Aunt Lynn Part 2: My encourager

If you missed part one, you can find it here.

Aunt Lynn,
Thanks for being an encouragement in my life. I don't have a lot of memories of you from my younger years. You were busy raising your boys and I don't think we spent a lot of time with you. What I do remember though, is that you were always fun and always enjoyed laughter and simple things. I don't always appreciate your humor, but I do appreciate your heart behind it. You love to make others laugh and to bring joy on their faces. As I look back at my life, I think all of my thoughts of you can be wrapped up in one word...encouragement. Whether directly or indirectly, you have always encouraged the concept of carpe diem...seize the day...make every moment count...enjoy the small things.

When I graduated high school, you gave me a copy of Wouldn't Take Nothing for my Journey Now by Maya Angelou. Inside, you inscribed a note telling me how proud you were that I was the first in our family to go to college, that you loved me and you encouraged me to never give up and go after my dreams. While I was in college, you often sent me notes of encouragement and packages filled with goodies like Reese's peanutbutter cups. I didn't often let on that I was homesick, but you have no idea what those notes and cards meant to me. One of those packages was huge. When I went to check my mail, there was a note in my box to go to the Dean's office. I wondered which of my episodes of college mischief had landed me this honor. I was quite relieved to get there and discover the package was simply too big to keep in the little mail room. The dean's office was nearby so they sent it there. In that package was a blanket, do you remember that? It was fleece and a flurry of dark colors...brown, navy, burgandy. I still have that blanket and sleep with it every night. It wasn't just a cozy blanket for me, but it symbolized the love and support of my family, so far away. As I've walked away from big dreams and found joy in smaller, simpler ones, you have remained one of my biggest cheerleaders. More than once, I've heard you stand up for me when someone disagreed with a choice that Kev and I have made. I'm pretty sure you don't always "get" our decisions, but yet you stand by us. You've encouraged me in my writing and it means way more than I could ever tell you. I know some think I threw away my college education. I've heard comments that I'm less than smart for "staying home and popping out babies". Some remember that all I ever wanted to do was be a doctor and they think what a pitiful waste that I'm not able to pursue that. Not you, You have always encouraged me to reach for my dreams and you've been one of the first to support me when those dreams have changed. Thank-you, Aunt Lynn for loving me, making me laugh and encouraging me along lifes journey.



Uncle Tom and Aunt Lynn 2010

A plea for Spring...

...or learning to be content no matter the season:

Spring, will you hide your warmth from us forever?



Oh, how we long for the days of chasing butterflies through the park.


We hear the crashing waves, calling our name, bidding us draw near.


We long for barefoot days, dancing in the sun.

Spring, we love your warmth, your sunshine, the newness of life and freshness in the air.

Oh wait.

Spring is wonderful, fresh, warm.

Yet, with it comes cutting grass, seasonal allergies, more dirt, mud and bugs.

Spring, we long for you...we just need to be sure the tractor is gassed up, the tissues are stocked up, soap and towels are waiting and the fly-swatter is nearby.

Judging by facebook posts, and any casual conversation these days, I'd say many echo Parker's sentiments of "I hate winter and cannot stand to see any more snow" (or at least that's the caption this picture begs for)

Even the dogs seem like they've had enough.

Yet, we remember that EVERY day is a gift.

A new day.

A fresh start.

A day to

live,

love,

laugh,

and learn.

Help us Lord, as we long for a new season not to miss the beauty in this one.

Help us to meet obstacles and challenges with a smile and a determination to seize the day.

Help us to approach each days adventures with eyes of wonder, childlike faith and joyful hearts.

Today, they tackle snowdrifts in the yard, tomorrow the mountains of adult life. Help us Lord to enjoy today with them. Help us to teach them, love them, lead them, prepare them, hold them, protect them, savor them

EVERY day whether the weather is favorable or not.

This is the day which the Lord has made;

Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:24

Oh where oh where did my little one go?

