Not Just A Tree

To most people, a tree is just a tree.

They don't see it's beauty,

It's strength.

They don't see it's pattern of life,

growth, and elegance. 

The day that eyes see more than just a tree,

is the day those eyes begin to see the world.

They see truth and beauty all around.

They see hope for the future.

They see in others a new potential. 

They see that we are all connected,

 imperfect, and beautiful...

just like the tree.

So, a tree is not just a tree.

The tree is you, and the tree is me.

The tree is all of us, together,

growing, 

changing, 

giving strength to each other.

"The Princess Bride" Movie Night With Elijah

I always feel like I am going to forget little sweet moments that happen in my everyday life.  I wish I had more time to write things down.  I guess that is what prompted this post.

Last week, I purchased the movie, "The Princess Bride" while on my regular Target shopping trip.  It was only $5, and it's a classic that we desperately needed to add to our movie library.   I grew up with it being an all time favorite family movie (not realizing how corny and fun it really was until much later).  Then, a few years ago, I read a book on parenting boys.  In one of the chapters, it had a list of movies they were recommending to watch with your boys... among the list was "The Princess Bride."

On a regular basis, I am pretty strict when it comes to what I let my children watch.  I knew eventually I wanted all of the kids to watch this movie I had grown to love, but when was the right time?  How old is old enough for sword fighting, death, and true love? We decided this would be a good movie for Elijah who just turned seven, but Owen, our four year old, would not be allowed to watch it just yet.
I was still a little questionable, thinking about the content of the movie... Elijah has really only seen cartoon/kid movies - all rated G.  However,  the parenting book I had read said watching good movies together and talking about the themes and ideas presented with your child, allows them to begin to connect his inside world with his outside world.  I had never really thought about it that way before. I was always very aware of the content and watched for reactions and we'd talk about themes in the movie, but this idea of helping him to take steps to understanding the world... well that seems pretty big.

Other good movies recommended were:
The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Wizard of Oz (which he has seen)
Old Yeller
The Miracle on 34th Street
Stagecoach
Where the Red Fern Grows
The Lion King
Babe
The Iron Giant

These were recommended specifically for boys, but of course are great for any child.
They all have a certain theme of good vs. evil, fighting for what is right, and lots of adventure, which kids are fascinated with.

Knowing all of this ahead of time, I was anxious to see Elijah's reactions to "The Princess Bride," but first we needed the unique opportunity to watch it alone with him. This opportunity came unexpectantly last Tuesday night.
We were at the dinner table and Owen refused to eat his food. (this is somewhat typical, but he is required to take at least 4 "thankful" bites, which he was having a very hard time with).  Martin realized he was being more difficult than usual, but neither of us caught it was due to being overtired... until about five minutes later.  We looked over and Owen had actually fallen asleep with his arms folded and his head tucked in them right on the table!
Martin carried him to bed, we cleaned up, and there was an opportunity to watch a movie with just Elijah awake!
The special scenario made the movie more exciting and enjoyable for Elijah, I think. It's not often he gets to stay up late and also have both of his parents to hang out with.
He watched the entire movie with such intensity, it kind of caught me off guard. He paid attention to every detail. (I do have to admit, there was one section where I pushed the mute button.  Since I can pretty much quote the entire thing, I remembered the one swear word just in time... he didn't really need to hear that part right?)
My favorite thing about the whole night was at the end of the movie when they are all four riding away on white horses, Elijah smiled and said, "I'm glad she gets to ride horses again, because that's her favorite thing to do."
He said that was his favorite part about the whole movie- the girl getting to enjoy her favorite past time.  Oh, my sweet boy! i just love him! I thought he might say the sword fighting or something else, but no, he was glad for the girl getting to enjoy riding horses!
I'm looking forward to many more memorable movie nights with these wonderful boys of mine. And soon they will all be old enough to enjoy the classics!

P.S I just heard that "The Princess Bride" is being made into a Broadway Show! wow... Inconceivable!

"Living Things" Day One

     Our weeks of themed summer fun have kept us going.  We've been learning new things, experimenting, and tapping in to our deep creative side! This week (and possibly next week), we have chosen the theme of "Living Things." It's quite a big umbrella to tackle, so we are starting small and working our way up.
     Yesterday, Monday,  we learned about plants, what they need to grow and flourish, and some of the other living things that help them... bees.  We made our own flowers using toilet paper roll centers, and some construction paper, and bees using paper and craft sticks.  The boys loved learning about a bees "job." They got to practice is for themselves by playing with their own creations... pollinating flowers!

 Our next project was planting our very own tree!  This may have been their favorite part of the day!  They got to dig, make piles of rocks, and get really, really dirty! Daddy did most of the heavy lifting and digging, but our little guys were still a big part of this living thing!  Now we will have the privilege of watching it grow in front of our house for years to come!

Time to Hero UP!

