Girls doing (or trying to do) jumping jacks.
Busy, busy baby! She fell down the basement stairs this weekend - we weren't thinking about the dangers of a baby on the move. She looks a little banged up, poor thing.
Our {Wild & Crazy} Days ~ Making our days a part of your days!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Happy Anniversary to Us!
Oh my goodness! Who are those young, skinny people?
Kurt and I celebrated our 11th Anniversary this past Saturday - February 19th. In true married-people-with-kids fashion we went to dinner at Joe's Crab Shack and then window shopping at the mall - with a baby in tow. Good thing she's so adorable.
We've been married for 1/3 of our lives - Whew!!
Can't wait for the many more years together Kurt!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Many days of small things
“Let us not despise the day of small things nor grow weary in well-doing”
(Charlotte Mason, Vol. 3, p. 23).
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Valentine's Day
We had a mostly good day yesterday (a few of us are sick, grumpy, clingy, and not sleeping well).
Started the day with a Valentine's Treasure Hunt. Actually, I started my day with the little girls around 5am. We watched cartoons and let the others sleep in, and then did the Treasure Hunt around 8:30am.
Austin and Nyah made everyone breakfast
Waffles with strawberry jam, maple syrup and whip cream for me.
Oh YUM. I ate lots.
In the evening we went to the dinosaur museum, mostly for something to do, but they were also doing a scavenger hunt. Cupid shot Raptor with a giant cupid arrow and he went crazy kissing other dinosaurs. We had to find the dinosaurs with the red kisses stuck to them - the one with the most kisses was Raptor's secret crush (the giant shark pictured below).
Monday, February 14, 2011
Happy Valentine's Day
I had a great post planned for today. But I spent all of last night trying to console an unconsolable, crying, screaming baby, except for the few uncomfortable hours we managed to sleep on the couch. So my mental faculties are severly compormised this morning. Ah, the nitty gritties of LOVE :) - which interestingly leads right into the main point I wanted to make today:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. ~John 3:16
“I ask you, what father and mother could stand by and listen to the cry of their children in distress, in this world, and not render aid and assistance? I have heard of mothers throwing themselves into raging streams when they could not swim a stroke to save their drowning children, rushing into burning buildings, to rescue those whom they loved.
“We cannot stand by and listen to those cries without its touching our hearts. The Lord has not given us the power to save our own. He has given us faith, and we submit to the inevitable, but he had the power to save, and he loved his Son, and he could have saved him. He might have rescued him from the insult of the crowds. He might have rescued him when the crown of thorns was placed upon his head. He might have rescued him when the Son, hanging between the two thieves, was mocked with, ‘Save thyself, and come down from the cross. He saved others; himself he cannot save.’ He listened to all this. He saw that Son condemned; he saw him drag the cross through the streets of Jerusalem and faint under its load. He saw that Son finally upon Calvary; he saw his body stretched out upon the wooden cross; he saw the cruel nails driven through hands and feet, and the blows that broke the skin, tore the flesh, and let out the life's blood of his Son. He looked upon that.
“In the case of our Father, the knife was not stayed, but it fell, and the life's blood of his Beloved Son went out. His Father looked on with great grief and agony over his Beloved Son, until there seems to have come a moment when even our Savior cried out in despair: ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’“In that hour I think I can see our dear Father behind the veil looking upon these dying struggles until even he could not endure it any longer; and, like the mother who bids farewell to her dying child, has to be taken out of the room, so as not to look upon the last struggles, so he bowed his head, and hid in some part of his universe, his great heart almost breaking for the love that he had for his Son. Oh, in that moment when he might have saved his Son. I thank him and praise him that he did not fail us, for he had not only the love of his Son in mind, but he also had love for us. I rejoice that he did not interfere, and that his love for us made it possible for him to endure to look upon the sufferings of his Son and give him finally to us, our Savior and our Redeemer. Without him, without his sacrifice, we would have remained, and we would never have come glorified into his presence. And so this is what it cost, in part, for our Father in Heaven to give the gift of his Son unto men.”(Sermons and Missionary Services of Melvin J. Ballard [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1949], 151-155.)
Some other thoughts I want to share, but I'll rely on the words of others to help me out this morning:
Loving = Serving - I want to find a way for our family to serve, any ideas for a group of kids 9 years to 7 months?
