The Well Rounded Mama

My Little Girl is Seven!

 

It is so hard to comprehend the fact that I have a SEVEN year old.  On the one hand it seems like just yesterday that I brought her into the world, and on the other hand, we have done so much and been so many places that it seems like she has been with us forever!  What I do know is that the last seven years have been so incredibly amazing...thanks to this little one and her siblings that followed.  Being a mom -- while being tiring, frustrating, overwhelming, time-consuming, and heart-wrenching -- is the most amazing, laughter-filled, encouraging, awe-inspiring, and humbling thing I have ever done.  There really are no words to describe it.  It took us a number of years and three miscarriages to get to this little lady.  And she has brought SO MUCH into our lives.  We are so very blessed!  HERE is a really long account of the little girls real birthday!

And now I have a mommy confession to make.  Up until this year, I have successfully talked Alaina out of a friend party every year.  I know.  I am bad.  I am horrible.  And I am selfish.  One, I want to celebrate as a family all alone and two, friend parties scare me.  The planning and the prep are just fine, but the actual running of the shin dig?  Well that's another story! Each year she mentions a  party and while I never say no, I always manage to find some other idea that I know she can't resist.  And so, for seven years, I have never had to throw a birthday party for a room full of girls.  Sure, we have had families come over and celebrate with us but that is totally different than invitations, decorations, and food!  But this year, Alaina really wanted a party and my mommy guilt set in (even as I offered her some other tempting options) and I finally said, "Let's do it."

I asked her what kind of party she wanted (I really needed a theme to work with) and she settled on a little bakery. So we  made some invitations and I knew there was no backing out! Because I work best under pressure, I really didn't have any solid plans until....oh, about two days before the event.  And I had no plans for decorations until....oh, about four hours before the event.  Yea, me and procrastination go hand in hand.  That said, I DO think things turned out great and Alaina said many times yesterday, "This is the BEST birthday EVER!"  I am SO glad my little girl loved her big day!

We had four activities:  we made chef hats, we put together cookies in a jar (for the girls to take home), they got to throw plates of whipped cream at Jason (Alaina's request!), and we decorated cookies. Then there were cupcakes (white cake with seven minute frosting) and Fanta Floats and lots of giggles and playing and being girls!

 
 

Last Week In Pictures

Here are some pictures from last week...another great week of school.  Another 5 days to enjoy being with my kids, seeing them learn, seeing them struggle (and overcome!) and hearing the giggles and the questions and the outlandish statements.  I LOVE these little people!

Levi playing with dominoes (scanning, counting, and matching)

We are waiting on Alaina's new math book to arrive so in the meantime, we are taking some time to learn about different kinds of graphs and charts and the information we can get from them.  We did bar graphs, pie charts, and line graphs. It's interesting to me how much I learn and understand when I try to teach.  Obviously, I know how to read a graph.  But when I had to explain it to someone else, it made me have to put words to their differences and when you would want to use each.  For example, bar graphs show relationship of items/amounts,  line graphs show change in items/amounts, and pie charts show percentage of items/amounts. 

A throwback to eight grade English!  To this day I still have, "Lolly lolly lolly get your adverbs here" running through my head! Alaina needed to work on parts of speech and truly understanding them, so I downloaded some Schoolhouse Rock from iTunes and then we read stories and worked on identifying parts of speech. (Language arts).

I made a "finish the word" game for Caleb to help him see how the same letters can form different words and also so he could pay close attention to ending sounds in words.

A little shape time for Caleb

A quick little "follow the path" maze I made for the boys..helping the little piggy find its way home.  (tracking and fine motor skills)

Alphabet time for Levi

Cutting practice is one of Caleb's favorite activities, so we do it 3 or 4 times a week.  I just draw different paths to cut on various kinds of paper (cardstock here). I can't believe how much his fine motor control has improved!

I have been working with Levi on senses and understanding how they work individually and how they work together.  We did various activities like playing "I Spy," doing a hearing test, smelling foods while blindfolded, and the kids' favorite, a blind taste test. (Science for Levi, but everyone else joined in).

Now that Alaina has button sewing almost perfected, we moved on to backstitch.  She's a natural! (domestic education, fine motor skills)

We are continuing our study of Kenya with lots of stories, interesting info, and some fun projects.  Here the kids are "hiding in the jungle" with the African tribal masks they made.

