Being Michelangelo

 We are learning about many artists of the Renaissance in History lately.

Today I let the kids paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Or, you know, the underneath of the school table.

I love this one.

See the tubs of clothes to be tried on this weekend? And the vacuum cleaner. Real life baby.

Sweetheart chose to paint Jesus' baptism. The Holy Spirit descending like a dove looked just a bit like a chicken. She laughed.

Little Bit chose to paint Pharaoh watching the Nile River turn to blood. I was pretty impressed as all I said was they "had to paint something from the Bible like Michelangelo did."

Now they are trying engraving and sculpture with homemade play dough.

I'm trying laundry but that doesn't have anything to do with art.



**Our history curriculum has this and many other ideas in it!

After My Week Off

First of all, in just 5 days, $20,000 has been raised for Yulia's adoption!!!! I told you God was going to do amazing things! :) Please continue to pray for a family for her. Money should not be a problem now for whoever answers the call to rescue that little girl. Five days!!!! Wow.

Now, last week was our first week off of school according to our new Sabbath schedule.

I. am. in. love.

Let me tell you why!!!

1. I got our entire master bedroom cleaned top to bottom. No time for that on school days. What project could I tackle on the next break? Deep cleaning doesn't have to wait for holidays and summer.

2. The girls got to play all day for many days in a row. The first day off, Sweetheart didn't even brush her hair. Now THAT'S a vacation!

3. We laid around together and watched some movies. With no guilt.

4. I spent Thursday and a little bit of Friday deep cleaning the school room. I mean, I cleaned the windows, I dusted, I cleaned the white board, I vacuumed corners, I straightened shelves (and in the process, reminded myself of some resources we have there that I forget about), I threw trash away. It was like a fresh start. All the stuff we never have time for.

5. Most of all, best of all, I made lesson plans for the next 6 weeks! I have never, in the history of my teaching career, been that planned that far ahead. It is bliss. Knowing that I only have to tackle one 6 week block at a time was just such good news. School will be much smoother now, I'm sure. And the awesome thing was, we already had 6 weeks under our belt so I knew what would and would not work. Unlike the plans you make before school starts.

6. And all the things we did badly this week, like staying up late and watching too many movies, etc.? It's OK because one week does not a habit make!!!

I'm sold.

Now remind me of that in May when everyone is getting out of school and we aren't. Cause I'll be whining then FO SHO!

Lastly, the poll in my sidebar is closed now. Thanks for making me feel like a schlep. I DID find a permanent place IN THE MASTER bedroom to set up our ironing board and I'm just as happy as a clam about it! To be fair, if I had a big laundry room, it would be in there, but I don't. Oh well.

For Their Closets

I'm thinking really hard this year about what staples to get for the girls' wardrobes. I'm working to honor my husband's request to NOT fill their closets with jeans.

Not that I'll be getting these things from these exact sources, but here's what I like for them:

A cardigan sweater

 

This is important to me because it means they can wear short-sleeved dresses for months longer.

Some khaki pants

OK--I know these aren't khaki, but corduroy. I kind of mean the color when I say khaki. Dressier than jeans is what I'm looking for. Not stuck on these exact pants.

Leggings



Again, these can help the girls wear more summery dresses for far longer. And also, it can help with all the way-too-short skirts that you find in stores these days.

On a side note, Sweetheart has this dress from last year:


And she LOVED that dress. Very comfortable and warm.

Isn't this dress cute? Comfortable....cute....warm. Check. Check. Check.

Lastly, they are going to need some good tights. And I just love Mary Janes. But I fear Sweetheart is getting too old for them.

Also, according the "Four Moms", who answered my question today about what to wear with skirts in the fall/winter...we're going to need boots. This is new territory for me. I'm not a fan of this look:

It looks odd to me. Boots for little girls are tricky. I want something they can wear to church, but also something they can wear just any day. Hmm.

What are the fall/winter staples for your kids?

Have You Met Adeye?

I don't remember how I stumbled on this blog earlier this year, but I spent the better part of 2 evenings reading the archives of Hailee and Harper's stories. I. Was. Riveted.

God is SO amazing, my friends.

Oh! It was so encouraging to read about this family's faith and struggles to rescue those two tiny treasures from the Ukrainian orphanage. Through her posts, Adeye (uh-day-yuh) introduced us to the other children in Hailee's room. The forgotten. The hopeless.

