Happy 15th Birthday Josiah!

You are taller than me, you wear the same size shoe as Dad, and your voice still surprises me. This year is going to be a fun adventure!

Beginnings of Birthday Week

 Birthday week has officially begun! It works out well that Aliza and Josiah have basically the same social circle. Along with 8 teenagers here to play games, we also got to take care of a 4 month old little guy for the evening. There were plenty of young ladies to take turns holding baby, but it was Anna who couldn't get enough holding time.

Since I was mostly feeding teenagers and making sure Isaiah was acting reasonably without being annoying, Jeremy got to hold and feed and play with baby. Just before his parents came to pick him up, he feel asleep in Jeremy's arms.

Aliza sure loves these girls.

Josiah's friends know him pretty well too! This shirt made me laugh.

The house was loud and happy and crazy and every room was filled. I was, once again, just incredibly grateful for this space that we have. I *thought* I knew the perfect timing so many years ago, but I'm continually reminded that God actually knew when we needed and would most appreciate this space the most.
 

Murder Mystery

 The 1920s Murder Mystery youth group event was highly anticipated by some and with some apprehension by others. I'm sure you can guess who was who in our house. Each of the youth were assigned a character complete with script and costume suggestions. The setting was a formal social event. Aliza was a rising movie star and Josiah was her paid escort. 

Aliza had her costume planned well in advance. We were pulling things together for Josiah as he was getting ready...and we were ultimately late because of it. It worked very much in our favor that Josiah could wear his Dad's dress shirt, tie and dress shoes.

Aliza found a dress that fit her perfectly that had been given to me--in case it would work for one of my girls some day. It was perfect! She added gloves and a hair piece from one of her dance costumes.

I got to see the whole group because Aliza drove straight to the church from theater practice. I took Josiah and stayed to help Aliza get dressed and to make sure she ate a sandwich!

This is how it went for the boys. Josiah came home and said, "well, I did that and I won't do it again!" He has come so far this year. It wasn't *that* long ago that he would not have agreed to go or I would have left him fighting tears.

Aliza had a ball. She said this event fulfilled her need to dress up and she is thinking a PJ party instead of going to the homeschool formal sounds like a great idea. lol
 

Meeting Baby Ronan

 It was a joy to clear the schedule, take a winter break and meet our new nephew and cousin--Ronan Christopher Heslop!

Ronan is a few days over 2 weeks old. The perfect age for sleepy snuggles and passing around which we took full advantage of-- too much advantage of as shown by the difficulty of the night following our visit.

I held Ronan to transfer him from one cousin to the next. That's about all I held him. It's a different feeling being way on the other side of the baby stages.

The Heslop Grandsons!

There was some awake time too.

Amanda generously let Aliza and Isaiah give Ronan a bottle. Isaiah didn't remember holding a baby and he definitely never fed a baby. He took this job very seriously and asked lots of questions.

At the baby shower in November, one of the activities was filling out wishes for the baby. Isaiah was sitting beside me and I wrote his answers word for word. It turned out to the be just the sweetest.

As answered through the interpretative lens of an 8 year old: I hope you get Mommy's love. I hope you get Daddy's love. I hope you learn to do school. I hope you always love me. I hope you're never afraid to go to Joel and Amanda for help. I hope you'll always remember to love and trust in Jesus and pray and go to God for help. 

 

Joy Dare::January

9796. Praying my friends through
9797. Making a special delivery
9798. Some fresh air on a warm Jan 1
9799. An early, smooth trip home
9800. New Year = a good excuse to adjust some expectations
9801. Feeling ready to get back in routine
9802. Isaiah was so happy this morning
9803. 65 degrees on January 3
9804. Ice cream with Aliza
9805. New supper recipe
9806. Trying new tea

9807. Another day with the windows open
9808. Lunch salads
9809. When the sun shines through the clouds
9810. Listening to Scripture
9811. Math went better than I thought it was going to
9812. Errands with Isaiah
9813. Friends time for Aliza, Josiah and Anna
9814. A sleeping in kind of Saturday morning
9815. Celebrating Dad
9816. Crabcakes and shrimp for supper
9817. Hearing Isaiah singing in church
9818. Sending the girls off together for the afternoon
9819. All the things to get ready for the week
9820. Renee with us for supper
9821. Birthday phone call for my mom-in-law
9822. Watching the cousins play football
9823. Driving Aliza
9824. Looking at pictures
9825. Chemistry went so much better than I thought it would
9826. Josiah was really excitee about youth group
9827. Listening to Anna play ukulele
9828. Enough grace for the day
9829. Bible class with Grandad
9830. Welcoming ESL students
9831. A day when my children showed grace to me
9832. An evening with my boys
9833. Anna spent the night at a friend's house for the first time
9834. The girls had SO much fun

