Eisley's First Birthday!

Today is my baby girl's 1st Birthday! How did that get here so quickly?! This year has seriously flown by faster than than my son's first year. I was sad to discover that (for me) it's true what they say about your second baby-  you won't to do all the scrapbooking or writing down dates for all the first milestones like you do with your first. My son has his own scrapbook of his first year, along with countless pages in another scrapbook, several photo albums on Facebook and tangible ones filling our photo album cabinet along with a journal with all his first milestones written down and dated. All my baby girl has is ONE little photo album filled with mostly birth photos and a few from her 6th month. However, she did hi-jack my Instagram account where I was able to jot down a few of her milestones each month when posting her monthly photo. Either way I guess it's just a good thing I at least have some documentation for her. Maybe someday I will get her a scrapbook started.

So, maybe I don't have a lot of tangible documentation of my baby girl's first year, but I have a lot things in my heart that I have been holding in and today they are gushing out. I am pretty sentimental like that (does anyone else get a little emotional on their kids' birthdays??). It's just that this little girl has taught me so much about myself this past year and has revealed parts of me that I didn't know existed. When I had my son 5 1/2 years ago, then "the mom side" of me opened up. I learned a lot about myself and this new side of me back then and throughout these last 5 years. For 4 1/2 years I had been the mom of a little boy and my heart was so full and bursting at the seams. Then this little girl comes into our life and my heart is exploding. No worries, I'm sure there still plenty of room for more bursting and exploding should more children come along.

Among some of the things that my daughter has  taught me is how strong and brave I actually am. Not sure if many of you know my birth story with Elisha, but it was rough. Not ideal at all. Birth trauma and breastfeeding failure. I let fear and the unkown of birth get the best of me and my birth plan went out the window. Anyway, with Eisley I was determined to educate myself more and trust my body more. I had a way healthier pregnancy with her which helped me lose all the pregnancy weight and then some after having her (YAY!). I also learned proper body mechanics so she would be born in the proper position which would reduce risk of birth trauma or needing a c-section. I learned about red raspberry leaf tea and it's benefits during pregnancy and labor/delivery (if you don't know about this stuff and are expecting, drop everything now and go look it up and get some of this tea!!). Her birth was perfect. I was brave and strong. I had the delivery I wanted with no pain meds or interventions. In Eisley's birth I discovered a new strength I didn't know I possessed. This strength and bravery has carried over into other areas of my life. I have stepped out of my comfort zone quite a bit and joined leadership positions in my church and MOPS and confronted difficult situations as well. I have learned that the result of strength and bravery is peace. When you face things that scare you with God's strength you will experience God's peace.

So far we have had a successful year of breastfeeding -which also taught me how frugal I can be. Between breastfeeding and cloth diapering (and cloth wipes) we saved SO MUCH money! We only buy clothes on sale or at thrift stores and have been blessed by one of Matt's co-workers with hand-me-downs! Plus, we discovered Baby Led Weaning, so no baby food for us! At 6 months she just started eating whatever we were eating (along with nursing).

I was afraid how I was going to balance raising  2 children. I had been the mama of one boy for 4 1/2 years, I didn't know any other way. I have learned that I am a master multitask-er! Not only do I raise 2 kids now along with being a wife, I homeschool, Direct AWANA, I'm on a MOPS Steering team and keeper of the home. I am tired most of the time, but I get stuff done! But along with being a multitask-er and juggling all these things I've also become more flexible while maintaining a sense of consistency and structure (if that makes sense).

Thank you Eisley for all that you have taught your mama in just your first year! I look forward to learning more from each other in the years to come! Happy 1st Birthday, Pumpkin! I love you!

 Eisely at 1 year:

• Has two teeth on the bottom and two top ones currently coming in
• Started taking steps on Oct. 21
• Has the cutest pig tails around
• Favorite food: all of it
• Favorite toy: She likes blocks and occasionally I see her playing with her baby dolls
• Favorite song: I'm a Little Teapot or You are My Sunshine
• Likes playing with big brother
• Thinks daddy is super funny
• Loves to dance to music
• Likes having books read to her
• Likes Mama's hugs and snuggles

Bikes, Blues and BBQ (and Apples Too).

