Kitchen helpers

I have two very eager kitchen helpers these days!!

I've never been one to put child locks on the cabinets but these two are making me reconsider. The cabinet doors are currently being held together by rubber bands and that seems to have slowed them down.

They're a mess---really cute, but still a mess!

Trying new things

New things we are trying this summer- 

Tennis and gymnastics! 

Morning Bible reading

I am enjoying summer mornings of having a more relaxed breakfast (well, as relaxed as it can be with five kids). It gives us some extra time to incorporate some morning Bible reading into our routine. To be honest, I have intentions of this year round, but it usually doesn't happen on school mornings when we are  running behind, packing lunches, and getting everyone ready. 

I am currently using a little book that I really like. It's in a series called Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers. This one is about Scripture. There are also books on the trinity, the gospel, and the mission that I would like to get and read eventually. 

Each page has a couple of sentences that concisely explain an aspect of scripture. For example, today's reading was about how the Old Testament points to Jesus. At the bottom of each page are 3 or 4 scripture references. There are usually Old Testament and New Testament references. I like that they don't print out the verses because it is giving the kids good practice to find books in the Bible and look the verses up themselves. 

The book isn't necessarily intended to be used as a daily devotional. You can easily read the book just like you would a story book as well. But I'm enjoying just taking one page each day for our summer breakfasts.  

Playing in the creek

With all the rain we have had lately, the creek is a favorite place to play, especially when friends come over. 

Eleven Months

James and Elizabeth are 11 months old! I can't believe we are already getting ready for their birthday!

This June is so much more enjoyable than last June, when we were all waiting on a daily basis for them to arrive. They are so much fun right now!

I especially love watching their interactions with each other. Now that Elizabeth is on the go too, they really are almost always together. I find them together in the kitchen, in the shower, by the door, in the closet. One day, Elizabeth had crawled around the corner from James and started playing with something. She started babbling on and on, then leaned her head back around the corner to babble some more to him, and he promptly babbled back and crawled over to see what she was playing with. It was very obvious that they were communicating with each other.

In their whole entire life, I think they have maybe spent 6 hours separated from one another. 

That's kind of crazy!

They are definitely into everything and can quickly pull every toy out of the closet, dishes out of the cabinet, pull magazines off the table, books off the bookshelves. I usually spend the first 15-20 mins of each of their nap times just picking up things and putting them back where they belong. Sometimes it looks like a baby toy explosion happened!

Elizabeth has become very attached to her pink bunny "lovey". She loves to hold it and snuggle it and play with the tag on it. She usually immediately puts her 2 fingers in her mouth to suck when she has it. But when she's on the go, she'll just tote it around in her mouth! James is a thumb sucker, but he only does it when we put him in his crib. We've never had a baby be a thumb sucker before, and although it may be a hard habit to break later, it is really cute right now! especially since it is one of the only signs he ever shows of slowing down!!

It's almost birthday time, sweet babies!!

First grade finished!

Today is Catherine's last day of first grade! It has been both a quick and a long year. Overall the year has gone really well. She has had some growing pains through it (and so have I). 

We are very proud of how hard she has worked and improved. She's currently reading at a fifth grade level, has improved so much with her subtraction facts, is an excellent story writer, overcame some fears about PE and buying lunch on her own, worked well on group research projects, read a lot of AR books, and learned responsibility. 

At her awards day yesterday, we were most proud of the award her teacher gave her for being most considerate. She is learning to think of others more than herself and how to be a good friend. We saw that a lot when about a month ago she told us that there was one girl in her class who sat by herself at recess every day. One day Catherine had been left out of the group and felt very lonely, so we talked about how the other girl must feel. Catherine asked her the next day to play during recess and now they play together almost every day. I love that her heart is so kind towards others. 

Those of you who know me well know that we have struggled with the school decision a lot--since before we had children. We struggled through it again this spring with me questioning what to do for next year. We are not changing anything for next year, and are going to  continue to pray for God's guidance about what school should look like for our family. 

Catherine, we are so proud of you and so excited about the wonderful young woman you are becoming! We love you so very much.  

The sock drawer

In a home with 7 people and a dog who likes to take socks out of the laundry to tote around the house, we have quite a few mismatched socks. I would say, on average, that I have 2 or 3 lonely socks in every load of laundry. Multiply that by the 15-20 loads of laundry I do each week, and that's a lot of socks!!

I used to put the individual socks back in each person's drawer and would randomly go through to match them up. Now I have a designated sock drawer in the kids' bathroom. All the kids' single socks are placed there and once a week or so, I go through and match up the pairs. Occasionally a small child can do this as a chore. Today I  I found 11 matching pairs!! Whohoo! 

Who knew that as a mom, socks would occupy this much of a strategic plan???

And if we ever need extra socks to make puppets, we know where to get them.