Our Family Circus

The core Math, Language, Phonics, and Writing are finished for the year leaving fun stuff! We read everyday, work on handwriting and can truly enjoy more Science, Social Studies, and one another. Monday we biked to piano/ music lessons. B. was asleep before I loaded her to come home. Yes, a child can sleep through the helmet and all the straps snapping her into and then out of the seat as well as the the bumps inbetween. Here are a few other perks from our week.... Animal Classification project-we have talked about the names and characteristics and have even sorted plastic animals but now we are creating our own classifications with old magazine pictures! B. loves the glue and worked on cutting. Thankful for warm, rainy days with a toddler who dresses herself and her siblings who are not afraid to get a little dirty. In fact, Dolly and a friend washed the plastic pool out today. It was loaded with bubbles and so were they! Catching tadpoles at a local oasis! The family uses their p...

I love our AWANA T&T clubbers! I want so much for them! Yes, they are children, but many of them have already invited Jesus into their hearts. My concern is that I do not see an authentic reflection of that relationship(as a group anyway.) I have been reading One Million Arrows by Julie Ferwerda. I began reading it while flying to Vnam but did not have a pen to write in it so I had to stop reading. I only made that mistake once! My Dear is reading, Do the Hard Things by Brett and Alex Harrison. Both books push our children to do more. What is it that makes us think our ministry does not start until we are adults and ends at retirement? While teaching these 3rd-6th graders, I gave the students minutes to come up with a list of what God did. When it was time to share, most of the comments were about what He created not so much about what He did. One child did add that He sent Jesus to die. I made a quick list going through Genesis and partly through Exodus and the excitement brewed i...

After a packed weekend and a rainy morning, we were moving slow on Monday. We had no place to go so it worked out perfectly! The children voted for pizza for lunch so we sat to eat. We were pretty much finished eating when Dolly says to me, "I need to accept Christ." She has made this statement before but when we asked why, her answer was, "so I can get baptized." As the momma, I need to be ABSOLUTELY sure that they know what they are doing and why. So I asked her why she needed to accept Christ. She explained,and I asked questions. Billy was biting his tongue wanting to answer for her. She then announced that she was going into the other room to "do it." We stayed seated at the table. She then returned around the corner and said, "Well, I need you to hear me!!" (in her best duh tone!) We decided to call My Dear at work, put him on speaker phone and Dolly started a prayer that went, "Dear God, I hope you are having a good day" and end...

Well, it is gone! We took down the crib today. Between Billy and Dolly, there was no time to take it down! We took it down for a year or so before B. arrived. We have used the crib off and on for 8 years! This time taking it down feels different. I wonder if we will ever put it up again. I wonder if our next child will be a baby,preschooler, school aged child or if we will only be Spiritual parents again. The easiest part of the wondering is that I don't have to know! God knows so we will wait on Him and hang on to the crib just in case. Not sure who would want Dolly's chewing marks on their crib anyway....but I sure love them! The children were so excited to celebrate the "big girl bed" with B. They washed it off from storage and all piled in. At this moment, our tiny B. is sleeping soundly in her big girl bed, which is tiny, just like her!

Last weekend, in the rain, we had a yard sale to raise money to pay for My Dear's upcoming mission trip to Hait*. I mentioned the sale to the kids and asked them to go through their belongings and find donations. Dolly was on it! This is the child that wants to keep everything but for this cause she was ready. She even priced her own items. Amazing enough, they sold for the price she put on them! Billy gathered several little cars and we decided they would be perfect for My Dear's suitcase and small enough to fit in his pockets to give to the Hait*an Children. When My Dear began to make plans for the trip, Billy gave him a bank. My Dear would drop his change in it at the end of each day. B. saw the pattern and would find coins to add to the bank. On one occassion Billy asked to purchase something. When I asked how much money he had, he said he did not have any because B. was taking it from his room and putting it in daddy's bank. After he mentioned it, I realized ...