August 20, 2014

Mary and I have been trying and trying to plan a beach day this summer, but summer just hasn't shown up very much in these parts (no complaints about that here!).  Well, summer showed up today and it just happened that we had planned a beach day! It was a smashing success, the perfect pre-polar vortex celebration. You think I'm kidding.

When I was single and working nights I used to go to the beach a few times a week.  Since I'm not much of a lay-out kind of person, I would quickly get bored, grab an ice cream cone, and walk the beach a few times, read my book, and honestly feel a little envious of the people who had something to DO at the beach...like moms who had kids to dig in the sand with.  Now, I rarely go to the beach because taking kids to the beach is like taking a pile of CATS to the beach and trying to keep them sort of corralled.  And I nearly weep with envy at the singles/moms with older kids who are setting up their little beach chairs and snacks and books.  But not TOO much, because we do have some pretty funny little cats to herd.

We went to the state park in Grand Haven.  Such a nice beach.  We were there early enough that we had a lot of the beach to ourselves for a bit.  Even when it filled up it still felt like there weren't many people there. The water wasn't terrible - about 70 degrees.

                                        

These two. They are so funny together.  Levi and Josiah had so much fun.  We brought our beach toys in a large 3 or 4 gallon bucket.  Josiah took that bucket and doused Levi a few good ones. He knows how to get a party started, that kid. ;)

                                       

They laughed their pants off, as Levi and Nana would say.  You could probably hear them clear up the beach.

                                      

Luke hung by me and dipped his toes in from time to time.  He gets really into being by the water about one minute before we leave. 

                                     

Josiah's post-beach tradish is going out for ice cream.  Little known fact: I am very, very easy to convince to go along for ice cream.  And I sure don't want to let a little boy down.

Levi and Josiah telling the girl at the window over and over and over again that they are besties.

                                     

Oh my word, what is NOT TO LOVE about this picture??

                                     

Or this one?

                                   

August 15, 2014

I have a heinous amount of pictures that I have yet to post from this summer, but time so rarely presents itself, so I just need to keep it current.  If I could, I would post about leading the three-year-olds at Vacation Bible School (summary: lots of play dough stuck to the carpet and an alarming amount of hot dogs consumed by very small people):

and a rockin' cookout we went to with some buds from church a couple weeks ago.

I unceremoniously axed my zucchini plants, partly because they were starting to look kind of sad, and partly because I have more zucchini than I can handle emotionally.  And cucumbers.  Huge cucumbers. And squash.  Conclusion?  Organic manure straight from the farm produces freakish results: plant money next year.

So, random "stuff" - we went to the new Splash Pad in downtown Zeeland...last week?  A couple weeks ago?  I don't remember.  It sure was fun though for the bigger boys.

                                     

                                     

                                   

Josiah loves to hold Luke. :)

                                    

I don't feel like we've had a crazy busy summer, yet at the same time it has felt as though there is something - something! - going on every day. Even if it's just playing with friends, or something fun I set out to do with the boys, it's still something.  I noticed a couple weeks ago that all these somethings were wearing down my household and the boys' behavior was spiraling downward.  So we had to pull waaaaay back and circle the wagons, as my friend would put it.  Maybe that's partly why I haven't posted much lately, we've just been pretty low-key.

Friday tradish: a drive out to the farm to pick up our milk.  We are so thrilled to have this experience for our boys, to learn where some of their food comes from, what is involved in the process, to see that there are people who work hard to provide it and that it's an all-day, every-day thing.  It's so cool to see Levi understand basic biology - such as how the cow eating grass and producing waste is what creates more healthy grass. On our way to the farm today we had a fun talk about the four seasons, and how as we make our Friday drive through the country, we see how the landscape changes from bare ground and bare trees, to plowed fields, to seedlings and new leaves, to tall, tall corn stalks and green leaves, and soon the corn will be harvested and the leaves will change color and fall off and the ground will be bare again.  And we talked about how the cycle of seasons show that we serve a God who created order and consistency, and nature reflects His character of order and consistency.  Levi is at an age right now where he is soaking things like that up, and to see his heart start to understand who Christ is...is remarkable.

On our way home from the farm we LOVE to stop at the Corner Cone Cafe. This place is a dinky little cafe plopped right in the middle of farm land, along one of the main roads that all the trucks take to the farms and out to Allendale.  We sit on the front porch and eat our lunch and yell "WOOOOOWWWWW!" at all the trucks flying by!

                                      

                                      

The other day we went for hair cuts and ran a bunch of errands.  Checked out Hobby Lobby's Christmas display. ((gulp))

                                     

Since the boys were so patient during their hair cuts AND all the unbuckle-buckle-unbuckle-buckle of numerous errands, I surprised them with a trip to Windmill Island on the way home to check out the new playground (I just found out that City of Holland residents get in for free?!). I didn't realize we could do all the other things at Windmill Island too! Like the merry go round!  Levi did NOT want anything to do with that at first, but as soon as he saw other kids getting on he changed his mind.

