They are growing up….

Here are the pictures I took of our girlies for their birthdays… hard to believe that they are 7 and ALMOST 5!  They are so similar yet so very different and they love each other SO MUCH!  I am so glad they have each other… they just that look that makes each other giggle and little sayings that make them BURST OUT!  They can read each other’s mind and love playing the same things.  They love to help each other and hate to see the other sad or hurt!  I have preached to them “Sisters are Forever” and they are really living that out!

Hannah – Almost 5 years

Grace – 7 years

And now the girls together…

And for the REAL sisters…

I LOVE the Olympics!

I just love the Olympics!  I love the games, the back stories, the skills, the dedication, the hard work, the last minute victories (except for when Canada’s hockey women beat ours!)… I love it all!  During the Summer Olympics in 2012, Grace fell in love with gymnastics and started classes after that… a sport that she is so good at and it certainly dedicated to.  The Olympics are just special around here!  These Winter Olympics have been a little different – not as many events and athletes – but certainly enough heart to go around.

In order to really engage the girls in the whole excitement of the Olympics, I went online looking for an activity to do with them.  Little did I know that this would be a highlight for them everyday of the Olympics!

Here is the lapbook that Grace made…

 

The inside left side has two parts:

 

The top part has a description about what the Olympic Rings are and why they are significant. (I didn’t make Grace have good handwriting.. this was just for fun.  I hope you can read it all.)

The bottom section has pages for several of the sports from the Olympics with the name of the sport on it.  The girls really learned so much about the sports – their names, what the object of each is, the equipment used for each, etc.  They would turn on the TV to watch the games from 8-8:30 and were able to tell us what was on – luge, skeleton, biathlon, bobsled, ice skating, speed skating, etc! 

 

The middle section of this lapbook has a picture of the medals at the top, and it opens up so the girls could keep track of the number of medals the US received using tally marks.

The bottom has the flags of the US and of Russia as well as a description of the Olympic Flame, its significance, and where it came from.  Here is what Grace wrote:

On the right side of the lapbook, there are two sections. 

The top has a pocket which has the Olympic Motto and its meaning.

The bottom has a section that asks where, when and who concerning the Olympics.  We weren’t sure what the “who” was supposed to be, but the girls put who they wanted to!

   

The back of the book contains nine flags from nine of the countries who competed in the Olympics – we put US flag and the Russian flag on the inside.  It was fun to hear the girls say, “Look at that flag… that’s Germany!”   It was a great reference tool for them… and will be for years to come!

Overall, this was a fabulous activity that only made the girls love the Olympic competition even more.   We have encouraged positive cheering… U-S-A…U-S-A … but at times I heard the girls begging for a skier to fall or an ice skater to trip just so a US athlete would medal.  (That should remind the Chase kids of the time dad was cheering for bankruptcy on Wheel of Fortune!) We had to curb their patriotism to only include positive cheering from that point on!  HA!  It was pretty fun! GO, USA!

In the Lightner house there is now a countdown to the next Olympics… 2016 in Rio de Janeiro!

Ahhh…. fresh air!

Our house really shrinks in the winter… we are all stuck inside, but we long to have fresh air and space away from each other.  With the weather pattern changing with warmer temperatures we have had several days of playing outside recently.. Ahhh…. the fresh air has REALLY helped us all!

Typical Hannah… catching flakes!

Ok.. this is a little prettier, thanks, Hannah!

Now on a walk to the Lake…but stopping to throw snowballs, climb hills, and make tracks.

My kiddos at Easter Lake… within walking distance from our house!

Jumping, creating, singing, and having a BLAST!

Update for Lightner Christian Academy

School is just so much fun around here with lots to do... more ideas than we could ever get into one day.  My kids are at the perfect ages to really appreciate projects so I have been taking time in the morning to do some with all four children… it helps to keep Caleb busy since he doesn’t have a morning nap.  Here are two activities that we have done recently.

