The First Day of School today

 Drew

 Gavin

 Morgan

Annika

Fun first day of school pages downloaded here:

http://www.howdoesshe.com/free-exclusive-1st-day-of-school-printables

I'll post more soon about our new year of school, but tonight I'm completely exhausted!
Goodnight.

One Year Old Birthday Boy - LEVI

 

 Happy, Happy Birthday, Little Levi!!

Photos of his party will be coming soon, but for now... here's what Levi has been up to as he neared his first birthday!!

 

Walking!  

He is a full-fledged walker and is getting sturdier by the day.

Way to go, buddy!

 My favorite part of him walking is the adorable giggles and squeals he lets out while he is walking across the room to me.  Sometimes he falls just because he is laughing too hard!  What a joy this little boy is!

This little man is the first of any of our babies to fall asleep in a highchair... and he has done it twice now!  

It is always if lunch is a tad later than normal and he's way ready for his nap... he eats and falls asleep... then I tote him off to bed...  it's rare, but oh-so-sweet! 

Best buds forever.  

 

This one I love so much.  

 

His most recent highchair nap...

He even fell asleep before he finished his food!  When I woke him up to change him and put him in bed, he immediately started stuffing the last bits of bread into his mouth even while half asleep.  

 More sleeping!  This time it was for his nap at the state fair!  He's a super easy traveler and is really easy-going...  

He was still smiling at the end of our long (cold) day at the fair!!

We love you soooo much, Levi!  

God has blessed us immeasurably with your presence in our lives. 

a week in pictures

I love seeing other people's candid shots of life...  so here are a few of mine from the week.  

When we arrived home from church last Sunday, Jeremy took this shot of Levi, Gabi, and I on the porch.  I don't think we have another photo of me holding both of them.  I love it.  It took several outtakes to get this one though.  ha ha... 

Levi was happy here, but just wasn't in the mood to smile at the moment.  I love how he gazes so intensely at me sometimes.  

 Meet the cowgirls Morgan and Annika!  This summer they have started playing together really well.  Annika is finally old enough to play well - she and Morgan play "tootend" (pretend) most days.  This particular day they were headed outside to be cowgirls! 

 This is the face of a disappointed 3 year old who isn't a big fan of soup and is the last one at the table.  Her sighs were too cute for me to handle.  Too bad, little sister, because soup is nearly always on the menu once a week! 

Oh my!  I love that our children know how to have a silly time.  I bought Annika a new pack of undies that she was overjoyed to own, and Gabi immediately went about adorning herself like a Christmas tree with each pair... eventually one went on her head.  Then all of the 4 younger kids needed a pair on their heads too.   What a crew. 

And here, finally, is one of the many outtakes from trying to get both babies looking or smiling at Jeremy!  I'm looking AND smiling - I'm such a good girl. 

feeling pulled

From the moment the kids are in bed, (babies at 7:30pm & bigger kids at 8:30pm) I am wondering what I should do with myself...  now, more than ever, I feel like there just isn't time in a day to pursue the projects or read the books I'd like to during the kids' waking hours.  So once those precious heads hit those pillows, my mind races with possibilities.  Should I read, be crafty, organize something, watch a movie or just hang out with Jeremy, or blog while drinking a nice cup of tea?  Here is the current list of things that pull me each and every night.  And most nights I'm too worn out to do any of them!

But nevertheless, here's the list:

Let's start with those books I've got bookmarks in...

 I don't normally take time for fiction,  because I always feel like I need to be learning something and fiction seems like a waste of time spent sitting to me... BUT I do want to finish The Help before I see the movie.  Even if it's when it's released on DVD in a few months. 

  I have the highlighter at hand at all times with this one.  It's a keeper.  It is an encouraging read as we get ready to begin another year of homeschooling. 

This one is currently loaned out to a buddy, but it is my new textbook for life in this season other than The Bible itself.   And I have plenty left to read and soak in when it returns. 

This book by my favorite teacher and speaker, Priscilla Shirer, is our current book club read.   I just got it in the mail today and am so excited to get into it. 

