Complaining

My focus today: "Do all things without complaining and disputing" (Phil. 2:13). As I reflected on the day last night, I realized that I had more than once gotten on the kids about their attitudes and whiny tone--and then turned right around and complained my own way through the day. Gee, I wonder why THEIR attitudes were bad! Ugh. Cue Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust"--except replace "one" with "mom." But hey--another opportunity to teach the kidlets about grace and forgiveness, right? And admit what they already know--that Mom isn't perfect.

I Love Him

For the vast majority of my life, I've gone to church, prayed, and read my Bible. Not consistently, of course, because about the only think I do consistently is be inconsistent. No matter where I was spiritually, I always believed that Jesus died for me--paying for my sins--and rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven. I was (and am, of course!) grateful, appreciative, and moved by the immensity of His suffering and sacrifice. But I've always been bothered by the verses that say "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." That's the greatest of all commandments, as Jesus Himself said. Why did it bother me? Because I knew, even though I didn't want to admit it even in the depths of my soul, that I didn't love Him like that. I liked Him a lot--admired Him, trusted Him with some things...but LOVE? With ALL MY HEART??

This has bothered me more and more--this head knowledge without the heart knowledge. I figured there was a reason God put "heart" first in that list. And as life happened (primarily via postpartum depression and the subsequent dashing of my expectations), I had less and less control over my life and my ability to "tough it out" took a hike and left me crashed and burned. Shortly after my first child was born, a friend had invited me to a Bible study, which was the beginning of me actually learning more than just head knowledge (although there was that as well) about Jesus.

After almost 6 years of slowing having my wall chipped away, yesterday I was working on my lesson for Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) and answering questions about Isaiah 53, a chapter that I'm so familiar with that I didn't really even need to read it to answer the questions. But I read it anyway, because it's a beautiful, heart-rending chapter. After answering some questions about how people in general perceived Christ, there was the question: "What is your response to Jesus?" For the first time ever, my first thought was not an intellectual response, but an emotional one: "I love Him." And I DO!! And my heart aches with love not just for Jesus and what did for me on the cross, but for my LORD GOD who planned it all, and I'm so unspeakably happy about it!

Cheap and Safe Cleaning

There's already a whole lot of information on the web about the glories of homemade cleaning products, but I've recently had an experience that made me newly excited about them.

What happened? I was given and used some commercial cleaning wipes. I'd been trying various recipes for homemade ones, and it'd been a long time since the house had been filled with the smell of chemicals and I was worried about the kids putting their sandwich on the table instead of their plate. It'd been a long time since the house was filled with the smell of unpronounceable chemical names. So I quickly mixed up a batch of all-purpose cleaner, poured it in a spray bottle, and hoped our brain cells could recover. I love that my kids can clean without me worrying that they're going to ingest horror from getting splashed in the eye or nose-picking while scrubbing the toilet. They can smear their hands all over the table before reassembling their sandwich and I'm not concerned--well, except maybe about the mess to come.

So far I just make laundry detergent, general cleaner, mold remover (haven't tested this on anything hard-core yet, but seems to work on the light stuff), and am currently testing a heavy-duty carpet cleaner concoction out on the landing site of kidlet vomit. Looks promising, but I have to admit that the state my carpet is...well, I'll be content if it just takes care of the odor. Spots, schmots--the whole thing needs to be ripped up, anyway.

Any of you use homemade stuff? Anyone that would never dream of using homemade stuff?

A Few Random Highlights

Via pictures, here are some of our activities over the last few days...out of order, of course, but I'm sure you won't lose sleep over that.

Here's Aiden doing his math...seriously, I LOVE this math book and wish I would've learned math like this.

Norah making paper dolls...the end result of which you'll see as soon as I upload the other pics from my camera...see how she's holding the pencil? Like a paintbrush. Fascinating. She can and does hold it further down in a normal manner, but it interests me that she sometimes holds it like this while drawing. And yes, she did her own hair;).

Ronan poring over a TinTin book, jabbering at me about different emotions and happenings he sees in the pictures.

A toasty warm fire!!

