December 2nd

Waking up tp play with our Nativity toys, cards and hot cocoa. We did manage to get most of our Christmas decorations out yesterday ... so we were busy putting autumn-ish things away today and finding the perfect places for all our red and green things.

At naptime, we read three Christmas stories:  Humphrey's First Christmas, A Clever Beatrice Christmas, and Christmas Farm.

The girls had theatre and ballet tonight, we decided to do our Advent readings anyway and added in our Christmas Countdown with our Santa and Mrs. Claus calendar and "The Night Before Christmas."

December First

... and we're still tuckered out from the trip.

But we did manage to start our Daily Readings for Advent this evening, we're using Good News of Great Joy by John Piper. We lit a makeshift tea light candle (since our new Advent ones haven't arrived yet), prayed, sang a few Christmas Carols, and did our reading. It felt wonderful to be back in Family Worship.

The Drive Home

We spent the first day of Advent driving home from Cincinnati. It took Olaf''s "In Summer" on repeat and a little help from her friends to make it through. 

It's A Small World After All

This morning, the kids and I went out to run a few errands (in the cold rain ... why?! is it always raining when we go out?). I wanted to go to Hobby Lobby to get a few things to turn my very old, very dilapidated sunflower wreath into a very new, very chic Easter wreath. I was absolutely blown away by the cost of craft supplies. Ten dollars for a pussy willow branch? Six dollars for a bag of moss? It's no wonder that folks buy these things already made ... they're just as expensive to make!


As we were all walking in, an older couple was walking out. The lady just walked on past us, but the man stopped and said, "Cincinnati Reds! Are you from Cincinnati?" (the boys were all wearing their St Patrick's Day Reds Green shirts)

"Yes, yes we are." said one of my kids.

"We're from Dayton. Just around the corner. Small world." and we all smiled in agreement, and he walked on to his car and we walked on into the store. And you know what? It is a small world. Because this happens to us all the time. In Arkansas. In Alabama. In South Carolina. The world is small.


And so are Miss Miriam's toesies in her pink bunny slippers.





Shows:  Wild Kratts, Team UmiZoomi, Frozen, Despicable Me 2

Songs:  Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Jack Johns and Friends Sing-A-Longs & Lullabies for the Film Curious George (album), Frozen (album)

Stories:  The Easter Egg, Easter Eggs for Anya: A Ukrainian Celebration of New Life in Christ, Winnie the Pooh (story album during Music Lessons), Divergent (GIRLS - book discussion at the library), Farmer Boy - Little House on the Prairie (bedtime story albums)

Sketch Tuesday: Sparkling Clean (and an ocean scene)

by Benjamin (sea turtle and sting ray by TJ)

Harmony Fine Arts 

The First Day of Spring Break. At Home.

Today was the first day of our Spring Break. I had originally scheduled it for the week before Easter, but we will spend three days this week with out-of-town guests, so I thought it would probably just work out better if I moved it up.


The morning was slow going. Brian and I joke back and forth about how it's okay to have to get up so early with these boys because we get coffee. Coffee is yummy. It's like getting a warm, vanilla treat every morning. It makes me happy. I do miss our carafe, though. I'm trying to convince Brian he does too. But I don't think it's working. I drink one cup of coffee, so it matters not to me. Either way my coffee is hot and fresh. He drinks eighteen cups of coffee. So I suppose his thinking is that by his tenth cup, he is no longer drinking hot, fresh coffee. And since I'm a nice person, I guess I'll continue drinking my coffee from a Keurig. That word is even ugly. Carafe is so much prettier.


Since we were not spending our morning with a lingering school day above our heads, I thought I'd make breakfast. Since Miriam was born, we've gone back to our cereal eating days. It's much easier and faster ... but I think we all miss EATING a hot breakfast. Maybe if I could just remember to prepare things the night before ... and if we could get a second dishwasher ... ...


Today was also Miriam's Two Month Birthday. It's been a very fast two months, and I'm very thankful for things like digital cameras and Facebook statuses. Keeping memories is important to me. I cannot believe how much she has already grown. We've gone through a few "sizes" in clothes, and tonight she's wearing a 6 Months sleeper to bed. A pink one with bunny slippers and a bunny tail (which everyone ooohed and aaahed over during bedtime prayers). She's lost a lot of her beautiful, dark hair. But not all of it. She's keeping her dark complexion. She still has dark hair on her ears and hiney. Her fingernails grow like crazy. And she has more rolls on her legs than you can count with your fingers.


