Water On Fire

We had an incredibly powerful low pressure system roll in last week. It brought a ton of wind, rain, (and a headache for me! Am I the only person who gets storm headaches?) It was a couple of really dark, stormy days in Holland. I saw some pictures of the massive waves on Lake Michigan from friends on Facebook and decided to take a quick trip to the state park last Friday evening with Olive, to try to get some pictures myself.

We picked the perfect time to visit. We caught the most dramatic, amazing sunset I have ever seen since living here (or elsewhere, for that matter!) There was this incredible panorama of storm clouds leaving, and a fiery bright ribbon on the horizon over the lake where the sky was clearing, (it gave the illusion that the lake was on fire, it was that bright,) and in between the two were massive, low hanging orange, pink, red and violet clouds. The wind was incredibly strong still, (and cold!) and sand was pelting our skin. The waves were huge! I had never seen the water so high on the lake. Lake Michigan, man...it has such a personality. One day it can be as still and glossy as a sheet of glass, another day you might see 20 foot waves, and in the winter the whole landscape freezes over into an alien looking place. It's never boring, and it's always beautiful.

Today we take Oona back to the children's hospital for her 6 week cast change! While it's awesome to have reached this half-way point in her Spica cast treatment, it's daunting to have another 6 weeks to go. Praying for an easy procedure and comfort for our Oonie today and the rest of this week as she adjusts to the new cast.

First Day of First Grade!

May it be remembered, that Olive's first day of first grade was the nastiest, rainiest morning we've had in Holland in quite a while. We had to be at the school at 7:35am on the first day, and between us still being groggy and the rain pouring down, and the sky still being really dark, and the first day jitters we were both feeling - we didn't get any fancy, "first day back" photos. We did however get a quick snap of Olive next to her VERY OWN, SHINY NEW LOCKER. She's so proud.

Olive's class is in a brand new building this year, so that added to the first-day-chaos. While the coming and going was a little crazy, her first day as a first grader couldn't have gone better. She was beaming when I picked her up, and had nothing but glowing reviews of her classmates and teacher. We're excited about this new school year!

Olive Says...

"Mom, don't you want to have another baby?"
"Not really..."
"But Mom, don't you miss pumping?!"

"Mom, were you born during the time of slavery?"

Overheard fighting over a toy...
"You give me that back or I'll see you HANGED!"
(Thanks Disney's "Pocohontas" for that new phrase.)

"Dad, can we tell the manager that it's Mom's birthday tomorrow?"
"What manager?"
"You KNOW - the big bald manager at church!"
(The fact that our 6 year old apparently doesn't know the word "pastor" reflects awesomely on Matt and I, we know we know...)

Speaking of birthdays, this was my most favorite gift this year...

"Do we have to put peckins in the frosting?"
"The what?!"
"PECKINS!"
(She meant pecans. We will forever call them "peckins" now in this household.)

Birthday Week

The first week of April is always one much-looked-forward-to in our household. Olive celebrates her birthday on April 1 and Silas is right behind her on April 3. (We also had the coincidence of Easter falling on April 5 this year, which made the week all the more festive and sugar crazed!) 

We've always been able to mash up both birthdays into one big family celebration, but this year Olive really wanted to have her own day that didn't have to be shared with her brother. So, trying to be understanding parents, we decided to try doing two separate birthdays this year.

Never again, you guys. *Wink.* But seriously, it was a lot of work. I think the kids enjoyed it though, and that was the most important thing. We agreed when Olive was just a newborn that we weren't going to do parties for out kids, but that we'd try to keep birthday celebrations casual and focused more on family time. Of course, we needed some help getting rid of two birthday cakes in one week, so we had friends over both nights to lend a helping hand with that job, and that was really special.

Gosh, time really does fly. I was looking back to the last two years of birthdays with these two and they have changed so much!

