So much more than Busy!

"First off", we are contemplating changing Foo's nickname to "And Me?" Cause that's all she says right now...it's funny.... 

Me..."Whipper, go brush your teeth"

Foo "and me?"

Me "Maguill, get your bathing suit on"

Foo "and me?"

Me "let's get our shoes on"

Foo "and me?" 

Me "let's get ready for bed"

Foo <insert a screaming NOOOOo here>

School was fun today! I had been trying to get across two different types of rock (sedimentary and igneous) the last few days and it was just not sinking in for Maguill...until today! I mixed up some cornstarch, baking soda and water and cooked on the stove till it thickened like mashed potatoes...let it cool and then rolled it into several 1" balls. When we were ready...we headed out into the yard and collected some nature...things that could be fossilized...and then we went to town and pretended our hands were the sedimentary layers pushing down over time turning the lower layers into fossils. Then we let the "clay" fossils dry...it  turned out great and Maguill now knows what and how sedimentary rock is formed. 

Next up was History/Geography....we started our unit on the ancient Romans this week and again...just felt like I didn't fully have Maguill with me...as we were reading about what they ate back then and what their kitchens looked like and the Roman Dinner Party...I went with the flow and threw cushions on the porch floor and told the girls I was their slave and they were at a Roman dinner party...one of the key things I leaned today is that the Romans ate laying down on couches and they had 3 courses and washed their hands in between each meal....so I brought a bowl of water out and a towel and dried their hands after every wash and I stood in the corner while they ate and wouldn't talk to them or interact at all unless they asked me for something....this really sparked their understanding of what slaves were and Maguill, especially, understood that it was wrong and not a nice way to treat people...but they still enjoyed the dinner party...however they both agreed it was hard eating while lying down....

Back to reality...we went to Grandmas preschool to just play...like real kids! And made thank you cards for our friend who took us fishing the other day...whipper said "I'm gonna draw a fish floating on the water..." Uhhhhh.....ummm...ok?!?!?

Then we went swimming at a neighbor friends house....funniest thing....this friend, we will call Terry, is an identical twin to our other friend, Harry...my girls don't see Terry as often as they see Harry...so when Terry walked into the pool area....Maguill yells out "Harry!!!"....only it was Terry...maybe you had to be there, but it gave me a chuckle.

We had happy hour at Harry's house where the girls FINALLY got to climb a tree....

Next up after dinner...visit to our dog friend, Jeb. Jeb is maybe a 2 yr old lab and I am in love with him...he loves the girls but can be a tad rough in puppy terms. Jebs parents also have a super cool pond with crazy fish in their backyard so girls enjoyed feeding them and picking up the pond plants....

I want to move back to my hometown....although I think my hometown would all move away of we did....teehee....

"How do you say Columbia in Spanish?"

Another fun day in York! School first and then we were off to new friends house. This family goes to my mom'a preschool...the mom is from Columbia, the dad is from a French part of Canada and they have 2 boys...both with beautiful Spanish names. The girls had a blast with them! Both boys speak English, Spanish and French! We had been there for about an hour or so when Whipper finally took notice to their mom speaking to them in Spanish...she came right over to me and asked "what language do they speak?" So I told her...then we she went about her playing until lunchtime...we got the kids all seated and then I hear Whipper ask the 6 yr old boy "How do you say Columbia in Spanish?" It was priceless...the boy replied "Columbia"

But, we had a wonderful visit with them and a yummy lunch...and fantastic Columbian coffee with this incredible cane...what they call sugar. It was a dark brown and smelled like brown sugar but it wasn't brown sugar. I wish I had some for tomorrow morning! And it was interesting to just see the dynamic...all centered around spending time with family and friends...sitting back and just enjoying the time. All things my sister in Argentina has been talking about in her blog...different way of life...the way it should be! The mom gave me some tips on teaching Spanish to the girls...she really believes in full immersion and recommended letting them watch some of their favorite shows in Spanish! I'm gonna give it a try!

After naps...yes all 3 napped! We had fun just hanging out at the house practicing our address, phone number, days of the week and months of the year...and we hit up the park after dinner. 

We started our 2nd read aloud the other night Dolphin Adventure...we literally were on chapter 2 when we started reading tonight and finished the book! Such a great passionate story...true story! Of a scuba diver who saves a baby dolphin who had fishing hook embedded in his tail...girls were very drawn in to it. Ironic that we went fishing earlier this week so it was so perfect that they knew what a fishing hook and line looked like. 

Today, was a day of lots of reminding when it comes to manners...I look forward to the day when one of them says please or thank you the first time without needing a reminder....the little things....