So, as you can see, we are still having lots of fun together, and hopefully learning a lot along the way. But most of all, at this age, I want to instill in them a love of learning and a curiosity about the world around them.  I want them to love to learn.  If I can develop that in them, then it doesn't matter where we live, where they school, or who teaches them...the love of learning will be there and they can take that love and discover and uncover anything they want!

The Best...or the Craziest

So the other night we were declared "the best parents in the world."  Well, to be honest, Jason was declared "the best dad in the world" but I will do my best to ignore the apparent oversight and trust that my kids DO realize that I had something to do with the day. 

So, back to being the best.  Our kids think we are. I suspect some adults would think we are the craziest.  You decide...

It all started with a cupcake.

I saw some photos of a family movie night on another blog and I just ADORED the cupcakes she made for special treats.  And I LOVED that they looked really easy...as well as totally amazing. We're a huge spaghetti loving family and after seeing a few other people try the rockin' cupcakes, I knew I wanted to try.

I'm not a huge fan of family movie nights, though.  One, our kids are still just too little to sit through a movie and actually watch (Katie especially thinks that everyone is just waiting to be jumped on.)  Two, I understand that watching a movie could be relaxing, but I like our family nights to be DOING something together...interacting...playing...laughing.  

That said, I decided I would come up with some fun activities with the theme of spaghetti.  We would then eat a yummy spaghetti dinner and enjoy the special dessert.

First game up: find the buttons in the spaghetti bowl.

Miss Katelynn's turn

And after her mess, the kids decided to help clean up

And then in the next moment, all plans for other games and activities flew out the window.  Jason had an idea and was armed with a bowl of spaghetti.

 

Next up...Alaina

And then the Beaver

And then the little princess

 

And they loved eating the mess...and begging for more

 

More "cleaning"

And they were a mess.  And the room was a mess.  And we were declared the best parents in the world.  Oh wait, that was just Jason. I don't get any words of affirmation for doing my very best to not say a word about the mess or the length of time it would take me to clean it up or about the other games and activities I had planned. Doesn't matter...they had fun.

And then I got the joy of throwing spaghetti in his face.  He didn't dare return the gesture.  I can dish it out but I can't take it.

And then the hour and a half cleaning party began while the kids played in the bath and I worked on the spaghetti dinner. New noodles, of course.  And these yummy breadsticks.

So...are we the best or the craziest.

Perhaps a little of both.

Good thing we don't have carpet.   

It was too long for Facebook

I tried to post on Facebook, but apparently my wordiness this Wednesday morning surpasses the character limit for status updates.  So here you go...

I will cherish today. It is the only one I have.  I want to soak up all that it has to offer...all the snuggles, all the kisses, all the teachable moments.  I have been given a gift to raise these four children.  They look to me to provide a living example of all I try to teach them. They need to SEE love and selflessness in action.  They need to HEAR kind and healing words spoken.  They need to FEEL my arms around them and feel kisses on their foreheads. They need to SMELL and TASTE good food that is made with love and that will fill their tummies. They need to KNOW that I truly believe that being a mother is the best thing in the entire world. This may be the hardest job I have ever done but there is none more important.

Back in the Swing of Things

I never intended to take three weeks off of school. But with Jason home for the break it was just too nice being a family and being able to go and do whatever we wanted.  We enjoyed a glorious three weeks doing lots of cooking, fun activities, great day trips, and lots of snuggle time. I have a little guilt about not doing "school" -- but not to much! Home education extends much farther than planned "school" time.   It was a great mental break for me -- just not having to worry about planning and prepping.

This week we were back into things full force, though. I'm really happy with the balance we have found in our homeschooling schedule and I am really looking forward to this semester.  Each of the kids are blossoming in their own special ways and it is so fun to see.

Here is our first week back in pictures.  A few things to note:

1. I apologize for the picture quality.  My camera is almost completely dead and one of its most frustrating ailments is that my automatic focus no longer works.  Manual focus + moving kids just don't mix. I am hoping that someone can bring me a new camera from the States!

2. Although it looks like we just do "fun" stuff, we also do more "regular" schooling activities like reading together, math work, Bible time, etc.  I just usually share pictures of some of the extras and/or the way we beef up what we are doing because that is what people seem to be looking for.  I get emails all the time asking about what kinds of activities they can do with their kids.

