Butterfly Garden

After several years of attempted vegetable gardening, it was clear that we had a black thumb and did not posses the "know how" to maintain organically.  This winter, we actually did much better growing our veggies in pots. 

So, here lay an empty and overgrown patch in our yard that was getting ready to be covered over with grass. 

Then, I started planning the summer curriculum and realized that we were doing a unit on the lifecycle of a butterfly.  What better way to learn about that, then to "hope to" lure them to our home.  We researched the best plants for our area and today we planted our butterfly garden.

We decorated it with garden accessories too.

We used milkweed...the absolute must have butterfly drawing plant, a butterfly bush, several pentas and, I forget what the yellow plants are called. 

The girls had fun clearing the vegetable garden out last weekend. 

Nathan was fascinated with the rainbow pinwheel I bought at the dollar store.

I love our little garden, it's so pretty!  It will be easier to maintain because we will use weed killer to keep the weeds at bay.  We didn't do that when gardening veggies.  We will not use pest control though because then our little caterpillars would die...and we actually want them to come eat our plants.  I hope we planted enough flowers to attract some butterflies to eat and lay eggs so we can have a real live classroom in our backyard.

A visit with the cousins

Last week, Tiffany and her family came down for a nice long visit.  I am glad it was long because we didn't get to see them the first half of their trip due to all the sickness in our household.  However, I think we more than made up for lost time!

My niece Susannah (Susie) and I.  She just turned 2 a couple of months ago. 

The kids LOVED....LOVED playing with their cousins.  Seth is 4 and Susie is 2.  Nicole and Seth played, nearly non-stop.  Hannah and Susie hung around with the bigger kids and also played together a lot.  This was such a great trip because the kids all remembered each other and felt comfortable together.  They enjoyed every moment they had together.

Gramps getting some reading time in with his grandbabies.

Hannah and Seth playing at the park

Grammy spinning the kids on the....well, whatever it is.

Nicole was laying on this couch, Set was laying on another couch and they were playing some sort of game, giggling together.  They were super cute!

Again, Nicole and Seth were playing some sort of game, this time on the floor.

Waiting for dinner, Susie joined them when she woke up

 Uncle Jeremy taught the kids a new game.  The object is to roll a quarter off your nose and make it land on the X in the middle of the page.  They worked and worked and worked at it.

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Hannah rolling her quarter

Seth rolling his quarter

 What they didn't know was that every time Jeremy was circling the quarter, graphite dust from the pencil was being drawn on the quarter. So, when they would roll it around their face and down their nose, a mark would be left.

Nicole's expression when she saw her face for the first time

Seth's dirty face

Two cousins, enjoying their game.

These two really had fun together.  They kept the markings on their face the rest of the day.

 Tiff, Grammy and the kids spent a couple of our at our house one day too.

Aunt Tiffy showing some love to Hannah girl.

Doing play doh of course

Me, reading to my nephew and daughters.  I'm not sure what Jeremy is doing.  he looks really mad.  I guess he didn't like the book.

It is so great to see that they will have memories of each other as small children, even though we only get to see them a couple times a year.

Keep Walking....

Finally, finally I can post this and make it official!  Nathan is walking!!!!!   Yay!!!!! and Booo.

Nate is just over 16 months old and finally has a good grip on walking.  He still falls a lot, and he still crawls a lot, but I'm quite certain this will "stick".  He has been teasing us about walking for several months, but just wouldn't do it.  I kept telling him that it will be more fun to walk, but I guess he didn't believe me.

While we were away in Colorado, apparently, he was walking quite a bit.  At least that's what everyone said, and I know they weren't lying.  But, he has walked very little since we have been home.  However, over the weekend, I caught him several times, practicing all by himself.  And, yesterday....I would say he walked as much, or even more than he crawled!

He is so stinkin proud of himself, it's adorable.  When I got the camera out to take a picture, he walked over to kiss it:)

I know that my life has just notched up to the next level because of this super mobile little guy, but I'm ready for it.  I'm just happy I won't have to carry him (as much) and even more, that we can go outside and play and I won't just stick him in a stroller to keep him from crawling all over the nasty ground.  Now he can play with us!  yay!!!

btw....I am so very happy to have my sweet little boy back. He is totally better from that miserable sickness he had.  Oh man, he had it bad last week.  Now that my content little guy is back, I realize just how miserable he was.  He has been so much fun, and such a delight to be around.  Oh, I want to go wake up and give him a big hug....but I won't, I'll just wait a few more minutes until everyone else wakes up:)

So, here is to a whole new world for Nate.  Congratulations on finally walking!  Yipee!!!!