She point to the pit and said "I don't like that" 

Gone Fishin'

We went fishing today!! It was a first for the girls and I do believe they really enjoyed it. Our family friend, who is close to a master fisher, took us to this perfect little pond...quiet and beautiful...

Whipper assisted in the reeling in of a blue gill and a large mouth bass...she loved inspecting the fish and really checking it out...

Maguillicutty, on the other hand, was not so into the touching of the fish...she was very much afraid and this surprised me. She's such an animal lover...I'm not sure if she was just freaked out over the feel of them or what. But I was really really shocked. That being said, she loved casting out the line and reeling it back in...even though we didn't catch anything. 

I need to figure out how to load videos onto my blogs because I do have a cute one from today...but this photo sums up the two totally different personalities towards fishing....it cracks me up! 

We came home and did some school...one of the assignments we checked off today was making a tornado....it was pretty cool and I felt cool doing it with Maguill...I think she was a little impressed! 

I'm starting to contemplate maybe doing only a few subjects each day...not all of them every single day. I'm feeling like it might be overload for her. So, I'm going to play around with this idea for a bit and see what subjects work best together but yet still be flexible. 

Our afternoon adventure consisted of going to Claire's...you know that jewlery store in malls. Aunt Karent gave each of the girls $10 last week to spend on whatever they wanted....Foo got a stuffed animal...no joke...it's half owl and half mermaid. Maguill got some Best Friend stuff for her and bestie. And Whipper picked out a Rapunzel braid that clips into her hair...it's so her....

The day ended with us around the fire with friends...and s'mores, laughs, and whorship songs. I'll call her "L" brought her guitar over and she sang some awesome songs including "Oceans" by Hillsong!!! Kerri...I recorded it, but have to figure out how to load it up...

Gotta love fishin', family and friends....the highlights to our day! 

Maguill on the other...not so much. 

A family of bloggers we have become!

So cool! My one sister, the one in Argentina, started a blog around the same time as me. 

www.Kerrihartnett.blogspot.com

 And now my other sister, who just made the cross country trek to Stockton, CA for grad school has also started one! 

www.abbymhartnett.blogspot.com

I love that we are so far apart but are able to still really connect...and it's so much more than what Facebook can do...so poo poo on you FB! Blogging is better! I've officially been done with FB maybe a month and a half and it's been one of the best decisions I've made in a long time! I'm so much more connected to my girls and less distracted. I mean, seriously, why did I care so much who "liked" my posts??? What a waste of my time. 

Anyway...I've been absent for a few days.  Foo was down and out with a fever for 3 days and so we struggled with getting much school done. But this is the beauty of homeschool...no one has fallen behind...there is no pressure to get catch up or do extra work. We just continue where we left off. I've had people look at me like "what school in the summer???" But, it's great because if I stuck to the schedule I have penciled into my calendar, we would be done by the beginning of May...the likliehood of that happening is slim because I've given us time for things like illness, visitors, field trips. It's all about being flexible and being ok with that. 

About that flexibility, we are at my parents this week and I packed up all our schooling so we do it while we are here! We finished The Boxcar Children book last week and girls really enjoyed it. Tomorrow we start reading Dolphin Adventure...we love animals so we are excited. We got to Skype with my sister in Argentina tonight...it was so nice to see her face and her smile...

My journey with God continues...we didn't make it to church this morning because we had a wedding last night and stayed overnight in a hotel...plus I needed to get home and pack and so did hubs. As I was getting everything ready I got a text from my parents best friend...she was at her church in York telling me about todays sermon...it was about Who Is God? And i could listen to his later sermon at 10:45 over a live feed! It was so appropriate given the questions I've been asking myself lately...and one of my biggest take aways was that it's our culture that is trying to diminish God....it's so true...I have this feeling of shyness about finding my Christianity again and almost a fear of being judged. And it's like why?? Why am I allowing our culture and society to diminish God in my life...I've always been one to stand up for what I believe...why would things be any different when it comes to God. I need to focus more on making God the center of everything..."Velcro" him to my life...so many of us think of God as being so kind and gentle and loving...but what about how powerful he is...the King of Kings...The Almighty...maker of heaven and earth....he is not an "inconvienient God"...we don't put him in a box. Such great stuff and just amazing that I got to be a part of this worship...and such thanks to the lovely Jane for thinking of me and knowing how much this sermon could impact me. Psalms 145 got highlighted in my bible today. 

Davinci Science Center in Allentown

Field Trip!!!! It was a hot sticky humid day and we wanted to be indoors so we hit up the Davinci Science Center in Allentown with Great Aunt Karen....who ended up buying us a membership for the year so we can go whenever we want!!! 

