My firstborn Son

Tomorrow my first born will be nine years old.Its amazing to me just how fast the last eight years have gone.When Isaiah was a baby it felt like he would be small and helpless forever.Now I am often in awe of him.Isaiah is very thoughtful and loving.Always asking to help me with anything.He is also one of the silliest boys I know!He is a real clown at times.

 

Because my husband is on leave right now we are going to be able to spend the whole day as a family celebrating.We are making a trip to one of Isaiah’s favorite places,the Seattle aquarium.Then out to dinner at the rainforest cafe.Another favorite of his.

I’m so thankful to have been given this sweet spirited,energetic boy to raise for God.He is such an amazing blessing.

Our first week back to school

This week was a definite success! I was really not sure how things would go for our first week back to school but everything went really well. The kids natural schedules are really lending themselves well to picking school back up.

Isaiah my earliest riser is also my oldest and has the most school work to do.When he gets up we sit and chat over breakfast.Then have been able to get one or two things done before Justin wakes up. Justin is our five almost six year old and has just started school.Once he is up and has breakfast I start on some of his work with him and Isaiah takes a little break or moves on to some of his independent work.At some point after this the girls both get up. Alyssa is the baby and just hangs out all day long ;) but Hannah is almost three and I find if I can devote some time to her alone first thing after she gets up then working with the boys later on in the day goes smoother. After Hannah has her breakfast she and I will sit and do a puzzle,play with playdoh,math manipulatives or any other thing that catches her fancy.

Hannah playing with teddy bear counters.

We do as many subjects together as possible and that really cuts down on my teaching time.We have separate math and reading/language for each boy.But scripture study,science,art and history are done collectively as a family.So far this is working well.We have been finished with school by lunch most days.

Jumping of his chair after a discussion about gravity!

One change I am already making though is in our science. I had planned on doing science twice a week.Well I can already tell this isnt going to work for my boys and for two totally different reasons. Isaiah wants more plain and simple.He really enjoys science and limiting it to two days a week just wont work. For Justin its about coving less in a given day. If I try to throw 3 new concepts at him in one day he wont pick up half of it. But if I present those 3 concepts over three days then he has more time to digest each one.

Because it was our first week AND because daddy has just gotten home from his deployment we decided to throw some fun in there and made a mid week trip to the zoo as well as having an afternoon at the lake with some friends.

Justin enjoying a snack at the zoo.

All in all a successful first week back!

Dad tossing Isaiah in the lake!

A GREAT weekly wrap up

I know I’m late posting this up and probably wont be able to link to the wrap up on Kris’ blog.That’s ok though I still wanted to blog about our week! This was one of the best weeks we have had all year! My hubby came home from Iraq this week! :0)

Early in the week the kids and I decorated the porch

Then we decorated the car

We were really trying to stay busy! We knew Justin would be getting home Thursday morning and we needed to fill time!

A friend of mine came over with her three kids and stayed the night Wednesday night.Her husband was coming home that morning as well and they live about 30 minutes away.Since we had to have all the kiddos up and at the gym at 5am I offered to let her stay.I think it helped all of us to pass that slow evening of waiting!

The wait at the gym seemed like forever! We got to watch a big projection screen of the guys getting off there plane.Then a bit more of them while they waited to check in their weapons,for single soldiers to get assigned rooms and then finally they were bused to the gym. This is what it looked like.

I can not even begin to describe the cheers that filled that gym as our soldiers marched in. It was the most wonderful feeling!After a long hard year our soldiers were finally home!

 Finally we were all together again! What an amazing week this was!

Some fun on the lake

The kiddos and I have spent two days this week at the lake having a good time with friends and I just wanted to post some pictures for everybody! So here ya go..

The kids and their friends playing

Hannah showing me her boat

Isaiah looking silly in his goggles

Alyssa content in her stroller

My Justin riding on a log in the lake!

