early to bed early to rise

A wise writer says, "I look with wonder on that old time, and ask myself how it is that most of the things I suppose my father and mother built on, especially to mold me to a right manhood are forgotten and lost out of my life. But the things they hardly ever thought of—the shadow of blessing cast by the home, the tender, unspoken love, the sacrifices made and never thought of, it was so natural to make them—ten thousand little things so simple as to attract no notice—and yet so sublime as I look back at them—they fill my heart still and always, with tenderness when I remember them and my eyes with tears." - J.R. Miller Home-Making

My bed where she usually ends up in the late morning.

One of my biggest yearnings is for our home to be cozy and inviting. A place of refuge and comfort. A place that gives the children when they are grown a memory and feeling of warmth and safety. Perhaps they will also yearn to be back there some time and make it a goal to give this to their children.

One of my favorite moments is being in a cozy bed with a dim light on reading a book. Some how bedtime in our home has become quite the opposite of warm and cozy. Somewhere along the road we got completely off course and bedtime got later and later and became a mad dash to get the kids in bed. I've known for a long time that it was a mess but some how every night it was way too late again and we were rushing to get everyone in bed. Rushing around and bedtime do not go well together.

Recently we went a week with getting to bed on time and it was glorious! But it was still summer time and somehow we ended up getting back to a late bedtime. A late bedtime (9 or usually later) for our 3 and 5 year old never really mattered because they could sleep in until later. We weren't usually up early for anything so the kids always got plenty of sleep. But I have always secretly wished for a little more down time before I have to go to bed. The plan is if they go down earlier then I will too without feeling like I haven't had a wind down time.

Psalm 73:26 “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

With the new school year quickly approaching and a new commitment of needing to be somewhere before 9 am Monday through Friday I've vowed to get us on a better schedule. We have a little over a month to whip our bottoms into shape and by ours I mean my husband and I. Because let's face it we're the ones not sticking to our guns. Tonight was the first night of many nights ahead of wrapping up the evening in a calm blanket and slowly moving towards the bedrooms. 

With more time to get to bed things are much more calm. We do not do baths every night and sometimes they are during the day so we start our down time usually with a show (usually Caillou or Berenstein Bears). We like this because it gives the kids one last thing to enjoy, a wind down time and it's easy to see when it ends it's time to brush teeth, the kids understand it and they can't argue.

Then it's pj time, diaper changing, singing songs ( always "You Are My Sunshine" and "Jesus Loves Me"), then story time, prayers, kisses ( always counted for her and usually 19 and sometimes 5 extra), drinks of water and then night night. For the most part they stay in bed even though it is now 2 hours after we put them to bed and he is still awake. We all have to adjust.

Mama is looking forward to an earlier bedtime and getting up earlier. The plan is to get up earlier and get some Bible time in with a real Bible not laying in bed and doing devotions on my phone, which isn't a bad thing I just want to start journaling and making more of an effort, especially with the fall approaching. I'm just really looking forward to coffee, lit candles, pen, paper, Bible and time with my Teacher. Praying we keep this up!

Wishing for all of you a warm evening, sweet rest and refreshed soul.

Five Friday Faves: September's Instagrams

Welcome to Five Friday Faves! 

It's been a long time since I've done a series like this but I think I'm ready to start again. Each Friday I want to share pictures of some things that I am loving at the moment. This week includes my five favorite Instagrams from September and why I love them.

Our first day of homeschool preschool started off with great success. I woke up early, ran on the treadmill, showered and got completely ready for the day and had my some Bible time and coffee all before the kids woke up. Yeah, well that was the only morning all of that happened. Each day after that I got up later and later and low and behold I was getting sick. I had a horrible cough so I wasn't able to run for 3 weeks. It's now October and I still haven't started the routine again. But it's a dream of mine. This picture is a reminder of that blissful morning. I guess it would help if I got to bed before 11!

This picture will forever remind me of the excitement we both had for her first day of pre-k. What a special time in our lives.