                                     

Beautiful playground - actually designed and built by TLC's Carter Oosterhouse last summer. It's right along the Black River and the railroad tracks are on the other side of the river, so Luke got to see a train go by. Kids in rear-facing car seats don't get to see trains, you know. ;)

                                   

Shooting into the sun, but the train's there

                                   

Luke loved seeing the peacock and the "cocka-doodle-doooo" as he says it (he won't say 'rooster')

                                  

There's a children's garden there, too.  Kids can take a little plastic watering can and water the plants.

                                 

                                 

                                 

I can hardly believe that next week - yes, NEXT WEEK - I am going to start up school with the boys again.  We did enroll Levi in threeschool one day a week at a local Christian school.  It'll be a ton of fun for him, and we want him to get the context of a classroom setting.  There are SO MANY good schools in our area - we are very fortunate - and some of them offer hybrid homeschool/traditional school programs, so a blend may be what we choose to do in the future.  Every year will be a reevaluation of where the boys are and what they need, I'm sure.  At least two other days of the week I will do preschool/pre-K with Levi, and Luke will just have the advantage of going along for the ride.

This week in preparation I have started to cycle our "school structure" back into the day.  Morning projects came back out before breakfast.  Levi is VERY into puzzles and will put them all together, tear them up, and put them back together.

                                    

He's just now becoming interested in games.  I taught him how to play Candy Land and Memory. He LOVES Candy Land.

                                   

Luke, just like Levi at this age, is very into water.  This was a peaceful moment of water play...that quickly turned into a flood in the kitchen.  I filled the tub with about an inch of water and both boys stripped and moved their good time there instead.

                                       

Levi received this Melissa and Doug patterning set for Christmas and was SO not interested in it...until the other morning when he went downstairs and brought it up and played with it for much of the morning.

                                     

I originally had what I thought was a fantastic plan for schooling this year - Sonlight's pre-K curriculum (which Levi and I are very excited to begin), Handwriting Without Tears, and a beginning math curriculum that I had purchased.  I was about six weeks into planning and realized that it was not sitting well in my gut. It was overly ambitious and setting us up for a grand amount of frustration.  It took a couple weeks of thinking and researching and doing a good amount of reading before I threw up my white flag and decided to blow up  my plan and rewrite it.  Long story.  We will still work with Handwriting Without Tears and the beginning math concepts as well as our Sonlight curriculum, but it will be at a much slower pace than I had planned, and I am adding in a LOT more play-oriented learning vs worksheets and instructional learning.  This week I have already started to implement our focused play and I can see that BOTH boys are going to thrive with it, hopefully over the next couple of years.  I did print off a comprehensive list of preschool/pre-K expectations as well as Common Core standards and highlighted the areas where Levi needs the most work - even if I heartily disagree with much of Common Core, I still want to keep abreast with what the latest expectations are.  Criminy, if they want me to teach my four year old how to gather data and graph it, I will, even if I think it's a bit much. ;)

July 19, 2014

When Matt and I got engaged, he insisted on moving back to Michigan.  At the time, I was like, Seriously.  We didn't do it right away.  I wanted to shoot for something in between California and Michigan - so that's why we started out in Denver.  It didn't take long for circumstances to actually lead us to the Midwest sooner rather than later - with a three-month detour in Tucson, of course - but man, on days like today, I'm so glad we live in the Midwest.  Everyone complains about winter and dreams of mountains and oceans and year-round nice temperate weather, but man, we really do have it made in more ways than I can describe.

Such as.....a good old-fashioned tractor show.  The Riverbend Steam and Gas Association has its Antique Tractor Show in Allendale every third weekend in July.  It was a green and  yellow, bedecked-in-your-overalls, engine-chugging, farm-equipment-displayed, bluegrass-by-the-creek blast.  We are definitely going to hit this place every year!  The tractors were shiny, the farmers were proud, and the live music in a thick grove of trees made for an atmosphere that made us want to stay all afternoon.

Several farmers had their old tools, toys, and equipment on display and encouraged the kids to sit on their tractors.

                                    

                                   

                                  

                                  

Levi likes to point out classic cars.

                                 

Several rows of antique tractors

                                

The little bluegrass-ish band playing by the hot dog/burger/pizza/homemade pie tent.  They sang everything from Beach Boys to full gospel.

                                 

The boys loved their pizza and ice cream :)  We sat at a table with some elderly gentlemen who told us we had a nice-looking pair of boys.

                                

                                 

The band had a little suitcase filled with little noise makers: tambourines, shakers, etc.  You could just grab what you wanted and play along with them.  The boys and I had a good time with that.

