Vacationing in Georgia

We're home and had the best trip ever! Seriously, traveling with four small children can be disastrous, but I couldn't have asked for a better more rejuvenating time! God blessed us exponentially. I tend to be an exaggerator, but this is no exaggeration.

David and Hudson were at their Bible conference during the day so the little one's and I scoped out the little town and found some play grounds and we did A LOT of playing.

Adelle found a stick ... and a cigarette butt, but we didn't pose for that picture.

The sandbox dance - woohoo!

This was the biggest slide ever!

"This slide is shocky with electricity." Loving those four-year-scientific terms.

Alayna braves the monster slide.

Swangin'!

"Higher! Faster!"

After all that playing they all needed a bath, a bubble bath, no less. We like making grandpa facial hair - the entertainment is endless.

Traveling in the van with four car seats is crazy fun! Sometimes they slept all at the same time, but that was rare. My favorite road quote from Alayna was, "Mom, I'm so boring!" Ha!

Smily was a good girl.

Boys in the back with their ice chest pillow. They had a great conversation about how strong God is. Hudson: "Pierce, do you know how strong God is?" Pierce: "Well if just flicked you with his finger you would land in the next universe." Wow, that's a long way. :) Here's a video of some SERIOUS DANCING going on in the back seat.

Daddy was the driver ...

Mommy was the navigator/entertainer/snack waitress.

Hotel pools are always a highlight.

Don't mind that mess of mascara - check out that cute baby!

What a doll.

Huddy Buddy

All pink and purple and ruffles and flowers - of course!

Pierce as Aquaman. He was funny. A few great quotes of the week: At Walmart in the middle of a crowded aisle, "Wow, there sure are a lot of brown people." Smile, nervous laugh, moving on. Then we got to the cashier, "Mom, did God make mostly peach people?" I said, "No, God made all different colors of people." Thankfully, my "brown" cashier smiled and laughed out loud. Oh boy.

Home Schooling

A good friend of mine has ventured to stick her big toe into the waters of homeschooling. We've had several discussions about homeschooling so I thought it might be a good idea to share what homeschooling looks like in our family.

Let me introduce myself, I'm the teacher. I usually have workout clothes on when we begin our day (let's just dispel that denim-jumper-with-an-apple-on-the-pocket myth right here and now) and a cup of coffee in my hand. We begin our day at breakfast time with Bible. We usually read our devotion for the day and go over Bible verse (we keep one Bible verse all week and by the end of the year the kids and I usually have 52 verses under our Belts - Ephesians 6:10-18). After breakfast, the kids get their personal hygiene stuff done. Hudson usually practices his piano first, then he gets going on a math lesson, Pierce and I sit down for a reading lesson, the girls play (sometimes Alayna sits at the table and works with pattern blocks or something like that). I'll admit that it's not always that clean cut. Monitoring 4 kids doing 4 different things is a beautiful picture of the controlled chaos that is my life.

2nd Period (I've never called it that before) Hudson moves on to reading, Pierce and I do his math (Alayna usually joins us), and obviously Adelle is just along for the ride at this point.

Once Adelle goes down for her morning nap, I sit down with Alayna on the rug in the living room and we do her pre-school. It takes all of 30 minutes to go over her letter of the week, number of the week, review her Bible verse, and we usually throw in some art or creative play like glueing fruit loops to the letter "A," etc. The boys get a lego-break while I work with Alayna.

I wont get into curriculum in this post, but I'll do one in the future so you can see exactly what we're learning.

Hudson finishes up with handwriting and spelling. We do a history read-aloud at snack time. I've just found that they sit still and listen better if they're putting food in their mouths! Science and art we do once a week if I have all the stuff to do something. I'll do better with this one when the baby is a little bit older.

So we're usually done with school by noon, but learning never stops. The kids help me bake and discuss measurements and the effects of yeast, etc. We helped papa plant his garden and we discussed plants and soil and water, etc. They're always asking questions and we're always finding answers. Whether you homeschool or not, your kids are always learning from you - the good the bad and the ugly. Let's face it - sometimes it really is ugly. Alayna let out a big sigh of frustration the other day and, sadly, it sounded just like me.

"The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever." Isaiah 32:17

I love homeschooling right now because the opportunities to sow and reap the rewards of Isaiah 32:17 are evident daily. As a mom - that's priceless!

Crafty-ness!

I was in charge of the craft for our annual church Women's Retreat this year. I found this fabulous blog with all manner of crafty wonder and these fabric rosettes immediately grabbed my attention. Seriously check out all her stuff. Natsprat is a creative crafty genius. Her tutorial is way cuter than mine, but New Life Ranch is not equipped with Wifi so this lovely poster board had to do the trick.

And this is the finished product!

So easy and SO CUTE! Beware, it's addictive. I've made about 372.

We've been digging a hole to China. Our bathwater is brown every night. Loving the spring weather!!!

See the little purple rosette in her hair. She actually left it in! I'm loving the chubby little arms and legs in shorts and t-shirts. Oh.My!

How sweet is this?! Love those boys.

Funny story about Alayna. She's got this sheer, tie-dye ribbon that she loves to tie around her head or her wrist or just about anything. She calls it her Indian crown/bracelet/whatever. But instead of saying "Indian," she says "idiot." I got to laughing so hard this morning as she twirled around the living room singing, "I have my idiot crown," in her most beautiful singing voice. She's a funny one.

She's 11 months old (yesterday). I could write a book about how incredible she is and how much I love her. This happy little expression is pretty much constant. I pick her up from the crib and she squeezes me and presses her face into mine. She's just pretty much awesome. Time to start party planning!

I love them

Just got back from a women's retreat that I'll post more about later. But I came home to these precious faces. :)

I think she might like these muffins. :)

Sweet boys - here's a good story: Hudson's 2nd top tooth was getting loose. The last time we pulled a tooth I had to hold him down. He cried, Pierce cried, Alayna hollered, "I'm being brave!" It was quite an ordeal. This time Hudson and Pierce were playing Ninja Spin-jitsu (I know you play that game at your house too). Pierce karate chopped Hudson in the mouth and the tooth went flying. I don't advocate facial karate chops, but this one worked out in my favor!

Oh my goodness - am I a blessed mommy or what?!