New Year's End Shout Out

We received a thank-you call from a ministry that we support today. It was a blessing to hear of how God is working through this ministry. It reminded me of all that God has done for me and my family this year, so I thought I would just give a shout-out to God for His goodness and mercy in 2007.

What I'm thankful for:

• both Ketchup and Bounce learned how to snap their fingers (he did just today!)
• my "new" ipod that helps me clean, dance and sing praise all at the same time
• our new floors in the house that look fantastic
• the freedom to homeschool and so many fantastic resources available to do so
• family and friends who make life fun and help make burdens lighter
  
• a wonderful husband who can "fix anything" and fixed our floors along with being a fantastic daddy.
• two precious children who bring so much joy to our family
• our country and the soldiers and leaders who protect our freedom
• a wonderful God who is always acting to accomplish His good, pleasing and perfect will even if I do not understand why or how (Is. 55:8-9)

Happy New Year!!

Newest Christmas Carol

We've been singing Christmas Carols at bedtime and last night we sang "O Come all ye Faithful." As we were walking off to bed, Bounce continued to sing. His song, however, was a little different...."O come muddy faithful...."
The kids are becoming very excited for Christmas. I think we've answered about 1,000 different questions about Santa. They are concerned because we now have our dog Bella and they don't want Santa to be scared of her and leave. They also don't want Santa to leave because Nana & Tata will be staying with us on Christmas Eve. Bounce has decided that he is now 3 years old and is brave enough to see Santa, although he begins to panic everytime he hears sirens (he thinks Santa is coming around again on top of the firetruck).
Hope your Christmas is as fun-filled as ours!

World Record

Bounce set a world record tonight for a 3 year old in the 25 yard dash.

Every year our town has Santa ride through the neighborhoods on top of a fire truck. He passes out candy to the kids who come out of their homes to greet him. These would be normal kids. Our children are not normal. Bounce found out Santa was coming and ran at world record speed. At first I thought he was running to the front door with excitement, but then Bounce turned the corner. He was running to the back of the house out of fear. We found him hiding under the covers in our bed. Both kids were crying that they didn't want to see Santa. They said they still wanted presents, but they do NOT want to see him. At least this saves us from waiting for an hour in line for a picture with Mr. C.

A good reminder

I often have to remind Ketchup not to whine or complain, but I often fail to remind myself. My grandmother sent me this e-mail and I thought it was a good reminder at this time of year. I could have used while I was waiting in line for 20 min. the other day at the store.

Letter from Jesus about Christmas --

Dear Children,

It has come to my attention that many of you are upset that folks are
taking My name out of the season. Maybe you've forgotten that I wasn't
actually born during this time of the year and that it was some of your
predecessors who decided to celebrate My birthday on what was actually a
time of pagan festival. Although I do appreciate being remembered anytime.

How I personally feel about this celebration can probably be most easily
understood by those of you who have been blessed with children of your
own. I don't care what you call the day. If you want to celebrate My
birth, just GET ALONG AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

Now, having said that let Me go on. If it bothers you that the town in
which you live doesn't allow a scene depicting My birth, then just get
rid of a couple of Santas and snowmen and put in a small Nativity scene
on your own front lawn. If all My followers did that there wouldn't be
any need for such a scene on the town square because there would be many
of them all around town.

Stop worrying about the fact that people are calling the tree a holiday
tree, instead of a Christmas tree. It was I who made all trees. You can
remember Me anytime you see any tree. Decorate a grape vine if you wish:
I actually spoke of that one in a teaching, explaining who I am in
relation to you and what each of our tasks were. If you have forgotten
that one, look up John 15: 1 - 8.

If you want to give Me a present in remembrance of My birth here is my
wish list. Choose something from it:

1. Instead of writing protest letters objecting to the way My birthday
is being celebrated, write letters of love and hope to soldiers away
from home. They are terribly afraid and lonely this time of year. I
know, they tell Me all the time.