Our first week of pre-k included a homeschool mama meet-up. We got to take some professional pictures but mama had to get some of her own. My candid cuties.

Another exciting event that took place in September is that Hannah is now an official Awana Cubbie. I remember going to Awanas when I was about her age and I remember how fun it was. She is having a blast learning scripture, playing games, doing crafts and meeting new friends. I'm so proud of her!

This picture is very special to me. I haven't talked much about it on the blog but Danny attends physical therapy and speech therapy for his delays from being 6 weeks early and Hannah attends occupational therapy for what we've recently discovered is Sensory Processing Disorder. We go to therapy every Tuesday for an hour and 45 min. But this day Hannah's therapist wasn't able to make it in so we got to have a special mommy daughter date while Danny did his therapy. We ran an errand, I got a Starbucks coffee and she got a cake pop and then we headed to Goodwill for some vintage thrifting, a favorite hobby of mine. I was unsuccessful that morning but she made out great, she ended up with a pink Barbie car, 2 books and a cute shirt from Crazy8. It was so fun to spend time with my special girl.

 

It wasn't for lack of effort...

Five months, that's all I lasted. It happened one evening at a birthday BBQ, it was with an Omaha Steak burger. I knew once I took a bite that it would be a slippery slope, it was and it was worth that! Slowly but surely I integrated myself back into the standard American diet. And I will tell you something I feel relieved and free! I put more effort into going plant based than I have any other way of eating ever before. I would even say I gave it a valiant effort but five months is all I could do. I really thought that I was going to completely change my lifestyle forever. In the process I learned that it's really hard to completely change your lifestyle and your families along with it. Not to say that it cannot be done.

I was tired of being in a constant state of mourning for my old life. I thought I would move past it eventually and maybe I would have after more time, quite frankly I wanted to feel normal again. For me things just started to all add up together, I stopped losing weight, I was still in pain, not gout pain that was gone, but pain everywhere else, my passion for cooking was zapped, my love of baking no longer existed, I pretty much didn't want to be in the kitchen any more. That is not like me. When I first went plant based I looked at what I could have and not at what I couldn't have, but as I went on and on it started to be more about what I couldn't have and mostly about what I couldn't make for my family or enjoy with my family and friends. It was just difficult as time went on.

Last week I went shopping, standard American grocery shopping. It was weird, I hadn't realized that I had not shopped like that in so long. But it was nice because it's so easy. It was more expensive though, that's for sure. But we were also kind of starting over again so we needed more than normal. I even realized that I have never shopped at Costco as a non-vegan so that's going to be a fun experience. Better make a budget, yeah right it's Costco. Anyways, when I brought the food home and filled with fridge I felt comforted. I know, that's weird and probably very unhealthy but I did. I made the mistake of deleting every recipe I had on pinterest and replacing it with vegan options, so I have to start all over again. But, what do you do? I also have to relearn how to cook some things that I used to make, because I literally forgot.


I definitely do not feel like I failed in any way. I feel proud of myself that I was able to go as long as I did. It was a HUGE lifestyle change for me and I gave it everything I had, I changed what I ate, I read several books and did hours of research. It is a little hard now knowing what I know after reading The China Study and The Starch Solution and other books but life is so short as it is. I still don't know how I really feel about all of it. I'm torn, it's pretty much like most things in life, you know what's good for you but you do the bad thing anyways. I was never in it for the animals or environment. I'm also not saying I will never do it again. I'm just taking an indefinite break for now.

Going plant based did teach me about myself however. It taught me that I can do it in the future if I need to. At least for short periods of time. That life really does revolve around food. And that at this point in my life I want to make things easier not more complicated for myself. There I've come clean.

I also had my first cronut, a croissant deep fried and glazed like a donut. There are no words. The End.