Picnic for the sickies

Who says you can't have fun when you are sick?  Besides the Doctor office and pharmacies, we have not been out of the house since Monday.  The kids are all feeling better, but we were still told to stay out of contact with others until Friday.  Today, I had considered going to Home Depot to get some flowers and decorations to make a butterfly garden, but once everyone woke up, I realized that although they were feeling better...they still would not be up for hard work in the yard. 

Instead, we played all morning.  The girls dressed up and put on a show for me.  We worked on school work and then.....

We went to the local soccer fields and had a picnic by ourselves.  We didn't have contact with anyone, and we got out of the house for an hour.  We had so much fun eating lunch, blowing, chasing and popping bubbles, kicking balls and attempting to fly a kite (that I think is broken).  It was just what we all needed. 

Hannah is hiding in this picture. Can you tell?

They are all doing their own little thing. 

He is the cutest little the guy!

This was Nathan's first real experience with bubbles.  He blew his own and really enjoyed crawling around popping bubbles that landed on the grass ( it may have been my high pitched "pop" noise that made it so enjoyable to him:-)

Trying to pop the bubbles that landed on the grass.

POP

Seriously concentrating.

Nicole blew bubbles like a maniac and ran around screaming at the ones she couldn't catch.

Hannah did a great job kicking a ball around.  She ran and kicked the ball like a soccer star. And she chased after Nicole's bubbles.

Hannah, reaching for the bubbles. 

I was impressed with her coordination of running and kicking. 

Nicole Authored Her First Book

At the beginning of the month was Dr. Seuss' birthday.  We celebrated by reading several of our favorite Dr. Seues books and talking a lot about what an author and illustrator is.  We observed that Dr. Seuss often writes with rhyming words, and even makes his own words up sometimes. 

Later that day, we decided to write our own book, Dr. Seuss book.  Nicole dictated her story to me and I wrote it out.  Then she illustrated the story.  We had a lot of pages at the end of the book, so we decided to make a list of rhyming words. 

Besides the idea to write a book, this whole book was Nicole's idea.  I am so proud of her.  This is a treasure I will keep forever.

Globe - Nobe (kind of like an english or a spanish word for note.)  Dr. Seuss made up words, why can't Nicole?

For some reason, no one seems to get it, but those are eyes below the word look.

A family update

This one is  a long time coming.  I have sat down a few times to write an extensive update about our family, only to either run out time, creativity or....whatever else I can run out of, haha.  The past couple of weeks have been trying to say the least.  I feel like all three of my kids have reverted at least 6 months, and it's frustrating when that happens (but that also means there is great growth ahead as well, right?)

Nicole: Well, right this moment, Nicole is sick, again.  Yesterday she came down with a high fever, almost instantly.  She went from being perfectly fine, to laying on the couch the rest of the day.  One thing about her...she always, Always runs high fevers.  She has, even since she was a baby.  So, for most moms, the fever she was running would freak them out and send them to the ER, with Nicole, it was a "normal" fever, and she was acting exactly as expected.  So, I have held off on the ER trip for now.  Plus, her fever is back down to normal temperatures, not normal as in no fever...but normal as in, not scary.  I really feel like fevers can be a very good and healthy response from our bodies.  I generally let the fever run it's course unless I see that they are in great pain or are so weak that they can't get up.  I have never let it even get close to that.  Yesterday  I was giving some ibprofein to help manage, but that fever was still flying.  She is much better today.  Still has a fever, but her energy is back and she is enjoying hanging out in our room watching Bambi.

Anyway....the past couple of weeks I feel like we have gone back to battling some issues that I thought we conquered a while ago.  The whining...oh, the whining!  I refuse to give in to her whines.  She absolutely must speak in a self-controlled, non-whiny voice.  So, we have been working very hard on that.  While Jeremy and I were gone a few weeks ago, Valerie told the girls "No whiners"  They obeyed her, but I'm pretty sure they saved that week of whining up for me  ;)

We also have been dealing with some authority and submission issues. As she is growing up, she is realizing that I'm not perfect and I do things wrong sometimes (ok, a lot more than sometimes).  And, she likes to tell me when I do things wrong, and how I can do them better (mom...does that sound familiar to you?)  I really do not like to be corrected, especially by a four year old.  So, we are both struggling and battling through how our roles are so slightly changing as she is able to really make her own decisions and figure life out a bit.  But, she must also understand that I am her mother and that even if she disagrees, she must do what I have asked, even if she has a "but" statement afterward.

