Moments to Remember: Lounging to Read

We just completed our 5th week of school.  I think Lydia's favorite part is her weekly sight words.  She still gets excited when she recognizes one in a book she is trying to read.  Here she is taking over mom's desk chair to read her RRSP reader.  

This week she also discovered the CD player and has a real opinion about her music choices.  She will sit at mom's desk in the school room and repeat her favorite songs over and over on the CD player.  She even asked for her music in her room during rest time.

Where was Caleb this week? If he wasn't sleeping or eating he could most reliably be found playing with the Thomas trains he got for his birthday a week ago.  They are still a favorite and way more interesting than coloring.

Linking Up with Moments to Remember

Swim Lessons - Moments to Remember

Its beginning to feel like summer around here, including splashing in the pool.  The kids started swim lessons for the first time this week and both are learning new things.  We have also been practicing in our pool in the backyard.  I think we will have at least one fish in our family.

Linking up with Moments to Remember

Moments to Remember: Joy in the Little

We are getting quite settled in our new house and routine.  Bob started his job this week, and we all survived the new routine.  The theme this week was joy in the little things.  As I have cut down my responsibilities and have others taken off me.   I have been able to enjoy the little moments with my kids this week.

• A late lunch because we cuddled for an extra episode of Super Why
• Playing outside just because.
• Making a Cake because it is fun.  

Linking Up with 1+1+1=1

Moments to Remember: New Wildlife

We have had a crazy week adjusting back to life in the big city, heat & humidity, allergies and the wildlife.  The last night we were in Illinois we had dinner with our family and then drove up the lane to our house.  We saw these 2 deer in the field next to us.  

Fast forward a week to our new neighborhood in Florida, we learn we have a flock of peacocks!  Previously we knew to watch for Gators but Peacocks!?

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Moments to Remember: Moving

I have to share how awesome Lydia is doing with our move.  She is being a great helper.  

• She labeled boxes by writing her name on the top of them.
• She helped gather items to put in the boxes, 
• she helped switch laundry, 
• She colored a map on the packing paper

Linking up with Homeschool Creations

Moments to Remember: Writing On the Wall

We took an impromptu trip to the Science Center this week.  Its Lydia's favorite place to go and one of the few indoor places to play in the area.  We were near the black board and Lydia wanted write her name so she did L-Y-D-I-A!

She wanted to write more words so we dictated Cubbie's name C-A_L-E-B and she wrote it out semi-legible Thanks to our Leap Frog's Letter Factory DVD she know all her letter sounds.  I'm thinking she may learn to read sooner than later.  

Linking up with 1+1+1=1

Moments to Remember: Movie Night

We have been busy lately preparing to move back home to Florida and also enjoying some of our last weeks so close to family.  Tonight we went to a birthday party for an old friend and after most people left they started a movie and our kids were fixated by Toy Story 3.  

Linking up with Homeschool Creations

Moments to Remember: Painting for Grandma

Grandma's birthday was this week.  I was a bad daughter and forgot until the comments on Facebook reminded me to call my own mother.  Lydia decided she should paint a picture for Grandma's birthday and that Grandma would love it.  So she went to work.    

The artist with the finished masterpiece.  

Linking up with Homeschool Creations this week.

Moments to Remember: Visiting Great-Grandma

Moments to Remember was developed as a simple way to look back on our week as homeschoolers and find photos that encompass the memories we want to remember.  The week may have been tough, there may have been more bumps than smiles, but in the end these are the moments that keep us going, the ones we need to remember.

This week we visited the kids Great-Grandma.  Its always fun to do special things when we go.  Lydia likes to use the hand pump to draw water to water the flowers throughout the sunroom.  Caleb is getting more into the train set that we leave there to play with.  This time we brought Candyland with us to play with Great-Grandma, Lydia won twice!

Linking up with Homeschool Creations this week.

New Chapter, New Blog

This blog has been a place for me to share and write for the last 4 1/2 years.  I started writing before blogs were nearly as commonplace as today.  It was a place for me to write about our adventures as we moved away from home as newlyweds.  We used it to share pics of our kids when they were babies with family hundreds of miles away.  Most recently, we have used it to record the adventure God has taken us on the last 2 years to support Bible Translation.

Right now our family direction is changing and this blog will be, too. I believe God is giving me new inspiration and ideas of how to use this blog to go beyond our family.  You may have noticed a few new things popping up on my blog recently.  Last month I participated in my first blog-hop with Hearts at Home.  Its a ministry to moms that has touched me through their books and resources.  A friend in Florida gave me "Real Moms, Real Jesus" around the time Lydia was born and changed the way I thought about motherhood. Second, Moments to Remember is a link up with a couple of the homeschool blogs, (1+1+1=1 and Homeschool Creations) that have been great resources to me as I begin to do some learning activities with Lydia.  I'm also beginning to write blog posts for OneVerse.  I am excited about this because it's an opportunity we can continue to use this blog to raise awareness of the importance and significance of Bible Translation. OneVerse is a project related to Wycliffe, and their goal is to see scripture projects sponsored one verse at a time.  It only takes $26 to translate one verse of scripture, which takes the overwhelming needs of Bible Translation around the world, and breaks them down into bite-size chunks. Finally, don't worry, I'll continue to include the adventures we have has a family on top of all these new activities.

I have developed a hobby or addiction, depending how you look at it, to digital scrap-booking.  I use GIMP, a photoshop-like open source program, to manipulate virtual papers stickers, ribbons, buttons etc.  to create my pages.  I post my pages and promote a few designers at a second scrapbook blog, cyscraps.blogspot.com, so as not to clutter this blog.  Check it out!

Moment to Remember: Reading with Daddy

Moments to Remember was developed as a simple way to look back on our week as homeschoolers and find photos that encompass the memories we want to remember.  The week may have been tough, there may have been more bumps than smiles, but in the end these are the moments that keep us going, the ones we need to remember.

Caleb is more and more interested in reading.  We got "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day" from the library and Caleb has taken a liking to it.  Daddy likes to embellish the story too!

Moment to Remember

Moments to Remember was developed as a simple way to look back on our week as homeschoolers and find photos that encompass the memories we want to remember. 

The week may have been tough, there may have been more bumps than smiles, but in the end these are the moments that keep us going, the ones we need to remember.

Caleb is getting old enough to want to earnestly try to do what big sister is doing.  This week I caught them both using the Do-A-Dot markers together.  Lydia was doing her Letter Mm pages and Caleb was having fun too.