Linnea, 6, and Laurel, 3 in their matching pink Easter outfits
You gotta love the hat.
Why does she remind me of Pollyanna? So glad.
Author: Diana B.
I am a wife and the mother of two beautiful adult daughters and a wonderful new son-in-law. I am a seminary student and also do some part-time freelance writing, editing and graphic design work. My interests include reading, photography, baking (mostly bread and chocolate), and studying God's Word.
Kicks, Scoops and Monkey Cheeks
Kicks, scoops and monkey cheeks. Those are some of the words frequenting our vocabulary during the past four weeks of swim camp. The girls have both been going twice a week to lessons. Thursday we finished up, and both girls graduated to the next classes for their individual levels.
Linnea became a “mermaid” almost after the first lesson. Right away she was having fun, and she is now able to swim independently on her stomach without any floaties for more than 15 feet. She also can flip and float on her back and then flip again to her stomach. She swims on her back doing “bird flaps,” too.
Laurel can move independently on the noodle and float on her back using the noodle. She was reluctant to put her face in the water all the way up until the last class. She’d barely get her goggles wet, and she didn’t want to “Humpty Dumpty” off the edge. But on the last day she kept her eyes OPEN when she put the goggles in the water. That made all the difference because she was able to see a whole new world underwater — her instructor’s legs and toes and all sorts of toys. She kept saying, “I want to do it again! I want to go under again!” This was quite an aboutface, and it left her instructor and I both shaking our heads in wonder. Something clicked that day, and what a thrill to witness it. Linnea and I both cheered from the poolside.
It’s the 100th Day!
Around the end of September, Linnea started counting up to the 100th Day on a special chart. Every school day, she adds a mini popcicle stick to her 100 jar. At first she made bundles of five sticks, so soon she was counting by fives. Then once she got to 50, I had her switch the bundles to 10 sticks each and begin counting by tens.
And now finally, today is the 100th Day! This has been a long awaited day, as we were all supposed to go to the Minnesota Children’s Museum. Unfortunately, I found out last week that they are closed on Mondays. Urgh! We are also getting carpet in our basement today, so we have to be home all day while the carpet-layers are here. Bummer!
But we are making the most of it. We celebrated with special signs, playing a follow-the-numbers game, and eating 100 chocolate chips for snack. In lieu of the museum trip, Michael is taking the girls swimming at the community indoor poor later this afternoon. The girls are eager to show off all the tricks they have been learning at swimming lessons the past few weeks.
Our focus on wild animals continues. Last Friday we finished up our unit on penguins. We closely studied Emperor penguins because these penguin families are especially loving to one another. The father sacrifices eating for several months to keep the egg warm in the extreme weather while the mother penguin goes off 70 miles away to eat. Then the mother comes back to the daddy, feeds the newly hatched chick, and keeps it warm while the daddy goes off to eat. So cool! Our words to remember were: “I show love to everyone, especially my family.”
The highlights of our week included watching the March of the Penguins, making little icebergs for our toy penguins to play with in the sensory tub, making these fun penguins from balloons, and painting penguins on blue paper. (By the way, icy water and snow in the sensory tub make for icy fingers and soggy mittens!)
This week we jump on to kangaroos, remembering “I am safe in God,” just like the little joey is safe in his mother’s pocket. We’ve already measured that Linnea can jump 3.5 feet, and Laurel can jump 2.5 feet. Tomorrow they’ll find out that some kangaroos can jump up to 44 feet! Wow!
Four Lessons from an Old Piano
Linnea, age 6, started piano lessons a few weeks ago, and she is quite excited about learning to play! Of course, her daddy might be slightly more excited about it; he loves the idea of having another musician in the house. And he certainly put some blood, sweat and tears into moving around that 100-year-old piano and restoring it. Our piano has quite a history; what lessons that old piano can teach!
Lesson #1: Determination and commitment can be rewarding.
My grandparents bought the used piano around 1950 for my uncle. My mother, who was two years younger and a force to be reckoned with, insisted on taking piano years before her mother or the piano teacher thought she was old enough. While my uncle gave up piano rather quickly — he plays ukulele and harmonica instead — Mama took piano until she graduated from high school. It was the centerpiece of many childhood memories, as she fondly spoke of her dear piano teacher and the fancy, frilly dresses my grandma made for her piano recitals.
Lesson #2: Fill your home with pleasant sounds; your children will remember them long after you are gone.
When I was about 5, Daddy moved the piano from my grandparents’ farm to our house. I still remember that day. I was afraid they would drive the truck right into the house!
Growing up I loved listening to Mama play piano. It was the comforting, soothing sound of home. Mama played some hymns for church, but her favorites were John Denver tunes and scores from Broadway musicals like Oklahoma and The Sound of Music. I still see her sitting at the piano whenever I hear one of those familiar tunes.
