Project 365 – Day Eleven (Thurs-DW)

More snow last night. This time I made sure the children got a good start on their school before letting them rush outside. Several schools were closed again today. It’s David’s (age 5) Special Day.
David outside

The neighbor boy shared his sled with the kids. They made sled runs down the yard, complete with a jump at the end.

David and the sled
David takes his turn.
going down
Going down.
down
All the way down
All the way down–somebody help that boy!

Yesterday David got very cold, playing outside. He came in and told me, “If it snows again I am NOT ever going outside!” He was one of the first out this morning. Ah, youth.

David's cold

Why don’t these children wear hats and scarves? Brrrr!

d and s

For his Special Day David really wanted to go off and do something with Tim (as they used to do). Since he knew this wasn’t the current plan, David tried another tactic, “How about Daddy and I play Age of Empires. That isn’t going out and having an adventure.” Poor kiddo. The New Plan for Special Days is that we play a family game and read a book — chosen by the child of the day. Resigning himself to a family game, David requested we play a “new game” (aka something he hasn’t played yet). He is a very interesting child. We decided to try Five Crowns.

five crowns

David, in a last ditch effort to make his Special Day special, decided he didn’t want any extra people playing. I begged a spot as did Joshua. When Daniel turned up to play, David got a little bit upset. Life is hard. He and Tim had a little chat on the steps.

tim and david

sad boytwins

Fortunately the game turned out to be fun and someone (whose initials are Mommy) came up with the great idea of having hot cocoa with little scoops of ice cream added (to cut the heat, you understand). Joshua gladly fixed the hot drinks.

joshua and david
Thanks, Joshua, for being such a servant!

The hot cocoa was too much for the girls to resist, they rushed downstairs to join in the fun and Rachel even decided to play some rounds with us. By this time, chocolate euphoria had settled in and David was more than happy to let Rachel enter the game. Ha!

A silly boy!

david's cocoahamming it uptoo hot

This boy knows how to hold his cards and drink hot chocolate at the same time. He is definitely an Edgren/Moore! Not sure which side of family deserves the credit for the silly faces.

hot cocoa

thumbs up

David and Sarah begged to be allowed to stay up late “and clean for you, Mommy.” They ran around picking up toys, putting away trash, and just generally ‘helping.’ At one point David said, “I don’t know why I’m so happy to be working.” They would have continued cleaning and tidying if Tim hadn’t called for the Bible chapter reading and sent them all to bed. Helpful worker bees!

Another busy day.

Kathy

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Project 365 – Day Ten (Wed-DJ)

Daniel (age 9) knows how to start the day right–breakfast and a good book.

Daniel's breakfast

Tim meets with his men’s accountability group at Panera Bread. They used to meet at Starbucks but, as none of the men were particularly coffee drinkers, Panera Bread seemed a better fit. Ha! Occasionally he will bring us home a big container of delicious bagels. The kids have their favorite flavors. Daniel loves Cinnamon Crunch. I’m not sure these are bagels or fancy cookies.

The big news of our day was SNOW!!!! We woke to an inch or so of beautiful, white snow. The kids did their math and then headed outside to play.

daniel snow

All of the children (except for Joshua) have snow pants but we don’t really have proper footgear or gloves for snow play. When I ventured outside to take some pictures, Daniel proudly displayed his snow covered gloves.

D's mittens
Would you like shake my hand?

The kids played with friends and had quite the snow fight. It wasn’t really a ‘snowball fight’ as I think the snow was too powdery to be made into anything resembling a ball. It was, however, perfect for throwing or flinging.

snow hits Daniel
That looks cold!!!!

Daniel continues to enjoy his Nathan T. Riggins book. He’s almost finished, one chapter left. “If you’re doing my school chart, Mom, I wouldn’t put down just one chapter a day for my Nathan reading. I read, more like, 3 chapters a day,” he said to me this evening. Ah, truly words to warm a homeschooling mother’s heart. Thankfully there is another volume, with books four through six, waiting for Daniel on Joshua’s shelf. I have to say, once again, that I am absolutely delighted with Daniel’s fascination with these books. This year he has enjoyed The Littles Series as well as some of the Magic Tree House books but nothing has quite grabbed his attention and turned him into A Reader like these adventure stories by Stephen Bly.