1 Corinthians 13- Part 1, Part 2 - This is addressed to homeschool parents, but everyone can LOVE more.
Love is a verb
And if you really feel like a good cry check out this google book-Love is a Verb
“We cannot stand by and listen to those cries without its touching our hearts. The Lord has not given us the power to save our own. He has given us faith, and we submit to the inevitable, but he had the power to save, and he loved his Son, and he could have saved him. He might have rescued him from the insult of the crowds. He might have rescued him when the crown of thorns was placed upon his head. He might have rescued him when the Son, hanging between the two thieves, was mocked with, ‘Save thyself, and come down from the cross. He saved others; himself he cannot save.’ He listened to all this. He saw that Son condemned; he saw him drag the cross through the streets of Jerusalem and faint under its load. He saw that Son finally upon Calvary; he saw his body stretched out upon the wooden cross; he saw the cruel nails driven through hands and feet, and the blows that broke the skin, tore the flesh, and let out the life's blood of his Son. He looked upon that.
“In the case of our Father, the knife was not stayed, but it fell, and the life's blood of his Beloved Son went out. His Father looked on with great grief and agony over his Beloved Son, until there seems to have come a moment when even our Savior cried out in despair: ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’“In that hour I think I can see our dear Father behind the veil looking upon these dying struggles until even he could not endure it any longer; and, like the mother who bids farewell to her dying child, has to be taken out of the room, so as not to look upon the last struggles, so he bowed his head, and hid in some part of his universe, his great heart almost breaking for the love that he had for his Son. Oh, in that moment when he might have saved his Son. I thank him and praise him that he did not fail us, for he had not only the love of his Son in mind, but he also had love for us. I rejoice that he did not interfere, and that his love for us made it possible for him to endure to look upon the sufferings of his Son and give him finally to us, our Savior and our Redeemer. Without him, without his sacrifice, we would have remained, and we would never have come glorified into his presence. And so this is what it cost, in part, for our Father in Heaven to give the gift of his Son unto men.”(Sermons and Missionary Services of Melvin J. Ballard [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1949], 151-155.)
Some other thoughts I want to share, but I'll rely on the words of others to help me out this morning:
Loving = Serving - I want to find a way for our family to serve, any ideas for a group of kids 9 years to 7 months?
1 Corinthians 13- Part 1, Part 2 - This is addressed to homeschool parents, but everyone can LOVE more.
Love is a verb
And if you really feel like a good cry check out this google book-Love is a Verb
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Videos
Due to popular demand, here are some more videos:
I didn't have any videos of Austin and Nyah, except the ones they shot themselves. Be aware that the following video was shot by an 8 year and if you get motion sickness you might want to skip it :)
Valentine's Party
We had our homeschool group's Valentine's Party on Friday. We held it at our community clubhouse so it was a little hectic for me to get stuff set up and play hostess and juggle little kids, but we had a great time with our friends.
Everyone brought their own boxes to decorate
Recent Pictures
Doing their own school work.
Pirates beware!
My kitchen helper
Olivia & Jolie like to play with the condiment bottles, as in they will purposely pull them out at non-meal times to play with.
Whenever I step away from the computer I come back and find someone trying to take my place!
Seriously, what a beautiful girl!
Austin's latest lego pictures-
Adorable baby girl
Oh those chubby baby cheeks are fabulous!
More snow this week (mostly melted now)
Austin & Nyah made snow dens for some stuffed animals so they could hibernate. 
Olivia and Jolie were engaged in some serious work - cleaning off the rocks and filling the pool.
Play doh time (and sneaking in some strengthening exercises for hand muscles)
Saturday, February 12, 2011
My love
I love my husband.
He's fabulous. And Hot. And Sexy. And I love him.
He loves me and our family and works hard to take care of us.
When I'm thinking something over I want his opinion before I decide anything - house stuff, kid stuff, school stuff - its important to me to know what he thinks about it all.
And problems have a way of evaporating or losing importance after he's shared his thoughts.
I love my kids.
I love spending time with my kids, so I do.
I love homeschooling my kids, so I do.
I love being a stay-at-home homeschooling mama.
I know I could do something else if I wanted to, but I don't what to, so I don't.
Like every job everywhere there are things I'm not all that crazy about. Folding laundry - ugh. Poopy diapers - double ugh. Exploding poopy diapers - double double ugh.
I love what I do. Its why I do it.
I love being me.
Athletic. Artsy. And more than just a little nerdy.
I have my own interests - reading, reading, reading and reading, working out, painting, pastels & drawing, piano-ish playing - and I'm content to do the things I like to do.
I like to learn new things - making strawberry jam most recently. Delicious.
I'm content to be me.
I love family.
Grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws.
I wish I could see everyone more.
I love friends.
I love having people around me I know I can trust and rely on.
People I can call from the hospital and they will drop everything to come. I know, because I've had to call before and they came.
I love having a friend from 5th grade as one of my Facebook friends. Hello - that was FOREVER ago.
What do you love?
He's fabulous. And Hot. And Sexy. And I love him.
He loves me and our family and works hard to take care of us.
When I'm thinking something over I want his opinion before I decide anything - house stuff, kid stuff, school stuff - its important to me to know what he thinks about it all.
