I find that when I blog, I tend to concentrate on events. Every picture, every story focuses on some specific event that I never want to forget. What I often miss are the other moments I never want to forget. The snugly, noisy, everyday moments which are so much a part of our lives, especially now that we homeschool. Our reality is books and pencils and reading, and lots and lots of together time. Most of the time it's wonderful, sometimes it's difficult, and occasionally it's horrible. Most of the time the wonderful far outweighs the horrible and I love it. Some days, I fantasize about the big yellow bus coming and taking my children away! I'm glad I have a few photos of our everyday, though, to remind me of what our normal life looks like. We read...a lot. When life gets crazy, we read. When someone is sick...we read. When I need to step away from schooling...we read. I love it and the kids love it and someday it will pay dividends in their reading ability. I can't wait til they read to me someday!
I love my kids...and they love each other. I am thankful that there are a lot more giggles than there are tears even when those giggles turn into squeals and shrieks of laughter. On this occasion, the kids found my Christmas boxes to be the most fascinating toys in the whole world. Never mind that they received hundreds of dollars of toys just days earlier!
On January day was so ridiculously mild that we blew off morning lessons and headed over to a local Japanese garden to feed some fish. We had a ridiculously good time throwing bread, examining rocks and keeping children from falling into fish ponds!
Well, not all the bread went into the fish pond! I'd like to take a moment to talk about my children's relationships. This may come off as bragadocious, but this is just me chronicling these things to look back on someday when my kids don't like each other much. It will certainly happen someday. I hope not, but I try to be a little realistic. I want to remember just how much Maura and Tristan love each other right now. They are just the best of friends. Every game is played together, with almost perfect harmony between them until Bennett tries to butt in! Tristan just worships Maura right now and will do pretty much anything that she asks of him. He is, by turns, her messenger, her sidekick, her courier, and her scapegoat. I've seen him dressed in skirts and feathers at her bidding, and just a few days I witnessed him playing prince and dancing a waltz with all the grace of Fred Astaire. He desires her approval so much right now and thankfully, she's mostly happy to give it. She tends to be a good little encourager and peacemaker, which means that she's able to play with both Bennett and Tristan. Now, Bennett and Tristan are a different matter altogether. They're like oil and water at the moment, although I occasionally catch glimpses of what life will be like when they finally start to get along. Someday soon, Bennett will be old enough to be Tristan's little stooge and the tables will turn a bit! I love these three kiddos fiercely and I love to see their relationships grow and blossom. I truly think that if our closer relationships are the only benefit that we see from this year of homeschooling, than it's been totally worth it.
We spent the morning collecting rocks, throwing leaves and looking for moss and animal tracks. It may have been our best homeschooling morning ever! We even found an old cabin and played Little House on the Prairie for awhile.
LOVE this girl. I think this may be the last photo of Maura without her front teeth and I just want to savor her toothless little girlness that won't be around much longer. Already, she's blossoming into a beautiful, intelligent, intuitive young lady. She truly is a special girl and I'm treasuring my sweet moments with her right now. We're into reading the classics right now and I've loved sharing some of my favorites with her. She's loved Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, The Secret Garden, The Little Princess, Little Women and so many others. I can hardly wait till her reading reaches a point that she's able to enjoy these books on her own. She'll be a voracious reader very, very soon, so I'm enjoying the snuggle time I have with her right now before she wants to read on her own.
I really need to remember to get my camera out more frequently and just document the day to day fun that we experience. I know that these are the days I'm going to look back on with such fondness someday and I already know that I can't trust my fuzzy memory with anything. I'm so glad I have this blog as my photo memory for years to come!
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