And last me and Hannah drying off and warming up!

Getting past the guilt

In my last post A meek and quiet spirit I wrote about the struggle I have had lately with patience. The very next morning I got up to have some quiet time in the scriptures and this is the scripture I turned to…

isher 12:27 “And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”

Wow.What a powerful verse,especially for me right now. I think sometimes we become so bogged down with shame and guilt because we keep screwing up,because we should be “better”,that we forget that we are who God made us.I know I do! This scripture tells us that it is through our weaknesses that we learn to look to the Lord for strength and draw closer to Him.

I really needed that verse and I hope its helpful for any of you out there struggling with guilt over your own weaknesses.Remember that God made you who you are and He is waiting for you to come to Him with a humble heart so that He can make your weakness a strength.

A meek and quiet spirit

The Lord has been speaking to me lately. It seems like I have been less and less patient and kind and loving to my kids as the stress in my life has built.Cross country moves,a husband finishing up a year deployment and a two year old (face it they can be pretty stressful!) have all been weighing heavily on me lately. The two scriptures that I have been turning to again and again that have really convicted me are-

Ephesians 6:4 “ And,ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”

James 1:19-20 “..let every man be swift to hear,slow to speak,slow to wrath.For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”

Over and over these scriptures have come up in my scripture study,in lessons at church and just popped into my head at random times! The Lord is definitely trying to tell me something! I have not lately been slow to speak or slow to wrath. I know that my impatience and irritated tones are NOT working righteousness and not showing the love of God to my children.

I’ve been praying  a lot lately about this and asking the Lord to give me patience. Today I got a big answer to my prayers right from my bookshelf! I was looking for something to read and came across the book “Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit.” By Teri Maxwell. I vaguely remembered reading it and since we are starting homeschool again next month I thought it was a perfect read!

Well you could have titled this book “Christina here is your answer to Parenting with a Meek and Quiet Spirit!”Hahaha. I love this book. Mrs. Maxwell first helps you to understand that we ALL have those bad days and that none of us can be the parent we want to be on our own.We are nothing without Gods mercy daily. He can work in us and give us a meek and quiet spirit if we let Him.She also stresses the importance of daily time with the Lord.Time to read scripture and pray and feel Gods spirit. In truth that is one of the things most easily put off in my life. Around feeding babies,teaching kids,cleaning house,grocery shopping and all the many other things. But the thing that really was witnessed to me today reading this book is that although those are all important things none of them can give me the peace and the strength that I can get from focusing on my relationship with God.

Today I focused on using my pause button. See we all have one. In the split second between the toddler smearing red lipstick on your tan carpet and your reaction you can use that pause button.Just stop yourself right there and look at the situation and decide how you will handle it. We are not slaves to our emotions.We can CHOOSE how to react.Using that pause button really helps me with that!

I hope I am not the only one who struggles with this. I know at times we all feel discouraged.Its when we realize that we are nothing without Gods strength and love that we can really let go of the guilt and feelings of inadequacy  and look to the Lord for strength.

Spontaneous learning

We are currently still on summer break here. After I looked back over the day though I realized how much learning goes on without me doing any teaching :) While I fed the baby this morning my son Isaiah asked me to look at a few books with him. He brought over two Eyewitness books. One about castles and one about knights(history anyone?) Later in the day Justin pulled down the letter magnets on the fridge and asked me if I could spell “fart” (yep he is ALL boy). That started a game between he and I to give each other words to spell.Check spelling and reading off the list! We all sat down for a game of Uno next.Hannah(almost 3) kept telling us what color our cards were.Yippee for color recognition!The only thing I actually instigated was the math for Isaiah. I asked him to do a math worksheet with me to brush up for the start of school next month. He happily sat and did that and said he was glad he remembered how to do it all since we had taken the summer off for our move :)

I love days like this. It helps me realize that our children are natural learners.The things they can learn when we help them and don't hinder them are really limitless!