3.  You will also notice that we do things that are really about home education, not just home school.  We want to educate the entire child and that involves more than typical academic subjects.

4. Levi wears his basketball outfit any chance he gets.  The moment it is dry on the line he pulls it down and changes.  Therefore 75% of pictures of him show him wearing his too-small outfit.

Matching upper and lower case letter (aassessing Caleb's recognition of letters as well as engaging him in searching/scanning)

Block towers (demonstrating cuteness to the total extreme)

Putting together a pasta alphabet (scanning and searching as well as a great fine motor skill activity)

Making life-size versions of themselves (Levi is learning body parts -- elbows, shoulders, ankles, etc. so all of the kids did a bunch of body related activities together.  I like using the older ones to help the little ones in what they are learning).  

Getting ready to teach Alaina how to sew on buttons (and knot/finish them at the end). (Domestic arts as well as fine motor skills)

Not bad for her first try!

Chocolate pie making (I think I would just rather eat her! She is so delicious!)

Alphabet puzzle (learning to recognize lowercase letters)

I just gave Alaina some colored papers and some scissors and told her to make a flower.  I just love seeing her creativity explode. Can you see the "storm" she created with the dark cloud and rain? (art, creative thinking, tactile work)

Matching numbers to animals (counting, pairing items with numerals, indulging his undying love for all animals)

Later in the week he used the same animal sheet and counted off the animals using an abacus. (Counting, tactile stimulation, object to number correlation)

Drawing family pictures (working on drawing people with specific features, showing relationship between size)

Estimation and measurement of water (Measuring, guestimation, sensory activity)

A new verse for this week (Bible, memorization skills).  We have also started on the catechism for young children.

It just makes me smile (Levi had a pictorial list of all the features he had to include on his person)

Caleb and Levi got to make their own sandwiches for the first time (I will not raise boys who don't know their way around a kitchen...and you've got to start simple!  It's not that I think men need to be fabulous cooks or that cooking should be part of their family responsibility -- though if they enjoy it, it can be -- but they DO need to know the basics.  I worked with a teenage boy once who was supposed to be helping me in the kitchen.  I gave him the easy task of making buttered toast.  A few minutes later I smelled a burning smell and realized that he was buttering the bread before it went into the toaster! So come on moms...let's save our future daughter in laws the nightmare of a helpless man in the kitchen!)

Many tears were shed over this writing assignment (her attention span does not last longer than about ten minutes and this was easily a 30 minute assignment.) (Language arts expository writing).

In Social Studies/Science we continued on our trip around the world, this time landing us in Kenya.  We're excited for the next few weeks as we learn about African animals, the Kenyan people, and the ways that we can be involved in helping the poor and needy (we're already donating money to the Kenyakidscan feeding program and we are looking into sponsoring a child through Compassion International or World Vision).

And for my own brain stimulation I tried my first Sudoku puzzles (while I am waiting on the kids to finish up assignments).  I can see why people say these things are addicting! 

So that's it...our first week back.  Feels SO good to be back in the swing of things!

Chocolate Chip Scones

CHOCOLATE CHIP SCONES -- oh so yummy!

2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 cup (or less, depending on taste) mini chocolate chips

lightly beaten egg

(I don't have buttermilk on hand so I usually just make my own.  1 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice + 1 cup of milk = 1 cup buttermilk).

_____

Mix dry ingredients.  Cut in 6 tablespoons butter until mixture resembles course cornmeal.  Add chocolate chips.  Make a well in the center and pour in buttermilk.  Mix until dough clings together and is a bit sticky.  Do not overmix. Turn out dough onto a floured surface and shape into a 6-8 inch round about 1.5 inches thick.  Use a round biscuit cutter (or the mouth of a cup) to cut circles.  Do not handle the dough too much in order to keep them light and fluffy.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, making sure that the sides of the scones do not touch each other.  Brush each scone with the beaten egg.  Bake at 425 for 10 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

*Adapted from Basic Scone recipe from If Teacups Could Talk, by Emilie Barnes

TIPS FOR SUCCESS

 

Find three cute kids in aprons to help you

Make sure they all get a turn to stir

Convince them not to eat the dough or pick out the chocolate chips while you are rolling them out

Let one of the kids brush an egg over the top so they turn out nice and shiny

Since they look so yummy sitting there on a pretty plate, you might as well make it into a full-fledged affair...

complete with invitations...

and a pretty table and tea set.

