As promised, here is some footage of Aubrie's and Jessie's ballet classes. Aubrie's class is more like movement and music rather than ballet, but is bunches of fun! Jessie's class does actually practice "real" ballet, but the video shows what they get to at the beginning of class. I love her concentration playing hop scotch.
P.S. If the videos don't start, you can press F5 to refresh the page. At least that's worked for me.
Some things you need to know…
Jessie had mono and CMV this summer except that she had NO symptoms (so crazy). We didn’t know anything was going on until she wanted to wear her pajamas in the middle of the day and lay down. She tested negative for mono because she technically didn’t have it anymore. More blood work showed that both viruses had been in her system but a while back. The human body is truly an amazing thing. She still gets a little tired but hasn’t wanted to wear her pajamas during the day for a while now. It’s so good to see some improvement in her.
Our house search continues, and in the middle of this economic uncertainty I have to wonder if it’s really a huge blessing to have such a wonderful place to rent. There are lots of things that bug me about this place, but when I find myself starting to complain on the inside, I remind myself how much it would cost to rent an apartment and how much we’re paying for a large house on five acres. Keep your mouth shut, Dee Dee Williams!
Emma and Jessie both took swimming lessons this summer and were little fish by the end of the summer. Emma was already swimming fairly well, but Jessie’s more like her hesitant mama and wasn’t so sure about this swimming thing. The last day that we were able to go swimming Aubrie (who has gills, I think) swam for the first time. What a fun summer and even better is how much easier next summer will be for Mom!
Now for some real fritters:
I love that Aubrie will say something silly and will pause and then add, “Just kidding,” at the end.
I love that all three girls will create a new make believe game just about everyday and carry it out all day long. We have to make them stop at mealtimes because they REALLY get into their roles.
I love that the girls are getting to have some real time outside.
I love that they play in the back of Todd’s old truck and have made it their clubhouse of sorts. They even have a flag flying from the bed of the truck.
I love that Emma grabbed her Bible and asked me to read some more about David and Absolom yesterday after we learned about part of their story in our history lesson.
I love that the girls are learning so much about nature and the outdoors from their sweet dad.
I love that we can watch hummingbirds, cardinals, finches, wood peckers and a variety of doves from our dinning room window.
I love even more that, thanks mostly to their dad, Emma can identify all of these on her own; she’s even better than me at telling the different doves apart.
I love that we have a great church family and that we get to go to homegroup tonight – sure to be a lot of fun!
I don’t promise that this is a full return to blogging, but I thought I would make a brief appearance. Let me start off by mentioning that homeschooling two at the same time whilst keeping occupied the very busy 3-yr-old who lives with us too is quite the challenge. And, unlike others whom I truly admire, I will probably not find any extra time to blog any time soon. Not only blogging, but other activities as well have been cut from the schedule. We are pared (sp?)down and trying to get the basics firmly under our belts. I have to say that every now and then I feel a little cooped up, but it is making for very full and interesting days that are primarily spent at home.
I was in a book/Bible study this summer which focused much of its time on Titus 2 where the older women are admonished to teach the younger. One of the tenants taught is to be “keepers at home.” (The NAS says, “workers at home.”) Now, one of my dear homeschooling friends that I’ve known since college once said to me, “How can we teach our girls to be keepers at home if we’re never home?” She doesn’t know it, but that has stayed in my head over the years, and this year I was finally brave enough to follow through.
You see, as a homeschool mom I fell into a common trap that because my children are schooled at home that I must make up for their lack of “socialization” by carrying them to every activity imaginable. (In homeschool circles this is often referred to as the “s” word, very nasty indeed.) Some moms even joke that they become van schoolers instead of homeschoolers. I think for some moms/families this is fine, and they really do seem to function well. For me, running around from place to place is like death. A slow and painful death.
So, each girl has an activity. Emma is still playing soccer, and Jessie and Aubrie are both in ballet – I will have to post pictures soon because Aubrie’s class is too much fun. Jessie’s is, too, but there’s just something hysterical about those little preschool behinds in their leotards that begs for pictures. We have playdates/story time on Friday (We alternate because they’re at the same time.) and are trying to get most of our schooling done Monday-Thursday so we can relax on Friday. This is our life. We don’t even leave the house at all on Mondays and Wednesdays unless we absolutely have to. Heaven!
Back to the bears in my house – since that’s what I titled this silly post – I was just thinking about how crazy a homeschool house can become. My lovely sister Colleen used to teach second grade and was cleaning out some of her stuff and decided to bless us with these wonderful bears used for counting and various other things in math. Now, there are a million of each color, and we have four tubs each with a color of its own – so many bears to count. In order to keep the beautiful 3-yr-old child happy and learning something constructive we sometimes get out the blue bears and let her take off with them. For days and sometimes weeks I find blue bears all over my house for she finds such creative places to put them.
The bears are put in the kitchen (and I assume cooked, for I can’t imagine that raw bear tastes very good). There are bears in purses – apparently they like to shop. And bears in jewelry boxes, the vain little things. I’m sure some of them are laughing at me right now because I haven’t discovered their little hiding places yet.
This week Jessie needed to use all four colors of bears for one of her lessons so you can only imagine the bears that I am finding. It kind of drives me crazy finding them in random spots and having to dig the tubs out to put them up. I am trying to turn over a new leaf and let go of the bears. After all, they aren’t doing anyone any harm, and I apologize in advance if I suck any of them up in the vacuum cleaner. It has happened, I’m sad to report.
