Tynes Clan

What Kind of Pie?

2011-12-06T22:15:00.019-05:00

I mentioned this in my last blog update (over 4 months ago!) that I have lost steam for my blog of late. However, I have been thinking a lot about a particular subject that I am no authority on, but have felt compelled to write about. So, for this update, I am writing to the future Rochelle Tynes regarding something I want to hypothesize on and then come back to in 20 years to evaluate how it worked out. I don't think what I am writing about is a revolutionary new thought. In fact, I think it is one young families are doing more and more without necessarily even realizing it. Whatever the reality of it is, I want to get my thoughts out of my head and put them here to look back on sometime down the road.

In this update I want to spell out just exactly what my plan is for raising kids who grow up to truly live their lives for the Lord and have a desire to serve and reach the world with a community of believers/the church. Statistics these days are staggering, horrifying in fact, regarding how many kids raised in Christian homes turn their backs on the way they were raised and live their lives set apart from the faith. I have spent MUCH time in prayer and have even been caught up in fearful fits of tears over the idea that I could bring children into this world who do not grow up to live their lives for Christ. I admit to going through times where I had no real hope for them and felt overcome by my inability to compete with what this world has to offer.

I think in generations gone by, especially here in supposedly Christian America, behavior modification has been the name of the game for many people. "Good" Christian parents focused on making their children look, sound like, and act the part. They had the kids in church each and every moment the doors were open. They emphasized the diligent discipline of "quiet time" for prayer and bible study with the Lord. There was very much an "us/them" mentality with non-Christians and even Christians of other denominations where children were taught to fear those who were not like themselves. All behavior that could possibly be considered a slippery slope (drinking, dancing, movies, pants, haircuts, playing cards) were all judged sinful behaviors because they lead to even more feared behaviors like premarital sex, gambling, addictions, or rock & roll. Participating in those activities were evidence that someone did not have a personal relationship with Jesus or had backslidden. Only Republicans were Christians (based largely on the prolife platform) and it was our moral duty to vote so we could create more laws that structured the behavior of those not like ourselves to look less like what we feared. If a group of people at a church began to voice something we considered a slippery slope issue or expressed a desire to allow those into the church who did not have the sense to look and act the part of the Christian everyone needed them to be, then the church would just split in two and live in fear of the influence the newest rival church could have over the now badly wounded body left behind.

I mean, Gosh! Sign me up, right? And kids, get yourself a slice of fearful, judgmental, prideful, gossiping, legalistic, wounded, patriotic, Republican pie! Believe you me. It is SUPER DUPER easy for me to get caught up in this too. Thinking of myself as the righteous one and others as unrighteous slobs makes me feel better about myself. I grew up with parents who loved the Lord and always, always wanted to do the right things, but I got to experience all of these first hand as a child. If I have departed from buying into that garbage at all it is largely because I have watched my parents apologize to those they have hurt and reach out to those that once made them uncomfortable and give their lives over to serve and reach the lost, not to mention walking away from a life of Republican agendas for a life of trusting in God's sovereignty over our nation and laws. (This is not to say there aren't godly Republicans with faith-filled agendas. Please don't miss the point here.)

So, I get back to my hypothesis. What do I do/am I going to continue to do in hopes that we beat the odds and raise 4 children who love the Lord with all their hearts, souls, minds and strengths and then, as a result, love their neighbor (AKA fearfully and wonderfully made humanity) as they love themselves? There are no guarantees in life to-be-sure, but I think it's also helpful to have a paradigm to guide our parenting. Here's mine, and it's based on about a million scriptures that I am narrowing down to a few.

"Philippians 4: 4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

I have written about this before in regards to how I try to structure my thinking, but in relation to parenting, I ask my children to investigate what is going on in their hearts. Are they making decisions out of fear, or nobility. Are they doing what's easy or what's right? Do they strive for purity in their hearts and minds or are they acting out of judgmental self-righteousness? Do they focus on living a life that brings glory to God or to themselves? Is truth more important to them than ego. Are their hearts filled with gratitude or dissatisfaction and jealousy? Is their driving force a peaceful faith or a fearful reaction? Is their time in prayer and Bible study based in some legalistic check list that earns them godly Brownie points, or does it flow from a heart of love, faith, and gratitude for what the Lord has done for us? It's not that children are mature enough to manage such complex ideas at all times, but it I do believe it is in their best interest to lay a foundation of self reflection so they can make decisions with an honest and surrendered heart before the Lord.

There are several verses in Romans 14 & 15 that make my next point, but the Bible is literally loaded to the gills with supporting passages that give me my next parenting paradigm.

Romans 14
1 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters.
4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.
11 It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will acknowledge God.’”[b]
12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God. 13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another.
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,
18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.
19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.

Romans 15
1 We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. 2 Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. 3 For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me." 4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.
5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, 6 so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

And here's one of my favorite Bible passages to-the-max.

Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

THAT is how I want to raise my children to think. I want the Holy Spirit to fill them with them fruit of the Spirit and other godly virtues of the heart so much so that they are compelled to love and serve others humbly with compassion, faith and trust in God to effect any change that needs to happen. I don't want them to bare the burden of fixing society or their church or their neighbor or feel the fear or powerlessness of watching the world spin out of their control toward an end that the bible already says is set in stone. With Christ there is an eternity to live in a utopia we can not create now no matter how hard we fight.

So, as for me and my house (of course, Stephen is not only on board but leading the charge) we will not fight. We will trust and seek to flesh out the fruit of the spirit, teaching, instructing, guiding, encouraging with compassion, patience, and humility with each and every person that God puts into our lives along the way.

On a practical level, here's how I use these passages when teaching my children how to relate to the church. The older the kids get, the more they are aware of issues like disrespectful or mean children, friends with divorcing or never married parents and blended families, kids who don't come to church regularly or who have parents who don't come to church. I know there was a time when I would have tried to structure out of their lives both the personal impact each situation could have on them and even the awareness of them. However, I am shifting my approach to be one that disciples them on how to view each situation and each person with the compassion we would want others to have on us.

There is a kid at church with a strong and not very enduring personality who frightens and frustrates my children. This child never does them physical harm, but disrespectfulness and unruly behavior upsets them (despite the fact that they can exhibit these behavior themselves at times). I have, in the past, tried to make sure they didn't have to come in contact with kids like this. I was afraid of the influence they could have on my sweet children or of the damage they could do to them and tried to maintain control of the situation. However I have decided that someone needs to love up on this kid, so why not us? Stephen and I have since sat down with the kids at different points and discussed the sad family situation this child endures and why that would manifest itself in someone's behavior. "Hurt people hurt people" is one of my favorite sayings. It easily breaks their young hearts to imagine going through what this poor kid has been through, and even though the child's behavior still seems an injustice to them, I can see them trying to be brave and include unruly children whenever they can work up the courage.

When they ask about a child who does not have a Christian parent or one parent is missing or has run off, rather than casting judgment on the offending individual, we talk about the hurt that brought them to that point and pray for them that God would deliver them from that so they can make choices that free them up to live a glorified life. When I see my children's hearts break for hurting people rather than shooting off some judgmental comment, tears fill my eyes. They are so little and they so easily get something that alluded me for so long. When I see my children look at people who are not dressed as they are dressed or colored as they are colored or are morbidly obese or super model thin or covered in pimples or missing limbs and realize that they already don't make value judgments or fear or feel insecure because of their differences, then I know they are getting it. They are not filled with the frustration that I believe many church kids feel when they are raised by Christian parents to cast judgment on everyone around them (bless their hearts) in the name of Jesus. Why would they want to go to church where everyone stews in the frustration of the failings of those around them and lives in fear of how everything could possibly effect their own future? I know I didn't want to, and if not for the love for the body of Christ I saw in my parents even to the point of humbling themselves in apology for their own mistakes on that road, I very well might not be where I am today. . . In a place where I myself owe apologies to those I have hurt, and where I strive toward doling out forgiveness as liberally as it has been given.

For the rest of my kids' lives they will run across troubled people, Christians and non-Christians alike, homosexuals, pro-choicers, liberal democrats, rich, poor, ugly, beautiful, talented, paralyzed, immodest, tattooed, famous, unloved, etc., and I believe if we want the church to look like what the Bible calls us to, then we have to love all of the diverse people He sends our way and trust HIM to work and move in their lives as well as our own. By all means, teach, instruct, guide, encourage everyone in the truths of the Word, but with the compassion, humility and patience we want others to have with us. The day I knew I was on the right track with the kids was the day they came to me with a story about some friends of their grandma's who had been robbed at a Zaxby's chicken restaurant. They wanted to add the robber to their prayer list. It was honestly their hearts that the robber come to know Jesus so he wouldn't be so sad that he felt he had to steal anymore. He's still there, on our prayer list, right between the names of two loved ones they want to come to know Jesus, and that seems completely right to them.

On a more solemn note I want to state something more explicitly than what I have alluded to throughout this blog update. Of course, there are phenomenal, loving, godly, example setting parents whose children make the decision to walk away from Lord. Even our perfect heavenly father endures the majority of His creation turning their backs on Him. It's foolish to believe there is a fool proof plan. I just want a plan, a paradigm to guide me on this journey based on what the Lord has been teaching me in His word.

It's also impossible to escape the incredible importance of the most pivotal part of my plan. Prayer. It's something I have been covered, bathed, lavished in my whole life by the generations of godly parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and one God fearing, amazing great-great grandmother who died when I was a child. Surely that has played more of a role than I know in my own life, and it's what offers me the most hope for my children. It's only through my faith in God's ability to redeem all of these parenting mistakes I make along the way that my children have any hope at all.

Lastly, if my children do decide to go their own way, my prayer is that I will show them that same love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control (based in my faith, hope, and trust in the Lord and His ability to complete the good work He began in them) that I have all along been teaching them to have for others. . . Where is the pause button on these innocent little creatures of mine?

FUNNY SIDE NOTE:

-One morning during school when I was particularly sleepy, I accidentally fell asleep in my chair at the table while the kids where doing their reading. I don't know how long I dozed, but when I woke up, the kids were gone. Before I got up to chase them down, I had a good laugh to myself trying to visualize the quiet, probably mimed out, plan they made to escape while they had the chance.

HARRISON:

-Has become obsessed with earning and then showing off his money. The first words out of his mouth when someone comes to the door to visit is, "Hey! You wanna watch me county my money!"
-When asked, he will say his favorite subject is math, though I am certain it is break time.
-44" or 3'8" tall
42.2 pounds
-learned to swim and dive in the deep end this summer.
-is an amazing reader like his brothers. All three of my boys have picked it up with ease.
-LIVES to boss Eli around. It's funny to see his bossy side because in any other context he is mostly go-with-the-flow and seeks drama reduction.
-takes no interest in structured, extra-curricular activities outside of our home quite yet.
-Still has a passion for Cars from the Cars movies.
-Does not like to be without his siblings. When he had to go to a friends house without them (the rest of the kids were being watched by others) he sat on the couch until I got there to pick him up. He wouldn't play or eat lunch.

EVAN:
Evan: Mom, have you ever known anyone to pick their nose so deeply that they came out with some brain?
Me: No, Son. That is impossible. Your nasal cavities do not end in your brain. A drill would be necessary for that.
Evan: Well, what if someone didn’t know where their brain was and accidentally went into it with a drill?
Me: You mean if someone were picking their nose with a drill and it accidentally went through to their brain?
Evan: Yes.
Me: (Sigh) My love, I think I am going to need to have some adult conversation this weekend.

-Weighs 64.6 pounds.
-52"/ 4' 4" tall
-finished his first soccer season with style. I could not have been more proud of him. He went to every game with the best attitude, and even when asked to play for the opposing team so they could have a fair game, he did it happily. I watched other boys pitch fits and disrespect the coaches, but Evan stood out as being an extra great kid. I was so proud of him!
-his favorite subject in school is definitely science and would forego his whole future to never do another Math problem or hand write another sentence again.
-4 days before his 8th birthday asked for the first time if he could take a walk around the neighborhood by himself. We let him go. It was a proud moment for him. I know most kids are doing that younger, but we just wait for stuff like that until they at least ask.
-About 6 times a day I have an argument with Evan that ends with me exclaiming, “For the final time, Son, that doorknob/backyard rock/sparkly sequins/nut/bolt GI Joe hubcap is not real gold/silver/rubies. We are not holding out on you. We are just NOT a precious metal sort of family!”
-After a weeklong unit study on 9/11, I took my kids to see the 3,000 flags Kennesaw Mountain had set up to represent the 3000 people who died that day. After my heartfelt sermon on the profound loss of life the nation saw unfold in front of them on the news that day, Evan says, “Mom, I’m a lucky man.” I was so touched I said, “Ooooooh, Evan! That’s so neat, why do you say that?” Evan: “Well, because I was born in a month with 31 days instead of just 30”. . .Me: “Ooooooh, dear me. . . Let’s go”.

Julia:

-"Mommy, when I hear that someone is hurt, my brain just can't help but twirl around and pray for them".
-About once a month Julia will come to my bedroom door in the middle of the night and ask me to pray that God would help her to stop having "bad thinks".
-Loves, loves, loves gymnatics. It's strange because last year she hated ballet despite an awesome teacher who adored her, but this year I could swear her young, indifferent, teacher is addicted to Meth and yet Julia loves it. . . I guess it doesn't have to make sense. I'm glad she's happy.
-"Mom, after you told me I could only have one piece of gum, Satan whispered in my heart that I should take two, and I just said, 'No Satan, I will not obey you!' And so I didn't."
-is going through a hardcore baby talk phase. More than half of what comes out of her mouth is baby talk and we are constantly on her case about it. Once I paid her 10 cents to quit for a day and it seemed to cure her for a couple of weeks, but it's back hard-core.
-Julia likes school in general. She does not seem to have a favorite subject just yet.
-loves to help in the kitchen.
-finally worked up the courage to learn to ride her bike this fall.
-47" or 3'11" tall
-44.8 pounds
-Something you don't necessarily want to hear coming from your daughter in the bathtub down the hall when you are too sick to do much about it, " ELI! I just baptized you!!"
-"Mom, when I'm old enough, I want to be the one who cooks while you relax."

-Me: Julia, come up with a sentence that uses the word two. For example "I have TWO friends named John."
Julia: OK, "I have TWO friends named Joy."
Me: Why don't you come up with a sentence that is completely your own, like, "TWO windows let in more light."
Julia: Ok, "TWO windows let in more light in my room."
Me: Girly, I need to hear a sentence that it totally and completely your own using the word "TWO". Not just the same I said, but totally your own.
Julia: OH, OK, OK, OK!! "I have TWO friends who are my windows."
Me: Let's move on.

Elijah:

-I think I can officially say he is left handed. There are just so few left handed people in either side of our families that it makes him quite unique.

-carries a phone he made out of LEGO's with him everywhere you goes so he can "play Angry Birds" anytime he gets the notion.
-While doing a pre-school lesson with his grandmother, he made her wait on him while he took a call on his LEGO phone. At the end of his imaginary conversation he said, "I have a project here that I am working on. I have to put my phone away". He "hung up" and joined her again for his lesson.
-Does school with his Grandma, but would always rather be the master of his own schedule.
-"Daddy, when I grow up when I'm 5 I can break my nostrils in half."
-Apparently "accidentally" unloaded an entire, new, bottle of his shampoo into the bathtub and "skated around in it" with all of his clothes on. Of course, the wild scream and laughing must have been an accident as well.
-39 1/2" tall. 3'3" tall.
-39.2 pounds
-loves to dress up as batman.
-Began reading this summer at 3 years and 3 months old and does amazingly well at it. I need to take an updated video of it.
-Has mostly outgrown his napping in random places phase, but every once in a while it still happens. There are still a few photos of him zonked out in the craziest places included in this update.
*Don't forget that all of my photos are now posted to Phanfare, so to view them you have click the link below*p>

Click HERE to view the photos for this update on Phanfare

Whoa, Nelly! Where did time go?

2011-07-21T21:24:00.031-04:00

It’s been a record amount of time since my last update. To be honest, I totally lost steam on it for a while, but my children adore the blog. They love going back and looking at all of the updates and reading what I wrote about them. They laugh and beam and reminisce. . . .So, anyway. Here I am, back at it trying to get caught up.

I will start with a moving moment I had with my Julia and a few of her friends the night of her 6th birthday party. After the girls were settled down for the night, I sat down and wrote an email to their parents I thought I would include here:
___________________________________
Well, it is pouring, lightening and thundering here. Two of the girls started to freak out and then began telling stories about storm disasters to spread their fear. I quickly sat them down and told them I was going to read them some things from the bible.

First I read Philippians 4:8-9, and walked them through the meaning of each word it said we are to think about (truth, nobility, righteousness, purity, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy). I told them that no matter what happens tonight we need to fill our minds with these things, and we need to encourage each other with such thoughts. Then we practiced some examples of what could be said instead of “if lighting comes through the window it will start the house on fire”.

Next we read through the 91st psalms and talked about the refuge and protection God faithfully offers us if we put our faith in Him. They were delighted at the idea of angels covering our home so that even if the trees were blown flat in the yard, we were totally protected. We discussed that faith is trusting in God so much that we don’t allow ourselves to fear. We practiced what we could do when were tempted to fear in order to help us trust. The girls had awesome ideas like singing songs to God, pretending to hug Jesus, and praying. I encouraged them to praise and thank God for being so faithful to protect them and for the nice warm, dry house they were in and for grownups and angels to protect them.

We ended up having a 20 minute, animated, full on bible study that ended with Courtney proclaiming as I left the room, “I just saw lightning, and I’m not even afraid!!” All of the girls nodded and grinned excitedly. I was so moved by their response and their continued joyfulness in the living room even 45 minutes after the discussion started. They are all encouraging each other just as they practiced and only in the last few minutes stopped to watch the movie that’s been playing.

What neat-o girls we have, huh? I love them!!

Rochelle

________________________________

I still tear up thinking about that sweet moment with those precious girls. I have pictures of her party included in the photo section of the update.

On another note, lately, I am confronted again and again with the reality that the foundation of our self image and self esteem is laid in these formative years that my children are in right now. It is an impressionable and vulnerable time where they are deeply affected by the actions and beliefs of others. I watch my kids friends who are having the foundations of their self image and esteem determined by their peers who say it is what they wear, or what TV shows their parents let them watch, or how nice their cell phone is, or who likes them or doesn’t like them, or whether or not they have a boyfriend or girlfriend, even in elementary school (a pressure I understand well because it was true even in my elementary days) that gives them value.

This stands in stark contrast to the environment I am trying to raise my kids in, in which it is God’s love for them that gives them value and nothing else. They know nothing other than the fact that Christ died for them as an atonement for our sins because they are precious in His sight, and that they are to spread that love to others out of gratitude for what He did, and that’s about all there is to it. They are clueless about fashion (though I covertly make sure they don’t look too counterculture) and they are completely innocent to the world’s pressures of finding value in having a “boyfriend” or “girlfriend” or any other value determiner that is completely out of their control. Their value comes from something that was already promised to them and that they can’t escape, rather than the plight of many of their friends who are chasing it in ways that never satisfy and that are beyond their ability to make happen. (In other words, we can’t make others loves us no matter what we do. Loving others is something that is in our control. God’s love for us was already promised and we find liberation in understand that that is really all we need.)

Now if anyone who finds out I homeschool asks me, “But what about their socialization?”, they get my schpeel about the lack of virtue in the socialization children get in most institutionalized school settings. However, I do think it is critical to mention that I feel overwhelmingly blessed to be able to homeschool and to be able to surround my children with great friends whose families share similar values, especially during these formative years. I know that I may not always have this luxury, nor do I judge others who make different decisions than I do. Each family is unique and has different requirements, and even I allow my children to be exposed from time-to-time to some of the harsher realities of this world so we can work through how to deal compassionately with those who are different from us. I stand by the theme of blog updates gone by that it is ultimately faith in God’s redemptive power and letting the love that comes from Him pour into the lives of those around us that matters in the end. I am just trying to build that firm foundation in my children so they have less garbage to wade through on their way to all that God has for them in this life.

Random Stuff:

Here's a joke my dad tells my kids. "Who's bigger, Mr. Bigger, Mrs. Bigger, or Mr. and Mrs. Bigger's little baby? The baby because he's a little bigger." Oh, the kid laugh. . . Now, here's a conversation that was had over the school table one day.
Evan: Harrison, who’s stronger, Mr. Stronger, Mrs. Stronger or Mr. and Mrs. Stronger’s little baby?
Harrison: The little baby, because he knows Karate moves!!!
Evan: NOOOOO! It’s because he’s a little Stronger!

-Conversation after a bath:
Harrison (sing-songy) - I see London I see France. I see Eli's pull-up!
Eli (long pause with disgusted confused look on his face) - NO! THAT's not right!! It goes, "France! I see your underpants!"
Harrison - I just saw you in your pull up so I just said that.
Eli and Harrison together - I see London I see France. I see your underpants.
Eli - Mom laughs's when we say that. (double S's are his new thing).

-Their favorite thing to chant right now is "Easy peasy lemon squeezey".

-Evan (7): "When I grow up, I'm gonna be a paleontologist."
Eli (3): "When I grow up, I'm just gonna be an alien."

-They are all starting to take an interest in the Braves like their Daddy this year and try to learn the rules of the game. They wake up in the mornings wanting to know who won the game the night before.

