Gifts That Keep Giving- Part 2

"There's no great loss without some small gain." -Pa Ingalls (Little House on the Prairie)

Piled up on my bed in jammies, we did it. The boys and I finished Little House on the Prairie tonight.

I am convinced that I will never regret all the reading that the boys and I do together. Boys snuggled up to me, twirling my hair, playing with a pillow...doing nothing. Just listening and waiting for the next sketch in the book.

--------

this is a favorite photo of my Mom In Law, reading in her pool

Joey had a disappointment today. For a nine year old, a big disappointment. We were just heading up to read and he really wanted to tell me about it, but I asked him to wait. Listen to the book and then he and I could talk about it. (Sometimes this boy needs to simmer a little so he can use his words well. Um, so do I. ) So we snuggled up on the bed, he pulled a blanket over his head in grief and I read the final two chapters of our book.

Joe, always a book in hand, on a Canyon hike

I tucked Eli in bed, when I went to the kitchen Joe was waiting for me, "Cup of Tea, please Mom?" We chose our tea and put the water on to boil. Joe looked square at me. "There's no great loss without some small gain." he said. Then he rattled on the bleak gain he saw that he pulled from his loss.

Thank you, Pa Ingalls. Because it sounds better coming from you.

Joe and I sat down and discussed disappointment. We talked about the idea that sometimes the things that we want aren't the best things for us. Sometimes we just don't get what we want and it's just plain disappointing. It was a wonderful opening for good discussion.

Eli & Waldo: quality time

From the coziness, quiet and stillness of reading together to the ideas and discussions that it brings, reading to your kids is a gift that keeps on giving.

A Few of Our Favorite Books:

For the Younger Crowd:

Curious George by H.A. Rey

Little Critter by Mercer Mayer (and all others by Mercer Mayer)

The Cozy Book by Mary Ann Hoberman

I Can't Said the Ant by Polly Cameron

The Tale of Peter Rabbit series by Beatrix Potter

For the Bigger Ones:

The Magic School Bus books

The Magic Tree House books

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books

Encyclopedia Brown books

The Story of the World books

All Books by Holling C. Holling

The Litte House on the Prairie Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, of course

Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Oh, I have more but it's getting late. Perhaps I'll return with other favorites. :)

What are your favorite read alouds?

Gifts That Keep Giving- Part One

Early January brings the after-Christmas-toys-everywhere blues. As if it's not enough to ward off the dim Winter skies, the weariness of Holiday activity and removal of all the twinkle-lights.

But now, there are exactly 32,734 new little teeny ever so important toys sprinkled on the floor. This makes me anxious. My perfectionism kicks in, I don't want pieces to be separated from their home-toy. When we're talking about Legos, Playmobile, sigh. 32,734 pieces.

So this is what I've done this year. While my boys, who were very happily playing with ONE of the thousands of toys they've accumulated, were occupied, I snuck around the house and collected the new & overwhelming toys and have put them away. The new toys haven't been missed. I will give it a few weeks and then sneak one toy out and put it on a sleeping boys' bed so they can wake up to Christmas all over again.

Really, I think it's going to work! My boys have a million new things, and half a million old things (going through those too). They don't miss a thing yet.

Truthfully, the weeks sneaking up to Christmas this year were painful. The boys were living in such anticipation of all the excitement that lands on one day. It was a miserable time for them.

A day after Christmas, I sat visiting with my Mother-In-Law and noticed that my cranky-anticipating-boys were happily off playing make believe with NO toys at all.

I'll be darned if they weren't just relieved.

...and I just made it better. I put away more than half of the gobs of toys, PEACE again.

Peaceful home, peaceful home....

December in 5 minutes

True to it's saying, a picture is worth a Thousand Words. I hope you can brew a cup of your favorite tea, sit down & review December with me.

Snow and Lights, the joys of December. Light.

For He is the Light of the World.

#Middlest's painting hangs over our guest bed. It may be my favorite thing in the house, presently.

Littlest poses in the new school room (more to come on that).

We did it!! December is a month for extra puzzles. It was such a treat for the five of us to sit around the table listening to Christmas music, the boys bellowing "Hark the Harold.."

...and the bag of balloons that grew faces and names, each a "baby" to the boys .

This was the stairwell that is growing into a pantry.

Decorating the tree.

Christmas Morning, a big, fun gift from Nanna and Grandpa. Hours and hours of fun.

Christmas Eve snacks

Littlest and his hamster, Blueberry. Natalie was lost in a horrible accident. Blueberry arrived the next day and has proven to be a friendly little girl whom Little loves fiercely. Such a sad story.

Christmas Morning, my Sweetie and I in all our morning "glory."

Hot Cocoa nearly everyday. Extra special in these sweet mugs my grandmother passed on to me.

Grandpa reads "Twas the Night Before Christmas" as the boys look on.

