Boxcars

Tonight was Boxcar Movie Night ...and , no, not at my house. I could never come up with something as creative as that (well...maybe not.) The Awanas program at our church has pretty much saved my proverbial "motherhood bacon" this year. Every week I have to become creative in a way that I just, generally, would not. In the past I have used a lot of excuses to not do certain projects with my kids. You know..."I don't have the time" and "that would be messy" or my personal favorite... "we don't have the money." Well, I have no more excuses anymore. I mean, I could decide not do the projects, or do them half way...but only about 50 people would know. That's about 50 too many for my liking. Oh yes, bring accountability into the picture and I'm all over it...like "white on rice" as they say. 

Brady wanted an airplane and thanks to Zac and his awesome duct tape abilities...the dream became a reality. The cost? Two dollars for the green shiny paper (dollar tree) and about 4 hours of grinding grueling cardboard cutting and tape sticking and feeling like the project would last forever. Zac did swell and Brady was pleased. 

The best part...room for more passengers. :) That's pretty important around here. 

On the side of his plane we wrote the verse :

"You lift me up to the wind and cause me to ride; 

 And You dissolve me in a storm 

Job 30:22 (NASB) 

Rather fitting 

I took on Trinity's project ... I'm sure it isn't obvious in the least that I was involved... 

Well, maybe a little bit. The fact that it exudes "lets run through the woods barefoot and eat only berries for four months" or "heal the land with herbs and roots" and "let love fly" ... nope, not one bit of earth mama influence here. 

Isn't the dream catcher smashing?! Once again...the cost was minimum. A roll of brown paper from the dollar tree and I found the dream catcher at a thrift store for 3 bucks. I guess my "it's too expensive to create things" excuse is gonna have be thrown in the bag, and smashed up and then burned....and then buried...and then have a seed planted and a flower grow. 

Trinity wanted to add the "God is Love" and the art work is purely hers. We did add a verse banner to the canoe and some multicolored ribbons last minute. The verse she picked out for the banner is lovely...one of my very favorites...

'For behold, the winter is past, 

The rain is over and gone. 

 'The flowers have already appeared in the land; 

The time has arrived for pruning the vines, 

And the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land. 

Song of Solomon 2:11-12

I was thinking she might like something more along the "still waters" line but she liked this one...I'm sure the words "flowers" and "turtledoves" had nothing to do with it. 

As for this little Trinity Sky girl, she won. 

Beatrix

A few years back, when Trinity was about 3 or 4, her Great Aunt Robin sent her a lovely sky blue book The Complete Works of Beatrix Potter. It was so gorgeous and heavy and "real" that I put it aside for when the kids were a bit older for fear they would rip the pages or not completely "appreciate" the works of a true artist and author. Then, a couple days ago I saw that my Amazon Prime account had added the new (well, "newish") movie Miss Potter , and I thought of Trinity and the lovely book and how far she has come in her reading and knew she would love the film.
 So we sat , tea in hand, snuggled under my great grandmother's quilt,  and laughed and cried our way through the story together. Trinity was completely delighted with the movie and loved how talented Beatrix was with her watercolors...

 Then , when she found out we HAVE the book with many of the prints and ALL of the stories from Miss Potter herself...squirrel almost came unglued (in a very, very good way.) She held the book so carefully and would flip the pages and recognize the pictures from the movie and "ooh" and "ah" and giggle over the funny names of the characters.

  What surprised me most is that for the rest of the day I would find her alone, sitting...READING out loud, and she could make out almost all of the words in the book. I loved the fact that she could understand the stories even though the style of writing is quite strange in comparison to more modern children's tales.
 As for me, I was quite inspired to try watercolors. I love the softness of the painting...almost as if each picture is covered with a cloud.

 Trinity has a lot in common with Beatrix Potter. She loves life and sees life in everything...she talks to trees, makes dolls out of clothespins, is constantly writing and drawing...she loves being outside even if by herself - fairies are real to her and flowers have lives...she is full of wonder and light. She is full of stories of her own...she is an artist in her own way.

“Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest.” 
― Beatrix Potter

“Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.” 
― Beatrix Potter

When Life Gives You Apples...

When life gives you apples...

Make mini apple pies...

...then enjoy the crumbly crust smiles. 