I always wanted to play piano, too. Mama taught me a few short tunes, but she really was too busy to teach me the theory and fundamentals. Since we lived too far out of town for me to conveniently take lessons from someone else, I just did without lessons. When I got my driver’s license at 16, I finally signed up and drove myself to piano lessons for two years, until I headed off to college. I loved playing piano those two years and still regret that I had to stop!
Lesson #3: Priceless heirlooms can be costly.
After Mama passed away and after I finished college, my dad decided the piano needed to go with me to Minnesota. It’s a heavy, upright piano that probably weighs more than a bus, so it became like another family member as we searched for places to rent. Not many apartments can accommodate an upright piano very easily. We ended up paying extra to rent a townhouse on ground level, just to avoid manuevering the stairs with that piano!
After we moved to our current house, Michael decided to restore the piano’s finish and fix some broken keys. As he worked on it, he realized the working parts inside the piano also needed a lot of attention. That restoration process took years!
Lesson #4: Priceless heirlooms sometimes inspire priceless moments with your children.
Michael finally got the piano into its current, restored condition about a year ago, and now we are all thrilled to hear its tunes fill up our house as Linnea practices Old MacDonald and Mary Had a Little Lamb.
What a special way for a little girl to connect with a grandma she’s never met!
“Carry Me”
Yesterday we joined some dear friends for a little field trip to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. The gardens boast no flowers in February, of course, but the fresh air and sunshine did wonders for most of us!
Sadly, my 3-year-old, Laurel, was the exception. About two minutes into the trip, she asked if I would carry her. Seriously? It simply wasn’t an option. When we are both wearing snowpants and snowboots, carrying her is impossibly awkward. So, for the whole trip Laurel was whiny and grumpy and sluggish. She walked yards behind the rest of us, and I was selfishly impatient and frustrated with her as I waited for her to catch up. What was her problem? She’s been moody lately — with those infamous 3-year-old girl hormones — but this was a little extraordinary.
Only upon removing her snowboots at home did I realize the real culprit. A blister. She’s outgrowing her hand-me-down snowboots, and they were rubbing a blister on one of her little heals! Poor thing!
Laurel never said that her foot hurt, or that her boots were tight and uncomfortable. She just trudged along with a frown. I feel so badly that I was so impatient with her. I never asked her why she was moving so slowly; I just kept telling her to hurry up!
After her bath tonight I bandaged up Laurel’s foot again, and then I read her the story about the Tower of Babel in her Jesus Storybook Bible. The story concludes saying that the world didn’t need a tower or a staircase to reach heaven, the world needed a Rescuer from heaven.
I asked Laurel who she thought that Rescuer might be. I don’t remember her first answer, but her second answer was, “Jesus!”
I replied, “Yes! Jesus. He is the Way to heaven. We can’t get there by taking the stairs, or by taking an airplane, or any other way. Only Jesus.”
Nestled snugly beneath the covers, Laurel looked particularly thoughtful. Then she asked, “Will Jesus walk us to heaven?”
Hmm. This wasn’t a question I anticipated. “Well, He walks with us on here on earth, so…”
Just as I began to see Laurel connecting this “heaven trip” to our walk at the Arboretum yesterday, she interrupted, “Will He carry me?”
Oh, precious one, yes He will! Jesus rescues us! He heals all the blisters and wounds this uncomfortable world gives us. Jesus knows about wounds. He was wounded for us to heal us from all the bad things we do. He was wounded so we can live with Him forever in heaven. And most certainly He will carry us there.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
1 Peter 2:24 (NIV)
Homeschool Update
UPDATE: Here are some “school” pictures.
I am long overdue for an update on the homeschool front. Things are going pretty smoothly these days. We settled into a nice routine after the holiday craze, doing schoolwork mostly in the mornings. This leaves the afternoon for quick errands, Laurel’s nap, chapter-book reading, board games, housework, and sometimes playing with the neighbor kids.
In general Laurel has become more cooperative and interested in participating in school — at least a few days each week — so it’s been fun to include her as we read-aloud picture books, do fingerplays, sing songs and do craft and coloring projects. When it’s time for Linnea to do seat work, Laurel plays in the sensory tub, does puzzles or watches Sesame Street.
Laurel is our school police/nag, always asking “When are we going to do school?” And on weekends or field trip days, she always laments, “Oh no! We forgot to do school!” She doesn’t usually accept the idea that seeing “Goodnight Moon” at Stages Theatre or going to Underwater Adventures is part of our course of study. Go figure.
