Friday, October 28, 2011

Birthday Tribute (We have 2 teenagers in the house now!)

My precious daughter turned 13 today. It delights me to see her growing up knowing God the way she does. Although I have my days when I miss that baby I brought home from the hospital, she is maturing into such a beautiful young woman.










2000 - One of my favorite baby pictures of her. She fell asleep here and stayed there for quite some time.












2001 ~ Gotta love that Binky. Her shirt says "Warning: I am Two!"






2003 - Picture taken on a hay ride to go out an pick pumpkins.







2006 ~ Love that toothless smile.







2008 ~ Must ALWAYS dress for the occasion. We were hometown tourists in Gettysburg and she couldn't just wear a t-shirt.







2008 ~ A Pink .22 for Christmas. Notice the vintage-style nightgown. She is very feminine, yet can hold her own.






2010 ~ A Christmas Eve Tradition in our house is new PJ's. We call it the first present of Christmas.





Happy Birthday, Beautiful Girl!





















Sunday, October 16, 2011

Why I'm Beginning to Love Wednesdays

Wednesdays are quickly becoming my favorite day of the week. It's the day after we go to Classical Conversations and the kids have all of their new assignments for the week.

My oldest two (ages 12 and 14), often get up early to get a quick start on their school work. They set up their assignment sheets the night before (something CC strongly encourages so the students can learn time management) and are ready to dive in when they arise. They work quietly and diligently on their assignments all morning. They do have questions and I help them through those. DD12 will often ask that I read with her, and I do. We read her assingments together and have some wonderful discussions about them. Sometimes their dad is in the room and will jump in on discussions.

At lunch time they break to eat, and are back at it for the afternoon. I love being in the other room when the girls are practicing their latin. Frequently, they break into a fake old-world accent and talk like that through the entire study time (sometimes the accent sticks around way into the evening). It's funny to listen to.

All this time, I am cleaning the house and preparing meals for the day.
DS7 will get up at some point during the morning and I will sit with him to review his CC lessons. I also give him a math lesson (Saxon 2) and a language lesson (First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind). My goal is to read a book with him in the afternoons and that doesn't happen as often as I would like.

Throughout the day, the girls will take 10 minute walks to stretch their legs and clear their minds. When they are finished with their assignements for the day, they will go outside with a camera and start snapping away.

Dinner time comes and we enjoy a meal together before we head off to church for the evening.

I wish everyday were like this. For now, I will savor every Wednesday as it rolls around. It's a beautiful thing.