        I never would have guessed that I would know all the names of nearly every superhero, what they do, what weapons they use, and even which villain they are most evenly matched with. I even know how to pronounce Mjolnir. And if you are as cool as me, you would know I am referring to Thor's Mighty Hammer, of course!  Over the passed two years, as my boys have reached the target superhero age, my knowledge and their interest has exploded! And honestly, I've been loving it. I know I was meant to have boys, if not for this alone!
     Needless to say, Monday kicked off our terrific SUPERHERO WEEK! It wasn't hard finding things to do related to superheroes! Many of the boys' things are already some sort of hero.  Along with all of our activities, I thought it was also important to talk about some superhero qualities and characteristics. What makes a superhero a true hero? Are there real live superheroes? Yes... superheroes do exist and you can be one too. All it takes is a generous amount of courage, selflessness, and the will to fight for true honor and justice. These are noteworthy things, of course and why we all really love a hero.

Here are my little heroes in action...

I was thrilled to find matching superhero shirts at Target for $2!!!

Owen doing his: Hulk Smash! (yes we made this mask... out of foam)

We made quite a few of these stick puppet heroes and put on a show using last week's dilapidated cardboard rocket.

I love the way they play! This video of Owen using his puppets makes me smile! They are so cute!

New superhero outfits from Grandma!

Superhero puzzles!

Superhero stickerbook! Owen loved just looking through this at all of the heroes!

Ironman and Captain American paraded the neighborhood!

Painting projects... Elijah made this jet and painted it.

These painted cans are going to be a windchime when all put together.

Elijah and I worked together to make some hero symbols out of a craft media called "bendaroos"

No-sew Hero Capes!

These are just men's t-shirts with the front and arms cut off! Elijah used the leftover arms to put on his head and his legs! Silly boy!!!

William got to be included for this one! Super-baby!

I loved this... Owen lifted up William's cape and said, "Look mom, he's flying!"

My little hero's and I spent a great week together getting in touch with our brave side.  There's never been a better time to be a superhero! (And I have three all to myself!!!)

Rocket Week Part 2

School has been out for two whole weeks which means my life and daily routine has changed drastically! The days seem three times longer since they aren't split up by driving to and from school. And the opportunities are endless! There are a million fun things I want to do with my kids, however a few roadblocks already stand in my way. I knew of course that it would be challenging planning things around a baby's schedule and needs, but what I didn't expect was the amount of laziness and whining from my older two! oh my goodness... you would think I was torturing them just to get them to do a few simple things. "Mo--oOOOOmmmmm! Do I have to? Uh... why? Can't I just watch a show, or play a computer game?" Uh no... it's kind of beautiful outside and I don't want your brain turning to mush on my watch! They are allowed a certain amount of "screen time," but I want the summer to be filled with so much more than that!

Last week we finished off Rocket Week an extension of the first themed week of the summer. We ended up doing some pretty fun things, but our week was a little more relaxed than the first week. We started out trying an experiment using mentos and Diet Coke. The "Wow" factor was not quite what I had hoped for. It was suppose to shoot up into the air causing much excitment and amazment... nope, ours just kind of bubbled and sputtered and then quickly exploded over the top without really going high up into the air.

I registered the boys to be a part of the summer reading program, so on mondays, we go to the library and they get a sticker and a small prize for showing their reading log of books we have read.  Half of the books we are reading are rocket-related, and the other half are just fun ones that they wanted. We also started reading a chapter book during story time called "Ghostville Elementary," which they are loving! I could read to them all day and never get tired of it, but we have to mix it up a little...

One day we made miniture rockets out of toilet paper rolls. They had a lot of fun doing that... lots of cutting and pasting and creating...

Then we hung them from the curtain rod as you can see here.  The rocket names were from the week before. Another cut and paste project we did was making a collage. We chose things that either started with the letter "r" for "Rocket" or were related to rockets/ space. Here are some picture of their collages:

I love that there are so many resources out there for EVERYTHING! We have been watching "the Magic School Bus" which happened to have an episode about going to the moon! We also have that particular book, which we read a few times this week.

The vote is still out for next week... it's a tie between Superhero week and Living Things... maybe you can help us decide. We'll end up doing both and probably for more than just one week. When there is so much fun to be had on just one subject it's hard to spend only one week on it! I have a lot of ideas for both themes...

Rocket Week!

      I decided about a month before school let out that I wanted to do this summer differently.  Not only did I want us to do normal fun summer things, but I was feeling really ambitious... we are going to do it all... books, projects science projects, crafts, experiments, cooking, art, music, letters, math, games, and every free community activity I can get my hands on. Well, not only all of that, but I thought, every week we will center all the activities around a special theme to pull it all together and really have an amazing summer! I know what you are thinking... she's crazy! Yes... a little bit. And of course over-ambitious on how much I can get done with a 6 year old, 4 year old, and a 9 month old baby.
     My inspiration for the theme idea came from all the summer's my mom did "summer camp" for kids when I was growing up. She always had a million crazy-creative-resourceful ideas that made every day a fun experience. That's what I want for my boys. I spent much of last summer very hugely pregnant... and very hot... and mostly in front of (sorry to say) some sort of kids show.  I don't want a repeat of that( the extensive tv time, not the pregnancy.. although I also don't want a repeat of that either)!!!
     So, the first week of no school and we are off to a pretty good start on ROCKET WEEK, which with a unanimous vote from the boys deserves an extension over through next week as well. I thought I would try to keep up on everything and post all the fun things we are doing throughout the summer. Here are some of the things we've done so far...

