Tuesday, February 28, 2012

We Wanna Be Like Laura

Laura Ingles Wilder that is....
A dear friend of ours gave my oldest daughter a picture book about Laura Ingles in the Big Woods. The illustrations are amazingly beautiful for a children's book and the story line is easy enough for my four year old to understand.
So one of the pages shows "Ma" sitting with the girls making paper dolls and cutting out dresses for them out of colored paper. Of course my four year old reminded me this morning of that part when it was time for craft time.
Not wanting to waste printer ink, I looked at a few ideas for templates online, and then tried to draw my own paper girls. The product was not worth taking a picture of. She looked positively sickly and I couldn't figure out how to make her hair look right. Let alone make a dress that looked halfway decent.
I"m telling you what, that Ma Ingles woman was a creative wonder if she could make her own from scratch. I finally ended up with a template from here. One of the more modest samples I found.
If you want to try something super fun with your pre-schooler, paper dolls could be the ticket!
Those little faces are so much sweeter than my own rendition.
Look at all those dresses, and modest dresses at that!

First I printed the girls bodies on card stock to make them a bit more stable, then I printed the dresses on regular computer paper. Then the girls colored them, and then I cut them out. I had to add the tabs that you bend to keep the dress on the doll, but a small rectangle is much easier to draw than an entire body form that needs to at least look human.
So, hope you enjoyed the pictures of our finished products. Thank you google for helping me make my eldest daughter's pioneer dreams come true today! Next on the home school craft menu this week..... making jello jigglers, and planting marigold seeds.
Oh, and for good measure, here is a quick peek at my own monstrosity. Just for a good laugh. Yes her hair is green.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Randomness

Thought it was about time for a randomness post! I can't say that I have been doing anything terribly exciting, but lots of good random thoughts have been swirling through my head again.

So here we go:

Random Thought #1
    I am officially in maternity clothing, and I gotta say, maternity pants are amazing! I look like I'm wearing jeans or stylish cords, but it feels like I am wearing my baggiest pair of sweat pants. The long shirts hide my belly and the tell-all elastic waist band, but seriously, if I didn't think I would be discovered, I might just wear maternity pants for the rest of my life.

Random Thought #2
     Coffee is back on the menu, but only once a week. Have you ever detoxed from something completely and then reintroduced it back. All the power that coffee had lost over the years because of over-consumption has returned. I drink one half cup of fully caffeinated coffee once a week and I tell you what, my house looks amazing afterwards. Only draw back.
All that physical activity leads to some pretty strong braxton hicks which usually help to send me to bed early. In my opinion it is worth it though. Today is coffee day for me by the way, so dirty house, you had better just watch yourself.

Random Thought #3
   Elmo's World is Kalei's number one movie choice at the moment (well, for the past 5 months or so). I catch her singing the songs and reliving elmo adventures while she plays with her little people. Overall, I don't mind that she likes the little red guy, but seriously, we only have three of Elmo's dvd's. By now, five months later, my tolerance for Elmo and all the stories I've already heard is about at its limit. Gotta find me some new Elmo stories! Stat!

Random Thought #4
    Downton Abbey's final episode was a bit of a disappointment. Sure, Mary and Matthew got together finally! And there was a pretty good scene in which Matthew punches Sir Richard, but the Ouija board was unnecessary. I skipped all four parts where the servants played that game. Also, it ended with all kinds of loose ends. Like I want to see Sybil's baby, and I want to see Mary and Matthew's wedding, and so forth. Sigh....pretty sure there isn't a season 3.

Random Thought #5
    Misty Edwards has been one of my favorite worship leaders from the House of Prayer, but since first hearing her over 5 years ago, I have incorporated lots of other music into my world as well. For the past few months though I have been on a Misty music binge. Cycling through all the greatness that is contained in her music, the realness of her lyrics and what they reveal of the Lord's hearts toward us. Oh how it makes me fall more in love with Jesus every time I listen. Which I suppose is appropriate as I seek more intimacy with Him by doing a Bible Study on the Song of Solomon and the Bridegroom King! Thank you Misty for giving me such a good resource to couple with the Song of Songs.

Random Thought #6
   In addition to doing the Song of Songs study with a few mom friends, Ken and I have been going through a video series by Danny Silk from Bethel Church - Loving on Purpose (previously known as Loving Your Kids on Purpose). An amazing resource for any parent, it gives a grid for why we as parents melt down, and how to keep control of ourselves so that we can be a living model for our kids. It has lots of other great points and perspectives that are equally amazing, but learning my own self control has been the most impacting for me.

