Friday Wrap Up…

We have had a good week around here, so I thought I would recap some of it in pictures…

Last Saturday morning, Michael decided to take the girls on a hike at the nature trails in the rain.  At first Selah didn’t want to go, but when they were leaving, she changed her mind!  They had a great time!

After they returned from their “hike”, the girls and I headed to Batesville to see some family that was here from out of town.  I didn’t take too many pictures, but I did get this one of Myla and “Big Mimi”, Bodie’s mother.

I also snapped this sweet picture of Selah and Pey Pey taking a nap.

Tuesday morning, Selah woke up sickly.  I just knew she had the stomach virus, so I was prepared with towels and a trash can.  Ha!  We did end up going to the doctor that afternoon because she was having some stomach trouble, but she seems to be on the mend. (Probably not details that you would like to read on the blog)

Wednesday night Myla returned to Sparks.  She was a little anxious about going, but she had a wonderful time and was so excited to earn her vest and book!

They get points for wearing tennis shoes to Sparks and since Myla had outgrown all of her tennis shoes, we got her some new ones.  She picked these out all by herself!

She told me she wanted a silly picture!  Nice blue tongue from her jolly rancher.

School is still going well!  We are plugging along, and she really enjoys it.  I do too!  We don’t start Classical Conversations until Sept. 11th, but we wanted to get a hard start on some of the memory work.  I will try and do a post about CC because I didn’t know much about it, but the more I’ve learned, it’s amazing!  She will learn SOO much!  She will have memory work each week in 7 subjects.

The first week of math memory work is skip counting by 2’s.

Over the course of this year, she will learn 161 historical items on a timeline.  Everything is to music, which makes it very helpful.  Here she is singing the first segment she learned.  She honestly doesn’t know tons of information about these things on the timeline, but she is storing them in her brain for later!

Happy Friday, everyone!!!  College football is here!! YAY!!!!!!!! 

They Got Mail…

As any other children, mine love to get mail!  Especially Myla since she is a little older.  We came home from town on Thursday and spotted this box on the front doorstep.  Myla was beside herself when I told her that is was for her and Selah from Papaw!  She couldn’t wait to tear into it!

This picture cracks me up because Selah reminds me of Wilson from the show “Home Improvement”.  Ha! Remember the man whose mouth was always hidden behind something?

Anywho…they were so excited to find that Papaw had sent them light up bubble guns!

You can still see Myla’s excitement…I’m not sure what Selah is doing, but she’s just being herself.  The child really is hysterical.  My mom is convinced we could take her to Hollywood and get rich because she could be onscreen.  Adoption fundraiser, maybe?  I kid…

Of course, they wanted to use them immediately, but being that it was in the middle of the day, we had to go in the garage  where it was dark so they could see the guns/bubbles light up.  Of course with the flash on, you can’t really tell anything.  (Notice Selah’s shoes….they are on the wrong feet.  Most times she prefers shoes this way).

So, I turned the flash on and got these pictures.  The girls thought they were awesome!

When I knelt down to take a picture of Selah, she turned the gun on the camera!

 

Thank you, Papaw for the fun bubble guns!  They were a hit!

Lots of Pictures!

I was looking back through my pictures this morning, and I saw a bunch of random ones that I haven’t posted.  So, here goes…

Some days I just don’t even feel like fighting with the girls about what they wear.  They picked out their outfits this particular day, and I just went with it…thinking it wouldn’t matter.  I mean we were just going to the store.  Well, while at the store a friend of mine called to see if we wanted to go to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.  I know what they wear shouldn’t matter, but I guess I’m just vain.  Or maybe, it’s that they have TONS of adorable, matching clothes in their closet, but they just want to wear “play” clothes!  Oh well…such is life with girls, I guess.  I’m sure it will only get worse!!!

The girls have really been tuning into their creative sides lately.  They have been requesting to paint, but I’m just not much on cleaning up paint when it gets everywhere.  I know, I know…I’m a bad mom!  Anyway, my mom had these neat books in her school room that has watercolor paint at the top of each page. The girls loved it and it meant NO mess!! 

After a few minutes, Selah just started painting with the water, and she thought that was just as good.  She loved it!  Myla was done after about five minutes. Selah “painted” for a good twenty.

The girls have started loving watching movies in our room.  This was one night before bed. You can’t tell because I had the flash on, but the room was totally dark.  They thought it was great!

Last week we got the door hung above our church bench. I love the way it turned out!  But, I’m having a bit of trouble with the pictures staying stuck to the glass.  I used glue dots that were in the craft aisle that are VERY sticky.  I just knew that they were going to work great, but after just a few days the pictures started falling.  I’ve got to figure something out because they look crazy right now! Any suggestions??

Last weekend we set up the other twin bed in Myla’s room.  They have been asking to sleep in the same room for awhile, so we thought we would give it a try.  This was one day before Selah was going to take a nap.  She wanted Myla to read to her!

Needless to say, Selah has not made it in the “big” bed through the night yet.  I think she just really loves her baby bed.  And, I’m good with that!  We needed to set up the twin beds anyway because we are renting our house out for one of the football games this fall, and we told them that there would be twin beds in one room.

