle. That is so sad to me! I love when they run and toddle along. But I guess he is approaching the age where he won't be considered a toddler anymore too. Sad! He can hold a writing utensil the right way. Hmmm what else... Potty training! This boy is potty trained. Even at night. He just got it so fast. It's crazy, I was expecting it to take so much longer and be so much more stressful. It's amazing what a kid will do for an m&m.

Spiritual growth
Noah will repeat prayers after us...when we tell him to. He loves when we sing him hymns and he can answer the first question from the catechism we got, which is "who made you?" We try to do family devotions once a day, which at this point consists of reading a little book that we think is focused on Jesus. Some days we will sing too and pray. We have been keeping a little basket on the dinner table with all the Christmas cards we got in it and pulling one out each day to pray for them. I also plan to start having a memory verse each week that we learn together. We will probably start with the Seeds Family Worship verses since that will be easy on everyone!

Social development
Noah is quite the charmer and generally does not know a stranger. Sometimes he can put his mean face on and refuse to say hi to someone...which is not ok for us. So we're working on that! But overall he is super friendly and likes to chat people up! He plays very well with his siblings. One thing he is really good at is giving people turns. He struggles with Mary in that they will both want to be first at things or want to do better than the other. My constant refrain is that God only gives you one family and we need to work as a team and stick together! Also mark 9:35, "Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else." They will get it someday.

Little family

This blog is getting a little heavy lately eh? It feels like a good outlet for me. I had a hard time sleeping last night just upset with the weight of things. I kept praying psalm 4:8, "I will both lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone O LORD make me dwell in safety." Just reminding myself that God is still in control! I also tried to remember that I have 3 sweet kids I'm not sure what I would do without. Here is a little update on their lives! Mary and Noah have been taking care of their baby doll lately. Mary asked me to take a picture of their little family:

So when do we have the conversation about how they actually can never be a mommy and daddy to the same baby? Right now it's cute:) And Noah has started to use baby doll to his advantage. Yesterday I was "flying' Mary by holding her up in the air with my feet. You know the move. Well Noah grabs baby doll and brings her over and says (talking like baby doll), "Waaaaaaahhh, I need my mommy!" Mary hops down and grabs baby doll and Noah jumps up on my feet and takes a turn flying. Well played.

I'm just impressed that Mary is letting baby doll out of her sight!

This made me laugh so hard! Yummy floor:

Even better:

at a loss for words

Today I watched a video that I will never forget and I also don't know how to process. It is a video about a case where a doctor who performed abortions at his clinic was arrested and charged with the murder of 6 infants (who survived the abortion procedure) and one woman who died after having an abortion. The way he killed the surviving infants was to clip their spinal cords...with surgical scissors. They showed a picture of the baby's severed spinal cord. This is the image I will never forget. It reminded me of an image I saw before that I will post below (warning: it's graphic! But it's reality in this country).

My main question is why was this man prosecuted? The intent of the procedure was to kill the baby. Is it that much worse that his second attempt at their lives worked? This is how backwards our country is. They will prosecute a man for killing 6 babies when he really killed hundreds if not thousands! It's just the manner of the murder.

It is utterly disgusting to me. What's worse is that women have been dupped into believing that somehow this is a woman's rights issue. You could possibly make that arguement, but for the pro-life side. Far more female infants are aborted world wide than male. This is a human rights issue and, as the woman on the video suggested, a civil rights issue (more african americans die each year from abortion than from any other cause).

If you want to watch the video it will be well worth your time. And please, share it! You can find it here.

My recent mental struggle

Recently I've been having some thoughts that keep me up at night. This is not uncommon for me. When I don't know how to resolve something, I can't stop thinking about it. Knowing that God is in control and the King of kings helps, but I also believe He has given me responsibilities on this earth. Let me explain:

The bible can be quite bold and offensive in its teaching. Especially offensive to the American culture that likes to embrace whatever makes you happy. The bible teaches that there is one way, one truth, one life. Not many, one. So my recent struggle has been this: how do I hold to my moral beliefs (which call for action) without seeming like a crazy person? Maybe it's not possible in our culture which has followed Romans to a tee:
"For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools"
How can you reason with someone who wont see reason? But I can't believe that there is no way to reach people. Jesus is sufficient for that.
Or maybe the problem IS the crazy Christian (if you can really call them that) zealots who boycott gay people's funerals and hurl insults at women seeking abortions. These people are absolutely in sin and miss the heart of the gospel and the bible. Yes, abortion is wrong. Yes, it is a sin to practice homosexuality. But is the answer to be hateful and hurtful to people who do those things?? Absolutely not.

So here we are. How can I stand for things I believe and share those things without putting myself in league with the extremists? What keeps me up at night is that I'm not sure that's possible. I mean, a guy (who happens to own a large business) says that he holds to the bible's teaching about marriage and family and the media blows up! They call him anti-gay and immediately put him in the category of bigot. How intolerant of them.

"In Germany they came first for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. They came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew...They came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up." If you care about the slaughter of the innocent, then for God's sake, speak up. ~ R.C. Sproul

How???

Sweet boy

Look what a handsome little man brought me! When he brought them in he said, "mommy i love you!" Then he gave one to Mary and said, "I'm so thankful for you!" I looked up at Ian after that and he said, "yeah we practiced that a lot on the way home:)

Our 2012 in pictures

January

 

 February

 

March

 

 

April

 

May

 

June

 

July

 

August

 

September

 

October

 

November

 

December

 

Fun trip down memory lane IN PICTURES!