Transition Foods

 The hardest part about incorporating a new lifestyle is how to blend your old life with your new life, especially when you have a family that isn't interested in your new lifestyle. It's so difficult because I have all of these new convictions, new knowledge, and dedication to do this for my and my families health. But when they, mainly my husband is not on board that can make things tricky. I knew that the kids wouldn't be that difficult to transition because they naturally do not like meat, well real meat anyways, they love chicken nuggets and hot dogs but I do not consider those real meat and haven't for a long time. But my husband on the other hand was another story. But he wanted to start eating healthier which I was happy about, at least he was taking that step forward with me in my journey.

 Image via Veggieboards.com

But, I made the classic mistake of going too far too fast. After my initial introduction of no red meat and meatless Monday went over well I was feeling great about it. I took that part slow. But then once I decided that I was going vegan for the first time I wanted to make all of our meals plant-based. This was a bit trickier because I went against my instinct to take it slow. I was smart enough not to clear out the pantry and fridge and start over with all new plant-based options, I knew that would be too much even for me, not to mention way too expensive. So I replaced things as they ran out with new plant-based items. Since I make all of the meals and do all of the shopping for our family this was easy to control. But then I made a mistake I wasn't into the idea of making a meal for them and a different for me especially wanting them to give up animal products like I did. So I just stopped buying certain products hoping that my husband would just forget about them, mainly milk. I'm laughing as I write this now because I had high hopes that would soon be dashed. I quickly learned that he would not forget and after a couple of heated discussions I soon realized that my new lifestyle changes were not worth ruining my marriage over. It never got to that point but it wasn't worth arguing over. It wasn't my place to make those decisions for him especially since I'm the one who decided to change years into our marriage. It makes me sad knowing that he still eats mostly the same way but he has accepted some new changes and I'm happy with that. I have managed to keep the dinners that I cook plant-based but I do still buy animal products that he can add to the meals to make it like he likes, mainly cheese. Some meals he will do this to and others he will leave all plant-based. I feel this is a good compromise, the main part of the meal is plant-based and healthy so that is a step in the right direction for him. He also is willing to give things a try which is great but he will quickly speak up if he doesn't like it.

Some of the easiest food changes I've made are mayonnaise, margarine, chicken nuggets and baking. Vegenaise is a great eggless mayo replacement. I can find it a my local grocery store and even found a large jar at Costco. Earth Balance is my new favorite margarine replacement, we were big Country Crock fans and I find this to taste the same, with no casein or whey. Baking has been easy too, I've made a ton of vegan cookies and even Duncan Hines cupcakes. For Duncan Hines just check the ingredients but most of their cake mixes and frostings are animal product free. I'm still working on the perfect egg replacer that actually keeps the cake together better but the taste is spot on and using a fork to eat the cupcakes fixes the crumbly problem. Gardein's crispy tenders and Madarin orange crispy chick'n nuggets have been a yummy addition to our meals. The first time I made the the orange chick'n with a stir-fry my husband kept asking me why I was eating meat. All I could do was giggle. He was shocked at how yummy they were, I even turned my in-laws onto them. Costco has them available in a large bag, so these have become a staple. Last week I put them on top of a salad with the orange sauce as a dressing and it was amazing!

Image via namelymarly.com

Other products that I love and my family will eat are Gardein's beefless grounds, burger patties and Life Lite Smart Dogs. These aren't their favorites but they will eat them. I know these products aren't the healthiest way to eat and some might call these vegan junk foods but they are great and much healthier when trying to incorporate the whole family in a plant-based life style. There are many other brands of beelfless grounds and "meat" products that I've tried and that work but the brands listed above are my favorites. It is so easy these days to go plant-based. There are countless products and tons of information out there, it really is much easier than you might think.

However I will not lie, vegan cheese just doesn't do it for any of us. That is the one thing that I just cannot seem to get on board with. It makes me sad to say that but I'm not going to lie about it. I love the taste of animals products and I try not to compare them to their vegan counterparts because I know they will not be the same but I just cannot do cheese. Luckily I've finally gotten to the point where I can just eat things without cheese or a cheese substitute. This has been very freeing. I'm not a slave to cheese anymore. There is only one cheese product that I have been able to tolerate so far and that is the Daiya Havarti Style Wedge. But I do not use it much at all. 

