Nature Art

We were inspired by a new art book I purchased from the Usborne lady at Mayfest. Below are the "pictures" we created using sticks, stones, flowers and leaves that we collected on a trip in the woods. The idea was to start with a simple shape like a circle and build your picture around that, but as you can see, Samuel expanded that idea to other things.

The Star

The Firepit

The Triangle

The House

Fun with food

In March Jim was gone for a weekend of training with Intervarsity and I felt bored with our suppers, so we had breakfast for supper. And to make it extra special I made plate size pancakes with faces. I used this recipe for homemade pancakes and before I flipped them I used blueberries to make a smiley mouth and a nose. After they were finished I added banana slices with blueberries for eyes and pupils and yogurt for hair. The kids loved it! Thanks Aunt Michelle and JJ for the inspiration!

At our house I also like to make faces on a piece of toast and peanut butter using bananas and raisins. Grandma lets the kids cut faces in their cheese slices or gives them tiny cookie cutters to make butterflies and flowers with their cheese.

It may be bad manners in some homes, but go ahead have a little fun with your food!

Be patient and persist . . .

Patience and Persistence are the two words I heard Monday morning as I lay in bed. It has been a busy few weeks. The many hours outside gardening and landscaping and just plain having fun with the kids have left lots of things undone inside the house. You know the list, laundry, dirty floors, bathrooms, bills and to top it off the dishwasher missed half the dishes on Sunday, so I was left with lots more dishes to wash. Plus the Christian Business Directories came in a few weeks ago, which just is a lot of work to coordinate. Anyway, I was feeling very overwhelmed to say the least. And I think that morning in bed was God telling me to be patient and persist through the mountains I saw before me. Slowly some things are getting done and all week now those same two words (patience and persistence) have been running through my mind and keeping me sane!

This morning, I remembered something God had shown me about patience last fall. It was in one of my lessons for Son Harbor and the teacher portion encouraged you to think about areas you needed to be patient. My first thoughts went towards situations with the kids, like Grace whining for a glass of milk or the chaos of everyone putting their shoes on to go somewhere. But then He showed me the bigger picture of patience. At that time Jim had no job for the summer and I was feeling a little worried about what our future held. But at that moment I knew God was saying be patient in these little things and also the big things of the future. I had never thought about patience in that way. Today I encourage you to find an area in life where you need to be patient.

I do have more posts with pictures and the kids, but everytime I sit down to work on it the computer jams up and I just go to bed instead. I guess I need to be more patient with this too.

A little behind . . .

Hi all,
Well it is obvious from the date on my last post of March 18, that I am a little behind on my blog updates. There is a lot to catch up on.

I am sure all of you know already that we are not moving this spring, we will see what next year brings. That was big news and now we are past it and on to other things. But on the plus side much of the house is in better shape and now we are focused on the garden and finishing up some other projects.

Jim is busy at LawnMaster, but has already noticed some very positive differences from his old company. Although at 5:00am he will say, I forgot how hard this part of the job is. The drive is long, but he doesn't complain. I am so proud of how hard he works and always tries his best. He has also been talking to Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and has received a provisional letter to be on staff at the UW-Green Bay campus. This basically means he has the job pending a background check and his ability to raise the necessary funds. What an amazing work God has done, we can only praise Him for the way both of these jobs have come together to not only provide for our family but also fulfill a longtime desire in Jim's heart to be on serving on campus.

Stay tuned for more updates on the family and posts from the last two months. . .

To catch a butterfly

For Easter the kids all received butterfly nets, bug boxes and magnifying glasses as gifts from my mom. (It was a suggestion from me.) Well they have been anxiously waiting for the butterflies to appear so they could net one. Last week they finally saw their first butterfly outside and on a mission they went.

It has been more difficult than they expected to catch one of these butterflies. Running and chasing has proven futile, but entertaining for me to watch. I have suggested sitting near some flowers and waiting for one to land, but that takes more patience than they want to give. So the chasing continues.

