Scary TV

David and I recently were able to take a trip by ourselves and stay in a very nice hotel.  One of the things that I enjoy when it’s just the two of us is getting to watch television.  Let me back track just a little bit.  About 5 years ago David cancelled our cable service.  Yep, he just came home one day and said, “I cancelled our cable.”  I was like the mom in “The Christmas Story” after hearing what Ralphie said screaming, “What?  What?”  … Continue Reading

So proud

Austin made me so proud of him on Wednesday.

Hannah has volleyball practice on Wednesdays in the mornings and this really messes up our homeschool day. What are the other five of us suppose to do for two and a half hours and one of us is only two? The other day I decided that we would drop Hannah off, take the recycling, and then hang out at the library. It was a  perfect plan and it turned out more perfectly than I thought.

We got to the library just as they were starting their toddler reading time. Austin said, “Please let me take Mattie Claire.”  He enjoys going to the library, but he goes in already knowing what he wants, which lately has been any book in the Alex Rider series. I agreed to let him take her into the 30 minute toddler time looking forward to my bit of peace and quiet.  A little bit of mommy time was just what I needed after Tuesday, but that’s another story.

After 15 minutes I decided that I should check on him to make sure she was behaving and that he was OK.  Well, for security reasons they lock the doors and you can’t get in after they have started.  Sure, you can talk to the librarian and she will let you in, but my reason wasn’t exactly an emergency so I decided to just wait it out.  At 10:35 here came Mattie Claire running across the library with her construction paper penguin and bursting at the seams with stuff to tell me.  They danced, listened to stories, sang, played in the bubbles, and did a craft.  She had a blast.  He said that she was the loudest baby in there because she was so excited.

The best part was when two other moms came out and intentionally found me to tell me what a wonderful son I have.  They were very moved with the way that he interacted with Mattie Claire and how he took care of her.  They could tell that he loves her very much.  I don’t think I could have been smiling any bigger.  I am very proud of Austin.  He is a great son and he does love his baby sister beyond belief.  They are looking forward to next Wednesday for the toddler reading time.

Scrabble Scramble

I’ve been cleaning out cabinets the last couple of weeks in hopes of getting rid of stuff.  We have too much stuff, but doesn’t everyone?  Well, we’re getting rid of some of ours.  While digging through some of it I ran across a Scrabble game that I purchased at a garage sale.  I had high hopes of using the letters for all sorts of language arts games, crafts, etc.  It’s been in the cabinet for almost three years now, so I decided that it was time to do something with this “letters missing” scrabble game.  I took two of the trays and all of the letters that were there (which was almost all of them) and set it up in our living room on a side table.  The letters I poured into a bowl that Austin had made with his two little hands.  After searching the bowl for letters that would spell “kindness”, I put my word on its little wooden tray and walked away.  I didn’t say a thing.  No one noticed for a couple of days and then “kindness” was replaced with “blindness”, “trust” became “rust”, and “mercy” became “me cry”.  While I’m trying to instil some virtues in my crew, they are working on their sense of humor.  Search your house for your Scrabble game and get it out – it will make everyone smile.  I can’t wait for guests to come over so that they can take a turn.

On a separate note, Lacy over at Catholic Icing has a new book coming out soon.  It looks awesome and if you order now you save $5.  Head on over to http://catholicicing.blogspot.com to see Catholic ABCs (The Book):  A Hands On Preschool Curriculum.  You won’t be disappointed.