Bananas and Peanut Butter

  What does sprouted sourdough bread, natural peanut butter....

and BANANAS have in common? 

You'll never guess...

why...the KING of course :)

  My kids have been on a sandwich binge as of late. I'm not a huge fan of eating bread...but I did come across a sale at Sprouts for some sprouted sourdough - it looked too good to pass up. This afternoon I surprised the kids with grilled banana peanut butter sandwiches (Elvis Presley's favorite comfort food)  and a short "history" lesson on the King of Rock 'n' Roll (thank you tube.)

Kids feasted while we watched the music video Jailhouse Rock from 1957. Something that impresses me about music videos from way back when is how beautiful they are. They are simple yet artistic without a lot of "flash" ... Brayden was enchanted with the set and simple costumes ...Trinity liked the dancing and Elvis' handsome face. I liked everything. 

And, I may or may not have laid aside my normal fruit and salad lunch for one of these nutty numbers. They are truly delicious and nutritious and Elvis knew what he was on to. Move over grilled cheese. 

 I love being able to have my mornings as "mornings" ...coffee, cleaning, playing - and then our learning time more around lunch and mid afternoon. It's nice being able to get done what we want to get done first (well, kids didn't enjoy cleaning toilets much this morning or scrubbing my baseboards, but hey?! why have a small army if you can't use your men?!) and then on too our learning. I feel less rushed this way, and I think our kids do well getting out their energy first, then focusing on books and lessons when they feel calm.
 Now, to try and coerce Trinity to snarl her lip and say "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog baby" one more time...

For The Sake of Trees...and Learning

“Education is a system of imposed ignorance.” 

― Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media

  Koala and Bug, my littlest littles are not so little anymore. Finn will be three in 4 months and I will be officially without a baby (or a toddler for that matter.) The more time that passes in this school year the more happy I am with our decision to homeschool. I didn't really believe I would feel this way - I thought I would be ready to pull my hair out and to throw in the towel. Me? Capable of actually teaching children to read and write and add and subtract...and learn about planets and plants and stars and volcanoes and kangaroos and the government?! Well, looks like I can because ....shhhh...it's a secret...they kind of teach themselves. Yep...that's my secret. Shocker. Being relaxed seems to be working for now ... and really, everyday in life there are opportunities to learn - it doesn't have to come from a book.

For Instance....

 Finding a man up in a tree with a chainsaw. As if North Aurora had too many trees or something - ,yah, they took it down. No, they didn't just trim off the dead branches. Just one less blooming tree in spring, less shade in summer, no more orange leaves across from my back porch in fall - one less tree.
    Now, I'm not a tree expert but I have done my fair share in helping to load firewood...which included going with my entire family into the woods, my dad with chainsaw in hand....and he would walk around until he found a dead tree...timber!!!!...and we would all help load up the logs in the back of the truck. This tree they cut down was not dead. So... a lovely lesson in why we needs trees, why we love trees...why the city may have felt that the tree was unsafe (we've been having pretty strong winds today) and then, alas, why if we're going to climb that high up in a tree, why we should be harnessed with a helmet on. I'll save the chainsaw lessons for another day - currently we are just learning how to properly hold a knife. :)

“I suppose it is because nearly all children go to school nowadays and have things arranged for them that they seem so forlornly unable to produce their own ideas.” 
― Agatha Christie, An Autobiography

 Watching my kids climbing in the backyard today, playing tag ... having them "help" me with chores, making our beds together, sitting at the table and enjoying our lunch and good conversation made me feel so blessed to have the opportunity to be a stay at home mom. It's not always perfect, I often feel isolated and when I give into self pity instead of thankfulness...I feel just a smidge "unimportant" in the grand scheme of the things. But, really, what a wonderful gift that I get to watch my kids be kids, that they truly need me and want me ... and teach me on a daily basis.

“There is no school equal to a decent home and no teacher equal to a virtuous parent.” 
― Mahatma Gandhi

Now..just to own the  "virtuous" part....

Hope your Monday was lovely,

~* Alyssa Spring *~

My Very Own Nerds

“If you like nerds, raise your hand. If you don't, raise your standards.” 

― Violet Haberdasher

I know I know... how can one possibly prepare themselves for such cuteness? 

