life...

What I'm loving....

 - homemade honey bran muffins slathered with a friend's homemade pumkin butter.  so good!
- spending an uninterrupted hour with my oldest while the littles nap
-  my new gym routine.  losing weight easily (the first time since giving birth in 2006) and feeling o-so-good
- hearing the thoughts of my middle child.  he's putting words together well and communicating better than I thought he would, given that he's a boy and a younger sibling.
- the afternoon sunlight.  it goes perfectly with my Bible and a cup of tea.
- my youngest child.  I never knew such delightful babies existed.

What I'm struggling with...

- figuring out how to balance all my hats: mommy, cook, maid, laundromat, teacher, wife, personal shopper, friend, daughter, sister...  something always gets left unattended and I'm sad to report I think it is usually a relationship.
- the new rebellion I see in my two-year-old.  Staying consistent is hard!
- the repeated bouts of copious amounts of snot with my youngest.
- the afternoon nap of the eldest has been completely and utterly laid to rest.  Sob.

So that's life as we know it... for the moment.

the whole purpose...

... of discipline is to stay in fellowship - fellowship with God and other fellow image-bearers.  Sin is a fellowship destroyer.  Recently, there was a remarkably vague post on Femina about the specifics of discipline, but it held a nugget of gold that I latched on to.  How do you know after you've disciplined your child whether or not it has accomplished your purpose of drawing them back into fellowhip with not only you, but also God, or if you have just created a boiling-beneath-the-surface-but-I'll-smile-and-pretend-it's-all-good-or-they'll-spank-me-again* situation with you child?

The only specific that was named in the post was that the author's toddler is asked to give a high-five before the discipline can be deemed complete and effective.  The premise is simple - most toddlers won't give you a high-five if they are ticked with you.  So, we've adopted a similar approach to ending discipline here.  Ethan has to shoot us a high-five, and Emory has to tell us a joke.  Both are based on the individual tempermants represented by the kiddos, and neither child will preform the necessary action unless their heart is happy.

That's what we're after anyway, isn't it?  A happy, joyful heart is a truly obedient heart.  My heart's desire is for my children to know the joy of the Lord.  It's hard not to obey someone who fills your heart with joy.

*Cat's out of the bag.  We do spank, but it is not our only method of discipline.  We love our children dearly and are careful to use this method responsibly.*

Philipians 4:11

what's goin' on?

Life has been so hectic lately.  I'll start with some bullet points on what we've been up to since my last post:

- We went to the beach for a week.  I'll post pictures soon.  Fun was had by all.
- We're still chugging along with kindergarten.  It takes up a lot of my time, which I totally expected, but it still frustrates me.
- I had minor knee surgery taking me out of the mama game for a few days.  We were well cared for by friends.
- Ethan's been diagnosed with an auto-immune disorder.  We're still in the process of narrowing down which one.  Lots of blood being drawn.  He looks the picture of health, you'd never know anything was wrong with him... until he catches a cold that knocks him down for 2 weeks.
- Ella Margaret is still such a terrific baby.  Beginning to sit up.  Still on an all milk diet, won't touch solids.  Slaps the spoon right out of your hand.  She'll be seven months on Sunday.  She doesn't look like she's hurting too much for nutrition, weighing in at 18 pounds, 10 ounces at her 6 month check up. 
- Emory has finally accepted school as part of her day.  She is a real trooper.  Working really hard at not crying when she's frustrated with a new concept.  She's almost nailed it.  I really enjoy being her teacher.  This is where she and I connect the most.
- Eric is hard at work being a veternarian extrodinairre, a selfless husband, and a fun daddy.
- We've decided to start doing cloth diapers for the 2 diapered kiddos, and I am loving it.  It does not add that much to my workload at all.  Ethan, in true boy fashion, loves to flush the dirties.  It's something I've wanted to do for our children for over a year and my parents made it happen for us.  Thanks Mom and Dad!
- Since switching to cloth diapers, we're generating only 1/3 of the trash we had been.  We haven't taken our dumpster to the street in 2 weeks.  We used to take it twice a week.  That speaks volumes to me and is totally worth the microscopic bit of extra work cloth diapering is.
- Because of Ethan's issues I'm working on getting us on a preservative-free, whole food diet.  Educating myself has been a slow process.  I'm looking forward to eating a cleaner diet and not feeling so sluggish.

What's going on with you guys?

the pox....

.... my children have contracted an illness known as hand, foot, and mouth disease.  Wouldn't you know, it is the same thing as hoof and mouth disease that animals get.  Leave it to a veterinarian's pack of kiddos...  Fortunately, the dogs and cat are safe since the respective human and animal strains of this virus don't cross that particular species line. 