                                 

Luke kept going up to pick out something to play.

                                

He had fun dancing and playing his little shaker and listening to the music.

                                

On the way home Levi was emphatic that he wasn't tired.  We just kept replying, "Okay, good to know, buddy.  That's cool."

Guess who's snoring now??? ;)

July 15, 2014

Tab (neighbor across the street) and I scratched each other's back today: she took my boys while I had a dentist appointment...and then we swapped and I had her two younger kids while she worked until early afternoon.  Everyone should have a neighbor like Tab.  A good old-fashioned do-you-have-a-cup-of-sugar neighbor.

It was so fun to have Eli and Anya here!! Anya is always asking if there's something she can do for me.  Something she can clean, organize, help with...if you know Tab, well.....tree, behold thine apple. ;)  I've had a few random things that I've been wanting to do that aren't terribly time-consuming but always get tabled - so she did them for me. She hot-glued magnets onto fuzzy poms, and googly eyes onto little foam shapes I had cut out.  Little things for me to tuck away for school this fall.  Then she helped me make dinner. I didn't have a recipe, just a list of ingredients from a cooking genius friend who made the most amazing pork and beans ever when we stayed with them last month.  So we kind of guessed here, dumped in a few things there, and hoped for the best. And oh, it turned out almost as good as Koets' version.

                                       

This was an excellent study in the behavior of boys vs. girls.  Behold:

                                      

Eli and Levi took their tools and measuring tapes, "built" an imaginary jail, and arrested Luke for the egregious act of eating pretzels and dried cranberries on the love seat.  Luke thought it was hysterical to be in jail.  You can't really tell, but he's smooshing his face against the door.

It wasn't a super nice morning, but Anya really wanted us to pack a  picnic and go to the park.  And I thought, why not?  She helped me cut fruit and pack a lunch (seriously, this girl is NINE - she could give a few lessons on having a servant's heart!) and helped me shepherd the boys to the park.  We had it all to ourselves and we had a lot of fun.

                                   

                                    

                                    

                                    

                                   

After we got home I put Luke to bed and the older kids went down to the school room to play school.  No joke, I'm cleaning upstairs and it was totally quiet downstairs save for some contented talking and counting I could hear thru the laundry chute.  I head down and they are playing school and Anya is teaching them a counting game!  Girl, you're HIRED. :)  Thanks for a fun morning.

                                   

Yesterday I bought Levi a notebook and a pack of colored pencils just to have whenever he feels like scribbling.  Interestingly, he started "writing" (scribbling) notes to God and Jesus.  And he started asking me about death.  A few times lately he's popped out a question about when we die or how we die.  Yesterday he asked when do we die.  I'm sure there are books with age-appropriate, sweet little answers in them, but thankfully, Levi does really well with matter-of-fact answers.  I told him people usually die when they get old and their bodies wear out like a car breaks down when it's really old.  Some people die when they're younger and they get really, really sick.  And other people die because they get very badly hurt, like in an accident. He said, "Like in that car accident we saw by the gas station."  I said well yeah, sometimes, but most people who are in a car accident actually don't die...Mama and Papa have both been in car accidents and we're fine.  Whatever the case may be, the Bible tells us that God already knows the number of days we have before we're even born, and we don't need to be afraid of how or when it'll happen.  With that, the conversation was over, and Levi flipped his notebook to the next page, made a very colorful picture and said it was for God and all the people who are with Him, and he wanted to give his notes to the mail man to give to God. I squirreled them away and told him I would make sure God got them.  This morning he asked, 'Did God get my notes?'  I told him yes - and He loves them and they're hanging on His fridge in Heaven.  Because somehow, I'm certain they are.

                                       

On a far less serious note: fudgesicles.  Levi was introduced to the awesomeness of popsicles at Aunt Mary's, so we have this new tradish each day of enjoying a popsicle together in the front yard before Luke wakes up from his nap.  This week I bought fudgsicles.  Partly because, well, FUDGEsicles, and I am discovering the hilarity of how messy a fudgsicle in the hands of a little kid can really be.  Good thing I nailed that awesome stain-remover recipe.

What you don't see is where it all dripped on his pants and legs.  On our walk after dinner I kept calling him "Fudgesicle" and he finally got fed up and yelled from his bike, "I. Am not. A FUDGESICLE!!!"  It was enormously hilarious.

                                       

A dichotomy: Luke, happily eating...a fudgesicle.

                                               

And now, quite possibly the best picture I've ever taken - 

(This happens every time, by the way)

Luke, when the top of the fudgesicle falls off and plops on the driveway:

                                             

Yes, I am THAT mom. I roll with laughter while my kid screams.  Sometimes, there is little else you can do.