Our week felt like a modge podge. We got done what needed done, loved on each other, and survived the rest. And so...the weekly wrap up this week is simply a modge podge of pictures with little captions...cuz sometimes that's how it rolls.
Cool mornings with the windows open made Xavier wrap up in his blanket in the mornings. Mia loves this satin blanket. It was nice to have the windows open and the "outside inside." Today was sticky with the promise of warming temps - the air went back on tonight.
Xavier had an eye appointment. His astigmatism got slightly worse in one eye. He was quite a big boy, as expected. It always cracks me up when people complement my 5 year old's cooperation - as though he'd be allowed to be less than cooperative for an eye exam.
He was proud to get to move up to the letters charts instead of the picture charts and I was relieved to see he finally (after 4 exams in the last three years) passed the color blindness test.
School happened. It was good. Average but good - routine and structured, which was what we needed!
They're pouring over a book about King Tut...
Journaling in their Akebu to Zapotec books...
Finding the country that we read about in the missionary book...
Reading further about volcanoes...
Mia somehow wiggled out of her PJs in the middle of the night...
And serenaded us with many songs this week...
Co-op day was successful...
Paper mache in art! Messy hands, clean hearts!
Last night we introduced Mia to chocolate chips. Ha. Milestones.
Today was an outside day. Mike mowed, the kids played hard - the kind of play that makes the baths and showers so worth it.
Tomorrow is the Lord's Day. Our family is ready to worship - to have the time set aside that is uninterrupted for praising and praying and learning.
Xavier has been really interested in tools and "fixing" things.
He brought down his gun the other day and told me all about how it wouldn't shoot. The lever was locked and so on and so forth. He decided it needed taken apart and cleaned and checked. I used to tell him to wait for his Dad to get home for these kind of projects but it's been a long week for daddy and for us, so instead I just said "okay."
He jerked his head up and and said, "I can use the screwdrivers?"
"Yep. Go for it. Just understand that Mommy's not very good at those kinds of things so it's all you, Buddy."
He tried several different screwdriver sets, finally settling on Daddy's "special" yellow ones.
He worked through his lunch, determined to finish. He got it all apart and cleaned it with a Q-tip.
He was impossibly cute during this whole process. Of course, I treated him like the man he was being and didn't call him cute.
He completely disassembled and reassembled the moving pieces of the gun and then was so bummed that he hadn't put something back together right and the pump didn't slide. I thought he'd give up.
But instead he did it again. Took it apart. Figured out the right way to do it. Put it back together.
He got it working!
Xavier, I'm proud of you. I'm excited to see the young man you are becoming. And...you are cute.
Today was just a day. It's been a tough week, and so when friends asked if we wanted to have a park weenie roast we readily agreed. The park was full so we met at our house, which was just as fun.
But back to the subject at hand...
We needed a few things for the roast so I voted myself the one to run to the store. I specifically waited for Ameliya to wake up from nap so she could go along with me -- just she and I. We had such a good time. She walked beside me, loading the items we needed - being Mama's shadow helper. She chattered, and then helped unload our items onto the belt when it was time to pay. When we left, she wanted to carry a bag so I gave her one and she carried/drug it to the van. I held her sweet chubby little hand all the way to the van door. I opened the door, still holding her hand and then let go briefly to carefully put in the bags I had in the other hand without crushing the chips and buns.
I let go briefly. She was right there. I was talking to her the whole time. She was right beside my leg. Two seconds. Maybe. I turned to pick her up, telling her what a good girl she was to help mama. She was gone. Gone. I didn't panic. It'd been two seconds. She was right there, surely had walked around to my other leg. I turned a circle. I scanned up the van, down the van. I ran behind the van. No Dolly. I yelled her name. "Ameliya!" I ran to the front of the van, where it was parked against the sidewalk. "Ameliya!" She was right there. She had to be there. I ran back behind the van and fully scanned the parking lot. "Ameliya!" I screamed. She was right there. Ten seconds. Ten seconds had to have passed. Imagine it...
One Mississippi...
Two Mississippi...
Three Mississippi...
Four Mississippi...
Five Mississippi...
Six Mississippi...
Seven Mississippi...
Eight Mississippi...
Nine Mississippi...
Ten Mississippi...
My baby. The stories I'd read of sex traffickers stealing baby girls...of kidnappings...of the horrors that is now the world we live in...they all rolled through my mind in those seconds.
When I ran back behind the van the second time, screaming her name, a man called out. "She's here," he said. He was parked beside me on the passenger side. Immediately realizing my error I ran fully around the van. I'd gone to the front and the back but not around. There she was. By the passenger front bumper.
I should have spanked her.
I couldn't.
In all my terror I scooped up her tiny baby body and I squeezed her too tightly.
The man, he'd watched her the whole time. Not in a creepy way, but in the way of a good person. He didn't get out and scare her - he rolled down his window, presumably prepared to act if she ran to the parking lot - and he kept his eye on her. Maybe not enough time had even passed for him to think through what he would do. I put my hand on his arm. I thanked him, tears rolling down my face.
Two seconds. I'd turned around for two seconds. We've been working so hard to train her. I trusted her. Two seconds that turned into ten seconds while searching. No time, when you're looking at the clock. But an eternity.