Parker is lightening fast...sometimes that is a bit frightening. Like when he tries to climb things much too high for a little boy to climb, or when he decides to hide. He has disappeared on us more than once and stays hidden long enough for us to panic and then he usually giggles and gives his hiding spot away. It's been a while since he did a disappearing act, last week, I guess he thought it was about time for mom to have a heart attack. (let's not talk about the time he didn't giggle and instead remained hidden for a much too long time and I think I just may have had a small heart attack...or at least major panic attack. I was about ten seconds from dialing 911 when I finally spotted his foot sticking out of a pile of junk in the basement)

One minute, he was in the kitchen with me. Helping with dishes. Fully clothed.

The next, he was gone.

I had everyone going in a different direction to find him. He favors the basement so I sent two children down there to look while everyone else walked around the main parts of the house. I just happened to have the camera in my hand because I had just taken the above picture of him and had turned to take a few of one of the other kids. We were calling his name and looking for him. As I came around the corner, I heard him giggle and then start making a growling noise. The growl made it pretty easy to discover he was now in Rock's bed (the middle bunk) sans his clothing and sporting the most adorable, but ferocious tiger face I've ever seen...

Aunt Lynn (part 1): Birthdays...joy and pain

My Aunt Lynn's birthday is February 4th. That also happens to be the anniversary of my Grandpa's (her father) death. He died three years ago and birthdays, understandably, have been very hard for Aunt Lynn since that time. I know many family members have questioned more than once why he had to die on her birthday. He had been steadily declining for a couple of weeks, we knew he'd not make it through the weekend. Why not the night before or the day after?

That question (and many others) is a question we will not know the answer to in this life. However, I have a different thought on it than most of my family members. I understand the difficulty, but I also see a beauty in it...a perfection...the hand of a loving God that pays attention to every detail and every breath of our lives.

You see, my grandpa was a pretty great man, not perfect by any means, but still a great man. He was admired by many as a hard worker, a good provider, an honest man and a true gentelman. He was known as a faithful husband for over fifty years. He was a pillar of strength through difficult, difficult life circumstances. He was known for his quiet manner, contagious laughter and deadpan humor. He was a servant and one of the most humble men I've ever met.

In the end none of that mattered to him. His greatest joy, greatest accomplishment, most cherished memories were that of being a father (and grandfather and great grandfather). Early in his life, he knew he wanted to be a dad to many children. I remember hearing that while he was still a very young man, he used to say he wanted 12 daughters.

In my opinion, what a more perfect day for his life to end? To come full circle to where the single most wonderful portion of his life began...parenthood...the birthday of his first daughter.

Aunt Lynn, your birthday didn't escape God's notice. I don't believe for an instant Pop-pop died on your birthday to bring you pain. I also don't believe it was coincidental. Pop-pop loved being your dad. As you celebrate each birthday, the joy and the pain of it, I hope that you feel his arms around you, that you hear his laughter in your ear, that you see his smile and that you remember not only the love of your earthly father, but also that of your heavenly one. Pop-pop, loved you. God loves you more.

Happy belated birthday!

A great Chemistry book to share

My friend Mandy has started Friday's Homeschool Feature and I thought I'd jump in to share one of our favorite homeschool books.

Since science is my favorite subject, we have a lot of science books. It's hard to pick a favorite, we have many good ones. Today, I'm going to share one with you that should be in every home library in my opinion.
Super Science Concoctions by Jill Frankel Hauser is hands down one of the best science experiment books we've found. There are fifty experiments, all centered around various aspects of chemistry. All of them use simple household ingredients that you will either have on hand or can get easily without too much hassle or expense. The experiments are short and simple, most children 8 and up can likely do many of them with no assistance. There are some that require adult help, but they are clearly marked. Along with each experiment there are short easy to read explanations of the chemistry behind the experiment and sometimes ideas for other things you can do to learn more.
Here's an example...
On page 111, you will find "Tubful of Tension". The experiment is designed to demonstrate surface tension. On the left side is the experiment, on the right is a feature called "More to explore" and it gives four more things to do that will further investigate the same concept. Turn the page to find a feature called "Super Fun!" and for this particular concept it uses a plastic tab and liquid soap to demonstrate how soap weakens the surface tension of the water. Jerald demonstrated this for his siblings today and it was "Super Fun!", they did it multiple times! Finally, at the bottom of page two, you find "Principle of the Thing" and that further explains the principle behind the experiment.

