Category: Children

In Spite of my Fear

I do not like snakes. My children know that I do not like them. However, that fear has not been passed on to my children!

Today, Mark was so excited to find a small garter snake while playing in the backyard. Audrey yelled asking me to get an aquarium ready for their new pet snake. Mark and the girls waited around for the snake to reappear from its hiding place. They then had a fun time trying to catch the snake.

I am so thankful that they have had a wonderful nature teacher who has been able to teach them a healthy respect for snakes. They are not afraid of them, enjoy holding them and have learned to never tease people with the snakes they hold. I have been encouraged to hold snakes and am not quite so fearful of them–but I still dislike them VERY much! Thank you Miss Krista!

Four Years Old

Adrian is four years old!

He requested a dinosaur cake, so I made a brownie and let the kids decorate it with their toy dinosaurs.  It was the best looking cake I have seen in a long time! Adrian thought it was perfect, just what he wanted. It tasted great with the chocolate chip and the raspberry chocolate ice creams he chose.

Dreams

Adrian has white chocolate chips in his hands. Here is his story about them.

“You can eat them.  You can plant them.  You put them in the dirt snow and they turn into seeds.  They grow into a chocolate chip tree.  The tree is blue and the chocolate chips are black!”

I found the following poem while looking for new ones for the kids to memorize.  I thought it fit very well!

Little Brother’s Secret

By Alfred A. Knopf (1924)

When my birthday was coming
Little Brother had a secret:
He kept it for days and days
And just hummed a little tune when I asked him.
But one night it rained
And I woke up and heard him crying:
Then he told me.
“I planted two lumps of sugar in your garden
Because you love it so frightfully.
I thought there would be a whole sugar tree for
your birthday.
And now it will all be melted
O the darling!

Ice

The changing weather has given us lots of fun outdoor activities. We are making our own syrup and taking walks outside again. The other day Adrian fell into a mud puddle up to his waist. Today they broke the ice off of those puddles and played with the ice sheets!

Maple Syruping

Learning to read and do math is important.  Learning by doing and experimenting is so important too.

God designed boys to work.  Learning to work hard while enjoying their work and improving on their best is a lesson too few of today’s boys ever learn.

As a friend said, “You can read about how to maple syrup, or you can make your own.” If you want to see how we made our own, please check out Mark’s blog. Learning to make maple syrup is a lot of work, but the end result is delicious!

Winter Fun

My favorite quote this week was when I heard Adrian talking to Mark after Mark threw some snowballs at me.  He told Mark, “I love my Mommy.  Don’t hit my Mommy”. Of course, Adrian was perfectly okay if he was hitting me with snowballs!

Christmas Memories

Nutcracker 2009

2005

Mark has been fascinated by The Nutcracker since he first heard the music and watched the ballet. The first time he watched it on television –I think he was three– we thought he would be bored and fall asleep. He stayed up till midnight watching it!

We go to see the ballet when we can. Unfortunately, we could not go this year.  But we will enjoy the music a few times before Christmas.

Since the first year the church decorated with this Nutcracker, we measure the children’s growth each Christmas by it.  Of course, Mark was the one who asked to take that first picture.