Love Your Neighbor

We are currently reading the book, Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. (This is an excellent book, one of my favorites, so if you haven't read this with your children, I highly recommend.)

There is a chapter in which Betsy decides to help out a poor boy by making some clothes for him. Betsy and her friends begin to chatter about the best way to deliver the clothes so that the boy will be able to show his gratitude. Aunt Abigail overhears this conversation and wisely steers the girls into realizing that their motives for helping the boy may not be proper. Are they looking to help him or just receive credit for the service? Betsy realizes her mistake and decides wisely to leave the gift on the porch of the house anonymously. It is this night that she first truly prays to God from her heart.

After this chapter, Sophie decided she wanted to make cookies and leave them secretly on our neighbor's doorstep. As I type she is outside with Drew "making the drop". We put the verse, Matthew 22:39, on the bag holding the cookies.

Sophie's Sweets

After successfully selling hand-made pipe cleaner bracelets yesterday, Sophie decided she would try a lemonade and cookie stand today.

We made our special chocolate chip cookies and some pink lemonade. She picked out special bags at the dollar store and decided to sell the cookies in a bag at 4 for a $1.00. I helped her with a tag and sign to advertise her new business called, "Sophie's Sweets".

Here are some shots I took of the action. The first shot is of her great-grandparents, who just happened to stop by. :-)

Family Rules

Tonight we had a family meeting and wrote a list of 7 family rules. We have had some recurring issues that were getting out of hand and the atmosphere of the home was not pleasant.

We've decided to keep meeting on Sunday evenings for a while to evaluate how we are all doing and make adjustments as needed. We also have scripture verses posted to back up the rules.

Here is the list we came up with. They are not listed by order of importance.

1. Respect others and property.
2. Obey immediately (all the way, right away, cheerfully)
3. Show gratitude (to God and others)
4. Tell the truth.
5. Do not nag Daddy and/or Mommy
6. Do not whine or complain
7. Always do your best

Most issues we are currently having fall under one of these general categories. It was helpful to get it down on paper. We all signed the list and it will be posted on the frig. The children were surprisingly agreeable, they even suggested some of the rules.

Do you have a list of family rules in your home? If so, I'd love to hear about them.

Lunch at The Buried Bones Cafe

A while back, Sophie created a make-believe cafe in her room. She called it The Buried Bones Cafe. (I think this idea came from a place on the Webkinz site.) Today, as she was cleaning her room, Reese helped her rearrange a little and they hosted lunch.

Sophie has menus, table numbers etc. They took orders, prepared real food, and Drew even gave a little dance show after the meal.

I had a wonderful italian-style salad with kalamata olives and one of the best tuna sandwiches ever. For dessert, we had rocky road ice cream.

I informed them that since lunch was so good, I'd like them to prepare dinner tonight too.

Math -U- See

We've changed our math curriculum and are now using Math-U-See. All of the children like to watch Mr. Demme explain the concepts on a DVD while they use the manipulatives to say it, build it and write it.
Here is a picture of Sophie on the floor with the blocks. She chose to also get the moveable white board to practice the writing. It really is Math you can see!

The Gap

Here is the new look Sophie is sporting. After allowing the second tooth to remain until it was literally hanging from a thread. It finally fell out.



The next picture was taken when Drew and Reese followed her into the bathroom to try and convince her to pull the tooth.

April Fool's Day

I always try to do something to "fool" with the kids but this year time got away from me and I found myself at bedtime last night without any plans for today. It was too late to go to the store so Tim and I hatched a plan to dress funny in the morning. I wore all my clothes mismatched, inside out or backwards. I put about 5 pony tails in my hair in various positions, wore mismatched earrings and a string of pearls. Tim had to go to work so he just put a second pair of undergarments (underwear and undershirt) on top of his work clothes and then put on a funny hat. He also wore my pink crocs. We walked out of the room like everything was normal and pretended Tim was leaving for work. Sophie was laughing uncontrollably ( hilarious to hear ), Reese was just grinning and Drew didn't even notice because he was so focused on his Honeycomb cereal box. Finally, he realized something was up but he only noticed the hat on Tim's head! When he finally saw that Tim had underpants on top of his regular pants, he said, "Daddy, are you really going to wear that to work?"

Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of us but Sophie decided to play along and here is a shot of her after she got dressed crazy.

Later today I will offer them some "M&M's" in a container but when they open it they will actually find dried split green peas. I'll probably just eat the real "M&M's" myself. :-)

Makin' Bacon

Can you believe my 5 year old can cook his bacon all by himself? This is not really new, but I finally captured it on film. He loves turkey bacon and is very particular about when he flips it, using his trusty tongs. It was hard to get a shot of this because he said he was too busy to get a picture taken.