  Last weekend we spent a few days in Arkansas with some of our favorite people! In the last week of September every year, tons of Bikes rally in Fayetteville, Arkansas for Bikes, Blues and BBQ. Our friends work at a preschool where they held their own version of BB&BBQ. The kids brought their bikes, ate popcicles, got fake tattoos, got to wash  their trikes and watch some policemen ride around on their bikes (as well as let kids climb on their bikes and check them out.) We packed up Elisha's bike so he could participate in these festivities.

I think he is ready for a bigger bike. And to learn to ride without training wheels. ;)

Silly, fake mustache tattoo.

Matt and Elisha especially enjoyed themselves while looking at all the different bikes. It was really cool watching hundreds of bikes cruising around town every night. The BBQ was pretty good too ;).

One of my favorite parts of BB&BQ

In other news, for the last week we or so we have been doing a unit on Apples! I really like all things fall: apples, pumpkins, crisp air, pumpkin patches, apple pie, jeans and hoodie weather, pumpkin spice coffee etc. We have a friend with an apple tree and she let us come over and pick some apples. It was really cool. I just wish it hadn't been such a rainy and gloomy day. Elisha enjoyed it nonetheless. Since it was also Johnny Appleseed's Birthday last week, we  had the same theme going on at the library, so that tied in really well with what we were doing at home!

Elisha got to hear a story about Johnny Appleseed and make a hat at the library.

We made some very yummy applesauce from our fresh picked apples! 

We took some of our apples that we picked to Arkansas and made an apple pie with our friends. When we got home, Elisha and I made some very delicious applesauce together. I peeled them and I let him use the apple slicer to slice them and I supervised as he diced them. I let him throw them in the pot and add cinnamon and mash them after they cooked down. He did an awesome job and loved helping make it and eat it! We also used apples to make apple decorations and apple dippers. We dipped our apple dippers in salted caramel sauce, chocolate coconut sauce, and nutella. Then per Elisha's request covered them in sprinkles.

We wrapped up our unit on apples today by reading "How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World" (such a cute book!) and baking another apple pie!

The weather is cloudy, windy and cool today- perfect weather to curl up with some hot cocoa, a blanket and a book-- and that's what I'm going to do! :)

Community Helpers Field Trip

Friday we took a field trip to the Trenton Airport to learn about our community helpers. We got to see a life light helicopter, firetruck, police car and ambulance. The preschool and Parents As Teachers  had sent me a letter a couple weeks ago notifying me of this field trip and I knew it was going to be something that Elisha was really going to enjoy. Of course he already knew all there was to know about firetrucks.

 

Got to take a look inside the ambulance.

Waiting patiently in line to get a turn to sit inside the helicopter.

He thought it was pretty cool to sit inside the helicopter.

Elisha loved the cop car! He got to run the sirens and speak over the vehicular public address system.

 

Firetruck! 

I thought this field trip was very informative not only for the kids but for the parents as well. My favorite part was the car seat checks that our community Health Department performed on site as well. I was happy to know that our car seats were properly installed and they were able to tighten Eisley's seat more for me since I had done all I could and it actually required a section of a foam pool noodle wedged under her seat to do the trick.

Also this week, we started our unit on leaves! We are learning what leaves do, how they do it and why they turn colors. I even noticed a few leaves changing color on some of our neighbor's trees. We visited Crowder Park to collect some leaves of various size, shape and color  for some of our activities for this unit. We sorted them, counted them, did leaf rubbings, and started making a leaf book that we will finish up this week. Our Biblical concept that goes with this unit is living and growing in Jesus. :)

Our next unit starts Wednesday and it will be  on apples! I'm loving the fall themes! :)

September Bustle

    Today we are only half way through September (which has gone super fast by the way!) and I feel like we have been going non-stop!

    We kicked off September by going to the Renaissance Festival in KC over Labor Day Weekend. We had never been before and my sweet friends Micah and Maerissa invited us to go for my birthday! It was pretty neat and Elisha loved every bit of it: the swords, the jousting, the pirates, the swords, the Children's Realm, the swords. Seriously, we could not leave until he had a sword of his very own.

It was a pirate themed weekend at Ren Fest and so Elisha had to wear his pirate hat.

Elisha on the "Throne of Swords"

I couldn't resist, I had to put Matt in the stocks.