This virus is characterized by an unexplained high fever for about 48 hours.  Just about the time the fever breaks and you figure your child has finally kicked yet another fever virus, these horribly painful blisters appear on the soles of their feet, palms of their hands, inside the mouth and throat, and the diaper area.  It has not been the most fun my children have ever had, but I think we've found a few remedies that have made waiting this virus out a bit more palatable. 

For starters, we don't ever let the Tylenol expire.  They are getting their recommended dosages every four hours whether they act like they need it or not.  To wait until they act like they need it ensures that you will endure over an hour of holding your screaming child as they writhe in pain over the blisters covering the most random parts of their body.  It's amazing to me that a dose of Tylenol seems to keep this monster at bay.  Our other remedies include ice packs on the most sore spots, which have tended to be the kiddo's feet, and lots of movies.  I think the ice is partly a placebo effect, making the kiddos feel better because Mommy is doing something for them other than chanting, "I'm so sorry.  I'm so sorry." over and over as they wail and gnash their teeth while writhing in my lap.  I do think the ice has a small numbing effect which has to help the my-feet-are-on-fire-because-they-are-covered-in-blisters symptom. 

Here are my babes watching a movie while icing their feet.  Yes, we use frozen brussel sprouts as ice packs.  The only useful way to use the vile weed, according to my children.

kindergarten...

....  homeschooling is something I've always been open to.  Since Emory won't be 5 until October, yet has been pining away to begin school, we've decided to do kindergarten at home this year.  If it goes well, we'll do first grade at home next year.  If this is a bust, she'll go to kindergarten at a local classical school.

    So far so good.  The first week was really, really hard.  Emory does well, very well.  Ethan has been harder to occupy while I teach Emory, while Ella Margaret either sleeps or is content to be held.  I was fairly discouraged until Emory's first soccer practice when I got to chat with a mom who is on her second year of homeschooling and has children the same age as mine, with one extra thrown in there.  Our educational approach is very similar (I'm doing a blend of classical and Montessori) and she had some good ideas that have worked well for me.

For starters, I have stopped focusing on getting school done by a certain time.  We start around the time I put the baby down for her morning nap and get started on the hardest subjects first.  This first session is about 45 minutes.  Then, I just sneak in another small session or two throughout the rest of the day.  Emory has asked that she has an art project each day, and she usually completes that while I make supper.  So far, this system has worked far better. 

I've doing weekly thematic units, and I am planning my own curriculum which is a lot of fun but very time consuming as well.  If I teach Emory at home next year, we'll definately be purchasing a curriculum.  Here is a photo of my little scholar hard at work...

the 15 minute shakedown....

.....  I got this idea off the Enjoying the Small Things blog, bookmarked on the right over there.  Kelle does a shakedown to make it look like she's been productive right before DH comes home on the days she's been productively playing with her little ones.  I've modified the idea a bit and it has worked so well for us that I thought I'd share.  Each evening after dinner around here, my house resembles a primordial cave full of savages.  I was tired of it taking me another half hour of straightening up after the kids were finally down before I got to sit down and relax with the dearest.  Since I head to bed early right now due to the inconsistent waking times of our youngest, that was leaving me with precious little time for the most important relationship in the house.

Soooo, each night after dinner we have a shakedown.  I put 15 minutes on the timer.  Baby goes into the swing, happy or not, and everyone who can walk gets busy.  My main focus is the kitchen while Daddy and the older 2 go from room-to-room putting things to rights.  We have 3 rules for the shakedown:

1. No stuffing or cramming - everything goes back where it belongs.
2. Each room has to be put to rights, this means mama has to get a move on putting dinner away.
3. A room is not clean unless Mama has declared it so before the timer dings.

Having to race against the timer puts everyone in high gear and the motivation is completed with the promise of 3 M&M's if the work is done before the timer buzzes.  It's super cute to hear the kids encouraging each other to work hard to get the job done right.  This system has brought out the best in our kids, which was our goal - teaching them to work well together.  And ain't nothing wrong with a little reward for a job well done. 

This works so well that now all I have to do is yell "Shake-down" and everyone gets busy.  Ethan will run into a room and overturn something if that room is clean just so he can pick something up.  Emory comes running into the kitchen every 30 seconds to make sure there is still time left on the timer.  We haven't had to use this during the day (only at the end of the day), but I totally reserve the right to use it twice in one day if things get really out of hand around here.

So far, we've beaten the buzzer each time.  Our home is small enough that it can totally be picked up by 4 people in 15 minutes if everyone is diligent.  I imagine there are homes out there that would need a bit more time to get picked up.  Whatever works for you.  I just think it shouldn't always be mama doing the picking up, and there is no reason why cleaning can't be made fun for the kiddos.