a blessed life

Counting my blessings...

86.  A fun, spontaneous, unexpected father's day fishing at a tilapia farm with new friends. (wish I had pictures!!)
87.  Laughing together.
88.  Screaming with excitement.
89.  Church
90.  Knowing that my kids have the best dad EVER.
91. "Ice cream" snacks which are really frozen chocolate milk!
92.  Hospitality from friends - which is saying a lot when it's our crazy family of four!
93.  Tropical treats.

94.  Laughter on swings.
95.  The way Koa is mesmerized by his brothers.
96.  Getting out of the house.
97.  An afternoon at the park - such a simple thing can bring so much joy.

98.  My children learning lessons at the river with daddy each week.
99.  An amazingly blessed life.
100. Giggles at the kitchen table.
101.  Koa napping so I can do this quick post!

speaking of schedules...

here's a post about scheduling in family time, something I haven't really thought of before.  I'm a pretty spontaneous person.  But, sometimes my expectations don't line up with reality, and perhaps scheduling can help to make those things happen - like quality family time.  Now if only I could stick to my schedule! ;)

Scheduling in Family Time

Throwing my schedule out the window!

I recently posted about my amazing new schedule with Kai and how well it's going.  Well, it is going well.  I love the productivity of a good schedule.  But even in that, sometimes you just have to toss the schedule and mix things up.  That's the beauty of homeschool.

Kai woke up in sort of a grumpy, whiny mood.  He wasn't "hopping to it" with his schedule with any form of enthusiasm.  He was resisting every form of work.  I went to put Koa down for his morning nap and just sat and prayed for a minute. I prayed for a strategy of how to turn this day around and make it a good one. I immediately felt that I needed to let go of the schedule and do some fun, creative stuff with our unit on Ocean we've been doing.

So I gathered the boys around and did the good day cheer.  Then we played "Dive Under the Ocean."  To play I put some sea creature toys under a sheet and called a child's name, "Jude, dive under the ocean."  He "swam" under the sheet and picked one ocean toy and named the animal he picked.  We did this several times and they would have kept playing all day!

My next suggestion was to use the new paints that my mom brought us.  So we each picked an ocean creature to paint.

Next we did a really fun craft.  We sat and tore up little sheets of construction paper.  We put them into a trash bag.  Then we cut out a sea animal shape and painted it with glue.  We dropped the gluey creature into the bag and shook it up.  They had a lot of fun shaking the bag up.  Then we pulled the creature out and were amazed at how the little papers stuck to the creature so perfectly.

Then we made this little project - you fill a bottle half way with blue colored water.  Fill the rest with oil.  It makes waves in the bottle.  

After all the crafts and games we went outside to have a snack and story.  This is "Quiet Fox."  He has his ears up and his mouth closed!  My friend Ellen, a second grade teacher taught me this one!  It works!

And after story a good run with the ball - kicking it soccer style, or futbol as we say here, before the rain came.

I think everyone felt refreshed after this morning and the next day Kai was ready to get back to his schedule with renewed energy and enthusiasm!

Making Changes

I'll confess something.  Sometimes it's hard for me to leave the house.  I know that sounds crazy, but it's just the effort of tearing myself free from my children and chores and when I do have a chance to go out I'd usually rather just rest and read and be quiet.  But I know my hermit tendencies are not healthy and in reality make me unhappy.

I read this article last week called "The Trouble with Motherhood" and it brought me to tears.  It made me realize I need to make some changes.  So I sat down and just sort of wrote out how I was feeling and what I thought would help. Basically it involved sitting with my hubby and making a more detailed schedule of our lives.  We're at a phase of life where if it's not "scheduled" in, it won't happen!  So now I have 7 a.m. - 8 a.m. scheduled for me before Scott goes out the door at 8.  Scott does breakfast and Bible with the kids and I get to have a little time.

This week I went walking on the beach, just me and God.  I played tennis with a friend.  I even went to a women's fellowship Saturday night, even though I didn't want to and I was tired.  My husband actually prayed for me going out the door!  Isn't that silly, but so sweet?  I ended up staying until 10:30 pm and laughing so hard I was crying.  I feel better, I feel more alive, I feel more creative and joyful.  I think for us moms it's the little things.  Small choices can make such huge difference.

Steady Mom's 30-minute blog challenge 

Still counting...

66.  I rearranged my furniture and feel like I have a new home.
67.  I cut off some pants into shorts and feel like I have a new wardrobe.
68.  The way my husband makes me laugh til I cry.
69.  The amazing feeling of riding a bike to pick up some groceries.
70.  Free health care and medicines.
71.  Kind doctors.
72.  I needed to take two children to the clinic and right when I was trying to figure out what to do two friends stopped by right at that moment and were able to babysit, making a stressful situation un-stressful!  I love that.
73.  The way my kids are so snuggly when they're sick.
74.  Blood tests for dengue coming up negative.
75.  Fevers breaking.
76.  Waking up to see the sleepy sweet face of Koa gazing at me.
77.  Conversations with Kai covering so many different topics.
78.  Feeling sore from exercise.
79.  Fevers breaking.
80.  Learning patience.
81.  Koa's little bald spot.
82.  Ezra's amazing imagination.
83.  Jude transitioning from his little potty to the real toilet - finally! phew!
84.  An afternoon with bubbles, hermit crabs, umbrellas, a hose and warm drizzling rain.
85.  Feeling so much better - probiotics and rest seemed to do the trick!

