Joy Dare::May

4365. Josiah was into studying survival today: especially edible vegetation
4366. My baby boy has a big boy bed
4367. Curriculum call from a convention contact
4368. Practicing being flexible today
4369. Connecting with my sisters
4370. Put together a scrapbook page
4371. A smooth day
4372. Hamburgers on the grill
4373. Pouring rain
4374. Coloring
4375. Rainy day cookies
4376. On morning 3 of waking up in a toddler bed, Isaiah already figured out to come to our bed, crawl between us and fall back asleep
4377. Cousins had lots of time to play
4378. Janell let me sit on the couch while she made supper
4379. Mommy gut instincts
4380. Josiah's soccer coach
4381. Pizza and ice cream for supper
4382. Breakfast picnic
4383. Walking through the zoo

4384. The last 2 weeks of school...
4385. Talked to or texted all of my sisters
4386. Jeremy involved in soccer practice
4387. A lot less hair in my house
4388. "Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you."
4389. Gramma's back is feeling so much better
4390. 4 teeth cleanings and no cavities
4391. Mom and I talking as fast as we could
4392. Expressions of growing faith
4393. Left the house frazzled and come home relaxed
4394. The last week of school planned!
4395. Talking things through with Aliza
4396. I have a life that I don't deserve
4397. Errands by myself
4398. Talking with my sisters
4399. Breakfast in bed
4400. Loved on Mother's Day
4401. Jeremy did ALL the cooking and dish washing
4402. Sweet daughter love notes on my desk
4403. All Anna wants to do is scrapbook with me
4404. Isaiah making us all laugh during bedtime reading
4405. Aliza finished 5th grade!
4406. Last soccer practice: players vs. parents
4407. Josiah finished 3rd grade!
4408. Josiah invited me to sit outside and read with him
4409. Shopping with Anna is always an adventure
4410. And Anna finished kindergarten!
4411. Picking strawberries
4412. Isaiah determined to sleep beside Uncle Joel
4413. A super fun beach morning
4414. Josiah was so nervous but he played
4415. My brakes worked in the storm
4416. Girls weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's house
4417. Flowers, gardens, tea and friends
4418. Ended the girls day with painting nails
4419. Listening to my girls talk as sisters
4420. So much grace from Jeremy when I wasn't very nice because I was too tired
4421. Finished out the soccer season
4422. Apple pie cupcakes turned out well
4423. Celebrating the end of our school year with supper with Grandma and Grandad
4424. A couple days in a row with Meghan visits
4425. Jeremy's business growing
4426. Schedule free enough that I could easily help
4427. Holding Renee
4428. Taking a slow morning
4429. Tedious productivity
4430. Aliza's Wednesday night teacher
4431. The first morning of summer routine that the children settled down and played together
4432. Fresh pineapple
4433. The way Isaiah says I love you when I tuck him in
4434. The cove is pretty even when it's windy, chilly and there is a snake in the water
4435. Getting to know new friends at a fun place to eat

4436. Garden is dug
4437. Things crossed off today's work list
4438. Working in some scrapbooking minutes in my days
4439. My sister brought me a bit of Magnolia Market back with her

4440. No requirements of myself on this Sabbath day
4441. Josiah had lots of Daddy time this weekend--fishing and rocket making

4442. The best steak dinner I've made to date
4443. Anna wants to do everything exactly like I do
4444. Making myself available to chat with another Mom
4445. Jeremy worked magic and made my video look pretty good
4446. Having a my girls at my Trades of Hope party
4447. Aliza has the best time with Aunt Laura and her Lemon Meringue cupcakes were yummy
4448. Painting outside

4449. Snacks on the neighbor's patio

4450. Our last Wednesday night club for the summer

Tedious Productivity

Way back when I was in Jr. High my Dad offered me a job. He wanted his library of book in his office to be cataloged. For a penny per book, I wrote down the title, author and I believe I put a return address label in books that didn't have one. I thought it was the greatest job. Come to find out I still like tedious jobs. I like being able to see how much I have done and how much farther I have to go.

Give Your Child the World was published last year and I thought it looked helpful. It's a book of book lists. Arranged by continent and recommended reading age, the book suggests titles that represent cultures around the world. I couldn't bring myself to *buy* a books of book titles. This spring I suggested it for new material for our library and they bought it. I was the first to check it out and couldn't wait to start looking up every book in the book to see which ones our library has. Over the course of a week or so I looked up every book title and wrote down the ones our library has so that I can check them out. I was pleasantly surprised that our library system has a great majority of the recommended books.

