The Beauty of Motherhood Part 1

Raise your hands out there if you have days where the thought of running away from home crosses your mind? Let's be honest! If you're a stay at home mom, I'm sure that you raised your hand a little, if only halfway. The moments come for all of us, don't they? When we ring our hands together and want to scream (and sometimes do)? On the flip side, there are so many more moments when I just grab onto my kids and hug them so tight they have to remind me, "Mom, you have to let go now." Oh the crazy, mixed up world of motherhood!

I have had many moments in the last week when I have been in awe of my kids and so thankful that God has tasked me with the gift of raising these beautiful people.

Levi is such a "boy." He's wild and crazy and I don't know how he makes some of those sound effects come out of his mouth, but he does it constantly. The noises he makes as he plays are never ending. I don't even think he realizes he's making them. And when he gets the giggles, it makes my day. He has a laugh he does when something is funny that causes him to lose his breath. He loves people. Making friends is what energizes him. I actually had to take away outside time (where he plays with all his buddies) as punishment the other day and it almost broke my heart to see how far his face fell. He was crushed! Hopefully, he learned his lesson though. And he's a thinker. He mulls things around in his head for awhile and brings things up hours/days/weeks later. James opened presents for his birthday on Wednesday and then the kids had to go to Awanas. While gifts were being opened, Levi wanted to know which was the favorite. James commented that the he loved the gifts he got from Levi and Lilly. On the way home from Awanas (2-3 hours later), he said to James in the car, "Dad, I think you should like mommy's present too. We don't want her feelings to get hurt." You could tell he had been thinking this over and was concerned for my feelings. Such a tender heart!

Review of Time4learning

We just finished our 30 day trial of time4 learning and I am ready to review! First, the good things. I really enjoyed all the options to choose from for learning time. My preschooler asked to do it almost every day and she was able to maneuver through without much help from me. I liked the way that the student was able to pick their own pace and would sometimes find my kindergartner doing it long after "school time" was over. I'm not sure that he even realized he was working on his phonics rules. So my kids enjoyed it most of the time which is always a good thing when it comes to learning.

On the negative side, I had a hard time figuring out how to track what they were doing. They're still young, so I watched over their shoulder a lot to see how they were coming along, but I thought there was a way to log on as the parent and just see how they had been doing. I couldn't figure it out and I consider myself pretty computer savvy. Also, we are already using a curriculum, but if time4learning was our core choice for curriculum, I feel it would be repetitive and lacking a little. My preschooler went through most of the games in 30 days and I'm not sure that they would have held her attention for a full year. The kindergarten level was the same thing.

I really liked the time4learning for supplemental, educational fun for kids. They could easily understand everything, the directions were clear, and they could work through most of it on their own. However, we would not use it for a core curriculum even in kindergarten. There just is not enough material, in my opinion, for it to stay interesting to them for a year of school.

Timed4Learning

I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning can be used as ahomeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichment and for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

Snakes and Snails and Puppy Dogs' Tails

So, in case any of you out there were wondering if there truly is an instinctive difference between boys and girls let me just tell you - there is!!! That rhyme from our childhood rings true to me daily about sugar and spice and everything nice vs snakes and snails and puppy dogs' tails. Just the other day the kids were playing outside when Lilly comes running in the front door so excited, cheeks cherry red and an exuberant smile on her face. "Mommy, mommy, I picked these flowers just for you," she said as she held out this tiny bouquet of purple wildflowers. Five minutes later, Levi comes running through the front door yelling, "Mommy, mommy, can we please keep these," as he holds out a pair of blue crawdad claws pulled from some now armless shelled creature in our yard. I sighed as I told him, "Not in the house, but on the porch," gazing at the pretty flowers from my other child now making their home in a small cup on the table. Oh the differences!! Of course I relate more to the girly girl that is my middle child, but I strive to learn daily how to better relate to my son. He is so much like James in his curiosity of life and how things work and "why does this do this," and "what makes that do that?" So we explore life together and learn how to worship God together as we examine the world He made.

Blessed, Blessed, Blessed

Schoolhouse McCarty is in full swing in 2012 and we are having a blast! I am not saying that every day is a bowl of sunshine, but it is the most rewarding thing in the world to see Levi and Lilly soak up so much stuff! They really are little sponges! Levi is starting to read which is amazing to watch and Lilly knows more at 3 than Levi did just a year ago!

Izzy is growing so much! She is sitting up all by herself! She has started eating "real" food and loving it! It's a riot to watch her figure out how to feed herself! That concept of picking up a piece of food and putting it into her mouth and letting go of it is a hard one to figure out!

We went on our first hike with all 3 kiddos the other day. It really wasn't a hardcore hike, but we thought we'd start slow and work our way up. It's still hard to tell how far Lilly will go before getting tired. Levi hiked Harney Peak (7,244 ft) at 4 years old, but Lilly is not quite that adventurous. I think the little hike went well and we all had a good time but Lilly did need a piggy back ride by the end!

On a more serious note, I have been watching my kids today, really watching them and studying them, and have been overwhelmed at how blessed I am! I am so undeserving of such a wonderful family! I have a husband who treats me like a princess and whom I love more today than when we got married, and amazing children that I adore. Do you ever just sit and wonder why? Why me? I'm not talking about the 'why me' you ask when life is hard, but the one you ask when you are so overwhelmed by how blessed you are that it literally takes your breathe away for just a moment. I am counting my blessings today and I hope you are too!

Bring on the New Year

It's January 8th and the new year is in full swing. I don't know if anyone else is like me, but I love the "fresh start" that January brings. I know that not everyone is up for resolutions that they feel they will just break anyway, but I enjoy making plans to do things different in the new year. I don't always officially call them resolutions, but I guess that's what they are.

One of the more difficult ones for this year is to look for God in the everyday stuff. I am starting to reread a book called "Practicing the Presence of God," and reviewing it with my good friend, Abby. It serves as a good challenge to worship God no matter what you're doing whether you are sharing the gospel with someone or wiping a child's dirty bottom! I struggle with this one and often have doubt as to what I am doing for God's kingdom, but I know that these little ones are God's gift entrusted to me and that raising them and bringing them up to love the Lord is truly one of the greatest things I can do for God's glory.

Okay, now an easier one: lose weight! I know, I know. Way to be a cliche, right? Well, I really have been working on this goal since Thanksgiving with the idea to fit into my pre-prego pants before spring. So far, so good. There is no special secret to this - eat better and exercise! Discipline! Discipline!

My third is to be about relationships! The idea is to be about loving the people around me and caring less about what my house looks like or if my to-do list is complete! In other words, embrace interruptions! This is how God works and He is about relationships!

Those are just a couple that I have. What do you want to change this year? Anything? We should always be working to change! Everyone has areas that need a little tweaking. What are yours? Here's to a wonderful 2012!