Gospel As Explained by a Four-Year-Old With a Little Loaves and Fishes Thrown In

Jesus died on the cross. So, He died on a cross for our sins. The sun was dead. Jesus died on a cross. And then Jesus wanted to have some candy but He couldn't make the candy. He couldn't make anything because He was gone on the cross. Don't worry. He's gonna get alive, mommy. And then He got alive and He can make the candy and corn and the weeds. He maked everything for us. He wanted to die on the cross. No wonder He wanted to die on the cross. We are his children. He is bigger than us. No wonder we call him 'Jesus who died on a cross!' He is so big! He can reach the Bible study and He can reach everything. The only thing that He couldn't reach was the sun because the sun was hiding in the clouds. And then Jesus saw the sun and He knew where the sun was. But there was storms and rain and He carried the cross but He was alive. But He didn't have a middle name. What's His middle name mommy? And off He goed to his journey but first He said to all his children and He said "Come, I will save you. I died on a cross." And He got home to His journey home and then they saw that He was alive. Children and people were happy. But they needed food. A little boy passed by. "Hi, I am Joseph. I come. I am a little small boy. Do you want fish and bread." Jesus said, "I have lots of people here. How can I do that with not lots of food and lots of fish and lots of bread." The little boy said, "Well, you can break it in half of course." "Oh ,yes, I will break it in half," said Jesus.

Some of My Favorite Quotes From Today

During our family prayer time dd3 said, "I wanna say a prayer just fo mysef, okay? God, thank you for da foxshes and da rainbows and da ballewinas."

During same family prayer time, dd(almost)6 humbly said, "God you made the Herdmans." I guess she understood one of the most touching points of our read-aloud this week, "The Best Christmas Pagent Ever" by Barbara Robinson.

And during our nightly pick up of his room, I inquired of my son, 7, if his sweat pants needed to be washed or not, to which he replied, "No, I've only worn them, like, 3 or 4 times." I suppose that I might have gone a bit overboard on telling him he didn't have to throw his jeans in the wash after one wearing!

Two Cutie-Pie Things That My Baby Girl is Saying These Days

Fwoot Be-uh = Root Beer (she still doesn't say "rrr" even after being back from UK for a year!)

Medicine Cough = Cough Medicine

She's growing up way to fast. Wish I could just stop time somehow...

Who Knew That Walkers Needed to be Pretty?

I recently heard this conversation between DD(nearly)6 and her father-with-the-tibial-plateau-fracture:

DD: "Good thing you got a different walker than at the hospital! It was horrible! I didn't even want to look at it."

Dad: "Why?"

DD: "Uh...the stripes."

I guess she thought that those stripes on the hospital-borrowed walker were not at all pretty enough.

LOVE This Quote

"Don't become a stranger to your child's soul." -Abraham Joshua Heschel

Day in the Life of Our Homeschool

Here's a peek into our typical day:

Wake up and do morning routines. This includes bed-making, teeth-brushing, getting dressed and tidying up bedrooms for the children. I assist the youngest with all of the above.

Breakfast. Since Daddy is working remotely from home for the next few weeks until his job is finished, he surprised us with chocolate chip pancakes this morning. When mommy is in charge, much easier fare is prepared!

Next, we do our circle time, which includes going over Bible memory work (Psalm 23 from NIRV, right now), "Windows to the World" for geography (today was Bangladesh) and prayer, reading from "The Story for Kids", and working on patterns. We've been doing a fun thing, where the kids think up patterns to make by clapping, patting, etc. and then we create the pattern using pattern blocks to represent the A,B,C, etc. parts.

Next, individual work begins with the children. While I am working with one child, the others are working independently. (Ideally, of course!). Today, the oldest had to narrate from "Henry and Ribsy". I had him narrate all the chapters from memory and was very impressed with what he had retained, including some interesting phrases and whole portions of dialogue. He also had piano practice and lesson. He worked in his Horizons math book, and worked in his writing journal detailing his football practice last night.

Daughter worked on patterns with pattern blocks, and upper and lower case letters. She and I worked on her scrapbook where she narrated the text to me from the pictures. We played a game with the white board where she had to guess what letter I was making before I finished making it. Then, to keep score, we used tally marks and learned about those. Because it was her first time using tally marks, we talked about and practiced (lots!) counting by 5's. Then, she wanted to go play outside. She is my dig-in-the-dirt girl! She came in with two worms, so then she and I looked up worms in the "Handbook of Nature Study" -- not much there for her, but I will use the questions to formulate some little mini lessons and observation-type projects as we watch the worms. We talked about the importance of only keeping the worms for a short time and then releasing them back into their natural habitat.

The littlest, who is normally with us, was having a playdate with a neighbor. We normally do all the preschool type things with her. Painting and playdough are favorites. And she loves to be read to!

