Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013

Deuteronomy 11:18-19

18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Deuteronomy 11:18-19

New International Version (NIV)

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Life Lessons.

Everyone is learning something at their own skill level. Just because they are learning something you can do doesn't mean it isn't a big learning curve for them. That's one of the things about large families that I find challenging, but fun. G learning to get herself dressed is just a big of deal as J learning to navigate in the bush or S learning to play pat a cake. Here are some things the kids have been learning and I thought you might like to enjoy hearing about them. 

Lets start with the baby! 

S has really started doing a bunch of cute stuff :) 
He waves, with just his little fingers wiggling.
He pants, breaths hard, and then giggles when you do it back.
He's talking and singing quite a bit, super cute in his little boy voice :) 
He has a couple of words; please, hi, papa
He's clapping his hands, he really likes patty cake. 
He drinks from a cup or a straw. 
He says shhhhh...and then giggles.
He stands up in the middle of the room.
And he just turned one! Pictures to follow! 

G is two and a half.
G has learned to get herself dressed 100% alone! 
She can get both her boots and shoes on alone.
She also is enjoying giving S a drink with his straw cup. 
She loves to fold the washcloths.
She can turn the bathroom water on and off! 
She can open the inside doors! 
She also learned how to move empty cups to the table for meals! 

J3 has a birthday very soon and will be four!
J3 has recently learned how to ride his tricycle! 
He also can count to 10 without help. Until recently he was missing 7 or 8. 
He brushes his own hair.
He also wipes himself now in the bathroom :) 
He sorts laundry by color. 
He can put away all his, G's and S's laundry without help! 
J3 is learning to enjoy water and last week he learned he could float!

R is six years old.
R has learned to ride her bike with two wheels! She just decided one day to do it and within 3 days she was! 
She also is getting much better at soccer and other games. 
She's also quite the little singer and crafter! 
She can set the table and get everyone's vitamins ready.
She can do a pony in her hair. 
She can sweep the kitchen floor.

E is seven years old.
E is really learning how to 'do hair'! She enjoys playing with R or G hair and putting it in pony tails etc! 
E is also learning how to do chick chores. 
She loves to 'baby sit' S and G and is quite the little momma.
She's learning some more soccer skills too!  
E and R do a lot of singing and crafting together :) 
E can clean the whole bathroom, including the mirror! 
She loves to finger knit.

L is nine years old. 
L is learning baseball catching with his new glove! 
He's also learned to wash the milking stuff! 
He's learning some soccer skills too! 
He loves to make things out of clay.
He loves to draw. 
He's learning electric wire fencing skills. 
L is reading the Narnia books :) 

J is ten years old.
J is learning some woodsmen-ship. Yesterday I sent him out with the phone, for communtation, to find the calves in the 30/40 acre lease behind our house. He did really well and he found them! 
He's also honing his baseball catching skills and his soccer skills! 
J is also getting very good and figuring out songs by ear on the piano! 
J has also recently learned how to light the mosquito coil with the lighter! 
J has learned how to make a small cow fence and the basics of electric wire fence building. 
J likes to make swords out of old metal broom handles. He's made one for everyone! 

J3, R, E, L and J are all taking swimming lessons this summer as well. Once a week. They are all doing super good! J3 has improved the most and is starting to enjoy the water more and more. If you remember he was scared of water, in any form; rain would cause him to scream for the first several years if his life, so this is a big improvement. S is just the opposite, he loves water! 

J, L and E are practicing piano all summer as well as doing a 'bit of fun school' with some math thrown in every week. 

Oh and Papa and I? What are we learning? Well...yesterday I learned how to install a toilet! How's that for life skills? Papa?? What is he learning you ask? Papa is learning all about water systems, from the pump to the sink and every bit inbetween. Oh and we are both learning that everything happens WHEN it happens, not necessarily when WE want it to happen. 

Life lessons: Everyone is learning something. Your lesson may feel harder to you because you are bigger and doing bigger things, but it's not. Everyone is learning something and the 'little things' matter as much as the 'big.'