Milk has been a super easy item to replace because I already liked almond milk and rice milk. I do not like soy or hemp milk though. But to each their own. My favorite almond milk is Silk Unsweetened Original Almond Milk which is Non GMO Project Verified and my favorite rice milk is Costco's Kirkland Organic Rice Milk. I don't exactly drink these by the glass full but they are great in cereal, baking and cooking. I've also completely replaced Daniel's bottles of cows milk with these.

I know there are many more products that I've purchased and used but these are some of the staples that have helped me and my family transition to a healthier way of eating without changing our weekly meals too much. So my advice is take it slowly. Replace items as needed when transitioning. Do not go cold turkey especially if you have a family that isn't on board. We still have a freezer full of meat because I used to stock up on marked down meat. I still occassionally make a meal that has meat as the main dish and I just eat the side dishes and a big salad usually. I still buy dairy, eggs and meat for my husband. I don't like to but I do because I love him and respect his wishes.

Sorry if this was kind of a boring post but I wanted to share the things that have helped us transition and keep transitioning as a family. I feel it's very important to be honest and real. It's hasn't been the easiest transition for us but it's been easier than I thought it would in the beginning. It is so worth it for long term health.
 

My Journey to Plant-Based. Part 2

I forgot to add in the last post that I also have some type of autoimmune disorder, which is why I had arthritis at such a young age but the doctors aren't able to diagnose it yet. Which is the case with many autoimmune disorders. I've been tested for Lupus twice, which my mom has, but it's been negative both times. I tested positive for Sjogren's syndrome but it was only for one of the two antibodies and I don't have the actual symptoms that come with Sjogrens. So I was told I don't actually have it but there is something definitely going on.  This was another reason for changing my diet. I've known for a long time that diet is related to how you feel and as I've learned more about autoimmune disorders I've learned that they can be related to diet as well.

So even though I heard the message about animal products and it clicked  I decided I was going to become vegetarian. No meat is easy, no dairy is another issue. That would literally require a complete lifestyle change and something I never thought I would do. I've never ever met a vegan in real life and quite frankly I didn't have a good representation of them. In other words I was ignorant to the whole lifestyle. There is way more to it than I ever thought.

It just so happened by accident that my first meatless day was February 1 and I haven't looked back since. I will admit meat smells good and looks good. My hubby still eats it and when we BBQ his juicy burger smells so good, but I have come so far now that I would hate to eat it, oh yeah and it's not good for ME. Other than everything I learned from Forks Over Knives and other documentaries, books and the online community, I have a literal reason why not to eat meat. It physically causes my body harm. I'm only 32, I can't imagine if I would have kept eating meat how I would feel in 10, 20, 30 years. I was miserable now and ready to change. I finally had the education about meat and dairy and since I had real life proof about what was said I knew it was true and everything made sense.

 Another reason to cut animal protein, uric acid increase and calcium leaching. Got milk? Has another meaning to me now that I've learned the truth.

As I continued not eating meat I started to learn more about the plant-based diet and cholesterol. I didn't realize that the only way we put cholesterol into our bodies is through animal products. Our bodies produce it on their own so why did we need to add more? These new things that I've learned go against everything that I've been told my whole life. But look around, why are we obese? Why are we the leading country with osteoporosis, yet we consume the most dairy in the world? Why is cancer getting worse when we spend more money than ever on research? Why are our kids getting type 2 diabetes? Why is heart disease, a completely unnecessary disease the number 1 killer in America? To me it is not a mystery anymore. It is simply what we choose to put in our mouths at every meal. I understand the people who don't want to know, my husband is one of those people. But I was finally ready to know and take action. I was done with the SAD.

There is way more information out there than this but I like how short and to the point this video is.