5...4...3...2...1...BLAST OFF!  This was our rocket snack... they even made it to the moon!

This is suppose to be a cardboard rocket... it turned out to be more challenging than I had imagined.

The love being the pilot (however, there is only room for one...)

Rocket activity/behavior charts and Rocket themed books

Lunch one day... (cheese roll-up rocket with red pepper wings)

This was a small experiment to show them how combustion works.

We did this experiment too about thrust... very simple. Wish I had gotten a picture of them doing this, they had so much fun!

We also borrowed a stack of books from the library all about space, the solar system, astronauts, and all things ROCKET! We are having a great time. Even though the days are really busy this way, it makes them more fun and purposeful. We're making messes, mistakes, and lots of memories and loving every minute

A Ray of Sunshine: Happy Birthday Owen!

Happy 4th Birthday Owen!
Just for fun I decided to ask the birthday boy some questions. (my hope is to do this every year)! It will be interesting to see how much his answers change. Although with him, if I were to ask him the same questions tomorrow, he'd probably have different answers.


1.What makes you happy? sunshine

2.What makes you sad?  birds, they make me sad sometimes and happy sometimes, so do bluejays, well bluejays are my favorite kind of bird

3.What is your favorite thing to do with daddy? build toys

4.What do you like to do with mommy? doing stuff on the computer and playing with Will

5.Who is your best friend? Elijah

6.What do you like about school? Well, In Mrs. Rude's class I like playing. I like eating my snack in my regular class. I like going to chapel.

7.What is your favorite snack or treat?  Birthday cake. and my favorite snack is eating breakfast. And the other thing that I like is playing outside.

8.What superhero do you like best? Ironman.

9.What is something nice you can do for someone? get them their toy.

10.Who is God? Heaven

11.What song do you like to sing?Hal, la la la la lelujah. It's where we give hugs and shake hands.

12.How old are you? Four.

13.What do you think you will be when you grow up?  A painter.

14.Who do you like visiting? Grandma Laura and Grandpa Jim, and regular Grandma and Papa.

15.What do you like about Grandma? playing with her toys.

16.And Papa? playing with his toys.




LOOK HOW MUCH THIS BOY HAS GROWN!
He still has the same happy personality as when he was this little baby. He laughs and smiles easily, and when he does get upset, it never lasts long. Asking him these questions was much different from when I did a similar interview with Elijah a few months ago. Owen answered very quickly and decisively, Elijah took several minutes for each question. I left the answers exactly how he said them. Some of them don't quite make sense to us grown-ups, but in the mind of a four year old, well that's just how it is.

Owen- 4months old!

Waves

I don't know that I can really be considered a real blogger since I only post something maybe a few times a month.  It's not that I don't want to, or even for lack of material, it's just that at this point in my life there are about a million things I will never get to. I see stacks of things that I am suppose to deal with, my house is completely cluttered and the disorder gets to me. Sometimes I start making lists, mostly just in my head, but some of them do get to paper, of the things I need to get done.  The things that I want to work on, improve, or even just what I want to do better at.

Somehow I find myself still in this sort of survival stage. I just get by usually with what is pressing. I do what is necessary and leave the rest. It shouldn't matter, right? But it bothers me. I want to do better. There are these strange moments in my day when extreme chaos occurs and I am lucky to even still be standing.  The day comes in these waves of craziness and then calm. Everyone demanding everything of me, and then nothing... a sleeping baby on my lap. Sometimes I don't know what to do.  I start to fluster over what I should be doing and then decide there is nothing better, that I should be doing just this, and it's okay.

It kind of reminds me of being in yearbook in high school.  The week of the deadline everything was absolutely crazy, kids sitting all over desks trying to perfect their last details, editing, copying, and pasting. And then the next week would be the polar opposite. We would all sit around bored talking about boyfriends and doing absolutely nothing. Busy, busy, busy... still. Over and over.

Now during my "still," I try not to feel guilty.  I try to just be satisfied. Why shouldn't I be? I have everything, absolutely everything. I love it, and I can't understand it, and I wonder why things are the way they are. I want to be the best mom I can be, I want to do so many things that are just beyond my limits for now.  But I also know there will be a later.  Right?  This is just a phase of my life.  The crazy will settle down and I will find some sort of rhythm.

So, I'm letting myself off the hook. If I can't blog more than twice a month, oh well.  If I don't do the laundry this week, we'll live.  If I find myself needing ice cream on a regular basis, well that is just my life right now.  And yeah, my wardrobe consists of my fat pants and sweats, and whatever top works for nursing ALL DAY long!