twelve

years ago I gave birth to this young man...

Happy birthday, Bubba!
So glad God gave us you.
Love you!

one thousand gifts #179-197

here's installment #14 of my multitudes on mondays

179. first week of {home}school

my boys--1st day of {home}school

"show me your silly!"

180. great curriculum for bubba--Sonlight's Core F & Science F too!

181. time each day to teach cj too

182. finally having a school schedule and finding that it really helps!

183. one hour of quiet time &/or nap time for both the kids and myself each school day after lunch

184. bubba’s first soccer game of the season—it was a tie! 

185. the Pack winning their first game of the season!  Go Packers!

186. getting to watch the game at my parent’s house (even tho they’re on vacation!)

187. a really good Beth Moore simulcast on Saturday.

188. friends

189. "scientific" fasting

190. natural weight loss

191. water

192. also smart water :)

193. reading books that help us want to eat healthier and make healthier choices

194. remembrance of 9/11

195. the blessing the new memorial in nyc is--and will be--to the families who lost loved ones there

196. resting all day Sunday

197. naps

one thousand gifts #171-178

This coming weekend (Labor Day weekend) I'm planning on having a rummage sale.  Which means this week I'm busy labeling the items I've already boxed up and maybe sorting through more boxes of junk and adding a few more things too!  So that's why this week's Multitudes is a day late.  I was so busy yesterday I didn't even turn on my computer!

So without further ado, my multitudes list continues.
171. babysitting my neighbor's little guy for a little bit one morning and a good visit with her that day too!

 172. "charlie" and "lola" the new flutterbys

 173. a bohemian waxwing (we think) eating chokecherries in the backyard

174. box day!  (i.e. getting our new curriculum for this fall)

175. getting ready for a new school year
176. beautiful weather
177. bubba doing his best for the local Bible bee competition

178. getting up early to go for a walk with my hubby


And that's all for now!
See ya again next week!

one thousand gifts

my weekly list of gratefulness continued:

149. once again, i'm super-thankful for my parents!  this time, instead of childcare, they spent 4 days this past week helping us out with some much needed house and yard work. 

150. grandma (my mom) helping me clear out the excess junk from our porches and collect-all rooms.

151. grandpa (my dad) working with bubba's help to clear some brush for T who plans to build a fort-jungle gym-playset for the boys. 

152. grandpa teaching bubba the basics of driving.  they use the pickup to pull out the brush by the roots (attaching them to chains).  now bubba knows how to drive forward and back as needed and grandpa doesn't have to keep climbing in and out of the truck.

153. our 11-year-old learning to drive a little!

154. sorting through bins and boxes; throwing away garbage, organizing keepsakes and mementos, and putting the rest in boxes so I can either sell or donate it.

155. finally having the local Salvation Army rep come pick up our old-but-still-in-relatively-good-condition queen mattress that was just taking up space and in the way!

156. having a porch that we can use for more than storage!  it's so nice to sit out there and read, knit, or play!

157. coffee--specifically my daily morning cup of Hills Bros. Cappaccino (french vanilla flavor!)  YUM! 

158. FABULOUS photos taken by Sarah a couple weeks ago!  Sarah blogged about it here--isn't she a hoot?! anyways, i just got my gallery link for Beyond Ordinary Photography and i can tell you it's going to be tough to choose which ones we'll want to get prints of--they're all so beautiful!  (and that's from someone who hates having her photo taken!!!!)  so happy!

more to be grateful for

Showing gratitude.  Being thankful. Counting my blessings.


142. an "Awesome!" week of VBS according to Bubba

GO FISH VBS at FBC--Bubba's the one touching his hat

 143. fun Go Fish music at VBS all week (If you haven't heard of Go Fish, go HERE!)

 In case anyone reading this is wondering...our church used Go Fish's "Backstage with the Bible" VBS curriculum this year and it's a great choice!!!

144. a quick weekend knit and a new hat for me as a result! sorry...no photos. but it's really cute and looks quite nice on me!  :)
145. enough leftover yarn to make myself a new pair of fingerless mitts too!  at least, I hope so!
146. finding this adorable apple basket at the local consignment shop (my first time in there but it won't be my last!) i love that it matches my KitchenAid mixer perfectly! 