ELI UPDATE:

-sits down on the floor next to his 3 year old friend, Tyler, at a birthday party and says:
Eli -"Where do you live".
Tyler - "I don't know".
Eli - "I live next to my neighbors house."

-split his forehead open on a piece of trim by our stairs in May while being chased by his sister on our hardwood floors. He ended up with 5 stitches, but was a very brave boy through the whole thing. The only time he cried was right at the beginning because wanted to have all of the blood cleaned off. Once he was clean, he was back to his normal self even throughout the stitching. He has a great plastic surgeon at Scottish Rite, Atlanta's children's hospital.

-about once a day runs completely out of batteries and falls asleep wherever that happens to be.

-began insisting on dressing himself shortly after my last blog update, though he usually makes quite the show of it.

-was determined for several months that he would turn 5 on his 3rd birthday. Following his birthday, he began telling everyone that he was 5.

-We have a love/impatience relationship with Eli's prayers these days. He LOVES to pray and quickly volunteers to pray out loud at each meal or under any circumstances. However, asking him to pray is a real time commitment. He always starts his prayers off with, "Dear Jesus, thank you for this food and for this day. I pray Mrs. Sheila and Treyton have a safe trip (Mrs. Sheila actually had a kidney transplant about a year ago and Treyton has been cancer free for nearly that long as well, but his wires are a bit crossed). Today I woke up and ate Rice Crispies, and they needed more milk, but then I went outside to play and got a bug bite and we went to the pool and I jumped in the deep end with my floaties on and we ate sandwiches for lunch with chips on them and then we saw an ambulance and we prayed for them and then Evan fell down one step and we got new mouth wash to keep our teeth clean. . . Aaaaaaaamen!" You want to know what Eli's whole day was like from his perspective, ask him to pray.

-turned 3 on his birthday, May 19th.

-some new phrases -
"That's fair!" He actually means, "That's not fair" and he uses it whenever he is asked to do anything he doesn't want to do, having no idea what fair actually means.
"I changed my mind", which he usually does after it is far to late to do anything about it.

-knows all of his letters in uppercase. This year we will work on lower case.

-is the center of attention wherever he goes.

HARRISON UPDATE:

-seems to have weathered a 6 or 8 month span of being incredibly emotional and crying at the drop of a hat for his more characteristic laid back way of handling everything.

-"Mom, I like all oatmeals except for oatmeal bake because there is a taste in my mouth that pops out of the middle of nowhere and tastes like cherries".

-LOVES to climb. Climbs walls, door ways, fences, trees, the outside edges of play sets, and on and on. His brain is always working overtime to find the next thing to climb.

-turned 5 on his last birthday, June 2nd.

-is our youngest to learn to swim this summer and now lives in the deep end of our neighborhood pool just because he can.

-has no desire to participate in any activity for the coming year (outside of AWANA at our church), and since he's only 5, I'm have no interest in making him.

-is a real homebody. He is content to always be at home. No matter where we go he is content for varying amounts of time, but nearly always lets me know he is ready to go before it's time to go. He's pretty laid back and will play for longer if he needs to, but home is definitely where his heart is, something that he gets more from his daddy than his mommy.

-is technically about to go into kindergarten this year, though I had him doing everything that Julia was doing this year, so he will just start the first grade work up with her in the fall. Since he didn’t struggle at all with the curriculum, it makes it easier to have them both doing the same thing.

-HATES tension of any kind and getting into trouble. I think he maintains a low profile around here so he can keep out of any drama that might stress him out. I used to think he has a very compliant personality because he has such a strong conscience, but now I think it more like he complies in order to avoid tension/drama/stress. I think it's something I need to be aware of because if he is anything like me, he will grow up not afraid to do the wrong things if he is sure he won't get caught. I think his personality with cause him to make decisions based on conflict avoidance rather than based on sound judgment. I want to be mindful to not miss teaching him logical consequences to poor decision making even if he never gets caught, rather that just trying harder to not get caught. I think a lot of times I let things slide with him because he is normally so well behaved, but I think I am doing him a disservice by not letting him reap the repercussions of his actions so he can safely learn now how to think through things in a constructive way. I hope that makes sense. At least I know what I am trying to say.

JULIA UPDATE:

-insists on doing her own hair, and usually does a decent enough job for me.

-Is incredibly creative and craftsy, something she did not get from me.

-turned 6 on her last birthday, April 25th.

-declared recently, "Mom, I was BORN to sing!" I believe her. She certainly has a passion for it. I have a video of her singing included in this update.

-Spent a day getting spoiled by her college friend, Samantha, and a few other international students from Africa getting her nails done and a pretty new outfit and mainly just being the center of attention. She was in heaven!

-finished her kindergarten year with flying colors. She seems to enjoy school.

-finished her first full year of ballet/tap. She enjoyed it as long as she was there, but never enjoyed the thought of doing it before we got to the school. She decided early in the year that she wanted to do gymnastics instead. Our conversation went exactly like this. . .
Julia - "Mom, I don’t like ballet or tap."
Me - "Really? Why not? You've wanted to do this for years."
Julia - "It's too hard. I want to do something easier, like gymnastics."
Me - "Oh, girly. You are about to find out it's LIFE that's actually so hard."
Still she is insistent on giving up dance for gymnastics, so after we made her finish out her year and dance in a beautiful recital where she did a great job, we are going to give her a go at gymnastics. . . Should be interesting.

-will also be joining a large children's choir program at a church in our area since our church does not have one.

-Can retrieve things, even pennies, from the bottom of the 9 foot deep end of our neighborhood pool.

-is afraid to learn to ride her bike, but I am determined to push her a bit in the near future.

EVAN UPDATE:

-has lost 7 teeth so far.

-technically finished first grade this year, though I don't know how to identify what grade level he is at. Some things like writing he is right where he should be for his age. He is about a year ahead in math and several years ahead in reading. I have my work cut out for me in ordering his curriculum this year.

-went on his first grown-up backpacking trip this spring. Stephen, Evan and 2 of Stephen's friends, Rob and Chris hiked 15 miles and camped 2 night in Great Smokey Mountain National Park, North Carolina. It was a great experience for him, especially since it was such a challenge. He had to carry all of his own gear in his backpack and hike the whole way on his own.

-Usually I leave my bedroom door unlocked when I am taking a shower despite the fact that they kids filter in and out with a million questions and requests while I do. Then one night I decided I was going to treat myself to locking it since Grandma was downstairs with the kids anyway. Of course, that is the night Eli splits his forehead open. I heard the kids banging on my door and yelling, but I couldn't make out what they were saying and assumed they were being dramatic. At one point I even yelled, "Can't get a moments peace to take a shower!" That was just moments before my bedroom door popped open and the kids came filtering in screaming at me about Eli's head. I leaped from the shower and frantically pulled on my clothes so we could head out to the hospital, but while I dressed I asked the kids how in the world they managed to get into my room. Evan told me that he had decided to get the broom from downstairs and sweep the screw driver I had on the top of my door frame so he could pick the lock. I was so proud of him for his clear headed problem solving in the midst of a what the kids considered a major crisis. He's such a great kid.

-still takes such tender loving care of Eli. They are special buddies.

-has a very brotherly love with Harrison. They are best buddies when it comes to video games and wrestling and other typically boyish activities.

-has trouble getting his sister to submit to his more bossy ways, but they adore each other to-be-sure. She feels safe with him when I can't be with them.

-learned to dive into our neighborhood pool this summer.

-finished a rather tumultuous first year of boy scouts. There were several big dramas between the parents that were pretty heart breaking. We kept Evan isolated from it, but it wasn't the best situation. Evan has decided to try out soccer this year and maybe another sport after that is over and maybe give boy scouts another chance next year when Harrison is old enough to get into it.

-will be joining a large children's choir program at a church in our area since our church does not have one.

-While we were in TN last week, my grandfather asked me to share with his church about the time God faithfully stopped the waters from our quiet creek turned raging river during the Atlanta area flooding of 2009. After I sat down, Evan whispered to me, "Mom, I want to share about a time God did something for us." I asked my Grandfather if he could share and Evan got up on stage with the microphone and told about how God had healed up Eli's head so quickly after he split it open. I was so proud of him for taking the stage and wanting to share something he was grateful for in front of family and strangers. Have I mentioned that he's a neat kid?

PICTURES:

Now for something a little different. Blogger is not made to be the kind of picture catalog that I try to force it to be for me, so this time I am going to try to use our wonderful online photo album in conjunction with my blog and see how that works out. There are so many photos that mean so much to me over the last several months since my last update, and I knew putting them on blogger was going to be a major headache. I am hoping that this turns out to be a much happier alternative in the long run. Don't miss the captions under each picture as you click through.

Click HERE to view the photos on Phanfare

Amazing 10K Training Route

2011-04-19T18:40:00.000-04:00

I did some research and tried out this route today as I train for the Peachtree. It is by far the best, most rewarding, most beautiful 6.2 miles I have ever run.

View Larger Map

*Park at First United Methodist Parking lot (56 Wittlock Ave, Marietta)
*Begin at the stop sign on Hansell St in the First United Methodist Church Parking lot.

1.Head east on Hansell St NW toward North Marietta Pkwy NW
0.1 mi
2. Turn left at North Marietta Pkwy NW
354 ft
3. Turn left at Polk St
299 ft
4. Turn right at Locust St
0.2 mi
5. Turn right at Maple Ave
262 ft
6. Turn left at Kennesaw Ave
2.1 mi
7. Slight left at Old U.S. 41 NW
0.3 mi
8. Turn left at Stilesboro Rd
371 ft
9. Turn left at Kennesaw Mountain Dr and run the loop in the parking lot.
0.1 mi (3.1 mi – to Kennesaw Mountain parking lot)

10. Loop back, northeast on Kennesaw Mountain Dr toward Stilesboro Rd
0.1 mi
11. Turn right at Stilesboro Rd
371 ft
12. Turn right at Old U.S. 41 NW
0.3 mi
13. Slight right at Kennesaw Ave
2.1 mi
14. Turn right at Maple Ave
262 ft
15. Turn left at Locust St
0.2 mi
16. Turn left at Polk St
92 ft
17. Turn right at North Marietta Pkwy NW
0.1 mi
18. Turn right at Hansell St NW
0.1 mi

6.2 mi – to the stop sign on Hansell St in the First United Methodist parking lot.

Notions Be Gone

2011-02-24T00:00:00.063-05:00

I am really, and I mean Really, and I mean REALLY not a fan of this notion of the “Super Mom”; that there is a certain kind of mom with super mothering powers that another mom does not have. There is no “Super Mom”. Not one in the whole, wide world. None.

Take me for example, since this is my blog after all. Here are some of the reasons I am given for being called a “Super Mom” about 86 times a week:
1.I homeschool my kids.
2.I do lots of fun and/or adventurous things with my kids.
3.I love being a mom.
4.I take pictures of lots of things we do and post them.
5.I keep a journal that I intend to give to my children some day of everything I am thinking about as I read through the bible.
6.I keep this blog.
7.My family is very involved at church and outreach ministries.
8.I try to keep myself and my children in decent physical shape.
9.I love my husband, and I want my children to adore him as well.
10.My children are well behaved.

None of those things take super powers, nor are they done very well half the time. Thousands of gallons of blood, sweat and tears go into making a life I can look back on feel satisfied with, and still I feel nearly daily like I fall short, which brings up my next point; the things between the lines in my above list that most people who see my life from the outside don’t see. That’s simply because it’s not terribly motivating or even possible to take photos in the midst of the great dramas that are a nearly daily presence in every home and family around the world.

Between the lines:
1.I have a temper when interrupted, pestered, have to repeat myself too many times, don’t feel like my children are living up to their potential and so on and so forth into infinity.
2.I photograph the fun things, but not the afternoons I rely on the TV to babysit my kids while I get something done or when my kids are beating on each other.
3.I love being a mom, but I get exhausted, overwhelmed, wracked with guilt, grouchy, self centered, lazy, and fly off and say things I shouldn’t more often than I’d care to admit to even myself.
4.I am not always super consistent with my journaling. It comes and goes in waves depending on how time consuming the Bible study I am teaching or taking at the time is. I just don’t take the time for it like I should at times.
5.I keep this blog, but I love it just like someone who scrapbooks. . . Also, I cannot scrapbook or do anything terribly creative. I’ll go nuts.
6.I sometimes spend too much time on my computer.
7.I spend money on foolish things.
8.My children do not eat all organic or unprocessed. I just don’t have time or energy for that. I HATE to cook and avoid meal prep whenever I can. (Fortunately Stephen is and awesome grill chef).
9.I spend too much time disgusted with the stretched out skin on my stomach and love handles.
10.I love my husband, but I am a temperamental pain-in-the-butt as much as anyone, and my children get to see that at times.
11.My children fight, scratch, bite, hit, name-call, disobey at least once a day a piece, which really adds up to at least one temper tantrum from mommy a day.
12.I am not a super organized person and incredibly easily distracted away from what I am doing from moment to moment. My house can be a mess and our schedule is all over the place.
13.I don’t spend enough time one-on-one with my children.
14.I get my priorities out of whack in all of my relationships.
15.I get bogged down in the things that I feel I am entitled to but can never quite obtain.
16.I depend too much on coffee to keep this whole thing moving.

So, what is my very non-super-momish motivation for doing anything other than wallowing around the house feeling like crap about my life and my contribution to my children and those around me?
1.I stay mindful of my desire to leave this world having made a positive dent in the lives of those around me, and right now my energies in this department are on raising quality children who can spread the love of Jesus to the world times 4.
2.I am highly motivated by the desire to keep my relationships with my husband, children, extended family and friends strong and healthy as well as by nurturing the relationships between my children and their siblings, father, extended family and friends.
3.I LOVE my memories. I am SUPER motivated by creating memories to look back on and laugh at or feel empowered by. My childhood was FULL of amazing memories and experiences, and I want the same for my life now as well as for my children’s lives.
4.I try not to let negative emotions or bad attitudes be my catalyst for anything. Fear/worry/anxiety, guilt, anger, frustration, unforgiveness, pride, laziness and so forth are not a good foundation/catalyst for anything, so I honestly try to shut down those thought and replace them with the truths of God’s word. Then I try to (but not always succeed at) make the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control) as well as courage, honesty, compassion, forgiveness, and hope my catalyst for the decisions I make and for how I conduct myself. This is not a super power, but instead a decision I have made to be mindful of why I am doing what I am doing. When I get stuck in a rut of negativity, my life really sucks, and I have work and work to pull myself out of it. I replace those thoughts with hope in God’s redemptive power over all of my mistakes in mothering or in any area of my life, and then trust God in His sufficiency in all areas of my life. From that His fruit (listed above) and character flow through me.
5.I stay fit by loving and staying mindful of its benefits to my health and my mental well being. It hurts to push myself to the max in my training, but it’s cleansing as well.
6.We only get one shot at this life, so I’m going to do my best to not waist it.

Here is another thing I have noticed. There are definitely times when I feel like I have done nothing of any quality with my life or my children. I feel like I have wasted my life or my children’s lives. Then I sit down to do this blog. I look back through past blog entries and see all we have done. I go through my newest pictures to post my next update, and I see that we have, in fact, had a very colorful last few months/life. If it weren’t for the fact that I have this amazing catalog to keep track of our memories, I could get caught in the same trap as anyone in thinking that I stink and other moms are amazing. So, maybe it’s not that other moms don’t do anything of any quality, but that they are not mindful of the amazing things they do in nurturing and caring for their children.

I also think it needs to be mentioned that just because your life looks different than another moms, doesn’t mean you aren’t doing your absolute best to raise quality, contributing individuals. For example, my good friend Sheryl and her husband do not travel all around the country with their children like we do, but they do take an amazing, bonding, memory filled trip to Disney World as often as they can. My kids aren’t highly musically trained like some of my friends or family members’ children are by their age, but we do invest in teaching and training them in areas that we are more familiar with. Even if you are completely “opposite” of me in that your kids go to public school or you don’t nurse your babies, or workout together. Maybe you don’t blog, you only have 2 children, you never take pictures, or keep a bible journal. Even if your family’s needs require you work outside the home, it doesn’t mean you are disqualified from living a colorful life to the max or doing things that inspire your children to become amazing, contributing adults.

A while back I asked for ideas about what to write my next blog update on as a way of inspiring me to write. The list included, running with my children, bible journaling, homeschooling, how I am such an awesome mom (I kid you not), and so on. I thought about them all, but couldn’t get myself to write about any of them and here’s why. All of those ideas give this impression that it is what I do with my life that makes me the mom that people call “super mom”, and I think that completely misses the point. It’s not specifically what we do, but rather what our motivations are for what we do. Do you put your kids in public school because you stink too much as a mom to keep them home, or because that is what you feel God has called your family to. Do you work outside the home because your kids would drive you crazy if you stayed home or in order to provide a huge home and expensive clothing or because it is what your family needs and what God has called you to? Do you work out because you hate your nasty body, or because you enjoy the benefits of a healthy lifestyle? Do you avoid adventure and memory creating experiences out of fear, guilt, laziness or frustration or do you allow yourself the pleasure of enjoying the benefits of putting all of that aside and giving something new a whirl as a way of drawing your family closer together? We all need to break our lives down the reasons behind our decision and make sure they are ones based in faith and the fruit of the Spirit and hope in the Lord’s redemption and faithfulness to you rather than in defeatism and negativity. What follows from pure and positive motives will be a life where you can be excited about the amazing things happening to you and to and to those around you rather than one wracked with jealousy or where you are constantly feeling beaten down. Your life will be a blessing to you and to those around you rather than a source of pain, drama, and unbearable obstacles. Nothing is more miserable than a person who is absorbed by what they believe they are entitled to and can never quite obtain. Clearly, you can tell from my “between the lines” list, that I am not 100% amazing at living this either, but I can tell you that I get better and better at it and with that has come longer and longer waves of the greatest thing any man or woman has ever known. . . True, God given, satisfaction.

Lastly, before I jump into what the kids are up to, I created what I now consider to be one of the worst ideas I have had. . . Well, maybe the worst idea behind driving backwards as fast I could go down a residential road in a car loaded to the brim with all of my high school friends while bystanders watched perplexed, but definitely up there. . .OR behind my decision to help my church youth group get kicked out of all St. Cloud fast food restaurants by belching. . . But up there. For this blog update I made collages of pictures instead of posting each of the 150 pictures from the last few months. It really looks awful and it makes no sense, but once I committed to doing it, I stuck with it, and it sucked a bunch of time I can’t get back and. .. .whatever. I gave it whirl to see what it would be like, and I won’t do it again.

EVAN:
-very patiently and methodically potty trained Eli in about 36 hours. He always liked to change Eli's first, wet, diaper of the day. The morning of November 30th he asked if he could just put underwear on Eli. I said, "I suppose", but I had a pit in my stomach because I HATE potty training. After Evan put underwear on Eli, and I found our little potty seat to put in the kitchen, Evan diligently took him to the potty every 15 or 20 minutes for a few days until Eli started telling Evan when he had to go potty. It was totally crazy to watch, and I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it with my own eyes. By that Sunday, Eli was telling the nursery workers at church he had to go potty and was completely dry when I picked him up. I was so proud of Evan and his diligence and patience. I should mention that they each got a piece of candy after each successful attempt.
-"Mommy, I ate so much I broke my stomach bone!"
-"GUYS! Shut your mouth when you eat. They haven't made that a table manor yet, but they are about to".
-When he's running a fever he thinks everything tastes like pickles.
-FINALLY grew in his two front teeth after over 2 years of waiting. He is so proud of them and smiles so much more now!
-is the bossiest creature to ever, ever, ever to live outside of maybe me.
-is a leader with character. He might be bossy, but what he is telling others to do is the right thing. He has a strong conscience and moral compass, and I admire him for that.
-has the best freckles on the bridge of his nose of any human ever known.
-has developed a passion for reading. That is very satisfying for me to see since I had the pleasure of teaching him how.
-is a very affectionate child. He loves to cuddle.
-wants to be a secret spy when he grows up so he devotes himself to sneaking around the house as practice.
-has a passion for animals. Too bad I HATE the idea of getting a pet.

Julia:
-is one of the most giving children you will meet. Before many people come over, Julia can be found in her room, digging through her things, looking for something to wrap up and give to them.
-"Mommy, for my birthday in April I want an American girl doll, a pillow pet, a princess baby, a baby carriage, a hair salon, a princess candle, a ballet movie, a princess kitchen thing, cards to send to my friends, a backpack, a princess castle, and two swans swimming in a lake".
-is so, so girly and almost prissy despite the manpower around her all day.
-has such a kind heart. She will clean the house when she is in the mood just to make me smile.
-is a very moody child, which I assume comes with being a girl.
-is easily my most cooperative, hardest working student during the school day.
-is afraid to wiggle her loose teeth, so they were being shoved straight out of her mouth by the adult teeth that grew up behind the baby teeth. For a couple of months she had two rows of front teeth until she got the courage/the bribery became big enough to let Grandma Tynes yank them one day. (Pictured below).
-has a very love/hate relationship with ballet. She has moments where she wants to quit ballet several, but I have made her keep her commitment to finish out the year.

