Five Minute Friday: Empty



EMPTY....

GO

At the end of the day I feel empty
I know that this conjures up a negative feeling
But empty is not always bad
Especially in the realm of housekeeping
A sink empty of dishes
Laundry baskets empty of clothes
A room empty of clutter
So when the day is through and my energy is gone
It is good

Perhaps emptiness then should be viewed as energy well spent
A sign of hope and purpose
For who does their laundry
Washes their dishes
Or tidies a room
Without a reason (or reasons!) to do so

Maybe emptiness means having poured yourself out for a reason
Maybe it means having lived fully
Maybe it means that
At the end of my life I would like to be able to say I am empty.

STOP

Mission Accomplished!

I've been hesitating to post this.
It's seems as soon as you state something as true about one of your children, they change their mind.
Like when you tell someone that, "oh yes! - my baby is sleeping through the night."
She will inevitably NOT sleep through the night that night.
Sigh.
But it been a couple weeks now so maybe, just maybe, I'm safe to share this latest accomplishment with you.....




Way to go, Taitum!
We are so proud of you!

It's been a long hard road but she is consistently going to the potty and only donning diapers at nap and bedtime.
The good ol' no pants method worked once again!
And peeing on the floor.
LOTS of peeing on the floor.
I do believe we all learn best from our mistakes though, right?

In conclusion, my recipe for potty training
(which is in no way guarnteed to work. In fact, it likely will not. At least for the first 6 times you try it. Two year olds are stinkers. Potty training sucks.):

1 potty in the livingroom
0 pants or underwear
1 bare bum
10,000 rolls of paper towel
2 extra loads of laundry
1 spray mop
1 crazy, ridiculous potty dance
More patience than anyone probably has!

You might want to throw in some kind of reward system but I've found granting them the privelege of flushing the toilet and washing their hands on their own works wonders!

Melting Mystery Experiment

This week's experiment was all about melting snow.
In the book The Snowy Day, Peter makes a snow ball and puts it in his pocket before going inside.
When he later goes to retieve it from his pocket, he is surprised to discover that it is gone.
We discussed what happened to his snowball and why it melted inside but not outside.
Then I got Piper to run outdoors and fill a juice jug with snow.
We talked about how, like Peter's snowball, the snow would melt and the jug would be full of water instead of snow because it is warm in the huose.
Next we marked where the top of the snow was and the girls predicted how much water would be in the jug once all the snow melted.




As you can see, they both thought about the same amount of water would result from the melting snow.


We left our snow overnight to melt.
The next morning the girls were very excited for the big reveal.

Here Piper is telling me that she thinks there will be less water than there was snow.



They were very surprised to find how much less water there was!


They also investigated the water resulting from the melted snow.
Initially, Pipe said she wanted to drink the water but once she discovered all the dirt that was in the water, she changed her mind!


Daddy had the idea that we should now redo the experiment so the girls could have a chance to make new predictions based upon their discovery from the first experiment.




This time their predictions were much more accurate!


Yay!
Science is fun!




Hymn Love

Matt and I are planning to start singing favorite traditional hymns to the girls at bedtime.
There is something really calming about "Amazing Grace" and such songs.
So we've been considering which songs we'd like to begin with.
As a result, "Come, Thou Fount" has been stuck in my head for the past couple days.
Not a bad thing.
It's definitely one of my favs.
Then Matt came across a version by Mumford and Sons.
I'm in love.


So far our list of songs includes:

Amazing Grace
Come Thou Fount
Be Thou My Vision
It Is Well With My Soul
In Christ Alone
Be Still My Soul
Trust and Obey

What is your favorite hymn or traditional church song?






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Moments to Remember: Imagination

Moments to Remember was developed as a simple way to look back on our week as homeschoolers and find photos that encompass the memories we want to remember.


The week may have been tough, there may have been more bumps than smiles, but in the end these are the moments that keep us going, the ones we need to remember.



Ever heard the complaint "I'm bored." or "I don't know what to do" from your kids?
Hearing that drives me nuts.
Not just because its annoying but because when I hear I start to panic...
Am I doing something wrong? Am I not providing them with enough to do? Am I not spending enough time with them???
What I am learning though is that being bored is OK!
It is when they are bored that they come up with the most creative and imagintive play!
My girls never cease to make me smile with the things they come up with!
Like this past week - Piper hauling her sister around in a suitcase!
They went on many adventures together and our home was filled with little girl giggles as a result!
I'm so glad I don't have to miss all this random fun they have together and that they have the freedom to come up with the craziest adventures a kid could ask for!

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A Wintery Week

This week was a rather fantastic one.
We're finally settling into a happy rhythm after 6 weeks of transitions and sickness (to name a few obstacles).
As a result, we were out and about quite a bit.
I think we all needed it.
As much as we all enjoy being at home, endless days of going no where can be a little much!
Because of this we got a little less done than I had planned but still kept pretty busy the times we were home!
Again, we concentrated on The Snowy Day but also had fun with a few polar animal activities I came across.


