Art Student of the Week

Anna has thoroughly enjoyed her art class at school. Yesterday, she came home with a special certificate for being the Art Student of the Week for her school. The art project they worked on last week was pictures of pumpkins. What the art teacher appreciated about Anna's pumpkin picture was that she drew a background of pine trees.

Socks

I finally wove in the ends and finished up these two pair of socks this past weekend. On the left, Sofia feet. Anna's are on the right. The socks were made toe-up with finger-weight yarn. Sofia's are all wool, Anna's are wool/nylon blend.

When you don't pick up your dirty laundry....

.... someone might fall and slip on it with our hardwood floors. Like your mom. When she's looking for a shirt for you to wear to church.

Lately, if I trip or stumble, my body does it with gusto, with knees and ankles getting hurt way more than they should. This morning it was my big toe, mostly, that hurt. Call me talented.

So after I got the shirt, I sat in a chair and told the kids to leave me alone to have a pity party. Examining my toe 'I think it's swelling', 'It might even be longer than the other one'.

As all mom's know, when mom is hurt, no one knows what to do. Most of the time they don't believe we are hurt or sick, because after all we are super-heroes.

As my family processed my pain and my self-pity, my 4yo came quietly to my side, "Mommy, can I pray for your toe?" She put her hand on my foot and with a heart full of faith prayed for my healing.

I hugged her with tears in my eyes, in awe of her quickness to ask her Father in Heaven to attend to all our needs.

When I looked up, my 10 yo son was standing near. His offering to my pain - a Snickers bar from his Halloween loot. My very favorite kind of candy.

I have such great kids.

Holiday Preparations

Sweeper on the Roof

This afternoon, we took care of some home maintenance. Perhaps the 'help' was having a bit too much fun...

Sweeper on the Roof

Do not try this at home.

Today I did some sealing up of a fireplace that gave full access to the outside of our warmed inside air, as well as inviting the cold in. I am generally confident in these little matters of home maintenance. After cutting and fitting foam sheet insulation, I sealed the edges with this fun foam product. I also gave our leaky chimney (the other one) some foamy love.

In the midst of it, my hands got covered. No big deal. I've never met a mess I couldn't beat. Until today. I'm writing this at 8:30 in the evening, and have been working since 12:30 to get my hands cleaned, and functional again. Purell, regular bar soap, especially dirty hands hand soap, cream. My hands can bend more and are only thinly covered now. But there is still a lot to wear or pick off.

Next time, I'll be wearing gloves.

Time Economy and Cookies

The oatmeal raisin cookie recipe that I use says, “Bake for 10-12 minutes”. When I bake cookies, I play the role of efficiency expert.

.... to read more, check out my post over at GNMParents.

Homeschool to Public #3 - the Lunchbox

This school-year is going to be different from all the other school-years our family has experienced. For the first time, my 9yo and 7yo are going to school. After six years of homeschooling, our chickies are going to take their first test flight into a new way of life, and mom (that’s me – yippee) is going to get a sabbatical. Since there are so many things that I want to capture as we make this transition, I will capture many of my thoughts in a series of posts over the next couple of months.
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At one point last winter, Anna asked me, "If I go to public school, will the I get a lunchbox?" I had forgotten about that until it came time to get them ready to go to public school this summer.

I asked my friends who helped me out with school shopping what their thoughts were about lunchboxes and again got great response. Ideas about hot lunch versus cold-lunch, types of lunch bags, and the ease of prep and eating. While I have offered my kids the opportunity for hot-lunch, they are still quite pleased to have momma make lunch and pack it with treats from home.

The funny thing was, that during all the shopping, Anna's biggest concern was the lunch-box. Are we going to get it today? Where are we going to go to get it? What will it look like? The crayons, notebooks, clothes didn't matter nearly as much as The Lunchbox. And the morning we finally got it, seemed to settle something for her. She knew she was ready. She had a way to feed herself, but the importance of it to her was clearly about more than food.

The lunchbox has remained an important part of Anna's days. She makes sure things are packed, that her thermos is filled (with water, I love that!), and reminds me to include a little note. The school day ends with The Lunchbox being emptied. For some reason she loves to save something from the day to eat at home. And she always comments on the little note.

I don't think I will get a full understanding of the significance of The Lunchbox. I'm okay with that. I'm amused by that. I think she looks so sweet with her Hello Kitty stuff, and I'm delighted that she wants a lovenote from me every day.

Proud Mommy Moment(s)

When Caleb got home he was greeted by a shipment of Legos. He had been allowed to pick out his birthday present by his Pitman grandparents, so they are an early celebration.
"Mom, I think I'm the luckiest boy in the world to come home to Legos." (proud moment number 1)

Moments later I hand him the phone and tell him to call Grandparents to say thank you. I eaves-dropped as he left a message "I am SO EXCITED! Thank you" (proud moment number 2)

Sofia got set off by something, and went into the other room crying. The two olders began to moan about her temperament and I quietly told them that her day had not gone as she hoped with her playdate. Caleb immediately asked, "What room did she go to Mom?" Again I eavesdropped, holding my breath this time, to see what Big Brother had planned. "Sofia, would you like to try to build this Lego set while I do my homework? You can sit next to me and I will help you if you need it." (proud mom moment 3)

Sofia and Anna are snacking, Sofia trying to make sense of Lego directions. Caleb says, very kindly, "Hey guys, let me teach you about median" and proceeds to patiently explain his homework to the girls. (Anna didn't care, but Sofia was all ears.)

Treasures to my heart.

LightSwitch Cover

This was my first attempt at a custom lightswitch cover. The girls painted their room purple and green and this pulls the two colors together around the light switches. Learned lots, and can't wait for another go at it.