Small Moment Gratitude

81.  family and friends filling our home
82. days off
83. the burst of excitement you feel when you see old friends
84. little surprises
85. being married to my best friend for 8 years!
86. having a week that feels like a dream (it's THAT good!)
87. watching your little ones learn lessons the hard way
88. seeing their best attitude while learning the lesson
89. the beauty of pink snapdragons brought over in a colbot blue vase
90.  seeing people mowing, watering, riding bikes while I sit on my green bench
91. the blessing of praying for someone who is hurting someone you love
92. smores!
93. my 5 yr old still calling marshmallows "smarshmallows"
94. and for that matter, calling the hood of a car the "beep"
95.my 8 yr old son getting to wear flip flops for the first time! he was thrilled!
96. the men and women who have and are serving our country

Weekly Wrap Up and The Summer List!

This week has been just really great. We all went Monday night as a family to be prayed over (mostly J and I were prayed over because of the behaviors he has been having and my emotional state) Well God hears us for sure and the week has been blessed!

Saturday was Tibby's first soccer game, they won and he scored 2 points! Sunday, they won again, and he scored 3!  He is really having so much fun and doing so well. (My camera is slowly crashing on me, so I have very few pictures)

We had family come in from Copenhagen, Denmark, and we had such a lovely time! So for geography this week, we looked up Denmark, learned to say "thank you for the food"  is"tak for mad" really not sure that is spelled correctly. We also read a Noodlehead story from Denmark (one that my husband's family told him when he was little).  Tons of fun!

I learned some new therapy based ideas and incorporated them into our days. It is GREAT stuff, and really simple to do.

We've played Sum Swamp  daily for math and it is such a fun way to do math! Tibby is really having a great time with it, and I'm impressed how much he is catching on.

The other night, Tibby asked if we could take his traning wheels off of his bike, so we did, and he was gone! Riding like a pro! We are all so very excited!!

Today, we headed out for a day at my grandparent's house. We fed birds and did some bird watching. The boys were really facinated with all the birds that came to feast. We sat in their sunroom with binoculars watching and waiting as they enjoyed their snack.

Then, my aunt called to see if we wanted to stop by and let the boys watch a man load their storage shed on a trailer to move to the farm (used to be my dad's farm, but he sold it to my uncle). So, my grandpa, the boys, and I loaded up and went over there and watched the man do just that. The boys thought that was just terrific. We also spent the time over there exploring their yard.

When we got back to my grandparent's house, my grandma had made up some lunch with what she had on hand and made a homemade Osgood pie.  It's something I will always cherish, beacuse I know their time is getting shorter, as they are having many health problems and can't seem to get out much anymore. We have decided to spend a day there each week until we can't anymore.

It has simply been a beautiful week.

Now. On to THE LIST. Our 2010 Summer List!

Make smore's in the backyard. Pool. Picnic. Bowling. Library/reading program. Walks and bike rides. Feed ducks. Zoo. Eat breakfast/lunch outside. Free movies at the theater. Make bird feeders. Camp on trampoline. Flashlight walk. Movie night outside. Wonderland. Explore small nearby towns. Ice cream from the ice cream truck. Take flowers to grandparents. VBS. Lowes workshops. Wash car. Baseball game. Summer music concerts. Snowcones. Cold watermelon on the trampoline. Watch sunrise/sunset. sprinkler. Farmer's Market. One on one dates. Fresh summer salads. Homemade icecream. Annual water gun fight. Discovery Center. Strawberry Pie. Fireworks. Fruit pizza. Science nights.Stargaze. Toy Story 3! Learn about trains.Learn to skate. Watch the clouds. Buy this game for my checkers champ (and play in the grass)

I just love summertime.

Favorite Links This Week:

Activities For Kiddos:

I LOVE this idea at KinderFriends for discovery bottles. Now, to start saving bottles and put them to good use.

This Cardboard Box Shadow Theater is so much fun, and the blog is just as great!

PLEASE let me know if you know of anyone else doing something like this, we would LOVE it!

I really like this post about FIAR. I think it would be a great thing for J!

Early reading strategies. This makes my heart leap for joy when I see others pushing through the "disability" and great ideas for me to use with J!

Home Decor:

This big boy room is just so sweet!

Inspiration and More:

This Hot Towel Scrub is a must try to feel refreshed and ready for a good night's sleep.

I would love to go walking here at 6:15 in the morning. WOW! (it reminds me of my morning walks with my grandma when I would stay with her over the summer....ahhhh)

Yummy stuff:

These really are some of the best cookies I've ever had. Ever. Oh and if you post a picture of the ones you made on facebook, everyone will invite themselves over =]


Oh friends, I hope you all have a blessed weekend!