Nathan T

Rachel and Joshua have recently become Garfield fans, checking them out from the library. Daniel picked up one of the books and laughed and laughed over an interaction between Garfield and his hapless owner, Jon.

D and Garfield

He showed it to all of us.
Daniel shows Garfield

For his Special Day, Daniel chose to play Apples to Apples: Bible Edition. We have the basic version (it’s one of Rachel’s favorites) and were eager to try out the Bible edition. There was much laughter as we played the game. I won the first game and Tim the second–Parents Trounce Kids! I like this new version–it has the same flavor and feel of the original game but with a Biblical focus/direction. It’s not heavy handed. Fun game. Thanks, Posie!!

apples to apples

Daniel requested another game instead of a read-aloud for the end of his Special Day, so four of us stayed at the table to play Castle Keep. Rachel and David ran off to play computer games. Sarah sat with us and worked on a coloring page for a friend.

castle keep

The kids, getting into the swing of things, are helping me with my goal of ‘photographing life.’ Daniel thought it would be terribly funny and sneaky to take a picture of his game pieces in the middle of play.

daniel's cards

I had to try out the self-timer on my camera while we were gathered together. Even without a tripod (we’re missing a crucial piece on ours) I can still get some nice family shots.

family game

There were some difficult moments in the day. Daniel did NOT want to finish school. He didn’t understand why we couldn’t have the entire day off as a ‘Snow Day.’ The idea that we have a certain amount of work that has to be accomplished in a school year and taking time off doesn’t eliminate the work it only prolongs the duration we will be schooling, is not one that he understands easily. I was worried he might lose his Special Day (which would be sad for everyone). Thankfully, he managed to cheer up and complete the rest of his assignments. The day ended on a VERY joyful note.

Kathy

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tn_Jan10th_4

Winter Wonderland

I had some trouble posting pictures last night so I didn’t finish this blog. Tim worked on things and set up a new way for me to upload my pictures.

Wednesday we awoke to a beautiful snowy vista. Now in western WA an inch (or so) can shut things down. All the schools in the area were closed which meant BSF was cancelled and the YMCA classes. My goodness! To this former Michigander it’s hard not to laugh out loud at such a reaction to a small amount of snow. And yet, there was definitely ice under the snow and it was cold outside (at least cold for WA). Thankfully Tim was working from home and didn’t have to deal with an icy commute. The kids were thrilled to see the yard and trees covered with snow. They worked hard to finish their math and scramble into snow gear and head outside.

housesnow tree

Joshua and Daniel grabbed some rope and a sled and used the road as their runway.

Joshua and danieldaniel sleds
Away he goes!!
daniel sleds
And back down the other way.

Rachel made a wonderful snowman or rather a snowgirl.

rachel's snowman

Give her a little hug!
hugging

After outside play, there was a definite need for hot cocoa.

hot cocoa

A good snow day.
Kathy

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Silly Pictures

I absolutely love my digital camera! It is small and portable and easy to use. Tim researched cameras for a long time and was determined to pick out one that I would actually use. He succeeded and lately I’ve gone picture crazy. I grab my camera throughout the day to capture the silly and fun things that the kids are doing or to try out something I’ve learned about picture taking.

Since we have this handy blog and it costs nothing to post picture after picture, I find myself with a lovely forum to express my photo mania. Enjoy or ignore as you wish.

David got some wonderful new Dover coloring books for Christmas. He was so excited to get his OWN History of Sword book (like his brother Joshua). Here he is, hard at work.
David colors David smiles and colorsworking hard

I’m still playing with the flash vs. natural light canera thing (could I be any less technical?). Whenever I notice the natural light appears to be strong, I grab a child, pose them and fire away. These are the black and white shots I took of Sarah.

