So, we have this tree...

There's a lovely shade tree in our backyard. It covers the entire yard in the summer and allows my children to play completely protected from the Oklahoma sun.

I never made the connection that a huge summer shade tree means a huge fall predicament.

One morning not too long ago, Josh looked out the window and said, "Rachel! You've got to come see this!"

It was the "it-snowed-last-night" voice.

Indeed, it had snowed.

Leaves. It had snowed leaves. Our entire yard was covered in leaves.

The girls thought it was delightful. They got out the rakes, the brooms, empty boxes - anything that could transport leaves from point A to point B.

I'm not exaggerating to say that leaves covered the ENTIRE ground. I know I've already said it, but it was remarkable.

After a while of mindless playing, the girls decided to try to make a leaf pile. I think this idea was birthed after hearing Daddy's story about jumping in a pile of leaves when he was little. Apparently, his leaf pile had a slab of cement underneath...and Josh learned from an early age that dried leaves don't make much of a covering.

This is a picture of our leaf pile - it came up to Emma's waist.
I'm thinking our leaf pile must have been significantly larger than Daddy's...because our pile provided almost an hour of joy.
Pure, fall-induced, leaf joy.
Well...for most people it was joyful. It was a bit...er,...disturbing to Abby. She kept touching them and scowling.
But for everyone else?
Joy.
I'm still not sure how we're going to dispose of the leaves...but they sure bought me some cute memories.

homeschool thursday and a blog admonition

I've already mentioned how much I enjoy Thursdays because of the great opportunities the big girls and I have for extended homeschool projects.

I hope to post about some of our Thursday projects here on my blog for several reasons:

1. I have gotten so many ideas from reading blogs and stories online about other homeschoolers. Probably half of the stuff I do was sparked from ideas I've read about elsewhere. I feel that posting what I do returns the favor to all those people I've stolen ideas from.

2. I don't want to forget the successful activities! Abby and Silas will need just as many opportunities to paint, explore, destroy, and experiment as Emma and Samantha. I have a very, very bad memory - but I do often occasionally read past entries from my blog to keep things fresh in my mind.

3. I don't have deep thoughts about politics, religion or current affairs. If I don't blog about my kids or homeschooling, I'd be blogging about DingDongs every day...and that doesn't help anyone.

What I don't want is to somehow come across that I'm a super-creative, Martha-Stewart, have-it-all-together Supermom. No way. If you'd come to my house, you'd know that's not true. But most of you are just reading my blog, so I'll just have to convince you - it's not true. =)

[I just recently read a post from my friend Carrie, and I liked it so much that I got her permission to link to it here. I loved her admonition to protect your heart as you read other blogs, because who hasn't sat around reading some fab mom's blog and wondered how she got it all done? And got it all done so creatively? And with her hair fixed and in clean clothes and with smiling children? Though the blog world has so much to offer, it also only offers us a one-dimensional perspective of other moms and families. Most people only post about the things that worked, the ideas that were successful, the events that made for good pictures - who wants to post about how your kids misbehaved and you got angry and took it out on your husband and then visitors popped by unannounced and your house was a wreck? Yup, that's right. Nobody posts about that! I can't agree with Carrie more, because I've had to remind my heart of that so many times when I read other people's blogs. She expresses my heart so well on that point, so go on - read her post. It's excellent.]

With that being said, here's a recap of last Thursday's fun and projects:

New vocabulary words in our foreign language studies were "house", "wall", "door", and "window". I figure everything is always more fun when it involves paint, so we broke out the paint! The instructions were to paint a picture of something that included all those things.

Then we labeled the paintings and hung them in a high-traffic spot in the girls' room, hoping that they'll see the words more often and stick in their minds a little better!

Continuing on in our Astronomy* studies, this week brought up the ideas of revolve and rotate - as in, the earth revolving around the sun and the earth rotating. After we read the chapter, we headed outside to figure out what those words really meant.

Since you can't paint outside, chalk is the next best thing. All these sharpened, fresh sticks of chalk standing in their little organized rows makes my heart go pitter-patter:

We drew a Solar System on our huge back porch. Let's just say - the next morning, my inner thighs were SO sore. I couldn't figure out what I'd done to get sore...until I looked out with window at our cute Solar System. You know you're seriously out of shape when chalking up the sidewalks makes you sore.

Ok - back to the Solar System.
We drew all the planets, had fun decorating them, and then revolved and rotated until we were so dizzy we could barely stand.

