(these two of Bryan and I taken by Keenan!)
Monthly Archives: April 2007
Thaddeus’ 4th Birthday
Its a …. DOG! (just in case you couldn’t tell!!) Definitely not my most impressive cake yet! – not that any of them have been exactly impressive, but this one WAS easy… it took 20 minutes to frost! It was a good day, even if Bryan missed the first part for our first open house day over at the COMPLETED condo! YEAH!!!
He got so many fun presents!! The kids all took turns with the foam rocket launcher we got him (you jump on it to make them shoot – pretty cool – and cheap!) and the dinosaur that roared… ALWAYS a winner! (and something to fight over – they were all 3 and 4ish year olds after all!) BUT the marble run was the favorite… we have one that is falling apart and is WELL loved and WELL used… for the last two years. The joy never grew old!! So here is the new and improved, all marbles still here marble run!
And I just had to take these pics of him and Grandpa standing at the door… he was happy to see him!
Keenan’s first talent show!
SO, Keenan recited his poem at the talent show. We have been working ( a little slowly!) through Andrew Peduwa’s “Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization”. Granted, we are not nearly as consistent as we should be, but still… its been fun, and Keenan does a great job, and I’d rather him still enjoy it then start to hate our memorization times in the morning! He has memorized 11 poems this year, and we’ll get one more in before summer, and then during summer, maybe a couple more if they have to do with summer…
He chose to recite “The Vulture” by Hilaire Bello, short and sweet…
He walked out there, and got REALLY nervous and didn’t want to stand in front of the microphone. The MC guy was GREAT… “Do you want to use this mic instead?” (the one in his hand)
K “yeah” nodding
MC “OK, I’ll just hold it for you like this”
K “The vulture… the vulture… I just can’t remember it! All the people are staring at me” (said as if that was a surprise! 🙂
MC ” yeah, they do that. Ok, everyone, close your eyes!”
K” The vulture eats between its meals, and thats the reason why…” for the whole poem… loudly, clearly, perfectly, with expression and everything!!
He said to me later, “Everyone was just staring at me (oh the gall!) but when they closed their eyes, then I could say it real firmly!” Here’s a picture of my handsome boy, who yelled “Bravo” after each person’s performance…
And just because he is cute… here he is at FREE Kid’s Day at the museum… it was fun… they obviously had the most fun at the non-educational part!! 🙂
Earth Day
Recently I discovered Earth Day… I had always got the impression ‘greeny’ type things weren’t for Christians… It was an impression I got, not necessarily an accurate one. Most Christians I talk to really DO want to take care of the earth, although most aren’t terribly proactive… that is a fairly common thing among most Christians I know. They aren’t really proactive about much, quite frankly, except maybe going to church on Sunday morning. That is a side note, and I’m sure many would disagree with me, just as many would prove me wrong (and that would be awesome!)
There has been a renewal recently in earth awareness, recycling, etc, and I think it is awesome.
My kids and I have recently become involved in a groups called Roots and Shoots. It has taken a non-Christian (almost actively so!) to awaken me and spur me on to be more proactive. I am SO thankful for what I have learned from these friends, and I hope and pray in turn, in spite of me, she and her family will meet Jesus one day.
Last week three of us homeschooling families walked the trails with our young children to pick up trash, bringing it home to recycle (our recycling is rather limited here in Alaska) and making sculptures out of the non-recyclable items… Here are our projects:
Keenan made a t-shirt… very creative thinking! I suggested he put a head on it, so we knew for sure! Made out of a Quiznos cup and lid, some shiny gift wrap bow, straws for arms…
Keenan’s first idea was a boat… made out of two bottoms of the trays of those yummy rotisserie Costco chickens, a whipped cream carton, part of a margarine tub lid for the life saver, bottle caps for windows, pringle peel off sealers for the sail, tied on with a twisty tie thing, a straw, and my favorite part that you can’t see was the rudder, made out of a plastic knife. He did a great job designing this!!
and finally, my idea, but the kids decorated it… and Keenan turned it from a butterfly into a dragonfly…
The tops of the two rotisserie chicken containers, Ritz cracker plastic cut into strips, more margarine container lid cut up (that lid got A LOT of mileage!) a torn apart red shiny bow, cut into strips, an empty wax covered coffee bag with the top turn over thing used as the antennaes… and bottle caps for the eyes.