Meanwhile, in the crib next to Sissy is a HUGE toddler boy. He looks bigger every day too. And I'm finding him with his feet hanging out of bed all too often. Perhaps. Maybe. It might just be time to move him to a big boy bed with his big boy brothers. Fozzy and Kermit can go with him. ... ... it may also be time for a first haircut.


I spent most of my afternoon creating a Circle Time Corner. Last week I posted what our Circle Time looks like right now. I have been "teaching" it out of a notebook all this time, and it was getting increasingly hard to teach - nurse - read - sing - etc with a notebook on my lap. So, I googled around and found I could spend about thirty-five dollars and buy some really generic Circle Time board, I could print off a lot of not-quite-what-we-do Circle Time charts, or I could create our very own Circle Time Corner ... my breakfast area now looks like a kindergarten classroom. But, as my homeschool-supporting mom pointed out, we do indeed "do kindergarten" in the breakfast area. As I was putting it all together, Judah and Zach were watching. Judah kept singing A-a-Apple, and Zach kept mimicking the phonics lessons I do with Wesley and Benjamin. He will bring a book to me and just start rambling off random letter sounds ... which is probably exactly what it sounds like to him as we do a lesson (along with the head-banging-on-table thuds). When Connor came in from outside, he just stood and stared at it. I asked what was wrong (I was thinking it was a little much once I finished, and stood back and looked at it), but he said, "I wish I'd had a cool wall like that when I was in preschool." Let's hope the preschoolers think their "wall" is cool too!


Next year, I hope to spend the first day of Spring Break on the beach. But I'm not really into hoping years away. I'll just stay at home with my kids again tomorrow. Take a lot of pictures. Cook a lot of food. Teach the alphabet. And write it all down once they go to sleep.


Shows:  Peter Rabbit, Bubble Guppies, Team UmiZoomi

Songs:  Oh, Mr. Sun, Teen Beach Movie (album), Sing Over Me (naptime album), Jack Johnson and Friends Sing-A-Longs & Lullabies for the Film Curious George, BlackLight by Tedashii, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, It Is Well With My Soul

Stories:  Hush Little Baby, My Book House In The Nursery, James Herriot's Treasury for Children (quiet time story album), Gospel of Mark, A Nest for Celeste: A Story About Art, Inspiration, and the Meaning of Home, Favorite Poems Old and New (including Wynken, Blynken, and Nod), The Land I Lost: Adventures of a Boy in Vietnam, The Big Red Barn, Farmer Boy - Hank The Cowdog (bedtime story albums)

Pit Crew

Kylie gasped from the dining room table, where the girls and I were still chatting after dinner ... the boys had long since gone outside to race -- "They're playing pit crew with the old vacuum cleaner. WHAT?! will the neighbors think?!!" 


That we're crazy, honey. Sorry.


Remember Friday when I said we don't do anything halfway here at The Bailey Home? I meant it. If you're going to play Nascar, play right! ... with the vacuum cleaner gas pump, shop broom, and wiffle ball bat tire changer and all. Or go home.


:: Happy Racing on Sunday! ::





Shows:  Robin Hood, Auto Club 400, Doc McStuffins

Songs:  Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah, Are You Washed in the Blood?, Sing Over Me (album), The Moon Lullaby, Rubber Duckie, Softly and Tenderly

Stories:  Gospel of Mark, A Nest for Celeste: A Story About Art, Inspiration, and the Meaning of Home, The Jolly Barnyard, Wonders of Nature, Buffalo Bill, The Story of Easter, The Golden Egg Book, My Book House Story Time, Wynken, Blynken, and Nod (illustrated by Giselle Potter), The Land I Lost, Farmer Boy - Little House on the Prairie (bedtime story albums)

Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People

 


Reindeers are better than people
Sven, don't you think that's true? 
Yeah, people will beat you and curse you and cheat you 
Every one of em's bad, except you 

But people smell better than reindeers 
Sven, don't you think I'm right? 
That's once again true, for all except you 
You got me. Let's call it a night 

Good night. 
Don't let the frostbite bite 
bite

* this song is sung by Kristoff and Sven in the movie Frozen. On this (early) Saturday morning ... it is sung by Judah, who has snuck into bed with Miriam and me.