Nicole is doing very well with her school work.  We have a couple workbooks we are going through for math and phonics, and she is doing so well!  She is adding and subtracting the basic digits, and she is really getting it.  I'm so proud of her.  She is working more on reading and I see a desire to read that I didn't see a few months ago.  Her handwriting is also getting better and she is always writing cards for people.

**Edited*** Nicole has strep throat again.  This is the second time since the beginning of February, maybe 6 weeks.  If she gets it again, the Dr. will have to talk to us about having her tonsils removed.  She also had strep last May....so, this is three times in less than 10 months:(  She also had an allergic reaction to her antibiotic.  This is the first time this has ever happened.  It was amoxicilian and Clav....something.  Actually...it was called Augmentin.  Her cheeks turned red and broke out in hives.  After taking Benadryl, the hives went away.  It was not severe.

Hannah- also came down with a fever yesterday.  About an hour before Nicole.  She was perfectly fine, and then quickly came down with the fever.  Hers was not sky high like Nicole...it was a moderate fever and she alternated between sleeping/laying down and playing.  That's how I like fevers to work with my kids.  Make them rest, but also be comfortable enough that they can play while their body fights the illness.

Hannah has reverted in her communication skills.  She has been grunting and whining to communicate, which is unnecessary.  She seriously would grunt a whole sentence to me (like she did about a year ago before words came to her), but she is almost three, and I know perfectly well that she can talk and communicate most anything...so, grunts just aren't going to cut it.  She is also making whining noises and fake crying.  I'm not sure where that idea came from, but it's in her mind...and it's what she is doing.  I also had been wondering if she was having hearing problems because she was constantly saying "what" to me and to Nicole.  Until the other day when Jeremy was whispering to her while we were in the car (he was driving, she was behind him in her car seat) and she answered everything he said. Clearly it is selective hearing.  And that is something we must work on.  We need to train our ears to hear the voices that are important...and that's part of toddlerhood.

Hannah does some schoolwork with us while Nicole works.  Usually it's circling groups of pictures or cutting.  I have not worked with her the way I worked with Nicole.  This summer I plan to really focus on helping Hannah learn some basic info.  She still is not 100% on her alphabet, and it's primarily because I have not been working with her on it.  In three weeks I will start doing My Father's World, Kindergarten curriculum with Nicole and there will be SO much for Hannah with this too.  I'm excited about it.  It will be fun.

***edited***Hannah also has strep throat.  This is her first time ever.  She is taking augmentin and has not had a reaction to it.

Nathan: Nathan is sick as well, but something totally different.  Now, I'm hoping most people got bored and stopped reading.  This blog has really become a baby book because I have not done it for Hannah or Nate, so I am going to record some information that I don't want to forget.  This weekend, Nathan broke out in a rash all over his bum, legs, arms and around his mouth.  I also noticed a couple of bumps on his tongue.  He was miserable...miserable this weekend.  I took him to the Dr. as soon as they opened on Monday, and he was diagnosed with Hand, foot and mouth.  It's a virus that kids get from salivia and it includes painful sores in their mouth (he had them in his throat, I did not know about that!  This is why he did not eat or drink much this weekend).  I'm not sure if the rash on his body is itchy or not. So, the Dr. made up a magic mouth mix that includes a little numbing solution.  It is helping him and he is eating and drinking quite a lot now:-)  He is also less miserable.  I felt like this sickness needed to be documented.

Now, Dr. Brown said that the worse thing for him with this virus is his paci (oh the beloved paci).  So, on top of his screaming and crying in pain (which only makes the pain worse to be sure), he is being denied his soothing paci.  I figured this is it for the pacies.  Why give them back after dealing with the withdrawl now, only to have to conquer it again later.  Yesterday naps and bed time were very loud and not fun. But, today has been much better.  In fact, he just took his morning nap without ANY crying.  This tells me two things...he's getting over the paci, and his throat doesn't hurt as much anymore.

