Glasses for Jonathan

We have suspected for quite some time that Jonathan has a lazy eye. Unlike Aaron, Jonathan's weak eye turns in when he is tired or trying to focus on something. Thankfully, Jonathan's eye is not quite as bad as Aaron and for now will not have to be patched. So, pretty soon Jonathan will be wearing glasses full time. We should get his new glasses sometime later this week.

Flowers for Mommy

I love how much my boys love to bring me flowers! We took special care to keep these "flowers" alive as long as possible. It was a beautiful table centerpiece for several days!

Spring Baskets 2011

This past weekend was the first day of Spring!! All 4 of the children had a great time finding and searching through their Spring Baskets for fun treats! To read more about our tradition of giving the children Spring Baskets click here.
We are so glad that Spring is here. Summer clothes are out of storage, we are out of doors more and more often, and the trees are sprouting leaves! Happy Spring to all of you!

Tea Time

One might think that Tea Parties are a girly thing. Maybe they are. It just so happens, though, that all of us (even my boys) love tea time.
We don't have hot tea every afternoon, but we have it often. The boys seem to love the peppermint tea the best. Rosalie will drink pretty much anything. Rich's favorite is Vanilla Chai and mine is peach.
What kind of tea do you like to drink?

Details on the amazing boulder ...

My three boys hanging out in their favorite place!

Jonathan trying to keep his balance on the tree

Martin walking the tree

Aaron walking on the fallen tree

The view of the house from the boulder

I've blogged about the boulder before. This time I wanted to get some shots of the boulder from up close. There is a huge fallen tree that leads right up to the boulder. This is one huge boulder! There is no wonder that it is such and amazing place to play! Unfortunately, we just found out a couple days ago that when they start building on the empty lot that contains that boulder ... the boulder is more than likely going to be blasted. We are not happy about that at all - but the boulder is just across our property line, so we have no say. The boys are going to have to play as much as they can over on that boulder and get it out of their systems! We still have at least a couple more months before they start clearing that land. So, until then ... their imaginations can wander!

Patches

Everyone knows that boys can be hard on clothes. For some reason, I was able to pass down most of the clothes that both Martin and Aaron wore to Jonathan. Interestingly enough, they managed to stay in good enough condition to pass down to boy #3! One could argue that Jonathan is not really hard on his clothes ... he is the 3rd boy to wear them, so they were already worn out. I would believe that too if he didn't have holes in the knees of every single pair of pants he owns. (including the ones that are brand new to him - he does have a few that Martin and Aaron never wore)
So, instead of buying him new pants, I bought patches. So, if you happen to see patches in all of Jonathan's jeans ... just know that I cannot bring my frugal self to go buy new jeans for Jonathan.
On a side note ... he thinks that patches are really awesome!

Mom Heart Conference

This past weekend I had the privilege of going to the Sally Clarkson Mom Heart Conference in Durham. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to go. It was such an encouraging time for me. I am so thankful that Rich was able to take care of things at home for me so that I could go and soak in so many wonderful truths and be encouraged by other homeschooling mom's who have been doing it a lot longer than me. It was great to laugh and share the joy of being a mom with other women.
I was humbled. I was convicted. I was thankful. I was reminded. I was inspired. Being a mom is the best thing I've ever done. I don't want to waste a single minute of it. We have such a short time to be the main influence in the lives of our children.
Since last August, I have been wanting to start a mom's group in my home. It's no secret that mom's need special encouragement in their lives. My soul was revived this weekend and I want to give encouragement to other mom's who are striving to raise their children to love the Lord.
We may have different ways of accomplishing our goals, we may have different methods of raising our children ... but our mission is the thread that binds us together. I don't have the logistics worked out yet, but I think I am ready to stop thinking about it and start taking action.
My plan is to read through Seasons of a Mother's Heart by Sally Clarkson. She gives special encouragement to homeschooling moms. However, I want to emphasize that you do NOT have to be a homeschooling mom to go through this book with me! Figuring out how to speak truth into the lives of your children ... and how to affect your children's heart for eternity is not something that is unique to homeschooling moms. It is a goal that anyone who loves Jesus has for their children!
If you are interested in joining with me in a Mom Heart group here at my home, send me a message on FB, or leave me a comment here. My plan is to start with Seasons of a Mother's Heart. I want to make it as easy as possible since we all have very busy lives. My plan is to not require any homework whatsoever. We are actually going to read it together out loud and discuss as we read it.
The main issue that I am trying to work out is getting a babysitter to take care of all the children while we meet.(Yes - plan on bringing your children!) I am praying about it and trying to figure out exactly what to do. I am not able to meet at night because the evenings are my time with Rich. My plan for now is to meet on Tuesday or Thursday mornings.(every other week) If this is something that you think that would be encouraging to your mom heart, if you need other women to speak truth into your life in a loving an non-threatening way, and if you just long for fellowship with other mom's who are in the trenches and understand exactly where you are ... please let me know. I long to encourage your heart the way my heart has been encouraged.
If you aren't able to meet on a regular basis, but just need encouragement, let me know that as well - and I would love to pray for you.

Jonathan's nap

I had to laugh late yesterday afternoon when I found Jonathan asleep on the couch. The boys had spent the afternoon riding bikes and scooters and when they came inside ... Jonathan fell asleep. I had to laugh because I just posted yesterday about how we gave up on Jonathan's nap. The very day I finally post about it ... he takes a nap on the couch. I suppose he's worn out from all of the not napping.
Now, if I could just get him to give up on those fingers.

Jonathan loves his dirt!

Notice the pants ... and all the dirt ...

. . . completely covered!

I have recently decided to stop putting Jonathan down for naps each day. Most of the time he wasn't really napping anyway. Each day after lunch Martin and Aaron (as long as their school work is done) would head outside to play, and Jonathan would be devastated that he was missing out on outside play. So, I decided that playing in the dirt each day was more important than napping.

This is the huge dirt pile that is directly across the culdesac from us. Jonathan spends hours almost every day playing in this enormous dirt pile. He digs in it, slides down it, imagines on it ... getting dirty is definitely his thing! So, after he plays in the dirt ... sometimes for 4-5 hours at a time ... he comes inside ... takes everything off of his body, and gets promptly carried straight to the bath tub to be completely washed from head to toe before we eat supper.
I have to admit ... when my boys come in the house covered from head to toe in dirt after an afternoon of hard play ... I call that success! (seriously ... I love that my boys can go outdoors and explore the woods and dig in the biggest sand box imaginable!!! It's exactly what they should be doing! The clean up that comes with it is worth every inch of dirt they track into my house!)
On another note ... we are going to really miss that dirt pile when they start building a house there!
On another side note ... it's hard to believe that I am down to only one napping child!