Harrison:
-while rubbing Grandma Tynes' hand he says, "Grandma, you are REALLY old!"
-while riding in Grandma Ringsmuth's van he says, "Your minivan is SUPER old!"
-while eating dinner he randomly declares, "Daddy, one time I met a guy who was even fatter than you!"
-*Sniff, sniff, sniff* "Mommy, it smells like you need a shower!"
-“Quin! Quin, Michael Jackson says, ‘I’m bad’ the whole song and then at the end he says, ‘Who’s bad?’! SOOO funny! . . . Ooooooh, I love that guy.”
-LOVES to make faces at himself in the mirror. If he is ever missing, I can usually find him totally absorbed by his silly faces in one of the bathroom mirrors.
-Has a VERY crude sense of humor. He loves crude jokes and words. I blame his daddy, of course.

Elijah:
-has a thing about wrapping everything around his neck, which may be the death of me.
-was potty trained by Evan in about 36 hours.
-Has two different colored eyes. The right eye is more brown and the left is greenish-blue. It just happened in the past few months. (pictured below)
-is randomly turning out to be left handed for most things. I know of no left handed family member on any side, so we'll see if this sticks. You can see in the pictures of him drawing below that he is using his left hand.
-will NOT fall asleep in his own bed for nap time, but does crash and burn wherever he is. I mean literally wherever. (Pictured Below).
-has an amazing sense of humor. He keeps us laughing.
-LOVES to draw. He spends a large part of the school morning drawing his little stick figures, race cars, and animals.
-can put together a 25 piece puzzle on his own and is over-the-top excited about himself when he completes one.
-his brain is on a constant mission to entertain itself with all kinds of interesting shenanigans from coloring all over his body to shoving a popcorn seed up his nose to amazing lego creations.
-the child is obsessed with LEGOS and does an amazing job at his creations for a two year old.
-is definitely, definitely not a baby anymore unless he can work it to his advantage.

Random Stuff:
Evan: Mommy, can you turn on Bon Jovi? Quin, my favorite singer is Bon Jovi.
Quin(My 6 year old nephew): My favorite singer is Justin Bieb-o. Do you like Justin Bieb-o?
Evan: Who in the heck is Justin Bieb-o?
Harrison: My favorite singer is Michael Jackson. He sounds like a girl.
Eli: My favorite song is the big green tractor song. Mommy, do you have the big green tractor song?
Aaron(My 4 year old nephew): My favorite singer is my mommy. I just love my mommy.

We try to play hide and seek together each Tuesday night. It's LOADS of fun and Julia and Evan are getting pretty good at it. Harrison is pretty terrible yet, and Eli wanders and cries about everyone running away and hiding from him.

*CLICK TO ENLARGE A PHOTO*
This boy literally falls asleep wherever he is.

I think this photo collage of my solo trip to St. Augustine, FL recently speaks for itself to convey my views on taking photos of sites you could easily Google and download from a profession. I say, buy a post card and take photos of yourself and loved ones. It also demonstrates my determination to be a goof until the day that I die.

Grandma and Grandpa Hillman and their much beloved dog, Teddy, come for a visit.

We loved having Great-Grandma and Grandpa Hillman and Auntie Sharon come for a visit! Teddy spent the whole time "loving up" (as you can see) on my children. We also enjoyed Thanksgiving lunch with everyone and tea party with the ladies.

This is just several cute pictures of all of the kids together. I especially love the one of all of them hiding in the bushes at the park.

I just lumped all of our homeschool pictures in together. Evan loves to teach Harrison to read. We spend MUCH time doing school on the vent with this blanket to keep us toasty warm. We make many trips to the Tellus science museum where our annual pass is this year. Also, notice Eli's left handedness and adorable scetches.

Eli went grocery shopping as Batman, mask and all and TOTALLY took out that display while trying to rescue the mouthwash. . . I am tired even looking at this photo.

Gallon Guy from our Sonlight curriculum has tought me what all those years of public school never did. I will never forget the conversion again.

This outreach oppportunity to bring Christmas directly to a family in the projects of Atlanta was a huge blessing for our family and our Sunday School class. Look at Evan help carry in the gifts! We fell in love with this family.

Julia at her ballet class. SUCH a beauty she is, inside and out.

Harrison was PUMPED about the massive, wall-sized mirror to make crazy faces in for a whole hour. He was unaware anyone else was in the room.

This is our herd of deer. We feed them and they diss us. Seems fair.

Here are Julia's two rows of teeth like a shark and then the bloody holes where they baby teeth once were. The Adult teeth are already moving forward to take their rightful place.

SUPER BABY!! That's what he calls himself.

We LOVE to read in my bed with the heating blanket on high.

Aunt Jessie comes for an exciting game on our Kinect thingy.

My Christmas Sweater on crack was a notable addition to our holiday festivities.

Our annual, pathetic, Gingerbread house. The day after Christmas, they try to eat it without chipping their teeth. Good times!

Yeah, Evan just freehanded this horse one day demonstrating artistic ability out of nowhere that far exceeds my own.

PRECIOUS Christmas morning memories. There is a video below of them on Christmas morning that I will treasure forever.

We took the kids cosmic bowling on New Years Eve and had a blast for the high, high price of $65. We did have tons of fun and took a cute video that I posted below as well.

We have spent a lot of time with our good friends, the Carmichaels, lately. My best friend Sharon and I had all of our kids at the same times (except for my bonus child, Harrison) and our kids are best buds too.

Julia is the best little baking helper now! She is getting very good in the kitchen and can't wait for me to let her make something on her own.

Just awwwwwwwww!

YAY! A beautiful, January day to ride the new bikes at the great park by Grandma and Grandpa Ringsmuth's house. Grandpa is teaching Julia how to ride her new bike. Evan owns the trail and the grass, and Harrison and Eli never tire of riding.

We had THE BEST time with our snowmageddon this year. All of our stranded neighbors turned out for 2 solid days to sled with us down our hill. It was a great time for everyone.

We are POOPED from a day of sledding in the yard. I love this photo.

When the snow melts in GA, we sled down the stairs. Same deal.

Evan and Stephen worked hard on this beautiful. . I mean handsom, pinewood derby car for the boyscout races. Evan won a round that I posted in a video below.

The Carmichaels joined us for our annual, AWANA MR/MRS Potato Head creation day. I think Courtney ended up winning first place for hers.

Oh, man, were the kids ever STOKED about this Firehouse tour with our homeschool coop!

This is one of Eli's fascinating Lego creations he devotes much time and attention to.

Here are his two different color eyes. One is more brown and the other greenish-blue. It just happened in the past few months.

Yup.

The kids are warming up for a one mile run. I have started encouraging them to run a mile with me after I get back from my longer runs. I would love for them to get to the point where they are running races with me.

Our good friends Paul, Cody, and Caleb join us from Mississippi for a weekend of fun.

Evan made and won first place at AWANA for their "Come as a heart" night with this precious, strapped on view into his heart.

MR.ERIC COMES HOME FROM FROM ISREAL TO PLAY!!!! Too bad he has to go back so soon.

We had THE BEST time EVER when Quin, Aaron, and Lauren came for 8 days to visit while Jeremy and Natalie vacationed in Mexico. We did not want to send them home. The heart on that basket was made by Quin and it says, "I love Julia" and the note in the bottom says, "This bot (boat) was made with love". I also had a good laugh at the way they showed up for school one morning. . .I have this crazy joke that starts, “Two Batmen, Mario, Luigi, a Power Ranger, a unicorn, and a baby sit down for school one day. . .

They had lots of fun playing in the warm, GA backyard. Lauren is so young she had no real memory of playing outside before this week thanks to an extra snowy winter in MN this year.

Julia was SO thrilled to have a girly of her very own for a week. They played girly stuff, went to the ballet and had a very fancy tea party.

Why they love this lame-o park down the street, I'll never know. They ran to the park like it was Disney World.

We had professional photos taken of all of the kids at the Marietta Square this day in matching clothes. SO CUTE! Then we at the kids' favorite pizza joint and crashed in Grandma Ringsmuth's livingroom.

For real, does life get any better than this. No, no it doesn't.

Here is our traditional Christmas morning in the Tynes' home. This video is so precious to me I wouldn't part with it for anything.

Rabidly fun times at our once annual cosmic bowling New Years Eve celebration.

Evan graciously accepts a win at his pinewood derby races with his boyscout pack.

This is the most beautiful several minutes ever filmed for realz.

Copout

2010-11-19T23:04:00.050-05:00

Grandpa and Evan ride off into the sunset.

This time I am copping out of writing much. I want to get one last blog post in this year, and I can never seem to get around to sending out those awesome family Christmas photos I enjoy getting so much. I have been teaching a Monday night bible study for a couple of years, but it has recently become much more work for me. I am loving it, but it leaves me feeling a bit burned out on writing down my thoughts. For those of you who have to get their "Rochelle's Diatribes" fix (note the sarcasm in my voice), last week I began to post a podcast of the study I teach on Monday nights to a blog. My first one is posted. Here is the link. . . thefaithfulgod.blogspot.com

Here is a conversation I don't want to forget.

Evan: (ALL riled up) JULIA! Did you take that sucker out of my Halloween bag??!!

Julia: (Casual) No.

Evan: Tell me the truth!

Julia:(unconcerned) It's mine.

Evan: TELL! ME! THE! TRUTH!! You don't look very serious!!!

Julia: (Very matter of fact) Evan, It's hard to look very serious with a sucker in my mouth.

I think she had a valid point.

ELIJAH: -is completely and innocently honest about everything. Even after coloring all over the furniture and woodwork with a black sharpie marker, watching me totally freak out upon seeing it and scream, "AHHHHH! WHO DESTROYED OUR HOME!!!", Eli says, "It was Eli", as casually as if he were saying, "I dropped my pencil". -Here's another conversation, ME: "AAAHHH, ELI!! DID YOU PULL OFF ALL 600 BOOKS, GAMES AND PUZZLES FROM THE BOOK SHELF AND EMPTY THEM INTO A PILE!!??" Eli: "Yup".

-is now 2 1/2.

-has been to 17 states and Washington DC including AL, GA, IL, IA, KY, LA, KS, MD, MN, MS, MO, NE, NC, SC, TN, VA.

-is super, super, super, super hilarious. We hang on his every word to catch everything that comes out of his mouth. I wish I could keep track of it all.

-the last word in all of his sentences is always said with a thick southern accent.

-he likes for us to tie his baby blanket around his neck like a cape so he can pretend to fly around the house as "Super Baby".

-gave up his naps a few months ago. If he sleeps during the day he stays up way too late at night.

-did a SUPER awesome job for such a little fellow traveling from Atlanta to Lincoln, NE in September for my cousin Andy's wedding.

-likes hats.

-has no interest in potty training and neither do I. We are on the same page.

-knows several of letters, how to spell his name, and how to count to 12.

HARRISON: -blurts out in the van randomly, "A google plus 88 equals a google and 88, right, Mom?"

-has been to 17 states and DC including AL, DE, FL, GA, IL, IA, KY, LA, KS, MD, MS, MO, NE, NC, SC, TN, VA

still cries at the drop of a hat. He went from being unflappable to being very emotional since about the time he turned 4, I think. I am hoping it is just a phase.

-is nearly 4 1/2

-Two months ago when I was out for the evening with some friends, Evan shared the gospel with Harrison on their top bunk, and they prayed together for Harrison. The next morning when I saw Harrison, he was very exctied to announce to me that he and Evan had prayed together, and he had asked Jesus into his heart. Now, I don't know how to verify the authenticity of a young child's salvation experience, but I was so touched that Evan took the initiative to share his heart with his brother and that Harrison was so excited about the whole thing.

LOVES, LOVES, LOVES his time to play games on the computer. He lives for it and cries when his timer goes off, and he has to be done. When he isn't playing video games (which is 23 hours a day) he is thinking about them.

-has long, pointless and hilarious conversations with his 2 year old brother that usually turns into a physical confrontation.

-is a wiz at school. He doesn't look forward to it, but he learns so quickly that he is keeping up with his kindergartener sister. It's nice that Julia and Harrison are so close in age (13 months apart) so they can go through school together.

-has no favorite subject. He just goes with the flow to get it over with so he can play his hour of computer games.

-tells the most imaginative stories.

-gets along very well with most everyone he meets.

-he is very, very picky about what he will wear.

-he still loves to color when he isn't playing games.

JULIA: -"Mom, this is my three-est pizza", which meant, "Mom, this is my third piece of pizza".

-Has been to 17 states and Washington DC including, AL, FL, GA, IL, IA, KY, LA, KS, MD, MS, MO, NE, NC, SC, TN, TX, VA.

-is typically a very attentive student. She enjoys school and never complains about the work. -is now 5 1/2.

-considers her closest friends to be Courtney Carmichael, Lara Abbott, and Jessica Warthan. All is well in her world when those girls are at her side.

-one of those best friends, Jessica Warthan, is about to move to West Virginia. Tremendous weeping and mourning happened the night Julia found out, but she has come to terms with it and is now planning the DVD's we will watch during any potential road trips up there.

-can be as mature and responsible as a 30 year old, or can be as stubborn as a mule.

-is still quite afraid of nearly every movie ever made. She is only interested in pre-school television programs. Anything with a plot or drama sucks her in and breaks her heart.

-went from spending the last 5 1/2 years crying and clinging to me whenever I left her in any of her classes or in AWANA at church, to for the last month or so, ditching me in her dust as she runs ahead of me to get to them. It has been a marvelous shift.

-loves to cuddle and give us kisses.

-LOVES, LOVES her Grandma Tynes. She is adoring having her here full time.

-is Mrs. Barbara, her ballet teacher's, pet to-be-sure. Mrs. Barbara comes out of the room each week and makes a beeline to let me know how wonderful and dedicated Julia is. When I watch Julia through the window, she doesn't seem to me to be an incredibly gifted ballerina quite yet, just incredibly focused, which I happen to think is even better.

-her favorite school subject is reading.

EVAN: -has been to 20 states and Washington DC including AL, FL, GA, IL, IA, KY, LA, KS, MD, MN, MS, MO, NE, NC, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, UT.

-turned 7 on October 24th.

-has matured soooooooooooooo much in the past 6 months. He gets in trouble a quarter of the time he used to and even volunteers to help around the house! A couple days ago he asked to change Eli's diaper. . . I don't know what to make of it, but I'm not complaining. I am SUPER proud of him.

- has to have it completely silent and still to concentrate on his school work. He is incredibly, easily distracted. Silence and stillness is VERY hard to come by around here. I have had to find creative ways to motivate him, but it is possible to get him to focus long enough to get one answer done at a time until the whole page is complete.

-seems to really enjoy having Julia and Harrison participating in school with him so he is not singled out as the one who has to work harder than the rest. Having them join the fold has been very good for him.

-is a very honest boy. He went through a long and hard core lying stage, but that has been gone for a while. Now he tells the truth even if it means he will get in trouble for it. I respect the stew out of that. He is going to be a good man.

-has a heart for his friends who don't know Christ and asks to pray for them all of the time.

-has a giving heart and even gave $20 of nearly $80 that his grandfather gave him for his birthday to the church so they could help needy children. I didn't ask him to do that at all. I was so proud of him for bringing the money to me and telling me on his own he wanted to do that, I took a picture of him with the money and posted it below. I'm not sure I should have done that, but it blew me away, and I wanted to remember it.

-loves, loves, loves his baby brother to-the-max. Even though my attention is so split between all of the kids, Evan would gladly take more baby siblings any day.

-is growing to be a hard working boy too. He is just growing up so much all of a sudden.

-enjoys being a part of Boy Scouts this year with Stephen as the den leader. He is so, incredibly, blessed to have a daddy who desires to be so involved in his life.

-he loves to wrestle with Harrison a bit too much. The bigger those boys get, the more damage they do to each other and to the house. They can't be in the same room for a minute without it turning into the WWF. I try to send them out in the yard as often as I can to let them work it out amongst the trees.

-favorite school subject is science.

What mother doesn't well up with joy and pride when they see a photo like this?

It's crazy hair night at Awana and the kids thought I should bring the theme to choir practice as well. Luigi, Eli, Princess Peach, and Mario. Soon he will outgrow sleeping in the car all of the time, so I take FAR to many photos of that tired little face. I wish I would have turned this photo. Evan is ready for his first Boy Scouts pack meeting. Evan was a pro at flying this kite in our front yard until it bit the dust. I have so many precious photos of the kids with this kite in our front yard. I didn't know how to narrow them down. Julia got the hang of the kite quickly as well. I posted an album to facebook that we used as our picture science journal for an expedition we went on to find the source and mouth of our backyard creek after a unit study on rivers and streams. Here we are trespassing at an empty house by the pond at the source of our creek. We had TONS of fun with this. We finally found the mouth of our backyard creek, but had to knock on the door of the house on the right to ask if we could wander around in their yard and find it. They were kind enough to let us do it.

The boy with the giant gauze bandage on his cheek and bald head is our friend Treyton. He was diagnosed with Luekemia 7 months ago and we were over at his house watching him and 2 of his siblings while his mom took another sibling to the doctor. My children prayed faithfully for Treyton several times a day throughout his whole treatment and he is, happily, now completely cancer free.

We are out for a tiring afternoon hike with aunt Jessie and Grandma on the trails around our home.

Eek, another sideways picture I am not motivated enough to change. Here Eli and Julia usher Grandma Tynes up the walkway to the St. Louis Arch in MO in September.

They are checking the stability of the arch for their expedition to the top.

We road the long, shifting elevator ride to the top in a very, tiny, egg-shaped capsule. I have been to the arch several times in my life, but this was the kid's first time. They were animated and lit up with excitement about the whole thing. Even another tourist turned their camera on our kids to take a video of their excitement.

They just never tired of looking out the windows at the sights. Tourists up their were loving their adorable excitement.

Back at the bottom for a silly picture.

My kids LOVE my cousin Jason's kids, Nathan, Meredith, and Patrick, in St. Louis. They have been there once or twice to visit and they bond immediately over this trampoline and all of great-aunt Donna's exiting new toys.

We ate lunch in a beautiful casino on our way through Kansas city. We told the kids it was Chuck-E-Cheese for grownups ;>)

Here we are in Lincoln, NE with TONS of cousins for the kids to play with. My uncle Pete made this swing and had it outside of the office building of his newsletter company where he hosted the whole Ringsmuth crew for lunch. The kids took FULL advantage of this swing.

This was the post-wedding dance at Cousin Andy's wedding. Harrison and Baby Lauren (my brother Jeremy's daughter) dance so sincerely.

Julia dances with cousin Meredith at the wedding in Lincoln, NE

We were hosted at Uncle John and Aunt Sue's house for breakfast the morning after the wedding. Stephen is obviously having an animated conversation with my beloved Grandpa Ringsmuth.

This is Uncle John and Aunt Sue's backyard where I played with my cousins when we were growing up. My children ran off and played with cousins for HOURS, just as it should be. All together there were 17 cousins there that weekend who were 7 years old and younger.

Uncle Frank graciously offered to take some time to push Julia and Harrison in the swings.

FYI, Lincoln, NE has a surprisingly awesome children's museum right next to the UNL campus where they were having their homecoming game at this very moment. Eli and Grandma Tynes enjoy a relaxing moment together.

Who is having more fun here, Eli or Grandma Ringsmuth?

YEAH for cousin love! My cousins mean so much to me, and it is awesome that my kids get that too. They are all just immediately BFF even if they haven't seen each other in a long time.

Dinner at the cousin table. All together there were 17 cousins in Lincoln, NE that weekend

who were 7 years old or younger.

Julia thought she looked beautiful with her "makeup" on. It's lip gloss, though I didn't see any on her actual lips.

FINALLY AFTER 2 YEARS those top two teeth are coming in Evan's mouth!! OH HAPPY DAY!!

This is the prayer list the kids made for people they feel a burden for, and we try to go through every morning before school.

Daddy took Harrison and Evan to a boyscout camp out in October. This is a perfect picture of the relationship between these two boys.

Julia, Eli and I caught up with them at the boyscout camp out the next day after sleeping in our nice warm beds.

The kids played for hours on these tent stands at the boyscout camp that Saturday.

This boyscout camp had to be one of the more beautiful places I have been in Georgia. . . and that's saying something. It was amazing! We hiked around this lake owned by the Georgia boyscouts.

I love this suspended animation picture of Eli being so excited about the ducks at the boyscout camp's lake.

Stephen is teaching a boyscout lesson on leafs to the kids so Evan can earn his bobcat patch. I just beam like a fool when I see pictures like this.

Eli got a little tired on our walk around the lake at the boyscout camp. He's totally asleep like this.

Climbing and hanging and hanging and climbing.

Eli's favorite. PB& J and spicey Doritos sandwiches. . . ishy. .. I can't watch him eat it.

Evan gets a chocolate covered raison for every section of his Math worksheets that He completes. It is VERY motivating for him.

I couldn't love this photo any more than I do. Grandpa and the kids share a passion for Grandpa's scooter.

THESE are the memories that will stick with them.

Eli and Evan just absolutely adore each other with their whole hearts.

Actually, Eli wasn't too sure about this quite yet.

Harrison hangs on for dear life and fake smiles.

We went to a granite quarry for a field trip. This was the educational building at the quarry.

Julia and her best friends, Courtney and Jessica learning about rocks at the granite quarry.

The kids got to collect rocks and check out this massive dump truck at the granite quarry.

