Throwback Thursday: Grace

Grace at 3 1/2 years old.

Wordless Wednesday: Josiah

I think it's time for a couple of flashbacks...

The first one is from when Josiah (now 11) had just turned four:

Out of the blue, Josiah said to me, "I think it would be better to have just one boy."  I asked him why, and he replied, with the all-knowing wisdom of a four-year-old, "Because kids aren't very smart.  A boy will just go in the street even if his mom tells him not to."

And another one, when Josiah was nearly five:

Josiah excitedly ran inside from playing in the backyard and told Jason and me about how he had seen a rabbit in our yard, and how he had very, very quietly walked up behind the rabbit and had petted the rabbit's back before the rabbit realized he was there.  He vividly described how the rabbit sat, motionless, while he felt something touch his back, and then hopped away.  Josiah went on and on about this experience, adding details here and there, before Jason stopped him and asked, "Did any of this really happen?"  Josiah paused, looked up at us, and in his matter-of-fact way said, "Well, there was a rabbit."

Josiah at age 5

This post is linked to 5 Minutes for Mom and Sarah Halstead at The Naptime Momtog for Wordless Wednesday, and to Ashley Sisk  for Wittle People Wednesday.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

This week's scavenger hunt items were

• Red
• White
• Blue
• Stars
• Sparkle

All of these photos were taken at Cindy and Kerry's home during our 4th of July celebration (held on Saturday, because of all the rain we've had).

RED

Robert's Cort guitar

WHITE

BLUE

With all the rain we've had lately, blue skies are really wonderful.

...And a little more blue.

STARS

SPARKLE

 Well...sparklers.  :)

Grace (7) decided that "4th of July" didn't sound like a real holiday.  She asked me if there was another name for it, and once I told her what that other name was, she insisted on calling it "Independence Day."  On Independence Day, Grace served me breakfast in bed...my first breakfast in bed!



Click on the link below to see others' photographs or to join in on the fun!  

It's not so much an identity crisis as an identity carnival

Grace has a healthy imagination.  She has, at one time or another, pretended to be a grandmother, a dog named Sweet Dog (and, since then, Baby), a bride, a lion, a princess, a brand new mother, and Laura Ingalls Wilder at various ages.  She also dressed like Cyndi Lauper, but not on purpose.  Plus, there were the days of the Wish Piggy, a piggy bank that Grace deposited coins into to get Josiah to turn into a wide variety of creatures.  (Each of those links will take you to the corresponding blog post.)

More recently, she has pretended to be an Indian named Indiana (I think it's because it sounded feminine and...um...Indian at the same time) as well as a ninja.  This has been going on for at least a year, but has recently been an every day thing again.

When she was dressing herself to go to her best friend's house for her older sister's graduation party and said, "I know exactly what I'll wear," I could hear it in her voice that she was up to something...

Like this.

Grace (7) the petite ninja.  That's our puppy Bono in the corner behind her--she was trying to blend in with her surroundings.

Posing

I managed to get her changed into something a little less...black, seeing as it's late May.  But she still signed the graduation card as "Indiana."  

Thankful

Grace (6) created a thankfulness tree in Children's Church on Sunday.  Each child picked several "leaves" to glue onto the tree from what the teacher had prepared, and Grace picked the likely things to be thankful for--God, home, health, friends, peace, family, pets, food...

Each child was also given the chance to write another thing he or she was thankful for.  Grace wrote,

"LONG HAIR THANCK YOU GOD FOR LONG HAIR"

She sounds so...emphatic.  I'd say she really likes having long hair, wouldn't you? 

WFMW: Homeschool Organization

I've been looking around for some kind of inexpensive container that would work well with...well...containing each child's school books on a daily basis.  I know some families use plastic milk crates, but I knew that Josiah's box, in particular, would be a royal mess and we'd end up with damaged books, crumpled papers, a fussy mom, etc.  I was delighted when I saw these Sterilite Locker Crates for $4 each at Wal-mart!  They are essentially narrow milk crates with a solid bottom, and they are perfect for our needs. 

They come in a small variety of colors (Robert's, not shown, is red and is in his bedroom) and are stackable on the short end.

Grace (6) asked me why I needed a box.  Oh, how I laughed.

Grace packed her box full of any workbook she could find around here. She is an enthusiastic student.

I put a small piece of (bright orange) poster board in Josiah's box--at the start of the school day, all of his books are in front of the poster board.  As he completes a subject, he puts that book behind the poster board so he can clearly see what he still needs to finish.  (Otherwise, he will get up to go to the bathroom or to get water, return to find a closed book, and think he's somehow already finished everything when, in fact, he hasn't completed one subject.  Sigh...)

