I’ll be the first to admit it: It’s not easy living in a house with three females. And that’s why this man deserves some recognition.
And that’s also why my girly-girly girls took up arms and went to battle on Father’s Day.
Fun with Dad was the aim of the game, of course.
Water balloons + water guns = water war.
It was two against one, and that seemed to be a pretty fair match.
Well, it was fair until Dad got lazy.
If you read this post of mine from early spring, you know what books have been on my nightstand and coffee table for the last several weeks. Now that it is summer, the Spring Reading Thing is officially over, and I’m ready to report back about some of the books on my list.
Feathers from My Nest by Beth Moore is a beautiful, heartfelt work that inspires me to savor every moment with my daughters. A long-time fan of Beth’s Bible studies, I was delighted by this peek into her family life and church life, too. Beth is the ultimate storyteller, and so Feathers from My Nest is filled with fantastic stories about bringing up two lovely daughters — some will make you bawl your head off, some will make you roll on the floor, and some will make you do both. I was a little hesitant when I purchased this as an audiobook, but in retropect, I am so glad I did. Hearing Beth read the book while I drove felt like she was riding in the passenger seat of my minivan, telling tales and giving me advice mom-to-mom. It was priceless.
So Long Insecurity also by Beth Moore (I do read other authors, I promise!) sheds so much light on women and why we do or say the things we do and say. The book is very worthwhile, and the powerful prayers in it can be life-changing. I started reading Bringing Up Girls while I was still reading this book, and I found several parallels, especially in regard to culture and women. I think God has a powerful message for women of today, and He’s used both Beth Moore and Dr. Dobson to pen it.
Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp is still on my coffee table. I’m only few pages into it, but I plan to make reading it a higher priority since I hear over and over how wonderful this book is.
Also on my reading list are Bringing Up Girls by Dr. James Dobson, The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace, Becoming More Than Just a Good Bible Study Girl by Lysa Ter Keurst, Grace-Based Parenting by Dr. Tim Kimmel, and My Heart’s at Home by Jill Savage.
This summer, the girls and I are reading several science books by Gail Gibbons, as well as Mountain Born by Elizabeth Yates and Nora Spicer Unwin. Linnea is 200+ pages into The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and she is doing her first somewhat independent Bible devotional: Mona Hodgson’s Real Girls of the Bible. Laurel, meanwhile, is working through Life Lessons from the Princess and the Kiss by Jennie Bishop and Susan Henson, and she is listening to me read some of The Secret Garden. We’re only on chapter two because we’ve been distracted by Sandra Boyton books lately.
Happy reading!
It’s National Get Outdoors Day, and I have a confession: I’ve never been wild about camping in a tent.
Something about it just makes me feel like a Boy Scout. My older brother has always been waaaaay into camping, so perhaps that’s why I developed an aversion to it early in life. But nonetheless, I do have some fond memories of camping more times than I can count in the spacious backyard of my childhood home.
One time I camped out with my dear friend Aimee during a sleepover when we were about 12. That experience involved rain and some sort of catastrophic tent collapse around 4 a.m. Sadly, I was so traumatized or lacking in sleep that I blocked out the details. All I remember is laughing about it later until our sides nearly split open.
Like it or not, camping out is one of those outdoorsy things that everyone must do now and then. And recently I realized — in a small fit of mommy guilt — that neither of our daughters had ever spent the night in a tent!
Well, actually, there was that one time… When Linnea was 3, Michael tried a father-daughter backyard camp-out with her. She bounced and fidgeted in excitement for several hours, waaaaay past her usual bedtime. And then finally around 10:30 p.m., snug in her sleeping bag, Linnea was just drifting off to sleep when ka-boom! The fireworks began. It was the 4th of July. Seriously, whose grand idea was that?
