Learning

Parenthood is full of decisions,

cry-it-out or co-sleep, when to wean, flexible days or schedules, discipline approaches,

and I typed those in about ten seconds.

The lists, the debates are never-ending

but we all can probably agree that it's a mighty
blessed
responsibility.

Around here we are reaching the age when another big decision is right around the corner

a few friends paving the way,
kindergarten enrollment.

And I'm one full of questions, one for learning so I've done my fair share of pestering,
trying to gather their thoughts, their strategies, their convictions, their successes

doing my own reading, observing, remembering.

I cherish the memories of my own homeschooled days, appreciate my journey through years at private schools, then the four years in public high school and most recently my six years as an elementary teacher at another public school.

But now, it's my children.

It's my decision

for their journey.
And since I've realized this weighty decision is now just a short year away,
I've suddenly felt a sense of scrambling.
Scrambling to decide, scrambling to prepare my eldest, scrambling to pull together resources and thoughts and books and lessons and activities,
scrambling.



All things of value when obtained and enjoyed in peaceful, natural ways,
but this sense of scrambling has been quite prevalent.
So when I recently stumbled across some wise words,
it was like it all clicked.
And it stemmed from this verse...

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up."
Deuteronomy 6:4-9

It's not going to be the cutting and pasting and tracing and computing and describing and experimenting that shape my children's future.



It's going to be the investing and enjoying and listening and and modeling and resting that make them the confident, prepared, interested, contributing individuals I so desire for them to be.

It's sounds so simple, trite even when I write it.
Yet, I find a sense of relief the more I embrace it.

Through some further reading and thinking on this topic,
I've started to feel a freedom from lesson plans and expectations and field trips and pressing need to prepare my children for the classroom.

And started just to look for the simple lessons in our everyday.



The rare manners that not only teach language but grace.
The acts of service that teach not just community but humility.
The books that not just teach the reading but preserve the time for intimate snuggles and tender interactions.
The explanations that not just teach the why but deeply validate my children for who they are innately designed to be- curious, seeking.



My eyes have been open to the sole refuge my home is for a potentially incredibly short amount of time.
My home,
both during the years I spent as a full-time working mother and now in these years with the mysterious balance of a work-at-home mom,
holds the miraculous potential that no other place can or will ever be.

It is the place where I as a mother hold complete control over the influences, the fears, the worries that my children will face someday and may already be facing.
It's where I can choose to shelter them, or equip them.

And so, regardless of any schooling decision we may be making in the future,
I've found a great purpose in the intention we are embracing.



And so, we continue to greatly focus on empowering our children
and we've found reading practice to be one of the most natural ways.
We all learn from each other and I've mentioned our strategies before here and here, but thought this time I would share a short video of how we've gone about it.



***

More thoughts on reading from a book I've been perusing...There are plenty of thoughts and resource out there. This is simply one that has been inspiring me as of late.

"Reading is so much more than simply an academic discipline. It is the doorway between a life of dependence on other people on one side and a life of spiritual and personal freedom on the other."

"The ability to read is foundational to all education. Literacy is the power to acquire knowledge and learn. But your efforts at giving your children the ability to read will be in vain if you do not also give them the desire to read."

"Reading is the foundation of all knowledge and education. Reading exercises and strengthens the mind for great thoughts. Reading cultivates a love for knowledge and self-education. Reading contributes to moral development and godly character. Reading provides patterns for noble, heroic and righteous living. Reading increases understanding of the world's views and values. Reading instills a broad understanding of history and its influences. Reading models correct grammar and the best uses of language. Reading contributes to a wide vocabulary and good word usage."

Planes

It's been beautiful around here this weekend.

Blue skies and barely breezes,

really almost cool.

Well, some special, special friends were flying their airplanes yesterday, 

so we went to watch them soar.

We picked out our favorites and saw them all take on their own unique tricks and dips.

It was one of those peaceful spectating kind of things. 

Our dear friend Stacey.

In a crazy, busy season, she's been spending a lot of time with our kiddos.