On our 100 chart we are nearly to Day 90. Every day we skip count by fives or tens as we add popsicle sticks to the 100 jar. When we reach the 100th Day in March, we are going to visit the Minnesota Children’s Museum! The girls’ third and most memorable trip to the museum was on Laurel’s birthday last October, so they are thrilled to be approaching the 100th Day!
Linnea is reading, reading, reading. She’s reading very confidently at a 2nd grade level. She’s reading lots of beginner books, and she follows along closely when we read aloud to her. At bedtime, this really keeps Michael on his toes because he likes to skip sentences and add in his own colorful sentences when he reads aloud to the girls. Lately he constantly has to account for, “Where does it say that?” and “That’s not what it says, Daddy!”
Linnea read all the little candy hearts for Valentine’s Day, which seem to be getting a little more racy. “Oh, this one says ‘lover boy.’ What does that mean?” Of course, Laurel couldn’t be out done, so she either made up words for her candy hearts or handed back soggy hearts with slightly smeared words for her mother to read and return. A lovely reading assignment indeed.
In addition to reading, Linnea also enjoys writing books. She has made dozens of little books, which she illustrates. She did this even before she started Kindergarten and was thrilled to find out that book-making was part of our curriculum for some weeks. For official school work, she dictates the stories to me, and I write the words in a book that she then illustrates. For her unofficial, playtime book-making, she phonetically spells out all the words in her stories with no help from me unless requested. That in itself makes for interesting reading, especially since Kindergartners don’t yet do spelling lessons.
This week our topic is elephants, who, as you may remember, never forget. Our theme “I will remember what God has done for me,” comes from Psalm 77:11-12. Linnea has written and illustrated a sweet little book on this very topic.
Here are the words:
I Remember What God Has Done for Me
By Linnea Barto
God has given me a family.
God has healed me many times.
God created sea animals that live in shells. I love seashells.
God created shady trees for me to sit under in the summer.
God answered my prayer for a new friend, Lila.
God gave me a piano teacher.
“I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes I will remember Your miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all Your works and consider all Your mighty deeds.” -Psalm 77:11-12
Okay, so now I am really inspired to keep a better journal of praises and answered prayers. Aren’t you?
Love and Hearts
Happy Valentine’s Day!
What’s more heart-warming than a sweater knitted with love by your great-grandma? When we were in Washington in November, my grandma and I took the girls to pick out yarn. Then Grandma went to work knitting these beautiful sweaters for them. She mailed them shortly after Christmas. Don’t they look precious on my little sweethearts?
When we picked up these photos at the drugstore this morning, Laurel (age 3) looked around and said quite matter-of-factly, “Well, it looks like they are ready for Valentine’s Day.” She seemed to think they were getting ready for a party rather than capitalizing on the holiday.
Of course it’s all hearts and love every where we go lately, so how fitting that I’ve been memorizing Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (NIV). I am going to type it from memory just to test myself. Please leave a comment if you notice that I’ve left something out!
“Hear O Israel the LORD our God the LORD is One. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
The girls and I made dozens of these sugar cookies today. We wore our matching pink aprons (thanks again, Aimee!) and destroyed the kitchen with sprinkles, sugar, flour and icing.
Sugar cookies were not something my mother ever made, so I’ve never been a huge fan of them. However, they happen to be Michael’s all-time favorite cookie. It’s tradition in our nearly 20-year history of Valentine’s together for me to make and decorate the cookies so he can consume most of them.
About six years ago my friend Dani gave me what I believe is the BEST EVER sugar cookie recipe. The dough rolls out better than any other recipe or store-bought dough I’ve tried. And the cookies are pretty tasty. Coming from me, that’s saying a lot since most sweets are incomplete without chocolate! Anyway, here’s the recipe:
SUGAR COOKIES
1 cup softened butter
1.5 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 Tblsp. vanilla
3.5 cups flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
Mix all together with beater and chill three to four hours. Roll out and cut into shapes. The thicker cookies are better. Bake about 11 minutes at 350 F (longer if you use airbake cookie sheets). Bake until cookies are just slightly brown on the edges.
We also made these heart-shaped lollipops. We got the candy melts and molds at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago. So fun and super easy!
Here, Laurel is get ready to slurp up what we are calling “raspberry floats.” They are perfectly pink for Valentine’s Day or girly parties. You can mix it together in a punch bowl or in individual glasses if you are just serving a few. Here’s what you need:
RASPBERRY FLOATS
2-liter of raspberry gingerale
1/2 gallon of raspberry sherbert
a handful of fresh raspberries
Scoop sherbert into individual glasses or punch bowl. Pour in gingerale to finish filling the glass or bowl. Mix with a fork if necessary. Let stand for about 5 minutes so the sherbert melts a little. Garnish with a few fresh raspberries and enjoy!