Random Thought #7
   Virgin Mimosas! Having never had much alcohol in my adult life....okay, zero except for a sip of my aunt's wine at Easter once, I was clueless about this fantastic mixture. Still not interested in alcohol, but seriously, ginger ale, orange juice and frozen lemonade concentrate is rocking my world right now. It is like a tangy fruit punch that I enjoy quite a bit with a super sweet breakfast. Glad a sweet friend of mine introduced us!


Random Thought #8
   Ok, this post is getting a little long I admit, but I just made an observation. My random thoughts are a mixture of things I am super excited about in my life, and things that I am perhaps anxious/curious about in my life. Suppose this shouldn't surprise me since those are the sort of things that ricochet around in my head, the really happy exciting things and the anxious ones. So here I suppose is my outlet. Maybe now my brain can move on and think of more important things like....what am I going to make for dinner tonight.

Hope you enjoyed this edition of Randomness.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Strangely Odd

For those of you who don't know me on Facebook, we are having a boy! I have the sonogram picture to prove it - looks like a little finger between his legs! So now I am all kinds of searching for boy 'things'.
This is new territory for me everyone. I've only really ever gotten to look at pink and purple clothes, bedding, etc. Though I am feeling particularly hip and cool at the moment because I did invest on the first round in some neutral bedding. For Kinsey I did a simple Amy Coe Mod Peanut bedding set, which was sage and chocolate and white with elephants.
I dressed it up for the girls with pink accents. Now I get to dress it down for my boy with blue and lots more chocolate accents. Just for fun though I have been looking at bedding sets online. Just to get ideas on what kinds of accents I may want to add.
It was then that it hit me....how odd it was to be looking at all the bedding sets in blues, greens, sport themes and car themes. How new and strange it was to be seeing camouflage accents and sets with an abundance of orange accents, which isn't completely common with girl sets.
Then I turn over to the clothing. I have to say, I'm extremely partial to the idea of little boys in bow ties and striped neck ties. Not real ones, mind you, but home made ones ironed on to onesies & t-shirts. I saw a little boy with a built in neck tie on his onesie once. It was the cutest thing ever!
Am I all formal though? I'm certainly not with my girls. I just think for those first few months where all they wear is simple clothes, they need things to help identify their gender. Like little newborn girls with gigantic bows on their heads. Because inadvertently some older person will come over to your precious newborn girl/boy and confuse them for the opposite sex. Not that that is the end of the world, but the fewer times I have to correct people, the easier I feel my life is.
Like these from LizzieAndCoco on Etsy.com!

So anyhow. That is what I have been musing about today, how odd it is to be looking at blue. I'm also enjoying the yarn colors of teal, maize (yellow), persimmon (light orange), and lime (green). Not that I would be able to get around to making something before he arrives. I'm still trying to finish my second child's new bedspread for her big girl bed, which she just moved into a week ago. I've been at it for 8 months already people. Sheesh! Fast I am not, and I know it, but it is still fun to dream.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

My Sweet Valentine

My day so far has been pretty normal considering that it is Valentine's Day and all. You may not think this is a big holiday that requires a lot of excitement, but it does. Seriously when you are a mother of toddlers, you look for any excuse to make one day different and unique from all the others.
So today is Valentine's Day.
My sweet hubby has some fun outing planned for tomorrow night because that was the night we found a sitter for, but today had to be made special too.
With a crazy amazing Costco run with my bestie friend Natalie and all our little ones, and a spur of the moment baby sitting opportunity to bless another bestie friend Carolyn, I didn't have much energy left though, come nap time.
So how to make the day special, not just like every other day in our world?
Sweets.
We don't do a lot of sweets in the house, not only for health reasons, but because I am pregnant and for 5 months now the very idea of anything sweet makes me feel sick-ish. I do the grocery shopping, therefore, there are not many sweets in the house at the moment. The tide has been shifting though and sweets are back on the menu.
In fact, I've actually been craving them, although I still try to abstain. Again, not entirely for health reasons, but because sugary things give me indigestion/heartburn. Yet still I crave.
How to make a quick sweet thing though that doesn't take a lot of work or weird ingredients, and it would be extra special if it was chocolate? Is that possible?
Well, onto checking up on the blogs I follow and low and behold; Farm Girl Fare has an Emergency Chocolate Cake Loaf recipe. Is my reality an emergency? A whole loaf? Really? Sounds wonderful!
And so it is. I have my chocolate cake loaf in the fridge right now, topped with the most delicious chocolate non-buttercream frosting recipe I could find. I personally don't really like overly buttery frosting. Don't hate.
Guess what we are having for dessert tonight.
Sort of reminds me of a giant, slightly melting snickers bar on a plate....with sprinkles.