Usually, it's around lunch by this time, so we take a break for that. Then, it's outside for play/nature study. After that, we all do a house project for the next hour or so before rest time. Today we are making cookies for a new neighbor and working in the upstairs bedrooms. All of the children still take a rest each day. The oldest often read or play quietly, while the youngest still naps. This is time for mommy to regroup!

After rest time, there is usually snack and more outside play until supper. On Tuesdays, though, we have "Tuesday Teatime" where we do art study and poetry and manners. We are getting ready to study a new artist after spending several months with Mary Cassatt. We have so enjoyed her art! We'll be moving on to Van Gogh next week. Often, our poetry comes from Favorite Poems Old and New. Our favorite manners game is from EBoo and they are funny flash cards with pigs using nice manners. A book we use for manners is "Everyday Graces" by Karen Santorum. It is a truly beautiful book that we will use for years to come!

That's the short version of a day in the life of our very busy little homeschool!

How My Son Would Rate TV Shows

In discussing the movie ratings system, my son was extolling the virtues of "Y" to his sisters telling them that it was "very, very good for kids, and it's not like 'R'!". His baby sister, simply to annoy him, said, "But I like 'R'!"(which sounds more like 'ahhhh', but I digress). The sherriff in our family (which would be the boy) promptly said, "But 'R' means that shows have very bad words in them. Words like stupid! Now, do you like those words? I don't think so!"

If only it were so.

How To Choose Jammies and All About Spiders

Two conversations that had me cracking up tonight and also swooning with affection. First off, it's baby daughter:

"But mama, I'm weally scawed of a mommy-long-legs! Because they can kill you!" (Well, at least she's stopped referring to every spider she sees as a tarantula.)

And next up, daughter in the middle:

"Mom, what jammies are you wearing tonight?"

Me: "I'm not sure. Why?"

Daughter in the Middle: "Because I wanna be like you."

Me: "But I don't have any Cinderella jammies."

Daughter in the Middle: "No, mom. I'm not talking about the pattern!"

Me: "Well, okay, how about I wear shorts and a t-shirt like you?"

Daughter in the Middle: "But mom, my bear doesn't have any shorts and she wants to be like me!"

Yes. Now I definitely see the dilemma.

It Seems That When Your Children Have Lived In England...

...they spend more time drawing round-abouts on their sidewalk chalk driveway maps than they do drawing stop signs. Hmmmm....

Perhaps She Has a Future in Broadcasting

Miss Middle announced this morning as she arrived in our room: "I just came in here for some ammouncements, Mom!"

"First, there is a spider web on my light."

"And second," (pointing proudly to her outfit) "This matches!"

On Why the 6-Year-Old Boy is So Endearing To Me

This quote sums it up:

"Mom, I wanna smell your skin. (Snnnniiiifff!) Oh, yeah, you've got that lotion on."

Praying for Piglet

The three-year-old was wailing from her bed this evening. I went up to inquire about the circumstances since she had just been down to visit me where I had prayed with her about her fear of "scawee bad dweams". I went up to give her a talking to, truth be told. But when I got there, she held up her stuffed cuddle, Piglet. "I prayed for you, remember? You will be fine. You need to go to sleep now." To which she sadly replied, "Yeah, mommy, but Pigwet's still scaaad. You need to pray for him too." Or maybe, sort of like Piglet says of Pooh, my little baby just wanted to be sure of me.

“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh," he whispered.

"Yes, Piglet?"

"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw, "I just wanted to be sure of you."

Do you think God's answers prayers for stuffed Piglets? Let's hope so. For the sake of three-year-olds.

Masterpiece

Today, while my daughter was drawing me a picture, she and her little sister started arguing. I had requested a picture of hearts and flowers and trees and rainbows, some of her best subjects. ;) She was doing an earnest job, adding lots of colors and taking her time. Often, because she is an artistic little person, she sees and does things differently. And her little sister decided to point out to her that what she was drawing didn't look like hearts at all. Of course, in typical little girl fashion, she started trying to convince her sister that indeed they were hearts. She tried explaining the shape of things, attempting to convince her of validity of hearts drawn in this fashion. Little sister, being the literal little 3 year old that she is, insisted that no, they were not hearts. After this disagreement, the older-sister-heart-artist wailed loudly to me that her baby sister was saying that "These are not hearts and they are, Mommy! See?!"

