Photo Fun!

My Dad walked over a few days ago and downloaded some new photo editing software on my computer. I have had a lot of fun tonight playing around with some different looks. Here are some pictures I took today and edited tonight. I really love photography. In my dream world, I would one day be able to offer high quality pictures at an affordable price for families that are in a tight financial spot.

In the busyness of everyday life I often just take pictures when the mood strikes. Since I have been blogging  I have tried to take pictures everyday. It is actually one of my favorite parts of keeping up a blog. I love being able to go back through my blog and see what we were doing at different points in our life.

This is our day in photos, feel free to leave criticism. I really would love it...no really. It's a great way to grow!

Kaitlynne snuggling up while I was reading to the kids.

Hudsyn smiling at her brother during reading time for school.

Yes she chose to put her make-up on during quiet time.

Hudsyn and Bella being silly at lunch time!

Tristin finding Pensacola on our map.

The sweetest part of my day today. Hudsyn invited me to a tea party.

I had a lovely time!

G.J. crashed our tea party, I think he was under the impression that it was

necessary to wear girly gear in order to score some yummy stuff!

Sweet baby Bailey! In our house she is known as baby baby. I think that's

what G.J. thouht I was callling her and he just went with it!

I just love her smiles! So precious!

Choosing Grace

Tonight while my kids were upstairs playing I heard an argument beginning between my little girls. I almost always listen to see if they can work out their issue on their own. The only exception to this is if I feel one of them is going to hurt another. Just as I was going to go intervene I heard Hudsyn screaming. I knew she had gotten hurt. I called my girls to me and in a firm tone asked for a prompt explanation. Bella came to me and whispered in my ear that she had squeezed Hudsyn's neck. With my sweet Bella the confession is always the easy part. It's much harder to get her to explain what led up to the event. After much prodding it was determined that there really wasn't much to the story, her sister was on her nerves and she acted out of anger. She was crying and apologizing. I told her that we weren't upset with her just disappointed. At that, I sent her to bed to have some time before she went to sleep to think through that incident.

The other kids were in their sister's room watching TV. I was downstairs listening to her, through her sobs, tell Maezy the whole story. I was trying to decide how long I should wait until I went upstairs to talk to her. I knew when I went to talk to her that I would have to speak to her with gentleness and love. She rarely needs discipline, it hurt my heart for her. I had a feeling she was disappointed in herself.

I was going to give her a few more minutes to process what happened when she walked downstairs carrying this:

It didn't exactly break my heart but it did show me that she thought I was angry with her. After all, I have smoke, or something equivalent coming from my head. I tried to think of what would have given her that impression since I really wasn't upset. The only thing I could think of was that I was talking loudly to her. Hudsyn was screaming very high, shrill screams (as she has always liked to do) and I was rocking her and talking to Bell.

My intention was that sending her to bed both gave her some time to think and took away her TV time, which in our house, is viewed as a privilege. It was sadly mistaken as Mommy was mad, my thought is that she probably thought I didn't want to deal with her. Nothing could be further from the truth. I really wanted to reach her heart. I wanted to wait until she was rational enough to have a real conversation. When I sent her to bed I planned on her staying there for the night. After I saw her picture I realized that unfortunately, my attempt to help guide her fell short. I said I was sorry that she thought I was mad and hugged her. I told her that because Jesus gives me grace even when I've done something wrong that I want to extend that same grace to her. I sent her upstairs and asked her to look her sister in the eye and apologize. After she did that I asked her sister to tell her she was forgiven. They both did and they gave each other a hug and kiss. I could see the immediate restoration of their bond. The love of Jesus can always been seen most clearly through a child's heart.

My children have a working knowledge of grace. It's something we give them often and because of that when we have wronged them they freely return grace to us. We are able to go to them apologize, ask for forgiveness and see God's grace shown to us through them. Grace really is an amazing thing!

Highlight of the Day!!!

Tonight I am going to post highlights from the past week. It has been a great week with a lot of unexpected twists and turns that led to some great highlights, here are just a few...............

A day out to celebrate my (belated) birthday with my cousin, Aid. We realized we hadn't went out alone in at least eight years! I still wish my other cousin, Danielle would have been able to come, that would have been so much fun!

Mom Time - I got to get together with an awesome group of Mom's from our church. I took Bella and Hudsyn with me, they really appreciated some time out separately from their siblings.

We recieved our much anticipated order of curriculum!!! I've know I mentioned this before but we love Sonlight!!! I picked another curriculum in the summer and it has worked well for specific things, like reading. We will continue using the reading aspect of it. However, I felt like we were missing the deep, meaningful discussions that had transpired from the stories we had read with Sonlight. I had wondered how I would get through so much reading with Sonlight but I think I've worked out a plan. I will try to post that this week.

Our box filled with new and exciting books!

Tristin was so excited to get some new books about the Revolutionary War!

 

I really thought our new curriculum would be our highlight this week, but God had a bigger plan! We were able to go on a marriage retreat that we weren't expecting to go on. It was a huge blessing! We had tons of fun and didn't even have to wait until six sets of little eyes were shut before ours were! We have not had a night alone since we had kids. My step-mom and her family were so sweet to keep our kids overnight so we could have a night away! Our night away was every bit as wonderful as I had always imagined it would be! I knew they were in good hands so I didn't worry about them at all. I did miss them something awful though.. An hour or so before the retreat ended I noticed I was starting to get anxious to get back to my sweet kiddo's. Actually spending the evening with them tonight ranks pretty high on my highlight list as well!