Since we don't have TV,  (we have a TV and DVD player, but no stations) some nights Jeremy and I will watch a movie that we own, or we'll rent one for super cheap... and that is really one of my favorite things to do.  But I haven't been able to figure out why I've had such a hard time sitting and watching a movie lately... and I just figured it out.  I haven't been able to sit for very long during the day, if at all, since Levi joined our family two months ago, and I think that sitting for the length of a movie seems so unnatural to me now and is hard for me to do without also "doing" something while I'm watching.  Crazy?  I think so.  But getting back to the feeling pulled idea... I have two movies sitting down by the TV, waiting for me to watch them. 

Great movie, happy to see it again!

Admittedly, I love a good Hallmark Hall of Fame flick.  

This one is due back Thursday, ack!

** update ** The fact a movie is in the Hallmark section at Blockbuster, doesn't make it a good Hallmark.  I found that out yesterday.  Lame one, I don't recommend.  :)  

Two other things pull at me each night...  

credit 

Sewing projects!  I have a smallish project I'm getting ready to start and I picked out some bright, fabulous fabric that I'll share later...  I'm chomping at the bit to get started, but am seriously unmotivated by the time 8:30pm rolls around.  As a side note, the above photo displays a few Amy Butler prints... aren't they beautiful?  I've made a diaper bag and throw pillows out of her fabrics so far and love her designs.  And be still my heart, she even designs wallpaper.  Sigh.   

The two fabrics in the top right corner (below) are the ones I chose for Gabi's diaper bag that I made last year.  I'll never grow tired of it. 

I know I have now gone on a major tangent... but can you even get enough of these fabrics? 

Okay, okay...  

The last thing that pulls at me right now as we're gearing up for a new school year (we start in a week and a half) is a bit of lesson planning.   Nothing intense, just planning out at least a months worth of weeks with the kids.  We're doing things a bit differently this year and in the end, I think it'll be less stress and more enjoying each other.  But here's the place I'm writing down these plans:  

Ordered from:  http://www.wellplannedday.com/

I bought the boys the Student Planner version of this, so they'll have all of their independent assignments in one place... I'm thinking that will work well for all of us.  

 Obviously, you can tell what I chose to do tonight...

BLOG!

I really love to blog, it's a release of all of those pent up ideas and thoughts that you would want to tell a girlfriend or a group of them.  

But what you can't tell from this post, is that before I sat down to write this, I painted an old desk I scored at a garage sale that I've been fixing up for my new office nook in our family room.  (Jeremy has helped me a bunch.. more to come on that soon!)  I love to turn someone's junk into a very useful and cute treasure.  

And as a parting note tonight, I couldn't let you go without seeing another photo of Amy Butler fabric.  You have no choice but to look at it and drool with me.  You're not drooling?  Shame, shame, shame. 

Printables for the Home

I just came across this amazing collection of home management printables and had to share... 

http://www.designfinch.com/2011/07/31/sunday-planning/

I scored this one from the link above, printed it, and am going to frame it and usa a dry or wet erase marker to write on it so I don't have to print a ton of them!   I hope it works.  

Simple - Relaxed - Gentle: I Heart Charlotte

Ever since I started homeschooling 6 years ago, I'd heard about Charlotte Mason and have been intrigued by her methods.  I've read books through the years about her and the methods she employed, but wasn't in a place where I was ready to leave what we were doing and the way we were homeschooling at the time.  But it was what I wanted in our days together as a homeschooling family, and I believe now, that God has been leading our family in this direction all along.

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At the end of last year, I remember saying over and over to myself, (and Jeremy) "Something has got to change."  At the time, I didn't even know that little Levi would be joining our family this summer - but even as it was before, it was time for a much needed change in attitude and method of homeschooling for us.  Since we started this journey of home educating our kids, we've clung loosely to Charlotte's methods unintentionally.  We just felt it important to read good or "living" books out loud together, read the Bible together, study nature, and lead a rather simple life where our learning and our living is intertwined. 

This summer, Charlotte has come back into the forefront of my mind.  She is everywhere, even though she lived and died between 1842 - 1923.  She is mentioned in several articles of my new The Old Schoolhouse issue, her methods (unbeknownst to me) are the subject of the book I bought to read recently as a homeschooling refresher.  Each summer, I make it a point to read one new book on homeschooling that serves as an encouragement before we start a new year.   There are articles touting her teaching methods in the new planner I got in the mail a couple weeks ago too.   I'm telling you, she's everywhere!

 

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And thankfully so.

She is JUST what I needed.  It literally hits the spot I've been aiming for these years and couldn't quite hit on my own.  I'll post more later on the things we'll be studying this year after I get the last of it in the mail... hopefully next week.  But for now, enjoy some of the links and resources I've been reading and soaking up this summer. 