And problems have a way of evaporating or losing importance after he's shared his thoughts.
I love my kids.
I love spending time with my kids, so I do.
I love homeschooling my kids, so I do.
I love being a stay-at-home homeschooling mama.
I know I could do something else if I wanted to, but I don't what to, so I don't.
Like every job everywhere there are things I'm not all that crazy about. Folding laundry - ugh. Poopy diapers - double ugh. Exploding poopy diapers - double double ugh.
I love what I do. Its why I do it.
I love being me.
Athletic. Artsy. And more than just a little nerdy.
I have my own interests - reading, reading, reading and reading, working out, painting, pastels & drawing, piano-ish playing - and I'm content to do the things I like to do.
I like to learn new things - making strawberry jam most recently. Delicious.
I'm content to be me.
I love family.
Grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws.
I wish I could see everyone more.
I love friends.
I love having people around me I know I can trust and rely on.
People I can call from the hospital and they will drop everything to come. I know, because I've had to call before and they came.
I love having a friend from 5th grade as one of my Facebook friends. Hello - that was FOREVER ago.
What do you love?
Friday, February 11, 2011
Shakespeare's Sonnets
Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
As a Jane Austen fan I can't possibly leave this one out (which I had to memorize in high school too):
Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
And one that make me laugh because of its honesty:
Sonnet 130
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Valentine's Music
I'm having fun with these Valentine's posts. Are you having fun? Hope so. I don't have a plan or anything, just sharing some of my favorite "love" inspired things as they happen in my week. So, without further ado, get ready for THE KING!!
Wise men say only fools rush in
But I can't help falling in love with you
Shall I stay
Would it be a sin
If I can't help falling in love with you
Like a river flows surely to the sea
Darling so it goes
Some things are meant to be
Take my hand, take my whole life too
For I can't help falling in love with you
Like a river flows surely to the sea
Darling so it goes
Some things are meant to be
Take my hand, take my whole life too
For I can't help falling in love with you
For I can't help falling in love with you
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Valentine's Poetry
If you've never heard the story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning, its a wonderful love story all on its own.
Some of my favorites from Songs from the Portuguese:
VII.
The face of all the world is changed, I think,
Since first I heard the footsteps of thy soul
Move still, oh, still, beside me, as they stole
Betwixt me and the dreadful outer brink
Of obvious death, where I, who thought to sink,
Was caught up into love, and taught the whole
Of life in a new rhythm. The cup of dole
God gave for baptism, I am fain to drink,
And praise its sweetness, Sweet, with thee anear.
The names of country, heaven, are changed away
For where thou art or shalt be, there or here;
And this... this lute and song... loved yesterday,
(The singing angels know) are only dear
Because thy name moves right in what they say.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,--I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!--and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Some of my favorites from Songs from the Portuguese:
VII.
The face of all the world is changed, I think,
Since first I heard the footsteps of thy soul
Move still, oh, still, beside me, as they stole
Betwixt me and the dreadful outer brink
Of obvious death, where I, who thought to sink,
Was caught up into love, and taught the whole
Of life in a new rhythm. The cup of dole
God gave for baptism, I am fain to drink,
And praise its sweetness, Sweet, with thee anear.
The names of country, heaven, are changed away
For where thou art or shalt be, there or here;
And this... this lute and song... loved yesterday,
(The singing angels know) are only dear
Because thy name moves right in what they say.
XIV.
If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only. Do not say
"I love her for her smile--her look--her way
Of speaking gently,--for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day" -
For these things in themselves, Beloved, may
Be changed, or change for thee,--and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry, -
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou may'st love on, through love's eternity.
Except for love's sake only. Do not say
"I love her for her smile--her look--her way
Of speaking gently,--for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day" -
For these things in themselves, Beloved, may
Be changed, or change for thee,--and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry, -
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou may'st love on, through love's eternity.
And of course, who can go through Valentine's Day without "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways?" Always reminds me of Roger Rabbit too:)
XLIII.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,--I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!--and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Monday, February 7, 2011
The Owl and the Pussycat
Earlier today my son was refusing to do something I had asked him to do. Instead of the usual "you need to be obedient" explanations, I threatened to tie him to a chair and read him love poetry until he was ready to do it. Who knew my boy could move so fast? A particularly repelling poem for him? One of my favorites- "The Owl and the Pussycat." Check out my homeschool blog for more ideas for celebrating this fun holiday.
The Owl and the Pussycat
by Edward Lear
| I | ||||
| The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea In a beautiful pea green boat, They took some honey, and plenty of money, Wrapped up in a five pound note. The Owl looked up to the stars above, And sang to a small guitar, 'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love, What a beautiful Pussy you are, You are, You are! What a beautiful Pussy you are!'
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