Words and more words

Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.
C.S. Lewis

Awesome. Epic. Outrage. Champion.  Hero.  Genius.  Love.  How many words do I see/use/hear everyday that are loosing their meaning?  How can Webster keep up with how diluted our words get?  Do other languages have the same problem?  We all are subjected to 12 years of English in school so why is our vocabulary so poor?  How can we instill in our kids a knowledge of words and the wisdom to choose words wisely, not just for tact's sake but in order to be appropriate as well? This all comes from my inclination to write that my past week was awesome.  But was it?  Did it invoke awe or wonder in my consideration of it?  No, not really.  My week was a jam-packed collection of work, fun, and insight, but as Confucius said, "Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated."  It was a good week.  I think that's the appropriate word.

We are still getting used to homeschool.  Theoretically we should be done each day by around lunchtime.  Gwyn and Celee may have a few post-lunch things to do such as instrument practice or a history lesson that's over Lyla's head.  Generally though these should be winding down after lunch.  Yeah.  I'm hoping that the lesson of using your time wisely is learned soon.  One day this past week we finished school at 5pm.  Lyla did have a nap in the middle, but the time was ill-spent complaining, piddling, and hem-hawing so stuff didn't get done in a timely manner at all.  Couple this with the fact that I don't have this time management thing down yet either and I know there are things I can change to make it all run more smoothly.  Whew!  At least every day wasn't like that.  There have been many moments when I thought to myself, "Yes!  This is why we are doing this!"  I love the mornings when I've seen Gwyn and Celee doing their Bible lesson together without fussing.  I love the pride they have when they complete some non-paper & pencil work and want me to take a picture of it.  (I'm trying to keep good records of everything they do anyway)  I love to hear them really get interested in something and ask really thoughtful questions and us have the time and resources to explore it together.  We learned quite a bit out the Minoans this week this way.  I love the way Lyla can't wait to show Jason something she's finished (like a page full of s's and 2's) when he comes home.  I love that I know what they are doing and can encourage and compliment them in the moment. 
There are definately things to improve on my part, and I've already made coo-doodles of mistakes, but it is going well.  Another appropriate quote - "A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."  Can you tell I've been reading a quote book?  At the end of the week though we did get a treat - a friend over to play and a trip to City Girl Yogurt because everyone finished their work before lunch.  Aaaahhh.



Gwyn and Celee had their piano recital this week.  They were very nervous, as most kids are for this type of thing.  This was also Gwyn's last piano recital as she opted to try the violin in loo of piano for a while.  One could say that she could have practiced a lot more prior to recital day as well, so she was a little more nervous than Celee.  They did well though and we caught the performance on video to preserve for all time, and to embarass them as teenagers, so we all enjoyed it.  Bless her heart - Lyla wanted to do it too b/c I've been doing a little bit of piano with her at school and she really wants to play her "song" for people. This consists of her playing F#, G#, and A# in succession with her right hand and A#, G#, and F# with her left.  So I think we'll spare an audience this treat for the time being.
Thursday we had our small group over at a childless house, so the girls got to hang out with their friends at the Aardsma's house.  I love that our families enjoy spending time together and the kids like each other too.  Gwyn has a little drama with the only school-aged boy at times, but I think that's normal.  Other than that, they all play really well.  And the grown-ups got to hang out, eat, and talk in a child-free space for a while.  We didn't even get around to the lesson we're doing this week.  We all were just sharing and talking about marriage and encouraging one another.  I love those God-moments when something unplanned ends up blessing us and the Word is made fresh in our conversations. 
Saturday I got up and ran a 5K in Royal.  We were all going to go, but everyone was so pooped I didn't want to wake them all up at 5:30 to go with me.  Thankfully Robin and Will picked me up so I didn't have to go by myself.  (That's 3 shout-outs Robin!)  Anyway, it was fun.  It's a small race and part of it is through corn fields which were really pretty at 7am.  And we didn't do too bad.  We passed some little boys who had started walking about half-way through the course.  Then when we were close to the finish we heard them coming from behind.  I so wanted to kick it up a notch and not let them pass me, but I just didn't have it in me.  So we were passed by little boys who had walked most of the race.  :/
When I got home everyone was still asleep!  I think we all needed a do-nothing day.  So we didn't do much for the rest of it.  The girls and I ate breakfast with friends and then I got to go shopping in the afternoon, but that's about it.  The house was clean, the yard was mowed, so we really did get to just chill for the day.
Sunday we taught Sunday school.  There weren't enough adult helpers for this Sunday so we had the Kindergarteners and the 1st graders in our class which ended up being about 30 kids!  It is a little crazy trying to do activities - especially activities that require reading or writing - with 30 5-6 year olds.  But it was fun.  It's also neat to hear kids this little sharing prayer requests with each other and remembering to pray for others.  It warms my heart.
We had an appointment to have our family portrait done on Sunday afternoon at Lake of the Woods.  I spent an hour and a half doing the girls' hair and getting myself picture-ready.  Thankfully I checked my email before we actually drove out there because the session had been cancelled.  A thunderstorm was rolling in and so we would have to reschedule.  What. A. Bummer.  Like Jason's mom said - Consider it a dress-rehearsal.  I hope on our next try works as well and we actually get to document the results.  The girls had cooperated very well.  Fingers crossed for next time!