9835. A very quiet house this morning
9836. Amazing Race finale with Aliza
9837. Sunday afternoons
9838. Catching up with Christie a little bit
9839. Having Ezra for the evening
9840. Crafty afternoon with my sisters
9841. Lydia talked to me the whole drive to dance
9842. Listening to Aliza and Anna
9843. Signs of life in January

9844. Snuggled together watching The Chosen
9845. Ramen for supper makes everyone happy
9846. Isaiah's spontaneous gratitude
9847. A hard step that I know is right
9848. Warm enough for doing Spelling on the porch
9849. Working through thoughts and feelings
9850. Worship playlist
9851. Enough energy to teach ESL this evening
9852. Friday.
9853. Some sun
9854. Island Creamery
9855. Reading a new-to-me author
9856. The boys had fun bowling
9857. When no one wants to stop their conversations after church
9858. My tribe of sisters and friends
9859. Boys and nerf guns
9860. A new nephew to love
9861. A clean closet
9862. Mixing up cookies with Isiah
9863. All the Baby Ronan pictures

9864. A good having-friends-over afternoon
9865. Aliza's friends came to youth group
9866. Sunny morning after rainy days
9867. All of my ESL teaching assistants
9868. I'm ridiculously excited about a robot vacuum
9869. Listening a little attentively tonight
9870. Putting all the schoolbooks away at the end of the week
9871. Josiah had a great afternoon with a friend
9872. Time with Janell
9873. Spending the afternoon with our cousin

9874. Chai and macaroons

9875. My girls ready for hugs when I got home
9876. Offering support the best I can
9877. Sunday afternoon nap
9878. Whoopie pies
9879. Monday morning walk
9880. A little time at Grandma and Grandad's house
9881. Praying for Aliza
9882. Helping Isaiah memorize momths
9883. Lots of intentionality
9884. My circle of sisters
 

Actual Teaching

 Aliza and I started a new adventure this year--helping in an adult ESL class. We are in the Beginner 1 class. Our students speak no English. We have really enjoyed watching them learn. Our students are from Mexico, Guatemala, Hondorus, Nicaragua, China, Vietnam, Brazil and Haiti. 

This semester the Beginner 1 teacher needed to move to teach the Beginner 2 class and, by default, I became the lead teacher for the Beginner 1 class. I didn't think I needed a new responsibility this semester, but I'm doing it! I've taught three lessons so far and each week I have felt more confident and haven't mentally obsessed over the lesson quite as much.

We've covered days of the week including "yesterday," "today," and "tomorrow." Teaching time concepts in English was more challenging than I expected. And last week we covered the parts of an address which was also more challenging then I thought it would be. 

At the beginning of the semester we had 5 new students and have added new students each week. It's especially challenging in the Beginner 1 class to have students who have not had any lessons in the book and other students who have had half of the book. It's a big skill difference at the beginner level.

 

During the class, we pass out Bibles in each student's first language and the teacher presents a Bible verse. (I'm laughing at my white board writing. You know if I *tried* to write in waves, I wouldn't be able to!) We read the verse in English, I explain or Aliza acts out words to portray the meaning, one students representing each language reads the verse in their language out loud, we read it together in English again and then I pray.

 

Each week I don't really look forward to going out in the evening to have class, but by the end, I'm so glad I did. I come home all wound up. It takes me so long to fall asleep on Thursday nights! I'm glad Aliza thought that volunteering at ESL class was a good idea and dragged me into it with her.

Some Little Things From This Week

 
My sister, Linda, is really into diamond art projects. Since she was visiting for almost 2 weeks, we all got together one afternoon to do a diamond art project. I only took a picture of one completed coaster. It happens to be the one Josiah did. There were coasters, bookmarks and bracelets to choose from for an afternoon project.

It was fun to spend an afternoon just sitting around the table together.

Isaiah gave it a try for approximately 7.2 seconds. It was far too detailed and tedious for his liking! He preferred to spend the afternoon outside with Ezra and Sean.

 It was a cloudy, gray week and I hope that is what contributed to the overarching feeling of heaviness and frustration that seemed to mark our week. School wasn't great. Isaiah was even moaning about doing math which is easy for him and he never complains about. One day I had to tell Aliza and Josiah both to put away their math for the day and sleep on it. That proved to be a successful tactic this time. The next day it went much better. Maybe it's about this time every year that I worry daily that I am not doing great in the education realm. 

Added to that are big feelings and lots of thinking about a decision that we are making as a family, and also individually. There were tears and conversations and underneath the knowing that we are moving in the right direction as unlikely as it seems. I'm sure I'll talk more about this over time. 

It's going to be another full week of school and activities and friends. Joy will continue to surprise me in the most unexpected ways and I won't wish away these winter weeks because there are lessons to learn, memories to make and family time to absorb.