Mother's Day

Mother's day for me technically started the Sunday before. Our Pastor's oldest ended up in the hospital with fluid around his heart. His mom was with him when we went up to the hospital to visit. We were supposed to have a Mother/Daughter Tea the Saturday before Mother's day and she was concerned that it might not happen with her in the hospital. I told her I would make a sign-up list for food and ask Bill's mom to decorate. She is good at this...

Everything went beautifully and during the Tea Bill's mom asked to say something. She told about her mom and all she had done and meant to her. Grandma Hoffman died last spring. She said she was going to embarrass me. Being a blonde through and through I thought this wouldn't be hard. Instead of that she took off a ring which was one her favorites and gave it to me. By this time I think everyone was crying.

I was touched beyond belief. It could have been a plastic ring for all I cared as I knew the feelings that came with it. Bill's mom is a wonderful woman and like a mother to all the girls in church. I have been so blessed to have Bill's parents going to the same church.

It was my first Mother/Daughter function since I have had girls of my own. We had a lot of fun.

Sunday we went to church and all the ladies got a gift.

Sunday night after church I started to miscarry. At the time we just weren't sure and we made plans to go to the doctor the next morning.

Kindergarten Update

I will have to say that every time I have done Kindergarten it has been different.

Silas took of like Road-runner and then we had to stay in one spot for a while, but, still finished the complete A Beka curriculum in just over a half of a school year. I added a lot of extra readers and library books to the list as he loved to read.

Philip wanted me to hand him the papers and leave him alone. He would than come back and hand me them done correctly with very little help. He also finished in just over a half of a school year. I had thought he wasn't paying any attention when he sat next to me doing Kindergarten with Silas. He apparently gleamed a lot without me noticing.

Cecilia hit the ground running and loved "School". Ruth of course has to be there the whole time doing almost everything right along with Cecilia.

I soon remembered that doing cursive in Kindergarten can be a tad over whelming at the beginning. I hadn't planned on doing it with Silas, but, he saw, Kimberlee, his cousin doing it and wanted to do the same thing. I got him a book and we have done cursive in Kindergarten with Philip and Cecilia.

I have realized that handwriting takes quite a bit of fine motor skills. I always teach letters on blank paper so the child can make the letters any size they want and just work on getting the shape right. When you move to lined paper and they have to watch where they start, how big they make each part, and where they stop. It can make the most excited child want to stop doing school all together. Cecilia was no exception. She threw fits, whined, and cried for almost a week. Now Cecilia is a drama queen. She will cry and whine over the littlest thing, so some of the trauma I took in stride as her trying to exert her will over mine. Now I will say that I had a moment or two that made me think she just wasn't ready. I was going to give it one more try. We were doing school and I handed her her handwriting paper and reviewed the letters we would be practicing that day. None of them were new so I let her go and watched as she made her letters wonderfully. It was as if she had been doing that way all the time. I was grinning ear to ear when she looked up and I gushed over the paper. I got out stickers and made smiley faces and stars next to the ones that were my favorites. She then turned the paper over and did the next days page with no help or prodding.

I have noticed that her personality is that she doesn't like having to try something that doesn't just come naturally. New concepts usually come with many fits and whining.

Last week I sent her and Ruth to bed in the middle of school as they had both done nothing but whine and cry the whole time we had been at the table trying to do school. I thought we would have to put the Letters and Sounds book on hold as I couldn't get Cecilia to say a two letter blend.

That night I was looking through my phonics folder on my hard drive. I try to save things that I do for school or helpful hints I find online so I can use them again later. It was a tips on beginning phonics that went right along with were we were in our A Beka phonics. So I did the suggestion of writing the three letter words on the board with the center vowel in red. We followed the suggestions and in less than five minutes we were sounding out three letter words were the day before we wouldn't even try a two letter blend.

Cecilia saw a "Ah ah ah ah apple" book from Sing, Spell, Read and Write. I was given all but the consumable books for level 1 and we love the songs, games, and books. I use the first 6 in Kindergarten between the short vowel and long vowel books in my A Beka curriculum. I think kids need to be grounded in sounding out words and comfortable with it before you move on to long vowels and special sounds. Then we use the rest in first grade. I opened the book and discussed the sight words and got two blank pieces of paper to cover the pictures. Cecilia read almost 16 pages of the book. She so loved peeking under the paper to see the picture of what she just read. I knew she would get sidetracked by the pictures at first. I wanted to cry she just flew into the book and grinned ear from ear.