This terrible picture is an attempt to show off the ring I got to wear in lieu of my wedding ring since my fingers are now apparently fat and I can't get my wedding ring on and off. My fingers are about the only part of me that doesn't look fat, so it really seems horribly unfair, but such is life. I'm excited to have a ring to wear again, and like it enough that should my fingers ever shrink, I could wear this one on the middle finger of my other hand.
We made cookies over the weekend and made small batches of different colored dough, putting the leftover scraps together to make a Daddy Cookie for Dean when he got home from work.
I was going for a heart shape...
The kids built a village--no word on if they thought we needed help raising them...
Couldn't get a good picture of it, but this pic of 2 kids not looking at the camera and all of them with food in their mouths is representative of them playing "covered wagon" ala the Little House books. The bottom bunk is the wagon and the toy box Aiden's on is the bench for driving. They're eating the "food for the journey" they requested.
Aiden reading Mike Mulligan to the others--this is a HUGE favorite of Ronan's right now. Loves that steam shovel!

For the Love of Thinking Skills

I'm a big fan of teaching critical thinking, and have a handful of books from The Critical Thinking Company to show for it. Aiden had just finished one of their Mind Benders books when I got the opportunity via Timberdoodle to receive a copy of Building Thinking Skills Level 1 for free in exchange for an honest review.

You can read about the scope of this book and view sample pages at http://www.timberdoodle.com/Building_Thinking_Skills_Book_1_p/410-107.htm. A detail to note is that, while this is called Level 1, it's directed at grades 2 & 3--and with 327 pages of activities, it'll last you two years. No, Aiden is not in second grade--he's in kindergarten. I chose this based on ability and in hopes of finding something challenging for him.

On many levels, this is one impressive tome--the scope is a little overwhelming, actually. It includes higher-order thinking activities for Reading, Writing, Math, and Science--whew! Thankfully, each activity is a mere page long and is not overwhelming to Aiden, nor is it difficult to implement. Straightforward and simple, it's easy to use. This is not, however, a visually exciting book--all the pages are in basic blackline master form. For Aiden, that's good news because color and unnecessary graphics are distracting to him. But, I can see how another child might equate the lack of color with boredom.

There are a couple of exciting things to me about this book. One is that I can clearly see how it is addressing skills needed for standardized tests. I myself had no exposure to analogies until I took the PSAT in high school--they're included in this book. I can't describe how happy I am to have a book in my hands that addresses these things early on! The other notable for me is that I can see how Aiden has to stop and think about these activities--at first glance, he thought they were easy--and initially, some are. But they incrementally get more difficult, building on previous activities and requiring him to take the scope of what he learned before, apply it, and expand on it. I love that this is challenging, but doable. To Aiden, it's a puzzle that's just hard enough to make him feel like pushing forward until it's finished without getting frustrated and overwhelmed. That's a fine line to ride, and this book does it well.

The one aspect of this book that gives me pause is that the answers are in the back. While this would not stop me from purchasing it, it is definitely a good thing to know about--either in case I need them, or to make sure Aiden doesn't look at them! The pages aren't perforated, so there's no taking them out without creating a mess. But, I'd rather have the answers there than have to buy a separate book if I needed them. And two years of critical thinking activities that will also help Aiden when it comes to standardized test time = worth the money.

There are a lot of ways to help your child develop critical thinking skills, and it will be time well-spent! For other critical thinking materials, see http://www.timberdoodle.com/Thinking_Skills_s/226.htm and http://www.timberdoodle.com/hands_on_games_s/26.htm.

For the Love of Math

Up for review today is The Critical Thinking Company's Mathematical Reasoning, Beginning 2 (age 4) book. As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team, I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a frank and unbiased review. And you know how I love giving my honest opinions!

I hadn't planned on using a math book for Norah. I figured between all the math manipulatives we have, listening in on Aiden's math, and real life counting and cooking, she'd be fine. She's only 4. True though that may be, we are both greatly enjoying this book's combination of early math and thinking skills. From Norah's perspective, she was so happy to have her own book, and especially glad that it had lots of colorful pictures.