I would ask them to choose a planet, find its orbit, and then show me how they'd face if it were daytime on their planet. What about nighttime? I asked them how they could show me that one year had passed on their planet, then half a year.

Somehow, deep in astronomy though we were, we got distracted when we saw how perfectly our shadows were forming on the sidewalk.

We HAD to spend a few minutes playing shadow games.
The planets could wait a few more minutes.
After lunch - sandwiches made with leaf cookie cutters - we had to buckle down for the "important" stuff: math and language arts.

I've really enjoyed using Right Start Mathematics, and right now Emma is learning the thought processes for the trading used in adding 4-digit numbers. I love how RightStart emphasizes understanding the process, rather than memorizing the steps. I include this picture only because while Emma was working through this process, she said, "I love this stuff!"

For someone who hated math growing up, that was music to my ears.
One of our writing prompts for the fall was:

You are the smallest pumpkin in the pumpkin patch. How can you convince someone to pick you instead of the bigger pumpkins?

We talked through their ideas and I wrote key words from the discussion on a white board - we call this our Word Wall. For this discussion, words like pumpkin, heavy, choose, delicious made the Wall. The girls refer back to the Word Wall when they're writing their stories so that I don't have to keep spelling the same words a million times. I also think it encourages independent learning - getting them to look around for clues they need to accomplish their tasks.

Once they've written out their stories (I usually ask Emma to write about three sentences, and Samantha only has to write what she wants), we choose a piece of scrapbook paper to "frame" our story.

This is a topic for another post, but I've discovered that I have a slightly alarming addition to scrapbook paper. There are so many beautiful designs, gorgeous colors and incredible textures...I've spent many a mothers-day-out in the scrapbooking paper aisle at Hobby Lobby. I gave up scrapbooking three kids ago, but I kept buying the great paper so....I had to start finding ways to use it.

I love using cute scrapbook paper to motivate my kids to write neatly, write thoughtfully, and write often.

Samantha's story said: I am a small pumpkin. Pick me! I am not heavy. Choose me! You can make me pumpkin pie. By Samantha.

The teacher in me gets weary of correcting Samantha's backwards "h", but the mom in me sure thinks it is cute! I loved her heartfelt plea to be chosen, and the pumpkin drawings near the top made me smile.

Just as we were getting the math things back in their bins and the markers up on a high shelf, Abby was home from school and our Homeschool Thursday was over.

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*This is not an affiliate link - I just wanted you to be able to look more closely at this if it interested you.

revisiting the quotes

What was that one quote? The younger brother must help to pay for the pleasures of the elder?

I captured this moment the other day after I walked into the kitchen and literally laughed outloud when I saw what Abby had done:

She was very lovingly fixing Silas's hair...

And we all laughed.

Except Abby, who looked around wondering why everyone was laughing.

soccer wrap-up

Now that there's only a few weeks left before winter officially begins (December 21, if you're curious), soccer season is officially over. We finished up our last game, and had a pizza party last week to celebrate!

As a previously-non-soccer-playing-or-watching person, I have to say: I totally enjoyed our soccer season.

I loved being outside standing on green grass looking up at blue skies. I loved watching our girls try something new, something that required them to try their best and work hard.

I love that they had to run, sweat, and get out of breath. There's something about the working of the muscles and the scream for breath by the lungs that is good for the soul, don't you think? All you runners out there, don't you agree?

(Incidentally, I loved that I wasn't the one running, sweating, and getting out of breath.)

I loved watching them make new friends. I love how friends made on the soccer field turn into friends playing in the home. I love how friends made by kids turns into friends made with parents.
I loved watching Josh do something new. He's a man who thrives on challenges. He eats challenges for breakfast (or something equally ferocious).
I have learned that lumping Emma and Samantha together isn't always the best idea. This soccer season has taught me that I need to be more aware of their individual strengths, weaknesses, and needs. Close as they are, they are different and unique. I would be wise to treat them as such.
I learned that there's nothing cuter than a kid in uniform. Unless it's a whole team in uniform. That's just pretty stinkin cute.
One of the other soccer moms had this super cute cake made for the Ladybugs end-of-season party. I loved the soccer ball spots. She also made gift bags for each of the girls with soccer stickers, little toys, and - the big hit at our house - a flashlight. I'm not sure why my kids have suddenly become inseparable from their flashlights, but so it is.
Our family made little medals for all the girls, and had it "undefeated" written on it. Technically, its true - since the league doesn't keep score, we didn't actually lose any games. [The family members on the Ladybugs' sidelines did keep score, and we think we only lost two games. Not bad for a team full of first-timers!]
One girl couldn't make it to the party, but here's the final pic of Coach and Team:
And of course, I had to take another picture of the cake before it was sliced open. It was almost too cute to eat. You'll notice I said almost.
Emma loved playing soccer. Samantha loved being on a soccer team. I'm not entirely sure what our plans for next season are, but for now, we're so glad we became a soccer family!

