That is what I have on my list to post about tonight.  Let’s see what I can get done.

I recently made a granola recipe that my friend Laura gave to me years ago.  Really it has taken me YEARS to finally try this recipe and I’m so sad that I have been missing out all this time.  I think I always put it off because I either was shy one or two ingredients or we were working on the last of the store-bought granola we had.  If I only knew!  This is so good and so easy and, just like my homemade tortillas, you’ll never want to buy store-bought again.

This is the recipe as far as I know it.  I remember Laura giving it to me over the phone and I was writing fast.  It’s a mess, but hopefully I can make it clearer.  (If you have comments Laura, please don’t hesitate to add anything!)

Homemade Granola

8 Cups Oats

3 Cups Wheat Germ

1/2 Cup Oil

1/2 Cup Honey, Maple Syrup, or Molasses

1-2 Cups Nuts or Seeds (I used slivered almonds, mmmm)

1-1 1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla

Optional 1 Cup Peanut Butter (I used)

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Heat all wet ingredients till warm.  Mix together and spread on 2 cookie sheets.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes stirring occasionally.

That’s it for the recipe.  I keep mine stored in a big plastic storage bag in the fridge.  It’s perfect for our fruit and yogurt breakfasts.  It’s not break your teeth crunchy and it’s super tasty.

CrossFit.

I cannot even begin to say how much our family loves CrossFit.  If you are remotely interested and want something to boost your motivation on the fitness front here is an inspirational video.  It’s not all that informational, but their site is where you find the goods.  They also have what they call CrossFit Kids which is a site with information on getting kids involved in the same type movements and exercises.  Most of the time our kids follow whatever we are doing, but sometimes they like to do what’s listed for CrossFit Kids.  Chloe loves practicing hand stands, which is one Work Out of the Day (WOD) on CrossFit Kids.  The work outs are usually under 30 minutes, including the warm-up.  I love this little article that sums up fitness in 100 words:

World-Class Fitness in 100 Words:

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips,  splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports. ~Greg Glassman  

With CrossFit I can say that I am doing the above things regularly WITH my whole family, which is the best part. Second to best parts are “routine is the enemy” and ”keep workouts short and intense.”  I’m still working on the “no sugar” part though.  Grrr, it’s so hard to give up.  For the record, I ran my first 5K in over 10 years last week.  I made it in 27 and a half minutes.  I really had a great time and I’ve never really said that about running before.  I have a feeling that Chloe will be our fitness guru as she grows.  Just saying it now to see if this statement comes true, that girl is true grit.

Well, I’ve still got budget, garden and Burgess to talk about, but I’m out of time.  Just thought I’d mention that I’m feeling a little out of control these days.  It could be the fact that John was on a week-long leave from work.  We just hung around here and you’d think it would have been easier with him around, but I think there is more pressure for me.  I generally go with whatever he has a need to do, with pleasure (most of the time), but I think my schedule and time management goes out the window.  So he has started back to work, it’s time to get back to my tight running ship!

I can tell when things feel like they are snapping at the seams when a small pile of toys out of their place completely drives me batty and I am two seconds away from packing every toy in the house in a box to Goodwill.  Or when the lists of things I have to do are so spread about that I can’t keep track of the lists that have the things I have to do on them.

Well, I know that I can mark off “Blog” on my list, wherever it is.

About three years ago Chloe had a few questions to ask and I don’t recall how they were ever answered, but she asked them and I thought they were worthy of writing down.  I didn’t find the questions until cleaning out a shelf a couple of weeks ago when I stumbled across an old notebook.

“How was God made when Jesus wasn’t even born?”

“If God doesn’t want us to sin, why does sin exist?” (mind you, she was only 4 around the time this was asked, ha, even us adults want to ask this one sometimes!)

Last one, “How did Satan ever become bad?”

We received a fun little game from our neighbors called Gabbit where it asks semi-thought provoking questions like, “If you could change your name what would it be?” And, “Who is one of your funniest friends?” The girls and I were playing one night and the question was, “If you could trade places with anyone in your family who would you trade with.”  Sophie’s answer was, “It would be Mama, because then I would be the oldest and I would get to heaven sooner.”

Another question was, “What is your favorite day of the week?”  Chloe answered, “Sunday, the Lord’s day, we get to relax together and play games and worship God together.”  Sophie chimed in and said, “Yeah, if I didn’t believe in God I would be workin’ on Sunday and not resting. I’d just be diggin’ all day.”

