We loved every minute of having my brother Jordan, his wife Kayla, and their three children with us on their way back to South Dakota. I'm not sure if the cousins got to everything on Carli's list, but they did enjoy the beautiful weather while playing in the back yard, riding bikes, visiting the Nature Center and Jackson-Morrow Park, and eating ice cream.

The List

Carli and Olivia are anxiously awaiting the arrivial of their cousins from South Dakota, Breanna, Daniel, and Alyssa. Mind you, they will be here only one day on their way back West, but here is a list of activities Carli has compiled for their day (complete with her spelling/caps, etc):

1. Look at books


2. Eat Breckfest


3. Littlest Pet shop


4. color


5. play school


6. play ball out side


7. play house


8. ride bikes


9. eat lunch


10. Big suprise


11. pick out are favret roks


12. take a rest


13. play the piano

Sounds like they are going to have a jolly good time! :)

{This Moment} Backyard Sunshine

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo [make that three for this week!] - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Visit SouleMama for more Moments

Summer Reading

I've been known to say I hope there are libraries in the heaven (maybe the new earth, at least?), and while that may be a little shallow, it's a very honest sentiment. So many books, so little time, as the saying goes. I usually have several going at one time so that I have one for whatever mood I'm in. I always have one in my purse along with my Kindle, too.

By the way, it may sound like I sit around eating bon-bons (don't say it, please!) and read all day long, but the truth is I really don't get to read that much, for all the same reasons every other wife/mother/home-educator/ chief cook and bottle washer/part-time transcriptionist doesn't get to read much. In the summer, I do have a tad bit more time, and most of that time is eaten up with reading homeschooling material that will help us on our journey. I "read" a lot of my books by MP3 player, but it has to be really engaging and not require a lot of cogitating. I love to go to bed with a book, or sit up reading in the living room, but goodness, I'm asleep in 30 seconds flat most nights.

This week Glen was in Washington, D.C., and one night, around midnight, I finally crawled into bed with my book. The girls were sleeping all around me (two on the floor, one on the bed), as is our custom when Glen is gone, but I turned on the light and settled in anyway. I actually made it to the end of a chapter, but I must have fallen asleep rolling over to turn off the lamp for I awoke to my alarm at 6:00, the lamp blazing and the book tucked in by my pillow.

That being said, and since I love to see what's books are hanging out on the nightstands or coffee tables or in the baskets of others, I thought I'd share my current stack. (I'd share my up-next list, but it is entirely too long and would take me the rest of the year to get a fourth of the way through, if that.)

• Desiring God--John Piper


• The Hand of God: A Journey from Death to Life by the Abortion Doctor Who Changed His Mind--Bernard Nathanson


• Organized Simplicity--Tsh Oxenreider


• A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning--Karen Andreola


• Home Education--Charlotte Mason, Kindle


• Ginger Pye--Eleanor Estes, with the children


• The Count of Monte Cristo--Alexander Dumas (Kindle)


• The Autobiography of Mark Twain--Mark Twain (MP3)


• The Passage--Justin Cronin

Bedtime Prayers

There is something special about praying with my children at the end of a long day. Even when the day has brought stress or talking back or petty squabbles or Mommy's impatience, praying together breaks through the frustration and brings lots of hugs and kisses besides.

Oh, and giggles supressed by this Mama. Olivia's five-year-old prayers are simply funny, even when they're not meant to be. Carli is becoming very expressive and grown-up sounding, but every once in a while, something slips in there that reminds me that she really is just a little girl still.

Like tonight...along with praying for Daddy's safe travel home tomorrow and that we'd have a good time at church tomorrow, praising Jesus, and that we'd have a safe night of sleep, she also prayed that there wouldn't be any spider bites or spiders crawling over her. Between the two of them, Carli and Olivia pray this prayer a lot, and we've not really had that major of a problem with spiders. Ah well. Olivia also prayed that there would be no tornado sirens tonight, and that "our hearts would be ok, and that my friend Lizzie would be ok, and that everybody would be ok, even Katie Davis."

ST and GI

Madeline has been learning to sign colors in speech therapy for a while now, but Mommy and Carli and Olivia are making a concerted effort to teach her to label colors herself. In this video she is signing red per request and working on throwing at the same time. I still have to stabilize her to get her to use two hands easily. Otherwise, she props belly on the floor or on her legs to keep her balance, but by that point it can barely be called sitting.