We started off with a fun little snack time game: Feed the Penguin!
The girls would roll a dice and feed the penguin the corresponding number of goldfish!



We also worked on recognizing red, yellow and green again this week by doing color hunts.
The hunting is fun.
The returning of the items not no much....





Piper put the alphabet in order with some penguin cards.


Then Tait came along and worked on finding the lowercase letter to match the uppercase letters that Pipe had put in order.



This set also includes pictures with beginning sounds to match each letter in the alphabet, although we didn't get that far this week!



Piper put numbers 1-20 in the correct order to complete an Arctic animal puzzle.
This was easy for her until she reached the teens.
Although she recognizes those numbers, she isn't quite as familiar with them so really had to think about what came next.
In the end, she completed the entire puzzle on her own and was extremely proud of herself for doing so!



We learned about Joseph and his coat of many colors this week in our Bible studies.
Of course that meant creating a colorful coat which was perfect since the girls were just itching to get at the glitter glue markers their Auntie and cousins sent them!
(Thanks Auntie Mable, Jodi and Victoria!)




The girls are OBSESSED with their lapbooks and were asking to work with them every day!
Taitum worked on sorting summer and winter clothes some more.



While Piper hunted for shapes in The Snowy Day.



It's so fun to watch her sounding out the letters to discover the correct word!
I can hardly believe she is able to do this already!



Something new we started this week was breakfast discussion time.
I posted these topics on the wall and each morning we'd talk about a different topic.
Piper was especialy eager to participate in this and was very thoughtful with her answers.
With the topic: Words That Describe Snow we also read No Two Snowflakes.
It's about a little girl writing to penpal in Africa who has never seen snow.
She uses all kinds of descriptive words and imagery to convey what snow is like and what you can do with it.
Piper was very intrigued by the fact that there are people who live in countries where there is no snow and that there are even children who have never seen snow before.
Later, I found her writing her own letter to a little girl who had never seen snow to tell her what it is like!

Overall, a big success and something I plan to continue each week!


Finally, this afternoon we made snowball cookies!
(This was an idea I got from Delightful Learning's post on The Snowy Day and a blog that I recommend as being packed full of ideas especially if you are using BFIAR!)
Piper got them started while Tait was still napping and (with the help of the Kitchenaid and me reading the recipe) did it all herself!



Tait was up in time to help roll the dough into the balls and then roll them in icing sugar after they baked!


And she sure was not going to miss the best part -
EATING THEM!



We did another science experiment this week too but once again I'll save that for another post!

Now we are looking forward to March break and a whole week with Daddy home!



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Catechism Kid

As part of our daily school time, the girls have been working on the first 3 questions of the Catechism for Young Children.
There are 145 questions so we are in no rush.
This will take years to accomplish!
The plan is to master a few before moving on to more.
So we've been reviewing the first 3 since September and are now ready to move on to the next few.
I think the catechism is an excellent way to teach our kids about important aspects of our faith.
The far more daunting task is aiding them in internalizing these truths - a work that I realize I cannot do apart from God's working in their lives.
But, alas, we will provide them with these truths, participate in the conversation these truths stir up, answer the questions they produce and, above all, pray our hearts out for our children!

Anyhow, I wanted to share this little video of Taitum answering her catechism questions.
As always, she participates in everything I work on with Piper.
Being the younger I honestly don't except the same abilities from her as from her older sister but she never ceases to amaze me.
Daily, I would ask her the question "Who made you?" and left it at that until one day, for the fun of it, I asked her all three questions.
I was surprised to discover that she was able to reply to each question without a problem!
She never ceases to amaze me!





Q. 1. Who made you?
A. God.

Q. 2. What else did God make?
A. God made all things.

Q. 3. Why did God make you and all things ?
A. For his own glory.

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I love motherhood.

We're a smiling family.

I'm a covenant keeper.

I love my husband.

I am above self pity.

I am a nation builder.

Motherhood=Adventure

Worth more than rubies.


“I am more convinced than ever that even in the midst of the mundane, burdensome, and oftentimes frustrating tasks of life allotted to me as a mother, God wants me to find his joy. He wants every single day of my life to be a celebration of his blessings, whether large or small. He wants me to celebrate life ~ the life He has given me.”

~ Sally Clarkson







My Hubby

My Hubby
He's my bestest.

Piper

Piper
She is my compassionate, dramatic, fun to be around 6 year old. She loves to shop, get dressed up fancy and anything else that screams girly!

Taitum

Taitum
She is my goofy, snuggly 4 year old who loves to sing and dance and smile all day long!

Renly

Renly
She is our one year old smarty pants! She does all she can to keep up with her older sisters and to keep them in line!

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