A Little Bit of our Lives Lately

For those keeping track, this is the THIRD time
I've blogged this month! I'm doing better! 

Still catching up:

Places We're Going and People We're Seeing:

The other day, the kids and I headed to downtown Little Rock. First, we ate lunch at The River Market. We hadn't been to the Museum of Discovery since it was newly remodeled. We decided to purchase a membership since it equals about 3 visits. My sister Tracy came over and visited us there for awhile.

I like these pictures because Tornado was being very serious (Well, serious by saying things like, "Today, it is going to be cloudy with a chance of meatballs.") about delivering the weather forecast on this fun video monitor. The other two were just in and out, making it very difficult for him, but he never broke character.

Since our sum total of swimming events this summer equaled about 1 1/2, I declared Sunday afternoon that we WERE going to the pool in Maumelle, by golly. The kids were excited, we loaded up, arrived, and about one minute after they hit the water, the announcement of "adult swim only" was delivered. Then, before that was up, there was an announcement that the pool would be closed for 30 minutes due to inclement weather possibility. The kids were devastated. We decided to wait it out...and then wait another 30 minutes for another announcement, but we finally got to get back into the water an hour before closing.

They were nice enough to give us a raincheck, though, which we were able to use later that week.

The kids got to play at Jump Zone one night while Dash was attending the birthday party of one of his soccer friends. We got to visit with our friend who built our house and his adorable wife and son, who also were at the party.

One of the kids' favorite places to go? THE GAS STATIONS. Like, convenient stores. I can't begin to describe the amount of longing they contain to enter any of these. It's like that on trips. And it's like that in our town. If their dad is going inside, it's: "Pleeeeease can I go?! Pleeeeease!!!!" Well, we live in walking distance (maybe a mile?) to one, so it's a big treat to go on a walk there and buy a juice and maybe a little bag of peanuts. This is a picture of a recent walk in which we took up quite a portion of the road with two adults, 2 dogs on leashes, a baby in a stroller, and 3 kids on E-Z Rollers.

As we were sitting outside the gas station, (YES, we were sitting outside the gas station on a bench. For fun. Watching people come and go.) I wondered why I bother trying to take the kids around the country and provide them with cultural opportunities. All they want to do is go to the gas station.

What We're Cooking

vegan biscuits

My blog friend, whose biscuit recipe we used, is having a giveaway for vegan things; all you have to do is leave a comment.

Family Movie Night:
The Neverending Story, smoothies, and popcorn! I remembered loving it as a child, and you know, it made me feel very emotional all over again. I had forgotten what the great theme/moral of the story was. (At some point, people stop using their imaginations; they stop creating and imagining and believing. People lose hope and lose their dreams, and we should fight against this.) I remembered how beautiful I thought the child empress was when she spoke.

So...a little way into the movie, Ryan and I were like, "Uh-oh, why did we not remember this horrifying part?" My 7 year old son is ultra sensitive just like me, but he reacts to these sensitivities with an angry temper. (Spoiler alert!) Atreyu's horse, Artax, drowns in the Swamp of Sadness. My son was soooo upset. He threw his food tray down and stormed off, "I can't believe you made me watch this! I hate this movie!" We had to cajole him back with, "No, no - the horse isn't dead; he just sank. He's going to be okay!" We were totally lying...BUT!...at the end of the movie when the world is returned to its previous state, it shows Atreyu riding Artax again. Ryan and I looked at each other, the way you look at your spouse after riding a storm...and breathed sighs of relief.

What They're Playing

This is a glimpse of our new backyard, which is an awesome new play spot for the kids. I looked out the window the other day and smiled at the middle kids just sitting out there talking on their Ezy Rollers.

Sweetness

The kids are always making me sweet things. Here is a concoction created by Dash recently. He used a small glass bottle, covered it with a light switch from their lamp and topped it with Sissy's jeweled pins stuck on with tape.

 

That kid just has sweetness oozing out of him. He's always writing me little notes. This is one of his signature moves, drawing two stick figures holding hands - me and him - with a heart and a "I love you."

It makes these moments a little more bearable.

What My Kids Are Saying:
I love my daughter. She's smart and sweet and 100 other very precious things. She can also be a ding-dong. And despite the fact I'm trying to create in my children an understanding of the world, she's only 5 and hasn't grasped it all yet. Including the fact that we speak English. We have talked plenty of times about adoption, including international adoption. This is what she said one day:

"If we got another girl from England, she would speak English, and we would not know what she's saying."

AND THEN another day we were talking about the fact that their father tends to tan easily. He's just a naturally darker person, and our boys tan easily, as well. (Apparently, his great-grandfather was half Cherokee, and his great-grandmother was full Italian, so I guess that's why?) I get comments all of the time about Baby Brother's skin complexion, which is not as pale as typical caucasian baby skin. Sis looked at me with the most sincere, puzzled face and asked this about her dad:

"Is he English? Cuz he's, like, darkish."