Snagglepus

Here is Sophie with her new smile! This tooth has been loose for so long but she has been too scared to get it out. Today it just happened without effort and she laughed so hard about how she now has a lisp. This wasn't her first tooth lost, but it IS the first one that has been noticeable when she smiles.

Flag Football

For the past 6 weeks all three children have participated in a "simple season" of flag football with our church's sports ministry. It is a simple season because it is short, purely recreational and there is just a short practice each Saturday before the games are played. They all enjoyed playing. Some highlights included Sophie running two touchdowns during her last game. One game Reese intercepted a pass and ran in a touchdown for his team and also earned the nickname, Rushing Machine, for his QB rushes. Drew also got a touchdown one game and was very sad when the season ended. He was very serious about the whole thing.

Blueberry Pie

Sophie made a blueberry pie from scratch yesterday. She even made her own crust. It was delicious. Here are the recipes we used.

Pie Crust Link
http://www.recipecottage.com/piecrustrecipes/pie-crust17.html
We also brushed top crust with water and sprinkled a little sugar on top to make it glisten.

Blueberry Pie Filling (Natalie and Sophie Davis, adapted from Sarah Wyman's Blueberry Pie Recipe)
4 cups Wyman's Frozen Wild Blueberries (I buy these in bulk at BJ's, but have seen them at Publix too. They are smaller than regular bbs)
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 T flour
1 1/2 T butter
1/5 tsp salt
1/5 tsp cinnamon
Water or Fruit Juice as needed (we used a splash of OJ)

Combine sugar, flour, salt and cinnamon in saucepan. Add blueberries, butter and a small amount of water or juice. Heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. Pour into an unbaked crust and then cover with top crust.
Seal edges. Optional: Brush top crust with a little water and spinkle sugar on top. This gives a glisten to the pie.
Bake in 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until well browned.

Knitting

"For you created me in my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb."

Psalm 139:13

A friend of mine is teaching me to knit. I finally finished my first scarf. My daughter picked out the yarn and I made the scarf narrow and short for her. Although it is still lpretty chilly in FL for this time of year, she'll probably still won't get to wear it until next year. I've started on my second scarf for myself now.

Jello

Last night after his bath my son came out with a mohawk and declared, "Daddy, I borrowed some of your jello so I could make a mohawk." Of course he meant gel, as in hair gel. I repeated what he said to him thinking he would catch the mistake but no, he said, "yep, I used Daddy's jello".

Dedicated to Michael, my radioactive friend.

I have a good friend who recently underwent surgery for thyroid cancer. Following the surgery he needed to take a dose of radioactive iodine to complete his treatment. For three days or more he will need to be in complete isolation from his family so that they are not exposed to any "radiation". To lift his spirits I wrote him a little poem. Here it is.

He’s Hot!

Some people say,
“When you’re hot, you’re hot”.
But on this weekend,
You may wish you were NOT!

Radioactivity
Pulsing through your vein.
Causing your throat
To be in much pain.

We are praying for you
That you will, “pass the test”.
Closer to Christ
And full of rest.

Don’t dwell on things you’ll miss
A cause of strife
Keep your eye on the goal
And that pill’s half-life

Magazines, books, TV
Movies galore
A HAZ-MAT sign
On your bedroom door.

We aren’t making fun
We just want you to know
You’ll still be our friend
Even if you glow.

Brush our Bodies?

We always ask a blessing over our meals together as a family. Usually my husband asks the blessing and it will often end with the phrase, "thank you for this meal and may it nourish and bless our bodies".

A few weeks ago my five year old began requesting to ask the blessing. It is always very sweet to hear your child pray, isn't it? Well, he always finishes his prayer with a phrase that sounds like, "may it near and brush our bodies". No matter how we try to explain the correct words, it always comes out "brush our bodies".

We've decided to just let it go. It is very cute, God knows what he means and if we are eating a high-fiber meal we very may well get an internal brushing. :-)

A New Blog

Life with three children is never boring, often exhausting but always a blessing. Hopefully by documenting my experiences I will never take the blessing for granted. For instance, I am being tickled by my 5 and 6 year old as I try to compose this post. Oh the JOY!

Boy Scout

My oldest son just crossed over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. This is a big deal for the boys. He has been a Cub since the beginning when they are called Tiger Scouts. The Cub program is 5 years long and during the last two years they work towards an award called the Arrow of Light. It is kind of like the "Eagle" of Cub Scouts and it is only one of two awards that the boys keep on their shirts as they cross over into Boy Scouts. Reese earned that award and here he is holding the plaque to commemorate the achievement.

The top picture is of Reese literally "crossing over" the bridge from Cubs to Boy Scouts. The bridge is made of rope and is hard to cross. The Boy Scout Troop Master stops them half way and humorously hassles them to make sure they are ready to make the move.

I can't believe it has already been 5 years. His little brother is anxiously awaiting his turn to join "Pup Scouts" as he calls it.