These are some of our homeschool friends at the granite quarry. It was impossible to get a good picture with that many little kids.

Eli is a mere flee next to this truck. He was not deterred from collecting several pounds worth of granite. . .

. . . and more granite.

He's a working man. . . dirty face, hard hat and all.

The kids were mystified by the massive canyon caused by 40 years of mining, and less than a mile from where cousins Quin and Aaron used to live.

Evan's doing the traditional cake bake for his 7th birthday. Each birthday child gets to bake and decorate their birthday cake, just them and me.

This is how Evan chose to decorate it. I won't tell you which of Evan's parents said it ended up looking like dead spiderman and sexual spiderman. . .but I thought it turned out well.

Evan's birthday party was at Monster Golf. It's an indoor, blacklight lit, minigolf, course.

Later we went to his favorite restaurnt, Stevie B's Pizza, with the boys who came to his party.

Present time is always the most exciting part for all of the kids. The boy with the orange shirt is Evan's good friend, Joseph and the boy with the yellow shirt is life-long friend Jacob. You can see his friends Rocky and another Joseph across from him.

He got this present from his friend Jacob at the party that evening. We got home from the party about 6:30. He was tireless on this project that started from a box full of teeny tiny pieces that he carefully and painstakingly built into this working robot by 10:00 that night. He did it completely on his own, just as he insists on doing with everything.

Grandpa Ringsmuth has been saving his change for Evan in a piggy bank since Evan was born. He gave it to him for his birthday this year. I made Evan sort and count it, which was all we did for Math for 2 days. It worked out to be $78.80. He bought a game for his kinect system, a Mario brothers costume, and donated $20 of his own volition to the church with it.

Jess and I ran a 5k together last month. It was both nerve wracking and tons of fun. I ran it in 25 minutes and 22 seconds, which is 23 seconds slower than I was hoping, but I ranked MUCH better than I thought I would. I was 11th out of 156 in my age bracket and 123 out of 1,101 runners. It was soooo cold my joints were stiff. Next time I will run it in at LEAST 23 seconds shorter. YAY, for running!

My good friend Rebekah came to town from KY to run this 5K with me. She dressed up for the Halloween race as the breast cancer fighting super heroess. She is quite stunning.

Yay for trick-or-treating. This was the second time I have gone in my life and the first time was last year. I LOVE the opportunity to meet the neighbors and let them share a gift with my children. In the end, I think it is a great experience for kids.

Harrison and our neighbor boy Chad are pooped out from trick-or-treating. Could they be any cuter?

This is our annual "Halloween candy spread and free-for-all". For one evening they have a pass to devour unlimited amounts of candy, and then it is confescated and more appropriately distributed from that day on.

The kids enjoy handing out candy as much as like collecting it.

Evan got the new Kinect system for his birthday. It's like the Wii, but there is no controller. It is all motion sensor. The kids are all playing it here. It's wild.

Julia is, of course, driving a SWAT vehicle. What else would she be doing?

Julia did grandma's hair up so peeerrrty before book time this night.

I don't know if I should have taken a picture of this, but Evan came up to me out of the blue and told me he wanted to give $20 of his own birthday money to the church to help needy children. I was so touched I wanted to be sure to remember it.

He calls himself "Super Luigi" and wears this costume wherever we go.

More brotherly love.

Evan and his good friend Joseph at Joseph's 8th birthday party.

Yeah...I don't know about this...Yikers...

2010-09-09T22:04:00.075-04:00

I have gone from completely certain I should not write about this topic to resigned to the fact that I would, but never completely certain that I should. However, since my last blog update where I stated I was considering writing about my journey with the vaccination issue, I have been asked again and again and again to write out my views on the topic. They really are not what most people would think they are. My blog has morphed into a bit of a ministry for me since its inception 5 years ago, and this is such a polarizing issue. I would hate for anyone to shut me down because of my vaccination views one way or the other. Over the years I too have morphed from a complete ignoramus to an anti-vaccination evangelist to where I stand today. Soooo if you MUST know, here goes nothing...or something... er, who knows...

To vaccinate or not to vaccinate. This is an issue many parents, including myself, have wrestled with since the birth of their first born. I will start by saying that I do not think there is a right or a wrong answer in this debate, and to say there is, in my opinion, is to miss the point completely. I do not vaccinate, nor do I, very often, medicate/give my children antibiotics. The reason why is not what you would think. It is not that I am certain vaccinations and antibiotics are evil poisons necessarily. It’s not that I believe the medical industry is conspiring against the ignorant to overtake the world.

My decision to refuse most conventional medical techniques comes from the kind of person I am and how that manifests itself in my faith. I am a “question everything” sort of a person. I don’t take much of anything for granted as being truth until I have tested the fire out of it. When my first newborn baby was taken from my hospital room to be given a Hepatitis-B vaccine, I was startled. “Wait”, I said to myself. “He isn’t doing drugs or having sex or in a high risk daycare, so what’s the deal? Does my baby really need this vaccine”? I started doing loads of research and realized, that for my family, in the current phase of life we are in, where my children are nearly always with me in relatively low risk environments, it didn’t make sense for us to risk the side effects of the vaccines.

That decision has caused me much angst. I had trouble finding a doctor who would see my children, and I get medical staff up in my face the few times we have had to bring our children in for emergency care. Refusing vaccinations is not for the faint of heart. It is for people who know their stuff and aren’t afraid of confrontation, and more than that, and here is my main point, it is for those whose faith is in the Lord to take care of their family rather than in the medical community. (I would be lying if I said it didn’t bother me that drug companies aren’t exactly non-profit organizations and have questionable motives and conflicts of interest all over the place, but that is beside the point here).

Now, let me reign in the anger of those whose feathers I just ruffled in the “to vaccinate” camp. One of my best friends in the world has all of her children up-to-date on their vaccines, and she is a person of faith. I have the utmost respect for her decision to vaccinate her children. For years she has been listening to me explain to her and to others my reasons for not vaccinating. Yet, thanks largely to her very compliant, go with the flow sort of personality, she chooses to put her faith in God to take care of her children regardless of the risks to the vaccines.

I do want to say that I am firm believer of Romans 13. I will submit myself to the governing authorities that God has established. If vaccinations ever do become compulsory I will march my children into their pediatrician’s office without fear and get them up to date on all of their vaccinations. My hope and faith is in the Lord alone. I enjoy my freedom to chose, but my faith in the Word of God is far stronger than my compulsion to rebel or even to be right.

Scripture does not address the issue of modern medicine directly so I think to make this debate a polarizing spiritual one is just a distraction from the real heart of the issue. Everything in this life is ultimately a test of faith that will manifest itself in different ways for different people. Our job is to question our motives for the decisions we make. Are we motivated by faith or fear? Are we putting our faith in man and it’s institutions, or are we resting in the Lord’s faithfulness?

So, to vaccinate or not to vaccinate? The answer is simple, but, to use an overused cliché, it’s easier said than done. Don’t fear, don’t worry, don’t feel guilty, don’t condescend, don’t feel inferior. Do put your faith and hope in the Lord. Rest and find peace in His faithfulness to your family and in the power of His word, and the rest falls under the umbrella of God’s divine sovereignty…So there, er, whatever…

FAMILY UPDATE:

The Tynes brigade had an awesome summer to-be-sure. Like I said in my last update, after years of negotiations, Grandma Tynes finally left the Mississippi homestead and moved into our madhouse here in Atlanta. She has been nothing short of a major blessing to us. You will see in the pictures below that she has become an integral part of our operation around here doing everything from helping the kids learn how to make good, ol’ fashion, southern, chickin’ ‘n dumplin’s, to playing with us at the pool, to babysitting for a 5 day getaway for Stephen and me to a music festival in KY. She helps me rotate the kids around during school hours by making sure they are getting their morning chores done while I teach classes to the other kids. She’s got our back in discipline and rule enforcement, throws in her own flare, and the kids get support from all around.

Before the last several decades, families lived in happy bundles that functioned to share the responsibilities of daily life and child rearing. I am beginning to see more and more the wisdom in that kind of a lifestyle. Of course, nothing is perfect. I have to get over myself and my “northern enlightened” ways many times while she has to adjust to having 4 kids constantly all up in her business after years of living alone. Stephen gets the pleasure of having two clucking hens pecking on him night and day, but mostly it’s gone better than I could ever have imagined. For that I am grateful.

GENERAL KIDS' INFO:

I have an idea I need to work up the gumption to carry out. I am SOOOO sick and tired of watching certain children of mine pick their nose and eat their boogers, I have decided I need to start a "Booger Bowl". Since their boogers are so irresistibly delicious and even worth the punishment they have to take to eat them, I will just start collecting them (and heck, maybe a few of my own) in a "Booger Bowl" to eat as dessert after dinner. I am not sure why they find this idea so disgusting given their behavior, but I am almost desperate enough to do it anyway.

During an intense argument over what x-box game Harrison's should play next, Evan says, "No, Harrison, that's a really stupid game!" I was about to jump in when I heard Harrison say, "Well, I like really stupid games!" And since that's basically the best answer ever, I stayed out of it.

I love watching my children race in a circle and argue about who is in front.

They all say they can do everything "like a weasel". "Look, Mommy! I can swim like a weasel", or "I can clean my room like a weasel", or even negative things like, "Mom, he is dumping out the toys like a weasel". I have no idea where they got the idea.

Last Monday I nearly died of a heart attack. I heard Evan's blood curdling screams, "HARRISON! NO! DON'T DIE!!! DON'T DIE"!!! Harrison at the same time is screaming, "EVAN! HELP ME!!! SAVE ME! SAVE ME, PLEASE"!!!! You can imagine my panic as I race across the house to rescue my precious 4 year old only discover they were playing Super Mario Brothers on the computer. After I regained consciousness, I felt like an idiot.

EVAN:

one morning before VBS when Evan was picking out a beach towel for the water games scheduled for that day, Evan says, "I want the towel with dolphins because girls like dolphins". I went numb and almost blacked out when I hear, "Most of the kids in my group are girls". He was just trying to be liked by his group.

will turn 7 on the 24th of October, which puts him officially in the first grade. I am able to combine several classes with Julia and Harrison like science, Bible, history and so forth. For math, reading and language arts I have him doing second grade work. He reads at a 3rd or 4th grade level, but he isn't ready for the work load that comes with that yet. No sense in rushing him.

has begun his 3rd in AWANA and has decided he is in charge. He told the other kids last week that he is, "practically a teacher now".

officially learned to swim this summer and takes great pride in jumping in the deep end. He tries each time to reach the bottom of the 9 foot deep end.

learned to sing all 50 states in alphabetical order this summer.

is incredibly motivated by the prospect of earning a few bucks. Before we got our helpful chore system started, he would work on "helping" us around the house without our knowledge, and then demanding pay for whatever he accomplished. We have had to head that off a wee bit.

ended up with 11 stitches following an incident at a cemetery in June. We had driven to the middle of nowhere Alabama to meet my friend Melissa and her children who were visiting from MN (pictured below). There was a beautiful cemetery on the side of a hill with a great oak tree at the top where we could picnic. He tried to jump over one of the short brick retaining walls around a family plot and misjudged, tearing his shin open to the bone on the edge of the brick. I was able to rip his shirt off, tie it around his leg and stop the bleeding quickly. (For Evan's future reference, while we waited for Melissa to get her van, I was able to take a photo of his injury with the camera I had strapped around my neck.) He had to hold the shirt tight for the 30 mile drive to the nearest rural hospital. He really only cried for about half of it, but was SUPER brave for all of it. He kept repeating on the way to the hospital, "I don’t want to do this, but I know I have to". He had stitches once before on his lip and remembered the pain of the Novocain. I had called 911 to get exact directions to a hospital that looked like a converted 2 story motel, but when I got there the whole ER staff was waiting for us on the sidewalk ready to usher us into a great private room for the whole ordeal. Thankfully, Melissa was kind enough to stick with us and help me with the rest of the kids so I could focus on Evan. I was so proud of him. He was so mature about the whole thing. He should also remember that many people were super kind to him during his recovery. He was showered with gifts, prayers, visits, cards, facebook messages and support of all kinds from caring friends and family who took compassion on him. He was quite sore and nervous about putting pressure on it, so he limped for a week, but is completely back to normal now. . .void a super cool, 3 inch, battle scar on his right leg.(For the record, he had a tetnus shot following his injury)

JULIA:

started kindergarten last month at home.

began her long awaited dance (ballet & tap) classes a few weeks ago and really loves it.

after correcting one of the boys for calling someone stupid, Julia very innocently proclaims, "You can only call people stupid if they really are stupid, right, Mommy"?

nearly always colors the skin of the princesses and various other people in her coloring books shades of brown and has since she was very small. Her favorite princess is Jasmine from Aladdin.

learned to sing all 50 states in alphabetical order this summer.

has a very special relationship with her "Grammy" Tynes.

is really starting to learn to read and write. It's especially exciting for me since I taught her.

was very brave and helpful the day Evan ripped his leg open. She jumped right in and helped me without seeming freaked out at all. She even enjoyed looking at and analyzing the stitches with me.

learned to swim this summer and loves jumping into the deep end with Evan. She doesn't get a thrill out of trying to reach the bottom of the deep end, but she loves the freedom of having the whole pool at her disposal.

has been trying to ride a bike this summer. She is not gifted at steering to-say-the-least. This hasn't been as quick and easy as it was with Evan, but she'll get it.

HARRISON:

I asked the kids to come pray with me for Eli who was running a 101 fever one afternoon. Harrison volunteered to be the first one to pray. His prayer touched me so much I had to record it. He said, "Dear, Jesus. I thank you for Eli and for the blessing that he is to us. Please take away his fever and help him to feel better. In Jesus name I pray, Amen".

wears his Silly Bandz 24/7 (pictured below).

even though he is only 4, I began him in kindergarten with Julia. He seemed to suddenly have the maturity to sit, listen and do the work. He is academically quite far ahead of most kindergartners, but he has not been mature enough to endure a school day until the last month or so. I thought teaching them together would make things easier on me. I am telling him he is in pre-school. I don't want to rush him.

is really starting to learn to read and write. It's especially exciting for me since I taught him.

I bribed the kids to come in out of the yard and to help me clean up the house with strawberry ice cream. Harrison, not my hardest working child, exclaims, "NOOOOOO! Strawberry ice cream has strawberry onions!!!"

is in enchanted by beautiful sunsets and is always pointing them out to us. "Isn't that a BEAUTIFUL sunset, Mommy"? I would totally miss them if it weren't for him.

is just as likely to write his name backwards (mirror image) as he is forwards.

asks me all of the time to find a crayon for him that's "skin color". I act confused and say, "Which color of skin"? I know he means a color that matches his own, but I want to subtly ingrain in him that there isn't a skin color any more than there is a hair color. There are lots of appropriate shades to chose from.

after a 7 1/2 year old boy came flying down our stairs at a play date I was hosting, crying about another child beating him up and calling him stupid, the last child I could ever have imagined came flying down the stairs behind him screeching, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry"! You know, I was there, and I still have a hard time believing that my sweet natured Harrison had it in him, but I guess they all do.

likes to make up words to rhyme with other words. For example, one day he yells, "Mom, do bit and tit rhyme"? Followed by, "OK then, how about paper and raper"?

learned to sing all 50 states in alphabetical order this summer.

ELIJAH:

The first two things out of his mouth every morning for the first couple months of summer were, "Let's go to the swimming pool", and "Mommy, take off my shirt off/take off my pants off".

calls a dinosaur a "Dina-horse".

easily gave up his pacifier in June just by telling him it was lost. He was my youngest to do so.

knows all of his colors and shapes.

gave up his nap about a month ago. If he takes a nap he is up until super late, but if he doesn't get a nap he falls asleep randomly whereever he is for a few minutes here and there. There are lots of pictures of this phenomenon below.

claims things gradually. For example, "Look at that helmet. That's Julia's helmet. That's a helmet. That's actually my helmet. I had it first. GIVE ME MY HELMET!"

ends words that end in "N" with the "T" sound. For example "againt" and "Evant" or "Sevent".

says, "hooge" for "huge". "Daddy, I'm getting HOOGE!"

counts to two-levent. . . one, two, three, four, five, six, sevent, eight, nine, tent, two-levent."

I was walking down the hallway upstairs when I heard Eli screaming, "NO! NO, BABY! NO! NO, BABY!" I ran around in a panic looking for him. I found him squatting in a back corner of a bedroom with a dryer sheet in hand, rebuking himself for wanting to eat it. As soon as he saw me, he stuffed it in.

spent the month of June calling any man who was balding, "Grandpa." There is no other similarity to his own grandfather needed. This became painfully obvious one day at a Publix grocery store when a black, maybe 40 year old man came innocently sauntering down the isle only to have to deal with Eli yelling, "Grandpa! Grandpa!" It was a very awkward situation for both of us.

is a cleaner like his sister. Without being taught to do so, he removes his shoes and socks and places one sock in each shoe. He gets his own towels or baby wipes to clean up his messes. He also loves to put things away in containers. Let's hope this isn't just a phase.

has been asking everyone "Why" about everything since he was 21 months.

calls pizza, "pizza pie", and shoes, "Shoe-bees."

can actually sing large portions of the 50 states song and have proof on video.

enjoys being contrary and faking grumpiness.

has an adorable opinion about everything. I'm glad he's my 4th.

I could never tire of adorable sleeping/cuddling pictures.

Evan and lifelong friend Courtney show off their missing front teeth. We have photos of their gummy smiles together as babies, their subsequent toothy grins, and now their return to the gummy. Hopefully they are friends through the next phase of toothy grins all the way back to gummy smiles.

Grandma Tynes living retirement large with us at the pool.

"Look, Mommy! I swimming! I swimming!"

Does anyone have a church secretary job for this miserable woman!

Where did Harrison want his date night out with Mommy? Wal-Mart.

Harrison is helping to make his 4th birthday cake with Cars cars, of course.

Harrison wanted to spend his 4th birthday party playing minigolf.

Here is the completed Cars cars birthday cake at his favorite restaurant, Stevi B's.

More 4th birthday goodness with Coldstone ice cream and Grandma and Grandpa Ringsmuth.

He is SO DARN adorable!!

We love our family hikes. This is at Fort Mountain in North GA.

Family photo on the overlook at Fort Mountain.

There is this cool tower with no known origin at the top of Fort Mountain.

Stephen is knocking over this dead tree to impress the kids. They are in awe of their hulking daddy.

We hiked a few miles and took a nice rest.

About 1/4 mile before the end of our hike at Fort Mountain the sky opened up in the most amazing downpour. We waited under our umbrella off the main road while Stephen ran to get the truck. I wish I could have gotten Eli and Harrison to look up.

Eli had a fun week at VBS with his friends while I volunteered.

Evan is in the WAY back of his VBS class next to his friend Jessica.

Julia had to be sold on the idea of VBS each morning for the whole week.

What was Harrison's favorite part of VBS? Snack time!! I was the snack lady. It's good to be appreciated.

Uncle James comes for a special visit. The kids adore Uncle James.

Here is Evan's Sunday school class. I filled in for his regular teacher that Sunday.

"Where's Pandy" is an idea my parents came up to involve the kids in their trip to China early this summer. They hid Pandy in the pictures they took of them doing and seeing all sorts of things and then made an educational power point presentation out of it. The kids read informative captions and got to look for Pandy in the pictures. Here the kids are playing "Where's Pandy" for Grandma and Grandpa in Alabama. If you are insterested in seeing the slide show, I posted it to an album on Facebook.

A day that will go down in infamy started out as a super fun day with the Rhodes family, visiting from MN, who met us in rural AL.

This cemetary where we ate our lunch was on a gorgious hill in the middle of a valley overlooking the foothils of the Appalachians.

The kids played like it was 1999 and had a blast. They also enjoyed reading the headstones and asking questions about the lives they respresent. Where's Pandy?

I skipped posting the photo of Evan's actual injury from the cemetary this day. He can dig that out of our archive at some point if he would like. This doctor was in love with the idea of taking photos of the event. He gave me lots of ideas for better shots including this one where we can see him stitching Evan up without seeing the gore.

It took him close to a week, but he did work up the courage to show Julia and Harrison his stitches.

Evan and Harrison's good friends, Joseph and David, have the injured Evan over to consol him with Nintendo WI, Evan's love language.

You have to click and enlarge this photo of the kids eating breakfast while that creepy squirrel on the ledge of the deck watches with his arms crossed. He is waiting for us to go away so he can eat in peace from Stephen's garden on the deck. We have THE WORLD'S CREEPIEST squirrels in our yard.

Dr. Kola, our pediatrican, removes the stitches from Evan's leg. It was not pain free, but Evan was very brave.

We enjoyed a "staycation" to-the-max over 4th of July weekend this year. Loads of fun!

We will definately be returning here. It's just over the AL state line in Little River Canyon. I got the idea because Man VS. Wild was filmed here last year. It was beautiful and had an awesome area for swimming (pictured below).

There was this great swimming hole at the bottom of these falls, but it was too deep for our kiddos.

We marched on to the top of the falls where the water was shallow and full of adventure.

They slid around a lot on their tummies over the shallow water that ran over these rocks.

They could slide down the natural water slide Swiss Family Robinson style!!

There were little minnows in the water the kids tried frantically to catch.

Eli had the best time in these shallow waters sliding around on the rocks.