How has he reverted?  Well, appartenly while we were in Colorado, he was walking quite a bit.  I think they even counted 15 steps one day.  Not for me!  I have seen him take maybe 4 steps to a toy or to me...but that's it.  His primary mode of travel is either on my hip or crawling.  I've been ok not comparing him to other babies thus far, but I am starting to get a complex.  I really....really do not think there anything wrong with him...but I do wish he would start walking on a more regular basis.  On the bright side...he can hit a baseball like no other baby I know.  :)

Jeremy- Has been working a lot.  They are so busy, which is good....and bad.  He's been staying late a lot doing interviews, was studying for his state exam (which he passed the first section!).  He has to start studying for the business portion and they are starting a job in Ocala soon.  Now he won't have to stay up there for a week at time, but he will have to make several day trips.  I'm ok with that because that means he is home with me at night...but it makes for a long day for him.  He is such a hard worker, and I am so happy to call him my husband.  He loves his family so much and will do anything for us.  I'm so grateful for this!

Me- I am training for a triathlon (did you know that?)  I have two I want to complete.  The first one is April 23.  It's a 3.2 mile run, 11 mile bike, and 400m swim (in a pool).  I'm not sure how I will do.  I am having fun training...it has been great motivation for me.  Unfortunately, weeks like this one set me way behind because I will not be going to the Y because everyone is sick:-(  I am doing a 5K in 2 weeks at church.  I've never been interested in a 5K, but I figure it will be a great warm up for my tri three weeks later.  My goal is to run it in less than 35 minutes....I hope by my tri I can run it in less than 30, but I don't know about that.  The other triathlon is June 5.  It's a little shorter.  3.2 mile run, 9 mile bike and 1/4 mile swim (in the Gulf!).  I have no idea how long it will take me to complete it. 

I am planning for our homeschool adventure this summer.  We are going to have some really fun topics and I can't wait!  We will be planting a butterfly garden, ordering an ant farm and studying dinosaurs, along with lots of other things.  I will have lots of blog posts about it.

I am also considering being a tutor for Nicole's CC group next year.  I think I'm pretty close to saying yes.  I would get paid for it, and that should easily cover the cost of Nicole's CC class as well as any homeschool materials I need to buy.  Plus, it will give me lots of accountability to study and work with Nicole.  Next year CC will be primarily studying American History.

We are thinking very seriously about getting a dog.  The people we stayed with in Canada last summer have three labs.  They bred two of them together and offered us one of the pups.  We think we may get her in May.  It's a black lab.  I have a few reservations, but it looks like we may be bringing her home.  Any good names?  Right now, I'm leaning towards "Roxy"

So, how is that for an update?  Pretty good I think, right?  Any questions?

Not hidden

As we all know, and I constantly remind myself, I try to make this blog about the fun things we do.  However, that only paints half the picture, maybe even less.  I certainly am NOT fun and games all the time.  I do not "have it all together" just on the days I look like I do....and even then I am cutting things out.  I am sure I could rant and rave a lot more on this blog than I report the fun things.  Life is crazy, at times not easy, and certainly pretty messy. 

I am often an emotional wreck praying the Lord would hold me together just one more day.  And then the days come when I don't pray  at all...and I fall apart.  It is easy to see my spiritual state based on my behavior, which is sad.  It is easy to look at me and know if I've been reading my Bible, taking captive my thoughts, and laying myself down at the foot of the cross in obedience to God....or if I've been living in my own strength and therefore dying. 

Lately, unfortunately, it's been the latter, and I'm quite certain it has shown on the outside.  I have felt a whole gamut of emotions, blaming others for my feelings and discontentment....all the while hearing His quiet voice beconing me to give it to him, to let go of my grip on myself and cling to the cross.  And, every day I have turned away in spite and said, No...I can do this on my own, and if I can't, it's Your fault.

Yet, unswervingly, He continues to pursue me.  Reminding me to take His yoke upon me because it is light and throw down the burden I am carrying because it is crushing me.

He whispers to me,
²⁷ Why do you complain, Jacob(Michele)?
   Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD;
   my cause is disregarded by my God”?
²⁸ Do you not know?
   Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
   the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
   and his understanding no one can fathom.
²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
   and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
   and young men stumble and fall;
³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
   will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
   they will run and not grow weary,
   they will walk and not be faint.
(Isaiah 40: 27-31)

I am so thankful for times like these, when I am reminded of God's grace because even in my selfish sinfulness, He still pursues me.  Even when I think I am hidden from Him, he does not grow tired or weary.  He is the perfect Father, even to an imperfect mother, daughter and wife.