Caleb loved the Christmas tree this year.  He did great with the “no playing with the ornaments” rule.  However, he never seemed quite satisfied that there were enough ornaments on the tree so he often added his own. Among them, Daddy’s cell phone, a clip brush, a flashlight (yes, he turned it one before hanging it), Daddy’s watch, Mama’s socks, Sophia’s hair band and a few others that are slipping my mind.  In the end, we decided to join him and right now (yes, I still have my tree up, we are winter long Christmas people, and yes, we still listen to Christmas music, why does it have to stop after Christmas day?  It all started when we were in NY, we left our tree up till mid-February one year because it was so dreary outside that it was nice to see a brightly lit tree upon walking in the door)…anyway…STILL hanging on the tree is a pot-holder, a pin wheel and a pipe cleaner.

Tonight we had leftover ravioli for dinner and I helped cut Caleb’s into neat little squares.  He mentioned that it looked like pancakes and a little later during one of his Caleb chatter moments he said….”sometimes da girls will say dese are like pancakes, but I say dey are wav-li-oli.”

Little Hazel is scheduled for what I understand is called ureteral reimplantation in March.  Her doctor confirmed suspicions of an ectopic ureter and she will need surgery to fix it.  She now has 37% function in her left kidney and 63% in her right.  Thankfully the bad kidney will be preserved, but it may never regain full function.

We are praising God that she is so healthy despite this little issue. And that we caught this so early.  She will never even know what caused the little scar above her pubic bone until we tell her.  We would appreciate prayer now and as the surgery date approaches.  She has to continue her prescription of a low dose antibiotic to help prevent infection until after all is well with her newly functioning system.  Pray that she stays well till March!

When we were watching Sponge Bob, dat guy, dat blue guy, um has a weapon and we were looking at dat skewy movie wit dat abomible snowman, and um, dere is a snowman in dat one, so dat is, so, so da bomimal snow monster lives, bominal snow monsters are called creatures and dey live in um caves. End dey are posed to be in caves, but dey don’t have foorts.  And um, aaaannnd, dey, deyers deres a pancake on da road, and um ere was a tungin one. (Me: “A what one?”) Uh, a tiny pot pancake like one dat has a pancake in it.  And um, dee end.

You can now see how I could not possibly remember all of that.  That was pretty fun.  We may just have a Caleb channel with all of his stories.  I imagine they will grow and grow.

We’ll start with “isms.”

We don’t do juice too much around here, but one day we had orange juice for breakfast and we had some left over in the afternoon that Daddy poured for himself.  Gabe asked if he could have some and the answer was no.  John had put the glass on the table and walked away to get something.  Gabe longingly looked at the glass and said, “Poor juice, it’s sitting there with nobody to drink it.”

The kids have been getting into the cartoon version of Avatar.  As I understand it there are four types of “benders.”  Air benders, Earth benders, Water benders and Fire benders.  Tonight when Gabe was getting on his pajamas he passed gas that rumbled his loft bed.  I commented on the heartiness of it and he said something along the lines of, “just call me the great Air Bender.”

Gabe has such a sweet and caring heart most days, but sometimes he really can be nasty to his brother and sisters.  I have really tried to encourage him to be kind even when it’s hard.  One day I approached him about his attitude that for the last few days had just been mean and selfish.  I asked him if there was anything bothering him and told him how he has a big job in this family.  ”You can really set the tone for how the children get along.  Your brother and sisters are watching you and will emulate what you do because you are the oldest, whether it is good or bad. So, it’s really a big job for you to be the best example you can be.”  I said this to him and it struck deep in his heart and he started crying.  He said, “I wish I wasn’t the big brother, I wish I had someone to show me how to do it, it’s so hard.  Why do I have to be the big brother, Mama?”  I held him silently for a moment and said, “Because God knew you’d be the best one for the job.”  This gave him a bit of confidence and he wiped his tears and got down from the counter with a fresh start.   I can’t say that he has never looked back, but it has given him a lot to think about.

The kids like to call their seat when they get in the car and evidently the sweet spot is the middle seat, in the middle row.  They all call it, “in the middle of the middle.”  Poor Chloe never quite calls it in time and is always stuck in the back.  One day they were all clambering to the car and the winner of the call was Sophie, Chloe says half in jest and half in disappointment, ”Aw! Why does nobody show me any mercy!”