Gracious God (Enjoying the Little Gifts)

62. change
63. ordereing books for school
64. rhubarb (#20)
65. a clean home
66. help. when I'm weary.
67. the rumbling thunder staying a while
68. hard work
69. feeling pretty
70. my momma
71. God teaching Tibby to love J
72. moving on
73. beautiful inspiration and ideas
74. pushing through
75. starting over
76. little boys looking up to their daddy
77. big silly hugs
78. birds chattering away at the crack of dawn
79. stillness
80. miracles

Loving The Boys, Choosing Some Life, and Book Review

I've been intentionally living. Lately and I call it Choosing Life. Its been about 3 weeks I think since I've really taken a step back and really looked at how my days were going. I was in a rut and I couldn't seem to shake it. I searched and really prayed about how to live.How to live the life God had intended for me to live in the first place. I'm pretty sure He didn't want me "stuck" at home with 3 boys,  "just"home schooling, "dealing" with autism, "getting through" the cleaning and cooking, and then feeling so run down and on the edge of a break down every evening...and then to get up and do it again in the morning.

So after praying, I felt led to take it slow. Make a plan, and go with it. God spoke to me about not being so hard on myself about NEVER getting anything right. It's okay if I don't get the dishes done tonight after dinner if I would like to spend extra time with my hubby and don't mind doing them in the morning. It's also ok to buy a few frozen pizzas to have in the fridge for those soccer days when we're to busy lazy to cook if it helps us to not go grab a bite to eat and spend $25.


I have finished reading The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Shaeffer (from my reading list). I have to tell you, it was not what I expected and I appreciate that so much more than I ever thought I would. It gave me so much to think about and actually gave me a whole new way of looking at being home.

I have never really thought that we such a creative God who made us in His own image, and THAT gives us the freedom to be creative just like our Maker, no matter where we are.

Her simple, yet remarkable approach to creative living opened up a whole new door for me. From setting the table with the beauty God gives from our own flower garden (EVEN if my husband is away for and it's just the boys and me) to treasure hunts to find a watermelon in the yard to eat, a new bedtime book, or a new bottle of bubble bath before bath time.

She also gives wonderful inspiration on creating and finding beauty in your home, outside, gardening, clothing, and even writing your "to do" list. 

As I read the book I was thinking how so much thought goes in to this woman's day. The time she spends with God, the time she spends with children, with others, and alone. Pretty much intentional. She sees God's beauty and makes it glorified through the way she lives, serves, and loves.

I highly recommend that book!

So taking that book and choosing to live, I have intentionally done things to make our days beautiful. While our 5 yr old was taking a bath one evening, I told him when he gets out we'll all have a bed time snack in bed. A different night I suprised them with dinner served on colorful  handmade placemats my in-laws brought from the islands, along with island music playing in the background. We have also purchased a little bowling set and let them find it and had a mini bowling tournament. We had muffin tin lunches out on the trampoline, shaving cream painting in the bath tub, camping in tents in the living room,  and ice cream treats after soccer practice.

We've been taking our days slowly, with no real agenda in mind, just to live and enjoy God's creation around us. So, when our 5 yr old took his 45 min bath and got to play with shaving cream by running his cars through it pretending it was snow, finally getting out  as wrinkeled as a raisin. That was okay. We had nothing else really to do those 45 min, and he got a break away from his brothers and got to play until his little heart was content.  Now that's LIVING!

Thrifty Finds....Finally Made a Chalkboard

I absolutely love garage sale season. I go every single chance I get! We went this last weekend and found so much that I had on my list. I was beyond excited! (My husband even came along, and he found some great skis and a bike rack.....so he was happy)

Ok, please excuse the fact that EVERY picture I take has to be outside or by a certain window in this house. My camara is slowly giving up on me and I'm saving for my dream camra (which HOPEFULLY I'll have in the next few weeks before we head to Boston/Cape Cod!!) pssst, let me let you in on a little secret. I have NEVER been to the beach. FINALLY, I get to go!

Okay, on to the garage sale finds. I don't have pictures of everything because of the camera situation, but we got a small chippy green desk for $20, a ton of books (maybe close to 30) half that were on my wishlist for school, white cutains some lady had made out of a twin size bedspread/blanket for $3 (they are beautiful), an old leather suitcase for decoration in really good shape, old BALL mason jars (the blue ones), a big frame (to make a chalkboard), and another jar/pitcher that I'm currently using as a vase for some lovely flowers that brighten up our home.

Here are the curtains with the best picture I could get out of the light I had. They really are pretty, and for $3!