Week One Down

We survived our first week of homeschool!  Each girl had at least one freak out during the week, but no one had more than 3.  I think that's pretty ok for a whole week of something very new.  I can also say that I kept my head for the most part too.  I only raised my voice a few times (usually in conjunction with the before-mentioned freak outs)  and even then I don't think I lost it.  I had many wonderful friends who, whether they knew it or not, lent me an encouraging word or ear at just the right times over the week!  (Thanks especially to Robin and Kelly!!)  For the most part I'd say the girls did well.  They seemed in good spirits most of the time and I feel like they are already learning so much and shedding some of the bad habits they formed in school previously.  (Of course I am completely aware that we're probably forming some new bad habits but that is a hurdle for another day)

It's so neat to see them each engaged with some activity at their desks.  It's also been fun to work out details in a round-table-like setting - such as what to do when Lyla and Gwyn want to listen to music while they work, but Celee does not.  That was solved with headphones, but of course Lyla loves to mess with the plug to hers which turns headphones off and blasts the music on and off to everyone else.  Ah,well.  We're workin' on it.
I think the saving grace for Gwyn is that she has a large desk area that she can decorate and organize in between her work.  Often her "organization" drives me nuts, but I'm trying to let that go and let her have her own space. 

We also have enjoyed doing some science experiments.  This week in anatomy Gwyn and Celee learned about cells and we got to make a jello cell and lable what each part was on paper.  It looks gross, and surprisingly no one wanted to eat it even though it was all jello and candy and fruit inside, but it was fun to make.  We've also started an egg experiment to illustrate what a selectively-permeable membrane means as in the cell wall, so that should be fun to see. 


I finally finished painting the deck furniture!  It's really nice to have that done.  And just in time.  The paint was dry but still sticky feeling when people came over on Saturday and sat on it.  No one left with green pants though, so it worked out. 

 Jason's birthday was Sunday so Saturday we had a few people over to celebrate.  Jason and I are the same age for about 6 months again!  And we are rapidly approaching an age where we will have to check the box of the next age bracket on forms!  Aaahhh! 

 Anyway, it was really nice to hang out with some friends.  Jason got to play washers, which made him happy.  And the kids had friends to play with too so it was win-win. 

The weather has cooled down considerably here so that evening we were even able to light up the fire pit to roast some marshmallows and the kiddos got to play with sparklers that we've been hoarding since last year.  Lyla is the only one that got hurt.  As Jason said - at least when there were other kids at our house playing with fire, it was one of ours that got hurt.  She learned that the blazing end of the sparkler does indeed burn you just like Mommy and Daddy said.  She has a minor-but-yucky burn on her neck to prove this.  At least we do have some monkey-shaped bandaids that she got to wear to church on Sunday.

Sunday was the actual birthday so Jason got to open his presents that morning.  Lyla had picked out clown glasses, red nose, and fake teeth that she insisted we get for him just from her.  I think the girls thought that was the best present and I'm pretty sure Lyla just wanted the teeth for herself.  Luckily she got her own pair out of the prize box at church for doing her weekly Bible homework. 