This place is perfect for adventure seeking 6 year old boys.

So precious, this boy is!

They climbed and climbed and slid and slid.

Harrison loves to write his name, which he writes both forwards and backwards. I'll have to post a picture of that sometime. Here he also drew a picture of our family without Eli becuase he says he ran out of room.

Look at them making their way through the crowd at a Braves game!

I had never noticed these chairs at Turner statium until the kids discovered them.

We went to the Braves 4th of July game which had a great 70's rock cover band and fireworks at the end. The boys boogied hard to pass the time.

I was nervous this would be a fiasco, but the kids LOVED the fireworks. Julia is in my lap so she didn't make it into the picture.

We spent WAAAAYYY to much time trying to catch and bottle fire flies this night.

YESSSSSS! Why do I feel like I have succeeded as a mother because 3 of my 4 children will now eat salad? Certainly there is a more substantial gage than that!

Great-Grandma Hillman comes in from TN for a short visit. We were so blessed to have her!

I could never tire of pictures like these. I think they were playing in their room, and then just passed out together on this tiny mattress on the floor.

Here Julia is learning to ride her bike. It is not going super well, but she'll get it.

I DID the pink highlights for music festival (Bon Jovi!!) Stephen and I went to in KY in July, but I did NOT get a good picture.

Evan is helping Grandma Tynes move her stuff into the U-haul in Mississippi. He had the option of going to play with rest of the kids, and he picked to stay and help.

Here Evan and Harrison enjoy lunch in the middle of moving Grandma Tynes out of Mississippi with Uncle Joe and their new BFF Jose.

What is it with little boys and putting things in a perfectly straight line?

How many grandmas are willing to do something like this??

This is our chore charting system called Accountable Kids if you want to google it. It is the only thing I have found that we have been able to stick to. It works amazingly well. It comes with a book to teach you how to impliment an entire structure of teaching responsibility and consequences. I HIGHLY recommend it.

Here we are at a Gwennet Braves game and Evan is mastering the inflatable wall while Daddy and Eli cheer him on.

Evan and Harrison were trying to mirror each other's shape block thingies while buiding on each other's ideas.

I can't make him do this, but when he is in the mood we can find him reading to his younger brothers and sister.

Our curiculum (which I LOVE this year) came with a castle cut out inside the boxes the books came in so the kids have soemthing to do while the parents read through the material. How cool is that? Julia decided to paint her castle pink and purple, of course.

Stephen stole from the "Where's Pandy" idea with his own flare, "Where's Buford the Buffalo and Marvin the Moose" on his 9 day backpacking adventure in August to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National park. He is putting a book together for the kids with his "Where's Buford and Marvin" pictures in it.

This is just like Eli. No shirt, swim shorts, Julia's princess helmet, and play-dough. Randomness is his specialty.

I just love this picture Julia drew of her with a kitty.

Eli Presley

6 years of swimming together at Jacob and David's swimming pool. Each year this becomes a louder affair.

I think Julia looks MUCH like my cousin Katie. Julia's facial expressions remind me so much of Katie when she was little, but I think I am alone in saying it. Katie is the girl at the bottom of this collage, Julia is in the middle and I am at the top. You can click on the picture for a larger view.

I love ANY picture of Stephen with the kids. They are so blessed to have him for a daddy!

This is Eli's favorite activity in the world.

Julia and Evan jump in the deep end of our neighborhood pool with their neighbor friend, Chad.

Southern grandmas are for teachin' youngins how to make chickin' 'n dumplins'.

Cutting out the dumplin's.

We can know immediately that this is Harrison's arm. Those silly bandz never come off.

The Tellus Museum where we are members has this great fossel dig. The kids get to take one fossel of their choice home with them and return the rest.

This is the Tellus Museum too. They are panning for beautiful, multicolored gem fragments. They get to take any gem they find home with them.

This is Eli's. He does not share willingly and drives it constantly. There's actually no need to walk anymore.

He's got his own agenda.

UNCLE JAMES COMES FOR ANOTHER VISIT!!!

Cuddle time with Uncle James.

Stephen and Eli are carnies now.

Uncle James/Jungle Gym.

Southern grandmas are also for teachin' the youngins how to make hamburger steaks.

He just fell asleep right in the middle of the living room for no known reason.

My tried and true homeschool schedule, though sometimes they ask to do Math first.

Now he just randomly falls asleep at dinner time. I wish he would take a more formal nap.

They all sleep together in the boys room now. Between the triple bunk beds and the pull out couch that the kids call the "magical bed" because they are mystified by the fact that it transforms, there is plenty of sleeping room for all.

I looked all over for him this morning before I finally found him asleep under the pull out bed. Maybe he was there all night?

Grandma Tynes is living up retirement to-the-max.

Our beautiful ballerina in her classroom before class.

This day he fell asleep on the table while I changed his diaper. . . NAP BOY! Nap!

I don't know how the pool picture got in between the dance pictures, but I am not motivated to change it. Here she is in her tap shoes in her dance classroom. A special thanks to Grandma Ringsmuth for the rediculously expensive pink and purple tutu that I would not buy.

Eli LOVES the pool and is a bit too fearless about it.

Tynes Family Addition and Other Personal Diatribes

2010-06-01T21:02:00.058-04:00

No, I’m not having another baby (so, Stephen, you can pick yourself up off the floor), but my mother-in-law is officially in the process of passing the torch as church secretary in Columbia, Mississippi and is on her way to begin the adventure of living with the Tynes clan. This has been years in the making, but will hopefully, actually happen in the next month or so. Of course, she is much beloved by our family; an icon to my children. She also was a second grade school teacher for 30-some years, which should be invaluable to our operation around here. The kids pray every day that her moving truck does not crash on the way, so I think they are pretty excited.

I want to explain a bit about how my blog works. I update my blog and then don’t think about it again for a couple of months. I do write down little bits of information like cute things the children said or their first events as they come up so I can remember to include them in my next update. Then I start to feel like I need to get around to writing another update. I swirl ideas around in my head for what I want to write about. Most of them seem like interesting topics to me, but nothing concrete. Suddenly I will get “THE” idea. Until I get one, I can’t work up the motivation to do a single thing with the blog. Here are some ideas I had for this blog update
-My journey with the vaccination debate.
-My struggle against life’s distractions.
-Nothing. Just stick to the facts.
-The Bible journal I am writing for my children.

But, in the end it was none of these. This time I am going to write about my struggle with our culture’s obsession with getting our children involved in every imaginable activity. The reason I want to write about this is because if my children ever grow up feeling like I missed the boat with encouraging them in the activities they weren’t involved in, they will need to know what our rational was for the limited activities we do allow them to participate in. I often get the feeling that if our children aren’t doing t-ball, soccer, piano lessons, ballet, boy scouts, swimming lessons, foreign languages classes, homeschool coop activities, every known Vacation Bible School within a 10 mile radius, and day camps throughout the summer, then I am short changing them somehow.

This has been such a major struggle to me partially because we haven’t gotten our children involved in many activities outside of our church. They do AWANA’s at our church on Wednesday night. Evan and Harrison played t-ball for one season last year and Julia took French lessons for a few months. Just those two activities (plus AWANA) were a stress to our schedule, let alone adding any of the other activities to it.

I hear about the activities those around me get their kids into and immediately I feel one of two things depending on my mood. First-and-foremost I feel like a failure. I feel like an inadequate mother because I am not exposing my children to every possible skill or experience they can build their lives on. The second way I can feel is frustrated, not with myself, but with a culture of parents who believe they are doing their children a favor by leaving their learning completely in the hands of others and/or who want their kids out of their hair all of the time. I really don’t want to write much about the motivations of parents who fill their children’s schedules to the max for a couple of reasons. First, most people would get defensive and discredit everything else I have to say. Second, the point of this diatribe is not to make an argument for why some parents are bad, or why society is messed up, or to make anyone feel guilty. As parents, most of us are trying to do our best. I just want to explain my motivation for the decisions I am making. Maybe I will even end up encourage other parents like me. I know for me, reflecting on and coming to terms with my own beliefs on this topic has been a great relief, to-be-sure.

This fall we are planning to put Evan into Boy Scouts, and we are looking to put Julia into ballet. Stephen is an outdoorsy kind of person and Evan loves camping and spending time with Daddy, So we thought Boy Scouts would be a good fit for our family. Julia loves to go to the ballet. We have gone with other girls her age and watched them spin in their seats, but her eyes are fixated on the dancers. She spends weeks, in the living room, trying out the moves she saw at the ballet and puts on private dance recitals for us. She reminds me nearly every day that she wants to take ballet classes.

I remember when I was a child I really wanted to take tap dancing and ballet. I would practice my made up moves at home and wish and hope with my whole heart that my parents would enroll me dance classes. I never was, and for a long time I regretted that about my childhood. It wasn’t an overwhelming, self-pitying sort of regret. It was more like a “what if” sort of regret, but I still wasted some level of energy blaming my parents for that.

Here’s the deal that I keep coming back to with this topic, and the main point of my bog update, really. I was raised in a family that valued music, travel, politics, and church activities. I toyed with running track for a bit and did a few other fleeting activities, but I spent the bulk of my childhood playing instruments (viola and piano), singing, and traveling the world. I was in Missionettes (an Assembly of God’s version of Girl Scouts) church musicals and youth groups. Jeremy and I were involved in all sorts of political events where we have had close interactions with several very recognizable political figures, as well as getting involved in the campaigns of my father and other family members. The activities I was involved in were complimentary to what my family valued and what we could do together.

Honestly, I have the grace of one-flippered walrus, so dance classes were just a pipe dream for me, but also they were completely out of the realm of my family’s experience. God put me in that family, and that family valued what they did, and from that extended some PRETTY amazing life experiences. They may not have been what, in my immaturity, seemed like the perfect fit for me, but they were exactly what God meant for me. He could have given me a world-class ballerina mother or given my brother a concert pianist father so he could be an overly accomplished musician in his own right (though I happen to think he is), but He didn’t, and He knows best.

I partially struggle with idea of putting Julia into ballet, and not to sell her short, but I don’t think it will last. Stephen and I are not ballerinas (though it amuses me to picture that).Nor do we have any experience in the art world. If Julia does persist in a passion for ballet, we will encourage her. Her passion for it already has prompted us to at least let her try. However, I think in the end it will be more our outdoorsy, church activity oriented, traveling, family experience, technology minded, hospitality loving, critically thinking family values that will persist with her into adulthood because that is who we are; who God made us to be. Boy scouts fall right in line with that, and when I am making decisions for how to get them involved in activities in the future, I will be evaluating it under the paradigm of “How does this activity enhance our family experience”, the family God made us.

Now, as an adult, I am not the least bit interested in politics. I only recently and very reluctantly joined the choir at my church. I no longer play musical instruments nor do I attend the same denomination of church my parents attended when I was a child. However, every one of those experiences from my childhood formed me into the unique individual that I am today, and honestly, I think that only goes to demonstrate my point more clearly. It was not the activities that made me who I am, it was the role my family played in every aspect of my life that made the biggest impact.

I do want to add that if one of the kids find getting involved in a completely unique activity is important enough to make a solid case for it, by all means, I plan to let them try. However, I won’t be enrolling them in anything without our family’s role in mind. God doesn’t work exactly the same way in every situation. If we are to step outside of our realm of experience, I will trust God to reveal that to us and make it work for our family. However, short of a clear word from God on the topic, I am going to avoid overly scheduling my children in every imaginable activity and instead work to form a solid family foundation for future success wherever God takes them.

Now to stop over scheduling myself. . .

Evan:
-is totally in love with P90X work out videos and will happily do an entire 1 ½ hour video without a break.
-was selected as AWANA clubber of the year this year. When asked how he felt about it he said, “Oh, I knew I would be”. Nice.
-has become passionate about working for and save up money.
-finished his kindergarten year (with first grade material) last week.
-was selected for AWANA Olympics again this year. We were able to watch the event with cousins Quin, Aaron, and Lauren, Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Natalie, Grandma and Grandpa Ringsmuth, which meant the world to him.
-has begun reading and enjoying the Magic Tree house series of chapter books.
-is a world class tattle-tale, but, OH, are we working on that.
-prayed faithfully with Julia and Harrison for over a year for his Sunday school teacher, Mrs. Sheila, to get a kidney transplant she desperately needed. A couple of months ago a woman at our church was found to be a match and about a month ago the transplant was successfully performed. It was awesome to walk through that with the kids. There is a picture below of the kids with Mrs. Sheila when we brought her a meal during her recovery.
-is either playing the X-box or thinking about playing the X-box.

Julia:
-told Evan and Harrison one day while watching the cement truck repair our front sidewalk: "Evan, Jessica Warthan likes everything in the world except black and gray so we have to tell her to like gray because cement is gray and that's in the world"!! Now THAT is some sweet logic.

-is growing out her bangs now that her hair is finally not growing forward over her face.
-told me one night, "Mommy, Daddy used my mermaid towel to dry Eli off after his bath last night and I was NOT a fan of that! . . . . . What does 'fan' mean, Mommy"?
-Turned 5 years old in April and had the princess/hello kitty/tea party/ballerina hybrid, sleepover, birthday party of the year. She has been working on the schedule of events for the party since her last one.
-finished her second and final year of AWANA Cubbies and is onto Sparkies with Evan in the fall. . . Kindergarten. . . whoa.

Harrison:
-don't make the mistake of calling green his favorite color when it is, in fact, his "favorite, favorite color".
-finished his first year of AWANA Cubbies.
-LOVES to rub his head on Eli’s. At first I thought it was a jealously thing or an aggressive thing, especially since he many times pins Eli to the ground to do it. However, I now know that it is a loving thing. He grinds his teeth and loves on that baby while rubbing heads even though Eli head butts him to get away. I have to break them apart numerous times a day. You can see him doing in pictures below.
-has become a very huggy and kissy boy.
-is still crying hysterically at the drop of a hat.
-is becoming quite the artist of coloring pages.
-turns 4 years old tomorrow. I just really, really, really cannot believe that.
-plays only with his cars from the movie Cars (Cars cars).

Elijah:
-supposedly turned 2 years old 2 weeks ago, which is actually impossible, and I still don’t believe it.
-loves to play with balls, something which often times has me saying things that inspire some pretty strange looks from those around me. For example, "Eli, quit playing with your brother's balls", or "Grab your balls before we go", and so forth. I hear it as it's coming out of my mouth, can't stop it, and it makes me feel like a 7th grade boy.
-calls his belly button a tummy button. Now we all say tummy button, and I hope it never stops.
-is obsessed with our white Nissan Altima, probably because he almost never gets to ride in it. Whenever Stephen and I leave the house without the kids he says, “You go buy buy white car”? When we get back, even if it’s the next morning after he wakes up he says, “Have fun white car”? He talks about that white car throughout the day and cries when we put him into the truck when the Nissan is parked next to it.
-is always telling Stephen, "I wuv oo, Daddy".
-is a rowdy, talkative, and tough, but sweet natured boy. Suddenly, and for no apparent reason, he has become my easiest child. He is really very happy and independent. Odd stuff considering he was such a grumpy baby.
-absolutely, for sure, without a doubt, does not like to rub heads with his affectionate older brother, Harrison.
-is going through a naked phase. He is always stripping down to nothing. I make him keep his diaper on, but several times a day I find myself looking around for it and putting it back on.
-converted his crib into a toddler bed last week after I came downstairs one morning last week to find him down there waiting for me. (All of our bedrooms are upstairs.)
-eats ants. This should not come as a surprise.
-has, what we call, the “Eli Stink Eye”. It’s scary and pictured below. Beware.

Harrison looks like a mad, coloring genius when he is at work on a masterpiece.

We just finished reading this favorite childhood chapter book of mine. It was fun to read it with the kids and an awesome, must-read book for all families. Two of my favorite memories: Reading this book with my Mother and brother and now sharing it with my children. I can't wait to read it again for Harrison and Elijah some day.

These pictures were missing at the end of my last blog update, so I am squeezing them in here. We had a blast building this rediculously filthy snowman. When he melted the next day there was an large pile of leaves left where he stood.

Julia and Evan went sledding in our yard with our neighbor boy, Chad.

Child pile in the slide at Chic-Fil-A.

They love this new-fangled marry-go-round at the duck park.

I loved being surprised by this photo when I was going back through the pictures. I guess Evan thought it was adorable that Eli was sleeping in the cart at Publix.

Julia and I went to a mother-daughter banquet at church.

They had this whole, huge playground to themselves, and all 4 of them are scream-fighting over this one piece of equipment. I took a few moments to find this hilarious before I had to intervene.

HULK SMASH!!!

Sleeping the cart is not at all unusual with us, but rarely do we get two kids sleeping in the cart as Julia and Harrison are doing here.

They all insist on sleeping together in Julia's bed many nights. I usually end up putting them in different beds after they fall asleep so they don't kick each other.

Julia has trouble remembering which way the "J" in her name curls, so I taught her to make a heart out of the side she curls the wrong way. Now I think she might be doing it wrong on purpose so she can make the heart.

This cracks me up. Feet should not bend like that.

Eli has to try it, of course.

Harrison and Eli share this moment together to watch the cement truck pour our sidwalk.

This is just. . .typical.

" Julia, look! I'm in jail!" "Harrison, I'm in jail too!"

The best game of bowling EVER with cousins Quin and Aaron and the rest of the fam.

Eli was obsessed with kissing and caring for his baby cousin, Lauren. Take note of Harrison leaning while Eli is distracted for some head rub action.

He patiently fed her peas for 20 minutes.

MONKEY JOES WITH COUSINS MAKES GEORGIA EXTRA COOL!!! Eesh. . . They are all sweaty at this jumpy land paradise.

So much is going on in this picture. It's worth clicking on it to get a better view. It's a classic family shot. We are celebrating my mom's birthday while Jeremy and Natalie are in town.

Evan is competing at AWANA Olympics.

Evan is bummed because he just tripped and dominoed that whole line of boys in the previous picture. Grandpa went over to the sidelines to comfort him.

Grandpa. . .53 going on 3.

Classic. This is as good as it gets.

50 feet of benches at this park and they all wedge onto this one. Evan is wearing his Bibleman cape.

They all help Grandpa pick up pine cones in his back yard for pocket change.

Harrison created these guys out of shape blocks. They impressed me.

This coloring page impressed me almost as much as the amount of food on his face.

Julia and Caroline from Kenya, one of my mom and dad's favorite international student.

I didn't know I ended up getting this shot until after I had cared for his hurt. . . whatever.

Evan loves this photo, so I wanted him to be able to remember it.

Frisbee with Grandpa.

This was one of the greatest moments of their lives so far. . . The day mommy finally let them crawl up into the attic and look around.

Wishing for a new Cars car.

Beautiful!

Precious! One of my favorite pictures ever.

We walked right out onto the runway to watch planes take off at the airport in Kennesaw. The plane taking off in the photo is a biplane.

One of two frogs that turned up on our deck this summer. This guy had no idea he was going to bring 4 little kids hours of fun that day.

Just before she turned 5 she mastered the monkey bars. A proud moment for her.

Harrison is just dangling and dropping. No crossing happening yet.

Julia took this goofy photo of me giving Harrison and underdog.

Ice cream on Marietta Square.

Harrison's famous head rub.

Angela is such a faithful reader of my blog, I wanted to be sure to include this picture of her boys, Clayton and Connor, enjoying lunch on our deck with my kids.

A friend's 6 year old son was diagnosed with Lukemia a couple of months ago. I was watching her children for her while they were home from the hospital so she could run some errands. Our babies made this, most adorable photo ever.

Ballerina Julia

Eli's first hair cut, which hurt me.

Julia decorates her own cupcakes for her 5th birthday party.

The girls at her party paint and decorate their own heart shaped jewelry boxes.

They danced to elevator music for an hour.

Julia's birthday, princess, tea party.

BFF, I hope.

Birthday party story time about ballerinas, of course.

The birthday princesses go to Waffle House for breakfast.

Evan's first ingrown toenail. Eli had to get in on the action.

This is a very typical scene in our home. Several of Harrison's (I mean Spiderman's) Cars cars all lined up watching others race around this track.

This trip to a strawberry farm did not go well. Julia had just thrown up, Harrison had just stomped through a fire ant hill, and Eli wanted to do his own thing. All but Evan are crying here.

It almost looks like they are participating, but only Evan is.

Elijah loved to pick the white strawberries for some reason he could not be talked out of.

Harrison is pretending he is about to pick a berry for the sake of my photo, but he is still certain that if he does, a fire ant will get him.

Eli made good friends with the only mud puddle at the farm.

They did all enjoy the picnic that we had overlooking the strawberry patch where we picked all of our berries. We had lunchables, which is like kid gold, and strawberry shortcake.

I have so many photos of my kids combing these smelly goats at the Atlanta Zoo over the years.

Stephen and I celebrated our 12 year anniversary with the canopy zipline tour of Snake River Gorge. It was totally awesome!

Zipping along at speeds up to 50 mph through the tree tops. This was us at the top of one of the top 5 tallest ziplines in the world. It was 300 feet, 1/2 mile long, and went up to 60 mph. What a way to celebrate 12 years!!

A view down one of the zip lines we road.

Typical Eli attire. A diaper and one of the other kids' shoes.

How does a mom of 4 stay thin? P90Xing it as a fam.