Sophie is our little dawdler.  She needs a timer set with specified consequences if not done in time to be motivated to get things done in a timely manner.  (I really need to search out more positive approaches to this behavior, but this is all I have “time” for.)  Anyway, I tried to talk to her about how she needs to be more immediate in her actions when asked to do something.  I was going to go along the lines of how we shouldn’t be lazy, blah, blah, blah. And when I asked her, “What does it mean when you don’t do something quickly when we ask you?”  She said, ”It means that I’m not honoring Mommy and Daddy.”  Yea, she brought me back to basics.  Of course, that was all that was needed.

This one was quite a while back and I’m not the one who should be writing it down because John was the witness to this, but I’ll try.  We had had a dinner of barbecued ribs one Sunday afternoon and later we had our family worship time with review of catechism questions.  Sophie was on the questions about Adam and Eve being made and must have had the picture of Adam giving God one of his ribs (barbecued) to form Eve out of.  Several nights later we had soup for dinner and she was asked the question, “How were Adam and Eve made?”  She answered, “Adam was formed from the dust of the ground and Eve was made from Adams soup.”

Hmm, I don’t have any post-it notes for Caleb.  He is just chatty.  He LOVES to talk about anything.  When we are at the table he will go on and on about whatever flows through his mind.  It might go something like this, “There was a big truck and he went down the road and he saw a monster and the monster said ‘STOP!’ so the truck stopped and he said, ‘Hey, why are you in the road.’ and the monster said, ‘hey you get off my road, your breath stinks, really bad.’  The end.”  That was actually a very, very short story for him.  I am now determined to record one of his stories and share it, he has the cutest little voice ever.

Hazel, well she is beginning to crawl, more like scoot.  I find myself surveying the floor for any potential choking hazards because she will go for it.  Thankfully she is very slow right now.  And she is just so sweet!  Sadly, I often forget that she is awake if I’ve left her to play in the living room by herself, she is so quiet and content.  She didn’t have Chloe’s disposition at first, but she has developed it now.  She just smiles and smiles when she wakes up and wiggles with joy when any of the kids smile or talk to her.  And she is so much more tolerant of the kids holding her than Caleb was.  I seriously fight the kids for her.  They want to hold her and play with her as soon as she is up and use up all of her sweet smiles and play time and when she is fussy they call me to come get her.  I’ve gotten to where I will ask, “Can Mama just hold her for a few minutes before any body snatches her away?”  I know Caleb was not like this at all. I remember distinctly wishing that he would play more with them instead of preferring me.  I suppose the kids are a bit older now and more capable of entertaining Hazel than when Caleb was a baby.  Gabe is convinced that she is the sweetest and cutest of all our babies, but I just read recently to him how he loved Caleb and Sophie just as much.  He just forgets when they start talking and messing around with his things!

I have been wanting to write this down for some time for my own personal records.  Hazel did not start going to sleep early regularly until four months old.  I was wracking my brain with her thinking that ALL of my other babies were sleeping earlier in the evening than her, but possibly having had five has made me forget.  Oh, yes, I also wanted to record that she was unusually fussy during those first 6 weeks and more.  I remember my others being very portable at that age and easily sleeping in the car seat for long periods and anywhere.  I didn’t really have that luxury with her.  And also for the record, she is still nursing at least two times in the night.  And THAT is a record.  I would have liked it with my others because it keeps my milk production up (one nice benefit of that is no monthly cycles……. or I could just be getting old.)  Anyway, she just may be my first nurse-till-two baby!  I’ve always had the goal of nursing my babies till at least the age of two because I know that there are significant health benefits such as added nutrition and getting my immunities, but my babies have always weaned themselves.  Maybe little Hazel will do it.  Heck, the others were sleeping through the night for months by now.  Yea, she is seven months old.  Blows my mind.

Well, I had more to write, but I’m pretty typed out and I still have to check for major grammatical errors.  Hmm, I may just do spell check tonight.

She is currently on a low dose antibiotic to prevent bacteria growth and so far we have had no episodes so we are praying that she will continue doing well with the antibiotic until we get it all fixed.

