Week 7

Maxwell!

Last year I found a kids yoga you tube channel.  This gal tells a story while doing yoga moves.  My kids love it!  I kind of forgot all about it this year, but they didn't.  So they asked to do them this week.  Kids are so tough.  They do an hour of these yoga videos!!   And bonus!  There is a Frozen one now!!  

Mallory!

She got an American Girl doll when she was 4 (from her Grandma).  Because she got it so young it became a doll that was thrown in a toy box and left on the floor and under a pile of blankets.  The doll has had a rough life, but I guess she is loved!!  Mallory loves to wear matching clothes with her doll and loves to style her doll's hair.  I got her the hair style kit for Christmas this year and she loves looking in the book and attempting the different styles.  

It is a look alike doll and Mallory named her Freckles back when she got her.

Melanie!

She was horribly sick this week!  Fevers.  Coughing.  Not eating or drinking.  Not sleeping.  From Saturday night to about Thursday afternoon!  She did so much of this!!  It was super rough!  I forgot how awful it is when toddlers are sick!  She is all healthy again now!!

Heart Day 2016

Jesse asks me a few days before... "are we doing valentines?"  I tell him no that I was just going to make him a card I found that I loved and can I just tell him now so I don't have to make it.  He said yes.  That was our valentine moment!  

The kids had a valentine party for their homeschool group.  So I... I mean we... whipped up some quick valentines that they were super proud of.  

Group shot before they head to the party!

Max's was a target and a glo-bracelet!

Max was so funny writing his name on these.  He does a great job writing his name.  But!!  This was too much pressure to write it and he was so focused that he started writing it backwards!

Mallory gave out starburst.

Can we just cry for a moment how grown-up this girl is?!  My goodness!!

Melanie gave out goldfishes, of course!!

She could not understand how to show me her treat.  So she just got up and was done with it.  We tried!  

I usually have a special breakfast for the kids on valentines.  However we had church in the morning so I couldn't make anything.  Saturday afternoon I made them chocolate chip muffins and had them ready for them in the morning along with strawberries.  Well Mallory got up first and she set the table and got everyone's breakfast ready for valentines!  So sweet!  Right down to the drinks!

Week 6

Week 6 was rough.  Just for me.  I was cranky.  Ha.  I was in a funk.  Which means I didn't get the real camera out much.  So I don't even have separate pictures of each kid.  Lesson learned.  Take pictures even though I am in a funk.

Melanie.

Story hour this week was a valentine theme and then they got these straws from the story hour teacher.  Adorable!!  Melanie didn't get one but she was sure to take over Mallory's!!

Mallory & Maxwell

I didn't even have good separate pictures of these two.  Really bad lighting.  And Max wiggles and blinks so much that his pictures are constantly a hot mess.  I caught them in a still moment.  

Mallory reading to Max.  Max in a zone.  

Week 5

Melanie!

Have I told you that she is appearing to be left handed?!

Very much uses her left hand to eat and color and dip toothbrushes into the toilet with!!

{{Who keeps leaving the lid to the toilet up!?!}}

I feel like this whole left hand business has explained so much to me with this child! ;)

Mallory & Maxwell!

Over lunch one day a meeting of sorts was going down.  They both wanted to make a tunnel in the snow.  Mallory announces that we need to draw a plan.  Gets scrap paper she finds in the junk drawer, a broken crayon and starts drawing out their plan.

Max very much doubted her plans and asked her the same question over and over and over and over and over and over and over until I freaked out and said, "MAXWELL!!  Don't say the words 'what about the look-out tower' again!  She obviously has a plan that you can't see and you just need to trust her!" He wasn't happy with me! 

Lunch was over.  I sent them on their way and told them I would do their lunch chores since they were so very excited to get started on this tunnel.  Got all the chores done, put Melanie to bed and looked out the window to check on them because it was time to start school!

Oh! My! Word!

They made a tunnel!!

I grabbed the camera and ran!

The snow was not packing this day!  So they had to shovel and scoop it into a mound and then they had to make a tunnel!

A month or so ago my mom told me I think Mallory is going to be an engineer. Watch out for her because she is going to be drawing plans on napkins and writing out plans on tiny scrap paper and you will find them every where.  Then this day happened - where she drew a plan on a scrap paper and went to town and did it!!!  

Max was her doubting and fearful side-kick!  He may have doubted but he took orders and followed directions like a champ!!  Fearful because he wouldn't try the tunnel first because what if it fell on him.  So Mallory had to go first and she says, "Yeah!  Max made me go first and then he tells me if it falls on me he is going to stomp more snow on me!"  Always cracking jokes and clowning around Mr. Max!!  Showing those focused and determined ones that there is always room for a laugh and some fun!