Happy Birthday Jason!

The hot weather is going, going..... We decided we better go to Sholem again before it closes.  Public school starts here Wednesday so the pool will go to late-afternoon hours after that until it closes on Labor Day.  Yesterday however it was awesome!  There was no one there!  Well a few, but compared to what Sholem is usually like, it was awesome!  I was very pooped so thankfully I got to just sit in a lounger and watch all three girls no matter what area of the big pool they went in.  This usually is not the case as it's usually so full of people that it's easy to loose sight of them if we don't stick pretty close together.  The lifeguards were a bit more chilled than usual, so the girls got to play in the zero entry of the lazy river (usually a no-no) and flip the floats (also usually a no-no) and have a little more horse-play in the big pool than they normally get to have as well.

So we begin week two of homeschool.  And week one of me regularly working four mornings a week.  I think it ironic that we began to homeschool about the same time that I began to work 16 hours a week.  I must say that the girls have been really good about letting me rest a bit in the afternoons when they know I've been at work that morning.  I'm anticipating this week to be a bit exhausting - again my to-do list gets longer and the day stays the same length.  I will have to be diligent this week to guard my heart and my relationaships in the midst of busyness.  But I have a lot of good things to look forward to and celebrate this week.  Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you - guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.  2 Tim.1:14

Never a Dull Moment

This past week has been a blur.  The to-do list got many things checked off, but not all.  The pickles got made, the carrots got dug, the school room got prepared, the schedule got made, but that blasted deck furniture is still not green!  That one gets moved onto this week's list.  (This is where I wish I could insert a cute cartoon girl sighing and blowing the hair up away from her face)
Gwyn had her first violin lesson this week.  She was super excited before-hand.  Now she is only excited when she is talking to someone else (not me) about it or showing someone else (not me) what she learned.  And miraculously she wants to take piano again.  ;)   I say we give it a little more of a shot than one lesson, hmmmm?
Celee helped me can carrots on Friday.  It's so weird that you can have this huge pile of carrots and by the time you cut and prepare them, you get 3 pints out of it.  Oh, well.  When I need carrots this winter for soups and such, I can take pride that they came out of our garden.  Celee really liked the weird shapes some of the carrots grow into.  A lot of them look like little headless orange people, but she really liked this one that was like some kind of carrot-monster. 
Saturday the girls and I got to man the Girl Scout information booth at the Farmer's Market.  The girls got a little bored, but overall they had fun.  They also got to smash strawberries to get at the strawberry DNA which they put into a vile around their necks at a booth near ours.  We also finger-knitted and tried to do friendship bracelets while we were there, with little success.  Mostly the girls hid under the table where they were shielded from the sun and I tried to keep the stuff on the table from blowing away. 

We had planned to go to Chicago as soon as we got back from the market so off we went.  We decided to try the Museum of Science and Industry before heading to the American Girl Doll Store.  The museum was really neat and fun!  We will definately go again.  The girls favorite things there were the train room and the water play area.  The model train was amazingly huge and detailed.  We even found a "hidden" cow on a bus bench and the Hulk roaming the streets.  That and the models were surrounded by real trains and parts of historical trains that they got to climb in and see.  The water play area was small compared to other children's museum ones, but it was still neat b/c the kids can control the rise of water to make the balls drop or the water shoot or fill up something so that was cool.  They also had a storm room with a tornado that spanned up to the ceiling that was impressive.

Gwyn and Celee have been saving up their money for a long time to buy another American Girl Doll.  Their first ones were gifts from Monty, but I told them if they wanted another one they'd have to buy it.  So they finally had enough money for Gwyn to get Julie and Celee to get Addy.  Lyla also had some money to buy her Bitty Baby a lunch kit.  I'm so very proud of them that they saved their money for so long with a specific purpose in mind.  My reasoning was that if they really wanted the dolls they wouldn't forget about it and they didn't.  Now they have a doll that is very nice and has a historical background (so that makes me happy!) that they paid for with their own money.  Pretty cool!

