In the Know

Just wanted you to be in the know again. 

I've been neglecting this blog a little.  I've been cheating on it with my other blog.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the more creative writing and keeping account of the many projects I come up with for myself.  And because of our attic reno, I'm just a little addicted to a good project.  Because one of my greatest passions is writing, I get a bit wrapped up in the pursuit of a "story" to tell my readers.  Growth is slow, but it is happening.  Is it silly to wish for blogger super-stardom?? :)

In all seriousness, it is a great platform...I also have some dreams about repurposing furniture and opening a place of my own someday....it's all connected to me.  (so, hey, when I get a button made for my sweet little blog, will you grab one to put in your sidebar and help share the love?? since you're mostly my friends and fam, you kind of have to :)

  So if you're wondering what I've been up to, head on over there to see. :)

At the same time, my number one priority is my faith and our family's pursuit of our God.  I've let my drive get in the way of my purposefulness as a Godly mother before, and I will not do it again.  My children are entrusted to me....I know Matt, too, but I am the one here all day.  So while it's important to me to use my talents and to pursue dreams, it is vital to me to pursue the Lord and take my family along with me--and to take care of this little blog so our children have their lives with us chronicled.

On to what our little ones have been up to....

Ava turned 7 months old on the 21st!!  I CANNOT believe how time has flown this time.  Grayson's first year was pretty fast, but our sweet girl is working on crawling and tonight, after Matt told her he loved her, she said, "la,la,la,la luh-hoo."  I promise....we made her do it again and again.  I guess I'll wait until she says it two days in a row until I count it as her first word. :)

She spends her days sitting and playing on the floor....

and scoots around on her little belly.

somebody favored her daddy in this one.....

And Grayon?  Well, he's up to his usual...running around, getting into trouble (then showing such kindness), wearing me out, making me laugh, and kissing me all the time!

Love him in footed pj's so I had to snap a couple of him.  The other day, he said to me and our kind neighbor, Mr. Jerry, "Mommy, I have an idea.  It has a hypothesis."  And Matt said that last night he said, "Daddy, my tummy is rumbling so loudly--it's fortissimo (this is from little einsteins- forte means lare/big/loud-and they use this to describe how loud the music notes get).  Priceless.

I find myself leaning on God hourly, not just daily, to parent him out of love and not frustration.  I'm reading Don't Make Me Count to Three: a Mom's Look at Heart-Oriented Discipline, and it's INCREDIBLE!  If you haven't read it, read it.  If you have, maybe read it again.

Ginger Plowman is the author and the gyst of the book is taking our discipline a step further.  It doesn't take much to teach our children to act like Christians, but to teach them to have the heart of Christ and to live like Him is a much greater challenge and one we've been called to.  I am finding that I am physically unable to do it alone--even though I feel like I've always tried this approach, now I'm being much more dilligent about keeping my calm and teaching him a heart lesson each time I'm correcting a behavior.  I am noticing such changes in him....I think our children want to please, to make us proud, so why not appeal to that side of them?  And who doesn't like a little positive affirmation?  Anyway, if you're thinking of it, please pray that I can continually lean on God for my strength and patience to guide me daily as I faithfully instruct our children.

Hope you're all having a great week!

-shaunna

Tot School! Week 2-15-10

We had such a fun week around here!  We were definitely on the go, but Grayson and I still managed to get in some tot school time together.  His tot trays for the week....

(I've finally given in and cleared the table in our foyer to be his "schooling" table.  I even rearranged my dining room furniture this weekend--thank you, Jennifer!--to accomodate more school fun.)

Our letter this week was "G" and I tried something new.   We still did our letter painting and "is for..." activity, but I added

in some "G" sensory buckets.  I got this idea, along with SO much more, at Carisa's blog.

One bucket was filled with all the "g's" I could find--he really liked this and the other bucket.  After our worship time, we began our "school" with these.  We may even be sticking with G again this week, so they'll probably stick around.

The next bucket (cute little bins I got for the kids from dollar section at target--love that!) was filled with toys/items that began with the letter g.  We have a goat (his favorite of the week), gemstone, grapes, glitter, gold, and giraffe.

I also broke out How to Build an A again--Grayson was finally interested in it this week!  We did at least 8 letters....I love this book and once he got going, he really enjoyed it too.  Again, he's such a kinetic learner; it's perfect for him.

A little fun....playing Hasbro Candy Land Castle Game, a fun shape-sorting game.  He mostly loves playing this with his uncle Jim and cousins, but he is known to break it out and play by himself some too.

Checking out the g's....

and all the "g" objects....

