Growing Everyday

For the past two weekends, we have been traveling to Quincy to see family. The first weekend we were there for a going away party. Andrew’s aunt and uncle are going to live in Ghana, Africa for three years. Everyone seemed very excited about the trip. It was very nice to sit and chat with the family. The kids had a blast playing on the hammock.

This past weekend we were there for a bridal shower. My brother is getting married in August, so my family threw a pampered chef party for the bride-to-be. The shower went much more smoothly than I had expected. And everyone reported that they had a good time.

This week is filled with Jared’s sports sampler camp through the parks department here. I will have more about that later.

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Over the past two days, Jared has been bitten by the book bug. He is reading every chance he gets and complaining when he doesn’t get to read. I took both children to the library tonight to pick out some books. I, also, told them that they could choose a movie if they wanted to.

Jared looked at me and said "Mom, I would rather read than watch a movie"

I am hoping and praying this attitude keeps up. It could be a very interesting summer if all three of us have our noses stuck in a book 75% of the time.

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Beka learned how to make these pipe cleaner flower rings by watching a video online. She really enjoys making them. She makes a rose flower ring and a daisy flower ring. She has also discovered how to make a spider ring. Beka thinks she will be able to sell them this summer to kids in the neighborhood, but I think we will just have to wait and see.

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Beka and Jared have a wonderful art teacher at school. She does delightful wonderful project with them introduces them to artists, and uses many different types of mediums in class. One medium I kept hearing about over and over was oil pastels. Now, I am not really artsy person so I had no clue what those were, but when I spotted some at the store I picked them up to try out at home. Oil pastels are really soft crayon type art supplies. The kids enjoyed them immensely all weekend. Jared especially spent hours created artwork with oil pastels.

Sidenote: Jared also lost one of his front teeth on Friday. So hearing him say oil pastels all weekend was hilarious

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We try to sit down and eat supper as a family every night. And I try to get the kids to tell me about their day and talk instead of everyone just staring at each other or shoveling in food as fast as they can and then leaving. I tried the usual questions “How was your day?”, “what did you do in school today?”, “how was gym, art, music, math?”, and so many other generic questions. And I was getting the typical answer: “Fine” UGH!! I wanted conversation not grunts from the peanut gallery.

Well, I finally found a solution. We started the question of the day. Questions range from “if you could invent a type of ice cream what would it be?” to “what super power would you choose?” Sometimes we do best and worst of the day or the top three highlights of your day. But the questions seem to work the best.

The other night we discussed what the world would be like if people lived underwater. We decided that would be fatter in order to insulate us from the cold water and that we would probably live in underwater caves eating cold fish. Beka and Jared actually look forward to the nightly conversations now, and they remind me if I forget to ask the question. And no one is just rushing through eating either. Meal times has become much more enjoyable for everyone.

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Well, we got the kids a Wii awhile ago. But then I bought Super Mario Bros. I thought it would be great fun…what I did not count on was Jared getting obsessed with conquering the game. I will admit that I enjoyed playing the game as much as I did Super Mario Bros 3 on the original nintendo. But I didn’t conquer the original and I had no intention of conquering this one. But with the help of Andrew, Jared did conquer all the levels. He is now working on collecting the star coins on every level. He has really enjoyed the game more than I thought he would. Plus it is great to see Andrew and Jared spending time together.

I am sure as the weather gets warmer though, we will spend a lot more time outside.

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I am now officially 33. It doesn’t feel like that big of a deal this year. It was a terrific birthday. I received some beautiful flowers, Jared made me a card at school and his class made me a card also, and Beka wrote me two songs and sang them to me. I felt very loved and appreciated all day. Andrew even took my out to lunch that day.

I am hoping the year continues to be one of great joy and love.

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Beka, Jared, and I planted some tulips last fall and some other flower I can not remember the name of. This week I have seen little buds sprouting. I am so excited. This means spring is here, right?!

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The whole family has been working on some simple no-sew fleece blankets for Project Linus. I would love to say we were being altruistic, generous, and charitable. In actuality, we are doing the project for the Give a day, Get a Day that Disney is promoting. Project Linus is a wonderful cause and making the blankets has been a lot of fun. Also, many great conversations about charity and helping others have happened because of this project.

Beka and Jared went with me to pick out the fabrics. That took much longer than I thought it would. Beka was very particular about what she wanted on her blanket. I prepared the blankets for cutting. Both kids tried to cut the fringe, but decided they didn’t like that job, so Andrew and I finished it.

Beka and Jared did a wonderful job tying the fringe for us though. They both worked diligently at it and managed to tie their own blankets plus some. The blankets turned out a lot better than I thought they would.

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A few months ago, our church asked for donations of books. That donation process got me thinking about what our bookshelf and books say about us and what we enjoy reading. Our bookshelf is eclectic to say the least. The top picture is of our bookshelf and if you really look at it you see anything from Dr. Seuss to Harry Potter to Radioisotopes to Chronicles of Narnia. I have a whole shelf full of my comfort reads (the books I go to when I just need a break from real life.) Those comfort read include romance, urban fantasy, and historical. We donated 60 children’s books to the church and I still have three shelves full of books for the kids and that doesn’t include the box of books from my childhood that is hiding in the closet.

You might say my bookshelf shows that I have a tiny addiction to books. I read almost anything I can get my hands on. And gradually, I am passing this addiction onto my children. Beka has discovered Bunnicula by James Howe and Jared loves Captain Underpants. For the most part, I don’t care what the kids are reading as long as it is kid-appropriate. I don’t really care for some of the humor in Captain Underpants, but that is the main reason why Jared likes it. And he is reading and enjoying it! I never want Beka and Jared to feel like reading is something to be suffered through. I want them to anticipate getting to read something.

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