The frame. Oh the $3 frame, I had been hunting for! Just a big empty frame that we put a piece of board in and painted with chalkboard paint now hangs in our kitchen. I LOVE it!

And the BALL jars that I plan to use one for beautiful flowers from the garden and the small one for this project that I fell in love with instantly.

Thats all of my finds for the weekend, I am so thankful to have found a lot of stuff I had on my list. The hunt is so much fun!

Giving Thanks Through Everything

This past weekend was really so nice. We filled it with togetherness outside, fabulous garage sale finds, and house parading.

I have been thinking and praying hard and I feel Him. I feel God leading me to be the daughter, wife, mom, and teacher He had in mind in the first place. Its a long hard journey, but non-the-less one to be thankful for.

41. a house full of messy boys to serve and love
42. a book I will forever cherish
43. a 2 1/2 hour battle with austim....gives me extra time with my son
44. taking an extra long school break just to play with playdough
45. a two year old's excitement and caution when introduced to his new potty chair
46. a clean car....a car to clean
47. a creative Maker
48. 4 days of soccer a week
49. realizing that my son who is gaining the muscle and fine motor skills to write on his own already knows how to spell the words we are asking him to practice
50. sales on organic food
51. Choosing Life
52. vacation days
53. a five year old's helpful insight, "mom, if you ever want to fix your car, you will need to break it first."
54. watching a boy take his dishes to the sink when he is done without being asked
55. having to remind another boy everytime to take his dishes when he is done
56. a thunderstorm that only lasts 2 minutes
57. Moday's cleaning day, having a home to clean
58. playdough cookies, much less fattening!
59. little shoes and cars on the floor
60. pride beaming in a boy that did something new on his own
61. the littlest boy only wearing his hat backwards every place we go

Spring Nature Study

We've been doing some nature studies around here. We have all enoyed it so much. We spend a lot of our time outside these days. The boys drew a picture of the tree they we observing. Since J doesn't really draw, I told him to tell me the colors of the tree and "draw" it. That is his tree above. I am SO proud of his coloring! When we took him out of school last semester he had a goal on his IEP to color for 15 seconds by himself. He has had that same goal for two YEARS. HeHe NOW can sit and color on his own for about 10 MINUTES at a time!! So proud of him.  We also did leaf prints of their tree's leaves.  (above)

Tibby has been working so hard. He loves to draw. He would draw all day every day if we would let him.

J is still doing really well and he is still just so very happy. I told him to let me take his picture and he bent down and said "CHEESE!" It really cracked me up and I loved how "in tune" he was with what I was asking him to do.

B rides his tricycle all over the block. Being only two years old, he is the only one of our boys to ride his trike and scooter like he was five. It's quite a site to see such a little man going so fast! He has to keep up with his brothers of course.

We also headed to the Canyon one beautiful afternoon for some nature study, a picnic, and water play!

It was absolutely beautiful down there! We ate our lunch and then layed a blanket out and read Bible stories, observed cactus and plants, and watched the birds plating and enjoying their treats we left them.

Ok, these are some WONDERFUL cookies! We bought them at World Market and they are made in Austrailia. They are just delish! We buy the rest our food at a Natural/Organic grocer here in our town. It is pretty expensive to buy EVERY single thing from there, but as we've prayed about it,   we feel that after our giving and shelter, what we put in our bodies is the next most important thing to spend our money on. I can't describe how incredible it feels to feed our family with fresh in season organic food. And cooking with it is such a delight! It took me a few years to convince my husband, but after watching Food Inc. he was on board! God has actually had His hand on this and has helped me find ways to get our budget to about what it used to be! (I'll share more on that soon) So, anyways, the sandwich was Applegate Farm's turkey and their turkey bacon, some romaine lettuce, and Vermont sharp cheese, on a loaf of organic honey and oat bread.  The tea...oh the TEA! Sweet Leaf is such a treat to get. I especially love the Pomegranate!

There is my cutey-patutey bunch...minus one. He is over here with me...

We found a chip shaped like a heart and Tibby just had to get a picture...

along with a silly face I guess?

Ok. The birds. How sweet they were! We had the pleasure of sharing out company with 3 Cardinals and 2 Woodpeckers. The boys gave them their leftover sandwiches and they were HAPPY!

 

Aren't they just beautiful!?

Then we headed to the creek (water crossing) and the boys rode their bikes in and out of the water for an hour or so. I took my shoes off and let the cool water rush over my feet, and of course had to be the red and green light for the boys...of course! My camera battery died so I didn't get pictures of all that, but we have really enjoyed getting to know and enjoy God's creation! He is such an amazing Creator!

Happy Weekend

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:19