She's come to the rescue more than once and often spends a day with the munchkins when photography has me out for a few hours. 

What she might not've known until she met our children though is that she's a real life Mary Poppins.

Her cheeriness, her smile, her energy,

everything she does has a little magic in it,
they've decorated pots and finger painted the garage and cooked pudding goulashes and
El knows that tea needs to "steep" thanks to her. 

In fact, our children know their days of the week by how many days until Ms. Stacey is babysitting next.

She's truly been one of God's greatest blessings in this season in our life.

Pretty sure little Judah-man has a crush on her, actually.

***

Well, the day didn't end there.

In fact, we didn't spend much more time outside enjoying the gorgeous weather. 

It was spent here.
See,

soon after our planes morning with Ms. Stacey, 

we broke our four and a half year stretch of no er visits and zero medical incidents.

A pretty impressive feat for having three children four and under if you ask me.

Nap time ended abruptly when I heard screaming from Ellie's bed. 

Rushing in, I found her holding her cheek.

Upon further investigation, I found that she had been chewing nonchalantly on a bobby pin leftover from her flower girl getup and it had lodged itself between two top teeth up into her gums. 

Shoving my knuckles into her mouth so she couldn't bite down and further dig it into her gums, I tried to gently tug it out.

It wouldn't move. 

Calmly reassuring her we were just going to go show daddy, I carried her downstairs,

still with her mouth held open against my knuckles.
I ended up keeping them there for a couple hours, actually.
I have bruises in the shape of a four year-old's teeth line still today.

When I found Chris, we quickly laid her in a chair with some light and began working with it carefully, 

surprisingly, Ellie was pretty quiet, only whimpering a little when we would unsuccessfully pull on it.

I'm not going to lie.

There might've been about two minutes of marital tension as we tried to decide the plan of action

and ended up taking her to a nearby urgent care.
Tell me you have had those shining moments.

Chris ended up running over to another saving-grace neighbor who came running in to watch the boys so we could leave.
I didn't even put shoes on.
Anyway, once we got there

the physician, took her in and again started working with it. 

After a little bit, he sat back and told us that this actually needed to go to the city's main children's hospital because they might need to do surgery to get it out.

At this point, I'm realizing, this is not going to be a quick fix.
Or a cheap one.

So,  

a twenty minute drive,

four more physicians' examinations and bringing their supervisor in to assess, a call to the oral surgeon, a Little Ponies DVD, and a team of three dental specialists and their toolbox of rescue instruments called in from home on this gorgeous Saturday as mentioned above and of course the five hours it's taken us to get to this point

and

it was free. 

According to my father, this proves our child is a genius.

In one casual nap time, she was able to create a medical crisis unseen by any physicians even at a world renowned children's hospital. 

I'm sure we all have the foreign-body-lodged-in-body-cavity crisis stories....I'd love to hear.

I'll read them while I'm paying the bill for our genius child. 

Wedding

I curled her locks

and for the first time asked her to zip my dress.

I let her blink blink on some mascara

and circled her cheek apples with pink.

Chasing her brother,

"Do you think I look pretty?" she squealed.

And suddenly she was seventeen it seemed.

Ankles turned in, bug bitten armpit and all.

It was months of previewing appropriate flower girl behavior on YouTube, brainstorming any and all rewards otherwise known as bribes for a successfully tear-free trek, 

this afternoon celebrating our dear cousin was much anticipated 

and much outside my sweet little introvert's comfort zone.

But pretty little girl took it all in stride,

even seemed to relish her special shining time.

And our prayers were answered,

her momma

and her daddy might've been a little proud,

because she made it down the aisle.

And married they were.

It's a special thing mommying her,

remembering the way I loved my momma and grandmomma as a little girl

they were so warm and cuddly and safe and lovely

and now even more so.

And so,

proudly giddy,

we went off to celebrate.

The beautiful mother of the bride.

And my like-none-other Uncle Doug.

I told my hubs this morning, I want El to wed in love

like these two.

They're a special kind of love.

Happy wedding, Katie + Matt.
We love you.