Since that time, 2 more of the children from that little 6-crib room have been chosen for adoption. Their family is working hard to bring them home.

Today she is sharing about Yulia. Please go read about it. You will want to keep your eyes on this because God is amazing.

And I have a feeling He's about to do some really cool things.

Shoe Storage...and a Solution!

This won't work for me....having girls and all, but it IS a totally awesome idea!

Check out Erin's Solving the Shoe Dilemma.

Now, I just need an idea that will work for girls. We have shoes under the kitchen table (2 pair), sometimes we have the one shoe in the bathroom/one shoe in the front hallway mystery Erin was talking about. Most of the time, they can find one shoe where it goes and the mate is a mystery. Really? How did you manage to put one shoe  in it's proper place and then....what? You got bored? Distracted?

Anyway, I love it when someone figures out something that works!

My Babies

This is Sweetheart.

She is 11. My first baby.

She is a great artist. I LOVE her pictures that she draws.

I am always amazed at how fast her brain works. I think that's why she leaves a mess in her wake. She's just already moved on to the next thing in her mind.

She cries when things touch her deeply. She cries when others get hurt. She's very sympathetic. Even as a baby, she cried along with the other kids at the baby sitter's house. I guess she figured something was wrong and she better cry about it too.

She loves animals, nature, and "adventures." She desperately wants to live in the country. And to be a pioneer.

She is a voracious reader.

She could wear her clothes inside out and upside down and it would not bother her one bit.

She changes her mind 3,000 times a week about what she will be when she grows up.

 Her organizational skills are straight from my genes. (I'm sorry baby.)

This is Little Bit. 

She is 6 1/2. She is my last baby.

She is quieter than her sister. Usually.

She doesn't talk in public very much.

She was a baby for much longer than Sweetheart. And she liked it that way.

She likes to be held, cuddled, and to sleep with us. Pretty much anything that guarantees personal attention.

I am always amazed at the things that come out of her mouth. When she does talk, she means what she says and she can talk very big. And once she has made up her mind about something--that's that.

She loves to play with her sister more than just about anything.

She has an ear-piercing scream. Seriously, when you tickle her, somewhere bats fly out of caves.

She never forgets anything you tell her. Nothing.

Her organizational skills come straight from her father's genes. Thank goodness.

I love them both so much and am so thankful to the Lord for allowing me to make up the years I lost with them. Being home with them all day every day, while tiring sometimes, is absolutely delightful. I love my girls so much. 

Actually

I had to get on here to read the last post and see what it was I said I was going to do this week. Ha! It was a good list.

But....what I'm actually doing is cleaning "the master bedroom." Our house if over 40 years old and, even though there is a bathroom attached, our bedroom is not really much bigger than the other bedrooms. A little, but not much. I guess it actually is a master bedroom, but not anywhere near a master suite.

What it actually is, is dusty. And cluttered. And messy. And covered in laundry.

Sigh.

So of course I can't just get in there and clean it. NATURALLY, there had to be rearranging take place. Because that's so much easier and less time-consuming than just cleaning.

On a good note, I am employing The House That Cleans Itself lessons to my bedroom. I have placed a laundry basket behind the bathroom door where I can put my husband's mowing clothes. It's easier if they are separated from his regular clothes and he doesn't have to dig through his dresser to find them. Score one.

Also, we have a small shelf that sits right inside our bedroom door. I am using this as the new launch pad. You may remember that I had put a small white shelf by our entryway to use as a launch pad?

Well, the reality was that is was always full of stuff and it really looked awful. It's what you see when you are sitting on the couch. So we're moving the launch pad to our bedroom, where that kind of stuff actually belongs. We'll see how that goes. If we had a mudroom it would be nice, but they don't have mudrooms where we live.

Also, and I know this is really awful, I may have a permanent place to set the ironing board up. Do you put your ironing board away every time? Really? I don't. It ends up set up wherever we used it and I would love to be able to leave it up. My mom left her ironing board up for 25 years. I didn't even know you were supposed to put them away. What do you do with yours and also, where do you iron?

Because I actually don't know what other people do with their ironing.

We're Off!!!

I cannot believe it, but we have finished 6 weeks of school already! Next week is our "Sabbath week" off. Boy do I need it!