2. Visit someone in a nursing home. You don't have to know them
personally. They just need to know that someone cares about them.

3. Instead of writing George complaining about the wording on the cards
his staff sent out this year, why don't you write and tell him that
you'll be praying for him and his family this year. Then follow up. It
will be nice hearing from you again.

4. Instead of giving your children a lot of gifts you can't afford and
they don't need, spend time with them. Tell them the story of My birth,
and why I came to live with you down here. Hold them in your arms and
remind them that I love them.

5. Pick someone that has hurt you in the past and forgive him or her.

6. Did you know that someone in your town will attempt to take their own
life this season because they feel so alone and hopeless? Since you
don't know who that person is, try giving everyone you meet a warm
smile; it could make the difference.

7. Instead of nit picking about what the retailer in your town calls the
holiday, be patient with the people who work there. Give them a warm
smile and a kind word. Even if they aren't allowed to wish you a "Merry
Christmas" that doesn't keep you from wishing them one. Then stop
shopping there on Sunday. If the store didn't make so much money on that
day they'd close and let their employees spend the day at home with
their families

8. If you really want to make a difference, support a missionary--
especially one who takes My love and Good News to those who have never
heard My name.

9. Here's a good one. There are individuals and whole families in your
town who not only will have no "Christmas" tree, but neither will they
have any presents to give or receive. If you don't know them, buy some
food and a few gifts and give them to the Salvation Army or some other
charity which believes in Me and they will make the delivery for you.

10. Finally, if you want to make a statement about your belief in and
loyalty to Me, then behave like a Christian. Don't do things in secret
that you wouldn't do in My presence. Let people know by your actions
that you are one of mine.

Don't forget; I am God and can take care of Myself. Just love Me and do
what I have told you to do. I'll take care of all the rest. Check out
the list above and get to work; time is short. I'll help you, but the
ball is now in your court.

And do have a most blessed Christmas with all those whom you love and
remember: I LOVE YOU,

JESUS

Christmas Happenings

We are finally decorated for Christmas with a clean house and new floors!! It is a beautiful day today, more like September than December.
One of my favorite things about Christmas at our house is listening to the kids as they play with the nativity set. To recount all the silly little things they say would fill pages, but it is cute to hear them discuss whether or not it is OK for Joseph to be the bad guy. Yesterday, Ketchup was playing by herself and it sounded more like a sermon than play as she kept telling all the characters that they were supposed to "worship the Lord." I'll probably share more quotes in the days to come.
Today, Bounce came running into my room yelling "Mommy, look at all the stickers I have on me." Well, my back was turned to him and I excitedly agreed until I turned around and saw that his "stickers" were our Christmas card stamps. I tried to salvage them as best I could, but if you get a card from us that has the stamp taped on, you will understand why :-)

Halfway There and New Feet

I apologize for the delay in posting. It has been a little crazy here since before Thanksgiving and I'm trying to catch up on things this week and I'm only halfway done. I've done the laundry but only halfway as it still sits in baskets waiting to be put away. Only half the house is clean as I am having to REALLY clean up from all the dust our flooring project has created. Finally, only half of the Christmas tree is decorated (this is priority number one on the kids to do list). I think I've lost half of my brain in the middle of all this mess. Soon (hopefully by Sunday) our house will return to normal mode as Daddy only has to finish the floor in the last half of the family room and then we're done!!
One quick funny story. While we were visiting Daddy's side of the family at Thanksgiving, Ketchup had a birthday and is now five. I asked her the day before her birthday if she thought she would look different the next day (like a five year old rather than a four year old) because of the remark she made about her brother still looking like a two year old. She said she would look different. So the next morning she woke up and came right over to me instead of the mirror. She asked me to measure her feet to see if they were big five year old feet now. Well, what do you know they had grown overnight, and she had new five year old feet to go with the big five year old girl!