Caleb turned three yesterday.  It should be against the law for a child to be sick on their birthday.  He had a fever and complained of ear pain so we will be seeing the doctor today.  (Along with all the rest of the older ones to get their flu shots!)  He was a little grumpy to start out and when Sophie would say things like, “Caleb, it’s your birthday, you’re the Birthday Boy.”  He would grumpily snap back saying, “No, I’m not the Birthday Boy, Sophie.”  It took a few times telling him that being the Birthday Boy was a good thing.  He has a hard time accepting that he can be anything but Caleb right now.  He would also say Happy Birthday back to anybody who told him Happy Birthday.

My baby boy is three.  It’s unreal.  It really seems like yesterday that I had him all bundled up in his blankets making little baby noises.  He is quite a talker and I am continually amazed at his clarity and vocabulary.  He has a tender little heart, but can also be loud and destructive, especially when Mama hasn’t spent the necessary one on one time with him.  When something gets broken by him I need only to reflect back on my lack of time with him as the cause and instantly spend a few minutes remedying it.

The children love their little brother(for the most part) and Hazel loves smiling and laughing at him.  When he sees her, he mimics me and Daddy when talking with her and in his smiley three-year-old voice says, “Heeeeey, Haaaaaaazel!”   She, of course, smiles with her whole body and bounces up and down with the attention.

Here is one of the cute things he said yesterday when opening presents.  Much to my dismay he loves the big Hotwheel cars that have buttons on the top that play LOUD music and do lifts and go along the floor.  Well, he got the green one for his birthday, the one he could not get away from at the store last week.  He liked the others too including a monster truck, but he gravitated to the green one and kept trying to put it in the cart.  So he got the green one for his birthday.  After the delight of opening it wore off he stared at it for a second and said, “The monster truck is still at the store though.”

Taking up where we left off; how we offend the child.  Charlotte Mason says offending a child is putting a stumbling-block in his life.  A stumbling-block is “that which trips up the walker and causes him to fall.”  We can either place the stumbling-block there or not remove it.  Either way the child falls and we offend them by doing what should not be done and despise them by not doing what should be done.

Charlotte Mason then attempts to describe how the child is born law-abiding.  I was confused by her use of the word “abiding.”  I suppose I have always thought of the term “abide” like one would use “abide by.”  I would venture to say that Charlotte Mason is not using the latter. She states that the child ”is born a law-abiding being with a sense of may, and must not, of right and wrong.”  This, to me, doesn’t mean that he actually “abides by” this sense of right and wrong, only that this sense of moral law is there.  And at least one definition of “abide” might fit her use of it being; to continue in a particular condition, attitude, relationship, etc.; last.  Meaning that God has written this moral law on our hearts, that is our condition.  If indeed, she is using this term in that sense then I whole heartedly agree with her.

She goes on to say that a child with this innate sense of right and wrong begins to go astray little by little when the mother does not take her role of inclining his ear to this sense seriously. A mother can do this by letting a child get away with a transgression because “it’s just so cute,” or inducing shame or guilt when no transgression has been made.  With these little games the child eventually learns that all he has to overcome is his mothers disapproval. There is no direction to heed the law that is within.  He has only learned to get his own way by learning his mothers likes and dislikes.

Next, Miss Mason says that children must know that their caretakers are Law-compelled.  The one sure way to offend a child is for a mother to feel that she is free to raise the child according to her desires and the feeling that the child is “hers to do what she like(s) with.”  The mother does not hold to the idea that she has a sense of duty to her child.  When the mother has not made this mistake the child comes to realize and learn that there are areas that mother does not relent, especially in the area of right and wrong.  The child gradually becomes more sensitive to their own moral law within when their caretakers have been appropriately teaching them that there are things that must  and must not be done.

Lastly, Charlotte Mason talks about three more areas where a parent can offend a child.  In the area of health, not feeding them right, or giving proper exercise or providing well ventilated living quarters.  In the area of their intellect, giving boring lessons and allowing the child to become placid with learning and seeking other thrills.  And in the area of their moral life.  This one seemed a bit obscure to me, but I think it has to do with the idea of a mothers unfair affections leading to the moral decay of the child.  The example she gave was about a women whose mother always doted on her younger brother and never had a smile or even a look her way when she came to the nursery.  She said that in her adult life she doesn’t feel natural with her mother and her and her brother don’t have the fond feelings for each other that they could have if things were different.

Please comment if you agree or disagree with how I have summarized Charlotte Mason’s thinking on offending the children.