Nature Walk: Hatcher Garden and Woodland Preserve

We decided that we needed to spend an afternoon outside with nature. So, after we picked Korinne up from ballet class, we headed to a favorite local nature preserve. I wanted to see some colorful flowers. Kylie wanted to do an artsy photo shoot with Korinne and Connor. And the boys just wanted to see a whole bunch of critters.


It amazes me how observant my boys have become when out in nature anymore. They spot things that I would totally overlook. Turtles on floating logs in the ponds. Camouflaged frogs in beds of brown leaves in the creeks. Snakes sunning themselves just a few feet away ... ...


I notice the flowers (and I also notice I cannot name these flowers. Other than the daffodils.) popping up all over ... EXCEPT IN MY YARD!





Shows:  Phineas and Ferb, Peter Rabbit, The Jungle Book, The Muppet Show

Songs:  Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People, The Okee Dokee Brothers Can You Canoe? (album), Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, The Moon Lullaby

Stories:  My Book House Story Time, Wynken, Blynken, and Nod (illustrated by Giselle Potter), Bunny Bungalow

A Day at Home

Isn't she just adorably chub-a-licious in her little pink hat/sleeper with her nursery rhyme "burper" ... and could not have somekiddo reminded me that I had a pen in my hair?!?!

All day at home. For the first time in an entire week. We all needed it. We did a lot of home-y things ... like some backyard birding, some bike riding, some trail walking, some front porch sitting, some baby snuggling, some Bazooka bubble gum chewing, some movie watching ...


We filled and hung our new hummingbird feeder on the front porch. I guess the little boys thought that meant that a "flock" of hummingbirds should appear immediately. But we were not so lucky. We also hung up our new cedar feeder in the front tree (once we pulled it away from Korinne -- who evidently loves the smell of cedar). It did immediately start attracting birds. We watched from our dining room table/windows, which sometimes causes quite a stir (like when TJ spotted the red-bellied woodpecker). Kylie has mentioned shutting the blinds during meals, but everyone gasped in disbelief at such a suggestion. Our Audobon Song Bird Bird-a-Day calendar arrived yesterday, and once everyone got finished looking at/reading it ... we placed it on the dining room wall right next to the windows. We hope it helps us identify the birds a little easier. We'll see.


The boys have really gotten into Nascar lately. We now ride bikes with batting driving gloves, and football/baseball driving helmets (complete with number/sponsor drawings taped on). At any given moment you can also hear them "announcing" the bike ride race with the constant "boogity, boogity ... let's go racing boys!" All in true Bailey Boy fashion. We don't do anything half way here. The neighbors think we're crazy, I'm sure.


I also slipped on Kylie's sneakers, grabbed my camera, said, "I'll be back in a bit," and headed out the door to take pictures of some flowers. But we have none. It's like some bachelor lived here before us that doesn't appreciate a little color in the spring (he did). I miss daffodils so bad. WHO?! doesn't love/need daffodils in the spring? I did manage to find a tree in the woods with some white and pink flowers on it, and as I was snapping away, Mimi popped out from behind the weeds. Scared me to death, but made me smile at the same time because she had followed the boys into the woods like the true doggish-cat she is.


I also found the spring baseballs popping up out of the ground. How I miss watching my boys play. It breaks my heart when I see Facebook friends posting their Baseball Mom photos of their boys up to bat. When we passed the fields the other night on the way to church, I noticed the lights on over the hills at the fields. The next morning at breakfast Connor said, "Yeah. It made me really sad when I saw the lights on at the ballpark." Me too, Buddy. Me too.





Shows:  Wild Kratts, Martha Speaks, Luck of the Irish, The Muppet Show

Songs:  Down In The Valley, Rejoice In The Lord Always, Dan Zane and Friends Welcome Table:  Songs Of Inspiration, Mystery & Good Times (album), Sing Over Me (album), elizabeth mitchell little seed songs for children by woody guthrie (album), Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Stories:  The Child's Story Bible, Parables of Nature, The Jesus Storybook Bible, Leprechaun Stew, A Nest for Celeste:  A Story About Art, Inspiration, and the Meaning of Home, Bunny Bungalow, My Book House In The Nursery, Prayers for Children, Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, Favorite Poems Old and New, The Big Golden Egg, Owl at Home - Little House on the Prairie (bedtime story albums)