B/W SarahB and W Sarah

One thing I read in the photography book by Nick Kelsh was to begin laughing, deep, silly belly laughs just as you are about to take a pictures (works best if you have a tripod for the obvious reasons). Most people will smile, laugh, or at least be amused at their rather odd photographer and you can get some good shots. The children know I’ve discovered this and so they try hard not to laugh. We’ve started having contests to see if they can resist my laughter.

Rachel doesn't laugh

Rachel laughs

Rachel tries but can’t make it. Daniel doesn’t fare much better.
Daniel resistsDaniel laughs

Joshua does the best (never quite breaking into laughter) but notice how stern he must compose his face to begin. Rachel and Daniel tried to help by laughing uproariously from the kitchen while I took these pictures.

Stern Joshua
Joshua smiles

Enough silliness–back to work.

back to work

I stayed up much too late last night so I need to get to bed at a decent hour tonight. My BSF lesson is all finished, Daniel did the dinner dishes, and the house is relatively picked up so I should be able to retire for the evening. The rest of the family is already in bed.

Night.
Kathy

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Project 365 – Day Nine (Tues-R)

It’s Rachel’s Special Day. I have some sweet pictures of her day but most of this blog is going to be a Welcome To Matthias (the guinea pig) posting.

First some snapshots of Rachel’s day.

Practicing the Piano (lesson tomorrow)
RJ piano

Working on her handwriting

RJ handwriting

Trying out the timer on my camera

Mom and Daughter

Ending the day with a game of Bang!

RJ Bang

Now on to the Story of Matthias. I wrote most of this post back in September but forgot to post it (couldn’t get the pictures to load).

Rachel spent a good portion of the summer pleading for the purchase of another guinea pig. We put her off until our return from Texas in August. She agreed to the wait but kept up her pet campaign with subtle ploys. She left notes by the bed reading, “Think Guinea Pigs!” Every time we had a family meeting or discussion she would pipe up, immediately, “I think we should get another guinea pig. Let’s talk about guinea pigs.” And so on. It was relentless!!

RJ and Matt
A girl and her rodent are a beautiful thing to behold???

Finally Rachel came up with a location for the guinea pig cage that appealed to me–the upstairs bathroom (in the tub). It’s the kids’ bathroom and no one uses that shower/tub (they all prefer the master bathroom for bathing). The room is a small, contained area and a guinea pig would get lots of attention and notice from the children but cause me relatively little trouble. The cage mess (inevitable) wouldn’t be in my space and could be handled by the children.

bathroom for guinea pig
A palace fit for a guinea pig!

Once a location was determined I caved to the Rachel/Guinea pig pressure. Now to raise some money. Tim told Rachel she had to come up with the money for food and bedding. My goodness, the work we got out of her for a good week. She cleaned floors, bathrooms, put away laundry/dishes/toys, you name it. We did have to watch her as every simple request was countered with, “Will you pay me?” I mean, I understand the desire to raise some money for a new pet but I don’t think I should have to pay my daughter to make her own pb and j sandwich. Ha!

So on a Tuesday night in September, Rachel had the younger kids working hard with her to clean out Martin’s guinea pig cage and get things ready for a new guinea pig.

cage cleaning
working hard
Team work!

When everything was all in place and ready to go, Tim and all the children (except for Joshua who was out at the Duckabush) went to the pet store to pick out a guinea pig. Such excitement!

small packages
Guinea Pig travel bag.

Everyone agreed that we needed another name from the Redwall series. Martin was named after the book, Martin the Warrior. The kids liked Matthias or Mattimeo. A quick call was placed to Joshua (off with grandparents) who said we should go with Matthias–Matthias it is. We welcomed the new little guy to our house and the kids got him settled in his new home. Ah, the joys of parenthood.

The Lord has definitely given Rachel a love for animals. She has a sensitive, caring place in her heart for God’s small creatures. It stretches me and pleases me to see how she is gifted in ways that are different from me.

A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel. Proverbs 12: 10
Rachel and Matt
Rachel and her little buddy.

Kathy

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