Content

This post has every chance of being as designless and driftless as my mind has felt, these past couple of weeks.  It's not necessarily a bad thing; in my carefree-ness, I'm less stressed, and happy. 

As I find myself engaged in the moment, talking with a friend, truly present, eventually the conversation naturally turns to something other than the current day... er, time.. er, minute...  

What am I doing tomorrow?

"Um... I... don't... know...?!  What day is tomorrow??"

Hmm. I have decided that my frequent, apparent inability to see past the current moment, is preferable than the alternative of continually flipping through my calendar, wildly, and scurrying from destination to destination, a few minutes late each time. (Oh, who am I kidding; the late part still happens.) 

I'm genuinely trying to live on purpose.  It's so much easier to let life happen to us!  I really want to use the moments I'm given to bless others, in ultimate service to Him.  I think the tranquil casualness that seems to surround me lately just may be the answer to my prayers for intentional living.  This is good, because I certainly am not too successful in this, on my own.

Relish the Charms...

You will never have this day with your children again.  Tomorrow, they'll be a little older than they were today.  

This day is a gift.  

Breathe and notice.

Smell and touch them.

Study their faces and little feet

and pay attention.

Relish the charms of the present.

Enjoy today, Mama.

It will be over before you know it.

-Jen Hatmaker

Gressa and Jo, crafting while the big kids play some bball

boys vs. girls!

We recently finished our unit of the Egyptians and plan to move on to Moses and the 10 Plagues, next.   

Soren's King Tut

We read this book, as sort of an intro to the first story of Moses.  We really enjoyed it.  Not a new story to any of the kids, but the way it's written, was appealing to all 3.  

Our current, daily read-aloud is
"Tuck Everlasting."

Last week, we had the opportunity to have some friends' boys stay with us from Saturday through Wednesday, while they were in Hawaii.  

The fridge was stocked, and the fun began!

Grayson, awaiting the start of FVL's performance of "Annie."  The two sickies (Ava and Gressa) were at home with a sleeping, recovering baby(Charlie.)

Another show we saw, while the boys were with us, was "Diavolo," at the PAC. Now.  Are you familiar? If not, youtube it. Apparently, diavolo means architecture in motion.  Um, yeah.  So there are props and then these dancers with all kinds of movement backrounds: hip hop, breakdancing, ballet, gymnastics, cheerleading, etc.  They use their bodies and the props to tell a story.  
For me, this was an hour of laughing my head off, silently.  

The reason was because "Diavolo" was pretty reminiscent of the entire winter at our house: energetic kids flinging themselves onto pieces of furniture, to try and get out their wiggles.  You know, headstands, cartwheels, body flops, both into the chairs and each other... climbing walls and jumping off... where'd they say those "Diavolo" auditions were, again...?  

Carsten, teaching Soren how to play Checkers.

Fazoli's Kids' Night, before "Mr. Peabody and Sherman"!  Me, and the monkeys. Our entourage got some looks.  The kind of perusing, that heavily scrutinizes,as if trying to figure out just what kind of crazy you might be, with 6 kids.  Boy, people sure are nosy!

Pre-church hostages.
Present yourself, dressed, breakfast-ed, and brushed (both teeth & hair), and you may collect.

playing at the Y!

This was Day 1.  I believe it was Meal 1.  He's unsure of this whole thing, enough so, that he is not questioning Ava's bib, unearthed by Gressa. 

We took a fieldtrip to Buboltz Nature Preserve to learn about the maple syrup process.

I love this guy.  He deserved every minute of this rest (which probably only lasted a few minutes, anyway, before the Diavolo dancers found him - or the couch.)

On the second night the boys were here, the littlest guy came down with the stomach flu at bedtime.  Tony was so helpful, tag-teaming the entire event with me; washing sheets and sleepers and soothing baby.  The next day he was the one who stayed home while I went to work (because who can miss their only work day of the week?).  He never complained and even had dinner made when I got home. And the best thing... the next night... when our 13 year old dryer kicked the bucket during this flu incubation period, he helped calm me the frock, down.  What more could I ask for? Really.    

Ava also helped me give Charlie a bath that 2nd night.  We giggled at him admiring his toes in the water.  I realized that those adorable, fun moments I remember about her, and S and G FLEW.BY.  We laughed together and talked about how she used to do things like that and we'd all laugh and talk about how cute it was... after Charlie was all clean and re-diapered and dressed, Ava looks at me and says, "Sooo.... if he pukes again... do we have to repeat this whole process...??"
Oh, sweet, sweet girl!

Today (3.18.14), we took school to the library, as we frequently do.  It helps mix things up, there are less distractions, and hey, even on "breaks", they're inevitably immersed in learning.

I had prepared a review lesson for Ava for Math, as she has a test tomorrow.  She's been doing a great job of learning her lessons with the Saxon DVD, but I wanted to check in on concepts, once again, before her next test.  It took us an hour and half, but I was proud of her for sticking with it until the end.

Gressa is always happy to go to the library, but today she was especially excited, because she is halfway through her "Iditaread" (like Iditarod).  Reading about different things brings her across the state of Alaska.  She was able to collect a prize of gold (chocolate) coins today, and as you can plainly see, is pretty proud. :)

Licorice.
Because who doesn't need Math motivation?

There are still some really tough days around here.  I'm thinking there probably always will be, for any of us.  But what's really freeing and refreshing, is that even in the most trying moments, I am content.  I think it's the type of contentment you feel, in your heart of hearts, when you are doing what 

He made you to do.