Light at Home

Vacation 2015

Posted by My Heart Song

6/2/2015

Last week our family was able to take a vacation out East. We started in Indiana and went through Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.

Our first stop was at a hotel in Ohio. Our kids insisted that each hotel we stayed at HAD to have a pool. Here was the first one.

That first evening, we visited friends in Ohio who served us supper. The kids enjoyed playing together in the big backyard.

My littlest girl isn't the last bit shy. She took to everyone we saw on vacation, which was mainly people she'd never seen before. No problem for her. She served up smiles and laughter nonstop.

She liked playing in this trash can. Yup, a trash can. Crazy kid!

Next stop was a hotel in West Virginia - just a halfway point on the way to our next destination in Virginia. Again, the hotel had a pool. (This was very memorable for us, as my hubby took his cell phone INTO the pool by accident. Thankfully, it still worked afterwards. Phew!)

Here are the kids by a scenic overlook in West Virginia. This was the first time any of us had seen the Appalachian Mountains. My hubby agreed that it was beautiful, though he didn't especially like driving through the mountains.

Our destination in Virginia was near Colonial Williamsburg, which we visited with our friends from the area.

These friends have 8 children, ages 11 on down. 6 boys and 2 girls. Here is me, my hubby and our littlest along with Nick, Senja, and their next-to-youngest Katie.

Their Katie took a liking to our "baby" and was being a great "big sister" - handing her cups and toys and giving hugs.

Here are my two girls with their two girls.

Very similar in age.

Here is my boy with 5 of their 6 boys.

It was a challenge to keep up with this crew!

Our final stop was to visit friends in Delaware, who took us to see the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. These friends have 4 girls (and a baby on the way), so it was the opposite of the previous stop with all the boys.

This is what I saw on most of this trip: my oldest daughter in the front with a camera/phone, helping navigate; my son in the backseat playing or sleeping; my youngest daughter next to me, being entertained with whatever toys I gave her.

Almost 2000 miles of driving split between 8 days.

Great conversations and visits with friends.

Beautiful scenery as we saw so much of God's creation and the variety we enjoy in America.

A great vacation with lots of memories made.

Pregnancy Update: 23 Weeks

Posted by My Heart Song

6/1/2015

Pregnancy Update: 23 Weeks

We made it through our week of vacation. Baby Inkling did great - no crying about being stuck in the car seat, etc. :-) The ride wasn't too uncomfortable. The heat was bearable. The visits with friends were wonderful.

Baby Inkling has been moving a lot. The kicks and pokes are strong enough to be seen on the outside.

I had been dealing with some insomnia, but our vacation helped with that. We stayed up too late many nights chatting with our friends, which in turn made me sleep very soundly. Maybe that will continue now that we're home!

Pregnancy Update: 22 Weeks

Posted by My Heart Song

5/25/2015

Pregnancy Update: 22 Weeks Along

This week we are going on vacation.

I'll be doing a lot of riding in the van, sleeping in different beds, eating different foods and trying to be comfortable. The weather for the week is expected to be HOT.

But we're super excited about this vacation, which will include visits with old friends and the first time for any of our family members to see the Atlantic Ocean.

Stay comfy, Baby Inkling! We're going on vacation!

Pregnancy Update: 21 Weeks

Posted by My Heart Song

5/18/2015

Pregnancy Update: 21 Weeks Along

I had a routine ultrasound this week. Everything looks normal and Baby Inkling appeared healthy and active. We saw lots of hand waves and movement in general.

Keep growing, Baby!

And God, we pray, for You to keep knitting this little one together to be exactly who You want him or her to be.

Soap Clouds Fun

Posted by My Heart Song

5/13/2015

Ever wonder what would happen if you put a regular bar of Ivory soap in the microwave for a few minutes?

Well, wonder no more! You get soap clouds!

All eyes were glued to the microwave, watching the soap clouds form and change shape and grow. We let it go until I feared it would explode - about 2-3 minutes.

Afterwards, you can make molds out of the soap. We didn't, though. We left it in "cloud" form and put it by the bathroom sink. Break off a small chunk and use it each time you wash your hands. Somehow washing hands just became 10 times more fun!

I got this idea here.

Intrigued? Try it yourself!

Mother's Day 2015

Posted by My Heart Song

5/12/2015

Mother's Day. I used to have high expectations of a super clean house and a day without all of the usual mommy work. But now, I have come to delight in the homemade crafty gifts from my kids and to simply appreciate the fact that I am needed in my home.

Mother's Day doesn't mean a day free from laundry or dishes. It's a day when I am especially thankful for the people who make those dirty clothes and those dirty dishes. How I love them!

How thankful I am for the privilege of being a mom.

I am well aware that it's a privilege denied to many.

I am blessed.

I embrace my role as mom.