It was cool...all 3 girls really enjoyed it. They have a space exhibit right now...dinosaurs are coming in Oct! Along with the special exhibits, they have things that they always have like a neat water table where kids can move tiles around so they can change the flow of the water...

And they had an awesome bee exhibit where the bees are actually flying into the hive from a tube that goes outside....

One of my favorite things was a table where you could watch water crystallize and freeze and then you can spray warm water on to melt it and do it all over again...this is a picture of the frozen water....

They had a hurricane simulator and neat space ride...

Girls got to sit in a Mack Truck....Foo really liked this....

There was a preschool adventure room full of big soft building blocks...we had the whole room to ourselves....

There was another water table that actually had sea life in it...crabs, starfish, clams, and fish....they sit the starfish on a ledge so that u can put ur two fingers on them and touch them. We got to pet a snake! They had a cool bicycle that you could peddle to then generate energy to turn on lights inside a model house. You could pretend to be a weather reporter where there was an actual tv and green screen type of hing where we could put ourselves in all kinds of different weather. 

There were so many things that we didn't even get too cause I noticed Foo was running a fever while in the preschool block room....so we called it a day. But wow...wowy wow...it's gonna be a great place to go to throughout the year! Thanks Aunt Karen!!

Fun in the Sun...

Felt good during school today again! I feel like with each passing day, we find a little bit more of a flow and I get a little more comfortable "teaching". Whipper really didn't want to participate today...instead she just colored all morning...if I could teach her with just coloring books...life would be grand! Here is Maguillicutty making a bar graph in her math book...I did notice Whipper looking on with some envy while Maguill worked on this....as you can also see from the pic, Maguill is doing really well with her number 5's...As she moves her pencil, I say "swim back, dive down a little and then swim around" I got the concept from Handwriting Without Tears curriculum....

And then.....the surprise of the day....Great Aunt Karen arrived!!! She is visiting for a couple of days and the girls just love her so much. It was nice that we didn't have anything planned and just enjoyed hanging around the outside of our house. At one point today, it was pretty gross...I didn't even get a picture...it just needed to be cleaned up before hubs got home! Girls were running hose again and started digging in dirt and making "chocolate" (say in espanol)....you can imagine! But we did get out our giant bubble blower for the first time...it was pretty cool....

And Great Aunt Karen fixed our hose spigot....

And then....it was the first night at the Plainfield Farmers Fair....it's just down the road from our house and we have been watching them set up for about a week...girls have been pumped! A goat almost swallowed my finger whole...I screamed out loud so loud and obnoxiously that a complete stranger beside me couldn't stop laughing at my yell for help. 

This is the goat....

Because it was the first night we got to see some pigs still arriving...getting off their trailers and being pushed/guided into their cages...girls got a kick out of their squealing.

And lastly....we gained a couple of family members tonight...Goldie & Ice Cream....

Marvelous Monday

....because it's not Fun Friday! School was great this morning....we started with "The Story About Ping"...adorable book!! Maguillicuttys favorite part was the end when Ping is reunited with his family...awww....

we learned the sun rises in the east and sets in the west....so Maguill picked which part of the house she wanted to have school...she choose the west side...in the shade! While Foo enjoyed her breakfast...the other two painted different foods you would see at an ancient Egyptian feast....

We learned how hail is formed along with icicles and that snowflakes have 6 points...and did you know that thunder comes from lightening heating up the air?  We started a new letter today "M"...girls got frustrated because I'm teaching them a different way to write it than what they have been doing...especially Whipper cause her name starts with an M....so it was interesting to watch them cutting a habit and starting to do it the proper way....something that probably most kids will encounter in Kindergarten on one level or another. They both needed a lot of encouragement and ended up doing really well...

 And then we headed to Jacobsburg to meet up with some friends.....

And Pastor Matt came to our house today to drop off some cookies....we were not home but hubs was! Hubs got a good feeling and liked him very much....and the cookies were homemade and very good....another sign from God?? ;) 