Quin and Aaron mailed us these great pictures!!

We gave Aunt Jessie the chicken (Maxie) that is taking a ride on our Roomba, but somehow she keeps "forgetting" it here.

YEAH!! Mrs. Sheila gets a healthy kidney! My kids have been praying for her for over a year. We took this picture when we brought her a meal during her recovery.

Harrison proudly shows off his first year of Cubbies completion certificate.

Julia could not be more proud of her Cubbies completion certificate. Onto AWANA Sparks next year with Evan.

Evan is AWANA clubber of the year this year. We were soooo proud of him. AWANA is intensly important to him.

Elijah helps me decorating his ball themed 2nd birthday cake.

Eli had a large second birthday party with lots of friends who did not make it into the picture.

Mrs. Cassie took the birthday candle he was eating, and he gave her his famous "Eli Stink Eye" which she snapped a photo of.

The kids helped me make play dough for the kids at Eli's birthday party.

Now that Eli is in a toddler bed, I usually see this scene in the livingroom about 20 seconds after I tuck him in. I have put a childproof door knob cover on his bedroom door to keep him in.

We had to give Harrison his birthday presents yesterday before Stephen left town for work. Tomorrow Evan, Harrison and I will go to play minigolf and go-carts with a couple of his friends for his birthday.

The boys would do nothing but play X-box together if I let them. I am sure someday they will appriciate this photo of them enjoying this activity together as little boys.

Stephen took Harrison to an Atlanta Braves game on Sunday for his birthday. Such an awesome daddy and son!!!

Hmm.

2010-02-20T22:05:00.036-05:00

So, I write this entry with the thought in mind that I am an individual, and though I am under no impression that most people function in life like I do, I also know that there is nothing new under the sun. There are definitely people out there in a similar boat to my own. Even if no one who reads this blog for the next 20 years can relate, I can be reasonably sure that my own children will grow up to have similar strengths and weaknesses to my own, and it is ultimately for my children that I write this blog at all.

Until about 1998 or so, I was a fun person. I liked to joke around and try crazy things just to be amused. I have been all over the world and have so many stories from a life filled to the max that I spent significant time spontaneously laughing at the memory of something funny that happened or gasping at something unfortunate. My life has all along the way continued to be full of things. I still love to pack life with as much as I possibly can since I have just this one go-round with it.

However, 1998 was the year I really became an adult and most of the fun was sucked out of it for me and anyone else who had to be around me. In May that year I got married at the ripe old age of 19, and I began taking myself and my situations entirely too seriously. I lacked faith in God to work in the midst of things and shouldered too much responsibility for trying to form the outcomes of everyone and every situation in my life just the way I thought it should be. I tried to stay away from anything remotely risky because my family and ministries needed me. I was overwhelmed with guilt and all kinds of pressures I put on myself in the name of being a good wife, mother, friend, church member and so on.

This past year has been an amazing one for me on many levels. Turning 30 in 2008 was eye opening for me. Life is going by so quickly. I spent some time trying to figure out who I am now. I am not young and free, I am not old and wise. I am not going to have more children, my children are growing up fast and will leave me more quickly than I will like, and then who will I be?

For whatever reason it occurred to me about a year ago that I was just me, and that’s just fine. I don’t have to be young and free or old and wise. I don’t have to have more children or get a job or keep a perfect house or cook the perfect meal or dessert as a means to define myself. When everything around me goes away, I am still just me, the person God created me to be. Now I have set about letting go of all of the pretenses I was trying to keep up to make sure I looked like the person I wanted to be, and I have started getting comfortable in my own skin.

So, the person who I am is a fun one. I like adventure and risk taking, cutting up, and creating memories. I like having whatever color hair I want and wearing what I want to and not having to worry about whether or not I have the personality to “pull it off”. I am not being rebellious or egocentric about it. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Instead of obsessing about the image I thought others expected of me or that I felt I needed to portray in order to gain the respect of others, I just let go and decide with ease based on who I am. I still take my husband and children’s thoughts into account, but they are enjoying this change in me as much as I am.

Before this last year, I was a grumpy mess most of the time. My nerves were shot. I was negative, overly critical, impatient and always, always looking for a way to get in some “me time” to get away from all of the responsibilities I shouldered. My life was such a burden to me that I was obsessed with taking breaks to go out on dates with Stephen or planning vacations we could never take or getting away with my friends or whatever. Then when I would get small breaks away from my work, I couldn’t enjoy them because there were things I should be getting done. I also knew that hard work was waiting for me just around the corner, and it would be too long before I would get a moment away again. Many times I would come back more grouchy than when I left. At least before I left I had something to look forward to!

A good day for me came when I realized all of those bad attitudes I was carrying around with me were choices I was making. I was deciding to have bad attitudes. I felt entitled to them because my life is so much work and responsibility. I liked to dwell on the reasons I was entitled to be grumpy and work myself up into a faithless, ungrateful, discontent, critical, rebellious, worrisome, and impatient frenzy. When I began to choose instead to let those negative attitudes go and replace them with faith, contentment, gratitude, love and compassion for others, submission to the Lord and authorities in my life, and patience to wait on God to work in all areas of my life and the people and circumstances around me, I began to do something I haven’t done for more than a few seconds at a time since 1998. I began to enjoy life right where I was. I didn’t need to escape from it with temporary, all-together, completely, unsatisfying breaks from it all. I could take my life as it is, the way God created me and in the situations He was putting me in and have some dadgum fun with it all.

Many things about my life are downright hilarious, and where it is not hilarious, I like to figure out a way to quickly turn it that way. One day in early January after a rare snow fall in Georgia, I was sitting in the parking lot at church with all 4 kids strapped into their seats waiting on Stephen to get done with a meeting that should have already ended. A year ago I would have fumed and worked myself up into a frenzy that would have resulted in Stephen getting into the car with a hostile wife who couldn’t believe he could be so insensitive as to leave his family in the car for so long (like 10 extra minutes) for his (admittedly very important) meeting. Then we would have had a tense day until it blew over or I apologized and felt like crap about myself. I ALMOST went there, and then caught myself. “No”, I said. What actually do I do in a situation like this to avoid such a scenario from happening? I had to try to remember, but it came to me! I can’t just bite my tongue, internalize my bad attitude and hope it goes away because it won’t. However, I can find an icy patch in a secluded parking lot behind the church, and whip donuts in my Eco-slasher 2000 (with the kids laughing hysterically in the back) like I haven’t done in at least 10 years. We had the best time and made the best memory and when the text came in from Stephen that he was done and wondering where we were, a truck full of laughing, nutty people came sliding up. I didn’t have to escape the kids or my life, I just had to find some joy in it right where I was, and boy did I.

I have done some other things like highlighting my hair pink just because I have always wanted to. I bought some new, pink, bejeweled glasses I would have previously thought too funky for me that I now think suit me perfectly. Stephen bought us main stage tickets to a major music festival this summer in Kentucky where I will finally achieve a lifelong goal of seeing Bon Jovi (among many others) in concert, and I am already enjoying myself just thinking about it. I am not dreading my return home or overwhelmed with guilt for leaving the kids or the things that won’t get done while I’m gone. I am looking forward to always having that memory and getting a chance to miss the kids a bit so I don’t accidentally take them for granted among a million other things to look forward to about it. The pink in my hair for that event will be noteworthy, I assure you, and I am going to love it. When I am making a meal for a friend who has had a baby, instead of letting the pressure of adding a big production to my already hectic day make me irritable and touchy, I focus on how much I actually love bringing meals to people and add some silly, loud music to the equation to make it fun for everyone.

I do have to say, that my amazing hubby is very supportive of the new (though even of the old) me. He actually likes the glasses and the hair and how excited I am about Bon Jovi among other things. My children are less on edge with me and and learning how to find God’s faithful and loving hand in all things rather than being burdened by faithless stress. I feel like people in general are more open to me. I am grateful I go to a church where I can be who God created me to be, and I am not expected to fit any kind of a mold in order to be allowed to work and minister there.

Without a damp, dark cloud hanging over me, I am able to just love and appreciate the Lord and His faithfulness in my life with such clarity, joy and peace! You can almost get caught in a rut of thinking that God isn’t happy unless we are miserable, but the truth of the matter is that living a life of ingratitude, misery, discontentment, and/or being critical of others without any compassion for them is downright sinful. Trying to control the outcome of everything and everyone around us is faithless. It is honoring to God to be content in ALL things, peaceful, patient, kind, compassionate, loving, hopeful, joyful and faithfully resting in the promises in God’s word that say He is always with us and works all things together for the good for those who love Him. I now divide my attitudes into two categories when I evaluate how I am feeling. Do I have a wilderness attitude which is one that has me obsessed with the negatives in life, or do I have a Promise Land attitude that keeps my eyes faithfully on Him, resting in His perfect will regardless of what that looks like, and along the way maybe even enjoying the life He gave me.

I have to give a special thanks to James McDonald and his book “Lord, Change my Attitude: Before It’s Too Late”, for helping me make more sense of what God was already doing in my life.

General Box:
-I needed this general box today to dump a few things in that covered all of the kids.
-The kids have really gotten into screaming the golden rule at each other in order to make the other children do what they want them to do. For example, “Give me that toy! Don’t you know you are supposed to do unto others as you would have them do unto you”!!
-This is for the general box in order to protect the reputation of the offending child, but the other day, one of them came up to me out of the blue and said, “Um, mom? I thought I had to toot, and poop just poured out of my butt and down my legs”. Even after two days I was still laughing so hard my eyes were bulging and my internal organs ached (rather than chewing the child out for the additional work they added to my day). I know it’s gross, but I had to remember it. I just had to.
-During “Tsnownami”. . . I mean “Snowpocalyps”. . . I mean “Snowmageddon”, I mean” 3 Tame Inches of Snow 2010”, we got to build a snowman and go sledding and had so much fun with it (rather than getting grumpy about having to see snow in the south). Unfortunately, I don’t know where the pictures are at the moment. I will have to add them to the next blog update.
-They all love and are obsessed with cemeteries. They want to visit every one we pass and love to contemplate the lives of the people buried there. They do not seem to fear death at all and have complete faith that they have a pretty sweet gig waiting for them after this life.

Evan:
-is such a standup guy. Every Sunday after church he shares the candy or trinkets he wins during children church with his siblings.
-was totally excited to be selected for AWANA Olympics again this year.
-has a love/hate relationship with school. He loves to have the knowledge, he just doesn’t want to sit and learn it. Fortunately, he picks things up easily so we can keep school short.
-isn’t afraid to let you know that he can do anything better than you.
-has extreme compassion for the disadvantaged and loves being given outlets to help them, even if it means hard work.
-thinks that Stephen helped God hang the sun, moon and stars.
-was given a backpack for Christmas so he can go backpacking with Stephen as soon as the weather warms up a bit.
-is given one hour of media time a day, and he fills every second with computer games rather than any TV.
-no longer has a shy bone in his body.
-knows all of the books of the entire bible in order.

Julia:
-if asked if she is a princess, will give a very certain, “Yes”.
-LOVES the ballet and tea parties more than anything.
-has decided she really wants to learn Spanish instead of French, so she is not attending her French lessons anymore while I look for a Spanish teacher. She just loves and has an aptitude for foreign language. Evan does too, but he doesn’t show any interest in taking classes. He picks up on what Julia comes home with.
-LOVES her AWANA Cubbies program at church, but cannot wait for kindergarten to start in the fall and for her to move up to AWANA Sparkies where Evan is.
-is still very, very shy, but she has come a ways since her crying and burying her head into my legs days. She just silently observes the children and adults around her when she is not totally familiar with them.
-spends a great deal of energy dreaming up an enchanted 5th birthday party/sleepover with every friend imaginable in attendance.
-asks me all of the time how she can have curly hair like mine.
-Makes up random things in order to manipulate each situation. When asked what kind of happy meal she wanted she said, "I want the cheeseburger instead of the chicken nuggets because chicken nuggets make my cheeks turn red". . . Certainly a news flash to me.
-When asked if she was hungry said, "No, I'm WAY passed hungry. I'm STARVING!"

-knows all of the books of the entire bible in order.

Harrison:
-spends a great deal of energy dreaming up what he wants for his 4th birthday in June.
-is OBSESSED with coloring. It’s unreal. He would color without ceasing if we didn’t cut him off.
-knows all of the words to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song by heart.
-likes to sing the songs he knows by adding the same letter sound to the beginning of each work. For example “Teenage Tutant Tinja Turtles. Teroes tin ta talf tell. Turtle Tower! Tere ta torlds tost tearsome tighting teens”. . . (Teenage mutant ninja turtles. Heroes in a half shell. Turtle Power! They’re the world’s most fearsome fighting teens”.
-is less substantially less shy than Julia and Evan were at his age, but will still take a few minutes to warm up to most people.
-reminds me several times a day that green is his favorite color.
-doesn’t seem to love AWANA as much as the other two do. He could take it or leave it.
-"Mom, I haven't had a bath for two million years, right, Mom? (He begins and ends many sentences with "mom").
-is going through a very emotional faze. Even looking at him wrong will cause him to dissolve into a pile of tears. If he gets in trouble, we have to give him significant amount of time to calm down so we can talk with him about it.
-knows all of the book of the entire bible in order.

Elijah:
-is 21 months old already.
-drank a boatload of rubbing alcohol one day. Poison control said to make sure he didn’t get drunk. I’m not sure how you would tell if my toddler were drunk, to-be-honest.
-will lick or eat nearly everything but the food we put on his plate. I found him last week sitting in the sink in my bathroom sucking on the drain plug in one hand and licking my deodorant in the other.
-still has a passion for dryer sheets.
-has a mad passion for black coffee just like his mother. He will even eat coffee grinds if I leave them where he can get them.
-has gotten into the habit of absent mindedly twisting my earrings whenever I carry him around.
-spends ever decreasing amounts of time crying, but is still just as loud. He has no inside voice at all.
-always has us either laughing or scratching our heads. Mr. Personality.
-is talking about as much as the others were by this age. He talks in full, very loud sentences now. He is like Julia in that he would rather say a lot very unclearly than he is like Evan and Harrison who were more interested in saying things again and again until it sounded right.
-calls Evan “Bubby”, Julia “Ju-ia”, and Harrison “Haysey”.
-most of what he says is very bossy and demanding. For example, he will stand on the bed pointing down at it and demand, “I want Bubby bed”, which means “I want to play with Evan on the bed”.
-before every meal we ask who wants to pray and Eli is always the first to yell, “ME”! Then we say, “Ok, Eli. You want to pray”? We always get an immediate, “No”. It’s the same nearly every meal.
-Stephen and the kids like to bump fists and say, “Boo-yeah”. Eli has really picked this up. I tried it one day with him and after I extended my fist to get a boo-yeah. He looked at me like was crazy, said, “No”, and rolled his eyes at me. I am so uncool, I guess.
-is my first child to like the church nursery. I’m loving that.
-As soon as I pick him up, he starts grunting like a little pig and absent mindedly spinning my earings.
-figured out how to open doors at 19 months old.
-loves to play with any kind of ball. He has bizzarely amazing kicking skills. Evan loved animals as a toddler, Harrison loves cars, and Eli is majorly into throwing, kicking, or just wandering around with a ball.

Jeremy and Natalie serenade our 2009 video slideshow collage.

Evan worked extremely hard to make the $50 necessary to put this Operation Christmas Child box together for a needy boy his age in a 3rd world country.

We spent a morning at this confederate cemetery near our home reading headstones and contemplating the lives of the people buried there. They are in love with cemeteries and want to stop at them constantly.

Harrison LOVES to color and does a great job for a 3 year old.

Eli ate a green marker. . .

Evan decided he could run home faster than we were driving. We let him try.

We were catching up!!

Finally, we humbled him.

. . .and a black marker. . .

We love free Tuesdays at the Children's Museum downtown.

The Children's Museum had a winter train set out for the kids to control. It was a hit, to say the least.

This fishing exhibit at the Children's Museum is another place to spend long periods of time.

As is this great moon sand box.

Julia loves to paint on this wall at the Children's Museum.

Our annual gingerbread house. I took a chill pill this year and let them decorate it themselves rather than dictate how it should look. It was not pretty, but they loved it and we had a great time.

. . . and a whole jar of Nutella. . .

An apple cider vinegar volcano for science is always pungent.

I adore this picture, but they will hate me someday.

Our annual, over-the-top, snowman cookie to bring to AWANA. It's actually easier for us to make 3 monster sized cookies than to make a million small ones to decorate.

Julia gets the curly hair she is always asking for to wear to a Christmas banquet we went to. It took so long she has decided to just wait to get naturally curly hair like mine when she is a grown up.

The annual Christmas tree farm trip. We didn't cut down our tree this year because their selection was rough. We bought a beautiful one off their lot.

All of the decorations are on this one spot on the tree. They CANNOT manage to spread them out, and I don't have the heart to move them. Soon enough they will do a better job at decorating than me, so I will enjoy this bare tree with one hopped up spot while I still can.

We took a visit to a nursing home to bring Christmas cards the kids made for the residents and a few desserts. I wish I would have gotten some better pictures of the event.

She is having a book party with her Christmas mouse.

Aunt Jessie comes for a riveting game of go fish.

The kids colored several of these photo-turned coloring sheets for different members of the family for Christmas. These we framed for Grandma and Grandpa Ringsmuth.

Proud Grandma with tired kids on Christmas Eve.

We have an annual Christmas song sing-along at the Ringsmuth grandparents' house on Christmas eve.

Evan proudly showing off his new backpack for upcoming backpacking trips with Daddy. This was his big Christmas gift from us.

Harrison showing off this robot costume he got from Evan for Christmas.

We got a Tinkerbell for Christmas!

Stephen built this beautiful train table for the kids for Christmas.

The kids pretending they are going to eat my annual Jolly Breakfast Ring that I have been making or helping my mom make since I was a tiny child. They all hate it.

You should see the look on my face every time I see this picture of Eli with my dad.

We left for Mississippi Christmas night and got there around 2:00am. The kids were still ready to open their gifts from Grandma Tynes right away. Mom and Dad were not.

Here Eli is demonstrating his love for black coffee. I usually try to let him have my last couple of sips.

Visiting Aunt Ann and Uncle Joe's cows in Mississippi.

Loving on Aunt Ann.

It is rough to be so adored by all.

Too cute for his own good. . .for anyone's own good, really.

Stephen found Eli sleeping like this in the kitchen in the middle of the morning.

Julia and I worked on coloring this picture of us. I helped with the pink streaks in my hair. These pictures are so cool.

Eli's first hair cut. It wasn't a very good one, but I'm not ready to buzz it yet.

Each morning I sit on the warm vent while I read my bible and pray with this view across from me. . .

. . .and the rest of the kids all join in as they wake up.

Harrison hates wet hair so much he endures getting his hair dried after each bath.

Julia used these shape blocks to build our family in our house next to a very large flower.

This is the potent cup of Cuban esspresso I ordered at a Cuban restaurant a few weeks ago. . .

. . . This is Eli licking the cup clean to get every last drop.

Aunt Jessie went bowling with us one morning for probably the best time bowling I have ever had. They were so excited.

Aunt Jessie makes for the best cheerleader!

Harrison would get very antsy waiting for that ball to roll down the lane at 2.2mph.

My head started throbbing when I walked in on this scene. They are very creative at figuring out ways to incorporate the girly stuff with the manly stuff.

These are real potatoes that they decorated for Mr. Potato Head night at AWANA. They are two aliens and, of course, a potato princess.

Who doesn't watch TV like this?

We did a Sabbath dinner one night as part of Evan's homeschool curriculum. We had braided bread, sparkling juice, candles and other traditions like Stephen praying a blessing over everyone in the family. It was super neato.

We have lots of fun with this vent.

My hair looks more pink in the original. It lost something when it got uploaded.

Awww.

Man, this fort was a PROJECT! So much planning and strategizing. It lasted MAYBE 15 minutes before it came down in a blaze of glory.

After we started restricting his pacifier to just his bed, he got desperate and started toating this doll around to use hers.

We invited several of Julia's friends to the Cinderella Ballet with the Atlanta Ballet last week.

Julia and her friend Lara went to the Cinderella ballet dressed as Cinderella.

After the ballet we went to a tea shop to have a Princess tea party. . .

And a few of us grown-ups accidentally ended up have a pretty good time ourselves.

"Ahem, let's toast to high societies to which we clearly belong".

More Stuff

2009-11-12T20:26:00.047-05:00

Sometimes I get caught in a rut of thinking my kids have a boring life, and maybe I am depriving them of something. However, every time I sit down to do another blog posting, I am always amazed at what fun we have had over the past 2 or 3 months since my last update. The daily grind is a lot of work and can be stressful and/or boring. It is always good for me to sit and survey our videos and photos to remind me of the tremendous blessings in our lives and all of the opportunities that are afforded to us.

A few Tynes family notables:
-The children can eat a whole Papa John’s large sized pizza by themselves.
-We go through at least 7 boxes of cereal a week sometimes more.
-We go through 4 gallons of milk a week.
-We go through 15 – 20 apples, 2 pounds of grapes, and 2 bunches of bananas each week at a bare minimum.
-We go through 3 loaves of bread a week.
-I clip 80 wiggly fingernails and toenails a week.
-Despite all of the sickness going around, we have not had more than a sniffley nose in our house in 8 or 9 months.

