Morning Devotions with the Children

In the morning after breakfast, the children and I stay at the table or sit on the couch for a short time of devotions together. It's a nice way to start the morning, by hiding God's Word in our hearts!  We're currently reading Big Thoughts for Little People by Kenneth Taylor.  This book has such sweet illustrations and with so many details to hold their attention. It is in "A, B, C" format, so for example, the first page has :

"A is for Asking.  We ask when we pray.  God's happy to answer and help us each day."

Then there is a paragraph to read that discusses what is happening in the picture, some questions to answer, and a Bible verse to learn.  We have the older edition, pictured below, and I think it is so much sweeter than the new edition!

After our little devotion, we sing a hymn from Hymns for a Kid's Heart, volume 1, by Bobbie Wolgemuth and Joni Eareckson Tada.  I just love this series!  Though Dori (age 3) and Quinn (almost 2) are not learning all the words, they still know the tune and a few words as we repeat them often enough.  There's nothing sweeter than hearing my little ones sing, "Holy, holy, holy!" Davin (age 7) loves to sing with me and we work together to memorize the hymns one verse per day and also reviewing what we've learned so far.  The included CD is very well done and we enjoy listening to it any time of the day!

Our Blessing

Our 4th blessing (and 3rd boy!) is due in just over two months.  Every time I look at this picture from my latest ultrasound it just takes my breath away.  We can't wait to meet you, sweet boy!

"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well." (Psalm 139:14)

Cheerio Bird Feeder

The kids made a Cheerio bird feeder a few days ago to hang out on the tree in our front yard.  We just love watching birds from our living room, but we have had some bad luck with squirrels destroying our bird feeders!  This delicate little project fared no better, but the kids had fun making it!  All they did was string Cheerios onto pipe cleaners and then formed them into linking circles.  

Here's Quinnlyn feeding some Cheerios to Davin.  She strung a few Cheerios on the pipe cleaner, but decided that eating them was much more enjoyable :)

Davin obviously has the longest attention span to complete this project (even though it only took a few minutes!) 

The finished project:

My Helper

I'm thankful today for my sweet boy who loves to help out (especially with cooking!) 

Modest Monday

As a frequent reader of "The Modest Mom" blog, I was inspired by her new "Modest Monday" series and decided to post a picture of an outfit I've worn this week.  I'm a few days late in posting, but I'll try to keep up with this :)

I'm currently 28 weeks pregnant with baby #4, a boy!  I don't wear skirts every day, but I do love them and usually wear them several days a week.  The skirt in this picture is one I just made last week, from a pattern that can be found here.  I used a light-blue, cotton, old baby blanket of my first-born son for the maternity panel, which made me a little emotional bringing back all those memories :)  I was quite busy sewing last week, as I made two maternity skirts!  I'm wearing black leggings under the skirt for some extra warmth, and the grey boots certainly aren't the cutest and most stylish, but I've worn them so much this winter because they are so warm and comfortable!  The shirt is from Motherhood Maternity, and I was pleasantly surprised to find some shirts there that aren't low-cut :)  So there you are!  I don't feel very "cute" this pregnancy, as I started out weighing considerably more than with my last one, but I still try not to look frumpy even when I feel that way.  Some days that's easier said than done, and I pull out my comfy velour pants, though :) 

Poetry Memorization

I am so proud of Davin for completing level 1 of "Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization" by Andrew Pudewa....the title is quite a mouthful, isn't it? What that means is that over the course of several months, we have been working on memorizing 20 poems, with a total of 200 lines. After memorizing all of the poems, Davin recited them all to us over the course of two days. It has really been an enjoyable part of our homeschool, and as with everything we study I am so thankful to be learning right alongside him. It is amazing how children's brains are like sponges, soaking everything up! As a reward for his hard work, Davin was allowed to pick out any book of his choice from Barnes & Noble this weekend. He chose the new "Lego Idea Book" and hasn't put it down since he got it :)

Here is one of Davin's favorite poems that he's memorized:

The Ingenious Little Old Man

A little old man of the sea
Went out in a boat for a sail,
The water came in
Almost up to his chin
And he had nothing which which to bail.

But this little old man of the sea
Just drew out his jackknife so stout,
And a hole with its blade
In the bottom he made,
So that all of the water ran out.

-- John Bennett

Nature Study with the Boys

It has been SO hot outside lately that we have not enjoyed the outdoors very much this past week.  It rained earlier today and cooled it down to a comfortable 85 degrees, so it was a perfect day for exploring :)  There are so many exciting things to discover outside, and getting to see the world through the eyes of a child brings me such joy!  "Nature study" and letting kids spend a lot of time playing outside is an important part of Charlotte Mason's educational philosophy, which I have read quite a bit about during our homeschooling journey.  You can read more HERE if you're interested :)  Here's an example of our nature study, which is really just enjoying nature!

As I was sitting on the patio, Dorian was bringing me rocks that he thought were interesting and telling me why he liked them: like, "This one is shiny!" and "This one is white and brown and gray." Then he decided to start smelling the rocks (I have no idea why!) and after sniffing several he said, "This one smells like Daddy!"  I had a good laugh about that one :)  This was Davin's favorite rock:

Then, Dorian was looking around the rocks and discovered a butterfly on the ground.  He told me it wasn't moving, so I picked it up and carried it to the table.  We told Davin to come and look and the boys got quite sad at the fate of the poor butterfly and hugged each other to mourn their loss....I have two sensitive little boys!  It was adorable, though.  Here's the butterfly Dorian found:

When we got inside, we looked online to identify the butterfly and discovered that it was a Black Swallowtail.  Such a beautiful butterfly!:

My keen explorer, Dorian, next spotted a beetle among the rocks.  He called me over to look at it and this is what we saw:

We're not certain about what kind of beetle it is, but it looks like it may be a stag beetle:

Then, the boys were walking around the house and came to one of their favorite spots: the lavender growing beside the garage.  We all love to pull a piece and take a good whiff of that heavenly smell!  Davin often smells it and gets a little woozy with relaxation and falls to the ground to rest for a while :)  It must be very potent!

So, that was our nature study!  It's so much fun to spend a few minutes really appreciating the outdoors with my children.