With a true fascination for plants, seeds and growing things lately, we got out cups, dirt, grass seeds and markers.  The  kids and I decorated our cups like faces and then added dirt and seeds.  We were hoping that the grass would grow to look like hair… AND IT DID!!

And then a week and a half later… Hannah is giving her first haircut!  :)

And then another interesting activity we did… we made a Sweet Potato Pie when we were learning about George Washington Carver.  I didn’t realize he was born in Missouri, went to college in Iowa, and then went to Alabama (what he is most known for).  It was there that he discovered hundreds of uses for peanuts and sweet potatoes.  We made this yumminess in honor of him!  It was A HUGE hit in our house! 

I’m NOT Superwoman!

I’m not even Wonder Woman!  HA!   I am a just a mom… a mom with a love for Jesus, a love for her hunky husband, a love for her amazing children and a love for others!  I am busy … super busy and there never seems to be enough time or energy to get everything done.  I have learned a lot over the years, though.  Here are a few of the tips that I have put into practice that make me look (at times) like Superwoman!
First, one of the most helpful things that I have done to order my life is to create a cleaning schedule.  This makes sure that I get done everything that I need to in one week.  It has the basic chores on it, and then I add things to it as I need to. 

This is a super easy document to create and post on your fridge.  It gets the basic things done in the week instead of asking, “Did I vacuum this week?”  “When was the last time I cleaned the toilets?”   It also puts things like dishes and sweeping on the list everyday so I will do them.
Secondly, speaking of dishes, I have even created a schedule for the dishwasher.  I know that it is helpful to have an empty or near empty dishwasher after dinner so we can load the dishwasher right away.  That means  that we have to start the dishwasher right after lunch (most of the time it is full, but there are days when it is only 75% full) and then empty it right after rest time.  This makes sure we have an empty dishwasher for when it really matters.  The kids are responsible to load their plates, bowls, silverware and cups, while the girls are assigned certain days to unload the dishes. 
Third, you may have noticed that Wednesday is the only day that I have listed LAUNDRY!  Yup, I am one of those weirdoes who does all the laundry in one day.  I like this much better than doing a little each day.  In that plan I feel like I am ALWAYS DOING LAUNDRY!  BUT… in my plan I do laundry just on Wednesdays unless there is a reason to do it on another day.  I start this plan early in the morning when I get up.  I throw the first load in the washer at 6:00, and it is SUPPOSED TO BE ALL DONE AND PUT AWAY BEFORE WE LEAVE FOR CHURCH around 4:30.  Since we eat dinner at church on Wednesdays, I don’t have to prepare for dinner which saves me time.  I use that time in the afternoon to get all of the laundry done.  The kids get up from their rest times around 4:00 and we use the few minutes before we leave to put laundry away.  They carry their own piles to their rooms and put them away.  The girls are REALLY good at this, but the boys are in the training process still.  It is such a great feeling to work together to get all of it done before church.  There may be a stray pile or two to put away, but it is usually 95% done when we leave… then I don’t need to think about laundry for another week. 
Fourth, I plan out at least a week of meals at a time.  Over the weekend, I sit down and look over the plans for the week… when we have evening activities, meetings, appointments,etc., and then ask Danny his schedule to make sure we are on the same page.  After I have a clear picture of my week, I see what meat we have in the freezer and build my meals around that.  I have a list of meals that my family likes categorized by meat or meatless which makes it easy to remember meals to add to the plan for the week.  After I have a meal idea for each night, I make a store list of items needed to complete each meal. This whole idea saves me a lot of time and frustration because I know the night before what meal we are going to have, and I can put the meat in the fridge to thaw and can even prep the meal at a lull in the morning.  I don’t wait until 4:30 to figure out what we are going to have… my stress is SO MUCH LESS when I plan and then stick to the plan!
So… those are just a FEW of the secrets that I have to make things run smoothly at this Super Hero’s house! Let me know what you think and what YOU use at your house….I need as many tips as I can get!

