Come to the Fai Do Do

What a fun day we had today! We moved into the south officially last Saturday and have been blaring " Cajun for Kids" music since last week. I highly recommend this cd and other cajun and zydeco music if you ever study the Cajun/Creole culture. They are so fun to listen to and we are learning a lot of Cajun words! We talked about George Washington Carver, aka Plant Doctor, yesterday and how much he contributed to not just the plant world but also how he taught the color should not be the deciding factor. What is so cool is Jay is at the end of his language arts curriculum and ironically enough we are learning about G.W. Carver and reading about him there too! I love how God does that ! We sang, " Oh Suzannah", held cotton balls and found things in our home that were made from cotton and how heavily the south relied on the cotton industry.

I had really been looking forward to today because we started the day off with donuts outside in the cool morning, pretending we were at Morning Call ( a coffee shot in New Orleans that has been around since the early 1800s). We had our Cajun music playing as we read books on hurricanes, Alabama, and Chicken Soup for the Kids Soul ( great book!!). We also looked at pictures of Mardi Gras and talked about how God would feel if we decided to "go crazy" for a day before giving up our sinful behavior. Some interesting discussion going on in those 6 and 4 year old brains of theirs. Jayden also did a small book of pictures of category 1-5 hurricanes and wrote a sentence describing the damage that occurs at each level. He did a great job!!!

I got a few Cajun tales from the library as well; one being, " Petite Rouge" based off of the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood with a Cajun spin. The kids are ever so patient with me as I have to stop, look at the French pronunciation, get it right and then continue on. We also read a Cajun Tall Tale today and talked some more about tall tales. Tomorrow, we are moving on to Florida and Alabama and hopefully making some Key Lime Pie. Mmmm!

Dual/Trio/Quadruple Purpose Rooms

Eat In Kitchen: eating, school, laundry room, cleaning supplies, baking, cooking, art supplies
Living Room: congregating, school, watching tv, play room, relaxing
Boys bedroom, sharing, playing, school
Girls bedroom: sharing and playing
Our Bedroom: Office/Sewing Craft room/Sleeping/Sometimes school/Living
Our Closet: Storage/Hanging clothes/Hannah's 'room'

Yes, just like Austen, Hannah sleeps in the closet. There is a little window and a fan- she loves it. She takes naps and sleeps at night in there. When we lived in our 1000 sq ft apt with just the boys we were glad to put Austen in there because we needed a place for Jay to play at quiet time and Austen to sleep. Now, pretty much same reason. Hannah was in the bassinet next to my bed for many months but then she just started sleeping and only waking up , hearing us or actually hungry so we moved her, her monitor and fan to the closet. Its a walk in, not huge but a nice enough size to accommodate a pack n play. The door doesn't open all the way but hey, who needs clothes any ways?

My prayer is that by the end of this year, we will be moved out of our 1100 sq ft home and into something much larger. Ben and I were laughing that we will all be together in one room of the house, afraid to venture off in fear of losing each other. This is our fourth home since we have been married and we have moved 5 times ( the first out of our parent's homes). Each time, we have increased the sq footage by around 100 sq ft each time....inch by inch by inch we are getting there....but we have 6 people now. God has blessed us with a great neighborhood, food and shelter....however, we will be so thankful to have room to spread out in and live and entertain. Cannot wait to share this praise report that has been a prayer going on for two years now! Here's to a few more months, hopefully!

Peaceful Slumber

You are nine months now, how are you nine months? You move around in an army crawl motion with a vengence. But now, you don't try to find me much anymore, we explore. You see an open door and move like a shooting bullet after it before I see that it is towards a room that looks nothing short of a lego store and shut the door. I shut the door, I keep shutting doors to the bathroom, the boys room and you look at me like, " you are no fun" . 

Yesterday, Moriah was feeding you with my quartered grapes, then you started gagging and unbeknownst to me my wall and toilet crayon coloring two, almost three year old, was feeding you three whole size GRAPES- yes, Hannah, Jesus is on your side and I need heart medicine. 

You sleep, almost through the night now. Why am I sad about this? I miss you at night, your little piercing eyes staring at me with wonder and peace. I love how I can fulfill that in you. It's like me to God. But please, wake up at least for 4 minutes so we can share that time together. 

You say, " mamamamamama" whenever you want me, look at me, or need some love. I love whispering in your ear and watching you stop, intently focus on my voice and smile. I love how when I'm feeding you in the same room as Daddy you stop, peer at him and crack the largest smile you have. 

