Tuesday, October 03, 2006

New Schedules…

We switched our day around today. It worked…but we had no time for going anywhere to play…..I’ll have to keep playing. We went out and did the field trip first…then some hands on things – all while Stacia was up and busy. After lunch we did couch school and I helped Arielle and Nolan with their independent work, while Stacia napped. It worked – but I much prefer school in the a.m. and playing in the afternoon.

Poor Stacia has a NASTY diaper rash. I let her run around outside “au naturale” today much to the chagrin of Zander. I was hoping the sun would help.

I made 2 quarts of BBQ sauce today. We used some to pour over the meat loaf tonight but I still have quite enough for Jamin to use for pizza and for every day use.

Bible study was tonight. Two of our members couldn’t make it but we had a good time. I have enjoyed thinking about what it means to have an advocate this week. What a redeemer we have!
Musings (OK I can't get the new family photo to upload....LOL)

I can remember clearly a day 17 years ago. I was living in the Thurston area of Springfield, OR. I had Bre (4) and Krista (2). I was pregnant and tired and decided to take the two girls to Bob’s for lunch. It was a fun lunch. The girls were behaving and Bre began to really CONVERSE with me. She began to talk about things she’d like to do when she grew up, asked me questions about what I thought and what I felt (Krista stuck French fries in her ear and up her nose)….and I caught a glimpse of the promise of the future. I clearly thought, “This is a lot of work right now, but some day these girls are going to be so FUN and be my very best friends”.

I realized while they were home that that day has arrived. They LIKE to spend time with me. I heard each of them tell folks that they missed long talks with me and that I was fun to be around. They still value my thoughts; even while they actively form their own thoughts on so many new issues. One of them told me I was a great mentor to her. Another told me she REALLY wanted to know what I thought about some issues. They are fun. We enjoy each other. They are some of my very best friends now.

I was thinking these thoughts and feeling a bit lonely this afternoon. I decided to make myself a cuppa tea. I sat down and drank and stared and contemplated….and Arielle came in and asked if she could sit with me. She’s not a real tea drinker. She DOES enjoy a nice cuppa milk. I had my favorite tea cup (which Krista had used at our last tea as it is also her favorite cup)….Arielle chose the tea cup that Bre had brought me all the way from Boston. In this way I felt the memory of the girls in our party. We had a great talk. We talked about my grams, my best friend when I was growing up, what she’s been thinking about, how she feels with the big girls gone, how she feels with Dad gone…and somewhere during our tea party, I had that clear glimpse into the promise of the future again. I’m so blessed to have 4 daughters and 5 sons…yep…it’s a lot of work right now….but what a full life I’m living and will live. I LIKE the adults these children are becoming.
Silhouettes

A common pasttime in the late 19th/early 20th Century was to make and display silhouettes. In a day when photographs weren't common, people would make locket size silhouettes, framed silhouettes for their walls, and even kept scrapbooks of their loved ones varying silhouettes.

We tried our hand at making some today. We're going to send ours to Kuwait. I think they turned out pretty cute. (Argh!!!! The photos won't load! I have no clue why it does this sometimes....I'll try again later.)
First Field Trip of the Year - Snuggle Factory

Our school day began with a field trip. We're beginning our study on the 20th Century. I LOVE this time period as my Grams was born then. I can picture her life as a girl in the midst of all the inventions etc that we are studying about. One fun thing we learned last week was that Theodore Roosevelt, the President, was a big hunter. However, he refused to shoot a bear cub on one of his hunts. An energizing young man and his wife made a stuffed bear based on the cartoon in the media, named it "Teddy's Bear" and sent it to the whitehouse. The rest is history!!!

For years I've heard some of you talk about the "Build a Bear" shops around the nation. We've never been near one. Truth be known I HATE malls - but here our mall is just the right size...there may have been a Build a Bear in Anchorage. {G} A few months ago, a shop called "Snuggle Factory" opened in our small mall. In talking with the owner, I discovered her dh is retired military. They brought their factory to town as a sort of "small town Build a Bear". When we read about the Teddy Bear's origin, I immediately thought of taking the kids to the Sunggle Factory to see how a bear is made.



First we picked the shells of the animals the kids wanted to make. Photo won't load.

Stacia loved playing with the flat bears best of all...again anything can be a teether.


Here we learn how eyes are put on stuffed animals in general.

The kids ran the "stuffing machine".

Each bear has a "wish" burried in it. The kids took the star, held it over their hearts, made a wish, kissed the star, and put it in the bear. I cried. {g}

It was fun. I suggested to her that a fun thing to do would be homeschool field trips (or school field trips). I told her she could read the little Legend of the Teddy Bear book, show how a bear is made, and then let those who want to make a bear. She liked the idea. She said she'd give us a discount if I arranged a homeschool field trip. Maybe....