Working on our letter--I'm really trying to gently encourage him to try to paint/color inside the lines just to prepare him for next year.  (By state dates, he wouldn't start preschool next year, but we'll probably begin ourselves.  He's definitely getting ready for preschool....and we'll see where it goes at his pace.

His favorite part was getting to use as much glitter as he wanted since "g was for glitter."

We couldn't let "g" pass by without including God in it--he used some of his foam stickers to decorate a coloring page of Jesus demostrating His love for us....we still incorporated love into our theme this week.

He loved this one (and always does)!  He had a pattern tray (again, dollar section at target) using Green pom poms and Gemstones to tie in his letter.  When he was first starting tot school, I couldn't find any cheap, smaller tongs, so I let him use a clothespin and he still favors using it.  The size is great for his fingers and it's actually quite difficult to use--great fine motor muscle building!

His pattern....green pom, gemstone, etc.

This one was fun--we are (still) in the process of making our own artificial flowers--tot school style. 

We began with a zaxby's cup that I poked holes through.  He placed a green pipe cleaner in each hole, and

then we began threading foam lacing beads onto the ends to make our flower petals.

Of course, he got carried away with the beads and one stem got the royal treatment.  Again, as part of trying to prepare him for preschool, I'm requiring he finish projects that we start--this one was a little tedious so we'll finish it sometime this week.  It's really starting to look cute--I'll post a finished picture when we're done!

His finished letter that he did mostly by himself-paint in the lines and all!

Tiny Tot School

I can't believe our little one is old enough to begin all this fun learning!  I, of course, realize babies are learning from the moment they arrive, but she's old enough now for me to read her curious expressions and it's so much fun to see!

She actually just turned 7 months old yesterday....Happy mini Birthday, sweetheart!

These days you can find her on our rug in the living room, sitting up like a big girl and spontaneously propelling herself forward so that she ends up like this....

She rolls around and slithers on her belly like a little snake....I'm not sure she'll even really crawl.  She may just start scooting faster and faster....that will be pretty funny to watch.  She's also trying, with little luck, to pull herself up.  She may just skip the crawling....we'll see.

This one was actually taken at the end of January when Matt grows his annual beard after Christmas--my biggest blessings all in one chair!

Ava looks really happy, right? :)

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Raising Rock Stars-Joseph Week One

This week our family studied about Joseph and his brothers.  Matt and I decided to break it up into two (or three) weeks since there is so much to absorb.  We read from Grayson's new The Anytime Bible and we loved it!  It's written in such an appropriate way for children to understand, yet contains enough meat in each Truth.

This picture pretty much sums up Grayson's mood that night...wild and uninterested in sitting still.  We were in Ava's room because that's the only place little miss could be happy for us to have Bible time together, and her room is Grayson's party spot.  I'm not sure what it is, but when he steps in there, he goes a little crazy, spinning and kicking and giggling.  Whew.

As I reminded daily, even though it felt like this week was not a "success", I know that God will use bits of it for the instruction and building up of my children (and myself).  It's important for them to see us spending time in God's word together, even if they are having a hard time concentrating.  They are still being spoken His Word and that's what counts!

Ava was loving that we were all in her room for a change.

Grayson's really into counting on his fingers right now, so he and daddy spent a while counting the 11 brothers of Joseph.  (Daddy looks to be concentrating just as hard as Grayson, right? :)

We read up until Joseph was sold into slavery, because again, it seemed too much to truly digest.  We talked about loving unconditionally and the danger of jealousy.  That we are to see our own selves through God's eyes and because of that, there is no reason to seek what other's possess on this earth....or the attention they receive.  What a hard lesson!  Even in my parenting, I'm trying to teach Grayson through questions more than "telling" and we tried to question him about jealousy and about how Joseph must have felt.  Next week, we will begin to focus on how Joseph, despite being left alone, did not feel alone and leaned on the Lord for his strength.

We then moved on to coloring together, and this lasted all of five minutes for Grayson.  As I finished my page, he cheered me on, "Good job, Mommy. I'm so proud of you."  I had this whole outfit set up for him to dress up like Joseph's coat of many colors (my bathrobe and a scarf), but he had no part of it.  I took on the role, but luckily no pictures were taken! :)

And we ended just like this.  It truly was another special, special night together! 

Snow Much More!

Had to throw in a few more snow pictures....

Building our snowman....well, daddy building, Grayson tearing it down.

Love my boys (love the truck in the background, too) :)

These are all taken on Saturday morning...when the sun shone brightly, I knew we only had a few hours left with our precious snow.

Grayson made the most of it by making snowballs and throwing them at my back all morning.  I love this one below; he knew I was following him around with the camera, so at one point he just turned around and stood staring at me, like, "take the picture already."

So I did.