Little Update..

Not much new is going on in our house this week. We are starting our 7th week of school. Things have been going great in that regard. I think the biggest struggle for me is keeping the right mood. I strive to have a certain atmosphere during our school time. I want my kids to feel comfortable, secure, loved, at home, peaceful, free of distraction, and reflective. I would like them to have that wonderful feeling you get when you are about to cuddle up with a great book. How the world sort of slows down and all you can think about are the covers, pillows and the book.

I have several tricks up my sleeve to help foster this environment. I light a good smelling candle. I keep the lighting not to bright, but not to dim either. The toys and other distractions are picked up before school starts and throughout the day (when needed). I strive to go slow and question the kids to make sure that they truly understand what we are learning. In other words I am not simply checking things off a list. I don't want to have that "gotta get it done" mind set. Homeschooling is a long journey and today is an important part of that journey. I don't want to rush through it, I want walk slowly and enjoy the sites along the way.

Here are a couple pictures-

Even Superheroes get hurt sometimes, and dads hugs are the best..

She LOVES her daddy..

Vacation- Part Two

On Thursday we spent the day visiting family and friends in the Quad Cities. On the way there we saw someone familiar on the truck in front of us.....

At my moms house the kids enjoyed riding the horses and hanging out with Grandma :)

Chicago!!!

Yesterday our family headed to Chicago for a much anticipated vacation. It has been about 4 years since our last stay in a hotel as a family so we were all very excited. We rolled out of town around 7:30 am. Our first stop once we hit the Windy City was Shed Aquarium. The kids loved all the neat fish, especially the sharks. After meandering through all the exhibits we hopped in the van and headed to Sears Tower. Now you all may not know this about me but I am afraid of heights.. actually terrified is a better way to describe the heart palpitations and feelings of EXTREME anxiety. I have not always had this fear. In fact, before we were married I would scare Aaron to death by going out onto cliffs in the Colorado mountains. But in my old age I have acquired this lovely phobia.

Anyway, we headed up to Sears Tower. After going through the metal detector (like that is going to alleviate my fears!) we got on the elevator and headed up to floor 103 (103 people!! That is crazy high!). The kids had a blast looking out over the city. I was doing ok until we noticed an airplane in the sky, very close to where we were. I looked at said plane once and never looked back. I did more looking out than looking down. But ya know they have this new thing you can do on the 103rd floor. It is called the “Sky Deck”. Apparently some genius thought it would be neat to suspend Plexiglas 103 floors in the sky.

Aaron and the kids jumped right in while I held back. You know when you tell your kids your afraid of something like spiders and they do everything they can to find a spider and scare you with it..can you see where I am going with this…they started pushing me out on this transparent piece of plastic…103 floors in the sky! I about had a heart attack. But then I realized that it would be a cool picture to take with my little girl. So I decided to walk out quickly with my eyes shut, sit down and look up at the camera and then get out as quickly as I could… After the Sears Tower we checked in at our hotel. We stayed at the Sheraton on North Water Street. It overlooked the river and the view was amazing! After admiring our room and peaking in at the gym (hey, I couldn’t help it!) we made our way to Lou Malnati's. The pizza was amazing and the company was even better. Once we were stuffed with pizza we trekked back to our hotel and relaxed until bedtime. The view at night was so wonderful. It only took us an hour to get the kids to fall asleep. It was so fun to hear them giggle hysterically when they were supposed to be going to sleep. This morning we hit Michigan Avenue for some more fun! The boys LOVED the Lego store. Elliana and I were very excited to venture into the American Girl Store. When we got to the front door I asked her “Are you ready to see some baby’s?” Her very enthusiastic response was “YEAH!”. We browsed for a very long time. Just admiring all the pretty dolls, clothes and accessories. It was such an awesome mommy-daughter time with my little girl. After a quick lunch, at which the boys realized how tired they were...we headed home….

Giving our kids an advantage

At MOMS group this morning our pastor encouraged us to give our children something that gives them an advantage, confidence or a sense of accomplishment. I read a great article recently that related very well to this topic. If you are interested, visit I Take Joy and enjoy the post entitled Reading as a source of soul strength..

Just some cute pics...

Elliana decided that she needed to stand on this clear Tupperware container.

She put herself in the toy box. Asher offered to close it for her, she did not accept his offer.

My beautiful boys...

hmmmm

I found this cute little website that calculates what a mom is worth. Apparently I should be getting paid $162,000/ year. Not sure who is supposed to be sending out those checks, but I have not received one :)

In all seriousness our jobs as stay at home moms are priceless to our families. If someone offered me a job with a salary of $162,000 I would refuse in an instant.