First Week of Kindergarten

This has been a weird week. An exciting week, a quieter than normal week, a having-to-get-up-too-early-every-day week, and a kind of lonely for mommy week. Olive finishes her first week of kindergarten today and she has enjoyed every second of it! I'm so proud of how maturely she has handled herself with such a big adjustment. She is overflowing with excitement about every detail about her kindergarten class, and I'm thankful that she comes home eager to share all that excitement with Matt and I. 

This little lady is so strong, beautiful and brave. I'm so thankful and blessed to be her mom!

I Can't Sleep

My big girl, my firstborn, my baby always - I'm dropping her off for her first day of kindergarten in about 5 hours, and while she's sleeping soundly upstairs I'm pacing the living room and blogging at 2:30am. (Never a good idea.)

I know, I really know she is going to love school. It's a great school, she's a bright kid and she is so ready for this adventure. But tonight every time I close my eyes all I see are visions of Olive as a baby. Wasn't she just a baby a minute ago? I can still see her in perfect detail as a baby if I just close my eyes and remember, and every time I do it hurts in the most bittersweet way, because I simultaneously feel so proud of 5 year old Olive and yet tonight I kind of want baby Olive back.

Now, to try to grab a few hours of sleep or go sob over her baby pictures? Maybe I'll just go get a head start on packing her lunch instead. :)

Olive Meets Her Teacher

Today Olive's Kindergarten teacher made a house call to meet the family. She brought a new student survey to fill out with Olive and the conversation went a little like this:

Teacher: "Ok Olive, I'm going to read these questions out to you and you can tell me the answers and we'll write them down -"

Olive: (Silently grabs pencil and starts filling in the answer to the first question on the survey, which was "what's your favorite color?" She wrote "red.")

Teacher: ....."Well, alrighty then. Olive, how long have you been reading?"

Olive: "Just a lot of days."

Teacher: "The next question is what's your favorite food?"

Olive: (Writes "plantains.")

Me: (Silently choking on coffee, because this kid has tried plantains ONCE and she was not exactly what I would call a fan.)

Teacher: "Well that's different. Um, let's see, next question... If you could choose a pet, what you pick?"

Olive: (Writes "goldfish.")

Teacher: "I like goldfish too. Now, 'what things do you like to do?'"

Olive: (Writes "Read. Swim. Do Coloring.")

Teacher: "Well we're going to get to do a LOT of reading and coloring at school this year!"

Olive: "Will we get to do some fingerpainting? She (pointing accusingly at me) never lets me do that."

Teacher: "Well, I'm sure we'll get to do some fingerpainting at some point this year."

Olive: "That's good!"

Teacher: "Last question Olive. What things do you NOT like to do?"

Olive: (Considers question seriously for several seconds before solemnly writing "be selfish.")

Teacher: (Clearing throat.) "Well, that's an admirable quality, Olive."

(At that point I had to step in the kitchen to laugh, because - seriously, this kid! She's ready for kindergarten, but the question begs to be asked - is kindergarten ready for Olive?) ;) 

Birthday Week

It's the end of another busy week. Matt's mom flew in last Thursday to spend a week with us. We enjoyed her visit so much and have all been rather glum since she left (miss you, Sharon!)

While Grandma was in town, we celebrated Olive and Silas' birthdays. Their birthdays are only 3 days apart, so they got to share a birthday cake again this year (chocolate - with coffee-icing, per Olive's persistent requests.) 

^ Olive had been begging for a doctor's kit for months. When she opened it up she said "OH. MY. GOODNESS." ^

^ Silas is extremely hard to shop for. When my mother in law was asking what he would like I suggested something with lights and noise. She obliged with a lion flashlight that roars whenever you flash the light. It was a huge hit with Silas! ^

How are they 5 and 2 already? The coming year is going to hold some pretty big things for these guys - like kindergarten for Olive in August. And potty training for Silas in...well, whenever Mom works up the courage to start...

Last year's birthday party HERE.

Olive Says Some More...

No, we don't let her wear lipstick out of the house! 

O: "Mom, tonight I'm going to have a dance party."

Me: "Sounds good."

O: "But I can't have a dance party without dessert. And presents."

Me: .....................