As I learned more and more I knew that I needed to go plant-based. So I slowly stopped drinking milk, eating cheese and eggs by themselves. Everything was a process, I slowly cleaned out our fridge and replaced animal products with vegan alternatives as needed. This made the change doable. (I will write another post in more detail about what foods I changed and what I do for meals.)  I started to try to go most days without any animal products. Even though something would slip in here in there because I'm still learning what has animal products in it and what doesn't. We also stopped fast food for a month or so. And you know what started to happen? I started to lose weight! By eliminating animal products and eating a ton more fruits and veggies the weight started to fall off. I wasn't even working out, no exercise at all. I was eating all I wanted, no calorie counting, I was even eating baked vegan goods daily and still the weight was falling off. I felt so much lighter, my stomach started to flatten more and I felt unencumbered, if you know what I mean. I now call it weight release instead of weight loss. My body started to release what it had been holding on to this whole time but I also started to go through detox. I believe the majority of that weight release was toxins my body had been holding onto. I started to get acne again and started needing more sleep, water and rest in general. I was in full on detox mode and I didn't really realize it.

 One of the meals that really helped me transition and is still my favorite meal is taco salad. This is a mountain of taco salad on my plate. I use lettuce, a few Juanita's tortilla chips, Gardien meatless grounds with taco seasoning or brown rice and black beans with taco seasoning, Wholly Guacamole or avocado, bell peppers, green onions, cilantro, tomatoes, and salsa.

But at the same time people were telling me I looked different, I had a glow about myself. This made me feel awesome and fueled my passion. Which I needed while detoxing. But then April hit. Life started to get busier again which made it harder. I started telling myself that I'm just going to stick with the vegetarian thing full time and be vegan when I can. We started to eat fast food again and I just made sure it was vegan when I could or at least vegetarian. So I had cheese pizza here and there and birthday cake and ice cream. But then what happened, they weight release stopped. *insert sad face*. I wasn't gaining any weight thank God but I wasn't losing anymore. I started to feel encumbered again and I knew exactly what was causing it. I was eating things with animal products in them, eggs, milk, cheese. I wasn't eating the foods by themselves but they were hidden in the things I was eating. Like a certain peanut butter cracker we get has cheddar cheese in the ingredients. This shocked me! If I wanted cheese crackers I would get cheese crackers, not peanut butter crackers.

I was proud of myself for ordering a veggie pizza (sans cheese) for the kids birthday party but I did eat cake and a little ice cream. I was trying but not very hard.

Once the birthdays were over at the end of April I had decided I was done with animal products all together and remembered everything I had learned before. Now that I knew the truth and how I felt without eating animal products I wanted that back. The emotional tie that I have to cheese isn't worth how I feel after eating it. Also, I want to be clear, when I was eating the SAD I didn't have problems with digestion, I didn't have heart burn or bloating most of the time. So when I say now that I feel yucky after eating cheese I never felt that before when eating cheese or dairy, it is because my body has reset to what it is supposed to be. When I put these animal products in it, I feel weighed down, I feel like I have a rock in my stomach and sometimes my stomach hurts. It just isn't worth the discomfort for a few seconds of pleasure that I know is making me sick.

Now that I've recommitted myself, it is the second week of May and I am feeling great. I'm down another 2 lbs. I've started to incorporate some more changes into my diet this week which are very exciting and very new and foreign. I'm still nervous about it which is something else I'm dealing with, but I'm again immersing myself into research. All I know is the two days that I've done it I felt great! I didn't do it today and felt a difference and can't wait to get back at it tomorrow. Once I have more time under my belt I will share more.

Here's a hint of what I'm doing. Mangos, Ataulfo mangos, bananas, Asian pears, pineapple, Medjool dates, avocados, cantaloupes, watermelons, apples and oranges. #fruitstash

My journey to Plant-Based. Part 1

I've been completely quiet about this on the blog so far because everything was so new and I wanted to see if this was going to stick or fail. But I'm finally ready to share what I've been doing and why I haven't posted any recipes lately, though I've been cooking up a storm.

In short I have become a vegan. I eat a completely plant-based diet, no animal products at all go into my body. Here is the story as to why I decided to switch from the standard American diet (SAD) to a vibrant abundant plant-based lifestyle.

