I Can't Clean Because it's TOO Messy!!!

Friday is supposed to be my cleaning day - you know, vaccuum, dust, bathrooms, blah, blah, blah. Today at lunch I asked Scott - how was I going to get my cleaning done when everything is sooo messy?!? He laughed and told me I had to put that on the blog site!

How can you vaccuum when there are toys and books on the floor? How do you mop when your 8 mo. old has scattered Cheerios far and wide? etc. etc. etc. Makes perfect sense to me. Maybe it's just a housewife thing ;-)...

On a totally different subject, Scott and I watched "Stranger than Fiction" last Friday night. Pretty good flick - we enjoyed it. Anyway, it made me realize that we have a similar (although much less dramatic) situation in our own home. Ellie narrates her own (usually imaginary, and usually Little House on the Prairie) life continually! I always hear her saying to herself (and I have no idea how you should puctuate all this!) ," And Ma said "Come, Laura, it's time to make your bed", and so Laura ran off to make her bed quickly", as she runs off to make her bed. Or else she'll say to Bonnie, " "Let's go outside, Carrie" said Laura to Carrie". Maybe it makes life more interesting - poor middle child ;-).

Coram Deo Preschool

Well, this year I decided I needed a little more structure for my little ones. And it's working out relatively well - gasp! - and has been for almost five weeks now - gasp! - so I figured I should post about it! Ellie is four (five in Dec.) so we're doing some official school with her , but not full kindergarten. Mostly just pre-reading stuff and a little handwriting (including numbers) but that's it. So I have her and Bonnie to occupy for a large portion of the morning while Seth is napping and I'm working with the boys.

I will say right here that I am NOT a huge craft person. I'd read about doing things like this before in homeschool lit. but the idea of coming up with crafts myself was just too much. So, I hit the craft section at our local Super Stuff-Mart and found a whole aisle dedicated to kids crafts - already packaged, etc. I got some foam bead jewelry, some beads that you iron together to make a design, fingerpaint, a playdoh set, and those 3-D alphabet stickers. During our first period of memory work, we're all together, but while I work on math and language stuff with the boys, the girls do a different craft each day. It's worked out great, and they LOVE it! They can't wait to see what craft they get to do, and it keeps them occupied fully up until break time - whew! I HATE having little ones running around wild while trying to school...grrrr. And it feels like they're being neglected...grrrr again. This way, they are productive, near to me and the boys, and having fun - what more could you ask for? It does take some clean-up, but not too bad, considering the benefits!

Now, who KNOWS what will happen when Seth drops his morning nap! I'm trying to repress that thought, but hey, it's GREAT while it lasts 8-).

Seth's Latest Stunts

As you can see, Seth is learning to feed himself. He LOVES to try, and it certainly keeps him occupied so that I can eat my meal in peace (relatively speaking). But he has many near misses (such as the chin) and a few far misses (your ear is nowhere near your mouth, except it's on your head). Maybe he was trying out the goatee look, like Dad - and the earring look, like Mom???

He has also discovered TP - great fun! I would call it hours of entertainment, except it takes him WAY less that an hour to unroll a whole roll of toilet paper. As you can see, he's learned to make a quick escape after he's finished...Yeah, he looks really scared ;-)!

I'm thinkin' my ride is pretty "mommed"...

Can anyone else relate to this?!? Hilarious!!!

FINALLY, Fall!

Today we all enjoyed being outside - for the first time in a while! It's been SO HOT that we've all been indoors (at least, I have) for a while now, especially since the pool closed.

But today was gorgeous! So after school and piano lessons, we had a nice playtime. The picture of the ornery hombre (Nathan) was taken a couple of weeks ago. I thought it best not to try to wear a back pack with a broken collarbone. I know, what a paranoid mother :-)!

Our church had Susan Hunt to speak this weekend and she was EXCELLENT. What a great reminder it was to me of so many truths of the Lord's design for us as women! It was challenging in many ways - to see my behind the scenes labors as a wife and mother as contributing to the furtherance of God's Kingdom. I KNOW that's true, but it's easy to forget during the details of living.

And again to be reminded of God's power at work in us to do what He calls us to do - I feel my weaknesses so accutely.

Anyway, a blessed time of fellowship and instruction from a Godly older woman - a treat, in other words!!!!

BABY TV

He's a cutie all right...especially the hair!

Why buy Post -It notes????

when you can make your own????? Yes, that's right. If you look carefully, you'll see some homemade post-it notes that Ellie made - just a little paper and a glue stick required! I told her that I like initiative, and saving sweet moolah, but let's stick to the store bought version from now on... for the sake of our living room walls.

For those interested, our first piano lesson of the year (well, of life, really) went great for the boys! With typical beginners gusto, they both wanted to practice AS SOON as we got home. We'll ride that wave as long as we can ;-)!

Excuses, excuses

Today at lunch, Bonnie was having a hard time polishing off her PBJ. I mean, we only have PBJ's twice a week - is that toooooo terrible?!? Apparently she thinks so (I'll ask her again when she's in my shoes ;-) ).

Anyway, she peeked inside her sandwhich and informed me that, "It has a bwooze!" Or bruise.
Obviously, hoping that I would cut off a large portion of it, like I do with a bruised banana or apple. I had a laughing fit disguised as a cough, and told her that sandwhiches don't have bruises, and she still had to finish her lunch.

And yesterday, we were listening to a classical music CD while setting the table for dinner, and Kevin asked me if the piece that was playing was "Taco Bell's Cannon." Hmmmmmmm. Good thing our first piano lesson is tomorrow.....

It's all in good fun until someone loses an eye........:-D

Name that quote! No, no, rest assured - no one has lost an eye.

However, it's the first broken bone for the Davenport Family (at least this branch)! Last night at church, Nathan was rough housing with some of the older boys and somehow, during one of the "group wrestling" sessions (I guess that's the guy version of a "group hug") he got thrown down on his shoulder and broke his left collar bone. Thankfully, two of our elders are MD's and one of them went and checked him out right away, could see that it was broken, and whisked us all off to his office to get fitted for a brace and a sling. Which he has to wear for ONE MONTH.

That's a long time for a 6-year-old boy. Or his mother.

Anyway, he's been a real trooper through the whole thing. And, of course, the Lord was very merciful to allow it to be dealt with so quickly and easily!He even slept through the night, though our doctor warned us that collar bone breaks are notoriously painful. He's been pretty sore today, but still doing what he can (or what Mom lets him 8-D )! I guess it's a good thing he's right handed!

Terrific Twos

OK call my weird, but I love two year olds - I think they're hilarious! They are so transparent, think (and say) the funniest things - Scott calls Bonnie a "toy" because she's so much fun.
Well, recently she's been fascinated by the potty. Thankfully, going potty is going well, she's just fascinated by the different ways people in our house use the potty (having 2 older brothers). Everytime she goes potty, she puts up the seat and says "This is a boy potty." Then she puts down the seat and says "And this is a girl potty."
Today I surprised her in the midst of trying to go "boy potty". The seat was up and she was sidling up to the potty when I found her. Sorry, no pictures! Don't want to encourage that, but it sure made me laugh (after she was gone, of course!).