Mama Love

A little love for my sweet East Coast Susie...

Book Love

Brotherly Love

5 Question Friday on Saturday

1. Would you ever vacation alone?
I daydream on a regular basis about having a weekend almost anywhere quiet just by myself. Yes. I would love to go alone. I would read, pray, walk and run, eat, rest, pray. I can dream about it. Maybe one day.



2. Do you go the speed limit?

No. But I am mindful of my environment and occupants.

3. Why did you start blogging/following blogs?
I really wanted to have a record of our lives. I thought it would be so fun to have a living journal to look back on. Now I blog because I have more words than I get to speak in a day. I live with four boys and love the female friendships. ;) I love to read other blogs, it's very inspiring and encouraging.

4. Where do you shop for yourself?

Where ever I am. Costco, Fred Meyer, Macy's...but often times I shop online with Land's End too.

5. What was the song you danced your first dance at your wedding?
Would you believe I don't remember? I do remember the song we chose for communion, it's a very special song to us.... This Road by Jars of Clay. Sweet Memories...

This Road

All heavy laden acquainted with sorrow
May Christ in our marrow, carry us home
From alabaster come blessings of laughter
A fragrance of passion and joy from the truth

Grant the unbroken tears ever flowing
From hearts of contrition only for You
May sin never hold true that love never broke through
For God's mercy holds us and we are His own

This road that we travel, may it be the straight and narrow
God give us peace and grace from You, all the day
Shelter with fire, our voices we raise still higher
God give us peace and grace from You, all the day through

Baskeball Boys

Joe takes a shot (& Nate's #1)

Eli lines up for drills...backward, of course. I love this photo...don't the kids all seem so happy just to be kids?

Nate races down the court with his teamate.

...and my husband is the best coach ever.

Working Myself Out of a Job (Why My Boys are Scrambling to do My Work)

Homeschooling provides many unique opportunites for mamas & their munchkins. One of those that I'm tapping into is working myself out of a job.

When I was considering schooling my kids at home, I went to a presentation led by a mom who'd been schooling her kids at home for years. One of the things she spoke of was teaching your kids how to help out around the house. "Why should you pull laundry out of the dryer when your three-year-old is already down there?" she asked.

So I thought I'd get a head start on making friends with my daughters-in-law-to-be and teach my boys a thing or two about keeping a house clean. This is helping me too, I'm starting to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Okay, so I can tell you all about how my boys are doing laundry, vacuuming, polishing my kitchen cupboards, dusting and taking out the trash...but what I want to share is the HOW.

The boys have a list of chores that I printed out (pictorial reminders for my non-readers), laminated and hung up for them to check off. The boys can read or check on what they need to do, then they cross them off with a wipe off marker. This keeps me free of reminding them....I just direct them to check their charts to see if their work is done.

The reason that the boys work so quickly to get their chores done (and after school proper) is that they know that after their chores, they get to play the Wii. Each day the boys get 15 minutes to play Wii. (They get 30 minutes for two boys or 45 minutes if they play all together, but they usually choose to play separately and then watch each other play. ) Keeping this as an earned treat keeps them working quickly to get their Wii time.

I understand this may not work for every family, but I love it that my kids whistle while they work so that they can get their fun time. There are good lessons for life here too. If you get your work done quickly, you can have fun quickly. Also, it's great that they're understanding what it means when they leave a blob of toothpaste on the counter for someone else to clean up. Maybe, just maybe, I won't have to pick up so much around the house anymore....even if it's just because they'll be doing it themselves.

Wordless Wednesday

Until otherwise notified....

Dear Santa,

I know it's January, but I feel the need to give you plenty of notice for Christmas 2010.
I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but I have to tell you our family story. Or my story.

In November, I spent a good week or two going through all the toys in our toy closet that my boys just aren't using anymore. I cleaned them out and I have yet to give them away because that requires some time to organize them so I can properly give them away. At any rate, now three weeks into January I'm feeling like you simply replaced the toys that I just cleaned out. There are so many toys that we now have that no one is playing with.

So I have a request. Could you please stick to the craft department, sporting goods store, books and games store? These are the things that get used at my house. The shiny plastic-y, noisy-flashy (many batteries required) toys are interesting for a whole 10 minutes.

If you come to my house, you'll find my boys....playing games, cutting up cardboard, running around in costume, building things, working puzzles, creating something with stickers, glue, crayons and paint....reading books or painting rocks in the backyard.

So I think you'll understand why I'm requesting you put your little elves to a different line of work.

Ever so Sincerely,
Amanda