God's sovereignty, as evidenced by the Thanksgiving Cupcake Fiasco

'Twas the night before Thanksgiving and all through the house, the mama was blogging because the daddy took the kids to play all afternoon and the mama got all her cooking done. Ok, so it didn't rhyme, but I was SO thankful for Josh's unexpected offer to take everyone out - for five hours - and I got all my yummies made for tomorrow.

During this Thanksgiving season, we've discussed as a family many of the things we're thankful for. Our discussions have shown us just how much the Lord has blessed us. We've been especially thankful for good friends - both old and new. Several of these special friends live closeby, so we wanted to surprise them with a Thanksgiving Yummy. [This is a term I just made up, but it's pretty self-explanatory.]

We made some extra Turkey Cupcakes - the ones that turned out like this:

and we wrote a little note on pretty Fallish paper, and then made a secret delivery.

It turns out that one of those deliveries was, in fact, very secret. We stopped by a friend's house, and since I knew they weren't home, I planned to put their Thanksgiving Turkey on the front porch.

But as I though it over, I didn't want any bugs having an early T-giving feast, so I changed the plan and put the Cupcake package in the mailbox.

My friend came home to a note in the mailbox that said, "Thanks for the cupcake! From Mailman Bill."

It seems that Mailman Bill got an unexpected surprise on his route today! My girls were disappointed - nay, crushed! - that their friends did not get their intended cupcakes. But we had a great discussion about how God already knew who would get that cupcake! In fact, if we would have left the house just a little earlier, my friend would have been home and gotten the cupcake herself. If we would have come later in the afternoon like I'd planned, she'd have been home.

God was at work in all the details, and my girls got to see that even though WE didn't know it would end up this way, God did! We took a few moments to pray for Mailman Bill and we asked God to bless his life with the knowledge of Truth - probably the only thing better than that tasty cupcake! =)

How many times have each of us felt unappreciated, our efforts overlooked, our presence taken for granted? A note, or a word of encouragement can change the course of our entire day, right? It hit me today, after the cupcake fiasco - that God arranges all that! Not just for Mailman Bill, but for me, too. Each time my heart has been blessed by a friend, God's tender mercy is behind it all.

I hope everyone is on their way to a happy thanksgiving - no matter which continent you happen to live on!

I'll leave you with this parting shot of how we turned the cupcake into a big cake for our celebrations tomorrow:

Happy Thanksgiving!

But Thanksgiving is coming!!

I was shocked when I ran into Walmart a few days after Halloween to discover a big Christmas tree right-smack in the entrance.

Christmas music piped through the speakers.

Christmas decorations front and center.

Christmas bargains splashed on the front cover of all the advertisements.

I know I'm going to sound old-fashioned and cynical, but...where did Thanksgiving go? I do realize I've been away for many holiday seasons, but it was the beginning of November!

It felt like rather than being thankful for what we have now, we're in a rush to buy more. Sheesh, no wonder Christmas has become so commercialized - they start so early that even the holdouts have to surrender after two months of Santa!

Well, I for one am not going to budge! I'll never surrender! My fall decorations will stay up until the day after Thanksgiving! (Erm....except for the porch pumpkins that were discovered to have worms growing inside them. Kudos to Brave Husband for dumping them in the trash. But there are pumpkins in my heart. Promise. They'll stay there until the day after Thanksgiving, too.)

I love the browns and oranges and yellows and reflecting on the Lord's provision and goodness to me in the last year and admiring the bravery of the Pilgrims and marveling at God's providence in the life of Squanto. I'm all about Thanksgiving!

This year I'll be making the traditional Marhsmallow Pilgrim Hats again (a great find from familyfun.com - and that's obviously not me in the picture! I grabbed it from their website) :
And I'm going to try these this year too...because they just look SO cute. There's always good reasons to keep candy corn around, and this is one of them! Yum!
Since my house helper is on another continent, I won't be making homemade rolls this year. =) We're looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving with our families this season and are truly thankful for all their love and support for us over the years.

What other fun thanksgiving keepers have you found this year? Crafts? Books? Recipes?