I cried all the way home. I cried when I confessed to my husband. I cried retyping the scenario just now.
If you need to judge me, go ahead. I judged myself all evening, replaying what I should have done differently...what could have happened. However I didn't confess here on my blog for your judgement. I confessed here to be reminded of my error, of the preciousness of the lives of my children, and of the job with which I am charged when God gifts them to me. If you are able to swallow your judgement I invite you to learn from my mistake. Ten seconds was too long. Trust me.
Ameliya Darby, you are precious to us. Tonight you aged me and I may never be able to laugh about it, but I love you all the same. Don't ever do it again.
Today was a day. There's a lot going on in "grown up life" that we haven't shared with our children right now but I know they can see and feel the extra stress and tension come out through us, try as we might to prevent or hide it.
In an effort to righten our day and my distracted mommy brain that is pulled in many directions I researched and planned an afternoon art project for the children.
First off, I take NO CREDIT for this project turning out well. But aren't they beautiful?
The art work is designed after Vincent Van Gogh's famous Sunflowers painting. We got out our trusty Usborne Famous Paintings book to look at his painting before we began!
I found Mr. P's YouTube channel a few nights ago and fell in love with his direct and simple way of explaining the process of art to his students. The projects are a bit random but almost all are doable after you've laid in a few supplies. If you are looking for some direction in art education for your children look him up.
We used these 2 videos:
We used: thick construction paper, liquid watercolor, oil pastels, sharpie marker, pencil, scissors.
I had planned on doing the Part 1 video today and Part 2 tomorrow but the kids begged to complete their projects and I could find no real reason not to. So for 120 minutes straight they "arted." And it was good....
Mr. P showed the kids how to make a straight line 1/3 of the way from the bottom of their paper. They he explained that the top would be the "wall" in the picture and the bottom would be the "table." They got to choose their colors for the wall and table...
For the "wall" Natalee chose yellow with a drop of green and Xavier chose yellow with a drop of blue....which made me chuckle because it essentially became the same color.
He taught them that they were laying a "watercolor wash" on their paper. We didn't have quite the same supplies as he does in the video but we do have these great liquid water colors that I think Lauren got Natalee for Christmas and they worked brilliantly. Such vibrant colors!
For the "table" Xavier chose red with a drop of blue and Natalee chose yellow with a drop of red.
We set our water color washes to the side to dry and moved on to the next step. Mr. P taught the children that this was a "multimedia" piece because they were using more than one art item (paint, pastels, etc.)
The next step was to draw a 3-4 lined design and color it in a pattern with oil pastels. When I originally looked for a project for the children to do I wanted one with oil pastels because I bought them a set while Mike and I were at the NICHE homeschool conference and I hadn't yet used them. There was another great project of Mr. P's involving making mountain landscapes that I had planned to do (to tie in with Science) but I didn't realize it used chalk pastels and I had oil so I had to choose something else. Chalk pastels are now on my "wish list."
Something I have to kind of push my children with is to be different from one another. We have raised these two sort of like twins and they tend to do what the other does naturally, without much thought to how they might like to do it themselves. I couldn't get them past both doing zig-zag lines but they did choose different colors for their patterns (because we only had one set of oil pastels!).
Mr. P showed the children how to blend and smooth the pastels with their fingers.
The next step was to fold this paper, draw an "s" type figure and cut it out symmetrically to make the vase. I won't lie - the "s" figure tripped them up and after attempting to draw it several times I helped at their requests. No need to let it be super frustrating. They cut on their own.
Now we have vases!!
On to the sunflowers!
I LOVED how Mr. P showed the kids how to make sunflowers. First a "sun." A circle (he gave examples of too small, too large, and just right), then straight rays out, then two lines coming one off each side of the "ray" to make a petal. I did have the kids use pencil so they could erase without frustration and I traced their pencil lines with sharpie. I wasn't sure how else to do it so they could try again and not get frustrated if they made a mistake. Maybe my kids are the only ones who struggle with frustration at it not being how they intended?
I was their cheerleader and kept my hands back. Natalee did ask for help and I told her I'd coach her but not draw for her. She completed both her sunflowers before Xavier was ready to go to the next step so I encouraged her to follow Mr. P's instructions on putting in a 2nd row of petals and she was very pleased with out it turned out!
Mr. P instructed the children to not just use yellow for all their petals. He showed them instead how to lay 2-3 colors on each petal with oil pastel and blend them together with your finger.
Cutting out the sunflowers was the most frustrating part of the project for the kids, however I refused to let myself take over. I coached and cheered and fixed supper while they did it and they were so close to finishing that they didn't want to give up so they persevered. There may or may not be some tape on the back of the flowers in a couple of places holding together severed petals but they did it all themselves and I'm pleased with their efforts!
After the cutting we only had assembly and stem drawing left!
Beautiful...both the time spent working and the results!
Sunflowers, Xavier, age 5
Sunflowers, Natalee, age 6 1/2
Now, tell me, how would you display these? My sister gave me a set of those great frames that open and you pop in your kids' art work. However in anticipation of moving 2 years ago I packed them up. Grr. I know where they are but do I go get them out or find another method? So, where and how would YOU display these beauties?
OH! And Ameliya wasn't neglected. She got to Play-Doh...
