Yes, Spencer, I know something!

I'm not sure if I've talked about this much, but we have been having some issues with Spencer at school. Social problems, sort-of bullying problems, French acclimation problems, attention problems, communication problems... Academically he seems to be doing alright, but not as well as he could. He's sort of a shaky average right now, which I can feel frustrates him. I'm not sure what the deal is. All I've seen come home are reading books 2 or 3 times each week, but no math or anything, and we're nearing second grade! Spencer's great at math! It's his forte! He's doing three-digit figures in addition and in the fall was doing double-digit subtraction while his teacher was literally teaching 4-1=3 to the class. So part of the problem is probably that he's bored as well. Whatever the cause, I point mostly to all the change of our last summer, and then throwing him into the French Immersion program. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea. He is learning, and is acclimating slowly, but he's just so stinking stressed - way beyond what a seven year old boy should have to be! He's not really happy at school. His teacher told me that expressly in a phone conversation last week. This past weekend after we witnessed a breakdown that really shook us up, Vlad and I decided that the best thing to do would be to pull him out of school and home school for a while. It had been in the back of my mind as possibly a good idea, and so when Vlad mentioned it to me, I sort of jumped on the idea.

Now, being a home-schooled kid myself, I was partly intrigued and partly bored at the idea of elementary bookwork. That was until I found the Weaver curriculum. Thank you to the several people who wrote me back concerning my curriculum search! I think I've hit the nail on the head. It's a curriculum that concentrates on hands-on activities, lots of interesting projects and crafts, and learning through all five senses. The cool thing is that its also applicable to any grade-level, so you study the main ideas as a family, and then each kid does the work assignments that apply to their level. How awesome is that?! I'm already planning units in my head, and my curriculum hasn't even arrived! I'm so excited to do this with my kids! I say "kids" because Collin has no chance of escape now! I can't wait to include him in our learning activities. I had no idea I would get this excited about home schooling but it sounds like a blast and I'm already gazing fondly at folders, pencils, chalk and flash cards.

This is gonna be awesome!

The only shaky bit I see, is Spencer doesn't think I know anything because I'm not a teacher. He's in for a surprise! lol

Come Monday, we're a home-schooling family! How wild is that?! Stay tuned for the adventure!

Quotes Jan 11-Feb5

Feb. 5

Vlad to Collin: I like you sitting on my lap!

Collin: I like you too!

Me, kissing his nose:What about me? Do you like me? Because I think you're special!

Collin: I like you too too!

Feb 3
Collin, singing a nursery rhyme: Diggory, Diggory Dog, the mouse went up the clock!

Me, talking to Collin: I love you, Collin.
Collin, in the sweetest munchkin voice you ever heard: I love you, too.
Me: Why are you such a sweetie, huh?
Collin: Because God maked me sweet.
Me: God made you sweet?
Collin: Yeah, and special too!

Obviously God was handing out confidence that day too.

Feb 2
Spencer and Collin explaining the movie Beauty and the Beast to me: (Spencer) ...and there's this beauty - that's you, Mommy - and a beast, and you have to show him his manners and then the last pebble falls and the spell is broken and he changes into a person...(Collin) yeah, and all those talking clocks, and pants, and treasure chests, and then the spell is broken.

Got it?

Claire: Da-ee pop boo-oo! Da-ee pop boo-oo!

Translation: Daddy popped the balloon!
This was Claire's first full sentance that we actually understood the first time. When she's having a hard time being understood she always reverts to this sentence whether or not it fits the topic.
Jan 26 Collin, as we left his school field trip to the bowling lanes: Mommy, I winned at bawling!

Jan 23
Claire, throwing her arms around my legs and sqeezing after she went to the toilet by herself: I pow you, Mommy!

Translation: I'm proud of you, Mommy!
Evidently that is what you're supposed to say the other person after someone goes to the toilet, no matter if they're potty training or not.
Jan 20
Collin, telling a story: And do you know what it was? A TEEN REX DINOSAUR!!