Julia:
-went to her first ballet: Pinocchio, with the Atlanta Ballet. She was totally entranced and jumped up to dance several times during the performance. She still talks about it all of the time.
-is very animated.
-is FINALLY getting over her painful shyness, PTL!
-favorite toys are her Disney princess figurine collection.
-loves to color. We color together as well. She will either color and tell me what I should do or the other way around so our pictures are “twins”. I have an example shown in a picture below.
-would definitely score high in the “Acts of Service” section of the Love Languages test. That and “quality time”.
-Favorite breakfast cereals are Rice Crispies and Lucky Charms.
-Why I spend my days laughing. . . a lot.
Julia -"Mommy will you braid my hair"?
Me- “SURE! Wow! I can't believe you are asking me that.”
Julia-“I want it just one braid like Sarah at church.”
Me-“ Ok, Which Sarah?”
Julia –“The Sarah that pooped in her pants.”
Or
“Mommy, we were late getting back to Jessica’s house because Mr. Anthony and Mrs. Colleen wanted to take a tour of Courtney and Grayson’s new house because they had never seen it before, and they said it was FABULOUS and they liked it a LOT!

Harrison:
-gets overwhelmed at the prospect of any task with more than one step. I can't just ask him to get dressed. I have to start with, "Harrison, take off your jammies. Now, put on your underwear. Now, put on your shorts. . . ".
-LOVES to play pretend super hero games and is constantly asking me to play with him. This used to really overwhelm me because I hated to turn him down so often for other things I had to get done. Plus, I am really terrible at make-believe games like that. I am not very imaginative. Then one day I came up with idea to incorporate his games into what I am doing. Now when Harrison says, "Mommy, let’s play Batman and Batgirl". Instead of saying, "Oh, buddy, I just can't right now". I say, "YES! Let's play Batman and Batgirl go grocery shopping", or "YES! Let's play Cat Woman and Iron Man set the table"! I will tickle him or fake zap him with lasers as I work. It works like a charm.
-favorite toys are whatever he can play with the other kids.
-has begun to throw some fits, which is the first bit of work this kid has been in his life so far.
-would probably score high on the “personal touch” section of the Love Languages test. He likes to hug and cuddle and be tickled.
-favorite breakfast cereals are Chocolate Frosted Mini-Wheats and Lucky Charms.
-hates wet hair. The rest of his body can be dripping wet when he gets dressed, but he agonizes over any, even slightly damp, strand of hair.

ELI:
-favorite snack? Dryer sheets. . .Yup. I have to carefully fish them out of the piles of clean clothes so he can't rifle through and find them. I can smell dryer sheets on his breath after he eats them.
-Calls all fruit "Bapple". It is a combo of apple and banana.
-Favorite breakfast cereal is Lucky Charms.
-walks through the house with a poll, golf ball, stick etc. muttering "Ow, ow, ow, ow". Then I will hear silence, followed by high pitched screaming from one of the other kids who just got clobbered by his weapon.
-has a large, mostly one syllable vocabulary with a few 2 syllable exceptions like “Mommy, Daddy, Cookie, Kanka (Blanket) caca (cracker) and so forth”. He hasn’t put more than 2 words together and only on a couple of occasions. He is definitely speaking later than my other children, but it is to be expected. The other kids tend to his every whim with even the quietest peep. . . if it were possible for him to make quiet peeps. He’s a noisy boy.
-calls Julia, “JuJah”.
-pats my back while I carry him around.
-drank a few gulps of rubbing alcohol before I caught him. Poison control told me to watch and see if he got drunk. If not he was fine.
-loves to have his teeth brushed.
-got to make his first trip to MN in October for Jeremy and Natalie's band competition. We were only there for 20 hours. It was my first trip there in nearly 5 years. Harrison and Julia have yet to get to MN.
-digs our shoes out of our closets and brings them to us to put on. He definitely knows whose shoes are whose.
-is as hilarious as he is high maintenance. Mr. Personality to the core.
-has 16 teeth. I think I forgot to mention this before, but he had cut all 16 of these teeth, including his one year molars by 12 months old. He eats anything like an old pro.

Evan:
-favorite part of the Pinocchio Ballet we took him and Julia to? “When it was over.”
-turned 6 on October 24th. . . gulp.
-"Mommy, a wasp fell out of my dream and onto my pillow".
-"Mommy, every time I lay down my skull hurts.” (This means “I have a headache”).
-lost his 4th tooth in September.
-favorite cereal is Chocolate Delight Special K.
-last month when a car pulled out in front of me, Evan and I both said, “Dude” in unison as I put on the brakes.
-really hates it when I sing.
-favorite toys are transformers and Legos.
-would probably be a “personal touch” on the Love Languages test as well as “gifts”.
-went through a period of several months or even the past year or more where he has been completely, exhaustingly, insatiable. He wanted and wanted and wanted stuff all day long, and when he got it he was ungrateful and wanted more. Our house is full to the brim with toys and our life is busy with fun experiences, but he was obsessed with what we still didn’t have and what he still wanted to do. I have been harping and harping on him about the fact that we have so much and so many people in this world really have almost nothing. I just couldn’t get him to understand or be grateful. The straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back for me was when we did about 20 great things one day like a hay ride, corn maze, inflatable jumpy things, fed farm animals and dinner out, and he followed up by whining about still more things he wanted to do and claiming we never did anything for him. I decided that the next day we were going to deprive him of every kind of luxury we could and work him hard. He wasn’t allowed even mayo on his sandwich or anything to drink but water or any toys to play with at all. I thought maybe it would help if he got to experience nothing but the very basics in survival for a day and work some long hours to make the money needed to put an Operation Christmas Child box together to send to severely disadvantaged African children.

This was an interesting experience. I have a few pictures below of him working his tail off. I really thought this day would be horrible and that he would whine and complain, but he didn’t. He and I worked side-by-side, got a ton done, and he did it completely without complaint. When he asked for mayo on his sandwich, and I said no because mayo was a luxury, he shut up and ate it anyway. I never caught him trying to play with toys or dodge out of this experience at all. We talked a lot about how he could still be grateful for clean water to drink, a healthy body, a mom and a dad who love him, relative safety and so forth.

I would say it went pretty well. The two of us got a lot done while we talked. We bonded, and in the end I found it wasn't nearly as dreadful as I thought it would be. At the end of the night he was still answering that a new Transformer would make him happy, but he also was jumping around and excited about all of the toys he did have and was excited to play with them again the next day. I told him he could go back to life as normal the next day as long as when he asked for something he was respectful of my answer and tried to be grateful for what he already has.

He has developed a concern for children who really have nothing or live lives full of abuse and daily hard work. He was also really excited that he worked to help another boy with the money he earned for the Christmas Child box. We may need to have another day or two like this in the future, but in the past few weeks since we did this he has been doing much, much better.

A side benefit to Evan’s day of depravity is that Harrison and Julia learned a lot too. They wanted to play with Evan so they invented a game with a few small pumpkins and a cardboard box so he could play too. They had a blast without a single toy. I praised them for making do with what they had and having fun with it.

This video is of Evan working hard in the yard to earn his money for the Operation Christmas Child box.

Typical Tynes family dinner madness.

Eli is mooing like a cow on our dairy farm tour hay ride in October with the hilarious tour guide.

Everyone buckled in? Evan? Check! Julia? Check! Harrison? Check! Eli? Check! Cybertron Primus? Great! Let's go.

He insisted on wearing this pair of Julia's shoes for a couple of days.

I honestly don't know how to explain this one. Those are diapers on his feet and socks on his face. All of the kids are gathered around in the middle of some crazy game.

These wild turkeys are sortof like pets. We feed them and they hang around all day mostly unconcerned with us unless one of the kids tries to chase them.

We went to a movie in the park one night.

Evan came home from church one Sunday wanting to make "the armor of God". This is what he came up with. . .

. . .and Julia copied.

Grandpa came over after work one night to get his grandkid fix.

Uncle Tony came to visit!

The kids had LOTS of circus fun with Uncle Tony.

Eli and I got to spend 20 hours in MN for Jeremy and Natalie's band competition! It was very cold for a self-proclaimed, true-blooded, southerner like myself.

I definitely wanted a picture of Eli, Quin, and Aaron admiring the ever-famous Mary statue in a white, painted, tire in Grandma and Grandpa Ringsmuth's back yard.

We loved getting to spend a few minutes with Grandma and Grandpa Ringsmuth! Such a blessing!

We got to see several family members who were able to make the last minute trek to have dinner with us. Another great blessing for me!! (Left to Right: Janete, Jonathan, Linda, Angie, Beth, Steve, Caroline, Joshua, Emily) More family we saw didn't get pictured, like aunt Laura and other cousins.

This is me, so, incredibly, happily entering the church where Jeremy and Natalie's band competition was. This trip was a very special, last minute gift from my hubby.

My first snuggles with my beautiful, first niece, Lauren Rochelle Ringsmuth.

Julia loves to throw high society teas for her dolls and stuffed animals.

Crazy hat night at AWANA. These balloon hats were a last minute idea of mine. . .from God. I was scrambling.

Evan's picture is the second one up from the bottom on the far right side of this cross in our children's department at church. I thought it was neat.

I strapped 2 squirmy kids to their chairs with belts during school one day and told them we were riding the Magic School Bus.

Feeding a calf on our dairy farm tour.

This built in jumping "pillow" was at the dairy farm we toured.

This 10 acre corn maze was also at the dairy farm. The kids loved this.

Here is Evan working hard on our day of depravity and reflection on our blessings.

This is the pumpkin store game they came up with on Evan's day of depravity to make up for the fact that he couldn't play with toys. They had a blast.

She loves to hobble around the house in my boots.

We go on lots of science walks around the neighborhood and explore different aspects of nature. One of the kids' favorite activities is kicking massive, nuisance ant hills and then jumping back to watch a million ants work frantically to repair the damage. I don't feel badly because it is only a matter of time before the owners of the lot will come out and dump poison on the hill.

Everything is a jungle gym to him.

Evan's 6th birthday party following a couple of hours of wild play at a gymnastics center. None of those pictures turned out very well, but I have a few pictures of the place in my last blog update of cousin Quin's visit.

You can see the top of Julia's tutu hairbow at the Pinocchio ballet with the Atlanta Ballet. She was totally mesmerized.

We all dressed up for the Ballet. Evan's very fake smile was because he was miserable through every moment but when Pinocchio's nose grew.

"That is what daddy's are for" is my mantra when they try to get me to wrestle.

All of my children sit on different registers around the house on colder days. Sometimes I can't find Eli around the house, and it's because he is unusually, quietly, warming his back side behind the kitchen table.

Our water main broke one morning and was pouring into our basement. I do have to say, it was almost worth it when, while we were frantically working on the mess, Eli comes strutting in with a pool noodle ready for some basement flood fun.

Every meal gets rubbed straight into his hair.

So many good times are had back by our creek. It's a family member.

I hadn't heard a peep from him in several minutes after breakfast one morning, which is very unusual for him, so I went looking. This is how I found him.

This little balloon-blower-upper-thingy I found for $1 at target has saved my life.

Sleeping Beauty gets her face painted at our church's fall festival.

The photographer at the fall festival gave us one shot for this photo. I am just telling people that this is simply an artistic display of emotions they are demonstrating. Joy, confusion, grief, concern. . . they are fine young actors, is all.

Blue's Clues Sweety Petey.

He always goes back to this very spot to scribble on the wall whenever he finds a pen.

This was soooo sweet I had to take a picture. . .

. . .but somehow it turned into this. . . .

. . . which turned into this before I intervened.

This was me just before heading out for my first time ever trick-or-treating. I was a nervous wreck. Maybe we would end up worshing the devil?

But NO! We had a BLAST! I loved getting to meet some new neighbors and the kids got to practice their manners. It was awesome, and I look forward to next year.

Yeah, he has to wear these goulashes as often as I will let him.

Evan was working hard even a week later to earn his Operation Christmas Child money.

We are hiking in Kennesaw Mountain National Park behind our house again. This was Eli's first time getting out of the backpack to join the hike. I love this picture.

Julia's has really gotten into making "jewlery" with beads. I went from zero jewlery to more than I know what to do with in like a month.

Don't bother him when he working through lunch.

Harrison's coloring skills are developing.

The kids enjoy some TV time with Daddy before I cart them off to bed.

These are our "twin" unicorns. She picked the colors and showed me what to do on my picture. We did this after I put the boys to bed one night so we could have some girl time.

Evan's hard earned Operation Christmas Child box with the goodies and necessities he bought at walmart, pictures, and a letter he wrote as part of our writing lesson for school one day.

He lost his 4th tooth in September. The bottom two teeth are already nearly completely grown in now.

Julia tried to electrocute herself with this spoon and cord while we visited in the kitchen. The loud pop sound and subsequent spark storm that followed shook us both up. She was totally fine. The same cannot be said of the spoon, cord, or the ketchup streaked outlet cover.

Man, did our yard ever get flooded during the Atlanta flooding situation in September. I posted a video of the raging river our creak turned into just below this blog update. We were very blessed that it never quite made it to the house.

The kids watched the flooding and worried. We prayed a lot that day.

However, the fun in the mud puddle the flooding left behind the next day made it ALL worth it.

Evan and Mommy's traditional birthday cake bake.

He had so much fun playing baseball this year on the days the fields weren't flooded.

Stephen did such a great job taking pictures of the boys playing baseball.

"Serious business, here, Mom".

Actually, this is how Harrison spent 95% of his time with his baseball team. . . playing in the dirt.

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Julia dances for Grandma.

You Reign/Rain 2009

2009-09-23T17:25:00.004-04:00

My children want to watch flood videos and pictures 24/7 after getting to experience their first, and hopefully last natural disaster first hand this week. I wanted to share it with the world. The song was recorded around my brother's computer in Waite Park, MN by my brother Jeremy, Sister-in-law, Natalie, and Sister-in-law-sister, Lauren Copeland. The videos of the flood in my slideshow are actually taken in our back yard. We were spared much damage, thanks much to the grace of God. . .

Who'da Thunk It?!

2009-09-10T21:17:00.031-04:00

Man, oh man, did we have a great summer! Stephen was between projects so we had him home for most of it. We ventured out and did fun things. On my first pass through our pictures I found nearly 100 photos I wanted to post. I had to PAINSTAKINGLY eliminate about half of them to come up with the 50 bazillion I have left. There were so many great videos. . . Oh, how to choose! Of course, not everything is as interesting and wonderful as I would like to think.

Then the summer ended, and the most amazing next phase of our lives began. This is something I have long been determined to do, but secretly dreaded like the plague since I was a teenager. I have talked big about it since I can remember. I have always known since my late teens that I would someday homeschool my children. I watched members of my family successfully homeschool their children, and I also I watched my parents fight the system for years as people on every committee, and even as a long time devoted school board member, work to make the public school system something educational, palatable, and relatively safe from indoctrination that stood contrary to everything I was raised to believe, sadly with limited success. I could write a book on my thought processes that make me think that homeschooling is best for my family, but what it really comes down to is that I know this is what God wills for our children. I try, really, really, really, really hard not to judge other parents who make different decisions for their children.

Anyway, I put Evan into pre-school very young just for him to get some social interaction. I pulled him out after a year and a half and thought, “ I will just start my own preschool here at home”! I had enough kids of my own to really be like a preschool. I was so ready for it. I was organized with supplies and schedules and great plans. I was stoked!

That worked for about a day. . . MAYBE two. It was basically a flop. Throughout the last 3 years I have gone in spurts and waves of better teaching and structure and worse, but it was always pretty dreadful and short lived. My kids learned the most as we played and interacted and learned chores and how to behave in public, but nothing super consistent with the academic stuff. I taught Evan to read, but the whole experience was exhausting and not very encouraging to me most days. He was pretty resistant and when the program was done, I took a year and half break. The boy reads like a champ, but most of it was self taught on his bed at night with the lamp on. My life was overwhelming most days just keeping up with basic needs. The thought of adding real homeschooling to it made me break out in hives.

Over the course of the last year I went to several homeschool seminars and expos and learned a TON. Most of it was encouraging. I was doing many of the right things with spending time teaching my kids life skills that would help out a lot when we actually got to the academic stuff, but in the beginning of August when the curriculum I ordered for Evan’s kindergarten year came in the mail I nearly had a nervous breakdown. (I ordered the first grade stuff because Evan had completed all of the objectives for the kindergarten level. I am telling Evan he is in kindergarten because I don’t want him graduating early). I just was not going to be able to add schooling to my life on a consistent basis with my ridiculously overloaded to do list the way it is. I was certain that I was going to stink at this in a major way. . . at least for a while.

I spent 2 weeks reading through everything and getting a handle on what I would be doing and teaching, and in the middle of August we got started. I always believed that homeschooling was something only terribly self-disciplined parents painstakingly endured. However, this is where the “Who’da Thunk It” part comes in. I really, really, really love it. I mean it. I really love it. I can’t believe I am writing that, to be honest. In trying to put my finger on the reason for such a drastic change in attitude, I have come up with some thoughts. First of all, I ordered a comprehensive curriculum written by much smarter and more knowledgeable people than I, and that boosts my confidence in a major way. I really love the curriculum, and Evan is thriving on it. He is still resistant to some parts of it, like the writing parts. He has always hated to do things he is not very good at. He is behind on fine motor skill development, and that frustrates him. However, I think the reason the rest of it is going so well with him now is just that he is to a point in his maturity where sitting down and doing more academic stuff is palatable. Many young children just aren’t ready for it until they are ready for it, and there is no speeding that up. It also helps that Julia loves to get involved too, so that keeps her busy and easier to manage during our school hour(s).

I also love that the necessity of an education gives me permission to really put my kids where they need to be in my list of priorities. I can’t put things off like I used to in order to keep the other things that I felt I needed to do. For example, I don’t feel obligated to host a play date once a week which put me on edge trying to get my house in order and had me put off spending time with the kids. I really have a great excuse to stay at home and spend some majorly quality and rewarding time with my children. Wow, does that help me put my guilt at bay!

Also, I honest-to-goodness believe that my life is easier than people who have their children in school. We meander to the dining room about 9:00 after breakfast in our pajamas and begin a very rewarding hour to hour and a half working together to get our lessons done, and then the kids are off to play. I don’t have tons of stuff to pack up. I don’t have to rush them out the door to the bus at hideous times in the morning or drive them to wait in carpool lines at school. I don’t have unexpected school projects coming home or crazy, after school hour activities to keep up with. All homeschool coop activities happen during the school day. My life is really quite peaceful compared to what I hear my friends talking about.

The most amazing side effect from spending time in the mornings teaching the children is that when it is over they are antsy to start playing. They run off and leave me alone for long periods of time to get stuff done. I find that I have not fallen behind on any of my to do list, and in fact, I am probably more productive each day than before. I mean, man alive! Who’da thunk it? Honestly? When will I learn once and for all that God knows what He is doing?

Evan:
-has come a LONG way in his handwriting abilities since the beginning of the year. I thought his lack of cooperation with learning to write would be the death of me, but we are muddling through. It is like night and day with his abilities in less than a month.
-is a math whiz like his daddy. There is really no effort involved in teaching this boy Math.
-reads the most astounding things. He is mostly self taught from spending time each night quietly reading books in bed.
-persists in being the bossiest character east of the Mississippi. I am constantly reminding my more compliant Harrison that he does not have to obey his brother.
-seems to FINALLY be overcoming his unbelievably, strong-willed argumentative stage. . .finally.
-is now on his first baseball team (Homeschool baseball league) and absolutely, enthusiastically, loving it.
-loves, loves, loves his baby brother.
-instead of saying something like, “Is that the biggest tree on earth”?, he will say, “Is that the biggest tree in the whole kingdom of the world”?
-favorite activities include, riding a bike, building with Legos or Lincoln Logs, climbing trees, climbing anything, AWANA, splashing in the creek.

Julia:
-has a MAJOR passion for foreign language. She is now taking private French lessons to help satisfy her craving for it with a great teacher/mother and her nearly 4 year old daughter.
-has learned to read with Hooked on Phonics like her big brother. I have videos of it below. She is MUCH more enthusiastic about it than Evan was at this age.
-now has her own account on my computer and can type in her own name to log in.
-loves, loves, loves her baby brother so much she grinds her teeth when she is around him.
-likes to make up songs about Jesus as she goes along.
-learned to pump in a swing.
-favorite activities include, building with Lincoln Logs, swinging, French lessons, AWANA, helping out around the house, tea parties, school.

Harrison:
-is the funniest creature "in the whole kingdom of the world", for real.
-is now on his first baseball team for 3 year olds (Homeschool baseball league) and likes it a lot.
-is all of the time quitting things instead of just simply being done. For example he will come up the deck stairs and say, “Mommy, I QUIT! I quit playing outside”. Or he might say, “I QUIT! I quit playing with Evan”.
-he also likes to say that he is “too tired” for things he doesn’t want to do. He will say, “I am too tired to finish my breakfast”, or quite frequently, “I am too tired to go to bed”.
-sporadically yells, “Barack Obama” instead of saying, “Oh my goodness”, or “Shoot”. We don’t know why. I have a video of him doing this while splashing in the creek last week.
-loves, loves, loves to put together puzzles. He can put together a 125 piece puzzle totally by himself. I keep a stack of puzzles on the dining room table for him and he will do one after the next while Evan and Julia do their school work.
-favorite activities include, playing imaginative games like Batman or Iron Man, swinging, wrestling, puzzles.