I have a small Ziploc bag in my box where I keep a few things so they will be handy throughout the day.  I occasionally use the die with the index cards as rapid addition, subtraction (on the reverse side of the card) or multiplication drill.  Since the die are kept in my bag, they don't sprout legs and run off.  (So far, at least.)

We typically use spiral notebooks for most subjects, but with two lefties (Josiah and Grace), I am moving towards using composition notebooks with them instead so the spiral wire is not in the way while writing.  (Plus, I've only seen the composition notebooks on sale for $.10 each this year, so I bought fewer spiral notebooks anyway.)  I'll still use the spiral notebooks with Robert.

This is where I store all the unused notebooks:  in a shoebox under my bed.  Fancy, huh?  If I leave them out in any other place (bookshelf, etc.), Grace writes in all of them.  I may have another author on my hands...

At the end of the school year, any partially unused notebooks are returned to the shoebox after tearing out the used pages.  In a pinch, partial is better than nothing.  :)

On an entirely different note, I have had the hardest time getting Josiah (10) to label his answers to math word problems.  Since it became a daily thing, I tried to keep it lighthearted as I questioned him..."Do you mean cookies?  bananas?  squirrels?"...and I always kept "squirrels" as one of the possible labels.  He finally picked up on this just this week, and this is what I found on his math page:

Cherries...not squirrels, mom  =)

Whoo hoo!  A labeled answer!  

And, yes, he wrote a sideways smiley face like he's seen on the computer.

A little bit of organizational improvement--and a little well-placed humor--works for me!


Check out We Are THAT Family for more Works For Me Wednesday posts.

Message on the Brownie

If you've been around here for a while, you may remember seeing Robert's various humorous notes that he leaves for us.   

This may not be the most recent note, but it is the last one I photographed.  ;)  I had made brownies one night in May, and wrote a note to the kids on the aluminum foil:

This is NOT your breakfast.  :)

Josiah (9 at the time) wrote "WAH." (Unfortunately, you can't see this part very well, but it's just right of center and circled.  I guess the Sharpie failed in his hands...which, let me tell you, is often a good thing.)

Robert's addition to the brownie note was  

I don't take orders from tin foil.

He didn't take the brownie, either, and that's what counted.

Time for a change

Every once in a while, Robert (15) will peer over my shoulder while I'm blogging and tell me, "You really need to update those pictures on your blog."  (Translation:  "I don't look like that anymore.")


He was right--while I updated the kids' ages with each birthday, I didn't update the photos.  This is how old the photos were:

Robert...when he was 12

Josiah...when he was 7

Grace...when she was 3

They were so cute and little!  Now you can see how much they have grown!

Robert (15)

Josiah (10)

Grace (6)

I found that I really need to make Josiah take serious photos every now and then--most of the photos I have of him are "action shots" (where I may or may not have the back of his head), or goofy faces.  In just a few short years, he will be accusing me of never taking good pictures of him because he is the middle child.  ;)

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

This week's prompts for Scavenger Hunt Sunday are:

• Time together
• Wrapped
• Duplicated
• Tell me a story
• Love or couple

Time together

Josiah (10) and Grace (6) spend a lot of time together, and usually they are knee-deep in imaginative play.  I overheard them talking about a piggy bank...only this was no ordinary piggy bank.  This was Wish Piggy; if Grace put coins in, she could wish for Josiah to be various animals.

These "animals" include such things a pony, a lion, a gorilla, a griffin, and a wahga-wahga. Each of the imaginary animals have their own individual sounds they make.  I'm not quite sure how Josiah keeps them straight, but he does.  (Probably due to constant usage of the sounds...)

Wrapped

These are mice that Jason and I were forced to make encouraged by Grace to make, and they are wrapped in rags because Grace said, "Mice should never be naked." Then she picked out the rags for us, and wrapped the mice.  I think she was afraid we would do it the wrong way.

She has issues.

Left to right:  Jason's, Grace's, and my mice

Duplicated

Grace duplicated the position of the arms of the huge stuffed rabbit that was beside her while she was sleeping. 

But who could duplicate the stunning beauty that God placed all around us?

Lovely sunset, with clouds that give clues about the weather

We can only capture bits and pieces, and do our best to imitate the beauty surrounding us, through our art...

One of Josiah's sunflowers, with beautiful, intricate details

Tell me a story

I had the chance to hear Matt Kennon perform recently.  You may have heard of him--he's the country music singer/songwriter of The Call, That's Love, and, more recently,  You Had to Pick On Me.  (Click on the links to watch his YouTube videos.)  He tells his story through his music...

