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)

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)

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)

The 27th of December

Our God's World News magazines came today. The kids go nuts when they arrive. They're pretty good stuff. I don't think that's what Kylie is reading ... I think she's actually looking at the political cartoons in World. It's strange. She really enjoys Government/Economics-type stuff. She shares almost everything she reads in her Uncle Eric series.

The boys got a last minute stocking stuffer -- each of them received a brand new 12-pack of Crayola colored pencils. They are already putting them to good use and have dumped every single box (except for Connor's) into our well used art caddy. ... we've also worked quite hard depleting the red, green, and silver kisses.

We are still waiting on the plumber to arrive. Word has it tomorrow at 2PM will be the glorious time. Christmas candles are nearing the bottom of their jars. I used of the last of my White Christmas a few days ago ... it's almost my favorite. I seriously consider burning it year round. I'll be sad when my red one is gone too ... I think it's so pretty. Like my poinsettia from my mom. It amazes me it's still alive and red and green.

Outside, we're noticing the red birds a lot more. I love them. I wish it would snow so I could watch them all flit around the tree and feeder, bright red against the sparkly white. Which is why we're leaving our sled and skates on the front porch. Wishful thinking ... of snowy days.

One of the biggest hits of Christmas has been the card games my grandma sent the kids. Judah has mastered, what he calls, Gold Fish. And every time he asks anyone for a card, he will say, "Daddy (or Momma or Wesley or TJ or whoever ... do you have a eel, a shark, a sea turtle, a sea star? ..." It's so cute.

By the end of the day, we were all quite ready for a hot shower, so we decided to head to Brian's work. It was like packing ten people for a sleepover. Quickly. The boys thought it was great fun. The girls and I ... thought it was ... weird. Good memories. ... ... By the time we got home it was super late. We had pizza and root beer and watched Enchanted. And then went off to bed dreaming of true love's kiss.

And running water.

December 26th 2013

The day after Christmas ...

Some of us are busy happily crafting beautiful tulled lights for our beds. Some of us are unhappily busy with assigned reading (Mom Prison may have been mentioned here ... it also may have been asked how long a mom would go to prison for assigning good reading ... and a smile may have crossed a certain reluctant reader's lips). Some of us are curiously busy inspecting blood, toilet paper (unused. ahem.), bird feathers, coins, dollars (to find the REAL secrets behind the American Dollar. What?! haven't you seen National Treasure?). And some of us are dutifully busy climbing up into the attic and resetting the heating unit (NOT me said the very pregnant blogger).

... And we are all realizing how much we take running water for granted ... and impatiently busy waiting for a plumber to arrive. Please. Mr. Plumber. Arrive.

Jumping and Splashing

I had the best day I've had in quite a few weeks concerning the pregnancy/morning sickness. I did a lot of laundry, cleaned the boys bathroom, made lunch and dinner, got this poor blog back up and running, and was actually able to be outside this afternoon as the boys played. Yay me!

First thing this morning, I took Brian to work. Our minivan had been being worked on, and we weren't able to pick it up until today. Then I rushed home to make sure everyone had eaten breakfast (thanks, Kylie!), and took Korinne to her first day of Ballet Intensive Camp. The ballet school she attends here gifted her with very large, very wonderful scholarship so that she could attend. 

Everyone is still finishing up a few subjects in school, but they are slowly becoming less and less for each child. Our hope is that everyone has finished well by the time we leave for our beach vacation at the end of August ... so that we can start a fresh, new school year the week after we get home. Keeping our fingers crossed. 

Most afternoons the boys spend outside. The rains here have been absolutely absurd for July. But the sun and blue skies seem to have returned. They play a lot of wiffle ball, a lot of war, and do a lot of splashing and jumping in the little blow up pool.

I hope everyone is having a fun, relaxing summer.

:: happy jumping and splashing! ::