Since we were here at home this Memorial Day weekend, I coaxed Michael into buying a six-man tent and pitching it for the girls to play in. They had a high old time indeed, pretending it was their house, playing with their rag dolls, and tracking in grass and other pieces of nature to litter the tent floor. You never saw two kids more eager for bedtime.
We have really long summer days here in the Frozen Tundra, so it’s still broad daylight at 9 p.m. Yet both jumped into their jammies around 7 p.m., hours before the sunset.
To cap off the evening, s’mores had been promised. Unfortunately, it was super windy that evening. Too windy for a fire in the backyard fire pit. At least, that was the conclusion of the former Boy Scout in our family. Since I had all the ingredients and I didn’t want unhappy campers, I decided to do the unthinkable.
I made s’mores in the microwave.
Strike that. I made s’mores in the microwave. I tried to make s’mores in the microwave.
If you haven’t tried this at home, please don’t. The graham cracker box is misleading. You really can’t make s’mores in the microwave. Sure the marshmallow puffs into its gooey, sticky loveliness, but the Hershey bar…
It wasn’t pretty. Laurel’s pajamas took the brunt of the s’more chocolate disaster. And our patio furniture also fell victim to the devastation of dripping chocolate loss.
By 7:30, my three happy campers were ready to call it a night. I kissed them all and headed inside, looking forward to a nice, peaceful evening alone in a quiet house, snuggled up with my laptop. Aaaah. Peace at last.
Some things are too good to be true.
I jumped when the phone rang. Laurel’s sweet little voice was on the other end, on her daddy’s cell phone, begging, “Mommy, will you please, please come outside with us and watch for the stars come out? We miss you.”
Who on earth could deny such a plea from their 4-year-old?
I did the right thing. I shut the laptop, changed clothes, and headed out to watch the stars.
Two hours and lots of giggles later, we were all still anxiously waiting for the first star to come out. Napless Laurel didn’t dare stop moving her mouth or else she’d fall soundly asleep. She talked, talked, talked. Full of endless questions. After a while, that just made Linnea giggle, giggle, giggle. Pretty soon, we were all giggling uncontrollably as Laurel tried so hard to stay awake for the first star.
Eventually the first star did come out. And then another. And another. By the fourth star, Laurel was sawing logs. It was well after 10 p.m. And that’s about when Michael informed me I couldn’t leave because I’d let in too many mosquitos. So I was trapped. In the tent. For the whole night.
At 4 a.m. I awoke, freezing and feeling rocks that I am certain arose underneath the sod just while I was laying there. Ugh! I sneaked back inside my quiet house and into my warm, soft bed. I left my three happy campers sleeping soundly.
Aaaah. Peace at last. For a few hours anyway.
Even though we have yet to finish all our projects, and our last day is still slated for June 4, school is “out” this month.
School is outside: With gorgeous sunny weather, we’ve done lots of schoolwork on the patio.
School is out of order: Lately we seem to be doing schoolwork in the afternoon rather than our usual morning routine, especially on hot days.
School is out-and-about: More and more we take a field trip and call it school for the day. We may not make great progress on book work, but field trips are an essential tool in keeping everyone’s attitude in check.
Even though most of the book work is wrapping up in the next week, school at home doesn’t really end just because it’s summer. So much of what parents do on a regular basis relates to their child’s education somehow: taking them to swimming or piano lessons, teaching them to ride a bike, reading together, visiting the library, modeling behavior and teaching life skills like cooking, cleaning, laundry, money management etc. All are significant learning experiences.
Perhaps the best advice given to me when I was first considering homeschooling was from a dear friend of mine who said, “Diana, you’ll be surprised how much schooling you are already doing.” And indeed, I was surpised by how much of life outside of our curriculum is educational when you really think about. Two years ago I didn’t consider myself an experienced educator, yet homeschooling seemed like a natural next step because I had been my child’s teacher since Day 1. So, I encourage any homeschool newbies out there to read this article and take comfort that it’s really not-so-new territory afterall.
