Tax bailout?

Yesterday Amanda and I decided to watch a show together and you would think during a child's show you would be safe "commercial wise" however, a commercial came on and they asked the question, "do you want a tax bailout?"

Amanda was a Dora The Explorer fan at one time so she remembers how to yell answers back at the TV, she replied, "no, I don't want a tax bailout!"

I asked her why she didn't want one to see what she would say.

Amanda replied, "because they are bad, they are the worse!"

Happy Birthday Dear 7 month old

GUESS WHO??? IS 7 months old today?

Hint # 1- Her big sister adores her.

Hint # 2

She smiles and laughs constantly and is such a joy to be around.

Hint # 3
She wants to be a cubby like her big sis.

Hint # 4

She looks a lot like her big sister did when she was a baby

Can you even believe she is 7 months old? Here are some recent pics we took on our trip to Great Wolf Lodge last week. We had a wonderful time together as a family and Amelia loved the water park just like we all do, so she passed the test to be an official family member since she loves one our favorite places to get away ! Congratulations Amelia!

The girls just adore one another and Amelia just lights up when big sis walks into the room.

She is working on her third tooth, waves "HI" and has said what sounds like "hi" but who really knows. She recognizes our little family and family members and friends that she sees on a weekly basis.

She scoots around everywhere while trying to crawl so hard. She tries to move both legs at the same time to crawl, it is precious to watch. She did move her leg and arm together to crawl one step on 3/23/10, or is that a half step in crawling language? She will be crawling full time any day now and it is a little sad, but no time to be sad, we have to get the gates up so we can live in a "gated community" for the next couple of years. They grow up way to fast and while it is exciting it is bittersweet since it is all happening so quickly. I am afraid to blink for fear of missing something since she's having so much fun discovering her world. (her big sis wishes that the discovery process didn't involve mouthing everything she can get her little hands on but perhaps it will cause big sis to be a better cleaner upper of her toys.)

Sweet Amelia,

I feel like time is going faster with you than it did with your big sister. Maybe I got more sleep back then? Who knows and who cares because I will take every day the Lord gives me breath and thank him for it! Life is such a gift and so is motherhood! I am so thankful to be your mommy and to love you, change you, rock you, feed you, hold you, kiss you, pick up after you, teach you, smile with you, and learn with you! I love you! Happy 7 month birthday!

Love, Mommy:)

Amelia and Healthcare Plan

I stayed up to watch the historic health care mess and around 11:30 Amelia woke up for some reason so I let her watch it with me. She glared at the television for a few minutes and then started making this spitting noise with her mouth that she had never done before. Then she stuck out her tongue. I know she doesn't understand it all but the timing of her gestures made me laugh and honestly, after seeing what our elected officials are doing to my daughter's future, I needed a good laugh. I told Amelia that I am so sorry that she is going to have to work so hard in the future to pay for all this debt and she just glared at the TV with this unhappy face.


I told her we will keep praying for the rapture to come so we won't be here to endure the effects of the passage of this bill. We might not have to pray much longer, there sure have been a ton of volcano's and earthquakes lately and the bible says there will be a lot of them in the last days. So since we finally stopped praying for snow, we will pray harder for the rapture to come soon and get us out of the mess our politician's are making of this world. Thank God it is not our home.

February review

February may have brought the Blizzards, Valentine's, and the Ice show, but it also brought homeschooling fun! We have always enjoyed learning through play at our house, but we have decided to be more intentional, organized, and structured with our learning while still having fun. I broke out my curriculum boxes and files and was so thankful I left teaching with everything super organized so I was ready to roll with "our preschool at home."


I know not everyone believes learning should or can be fun, but I think if you are really meant to teach....... you can make even learning math fun and memorable.

It takes some planning (which I love) and organization (which I cannot admit to mastering just yet, if ever) but I sure do like to try!


I also realize there are so many critics of homeschooling out there because I WAS ONE OF THEM not too long ago, but even I have changed my view and am amazed at what Amanda is learning. Plus, she loves it and we have so much fun QUALITY time together which I wouldn't trade for a million dollars! She calls me "teacher" and treats me so much nicer than when I am just "mom."
She will say, "ok, be mom now" when she is done or wants to ask me something which cracks me up, but also gives me some insight how she might act once she goes to school.

I am living out my dream for now, and loving it. It is amazing what a child can learn in such a short period of time when it is "one on one" although we do have another student named "Buford" in our class. He misbehaves all the time! You may remember him, he was "the perfect man" now he is Buford. (Ummm.......who was that Uncle that taught my daughter to name her baby "Buford"? Oh yea, that would be Uncle L!