This year, my kids made a flower craft for me. Dad also took them shopping for a few gifts. They bought a wonderfully smelling peach candle - wrapped with a note "Thank you for making our life peachy" :-)

And then a new set of 16 dishes. In with each plate was a little note of something the kids were thankful for: thank you for playing monopoly with me, thank you for washing our clothes, thank you for reading to us, thank you for teaching us, thank you for playing the piano. Maybe the best one was signed "from Inkling" (our in-utero baby), saying thank you for keeping me cozy. :-)

Cherishing each day and each child,

Thanking God for the privilege of being mom.

Pregnancy Update: Week 20

Posted by My Heart Song

5/11/2015

Pregnancy Update: 20 Weeks Along

20 Weeks = Halfway to 40 Weeks = Yahoo!

Feeling kicks now that are strong enough to be felt by others outside the womb.

Can't say that I'm "nesting" but I have started some frozen food prep, thinking ahead to when baby is born. Getting back on track making meals for my family is one of the hardest things for me when I have a newborn. So my goal is to have at least 10 frozen meals prepped in advance.

We have our ultrasound in the next few days. But don't get your hopes up for finding out Inkling's gender... we like to be surprised and will ask the ultrasound tech to NOT tell us or show us anything revealing. This is one of life's best surprises!

We love you, Baby Inkling!

Family Photo Friday

Posted by My Heart Song

5/8/2015

It's Friday, so here are a few photos from our week.

We did some major spring cleaning and room re-arranging earlier in the week. Part of this was to prepare for a guest, but it served other purposes too, as we prepare for baby's arrival in the fall. We moved toddler girl upstairs to share a room with big sister, leaving behind a true guest room. This was the cleanest and nicest this room has looked in years.

Sisters. Love it.

We had some HOT weather this week. Hot enough to get out the pool. The kids, of course, loved it and spent hours in the water.

This little girl. Oh, how she enjoys wearing other people's footwear around the house. Here she is with daddy's slippers. Just as often, it is brother's shoes or daddy's dress shoes. Funny.

Just for fun, here are two photos of her big sister who used to do the same thing, back in 2005. See similarities?

Happy Friday, one and all!

A Guest

Posted by My Heart Song

5/6/2015

We've had a guest with us this week. He works with a missionary-sending agency and has had meetings at our church this week, along with about 10 of his colleagues. We were one family who volunteered to host and I'm so glad we did.

Gary spent years as a missionary in Africa with his family. He had stories to share about that experience, as well as dozens of other interesting tid-bits and jokes. On top of that, he was just a funny grandfatherly-type guy. My kids loved him from the start, because he engaged with them at their level. My daughter asked numerous probing questions about his life and his work, which he took the time to answer in depth. This kind of interaction and learning is something you can't get from books. I'm so thankful Gary took the time to invest in my kids, realizing his role as a teacher who could help expand their horizons, to help them consider other cultures, etc.

At the end of his week-long stay with us, he thanked us and prayed for us. He felt, and so did we, that his stay with us was a perfect fit.

Grace and peace to you, Gary, as you return home.

And let me encourage others to take advantage of opportunities like this to host missionaries and other visitors. What a great way to model hospitality for your family, but also to learn from others who have different life experiences than you do.

Pregnancy Update: Week 19

Posted by My Heart Song

5/4/2015

Pregnancy Update: 19 Weeks Along

This week involved plenty of spring cleaning at our house. We rearranged 3 rooms, switched the older kids' rooms and moved our toddler upstairs into a room with older sister. Of course, this included thinking through where new baby will be sleeping too. Phew!

Almost half-way through this pregnancy. Everyone says "Wow! It's going so fast!" All pregnancies seem to go by quickly, except your own!

Biggest challenge of the week is to keep my belly safe from toddler sister who likes to push, sometimes hard, on my fluffy belly. Sorry, baby!

Keep on growing, Baby Inkling! We love you!

Homeschool Co-op: End of Another Semester

Posted by My Heart Song

4/30/2015

The Spring 2015 semester of our homeschool co-op has come to an end. We had 46 families with 131 children participating this time around.

My 7-year-old son enjoyed these K1 classes: Math Games, Gym, Maps (which I taught; read more here about that class) and Health.

In this picture is my son's Math Games class at our end-of-the semester program, counting to 5 in 5 different languages (English, Spanish, Japanese, Sweedish and German). Great job!

My 11-year-old daughter enjoyed these Jr High classes: Gym, Crafts, Spanish and Board Games.

In this picture is my daughter's Spanish class reciting Juan 3:16 at the end-of-semester program. Que bueno!

On co-op days, I spent one hour in the nursery, one hour in prayer group (which is a wonderful requirement of this Christian group), one hour teaching K1 Maps and one hour co-teaching Sr High Speech. Yes, from nursery up to Sr High, my day ran the gamut of ages and stages! This was the busiest I've been at our co-op, in terms of teaching. Next semester I'll be back to nursery for three hours and prayer group for one. I'm already looking forward to that slower paced semester!

