My mom is here visiting and I helped her create a blog. For any friends out there interested, her url is blogginggma.blogspot.com I think she will really enjoy it especially if she can get comments (hint hint).
We have had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We were able to accomplish quite a bit on the remodel. About half of what we wanted to but isn't that how it always goes? We had some quality family time. Good stuff. Feeling very blessed.
Here's our new shower :)
Just remembering my dad today on his birthday. It has been a little over 2 years since he passed away. We will always love you dad. I will always be thankful for the things he taught me. He would have been 64 today.
As I cleaned this morning, the house has been quiet. Kids are still sleeping, guys are at work, tv and computer were off. Very nice. It allowed my thoughts to flow without distraction, and here they are:
Great meeting last night! We are having called meeting this week and I so enjoyed it last night. It is wonderful when God reads my mind and allows the prayers, ministry, testimonies, and even songs to coincide with what I already felt. Of course, I think He allowed me to have those thoughts in the first place so that I could have the blessing of unity in that still small voice. Enjoyed a house full of brethren yesterday. That's always good!
Part of our company last night was Bro Joe AKA The Great Appliance Guru. He fixed my dishwasher. To truly understand how this makes me feel, imagine me dancing around, jumping up and down and singing a tune while I say this again, HE FIXED MY DISHWASHER, OH YA, OH YA, DOOO AH!! So this is why when Dale and Andy left for work this morning at 5:45 I cheerfully stayed up and loaded my dishwasher instead of heading back to bed. It's amazing how excited you can get to load the dishwasher after using a crippled one for a few weeks. As I was washing the dishes, I was thinking about some of the conversations I had yesterday. Good spiritual food, but also other good and inspiring talks about how each person cleans. So armed with the motivation from having my dished done a little after 6 this morning, I took some of the advice and cleaned my ceiling fan, the top of my refrigerator, and the greasy area above my stove. And it's not even 8 yet! Feeling good :)
In the midst of all this feeling good, I must post one tiny grr... We had a good Halloween, but I have no proof because the designated picture taker fell down on the job...Well actually he failed miserably. We went to a Halloween party and he took 9 pictures of other people's children. A few shots have the side or back of Ella too, but no pictures of Samantha. In all fairness and in his defense, he says I didn't tell him to take pictures of our children and he's not a mind reader... I'm sure it was tough to figure out why I brought the camera to the party. I need to be better at communicating and not rely on Dale's psychic abilities.
And last but certainly not least, it is evident God has been working with Andy just lately. It is wonderful to be able to share in that with him and hear the humbleness in his prayers and the thankfulness of his testimonies in and out of church.
God is my heavenly father and he surely knows all about me and is so good to me, even though I am just an unprofitable servant.
I have been having some trouble with the blogger website lately, but it finally came up on my computer. Yeah!
We (or should I say Dale) is working on the remodel this weekend. It seems like so much has been going on for months now, that we haven't had much time for it. Tile being installed as we speak!!! I am a happy girl. Hopefully tomorrow we can get it grouted and paint the bathroom. It is finally coming together....
I think we all have those things that we "save" for a future project only to have the said item or items under foot and in the way right up to the time we actually have a need for them and then they are MIA...Missing in action.
That was what happened to me today. I went looking for some foam board that I had saved for the girls to do crafts with. It has been in Samantha's room for months now, but when I went to get it, it was missing. I did some deep cleaning last week but I can't remember where I moved the foam to. (I'm hoping it wasn't to the garbage can!)
I searched and searched to no avail and had to use cardboard instead. So, I'm sure now that I don't need it anymore it will turn up. Isn't that how it always works??
I took an online class this morning about keeping your toddler entertained while homeschooling the other children and boy did I need that! Lately I have felt like I have been neglecting Ella and not giving her her share of me. There were so many fabulous ideas on how to keep them happily occupied, and that sparked some of my own ideas of things that Ella would love to do. She was still sleeping when I took the class and I was so excited to try some things, I could hardly wait for her to get up. Here is a list of some of the great ideas...
A box of special toys used only for school time
blocks
paint (we have an easel on the back porch so this is an easy one for us)
special "school" books (reading, coloring, and drawing) again just for school time
dominoes, cards
online learning sites (we do abcmouse.com love it!)
a game where they get to cut up junk mail as long as they sit in a laundry basket
play with letter magnets and puzzles
string beads or macaroni
bubbles
chores
and her favorite...
a bath!
I have been going at this school stuff all wrong, trying to get us all ready in the morning and house clean before starting school. This morning I had Samantha quickly get ready and start school but had Ella wait for her bath until Samantha and I were working on phonics. Ella will be 4 in just over a month and our bathroom is centrally
located on the main level, so I could hear her without staying right in the bathroom with her. She is always begging to take long baths but we are always rushing to get ready so this was quite a treat for her and we were able to finish phonics! Everyone was happy :-)
She also did her school books and computer preschool program. This is the first day we were able to have school done by lunchtime!
Last night at bedtime we were all knelt beside Samantha's bed so the girls could say their prayers (that's where Ella likes to say hers too). It was Ella's turn to go first and recently she has become quite the little pro at saying her prayers by herself, of coarse you never know what she might pray for...
Last night she got a good start, praying for mommy and daddy, her and sissy, and Andy- "help him he won't pick his nose," at which point Dale laughed aloud, which caused me to start laughing.
She puked a few weeks ago, so now she prays all the time that she will never puke again and has now started praying that sissy will never puke again either. Samantha has thrown up maybe twice in the past 2 years and the last time was well over a year ago. She prayed that God would help us on our trip for weeks after we got back home. Her prayers sound very sincere. She gets a little tiny voice and even has a catch in her voice ever so often like she is crying. If you try to help her at all she says in a stern whisper,"I CAN DO IT!"
Though her prayers sound silly at times, I am glad that she doesn't just say what I tell her, but is trying to develop her own relationship with the Lord!
We have started doing school and the girls are loving it. Ella is doing it right along with Samantha, and even though she is two grades behind, she has amazed me. We are learning about the 5 senses and I was quizzing Samantha the other day. She could only remember seeing, feeling, smelling, and tasting, when from half way across the room Ella nonchalantly says, "hearing," and continues with her coloring. It was pretty funny.
We are learning to use all 5 senses to observe and describe things, but I am aware that each individual has a different view than another. I remember when Andy was still homeschooling and we were using Understanding Writing (love it btw!!), they showed 2 descriptions of the same motel. One described a cozy, rustic getaway, and the other a run down, old dump.
When I was in Home Depot lately scoping out the different paint colors I came across one called vintage antique. It reminded me of understanding writing and I had to giggle, but I did bring the paint sample home and I think I might have to use it. I love the color (a dark turquoise), but the name just seals the deal!
The girls did a self portrait the other day. It was a lot of fun. I gave them each a hand mirror and we explored each feature in detail. Their eyes; the pupil, the whites and different colors, eyebrows and lashes, their noses and how they start up by their eyes, their lips, color and shape, teeth, ect. When we got it all done Ella suddenly looked at her whole picture as if seeing it for the first time, and cried out in dismay, "I look like a monster!!" I did try to comfort her, but I agree with her. LOL