I am not a name dropper but if it works I am not ashamed to give it credit. We like A Beka Kindergarten. I love the color and pictures and it flows nicely. The only complain I have ever had is that they go from a few short readers (only about 7 pages) of short/one vowel words to 2 or more/long vowel words. I never found my kids ready that quickly. That is where I fell in love with the Sing, Spell, Read and Write books. I had already loved the games and songs in the kit. My girls will get out the alphabet chart and sing the sound songs without the music or my help.

We have also enjoyed the Leap Frog phonics DVDs. The Letter Factory, and Word Factory DVDs we watch a lot and the kids enjoy them every time. I find them very useful as with 4 in school each in a different grade and my wonderful diversion, AKA Elsie, a good education video can be a wonderful way of doing school with more than one kid...lol

We have been doing Kindergarten for 40 school days and have done 58 lessons. I work at Cecilia's pace with pressure as the afore mentioned attitude toward things that might be a little hard. As she realizes the wonders of what she is now able to do and mommy's smiles get bigger we can get lost in school fun. I have realized that we don't have as much time to just sit and do school for hours on end as the girls would like to do most days. I have started leaving extra practice pages out for the girls to use at any time. I caught Cecilia trying to sneak into the drawer with her school papers in it to do more school. She sat and did handwriting practice papers for over an hour a few days ago.

Ruth wants to do everything that Cecilia is doing. Some days I can tell she hasn't caught on as quickly as her older sister. I do have a feeling she will be like Philip and when her turn to be the Kindergarten star comes she will already know most of it..

I know that we will still have bad days, but, watching my baby girl learn and cross those milestones makes my heart happy. Oh the blessing from God. He is truly merciful in all He does.

The Very LONG Week

Last week my husband had to go to Chicago for training for his job. Six days of training for just in case. He has done this before but this week was SO different.

Bill preached Sunday night and then left for training from church.

Monday started out very bad. At least three things broke:
1. Silas was trying to help Ruth make her bed and Philip decided he had to just go and tell Silas what time it was. He fell on her bed and it just broke. OK this was the story I was told and expected to believe. I believe I got it back together.

2. Silas was holding Cecilia's new digital camera. She hit him with her pillow and he dropped it. The LCD screen cracked all the way across and is now ruined. Yet again a story I was supposed to just BELIEVE...

3. When Bill called later that night I realized my headphone/microphone to use with my computer was broke.

I alo got one bad phone call after another. One of which was that my Aunt had passed away the day before.

Tuesday went better. I made chili at lunch for supper. I realized I made way more than I needed and my friend and her family came over for dinner. She brought her laundry, as Tuesday is laundry day, needed condiments, hair color, and kids. She did laundry so her husband could come after work, I did her hair, and we enjoyed some good chili and fellowship.

Wednesday got hairy again. By the time we got to church I was in a frenzy. We had prayer meeting and our pastor hurried to go to be with a family at the hospital.

Thursday was a planned day off from school. My friend, the one who had come over on Tuesday, was coming over to have pizza, cake, and ice cream to celebrate her son's birthday. It was a so nice that the boys had a blast outside and we got invited to go to their house for dinner. We had never been to the Ewald's house so it was exciting. They live in a travel trailer as there dad works construction and the move a lot. It was nice although we filled it up...lol

Friday was real nice and we managed to finish school early and met up with friends at the park. The first thing our of Philip's mouth on Friday was if we were going to have the Ewald's over to eat spaghetti. So we invited them over after the park.

Saturday we went to grandma and grandpa's and visited with out cousin Kim. I got to go to a local thrift store and got all my prayers answered and found clothes for all the kids.

We made chili again so dad could have some. At 5:30 he called to say he was on his way and I thought I had good four hours until he would be home. Two minutes later he walked in the door. I was so happy he was so early.

With so many of our church members and family losing family it made the week a hard thing. We don't like being away from each other and a week is a long time.

My husband installed a program so we could video call anytime we wanted. It was so nice for the kids to get to see dad and for us to have time together.

How easy I forget... I found the missing link!!

I see something or do something and think what a wonderful blog post that would be... Then later that night or a few days later I have no clue what I was thinking about blogging. I know I am not alone.

