Reformation Day Celebration 2012

Today we celebrated Reformation Day. We read a biographical story book on the life of Martin Luther and watched the Torchlighter animated dvd on the life William Tyndale. We also nailed (taped) Martin Luther's 95 Theses on our back door. We set our table with red to remind us of the blood of the martyrs who died for the truth of the Gospel and that we might have God's Word. In a world that idolizes pop culture, I want my children to know what a true hero looks like. It is so great to spend a day remembering these men who were willing to follow Christ even unto death. We made candy sacks for our games, made posters to decorate our walls and played fun games with a reformation theme. We played "Pin the beard on John Calvin," and "Throw the duck in the reformer's basket." We also played the fishing game naming it "Fishers of Men," and played "Smuggle the Bible" by having the children run with a little wooden cut out of a Bible hidden in their clothes. They had to run around the island in the kitchen and deliver the Bible safely. On the artistic side of things we colored stained glass pictures and made lavender sachets for them to wear around their necks. This was to keep the bubonic plague away! We ended the day with smores and apple cider. It was a busy day but rewarding to see my children learning and having fun. Next year we hope to be a little more prepared and build upon the ideas we tried this year. My hope and prayer is that something much bigger than candy and trinkets touched their hearts today. I pray the Lord will bear fruit from the discussions we had, and I am looking forward to next year!

Sixth Birthday

I know I have disappeared for awhile and not done any blogging. Life has just been busier than busy. However, my dear Annagrace celebrated her sixth birthday earlier this month, and I want to document that here on the blog. We celebrated by having a mommy and me trip to the new American Girl store in Houston. She and I had lunch and cake at the Bistro there. She also enjoyed having her doll's hair braided and tied with purple ribbons. After that we went home where Lauren had been busy making cupcakes and decorating for her party. At six years old Annagrace is a special delight. She is learning to read and play the piano. She is doing very well with her kindergarten studies and is starting to do more and more things to help around the house. She can transfer clothes from the washer to the dryer and turn it on. She is good at tidying up our shoe bench, and she likes to wash fruit such as grapes, etc. She is learning lots of new things and seems to be self motivated to learn. We are blessed by her sweetness.

Life is super busy these days, and time is flying incredibly fast. Here I am posting a picture of me with Lauren when she was around Lilly Faith's size. She is wearing a yellow raincoat. I am also posting two pictures of Lilly Faith wearing that same rain coat last Sunday. Wow! Lauren is now eleven and Lilly Faith just turned two. Amazing that so much time has passed since we bought that little coat.

My Baby is Two

Today she turned two. Where has the time gone? Her big sister decorated the dining room with a farm theme, and she was so cute blowing out the candles. She has seen her older siblings blow out candles, and knew what to do. So cute! At two she loves baby dolls, balls, and looking at books. She also LOVES to sing. She and the three year old sing all the time. "Jesus Loves Me" is a favorite as well as the "Gloria Patri." I sing that to her every night at bedtime, and at two you can find her singing it to her dolls. She still loves her pacis. She calls them duckies, because one of her pacis has a duck hanging from it. Happy Birthday to my sweet Lilly Faith.

Tonight marks a milestone in our household. Our baby is transitioning into a toddler bed. We have transitioned four other children but never into a toddler bed. We always went from a crib to a twin bed with railings. This time we are trying the toddler bed, and it is so stinking cute! Matt said it looks like a little doll bed. Well, she is excited but we will see what the night holds in store for us. I don't know what will happen when she wakes up in the middle of the night. I have already given two older sisters extra pacifiers that they can give her to console her. I pray Daddy and Mama will get some sleep tonight.

I just wanted to share that Annagrace lost her first tooth last Friday! She was so excited. All of a sudden she is not looking like a preschooler anymore. She is officially starting her Kindergarten work this summer. So far she is eager to learn. Her hair is growing, and she is looking older. Oh, my babies are growing so fast. "Lord, help me to treasure these years." I am so blessed to have Annagrace as my daughter; her sweet spirit is a blessing. She truly tries to do what is right, and I really appreciate her heart to do right. "Lord, please lead her to love you with all of her heart and to realize that she can only do right by your strength and enablement."