Naptime Psychology

The good days of daily naptime have left our family. We now have an hour of rest time every day in which the kids have to stay in their rooms and read (20 min), play by themselves (20 min) and then play with each other (20 min). This seems to work well enough most days, but then there are those times when a nap is necessary. In order to get them to both sleep we have to all lay down together in mommy and daddy's bed so I can keep them both contained and increasingly quiet so that they will actually fall asleep.
Yesterday was one of those days. As I struggled with them to get them to go to sleep, I noticed that there are several stages they go through before the precious quietness of sleep reigns in our house. I thought I'd share:
Stage 1 - Bargaining - I have already given the countdown to taking a nap and yet they still try to negotiate for more time. "Just one more minute (translation-maybe if we keep playing she'll forget about the nap)." Didn't work, so we move on to the next phase.
Stage 2 - Denial - I'm sure if you were outside our house yesterday, this stage would have been very evident by the screams and cries of "NOOOOO" coming from both kids. I don't know why they think this will change my mind; it just convinces me even more how tired they are.
Stage 3 - Bargaining part 2 - They try to convince me that they are dying of thirst or hunger and if they could just get a drink or a snack then they will go to sleep. I also thought about calling this the guilt trip phase because they act like I'm torturing them by not letting them get that life-sustaining drink that they didn't need just 10 minutes ago. Then again maybe they are thirsty from all that screaming, but they still had to wait.
Stage 4 - Blameshifting - This is Ketchup's area of expertise. She will lay really still for a while as her brother sings and moves around and then she will sit up and blame him for waking her up. She thinks that I'll fall for it and let her get up since she supposedly already took a nap.
Stage 5 - Physical Resistance - Both kids will do anything to keep themselves awake. They might kick their legs up and down or wiggle their fingers in some type of repetitive way. This is the stage I look forward to because I know that soon after those crazy leg kicks or finger games that we will finally reach the all important Stage 6....

Sleep! Finally it is still and quiet.
I guess I forgot that there is usually a stage 7 where mommy tries as quietly and slowly as possible to get out of the bed without waking them up so that I can enjoy these few precious moments.

Big Fun!!!!

Ketchup and Bounce had their birthday party today at bounce house place here in town. They had a wonderful time. When I asked Bounce tonight if he had fun, he said "Big fun, mommy." That is a good answer. He then went on to clarify that I only had "little fun" because I didn't go down the slide. I may not have gone on the slide, but I did have fun because I didn't have to cook or clean. That is my kind of party!

Another reason why we homeschool....

Some days school does not go so well and they may not learn as much as I like, but the time that Ketchup and Bounce spend together is a blessing. I have been told on multiple occasions how well they play together. Right now they are sitting together on the same chair watching Veggietales. This is a good moment. They do have their moments of fighting and selfishness (like their mommy sad to say), but overall, they love each other and get along great. In fact, the other day Bounce gave his big sister a big hug and told her "You're my best friend."
I know this will probably not last forever, but for now I will enjoy these sweet moments. We are studying family and Thanksgiving this week and next and I am blessed to have such a wonderful family and sweet children who love each other so much.

"But he still looks two"

Bounce turned 3 yesterday. Hard to believe that he is already three, but I'm trying to use that to my advantage by telling him that he is three now, he can't whine like a two year old.
Ketchup was a little confused that "he still looked two". How could he be three when he still looked the same to her.

Daddy and I listened as they were playing with some of his new toys last night and thought this was so cute, so I'll recount it for you.

K: You have to go save the world (her toy to his spiderman toy)
B: I don't want to.
K: Well then who is going to save the world then?
B: God will save the world.

Music Week and Pumpkin Carving

Last week we studied music and the guitar for the letter G. The kids learned about Beethoven and went around all week singing his fifth symphony. We ended the week by dancing to "We will rock you" by Queen. Is that a well-rounded education or what? Actually, it was a lighter week and I told myself that whenever we were listening to music in the car or at home we were kind of doing school - right?