I think we have found the missing key to the final step of potty training for Ruth. After we came home from campmeeting last July we have had a host of problems. It started I believe with her falling into the stool at the hotel and getting stuck. Then we were scared to potty on the potty. We would sit on the edge and pee all over herself and the floor. Then we would pull up our now wet clothing and walk around. After we were no longer scared to go potty by ourselves it became harder. She would take her self and then run off to do her own thing. As it was winter and we were wearing tights most days we would chafe from being wet for an extended time. Then to make things worse we started to wet the bed every night. I decided to take her in to be checked for an UTI. She had no signs, except the content bed wetting after not for months.

Well my doctor told me something that I didn't know. The chemical your body makes to keep you from wetting the bed isn't always made consistently. It is normal for a small child to go through a time of bed wetting as the body adjusts and the chemical production gets back to normal. I thought once you had the bed wetting thing down it was done. Silly mommy...

Ruth did have a UTI and was put on medicine and the bed wetting was getting better. We still had the walking around wet to deal with. I am very careful to not punish a small child for having an accident. I do know that some children stop having accidents and start having on purpose messes. I didn't believe this was the problem. I believed the problem was we had no problem walking around wet. Something that before had been the end of the world. I tried setting timers and making her sit on a baby mat*. Nothing seemed to make a dent in any way shape or form.

Last week I tried a completely new approach. I told her that babies that walked around wet and threw fits until they wet there pants took naps like baby Elsie and didn't get to do big girl school. She turned pail and started to cry again.

This morning she woke up wet and sat right down to eat breakfast. When I realized it and started to say something she quickly hopped down went potty and dressed in dry clothes. I looked at her and explained that if she was wet again she would take a nap with Elsie.

I want my daughter to do school and learn. She is learning most things right along with Cecilia. I even told my husband about it and my concern about her not doing school. He said we needed to find what worked and it seemed to have the effect we needed.

Potty training is right about top of the things I really could do without when it comes to being a mommy. Everyone struggles in one shape or form. So I want to encourage all those mommies out there it just keep celebrating all those little accomplishments and it will happen.

BABY MAT: A towel placed on the floor. I began to realize that Cecilia was having accidents because she wasn't taking time to pay attention to her body's signs that it needed to go. So if we had an accident we had to sit on the baby mat. Babies who wet in there pants could not sit on my new furniture or floor and leave messes. So we would sit with no toys, no TV, and a sippy cup. The sippy cup is the key as then we were taking in liquid so we could go potty and then get up and play. It was just what Cecilia needed.

Philip was GROUP POTTY. I would drag him kicking and screaming to the restroom. The whole time he was telling me he didn't need to go. As I was told to take Silas every hour to keep his kidney as empty as possible; every hour EVERYTHING stopped for group potty time. As soon as he realized every one had to stop having fun and playing to go potty he was good to go.

Silas was stickers.

I have heard that people used gum, candy, new underwear.

Try not to stress and keep your eyes open for the KEY.

A Sunday Plan

I am having issues with my website program so I decided to post this to the blog and then it will be done when I fix the problem.

I have struggled for years with getting all kids and myself ready for church on Sunday without fighting, screaming, someone ending up in tennis shoes, and bad attitudes all around. So I will pass on the things I have worked out that have made our Sundays much better.

First I do all that I can on Saturday so it doesn't have to be done Sunday mornings before church.

Saturday
1. Do all baths and showers possible on Saturday.
2. Make sure all laundry is done, folded, ironed, and put away properly.
3. Locate all Bibles, papers, and dress shoes.
4. Pick out all outfits (now I am not as good at this step yet).

Sunday
1. If you have one do not turn the TV on.
2. Get up 2 hours before church starts. We live 3 blocks from out church and do not need a lot of travel time. I try to have as close to two hours of get ready time.
3. Play church music or preaching. This helps get minds ready for church.
4. Eat breakfast, do clean up, and brush teeth in jammies.
5.I save those who are more likely to get dirty or drool all over them self for last to get dresses in church clothes.
6. Get all bathroom things done ASAP so as not to be in dad's way when he gets up.
7. Watch for possible problems. Try to head them off before they start.

I have struggled from the time we were first married that my hubby wanted me to get up first on Sundays. I remember getting mad that he wouldn't let me have those extra minutes of sleep. He gets up without anyone and goes to work most days with all of us still in bed.