Not the most beautiful creation I've ever made, to be sure, at least in an aesthetically pleasing sort of way. It does have beautiful qualities though. Like that there frosting is at least a half inch thick all around, so it is sort of running off the sides. It also contains at least a cup of greek yogurt in the cake itself, so protein as well as moistness.
I have it in the fridge to harden it up so it will be manageable to slice later. Hope you like the sprinkles Kinsey helped me put on. Red and white for Valentine's Day.
Sigh. Happiness.
I will probably die from a sugar coma or something considering I haven't had much sugar the last five months. But who cares, at least I will die in bliss.
Actually, perhaps that is a bit dramatic, death by chocolate is just a myth right? But I will probably end up with a raging sugar induced headache, which I have rapid release Tylenol on hand for.
Wish me luck, and maybe I will tell you all how wonderful it was tomorrow. After I have recovered.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

The Transplant - Sequel

For those of you who don't know, we moved to South Carolina for ministry, which was a bit of a transplant for us from the cozy, tight-knit feel of our community of fellow missionaries in training in Kansas City, Missouri. As we prepared to leave, I wrote a blog entitled "The Transplant" which discussed the similarities I was seeing/expecting between a plant growing in the greenhouse being suddenly transplanted to the outdoors, and the reality of being uprooted from a special community and being transplanted into a new environment.
Here is a little exerp from the above mentioned blog:

Here is what I can tell you about transplanting flowers in the natural and you can probably easily draw some parallels that would apply to us.
  • When you transplant a flower, when you secure it in its new home its best if you cut off all the flowers and cut back 1/3 of the growth, it helps the plant to stop wasting time feeding all those blooms and growth and focus on putting down strong new roots - you cut off all the pretties and let it grow into its new home.
  • When transplanting a flower from a greenhouse environment to an outdoor setting, it is considered normal to have a season of stunted growth as the plant adjusts to the new environment.
  • Newly transplanted flowers need extra water and fertilizer and attention for their whole first year in their new home to help them stay healthy (especially trees and shrubs).
  • If you leave a plant that is ready to be transplanted in its old small pot in the greenhouse it will eventually become root bound and no amount of water will keep it from drying out and eventually dying. If left in the pot in the greenhouse, the growth will become spindly, weak, and unsightly, very few things are ever planted in a greenhouse with the intention of letting it live its whole life in the greenhouse.
  • After a year of acclimation and a season of putting down good roots, the following year is usually a year of exponential growth because of that new and bigger and stronger root system.
  • In a greenhouse all the elements of growth are pretty much controlled, disease and insect problems are very common place the longer a plant stays in that greenhouse, but plants really thrive in an outdoor environment where there is an element of risk and storms and the wind blows freely around them, so they become strong.
Some of the parallels I drew back then would be more real than I could have known at the time. The season of stunted growth, at least in my own life, was right on. The necessity for extra water and fertilizer, well I might not have had such an extended season of stunted growth if I had known to put myself in the way of more water and fertilizer (prayer, reading the word, absorbing truth). I did however spend a considerable amount of my strength upon arriving in making new friends and building new relationships (putting down new roots).
So all in all, I would say it has been a very successful transplant in so many ways. The growth has begun again (going deeper in my pursuit of Jesus and His word), and my root system is now more diverse and deeper in some ways than ever before (new friendships and interactions). There was definitely some pain involved in the pruning portion of the process (saying goodbye to job, friends, house, familiar things, etc), but the sacrifice has prepared me for new growth and an environment where I can flourish and produce new fruits (new ministry opportunities, using what I learned in KC in this new community).
Sigh.
The reason I write all of this now is because we have been here almost a year (8 months +), and I feel as though all of the benefits of being transplanted are finally starting to come about. That good root system has begun to pay off with some new and exciting ministry opportunities. The fact that we are no longer in full time training mode (greenhouse) has caused us to put what we say we have learned into practice, and in the midst of a community that doesn't always understand where we have come from (winds of adversity, challenge of growing in new soil). There are certainly challenges in doing what we are doing here, especially as the Spirit continues to show us favor. The spiritual attacks we have encountered here are much more so than what I recall encountering in KC, but it is to be expected. We are playing the part of a pioneer in some ways and contending for more of the Lord in this place. That makes us targets for attack in the Spirit (harsher environment outside the greenhouse teaches us how to grow steady and strong despite the elements) no matter where we would have landed.
Like I said though, we have been seeing a lot of favor from the Lord, and it makes all the challenges and pain we have been through worth it to see His will being done through us. Are we doing it all perfect? Of course not, but thankfully the Gardener is pleased with our weak efforts and still supplying all our physical needs, as well as spiritual ones.
I can hardly wait to see the rest of what this transplant will mean in the coming months and years in the way of visible fruit! It was worth everything we gave up to get here.
Recently the Lord whispered to my heart at a mom's meeting, 'you are lacking nothing', and since He has spoken it, I have repeated it to myself often. If for no other reason than to remind myself that we really have lacked nothing, and we are lacking nothing still.
Be encouraged!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Intimacy is Important


