Easter 2016

This year was the first year we did not go to my parents for Easter.  

Instead, we went to my sister's near Quartz Mountain.

 It's really beautiful there.  

My family has discovered gaga ball.

It's similar to dodgeball, except you can only hit legs/feet, and you cannot catch the ball.

Plus, you are also enclosed in a cage.

I'm terrible at it, but it's SO FUN!

 Kyle had some moves!

 But we're not as young as we once were!

 It was such a gorgeous weekend.  

The weather was perfect, the food was amazing, and spending time with my family is always rejuvenating!

I snuck a few pictures of my beautiful Mom against her wishes!

She is amazing. 

Her love is pure, true, an unconditional!

I'm a lucky, lucky girl.

And this happens a lot around my mom...lots of laughter and fun.

We did a glow-in-the-dark Easter egg hunt this year!

Lots of fun, I highly recommend it.

(See how here)

 I loved her Easter dress this year!  

You can't see it very well here, but it's Minnie Mouse!

She loved it.

 Easter baskets were a joy, and served double duty as hats.  

We did one more, traditional Easter egg hunt.

So fun, at any age!

Yay!  

Homeschool Haven

 

I have to admit, I was really hesitant to begin homeschooling back in September.

I'm not the most structured person, and for some reason I have this crazy desire to sabotage routines no matter how beneficial they may be.

I figured this would not fit in well with the homeschool world. 

But, the wonderful thing about homeschooling is it can be a bit unstructured, and nobody says you have to do the same things every day!  

I am SO glad Maddie and I have taken on this adventure together.  

We are both better for it, and (thanks to Maddie) I have even seen the beauty of routines.

I did hit a few rough patches along the way though.

Trying to find our rhythm and our curriculum has been challenging.

I invested in a few different options only to be extremely disappointed when they haven't really worked for us.

A few weeks ago my sister and I drove to Fort Worth, TX for the Homeschool Convention.

I didn't want to make the same mistake and invest in more curriculum that wouldn't work for us, so I wrote out goals for Maddie that I wanted her to learn.
I wrote several goals for her in the areas of Language, Math, Character, Personal Care, Bible, Science, Fine Motor, and Gross Motor.
I prayed over all of these and set out to find curriculum that would fit these categories and Maddie's specific goals.
I was getting discouraged until I came upon the Homegrown Preschooler's booth (http://www.thehomegrownpreschooler.com/.)
I was drawn to it right away, but actually dismissed it because it seemed "too good to be true."

I went back and visited with the authors (Kathy Lee and Lesli Richards) and they seemed like good friends!
But when I read through the curriculum, I noticed one of the activities was teaching them to brush their teeth independently.
This was one of Maddie's specific goals I had written down!
As I looked through, it was as if they had taken Maddie's learning style and had handwritten it just for us.

I purchased the curriculum, and we did our first activity today, which was preparing a spot for Maddie's very own garden!
Now come on, doesn't that sound like too much fun to be homeschool?
We dug in the dirt and found a grub.
She learned a new vocabulary word and I talked to her about how some things like to live underground.
Then we found a worm.
She wasn't at all impressed,
until she began finding all kinds of "treasures" (sticks, rocks, snail shells, etc.)
We got an empty egg carton to contain the treasures.

She was so proud of her treasures!
As she would sift through the dirt, she would say, "I found something!"

As part of the curriculum, they make these homemade, sewn books.
We got out our first book to remember all of our wonderful treasures.

Aren't these the cutest things ever?!

Maddie got to work documenting everything.
We've covered nature/science, language, and now handwriting.
She happened to collect three snail shells, so we counted them and worked in some math.

 She's awfully proud of herself. :)

She's making it her own!
Call me crazy, but doesn't it look like she's trying to write "leaf?"

I love seeing her so engrossed and concentrating so hard.
Really, I could guess all the things she was learning through this simple, playful activity but there's no way to know all that was happening in that brain of hers.
All I know is, this is what learning looks like!

She struggled with the scotch tape (our method for attaching all of her treasures in her book), but she wanted to give it another go.

And the thing with tape,

is it's just so darn sticky...

and frustrating!

But, finally, she got it!

I am so excited to have found what seems like the perfect curriculum for us.
I had already decided to do school year-round throughout the summer, and now I can hardly wait!

Beautiful Moments

Every once in a great while, we may discover ourselves in the midst of a beautiful moment.

These rare, precious realizations are what make life worth living. 

Yesterday, life honored me with such a moment.

I was getting dinner ready in the kitchen, and I looked over at Maddie sitting at the table with her coloring book.  