Even though this time of year makes me realize how ongoing and seemingly endless every parent’s job is, I’m feeling a little sentimental, too. And I’m not the only one. I was so touched by this homeschool mom’s letter to her child. It says so much of what I hope my children will remember someday when looking back on their education at home.
Eyes dancing blue, smile warm and bright
Heart always true, hugs always tight
Sweet memories stay, though you have gone
In my heart may your legacy live on.
I cried today. Mother’s Day is a hard day for me. It’s hard because I can’t be with my mom, or call her, or tell her how much I love her.
This is the 17th Mother’s Day since I lost my mom to cancer. So now half of my life I have been “celebrating” Mother’s Day as a motherless daughter. Every year, I struggle with the lingering loss and the disappointment that my mom is no longer a part of my life and will never be a part of my children’s lives. Sometimes, I worry I am forgetting my mom, and that, too, is painful.
This Mother’s Day, in memory of my mom, I thought I’d tell you a little of what I remember about her and how I’m dealing with being a motherless daughter.
Mama did all the things good mothers do. She kissed my skinned-up knees, sang sweet songs, and hugged me tight. She always knew just how I liked my sandwiches fixed and wrote little love notes on the napkins she slipped into my Holly Hobby lunchbox. She also had a big wide smile that went on for miles.
But sometimes Mama’s face transformed. Her jaw set back so that her beautiful, perfect white teeth formed a very unnatural underbite. Oh, that’s when I really knew I was in trouble. That was her “I-am-mad-and I’m-trying-to-regain-my-self-control” expression. Every good mom has a look like that, and every good kid who sees it knows she’d better duck and run!
Most of the time, though, Mama was cheerful and high spirited. The very outgoing life of the party. The glue that kept our family together. Mama’s eyes danced clear blue, and she told funny stories and jokes and laughed a lot. Mama’s laugh was so loud and contagious. Sometimes it embarassed me, but that rollicking laugh was unforgettable.
She’d never have said so, but Mama was an amazing seamstress. She made me so many beautiful dresses when I was a little girl. She even made the white prom dress I wore my junior year, and the only pattern she used was the picture I tore out of a teen magazine! Yep, she was that good.
Mama also was quite well-known in our small town as a financial whiz. She owned and managed a very successful tax consulting and bookkeeping business. As a little girl, I loved going to work at her office on summer days. I sat at her receptionist’s desk since the receptionist usually only worked full-time during tax season. I typed on the typewriter and played with the copy machine and the adding machine. I felt so grown up and important behind that desk. I felt just like Mama.
Of course, nobody could enter numbers on a ten-key adding machine faster than Mama. How I loved to watch her fingers fly across the keys and hear the machine hum and struggle as it raced to keep up. I watched in awe as the long, curly rolls of adding machine tape spilled over the edge of her desk and onto the floor. How could one person enter so many numbers in one day? When I got older, I helped Mama with some of the filing and bookkeeping work. Back then, I wanted to be an entrepreneur just like Mama.
When it wasn’t tax season, Mama could be quite a night owl. She’d curl up on the burnt orange sofa in the den and speed read through romance and mystery novels long after tucking me and my brother into bed. That’s also when she’d sneak some chocolate from the kitchen. You could say chocolate was her weakness, but I’d say it was also her strength. Mama baked — mostly from scratch — the best chocolate desserts I’ve ever eaten! Chocolate pies, chocolate cheesecake, chocolate cookies, chocolate cake, and brownies — just to name a few. Her baking motto: “If it isn’t chocolate, why bother?” Spending time in the kitchen with Mama is probably my favorite childhood memory. I always got to lick the beaters.
No doubt the best smell of home was something chocolate baking in Mama’s oven. And the best sound of home was Mama’s fingertips gliding along the piano keys. I loved to hear her play. One of my favorites that I always begged her to play was “Grandma’s Feather Bed” by John Denver. Another favorite was the “The Baby Elephant Walk” by Henry Mancini.