Matt Kennon

and he sang some of these songs at his parents' 50th wedding anniversary celebration. 

Love

Fifty years of marriage!  Praise God!

Click on the link below to see others' photographs or to join in the fun!  

Grace reciting the Lord's Prayer

I've already posted this video before, but you get to see it again.  :)  This is, in my opinion, the best one!

The video was recorded in October 2009, when Grace was 3 years old.

How is she like Josiah? Let me count the ways...

This post was a draft I found from early 2009, when Grace would have been 3 years old.

August 2007:  Grace (17 months old) and Josiah (5 years old)

April 2009:  Grace (3 years old) and Josiah (6 years old)

It is well established, I think, that Grace is a lot like Josiah. But in case you were wondering, here is a partial list of the more humorous or bizarre ways they are alike:

1. She will complain that she can't go to sleep "because my eyes hurt." (Josiah did this when he was about 4...Grace does not know this history, yet she repeats it.)
2. She is just as fearless as he is...which is not always a good thing, especially when she is following his lead.
3. She loves medicine and will make up ailments to try to get a dose. Josiah stuck to reality a little more, with some dramatization for effect (cough cough "I think I'm sick"); Grace will come up with strange conditions and doesn't bother masking her intent ("My cheek hurts, and I need medicine to make it feel better." [big grin]).
4. She will follow up many meals with, "You a good cook, Mommy!" and say things like, "You make the best French toast!"
5. She is genuinely a sweetheart. She wants to make you feel better when you are sad, either with hugs or with "It's gonna be OK," and she will (sometimes) apologize without even being prompted.
6. Grace and Josiah love peanut butter on a spoon, at any time of the day.
7. She will draw you into her imaginary world and then refuse to let you leave. Josiah became a mild-mannered "Cute Dog" who wanted to eat dry cereal from a bowl on the floor; Grace becomes a very insistent "Gan-ma" [Grandma] who wants to give you piggyback rides to take you from room to room. "Piggyback rides?!" you ask? Yes, piggyback rides. And she has the script for everything, too: "If you want a piggyback ride, you have to say, 'Gan-ma, would you give me a piggyback ride?'" (And then she will tell you that you want a piggyback ride.)  

Incidentally, Josiah had an imaginary friend named "Grandma" who lived in a hole in the ground with garage doors and a pet dinosaur.

February 2007:  Cute Dog/Josiah (4 years old) with Grace (11 months old).  Grace was bouncing from happiness because of Cute Dog.

And, oh, how they love dogs...

December 2007:  Grace (21 months old) and Louie

Grace

I asked Grace what it looked like she was thinking in this shot, and she said, "Oh, yeah?  So you think you're gonna get away with that?"

This post is linked to 5 Minutes for Mom and Energizer Bunnies' Mommy Reports for Wordless Wednesday.

Overheard: Wow

This was, word-for-word, a conversation Grace and I had one morning.  I shared it on Facebook, and recently in another blog post, but it was too good not to share again.

 

While sitting on my lap this morning, Grace began an odd conversation...

Grace [6 years old]:  Mom, what's the biggest lie you could tell someone?

Me [wondering where she was going with this, and pausing to consider the question]:  Well, I think the biggest lie you could say is that there is no God.

Grace nods, expectantly, and waits.

Me:   Another really big lie would be that Jesus didn't really die on the cross and come back to life. What do you think?

Grace [nodding again at my response]:  I would have said that the biggest lie was that God doesn't love you.

WOW.

Grace (6 years old)

 

 

Love Notes

Grace (6 years old) loves writing notes to me, whether it's because she's practicing typing on her little "laptop"

or because she thinks I need some reassurance during a rough day

or because it's Mother's Day.

(She said she was trying to write "Mom" in a fancy way at the top of this last note.)

What a sweetheart!  You can bet I'm holding onto these love notes!

Overheard: The Facebook Edition

This post is composed entirely of conversations and other things I posted on Facebook.  We have had a week of illnesses throughout my family--each person being affected by either a stomach bug or a head cold--and I'm taking the easy way out for an "Overheard" post.    

 

January 2012...

 I think KOS (kindergartner over shoulder) may be even worse than TOS (teen over shoulder).

Grace [5 years old]: Mom, is her name Brenda?

Me: Yes. 

Grace: Brenda...who's Brenda? Do I know her? Oh, yeah. OK...Does Cindy know her?

Me: [Giving up looking at Facebook until Grace is completely occupied by something else, because this could, literally, take all day if I tried to answer ALL her questions about people on Facebook--how I know them, whether she knows them, and whether they know each other.]