I snapped this cute picture of Selah last weekend while we were at Sae Sae and Granddaddy’s house.

Then, in the very next moment, I get this look!!

So, as I mentioned earlier, the girls have been wanting to paint.  Well, I finally relented, and they LOVED it!  I found some magnets in the craft aisle that you paint.  Selah was hysterical. She kept saying, “It’s so' ‘prelly’, Mommy!”  She was sure to get every color on her doggy magnet!!

Myla painted a lion.  She was a little more particular than her sister!

This past Tuesday we spent the morning at the park with some friends from our Classical Conversations group.  The girls had so much fun playing, and I think Selah played herself out!  When we got home, she requested to watch Snow White.  She is obsessed with Snow White right now and wants to watch it all the time!!  Well, she fell asleep while she was watching it!

On Wednesday night AWANA started back up at church.  It is an awesome program where children memorize scripture each week as well as play games and have  an emphasis on missions.  Myla is in Sparks this year.  I can’t believe it. She started out as a Puggle when she was 2, then she was a Cubbie at 3 & 4.  Now, Selah is a Puggle!  They were WIRED with they got home from church!!!

See, I told you that was random!  I hope you all have a great weekend!!!!!

P.S. – Our first week of homeschooling has gone really well!  Myla loves it, and I have really enjoyed it as well.  I learned one lesson today though.  The girls woke up in the best mood this morning and immediately began playing.  I started cleaning the house (which I really needed to do), so I decided since they were playing so well I would continue to clean since I was getting a lot done and homeschool Myla while Selah was napping.  Well, I think I discovered that she is definitely a morning learner.  She is much more focused and motivated in the mornings.  She told me this afternoon that she was tired.  She was also very distracted and antsy.  Oh well….live and learn.  This is all new to me anyway! 

She’s a Big Girl Now…

Selah is growing and changing so much everyday!  I still think of her so often as a “baby”, but she’s not at all.  If you are around her much, you know that she talks ALL the time!  She is SO expressive and funny!  In fact, we called my Dad yesterday and Selah got on the phone and said, “Hey, Papaw!”  And my Dad responded, “Well, hey Myla!”  He couldn’t believe how well she was talking, and Selah got the biggest kick out of that.  All afternoon, she was saying, “Papaw thought I was Myla!”  Then, she would just die out laughing!

One big change over the past week is that Selah is potty trained! I have been in NO rush to potty train…mainly because I was just being lazy about it and she hasn’t had much interest.  But, last Tuesday she told me she wanted to wear “big girl panties”.  So, I put them on her, and she has had one accident since then!  It is so funny to see her running around in panties!  She is so proud of herself, and she keeps saying, “I a big girl now”!  Sweet girl!

First Day of Kindergarten…

Yesterday was Myla’s first day of Kindergarten!  She has been so excited about starting school, and to be honest, I have too!  Even though I know homeschooling will be hard, I am thankful for the opportunity to do it!  I am so grateful that God has given me the opportunity to be her sole influencer at this early and very impressionable age.  I know that education is important, and I do want her to learn to read, write and be able to do math problems. But, what I am much more concerned about is her little heart.  I want her to learn to love the Lord and serve Him, and I think that will be better taught in our home than in public school.  I am not perfect, and I know we will have tough days, but I think, in the end, it will be worth it!  I will do another post on my decision as a whole to homeschool, but today, I just want to share with you her first day!

She woke up ready to roll!  She picked out the dress that she wanted to wear, and she was so excited about the sign I made for her to hold for a picture! 

We started off with a devotion and prayer. She said the sweetest prayer that made me cry!!  Here she is ready to go with all of her workbooks!

She was yelling, “SCHOOL”!!!

Working diligently on her “I” page!

After we finished her workbook pages, she was begging for more to do, so she finished up with some color by numbers pages. 

As for Selah…she slept until 8:30, so we were DONE with school by the time she woke up!!  She slept that late again today, so we were done today as well!

I would say our first day was a great success!  The A Beka curriculum is great, but moves a little slow. For instance today, we reviewed what we did yesterday, so she didn’t have any pages in her workbook to do, so she was not happy about that!  I know it will quickly pick up where we have more to do each day as we add to what she is learning, but she is quite eager!!  Also, when we start CC (Classical Conversations) after Labor Day, the load will pick up as well because she will have quite a bit of memory work each week.

After we finished yesterday, we had the entire day to be together and just have a normal day.  I think that is going to be my favorite thing about homeschooling, especially kindergarten (where the work load is small) is still getting to be with her each day.  As a stay at home mom, there have been days in the past five years where I have very selfishly thought to myself, “I can’t wait for Myla to go to school, so I can have a break!'”  But now, the thought of taking her somewhere for almost eight hours a day makes my stomach hurt.  I seriously teared up yesterday after I took the picture of her holding her “First Day of Kindergarten” sign.  I can’t imagine if I had dropped her off at school.  Please hear me say I do not believe there is anything wrong with taking your child to school!  I’m just thankful that God has given me the opportunity to do this!

