Category Archives: Family

P365 – Day 29 (J’s Books)

Joshua 1:8

Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

Well, these books aren’t exactly the Book of Law – okay, none of them come anywhere close to being the Book of Law but they are ones that Joshua is reading day and night.

joshua books

He has quite a stack going of “current books” – some for school, others for pleasure. I should also note that, to his credit, Joshua reads 2 or 3 chapters of the Bible a day.

six books

As Rachel says, “Only six, Joshua? I’m disappointed in you.” What would (cousin) Rebecca say?? Let’s ask her. Rebecca, how many books are you in the middle of right now? Do post a comment and tell us.

Rachel and I had fun posing Joshua with his latest collection of books.

thinking

What book shall I pick?

laughing

Bwahahah – These books are mine, all mine!

reading

And I’m going to read them all right now!

Joshua and Tim convinced me to join them in a game of Thurn and Taxis. We started it right before dinner and picked up the game after dinner was over. It is not a very complicated game and focuses more on individual building of mail lines rather than competing against the other players. As it so happens, I beat them both. I guess I managed to figure out the rules enough to come out victorious. Fun.

thurn and taxis

game board

Shall we play again, boys? Do you think you can beat me next time?

“Beginners luck, Mom!” Says Joshua. Hmmm. We’ll see. I happen to recall the winner from Saturday’s Puerto Rico game.

Oh yes, that would be me … again.

Side note: Check out Carl’s blog for an amazing sunset picture taken in Olympia near the airport. Truly spectacular.

Kathy

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Project 365 – Day 26 (Fri – S)

This is how Sarah and I started out our day.

sarah and mommy

Sarah (age 4 1/2) came downstairs, all snuggly and still sleepy. How could I resist? I am trying to be more sensitive in the moments when the children reach out to me (for a book or a hug or a discussion) and be purposeful in giving them my attention and time. It’s difficult. I am usually busy – either with my own chores and work or my relaxation (phone calls, computer time, etc.). It takes effort and a determined, cheerful spirit to stop what I am doing and reach back to the children. I think about the verse in Malachi 4:

He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers;

My desire is that my heart would be turned toward my children and that they would grow up knowing that my love for them is deep. I especially struggle making time for the children when I am in the midst of working FOR the family (cleaning, preparing meals, washing laundry, and on and on). There is a part of me that cries, “Don’t bother me now, I’m busy serving you.” And yet, which would they prefer? A mother who sweeps the floor, folds their laundry, picks up toys, or a mother who sits down and reads a book, who tickles them as they run about?

I love the image implied in the phrase, ‘turning your heart to your child.’ There is a deliberate choice and action involved and a response returned. If I have my child’s heart I can teach them about the Lord; when I share with them, they will listen. If I have my child’s heart I can correct and discipline them and they will respond, knowing I love them and want the best for them. If I have my child’s heart I can walk along side them and help them to discern God’s plan for their life. If I have my child’s heart I can become their friend.

So, that means I need to put aside the keyboard or put down my book and listen to the children. I need to keep them close to me when I’m working in the kitchen or around the house and include them in my activities. I need to remember these years when the children are home with us are precious and fleeting. I need to remember the words in Deuteronomy 6 and take every opportunity to teach them about the Lord.

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Sarah has been been waiting for today to arrive ever since last weekend when Rachel had her big sleepover and Sarah was promised one for this weekend. Almost every day she has asked me if this was the day Elise would come over. Her eagerness was so sweet and full of hope it was hard not to be excited with her. Today we had our homeschooling co-op. Sarah loves her little kindergarten class. She has some wonderful teachers and even gets to join David for one period in a “big kids class.”

snack time

Snack time!

After co-op it was FINALLY time for Elise to come over. We had a lovely dinner with Elise and family (thanks for providing everything, Jennifer!!) and then went to church for a showing of Facing the Giants. The kids brought blankets and sleeping bags and set up spots on the floor in the front of the gym. Joshua was kind and carried in some comfy folding chairs for the moms. The movie was excellent and we all had a good time. The church made popcorn and served it in the entryway along with water bottles and juice. Sarah and Elise stuck together for the movie time, posing for pictures when necessary. Lol!

sarah and elise

Now the children are all settled into their rooms and ready for bed. We’ll see if the girls get any sleep. Surely 4 year olds won’t stay up until midnight like the big girls did last weekend.

Kathy

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Project 365 – Day 25 (Thurs-DW)

David has begun the Birthday Countdown. He turns 6 in the middle of February. My goodness!! I tell him almost every day that I really don’t think he should be allowed to leave the 5′s behind, that being 5 suits him very well and that he should re-consider. So far he isn’t interested in my ‘stay five forever’ plan.

David

Look at that face – would YOU let him grow up and turn 6? Surely that silly-pie should stay 5.

Daniel told David he should have a Family Only Birthday Party. I’m not sure why he felt his interference was needed, but perhaps he was looking to avoid a houseful of rambunctious 5 and 6 year olds (and I must say I can’t blame him, in fact I might go so far as to join him–ha). Or maybe Daniel is hoping we’ll have a fun family outing. One year we went to Odyssey One for Daniel’s birthday. We had just moved here and weren’t involved in any activities and were not yet well-connected in our church (i.e., the list of birthday invitees was non-existent). We had a wonderful time celebrating Daniel and exploring the adventure center.

Just about every other day David changes his mind about his upcoming birthday – in fact he doesn’t seem to remember what he had decided the day before. It’s rather funny.

“Mom,” he said to me yesterday, “I need to tell you who I want to invite to my birthday party.”