When I posted the above conversation on Facebook, my KOS read most of that on her own. And wanted the full explanation.

~~~ 

Uh oh...my 5 year old just set the timer. She says I have 12 more minutes and then it's her turn on the computer. ;)

~~~

Grace:  It's really fascinating. Well, the way *I* look at it.

 

February 2012...

My 5 year old has spent much of the day playing with a plastic grocery store bag she has named Gerald. She's been running around the yard, throwing Gerald up into the air to let the wind catch him, and then getting him back so she can do it all over again. (He went over the fence a number of times, so I tied a kite string to him.) She spent a few minutes before bedtime letting him "fly" over the air purifier in our bedroom.

(How did this start? She first began pretending the plastic bag was a paper lantern that she sent into the sky to celebrate her daughter's [baby doll's] birthday, like in the movie "Tangled." I have no idea where she got the name Gerald from.)

My guess now is that the name "Gerald" came as a variation of what was on the plastic bags she used as her several Geralds she ended up with.  They were all yellow Dollar General bags.

~~~

Grace:  Mom, were you the youngest in your family?

Me: No.

Grace:   Who was?

Me:  Jonathan.

Grace:   How many kids were in your family? 

Me:  Four. I had three brothers.

Grace:  Wow!! You were more crowded with brothers than I am!!

(She already knows this. I'm not sure why she was questioning me--it's probably because I was working on taxes and she thought I needed more to think about.)

 

March 2012... 

Wind advisory, high pollen count, and freeze warning for tonight. Yay.

March 5th in Georgia.  It wasn't even spring yet, and the pollen count was already outrageous.

~~~

Josiah [9 years old]:  I don't like black-soled shoes. They leave marks all over the floor. I mean, you can't even tap dance in them!

He said this with a straight face, as though he knows how to tap dance and enjoys practicing on our kitchen floor in his sneakers.

~~~

Overheard in the car yesterday when there were some pretty dramatic clouds...

Grace: [gasp]  Look! It's Mt. Everest! 

Josiah: Mt. Everest is in Asia. That's a cloud.

Grace: Nope. It's Mt. Everest. I can see the pointy mountain parts.

Josiah: Well, show it to me tomorrow. It won't be there.

He reminded her a few more times that Mt. Everest is in Asia, then dropped it because we had arrived home. This afternoon when we were once again in the car, he asked her if she could still see Mt. Everest. Because Grace loves to exasperate her brother, she said yes. ;)

~~~

14 year old Robert's Haiku :)

Flowers run over
Destroyed by lawnmower
Still lots of pollen

~~~ 

While sitting on my lap this morning, Grace began an odd conversation...

Grace [6 years old]:  Mom, what's the biggest lie you could tell someone?

Me [wondering where she was going with this, and pausing to consider the question]:  Well, I think the biggest lie you could say is that there is no God.

Grace nods, expectantly, and waits.

Me:   Another really big lie would be that Jesus didn't really die on the cross and come back to life. What do you think?

Grace [nodding again at my response]:  I would have said that the biggest lie was that God doesn't love you.

WOW.

~~~ 

After getting lots and lots of candy at an Easter egg hunt:

Grace + candy - her big brother Josiah = a whole lot of chatter.

Josiah is home now, and not a minute too soon...

They are kind of lost without each other.  This is a consideration when thinking about sending Josiah to a week long sleep-away camp this summer.

~~~

I checked out an "Adventures in Odyssey" story from the library and Grace is listening to it now.  It's on cassette tape, and as I was flipping the tape over from side 1 to side 2, you would have thought my 6 year old's eyes would pop out of her head--"It's on BOTH SIDES?"  Yes, and I feel old now.  Thank you.

~~~

I made liquid soap yesterday using a Pinterest recipe. I let it cool, and then had Jason help me pour the goopy soap into a gallon jug. At some point, he looked at me and asked, "So, is it tomorrow that we make our own butter?"

Just as soon as that cow I ordered comes in...

I have to add that my friend Kathleen has made both butter and cheese.  I think I'll live vicariously through her.

~~~

My Dove chocolate wrapper said "Indulge your sense of enjoyment."  So I ate another chocolate.

‎"Feel free to be you."  Hmmm...I like to eat chocolate. I think I'll have another one.  (And, really, who else am I free to be?  Anyone else...well, that's identity theft, folks.)

I was in a strange mood that day.  My friends put up with me, though.  :) 

 

April 2012...

Grace:  I bet there's only one song in the entire universe that I don't like!

Me: Really? What song is that?

Grace: I don't know. I haven't been all over the the universe.

Silly me.