We visited Dr. Schaefer today, Madeline's gastroenterologist. Dr. Shaefer was very pleased with Madeline's weight gain and progress. She is up to 23 lbs! For now we're leaving the g-tube in, though we don't use it unless she is sick (really not that often at all these days!). It certainly comes in handy when she does get sick and the Nissen (procedure in which the stomach is wrapped around the esophagus to prevent reflux from getting into her lungs) doesn't allow her to relieve any pressure at all on her stomach.

Oh, by the way, while we were there, not only did Olivia ask the doctor for a piece of paper and a pencil, she also asked her, "Am I beautiful?" Ah, such wonderful moments! For the record, I don't do well with having all three kids in a doctor's office. I'm fine until the doctor actually walks in and tries to carry on a conversation with me. I can't concentrate on the doctor and the kids who, even when they are being very well behaved, seem so...um, talkative in such close quarters.

Besides soaking up the sunshine...

...we are continually learning, albeit at a more leisurely pace! This past week we:

:: found mosquito larvae in our backyard sand table left open unintentionally

:: visited the library just for fun (as opposed to a change of scenery for school work). Carli was thrilled to use the big kid's computers, since she was only 37 days away from turning 8. There is a kaleidoscope art program on the those particular computers, and she has fun creating new designs.

:: discovered Dance Mat Typing, hosted by a funny goat with an accent and sunglasses. Did I mention it's free? Carli practiced the home row this week.

:: watched "Alaskan Wild." The kids are fascinated by all things Alaska, probably because they have beloved cousins there. Anything with Alaskan wildlife and they're glued. Carli never fails to say, "Mom, remember when we saw the whale tail when we were on the boat in Alaska?" This particular documentary had footage of seals, salmon, whales (oh dear, I don't remember which ones), Kodiak bears, wolves, foxes, and more.

:: started learning the books of the Bible with this really incredible set my mom has had for years. Story goes that in children's meeting in our church in Ashville, New York, the entire row of 2-year-olds, including my dear brother Jordan, learned the books of the Bible, both reciting them and putting them on the board in the correct order. Evidently those few minutes Mom took every week, supposedly just for the older kids, did abundantly more than she could have imagined for the young kids too. I know I would have only been four or five, but I never had to learn them again!

:: Played ABSeas (Olivia) and Unjumbled (Carli) and Life

:: Played at Cool Creek Park and visited the Nature Center there. Definitely want to go back to walk the trails!

:: Discovered a beautiful (HUGE) moth outside of our window of our hotel. Gene Stratton Porter would have been proud of Carli's enthusiasm. Alas, when I reviewed Carli's pictures of it, she didn't get any of it with its wings flat, so we haven't been able to classify it.

:: Watched a groundhog waddle across our yard and climb the fence to head on down to the creek.

:: Lots of bike-riding this summer, playing with neighborhood friends, and splashing about in a kiddie pool

::Taken bike rides and walks. Carli came up with a game during one of our walks, called "Guess My Number." She had no idea that I would be able to come up with her number so quickly by using greater than, less than; place value; even and odd numbers; and rounding. She did pretty well herself when the tables were turned.

:: Swimming at a hotel pool. Carli and Livy are newly-minted self-taught swimmers, getting braver by the swim.

Some of the books we enjoyed are:
::Night Running by Elisa Carbone (This was a hold over from our Underground Railroad study)
::Red Wagon by Renata Liwska
::Abe Lincoln Crosses the Creek: A Tall Thin Tale Introducing His Forgotten Frontier Friend
by Deborah Hopkinson
::Pinkalicious and Purplicious by Victoria and Elizabeth Kann (Two of Olivia's favorites)
::The Clown of God by Tomie dePaola (a new favorite author of ours)
::Roxaboxen by Barbara Cooney
::My Pony by Susan Jeffers
::The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola
::The Birdhouse by Cynthia Rylant (another favorite author)
::Skylark, sequel to Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia McLaughlin
::Started Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes. The chapters are kind of long, but the girls are begging me to continue at the end of each chapter! I'd never read this book, but I have seen it on so many reading lists, and we have found it absolutely delightful!