Elijah's musings

There are times when one of my kids makes a statement that I want to remember. Of course, as the years flow by, who said what sometimes becomes blurry. Lately, Elijah has said several things that I want to remember.

Last night during bedtime rituals, Elijah touched my heart with his prayer. He said, "God, please help the poor people. Maybe give them some pennies, or nickels or quarters? And they need toys." This was totally unprecipitated by me and struck me that he was developing a heart for others. He's also starting to get some things spiritually as shown by his statement as he said the blessing one night. "Jesus, thank you for you."

The other day while Christmas shopping with my two youngest side-kicks,  Abbey picked up a little negligee thingy and held it up towards herself. Elijah matter of factly looked at her and said, "Abbey, you've got to grown some bigger boobies before you can wear that. Right now, you have little bitty boobies."

It's fun to see how kid's brains work by listening to what comes out of their mouths.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

One reason big brothers are fun to have around.

Spinning the merry go round, while we peruse the trees

It was too cold to take too much time to discuss, so we chose pretty quickly, got it home, set it in the living room and began the decoratin'.

Layla and Dad supervises

Setting up the nativity sets.

All that decorating can tire out both man and beast.

Our family Christmas trees aren't beautiful productions to the untrained eye. To the eye trained to look for precious memories, our tree is a treasure trove. Most of the ornaments have pictures of our family from the previous years, or they were actually made by the kids. I do a walk down memory lane each year as we go through the ornaments.

Voila`

The weather outside might be frightful….

but the indoor pool is always delightful!

Elijah wished he was tall enough for the water slide, but still enjoyed swimming.

The joys of homeschooling...

The joys of homeschooling are many, but last Friday was a great example of a perk of homeschooling.  The weather was majorly unseasonably warm, (try upper 70's). We spent the first part of the day at the "Castle Park", playing with friends and the second part of the day Abbey got to finish her work like this..

while Elijah rode his bike.

We've also had a great experience with our homeschool co-op group. We meet on Fridays, and the moms take turns teaching extra-curricular classes. Abbey and Elijah loved "Legacy", as it's called. The highlight was the "show and tell" they got to participate in every week. Not a single week went by that Abbey and Elijah did not go up on stage and share about something, usually it was a toy, but their topics ranged from special shoes to their newly born niece.

 Here, Abbey shared her homemade bow and arrow. (made from a clothes hanger and a stick)

This day Elijah shared his macaroni snake

They've had classes in Spanish, geography, art and large group games. It is a wonderful opportunity for the kids to socialize and take advantage of the expertise of other moms. (I usually choose to  take care of  2 yr olds).

Through our homeschool group, we've had some great field trips. Earlier this year we went to Bennett Place.

The soldier was quite animated and actually fired the musket for us.

Today we went to Oak View historic park to learn about Christmas traditions from the early 1800's to the 1950's.

and the highlight for the kids- petting the goats.

The history museum's presentation of American Indian Heritage day was fantastic.

We saw some dances

played some games unique to the Indian culture

tried our hands at making clay pots

visited a wigwam frame

sat in a long boat

while watching how the Indians burned out the inside.

Of course, no field trip downtown is complete without a visit to our favorite doughnut place.

I've loved the opportunities we've had to cultivate a love of theater.  (I've got to make sure I always have someone who loves to go see musicals with me.)

We've been to see Slim Goodbody's show

and along with Layne, we went to see "Frosty the Snowman", a musical.

I'm so thankful for the opportunity to homeschool these kiddos. I'm also thankful for all the opportunities that we've had to make learning hands-on and fun!

Watching Daniel living his dream.

For many years, Daniel dreamed of being a NCAA Div. 1 athlete.  He is now living that dream, and loving it! We've been able to attend 3 of his meets so far this year. Daniel has gotten bigger, yet slimmed down considerably. The first meet of the season was against Tennessee. The kids and I went to this one by ourselves, because John had to work.

The little kids did really well with the 2 hour ride and then sitting through the meet.

They were so excited to see Daniel!

The next meet we went to was against Emory. This was a reunion for several of the kids that Daniel swam with during high school.

Again, Abbey and Elijah are ecstatic to see Daniel.

Daniel is doing well with his swimming, achieving best times. It's a great feeling to see one of my kids doing something they really enjoy!

A sport she does like, and he does too.

Earlier, I posted about Abbey's lack of love for the sport of soccer. Well, thanks to Nana and Grandaddy, she and Elijah are trying their hands and feet at gymnastics. They both love it!

Abbey has been working on this move for weeks, she accomplished it for the first time while I was there with the camera.

First she flips from a handstand to a bridge (she's had this part down for a while)

This is the part she struggled with.

Flipping back to her feet!

Elijah is working on his handstand.

Maybe gymnastics will be their sport of choice???