As I answered, I found myself not thinking much about what I was saying. Sometimes the mothering thing just takes over and the little axioms, etc. just fly out of one's mouth. But after I said what I had said to console her, I was prompted to stop and think about it. You see, my daughter sounded so very much like...me. What I told her was this, "Why are you worrying about what she thinks? You are drawing this masterpiece for me." Yes. Yes. Yes. How much time do I spend wondering what others think of my ideas, motives, character, instead of remembering that God is the recipient of...me? I want to be content with pleasing Him. When I am tempted to explain my behavior, or convince others of what God has spoken into my heart, or hope that my relationship with Him appears valid and real to those around me, that is faulty and unfruitful thinking. It's not necessarily bad, it just so misses the mark. He is the reason I live. He is the reason I create...and do...and am.

This reminds me of one of my favorite Beth Moore teachings about the Greek word poiema, which means masterpiece and is used in Ephesians 2:10 which states, "For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we could walk in them." In the teaching Beth says that the word translated into English as workmanship is poiema in Greek, and thus can mean masterpiece. I suppose it's hard to believe that He's creating me into a masterpiece, but indeed, He is an artist and it's true!

Nicole Nordeman penned a song a few years called Anyway. I'll end this little musing with the lyrics. It seems that they are quite appropriate when it comes to masterpieces.

Bless the days this restoration is complete
dirty, dusty, something must be underneath
So I scrape and I scuff
though it's never quite enough
I am starting to see me finally

A gallery of paintings new and paintings old
Guess its no suprise that I'm no michaelangelo
every layer of mine
hides a lovely design
Itit might take a little patience
it might take a little time

but you called me beautiful
when you saw my shame
and you palced me on the wall
anyway

you who have begun this work will someday see
A portrait of the holiness you meant for me
so I polish and shine till its easier to find
even an outline of mine

but you called me beautiful
when you saw my shame
and you palced me on the wall
anyway

It seems that even with all my imperfections, He is willing to call me beautiful, place me on a wall, and create me in His image to be a masterpiece. Sweet Jesus, may that ever and always be enough for me.

Hero Worship

DS6: "Daddy, Tiger Woods is my favorite golfer on t.v."

Daddy: "Really?"

DS6: "But you're my favorite golfer for real."

My Daughter Comments on My Hair

"Mom, is that a wig? 'Cause it looks good today!"

I do surmise that these little people are all about keeping us humble.

Sometimes Their Prayers Put Me to Shame

During our circle time today, we were praying for some church friends who are in Guatamala for the summer and we got to our "thanksgiving" portion of the prayer time. My two oldest blew me away by what they shared. One said, "Thank you God for our home and our family and for music and for books." The other said, "Thank you God for your Bible and your words that Jesus brought to us." I was astounded that the once simple prayers of thanks for home and family (which are very valid in their own right) had turned into thanksgiving for his good gifts of books and music and His wonderful Word. I am humbled to be praying with my little people. Through these simple every day experiences, sometimes God gives me a glimpse into the Kingdom people that He is growing them to be and I think about them in the future and I am excited and blown away and scared all at the same time. I am so thankful that as a mom I get to see these little pieces of their hearts during our prayer time.

What? No Bank Holidays?

DS6 (while looking at our English calendar): "What?! Yesterday was a bank holiday and we missed it?! And dad could have stayed home for that day?!"

Starting With Myself

We've been suffering some bad attitudes around here of late. Lots of me-first arguments, raised voices, and harsh tones. Sometimes, I get overwhelmed by 9 (AM!). It's funny...I think I often am frustrated by my own expectations of what I think I deserve. Sinful thoughts such as these creep into my mind often: I got up and had my quiet time, so I deserve not to have a bad attitude myself. I pour and pour and pour into my children only to have them be unappreciative. I find it curious that some of the attitudes of ingratitude that I see in them are also found in me.

Today, as I sat down for a moment to pray after a difficult morning with one child in particular, I was asking God what to do. And so loudly, so clearly in my mind, I heard "Start with you." Ouch. But how true it is! How can I expect my little people to cultivate attitudes of gratitude if they hear mommy complaining? How can I expect them to go about their chores in a cheerful manner when I do not?

I have been reading some posts lately at a new (to me) blog called Metro Moms. They have encouraged me to cultivate redemptive speech. Among other things in this particular entry, I read a quote from Jerry Bridges which reminded me that “We tend to exhibit many sins most freely in the context of our own families.” Yep. So, let me start this day anew with fresh resolve to confront those sins in my own life and heart before expecting my children to have mastered them. Let me start with myself.

On Why, Because of the DS, We Will Never Be On TLC's "How Clean Is Your House?"

"Mom, you might want to go get the...umm...umm...umm...feather duster and go clean off that mower!"

Those first children are a bit an*l retentive now aren't they?

Thank Goodness God Made Worms Regenerative

A conversation in our driveway this afternoon:

Me to baby girl 3: "Do you still have your worm?"

Baby Girl 3: "Yeah, but I broked him."

Oh.