A NEW BLOG

You can find me on my NEW BLOG.

I’m combining this blog with my family blog, A Bundle of Myrrh. I write more personally and freely here and have tried to maintain the separate identities of my blogs so this is not easy for me. I doing this to simplify things for me but mostly because I just haven’t liked this new “home” and didn’t want to go back to Blogger. And those of you who read my blogs can now find all of my musings and craziness in ONE place.

I’ll see how it goes.

Learning Basket

This week: Shepherds

Activities: Not too much this week because, well see previous post. Coloring pages and help begin to put our nativity set out with Shepherds and sheep added preparing for Christmas, reading some of our Christmas story books paying special attention to the shepherds

Special Meal: Shepherds Pie…yumm!

Stages and Seasons

Some days seems like you can’t catch a break! Literally. All you want to do is sit down for 10 minutes, drink a cup of hot coffee (hot out of the pot, not warmed up in the microwave for the third time) and give the old ears a rest. The little dears say “Not a chance Mama!” and cackle with glee. Some weeks feel like this. I’m having one of these weeks. It’s not ALWAYS impossible to get all three babies down for a nap at once, just most of the time. Moments to myself are truly few and far between.

The girls have hit a supreme “getting into”, “messing with”, “climbing on”, “tearing up”, “throwing around”, “jumping off”, “pushing down” phase. Doing crafts, reading books, letting them help me cook or anything else fun have all become recipes for disaster. PLUS (oh yeah, there’s a “plus”) Lily has regressed in her potty training.  She does great with anyone else, anywhere else, no accidents, but when she’s home with us forget it, she’s not gonna sit on that potty.

I believe I’ve finally figured out the problem though. She feels left out. Clara and Gerhardt are still in diapers, they still have bottles (Clara occasionally) and she has to be the big girl. She jokes about being a baby and asks for a diaper sometimes. I think she’s going in her pants to feel like she’s still a baby. I try to make her excited about being a big girl but since she and Clara do so many of the same things there isn’t a very clear way of showing her how she’s the big girl and not a baby. I just don’t know that she’s old enough to grasp this idea and I’m at a loss on how to “convince” her to go back to using the potty as well as she was. Sigh.

This is a very tough age and stage my girls are going through. Of course, I’ve thought that since Lily was 8 months and screaming for fun and suffering from separation anxiety (in our living room), then when she was 14 months and Clara was 3 months and again when they were both mobile and following me everywhere crying…wait, they still do that. Two years old is a world of its own for sure. And the 18 month old who thinks she’s two…well, it can get crazy around here to put it nicely.

I think I may also suffer from very unrealistic expectations. Some days I feel like I’m losing control of everything, discipline, order, cleanliness to name just a few things. So I’m always trying to remind myself that I need to adjust my ideals for this season of my life, I can get a little bent out of shape when things get too messy and chaotic. But everything eventually calms down, gets picked up, gets washed and gets cooked.

I can feel overwhelmed by all this responsibility but I know our Lord gives comfort, counsel and strength, most of the time when and where we don’t expect it. And He puts kind people in our lives to help us during these times. This is easy for me to forget and to take for granted. Without His provision where would I be?

Learning Basket

This Week: Pilgrims, Native Americans…Thanksgiving

Activities: Make Pilgrim girl bonnets (I loved these when I was little!), coloring and painting pages, visit with Grandma and Grandpa and talk about what we are “thankful” for.

Reading: Thanksgiving A Harvest Celebration, The Story of Thanksgiving , The Story of the Pilgrims, Word Bird’s Thanksgiving Words

Singing: Some found here

Watching: Youtube has several “shows” about Pilgrims and this website is really neat!

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Guest Posts

I’m very excited about some upcoming guest posts from some dear friends of mine.

In celebration of “National Adoption Month” and the fact that the Lord makes mothers out of us in different ways, I’ve asked Eugénie and Morgan to share their stories of becoming mamas to their daughters.

And stay-at-home mama Rachel has some very fun and creative methods she uses in her pre-schooling lesson plans with her son. Stay tuned to find out what those are!

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Never A Dull Moment

So, anyone know how to get pen marks off the wall?

Tutu Easy

I thought that Lily, being all about ballerinas right now, deserved to have a proper tutu. She’s been happy using any old skirt in her closet, but I wanted to give her a little upgrade. I didn’t want to buy one right now so I thought I’d make her one.

I don’t keep tulle laying around the house and since I’m 45 miles from any cities where you could find tulle, I had to get resourceful. I just happened to see this ribbon in a bag the other day and got to work. I found an online tutorial for a “no sew” tutu, sat down with my scissors et voila! And though it sticks out in every direction and really looks more like she should be going to a Luau instead of stepping over to the barre, she LOVES it!

And while we’re discussing ballerinas, look at this one!

I have to say I’m pretty impressed with how Lily stayed “in the lines”. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 27 month old color with such precision.

Clara’s precision on the other hand, expresses itself very differently. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 17 month old color with such…hunger.

Cherished Mail

From NPR – As part of a series on the U.S. Postal Service airing later this month, NPR is collecting images of the best thing that ever arrived in your mailbox. Did you receive something in the mail that you keep close to your heart — a love letter, a postcard from abroad, a note from a dear relative, a reply to fan mail, a care package, via USPS?

Please share scans or photos of your postcard (front and back), letter and envelope (if you have it), or package and tell us the story behind it. We will select some to accompany our Postal Service series and feature them on NPR.org.

I decided to participate with this submission of the “love” letters between me and Phil. I sent this photo and “the story” as follows:

My most cherished possessions are these letters between me and the man that became my husband. We were living in different states so a month after we met, we began writing to one another and continued up until the week before we were married, 6 months later. I remember running to the mail box in the rain one afternoon praying a letter would be waiting there for me, happily I was not disappointed. We still write letters to one another.

Never a Dull Moment

Disciples in the Home

Philip and Gerhardt, Sept. 5, 2010

“The best thing in married life, for the sake of which everything ought to be suffered and done, is the fact that God gives children and commands us to bring them up to serve Him. To do this is the noblest and most precious work on earth, because nothing may be done which pleases God more than saving souls. If the need were to arise, all of us should be ready to die in order to bring a soul to God. So you see how rich in good works the estate of marriage is. God lays souls into the lap of married people, souls begotten from their own body, on which they may practice all Christian works. For when they teach their children the Gospel, parents are certainly their apostles, bishops, and ministers.”

Martin Luther, What Luther Says, #2836