Today....

Painting with water (they did such a good job I could wallpaper a room with all their creations!).

See how our lima beans have grown!

A new use for our abdominal exercise machine (which had been a wonderful little valet for my clothes in our bedroom!).

Ready....set......GO! Paper airplane wars.

Here is the winning plane. Sleek, isn't it? Son G named it "Arrow Two" (apparently there is also an "Arrow One").

Our son who lives with SPD had an exceptionally good day today!! I am so very thankful. Our therapist said when we first began working with her that her goal was to get him to smile more. He has such a beautiful smile and a great sense of humor, but some days neither one shows very much. His therapist will be very happy to hear tomorrow that he smiled a LOT today and seemed like a regular, happy kid. Thank the Lord!

I am fairly certain that we are reaping benefits from his occupational therapy and listening therapy, but I also believe that concerted, fervent prayer is making an enormous difference. I'm so thankful to serve a LIVING God, who is powerful and yet personal. He is good!

His own desk

On a happier note, I made a little "school" area for Little Man this weekend. We school at our kitchen table and have very nearly outgrown its size. There is no room for the older 4 to have their work spread out AND have Little Man there doing some type of activity. I have at times had a pity party that our house is not bigger (shame on me!), but realized I would have to find a way to include him that works with our current situation.

All I did was bring a Little Tikes table upstairs from our basement toy room, but he thinks it's the best thing since sliced bread! (of course, I tidied, de-cluttered, and deep cleaned the family room first, which took far longer than carrying the table upstairs!) I explained that this was his very own "school table" and he would have special activities to do here that were only for school time. His little table is right next to the kitchen table, so he is with us yet not encroaching on his siblings' work. A wonderful solution for now!

Thank you, Lord, for the space to do this, and for the Little Tikes table that we already owned. Thank you for blessing us with our Little Man. Help me to model what it looks like to include him so that the older children won't be frustrated or overly distracted from their work. Help me to focus on the larger goal of brotherly love rather than how much academic work we accomplish. And thank you for our house. Compared to most of the world, we are rich indeed.

Emergency trip to the Dentist

Our Little Man fell last night with his mouth open and knocked one of his front teeth loose. It easily wiggled but didn't fall out, and bled alot for a long time. When he woke up this morning he had dried blood all around his mouth, poor guy! So we went in to the dentist first thing after breakfast (which he didn't eat), fully expecting that his tooth would need to be pulled, but it didn't! Most baby teeth that get knocked out of position will re-affix themselves in their new position and then just hang out as normal until the permanent tooth underneath pushes it out. There is a chance the tooth will not stabilize, in which case it *will* need to be pulled, but we are anticipating a complete and normal healing. For now his mouth and part of his cheek are swollen and he is eating very little, but I'm thankful it was not worse!

Some of the ladies on the TOG yahoo group have been talking about the kinds of injuries and accidents that happen to our little people. It's not only amazing that they survive childhood, it's also amazing that we survive motherhood!!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary mom and dad! (my in-laws) We rejoice with you in 52 years of wedded bliss!!

Sprouts have been planted!

Today was the day! First we took the plastic gloves out of the window where they'd been sprouting for nearly 3 weeks.

Then each boy labeled popsicle sticks with the names of the sprouts he was planting. We have peas, peppers, wildflowers, lima beans (ick), and basil.

Then came the reeeeeally tricky part.......pulling the seeds and roots off the wet cotton balls!

After they'd all been carefully planted, they were carefully watered by C, G, and L respectively.

Voila!

In other news, my hubby MADE his deadline this past Monday!! Praise the Lord! Actually, the deadline was really Saturday before Easter, as that is when the consultant flew to Japan with the completed software. He had to pull an all-nighter Friday night, but it is D.O.N.E. You have no idea how relieved I am! Today he went to the office for the first time in about 3 weeks and it was weird not having him home!

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Also, I'm sorry I steered you wrong with the previous post about the space shuttle. Apparently it landed about an hour before we were supposed to see it travel across the sky! I went to nasa's website and they have an outdated schedule listed there. So that explains why we weren't able to see anything though we searched diligently for half an hour! Little Man was the most disappointed. He insisted on being wrapped in a blanket and held by his daddy the whole time, waiting expectantly. The next time the space shuttle is visible, he wants to get in a plane and fly up to meet it. :-)

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Our daughter got her stitches out this morning. Based on our 4 hour wait two weeks ago when the injury first occurred, I packed up virtually our entire schoolroom, with plenty of snacks and activities for Little Man, and off we headed at 8:30 a.m. Wouldn't you know they had us in and out in 40 minutes! Her foot is very sore and looks bruised. The Dr was a little concerned about it. But the cut itself is definitely healed up enough for the stitches to be out. Now we put ointment on it, watch it and continue to pray for complete healing.

Space Shuttle again!

The space shuttle Endeavour, the international space station, and an unmanned cargo carrier called an ATV (automated transfer vehicle) will all be visible this evening beginning at 9:29, eastern time. The ATV is supposed to rise first, in the southwest sky, followed by the space station, followed by Endeavour 19 seconds later. They should be visible for several minutes as they move across the sky. If it's not cloudy where you are, go take a look!

Thanks for the heads up Susan!

Hannah Montana

This post is going to show how old and fuddy-duddy I am! Hey, at least I'll admit it. :-)

Most of my readers have probably heard of Hannah Montana, and if you haven't, she's a teen actor/singer sensation. She stars in a tv show, in which she plays a singer whose identity is secret from the rest of her life. In real life, she also travels around giving concerts at which she performs as her character "Hannah Montana". Confused yet? I'm not sure which came first, the real life concerts or the tv show (I think it was the tv show but someone correct me if I'm wrong).

She came to our city a couple months ago in the dead of winter, and there were tween and teen agers (along with their shivering parents) lined up around the ticket booth for DAYS before the tickets went on sale. I'm not kidding!

Our children have heard of her and have been very curious about her. Some of their friends are huge fans. I have seen her interviewed a few times in real life and she seems like a pretty normal kid with her head screwed on straight, which is saying a lot about anyone from hollywood. So for the last two Saturdays our family has watched her show. As a person, I liked it. As a parent, I didn't. There was quite a bit of kissing, lying, deceiving, and sneaking going on. There WAS a moral to the story at the end, and a good teachable moment, but I felt it was lost by all the junk that had gone on in the previous 28 minutes.

I feel that my kids are too young to see young people kissing. They just don't need that imagery. Seeing us, their parents kissing is different. I would prefer they think of a married kiss when they think of kissing, and not a teenage crush kiss. I know they will see and hear about that soon enough, but not yet. It's just not necessary. And for the record, it was her older brother who was kissing on the show, not her.

We had a good conversation about it with our daughter. After we explained our concerns, she said she could see those things too. She said the next time we watched it she'd try to look for those things that were inappropriate or "bad". So we've decided to watch it with her a couple more times and then make a decision as to whether or not it will be part of her regular tv diet. I'm leaning towards no, but there may be a larger value here in teaching her to analyze the shows that she watches. And there also may be a larger value in teaching her there are times when it's worth it to stand alone. We shall see.

Again, I'm so glad for the wisdom God gives! (And please don't take offense if this is something your family enjoys!! Every family is different, and since this is my blog I get to write about ours). :-)