(lemons and limes not included)

147. (mostly) finishing up our American History Core for school (we still have some read-alouds left, but history is done until next school year...in 4 weeks!
148. shopping for curriculum...time to decide what to use this fall!

And that's this week's installment...come back next Monday for more!

Interested in starting your own Multitudes on Mondays post?  Click on the banner below to learn more about it!

multitude monday

My weekly Multitudes on Mondays post.  If you're just stopping by for the 1st time, I joined in with this post here.  (Check out the banner below for more information from the person who started it.)

116. another Etsy sale!  yay!
117. a shopping day today (Just to put this into perspective, it takes about an hour and fifteen minutes for me to get to the nearest Wal-Mart & JC Penney so shopping days like this are few and far between.  We do have some smaller local stores, but the selection is rather limited--especially for clothes.)
118. gift cards (I happened to have had one for JC Penney which I used today!)
119. a husband with a good paying job (to pay for everything above and beyond the gift card amount)
120. McDonald's (not my favorite, but BOTH boys eat the McNuggets so I always plan on it when we're down shopping)
121. finishing another Sherlock Holmes book on my Kindle. wish the free version came with graphics, but otherwise a good read.
122. new outfits for the boys
123. and one for me too
124. shoe inserts for Bubba, who has really low arches. am hoping these give him the arch support he so desperate needs!
125. some new yarn too (I needed it for work!)
126. a good run Saturday for T and Bubba--they ran a 5K for ALS.  T came in 3rd of the men in his age group and Bubba got 1st place (of the 2 boys) in his age group.

 
127. $460 in donations raised by Bubba (with a little help from his daddy)--enough to win the "prize" for his age group--a new iPod Nano!  good job kiddo! and thanks to those of you who gave!
128. a lovely lightning show Saturday night.
129. capturing some digital lightning. :)  isn't it pretty?

It's fair week this week up here and it's supposed to be in the 90s all week. UGH!  I sure hope the heat doesn't make everyone sick!

multitude monday

is it monday again already?  i just about forgot i was going to start posting again today!  here we go...
if you want to see my other multitudes on mondays posts, they began on mother's day with this post.

54. holiday weekend in Duluth with just my hubby!!!   (Thanks AGAIN to my parents for making it possible by taking the kids.)
55. yarn shops!  and getting to shop at 4 in one weekend!  WOOT!
56. a mall to shop at too!  (can you tell we live in the middle of nowhere?)
57. my new purse in a lovely shade of PINK! yes!
58. a couple new outfits too
59. new clothes for my man as well
60. finding a fun gift for hubby's dad (his early b-day/father's day gift)
61. did i mention yarn shops?  well, i should have mentioned my beautiful new yarns and needles too!
62. going out to the movies with my man--we saw Thor, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and Kung Fu Panda 2 (in 3D).  and yes, we enjoyed them all.
63. coming home
64. hugs and kisses from my boys
65. my hubby's 45th birthday
66. getting our Bible Bee box on Friday (exciting!!!)
67. dinner with my inlaws (to celebrate their eldest son, of course)
68. the first day of summer swim lessons (today)
69. finding out there's another boy in bubba's level who's "behind" on swim lessons so he's not the only 11 year old in level 4
70. time to knit while bubba was in lessons because cj was being such a good boy
71. planting raspberry plants that were given to me (actually, we were originally getting them for my mom, but she let me have them since she already has a few plants and i didn't have any yet)
72. going for a walk with my little man, cj, to try and find monarch caterpillars (no luck this time)
73. finding tadpoles in our front ditch instead!
74. being the kind of mom who catches tadpoles--eight in all--so we can watch them grow legs

75. accidentally catching THIS while trying to get tadpoles and being thrilled even though we didn't know what it was

76. learning that it's a triops (i couldn't find any info to tell me if they are native to minnesota though)
77. going for a family walk and seeing all kinds of wild strawberry plants in blossom.  (gonna have to keep my eyes on those for berries!)
78. pizza
79. falling asleep to the sounds of a gentle rain and distant thunder
80. waking up to the sounds of birds (the one rather loud and crazy bird that has a bunch of different calls was kind of annoying at 4:30am, but otherwise it's kind of a nice way to wake up)

 
On a side note: I decided to put the tadpoles and triops in the same container.  Mr. Triops (as he's been dubbed) eats mosquito larvae and other stuff like that so I'm hoping he'll clean out any bugs from the ditch water we collected with these critters.  Hopefully he won't be hungry enough to eat the tadpoles! Not sure he'd do that, but you never know...