1. The homeschool room is already, in spite of weekly clean-up sessions, in need of some organizing. We are so ready to be done with school (plus it's usually lunchtime) that we just break and run, leaving a mess in our wake. It will be nice to have next week to go in there and really get things back in order.

2. I have some sewing I want to do! I found a really cute fall banner that I plan to make. I might change the words to say, "Give Thanks" or "Be Thankful." I bought felt last night and spent a whopping $1.87 or something like that.

3. Of course there is always housework to catch up on. When school starts I usually mourn my loss of homemaking time for a few weeks. In the summers it is so nice to just wake up and start in on whatever project I feel like whether it be cleaning the laundry room out or washing the dishes. During school, housework is relegated to the afternoons and I am not always as excited when the time rolls around. But this week, I can do what needs to be done around here.

I am HOPING this new schedule will mean my house does not get in as bad of shape as it usually does.

4. It's also time to start planning Christmas gifts. I need/want to make a lot of the gifts again this year and I need to spend some time online looking for ideas. I don't have time to do that during school.

5. Oh, and I also need to make lesson plans for our next 6 week session. Nearly forgot about that one!

6. And my recent post about stuff? Well Carrie read the same blogs and girlfriend got INSPIRED. Maybe I need to re-read them and spend this week clearing house. Cause we both read...but only one of us actually DID anything. Ahem.

There. Six things to do in 7 days.

NO PROBLEM!

Overcompensating Humility

Because we don't want to appear perfect in the blogging world, we have tended toward overcompensating humility. Let me explain.

It would be easy to paint a perfect picture for you, my readers. Only post pictures of a clean house. Only highlight my finest homeschool moments. Only post about our achievements...

It's like a Christmas newsletter all year long!

Only, we don't want to do that. So we, Christian blogging moms, show you the other side. Sometimes, we make whole series out of it! It's encouraging to other moms to know that no one really keeps up with the laundry. That we are not alone. That everyone has THOSE days.

I'm all for that.

But I'm afraid that sometimes we get to the point where we feel we must depreciate ourselves in this manner. That to show you, "Hey, I did really good on this today." or "Look! This is really working!" or "I think I've got this under control." would be like becoming a traitor.

I think we should be honest and real when it's appropriate (I'm not showing you my checkbook OK?) but I don't think we have to do so to the point where we begin to think of ourselves as disorganized messes all the time.

We aren't.

We all have talents and abilities and areas where we shine. We all have homemaking and homeschool successes. But bragging on those looks like pride.....so we overcompensate the humility part.

If our strength comes from Christ, then telling about our sucesses is like bragging on what the Lord has done in our lives, right?

Look at God! Isn't He awesome? Look what He helped me do!

I'd like to think of it that way. I'll still share about my bad times and my struggle against disorganization because that IS real life. But I'd like to also show you what the Lord has done and is doing to this wife/mama/homemaker.

'Cause it's pretty cool.

Does that make sense?

Pride and Humility

Education can bring pride.

I realized this today while I was sweeping my kitchen. I can do some deep thinking during mindless tasks. I mean, who really wants to contemplate what they are sweeping up and how it got there?

I firmly believe that homeschooling affords the opportunity to be better educated than many children are. Notice I did not say "homeschoolers ARE better educated than public school children." I did not say that. It just gives more opportunity for better education. We don't all make it there. When you follow a child's abilities and interests AND are able to make your own educational plan and goals....that's a good thing. NOT being locked into the state curriculum and the teacher's goals for the class in general is freeing. Therefore, homeschooling allows you to do more.

I believe that in some ways my daughters are going to be more literate than their father and I. They are reading (and listening to) classic literature that I have never read--and I minored in English in college! They are involved in a book club with other homeschoolers. We read a lot of books--good books--and then sometimes watch the movie that goes along with them.

The kids are often a bit insulted at how the movie-makes got it wrong. One movie adaptation was so bad a 2nd grade boy in our group said, "I don't even think they READ the book! I think they just threw this movie together and happened to get some of it right!"

My daughter points out to me all the time things that are "wrong." She's usually right. She's learned about a thing and she notices error when she sees it. These kind of things can make homeschool kids seem arrogant. They are able to argue intelligently about certain topics, but it isn't respectful to argue all the time so they can end up looking snobbish....arrogant...prideful.

