Sweet!

On days that the kids are fighting like cats and dogs I need to be reminded of such sweet moments.

Remembering Good Friday

Since Rebekah has preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays I normally do not homeschool her these days, but I have so much I want to cover before Easter than I am doing some every day these next two weeks. We are just condensing down our homeschooling time on days that she goes to preschool.

Today we focused on Good Friday and the crucifixion. We read in Rebekah's Bible story book about what happened from Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsamane to Judas' betrayal of Jesus to the crucifixion and His death on the cross. Rebekah then did her cross craft. Inside the craft was a jelly bean prayer which reads:

Red is for the blood Christ gave,
Green is for the grass God made,
Yellow is for the sun so bright,
Orange is for the edge of night,
Blue is for the sky God made,
White is for the grace He gave,
Purple is for Christ's hour of sorrow,
Pink is for our new tomorrow.

A bag full of jelly beans
All colorful and sweet
Is a prayer
Is a promise
Is a small child's treat.

I really love the following poem even better, but it's really best for those who have accepted Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. The above poem I felt was appropriate for a preschool level, but I will keep this next poem saved for the future.

Speckled represents the effects of sin, separating us from You above.
Red is for the blood You shed - a sacrifice only You could pay.
White represents the cleansing of my soul as You wash my sins away.
Blue is for water baptism, an outward expression of my faith.
Yellow represents Heaven above, a long-awaited place!
Green is for the growth that I must do. As I study Your Word to gain closeness to You.

Rebekah glued her cross to paper and colored jelly beans.


After she finished her craft we went back through the poem and ate a jelly bean of each color.

We finished our lesson by reading through The Legend of the Easter Egg and reviewing her memory verse.

Kick-off to Easter

With the death of my grandmother, our visit to MIL's, and just the plain fact that I haven't put the effort toward planning lately we have not done much homeschooling in the recent weeks. That is all changing now! I was going to start our Easter unit with The Parable of the Lily, but it never arrived at our local Christian bookstore after over two weeks of waiting, so I've ordered it online elsewhere else, and it should arrive by the week's end. However, we are doing some Easter learning this week using The Legend of the Easter Egg. Thanks to Candace's post on Easter/Lent Activities I decided to jump in for an Easter unit.

Last week I introduced Rebekah to the Resurrection Eggs. I had always wanted to get these when Rebekah grew old enough for them, and this is the perfect year to begin. We used them in conjunction with Benjamin's Box. Rebekah was so fascinated by each egg. She loved opening each one to find a little surprise inside. Although the book uses fictional characters to tell the story of Easter it puts it on a child's level and helps them to relate to the story through a little boy who might have lived and watched Jesus ride in to Bethlehem, teach people, eat the Passover meal, pray at the Garden of Gethsemane, and suffer the beatings and the cross, but then discover that Jesus had risen.

Following the story I have shown the kids "Miss PattyCake's Egg-strava-ganza". Both Rebekah and Joshua love this video! Joshua even participates, clapping with Miss PattyCake and the children. That really says something since not many videos capture his attention for lengthy periods of time. Rebekah thoroughly enjoys the video as well, and it reinforces the meaning of the items found in the Resurrection Eggs.

Today we focused on the Passover in our homeschooling time. I read about Palm Sunday (Rebekah had just learned about it last week and on Sunday in AWANA Cubbies) and the Passover in Rebekah's Bible story book. We discussed the wine and the bread and what they represented. Rebekah then had a communion snack of saltines and grape juice. She then did her communion page for her lapbook and wrote what each item represented.

Following this we went through the Resurrection Eggs and Benjamin's Box. I think the novelty is starting to wear off a bit, but Joshua wanted to play with the eggs as well, so this distracted Rebekah from really listening to the story. I had already planned to take a break from the eggs until the end of the week, so hopefully she will be eager to enjoy them again after not using them for a few days.

After watching Miss PattyCake's video Rebekah colored her memory verse pocket and we practiced her Cubbies verse for this week: "He will save His people from their sins." Matthew 1:21

I am really excited about this Easter unit! I have so much planned for the next two weeks. I wouldn't normally do something every day since Rebekah has preschool two days each week, but with Easter fast approaching I want to cover everything. I'll be sure to share daily what we are doing to learn about the true meaning of Easter.