Some of the experiments have other features like "Let's get practical" which helps relate the experiment to things in everyday life and "What on Earth?" which gives details about ingredients found in nature and how they can be used to create substances, carry out experiments, etc.

Jerald has read this cover to cover and has done several of the experiments. I have only glanced through it, but I like what I see and I know he and Rocklin have learned a lot just from reading it. Doing the experiments has helped cement several things in their minds. It's not something I would use as a stand alone for basic chemistry, but it is definately worth the money. It's a fun and simple intro to chemistry for upper elementary and could be the sole "lab" portion of lower elementary in my opinion.

If you have a great homeschool tip to share, a great product you'd like to feature, or just a great homeschool focused idea to share jump on over to Mandy's page and link up with Friday's Homeschool Feature!

Conversations with Aaron

This afternoon:

"Hey mommy, guess what?"

"what?"

"I know what to make five with. Three plus two more is five."

"That's correct. Great job! How did you figure that out?"

I was expecting something like, "I counted out crayons" or "I used the abacus" (which he calls the A-back-kiss)

Instead, I heard "easy. I just thinked. That's it. I thinked and figured it out of course."

Of course.

**************
4am this morning:

"Mommy, would you please get me a drink?"

"You are already up, just go and get some water" (we keep room temp water in a dispenser on the counter)

"but the 'spenser is empty"

"Well, just push over a chair to the sink and fill your cup"

"Yeah, but, I don't want to wake anybody up. That will be noisy."

"Oh, but you don't mind waking me up?"

"No, cuz you're the mom"

Yup, I'm the mom and I not only gave him a drink, but a kiss to go with it. Then the stinker showed his gratitude by jumping into my spot in bed while I let the dog out.

Snow fun...indoors

Last week, we spent some time having a bit of snow fun by making coffee filter snowflakes. If you do a google search for coffee filter snowflakes or paper snowflakes, you will find all sorts of neat options. Ranging from the simple to the complex. We opted to do a version that we did a couple of years ago. I chose it because it's simple enough that even the little boys can participate with little supervision/help. The children sat at the kitchen table and worked on this project while I did dinner prep.

First, you grab some coffee filters and markers and just color your filters. You can color as much or as little as you want, with as many or as few colors as you'd like. They turn out the best when you avoid brown or black, but even those can be used to make some unique and pretty snowflakes.

Next, you set them on a cookie sheet and spritz them with water. The more water you use, the more the colors will run. It's fun to play with different amounts and see how they turn out.

Then, you leave them to dry. It doesn't take too long, but since we were moving on to other activities we waited until the next day. Once they are dry, you fold them and cut them in various patterns to create your snowflakes. These are great to hang around the house for cheery winter decoration.

Other ideas for them would be to use them for doilies, wrap a gift with plain paper and use the snowflakes to decorate the package. You could pass them along to bring some winter cheer to others in your church, neighborhood, family. You could make them into a note/card add some homemade goodies or hot chocolate mix and give to a neighbor, pastor, teacher, friend. You could have a full afternoon of making several and then pass them out at a local nursing home or hospital, etc.

Family

I've been thinking a lot about family lately. Especially my maternal extended family. How much I need them. I've thought about how they've been a part of shaping who I am. Not necessarily all the cousins, second cousins, etc. many of them I barely know. My maternal aunts and uncles though, have been a huge influence in my life. Each in their own unique way, some I've had deeper connections with than others, some I was closer to as a child and others I've gotten closer to as an adult. Each relationship different. All of them influential. I think after all of these years, it's time I tell them so. Tell them that I love them. That I appreciate them. That I'm glad they are in my life. My Aunt Lynn's birthday was a couple of weeks ago and my Uncle Mark's is today. Sometime in the next week or so, I think I'll backtrack and do a post about each of them and then a post for the others on or near their birthdays.