Hannah, my heart is overflowing with love- I love you!

Way Past Due Midwest Blog

How could I NOT post these amazing pictures?! Back before all of our family arrived, actually while waiting for my Dad to come in late February we were completely engulfed in the Midwest states, mainly Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa. For a fun activity we made "bean" bags and filled them with beans as many soy beans grown in this particular area of the country. ( Yes, don't get me started on Food Inc) but for all intensive purposes, we cut, sewed with my amazing sewing machine and filled our bean bags. If you know anything about me, you know how much I love sewing, how little I know about it and how little I do it. I think the biggest reason is the size of our house and how I have to put everything away and get it out and with Hannah's sleeping quarters in the area where I store it, well it just makes for my free time where I could be sewing always falling into the " shoot, forgot to take the machine out again" category. Never fear, we had a LOT of fun and laughter with our trusty bean bags and the kids are learning, which is so fun for me to watch and soak in.

Simplified Living

The mornings have been incredibly beautiful and cool. It seems, every morning, the kids open the back door and begin exclaiming about all the many lady bugs that are dotting our "plants" out back. The kids find aphids on the leaves at our home as well as where we work out. 

The other day, Moriah came in, wearing nothing but a sweatery jumper and pulling out her ladybug that she so gingerly placed in her pocket. " Is it still there, yep, she's still there" Neverminding that each time she removed the bug from her pocket she squished it a little bit more until it was nothing short of dead twice over. Or Austen, walking around with a bucket filling it with lady bugs simply to watch them crawl around. They LOVE them!

I am loving this morning time that they are sharing and the beauty of the stillness. Ben was home, sleeping, the other morning and I left the boys in the backyard while I ran some errands because they were so into the lady bugs that they did not want to stop watching them. 

These small, reddish orange, block dotted, winged bugs take hold of their captivation for extended periods of time. 

So sit back, stop what you are doing, set down your broom, your i phone, your running shoes, open your back door, scrunch down, listen, watch, wait and breathe, breathe slowly for life is constantly moving and changing around us if we only stop to observe.

School is Messy

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making our pinatas

Joint Easter Study

We always celebrate and remember Easter based on Christ- I have already stated this in a previous post but this year has been fun to incorporate some new traditions, ie: from Konos. We have crafted butterflies out of tissue paper, pretended to be a chick hatching from an egg, played charades with " what type of egg am I?" , had our own egg rolling contest and read the Easter story many, many times talking about it and discussing it during our nightly, family devotion time. Also, we nailed together a cross and are hanging all of our sins on it that we did just this week. I felt truly inspired by the Holy Spirit do show how sinful, by nature, we truly are. When the kids wake up on Resurrection Sunday all of those sins will be taken off the cross and instead there will be " the blood of Christ". I am really, really excited by this. I keep thinking about John in the bible, in Revelations, where he starts crying about who can open the seal and the silence in heaven and how there has only been and only will be ONE who has conquered the power over death, hell and the grave and his name is Jesus. Praise you Jesus!

"Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it;and one of the elders said to me, "Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals." Revelations 5:4-5

  Today, we will be making hot cross buns. I learned just this week that in England, http://www.wyrdology.com/festivals/easter/hot-cross-bun.html, the buns were adopted to show a cross on them, symbolism of the Crucifixion however, the Saxons ate them with symbolisms to their gods and pagan rituals. After reading these different histories on where the word "Easter" comes from (   They first appear as cakes made by the pagan Saxons to worship Eostre, the god of spring) I am realizing that although there are so many fun and different ways to incorporate Christ, the true reason is Christ not tradition. I love Resurrection Sunday that I can show my children that we do not worship a dead god, but rather a living God that Christ's bones are not in the ground but that He is alive! One of my favorite songs for this week is " O Sacred Head Now Wounded" - the beauty of the words as it describes what Christ suffered for our sins and ultimate damnation breaks my heart. For someone to have that much love- to die for the child molester as well as the liar, the one who tortures innocent victims and the stealing of a $5 item. To have that love, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John 4:19.

Enjoy your weekend and remember, its not about you or what you can do or have done, its about recognizing and receiving the cost of suffering that Christ paid for you on that cross. If you do not have an active, obedient life in Christ- receive it today. He loves you more than you could comprehend and you have nothing to lose and everything to gain- " To live is Christ, and to die is gain"