Nana's Request

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Here's a picture of the kids this morning after we got ready for church. Things were a little harried this morning. Firefly got super constipated so we spent some time this morning running from pharmacy to pharmacy trying to find the poor thing some medicine. She loves to eat so much and we have enjoyed feeding her so much. She just laps it up! But apparently too much of a good thing is not so good as we have figured out. I won't go into details but the problem is corrected now and we are on to feeding her high-fiber foods instead of bananas and rice cereal (not a good combination!).

Here's a picture of what Grace drew during church today. It's a picture of a dinosaur-looking thing with teeth. Now I'm no expert but none of my other kids ever drew this good (and still don't) so maybe we have a budding artist?

Sweety Boy was in the bath with Firefly yesterday. He is so good to her. He kept kissing her hand and then kissing her on the head. He is such a gentle soul. At school the teacher gives out these little pieces of paper whenever she catches someone doing good. He brings home about 2 a day! No, I'm exaggerating, but some days he does bring home two. I ask him what he did and he says oh I picked up all the glue sticks without being asked. Geez! If only he would do this stuff at home. It seems he is an angel at school.

"Firefly"

So my Sweet Boy has always made up names for everyone. Some of them are rather strange and off the wall and seem to come out of seemingly nowhere. He has always done this since he was very tiny. He rarely ever calls anyone by their right name. Mommy is "Nahneee." Daddy is "Dallas" (as in Texas). And now Little Lids is "Firefly." It seems to fit as she just lights up the room when she is in it. Her eyes tell it all. She has the sweetest disposition.

Grace Ann has a quick wit, we've decided. She has always been sharp as a tack and when she laughs it comes from somewhere deep down. You just have to laugh with her. The other day Mommy said something about "heavy duty" and boy she rolled over with that one. It was the wrong kind of "duty" but apparently it was hilarious to her.

The kids are saving their money with the bank Nana gave them. Whenever they do chores or help out they get rewarded with some cash. Yesterday we spent the day "spring cleaning" inside and outside the house so they earned a little moolah. So far the family has saved $38. We told them we would save up and do something really fun with it this summer. They keep asking me "what" we are going to do and I keep telling them "it all depends on how much we save!"

5 Months

It certainly goes faster the 4th time around.......especially with tending to 3 others at the same time. I just realized today that Little Lids is 5 months old and that sounded so old to me. She had a doctor's appointment on Monday and she weighs 12.5 pounds. That may not sound like a lot, but she is ginormous to us. She has chipmunk cheeks! The kids and I just got a wild hair to give her some baby food today and she loved it! She ate it up. I love those big eyes!

We've had a couple of productive weeks of homeschooling. We're branching out the second half of this year and Twinkle Toes is studying Spanish and Ancient History along with the basics of math, language, spelling, grammar, etc. Tomorrow we go on a field trip to the fire station with the homeschoolers. In April we're signing up for swimming lessons.

It is starting to feel like spring to me (in my mind at least) so today when I woke up to snow that foiled all my mental images of what really should be happening.....birds chirping, tulips blooming, etc.

I've been reading several books by the author Sally Clarkson, the one right now is entitled, "The Mission of Motherhood." I love this book! It is such an encouraging book for stay at home moms and supportive of that decision and its importance. All too often in society today it's easy to feel like the role of "Mom" is kind of a second-class job. It's something people do if they aren't accomplished enough in the world to do something better. I've embraced the role as mother and how vitally important it is to bring my children up in righteousness, so it's nice to hear that echoed by someone else. In her words, "When women are not encouraged to embrace motherhood with a whole heart, as an occupation worthy of a full life's devotion, a part of the basic design of our femininity is devalued. Women were designed to nuture, to provide a life-giving environment in the home-to provide a center of life for all who live there. No longer do we have the moral support of a culture that applauds what we are doing-or even the practical support of other women in our neighborhood. In a cultural sense, we have all but lost the right to focus wholeheartedly on creating a home."

So amidst the baby barf, spit up, smelling like breastmilk all day, cleaning up messes, tending 4 chaotic little chitlins, I try to relish the moments of teaching, encourage with a soft voice, inspire to greatness and godliness, encourage kindness and remember this is my path of learning as well as theirs. Never have I been more challenged in my own self as when pursuing the role of mother to my children.