The Blessed Mundane

I need to have this photo enlarged and placed in a prominent location here at home, because I don't think anyone could feel sad for long once they glanced at her, do you? All that happy, all that sunshine...

 

One afternoon recently, it was so mild and beautiful outside that some of us wandered out there in the evening before supper. Three of the girls were occupied inside with some game of pretending, and BB and I were in the back yard with the other three.

CJ adores being outside, so she was happy to do her toddler-wandering thing while the rest of us played and enjoyed the sunshine. What a ham she is, and quite the performer, making faces and being silly just to get everyone to laugh.

When EG needs and wants a bit of quality, one-on-one with mom or dad, she usually wants to play a game of some sort, so that day we played Uno on the dying grass, constantly defending our piles of cards from Destroyer-Baby. Oh, my, I have never wanted to put child locks on everything before. But CJ takes open-and-dump-out-contents to a whole new level. What an explorer!!

CA was hollering at BB to slow down, so she could catch up and "win" their little soccer game (played with yet another of our lame balls...a poorly inflated old volleyball...update: we do possess a real football now, thanks to my mom!). It was fun to watch BB play with CA as he ran with her, then spun her around in the air, scare-the-mama style.

Yesterday afternoon was an appropriately restful Sabbath around here. I got a nap and then spent time writing our two Compassion International "sons" in Rwanda. I hand-wrote one letter, very sadly overdue. It was a reply to one of the boy's letters to us. Then I jumped on Compassion's website to check out their new set-up for emailing sponsored children. They've made all kinds of options available, including fun templates and the option of adding photos. I really wanted to attach the above picture, since both of our boys love soccer. In the end, I used a photo of all the girls together, but I'm still so happy about the improved options and user-friendliness of Compassion's site. (When you choose to email, it's basically one-way communication, as the kids don't have access to computers and the internet, but it's a wonderful way to dash off notes of encouragement to your sponsored children!).

I'm that crazy lady at the grocery store, snapping photos of her kids in the cart. Sometimes it's just neat to look back and remember what things were like, so I haul the camera with me to odd places at times.

The easiest time for me to do errands and shopping is right after I drop the big 4 off at school on Monday or Wednesday, so the little 2 end up going here and there with me during those schooldays.

Well, this would be one way to avoid a bit of the shocked conversation we get while out with all 6 girls: keep dressing CJ in this rather unisex Longhorns attire...of course, I was not with all six that day, but still...What a sweet little boy! And are you the big sister? Smile.

If you squint, I think you can make out the toenails on those itty bitty toes on that fat little foot!

For the amount of time that CA is willing to ride contentedly in the grocery cart, she takes it upon herself to organize it for me. Whew. I was hoping someone would! Wink. And, when your store puts out in-store coupons on their brand of toothbrushes and toothpaste, run with it! I think the toothbrushes came out to .25 each and they're the nifty kind that stand on their own.

Now that we've reviewed the mundane, blessed events of one day in October, I thought I'd add this from last week, courtesy of LC, 7 years old, 2nd grade. She has to write a six-sentence-minimum journal entry once a week for school. I help her get thinking and encourage her to the next sentence, challenging her to notice spelling and such. This last time, she asked me, and I quote, Can I just write about random stuff? (a bit old, that kind of talk, coming from her, it seemed...)

Well, of course you can write about random stuff. Journals are for anything and everything!

And here, I quote again. I left in the mistakes I could remember, because I think kids' spelling and expression at this age are so endearing:

I do school at home. 

It is boring. 

Today I am going to the bred-Store. 

I do not like doing spelling. 

I like to play with CJ. aNd all of my sisters to.

Just thought that if anyone was on the fence out there about homeschooling, this might give you a little nudge, though I'm not quite sure in which direction...(and, we won't point out to anyone that this is really 5 sentences, will we?)