Today was pumpkin carving day. The kids picked their stencils - Snow White and Bruce the shark from Nemo. Somebody remind me next year to just say "No" to any stencils that have more than 3 shapes. I probably spent about 4-5 hours today carving these pumpkins that will only last a few days. So I'm determined to share my "masterpieces" with you all so my efforts don't feel so wasted.

Pumpkin Farm Field Trip

One of the kids' favorite books is "From Seed to Pumpkin." Today we were able to experience the book firsthand at the Big Orange Pumpkin Farm. Ketchup and Bounce had so much fun looking at the pumpkin vines and witnessing every stage of the pumpkin from the bees pollinating the big orange pumpkin flowers to the pumpkins that had not yet turned orange.
We followed up our field trip with a picnic at the park. God blessed us with a beautiful day to enjoy today, so we did just that.

It's a Snap

Last week we studied Eggs for the letter E. The kids learned a little about eggs I think. Ketchup now knows that they come from hens rather than a rooster. Mommy learned how to poach an egg. Our science experiment was cooking eggs different ways and then comparing them. Well, believe it or not I had never poached an egg. I had to watch an online video to even figure out what I was supposed to do. I probably won't poach an egg again, but at least I know what a poached egg is now.
However, the highlight of the week (possibly the month) is that Ketchup learned how to snap her fingers. She has been trying off and on for a while, but one day last week she put her mind to it and kept trying and once she heard just the slightest bit of noise, the celebration began. With each snap of her little fingers, the snap sound is louder. Now she likes to snap at Bella, the dog, to get her to do things (wonder where she learned that from :-)

Mission Accomplished

We were 3 for 3 today in locating our MIA objects. Ketchup's blankie appeared while we were reading our stories at our "campfire" the kids made. It must have been tangled up in the blanket that I know I shook out at least 3 times yesterday. Her slipper appeared in her shoe drawer in the closet that I know was checked at least 10 times yesterday. And my AMEX card was mixed in with the pictures in our photo box - Bounce loves to put things in very unusual places. We have found his cups several times in our dresser drawers.

Today I also attempted cleaning the house. The kids were playing with Ketchup's Barbie castle when the terrible vacuum monster appeared in her room. The Barbies frantically tried to hide behind the bed and then started asking each other (Ketchup's voice), "Did you watch the Royal News?" and then Bounce's Barbie answered "No, did you watch the Royal News?" I guess if they had watched the Royal News they would have known the vacuum monster was coming - they are so funny!

The Test!

I have Bible study on Wednesday mornings, but since we are already out and about we sometimes run errands afterwards. Today I learned that a great test to see if I'm applying my Bible study or not is to take my kids shoe shopping.
Let's see I had my patience tested a trillion times as my children changed their minds about shoes and of course whatever style they just had to have, well wouldn't you know it their size was not available. I had to be gentle when dragging Bounce to the bathroom for the third time in just 30 minutes. It seemed as if his bladder decided that after only two pairs of shoes were tried on it was going to burst. I had to be kind in telling Ketchup that her feet were getting bigger and she can't even wear shoes that I would think most little girls her age are wearing. She has completely outgrown all the toddler shoes. Is this normal?
Oh well. At least I had many opportunities for testing in such a short time period - count it all joy right!

By the way - another test lies tomorrow. 3 important items have gone MIA in our house the last couple of days: my AMEX card, Ketchup's blankie and just one of her slippers. So tomorrow is turn the house upside down day. Hopefully I'll have a good report tomorrow night!

Ketchup's soccer game

Ketchup had another soccer game yesterday and boy does she come out of her shell on the field. She is aggressive in going after that ball and scored 5 goals! She was so excited about her great game.
The rout was on, so her coach called back some players to have them work on defense. Ketchup was one that he wanted to stay at midfield rather than going after the ball to score. She had such a hard time staying put; it went against every thing in her not to run and try to kick that ball into the net. Her coach had to yell her name a lot to get her attention to stop running and come back to play defense.
It got me thinking about how I must get caught up running the game of life and God has to get my attention so that He can teach me something new. I want to just keep doing what I'm familiar with, but He wants to make me better overall - more like Him. Hopefully, He doesn't have to "yell" quite as loudly or frequently to get my attention:-)

"Why do firefighters only kiss their mommies?"