By the way…Many ideas that I have implemented have come from a fabulous book that my Aunt Jackie gave me – it is a MUST READ for EVERY MOM… even if they don’t have a large family!  It is called Large Family Logistics by Kim Brenneman.

Why do you homeschool?

I get asked that nearly every week… and I tend to ask myself that just as often.  Why do we homeschool?  It is definitely NOT the easiest way to give our children an education… sending them to school for 7 hours per day to have the paid professionals do it is WAY easier.  So, why did we choose to homeschool with the good school system that we have here and the great Christian schools all around town?

There are many reasons that we have chosen this for our family, but here is the biggest one…  We were convicted by the Holy Spirit through Deuteronomy 6:4-9.  “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them with you sit at home, and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

As believers and parents, we are all mandated by God to be the primary teachers of His Word to our children. WE are to be the teachers and we are to teach them DILIGENTLY, EVERYDAY, and in EVERY SITUATION.   We must first love the Lord and know His commands and then we are to pass them on to our children. We are the ones who will be ultimately responsible to the Lord for the raising of our children.  And that reality hit us HARD!  As we were studying that passage, we just kept coming back to the fact that we wouldn’t be the primary teachers of our children if we were handing them over to someone else for the majority of their waking hours in the day…. their good hours…. their impressionable hours.  We KNEW that we had to homeschool… for the hearts and minds of our kids.   We KNEW that being in school meant that our children were going to be “impressed” by many things and many worldviews… many which we wouldn’t want them to be “impressed” by.  It was easier to make a lasting “impression” on our children by choosing what they would and wouldn’t have access to.

The decision was made.  Even though we never thought we would, we entered the intimidating world of homeschooling.  We knew that this was the right decision for us…each of our friends and family have to make the decision for themselves, but the more we have studied, read and received counsel, we are convinced that this is the right thing for our family.  It isn’t easy, though.  There are some days that I am ready to pull my hair out before the kids pull it out – or turn it ALL GRAY!  There are good days too.  Lots of them… memories that are not soon forgotten….like making Viking Ships from cardboard boxes, singing Bible songs on the floor of the Living Room EVERY day, giggles when we make lunch together, listening to our three Bigs recite their Bible verses that they memorized this week – with the motions,  the two girls accepting Christ as their Savior, the silly games of memory or BINGO, seeing the bond that these four have..a true love, the maze of words that Hannah gets to review reading, or the sprouting popcorn kernel experiment.  All these plus MANY MANY more make it so rewarding. 

Our schooling isn’t exactly like the education that our kids would receive in “real school”.  We start our day with a study of Christian character and Bible lessons.  This is incorporated into the whole day… we are looking for ways to build their character and train them in the Word of God.  The goal of each week is to develop character in them… to get them further along in their spiritual journey.  That doesn’t mean that reading, math, science, history, handwriting and the like are not important.  But it does mean that they are not the most important thing.   Without the transforming work of the Spirit through the  Word of God, our efforts are in vain.  We are not trying to make brain surgeons, rocket scientists, or the first female president.   We just want to have children who love God, His Word and His world and desire to serve Him whole heartedly in everything!

Here are some pictures from a typical day at Lightner Christian Academy (yes, the girls didn’t brush their hair and they dressed themselves so the girls don’t match! Oh, well!  This is what life is REALLY like here!)

Caleb – 20 months old, showing you his snack!

They all stop their work to take a few pics… ADORABLE!

Why do we homeschool?  In short…We believe that the Lord has given us these four gifts to prepare them to be used for His kingdom.  That is a FULL TIME JOB.  We have decided that we MUST have them home with us so they can be fully trained… a job we believe that moms and dads are the most suitable for! It isn’t easy, but these four bundles are SO WORTH IT!

And as a final note, schools are MUCH scarier these days that when we were kids – school safety issues and common core are REAL issues that each family needs to consider.  They didn’t play a primary role in our decision to home school, but I know that they do for some.