Monday was the first day of school!  We had co-op for the first time and the girls had a really good time.  They made some new friends and are for the most part still liking the idea of homeschool.  Gwyn is even amiable about Spanish now, so that must be a good sign.  It's also nice that they have some classes together, but some apart so they get a little space but they also get to see each other and me for some things.  And I get to spend an hour each Monday with the toddlers which will have to suffice for my baby fix each week. :)  I also love to see general good manners and kindness modeled and encouraged by the other moms.  At one point a few children were not playing with Lyla because they were telling her they didn't know her.  So another mom went over and found out the problem and had them all meet her and talk about kindness.  Then they all ran off holding hands and playing.  It's nice that the kid-adult ratio is small enough that small things like that don't go under the radar and are dealt with in a real life application sort of way.  I was a little bummed when Gwyn and Celee were instructed to make sure they drew dinosaurs on a picture of Noah's Ark, but we had talked about it beforehand and the girls just looked at me and then drew other animals instead.  Oh, well.  It's only one week and the rest of the topics we shouldn't have any problems with.  So all in all day one of our school day went pretty good.

As soon as we got home from the co-op (which the girls think is funny to call The Coop)  we had Girl Scouts waiting for us to go to the fair.  Monday was Scout Day at the Illinois State Fair.  The girls get in for free and they can buy reduced price ride bracelets on that day so this is usually the only day we go.  Lyla got to sport her Daisy uniform again and they were all super siked to ride rides!  Everyone was doing pretty good riding things.  The older girls got to ride some of the big rides this year.  Gwyn was actually too tall to go on some things that she went on last year.  And Lyla is now exactly 43in. tall so she can ride many things she couldn't before.  Like the big swings.  Which then made her sick.  :(  Another fair where she got sick!!  She didn't actually puke and felt better after a bit so we went to get some food and we got to hear a really neat-o R&B band.  The girls danced for a while in the back to some soulful oldies.  Then it was off to more rides!   - Now, before I continue let me say that we took it easy with the food (Lyla only ate some corn chips)  and we took a break for a while before hitting the rides again once everyone felt normal and recharged again.  - I think the mistake we made was riding the same rides more than once in a row.  With the ride bracelets and short lines (it was a scattered rainy cloudy sort of day) the girls could get off a ride and run immediately back in line and if they did have to wait it was only for maybe one round before getting back on.  So apparently that is not good for Celee or Lyla.  Lyla was actually ok - she mostly just wanted to ride the little roller-coaster dragon anyway which is pretty tame.  Celee on the other hand rode the Spider 3 times in a row and then turned green.  So she had to sit for quite awhile on my lap while she returned to normal color.  Gwyn and Riley and Ashanti on the other hand were good to go and we just moved around where they could ride whatever while we sat and watched.  After one last ride (Celee was ok by then to handle bumper cars) we got snow cones and headed to the car.  My thinking was that snow cones are mostly ice and would be ok for sensitive stomachs. 

When we got to the car Lyla felt sick again but didn't actually throw up, I gave her a piece of a dramamine and we headed home.  About 5 min. after we hit the interstate home up came the blue snow cone.  I am so glad that she didn't puke on anyone else, but the back seat and floor of the van got it pretty good.  So we had the fun of pulling over on the side of the interstate to clean child and van in order to finish the hour and a half drive home.  Couple all of this with the fact that I was thoroughly convinced (along with the girls) that I had indeed brought my purse and left it in the car and it had been stolen.  I did have my wallet in my backpack, but was pretty bummed that my purse was gone.  We reported it to the state troopers at the gate even though I told them no money or cards were in it.  Then I called Jason who informed me that my purse was in the kitchen at home.  So I had the pleasure of called the nice trooper who had given me his phone number and telling him what a scatterbrained crazy lady I was.  At least I got to leave a voicemail and didn't have to speak to him actually.  That decreased my embarassement slightly.  Oh and on top of that I didn't hit the end button good enough and the message may have included Gwyn's laughing and my sorrowful exclamation that I just wanted to go to bed.  What a night.  I'm sure that it will make for good memories. (Here should be the cartoon girl sighing again.)
So let's see what this week brings.  I actually do not remember how long it has been since I have experienced the feeling of being bored.  Never a dull moment in the Montgomery house, or I guess anywhere that we happen to be.

I have no babies...