Aw, c'mon, dinosaurs dont deserve to be called such horrible names!

Jan 16
Claire, after I threw her up in the air and caught her again repeatedly: Mommy, I fa down a-sky!

Translation: Mommy, I fell down in the sky!

Jan. 11
Spencer: My brain is nervous about something.
Me: Really? Nervous about what?
Spencer: How shoud I know? It won't tell me!

Buzzzzzzzzzzz

So, you wanna know what my seven year old did this week? What he thought would be really cool?  Cutting a chunk out of his hair as well as his brother’s! And without a bit of remorse because, in his own words: “I just took the hair and took the scissors and *snip* and the hair floated down so gently on the air and landed on the floor and it was…awesome!” But not quite so awesome, I’m betting, when mom had to buzz the hair off of his head as well as his brother’s! I actually like it a lot on both of them - much more than I thought I would!

So here are some photos of Collin doing what Collin does best – drawing.

And some photos of Spencer eating pizza after playing out in the snow for a while.  And Claire doing her naked toddler thing. I simply can’t keep clothes on this girl!

And Katya checking out her new hat, which she then decided she did not like.

Not Me! Monday

This blog carnival was created by MckMama to give us a therapeutic moment and let us vent by admitting some of our imperfections or moments we'd rather forget, and find company in doing so. You can head over to McMama's Blog blog to read what she and everyone else have "not" been doing this week.

This week I did NOT dedicate more time to my photography blog than my housekeeping, and therere have NOT ended up with piles of laundry in the laundry room. My washer is NOT full of wet, clean clothes. My dryer is NOT full of dry clean clothes. My folding table is NOT piled high with both folded and unfolded clean clothes. There is NOT a laundry hamper full of clean clothes, and there is NOT a hamper full of dirty clothes, and there is NOT another small piles of dirty clothes on the floor. I will NOT be done with laundry by noon today. That's NOT my goal.

I have NOT given up on dressing my two year old, who pulls out her pigtails and takes off all of her clothes withing minutes of me dressing her. I have NOT resorted to putting her in underwear and a t-shirt and calling it good enough. I do NOT consider it a blessing if she keeps something on her bottom half all day long.

She is NOT still telling me she's proud of me after she goes to the toilet.

I have NOT resorted to putting my squabbling children to work when the treat each other with disrespect. They are NOT now living in fear of their slave-driving mother who only wants some peace and quiet. It's NOT workig like a charm.

This week I have NOT made threats. I have NOT threatened to unplug the TV, and I have NOT threatened to give away the dog. I did NOT say my ad would read. "Free daschund. Comes with $20 bill." We finally resorted back to trading-chores-for-tickets-for-tv-time system. Solving the dog problem is a work in progress.

When walking around my house and being chased by a maniacal barking rodent with floppy ears, I have NOT resorted from time to time to barking back.

What have you all NOT been up to this week?

God Among Us

Yesterday morning as we were at breakfast, the sun came over the horizon and threw this gorgeous shaft of light into the sky. Collin pointed out the window and cried with delight, “Look! It’s God!” I had to take a photo. And while it may not physically be God, it is a reminder that God is among us.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

This morning at 5:55 I heard the creaking of the ladder to Collin’s top bunk bed. It could only mean one thing: Collin was getting out of bed. I scurried down the hall to head him off at his bedroom door since I’ve reinstated the dont-come-out-of-your-bedroom-until-6:30 rule. But no one was coming out of the room. In the darkness I could barely make out the movement. But what I found warmed my heart. Claire had snuck out of her bed, and climbed up to Collin’s bed, and my two little munchkins were cuddling, whispering, and giggling quietly, sure that they were getting away with something special.

Maybe they were.

I threw the rule out the window for the moment and quietly backed away so they could enjoy their little rendezvous. It’s moment like this that I’ll remember forever.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Mommy!