Faith Alive Community Church

As I sit here enjoying my fresh watermelon margarita on the rocks...Yes...that's right - I'm reflecting on our visit to a new church this morning. Hubs was not in attendance, for he was out of town..But the fact that I got all 3 kids ready..even made them pancakes for breakfast...and went to a 10am service (which is a perfect time for our family)...is really an amazing accomplishment for myself and I pat myself on the back x10.
Faith Alive CC is the only non-denominational church in our immediate area that I had been wanting to check out...and I was drawn to it especially this weekend for one specific reason.  Maguillacutty went to preschool with a little lady whose family is deeply involved in this church - and I chatted with the mom of this little lady yesterday at the VBS water fun day.  And there was something about her that I was just drawn too - however, I was sad that we never really connected over the last 2 years of our girls going to preschool together...all the days of us dropping off and picking up...we never really chatted.  I feel really bad about this.
But something drew me to her at the VBS fun day - so we showed up at Faith Alive today...saw her pull up as we were parking.  Maguillacutty was so excited to see her friend and vice versa - and as I walked up to the church I couldn't help but notice the very old congregation...very old...  And this surprised me because I had checked out their website beforehand and saw they had a young pastor - early to mid 30s...with wife and 3 young boys.  But I went with the flow....
Maguill's friend led them right into the nursery where they started playing immediately - it was adorable...I took Foo into the sanctuary with me and my new mom friend.  My new mom friend reassured me it was ok to let Foo go into the nursery if it was going to be easier for me, so I did.  And I'm so glad I did - I was able to to fully worship with songs and be completely engaged when the Pastor spoke.  I love Christian music - it has always been my most comfortable way of prayer.  Now, onto the sermon - Pastor Matt - spoke of a Universal Divine Law - and basically we know there is a God because we all understand, naturally, what is good and what is evil.  My brother-in-law is an atheist....but he knows its wrong to murder someone or commit adultery.  And it all comes back to the 10 Commandments.  There are people in this world who have never even heard of God or the Bible but still in their hearts, know what is right and wrong...Universal Divine Law. My first major sign from God today was when Pastor Matt mentioned Romans 3:23 - All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God... that was the first bible verse I taught Maguill & Whipper 2 weeks ago...I mean...of all the verses in the Bible...he speaks of that one???  I loved everything Pastor Matt had to say - it was just stripped down and bare and just Bible...no fluff and I could easily relate and understand...even teared up a bit.  Then i came to find his wife was singing in the beginning worship and then she was in the nursery with Whipper & Foo....while Maguill was downstairs in Childrens Church.  I didn't talk much to the Pastor and his wife - just basically shook their hands, introduced myself and thanked them for a wonderful Sunday morning.  I emailed my new mom friend thanking her for making us feel comfortable in a new place and I told her I felt like I was being called to be there - she told me that getting some younger families in has been one of the church's prayer requests...are we the start to the answer?  Can we wait it out for who knows how many years and just pray that more families like ours walk in the doors and grow this little church into something beyond Pastor Matt's wildest dreams?  Or do we continue searching...
So, here's my question of the day - how do we know the Lord is calling us to this church and wants us to make it our home???  It's so old in so many ways...started out in someone's home years ago...but has so much potential given the young age of the Pastor - he and his wife have to want the same things for their boys as my husband and I want for our girls - youth group programs and mission trips and small bible groups...basically everything we all want out of our home church.  I loved what the Pastor had to say in his sermon and got a great vibe from his welcoming wife....our 2 older girls really enjoyed their mornings and said they want to go back....do we trust that this is a sign of "true faith" as my mom told me...am I answering my own questions.....

"This is the best night ever"

Sorry hubs! I know you aren't here tonight and want to be so badly...but the duty of your friends call. Unfortunately, you missed what Maguillacutty called "the best night ever!" But before we get to that....

I got to grocery shop all by myself this morning!!! It was amazing!! And then it was the last official day of VBS where the girls sang some beautiful songs with their classmates for family and friends, followed by lunch and an awesome afternoon of water fun on the church lawn. Maguillacutty in polka dots...

Whippersnapper in pink striped dress with arm jamming out...

Water fun...Foo Young in blue and red suit

We are a Christ believing family... But have always struggled with making it a daily incorporation and we have always struggled with getting to church on Sundays...and I honestly have always struggled with what is faith? And then I read something this week "you exercise faith daily. By faith you fall asleep, confident of morning. You eat, expecting nourishment. You breathe in air you can't see. You drive your car, trusting it will take you to your destination." And then it just seemed to click inside of me...the word of god is a faith builder...I just gotta keep reading. And the timing of this is just crazy because daily bible readings are incorporated into our Sonlight curriculum. I've learned more than my girls have the last 2 weeks....it's amazing. And I've felt very emotional and wondering if this is what being "saved" feels like? 

So, onto the best night ever....all this began while I was chatting on phone with my momma...

And the night ended with me just feeling love...loving my kids and their smiles so much and the giggles, the innocence, the wonder, the hugs, and lastly the silence after everyone was in bed ;) 

Amen!