While her long, slender fingers were made to play piano, Mama did not have a green thumb. Even though she grew up on a farm, she claimed she had a “black thumb” and she kindly passed that along to me, too. But even with a black thumb, Mama managed to grow lots of tomatoes every summer, and her flowerbed usually overflowed with Impatiens. My favorite, though, was the a lilac bush, and the tulips that lined the big front porch. Outside my bedroom window was the crooked tree. It was so crooked, my brother and I could almost walk as we climbed up into it. Around the crooked tree is where Mama planted the iris bulbs she dug up from her grandma’s farm in western Oklahoma. Mama loved those irises. They were shades of purple and blue. Blue was her favorite color.
The spring before Mama died was especially stormy, even by Oklahoma standards. During one severe thunderstorm, lightning struck that crooked tree and destroyed it. Daddy hauled off the tree, and that left the irises looking lonely and awkward and misplaced.
After she died, I decided Mama was the crooked tree — a lovely but imperfect person that I had adored and had tried so hard to please. I was the irises left behind, wondering where the center of my life went, feeling lonely and insecure and out-of-place. A daughter without a mother.
But praise be to God! He uses loss. He uses affliction. He uses pain. I’m here to testify that God used Mama’s death. He used it to draw me into a deeper relationship with Jesus, the One perfect person worthy of centering my life around, worthy of my trying hard to please. In Him I find my security and my direction in life. To Him I belong.
“God sometimes washes His children’s eyes with tears so that they may read aright His providences and His commandments.” – unknown
Mama was so very precious to me, and I miss her in more ways that I can ever count up on an adding machine, much less blog about here. She is so much a part of who I am today. I thank God for the years that I had with her, and I thank Him for being so faithful in the many hard years since losing Mama. God truly has shown Himself as the Great Provider. He cares for me and loves me, even more than Mama did. And He knows me, even better than she did. He knit me together in her womb, and He numbered all our days — hers and mine — the days we’d have together and the days apart.
God also has given me two beautiful daughters, who constantly remind me of Mama in so many special little ways — including the dancing blue eyes and the contagious, rollicking laugh.
Thank You, God, for knowing just how to comfort us in our loss and give us peace beyond our understanding. Thanks for being the perfect center of our lives.
And thanks for blessing me with Mama.
I love being a mom. My first Mother’s Day with two daughters was in 2006.
Linnea was 3 years old, and Laurel was 7 months old. Aren’t they precious? As much as I miss rocking that chubby baby, I don’t miss all those sleepless nights for one single minute.
No, not at all. And now that they are 7 and 4 years old, we seem to be blooming better as a mother-daughters trio.
Probably this is because we are all getting more sleep! Plus it’s nice to leave home without bringing along the entourage of infant carriers, strollers, diapers, bibs, blankets, Cheerios and pacifiers.
Some of my dearest friends are still in this early motherhood stage, though, and since Mother’s Day is fast approaching, I want to tip my hat at them. It’s a tough stage, no doubt, and these moms need lots of encouragement in between all the diaper changes and feedings in their schedules.
As part of saluting these moms, I want to share the lyrics of two beautiful songs by Sara Groves, who is a young mother and a very talented, award-winning musician. She also calls the Frozen Tundra home. Both songs are from the perspective of a mother writing to her young child, and both are from Sara’s album called Station Wagon, which would make an awesome Mother’s Day gift for any young mother out there!
This first one I love just because it relates back to the popular saying about giving your children roots and wings. That was one of my mother’s favorite sayings, so I suppose that makes it all the more meaningful for me as well.