O: "I'm scared to grow up. I don't want to leave you and Mom."

Matt: "You don't have to leave. But when you're a grown up you might want to get married or -"

O: "Can I marry you or Mom when I'm grown up?"

Matt: "Uh, no, you can't marry people in your family."

O: "Hmm. Well, I really like Grandma and Papa. I guess I'll marry them when I'm grown up."

O: "Mom can I have your "I Hate Mondays" shirt when I'm a grown up?"

We've been putting in late hours after Matt gets off from work, painting at the new house. Grace has generously been staying with the kids at night and putting them to bed for us since we haven't been coming home until around 11pm. Obviously, Olive is concerned that I'm shirking my very important duties, because I found this on my pillow the other night...

And speaking of Grace...

...Olive is obsessed with her, particularly her style. Yesterday Olive showed up at the breakfast table dressed like this (those are Grace's boots and glasses) and declared that she WAS Grace and would not answer to any other name.

This is a fun age, almost-5-years-old. She keeps us on our toes!

Olive Says...

O: "Can I have a cookie after lunch?"

Me: "You can share one with Silas after lunch."

O: "But I can have the big piece and Silas can have the little piece."

Me: "I think you can split it 50/50."

O: "...Yeeeah, but I'll have the big 50 and Silas can have the small 50."

O: ...[Sigh.]

Me: "What's wrong?"

O: ...[Dramatic sigh.] "Well, Mom, I'm nervous."

Me: ......."Why?"

O: "Because I'm bad a lot."

O: "I just love Cinderella."

Me: "Why do you love Cinderella so much?"

O: "Because of the step-sisters. I just love those beautiful step-sisters."

Me: ............................

Other things worth noting and remembering about Olive at the moment:

She got a VTech digital camera for Christmas, and we recently realized she has been recording her favorite movies in 30 second increments on it so she can re-watch them secretly in bed.

She (and Silas) are obsessed with "The Music Man" soundtrack, and listening to Olive belt out "Til There Was You" off-key is something I wish everyone could experience at least once in their life.

She's really not kidding about loving "Cinderella." She asks me for wet rags all the time so she can get into character by scrubbing the kitchen floor on her hands and knees (while wearing no less than four layers of dress up clothes. And a construction-paper tiara.) 

A Few More Oliveisms

Olive: "Mom, what's a 'dick member?"
Me: Eyebrows popping up through the top of my head, wondering WTH, until I notice she's looking at a calendar and is trying to read the word "December." Sigh of relief.

Matt: "What was your favorite thing about today?"
Olive: "Just nothing."

Olive, during bedtime prayers: "And God, thank you that I couldn't have dessert today but that I will have some tomorrow..." (Gives Matt a meaningful look.)

Olive: "God is a genius!"

Olive loves the "Little Critter" books by Mercer Mayer. Recently she's caught on to the fact that there's a mouse that shows up in each illustration. Or, almost every illustration... She and Matt found a page where there was no mouse and Olive said "I guess that Mercker Mayer made an accident."

Oliveisms, Part III.

[8AM, Monday.]

"Mom?"

"Yeah?"

(VERY melodramatically:) "So far today everything has gone wrong."

"Like what?"

"You gave me a plastic spoon for my cereal because all the real ones were dirty."

"Yup."

"And you made me take off my tights and put on pants because my dress was too short."

"Uh huh."

"So, I'm running away from home."

"Oh. Can I help you pack a bag?"

"No."

"Well, dress warm, there's a lot of snow outside."

"Hmm... I think I'll wait until after supper."

Just Some More Oliveisms

Olive: "Can you read me that story about me and Noah?"

Me: ..... ?

Olive: "You know, Noah and my leaf?"

Me:..... ?

Olive: "The OLIVE LEAF, MOM! From the dove!"

Olive, looking at the nativity scene: "What were in the presents that the wise men brought?"

Me: "Gold, frankincense and myrrh." 

Olive, with a disgusted look: "Ugh, well what about a rattle? Didn't they even know babies love rattles?"