Intimacy is my topic for this month newsletter to our supporters. Some of you who are already familiar with Mike Bickle’s teachings on the Song of Songs will not find any great revelation in what I have to say next. Yet for those of you who are unfamiliar with Song of Songs being taught as an allegorical love song between Jesus Christ and the Church (His Bride- us, you, me), then I think it is worth mentioning the study I’m currently doing.
Before we moved to South Carolina I was in the midst of a 24 week Bible study on Song of Songs. In that season, it was powerful and set some foundational truths in my heart which have been key in this new season in SC.
When we moved however, I did not finish the study. So now I have picked it up again under the guide of the Holy Spirit and found a couple of friends to go after it with me. The topic of intimacy with Jesus is something we all need deeper understanding on.
At the moment me and my posse of friends are only on session 6 of 24, but so far I can tell you that it is rocking my world. There is just no comparison for the freedom that is released in my heart as I learn to believe the facts about God’s enjoyment toward me.
Many of us would say we know that God loves us. It is printed on pencils and t-shirts that are passed out to kids in Sunday school all over the world.  I would hazard to say though, that most of us don’t believe it as completely as we should. Especially when we are in the thick of life’s battles.
Does that make us all hypocrites? Absolutely not, it makes us immature in the area of intimacy with Jesus. It means we have probably never fully looked into the matter and put ourselves in a place to experience His love. He can reveal it to us at a deeper level than just simply reading words in a book.
That is what this study has been helping me to do. Not only does it present Biblical truths that support the idea of God’s love for us, it also takes considerable measures at tearing down false ideas we may have about God and His attitude toward us (as believers). It defines the difference between rebellion and immature love in believers lives. It discusses what true repentance looks like and how the Lord feels about us in the midst of our weak love and continued fumbling in the areas of obedience.
I could go on and on about the lies it has torn down in my own heart toward the Lord and His affections for me. Things I had even believed unconsciously, but that had produced a spirit of condemnation in me. Condemnation hinders us from wholeheartedly pursing the Lord because it continually makes the pursuit feel like a hopeless cause.
The truth of learning intimacy with Jesus though, has given me a spirit of confidence before Him. Confidence leads to greater action (pursuit), action will eventually lead to victory, and victory leads to, well, more victory I suppose. Not completely there myself, same as the rest of the church, but I am wanting to be more useful in the Lord’s hand. Therefore I must learn the truth of who I am in the Lord’s eyes so that I may combat the enemies lies more efficiently and run the race with confidence and endurance.
I encourage you to do the same. You can find the study online for free at MikeBickle.org, or just go here. Its all free! There are notes in .pdf and video teachings on each session that elaborate on the session notes.
Even as one who has gone thru a good portion of this study already, it has been powerful and fresh to go through the beginning sessions again. New truths jump out at me, old truths are reaffirmed and strengthened in my heart.
Totally worth the time investment.....in my opinion.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Appointment

Today I had my third midwife appointment for the pregnancy. What were the highlights you ask?
I gained 3 lbs.
Baby heart beat was in the 150's
Midwife said to get some calcium magnesium for my leg cramps (yeah!)
and my assignment for the coming month is to eat lots of salt to up my blood pressure. Maybe then my fingers and toes won't be so cold.