While planting garden last Friday they spotted a caterpillar. He was named Spots (because he was a pale yellow with black spots) and put into the bug box. Well Sunday brought a surprise when Spots began to lose his fur and legs. Thankfully Jim was home to confirm that he was not dead as the kids feared, but starting his cocoon. Hopefully he survives the transformation and we will soon have a butterfly (or moth) in our bug box.

Mayfest 2009

Saturday, May 2 was the 6th annual Mayfest at Camp Forest. Jim's parents are so wonderful and always come to spend this weekend with us. Grandma gets to spend the day watching the three kids and Grandpa runs the grill for the brat stand. I get to do face painting for all the little ones that come. It is always a fun day as a family and serving our community. (Jim usually works his lawn job in the morning and then joins us later in the day.)

This year was definately a wonderful one. The weather was beautiful and we had a great turnout. New this year was a petting zoo. It was the kids favorite part along with the clowns that made balloon animals and the game that involved water squirt guns.

Camp Forest is a nonprofit campground in Forest Jct. As a little girl I went here as part of our church youth weekends. It was where I first decided to change my life to live for Christ, so it has a special place in my heart. Last year Linsey was married in the chapel here and now I am excited to see my kids enjoying God's creation and beauty here as well.

Biking Isaak

Yesterday Isaak decided the warm weather warrented a try at his bicycle without training wheels. We had attempted this last fall without much success, but I was anxious for him to learn. Having only one little one, Grace, in my bike trailer makes for a much easier ride for me.

Anyway, he can do it. With a little practice he is biking without his training wheels and has even taught himself how to get started on his own. Way to go Isaak! He has spent most of today talking about biking more and when he is not talking about it he has been doing it up and down our driveway endlessly.

I hope the wind calms down a little after supper so we can all head out for a family bike ride, before the weather turns sour again tomorrow.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Do you know the history of St. Patrick's Day? I didn't until a few days ago when I looked on the internet to figure out what I would do with the kids to celebrate. According to the information I found, St. Patrick went to Ireland and used a clover to teach about the three persons of God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). Cool!

So we celebrated our holiday with a little history lesson and discussion about how many leaves are on a typical clover. Because of story books the kids first answered 4 leaves. Then we enjoyed some green scrambled eggs and green milk for breakfast. For supper we had green milk, green mashed potatoes and peas. We also had green rice krispie treats, green Jell-O and pistachio pudding during the day. Finally we made a list of all the things we could think of that are green, I think we got 23 items.

Hope you had a great day celebrating!

Plates, plates and more plates!!!

In the midst of cleaning house and starting some packing, I was in charge of the craft for Moms Inc this week. We were making plates using clear glass plates, paper, and mod podge. They turned out wonderful and the ladies had a load of fun making them.

Needless to say I had to bring them home to finish drying completely and spray with a finally coat of sealer to make them more waterproof. So there are 30 plates turned upside down on cups all around our kitchen. Lots of plates-it is humorous to look around and see plates everywhere.

So for lunch today we had a carpet picnic. Lots of fun, if you ever need to spark up your day, try it with your kids. A simple sandwich and piece of fruit sitting on a blanket on the floor can be so exciting to a child. Although I do long for the summer days to come where we can do this outside again, it is one of our favorite things to visit a park and have a picnic.

If you would like to make your own plate or are looking for a fun project idea google mod podge. Their website has tons of ideas and instructions. I hope to do more with this stuff in the future.

Sliding fun

When Isaak was 2 years old we bought this Step 2 slide. He was such an energetic little guy, we had hopes of it burning off energy. Now Grace too needs that release as well, especially on these long winter days in the house. Sometimes I am frustrated with finding places in the house for it because it is a little large, but most days they play so nice with it. Tonight they were making people trains, how cute!!

Plus they have been such great kids lately and playing very well together. Jim and I are busy finishing projects around the house. We have appointments with realtors next week, so the deadline is on to finish up. It has been such a blessing to have the kids cooperate so well.