We boarded the Cumberland Lady after arriving in St. Mary’s.  You can see three of our five children on the dock.  The ferry ride was about 40 minutes and rather uneventful until….. (hint: notice the looming clouds in the background).

The rain started on the ferry about 5-10 minutes before we were to arrive on Cumberland Island.  I watched our bags being drenched in the down pour and hoped that they were somewhat water-proof.  Hubby finally moved them into a cubby where they weren’t getting too soaked, but by that time the worst had hit them.  We donned the kids with ponchos, Caleb refused to where one.  He screamed the whole way from the boat to the Welcome Center.  I had little Hazel in the Ergo with a poncho over me.  She remained the dryest of us all.  The above picture is our drenched children (in one of the pairs of clothes out of the three we brought for them).  Caleb and Sophie slept through most of the orientation.

This was taken after the rain had stopped, it’s the dock where we came from the boat.  Hubby had gone ahead to secure a campsite and the children began to make their first discoveries of Cumberland Island.  Chloe found a part of a vertebrae of some animal.  Little crabs scurried in every direction.  This is also where we spotted three wild turkeys when we boarded the boat to leave.

Cart loaded and we are on our way to our campsite.  It was probably a little under a mile walk.  Hubby had already taken one cart load to the site.  For a family of seven it was pretty amazing that we only took two cart loads.

So a mile walk in this beauty was not bad at all.  The picture really doesn’t do it justice.  It was like walking into a different world altogether.

Pretty much where Hazel stayed most of the time on the island.

Just looking and walking.  You would think that we all would have been dry after our little walk, but with the humidity being 80-85 percent we were still wet by the time we reached our site.  I had no complaints though, I was laughing when we got off the boat.  The ranger had thanked us for bringing the rain because they hadn’t seen rain in months and they really needed it.  I kept thinking to myself that someone very likely prayed for this rain, how can I grumble about it.  I will say that I came to that conclusion only after I really wanted to complain about it!

The girls jumping the waves.  The night before we had to eat our dinner of tortilla wraps and dried fruit in the tent because of a down pour.  It was supposed to be a hot dinner of chicken quesadillas, but that wasn’t going to work with the amount of rain coming down. At least we got camp set up before the rain came.  And despite the rain, the next day was beautiful until evening.  Here are the remaining pictures of our 4 hours on the beach.

To the right.

To the left.  What is missing in these pictures?  People!!  We had the whole beach to ourselves save one couple and their daughter who took a walk along the beach.

The kids found a huge hole already dug for them to play in.  Caleb asked to be buried and he stayed there for about twenty minutes. He probably would have went to sleep if he had his blanket.

Again, Hazel in the Ergo catching a snooze.

I was the first to see a wild horse.  I snapped this picture heading back to camp to get ready for lunch.  This horse, or one similar, later came strolling on the path right next to our campsite.

The nightly tick check.  I have always been a little weirded out by ticks, but this trip kind of cured me of it.  We all had a few and after a while it was like getting a mosquito bite. (I’m still praying none of contracted Lyme disease.) This was our second night here.  Hubby and I discussed in the tent whether we should stay or not.  He really wanted to stay at least one more night and I was willing to tough it out, but told him truthfully that I was having a difficult time with managing Hazel and naps and the rain and nothing drying out.  We fell asleep undecided, but Hazel’s body heat in the night indicated she had a fever and that solidified it.  We would pack up in the morning and take the last ferry off the island so we could explore the history and old structures (provided Hazel didn’t get any worse).

The next morning Gabe snapped this photo.  He noticed the light coming through the trees and just had to get a picture.  Of course this day was gorgeous and if Hazel wasn’t feeling under the weather, I’m sure we would have toughed it out another night.

Just some campsite photos.  Notice the clothes drying out by the fire.  And Sophie happily playing while Hazel slept in the Ergo and Hubby and the kids were off to get carts from the Welcome Center.

A stop to rest on our way to Dungeness. I was going to fill in here a little blurb about the islands history, but decided not to since it has already taken me a month to get what I have done.  Hubby says Wikipedia does a decent job of reporting the historical facts.  Definitely worth checking into if you ever want to visit here.

The remains of Dungeness.  It was burnt down in 1959.

This is a picture of Dungeness before it was burned down.

More wild horses.  The middle picture has a colt in it.  The above photo was one that I took as two horses were grazing and walked right by me.

Good-bye Cumberland Island.  We’ll be back in a less rainy season and without a baby!