SO There you have it… didn’t they do an awesome job? And now they, and I, understand more about recycling… we have our bags of trash sorting, and will start carrying bags with us to pick up trash when we go on our walks on the trails come REAL spring… (as in after the snow melts!)
ideas for the end of year burn out
Rachelle from Three Knights and a Princess needed some inspiration… and I can’t seem to comment on any eblogger accounts (sorry friends… not completely ignoring you!) So here are some ideas I plan on for the summer after baby comes.
Library books!! ‘educational’ movies, including my favorite musicals from childhood!!
Some sort of random field trip you always wanted to do but haven’t (fire station / police / tv channels)
You know those activity books on our shelves that have great ideas and we say “one day”… be determined… 3 days a week… or one day a week!! 🙂
Included in that would be my new book coming “Family Math” – my version of math for the summer…
Nature walks… field guides… ‘treasure hunts’ if they are like my boys and don’t like to look at a flower just for the pure joy of looking at it and drawing it! 🙂
Gardening
Thanks so much to rachelle for the thinking blogger award thing… I dont’ know how to get the little button thingy up… but I’m impressed with myself that I make someone think, especially with the subject of my last few posts!! 🙂 (butt cramps and all!!)
I must tag 5 people with this lovely award… pretty much everyone I read has been given this award already in my blog lists… So I have no one new to add… BUT I’ll come back and edit this soon to put my favorite thinkers up!! 🙂
My break from leading worship
I have taken a two week break from leading worship at church, to get me through to 37 weeks… It has been SO very nice. And I have realized I need to do this way more often, just because!!!
Maybe take two weeks off every 6 months… last week I still went to rehearsal and sang, but just didn’t lead. This week I skipped rehearsal because I was exhausted and contracting and had swollen feet, though I’ll probably still sing if Heather wants me to (she is filling in)
SO I am feeling rejuvenated, and ready to let God use me some more, and willing to cling to Him for His confidence and ability and anointing… (WHY would I want to, or dare to any other way? I DON”T KNOW!)
2 Samuel 6:21,22
“I will celebrate before the LORD. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes” … this was the KING… the leader, not just one of the crowd… and he wasn’t trying to hype anyone up and create any momentum… God does that, often using a leader’s heart that is “so on fire with praise that it burned right through any inhibitions or pride.” (Matt Redman)
Once again I find myself in a place of needing to kindle my heart’s flame for Father God, my Redeemer, to renew the romance… Luke 6:45 “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”
So do my words and actions and face and worship reflect a heart of abandon? Am I lost in His wonder and love and majesty and mercy and grace and kingship and beauty and PRAISE???
Hmmm… its been good to think on recently… a little soul searching does the body good… both personally and the church! 🙂
charlie horses when pregnant
I have always got charlie horses when pregnant… tons of them… they wake me up in the night, and I get them during the day too. Usually in my calves.
Yesterday, I got a charlie horse in my BUTT CHEEK!!! You know how it helps to stretch it a certain way? I couldn’t figure out how to stand or sit… how do you stretch your butt cheek muscle so a charlie horse will stop… It left without me having to ask my 7 yr old to punch my buttock really hard. That was good!! 🙂
My 34 week belly
Here are the promised pictures…
a week and a half old, but still… we’ll get the next ones up when we take them! 🙂
pictures over at the other place!!
Please come see the pics of my cute and hysterical children… and COMING SOON… my 34 week belly and my 35 week belly!! yes. if you can stand it, you may look at my beautiful baby through my skin! 🙂
A Life of Balance 