Tonight after supper we played dodge ball together as a family, at least our version of it. We have bags of those soft plastic balls, so Jim and I aim them at the kids while they run madly around the living room. So fun! It was an idea born from a family fun night a few weeks ago. The idea was to do activities together and learn that two is better than one and included verses from Eccelesiaties. So we had 3 legged races (which they didn't like) and puzzle races and dodge ball (the cooperation there being picking up the balls together). Well they loved dodge ball. But the next day Samuel and I were doing laundry together and he said it was just like we said at family fun night, two is better than one. Yes! He got it!!

Movies, movies, movies . . .

Wow, we went to our second movie at a theater in one week. I don't think this has happened since our dating days. Last Saturday Jim and I went to New in Town, kind of a spur of the moment decision when we didn't know what else to do for our date night. So we went to the theater not even knowing what was showing. It turned out to be a great movie that we both liked, good humor and romance and no inappropriate scenes.

While we were there last week we saw they were doing a special showing of Hotel for Dogs today for $2.50 that included a small popcorn. So we decided to take the kids. It was a great movie and the kids had a blast.

They will learn . . .

There are those moments as a parent when I wonder "will they ever learn to (insert a life skill)" and start to panic that I am not fulfilling my role to teach them. But recently I have been reminded to slow down and not worry.

I have been reading a few homeschool books that focus on unit study and some kid direction to the curriculm. This is not completely what I plan to do with the kids, but has been mostly what we have been doing this past year. For example the kids are interested in flying so we made paper airplanes and discussed vocabulary words associated with planes. Jim also explained to Samuel how a plane flys. Right now Samuel has been very excited about the moon, sun and planets. So we have spent many hours reading books on these topics and studying the night sky. Have we learned something? Most certainly! Does it follow what other kindergarteners are learning? Probably not. The point of some kid direction is that almost any topic can include your tradtional school subjects (math, reading and science) and be more fun to learn if you are interested in it.

I was reading a book on what your child should learn in each grade level. I was pleasantly surprised that much of what was on the list for a kindergartner Samuel has had exposure to. One thing he hadn't learned was telling time. Was I worried? A little, but life goes on. A few weeks later Samuel asks me about the clock on the stove. I tell him a little. The next day he asks me about my alarm clock, I tell him some more. Little by little he has learned a lot about telling time. Last night he walked into the living room to announce it was half past seven. Awesome!!

This is just one example of what a little time will do. A month ago Grace didn't care about puzzles. But last week when we cleaned out the game closet, she sat down and was doing all sorts of puzzles and asking for more. During the 5 day hunger challenge, Isaak learned a lot about the numbers 1-5. Everyday he would announce how many days were left. Two months ago Samuel and I made a number chart of 1-100. He was so excited and we hung it in the living room where everyone can see it. Now in the last few weeks he goes to it and counts to 100. And the practice is showing, he can identify most numbers now and even corrects his brother.

God has entrusted us with little wonders. Let us enjoy them and teach them, but not get stressed about the little things.

A day in the life of Grace (or What are you doing?!?)

For those of you without multiple small children what you are going to read may be disturbing. For everyone else, be prepared for a good laugh.

I sometimes wonder what must be going through Grace's head. She is a very bright little girl, so I am baffled by her behavior some days. On the way home from Appleton on Wednesday I looked back in the van after I heard Grace smacking her lips. She was wiping her hand on the bottom of her shoe and then licking her fingers! Aarrgghh! Later that same day we found her giving her husky stuffed dog a drink of water from her glass. She was made that there was a puddle on the floor. :-)

Yesterday as the boys were working on a project involving paint, Grace was using watercolor paints for the first time. She proceeded to dip her fingers in the paint and then get mad that she had dirty hands. Then she alternated between dipping the paper towel in water and paint. What a mess, she even had paint in her ear! Thankfully it is washable paint and it can't possible hurt her anymore than whatever she ingested from the bottom of her shoe the previous day.

While the boys finished painting she took off to play and we heard her yell, "Doggie, did you make?" (Which is her version of Did you go potty?) I feared she may have put the stuffed doggie on the potty chair or possibly in the real toilet. What a relief when I found him sitting on the carpet reading books. But I still dread the day when this may happen, she doesn't let her two dogs out of her sight for 15 minutes, so washing them is a tremendous effort on my part.