I also can feel prideful when I know something very well. I don't act on that pride, but I know it's there inside me sometimes. I find myself thinking, "HOW can they NOT know that?" forgetting, of course, that at one point in time I did not know it either.

Teaching our children a spirit of humility is so important. Not that they ARE better! I don't want to come across as saying, "Honey, other children are just not as smart as you so be patient with them." Ha! Not quite. It's remembering that other people are God's beloved children...His creation. It's knowing that I can do one thing quite well, and other people can do another thing much better than I. It's desiring to show God's love to others and wanting to make them feel loved MORE than you want to show off your skills.

Sometimes it's making hot dogs for your guests instead of a gourmet meal.

It can look like wearing jeans instead of a skirt.

It might mean talking less about what you know and listening more to what others think or feel.

In a Christian homeschool, teaching and modeling humility is very important. Proverbs 11:2 says:

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

And wise is better than educated any day!

My (Almost) Free Fall Mantle

Fall is hands-down my favorite season of the year. BUT, I don't have a lot to show for it. I haven't collected fall decorations throughout our marriage like we have collected Christmas items.

This year my mom bought me a few new things at the dollar store and I was so excited. I usually put my little decorations on the table in our entryway, but I decided I wanted to get to look at them and enjoy them. So, I put them on the mantle this year. I didn't think I would even have enough to fill the mantle, but I was pleasantly surprised.

First, my mom bought this flower arrangement at the dollar store. It's so pretty and nice and tall. I found an old candle to put next to that. And I bought these little scarecrows for the girls at Walgreens last year for $1 each. They have them this year too.

Next, the Welcome sign my mom bought for me and a bowl of potpourri.

Lastly, a candle holder a student gave me years ago. The original candle was prettier, but this one will do. That's a clock my husband made on the right.

I think it came out pretty, although it would look better with some fabric under the whole thing to break up the brick a little. I would like to add to my fall collection. I love decorating for fall because it can stay up from September through November.

Now I'm off to visit the other links at A Wise Woman Builds Her Home and get some more fall decorating ideas!

Valuing God's Word

Last year our small group at church decided to gather up some money, purchase some Bibles, and give them out to children who visited our church. Oh and also to any member's children who didn't have a Bible--just in case there were any.

So we bought the Bibles. Twenty "real" Bibles and ten picture Bibles for the very young. Then, we set about figuring out how to best distribute them and to whom.

We found out a little girl in our new small group didn't have a Bible. Well, she had a picture Bible but she did not have a real Bible of her own. So this morning I happily presented her with her own Bible. She just beamed. Oh she was so proud!! Her family is going through hard times right now and it felt good to be able to provide this need for them.

Little Bit moved up last Sunday to the 1st and 2nd grade class. Those kids are learning to read/are readers so they need real Bibles now. I had to get one from our shelf for Little Bit last week. Time to stop carrying the picture Bible.

So, I decided to go into her class and ask if there were any other children who needed their own Bible. No fewer than 7 hands went up. There were 11 kids in the room. Oh dear.

I was so upset by this. Mostly, these children's families are new-ish to our church or new-ish to church at all. I suppose it's not unheard of that no one has thought to buy them a Bible yet. It's shocking to me...but I'm sure it's very common. Some of them are not new at all. That was the most concerning of all.

I'm happy to say that next week ALL the children in that class will have their own Bible. But I wondered today why those parents had not gotten a Bible for their children yet. I wonder every week why so many adults do not carry a Bible to church.

Do we value God's word? Do we know what Christians in other countries would do to get their hands on one page of scripture? Most of the students S has in World Bible school do not have their own Bible. (The lessons have all the scripture included so they can complete the lessons without a Bible.) In fact, we've mailed a Bible to one of our students in Africa. Good grief, they can be had from Wal-Mart for $5.

But the scriptures are on the screen at church or printed in the program. You don't really have to carry one to church. You can get by without it. Besides, if someone doesn't have a Bible with them we have them in the seats and extras in the classrooms. That way you don't have to lug it around, right?

So what about Monday through Saturday? How many folks leave their Bible in their car all week? I've been guilty, I'll admit it. Are we encouraging the study of God's word? The reading of God's word?