Ann Voskamp - blog: A Holy Experience, author of the NY Times Best Seller, One Thousand Gifts
 Four Ways to Simply Homeschool
Organizing Head + Heart to Homeschool


Helpful Sites
Simply Charlotte Mason
Ambleside Online
A Charlotte Mason Education
Charlotte Mason Method Issue 1
Homeschool Highlights
Simply Charlotte Mason facebook page


Books
For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay
A Charlotte Mason Education by Catherine Levinson (and many others)
A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola


Free Online Resources (we're using this year)
Godly Character Traits (we'll focus on one all week long, thank you Kristy!)
Hymn Sing & Study  (we're using the 2011-2012 rotation, click on the hymn title for info, background music, and words!)
Morning Routine Cards (printable in boy or girl colors)

my new favorite dessert

Ever since having to go sugar-free for a time, (you can read about all that here) I have been experimenting with the foods I can eat to come up with something yummy to eat as a treat!  I think I hit the jackpot tonight!  This is my fourth time in six weeks trying new combinations of this and that to get just the right dessert.


When I started out 6 weeks ago, all fruits were fair game for me.. but upon doing some research and speaking to some knowledgeable folks - I've decided to cut out the fruit except one apple a week or so.  Sounds restrictive, but it's for my own good.  So that one apple goes into my dessert trial and error each time... here's what I came up with tonight, and you can bet I'll be making this over and over again!

First,  you preheat your oven to 350. 

 

 Then you start with this.  A pie plate will suffice as well.

 

Add 1 T. of this to the baking dish and stick it in the oven to melt it.

Pull it out of the oven after a few minutes and add one of these chopped up.  Stir it around to coat it with the melted oil.

Then sprinkle some of this on top.

 

Then, sprinkle this all over the top as well.

 

Chop 1/4 cup of these up and add then to the mixture.

 

Sprinkle a bit of this.

And a bit of that.

.

At the very end, plop 1 T of this on top and mix it all up until melted.  (Your dish is still hot, so this won't be a problem.)

Place your creation in the oven for 20 min. then enjoy!


And might I add that after 6 weeks of taking care of myself, I have also dropped 14 pounds!   Weight loss certainly isn't the reason my way of eating has changed, but it sure is a perk.  All of my go-to jeans that were the only ones that fit are now extremely baggy and I now have to pull out the archives and wear the brand new pairs of jeans I've been saving in hopes that "one day" they'll fit again.  Wahoo! 

Zoo time!

 At the start of summer, we bought an annual pass to the zoo with great hopes that we'd get to go a few times a year.  Well, we're starting off on the right foot with two trips this summer - this was a quick jaunt around in just an hour since we were in town for our nephew's 2nd birthday party that day.  Now the real question is this:  Will we make any freezing cold winter trips around the zoo?  Time will tell!  But I've heard from friends that the animals are more active in the snowy season - can't wait to see. 

 I am fascinated by grizzly bears.  When they're at the zoo.  The fact that we live with them all around us in the wild gives me the willies when we make a trek into the woods or on a hike.  And even more so considering the day after these bear pictures were taken last Saturday, Jeremy and the boys were stuck out on the river with my Dad standing on a tiny strip of sandbar where a bear had just visited.  He left fresh tracks, a half eaten fish, and a large opening where he had barreled back into the brush.  Gulp.  God prompted me to pray for their safety several times that morning and afternoon.  So thankful Mr. Big Bear didn't decide to revisit that spot right away. 

 Look at the size of those claws!!!  Maybe they'd be worn down a bit if he was a bear in the wild and not a zoo bear, but still... 

 Here's the whole crew, minus yours truly!  I just noticed how each of the older kids gravitated toward one of their younger siblings for the picture.  And if I had too, this is exactly how I would have paired them up.  I've been thinking a lot about pairing the kids up into buddy sets this fall so the big kids can officially be helpers with certain things for their little buddies.   They already are such a huge help with them. 

Jeremy and Levi were rather taken by the bald eagle with the intense stare. 
 I think bald eagles would win any staring contest around - it's as if they can look right through you!


Ta ta for now, we're going to continue enjoying our summer - two and a half more weeks until we start school...  stay tuned in the next couple days for the lineup of what we'll be studying this year!