With all that said, she is still so cute and sweet. I will often find her sitting with her doggies reading them multiple books or putting them to bed. She loves to dance and play with her brothers.

We love you Grace and all the smiles you bring to our house!

Day 4 & 5

Thursday, day 4 of the hunger challenge was uneventful. I heard only one complaint about food and then we went on with our day of oatmeal, rice and navajo fried bread. Today has been much the same, but I can tell you I am relieved to know that supper tonight will be something different. There is an excitement in the air at knowing we have made it. Isaak even told Grandma that it was hard, but we made it even when we wanted to quit.

For the kids and I our most difficult challenge has been the lack of snacks. We are used to smaller meals and snacks in between. So we have been hungry, late afternoon has been the hardest. Jim normally eats three meals, so he said it hasn't bothered him. He also eats the same things for breakfast and lunch during a normal week, so the monotony hasn't bothered him much either. But we did both give up soda for the whole week, that is a milestone!

I have been challenged to include more rice in our regular meal plans and plan some nights without meat. Since Jim's diabetis, I had introduced meat into all our meals because it was carb free, but he has done quite well without it. The money we saved on groceries this week will be sent for growing gardens in Haiti or to the Saharawa people in the African desert, two places our church has an active presence. There were many choices, such as goats and water filters, but the kids found the gardens to be the most appealing.

Have a great weekend! The kids are heading out for their sleepover and Jim and I will enjoy ourselves at the Weekend to Remember for couples in Appleton.

Day 3

Yeah, we are over half way through and the end feels so close and exciting. Today was the first time I heard any complaints about the boredem of rice, but it was only once and the kids still ate it all well. They still feel compelled to finish the challenge to the end.

I haven't mentioned that on Friday when we finish supper will be normal food and the kids will have their first sleepover at grandma's house. So they feel the reward at the end to be very worthwhile and exciting. Jim and I will be attending the Weekend to Remember in Appleton and spending our first nights away from the kids. I guess you could say we are all very excited for an end that is near.

This morning I made baked oatmeal, which was delicious. Oatmeal is not a favorite of mine, so I have been doing my best to eat it every morning. But this was awesome, almost like an oatmeal cookie. I will probably make this again after the challenge and add fruit with it.

The rest of the day we had rice and pinto bean bread that I toasted and put cinamon and sugar on top. That was pretty good and satisfied some of the sweet craving I am having. The kids enjoyed it as well.

Tonight's adult devotional was about what motivates us to serve. It should be God's love. But do you ever find yourself serving because the payoff will be good (a matching gift during a fundraiser) or for the emotional high you get from it? I am guilty of this, but I also found that there are times I am truly showing love. I am reminded of Moms Inc where I am a small group leader and craft organizer. When I first started attending this group I received so much blessing and encouragement. I can truly see it helping young moms. Now that I am serving my personal benefits aren't the same, but I want to be there and help other mothers, to show them love and encouragement.

Day 2

Today has resulted in boredem and frustration with our food choices. I think that is one point of of doing the Challenge! The kids are taking it all very well and seem to enjoy the challenge part, being able to say they finished all 5 days. I give them a huge amount of credit.

So far they have concluded they don't care for beans. Each night the boys have at least tried some and then requested more plain rice. I agree with them, the texture and taste of pinto beans is not a favorite of mine either. Grace just doesn't eat them. But they all heartily ate their oatmeal this morning and plain rice at noon with no complaints at all.

Today we tried making unleavened bread. The consensus is it is more like a plain cookie or sweet cracker-everyone likes it. I would rather eat Navajo fried bread-it has more flavor and texture. And I also tried making pinto bean bread. I will have to post more on that tomorrow, we tried only a slice or two tonight, so no verdict on it yet.

I am learning that I enjoy food, not just eating it, but planning meals and preparing them. I enjoy feeding my family healthy choices. It is hard to not offer the kids fruit and vegetables. I think that is where they are struggling too, is not having their snacks throughout the day and only one or two things to chose to eat on their plate at mealtime.