Toys

We have a lot of toys.

A lot.

As birthdays, holidays and garage sale seasons come and go, more and more toys enter our home via grandparents. Occasionally, we purchase something ourselves. Over the years, we've decided on a few simple rules to determine what stays and what goes.

First, pretty much every toy we own goes into a container. The exception to this is stuffed animals. They do go into a container, but it's overflowing and at any given moment a dozen or so of them are scattered throughout the house. Even the toys that are not community property, like Jay's yo-yo or Rocklin's football guys have a container.

Secondly, if it doesn't fit into the container, something needs to go. There are a couple of exceptions...Imaginext gets two containers, Little people accessories are in a container but the houses/buildings are not.

Thirdly (and probably most importantly), if it doesn't have a purpose it finds a new home. Toys that have little to no educational value and/or do not encourage them to use their imaginations much are out the door pretty soon after entering it.

We've had different toys hold the affections of the little rebels at various times. It often waxes and wanes and there are only a few toys that have stood the test of time to be hands down favorites. The past few years, we've opted to stick with those and just add to them rather than buy new toys.

For years, I had heard the accolades of playmobil. Yet I resisted purchasing any. We already had so many toys of the same nature. Playmobil can be expensive and I just wasn't sure it was worth it for us. That is, until I went Christmas shopping on black friday.

Aaron is by far my hardest child to buy gifts for right now. We have so much for his age range already. He generally prefers to dress up (usually as a king or a pirate) and flit around, chattering and being busy without ever really doing anything. I went shopping having no idea what to buy for him. Then I found a great deal on playmobil. One set was knights and one set pirates, two of his favorite things.

SCORE!

...or at least I hoped.

I was a bit skeptical.

Would it keep his attention?

Would he be disappointed that I didn't add to his Thomas collection despite him already having so much Thomas the tank engine stuff?

He has trouble with fine motor skills, would he just get frustrated trying to put their hats on, etc?
Some of the pieces are very small. Would I end up stepping on them in the middle of the night and uttering words that a mommy shouldn't say?

I just wasn't sure.

With no other concrete ideas, and being very ready to finish dealing with black friday crowds, I took the risk and bought the playmobil.

I needn't have worried.

He LOVES it.

L-O-V-E-S It!

He thanks me near daily for buying it (and tells me to thank Nana as she bought one set). He will sit for hours and play with it. It's been a huge hit for Parker and Rocklin as well. Jerald and Mag have played it some and they do enjoy it, other things just capture their interest more.

I think this is one toy with which we could definately break my "it has to fit in one container" rule.

Yay for playmobil!

Wordless Wednesday

A great big brother...

Ya just gotta love a guy that will put down his beloved books in favor of playing calico critters with his little sister. Most of the time, Mag doesn't mind being the only girl. She adores her brothers and they love her, protect her and put up with her mothering them. Once in a while though, it's a bit lonely. Like when she wants to play something "girly" and the boys are being, well, boyish and loud. Jerald spends most of his free time reading, birdwatching, jumping on the trampoline, or doing a few other activities he enjoys. He doesn't spend a lot of time playing, but how could such a wonderful brother possibly say no to his favorite "grail". The days of calling her a grail instead of a girl have long since passed, but she's still his favorite girly in the world.

Notice, even when playing he wasn't far from the books. They somehow incorporated the purchase of books into their play. :-)

My little scientists

This morning, my children ditched their school uniforms for their scientist uniforms. I'm not sure who decided on the uniform, but apparently at our house scientists wear shorts (preferably black) and white t-shirts.

I turned them loose in the kitchen with permission to use several ingredients and make up their own concoctions. After a lot of discussion and the clink-clanking of dishes, I was given a sample to taste. I'm told it's a top secret recipe and that I'm not allowed to share. One child says it's a copyrighted recipe and he plans to share it on his own blog later...

It Boggles my mind...