Do we realize that it is alive? That it changes lives? That God has preserved it for over 2,000 years? That we are honored to own a copy in our language free from the fear that we'll be arrested?

Are we reading it? Studying it? Appreciating it? Obeying it? How can you please God unless you know what He wants from you? How can you know unless you read?

How will our children turn out if they do not even OWN a Bible, much less read it, study it, and obey it?

I think statistics have already answered that.

How can we help others around us value God's word?

Fabulous Friday

After 9 glorious hours of bark-free sleep, everything looks more fabulous!

The girls and I filled one large city trash bag full of give away stuff yesterday AND my dad volunteered to come get it and haul it up to the church garage sale for me! One whole tall bag of stuff collected and gone in one day. This is a family record.

I'm not sure you can tell any difference.

Therefore I must keep decluttering.

Husband and I are attending an adult dinner party this weekend. I am bringing a side dish, but all my go-to side dishes are not diabetic friendly. Hmmm. Anyone have an easy side dish idea for me?

I'm in the mood to start putting away summer dresses and clothes but who am I kidding? We still have 2 good months of wearing them around here. That whole "no white after Labor day" cannot seriously apply when it is still in the 90s, can it? "Fall" in Texas is a strange season. Soon it will be "chilly" (60s-70s) in the mornings but hot in the afternoons so it's hard to know what to wear. It just doesn't seem right putting sandals on the girls' feet to wear to church in September and October. However, by the time church lets out the sandals are perfect. Maybe I'll wait until October and then put away all the really obviously summery things. Short sleeves stay out year round.

I'm torn this morning between getting school done and working on chores. Both need to happen. Perhaps we'll employ an A-B pattern today of school chore school chore. The good news is...only one more week of school until we get a week off on our new Sabbath schedule! I am really looking forward to it. A whole week to just work on the house or sew or plan for school or all of the above.

That will be even more fabulous than today!

Have a great weekend everyone.

This Was Going to Be My Productive Day

I haven't felt all that productive lately. Busy, yes. But not productive. There is a difference. Then last night at 2:30am (OK I guess technically that's this morning) the neighbor's yippy dog started barking. It was a high, shrill, rhythmic, repetitive bark. For well over 2 1/2 hours. Between us both, we went outside 3 times and banged on the fence which made all the dogs (3 or 4 of them) go ballistic. I'm guessing the neighbors were not home. If they were I will have ugly thoughts.

It was really just the most frustrating thing. At one point I asked S, "If we were not Christians, what would we do about this?" I was just wondering is all. He quickly and without hesitation fired off about 5 ideas that were anything but non-violent and most of which would end up with him in jail. Kind of frightened me. I had only been dreaming of wrapping a zip tie around the little bugger's mouth. Hey, this was 2 hours in so I'm not blaming anyone. We were both feeling a little violent at that point.

But we are Christians so we did not do any of those things.

Our girls are outside playing right by that neighbor's fence right now and I am not telling them to be quiet because it is early. Passive much? Have fun girls!!!

What I was GOING to tell you was I am getting rid of stuff today. Or I was going to back when I had intentions of sleeping through the night. Nester had a post about stuff the other day and I got interested and followed every single link and oh my word:

1. I want to stop shopping for anything right this very second.
2. I want to get rid of 1/2 of our belongings.
3. There just happens to be a garage sale at our church this weekend.

Sounds perfect if not a little drastic. I probably won't get rid of as much as I need to, but I was thinking about decluttering while I wasn't sleeping last night. (Along with zip ties)

I think of the stuff in our house like this:

Our book club is going to read Gulliver's Travels next month. WHY did they have to make a children's movie with objectionable content? Clean it up Hollywood!! (Can't find the review Carrie sent me...Carrie? Link?)

OK I may not be physically tied down with stuff (although that is a phrase we use, interesting) but I feel that way. I don't feel free to just run out the door and do something fun because all this stuff needs to be moved, cleaned, put away, organized, or attended to in some way.

Look, I'm not quite ready to live in a Tumbleweed House, but it's looking pretty free right about now, OK?

Hey! Maybe my sleep-deprived state will actually assist me in throwing stuff out without a second thought?

Hello. This is me with 2 hours of sleep. I am going to make drastic decisions about our belongings today!