A Special Friday

The house is totally clean... top to bottom!  A candle is lit.  Kids are outside and the baby is sleeping!  Hot coffee!  I curled my hair! I ate a cookie!  Some mornings are just too good!  Today was one of those!

Melanie has finally started liking baths again!  There was a period where she would run the other way in fear.  Now she is constantly trying to climb in.  I let her today.  Baths and I don't get along.  The part of raising kids I could do without.  Bath time!  Ugh!

I tried to have a better attitude today about it.  She climbed in and I grabbed a book and was in for the long haul.  I knew this wasn't one of those fast baths.

It wasn't long before the others heard the splashing and came running.  I normally wouldn't let this happen but my better attitude must of been just right and I let them all climb in.

I know I have said this a million times - BUT- Mallory is the best big sister!  She takes so much time with each one of the kids!  She slows down and does baby games with Melanie in the tub!

We have a giant tub downstairs in the bathroom... yet I never use it because it takes so much water and takes so long to fill and then they get in there and I can't reach them.  So the tiny tub it is.  At one point I looked over and I all these little heads were looking back at me.

Being Content

I decided to go with rest of the world and pick a word for 2016 and it is... content.

I want to be better at being content.  Most of all I want to be okay with being a stay at home mom and a homeschooler.  Those jobs are hard on me sometimes.  I have a hard time relating to people outside my bubble.  When I get in social events (which is rare) and I get asked what do I do {after they have asked every other single person with big amazing careers} and I tell them I stay home.  I get the "ooooh" response and they don't know what more to ask.  I most definitely do not freely say that I homeschool because that opens up a whole other can of worms and odd looks.

I want to be content and proud of being a stay at home mom and homeschooler.  If I really think about it, it is a rare and unique jobs that I should be proud of.  Sometimes I get responses like, "Oh I wish I could of stayed home."  or "I always wanted to homeschool."  I actually get to do these things and I have a husband is super proud and willing to support our family all by himself!  One of my favorite things he told me once when I was having a rough moment... If it was easy, Lynnie, everyone would do it.

Some of the ways I have found that help me be content is to enjoy the perks!  Enjoy not getting dressed and out the door by 7.  So I drink my coffee and stay wrapped in my blanket as long as possible because this is a perk of my job.  No guilt allowed!  I take a nap once a month because it is a perk I get.  No guilt allowed!

I also have been trying to stay connected with the outside world and not stay in my bubble.  Talking to grown-ups helps so much!!!  Texting is my very best friend these days!  I have another homeschool friend and we text daily!  Sometimes hourly!  Something about being able to have someone who gets the same struggles and highs as you is just huge for me!  She can tell me about her bad day and I can trump it!!  Or vise versa!  And honestly I can't talk on the phone right now!  So much noise in here!

I love to read!  I typically read a lot of self-help books, I guess.  In the mornings {during my coffee drinking quiet time} I am currently reading, Simply Tuesday: Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World by Emily P. Freeman.  I am not crazy in love with the book because sometimes I think I live too many small moments.  I need more fast-moving moments.  Ha!  Seriously!  We went to the cheese store last week and we all got in the van I squealed, "When was the last time we went on an adventure!"  Um... the cheese store and adventure!!?  Yeah.  Small-moment living right here!!  

My other book I am reading that I picked up a whim is, We Never Asked for Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh.  So good!  A book I typically wouldn't read because it has a whole lot of bad parenting and it involves kids getting hurt.... but I tough it out and can't put it down!  I have been trying to read at night instead of scroll around on Pinterest.  Helps me feel more content in my cooking and fashion and the way my home looks.  : )

Lastly!  Podcasts!  My sister-in-law and I chat weekly (via email because she is old school, but I love her to the moon and back.  She just got a smart phone over Christmas and I tested her to see if she could do texting and she totally failed!  So we email!) and she tells me one day that she is addicted to podcasts.  I have listened to them but not really.  I just have a radio series I liked as a kid and it is still on so I listen to it on a podcast app.  Well she perked my curiosity and I started searching around and found one that I am hands down head over heels for.

Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey.  She has all these inspiring women on her show and they chat about life and favorite things and books and just good and girly!  It makes me feel like a grown-up for a bit when I listen.  Plus I can take it with me anywhere!  I have been listening in the shower.  I have been listening in the van when I am driving my Swagger Wagon from here to there.  I just put the kids audio book on and turn the speakers to all the way in the back and they can listen and I am all up front being a grown-up!  Its great!  Poor Melanie who sits in the middle and has to listen to both going at the same time.  I need a privacy glass between my seat and the rest of the van... that way I can hear my stuff and the kids can listen to their stuff and we are one big happy swagger wagon!

Here is a quote that a {homeschooling momma} friend sent to me and I just love it.  It is taped to my bathroom mirror and I read it hourly!

Press on today.

Your role is no accident.

And it is great.