Being just a mom

Hi sweet friends! Merry Christmas! I hope your homeschool is blessed with sweet memories and precious moments. We will be traveling to visit family, and it appears we may be saying farewell, for now, to someone very dear to us. I can't wait to share 2014 with you, and if you have ideas or topics you want to see more of, please leave them here! Blessings, Lara

I want to tell you, mom, that what you do matters. These moments, these memories, these tiny blessings you give to your child every day, sometimes without either of you knowing, they matter. So much! That extra minute it takes to turn on the fireplace, it matters. That mess you made trying a new craft that totally bombed? It matters. Stopping the hectic dinner rush madness to welcome your husband into the chaos with a hug and a kiss, it matters. Wiping noses, washing boo boos, helping make a train, dragging yourself out of bed for the child who is not aware 5 am is too early to play, it all matters.

Take this to heart. Being just a mom is just amazing.

No one else can give to your child what you can. God created them just for you. Bless them by loving that and remembering that every day. Especially the curl up on the floor and cry for one more cup of coffee and some quiet time days. They are blessing you, too.

With gray hair. With laugh lines. With holes in the wall and in their socks. With sticky door knobs. Dark circles under your eyes. LEGO imprints in your feet.

And it all is so very good. So very precious. Drink it up. Relish it. Those baby teeth won't be coming in forever, in fact, for the little one you may be rocking to sleep for the 4th time tonight, they will never come in again. These stolen moments of baby hair, snuggle sleep and that deep need they have for their mama, it won't last forever. Take a breath and remember how fast this time goes. And how much you are worth. Not just to them, but to He who created them and who created you to be just their mama.

My gift to you is just this, you are loved. You are precious. You are just amazing.

Merry Christmas and may God bless you in this upcoming year!

Teach Them Diligently Homeschool Convention Experience from a First Timer

I was so blessed to attend Teach Them Diligently in Nashville! And I am planning, Lord willing, to return next year! I have never gone to a homeschool convention before, and while it was amazing, it was a little overwhelming. There were so many amazing speakers it was difficult to pick out which workshops to attend, and I decided beforehand that I would be purchasing some of the ones I could not attend on MP3 downloads from Resounding Voice (you can purchase the downloads even if you didn't get to attend the conference!). I highly recommend going over the schedule when it comes out, and again the week of the conference you are attending, and there was one point where I just felt led to go to one I had not planned on attending at all and it was such a blessing. Be open to changing your plans.

And I won't go into too much detail about the vendor hall, but I knew ahead of time what the budget was and what I wanted to get from the vendors listed. If I hadn't had that in mind, I would have cried. Seriously, there were so many great vendors with awesome homeschool items and so many great curriculum, even for preschool ages, that I can only imagine how bad and expensive going in with no game plan could be. But . . .I did get to look through several items I've been looking at for our Pre-K4 and K/1st years. It was great to speak with the representatives and have my hands on the actual items. I am excited about using Saxon as our math curriculum. And I'm not a math person! So prepare yourself mentally to look but not buy the things you don't need yet or have not budgeted for this convention. Also, comfy shoes and a big bag or rolly cart for all the magazines and such are a must!

Here are some of the goodies I snagged! I'm not a super organized person so I've been scouting out planners for the upcoming year and I decided on the Well Planned Day. I'll be digging into that in the next few weeks to get a general outline going.

I love listening to Heidi St. John and keeping up with her Busy Mom Facebook page! I bought The Busy Homeschool Mom's Guide to Romance for me to read, but really for Mr. J ;) The No Drama, Mama! cup was for me. I'm really working on that part of my personality.

I knew before we went I wanted to get a Maestro Classics CD for us to have for the car and to use for a fun beginning music study for this year and the lovely lady at their booth helped me pick out Carnival of the Animals! It is wonderful!We are going to have a lot of fun discussing the animals and the onomatopoeias.

We have a couple other audios from Lamplighter Theatre and they are simply wonderful. I saw the book for Teddy's Button, but when I returned Saturday, they were sold out of the book so we got the audio and listened to it on the way home. I cannot recommend their audios enough. They are so well done and engaging and sweet!

One program I had heard about was The Etiquette Factory. After looking over all their neat ideas, I think we will definitely be incorporating this program into our preschool and early elementary years. It really does make manners fun! And I really think manners have become underrated. This is a fun way to reinforce good manners, which makes life more pleasant for everyone! As you can see, Mr. T still has some things to learn, but he's really pretty mannerly for a 3 year old boy!