Today Samuel commented that he felt bad that the kids couldn't have a birthday. In our culture where most celebrations have food involved, he is right. It wouldn't feel like a celebration to us if there wasn't a cake or something special and delicious to eat. Why is that? Does the fact that other people are starving mean we shouldn't enjoy these things? I don't know the answer, just thoughts.

Tonight's devotional for the preschoolers was about God helping us. It was interesting to hear Samuel comment that he didn't see God helping him. After I pointed out some things where God has protected him from being hurt and showing him that God has provided a mom and dad for him and a new job for dad, he seemed to get the idea and agreed that God does help him. We prayed for God to help us with eating our beans and rice.

As a note, I did offer the boys the option to quite tonight, just so you don't think we are trying to be cruel and force this on them. (The "test family" at church with little ones stopped after two days. )But they said no and wanted to see it through to the end, they commented that we are almost half done! Good job kids!!

Day 1

We survived our first day of the Hunger Challenge and it went much smoother than I anticipated. I was afraid the kids would complain and the food wouldn't taste that good. But I was wrong. They loved the oatmeal and adding their own brown sugar and cinamon to it was a real treat. (I suspect they may prefer homemade oatmeal to the instant kind by the time the week is over.)

For lunch we made Navajo fried bread and dipped it in honey. This was delicious and the kids decided it would make a great dessert. I first followed the church provided recipe, but after trying it I found a similar recipe on the 'zaar. It suggested cinamon and sugar or powdered sugar for toppings as well. I will probably make this again and have Jim have a taste now that I have a recipe with the nutrition info. My biggest problem with it is the frying which uses a lot of oil, but otherwise it was good.

For supper we had pinto beans and rice from the crockpot that I used a recipe from the 'zaar as well. It was definately good, just so different from what we are used to. The boys ate it and then asked for more plain rice. Jim seemed pretty happy with it as well. Grace decided it was too hot and just drank her milk, which is her normal attitude towards supper anyway so I didn't let it bother me.

We purchased rations for 5 and after today we realize that was probably too much considering the ages of our kids. I only used some of today's rice in our supper and we still have a whole other meal left over from tonight as well as some of the oatmeal from breakfast.

On a deeper level, Samuel has suggested we pray at bedtime for the kids who only get to eat beans and rice. Tonight's devotional with the kids focused on helping others because then we are actually helping Jesus. I hope as the week goes on we can get more in depth in our devotionals and learning about the countries and their cultures. We just picked up our books from the library tonight and I struggled most of the day with a head cold, so my enthusiasm was lacking some. Tomorrow hopefully I will be feeling more like myself.

5 Day Hunger Challenge

That is it. What you see pictured are 5 bags of dry beans, 5 bags of rice and 5 bags of oatmeal. Those are our rations for the next 5 days.

Our family is taking the 5 day hunger challenge sponsered by our church. This is a chance for our family (and church) to experience what most people around the world eat every day.

We are also able to add flour, sugar, milk and spices in our preparations. And with the kids and Jim's health we anticipate some other additions, but we intend to see it through all 5 days.

This food was purchased for $25, the money we are saving this week by not grocery shopping will be donated to various hunger needs in countries where our church is involved.

So on the eve of this challenge we are all a little apprehensive about what it will be like. I am unsure about preparing the food and getting the kids to eat it. Jim is unsure how he will handle lunch on the road when he is working. Samuel especially is a little nervous. But today as we discussed more about how this will help us learn about other people around the world he got more excited. He suggested we use our saved money to buy a house for the people, stay tuned as our family shares this experience with you. If you would like more information about the Hunger Challenge and facts check out our church website www.christtherock.org.

Blast from the past

My mom has been cleaning out the basement and in the process has found a lot of our old toys, many I had forgotten all about. The kids have been particularly excited about the "little Legos" that are now at Grandma's house to play with. Grace is also fond of my old Care Bear figurines.