New life in December; paperwhites and grass for our Jesse tree project.

Graham Cracker Houses all around. Peek.

Our Jesse Tree.

December table.

December morning over the river. The view from my bedroom.

December has been a most pleasant month, quiet and productive. It's been a time for thinking and dreaming, playing and laughing. Creating and exploring. I'm excited for the New Year. See you then!

Christmas Gift Ideas....

Meet Natalie, Eli's charge. Happy with her own cabin & spinach snack. She even took a nap in there. :)

This is Clemantine, all ready to go to work.

The Architects, and their happy customers.

Let the Festivities (and organization) Begin!!

School is out! I mean this in the most fun way....not that we won't still be reading aloud and playing with art, crafting and baking. We're going to tuck away our seat work for a few weeks and just sit back and enjoy the season.

I am so anxious to get some shopping started (yes, I haven't done a thing but look yet) for some Christmas gifts. I have my cards ordered and addressed, ready for stamps and lickin'. We plan to put up our tree this week & (breathe) relax and enjoy the season.

Some fun things I want to do while the boys are playing:

1. set up our new school room...maybe even knock out some painting. I'd love to paint up a blackboard on our huge wall. This way we can use it for writing/drawing or just hang up visual aids right on top of it.
2. sleep in.
3. Baking with the boys. This Christmas feels really low key, and I know the boys will enjoy some cookies (and the baking of them) so I'll set a time to bake with them.
4. read. I'd like to finish Little House and move on to the next book by January.
5. not quite as fun, but important. I'm going to evaluate the rest of the school year...what we need to do more of and set some goals.
6. sit on the floor and watch my boys. Play with them. Get them in my lap. They'll only be little for so long.
7. declutter. Always good to do before the gifts come rolling in.
8. read a book, drink more tea. No doubt.
9. plan out our Garden Planning parties. The boys will help me to plan out the gardens this year, and I would love to have more gardening magazines and times set for our planning sessions.
10. play games. Oh, maybe we could try and play a game everyday. That means I play WITH the boys.

For fun, below I've updated our favorite Homeschool Links. Persue and enjoy, if you like.

Familiar Places

What a treat to be able to share with you that we have a familiar place. You know, that little place you tend to visit or revisit if you're out for a walk or a little Outdoor Hour. This week we were challenged to visit that familiar place to let our little ones explore and observe the differences that November brings.

I didn't expect Winter.

We have been in this house for two short months, and already we have seen our familiar spot in Summer, Autumn and now we've had a full dose of winter, dumped over top of Autumn.

So we headed out to our familiar spot, with a few layers of clothing, hats, mittens & sleds or disks. The boys flew down the hill that they usually run up to see the river. Then they ran back up. The boys played in the untouched snow until they could go no more. At last they turned around and saw it, our spot in the river.

I overheard conversations:

Where are all the leaves? They're covered by the snow.

Now that the leaves are gone we can see the river so well!

The river isn't frozen, even with all of this snow!

The rocks are hard to see in the snow, but easier to walk on.

Later in the week:

The river is still NOT frozen... :)

Did I ever tell you that we belive Juneau is 60% Husky, 40% Lab? He hates water, but loves, loves, loves the snow.

Do you remember the photos of our Sycamores a week ago? After a windstorm and now the snow, the leaves are gone and have been replaced with white. What a wonderful Thanksgiving we get to have!

November 25....& the 26th (Happy Birthday Joe)

Giving Thanks....

For a new home, and a family who will share my Thanksgiving day and dinner with.
For cozy corners in our own home, and an old favorite quilt, and other old favorite things.


For little boys, whose eyes sparkle all the same amber-brown as their daddy. All the same.

A precocious five year old.

A darling and mischievous nearly 7 year old.

And my Thanksgiving baby boy, who'll be 9 tomorrow. Happy birthday sweet boy, my writer and reader, dreamer and snuggler. Wrestling and running and happy and boy. Happy Birthday Joe.

The Woodsies

A little hard work for some little boys is a good, good thing. I find that it keeps them content.

The results sometime give way to plain old fun. (Do you see two faces in there?)

We walked up and down the streets with a basket in search of treasure.

Basket of booty for boys! We tossed it all out on the table, I grabbed my glue gun and googly eyes. (I make it sound so easy...I had to go to the craft store to get the eyes, mine are packed away somewhere. I found my glue gun in my hubby's workshop. It's never that easy)

Introducing: The Woodsies

below is hockey-playing Woodsy

Nate's little Woodsie family


Eli, minus a shirt. Yes, I KNOW it's November. I know it's cold. I know they should always have shirts on...but they say they're hot! Good grief, here I am in my long johns...I have to stay on top of the shirt thing or they disappear. My boys!!
This trio Joey crafted are an American Indian family, complete with teeny rock papoose.



Our craft/keep your boys happy, interested and busy time is only complete with a little nature dance.