Ten on Tuesday…

1.  We are starting homeschool on Monday!  Myla and I are very excited and ready to get started!

I’ve tried to get my things organized and ready to go!

(Note to self…if the house catches on fire, grab everything in the top left corner of the cabinet because that is all of our adoption paperwork!!!  I NEVER want to lose any of it!)

2.  Last weekend while Michael and I were in Tupelo, we went to FBC in Tupelo, where our dear friend, Chad Grayson, serves as pastor.  Chad was not preaching that morning because Ron Price was there to give his testimony.  You might remember Ron from the news.  He is the head football coach in New Albany and last December his wife, Amanda, was shot and killed in their home.  Ron was also shot by the intruder.  He gave an amazing testimony of his faith, and I was just in awe listening to him.  I can’t imagine going through what he went through, but his faith in the Lord was undeniable.  It was really tremendous.

3.  This past Saturday, we went to Michael’s parents to visit for the day.

The girls had so much fun playing with Play-Doh!

As you can tell, some of Selah’s colors began to get mixed together!

Selah and Granddaddy shared some time on the piano.

4.  I ALWAYS think of things between Tuesdays to write on the Ten on Tuesday posts , but when it comes time to do it, I can never remember them!

5.  I am so ready to start MMO!  I have missed my little kiddos so much this summer, and I am so excited that we are moving up with our class so we will have a lot of the same students this year!  I made little owls to go on our door.

6.  I’m reading my first Nicholas Sparks book. I’m not sure why I have never read one before, but I am really enjoying it so far.  I picked it up at the Goodwill bookstore in Tupelo that I mentioned last Tuesday!  :)

7.  We are renting our house out for the Ole Miss vs. Texas football game, so it is giving me some motivation to get the remaining things done around the house that I want to do!  I’ve got to finish stripping one of the doors from Mrs. Meurrier’s house that we are going to use for our headboard, but it is HARD work!

8.  One project I’m working on is this door that I got at a thrift shop back in December.  I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it, but I really liked it! I finally decided to put pictures in it and hang it above the church pew in the kitchen.  Hopefully we will get it hung this week!

I messed up two pictures with the glue dots while I was working on them, so I have to get them re-developed.    I’m also going to glue in a door knob off of one of the other old doors we have.  I don’t like the hole being there!

Myla took this picture so we could see what it would look like above the bench.  ha!

9.  We have had birds in our chimney for several weeks, and they are driving me CRAZY!  Obviously there is a nest in there with lots of babies and they chirp all the time!!!!  We’ve got to get a chimney sweep to get them OUT!

10.  Oxford is definitely getting busier as it gets closer to school starting at Ole Miss.  Summer traffic is so much better here!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Tuesday!!

Ten on Tuesday…

1.  I know…I am very behind, and I have no excuse.

2.  I have been doing a terrible job of taking pictures lately, so I’m going to have to dig up things to talk about.  Ha!

3.  Last week and some of the week before, I helped my mom pack up her school room.  After her surgery on her shoulder this summer, she found out that she also had a stress fracture in her left foot, which is requiring her to wear a boot.  Needless to say, she reluctantly had to make the decision to retire…after 42 years of teaching.  It has been extremely difficult for her emotionally because she really doesn’t want to retire, but feels like she has to because of her physical state right now.  She has TONS of school stuff, and she wanted to keep most of it…just in case.  The girls went with me some and had a good time playing with all of the school stuff!

Myla acting silly!

Yes...we had our work cut out for us!!

4.  I am ready for us to start homeschool and get into a routine.  Our lives have seemed so out of whack lately…I can’t really pinpoint it, but I guess it’s just that we don’t have any set schedule and everyday we just kind of fly by the seat of our pants.  I think it will definitely help to get back into a routine soon!

5.  Michael and I spent the past weekend in Tupelo while my parents kept the kids.  We had a nice, relaxing time, and I was thankful for the getaway.  While we were there, we went to the Goodwill Bookstore.  If you are in Tupelo, you should definitely go!  It is very, very organized and has tons of great books.  Michael is a book lover, so I had a hard time getting him out of there!!!  We bought 18 books, so we’ve got some reading to do!

6.  Do you feel like this when you eat with kids?  Poor Michael was trying to eat some watermelon, and I’m not sure if he ended up getting any at all!

They’re like little vultures!

7.  I’m SO ready for fall…this hot weather is about to do me in.

8.  We have absolutely been loving the Olympics!  It has put a little kink in our bedtime, but it only comes around every 4 years, right?

9.  Take a look at this precious baby girl!  My friend, Katie, delivered sweet Abigail Ann, “Abby”, on Monday morning at 4:45 am.  The girls and I finally got a chance to go and see her this morning.  I can’t imagine having 4 children 5 years old and under, but Katie handles it like a champ and is an absolute wonderful mother!

She is pretty much identical to Grace as a newborn!

The girls loved getting to hold her…especially Selah, but I didn’t chance taking a picture while Selah was holding her.  I needed to have all hands on deck.  Ha!

10.  Ok…I thought of nine things…can’t think of anymore.  I’m going to go cheer Gabby Douglas on as she competes on the balance beam.

Happy Tuesday!