Thinking that not everyone in the world would find joy in looking up every book, I decided to mark (in pencil) the books that our library system has. I thought that was a brilliant idea. lol. Hopefully someone else will pick up the book and appreciate it.

Parenting Book #2

This quick read got me refocused on raising my big boy to be a man. It reminded me how very little I know about boys--seeing as how I'm a girl. It's a daunting task to raise a member of a species I'm not! I want to be intentional in my relationship with Josiah and my conversations with him. This book also focused on a boy's relationship with his Dad and how as a Mom I need to stay out of that relationship and not micromanage it or manipulate it. The information wasn't altogether new to me, but I'm glad I read it.

Kindergarten Graduate

Anna sobbed through her kindergarten "graduation." In the last distance learning lesson the teachers and kindergarten friends have a party and celebrate all the fun things they learned this year. It is pretty sweet and touching, but I definitely wasn't expecting the level of emotion that Anna felt. In fact, she completely rejected her diploma and still won't let me take a nice picture of her with it. She did initiate taking her diploma to WV to show Grandma and Grandpa and on the way home Anna and Aliza took a bunch of silly pictures with the diploma in the car.

When we had my parents over for supper to celebrate the end of school, Anna would not show her work to anyone.

Aliza and Josiah, however, were happy to show Grandma and Grandad some of their work. I'm grateful that my parents and Jeremy's parents are so supportive of our choice to educate our children at home.

Aliza had a history project this year where she made a timeline of inventions by year through the 1900s. It's amazing how much change took place in the 20th century.

I got Josiah through another year. His memory is amazing. He can hear something one time and remember details.

So I've finished my 6th year as a homeschooling Mom and graduated my 3rd from kindergarten. I remember when Aliza finished kindergarten I couldn't imagine having to go through it multiple times and just like that I've done it three times.

Girls Weekend

After the soccer game Friday evening, the girls and I drove through lightening and rain to WV. This was the weekend for the Shepherdstown Back Alley Garden Tour and Tea. It was fun to have a girls weekend. The temperature was perfect for walking and we enjoyed all the gardens and flowers.

It has been several years since the tour aligned with the peonies blooming. There were some gorgeous peonies.

Anna got to experience the little house for the first time. She loved it and would have spent hours there playing if she could have.

This year we walked 3.5 miles (thanks to those with fitbits for this knowledge). The girls got pretty tired, but they stuck with it to the end. We didn't detour or miss any garden--Aliza made sure of that!

My mother in law has some very pretty flowers too. These roses grow over an arbor and smell glorious.

I've never seen pansies with ruffled edges. I sortof love them!

Aliza and Anna loved the girl time and were NOT ready to come home. I enjoyed listening in on their sister conversations in the car.

Oh yes!

Aliza finished 5th grade on Tuesday. Josiah finished 3rd grade on Wednesday. And Anna  finished kindergarten today. I'll talk more about our finish later!

As soon as Anna finished we were out the door to pick strawberries. It was a hot morning and I had some good helpers and a good eater. We went to an orchard in Westover this year. I kindof liked the laid back feel of the non commercialized strawberry patch.

Isaiah's face and hands were red with berry juice. I made sure we didn't fill our baskets to overflowing to much up for his eating.

Efficiency

Even with healthy children, almost every month I have some sort of medical appointment to factor in to our schedule. It has taken a few years to get everyone on the same rotation, but I now have all the children on the same dental cleaning schedule! Of course this requires going to a practice that can handle seating 4 children at the same time. Lucky for us we have one!

Here's how it goes. The appointment goes on my Mom's calendar as soon as I make it! The dental assistant comes out and calls for the "Heslop Family." We all walk back and she seats each child with a dentist. I sign for some children before the cleaning and others after. I hold Isaiah while he cries during his brushing. Then I hand him to Mom. By the time Isaiah is done another child is finished. Those two go out with Grandma to the waiting room. Anna still needs me so she waits until I'm finished with Isaiah and then I'm with her. While Anna gets started, Aliza's dentist finds me to say he has time to seal her 6 year molars if I would like him to. I quickly agree (why would I make another appointment?!). Anna does awesome and meets her new dentist for next time. I take her out to Grandma and then hang out while Aliza finishes up. I was preparing for Aliza's wrath because I didn't know she was going to get sealants. She handled it well and showed that she is developing a bit of flexibility. That all took 35 minutes.

Hopefully it will go this well in 6 months!