Family Dinner Book Club--April

This month's book was Where the Sidewalk Ends. I was excited because my kids would have never chosen a book of poems. I was super excited that Josiah totally engaged in this book. It's been a while since I've found one that has really captured him. Aliza, on the other hand, declared it "stupid." I think she secretly liked it.

I took all my ideas from Daisy at Home who shares on Growing Book by Book blog. The idea was to have a backwards, silly, out-of-ordinary meal. So it was breakfast for supper on the living room floor with pillows to sit on.

A stack of pancakes--and we reread the pancake poem.

Juice in bowls. (Josiah thought that was just over the top and insisted that his drink MUST be in a cup.) The Band-Aid name tags are from the Band-Aid poem--and we reread the Band-Aid poem.

Eggs and bacon served in glasses. Daisy at Home also suggested dry cereal on plates with chopsticks. I made cinnamon rolls instead.

We used the conversation starter questions which included that everyone choose a number between 10 and 140 and then read the poem on that page. That was fun. It was a memorable meal and book for sure!

Play House

It was 10:00 this morning and I was feeling very tired. And I thought to myself, "Why are you so tired at 10:00 in the morning?" I started looking around and there were messes everywhere and that's why I was feeling so tired. A clean, tidy, prettily decorated house sounds so appealing and relaxing and invigorating to me. That's not my life at this point in time! So let me entertain you with some pictures of the mess.

Play-doh. The cousins left it after being at our house yesterday. I'm not sure if it was a mistake or part of the toy trading that took place.

Paper in massive amounts! This will be one of my first projects after school is finished. This is not schoolwork, it's projects and drawings.

Anna's busy box. Exploding.

Isaiah now army crawls forward...and sits alone. I still surround him by pillows!

The girls busy playing.

A princess neighborhood apparently.

Legos. Only a fraction of the legos.

Various princess schedules on the living room wall.

So what did I do? Sat down and looked for some legos Josiah was searching for. And then I washed dishes. And then school. And then...and then...and then...and tonight every single one of these messes is still a mess. However, everyone was fed and educated and they played with cousins and played outside tonight.

This is my life and I count it all joy and craziness!

Spring's Here!

The season change has happened. I can feel it! The sliding door stands open as much as it is closed and there is sand on the kitchen floor and I don't mind a bit because I LOVE it. I'm happier. The children are happier. I can send the craziness outside...so our neighbors can hear it, of course!

We started on a walk and before I even got out of the driveway Josiah can to me with tears. The chain had fallen off his bike. We walked right over to our wonderful retired neighbors and they were home and more than willing to help a boy with his bike. Plus the kids got snacks...right before lunch...which always thrills them.

We took school outside one afternoon.

And Isaiah is sitting just about by himself. Of course right after I took this picture he went straight backwards and hit his head...and screamed.

These two. Their smiles. Anna still wants to hold Isaiah, but he's getting big for her lap!

My Girl--Growing Up

Aliza. I haven't talked about her in a while. She reads well now so I have to be careful what I say! Actually she is very much enjoying reading. Currently she is reading a 300 page (junior fiction) book and she's halfway through. She says the book is at a "boring" part and she's having trouble getting to the next exciting part.

I picked up the Project Life app for free on St. Patrick's Day and just let it sit on my phone. Aliza opened it the other day and asked if she could make a layout. I told her to go for it and she did! She had absolutely no trouble figuring it out and making a page in minutes. Not that I was really surprised. The difference between Aliza and I with technology is that I rely heavily on Jeremy when I'm trying something "new" and Aliza is perfectly comfortable to play around with any app and figure it out. She wanted to do a layout about Isaiah...

Was learning long division a significant memory of elementary math for anyone else? It is for me because I didn't get it and missed just about every problem. I'm not sure what my hangup with math was--I think I missed getting some foundation stuff early. I think I bought in to some of my teacher's math anxieties and the effect of a few influential classmates who decided that they didn't like math. So, like every parent does, I've taken my own education experience and tried to make it better for my kids. As far as math...I make each new concept "no big deal." If they get it, they don't have to watch the 30 minute lesson. If I need help in teaching, say, long division, Aliza watches the new material segment and does the practice problems with the teacher.

Basic division was first introduced in October soon after Isaiah was born and it didn't go smoothly. We got through it, but I was dreading when it would come up again. I saw the long division unit coming and feared that it would be our "math wall". I took the no-big-deal approach. Aliza took the this-looks-outrageously-scary-so-I-will-whine approach. She watched the lesson and we sat down together and knocked it out. She gets it! A few days later when the concept of remainders was introduced, she watched the lesson again and sat down and did her work. No big deal. The truth of the matter is probably that my math anxiety is decreasing and I'll be ready for 4th grade math (except for anything in the area of geometry)!!! haha.

And, oh my, do I ever see myself in Aliza. It scares me and amazes me all at the same time. Sometimes it's hard to have patience with myself in her. It's not easy to come face to face my own weaknesses seemingly multiple times every day.

First Taste of Food

 Our little man's first taste of food was squash frozen from his Great Grandad's garden. He ate about three bites before he completely refused, but he had this worried expression on his face the whole time.

Easter--in Pictures

 (On an unrelated to Easter note, I want to say that I can't believe how much better I feel. I can't get my thyroid tested until May, but I just feel so much better.)

Besides that, I don't feel like using many words...but here's peek at our Easter with my family.

This was the best we could do for a family picture. lol.

Waiting to be let loose to find eggs.

It was quite a herd of cousins barreling out the door.

The boys comparing their finds.

 

Isaiah::6 months

And just like that, Isaiah is half a year old!