Eating vibrant colorful food in abundance makes you feel vibrant and colorful. You are what you eat!

Over the past few months I've made some pretty major changes in my life concerning what I eat. This past fall I went into the doctor for some pain in my thumb that I embarrassingly enough thought might be from being on my phone too much, but to my surprise I was diagnosed with Gout. Gout is a form of arthritis. It comes from having high uric acid levels in your body and this creates crystal like formations around your joints causing a lot of pain. Usually it occurs in the big toe but mine was mostly in my right thumb. I've had arthritis since I was 11 in most of my major joints but this was a new one to me. At that Dr.'s appointment I also discovered that my blood pressure was higher than it ever had been (it was always perfect in the past even during pregnancies), my cholesterol was heading in a bad direction, I was 60 lbs overweight (which I already knew!), and the big kicker was that I was .4 points away from being pre-diabetic!

Even though I was in pain from the gout all I could think about was that I was almost diabetic. I had always wondered about diabetes but never thought I could actually come close to having it. Even though I had gained the least amount of weight with my third pregnancy I already had so much from the second that the measly 11 lb gain from the third completely put me over the top. I was in pain all of the time, I knew I wasn't supposed to be that heavy and my body was screaming at me. But I just didn't know what to do. I had lost complete control of what I was eating and had some how slipped into binge eating and I was scared to death of not having any control.

The Dr. had prescribed an arthritis medication for me that I was supposed to take everyday. We ended up having trouble with insurance every time I went to pick up this medication and I hated taking pills everyday, so all of that combined with my declining health, I knew I had to do something once and for all but I didn't know what that was or when I was going to be ready to do that. Oddly enough I actually look at my Gout diagnosis as a blessing now because it has started me down a path that I never would have imagined. Gout is a food related disease and it really hit me that you are what you eat. The main thing you need to stay away from with gout is red meat, it causes high uric acid levels. So that was my first step on my journey. I cut out red meat, it was super easy, I just replaced it with ground turkey and chicken in any recipe that called for ground beef. At the time we were eating too much spaghetti with meat sauce and hamburger helper (I  know, mom of the year right here). But I was exhausted all of the time and it was a favorite dinner that the kids loved and would actually eat. Little did I know that I was killing myself with my food choices.

100% Cherry juice and carbonated beverages are supposed to help fight uric acid levels, so I combined the two for a tasty spritzer.

Soon after that I decided to figure out how to make boxed meals from scratch because I knew we were eating way too much processed foods. Thanks to Pinterest that was super easy. I pretty much looked up whatever we were eating from a box ( hamburger helper, rice-a-roni, etc.) and found lots of recipes from scratch. Then I started to incorporate Meatless Monday into our weekly menu. Again this was super easy there are so many delicious vegetarian dishes out there, our whole family enjoyed this.


Then sometime after that "the major change" occurred. We had decided to down grade our cable to the most basic local channels to save money and get rid of junk TV and we decided to try Netflix. Always being someone who was interested in being healthy, I was 40 lbs lighter before my second child,  I was hardcore into lifting, running and eating clean. I felt great but once I became pregnant everything fell apart big time. Anyways back to what I was saying, I was interested in losing weight and nutrition; and I always like learning new things. So I started watching a bunch of documentaries and then it happened, I watched Forks Over Knives (free on Netflix). Something inside me clicked but I felt I needed to keep it secret because my husband still isn't on board fully. He fully supports me and my efforts but he himself isn't ready to make any "crazy" changes. This was sometime in early January 2014, that whole month I couldn't get Forks Over Knives out of my head. So I immersed myself into learning more about the plant based vegan lifestyle. I tried to be a vegetarian for a week when I was like 12 but when I went over to a friends house and her grandmother got mad at me for not eating the meat she had prepared I thought it was too difficult and quickly gave up. So not eating meat wasn't a foreign concept, but veganism was. No eggs? No milk? No butter? No CHEESE? Excuse me, I eat that stuff with every meal, how am I going to live and....be happy?