These are just some of the other great resources I saw while I was there. Mr. T and Mr. F were enjoying lots of visiting with Mimi and Poppy. But they did do a quick trip through the vendor hall with me. Mr. T liked a lot of the robot and stuffed animal toys!

I loved the above quote. I was so blessed by so many of the speakers, I really can't tell you all of it in just one post or it would be even longer than it already is :) But if you have the opportunity, I would certainly recommend Teach Them Diligently convention. Unlike some, it is completely Christian based and the cost is extremely affordable, especially if you register early! I gleaned so much wisdom from speakers like Ken Ham, Sally Clarkson, Rachael Carman, Heidi St. John, and so many more! I really can't wait for next year!

I'd love to hear about your Teach Them Diligently experiences or other Christian homeschool conventions you'd recommend!

How Homeschooling is Changing My Heart

Have you ever seen joy? The kind of delight that can only come from learning something new from God? Observing something wonderful and precious and full of perfect design? When I slow down and watch my child learn (which I don't do nearly often enough) I am given the opportunity to see pure joy in action. Perhaps this is why we are told "Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is His reward." Psalm 127:3.

I remember thinking homeschooled children were so over protected, and I wondered about the "social" aspect of it until I saw how busy and how many friends my sweet friend Ms. H's little ones had. Over the last 3 years I have learned that there is a huge difference between being too sheltered and being kept safe and "trained up in the way they should go" (Proverbs 22:6) before sending these gifts out into the world. I can look back and see certain points where God was working on my heart now, but at the time I was oblivious. As is usually the case. I find that on the days where I turn it all over to God to let Him lead me in this adventure I have a basket full of tender mercies and fruit of the Spirit. I'm working on having more of those, and thankful for His grace for all the days I fall short.

One of the most surprising things (to me, anyway) is that I'm becoming a better wife and friend and mom the more I get into the servant and teacher mentality I need to bring glory to God in our homeschooling. I am learning to listen to the little nudging to put whatever down and sit with my husband or email a friend. I will get the kitchen cleaned but that "bur" on the deck at the feeder is so important to Mr. T that I need to see it, too. Keeping up with the laundry is a joy when I think about the blessing of the clothes, but more so the ones getting the clothes dirty. And while it takes three times as long to get the laundry folded and put away, it is much more fun when Mr. T is having an Elvis dance party while I work on my chores.

So while Mr. T is learning his number and letters and all about horses and cows, I am learning about patience, gentleness, self-control, serving others above myself and looking for God in the small things. And this is just the beginning. I cannot wait to see what each new day brings , both the good and the bad, the clean and the messy, the peanut butter kisses and the yogurt covered couch. It is all part of the reward I get simply for being my Father's child. How amazing is that? Joy in action.

Transferring: beans

We have been working on transferring and pouring. Mr. T is doing great! He has such a big time with it and he takes it so seriously. But I have to say that his control of his spoon and fork at the table have improved by leaps and bounds since we began using spoons to transfer. We use cups, bowls, big bowls, glass pitchers and creamers, mugs, spoons, forks, and will be adding chopsticks after Christmas. We are doing water pouring in the tub now since it has gotten too cold to do it outside and Mr. T prefers the carpet to sit on when he's doing activities. What sort of fun things do you use to transfer?

 

We are linked up:

 

Toddler Art

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OK. These are actually from around Father's Day. As Mr. T has gotten faster and faster, I cannot snap photos lest I risk paint flying all over my dining/living room area and perhaps even up to the ceiling. Yes, he is that good. :) Aren't all toddlers? But, he does do well with the little paint pots. He has great coordination and has a ton of fun coloring and painting. And yes, even with my "help" there is still a mess to be cleaned up when we are done, and every bit of it is worth it to see how he lights up just from dipping a paint brush into a pot.

This project was a little kit that came with two cars. We painted them both, let them dry, and sent one to Poppy and one to PopPop. Daddy was slightly jealous. He likes wooden cars. But aside from trying to contain the painted area of my home, Mr. T did an amazing job painting these two beauties. Little ones really are excellent artists. I hope we can always foster this in him. He is such a little creative!

And so Daddy didn't feel left out, we got this little gnome at Target and Mr. T and Daddy painted this together one Saturday morning. Again, Daddy was in charge of paint containment, and  Mr. T painted by himself. I freely admit to putting this in my curio cabinet where it will remain for the next 45 years or so.

What sort of art projects do you and your little ones like to do?

A beautiful reminder of how God wants us to nurture our children

I am sharing this from one of my favorite blogs, Time-Warp-Wife. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!