These are all super fun for me (even the salt diet change, because I love salt!), but especially the weight gain, considering I lost about 12 lbs since the beginning of this pregnancy. That may not sound like a lot, but the baby has been growing and my bra size has been growing too, so I've been gaining while losing. I hope most of the lost weight was in my butt and thighs. Hey, a girl can dream can't she?
Just to give you a grid though. I always have lost weight first trimester. No appetite, puking at least once a day, and still having to keep up with regular work either in an office, doing landscaping, or this time, chasing around two toddlers. Well, it is just hard to maintain the same weight.
With my first, working in an office, I was really sick. Probably all the weird office smells and peoples suddenly horrid smelling perfumes, etc caused me to be puking a lot more than once a day. So I lost about 15 lbs with that one, but I also gained it all back plus 35 lbs. Again, due to working in the office where all the 40 and 50 year old women wanted to feed the cute pregnant woman.
Second pregnancy, worked landscaping up until my sixth month. Only lost 12 lbs with that one, and I think the fresh air helped a lot. It was early spring during my first trimester, so I was doing a lot of greenhouse work, rather than back breaking digging or weeding. Later on I gained it all back too, and then about 18 lbs more. I gained less total, but a healthy amount that was maintained better because of chasing my first toddler around rather than sitting in an office all day.
Now this one, I have been home, not working a paid job (because being a mom is still a lot of work, and anyone who says it isn't needs to trade places with me for a day), so I can take as many breaks as I want or can invent excuses for. I eat as often as I want, and sleep in the middle of the day with my girls. My feet are up a lot, but I still accomplish most of what I need to do around the house (at least now that I am in the second trimester, let's not talk about the first). All in all, I would say this is my best pregnancy so far.
You may look at my weight loss and say, 'best?', but let me assure you, there is comfort in being sick in one's home and not out in the public eye. It is hard to be pregnant in public. There are weird smells, people looking at you as you grimace and race past the fresh meat section, and the lack of comfortable places to sit when you feet, hips, or body is worn out. So yes, this one has been the easiest so far.
The hardest part has been gaining back some of that weight, which has actually been a quite enjoyable task. I've been on a mission this past month. Hamburgers, bbq chicken breasts, meatloaf, tuna salad (sparingly, but oh how I crave it!), cashew, pistachio, almonds, and sunflower seeds, eggs, and greek yogurt. Sigh. It has been wonderful.
So thankful that this has been my first pregnancy so far where I have actually craved protein, so none of the above mentioned foods have made me feel sick. It's the veggies that I'm having a hard time with. Thankfully Italian dressing has been helping the veggies go down too, while having the added benefit of killing my heartburn after lunch each day. I heart Italian dressing.
Wow, and now this post has become a pregnant woman's ramble about food, so I will close with a little thanksgiving to Jesus.
Thank You Lord for this little life in my womb. Thank You that You have helped me to carry this one well, and that You have imparted strength to me to keep up with the rest of my family. You are indeed wonderful to me, and keep watch over the things that are close to my heart. Thank you again. Amen.

Also this week we go to get our sonogram to see if we can see the baby's business down there! What are your gender guesses?
Note: don't go off of this heart rate because last month it was in the 140's, the time before that it was in the 150's, so it has been fluctuating.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Hindsight