 

They seem to be getting along well enough, but it's only been a few hours. 

to eat, or not to eat, that is the question

...that we ask cj now when he's being picky at mealtime.

last night was our church's Sunday School Christmas program.  but before that, we had to eat supper.  and cj refused to eat.  again.  no amount of coaxing, not even telling him that he'd have a cookie (and cookies are his FAVORITE treat!) after the Christmas program if he ate was enough to get him to try the yummy ravioli my husband made for us. cj wouldn't try his peas either.  so he didn't eat.  and he got really hungry during the program (thankfully, that was after he was done with his part).  we stuck to our guns and the poor dear got no cookies, no snacks...nothing but water.  (maybe he's learning that no amount of crying will get us to change our minds about this rule!)    

as for the Christmas program itself, the boys did their parts very well and their mama was more than a little pleased.  bubba played a piano solo that he started working on a week ago.  (nothing like deciding at the last minute that you want to participate after all!)  and you'd never know he hadn't been working on it for weeks.  yes, the kid has talent.  (and his mama can't help but be a little bit proud.  i do teach him the piano too, after all!)  bubba also had a vocal solo during the song "We Three Kings" that he did quite nicely and a short recitation as part of his class's part of the program.

 

cj also did his part with the pre-k class just fine...he even said his line "A is for all He stands for" into the microphone.  a week ago, i wouldn't have guessed that he'd actually do it!  and when the younger kids (pre-k thru 2nd grade) sang their songs, he even tried to sing along.  :D

one good thing about cj's not eating supper is that he was more willing this morning to try a new food.  T, the wonderful daddy that he is, helped cj eat some apple.  yes, Grandma, you read that right.  cj ate real, fresh, apple this morning!  the trick with this kid is honey.  give him a little honey to dip it in and he'll eat it!  i think he ate at least half the apple.  it was amazing!  top it off with trying a second new food...Grape Nuts cereal with a little milk and honey (of course!) just the way T was eating it this morning and i'm currently in a state of shock.  :D  cj even asked for more!  you bet you can have more, kiddo!

my week in review

i was on the phone last night, talking to my mom, when i heard the cutest thing...cj was singing "twinkle, twinkle, little star."  (he doesn't often sing all by himself.)  i wish i could have captured it on video!  but i did manage to get him to sing it again for grandma, who also thought it was incredibly adorable!

(a sort of recent photo of cj...dressed up like a pirate for the day!)

otherwise, it's been a rough week for us.  parenting can be so hard sometimes.   cj has become the pickiest eater i know.  things that he would eat--and even liked!--6 months ago are suddenly "yucky."  i know this is a relatively normal stage for a 4 year old.  he's asserting his independence and all that.  but the kid has been living on junk food for too long.  and he is old enough to understand when he's doing something he shouldn't--like disobeying his parents. so we now have a new family rule regarding meals.

you eat what we eat or you wait until the next meal where you will be offered either a repeat of the meal or something equally healthy.  (no more skipping dinner and then eating a poptart for breakfast! ha!)

and that means no more making separate meals for each of the kids unless we're eating up leftovers.  that goes for bubba, too, who hates pizza!!  so on monday night when we had pizza, bubba had to eat a little sliver of it too. and he did! (and it didn't kill him...go figure!)  after he ate his required amount, we allowed him to make himself a piece of toast (with yummy nutella on it!) to supplement.

same rule applies to cj, but he has been a bit more stubborn about it.