Another Teachable Moment

Lately Rebekah has been dealing with fear in her life. She was never afraid of thunderstorms as a toddler, and she would even chase bugs to the point that I thought she would try to eat them. Over the past few days Rebekah began to express fear of the dark, fear of bugs, and even over the last several months she has been terrified of dogs and cats. She didn't even want to play out in the yard because a few dogs run loose in our neighborhood. Last week Rebekah said she was scared of everything, and for a couple nights in a row she was getting up out of bed for various reasons: for a hug, to tell us something she forgot, or just because she couldn't sleep. We put a nightlight in her room, but it was keeping her awake. One night I stayed in her room extra long for more cuddles and left her door cracked.

On Monday I gathered some verses in Scripture about fear and discussed them with Rebekah. The main verse we focused on is Psalm 56:3-4 which says, "When I am afraid I will trust in You. In God whose Word I praise. In God I will trust." I remembered Ryan's and Ginny's son Andrew singing on Ryan's blog and found it online to download. It comes straight from this passage of Scripture, and the song has been wonderful for giving Rebekah peace. I also discussed with Rebekah the verses that say, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything with prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God" and "Cast your cares on Him, for He cares for you." We talked about God being with her all the time, and that He is watching over and protecting her. We have had little problems since. We do crack the door to let a little light in the room, but she feels much more secure since we have been focusing on the Scripture passages dealing with fear.

Another great thing is that in AWANA Cubbies last week's verse was, "I trust in You, O Lord." What a great verse to tie in with Psalm 56! This week's verse for Cubbies is "Hosanna! Blessed be the name of the Lord." I found a song of it from the same collection as the other song. It is from Steve Green's "Hide 'Em In Your Heart" collection. Along with this Rebekah learned Michael W. Smith's version of "Hosanna" and had her Bible verse memorized in one day!

Outdoor Fun and Yes, More Pics!

Monday I took the kids shopping to get some new shoes for spring and summer and then we headed over to Heritage Park after lunch to enjoy the gorgeous weather we had early this week. LeeAnne and Maggie met us there. (Be sure to check out her pics as well.)


The girls played with some of Maggie's toys. It was very sunny and warm on the playground but nice and cool in the shade.


Joshua spent a great deal of time stepping up this step, running to the door in back and running back to step down again. He also just had fun exploring around the area.


Maggie loved telling me stories about the movies she had been watching lately. The girl has a really good memory and retains so many little details. She's going to be one of those that has an entire movie memorized. She's already quoting scenes!



I made this shirt for Rebekah to go along with our princess unit we did.


Of course, the first pic turned out like this.


Tuesday I took the kids outside to play while we still had some gorgeous weather. Here is a typical Rebekah, our little dancer.


Rebekah is getting really good at pumping her legs to swing. She just needs one good push and she's off.




Joshua loves to slide too, but he's not climbing up the ladder yet and won't sit at the top of the slide on his own. I have to put him up on the top of the slide, and by the time I grab my camera he's down and off the slide. He even rode with Rebekah with her legs straddled around him. I'll have to get some pics when Darrin is with me.

Another Photo

Laura sent me this picture of Rebekah and Annalise at Kangazoom. Isn't this sweet?

Old Friends, New Friends, and Old New Friends...and LOTS of Pictures!

Before I begin I need to preface by saying that this is a major overload of pictures and fun we’ve been having lately…and this isn’t even all of what we’ve been doing this week!

After Darrin and I learned that we were expecting our first child I discovered BabyCenter, a website for parents and expectant parents. There I could receive updates on my pregancy, what to expect, and how the baby was growing. I quickly discovered the message boards where they were divided by the expected due date month. Much later I found out there were many other boards geared toward interests and hobbies, but the October 2004 birth club was where I found my niche. I quit visiting the site when I regularly emailed a fellow expecting mom who lived in middle TN. We later lost touch as our due dates approached, and we touched base once after the birth of our girls. It wasn't until February 2006 that I reconnected with Rebekah's birth club and became good friends with so many of the moms from all over the nation and even the world. Several months later I recruited LeeAnne, and we both met Jessica when she posted on the board saying that she was moving to our area looking for friends.