So, apparently, if you are from England, you have dark skin.
Just like her father.
Who is from Illinois.

The Homeschool Mother's Journal/Weekly Wrap-Up

In Our Homeschool This Week:
We are still schooling. I'm trying to keep them busy and progressing but focusing on my own preparation for the fall.

I started reading aloud the Bible during breakfast. I've never personally read through the Bible front to back, so I'm going to do it with the kids. We're also working through the character training "Put-On" Chart. They like this, and it spurs plenty of good discussion.

Extracurricular This Month:
The kids have been enjoying time out and about, attending day camps for different activities, such as gymnastics, etc.

In Our Life This Week:

Dash lost his first top tooth. He looks so cute. Another top tooth is barely hanging and will probably fall out by tomorrow. He talks with a lisp now, too, which I adore. He says it is hard to read. You should have heard him read the sentence: The fish lifts the gift with its fins.

The boys are both getting a visit from the tooth fairy tonight. Tornado had a dentist appointment this afternoon. The hygienist pointed out to me one of his very loose back teeth. I stuck my hand in there to wiggle it, and it basically came right out. He did so great getting his teeth cleaned, which has been the case during his past few visits. When I think about how much he used to (sometimes) kick and scream at the dentist... (and the hair salon and the doctor and school and church and...) I am thankful for how far we have come.

In Baby's Life This Week:
We aren't really starting him on a regular food schedule yet, but as he will be 6 months in a few days, we let him have several teaspoons of banana with breastmilk.

"What is this thing around my neck and why am I sitting in my new, hard Ikea highchair instead of in Mommy's lap?"

"Okay...interesting."

"That is some good stuff! I'll take some more!"

Our favorite thing he started doing this month is blowing raspberries in the air. They're so loud, and he seems to really enjoy it.

Holiday Celebrations This Week:

July 4th breakfast

We were super excited to have Daddy at home on a Wednesday. We headed to the Historic Arkansas Museum for their frontier Independence Day celebration. This included games such as this ring toss and stilts, etc. They marched in a parade around the grounds and enjoyed watermelon slices. The Declaration of Independence was read, and the kids got a kick out of the "redcoats" voicing their objection and other people chiming in with cheers and other reactions.

They also made crafts and made requests to the Balloon Man. (Tornado: a penguin, Dash: a sword, and Sissy: a flower wand - none of those choices are surprising.)

In Other News This Week:
Heat. Torrid. Hot. Sweltering. Scorching. Humid. Sweat.

My Favorite Thing This Week:
My brother (sans family) came to visit for a couple of days. My kids were over the moon, playing with him on our new sport court.

We enjoyed a great Mexican meal, as you would expect at my parents' house. 

He loves Uncle Matt!

And my sister, he, and I (plus baby, of course) went out for Thai food (and to Target) one night. It was great to spend time conversing without  our kids  interruption.

Places We're Going and People We're Seeing:
Two weeks ago we had a fun Friday night with our friends, Jeri and Jason plus their two sweet kids. We ate supper at Juanita's in downtown Little Rock then walked over to let the kids play for awhile in the Splash Fountain. (We stayed until the water shut off at 8:00 p.m.)

Then we drove over to the Big Dam Bridge. I know it has the word BIG in the title, but I had never been, so I didn't realize how BIG this whole thing was. It was late and hot, so we only made it halfway across before turning around, but I'd like to go back sometime.

The kids and I drove to Branson last week to visit family. We stayed with my brother and sister-in-law. As soon as the kids entered the door, it was nonstop play with their cousins. The next day we headed to my hometown to visit my Grandfather and his wife in the nursing home. (I even got to see one of my BFF's for a few minutes!) He wanted to hold Baby Brother a lot...and I was overjoyed to oblige.

The NOT good thing about our little road trip: the many, many extra stops I had to make for my crying Sweetie.  It's kind of amazing how it was easier for me to take him to NYC (which I WILL blog about one of these days) than Branson only because of that 2 1/2 (increased now to 3 1/2) hour car ride. He + his carseat do not = true love.

I'm Reading:
I loved 7 so much, I was eager to read another Jen Hatmaker book. I've only read a couple of chapters from Interrupted, but I love it so far. I also got Kisses From Katie: A Story of Relentless Love & Redemption, which was recommended by Amazon for me. Enjoying it, so far, as well! It is the story of a girl who moves to Uganda by herself when she graduates highschool. She meant to stay a year - but ends up staying (about 5 years and counting now) and is in the process of adopting over a dozen girls. So far, this has been a great book for me to read aloud to the kids, too. They are very interested and intrigued.

We're also still reading through the Little House series.

What My Kids Are Saying:
My daughter looked at the regular rubber band I used in a pinch to close her braid like, "WHAT is this?" and laughed. I said when I was little I had to use regular rubber bands in my hair all of the time because we didn't have fancy hair bands. She said, "Were you alive when Laura and Mary (Ingalls) were?" It must have felt like a real hardship to her that I used rubber bands in my hair.