Before Five in a Row: Blueberries for Sal

((Hannah is 3 1/2))

((Danny is 1 1/2))

We're back! After a long hiatus we're finally back at doing intentional school. December and January were full of being sick, mainly me. I was sick for 3 weeks in December through Christmas and the New Year and then a couple of weeks after I started feeling better I got sick for another 2 weeks in January. So it has taken me a while to get back to doing school. I also knew it was time to transition to a different method. Hannah and I were both ready to move on from our normal Tot School activities but I wasn't quite sure what to do in between before we start official preschool in the fall.

Sometime in the middle of being sick I had tried our first go at Before Five in a Row with Jesse Bear, what will you wear? It was fun but seemed like a lot of work. So while I was taking my hiatus and trying to figure out what to do I realized I was making "school" too difficult on myself. Around mid-March I came to the conclusion from some very special ladies that God has placed in my life that I was making a lot of things in my life too difficult. I had to be reminded that my mission in life right now are these little ones that God as blessed me with. I kind of forgot what my blog is even about, doh. But the Lord has so patiently wrangled me back in, refreshed my spirit and renewed my purpose.

Once I gave this "problem" to the Lord and asked to follow his guidance for our schooling, discipleship and over all future, everything started to fall into place. Planning has been easier, reading has been easier (even though we're still working on listening and being quiet, if you mama's have any advice I'll take it), and the activities have gone smoother. I really feel the Lord holding my hand through this one.

Part of what has made things easier is that I'm going with the flow more. Not everyday looks the same in our house, we have a lot of appointments and outings through the week, so I've had to take everyday as it comes. In the past if we didn't do school in the morning then it just didn't get done. Now I can move it around without a worry because I'm making it a priority. So if we do not get home until noon, then we have our lunch and then read our B4FIAR book of the week,  after we read I usually will put Danny down at this point for a nap and then I have time to spend one on one with Hannah doing our activities for the day.

 On the days that we are able to get it done in the morning Danny gets to join in on the fun. He gets to have his table time with different tot school activities, mostly fine motor skills at the moment. He is still 6 months to a year behind in this area, at least according to the occupational therapist's evaluation. But like everything in his life since his birth, he does things at his own speed and I'm fine with that.

He's very serious about his play-doh and straws.
 

Usually this time will mean that Sissy is doing the same thing, at least after she does some of her activities. Danny's activities always look like so much fun.

When we first started B4FIAR I was worried about reading the same book for five days in a row but it has actually turned into a great blessing. The kids and I soak up more each day. I see more things to discuss each day and the stories get easier to read. It is great when Hannah finishes parts of the stories or remembers what is happening, that gives me hope.

She had a blast with Blueberries for Sal and her blueberry hunt. I luckily happened to have a little tin pail and alot of blue pom poms.

Completely unrelated to the book we made some cloud dough for some good 'ol sensory play. Hannah did not like it at first but once she saw Danny having a good time making a huge mess, she decided she would try a little bowl. Mama had to dig deep and not worry about the mess, it felt great letting go. The kids had a blast and it wasn't a big deal sweeping it up.

Below are pictures of some more blueberry activities we did. We made a blueberry pie with construction paper and blue paint.

 Above is a picture of some letter/phonics work we are still doing. I'm trying to keep incorporating a letter every week. They are completely unrelated to the book we are rowing but I'm hoping it helps keep her fresh until preschool starts.

Some of the activities that we did and are not pictured (but available on my instagram) are we made giant blueberry pancakes with homemade blueberry syrup for lunch one day and we worked on some of the worksheets from Homeschool Creations & My Four P's throughout the week.

It was a great week full of many blessings, we look forward to many more rowing adventures.