Manuals Binder

One thing I have been learning, over the past few years, is that you cannot have a large family, homeschool, and have a clean house without simplicity and organization. I confess I am not naturally super organized. Now I LOVE organization, but it is not always easy for me to pull off. So, I have been working on these matters. For one thing I have been purging our house, for the past few years, of unnecessary clutter. It feels really good to get rid of things, and I never miss the things I get rid of. Also, I am slowly implementing ideas I see online for running a more orderly household. My manuals binder is one of those ideas. I took a LARGE binder and divided it up into categories such as kitchen, office, family room, kids things, bedroom, school area, etc. Then I put in page protectors and slipped in manuals for appliances throughout the house. Now if I need the manual for the washing machine I can find it in a jiffy. I am really liking this new way of keeping all of these manuals in one spot where I can easily find them.

Changing Seasons

We are spending lots of time outdoors these days tending to the garden, letting the chickens out of their coop in the mornings, playing with kitties, and watering plants and flowers. Life has changed a lot in our family since my firstborn was little. Back then I spent a lot of time shopping, attending play groups, doing Bible studies, Mops, etc. I have fond memories of that season, and yet I am enjoying our current season even more. These days we spend most of our time at home enjoying one another and our growing farm life. It struck me the other day, as I was watching Lilly Faith run around the chickens, that the way she is growing up is so different from Lauren's first few years. Lilly Faith is the first baby that knows nothing different than to have animals, a garden and running and playing outdoors all the time. Honestly I think, for our family, the change is for the better. I love being at home enjoying God's creation with my children. There is something about animals and even the garden that children naturally love. Yes, much has changed and I am thankful for it. The Lord is good and continues to guide us through the changing seasons.

It has been a long stretch since I last posted. Life has been very busy and the blog had to go on the back burner for awhile. I wanted to post a quick update on how our garden is doing. We are starting to get a lot of tomatoes, ton and tons of basil and mint herbs, purple hole peas, some green beans, lots of cucumbers and some okra and egg plant. Oh yes, and squash. What we have learned on our second year of gardening is that we do like container or boxed gardening, however, we need something at LEAST twice the size of what we planted this year. The problem is we are not always producing enough in a given day to make for the whole family. We will have a hand full of green beans or three squash, etc. We need a big garden so we are able to pick enough at any given time. I have also learned that some things, such as radishes, have to be planted incrementally. What happens is they all are ready for harvest at a bout the same time and then there are no more. So you have to figure out a system of planting and then replanting ever so often. I don't have that figured out yet. We also purchased a timer so the sprinkler goes on every morning and afternoon at a certain time. That has been a help too. I can see how this gardening thing takes some time to really learn the ins and outs, but we are having fun. The children love to go check the garden and often snack right out of it. I remind them to wash before eating, but they love to bite into cucumbers or snack on raw green beans, etc. I like that it is a healthy and free snack. :)

Homeschool Encouragement

Created by: College At Home

Blessed Easter to you!

Dear Readers of this blog, I want to wish you a blessed Easter from our family to yours! May the Lord bless you! Yesterday we enjoyed an easter egg hunt with family. Gabriel was excited to find a super sized egg, and Lilly Faith hunted in her diaper as she had messed up her dress before the hunt began. She was cute running around in a diaper and a big bow on her head. Today we enjoyed being at church as a whole family. Our daddy has recently been away on business, so it was a huge blessing to all attend church on Easter together. We love having daddy back. Happy Easter!

Nature Walk

Today the children and I went and checked out a nature preserve with various hiking trails. We were pleasantly surprised to see some bluebonnets along one of the trails. We also saw butterflies, turtles, berries, and much more! I love walking with my children and seeing them get excited about the things they observe. This place had a really neat play area too. Afterwards we went to an adjoining park and had a very nice picnic together. This was a natural preserve, so it wasn't landscaped as a botanical garden would be. It was a different kind of beauty. It made me laugh when Annagrace sweetly asked why everything she saw was rotten. There were many dead limbs, shrubs, etc. in the thick of the woods there. I am thankful for sweet times with my children!