This was not at Cumberland Island, but I couldn’t resist sharing a photo of the Little Log Wedding Chapel that we were married in ten years ago. We were so young and so in love then!  Walking up to it with our five children was so surreal.  We are still fairly young and very much in love, but a different kiss was shared with my husband then the one we shared on that spot ten years ago. A kiss of a decade of shared memories, ups and downs, five beautiful blessings, and of love founded on the rock of our Savior.

]]> http://houseoffive.wordpress.com/2011/10/26/cumberland-island-in-september/feed/ 7 Tamara DSCF0283 DSCF0294 DSCF0296 DSCF0298 DSCF0299 DSCF0302 DSCF0300 DSCF0305 DSCF0307 DSCF0308 DSCF0321 DSCF0311 DSCF0312 DSCF0324 DSCF0330 DSCF0335 DSCF0342 DSCF0344 DSCF0353 DSCF0360 DSCF0365 DungenessBeforeBurn---BodyI_1 DSCF0368 DSCF0373 DSCF0377 DSCF0388 DSCF0541 http://houseoffive.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/charlotte-mason-on-the-childs-estate/ http://houseoffive.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/charlotte-mason-on-the-childs-estate/#comments Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:52:25 +0000 Tamara http://houseoffive.wordpress.com/?p=358 ]]> A friend of mine started reading Charlotte Mason’s first volume several weeks ago and began posting her thoughts on her blog.  I’m thrilled that she, of all people, is doing this because she is wicked smart and I know I will glean much from her insight.  I will probably not be as disciplined (nor as skillful) as her in posting, but you may hear from me once in a while about my thoughts on Miss Mason’s writings.

I have a few thoughts on what Charlotte Mason says about the child’s estate.  Mostly, that I like it.  And I should because her ideas are straight from Scripture.  She states that a child is likely to be a tablet to be written on or clay to be molded, “but he is much more–a being belonging to an altogether higher estate than ours; as it were a prince committed to the fostering care of peasants.”

This is just so good for me.  I need to hear these things because mothering five little children sometimes doesn’t feel like anything too significant.  Many times I fail at even treating them like decent human beings, let alone princes and princesses.  Miss Mason goes on to quote verses of the Bible concerning children and tells us that we need to pay attention to any references the Bible makes about children and take note, too, that these verses first belong to us as adults who are to become as little children.  Sigh….

She then discusses the Code of Education in the Gospels which isn’t so much what we should do for them, but rather what we should not do to them.  “Take heed that ye OFFEND not–DESPISE not–HINDER not–one of these little ones.”  She states that as we think about the things that “we may not do, we are greatly helped to see what we may do, and must do.”

In our next few readings she will discuss these particular offences.  You may be hearing from me.

Today little Hazel will be going in for a pediatric urology appointment.  It seems that her enlarged kidney that was detected in utero may be causing some problems in her little urinary tract.  Last week she came down with a UTI and let me tell you a five month old with a UTI is bad news.  It was so sad, she nursed all night with her little body wiggling because she was so uncomfortable.  We pray for answers and treatment at the urologist today.

This year for school we started a little group called Mae Day.  A small group of us moms decided it was finally time to give our kids the enrichment activities that Charlotte Mason highlights in her method of education.  We created a blog to document this event and hope you will join us.

We were getting the kids ready for bed a few nights ago and Sophie came to me and said, “Mama, I know of a way to get my kids to brush their teeth when they don’t want to.”  She went on to tell me that after her children said no to her request a few times she would tell them they were going to play a game and she would say, “Simon says, brush your teeth.”  Then they would scurry to brush their teeth happily.

I told her that she will be such a sweet and fun Mama.  She said, “Yeah, and I would only have two spoons, one for cooking and one for scratching my back.”

We were reading our Old Testament reading at breakfast one day about Solomon and his many wives.  The children were curious as to why Solomon had so many.  I told them that he began to get very greedy about having for himself the most beautiful women.  He wanted only the best in everything including his wives.  Gabe asked, “Do you think you would have been one of his wives?”  Me: ”Well, I don’t know, why do you ask?”  Gabe: “Because you’re so pretty.” This, at breakfast, in my pajamas, I have done nothing at all to prettify myself.  AND he kept going.  “Don’t you guys think Mama is pretty?  I think she is so pretty, Mama is really pretty.”

You can imagine, that made my whole day.