You'll stick with me, right? You'll keep up your fall decor and savor the season of Thanksgiving until it's over...right?

Vote Today!! What is Abby thinking??

Abby loves her little brother. It's equal parts endearing and annoying, because sometimes the love of an almost-two-year-old can be a little dangerous.

I snapped this picture the other day during a rare dual diaper change - the camera just happened to be in the bathroom, right by me - because the moment just seemed so funny.

Pretty much everything about Abby is funny, so I shouldn't be too surprised.

Anyway, I was going to post this picture along with a sentimental quote about brothers and sisters...short and sweet. Simple. Moving.

But in the process of googling "quotes about brothers and sisters", I found so many appropriate ones that I couldn't choose just one.

Rescue me! Help me choose an appropriate quote for this picture! It can reflect Abby & Silas, Silas & all the women in the house, the general brother/sister relationship...you choose based on what you want.

Here are your choices:

A - There's no other love like the love for a brother. There's no other love like the love from a brother. -Astrid Alauda

B - Being pretty on the inside means you don't hit your brother and you eat all your peas. That's what my grandma taught me. -Lord Chesterfield

C - The younger brother must help to pay for the pleasures of the elder. -Jane Austen

D - The highlight of my childhood was making my brother laugh so hard that food came out his nose. -Garrison Keillor

Sorry - no prizes up for grabs here, just curious to see what you all vote for!

in memoriam: happier days

Back in the days when Sooner fans loved going to games...

when they didn't mind close games because they felt sure the Sooners would pull it off...

when the chance at playing for the National Championship was a real possibility...

...yes, back in those days, a happy little five-year-old felt what it meant to be a Sooner.

A sweet strong daddy took his oldest daughter to "eat the biggest piece of pizza I ever saw!"...

...and then he made sure she was properly attired with new OU clothes...
...and finally, took her to the stadium so she could be indoctrinated introduced to Sooner football traditions.
(A big thanks to Pappy for the ticket!)

When Josh got home, I asked him for every detail - did she like the cheerleaders? What did she think about the band? Did she see the ponies? Did she remember the words to the Star-Spangled Banner? Did she get tired and want to come home?

It turned out to be a high-scoring game, so she got to see a lot of Boomer and Sooner, the ponies that pull the Sooner Schooner...a big hit, of course!

She liked the band ok, but was fascinated by the cheerleaders. I remember loving the cheerleaders when I was a little girl, but I think Josh might have tried to distract her during a gyration-filled halftime performance! I'm glad for her to be a Sooner, but I can do without gyrations!
I'm not sure that she understands the actual game of football very much...but I guess that's not so important.
By the end of the game, she had all the chants and cheers down! Being in a stadium filled with that many people is a little overwhelming, but it is such a unique experience to be a part of something huge.
Daddy and daughter made it home by 11pm, surprised to find that Samantha and I were still awake! We'd rented a few movies, popped popcorn and bought strawberry milk and had our own little girl night.

Of course, the Sooners have lost two games since then...but at least we have some memories of happier days to fill our minds!

What you should be doing on January 16

I flipped through the huge bag of mail my parents had been collecting for me while we'd been overseas. Credit card offers, coupons, bank statements...all the usual stuff.

Most gets thrown away, but something caught my eye - a happy little penguin playing an instrument. It certainly didn't look like the logo of anywhere we banked at! A closer look revealed that it was an ad for the upcoming Family Discovery Concert series with the OKC Philharmonic.

What? Tickets...for three concerts? For $21? You've got to be kidding me!

It had been a long time since I'd been to a concert - and even longer...no, never! since my girls had been to one.

Sixty-three bucks. Three people. Three concerts.

I wasn't sure it could get better than that.

I was so wrong. It got better.

The first concert of the series was on October 10, a Sunday afternoon. We had to waste no time getting home from church, getting bellies fed, and back out the door...but we made it.

Josh kept the two little ones at home while Emma, Samantha and I headed out for an afternoon of musical refreshment. The concerts were aimed specifically at children - though I had no idea what that meant - and I was excited. The theme of this concert was Animal Adventures. How animals were going to tie into music, I had no idea.

I started getting sentimental and goosebumpy as soon as we started walking up the courtyard to the Civic Center. I love the way the air feels before a big performance!

Attending a concert makes you feel elegant and cultured. Listening to a concert makes you feel like someone finally found a way to express human emotion using something other than words.

Ok...well, at least I felt that way.

The girls? Maybe not.

