Out Riding Fences

Granny and Grandpa gave our little cowgirl this beautiful rocking horse for her 3rd birthday. She loves it! S and her pony named Pinto spent all day yesterday out riding fences with Dora. This one is for you, Granny! Thank you for finding the perfect pony for S! And don't miss the trick riding near the end :)

Encouragement to the Task

I posted these thoughts last year as we slid from our summer school routine into our autumn routine. I really needed to read these truths this week, so I decided to share them again. 

What do you expect of me, Lord?

I have one vital task in rearing my children: to point them to Jesus. My daily focus is not to make sure they are happy, or successful or smart. My job, as their mother, is to help them know the Lord. 

My son, hear the instruction of thy father,

 and forsake not the law of thy mother;

 For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head,

 and chains about thy neck. 

Proverbs 1:8-9

But how will I have the strength and wisdom to do this, Lord?

I do not have the strength and wisdom to do this. It will come from my gracious Lord.

But my God shall supply all your need

 according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

 Philippians 4:19

On what should I focus, Lord?

I musn't be distracted by all the "good" things this world has to offer, but rather focus on the righteousness that God offers. 

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true,

 whatsoever things are honest,

 whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure,

 whatsoever things are lovely,

 whatsoever things are of good report;

 if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise,

 think on these things. 

Those things, which ye have both learned,

and received, and heard, and seen in me, do:

 and the God of peace shall be with you. 

Philippians 4:8,9

Will You bless me in my efforts, Lord?

It is my task to sow diligently the words of God into my children, and the Lord will bring forth His harvest.

Be not deceived, God is not mocked:

 for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 

For he that soweth to his flesh

 shall of the flesh reap corruption;

 but he that soweth to the Spirit shall 

of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 

And let us not be weary in well doing;

 for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

 Galatians 6:7-9

Out of the Mouths of Moms

It's hot, and the walls are closing in around here. We've been creative and tried to keep busy with indoor activities, but we are so ready for some cooler weather so we can run around outside again! And right now "cooler" could mean any temperature below 100 degrees. If it ever rains again here in Texas we are going to spend an entire day splashing in puddles. I think the kids may not remember what a puddle is.

After we finish school and chores each day we try to find some fun stuff to do that involves air conditioning. We baked and decorated sugar cookies one day, and the kids chose Christmas shapes to make thing feel cooler. It didn't really work, but we had fun. We dug around in the closet and found every musical instrument we own and they played them all at he same time. We've played hide-and-seek indoors, which reminded me how badly I need to clean out closets around here. We painted pictures. The boys have spent hours with Legos and R is sewing hard on a lovely Christmas surprise.

We got so desperate yesterday that we made birthday cakes out of play-do for S and stuck candles in them.  Then I burned through a half a box of matches lighting candles over and over while we all sang the "Happy Birthday" song umpteen times. Good fun. It felt like surely we'd been at it for at least an hour, but when I checked the clock that mighty mess only used up twenty minutes of the long, hot afternoon.

These words of wisdom came out of my mouth this week:

"Don't bite your brother on the bottom!" (And this wasn't the first time I've said that.)

"Don't lick the fish tank!"

And, one of my favorites:

"Don't lick that frosting off your sister's foot!"

Seriously.

Summer Struggles

It's hot here. Very, very hot. Too hot to swim, because the water in the kiddie pool is literally so hot I could toss in some veggies and make soup. It's too hot to play outside, because it is downright dangerous. It's too hot.

So, with all this indoor time I've had more hours to notice how much I need to do around here. I need to paint the beat up living room walls, scrub the corners on the vinyl floors, wash windows, clean out the linen closet (didn't I just do that?), organize my mudroom, wash my kitchen cabinets, reorganize my study, sort through the boys' room, continue to dejunk, and always chip away at the never-ending pile of books with no home. All that is stuff I should do in my spare time, but I can't seem to find spare time with the everyday chores and mothering that come hard and fast from the time I get up until my head hits the pillow at night. What to do? I thought about just giving up completely for a week and just relaxing, but can you imagine the mess I'd face after a week of letting things go? Ugh. Not a great plan.