Amanda enjoyed acting out the Story of Little Red Riding Hood and is very dramatic and expressive when re-telling the story. She has always enjoyed this story and it shocks me with the way she remembers all the little details in the story. When she talks about the woodcutter coming in and pointing a gun at the wolf, her eyes get real wide and her voice so dramatic. Her daddy taught her that story 1 1/2 years ago and she has loved it ever since.

Amanda made a pizza for dinner. She really enjoys cooking and measuring. She recently learned that 1/2 plus another 1/2 ='s a whole. She's quite proud of that! We are still working on the difference between a teaspoon and a Tablespoon. Yes, you can learn Math through cooking!

Amanda's creativity has really improved since Amelia's birth especially when I am busy nursing and she doesn't have all of my attention. One day she got into my nursing pads and unwrapped them, found the tape, some clothespins, and took a "feather" off of a turkey puppet I had made and made her own "turkey."

Then she took another nursing pad and put clothespins all around it and came in the room and said, "I have a present for you!" When she showed me the sun and turkey I wanted to laugh because they were made out of nursing pads, but I was really impressed that she thought of using them and was so thankful she went to the caddy and got new ones out instead of dirty ones from the trash.

The presents just really lifted my spirits that day because they were presents that she spent time making and they were made with the love that was just ooo-zing out of her heart that day.

I admire her creativity and think if we can mold it and encourage her, she can do great things with it one day!
I simply adore the way children are so enthusiastic about learning!




We read the story "If You Give A Moose A Muffin" and then we retold it using this chart with pictures. Amanda did a fabulous job of sequencing the story.

We read the story of "Five Little Snowman" and Amanda enjoyed it since she had pictures to place in the book with velcro as we read it. I am so glad I had a wonderful teacher teach me this technique while I was teaching. Even the youngest child with poor attention skills can learn to love to read when it is interactive.

Amanda completed both a science and an art project in one, a birdhouse. This was one of her Christmas presents I found at my favorite teacher store.

This artist is very quiet when working which surprises me, but makes me hopeful that it will continue throughout her school years. I really would hate for the "comments section" of her report card to read like mine always did!





I love how Amanda enjoys projects, painting, and coloring. She is really into using a lot of different colors and is trying so hard to stay "in the lines" when coloring.

We read "White Snowman" and since we had a real one outside, it made the book come alive! That is one of things I love about thematic units.

We played the snowman game where you roll dice with pictures of what your snowman needs in order to complete the snowman card. Amanda loved it and I got to see the "competitiveness" come out in her when she played against me.

Amelia rolled the dice too! Amelia loves to watch us "play school" when she is not napping, although I know it is going to get a little tougher really soon since she is trying to........CRAWL. (bittersweet)

Mamaw gave us a flower to plant in the advent box this year. This was another Science project. We do love to plant and watch things grow!

We loved reading "The Snowy Day" and Amanda loved how the little boy put the snowball in his pocket and it melted. We went outside and made "our own tracks" in the snow one day just like in the story.

Our tracks in the snow!

A week after some of the snow had melted we made another snowman together! Amanda enjoyed the snow more since it wasn't so overwhelmingly deep. It was up to her chest before.

Amanda enjoyed completing another chart by placing pictures of things we can do in the snow on one side, and then things we wear in the snow on the other side. Some of the pictures were of things she hadn't seen like an igloo. ( I tried making one in the snow but it was just too deep!)

We have music and movement time and this particular day we learned a new snowflake dancing song with snowflake props. She loved it!

She completed sequence cards. This one was a "how to build a snowman 4 part sequence" and she did well since she had just built a real one outside a few days before.

Amanda was given pictures of items that were both cold and hot. She then sorted the items into 2 categories: things that are hot, and things that are cold. This was during independent work time so I didn't help her.

We celebrated Groundhog's day by watching Mr. Groundhog come out of his hole on T.V. and then reading this book. We learned that a groundhog comes out in about 8 different states, so we were shocked that it wasn't just the one we knew about. We were happy to hear that we had 6 more weeks of Winter since we really have enjoyed it.

We learned about our first President Mr. George Washington and Amanda was thrilled to learn he had wooden teeth. She really enjoyed learning about him. To celebrate Black History Month we learned about Harriett Tubman. This led to a lot of questions about slavery so I explained it to her in "child-friendly" terms.

I want Amanda to know ALL about history and that people haven't always accepted one another simply because the color of their skin. Amanda was appalled and couldn't believe it.

I really want Amanda to learn to accept others no matter what color their skin is. We sang a song after our talk called, "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world." I think that is one of my favorite songs and I want Amanda to really "grasp" the concept of it at least before second grade!

I often think of this little black boy from my second grade class. Everyone was white in that class but him until a little boy who didn't know English came from Korea mid-year.

Both boys struggled in school and I remember the teacher really trying to teach us to accept them both and reach out to them. Some of the boys were so mean to the little boy who couldn't speak English and he would blow up and have tantrums that would scare me to death. He would throw his chair when he got angry, I wonder sometimes what happened to him. I always felt so bad for him and tried to help him; the language barrier made it hard.