I was doing good to keep them from yelling through the lobby and running through the courtyard. The stuff about human emotion and elegance might not apply so much to five-year-olds.

But we're working on it.

For the Animal Adventures theme, the lobby had been transformed into a web of pre-concert animal related activities. You can see here that there were more options available than we had time for:
When Emma discovered that the OKC Zoo exhibit featured a miniature armadillo, everything else paled in comparison. No line was too long, no wait too demanding for her. She was all about the armadillo.
As it turned out, this armadillo is the smallest one in the world, the zookeeper told us. Emma watched breathlessly as he curled up into his armored shell. Then when the zookeeper sat him in his bucket, he scrambled from side to side, back and forth...showing us why he'd been nicknamed "Speedy" at the zoo.

We finished the armadillo exhibit with five minutes till showtime. We decided to sit upstairs, hoping that elevated seating would give the girls a good view of all the instruments and their placement. [We had studied the orchestra in homeschool earlier in the year. I was secretly curious how much they'd remember from it!]

We found a seat on the first row of the Grand Tier and settled in. I was glad for the extra time before the concert started so we could have a quick review of the instruments. I tried to find interesting things for them to look for -

What's the biggest instrument you see?

Which one is smallest?

Does the orchestra have a piano?

Where will the conductor stand?

How many tubas do you see?

Which instrument do you think will make the loudest sound?

Finally, the lights dimmed and amazingly, the noise from a concert hall filled with children quieted. The orchestra tuned up, and a breath of expectancy filled the air.

The conductor came out, confidently and with all that elegance I associate with concerts.

But as he introduced himself and welcomed us all to the concert, any stiffness or elitism about this being a concert vanished. He was easygoing and warm, genuinely excited about playing beautiful music for young children.

He was engaging, asked questions to the kids, waited for the spontaneous crowd-answer. Conductor Matthew Troy was a hit in my book! Anyone with that much excitement for bringing the orchestra to children in such a fun way has to be good!

The first song was from The Lion King (which conjures up memories from Hong Kong Disney for the girls and I), followed by other animal-related songs - Flight of the Bumblebee, Circus Polka by Stravinsky, and the medley from Jurassic Park.

One feature I really enjoyed about the concert was the use of costumed dancers during several songs. Initially, I was a bit irritated that the dancers took the focus off the music because that's the only thing my girls wanted to pay attention to. But, I noticed that when the dancers were gone, the were equally enchanted by just the music.

The length of the concert was perfect for young kids - not too long, not too short; the length of time where you're left wanting just a little more, instead of looking at your watch wondering when it will be over.

Attending a concert gave us such a great excuse to have a "big girl date", and we thoroughly enjoyed our time together. I can hardly wait until January 16! Next concert's theme will be The Cat in the Hat...I wonder what that will be like?!

This picture commemorates our fun outing, even if it was a little bright outside. =)

(Disclaimer: The opinions and enthusiasm expressed in this post come from me and me alone. The End.)

the great debate

I can remember living in China and thinking wistfully about life in America.

It's so easy and convenient! I'd think. You can just load your kids up in the car!

Carseats! No wrangling of unbelted kids in taxis!

Stop off at Sonic to pick up a quick lunch!

Walmart - one stop shopping!

Now that I'm in America, I think wistfully about life in China.

My house-helper!

I'd love to have my house-helper!

I could get so much more done around here if I had my house-helper!

There are trade-offs, pros and cons about living in each country.

But I do believe that after all this wistful thinking these days, I've solved the great trade-off debate.

Walmart/Carseats/Sonic vs. House-Helper?

Hands down, house-helper wins.

The trade-off debate is good for my soul, though. It's good for me to be able to see the benefits of each situation and still be content with the situation I'm in now. It's good for me to recognize that each situation I'm in is from the hand of my good and gracious Father. It's good for me to read Paul's words and let them sink into my sinful soul:

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.

Amen!

I'm not in need.

Sure, my laundry pile needs help. My bathrooms could use a lot of help. My to-do list could use some extra attention. But my needs - both the day-to-day provisions and also the deeper needs of the heart - have all been met by a gracious God.

Contentment surely comes from a heart that is thankful, a heart that doesn't have an "entitlement" attitude.

I'm so thankful for where we are. I'm thankful for the family and friends around us, thankful for each of the little people who call my name a thousand times a day. Thankful that the Lord is faithful to guide our steps. Thankful for the memories and friendships that are treasured in our hearts.

The Lord is good. Now let's go do some laundry...