Grab a plastic cup and spoon for the wee one

And watch the older ones have fun feeling all grown up with their tea and china

Just Look at This Face

One of the sites I enjoyed last year was i heart faces.  I enjoyed looking at all the entries for the various contests and seeing different people's takes on a subject matter.  The site is celebrating its first birthday.  And although I don't usually enter their contests, I had a photo ready to go for this weeks challenge of BEST FACE.  This is my dear sweet Katie's best face...being stuffed with chicken sate. That girl can INHALE some meat on a stick!

It's So Easy...

I've been giving a lot of thought to my word for the year: RUN.  I have so many thoughts and prayers going through my head...seeing how much this word is going to impact me.  I want to RUN...I don't want stroll through life living on cable TV and lattes. I want to treat my life like it means something...like I was created for a purpose.  I do NOT want to be content doing what everyone else is doing "because everyone else is doing it." I want to understand daily that my life is not my own -- I was bought at a price.  I do not get to decide to sit around and do nothing.  To sit around and feel sorry for myself.  To sit around and blame other people or circumstances for why I just sit around.  I cannot and will not live that way.  I want to run.  I'm on a slow jog right now...but it's progress.  And I won't quit until I am running full speed.

But...

It is so easy.  It is so easy to get sucked into a Sunday Stroll type of existence.  I have been thinking a lot lately on what it means to live sacrificially. To give until it hurts.  To live in a way that it could be said of us, "that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality." (2 Corinthians 8:2).  I want to learn how to live on less so that I can give more.  I want to live on less so that I can teach myself and my children that  happiness is not found in the abundance of things.  And yet, as convinced and convicted I am, it is so easy to get sucked back into it.

Just this week I have had a number of experiences when I went from wanting to live with less to desiring MORE in a matter of moments. From remembering that millions are starving to thinking $200 a night for a hotel isn't that bad.  From reading about the ONE MILLION people that live in a slum that is ONE SQUARE MILE to thinking that having a bigger kitchen sure would be nice. From wanting to live more simply and more focused to thinking how fun it would be to go house hunting "for something nicer" (and doesn't leak).

It's just so easy.  It's so easy to see what others have.  To see things that I want.  To crave material things to fill a longing in my heart. To justify my actions because I am "better than so and so."  To rationalize my actions and decisions because "it is for the kids."

Oh Lord.  Don't let it be so easy.  Don't let me get fooled by the lies of this world that say MORE is better. That BIGGER is better.  That I DESERVE it.  That the problems of the world are too BIG for me to do anything about.  That $5 here and $5 there doesn't make a difference (when there are people in the world who can't come up with 21 cents a month.) Help me to grasp every day that the only MORE I need is MORE of You.

And just so I don't leave this post pictureless...here is my desktop background that I have had for the last year or so...just to remind me. (The photo was taken from kenyakidscan.org) These are kids in Kenya who are lined up for lunch at school...the ONE meal a day they get.

Didn't Quite Go As Planned

Not every day goes as planned.  Like yesterday.  Oh...yesterday.

We have been wanting to go see a place called Kawah Putih.  It is another volcano about two hours from where we live.  It has a gorgeous turquoise lake and is supposed to be just a stunning place to visit.  We have been putting it off and we finally decided that yesterday was the day.  Christmas break is coming to an end and needed to do it while we still had the chance.

So we left around 8:30 in the morning and everything was going very well. We decided to have our driver drive us so that Jason could sit in back with the kids. That helped SO much (you know how I feel about driving long distances with kids in the car!)  I sat in the front, read, and only had to intervene with the hooligans in the back a few times.

The drive was beautiful...love all the mountains, rice paddies, and small town.  We started climbing up the mountain through lots of twisty, turny roads.  That is when I learned something very important...

My almost two year old gets very, VERY carsick.

I have never seen so much vomit come out of one person. Never.  And of course, we did not have a change of clothes.  So we stopped at a hotel/restaurant, and did the best we could to get her cleaned up.  But her clothes were no longer an option so we got a spare diaper (her old one was dry -- yea Katie -- but had vomit all over it) and she sat on my lap for the last bit of the trip.  And for those of you who don't live overseas, just get over the shock of her not being in her car seat for a little bit. It will make your life, and mine, easier. We do care greatly for the safety of our children.   The good part of all this was that I got this sweet picture.