Small Piece of You
I just want a small piece of you
a token to put in my pocket
and I will own that one thing
and it would make me happy
I just want a small piece of you
something to put in a locket
and I will look at it daily
and that will make me happyI guess it’s human nature to want to hold you very still
I guess it’s in a mother to inject a little guilt
Go on son and see the world; I hope you see it all
But please please please don’t forget to callFree to fly free to go free to not look back
That’s how free I want you though it scares me half to death
Free to wander miles and miles and free to come back home
That’s how free I want you though it chills me to the bone…Go on son and spread your wings; I hope that you take flight
But please please please don’t forget to writeI know you’re just a baby sleeping in your bed
And you probably have other thoughts drifting through your head
I know this conversation’s a little premature
It’s just that I’ve heard eighteen years goes by like a blur…I know that it’s not fair for me to hold you down now is it
But please please please don’t forget to visitFree to fly free to go free to come back home…
The second song I find especially fitting for stay-at-home and homeschool moms.
I Can’t Wait
When you reach the proper age
I will teach you to read and you can turn the pages
How to dress and tie your shoes
Your one plus ones, and your two times twos
And you’ll teach me
Of hearts and dreams
And all the most important things
And all that i have lost along the way
And I can’t waitAs you grow, I’ll show you things
How to ride your bike and kick your legs out on the swings
To fold your hands and bow your head
How to say your prayers before you go to bed
And you’ll teach me
Of hearts and dreams
And all the most important things
And all that I have lost along the way
And I can’t waitHow do you sleep so peacefully?
How do you trust unflinchingly?
How do you love so faithfully?
How do you dance so joyfully?
Oh you’ll teach me
Of hearts and dreams
And all the most important (essential) things
And all that I have lost along the way
And I can’t
No I can’t
Come teach me
Of love and dreams
And all the most essential things
And all that I have lost along the way
‘Cause I can’t wait
God bless you, young moms!
A few of my friends with young kids have asked for help finding books and other materials for preschool at home. So here’s my quick list of 12 helpful resources!
1. Crafts and activities for preschoolers abound at Danielle’s Place. Some pages require a subscription.
2. For teaching preschoolers to read, I used How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with Linnea at age 5, and we both loved it. I will be starting it with Laurel this summer. I also like the learning to read ideas from Jessie Wise, co-author of The Well-Trained Mind.
3. My favorite bible for preschoolers is The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally-Lloyd Jones. The illustrations are rather unique, but what I love about it is how the hope of Jesus is part of each story.
4. Another great book for the spiritual training of preschoolers is Leading Little Ones to God by Marian Schoolland.
5. A few years ago, I ordered several learning toys from My Father’s World. I especially love the rubber crepe puzzles by Lauri.
6. Peaking at the blogs of other homeschoolers can be helpful. Since my homeschool blog tends to be a tad “girly” at times, moms of boys might also enjoy Tons of Sons. The Well-Trained Mind also offers this overwhelmingly long list of homeschool blogs to peruse.
7. For helpful articles on homeschooling, check out Homeschooling Today. Be sure to click on the tab for “Get Started Homeschooling.” And be sure to check out their upcoming May/June issue because I have an article running in it!
8. Another fantastic site for all sorts of homeschooling tips, encouraging words and inspiring ideas is Heart of the Matter.
9. To download printables for learning letters, numbers and colors, visit Heart of the Matter Preschool Printables.
10. Tap into the variety of free downloadable homeschool forms and other printable resources at Donna Young. They are fabulous and very helpful!
11. Another extensive list of links to free online resources for homeschooling preschoolers is available at Homeschool Diner.
12. One resource that I have heard great things about but haven’t yet used is Five In A Row. I plan to investigate it further soon.
UPDATE: A reader asked me to add her blog to my list of resources for preschoolers. I checked it out, and Homepreschool and Beyond looks like it’s packed with helpful ideas from author and child development expert Susan Lemons. I especially like this article on what a 4-year-old should know. Thanks for the tip, Susan!
If you recall this post from a while ago, you already know that our family is sponsoring Dawit, a little boy at Kind Hearts Orphanage near Addis Abba, Ethiopia. We just recently received the March 2010 newsletter from Kind Hearts, and it was full of wonderful pictures and encouraging news of how the children there are being fed spiritually and physically through the sponsorship program coordinated by Children’s HopeChest.