So, I figure I'll start by paring down my list. Some of those jobs would nice, even fun, to accomplish. But they are not really necessary right now. In fact, it's not even feasible to have them on the list right now, so I'll strike out washing the kitchen cabinets and painting anything. The mudroom is a daily frustration, so that truly needs to be done. But, I'll let go of my ideal makeover and instead embrace a more workable redo that will help me more efficiently deal with all this produce coming into my house daily, while still being able to find my laundry baskets (even though they are all full of cantaloupes and watermelons). The linen closet is also pretty frustrating, so I'll delegate that. My eldest daughter enjoys those kinds of challenges, so what have I been waiting for? Give the job to her, and then praise her for a job well-done, even it's not exactly like I envisioned it. Maybe we'll take a picture of it when it's done and post it inside the door so that all our male family members can tell exactly where to put those clean linens when they are folded.

My eldest son is good at washing baseboards, and has been slowly working his way around the house each week via his ChorePack. But perhaps I could set him up to do the whole house as a paying job, or maybe his brother would like a turn at it, and every room could get a fresh wipe down? Now that's an idea. If I'm going to get down the on floor I'd like to be playing Twister or dollhouse with the kids, not wiping something down. As for washing the windows, forget about it. We'll tackle that job when it's not 109 degrees outside and we can do both sides of them. So I'm marking that off now.

Things already look a bit better. And that's enough time spent pondering my plight. It's time to get on with it and get this stuff done. I'm going to make sure I'm drinking enough water, get everyone to bed on time each day, and get up early to get a jump on the day.  Hopefully after a week of concentrated efforts, and continued regular Bible readings for strength and courage, I'll feel a little more in control of my household and better able to serve my family. Or maybe I'll just be really, really tired :)

Don't Eat That!

Baby S reached a wonderful developmental milestone this summer ~ she can finally be trusted not to eat every single thing she touches! Oh, she still tastes things she shouldn't sometimes. But now, as long as I am right with her, she gets to squish playdough or scoop beans or string chunky beads for a necklace. She's pretty pleased about it, too. With the temperatures over 100 degrees almost every day this summer, I'm glad we've been able to pull out some of these toys now and enjoy them in the air conditioning.

Pitching In

We had three generations shelling black-eyed peas

The boys picked our first crop of Champanelle grapes! So exciting, and yum!

Moment of Library Clarity

Finally, finally. I've been praying for the answer to organizing our books ~ our many, many books. Grouping by author was absolutely useless, as was grouping alphabetically by title. I even looked into several computer programs designed to help me keep organized, but they just weren't the right fit for our situation. It finally dawned on me to organize them as we use them: by relevant time period! Oh, what a relief.

I put the system in place a couple of months ago while Mike was off from work to help wrangle the kids, and it was a chore getting everything in order! I went through every book and noted on the front flap in which section it belongs. But I'm so glad I did it ~ it is working wonderfully. For the first time in years, I can walk to any of our numerous shelves, find the correctly labeled section, and quickly pull out a certain book. So nice.

We have biographies, history, and historical fiction all organized by historical period. We also have several shelves devoted to what we call "Our World." That can include books about cultures, maps, weather, insects, how things are made, and all kinds of other science materials. Finally, we have several shelves for what we call "Story Books" that hold all the fiction, readers, and just-for-fun materials that don't really fit any other category.

This has been such a blessing, since we are a Charlotte Mason family, and we mainly use books as they correlate to our history studies. When the kids pull a book on their own to read, they drop it in a basket in the school room when they are finished. HW is responsible every day (it's in his ChorePack) to shelve books from that basket. For the most part he does a good job of it, with just a little follow-up from me.

We do have one problem, though. We still, even after a ruthless culling, own too many books. What a nice problem to have, and we feel very blessed, but it is still a problem. Another paring down is in order, and I'm going to have to get tough about it. Until that happens, though, I'll just ignore that stack on the floor, and enjoy my neat and tidy shelves.