Olive: "Dad?"

Aunt Grace: "I'm not your Dad." 

Olive: "I didn't call you Dad..."

Aunt Grace: "Uh, yeah you did."

Olive: "Well, 'Dad' is how you say "Grace" in Spanish."

More Oliveisms

Olive being helpful: "SILAS BENJAMIN! Keep your diaper on!"

Olive, the philosopher: "Dad, can I write a letter to God and Jesus telling them I forgive them?"

Olive, on the differences between boys and girls: "Girls are made of sugar and spice and nice."

Me: "What are little boys made of?"

Olive: "Blood, shirts and drool."

Me: "How did you get to be so smart?"

Olive: "It's because I'm so beautiful."

This is How A Normal Day Sounds

"Mom, can I play with your phone?" (Asked at least 200 times a day.)

"Can I wear my princess dress to the store?"

"Do porcupines have hair on their bums?"

"Can God hit people?"

"How do you spell Thanksgiving?" (Asked at least 500 times a day.)

"Do you want to hear my opera?"

"Can I have some music?"

"Can I have snack?"

"Can I have a real snack after my banana?"

"Can I get a piece of paper?" (Asked about 650 times a day.)

"What's for dinner?" (Asked 800 times a day.) 

"Can I have an omelette instead?" (Asked no matter what I tell her we're having for dinner.)

"What are we doing tonight?"

"What are we doing tomorrow?" (Asked at minimum, 1,000 times a day.)

"Can you tell Silas he has to be my prince?"

"Why won't Silas dance with me?"

"When I'm a grown up, can I sleep without pajamas on?" 

"Can I have the scissors real quick?" (She's good at asking this one when I'm at my most distracted.)

"Why can I only cut paper?"

"Can you wipe me?" (Asked only once or twice a day, but uncannily ALWAYS at the very moment I sit down with a cup of coffee.)

"When I'm grown up can I be the boss?"

"Mom, when will I be a grown up?"

"Am I grown up yet?" (Asked every 5 minutes.)

Olive-isms

Olive, on our way home from church: "Today teacher talked about God making the animals."

Matt: "What day did God make the animals?"

Olive: "Sunday."

Grace, texting me from home where she's babysitting the kids while Matt and I are on a date: Olive just told me you called her and said to tell me to bake a cake.

Grace, texting me from Target where she took Olive for an auntie + niece date: Olive just asked the woman in front of us in line if she had a baby in her belly. She didn't. Awkward...

Me: "Olive, it's time to brush your teeth."

Olive, very loudly: "WHAT SAID?"

Me: "Olive, do you listen to me when I talk to you?"

Olive: "Yes, but you mumble."

Me: "Olive I'm really proud of you for listening and obeying so quickly at the store."

Olive: "It's because I'm wearing a beautiful dress."

Olive's Sunday School teacher, while discussing the animals God created: What animal roars really loud?

Olive: SILAS!

Falling Down The Rabbit Hole

^ ^ How I feel about starting to homeschool? ^ ^

(Disclaimer: I'm about to talk at length, and at times rant, about homeschooling, which I'm sure isn't everyone's cup of tea so please feel free to just skip if you feel so inclined. ;) This post is more for my own journaling/remembering purposes than anything else, so be forewarned!)

Scared.

Kind of excited.

Not sure where we're going to land, and whether or not we'll be right-side up or not when we finally hit bottom.

That's how I'm feeling about finally deciding to go ahead and begin homeschooling my oldest this year. It's a leap of faith for me.

We really prayed and thought long and hard about what to do about school for Olive. There  has always been this unspoken expectation that we would homeschool our kids, mostly since I was homeschooled all the way through highschool and it's what I know. I really enjoyed my homeschool experience, and believe it's a great way to learn, but I wanted to be really careful to check my motives and make sure a choice to homeschool my little ones came from a sincere desire to do so, and not from any strange, outside pressures telling me I had to, if you will. 