Jay loves words. He memorizes them easily, loves to look them up and learn their definitions, write them, read them, make up games with them. He just loves words. He has for as long as I can remember...one of my favorite memories of him was how before he even walked, he would pull books off the shelves and slide them as he scooted across the floor to me. He would sit for long periods of time and listen to me read the bible, C.S. Lewis, Charles Dickens, Shakespeare. Along with that love, comes an amazing memory. You can mention reading something, but not remembering where and in an instant he will have the proper book turned to the proper page.

Somehow, I never seem to think about this until after I've played word games with him.

We are in the midst of Blizzard 2010 round two and spent the day doing all sorts of family fun activities. Things like making pancakes, watching a movie, playing with toys, having meltdowns and playing games. This afternoon, we played Boggle.

Such fun!

Such an education!

If you are going to play such a game with Jay, you better be sure to have a dictionary nearby. Some of the new vocab words today (these weren't all new to me, but a few of them definately were)...

bole

lest

lea

yelp

sheared

pelt

pone

gory

Please someone else admit that they had no idea that bole and lea were both real words. Of course, now I can feel all smart because I know their definitions. :-)

Rock surprised us with a few words as well, and Mag even tossed one in there...nay. Although she was thinking of Neigh and was a bit disappointed when I told her it was spelled incorrectly. My brain was thinking the same as hers. Jay saved the day. He brought back her smile, when he told her that nay is also a word and counts for a point. Yay, Jay!

The best part? They think it was a snow-day...little do they know it certainly counts for school work. I love when I can find creative ways for my kids to learn and that it can count as school. I bet they learned more from that game than they would have from just doing a vocab page...and even better it stretches beyond worksheets and goes to teamwork, competition, recognizing we all have different strengths/weaknesses and I'm sure several other lessons too.

Yep, playing games as part of living, loving and learning together sure works for me!

What about you? Any great ideas out there for creatively teaching vocabulary (or anything for that matter)?

Check out Works for my Wednesday at We are THAT family for other great tips on a variety of subjects.

Parker and Aaron enjoyed shaking up the letters and flipping the timer.

(Not so) Wordless Wednesday

Also known as, "who needs a knight in shining armor? Right now I'm glad to have a HVAC guy on the premises"...

Doesn't he look very excited to be making a "no heat call" in the blizzard?


Can you see him as he makes his way across the yard to the outdoor unit?


"tap, tap, tap" apparently that did the trick...let's hope it keeps running and he doesn't have to go out again.


I love you, Kev. You might not be a knight in shining armor...but I'd rather be warm and toasty, armor doesn't make snuggling very easy and it's a pain to clean anyways. Thanks for braving the cold to keep us warm.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Unless you live in a cave, you probably know all about the blizzard that has been swirling around us since last night. Four out of five little rebels spent a large amount of time outside today. We didn't take any pictures of their playing...we'll do that tomorrow when we all go out. For now, here are a few pictures of the blizzard of 2010.

This morning, Bentley used this snow drift as a means of escape. She jumped right over the fence and had a grand time running around our neighbors yard. It took four kids, but they finally got her back over the fence and into our yard.

The drifts were amazing. Several feet high in some places and then other spots there was so little snow, you could still see the grass.

The big white van is now the big white buried van...guess we'll start calling it Blizz.

The bus is just on the other side of the van and it did not get buried. There are drifts all around it, but hardly any snow on it. This drift is huge, the pic doesn't do it justice. Jerald has claimed it and this afternoon he started digging a tunnel through it.

This is the closest Parker got to the snow. He said, "it's too cold and too deep and I don't wanna wear clothes so I'll just watch movies." and he did...he looked at books, watched movies, made music and played the wii all day while his siblings enjoyed the snow.

and just for fun...

This was taken February 2003. It was the last big blizzard we have had (though we've gotten snow each year and had several big storms including one not long ago). We moved into our house the weekend before this blizzard.

the sound of music...

We are not a particularly musical family. My mother sings well. My father sings well and plays I think 12 or so instruments well.

Me?
Nope, somehow that particular gene jumped right out of the pool when it came to my creation. I could not carry a tune in a bucket...even if it had a lid with a padlock on top.

Kev can sing fairly well, but he doesn't play any instruments other than plinking out a tune or two on the piano.

