love to paint

I don't think it's really hit me yet that Autumn is 5 today. She still seems so little to me, but I know she's getting older! It's so hard to believe. I took the kids out to lunch because the weather is a little bad and I didn't want to try and brave the evening cold. They were really good. All of them. I have to remember that when I get upset. They have their struggles, but they're doing well =) It is such a blessing. Well, I need to run and get working on their birthday party for Saturday. I hope it will go well!

Isn't that a perfect title? =) I picked up this book by Christine Field. It has a lot of things I know already, but also a lot of good reminders and tips. One succinct phrase about discipline is "The more you yell, the more you yell." It's easy to fall into the trap of yelling. I want to put a stop to it. I know it can be done. I was encouraged to talk to a friend last night who is a veteran homeschooler and is still homeschooling two of her children. She shared with me that when her oldest two were young, she yelled for a time. But, she got through it and she isn't that way anymore. Sometimes I wonder if I can change and get out of this rut. It was encouraging to hear that I can and will. =) The rest of the book is about balancing life with homeschooling on so many levels and making choices. It's a keeper!

Yesterday, I went to a homeschool book store and I found a great little book. It is titled Prayer: Learning to Talk to God. It is by Jeanette L. Groth and illustrated by Jan Brett. It is a great book! It is perfect for explaining and discussing prayer with 4 and 5 year olds. The wording of the book is simple and Biblical. The author talks about each of the different things we talk to God about: Praise, Needs/Wants, Other People, Guidance, etc. For each explanation, there is an excellent illustration of a situation showing a child who would want/need to talk to God about that thing. Let me explain... On the page addressing Praise, there is a young girl standing at the beach looking up at the sky with a smile on her face. On the page explaining that we pray for Guidance, there is a young girl taking care of her garden (her chores, I assume) who is being asked by friends to go fishing. The illustrations are great for starting discussions with our children. I love this little b...

One of the hardest things for me about having 3 little kids is finding time to take care of the things that I need. I know it's important to take care of me, but somehow taking care of things for myself always gets put off. Sometimes it's hard for me to know what to do. But, God reminded me several times this weekend that he will take care of me and help me find ways to do the things I need to do =) At times, I've tried to go to stores to shop for certain things and it just doesn't go well =( So, anyways, there's a few things that I've needed and God has provided for me and I am so humbled. Last week, I bought some clothes at a garage sale for $6 so they're new to me and most of them fit. I saved a sleep set for my mom and gave a pair of jeans to some neighbor girls, but the rest fit =) 2 pairs of jeans, a skirt, and 2 pairs of pants. The clothes were a blessing to me. With every child I've had, my jeans seem to fit a little different even though...

So, there are definitely good movies in the world and bad movies in the world. It's so frustrating to sit through 2 hours of a movie that you keep hoping is going to get better. I think to myself, "It has an amazing cast. It has to get better!" But, then it doesn't. That was the case on Saturday night for us. We watched the Towering Inferno with Paul Newman, Faye Dunaway, and Steve McQueen among many others in it. It wasn't just cheesy. It was a bad script and just plain bad as a movie. On Sunday night, I cajoled Chris into watching Leatherheads with me. Granted it is a football movie and he isn't the biggest fan. I'm the football fan in our family =) But, from the opening scene with a cow, you could tell this movie would just be full of fun laughs. It reminds me of Oh, Brother Where Art Thou? and John Cleese movies. Both movies star George Clooney and in both he just makes me laugh. Honestly, I like Leatherheads better than O, Brother Where...

So, a fun little thing... My husband is very musical and really, truly enjoys music. Five years ago we bought our stereo, a component system. It's worked well, except that our remote broke and we never were able to fix it. We've now lived in this house for almost 3 years and periodically Chris talks about wanting a speaker system and receiver for our television. The funny part is that he hates the television, but he does enjoy watching movies sometimes. But, he struggles with the sound from our television, hence the desire for speakers. We've never bought anything for the tv because a speaker/receiver system would cost between $300 and $500. The past two weeks we've been talking a lot about how much is enough and making the most of what we have rather than feeling like we have to buy something new if we have something we can alter to make it work. So, this week I cut and hemmed a set of sheets a friend had given me to make a sheet for Sami's toddler bed inst...