The late afternoon/early evening light was gentle and soft.  

I was struck by how peaceful she looked, so content.

My heart warmed and I stood still, soaking it all in.  

And then of course I grabbed my camera.

I've been playing around with what photography industry calls "documentary family photojournalism."

It's a storytelling style that reflects the ethical codes of true photojournalists that do not interfere with the moment, they simply capture it.  

In portrait photography, all of those things in the foreground are considered distractions that interfere with the main subject.

In family photojournalism, they simply add to the telling of the story.  

What some call clutter, others call details! ;)

Documentary photography is extremely challenging, but I think I prefer it to portrait work.  

I like that one photo can tell a story.  

In this story, she has her green smoothie, nearly finished sitting beside her.  

It's not unusual for her to drink 3 per day, and she usually finishes them in 2 minutes flat.

In front of her green smoothie is her crayon roll. 

I made that for her 7th birthday party and I love that she loves it.

Next, she's not coloring.

When she gets her coloring books out, she flips through every page one at a time like a book before she ever picks up a crayon.

I also like how small she looks in the adult size dining room chair.

There was just enough separation from her hair and the chair with the highlights hitting her hair.

That makes for a more pleasing image.

She finally picks up her crayon and starts to color.

The detail I love in this photo is the bubbles sitting to her left.  

Earlier in the day we had gone outside to blow bubbles.  

Maddie has some success blowing bubbles, but she will often get frustrated because her mouth muscles are not always strong enough to form the "O" shape to blow.

I was trying to teach her but at this particular moment she was really defeated and ready to give up.

Me: "I'm not going to let you give up, you can do this."

Maddie: "I can't do it"

Me: "Never say can't.  It takes lots of practice and you have to open your mind to learn, but you can do it."

Maddie: (slowly opens door and creeps back inside, an inch at a time!) HA.HA.

That was her subtle way of telling me the lesson was over!

I especially love this image!

The story here is we have been working on pencil grasp for well over a year now.

She will show signs of progress one week, but the next she will revert back a palm grasp (as opposed to a tripod grasp.)

Just like her mouth muscles are not always strong enough, she also struggles with her fine motor muscles.

But this is perfect!

She's got a great grasp and she is able to control the movement while coloring the bow!!

That's amazing progress considering a week ago we were back to the palm grasp once again.

In homeschooling her I've learned her learning style is very fluid.  

Give and take.

We learn, revert, learn again, revert, learn again.

But with each time we learn again I know: 

1) She learned it once, she can learn it again

2) each new experience builds on the last and one day it will stick forever

Maybe this is the day the tripod pencil grasp sticks forever!

Even if it's not, I have a beautiful image that captures a beautiful moment that I will always cherish.

I wish for you to find yourselves in the midst of beautiful moments as well.

They really are what make life worth living!

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no fickleness, neither shadow of turning.

What We've Been Up To

I haven't had as much time to blog this year because Homeschooling takes up most of that time.  

I had intentions of blogging about our homeschooling adventures, but I've discovered my focus can't be divided right now as we are still learning the ropes.  

Hopefully as we get a little more seasoned, I'll be able to multi-task and share more.  

I have missed it!

Maddie has been doing so well these last few months since we officially began homeschooling in August.  

She's lost 4 teeth so far.

Of the 4, we've only recovered this last one.  

My guess is she swallowed the rest?

We thought we were making great progress with potty training this fall, but as it turns out, I was really just training myself to manage her potty schedule (which was A LOT of work!)

I found a forum discussing potty training and Down Syndrome and most of the parents on that forum said their children were around 10 yrs before they were potty trained.

I decided to ease up and let nature take its course, and life got a whole lot easier.  

She's still not sleeping through the night, but I would say it's much better than it used to be. 

Another battle we were losing our minds to was the 'sleeping in your own bed battle.'

She now sleeps in our bed 100% of the time, and once again, life got a whole lot easier. 

 As far as her emotional well-being, she is definitely not as frustrated as she once was.  

As her communication skills are improving, so is her confidence!

She's not as scared of the world as she used to be, which has been absolutely delightful.

Cognitively, I would say we're working, overall, at a 4 year old level and she's now 7.  

I believe this one has so much potential!

It's like she's a little caterpillar in her cocoon, just taking things slow and steady, waiting for just the right time to emerge.

Parenting and homeschooling her has been so delightful and fulfilling! 

We have had a lot of frustrations and learning curves to overcome, but all in all the highlights shine much brighter than the shadow of the low times.

The Art of Compliments Project

What if we always saw the good in everybody?