The group learned Psalm 20:5-9 this semester. Any students who could recite this from memory on the last day received a prize. This picture is of the group that was able to recite the passage. My daughter is up there somewhere. My son gave up on memorizing the passage this time around, claiming it was too hard. But to see all of these other children, some of whom were younger than him, able to recite it... well, hmmm, maybe it wasn't TOO hard.

Now we have a break for the summer. I will say again that I really enjoy our co-op. 12 weeks together in the spring, a nice long summer break, then 12 weeks together in the fall, followed by a 2-month holiday break. It's a wonderful schedule that suits our family so well. And the group of families that participate are wonderful. I enjoy the time with the fellow moms and am thankful for the time and commitment of each of them.

Three cheers for homeschool co-op!

Toddler Girl at 16 Months

Posted by My Heart Song

4/29/2015

My toddler girl is 16 months old already. She is saying more words now (like noo-noo for noodles and tries to say her name, which she at least gets the starting sound and the number of syllables right). She understands so much and will do whatever we ask (get the cup and bring it to mama or put this shoe in the box). Our biggest challenge is to try to limit the use of her pacifier to only bedtime. She really loves that thing...

She loves to explore, whether getting into cabinets inside or trying to eat grass outside. Here she is exploring a head of cauliflower. She was fascinated. She's very particular about dirt. If she notices any small piece of lint, dirt, hair, etc. on the floor or on her hands, she will bring it to me and want it off.

We've had a few warm, summer-like days and Little Miss has loved being outside whenever possible.

However, she took her first bike ride with me during one of those warm days. She was not impressed. I'm thinking it was the huge helmet that bothered her, but safety first. We'll try again and see if she gets used to it.

Hiding in a hamper. Fun times.

She's big enough to climb into our recliners by herself now, without a stool or any assistance. That makes her so proud, she just glows and laughs at herself.

All smiles with big brother and big sister in the background.

My son had a new wheelbarrow. Little Miss found it, put her sippy cup in it and pushed it around. A little worker already!

Delightful. Adorable. Cherished.

Deeply loved!

Pregnancy Update: Week 18

Posted by My Heart Song

4/27/2015

Pregnancy Update: 18 Weeks Along

This week's theme is MOVEMENT. I had been feeling some flutters in recent weeks but they have become more pronounced now. I'm more certain now that they are indeed baby movements. They aren't strong enough for anyone else to feel them on the outside yet, but I sure do feel them.

I had a routine OB appointment this week. All continues to look fine and the baby's heartbeat is strong. A routine ultrasound is now scheduled in about 2 weeks time.

I am starting to feel big. With past pregnancies, this is the point where I have sometimes started to measure big. I have not gained more than 10 pounds, but I look closer to 30 weeks pregnant than 20. However, I rejoice in a healthy pregnancy and body that will do what it's supposed to do, even if it has lost some of its elasticity.

Pregnancy and birth really are an incredible process!

We love you, Baby Inkling!

Homeschool Co-op: Maps Class

Posted by My Heart Song

4/22/2015

I taught Maps/Geography as a class for the Kindergarten-1st Graders this semester at our homeschool co-op.

I had 12 kids in my class - 10 boys (!!!) and 2 girls. My son was one of the boys. Him I can handle. But him along with 9 other boys as crazy as he is... was more than I could handle! I was very thankful for the other mom who was my faithful class helper.

I used a curriculum that a fellow homeschooling mom had used a few years ago at our co-op for this same class. It was nice to have lesson plans already laid out for me. I changed a few things to add my own flair, but I appreciated her willingness to share what she'd created and done before. Why reinvent the wheel?!

The kids enjoyed doing a floor puzzle of the USA and another floor puzzle of the world (focusing on the seven continents, which we memorized).

I brought in numerous books for the kids to look at / read that were related to geography. One fun project was to find the compass rose on every map.

On our last day, we enjoyed a class party. I made a huge cookie shaped like our state of Indiana and decorated it with a few major rivers and cities. I got the idea for this from a project my daughter did a few years ago and also from this Indiana blogger/teacher.

We ate the cookie in class (or about 1/4 of it, actually, because it was HUGE).

On party day, I had the kids play "pin the state on the map" with a few states (like Indiana, California, Florida, Oklahoma). This was a lot of fun. Here are three of the students showing where their Indiana states ended up.

This boy got Oklahoma RIGHT WHERE IT BELONGS while blind-folded. Unbelievable!

A few days ago, I caught my son "playing school" with this map, teaching his class about the compass rose and where to find our state on the map.

Success!

Pregnancy Update: Week 17

Posted by My Heart Song

4/20/2015

Pregnancy Update: 17 Weeks Along

Hmmm. What is new this week?

Baby is about the size of an onion.

Bones are firming up.

The umbilical cord is growing stronger and thicker.

I have a routine OB appointment next week. And I will probably have a routine ultrasound done in the next few weeks.

I've been having some strange dreams at night. Very vivid. Very real. Very strange. And very memorable, as I can often recall one or two of these dreams the next day. This is a common symptom of pregnancy for me.

That's all to report for this week. On to week 18!

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