I remember giving him a quarter one day since he came up short when paying for his lunch. He smiled at me! People were so mean just because he didn't know the language we speak and it really impacted me as a child that year. (As an adult, I am not as patient as I need to be with this issue however, God has me in a place where I get lots of chances to practice being tolerant so I will get there hopefully one day.)

I remember the little black boy (Georgie)

and how he peed his pants one day in class and the look on his face when the pee dripped onto the floor. I remember feeling so sad for him because of course some of the "bratty, cool kids" laughed.

I really pray I can teach my girls to be sensitive to all people regarding the color of their skin, or what language they speak. I want so desperately for them to accept and see others the way GOD sees them.

She completed her snowman card to win the game and was quite proud.

Playing the snowman game!

Amanda was the winner of the SNOWMAN GAME because she was able to collect all the pieces of the snowman to win the game.
I was proud of her for not cheating since I know how much she loves to win, so much so that when playing games sometimes, cheating is tempting if it means she will win the game!

Since we still have chores like unloading the dishwasher.....we had music during this time. We brought out pots and pans, and measuring cups and made beautiful music. Amanda kept the rhythum and is getting good at following patterns...Amelia just looked at me like, "are you serious? Do you really want me to bang on this pot?"

(Some of the pics are upside down and I have reversed and saved them yet they still just want to be sideways so we will just have to do a little head tilt!)

We read this interactive book I made of The Snowy Day, yes I made it before I married hubby or I never would have gotten away with copying an entire book on a copy machine (not a Zerox machine) unless, it is made by Zerox. (I have to give credit where credit is do or hubby might get me!)

Amelia earned the "student of the day" award.

For scrapbooking purposes I have to review the past couple of months because I am soooo far behind that right now sadly, this blog is the girls only scrapbook. But I am hoping on changing that soon and the blog will be a great record to pull information from and since I am behind on postings it might take me a while. But don't worry, I plan to keep you "up to date" while going back at the same time. A girl has to have a scrapbook!

It happened again MOM!

There is so much I have to learn about parenting our girls, but there is ONE thing I know for sure...........there will be DRAMA with other girls! I just didn't think it would happen so very soon! A month or so ago, Amanda told her dad that a friend of hers said she wasn't going to be her friend anymore! Amanda was really upset by this and told us both about it separately which I thought was cute. She tends to talk to her dad more in the car and really talks to me about things while we are eating lunch and Amelia is napping. So she poured out her heart one day over peanut butter sandwiches and said, "our relationship is over!" She told me that her friend misunderstood and thought she said something she didn't say. She really is sensitive and has shown compassion for others since she was a little toddler. When other kids were sad, she would go up and hug them or tell me "so and so was sad today." She's so social and wants to be friends with everyone and have world peace too! (Can't imagine where she gets that?")


I of course wanted to know where she learned the word relationship! She hadn't said that before she usually calls her friends, friends!


Fast forward one week later: she comes home from Cubbies and tells me that she is now "friends with _________, " She told me, "it was just a misunderstanding mom!"

"_____thought I said something and I didn't say it I said this______but she didn't hear what I really said, so it was a misunderstanding but we are friends now. Can she come over for a play date and ______(long list of other friends too)?"

Yesterday she came in the room and wanted to talk to me. It really cracks me up how she will come in and just sit down and start talking to me about something simple and then pour out what's really on her heart. She told me, "well, remember what happened with _______?"

I said '"yes, I remember you had a misunderstanding."

She said in her little dramatic and expressive voice, "well, it happened again!" She then told me the whole story how it happened one day and then three days later the girl still wouldn't be her friend! She thought she said something but she couldn't hear what she said.

I assured her and told her to love the girl and if she tells her she doesn't want to be her friend anymore than to say, "that's OK, I still will be your friend because that is how Jesus wants us to treat one another." He wants us to show love even when others are not kind to us. It is a hard thing to do but something she will have to do her entire life so she might as well learn it young!

I really want her to learn to be kind now so in the future when the whole comparison thing kicks in, and cliques begin to form with all the girls, she will be confident in who she is and friends with everyone. I managed to avoid being in a clique while growing up and I want her to do the same. I know how cliques can keep us from experiencing friendships with people who aren't just like us, or do things a little differently etc, and I don't want her to miss out on those special friendships all because she wants to fit in with a group of insecure people.

After I finished my talk..........which I will admit was way to long for even me.......

Amanda just looked at me with that "teenager look" the "you have got to be kidding me, there is no way that you and daddy actually dated, got married, and you did what? to have me? No way, not my parents" That's the look I am talking about! (and no, we haven't had "the talk" with her yet, although she did ask me "what's sexy mean?" a little while ago while we were driving down the road. All I can say is it is truly a miracle we didn't have a car accident that day! I was beyond shocked that she knew that word and still wonder where she heard it.