What if when we thought of others, we only remembered the good things?

I used to always make New Year Resolutions.  They were just like everyone else's.  

Keep a Tidy House. 

Eat Healthy.

Exercise More.

Find Balance.

And just like everyone else's they were cast to the back of my mind by mid-February.  

I didn't make any resolutions this year.

But I am embarking on a new project for 2016 that I am super-duper excited about!

I call it Philippians 4:8; The Art of Compliments Project.

A few months back, I began studying the book of Philippians.  

My goal was to read the entire book every day for a month. 

This really helped see the cohesiveness of Paul's writing.

I noticed in chapter 1, Paul writes, "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you." (1:3, ESV)

Then, in chapter 4 is the verse a lot of us are familiar with, 

"Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." (4:8, ESV)

As I read these two verses together, I thought, 'What if Paul was talking about people in 4:8?' 

I began a little experiment of my own, assigning these traits to the people I love.  

I found with these 8 attributes, there was always something that fit, with each person I thought of. 

So cool!!

Then something happened to me several weeks ago. 

My first interaction with a lovely lady from church was her approaching me to tell me she thought I was beautiful.

Say what?!

I don't think ANYONE has ever told me that!  

How nice!

It's really what every woman wants to hear.

My initial reaction was the beauty she sees in me is not so much me, but Christ in me.  

But she didn't know about my tumultuous past with body image issues.

She didn't know that I was noticing that somehow an extra 10 pounds had slowly crept up, all of a sudden!

When I wanted to berate myself when my pants wouldn't button, I remembered our conversation and it gave me just the right perspective to keep from treading down that  dark path once again.

Seeing first hand how an honest, sincere compliment could save me, I knew it was time to pass it on.

Why is it we know the people in our lives are wonderful and worthy of our compliments, yet we keep it to ourselves?

So, 2016 is the initiation of Philippians 4:8, The Art of Compliments Project.

I hope to compliment at least 100 people in my life during the next year.

If you receive something from me in the upcoming year, know you are very much loved and the compliment is long overdue!!

I cannot WAIT to get started :)

I Am Restless...

This feeling usually precedes some sort of spiritual awakening of some degree. 

It feels like sandpaper on my soul.

The first time I felt it, I was working at a florist in 2006, making great use of my degree in Child Development. ;) 

I loved that job. 

 I loved the people I worked for, I loved the creative outlet of designing floral arrangements. 

I loved walking into the flower shop and smelling beauty.

I loved the sentiment of the gesture of sending flowers to someone.  

But this annoying restless feeling wouldn't go away.

I felt God saying, "I've called you for more."

One Sunday morning, I was reading the announcements in the church bulletin and noticed they were needing a  2-yr-old teacher at the preschool.

I knew this was the source of the sandpaper.  

I called the director, which happened to be a good friend, and the next day I interviewed and was hired.  

I loved that job, too. 

I worked there a year until I became pregnant with Maddie.  

The next time I felt this annoying feeling was in 2014.  

The year before had been one of the worst years of my life. 

My neighbor invited me to a writer's workshop for victims of the 2013 tornado. 

I didn't realize I had unresolved issues, but was interested in attending.

I had no idea that would lead to one of the most powerful spiritual lessons of my life.  

It's back again.  

If history repeats itself, change is coming.  

My go-to band when I get like this is Switchfoot. 

I love their sound, their message of making the most of the time we have, their intensity.  

It's good stuff.

I also like Bethel's In Over My Head

In the lyrics of that song, 

"Whether I sink, whether I swim, it makes no difference when I'm

beautifully in over my head."

Right now it feels like winter, 

but I'm hoping spring is right around the corner.  

Happy Halloween!!

Maddie LOVES Halloween!

Dress up is her most beloved activity so combine that with candy and it's heaven!!

She was Minnie Mouse!

This year she went up to the doors all by herself...

She did a great job saying, "Trick-or-treat" and "Thank-You", and then she would run back to us and say, "I did it!"

Halfway through the night, we taught her to say, "Happy Halloween!"

At this house, they had fun talking to her and when she ended with Happy Halloween, they laughed and said, "Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas!" 

She then told the next few houses, Merry Christmas!  LOL!

For those of us trick-or-treating ourselves, we left candy out in a bowl for trick-or-treaters to help themselves.

Daddy taught her which candies to select in a situation like this...chocolate trumps all others, of course!

We had a great time this year. 

The weather was gorgeous and the neighborhood was bustling with activity!

Another year in the books!

"Happy Halloween, Merry Christmas!"