Timberdoodle's description and sample pages give a good representation of the scope of this book http://www.timberdoodle.com/Beginning_2_Mathematical_Reasoning_p/410-034.htm. The perspective I'd like to look at it from is that of a teaching parent--its ease of implementation, Norah's response to it, what I see it teaching her, and how I see her applying what she learns outside of the book.

This book is so easy to implement it's almost ridiculous. No lesson planning + no parental confusion over directions = a happy teaching mother! Norah's response to the lessons has been enthusiastic--she frequently asks to do math first thing in the morning, and never does only one page. A lover of color, she takes great delight in the variety of colors found in the critters and objects used in the lessons. While I have seen and used (with a different child) other colorful math books that I thought were mostly color and lacked content, this book is not like that. Yes, it is colorful and pleasing to the eye, but it does not sacrifice content for cuteness. Interspersed throughout the expected counting, shapes, and addition exercises are things The Critical Thinking Company is famous for--critical thinking puzzles and riddles. Mind Benders, ThinkerDoodles, and Half'n'Half Animals are all included, adding skills and variety for the student (learn more about these and other specific puzzles at http://www.timberdoodle.com/Critical_Thinking_Press_s/511.htm). The critical thinking element is also seen in the regular exercises as well, such as the one that asks the student to determine how old Maria is now, was last year, and will be next year by looking at a birthday cake with candles--an exercise much more advanced than just counting to 10. Since beginning this book, I've seen Norah begin to add objects together while playing, drawing patterns of her own, and, most importantly at this age, happily applying mathematical reasoning to everything from her dolls (sorting them by size, color of clothing, etc.) to her meals (counting and adding blueberries, asking for her sandwich to be cut into triangles or rectangles) as if it's just a part of everyday life...which it is! Speaking of every day life, here's some pictures of Norah doing her math with Ronan looking on in fascination while she told him all about what she was doing.

So, I like it, Norah likes it, I can see progress...but is it worth the price? I don't think this is a must-have book. But, if you want to be sure your child is learning and just feel better having a book to help you teach early math skills, I would get this one over the other options I've seen based on its clear inclusion of reasoning skills.

For more fun educational materials--whether you homeschool or just want to find some fun activities to do with your kids on a supplementary level, check out http://www.timberdoodle.com/Thinking_Skills_s/226.htm.

Daily Life

As I've been thinking about purposeful living of late, I've also been thinking about how to hold myself accountable for how I spend my time. No, I don't usually sit for 4 hours at the computer or anything like that. Ahem. Well, sometimes we've been known to stay up late watching "just one more episode" of a TV show. The downside to having no cable or TV reception at all is that when we sit down to watch HGTV online, we have a lot of episodes to choose from;). But mostly it's a matter of a few minutes here, a few minutes there--and not just centered around the computer. Countless times I've thought, "Oh, the kids are in the middle of playing covered wagon (or pick some other imaginative, positive play) and they're having such fun...I'll just have a second cup of coffee." While there's nothing wrong with having a second cup of coffee or letting the kids finish their game, there does end up being something wrong. Because while I have my cup of coffee, I read a book along with it, lose track of time, and am reawakened by the lovely play that has now degenerated to a fight. Not good. Not what I want.

The good news here is that it can be changed! Just think of how many things I could do: set a timer (for me!), just not have the coffee, play along with the kids for a few minutes (I could even do that with a cup of coffee!), redirect everyone to a new activity before the meltdown occurs...the list goes on. All sorts of proactive things to do. As much as I despise reactive parenting, it's such an easy trap to fall into. Things are going along smoothly, out comes that second cup of coffee, and The Interruption happens and I'm reacting instead of being proactive. It's something I constantly have to be evaluating in myself. It would, of course, all be much easier if I was perfect. HA. Back to reality...

So, in the never-ending journey to somehow strengthen/make up for my weaknesses, I've decided that I'm going to post a lot more daily life stuff. Pictures (maybe even videos!), triumphs (don't look for many), and failures (clear the internet). It'll be my own little accountability group.

Back to--yes, you guessed it--my second cup of coffee:).