Last Thursday a group of us from the October 2004 BBC birth club, the three of us plus a few from Atlanta, met up with a mom from PA who was down for the week with her family. Most of us from here in the south had met before, but we had never met Nicole, and we got to meet one more mom from Atlanta. It was so fun having all of our October birthday kids together as well as a few siblings who all are very close in age as well. Joshua is barely the oldest while the others will be two years very soon, although the toddlers didn't seem to care to play together nearly as much.

We met at Blue Moon Cafe for lunch and enjoyed our meal on the patio since the weather was so nice.

From left to right: Jessica and her son Kyle, Rebekah, Heidi (Jessica's daughter and best seen in the 3rd pic), Maggie and her mom LeeAnne, Charlie and his mom Stephanie, Stephanie's daughter Gracie, Leah, Leah's daughter Olivia (against the fence in the 2nd pic and in her mom's lap in the 3rd pic), Nicole and her daughter Kylie, Faith hiding behind her mom Mandy, and Joshua.

And a pic with me while Jessica took this shot.


While the kids waited on their food they could mold a piece of pizza dough like play-doh and after it was baked they could eat it. What a novelty idea!

Following lunch Rebekah, Heidi, and Maggie went crazy to see each other. They got in a group hug and just held each other. Before long Maggie was picking up Rebekah. The girls had not seen each other in a long time, at least Rebekah had not seen them, and it was a neat reunion to see. I just wish I had my camera handy. Soon the kids were playing "Ring Around the Rosie" in a big group.

Next we headed over to Kangazoom for the kids to jump and play. Joshua screamed because he did not want to get back into the car. He was afraid he was going to have to ride another 2 hours. But once I started getting Rebekah unbuckled to get out of the car he was laughing with excitement.

The kids had a blast playing, jumping, sliding, and climbing. It was hard to keep Joshua in the same room with the big kids so that I could mingle more with the moms. A couple of times I tried to keep him confined in the crawler section of the room (so he wouldn't run off to the room next door) since we were the only ones there for most of the day, but he found a way over the soft wall. That boy can be resourceful sometimes!

Here are a few pics of the fun. These pictures are not the best quality in the world because the lighting was not very good and I did not take my DSLR. I got frustrated a bit because the shutter lag was slow, but it was nice to only have a pocket camera for the event instead of a big camera to lug around with everything else. My only regret is that I didn't get pics of all the kids.

Joshua hit this toy first thing and it quickly became one of his favorites.




LeeAnne slides down with some of the kids.



Rebekah slid like this a lot. I'm sure it was a thrill!


Kyle didn't take long before he got tired.


Olivia looks so grown up although she is almost two years old. What a doll! Her big 4-year-old brother was at preschool, so he had to miss the fun.


This was one of those times that I tried to snap the pic and missed the shot. Kylie was holding Gracie in front of her on the wedge.


Got it! Notice the wall where Joshua is standing. Yes, he escaped over this wall a couple of times. He managed to move a wedge next to it so he could easily climb out.


Olivia and Joshua were obviously used to dealing with older siblings. They sort of picked at each other.


Faith and Rebekah - These girls were labeled "The BBC Twins" back before we ever met in person. They always favored so much in their pics.


The older they get the less they look alike, but they still resemble one another. Check this out! Of course, they are taken at the end of the day and Rebekah doesn't want to smile b/c she is so tired. First pic is 1 1/2 years ago when we first met.



Be sure to check out LeeAnne's post as well. She captured some great photo shots. Here is one of the group she shared.



On Saturday some friends of ours, Lee and Laura, whom we quickly connected with early in our marriage from the Newlywed Sunday School class, were in town visiting for the weekend. They moved away before we had children, and it had been 2 1/2 years since they had visited. Their daughter at the time was 5 weeks old and I was pregnant with Joshua. Now their daughter Lily is 2 1/2. I could not get over how much she is like my neice Taylor! They not only favor each other, but they have very similar personalities. It's almost scary how much they are alike! I tell you, they could be twins!

We met up with our friends at Cracker Barrel for lunch. Rebekah quickly wanted to become friends with Lily.


Laura and Me


Darrin and Lee


The kids




After lunch we headed outside to let the kids run around. Our kids needed it the most.



Rebekah can be so funny sometimes.


Saying Good-bye