Nerd Night at Awanas ... being surrounded by my bow tie, pen carrying, taped up glasses clad children. It was just too much. Too much adorableness. I mean, who doesn't love a nerd?!

“Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them. We all could.” 

― Charles J. Sykes, Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can't Read, Write, or Add

 “That's the wonderful thing with nerds: they're enthusiasts. Not having a life means you get to love things with a passion and nobody bothers you about it.” 

― John Burnside, The Glister

 “Why is being a nerd bad? Saying I notice you’re a nerd is like saying, ‘Hey, I notice that you’d rather be intelligent than be stupid, that you’d rather be thoughtful than be vapid, that you believe that there are things that matter more than the arrest record of Linsey Lohan. Why is that?” 
― John Green

December Recap

 
I missed half of December. Like, LITERALLY, missed it. The flu bug came to call and he stuck around for two weeks - it's mid January and I still have drainage (tmi) - it was nasty. We were hit, bombed...thrown down, hijacked....two days before Brady turned 8. I had big plans for his birthday...it didn't really happen.  He had fun, there was cake (thanks to a dear friend) and Brady received the gift of his dreams (an ipod for making his many mini movies ....say that ten times fast...) and then we laid around and did absolutely nothing.

 Thankfully Brady was a champ. He didn't mind us picking up take-out (his choice) and doing everything low key. We decorated the table and cake in a Pokemon theme, Brady's obsession at present ...along with Mario and Luigi and now he's been dressing up like Zelda for the last two weeks. I can't keep up, but I do my best.

Amidst (is that a word?)  the fevers and mucous and chills and body aches I somehow managed to do some holiday baking with the kids...

I had a little help this year. :) Trinity is just becoming a full blown BIG GIRL and can do things that I never know she can do...until she does them, and does them perfectly perfect - and then I kind of rub my eyes and can't believe this is reality...and then I feel a deep sense of relief and also nostalgia or something nice but bittersweet. Kind of like "I'm so glad baby stage is almost over but I love babies and WANT babies but I want sleep and potty trained kids and I'm tired and need a bit of relief from time to time...but I love babies...but I love being able to actually have conversations with my children." Yah, this stage of motherhood or womanhood is rather conflicting.

 
So, Christmas came and so did my parents... we had the bean dip, and the chocolate pretzels...the grandparents helped with gingerbread houses and meals and playing with kids....

And then our flu flew into them and they were struck down full force - Christmas Day.

 
It still turned out to be a nice Christmas even though I haven't the pictures or really my memory to prove it, just some fuzzy recollections that I don't know if they are reality or not.
It's okay, only 11 months until Christmas....

 Thankfully, the flu was gone and our 10 year anniversary came and Zac and I got a much needed two night get away. The last time we had had two nights alone was on our 5th anniversary when I was pregnant with Tristan. The key word being "pregnant" in that sentence...not a very comfortable trip. This getaway was much cozier in our little A frame cabin amidst the Evergreens and snow and wildlife.

 Ten years. Seems like a lot to people who have been married for 2 years, seems like not very much to those who have been married for 20. For us, it feels like we have always been together. I guess in reality we kind of have. It was a really nice time and it was quite refreshing knowing that we can still talk and have fun and connect.

My favorite part of our weekend was being able to have fire after fire. I miss fire. 

 Seeing him sit by the fire wasn't so bad either. 

  

Warming our feet by the fire wasn't unpleasant by any means....

 And then we drove back to the ghetto and to our children and our fenced back yard...it was perfect.
I loved being away, but I also love my life. I even like my neighborhood and that I definitely don't feel the need to "keep up with the Jones" here...by any means. I like my kids...LOVE my kids...and our rental house still to me doesn't feel like home, but it's comfortable and it's good for now. Home is where your heart is right? I'm not sure where my heart is .... but it's somewhere and someday I will find it. There's time. :)

 And not to be forgotten...we won hat night at Awanas and Brady made quite a show of it. It's nice having a son who isn't afraid to celebrate outwardly, someone who is proud of his accomplishments....

...it's also nice that hardly anyone knows me so I have a little more time to get "comfortable" with my son's outward celebrations. :) Hey, if you're happy and you know it shake your booty (or so says Brady.) And he does.