From my niece, C, upon thinking about her sister getting the wrong size of ice skates for Christmas: "That's kind of silly cuz God could have told Santa."

One random quote I wanted to remember for myself: Tornado to the hygienist, regarding the inside of his mouth (in his sweet, slow, deep voice and finger pointed upward), "Be gentle with that!"

We were going to be studying "justice" in our Civics book. I was going to use that on our vocabulary word of the day sheet. Before we read the lesson, I asked them to write down what the word "justice" makes them think. The boys' answer: Superheroes (The Justice League). Sissy's answer: Justin Bieber.

Sissy was examining her sunflower plant, which she had planted at their science/art class. The soil was dry, but she declared, "It's frozen!"

Another winner from Sis: "Whenever I think of something, I think, 'That's a good idea, Head. That's a good idea, Self.' "

Weekly Wrap-Up

The Homeschool Mother's Journal

VOTE HERE AND HERE for my kids' artwork! Thanks!

Project 365: blueberries, new stuff, and a little culture

Thursday, June 23

The kids and I went berry picking today at Hidden Valley Farm (which doesn't use pesticides). Besides eating berries plain (or putting them in fruit salad or oatmeal, etc.), we've really been in a fruit and berry pies kick lately.

They always enjoy picking wild blackberries on our land, etc., but this was the first time they'd been to an actual berry patch.

We ended up with two buckets full. We only managed to find a handful of raspberries.

After our very HOT morning at the berry patch, we ate lunch where my sister Tracy works. Then we headed to Riverfront Park in downtown Little Rock.

This was the first time they had ever played in the water there. They didn't know what to expect, but they were THRILLED.

I LOVE the amount of joy and excitement exuding out of her whole body here.

They had SO much fun, and it is a great place for Mom to sit in the shade and easily watch her kids play in the water (without worrying about them drowning because there are only fountains/sprinklers).

Friday, June 24

Our new sectional was delivered today! We can all sit together on the couch now! With room for several guests, so come on over!

It's very exciting! (I have to move some other furniture and pictures, etc. around to make it look right.)

Saturday, June 25

We cleaned like crazy today. I cleaned the boys' room SO WELL. As in, I even cleared out everything from underneath their bed and swept the furthest corner. This was all in preparation to add their new duvets, which they were super excited about. The kids always want to get in our bed because it's so comfy and soft. It's because of our duvet, and they always have to sleep with flimsy quilts. I found duvet covers on overstock.com for around $27. I was excited since I had been prepared to pay $100/each. They're soft, they love them, and I think they have been enjoying bedtime more now.

Sunday, June 26

We took the kids to the Arkansas Arts Center today for the last day of The Impressionists exhibit. They enjoy recognizing many of the artists' names we've learned about. One lady was very impressed when she heard Dash say, "That's Van Gogh."

We let the kids run around MacArthur Park for a little while before getting back in the car.

Although we'd already had lots of fun today, the best part probably occurred later at Whole Foods. Some members of the Arkansas Accordion Association were playing music. They had a big tub of instruments for the kids to use. We'd planned on just popping in for a bit so the kids (and Daddy) could eat some dessert. But we ended up staying a lot longer because it was so fun.

Monday, June 27

The kids were playing outside tonight as Ryan was watering the plants. So obviously they wanted him to spray them, etc. When they were finished playing, I threw them each a kitchen towel and made them strip down on the front porch. As they were giggling and scurrying up the stairs, I thought they looked cute so I asked them to stop to let me take their picture.

Project 365: Enjoying the Little Things

Wednesday, May 11

This is where Tornado can often be found in his free time: at the table in the "homeschool room," making "silly pictures."

Thank goodness for Dash who keeps our plants and flowers watered.

Thursday, May 12

Sissy gifted me with this stack of papers, all created so thoughtfully and lovingly.

Friday, May 13

My sister Cary and her kids arrived to spend a week. We looked at old pictures a lot, and for fun, she tried on our Mom's wedding dress.

There has been much fun going on here (and at Googie & Papaw's house here) lately with the walkie talkies.

Saturday, May 14

Farmer's Market day! (We even went to two of them.) We also went to the library, to eat and visit Tracy at Boulevard Bread Company, to The Green Store, and Whole Foods. Sissy likes to accessorize with ribbons, which is what is around her neck.

We also walked down to the river where Peabody Park is located, near the River Market.

Sunday, May 15

Fun with a teeny turtle found outside. We also found a teeny bunny rabbit in the middle of the road the other night, and we had to huddle it up in my scarf and put it under a bush nearby.

Sunday was a nice day altogether, visiting with Googie, Papaw, Tracy, Cary, and the kids. We even played a little basketball. I loved how much Dash giggled as Ryan and I played a little 2-on-2 against him and Papaw.

It's like they're riding go-karts or roller coasters, the amount of enjoyment my kids receive by riding the lawn mower with Papaw.

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That's as far as I can go right now; I'm panicking because I think I've missed a day somehow! Drama!