A Report on the Great Room Clean-Up

Thank you all for your suggestion of sewing bells on the hem of my clothes yesterday. You are too helpful.

It was actually kind of dramatic. Right before I started, the electricity went out. It remained out for over 4 hours. So....I cleaned in the heat and darkness. I really couldn't see in the closet, but I managed to drag all the books out of there and arrange them neatly on the girls' bookshelves. Then I cleaned up under Little Bit's loft because it's by the window and I could see.

But I couldn't stop there. I had to clean up under Sweetheart's loft and now they are both lovely. But I got hot and tired and stopped. So there are 2 or 4 major piles to go through and now that we have lights I could finish the closet.

Tomorrow.

They actually did not own as much stuff as I would have thought. They each have one shelf in the closet for their special toys that are too precious to throw in the general population of the play room. You know, their favorites.

And I'm happy to report that the window no longer sports a sheet for a curtain. (I had to take it off so I could see) It now has......nothing. I need your help. I know we've talked about this before but I'm still undecided.

It's a long, high window and Little Bit's dresser sits right under it. So no long flow-y curtains. There isn't a privacy issue but I'd like at least a sheer something over the window. What to do???? Something sheer and something swagg-y over the top? What? ACK!!

And I found this fabric but there isn't much of it and I don't care if I use it or not. It would have to be an accent fabric with something else. What???? ACK!

Help please. Thank you.

I'm Goin' In....

...and I may not make it out alive.

You know this big "room re-do" for the girls? Yeah. Well. They still have a sheet on the window and mismatched covers on their beds. But they have really enjoyed their lofts. I thought I'd share a few pictures of how they looked a couple of weeks ago.

Under Little Bit's Loft on a good day.

Under Sweetheart's loft on a REALLY good day.

I really don't care how they decorate under their lofts as long as they ask permission before driving nails, you know? Sweetheart has changed her mind many times already. She's had several themes going on and keeps  changing her mind. Currently it's decorated in "shove it under the loft and forget it."

Most of the time I keep sheets hanging over their lofts like curtains. It gives them some privacy and also allows me to not instantly see the mess when I walk in. Win-Win.

I'm standing at the door of their room. This is the sheet over Sweetheart's loft, their crates of shoes, their mirrors, and Little Bit's dresser. And the sheet-curtain.

Now I'm standing by those crates of shoes and you can see Little Bit's loft covered by the sheet, the front door (that's the homeschool room there) and Sweetheart's dresser.

Then school started and all my friends with public school children were posting things on Facebook like, "Whew! Finally got that playroom clean!" or "There! Now the children's rooms are clean. Let's see how long they stay that way." And it hit me: I need to get rid of the children!

Honestly, if they were at school I would go in their room and clean it. Of course I would. What happens in reality is that I go in their room, shriek for them to get their behinds in there and make them do things they should have done in the first place. But I think every now and then it just needs to be mom's turn, you know?

So tomorrow afternoon, my parents are going to rescue the children keep the girls while I clean. The girls are excited about having a clean room. I know it just gets overwhelming for them. They just have too much stuff in there.

No more.

Should I tie a rope to my ankle you think?

On My Mind

Just now we were getting out of the car and Little Bit said, "I'm going to play ______ when we get in the house."

I said, "I thought you were going to play __________." (I don't really remember what we said she was going to play.)

"Oh! she said." "I just have 400 things on my mind today!"

Ah, the stress of being 6 years old.

But mama, at 39 years old, really does have a lot on her mind. Decidedly NOT 400, but still. Shall I unload on you?

• I've got some financial paperwork to get notarized today. Must meet S at 6:00 to do that.
• I need to make a phone call. (the kind where you have to push buttons and wait and finally talk to a person)
• I want to start hitting the thrift stores for Sweetheart's fall/winter wardrobe.
• I'm thinking about Christmas presents because I want to do handmade gifts again. Much searching online.
• I need to continue to work on the girls' quilts.
• I need to prepare for sewing class on Saturday.
• The car for Little Bit's dollhouse is almost finished and then we have to continue painting the house to make it rich.
• Need a grocery list.
• Need to go grocery shopping.
• Need to call a friend but she's at work.
• Need to write a check for piano lessons.

MOST of that needs to happen today but not all of it will. See all those "needs" up there? Ug. That's too many needs for one person.

Maybe I should just go play?