This past week went by tooo fast.  I can't believe a little over a week ago we were still in Mississippi.  We got back into town and I had to work four mornings, which meant I went to bed earlier than usual, which meant that the day went by super fast.  That in combination with the gargantuan "to do" list I had when I got back into town made this past week somewhat of a blur.  The deck project, the school room, pickles, cleaning, laundry, some of it got done and some didn't and some is in the almost-but-not-quite stage. 
Jason and our friends, Robin and Will, painted and got the deck addition put on while the girls and I were gone in July.  So I've been trying to finish that project which includes painting deck furniture and adding a step.  All in all this is going to be a $200 deck upgrade that I think we'll all be happy with!  The pallets were free, we had to buy a little bit of lumber and paint and that's about it.  Now if I can nurse the grass back to health after the crazy dry 100+ July we had, we'll have a neat-o place to hang out with friends!
Jason's dad, whom the girls affectionately call "Pop," got to come down and spend the weekend with us.  I know he hates being so far from home (South Miss.) but it's nice when his job puts him within a 6 hr. radius of Champaign.  So the girls got to hang with Pop all weekend, which of course included eating at SteakNShake.  I don't really know how SteakNShake got associated with Pop to them.  I'm pretty sure he didn't come up with it, and they don't really ask much to go there unless he's with us so it is a bit of a mystery.  Anyway, we went and the girls HAD to have the hats and little cars that MUST be taken home but then immediately get discarded and thrown away.  But they are fun for the short time that they are kept.

Sunday we all went to church and it was nice to be back.  I've missed our church family and the awesome worship teams that help make Sunday worship so meaningful for me.  One of our eldars preached on the sower parable and it was a good reminder to me.  Often when I've read or heard others discuss this parable (Matt.13 and Mark 4) it's framed as the different seeds being different kinds of people, but he framed it as different kinds of responses to the Word that everyone can and does have often in the same day.  So the decision to respond to the Word as a seed in fertile soil is a choice to consiously make daily.  Pretty good reminder as I said. 
Well, I truly have no more babies because Monday was Lyla's 5th birthday. And boy was she excited.  She couldn't go to sleep Sunday night thinking about it, even though I really needed her to because there were things I wanted to do for her birthday that had to wait until she was asleep and I needed to go to bed early, which didn't happen.  She ended up staying awake until well after 10.  Oh well, what's a little sleep?  As I had to work Monday morning, this was the first time EVER that I haven't been there when my girls have woken up on their birthday.  It's kind of our tradition that we have our family presents out and ready to be opened upon waking up on the birthday.  So Monday they waited on me to come home first.  Although, Lyla did receive a bike and that wasn't wrapped so she had already discovered that present prior to my arrival.  When I got home, she opened the other presents.  She has been super excited to become an official Girl Scout, which had to wait until her birthday, so she of course was happy to finally get her Daisy uniform!  Now we've got 3 Girl Scouts in the house. 

The rest of the day was spend getting ready for the Lyla's party.  "Her people" were coming so her excitement was hard to contain waiting for the 4pm party to get here!  - As an aside, Friday night she we had run into some of her friends from preschool at an outdoor concert on campus and she kept telling us she wanted to go dance with "her people."  So cute! -  4pm finally rolled around and the party finally arrived, she had a blast!  Gwyn and Celee were super helpers too.  They handed out party hats and lays to people as they arrived and then played "lifeguard" when the little ones were in the wading pool.  It's so nice to see them really enjoying helping to make Lyla's party fun.  They are pretty good big sisters!  The birthday girl only had one meltdown - in the aftermath of the pinata pull.  (We got the pull-string king instead of the whack-it kind) (And actually it was the train pinata that I bought for her 3rd birthday party and forgot about, so we just pasted Bubble Guppie figures in the windows of it and made it the Bubble Guppie Train)  After a quick recovery it was back to the fun!  One of her presents was a Barbie news reporter camera and microphone which was a hit.  They were all so cute pretending to interview each other about robbers that were in the area.  :)

So my to-do list rolls over into this week and school starts in less than a week.  The pickles have yet to be made and the carrots are ready to come up.  There is still deck furniture to be painted and school stuff to organize.  It looks to be a full but fun week to come!