For most of you, this post might take you by surprise because most of you don't know this side of my past.
Wow, that sentence makes it sound like I'm about to unload some big dark secret, but the truth is, this is a happy post, or at least about happy times.
See, before my husband and I moved to Kansas City for him to go to school at the Forerunner School of Ministry, we both loved missions and more specifically helping with short term foreign missions trips. Our hearts, I can say for sure, were in the right place in loving to help share the gospel in other countries. However our spiritual maturity, and even just full maturity into adulthood (at least for me) was not really there yet.
Still, the Lord is thankfully not choosy when choosing those He will use for His purposes, and so we went to Uggie (nicknamed for privacy purposes), Brooklyn, NY (which felt like a third world country in some ways), and central Mexico in the span of about two and a half years.
Those were some special times, and I think about them often, but most often I think about Uggie. We were there working for over a month and it was there that I first fell in love with missions work. The people there were so loving, generous, and sincerely hungry for the Lord. I look back with such fondness for those people.
Yet I also look back with so much regret. I suppose so many people could say that after having lived a life with Christ. As He opens your eyes to things in your own heart and purifies those places and teaches about holiness and servant hood and dying to self, then you can always look back to the past with regret.
Knowing somehow if you had known what you know now, you would have been more affective, more useful in His hands back then. That is how I feel about Uggie.
Back in the day I was so excited to be doing the Lord's work, but I was not very good at it. I was still very selfish, very lazy, I had no idea how to reciprocate the overwhelming generosity shown us, and probably complained a lot, at least to Ken in private. I knew almost nothing about the power of prayer, I knew almost nothing about spiritual warfare, and I barely knew enough of the Bible to teach anything from it, so I did kids ministry.
Now after having lived a life among other missionaries in Kansas City, and now living in South Carolina as a missionary, I have learned a great deal more. Mostly about life, love, hospitality, spiritual maturity, etc, but not all of it has come directly from the Lord. A good deal of it has come indirectly from Him through the seasons of life. I"m only about thirty, but I now have two children and one on the way and I promise you that children are one of the quickest ways to make you face up to your own issues. Need a cure for selfishness, laziness, and spiritual immaturity. Start hanging out with toddlers. They are like a mirror of my own heart some days and what I see doesn't always please me. Instead it spurs me on to try harder, give more, and pray a whole heck of a lot for wisdom. Thankfully, when they are testing my fruits of the spirit (love, peace, patience, kindness, etc) my overwhelming love for them is never affected. No matter how badly they are behaving I always will love them and it is enough to convince me more and more that that is the way the Father loves us.
Whew, thank goodness!
So all that to say. I think about Uggie a lot. How I wish I could go back and do a redo. See and serve the pastors and people we met, pour into the people real spiritual food (at least as much as I've gain since then), and mostly just to love them better.
So why am I writing about this when I am almost 6 months pregnant? I think the Lord likes to bring things up in my heart when there is nothing I can do about them in the natural. That way I am forced to sit back and just pray about it, pray into and wait to see what the Lord has in mind, rather than just jumping on the next flight to Uggie.
Lord, You certainly have a sense of humor and I am thankful that there is as much power in my prayers for the nation of Uggie as there is in me actually going there to be Your hands and feet. You have been so generous to my family and me in teaching us more of You, help me not to wait to only share it in foreign places, but to speak it out everywhere. In any season. Amen.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Valentine's Day

Who would have thunk that this would be the month I decided to start homeschooling my preschool age daughter. Well, if you know how my pregnancies usually function, then you could have probably guess that I would be getting my energy and sense of purpose back about this time....almost 20 weeks.

So today was kick off day. Well, our official kick off.

Lately we've been talking a lot about letters, and she loves to try and make words with the letters she knows. Talk about motivated. I haven't even been motivated to try and teach her yet, but she is very motivated to learn. She just keeps asking questions that demand answers, and most of them center around making words.

So today we worked on a few new letters and reviewed a few older ones. When I say working on letters, we pretty much talk about the sound of the letter, then find things in our home that start with that letter. Then we read a book or two and point out all the words that start with that letter. Very basic.

But after we worked on letters a bit, I decided it was craft time. She has also been begging to cut out paper hearts and make valentine cards for her friends. I've postponed and postponed to avoid the mess, but today we did it, minus our smallest members participation. Overall I think the mess was minimized because of the seclusion of my two year old. She loves to grab from the table and run off and stick things who knows where. They are not found again until I randomly come across them. Very exciting developmental stage, really.

So back to cutting out hearts. We made hearts and decorated them with stickers, foam letters and hand drawn goodness.

The reason I felt it was worth writing all this is because of the reality that you can't finish a letter lesson with a four year old without expecting the pupil to want to use some of her new words on the valentine cards. What words do we know?

Our name, big, pig, bug, best, and pad.

Out of those words, which do you think are her favorites......
Big and pig.

That is what she wanted to spell out on her cards to her friends. How do you explain social etiquette to a four year old. It has caused all kinds of smiles on my part. What a great first day to homeschooling....officially that is!

Thankfully, to finish the story, I talked her into spelling 'love' and 'hi' to her friends. Then she got to write her name as many times as she could fit on each spare spot on the hearts. How personal, how special.
Did I mention I let her cut out a few....she did great!
Serious fun-ness!