cj has never "liked" fruit or even juices.  but then again, he's rarely even tasted any!!  and the veggies he used to eat have slowly become foods he won't touch.  so this week's battle was basically over peaches.  we wanted him to just give the peaches a try.  NOPE.  this kid would rather starve than eat a tiny piece of canned peach.  in fact, he only drank water all day Thursday!  (all it would have taken for him to eat something else would have been to try the peach.)  anyways, after reading Dr. Dobson's advice about this issue in The New Dare to Discipline and checking out the Sonlight Forums to see what other parents do in this situation (i knew someone else must've been through something similar and chatted about it out there--sure enough! lots of parents had been discussing the same type of situation just last year), i knew we were on the right track. but i could see that my son is just stubborn enough to not eat for days.  after much consideration, i decided to try a compromise.  instead of eating a piece of peach, i asked if he would just taste the juice from around the peaches.  he agreed to taste the peach juice.  with his water in one hand a spoon that had been dipped in the peaches in the other, he did it!  and he even said "it's not so bad!"  (but he wouldn't go for any more.)  i know it might not seem like a big accomplishment.  but to us it's a beginning--a breakthrough of sorts.  i'm just praying that he gets used to the idea of trying new foods--and quickly!

top that off with a second round of potty training him (the first round was a total failure--he was totally unwilling) and it's been a very long week.  but at least he's not throwing a tantrum every time i ask him to go potty this time around!

as for homeschooling...seems we get further behind every day.  so today, even though it's saturday, i hope to make time to do a little catch-up on our read-aloud book Little Britches.  

hope your week was better than mine!!!

on a completely different topic:  11 years ago today was my "due date."  dear, sweet bubba, however, didn't listen to his mama's pleas and decided to wait until the dr. induced her the next week.  having birthed a child--my firstborn son--at Christmastime always makes me think of the Christmas story..."And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn."  Luke 2:7 KJV

stocking stuffer:  baby bubba on Christmas day, 1999...getting ready to go home

i hope you will take time this Christmas season to be a little bit like Mary:  "But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart."  Luke 2:19 KJV  how truly amazing, that "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16NIV

it's a busy life!

I am once again busy home-schooling.  Teaching a 10-year-old everything from Math and Science to History and English (and everything else he needs to learn too!) while attempting to keep a 4-year-old occupied can oftentimes be a real challenge!  Thankfully, CJ now likes playing with Play-Doh and can stay entertained with it for a relatively lengthy period of time which allows Bubba and me to get through a lot of our work in the mornings.  But for read-alouds we need it a bit quieter...he needs to be able to pay attention as I read.  So we wait until CJ's naptime and do our read-alouds then. 

Bubba played soccer again this year.  We have a local home-school/Christian school league with 3 teams.  So there are practices, home games, away games, and even a tournament!   The season is basically done...we had our tournament yesterday.  Bubba's JV team took 2nd place.  It was a long day (and we didn't even have to be there at 9am when the tourney started since our first game wasn't until noon) but it was a lot of fun for the players.  I am glad the season is done though.  As much as I enjoy visiting with the other soccer moms at practices, it takes up a lot of our time and a bit of traveling too.

I'm helping out with our church's Pre-K Sunday School class (CJ's class).  This year I've switched from working with our AWANA Sparks to helping with the AWANA T&T girls.  It's a nice change working with just girls and the older age group (3rd thru 6th grades) is also a nice change of pace for me.

CJ turned 4 on September 30th.  We had a birthday party for him last Sunday--just a small gathering of family, but he really enjoyed spending time with his cousins.   And I celebrated my birthday on Thursday the 7th by watching an afternoon soccer game and then dinner out.

What else have I been busy with? 

Lots of knitting {and crocheting}, of course!

a few photos

random photos from the past couple of weeks.

wind turbine in ND

Minnkota Power Plant Tour

black bear eating plants in a ditch
(we saw it Sunday on our way over to visit my parents) 

Labor Day at a local Corn Maze!  FUN!

frog catching fun

hole in one of my hand-knit socks. (i fixed it last night)

back to {home}school

It's been a busy week around here.  Monday was our first full day of school work since summer began.  Our homeschool soccer team has started practices again too.  So the next month and a half or so will be extra-busy for us!  Bubba was none-too-thrilled about doing full-time school again, but he's even getting back into it.  CJ is starting to have a little Preschool time...mostly playing with Play-doh while Bubba is doing school.  :D

We are currently studying the Civil War.  So much about American History that I never really learned.  It just amazes me that not only is my child learning that there WAS a Civil War in this Country, but he's actually learning ABOUT it.  And not just the dates.  He's learning about the people, the issues and how people on both sides of these issues felt and thought!  Incredible.  Why, oh why, couldn't someone have taught me history when I was a kid?  It's taken me teaching my own child in order to learn this stuff.  One of the many reasons I teach my kids at home!  Thanks again, Sonlight, for making my job as a homeschool teacher a tad easier!