This drama just makes me look forward to those "tween" and "teen" years almost as much as I look forward to going to the dentist! No, hopefully I will be able to help her navigate through those difficult years with tons of prayer!

Celebrating Dr. Seuss's Birthday!

March came in with a birthday party!

We went to the library for a free birthday party for Dr. Seuss. I know, he was an atheist and I know he wrote books to get those McGuffey Readers out of the schools......but he did write some fabulous, fun, books that teach children to read and my daughter loves his books and since reading them isn't going to make her an atheist, we celebrated.

I had a hat from my teaching days since this is a big event in the schools. The party was extremely crowded but we had a blast.

We hung out afterwards to thank the librarian for hosting such an organized event. She was fabulous and so patient with all of the children and she told us she had home schooled all of her children that's why she had this stuff. Her daughter
made the hat she is wearing in the picture.

Amanda wouldn't wear the hat at the party. No one else wore one and peer pressure got the best of her I guess. She did put it on a for a very quick picture.

The children were given cake afterwards!

Amelia just stared the entire time at all of the children except for her stealing episode. The librarian brought out instruments for the children to play a pattern to the story "HOP ON POP"

While she was passing them out I had Amelia on my hip and was watching Amanda intently because she had yet to receive an instrument and they were almost gone. I was worried she would get upset yet, so proud of her for just standing there so patiently and quietly waiting. Not pushing and grabbing like some of the other children. The teacher noticed and was saving the "best" instrument for her!

While my eyes were focused on Amanda, I figured Amelia couldn't get into trouble on my hip! I was so wrong! A mom came up to me and said, "your daughter snatched my daughter's bow out of her hair!"

I immediately looked at Amanda to see what had happened and the mom said, "I need it back" and reached over towards Amelia's mouth and when I looked down I almost died because Amelia had the bow in her hand and was chowing down on it like she was never going to eat again!

I apologized to the mother! Apparently I wasn't holding her up high enough and she reached down and grabbed the little girl's bow right out of her hair. The girl looked to be 6 or 7 and just smiled at me when I apologized!

I was so embarrassed that I hadn't noticed my 6 month old was stealing!

The librarian read some books and brought in puzzles and activities that went along with the books for the kids to do. We had a wonderful time together listening to stories, and snatching bows out of heads!

Daddy

I was kidding in my last posting that Amelia would be saying "daddy" real soon.....but last night, she said it so clear. I was shocked! Daddy was trying to get Amanda ready for bed and had just left the room for a minute so he missed it. I called him and told him so he came back into the room only to leave again and what do you know, the girl said it again! I guess since we were constantly in Amelia's face repeating daddy, she wanted to say it just to shut us up! She also started waving while we were on our little trip last week. She has done it four times so far, it is a very quick wave but it's a wave. She even says something that sounds like "HI" we are so proud of our little communicator, can you tell? She's really determined to learn to crawl and pushed her self up on her knees yesterday and moved one knee. She is so cute scooting around and can scoot several feet away quite quickly to get where she wants to go. I have a feeling some gates are in our near future! So sad how fast they grow up yet exciting too!

Sweet Sisters!

Amelia has a BIG announcement! You will have to go to the end of this post to find out what it is....take a quick guess, I am sure you can figure it out if you think real hard!

Amanda continues to shower her little sister with lots of love, kisses, and hugs. When Amelia has simply had enough loving she just starts to growl at her big sister. Amanda usually gets it and stops but sometimes we have to help her! She just loves to love what can I say.

Amelia is quite the little communicator already, I guess she has to be considering the family she has been blessed with. When daddy left the room the other day she watched him and then started saying, "EEEEEEEEEE" she also says, "AY" alot. We are still working on dada and mama and sissy, I am sure it won't be long!

Trying to get a good picture of both girls looking and smiling at the same time really use to frustrate us, now the pics simply crack us up!
We might as well laugh and just start cropping the pics together or just print them out this way and laugh at their expressions and how they never look at the camera at the same time. It is pretty funny considering how many pictures we take of them and how few we have of them both looking and smiling at the same time. Girls will be girls!

I love dressing them alike. I didn't think Amanda would enjoy it as much as she does now. She got upset the other day that she didn't have a shirt to match her sister's. (They had the same shirt but hers was in the dirty laundry since she had worn it)




Hey sister, I think you have my hair bow!

I love how happy they both are and how they love to smile and laugh. Some days, that is really all we do is laugh and smile! It's a great way to spend the day!

Amanda was so over taking pics so she just closed her eyes hoping I would go away? So are you ready for Amelia's BIG announcement???????????? Drum roll please..........she now has 2 teeth as of today! Can you believe it?