A few minutes later we arrived.  They wanted to charge us tourist prices but once again my standby sentence, "Kami tinggal di Indonesia" (we live in Indonesia) got their attention.  After a few questions like, "Berapa lama sudah di Indonesia?" (How long have you been in Indo?) and a few answers, "Hampir dua tahun" (almost two years) our price miraculously dropped to less than half and we were in.

We stepped out of the car and realized we should have taken the comments of, "Oh it's really cold there" more seriously.  But people talk about it being "cold" here a lot and while I AM a wimp when it comes to weather, I don't think that 65 degrees can really be considered COLD. But we stopped out and realized a few sweatshirts and long pants might have been a good idea.

We walked into the park and we got a few glimpses of the gorgeous turquoise (see photo at the beginning of the post) but the boys saw a trail and it was decided that we would hike first. Our two little boys, who just a week ago complained non-stop about a 3 mile walk along a nice paved trail, saw an adventurous trail through the woods and took off without looking back.  To their credit, it was a beautiful trail.

I did get them to stop long enough to attempt a photo.  But they were too busy telling me they were "SUPER HIKERS!"

There was a problem with the hike though -- I was wearing flip flops.  I didn't realize that there was a walk around the volcano and I wasn't quite prepared for the sort-of trail that was there.  We walked for about twenty minutes and then made the family decision that we would turn around and plan for the hike another time.  That turned out the be a VERY good decision because not long after we turned around it started to rain. And rain it did.  By the time we got back to the start of the trail we were SOAKED.  Dripping wet and freezing cold. Katie had been wearing Jason's jacket inside the child backpack and when I peeled that off of her she was cold, wet, and shivering. I sent Jason to go buy an overpriced sweatshirt so I would have something to put on this girl.  Jason then went in search of warm food while the kids sat in the car dripping wet (cars in Indo don't have heat!) munching on Oreos.  She looks cute two inches from my camera lens ;)

The rain didn't let up and we made the decision to go home...without ever seeing the crater.  Another day, I guess.

The ride home was wet and cold to say the least.  It took 30 minutes in a hot shower for me to start to warm up.  At least I was rewarded with a date night and baked potato soup from Tony Roma's.  The day wasn't all bad.

 

A Day Trip with the Hubby

 

With less than a week of school vacation left, Jason and I decided we needed to take the chance to have some time alone while we still can.  It isn't often that we get to spend an entire day together sans kids. It was a last minute decision to go (as in like an hour before we left) but it wasn't hard to know what I wanted to do -- DRIVE.  I love being in the car and I love seeing new places but doing it with kids in the car raises any and all suicidal tendencies I have inside of me.  Our kids are pretty amazing 99% of the time...and then there is the 1% of the time, when we are all in a car together, and let's just say their angelic qualities don't quite shine. So...we rarely go for long car rides.  Unfortunately that means we haven't gotten to see a lot of the sites/towns near us.  There was a town about two hours from us that I have wanted to see, so off we went!

It was a gorgeous drive!  It would have been nicer if it hadn't been so foggy, but still, I love the views!

We had our Indonesia guide book with us and we saw that not far from where we were heading was one of the only Hindu temples in West Java. After three years of living in India, we were naturally curious.  Hindu temples are amazing to look at!    

We found the place and got to take these cool bamboo rafts across a small lake to the island where the temple was

On our way over, we had a lot of laughing and hollering and "Hey Mister!"'s coming from this group of girls ("Hey Mister" is what most Indonesians say to foreigners -- it is often the only English they know and say it to women as well as men.)

View from the dock

When we got to the island we were very surprised that the beautiful temple we were expecting was just this

With a tiny little god inside

So, it wasn't much to see but the experience was worth it.  At least there were some cool trees.

And, if all things work out, all of us will be going to India this summer for three weeks and we'll get to see plenty of cool temples there.  After our three minute look at the temple we walked around the tiny island a bit.  The rice paddies were truly stunning!

Afterward we drove onto the town we wanted to see and visited THE MOST AMAZING hotel EVER...I didn't take pictures but we are trying to make it work to stay there for a night...so stay tuned!

So all in all in was an amazing day out and it is good to remember what we are like as a married couple -- not just co-parents.  AND it was great to see all the amazing sites right near us -- we were only gone for about seven hours and saw so much!  Can't wait to do more of it!