Believing in Miracles
A friend of mine asked me today how I respond to stories about God miraculously healing someone. She asked this knowing that I am a believer and knowing that my mother died of cancer when I was 17. Do I feel like my prayers for her healing went unanswered? Do I feel jealous? Do I feel disappointed? Do I question whether God wanted to heal her?
My short answer was that I used to feel that way, but now I rarely do. I think the more I learn about who God is, the less I question why my mother had no sudden healing on this earth. My temptation to feel jealous of other’s healing miracles still surfaces sometimes, but that’s when I must focus instead on the truth in God’s word. He is sovereign. He is all-knowing. He numbers our days. And He has purposes for suffering, divine purposes.
I have more thoughts on healing and miracles that I’d like to share, so perhaps this post will have a Part 2.
Kid Talk
For a while now, I have only been keeping a mental record of the funny conversations my kids have, and I worry I will forget them. So, here’s a quick effort to preserve at least a few in writing. I hope you laugh.
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Linnea (at age 5): Did you say his mom and dad felt like they were on their Honeymood?
Laurel (at age 2): No Linnea; it’s a Honeymoon.
Linnea (laughing hard): Laurel said ‘Honeymoon!’ It’s not a Honeymoon, it’s a Honeymood. That’s so funny. Silly Laurel.
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Linnea: Are they going to eat those fish, Daddy?
Laurel: You can’t eat fish!
Linnea: Yes, you can! They have chicken in them.
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Linnea (age 6, describing her barnyard artwork): That’s the mama rooster sitting on her eggs.
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Laurel (age 3, re-enacting Snow White with a real apple): Daddy, do I really have to just pretend to eat the poison apple?
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Linnea (very calmly looking out the window): Oh, Mommy, it’s so beautiful outside.
Several minutes pass. Mommy finally makes it to the window to peek through the blinds. A thick blanket of white covers the yard this early November morning. The very first snowfall of the season.
Mommy: Oh my goodness! It snowed! Yikes! I hope we’re not late getting to the airport.
Laurel (jumping up and down enthusiastically): It snowed! It snowed! Hooray! It snowed! Is it winter now?
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Mommy: You need to finish your bagel before you have a donut.
Laurel: Can I take just three more bites?
Mommy: No, just finish the bagel if you want a donut.
Laurel: Can I take 89 more bites?
Mommy (laughing): Sure!
Linnea: What? She can’t take that many bites!
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As our family van followed our friends’ van on a winding gravel road through the woods near the Boundary Waters, Laurel, age 3, commented: “Are we car hiking?”
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Laurel, age 3, vocabulary lesson: chick-munk = chipmunk
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Redeeming the Time
Maybe you’ve heard the saying, “Cleaning the house when children are growing is like shoveling the walk while it’s still snowing.”
So true. Productivity often feels elusive as a stay-at-home mom. Just when I get the crumbs beneath the table swept up, it’s time to serve up another meal and do it all over again. Unwelcome housework lurks around nearly every corner, and procrastination tempts me.
So, I’ve been reading about biblical productivity on a C.J. Mahaney blog series this week, and I wanted to share this quote that Mahaney keeps at his desk:
“No unwelcome tasks become any the less unwelcome by putting them off till tomorrow. It is only when they are behind us and done, that we begin to find that there is a sweetness to be tasted afterwards, and that the remembrance of unwelcome duties unhesitatingly done is welcome and pleasant. Accomplished, they are full of blessing, and there is a smile on their faces as they leave us. Undone, they stand threatening and disturbing our tranquility, and hindering our communion with God. If there be lying before you any bit of work from which you shrink, go straight up to it, and do it at once. The only way to get rid of it is to do it.”
-Alexander MacLaren (1826-1910, Scottish preacher)
Mahaney’s blog series discusses the theology of work – fulfilling one’s God-designed role in life. He distinguishes busyness from fruitfulness. He says our roles are “divine Post-It notes” that God has called us to fulfill specific goals. Biblical productivity, he says, depends on a schedule, which depends on clear goals, which depends on clearly defined roles. Of course! He directs readers to (1) define your present God-given roles, (2) determine specific, theologically informed goals, and (3) transfer these goals into your schedule.
I’m not completely finished with this assignment yet, but I’m not procrastinating, I promise! Mahaney’s biblical productivity blog series isn’t finished yet either, so I’ve gone almost as far as I can go for now. The series is somewhat lengthy, but it’s really worthwhile. Check it out at
http://sovereigngraceministries.com/Blog/post/Biblical-Productivity.aspx
In closing, here’s another great quote before I hit the pillow.
“It is sweet falling asleep knowing we have redeemed the time.”
-C.J. Mahaney
Starlight Writer 