Last weekend we went to Canton with my parents and brother's family. Bounce got a firefighters costume. He was so excited to try it on when we came home. He looked so cute in it and my dad asked if he could have a kiss. Bounce then asked me if firefighters gave kisses. I told him that firefighters only kiss their mommies, so he proceeded to give me several kisses. Fast forward four days later and he has on the costume again. He then asks me why firefighters only kiss their mommies. I had to tell the little guy the truth since he had obviously been thinking about it. Oh well, so if you see this little firefighter around town, he can give kisses now.

We studied dogs this week for the letter "D". We learned that dogs are mammals because they have fur, live babies and nurse their babies. Bella (our dog) was very patient as we examined her. After looking at Bella's nipples, Ketchup raised her shirt to show us hers. Good thing this is where the show and tell ended and the kids moved on to other things. I couldn't help but thinking later that I'm glad this lesson was at home rather than in a classroom, or are bashful little Ketchup might have been known as the class flasher:-)

"C" is for....

This week we've studied the letter C for cat, but I thought we'd share some other "c" activities that highlighted our week:

- Clean - my parents were coming into town, so the van NEEDED to be cleaned. The kids think it is so neat to help out with different cleaning projects. They loved cleaning the van and later Bounce was begging me to let him help me clean the shower. Now I know this will not last forever; therefore, I will take advantage of any and all help as long as I can. Ketchup and Bounce also love to do their chores. They each have 5 chores they need to do most mornings and they eagerly complete these as if its a race. I know that one morning I will have a mutiny on my hands and maybe then we'll start an allowance, but until then I'll cherish my little helpers.

-The Claw - Last night, my parents, my brother's family and our "P" family met up at Fuddruckers. I can almost bet that most of the metroplex heard Ketchup's squeals of delight as the big claw in the candy machine would dip down and pick up candy for her to eat. For such a shy little girl at times she has the biggest, brightest laugh. Bounce got stickers which he had to stick on his face like his big cousin. Well, those stickers must have had super glue on them, because we still can't get the sticky part off his face.

- Cheese- The kids already learned to eat nacho cheese last night all by itself, and my parents had only been in town for 30 minutes. Since Nana and Tata are in town, I'm sure we'll have lots of other neat stories to share this next week. I'll keep you posted.

"It's OK Mommy" & GOOOAAAALLLLL!

Bounce has been doing great at going potty and staying dry this past week. Then this morning he wet his underwear, but he assured me it was OK because as he said "I tell God and he forgive me."

Ketchup scored her first goal this last Saturday. She was so excited, but probably not as much as Mommy and Daddy. Her team lost (we stopped keeping score), but they all seemed to do better as a team.

Daddy is almost finished with the tile!! One day he'll come home and there won't be a project looming over his head. Wait a minute- maybe not -he's married to me.

Mommy has time to blog today, so that is a good thing. Homeschool went well. Ketchup enjoyed her reading more and was even able to spell CAT when I asked her this afternoon. On to dinner now!

Here goes nothing!

It seems as if everyday one of the kids says something funny or we do something neat that I'd like to keep a record of, so I thought I would join the blogger bandwagon. I'll try and update our blog every day, but you know the old adage about the best laid plans of mice and men...
I initially didn't want to blog because I was afraid of giving away too much info and compromising our security, so I'm going to refer to our kids as Ketchup (our girl) and Bounce (our boy). She is always asking for more Ketchup (and it starts w/ a K) and he is always bouncing (and it starts with a B).
We also started to homeschool last week and I'd like to keep a record of that as well, so you'll probably get a little of everything here.
The homeschool thing is working so far. Today Bounce yelled out "A" because the McDonalds we were eating at had their big health rating of "A" posted on their window. Before this week, he couldn't tell me that letter, so maybe all the work making "A" shaped pretzels was worth it.