And you can see that fancy red Barbie car has been converted to a speed racer.
My favorite so far is some old story books with titles like The Ghost Who Loved Toast, The Muddiest Pig Contest and Don Pedro and the Three Dragons. Here Samuel and Isaak are retelling the stories together. What fun to share these pieces of my childhood with my kids!

Model Trains

After our trip to Leap, we stopped at a local auction/banquet hall to see a model train display. Unfortunately my camera got left home, it was super neat. We spent over an hour watching the trains go around the track that filled the whole room. They had three tracks all running trains. And the engineers had fun talking to the kids, showing them different things like how they made smoke and the model Thomas the Tank Engine. They also shared their chocolate from the Hershey train.

Once we got home the kids were inspired to build their own track. I helped them and we created one of our best ones, complete with two hills and it circled around the couch.

LEAP

On February 7, we headed out to Lambeau Field once again to enjoy LEAP (Lambeau Exercise and Activity Program). We had gone 2 years ago and enjoyed it a lot. Basically the Atrium has multiple inflatables for kids to play in, a few health displays and a performing group.

Well the program was much better attended this time around and we only got to 5 inflatables after an hour. We watched the performing group which was a version of Tai Kwon Do and then left. It was just too crowded for preschoolers. The kids did still enjoy the day out which later included lunch at Pizza Hut.

Celebration!!!!!

Tonight we had something great to celebrate and we did it at our favorite kid restaurant-Chuck E Cheese. Jim was told today that he has a job for the summer with a private lawn care company based in Howard. The business owner is a Christian and will be somewhat flexible with hours to accomodate Jim's part-time hours on campus with Intervarsity. Furthermore it is a well established business that is expanding. In the current economy this is an awesome opportunity!

We felt that God was bringing this job to Jim and our family and providing for us in a marvelous way. The owner and Jim met through the Christian Business directory and saw a way that they could each serve one another's needs. Jim will bring experience to the job as well as working his old territory from his previous job.

Normally we reserve Chuck E Cheese for birthdays or for fun with our cousins. Samuel even asked once we got there who's birthday we were celebrating. Jim told him about the new job and he replied "That's great Dad!" The kids understand very little of what has changed over the last year, some day we will be able to share with them this one example of how God has provided for us.

P.S. stay tuned for more posts to come. We have been busy, I just haven't made the time to share everything :-)

New recipes

Most everyone who knows me, knows how much I love the Recipezaar.com website. I am constantly finding great recipes to meet whatever occassion or ingredients I have on hand. Additionally, each recipe has nutritional information, which saves me from having to figure it out for Jim's carb count.

The end of 2008 brought the Zaar's best of the year and I found some great recipes that I would like to share with everyone. First came poverty stew, don't let the name fool you, this is great comfort food. It got great ratings from Jim, the kids are still skeptical. Just remember the parmesan cheese when you are serving it, otherwise it lacks some flavor. It is super easy to through together last minute.

Next I tried big thicket chicken and dumplings. I have never had dumplings, but this sounded easy enough. I used chicken breasts instead of a whole chicken and that worked fine. It does in the end take some time to put together, but we got two big meals out of it. Jim was surprised when he figured out I had made the dumplings from scratch. Isaak loved it the most and Jim was a close second.

Finally today I am trying crockpot lasagna. I am a super pasta lover, too bad for my carb counting husband. But I try to make pasta dishes only a few times during the month. This looked so easy, I just had to try it. I took one of the reviewers suggestion and added some extra seasoning (Italian seasoning, chives and garlic salt instead of the regular salt called for). It smells great in our house now. Plus I have a loaf of homemade bread to bake yet to go with it. Yummy-I can't wait to dig in!