It seems that autumn may be coming early this year.  The leaves are already beginning to change and it's not even September yet!  I can't believe the summer is basically over and fall is right around the corner.  But I think it's been a pretty nice summer and we even did a little school work occasionally which is nice when you are in the middle of a Sonlight Core.

Interested in homeschooling your kids too?  I love Sonlight's Cores!  Go ahead and click the link to Sonlight over on my sidebar and see all they have to offer!

VBS family night

it was VBS week at our church. bubba always enjoys VBS and this year was no exception. last night (friday) they had the VBS program and family night. it gives the kids a chance to show their families the Bible verses and songs they learned during the week. we also had a yummy "cowboy cookout" as part of the evening's outdoor fun. hotdogs, baked beans, chips and watermelon were served up picnic style. everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. as for me, this is the first year in quite a while that i wasn't helping out with VBS. it was a nice break and i'm glad to have taken it.

here's a short video of one of the songs...it was so cute and funny! the kids seemed to really enjoy singing and doing the actions!

bubba's the young man in back wearing the big white cowboy hat.

i realize the video's a tad blurry due to the fact that i had to reduce the quality in order to upload it.  you get the picture though!  

isn't he a handsome cowboy?

summer fun

i realize i haven't posted in a while.  not for lack of things to say, but rather lack of time to say them! 

i've been planning a really nice post about our trip out west.  only, i haven't had time (or energy) to go thru the bazillion photos we took to find the few really great ones i'd want to share here.  so, bear with me as i take my time and i WILL post about it...someday.  hopefully sooner than later!

top that off with it being Fair Week here this week which means eating lots of junk foods, rides for the boys, and checking out all the animals and other things that folks have entered.  i've been telling myself for years "next year i'm gonna enter something i've knitted."  and yet again, it's fair time and i don't have anything to enter.  seems like all my projects lately have been either gifts or things that i want to use right away--so MAYBE NEXT YEAR!  we'll see!

here's a couple photos of the boys at the fair

bubba and his best buddy, ty on the tilt-a-whirl

that's right...ty's dad took the big boys on the ferris wheel. 
they're in the blue carriage at the top!

cj enjoying the rides

another fun ride for cj

oh yeah...one more thing.  T ran his first 5K of the summer on the 17th.  placed 2nd of the guys in his age range.  {it wasn't a PR, but it was better than he'd expected since he hadn't been able to train on our trip like he would've liked!}

here he is just about to cross the finish line:

T--the runner in red

it's been a good summer so far.  hard to believe it's already july 22.  and yes, we're still doing a little schoolwork here and there when we can!

one more thing!

i almost forgot! BOX DAY!



that's right...our new school books arrived last Friday! the boys had fun digging in and checking out what new books we got for Core 4. {now to just finish up core 3 so we can begin to use 'em!}

birthday boy

as of 8:15am, i have become the proud mother of a 10-year-old boy. that's right. a whole decade! we've entered the double digits now! only 3 years till he's a teen. oh my.

happy birthday, son! i love you and am proud of the young man you are growing up to be.

his daddy found this Optimus Prime toy at Sam's Club a few months ago and just couldn't resist getting it.

these transformer toys sure are fun for a 10-year-old boy!

have a great birthday, son!

autumn fun

it was another lovely day today...55 degrees and sunny, albeit a tad on the windy side, but basically nice. grandma was feeling left out since she had to work yesterday, so both grandparents came over and took us for lunch at DQ and then came back home with us so grandma could spend some quality time playing with the boys too. i got some more great shots of the boys playing in leaf piles. and grandma took a few of me playing with the boys too.