I interrupt his litany of names. “David, I thought you were going to have a family party this year.”

“Oh, that’s right,” he shakes his head. “Let’s see, I think I want to do something fun for my party. What are you going to buy me?”

He definitely makes us laugh. Rachel and I were watching some little home video snippets (from my digital camera) last night and at one point Rachel said that I should video-record David all the time because he’s so hilarious.

playing a game

goofball

David didn’t get his Special Day with Tim today, so he decided to use some of his evening time playing Age of Empires. He certainly knows how to ham it up for the camera.

Rachel went upstairs to David’s room with the instructions to take pictures of David with some of his favorite toys. This is one of the pictures she took.

lots of toys

We had a visitor join us for dinner tonight. I love some of the blessings that having guests brings, in particular the opportunity to try out new recipes and the excuse to tidy up the house. Of course, that does raise some questions such as: “Why would you clean up for company and not your own family?”, or “Shouldn’t you try new, creative menus for those whom you love best?” Hmmm. Since the children are called on to do most of the cleaning, they would probably shout “No! Leave the house messy!” I’m not sure they are completely unbiased in this regard. Tim really prefers a ‘tried and true’ menu so he wouldn’t necessarily vote in favor of new, “interesting” recipes (read: could contain strange vegetables and spices). Joshua, being a hungry 13 year old, votes in favor of food and lots of it; if Mom need some creativity in order to be interested in cooking more, he will go along happily.

Here Tim and Carl try to figure out the secret ingredient in the creamed spinach.

wondering

spinach

Nutmeg was the hidden spice in the spinach.

David sat next to Carl and found himself suddenly shy, but still ready to smile for the camera.

david and carl

Thanks for joining us, Carl. As always, it was lovely to have you.

Tim has a pile-up of Special Days to do this weekend. I believe, so far, only Rachel has had her Special Day – lucky girl, I wonder how she managed to sneak hers in? Joshua, Daniel, and now David have all been moved to Saturday. How fun – that means we’ll be playing lots of games this weekend. Joshua wants to try out one of our new, complicated ones. I don’t know what Daniel and David will choose. David likes to have one on one time with Tim so he’ll do his best to find a time when everyone else is busy.

Maybe they’ll work on the plans for David’s birthday party. Lol!

Kathy

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Link to Daniel’s Post

Sorry about the error report on yesterday’s blog. I changed the time stamp after I had already posted the blog so the link ended up pointing to a blog that wasn’t there. A ghost blog.

Click on this direct link to the Project 365 – Day 24.

Kathy

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Project 365 – Day 24 (Wed-D)

It’s Daniel’s (age 9) Special Day.

daniel

I think today a resigned acceptance of his stance as the Middle Child came over Daniel. He told me that his Special Day was on Wednesday, the middle of the week (a rather unfortunate day since we have church activities in the evening) and that it didn’t matter if Daddy started with the youngest or the oldest, either way he would be right there in the middle.

It is interesting to contemplate how birth order affects the children. Daniel is right, smack dab in the middle of the family with a brother and sister older than him and a brother and sister younger than him. Most of the time this is extraordinarily fun – he has a wealth of resources for play available to him. He can play difficult games of strategy and logic or he can drive Match Box cars around on the floor. He can tackle his big brother, using some real strength in the ‘fight’ or he can snuggle up on Big Blue with his little sister and read books. He can play with a group (if you define group as a rather small amount of people) of boys or girls.

On the other hand, it can be difficult to be in the middle. You aren’t the oldest – the first to do things, given responsibility and the chance to shine – and you aren’t the youngest – cute, amusing and precocious. What is left?

Thankfully Daniel does find many ways to shine as the middle child. Because of his placement in the family he is helpful with the younger two (easily playing with them) and still a fun peer to the older two.

daniel and sarah

Here Daniel celebrates with Sarah over her new scooter.

Daniel brings many challenges to the family but many joys as well. We have begun a new study of Proverbs in our school time. My Bible reading plan goes through Proverbs every month. I decided there was so much meat in the chapters that I wanted to read them with the children, but I desired to find a way for the passages to come alive and be interesting. I came up with the simple idea of using part of our school time to go through each verse one by one – having the children take turns reading and explaining the Proverb aloud. Brilliant!

I make sure we each have the same version of the Bible (for simplicity sake) and have the children start with verse one and continue on through the chapter. I am pleased with how much the kids understand and how willing they are to spend a rather significant amount of time studying Proverbs. Daniel and I did a portion of a Proverbs devotional workbook last year. I had intended it to be something he did on his own but that didn’t prove to be successful. He had a hard time understanding the questions and how to find the answers in the Bible passage. It is remarkable to me how much he has improved in his comprehension and understanding in just a year’s time. One of my great desires for Daniel is that the wisdom found in the Bible (and especially Proverbs) would penetrate his heart and mind and that he would grow to be the “wise son [who] brings joy to his father.” Proverbs 15:20a.

garfield

This, of course, is NOT a picture of our Bible reading time.

This has been a difficult year for Daniel in the area of friendships. His cousin moved to Norway, his best friend moved to Thailand, two other friends from church went to Africa for the year, and recently his good friend from co-op moved to Kentucky. That’s a lot of loss in a young boy’s life. Through it all, however, Daniel maintains a hopeful, cheerful spirit. He is an incredibly resilient boy in many ways. Already he has made some new friends in the homeschooling PE classes at the Y. I have no doubt he will find some fun companions for this year’s adventures.

He is our Middle Child and well do we love him.

Kathy

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