Potty Training

I finally took the plunge and started potty training Grace. For the last few weeks she had been telling me when she was wet and dirty, so I knew she was more aware of what was happening. It was also costing me a lot more diapers for each time she needed a dry/clean one. After talking with another mom, whose daughter is the same age, and hearing how it only took her a week to get over the accidents, I decided it was time. Really, I was sitting on the couch Thursday morning and thinking what I am waiting for, I am stuck inside due to winter weather, might as well give it a try.
And she is doing awesome! Of course there have been accidents and she still has a diaper at bedtime and naptime. Last night, while we had friends over for the SuperBowl, she even asked for underwear and then told me when she had to use the bathroom. And what is my favorite part, she even pooped on the potty last night! Great! Cleaning those up are my least favorite messes.
Today we are home all day, so it was back to underwear again (I didn't try much yesterday due to church and the party at night) and she stayed dry all morning. The big break through today was after lunch, she sat on the potty and went after only a few minutes, instead of the 10-20 minutes I was spending before reading books and watching her dance around trying to hold it in. I think she is really getting it!!! I am so proud of her!
Now I can look forward to the days of no more diaper bag! Can there really be such a life for a mom? After 5 years with one, I may be lost!!

Groundhog day

It is a lovely sunny Groundhog day at our house. Will there really be 6 more weeks of winter, I don't know. We have had fun talking about it at our house today anyway.

Here is a picture of the groundhogs that we made, complete with grassy holes for them to pop out of, that was Isaak's request. We even were able to put our groundhogs by the sunny window and find their shadows. Along with the cute song from DLTK, Grace was also saying shadow by the time we were done with the project. The official groundhog website also has some fun facts for the kids, a tricky maze and a puzzle that we tried.

Super Bowl of Safety

Saturday at the Packers Atrium was the Super Bowl of Safety, a free event sponsered by Bellin. What a great reason to get out of the house and have some family time together. The kids got lots of stickers and coloring books on being safe, got their fingerprints taken and each got their face painted.



Then they learned how to wash your hands well. There was a special lotion that you rubbed on your hands and put under a black light to see how well you spread it around. After that you washed your hands with soap and water and checked to see how well you washed the lotion off under the black light. It was pretty cool.



They also got a chance to sit in a seat with a seat belt and be lifted forward by a police officer and feel the seat belt holding them in. It was a good lesson in wearing you seat belt the right way. (When we were leaving, Isaak got in the van and even asked me to help him get his seat belt on nice and tight.)



The boys were very impressed with a simulator of car crashes complete with crash dummies falling out if they didn't wear their seatbelts. Then they got a chance at an obstacle course, a ride through safety town and a demonstration on electricity. The boys also got a personal lesson by a fireman on stop, drop and roll. And I can't forget the inflatable fire truck slide-very cool! Grace enjoyed watching McGruff, Louie Lightening Bug and Sparky walking around.



I was so impressed at all the volunteers and how kind and patient they were with the kids. They each took time to explain things to the kids and talk to them on their level. It was a fun day and even a little learning.

More Berries, Mommy

Grace has started calling most round small foods berries. She had refered to dried cherries, raisins, grapes, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries as berries. The other night at supper she was eating her peas as fast as her hand would get them in her mouth. I was surprised, she usually isn't a fan of vegetables or much of what I make for supper, but tonight she was eating. Then I learned why, when she said "More berries, mommy! More berries, mommy!" I guess she decided the peas fit into the berry category. I told her they were peas, but she still ate seconds and thirds of them, never touched her potatoe casserole. What is a mom to do :-)

P.S. You can guess what her diaper looked like the next day after all those peas!

Family Fun Night

For Christmas we bought the Just Add Family as a gift for the whole family. The box comes with 52 cards designed for a family fun night with little prep time and a lesson on God included.
So we tried one out last night, God is There was the title. It involved showing the kids that even thought we can't see God, He is there and comparing that to air.

The fun was playing with balloons and fans and seeing the power of air. We shared the Bible verses with the kids and the words to remember "Just like air, God is there." Then they wanted to play more balloons.

Down with the Christmas trees

We finally made the time to take down the Christmas tree in the living room. It left a trail of needles out the door, so it was time. I always think it will be so much work, but this time I had lots of help. In one hour the kids and I had all the ornaments, lights and berries off the tree and Jim brought it out the door. I guess the real work is putting away the ornaments and cleaning up, that took me the rest of the day to finish.