In the newsletter, Ato. Wendimagegnehu Mecha, the executive director of Kind Hearts, says, “Children’s HopeChest is a guide in a time of crisis and a gift from God. Our hope flourishes through this organization. We are grateful for your support and we require further assistance to ensure the proper survival and holistic development of the children. Thank you.”
There’s much work yet to do, more children will be enrolling at Kind Hearts soon, and Children’s HopeChest is currently developing another location with nearly 100 children that will need sponsors. If you would like to sponsor a child, please contact Karen Wistrom at kjwistrom@yahoo.com.
For more about Kind Hearts, I encourage you to follow this blog by Karen Wistrom at Family From Afar, or download the Kind Hearts newsletter PDF by clicking here: Kind Hearts Newsletter March 2010.
Thanks for your consideration. May God bless you!
Someone recently asked me if homeschoolers ever get snow days.
By my measurement, that’s a deep question. So I guess it requires a pretty deep answer.
Consider the beauty of a snow day: Catch up on sleep. Hang out all day with people you love dearly. Take a break from the usual routine of school or work. Stay home. Wear your pajamas all day. Sip some hot chocolate in the middle of the afternoon. Slow down and enjoy a new experience outside like sledding or building a snowman.
Homeschooling is a lot like that. A flexible schedule allows homeschoolers to catch up on sleep when they’ve been deprived. They hang out all day with the people they love dearly. They can wear pajamas all day, though we never make it much past 8 a.m. in ours. Homeschoolers often have time to enjoy a new experience as a family, whether it’s through a book that’s read-aloud, a field trip to the theatre or museum, or a science project worked on together.
Also consider the classic book Snowy Day, written by Ezra Jack Keats. It’s a simple story of a little boy who wakes up to a winter wonderland of snow. Since school is canceled, the boy spends the entire day exploring and playing in the fresh snow. Among other things, he experiments with his foot prints, makes a snowangel, and eventually discovers that snowballs melt when brought inside. That one day he learns more about snow than he ever would learn about it in a classroom.
Likewise, when there’s an opportunity to sink deeply into a certain subject,
homeschoolers have the freedom to wallow in it for a while.
They also have the freedom to step back and view it from a totally different angle.
Don’t get me wrong. A classroom can be great for practicing handwriting and studying spelling words and reading all about this incredible world our Father created. But often a textbook experience falls way short of a true learning experience. And that’s what’s great about education that isn’t trapped inside the four walls of a classroom. That’s why it’s essential for students to have the freedom to go out into the world to learn about it up close, first hand!
Most folks agree, enjoying a snow day is the safe, cozy thing to do when the snow is really piling up outside. And for our family, homeschooling is a safe and cozy way to truly learn about this great big world God created.
Yes, homeschooling has its ups.
And homeschooling has its downsides.
But we strive to enjoy the ride anyhow.
And we are thankful for friends who help us up when we reach the bottom.
Together may we reach new heights every day, whether it’s a snow day or not.
Socialization is one of those words that usually gets a reaction from someone who homeschools. Some are known to laugh and roll their eyes; others are ready with a list of weekly activities they are involved in to ensure interaction with other kids; and still others get defensive and start spewing facts and figures.
Good or bad, socialization is usually not a topic I like to debate with someone who has their kids in public school. But I’m sure I join homeschoolers everywhere in liking this Washington Times article about two studies that demonstrate socialization is not a problem.
“Both “Homeschooling Grows Up” and “Fifteen Years Later” amply demonstrate home-school graduates are active, involved, productive citizens. Home-school families are leading the way in Canadian and American education, and this new study clearly demonstrates home-school parents are on the right path.”
You can read the full article here: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/13/home-schooling-socialization-not-problem/
Starlight Writer 