My Girls

I love that these two are mine. I love that I love my girls. I feel so bonded to them. I love Eloise's amazing hugs and soft, thoughtful kisses. I love her hilarious and contagious laugh. I love that she wants to help with everything and can actually help with a lot of things. I love that Marie snuggles-and actually does snuggle. I love her face covered in milk, especially when her belly is showing from under her shirt.  I love that Eloise copies everything I'm doing with Marie and tries so hard to replicate it and to be kind. She is so very, very, kind. I love that one day they'll be saying, "Goodnight Girls" to their own daughters. I hope they feel as fulfilled as a mother as I do when I look at their sweet faces and know I'm helping to shape our posterity. Each day I have the chance to give them a positive "program" of motherhood. Each day I pray and pray and pray that I will have the strength to do what He wants me to do and to help these little ones grow to be the women He wants them to become.

What Do We Do with 45 Minutes to Spare?

We go to the park when it's sunny! There is a park just a few minutes away from Cedrik's piano lesson and this last week we decided it was nice enough to go. We had so much fun. Freddie commented, "Mom, I love spending time together when it's just with you." We can really feel the difference when we get to spend time together without Cedrik. The kids are always ready to see him again but it's nice to have that special time because the other three really demand so much less attention from me and I forget that they are fun. They are really fun to be with.

Cedrik's First Piano Recital

Cedrik had his first piano recital. He and Jordan performed Skip to My Lou. It was fun and he did fantastic. He is definitely his harshest critic so we try to just be positive. His teacher seems to love him. And he's in love with her.

Awesomeness

The hair. The dress up. The bunny ears.

V-Day

Valentine's fell on a Sunday. I printed out hearts with phrases about God's love that had corresponding scriptures with them. ("God's love is unchangeable. God's love is kind.") At lunch Cedrik chose a few to read and we read the scriptures together while we ate. My intent was to fill up on God's love so that we could more easily give love to others. The next day ended up being a really bad day all around for attitudes, mine included. I did try and we are still trying to do better, myself included.

After naps we went to Chari's house for dinner and to decorate sugar cookies. All of the kids (except Eloise) lost the privilege of eating their cookie that night and had to save it until the next evening but they still had fun decorating and playing.

Thinking about Movement

Thinking is as far as Marie gets when she wants to go somewhere. She gets up on her stomach or knees, rocks, and then falls over and rolls. Part of me wants her to crawl so she'll stop whining and be able to follow me on her own. The other part of me is grieving that she'll soon be a toddler and no longer my sweet little baby.

Van Gogh

We studied Vincent Van Gogh. I use the term studied very loosely. I learned more about him than I knew before. The boys caught sunflowers and The Starry Night. At least they picked up on something.

Cedrik painted the sunflowers and Freddie's attempt at The Starry Night is lovely. Eloise was just happy to create.

Food

We love food.

Dr. David Christopher

Chari and I met Dr. David Christopher and heard him speak a few weekends ago. It was fantastic. I learned a few new things about the body and he spoke very well. He's logical, scientific and spiritual. We loved it.

Holland

When you think of Holland do you think of poffertjes, anijsmelk and stroopwafels? Now we do!

We all love country studies. I could just plan our homeschool entirely around studying countries and I think we'd learn plenty to keep us educated for life.

"God created the world but the Dutch created Holland." With lots and lots of dikes and windmill power! They used the windmills and had an auger-like attachment that pushed the water up over the dikes and back into the ocean. Ingenuity!

We had Cees Kaulkman come over. He's in our ward and born in Holland. We loved listening to him speak dutch. He seemed to love the anijsmelk I attempted to make for all of us. He seems to still try to keep the calm European demeanor and it was so nice to have him in our home. He made us poffertjes, which the kids thought were mini pancakes. His father was a cook and owned a restaurant so he had a large poffertjes pan. He brought a bunch of wooden clogs and told us about the tradition of marriage clogs. He taught the kids about Holland and Cedrik was the most entranced. It was by far one of the best homeschooling experiences we've had.

I also love that Jordan and I are learning so much with each country study too. Holland is now high on our list of places to visit!

Mimi Likes Food

Marie has finally decided food is yummy! She got a high chair too. It's nice to have our last addition at eye level during dinner. Our table is complete.

Snowplows

We studied Katy and the Big Snow quite a few weeks ago. I had planned the snowplow trip with that, but it actually snowed! We rescheduled and finally got to go see them. The boys were in love with it. I asked a lot of questions; Cedrik asked a few and the driver, Jay, was very impressed with him. They were able to blow the horn, see the plow move up and down and learned all about salt and sand, and how high they drive the plow. It was really fun!