I never took a nice picture of the tree finished, but here are some pictures of putting it up.

Downstairs we put up our artificial tree and decorated it with our Promise Tree ornaments. This is based off the Jesse tree idea combined with the advent calendar. Our advent activity turned into a full tree complete with an ornament for each of the kids on each day of December. Thanks to my Mom for making all the ornaments for the kids. Each ornament represents a portion of the Old Testament up to the fulfillment of God's Promise to send a Saviour in the birth of His Son.

The kids really enjoyed this activity and learned a lot of Old Testament stories. Jim and I even benefited from teaching the kids in a chronological order of all the stories we already knew. If you ask them the boys could identify the story that corresponds to each ornament.

Cold Winter Days

During the very cold winter days of below zero windchills we stayed home to play. Here is a glimpse of what we did.

Made towers of tinker toys.

Made a race track for the hot wheels from paper and appropriate colored race flags from paper and straws.

Took the dolly for a walk to get the mail, buy a pizza and get new shoes.

Had a little ice cream break.

Not pictured are lots of play-doh time, Lego day and baking cookies.

What is heaven like?

Tonight as we were finishing supper the boys started asking questions about heaven. I think it was sparked by a song on the radio. Somehow they have decided heaven is up in the air, amazing because I have never given them that idea.
Anyway, Isaak asked if a rocket could get you to heaven. No I answered, only Jesus can get you there. I reminded them about Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the dead. Then I told them Jesus later went to heaven to prepare a room for each us who called Him a friend and had him in our heart. Isaak asks will there be a manager in my room in heaven? And what about the donkeys? Samuel laughs at him and says he is silly, a year in age sure makes a difference here.
I kept the conversation going and asked if they thought Noodles (our dog) would be in heaven. Isaak said no, Samuel said yes. Then I asked about cows in heaven. Saumel said they would live on the farms.
I also mentioned somewhere in here about the streets of gold. Samuel said can we walk on them or are they like little sprinkles. He also said he was worried about walking on the clouds. Isaak returned to the question, Are you sure a rocket can't get to heaven?
This is one of my favorite things about being a parent, not only the cute things they say and do, but watching their hearts grow in knowledge and love for our awesome God.

Y members

So what have we been busy doing since Christmas? Among other things we joined the Y. This is something we had discussed many times and finally decided to go ahead. First Jim felt he needs more exercise and it helps his blood sugar stay more level. He has gone on his own some and seems to be happy with our decision. I have the wonderful dream of time alone to excercise too, but due the the cost of child care, I haven't gotten to do this yet. In time I hope to work it out that Jim or Mom watch the kids for me.

But our main motivation to join was the kids. As members we have access to sports leagues for the boys to join for free and for a fee lessons and more programs for the kids to particpate. We haven't signed them up yet. They have been more excited about time in the gymnastics area and the pool. We are giving up our Sundays out to lunch and instead are spending time playing at the Y. A much healthier choice for all involved, although I have more stress having lunch and play clothes to pack for after church. I will get better at in time. So we have been taking advantage of lots of time in the pool and the gym.

Tractor conversations

Tonight as the boys were playing tractors this is what I was told:

Samuel: I like John Deere tractors. That is what Grandpa likes too.

Isaak: We should have lots of tractors so then we can learn more how they work.

Cute Kid Sayings

The last week has been filled with funny little kid sayings so I thought I would share a few. First, Grace is increasing her vocabulary with lots of innovative words: Mommy has evolved to Mommer, Isaak is Iyik and the the boys are refered to collectively as guys. I think she has a word for Samuel, but I haven't figured it out yet. As she was playing in the bathtub the other night, she was taking a pink cup turned upside down and flying it through the air and saying "Papa's balloon." She was remembering the day we say Big Papa in the hot air balloon

And then there is Isaak, he asked me the other day if it rains a lot in Florida to fill up the ocean holes. He has also refered to himself as faster than a corncob and faster than a combine, I am not sure how he got this idea, but it is hilarious to hear him say it.