 The day after Ren Fest, we remembered the The Great Pershing Balloon Derby was going on that weekend. Elisha and I had gone 4 years ago, but Matt had never gone so we decided to go. It was beautiful day, however the wind made it very dangerous for the hot air balloons to actually go up. They cold inflated a few but none of them actually went up. It wasn't all a waste though, Elisha's name got drawn to go play in one of those bouncy houses for free for 20 min and we got to eat walking tacos. When it got kind of dark out they did light up the baskets without the balloons on them so we could see that. And then the kids got some fun glow in dark stuff and we had fun running into people we haven't seen in awhile along with hanging out with great friends.

 I spent my birthday with family and friends. Elisha made me the cutest card. Matt brought home wild flowers, cheesecake and got me the movie, "Mom's Nigh Out". It was a good day with sweet people.

 We are a whole month into are homeschool-ing, which is going great. Elisha is learning to read, which is really cool to watch. So far we have learned about the 7 days of creation, we have done a unit study on the sun and we are getting to wrap up a unit study on the moon tomorrow. Then we will start on leaves- which I think will be fun considering Fall has decided to show up a little early around here as far as the temps go (now if the leaves will get the memo and start changing colors that would be great!).

Speaking of Fall, its that time of year when things are starting back up again - school, AWANA, MOPS, etc (I know there are others like t.v. shows, football, blah, blah, blah, but when do you have time for such things when there is school, AWANA and MOPS???) Anyway, I'm so excited about MOPS starting back up! I have made a lot of good mama friends through this program and its a great ministry too! Our theme this year is Be You Bravely and I have found it to be a very challenging and inspiring theme as I seek out ways to be brave as a mom, a wife and  a friend.

This Fall I am also taking on the role as Commander of our church's AWANA program. I guess you can say this is one of my "brave challenges". I'm still learning the ropes and hopefully will be able to get the rhythm of things over the next few weeks. Elisha is a Sparky this year and is very excited about this.

With all this busy-ness going on it has been a priority for our family to set aside times each week just for our family. Helping out with ministries at our church is great and important, having fellowship with other mamas is also important to me, but time with JUST our family is so precious. Time is fleeting, there is never enough time. Even as a stay at home mom, time flies. I remember being my son's age and the afternoons seemed to be never ending (having very little concept of time helps with that I suppose). I wish I could get lost in long afternoons with my kids, but housework and responsibilities pile up. I have been working on this though. It means I get up early and go to bed sort of late, but it helps tackle the to-do list. I get up at 5 am to make breakfast for my husband and we do devotions together before he leaves for work. I also get started on my laundry (with this system I usually only need to do one load a day to stay caught up, except Mondays- I usually have 2-3 depending on how busy the weekend was). I try to get everything done before my kids wake up and then it's time for them- breakfast, getting dressed, brushing teeth, Bible and school work with Elisha. I still have a few things to do through out the day and try to use Eisley's nap time to do something for myself (which usually ends up being snuggling up with Elisha and a reading a book together or taking a nap with Eisley). I can't help it, sometimes, time for me ends up being just more time with my kids. I love it when our family time ideas come from my husband and both of the last two have been all his ideas! We did a picnic dinner last week as well as a pizza night where we all pitched in to help make the pizza- so fun! No interruptions, no to-dos, just us having fun and spending time together. 

    

Eisley has kind of ensured that I slow down a little this week, poor girl just hasn't been feeling well :(

One last thing: Look at how handsome my boy is! We go his "Kindergarten" Pictures taken (Murphy's Studio in Chillicothe) and they turned out SO cute!!

Week 1: Kindergarten

We started our home-school journey one week ago! Elisha started Kindergarten! I've known we would home-school since before we had children. It was something Matt and I both agreed on. Although, last summer when I was pregnant with Eisely we realized we had a year before Elisha would be Kindergarten bound, and we started to consider public school. I thought I would be too overwhelmed, I had lot of self doubt and honestly I was starting to chicken out. I had one year to make up my mind and the decision was was making me ill. I didn't want to make the wrong choice and ruin my kid. I know it's just Kindergarten, but I kind of want us to stick with whatever decision we make and not have our kids weaving in and out of public school and homeschool. I realize some families face that situation and it works for them, but I wanted to avoid it as much as possible. I prayed about it and I consulted family and friends to gain some insight and wisdom on what to do. Finally I decided we would send him to public school...but I had no peace with the decision! So, my husband works with a man who home-schools his children with his wife. They invited us over to talk and look at their curriculum. That really helped me to reconsider our decision. When I changed my mind to home-school again the peace was there again. I let doubting myself and fear of the unknown influence my decision! Little did I know at the time that bravery would be a huge theme in my life this year (more on that later). Anyway, I'm really glad we made this decision!