((Linking up with: Rainy Day Mum, Hip Homeschool Moms, Skip to my Lou, Craft-O-Maniac, Living Montessori Now, 1+1+1=1 & Teaching Mama))

Tot School / Letter A - Creation Story

((Hannah is 41 months))

((Danny is 16 months))

And here it is, another couple of weeks have passed. This might or might not become a regular occurrence. I'm not just behind in blogging tot school but we actually ended up doing the letter A for two weeks. The night I was supposed to order the letter B books from the library I forgot and then remembered later in the week. But I didn't let that stress me out and just rolled with it. So what, we're going to cover the same letter two weeks in a row and my "school plan" is off now. It's really no big deal, Sissy already knows the letter A and all of the alphabet for that matter. But sticking to a letter of the week plan just gives me some structure. We might even deviate to a certain book, movie or character of the week here an there. But the letter of the week will be my fall back plan. We may or may not get through the whole alphabet.

Now, let me show what we did for the letter A. We're working on an Alphabet Art Book. We'll see if we get all 26 letters. But Sissy had so much fun stamping with the apples from our apple trees. A couple of days ago I saw someone did this with a stamp pad instead of paint and you could see the apples more clearly but this still worked.

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The biggest accomplishment of the week is that baby guy is always on his knees. He's been able to discover a whole new world. It's so amazing to see him catch up so quickly. In July he wasn't even really sitting up on his own, now he sits up all by himself, army crawls everywhere and starting to crawl on hands and knees. 

Then...later in the week he started to pull himself up to standing. You can see that he's so proud. He so desperately wants to do what Sissy does. This is still a very rare thing for him, but it's just amazing to see him accomplish in weeks what others do in months.

We had lots of reading time, with Alligator Shoes, Oliver and his alligator, Apples by Jacqueline Farmer, Zack's alligator goes to school, Ten apples up on top! and Apples by Gail Gibbons. We also went over the whole creation story again and Sissy was finishing the story for me.

Then lots of play time.

One of his favorite toys, Bubba's light saber.

Tot/Life School Past Two Weeks

Where are these weeks going? I don't know if it's the time of year or just me but these weeks are flying by. I think "oh I'm going to post about Tot School" and then when I sit down to write I realize that I have to blog about two weeks. Crazy!

The week before last was Sleep or Rest theme based on the seventh day of Creation. But of course I didn't get any pictures of the wonderful books that we read. We read Little Hoot, The Napping House, A Book of Sleep,  and Russell the Sheep. None of them pertained to Creation but they were still good.

 I couldn't really think of or find any good "rest" activities other than napping so that's what we focused on. It was wonderful. I had been pretty lax lately with naps and our schedule and house was unsettled because of it so I took this week to really figure out a good time for Sissy to nap and made sure she went down whether she slept or not. If she didn't want to sleep she could stay in bed and look at books or play with one of her "quiet time boxes". This has been wonderful and has really relaxed our house again.

The next week was our break from Tot school week and planning for the upcoming "school" year. Of course you really can't take a break from tot school because the kids are going to play and learn anyways. Which is another reason why I love doing tot school. It's so effortless if you want it to be. You can make it as structured or unstructured as you want. I want to relish in how laid back things can be right now because I know as we continue on this homeschool journey things will get a little more demanding.

I did however manage to get some unedited photos of what was going on last week. Baby Guy is getting better and better at climbing, so he was practicing on his Sissy.

They are in love with this tunnel.

And this tent. Sissy decided all on her own to put pillow and blankets in it and read some books. My heart melted.

Cannot seem to break this habit. If I'm not on her every minute they sneak their way in. Even if I put them out of reach she'll steal her brother's. I want to remember this though, even though she is getting bigger, she is still my baby.

Baby Guy so proud of himself. He started sitting up all by himself on 8/25/13. Another moment I want to remember. He's 16 months old and it has taken him a long time to get to this point. He moves at his own pace but is doing new things all of the time.

A finger painting  master peice.

Note to self: do not use shaving cream on surfaces you will eat off of or with kitchen utensils you will use with food. It takes a while for the fragrance to come off completely after washes. But she had a blast anyway. Weird seeing her in the high chair this is Baby Guy's throne now.