Elijah:
-is 15 months.
-has been wondering around for the past week calling and calling and calling for his “Daddy” who is working out of town again after spending the summer at home. He also calls every man we see in public “Daddy” in hopes that he might be him, which is. . . fun for me.
-has no indoor voice at all. His one volume is very, very loud.
-he is definitely my most busy baby. He is very busy, so necessarily that keeps me very busy.
-is talking more every day. He is even starting to put two words together a bit now. He will say, “Mommy, no”!
-started letting me sing and rock him to sleep a couple of months ago. He is my very first child to allow this. The others would not have it. It is sooooo special.
-randomly likes to walk around with a sock on his head. He spends time looking for socks to put on his head.
-loves to have his teeth brushed.
-will absolutely, under no circumstances eat a vegetable for any reason.
-loves to bring me any ol’ shoe or combination of shoes for me to put on him. If guests take off their shoes, he wants to try them on immediately.
-he also does not like for others to not have their shoes on and will bring their shoes to them.
-is now able to follow simple commands like “sit down” or “go get your blanket”, etc.
-is still not a big fan of all of the attention he gets from his older siblings.
-really, really, really likes pizza. . . really. Between him and the other 3 kids they can now eat an entire, large, Papa John’s pizza in a single meal.
-LOVES to blow his nose. He will blow his nose on any tissue or piece of cloth, or even his baby blanket. I have to stand guard at all times.
-favorite activities include, screaming (a lot), playing outside, eating chewable vitamins and bringing me the bottle 24 times a day, playing with Daddy, and some more screaming.

Julia reads her first books.

Evan and Harrison on their first day of baseball.

Random summer videos.

Fun in the creek with cousin Quin.

Elijah and Julia (WAY back there) enjoying the wave pool at White Water.

Stephen took the kids on this fake, lazy river at White Water. They loved it.

You can see all 4 of my kids loving the kiddy section at the water park.

Julia slept like this for a good 15 minutes before I realized she was asleep. I thought she was just bored.

She cleaned her room all by herself and then called for me to come see. She was waiting for me behind this heart she had for me out of pennies. . . What's better than that?

This is the garbage can at the neighborhood park that Eli drank water from a couple of weeks ago. . . This shaved 9 years off my life, I kid you not.

He LOVES to clean with a sponge. I keep a clean one just for him to use because he also likes to take pauses just to suck on it.

So, incredibly precious. . .

. . .Likewise. . .

. . .Likewise.

Harrison drew this picture by himself. It is Batman, of course.

The BEST birthday present EVER! This Roomba creature keeps my floors vacuumed with almost no effort on my part. Gotta love my husband!

Evan's first baseball practice. He takes himself VERY seriously.

Harrison. . . the most adorable kid out there to be sure. This is his first baseball practice. He loved playing in the dirt as much as he loved playing with his team.

Evan was incredibly excited.

Julia is learning numbers at one of her beloved French lessons with her teacher, Mrs. Summer.

This was part of our homeschool day. We built a little Lincoln Log city together.

A typical school morning. The kids are working on Jewish Calendars for their bible class and puzzles are covering the table.

An experienced homeschool mom gave me the idea to let Eli drip water into a spoon. She promised it would entertain him for an hour while I worked with the other kids. . . He just turned the water on full force and created a massive flood.

They each did these 100 peice puzzles by themselves.

Another 100 peice puzzle he did by himself while I taught Evan. He is obssessed.

We went to the Atlanta History Museum for the first day of school. Homeschool kids got to go for free this day. The kids had a blast at their many sites including this flower garden at an onsite plantation. Eli surpised us here by saying the word "flower". I have a video of it.

The Swann House at the Atlanta History Museum. It was free this day for homeschoolers.

One of the medal podiums for the'96 Olympics held in Atlanta. This is at the Atlanta History Museum.

Eli joined the ranks of damaged toothed kids in our family with this chip in the corner of his top, front, left tooth after falling down the stairs.

Eli LOVES to blow his nose. He will blow his nose on any tissue or peice of cloth, or even his baby blanket. I have to stand gaurd at all times.

Everyone is enjoying a frosty on this HOT afternoon. . .

. . .after this skater event at our church. They all loved watching these professional skaters show off their skills.

Pretty girl.

Learned to pump. One giant step towards some freedom for me!

The kids pretended to camp in the livingroom while cousin Quin was here from Minnesota.

The kids showed Quin how to play in the creek in our backyard and he showed them how to hang upside down.

This was at a park near our house. This MAY be the beginning of the creek in our yard, but I can't be sure.

I had never seen anything like this spinning thing before but they rode with cousin Quin until they were sick.

This open play gymnastic place was amazing. All 5 kids (including cousin Quin from MN who stayed with us for a week) had more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.

They played this dangerous leaping game until someone lost an eye. . . or came close.

They played this dangerous leaping game until someone lost an eye. . . or came close

They found this maggot on one of our science walks for school. They started by arguing about who could put in their bag, but then argued about who would have to pick it up.

This is still them checking out that maggot on our science walk. They are gathering interesting things from nature into their bags.

Julia loves to leap from swings.

This is a "cave" in the middle of a very large bush at our neighborhood playground. The kids make plans to move in here on a more permanent basiss.

Quin and Evan are doing their "Superman swing".

Eli is picking up interesting things from nature on our science walk.

This is them coming out of their "Cave". Honestly, I though Quin was going to move in here.

Smelling flowers on our science walk. I wouldn't let them collect other people's flowers for their bags. Only touch and smell.

Jeremy and Dad found this tree on a walk through a local park. The kids played on this with cousins Quin and Aaron for a LONG time.

I love this picture of Evan and Quin at the park.

This is me and the 5 oldest cousins swinging at the park.

All of the cousins except newborn Lauren loving their time together at the park.

A most elegant/manly, princess/super hero tea party hosted by Princess Julia.Eli napped during the party because he would have wreaked a bit of havoc on it.

I interupt this girly tea party for my most ferocious Batman pose!

It was crazy hair night at AWANA yesterday.

Crazy kids.

Whereas the rest of my babies would dance around excitedly while they waited for their favorite food, Eli pined and screamed at the oven for quite some time.

Jesus and Mary and Batman

2009-07-20T23:53:00.042-04:00

I have shared several times that I always pray for God to protect my children from my own foolish mistakes and from their own. He has always been so faithful. It is nothing short of a miracle they are alive and don’t have brain damage at a bare minimum.

Last week Julia did a “swimming pool dive” off of her dresser onto a thin mattress pad when the kids were supposed to be quietly reading books in their beds before going to sleep. She was in terrible pain in her chest from her chin hitting her rib cage so hard. Then the next day in a horrible collision between Julia and a loved one giving Harrison a piggy back ride, Harrison was propelled 6 feet to the ground onto his head. It left a goose egg and a raspberry for the record books on the side of his forehead, but he didn’t even so much as have a concussion.

That night I was still quite stressed out about it as I went to bed, wondering if there was more I should do to have Harrison evaluated. Granted, Harrison was running around and playing all day like nothing happened. I was letting my own turmoil get the best of me when I opened a book I have read a chapter out of each night since my first pregnancy 6 ½ years ago called “The Power of a Praying Parent”. I just use it as a guide book in my prayer life for my children. It gives me all sorts of ideas for things to pray about that I would have never thought of without it. It never ceases to amaze me how often the prayer I come across for that night is a perfect match for something that happened that day. This night was no exception. I could not read past the title without bursting into tears. The chapter title was “Receiving a Sound Mind”. Just for Harrison and Julia’s future reference, here is what the prayer said.

Lord,
Thank you for promising us a sound mind. I lay claim to that promise for (Harrison, Julia, Evan and Eli). I pray that their minds are clear, alert, bright, intelligent, stable, peaceful, and uncluttered. I pray there would be no confusion, no dullness and no unbalanced, scattered, unorganized or negative thinking. I pray that their minds would not be filled with complex or confusing thoughts. Rather, give them clarity of mind so that they are able to think straight at all times. Give them the ability to make clear decisions, to understand all they need to know, and to be able to focus on what they need to do. Where there is any mental instability, impairment, or dysfunction, I speak healing in Jesus’ name. May they be renewed in the spirit of their mind (Ephesians 4:23) and have the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16). . .

There was more to go with it, but this was the most relevant part to me that night. I was able to totally rest in His faithfulness and sovereignty for our family and was comforted that He knew my needs that night. He revealed Himself to me through a simple little book rooted in scripture just as He has time and again throughout my entire life.

I did take the kids to the Chiropractor to have them evaluated on Monday. He said Julia was very out of alignment due to the way she landed on the back of her head and neck, but after a few adjustments she should be right back to normal. Harrison, however, was almost none-the-worse for the wear. He needed less of an adjustment than the other two boys and had no skull fracture or evidence of any kind of brain damage. . .just a miracle on both accounts. . .It was another great reminder of His sovereignty in our lives until He is done with us here on Earth.

My kids love to act out the crucifixion story, for some reason. . .which sounds strange to me when I type it out, but is really quite innocent when you see it playing out. They gave up playing the Christmas Story because Eli is a very uncooperative baby Jesus. Their favorite version of the crucifixion story is what they call “Jesus and Mary and Batman”.

Now, I don’t give this much thought because I see it quite often, and I have become accustomed to how imaginative the three of them can be when they are together. However, my poor unsuspecting cousin told her story of spending a day babysitting them last month. She said the kids had asked her (like this is a normal, everyday question) if she wanted to play “Jesus and Mary and Batman” with her. Harrison wanted to be Batman, although Evan wanted him to be "the bad guy" who nailed Jesus to the cross. Jess said that, ” Evan was pretty disturbed when I told Harrison it was OK for him to play Batman instead of the bad guy. He said, ‘Batman is not in the Bible’”. Jess countered, "How do you know there wasn't a guy there who didn't like bats?" (Insert blank look, then, shrug of the shoulders by Evan here, and then finally, acceptance). Then, of course Evan reserved the right to be Jesus with Julia being the obvious choice for Mary and any angel that enters the story. Jess also doubled as "angel" and "bad guy" depending on what the circumstance called for. She had the pleasure of nailing “Jesus” to the cross again and again and then removing the “nails” so Jesus could fall flat on his face on top of the mattress pad they laid out in front of him. They then could drag him unceremoniously to the tomb (closet). Then they would wait for “3” days and Julia, in her princess dress, opens the closet door and proclaims, “Jesus is risen”. Evan jumps to his feet and runs back the place where Jess nails him to the cross. It was never established what roll Batman had in the story other than using his big muscles to drag “Jesus” to the “tomb”, but Harrison is easy to please. I can imagine he tried to fight the bad guys a time or two. We will have to clarify this with Jess when she gets back from Thailand next week.

Evan:
-has learned to swim this summer, but only under water. When we go to the pool the only part of him I see is his lips sticking out into the air to catch his breath and then back under for more swimming, flipping around, and handstands. It is fun to watch.
-loves to wave and say “Hi” to everyone we see. He waves at passing cars, people in the grocery store, people out the window of our truck. He went from painfully shy until about a year ago when he became extremely outgoing. Here’s to hoping Julia picks up on this a bit this year.
- On the way to Vacation Bible School one morning we had a conversation that went like this:
Harrison: "Mommy, how can soccer players play soccer without a ball"? (This question is totally random and out of the blue.)
Me: "They can't. They need the ball to play soccer".
Evan: "Yeah, if soccer players don't have a ball then it would just be a wrestling game".
Me: "I cannot argue with that".
-went to his 17th state when we went to Bogalusa, Louisiana over the 4th of July weekend while visiting Grandma Tynes in Mississippi.
-is most DEFINITELY 5 ½. Do NOT insult him with just saying he is 5.
-is DEFINITELY NOT going to let anyone call him “buddy” anymore because he is no longer a baby. I am unclear of the connection there, but he is certain and that is that.
-is DEFINITELY ALWAYS the boss.
-can do absolutely everything. He sees no limits on himself. He even thinks our chiropractor can just show him the ropes really quickly and then he can just adjust our backs on his own. This attitude is awesome, and I want to nurture it, but it also gets him into trouble a lot. . . a lot.
-very willingly and humbly apologized to a woman he accidentally hit with some dirt at the park the other day.
-has become a BIG eater. He has been known to more than once tell me after finishing his dinner, “Mommy, I didn’t like it, but I ate it anyway”.

Julia:
-is still so painfully, painfully shy. I am hoping and hoping she outgrows it this year like Evan did last year.
-is the most observant person I have ever known. She knows where everything in the house is and can find it in a snap. She keeps track of where all of our stuff is at the pool and collects it up or makes sure to let me know where it is before we leave. I will be looking for Stephen in a crowd and will ask the kids to help me. Usually I can’t remember what he is wearing, but Julia will say, “Just look for the blue and white striped shirt”. It never ceases to amaze me because I am so hopelessly unobservant.
-is still a little cleaner. Loves to tell me to go out of a room because she has a special surprise for me. Of course, I know what this surprise will be, but after a while she will call me back into a tidy room and hop around with excitement while I praise her for her hard work.
-loves to scribble little pretend notes. She has perfect form when holding a pencil and is really getting the concept of writing even before I have taken the time to teach her to read.
-is a VERY creative little artist.
-oddly enough, is very rough with Eli. She loves him so much she tackles him constantly for a hug. She just wants to smother him with love, but it gets very old with me very quickly.
-learned how to go under water and jump off the edge of the pool. I have a video of it below.
-loves to dance.
-is obsessed with learning Spanish and any foreign language. I need to get her enrolled in a class.
-went to her 14th state when we went to Bogalusa, Louisiana over the 4th of July weekend while visiting Grandma Tynes in Mississippi.

Harrison:

-went to his 15th state when we went to Bogalusa, Louisiana over the 4th of July weekend while visiting Grandma Tynes in Mississippi.
-his favorite color is definitely green.
-has, all on his own, started complimenting me at least once a day for something. He will say, “Mommy, I like your skirt” or “Your swimsuit/hair/flip flops are pretty”. It touches me so much that he is trying to make me feel good. I really don’t know where he learned it, but he can keep it up. He also is very good about remembering to tell me he loves me. Anyone who decided to stop having kids with just 2 might have missed out on their own Harrison.
-came leaping out of the swimming pool one afternoon and ran over to me taking a flying jump at the last minute to land at my feet.
He said, "Mommy, do you know what is better than swimming at a swimming pool"?!!
Me: "No. What is better than swimming at a swimming pool"?
Harrison: "Grass".
-learned how to jump off the edge of the pool and go under water this summer.
-loves to sing to himself and does so quite often.
-thinks he is Batman.

Eli:

-went to his 10th state when we went to Bogalusa, Louisiana over the 4th of July weekend while visiting Grandma Tynes in Mississippi.
- first step was on 6/4/09
-is now full time walking as of this week.
-says a few words like mama, dada, Huh?, Car, kick-kick-kick, tickle,tickle,tickle, kitty (well, actually titty) quack and maybe a few more.
-is learning that he cannot scream anymore to get what he wants. If he wants something, he needs to say "mama" or "dada" politely. He picked up saying mama and dada very quickly to get what he wants, but he still typically tries screaming first. Old habits die hard. The child just has one volume and that is very loud when he is happy or sad.
-he has been my chief number one climber in a long line of climbers. It is the only thing on his agenda each day.
-The kids still think he is Buda. They adore him and he can do no wrong in their eyes.
-has had 8 teeth break through in the last month to raise his total to 16 sharp little teeth.
-loves to have his teeth brushed.
-likes to bite. We all have to wary of the bite zone.

-I had a rough day one day with a bazillion things to do. Eli was having a very grumpy afternoon largely due to the 8 teeth he was cutting at once. I was supposed to leave that night to go out with my friends, but I also needed to get the house cleaned up for another event, and I had to keep Eli on my hip through most of it. Finally at about 7:00 at night I kicked it into high gear trying to get my to do list done. I set Eli on the floor and apologized to him in advance for having to let him cry it out on his own for a bit. He did cry for about a minute and then there was silence. I was so relieved thinking he had gotten busy with a toy. About 5 minutes later I realized he was too quiet and I came walking out of the kitchen and around the corner to nearly trip over him and a Sam’s sized gallon of syrup that he had poured in a massive puddle on the floor of my dinette. He was rolling around in it like a little pig and was all hopped up on sugar just before I needed to stick him in bed. I had to pick a hyper, sticky and dripping Eli up off the floor and rush him over to my kitchen sink just so I could spray him off enough to get him to the bath. If you have never tried to clean up a gallon of syrup on a tile floor and walls, I wouldn’t recommend it. It took FOREVER to get the dripping puddle into the sink. The floor in that spot, despite repeated moppings, took a few days to not feel sticky and attract extra dirt. I adore this baby to bits, but he is definitely a handful or two.

Some summer swimming pool madness.

The kids (and I) love the Chordettes. We listen to Lollipop and Mr. Sandman quite often.

One night after tucking the kids in bed, I had an idea that I would get Julia out of bed to play a game with me. We had so much fun before I tucked her back in. Now she wants me to come do that every night.

He doesn't look like he is having fun at VBS, but he loved it and didn't want it to end.

He called upstairs to me "Mom! I am on the ceiling"! I thought he was being silly until I came downstairs and found him like this. I used to do this as a kid, but hadn't thought to teach him how to do it yet. This was his own idea.

I found this picture of Evan on facebook enjoying VBS.

Julia semi-enjoyed VBS this year. She is still quite shy.

I tried to get this picture on an apron we got Stephen for his birthday, but it didn't work out. The apron was going to say, "Who are these kids, and why do they expect me to feed them"? Instead we put their hand prints on in. Daddy loves to show it off.

He harassed and harassed us to let him ride this bull at the Cobb County Rodeo, but once he got on it he no longer thought it was such a good idea.

She writes little scribble notes to herself all day long. She loves to pretend to write on any bit of my paper.

Exercising

With enough ranch dressing, Julia has become a BIG fan of the cucumbers that Daddy grew on the deck.

Eli loves the dirty ol' rocking horse on the deck.

Eli could let the kids push him around in this doll stroller ALL day.

I loved, loved this beautiful coloring and sticker work that Julia did.

I always teach my kids to eat with utinsels as early as possible.

This is chocolate pudding. . . He is still trying to get the hang of it, obviously.

We got this piano a couple of weeks ago from Grandma Tynes. The kids play it as much as they can get away with, in the most creative ways they can think of.

What could be more fun than playing in the muddy water at the bottom of the driveway while your mom pressure washes?

This kids are playing in Grandma Tynes' yard in Mississippi over 4th of July weekend.

Julia, so bravely, leaps into the neighborhood pool where we live these days.

Eli and I went up to Johnson City, TN to be with my grandpa and grandma Hillman for some surgery he had on his back. This is our waiting room full of people. My Aunt Sharon later joined us as well. Eli got LOTS of lovin' while we waited.

This crazy mohawk sprung up while we were in TN. I could not get it to lie down. My mom even tried this greasy hair gell stuff to flatten it out and 10 minutes later it was a greasy mohawk that we couldn't get to lie down.

So precious!

I saw this bus in South Carolina on my way home from TN. I didn't even know this place existed. I took it as a sign from the Lord that I am basically awesome.

So, so precious!

Julia's first Braves game. She and Evan were overwhelmed with excitement at the size of these pieces of pizza.

Cuddle time at the Braves game. It is nice to have someone like me who, even after 4 or 5 innings, has yet to notice who the Braves are playing.

Running the bases at Turner Field.

The imitation pitchers mound for kids.

It was fun to get a night out with the two oldest kids. . .

. . . and our fascinating house guest that evening, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross. We met him in our college debate years. . .National Debate Championship winner. . . Fox News, CNN, Al Jazeera, MSNBC and CBN contributer and terrorism expert. For some reason this is the only picture I got of him. I will have to get a better one next time he stays with us.

Don't tell Stephen I took this picture. It will be our little secret. I happened to have the camera when I found him like this, grinning and stealing the blueberries I left on the table. He never stops climbing.

Climbing his little slide.

Getting over the top.

and sliding down. He can go down on his butt too. He slides all day long.

He is a full time walker as of this week. He looked so adorable to me, toddling around like a big kid dragging his baby blanket.

While Stephen backpacks through the Tetons in WY, the kids and I conquer Kennesaw Mountain in our backyard.

A nice family took our picture at the top of Kennesaw Mountain next to one of the kids' beloved cannons. Usually called my "flabby badge of courage", here I am trying to hold in my perfectly framed, post 4 babies, gut that this hiking backpack so mercilessly displays. I just wasn't in the mood for it this day.

Kennesaw Mountain

After our hike we went to a picnic at the Marietta Square with Grandma and Grandpa. It was a beautiful evening in every way.

After our picnic dinner on the square we walked up to this walk bridge over the train tracks, but didn't get to see any trains, unfortunately.

Waiting impatiently for the trains that never came.

We spent the afternoon at a great water park in my friend Caryn's neighborhood.

Eli loves the water.

Harrison was fascinated by these fountains at the water park.

Julia was trying to show Eli how to play with water but Eli had his own notions about it.

Hillman 50th Wedding Anniversary Tribute

2009-07-14T14:34:00.002-04:00

Part 1

Part 2