  We use My Father's World for Kindergarten. It's a Biblical based curriculum with Charlotte Mason philosophies on education. LOTS of nature study. We supplement with other materials if I feel that Elisha needs more of a challenge. So far, I have supplemented the Language Arts with a program called Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. So far it's going well. Just the right amount of challenge that Elisha needed and I'm confident he will be a good reader in just a few months!

Our lessons that come with the curriculum only take us a little over an hour to complete and I add in a few other activities. But we still have a lot of the day left to play and explore other things. I also make sure that screen time is very limited so he must play with toys, blocks, board games/card games, go outside or read together for entertainment. Sometimes a few of our education resources are on the iPad and I don't usually count that against his recreational screen time.

 

 On our first day of lessons we finished up our work in time for me to work a MOPS booth at the Organizational Fair at the college in town. This firetruck was parked right in front of our booth so and the friendly firemen gladly let Elisha take a tour and try on different gear. Elisha was intrigued. Then on Wednesday while visiting Matt at work a firetruck was parked out front because of a fire safety class taking place that morning. A fireman saw Elisha and asked if he wanted to take a ride in the firetruck and of course Elisha agreed. I really thinking that things like this will be one of my favorite parts of homeschooling- all of the spontaneous learning moments and explorations that can come about because we aren't stuck in a classroom and we are learning while living our daily lives.

Eisley is pretty good about entertaining herself for the most part while Elisha and I go over his lessons. I make sure she has plenty of board books, puzzles and of course things that are not toys like broken remotes and wooden spoons.

 Elisha is getting SO good at using scissors! I didn't realize how much progress he was making with scissors until this week. Earlier this year he was still using the scissor as a way to rip the paper, he couldn't quite get it to cut right. I did have him practice with play doh scissors and play doh to help build those fine motor skills/muscles, but had no idea I would being seeing this kind of progress right now.                                                                             This week we started going over the beginning of Creation. This theme is incorporated into our math, reading/ language arts, science, art/music and of course Bible study. After the 7 days of creation we will move on to other themes that will be incorporated into all of our subjects and it will always have a Bible lesson to go along with it as well. Getting to learn more about Christ along with his educational studies is just another perk to home-schooling!

We made a parking garage out of old boxes. He loved it!

One of my favorite things about homeschooling is watching Elisha learn things and see a new concept click. If we had put Elisha in public school I knew I would get so jealous of his teachers being the ones to watch the initial turning of the gears and the pride he would feel when he finally mastered something. I didn't want to hear about it second hand, I wanted to be a part of his experience.  I also like that I am with him all day. Don't get me wrong sometimes I would like a little break, but I always think about how I only have these little people in my home for a short while, then they will be grown and my break will come sooner than I'm ready for. I know there is a stigma with homeschooling and socialization, but I'm not at all concerned about it. Elisha is extremely social!

 In fact, between MOPS, church/AWANA and the library Elisha has made quite a few friends with whom we take a few times each week to play with whether it be in a church class, a play date, MOPS meetings or story hour. We also joined a local home school group, which I'm SO excited about! It's up there on my list of happy places which includes MOPS. Last week was also our first home school group play date in the park. Elisha saw old friends and made new ones. He had a lot of fun and  didn't even care that it was 90 degrees outside.

And for the record I have no problem with public school in general or people that send their kids to public school. There are some things that have changed since I was in school that I don't necessarily agree with. I do appreciate people in the education field so much, I have several friends that are excellent teachers. It's a thankless job and can be very stressful. Families have to make these decisions based on what works for their family, and I really do not think one way is better than another, however I think this is best for US.  I think our town has good public schools, but this was just a personal choice for our family. After weighing the pros and cons, shadowing home-school families, researching  and accepting the huge commitment of it we made this decision and it wasn't made lightly.  Anyway, I just thought I would throw that out there just in case my enthusiasm for our home-school journey is mistaken for educational snobby-ness ;)

Well, that pretty much wraps up our first week of Kindergarten! :)