It's a long touchy subject that deserves it's own post, but growing up there seemed to be this attitude and atmosphere in my childhood homeschool experience (at home and in certain groups) that you should somehow be afraid of public and private schools if you were a more conservative, Christian family. I also always sensed this idea that the really good families, who really loved their kids and were really serious Christians should homeschool their children. 

I personally disagree with that philosophy now, and truly believe that no two families, no two children are created alike. There are so many different circumstances, personalities, and challenges to be looked at before making a decision on how to educate your children, and a family should never EVER be judged, (especially by Christians for goodness' sake,) for the choices they make in regards to homeschool or not. 

Where was I before I started this rant? Oh yes...

So, we were seriously considering sending Olive to kindergarten this year. We are blessed to live in a low-crime, family/neighborhood oriented community and the school systems are well rated, not to mention there are some very large, fairly affordable private schools in town with good pre-K/kindergarten programs. Olive is our social, outspoken, outgoing child. She loves people, she loves to compete. I know she would love being in a classroom, and would do really good work for a teacher.

And perhaps one day we will go that direction, but what really made the decision for us this year to keep her at home was the coming of the newest member of the family this January, (right in the middle of the school year!) The programs we were most interested in for Olive this year only met for half days three-to-four days a week. It would be a lot of driving for me, a lot of really early mornings, in the freezing, unpredictable Michigan winter, with a newborn. Not the best circumstances for Olive's first school year.

^ ^ Teaching this one is going to be quite an adventure! ^ ^ 

So this morning I clicked the "order" button online for a hodgepodge of curriculum. We're doing this. 

I'm not so much nervous that I'm incapable of teaching Olive the things a kindergartener should learn, as much as I'm nervous about Olive's and mine personalities clashing. We are both stubborn, and that often leads to frustration, which isn't a fun, learning-friendly situation. And I really want learning for her to be fun! So my main goal in piecing together curriculum this year was to keep the emphasis on the things that I know she enjoys most. 

The core of our plan this year is Sonlight's Kindergarten program (which isn't so much curriculum as it is literature. It teaches a wide variety of subjects simply through reading a lot of really good books aloud.) Since Olive loves to be read to, I knew this would be a good place for us to start. I'm looking forward to reading with her! Hopefully it feels more like "fun" than "work" for her.

We are going to use Saxon Math 1 to start introducing arithmetic skills, and this spelling workbook since Olive already has her letters, their sounds, and some basic phonics skills already learned.

Olive loooves art. I did a lot of research looking for a good art project guide, and I hope I landed on a winner with Art Lab for Little Kids. There's 52 projects and it has really positive reviews. I'm excited for this one.

For music, (and this is probably a little silly) I bought this CD that has famous opera arias translated into English. I studied piano and classical music for 8 years and have a great love for it that I hope to eventually share with my kids. (I'm still working on Matt, haha.) We listen to a lot of music around here, especially in the car, so I figured I'd try to sneak a little classical music appreciation into their lives in a not-too-pushy way. ;) Hoping it doesn't turn out to be super corny.

We also ordered Sing the Word From A-Z (which was recommended by Sonlight for kindergarten.) My mom taught us these same 26 alphabetical Bible verses when my siblings and I were little and I've never forgotten them. More than anything I want my kids to learn to love and revere God's word, and I hope through the form of learning the verses as songs that this will be a fun way for my kids to begin what is hopefully a lifetime of enjoying memorizing scripture. 

I'm also hoping to get the kids out (while the weather is still good, anyway) for a lot of fun little field trips and nature walks. It's so good for all of us to get out of the house and into fresh air. There will also be weekly library trips and I plan to get Olive involved in the library's fall story time program. She really enjoyed that last year. I would love to get her involved in dance or gymnastics but we're still looking into whether or not that will be feasible this year.

Anyway, that's about it. I'm excited and praying that this will be a very fun, learning filled first-time experience with homeschooling (for both Olive and me!) 

Any homeschooling moms out there with stories, tips and/or ideas on homeschooling a kindergartener for the very first time? I'd love to partake of your wisdom!