When I stopped trying to get him to let me sleep in and I realized that I needed to get up earlier than I was so we wouldn't be so stressed on Sundays, things got so much nicer.

Then if we are done and finishing up on shoes and hair as dad gets up then we aren't in his way and things go smoother.

We try to keep all if the kids shoes in our entry way closet. Elsie's are so small that hers go in a basket on the girls' dresser. If we are good during the week about keeping all shoes mated and in the entry way then Sunday morning we just go to the spot for church shoes and get ours!

I want my family to be ready learn what God would have us at church, to be able to worship and praise Him. The better the morning goes the better church seems to go.

I pray this helps someone have a better, smoother Sunday. I hate showing up to church stressed and mad at all my family.

A Day a Long Time Coming!

Today at 1 in the afternoon we were done with school. Even the girls.

I love Preschool and Kindergarten. It doesn't take a lot of time and it is all new. Everyone is excited. I always get excited when we officially start Kindergarten.

I will have to say that this time was different. As we have been struggling to get school done diligently and we have a 14 month old distraction, things didn't go as well as they had before. I found it hard to find time to sit down and give one on one or two on two time with Cecilia and Ruth. If the boys aren't done then they immediately need my help as soon as we get going.

We have been trying to do afternoon Kindergarten so the boys are finishing up and Elsie is sleeping. Well on a perfect day.

Lately we have been not working at school well, Elsie is taking shorter naps, and a host of other things seem to be trying to keep us from doing Kindergarten. BUT, when I start Kindergarten officially then we do it every day we do school.

Today we got up on time, ate breakfast and got ready for school quickly and with out incident. By break time at 9:30 the boys had done almost a half a day of school. I fed the girls lunch early and put Elsie down for a nap. The boys finished up school and ate their lunch as we did Kindergarten. I looked up and realized that it was just after one. I was so excited.

To make the day better we got chores done quickly and had time to play and hang out. I found Cecilia making cursive letters with her new necklace. It makes my heart soar when I see my children using what we learned on their own in a new and creative way.

I am not saying that my house is spotless, but, I didn't feel like I was running around and not getting anything done.

When dad came home with big beautiful yellow flowers for Cecilia, it just finished off a wonderful day.

Best Vacation Ever!

Well we took a week and went to Ohio. They let us stay at the ranch and were having a revival.

We left Tuesday morning and were going to have plenty of time to settle in and get ready for church that evening. As soon as we hit Ohio it started to snow. It got worse the closer we got to Toledo. We pulled into the church and were rushed to the ranch to get dressed and ready for church. They asked Bill to play piano as the pianist was sick.

We got back to church just in time. The pastor asked Bill to sing a special before the evangelist preached and then had all the preachers sing a special. So he got to do two in a row.

We woke up to it still snowing and we were snowed in at the ranch. They ended up have to come with a 4x4 SUV and ferry us in two trips to church.

Lets see Bill fell down the hard wood stairs in the ranch and then I fell down the concrete stairs outside the ranch while holding Elsie. We are both OK and Elsie never knew there was anything wrong.


Thursday the revival broke out and the song leaders wife got saved! Friday night the pastor's son surrendered to preach. He feels led to reach the Muslims in the Toledo area. A young lady in the church also surrendered to be a preacher's wife.

Saturday we went shopping with the Pastor's family. Bill had told me to buy two new outfits. I am not a good shopper when it comes to myself. The pastor's wife told me that I wasn't buying for me I was doing what my husband told me to do. Then she told me that I had the jean skirt I was wearing for ten years and needed some new clothes. Later the next day my husband said I have had the same clothes for the last 20 years. I had not told him that Mrs. Stogsdill had said the same thing.

I have really gotten frumpy. As a nursing mother of 5 I tend to be at the bottom of the priority list. I leave my hairdo til last on most Sunday mornings and then don't have time to do a whole lot with it. Mrs. Stogsdill said that I need to start dressing for my husband and she is right. Not for me but for my husband. As a preacher's wife I need to look the part. I did find two new outfits and know I need to make an effort to wear the nicer things in my closet and be more presentable.

Sunday my husband preached twice. I love hearing my husband preach. We also did a walk through of a house that is for Sale/rent that is right next door to the church.

I don't know where we will end up, but, I know God is working and it is all His doing as we strive to do His will.