The Intensity of This Season

When things seem hard, I look at the stage of life my husband and I are in and I think we are probably at the very peak of intensity level.  In terms of the ages of our kids (7, 4, 2, and 7 months) and their needs this is probably one of the most physically demanding and exhausting times in our life as parents.  We're still waking up at night several times, I'm still nursing, and the children need our help to do even the most basic tasks.  Sometimes just realizing this fact helps me to take a deep breath, suck it up and know that a day will come, probably sooner than I imagine, when there won't be four little people constantly needing something from me.

Way behind...

I've been counting my way to 1,000 gifts, taking time to give thanks each Monday. I got waaaay behind on my list in the last month or two, but I've been doing some in my journal and thought I'd get back to gratitude on my blog. What a difference it makes to give thanks!

56. Whirring of fans.
57. Freshly cut grass.
58. Spontaneous scissor projects.
59. Sandbags ready for the next big rain.
60. Tax Return!
61. More bike riding and less driving.
62. Homemade get well cards when I'm sick.
63. Chubby baby legs.
64. The way the afternoon rain cools things off.
65. A wrist roll tan line.
66. Geckos in the house.
67. The thrill of a hermit crab changing shells.
68. Kai's soft, high singing voice that is amazingly on key.
69. Leggos - what a great toy.
70. A cool shower after a long, hot day.

71.  Trusting my husband.

72.  Extended baby days with this one.

73.  The way an iguana can captivate their attention so fully.

74.  This face.

75.  The incredible kid he's becoming.  Those moments when I look at him and I'm just amazed.

76.  Older brothers loving and caring for their baby brother.
77.  Fitting into non-maternity clothes - finally!

My mom sent me this article, which lead me to this blog, and this post (watch the video - it had me in tears!) - all with some great thoughts on gratitude with our children and science of the amazing difference this can make in the lives of parents and children.  The Bible exhorts us many times to "give thanks" at all times, in all circumstances.  How amazing to find science that backs this up.  God in his goodness doesn't command us to do things with no reason, but because of His great love for us and because He wants good things for us.  And so it is with giving thanks. 

proud mommy moment!

So, I've been feeling a little, no I should say a lot overwhelmed lately.  I got kind of sick and I've had some trouble shaking it off.  It just kind of seems like things that were relatively easy for me (i.e. making dinner, laundry, basic tasks) are really hard.  My homeschooling has been falling waaaay behind.  I just feel like I can't get things together.   For instance, by the time breakfast is made, served, cleaned up, baby fed, showered, clothed, back to bed for morning nap, it's already 10:00 a.m. and half the morning is already gone.  It just goes on from there, the day slipping through my fingers.  Throw a two year old with a painful ear infection into the mix and you can just imagine.

In the midst of all this I've been observing Kai.  He goes busily about his day doing things that technically would qualify as "school."  He reads books, he makes his own little projects, he does his handwriting.  I'm pretty amazed actually.  Without direction from me, he continues to learn, create and grow in his own way.  Is this "unschooling???" I have no idea, I need to read more about that.

Anyways, yesterday I took some time to just get things organized for him a little bit.  Recognizing the way my days are going, I thought if I can get Kai set up to accomplish some of the things in our curriculum independently it would be great.  So I made the above chart and went over with Kai what he could do for each subject on his own and check off on his own with a dry erase marker.  Later, when I can get the other kids settled, he can show me what he's accomplished in each subject.    

Today was the first day with the new chart.  I cannot tell you the relief I felt to see those little check marks and the completed work he did all on his own.  Not to mention how proud he felt of himself.  Isn't there just a wonderful feeling of accomplishment when you can check things off a list?  By 9:30 a.m. I was able to sit with him and do some math together.  How amazing to know he had already accomplished 4 subjects by that time! Now this is not ideal, I do hope and strive to do the subjects with him.  But I think this is a great thing to have in place for those mornings when things are spiraling out of control - at least one family member can stay on track!

Manuel Antonio

Just had to share one photo the amazing weekend we had!  My mom came to visit and we went to Manuel Antonio which was absolutely incredible!! This is Jude watching a monkey up close. 

A few changes...

So you may notice a few changes on my blogsite!  It's amazing how much my boys have grown since I started this site last October.  Then I only had three boys, was just starting this journey of homeschool and getting ready to welcome one more boy into the family.  Now, months later, I still feel like I'm finding my way in homeschool, and still figuring out how to juggle four boys and homelife!  I wanted to update the photos here, and I really wanted to switch to the "stretch" template to be able to do larger photos and use more of the screen.  I had lots of fun using Picasa for the first time and making my own header!  So much fun!  I hope you enjoy!