About a year ago one of my most favorite friends, Lori Faber, took these beautiful pictures as we were waiting on a baby. As I'm getting ready for that little baby's first birthday, I'm so very thankful to her and for these pictures. It's a fun spot in a tumultuous time that I am over the moon about that stage being over. So, now enjoy some pictures of my wonderful yet ridiculous family! My husband is a lot of things, but when it comes to pictures he's the worst and then I can't stop laughing at his shenanigans.
Sunday, March 25, 2018
Sunday, March 18, 2018
Who Will Balance You?
I witnessed something just really petty and mean-spirited this weekend and left feeling disgusted about it. As I tried to process it, all I could wonder is how a person could stoop so low and considering the circumstances not have moved on and grown up. Do you ever just shake your head at people's unwillingness to even try to grow? Sometimes I catch myself excusing some people as if they were young and still learning. I guess that's because I feel like I'm young and still learning, but I am 38. Not old (unless you ask my kids), but certainly not young in the traditional sense anymore. So a lot of my peers aren't that young either. We're adults and some of us aren't acting like it.
This is why balance is so important to me. We are gravitational beings. We WILL gravitate to one side or another. The question is are there people and circumstances that will bring us back to center when we near the edge of extreme? If you are a rule follower that struggles with having the right attitudes, do you have emotionally sensitive people in your life to help influence you for good? If you are a passionate dreamer, do you have logical and financially wise people to keep you from ending up destitute? Whatever your current state, do you have someone who is different than you that will give you a different perspective rather than just the friends who will agree with whatever you say?
I am a very strong-willed and difficult person to deal with sometimes. It's true and a fact of (my husband's) life. Can you believe that he makes me beautiful and kind? His differences - although still strong-willed and difficult sometimes - complement me and draw out a better version of me. And I do the same for him. It is because we can be extreme opposites, but in our love for each other we are learning to appreciate the other side to everything which causes us both to land closer to the middle.
I pray that you never are so wrought with personal angst and drama that you despise someone who is young or weak. It is usually here when we make foolish choices and start filling our hearts with regrets. If/when it does happen, I pray that you will find someone who can balance you. And in that balance may the Lord be glorified and His will be completed.
Monday, March 12, 2018
Wait For It...
Facebook has a brought a lot of negatives into our daily
life, but one of the more positive ones is the ‘On This Day’ feature that shows
you posts from years past. Especially
when it involves my kids, I always catch myself thinking, “Wow, look how little
they were.” or “I completely forgot about that!” What it really shows me lately is how far I’ve
come. If you know me, you know I can
take things really hard. And I’m just
going to be honest – the past 4 years have been really hard in one way or
another. In each category of my life, I
could write a book on how hard it is to be successful there. Housekeeping, parenting, schooling, marriage,
gardening, friendships, health/weight maintenance, losing a loved one,
financial security, job security/changes and the list could keep going. Life is hard.
And sometimes it is so hard that it to declare it a failure seems like
the only sane option.
If the first try or first few years of something is supposed
to indicate your ability to succeed in it, then I think my entire adulthood
would be considered a failure. The first
year I begged Mr. Butler for a vegetable garden, I had no idea what I was doing
and didn’t produce much to speak
of. Without our faith and commitment to
God, I’m certain Mr. Butler and I would have thought divorce was the only
solution on multiple occasions. I have a certain firecracker of a daughter
that at one time I thought I would never sleep or take a nap without
considerable fight. I can remember driving
a very specific route several times a week to my parents’ house about 3 years
ago because I was riddled with illogical anxiety and needed help caring for
myself and for my kids while Mr. Butler was at work. As I would drive I wondered if I would ever
feel normal again or be able to even consider having another baby.
This morning I woke up a little late because I was sore and
tired from working in a garden that Mr. Butler helped me get ready for planting
in spite of my past failures. This was a couple of hours after he left to go to
the gym before work so that he doesn’t miss out on time with us after work. I woke up to chattering in the other end of the house from children who slept all night and a sweet babe that really almost wasn't, in my mind. The morning was spent calling out instructions and guidance in school related stuff, listening to the big kids take their turn at piano practice, and even a little more garden work. Normal stuff full of routine, security and hope. I'm so thankful that I didn't give up on all the hard stuff.