However, the little rebels love music. Jerald sings nearly all of the time and if he's not singing he's humming or trying to teach himself piano. Rocklin doesn't sing, ever. Okay, hardly ever. He does however, love several instruments and desires to learn to play guitar, piano and drums. The younger three really just follow with the bigger two, but they all love to sing and dance and try to play the piano.

I love listening to them sing. I love listening to them trying to learn piano. I try to love listening to the littles join in on the noise...um, music making.

I sometimes struggle with this greatly. I am not a huge fan of most music genres and because I am on sensory overload 90% of the time just from daily noise, I don't usually want the extra noise of music.

Several weeks ago, we came home from church and Aaron kept singing a few lines from a new song. He continued on Monday, the same couple of lines over and over. It was driving me insane.
I decided that if he was going to sing it, he needed to at least learn the whole song. We didn't know what it was called or who recorded it or anything.

Enter my wonderful friend, Google.

After searching, we discovered not only the lyrics, songwriter, etc for this song, but for several others we've been singing at church as well. The children were thrilled. I thought, this is a great way to let them listen/sing/play music, it's music I enjoy as well so it's a wee bit more tolerable for me.

We've had the CD's for a little over a week now and if you haven't yet heard of the Getty's you should check them out! It took Jerald all of a few days to memorize most every song on both CD's and I have so enjoyed hearing him sing. Aaron loves, loves, loves the song "Come People of the Risen King". I cannot explain how it thrills my heart to hear him singing Rejoice! Rejoice! Let every tongue rejoice! One heart, one voice; O church of Christ, rejoice! He was a late talker (I've been thinking he was three, but recently discovered via old blog posts he was 2.5) and didn't talk well until this past year. In fact, it was just this week when my mom mentioned that his speech was improving. He still often struggles to think of the right words and to "spit them out". So hearing him sing this song nearly brings me to tears at times.

It is wonderful music, with sometimes powerful lyrics and I really can't think of anything I'd rather hear them sing. If you are looking for something to play in the background as you go about your day, or something for family worship time or just something that will help cement some scriptural truths they are worth a listen.


(disclaimer: I do not know the Getty's nor am I being compensated in any way by mentioning them on my blog. We just happen to love their music and thought we'd share them with you in case you haven't discovered them yet.)

Time for tea...

Every once in a while, it's good to toss out the agenda and just have a day of fun. Yesterday was such a day around here. We made cookies, had a tea party, played musical chairs. Fun, Fun, Fun!

Everyone came to the party in costume... Jay the HVAC guy


Rock the football player (anyone surprised?)

Mag the princess, of course

Aaron the doctor (really it's a vetinarian lab coat. See the pawprint? He wanted it to be a people doctor though)

and Parker. I asked about his costume and he said, "I'm King Parker". I noted his lack of costume and he said, "it's just pretend, but I am not Parker, I am King Parker".

Did you notice Parker has a larger cup next to his tea cup? He means business. No tiny tea-cup for him. No way, he wanted the big cup...fill 'er up!

Reason #805943 why I love homeschooling

What better way for the biggers to practice reading aloud than to do it here...in their jammies, cuddled under mommy's special blanket? What better training for the littles to be quiet and listen than to do it while their bigger sibs read to them?

Yeah, I realize it's almost Valentine's day...

Just put away the calendar and pretend it's still December...

I just realized I never posted our Christmas card pictures. Many of you received them in the mail, but for those that didn't...

This was taken in September at Rob's (Kev's brother) wedding.

Top left: in the AHOPE shirts they purchased with their own spending money; Rock in his bday sweatshirt/hat; Aaron trying to crush a raw egg; Parker the superhero (yes it's a kings robe, but he prefers to be called a superhero); Mag on her birthday; Jay helping to build bunkbeds

Top Left: Kev and I at Abbottsmill; Rock helping to build bunkbeds; Jay and Aaron on a Delaware Dunlins birding trip; Jay,Rock and Mag surprised us by making their first apple pie from scratch; Parker being adorable; Mag and Kev having a staring contest.