Category: books

On Becoming Preteen Wise: April’s Notes, Chapter 1

books, parenting, Preteen Wise

I had an unusually hard day at Pacific Christian Academy today with my handsome and intelligent tween, so I’m finally getting around to writing this post. I came across this book this summer. Alan’s parents were moving, and Nonna let me go through the books she was going to give away. She has the best books! When I came across this one I stopped in my tracks. “parenting your child from eight to twelve years,” the book reads, under the […]

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New 1st/2nd Grade Reading Plan

books, home school, homeschool, reading

I mentioned in my last home schooling post that my first grader is struggling a little with reading. I also mentioned that he started off really well, but now he’s crumbling. In fact, he pretends like he’s going to sleep when he is reading to me from his “reading book”. What changed? Well, the first week of school, you have the excitement factor going for you, so there’s that. However, I think it’s more than that here. Caleb doesn’t enjoy […]

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About John Smith: “Him died. Dead. Dead. Dead”

books, Daniel, kid quotes, video, videos

These videos crack me up. It’s just so Daniel. He’s “reading” a book about John Smith, the best leader that the Jamestown settlement had. He kept focusing on the photo of John Smith, wounded in the Indian camp. Daniel read it as, “Him dead. Him died. meh meh meh meh meh….” Perhaps a lot of what I say to Daniel is simply translated as something from Charlie Brown’s teacher. To get the full story, you ‘gotta’ watch both movies! 😉 […]

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Cross Country Road Trip of a Lifetime: First Stop: Alabama

art, babies, baby milestones, books, brothers, family, genealogy, military life, moving, vacation

JD’s first move— He seems to be having a pretty good time.  Today Alan and I kissed our children good-bye and set back out–alone this time–on our big cross-country road trip. It’s really been fun so far.  Over the last few days I have gotten to visit both sides of our families, swim in the backyard pool with my two oldest boys, celebrate JD’s first birthday, visit a Pioneer Museum in Alabama, and even revisit the University of Alabama campus, […]

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The Year of Getting Organized

4 kids, baby milestones, big family life, birthday, books, Caleb, Daniel, de-cluttering, decluttering, goals, little boys, nap, New Year's goals, organizing, pictures, rest, snow, The Great Clean Out, toddlers, toys

I’ve written gobs of blog posts where I’m really bad about never going back and letting you know how that all turned out.  This is my goal for tonight:  lots of updates!! Update #1:  The Great Clean Out inspired by reading Money Saving Mom‘s book:   It’s sort of an odd time to suddenly be all about organizing my house:  we are moving in JUNE.  However, we are drowning in TMS–too much stuff–so I have been plugging away at “The […]

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The Productive Stay-at-Home Mom

books, brothers, Family Rewards, stay-at-home mom

This week in review: As you can see through this “Dan cam” image, Daniel almost always insists on sleeping in his floor.  ???Why???  I don’t know.  I figure he likes to A.)  be closer to his toys and also B.) have a better view of people walking by in the hallway. That’s right.  He now also likes his door open. He is officially our first child to insist on sleeping in the floor.      Dan, reading one of those […]

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Joshua, the Super Bowl, and the skateboard trampoline trick

books, goals, Joshua, super bowl, trampoline

Today marks the very first time, in our 11 years of marriage, that our family is watching the Super Bowl.   Why are we doing this?    Joshua learned about it at school, and he decided that it’s a really important thing for us to do.  He has begged us all week to let him watch the ENTIRE Super Bowl tonight.  He’s been rather insistent.   Weird.   He’s never shown interest in watching sports before. Good news!  His team […]

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Toys That Keep Our Boys BUSY

books, Heaven is for Real, Nabi, toys

Heaven is for Real for little ones by Colton Burpo When I read this book to the boys, they were sitting on the edge of their seats, especially my nine-year-old.  They were all so eager to hear about what Heaven is like.  This book is full of hope and colorful pictures.  When I finished reading it, the boys argued over who got to hold it and look at it. I put together this list of Christmas gifts that were the biggest […]

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I May Never Make it to Chapter Three….

books, cakes, decluttering, toddlers, toys

  I mentioned in a previous post:  new-years-check-up, that one of my missions this year is to get back on track with our budget.  With four kids in tow, we really need to chill it on the spending!    I decided a great way to help me focus on this mission would be to read this book:     Here’s my only problem:  In chapter two she says you should de-clutter your house.  In fact, she recommends getting a babysitter […]

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New Year’s Check Up

being frugal, books, exercise, potty training, toddlers

Goal:  Be anywhere near as happy as Dan…That’d be great! As I wrote in a previous post, my goal for 2014 is to chill.  I want to calm down, enjoy my children, and not get all worked up about a bunch of stuff that doesn’t even matter all that much!   I was doing pretty great on day one, but then January 2nd hit, and Alan went back to work.   I don’t think ‘calm’ or ‘happy’ would be the […]

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