If your life is hard right now, my best advice right now is to just wait for it. Things don't magically fix themselves usually. And even the ones that do, it rarely happens over night. But those really good things are worth the wait, worth the hard struggle, worth the hard work. The best punch line, the best relationship and the best result does not come quickly or easily. But if you just wait for it, you'll see what I mean.
Thursday, March 8, 2018
CursiveLogic: A Cursive Handwriting Method Review
Who It Is For:
The origin of this program was born from the desire to teach an adult quickly who desired the ability to sign his name. So, it is the PERFECT solution for adults learning or even improving their cursive handwriting skills. However, it is also ideal for kids ready to tackle cursive but might otherwise get pretty tired of letter repetition or a slow-moving approach. It moves quickly, explaining the necessary steps for good shape and connection and dives right into writing words the first week. It is also a multi-sensory approach that is suited to all learning styles because it includes color, movement, verbal and auditory tools, making it a more efficient use of the students' time and energy.
The Art of Cursive book is a really neat addition to CursiveLogic's method. This book is full of beautiful handwriting quotes and coloring pages. The coloring pages, though, are made up of cursive letters in varying sizes and locations. The book begins with an explanation of each letter group so the coloring book could stand alone in teaching cursive if you chose to do so, especially for adults.
What We Thought:
My 7 year old, like I mentioned before, had some cursive experience coming in, but very little in connecting letters into words. From the beginning, the full-color pages and use of color coding seemed really interesting to him and kept his attention. His handwriting proficiency always waxes and wanes with his interest level anyway, but after a couple of days he was very successfully connecting letters and starting to ask about how he would write different names. The first half of the book focuses on lower-case and the second half is upper-case so we have more to work on but it has proven to be a much better teacher than me so we're happy!
If you are at all anxious about teaching cursive, I highly recommend giving this method a try, especially with the webinar they provided. It gives you all the tools you need as well as a better way to teach it! If you decide to try it yourself, you can get 20% off the workbook and webinar with code CREW2018 until March 31st.
Follow CursiveLogic on Facebook:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ilovecursive/
Check out what other family's experiences were:
Monday, March 5, 2018
The Pencil Grip, Inc.: A Magic Stix Review
Between the 4 year old coloring in her coloring books with them to the 7 year old watching 'how to draw...' videos and then using the markers to color his pictures in, they have covered a lot of ground. Throughout all the different uses, so far, I haven't received any complaints and they are still the preferred marker set. If you are looking for a higher quality, longer lasting set of markers, we highly recommend giving the Magic Stix a try!
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thepencilgrip/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepencilgrip Tag: @ThePencilGrip
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kwikstixpaint Tag: @kwikstixpaint
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLmKo4Es5M5VwzXuFKk7j6w The Pencil Grip
Check out what other kinds of projects these markers have been used for:
Thursday, March 1, 2018
Tools for Growth
Our life is a round-robin affair of working to get money to get food to eat to have energy to work and it goes on and on. Because of how mundane that concept sounds, it is so easy to fixate on our things or the right equipment or the right curriculum in my case sometimes. From food to books to appliances, it is so easy to forget that all of this is intended to be a tool for something greater. If nothing else, it is a tool for growth! Why does that matter? For me, I get stuck in mental and emotional quicksand over making a right choice or holding on to too much unnecessarily.
In the homeschool world, it is a common occurrence to find yourself with a really expensive set of books that all your friends claim to be the best for this subject or that grade only to find out your kids hate it or it just doesn't work for your teaching style. It is so tempting to force it to work because of how much money was invested in it! But when you consider what it is - a TOOL for education, rather than the POINT of education - it is much easier to be reasonable about the situation. Thank goodness for sale/swap sites and the internet where next time you'll know what questions to ask about the next curriculum need.
In an even bigger picture, I'm learning that those horrible moments in your life, the darkest days that are full of struggle bring the most growth, hands down. Those dark days were tools for growth and good when we keep Jesus on the throne and not throw in the towel. Consider everything a tool for growth today and see if your attitude brightens up just a little!
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