It has been a great week. I was very different from our usual routine but different is good...sometimes. I am looking forward to spending this week snuggling with my kids and diving into our new books!

Fun Play-Dough Recipe!

Over the years we have tried to make several different variations of play-dough. On occasion they've turned out okay but most of them fell short of what I was looking for.  Then a friend introduced me to Pintrest. While I was browsing on there I found a play-dough recipe that looked amazing! Today the girls and I decided to give it a try! It turned out better than I could have imagined! The colors were gorgeously vibrant and it smelled amazing, thanks to the use of Kool-Aid! The kids had so much fun with it today. We put ours in mason jars to keep it moist, but you could use zip-lock bags or a Tupperware container if you'd like.

Sweet helper girls!

Such focus!

Nothing sweeter than little hands hard at work!

Pink chocolates made for me by Kaitlynne!

Thai steak..mmm...my favorite!!!

I am not sure of the exact definition of this swirly-do, but I love it!

I told them it reminds me of something out of a Dr. Seuss movie!

In case you love play-dough as much as we do, here is the link:

http://www.kristanlynn.com/2011/09/best-play-dough-recipe.html

True Self Control

Above photo: Tristin age 5 and Bella age 2

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23

One of the areas that God has been speaking to me about lately is teaching my children self control. We have always talked about the fruit of the spirit and using their fruit. When I notice someone not using their fruit I ask if they have rotting fruit. One of the main things that we discuss pertaining to their fruit is self control. Children are not commonly know for their ability to control their emotions and reactions. I have always explained what is expected of my children and remind them when their "self control" (poor reactions or temper tantrums) are out of line with those expectations.

Obedience in and of itself, is not self-control. I can control my children's external response but that is all. I can take them to church and read the Bible to them but I can't make them love God. I can forbid they speak hurtful things to their siblings but I can't demand they not think them.

It has really been on my heart lately that my children can't possibly practice self control if I am the one controlling them. My kids need to know how to make healthy decisions for themselves. They need to know that it hurts them as much as it hurts someone else to have negativity spoken over them. They need to be able to say one cookie is enough and I need to be the person to explain moderation and nutrition to them. It will mean  a lot more work for me but there is nothing more worthy of my time and energy than truly training my children. If I am continually deciding for my kids and not giving them the chance to make a good decision then I am failing them. If I decide how they react to every situation; what will happen when they are no longer under my control. I don't expect that the outcome would be favorable.

As a parent it is my job to make sure that they have the space they need to make mistakes. I pray that God gives our family opportunities to practice true self control. I realize that this could be a very dangerous prayer for a family with six kids but I know that God will be faithful to lead us each step of the way.

Yay Bella!!!

Bella asked me shortly after she woke up this morning if we could play her fishing game. I told her after the babies went to bed. When the babies were in bed for the night we got the box out. Bella looked at it and said let's go fishin'...then she said is that what it really says? I looked at her a little surprised and said yes, it does!

As a rule when my kids officially start their first year of school I don't actually teach reading. We work on letter sounds and I read them lots of books. Sometimes we make words out of letter stickers or paint sight words. I dictate the spelling of words on grocery lists that they write for me. I try to make words and letters fun. I wait until they really show interest and a true readiness. If you ask a child to read before they are able, reading can be viewed as a really treacherous task. Just ask me, I (unfortunately) have experience in this department. When Bella read the box of the game to me, I thought I'd get out a book and give it a try. She had the same thought and was asking for a book just as I was reaching for one! She sat down and carefully sounded out the words, some words she was able to recognize and read by sight. The book had a lot of repetition in it so as she read a word a few time she no longer needed to sound it out. She ended up reading the entire book, all 32 pages of it! We are SO PROUD of her!

After Tristin saw his sister reading he decided that he wanted to give it a try and asked Kait to listen to him. He read the same book. He also finished the whole thing! Even though it seems he might be at lower level we are still very proud of him. It is no small feat for him to work his way through written words.

There is no greater reward for me in homeschooling my children than being the person that gets to watch my children read their first words!!!

Best Friends!

One of the coolest things about homeschooling is watching my children bond with each other. It is something I thought about before we started homeschooling. However, it had no impact on our decision to home educate. It has turned out to be one of the sweetest parts of watching my children grow. They each have a a special bond with every single one of their siblings. Even the two that clash the most, because they are so much alike love each other and go find each other to play, help each other clean their rooms and serve one another. The other day in the van (and out of no where) Tristin said I love Maezy so much, I could never imagine life without her. Such a sweet and thoughtful comment from an eight year old boy. It amazes me that often times when I offer to help someone they say they want a sibling to help them.

This morning while I was brushing my teeth a couple little girls stopped in to join me. As they were trying to get their toothbrushes and toothpaste out Hudsyn knocked Bell's toothpaste off the counter without realizing it. Bell turned to her and snapped something sassy out about her knocking it down and bent down to pick her toothpaste up. As she stood back up she looked and Hudsyn and said I am so sorry I wasn't nice to you. I hurt my own heart. Did I hurt yours too?  Hudsyn just stared at her blankly and said what are you talking about?  They both giggled and hugged each other and started brushing their teeth. I was waiting to see if Bella was going to right her wrong before I guided her. I didn't even get a thought beyond that when she apologized. It is such a blessing to me to see them love each other so much that they want to make sure if they have hurt someone they "fix it" right away.

Greysen went to Kaitlynne and asked her to get her "dancin" out and play with him!

I walked by and noticed Tristin reading to Maezy. He said she asked him to and he couldn't say no!

Bella and Hudsy snuggling on the couch!