Pray for our sister

Hi, everyone. I'm asking for prayer for our sister, Natasha. She is Vlad's sister through their father, and she is 22 yrs old. We just found out this morning that three days ago she was in a terrible one-car accident on a motorbike while in VietNam on vacation. She hit a pole and is now on life support in a Vietnamese hospital. Please pray for her recovery and her family as they go through this time.
Thanks you.

Thursdays with Carmen

I am Thankful for....the opportunity to launch my own photography business and in that way help the children of Haiti. I am putting up a new photography blog: Carmen Rochelle modern portraiture. Go on over and check it out! If you've been reading here for a while, you've seen most of the photos already, but there will soon be more photo shoots of my own kids to follow.

I'm listening to...I can't be sure, but I think it's Sesame Street. I'm letting the older kids watch t.v. while I enjoy the time that Katya is still sleeping this morning.

Looking forward to...Valentines Day! Don't know why, because we don't have anything major planned, but I'm still looking forward to it. There's something wonderful about a day to celebrate the love we have for each other. After all, the greatest gift ever given was Love. I'm looking so forward to it that I made heart-shaped scones this morning for breakfast. I couldn't wait!

Praying about...the children of Haiti, and that God would give me creativity and plenty of business so I can contribute to helping the orphanages and the little kiddos there. Also praying for LouAnn and family. Our hearts are so heavy knowing that you're ill, Louey. We know that you are safe in God's hands, but in our selfishness we want to make everything perfect. You are a such bright spot in our lives. We pray for your healing, but most of all for God's comfort and his perfect will and timing.

What's for Dinner Tonight...What? You mean those ravishing wolflings need dinner AGAIN? Er....I mean....."Casserole, of course!"

Found...In cleaning out the storage room yesterday, I opened a box that appeared to be old papers, and to my astonishment found all of the 6-9month girls' clothing!!Evidently it was the last box of clothing that was missing, because all the other bins are full. Good thing I found it! Katya really needs to graduate up!

Missing...Spencer's mitts. I think he left them at school, but I keep holding out hope that they will show up again. In the meantime, he's wearing Vlad's which are about three sizes too big.

Burning Question of the Week...What do I tell my son about the mean kids that pick on him at school? What do I do to make that hurt all better, to teach him to rise above, to give him confidence to not put stock in what they say, or not be down-trodded by their crappy attitudes? What do I say to help him be the better person? Can't I shelter him forever?

Note to Self

Note to self: when you have a two year old who steals the Nutella jar all day long, AND is leaving poopy messes for you to clean up, never

EVER

EVER

lick the chocolate off of your wrist!

Healing Haiti

Healing Haiti is a collaborative of buya,org, and is a wonderful mission group that is serving orphan, orphanages, and the poorest of the poor in Haiti. I hope you will take a moment to watch this video and see the work they are doing there. It's absolutely amazing. (Before hitting the "play" button, use the little scroller on the right side and go down to the green music player box at the bottom of the page and hit "pause" so the blog music won't interfere with the video's audio).



To support Healing Haiti, and continue this amazing work, you need to head over to buya.org. This is sort of like the amazon.com of missionary relief. The site is set up like a retail site, and you can donate to different relief efforts by "buying" a part, with the confidence that your relief money isn't being diluted along the way.

For example, you can "buy" a house for a Haitian family.

You can click here to "buy" a bed for a Haitian orphan.

You can click here to "buy" a truck water repair to keep clean water coming to the people of Haiti.

You can click here to "buy"a medical visit for a Haitian child.

You can click here to sponsor a Haitian orphanage.

They also have a fantastic gift-giving idea: for the hard-to-buy-for person, you can click here to get them a gift certificate to the site, and they can decide which relief effort to spend their credit with.

There are so many needs, and so much to be done. I have only listed a few of the causes here, but visit buya.org to browse and read more, and see where you might feel led to give.

You may also visit the Healing Haiti Blog to see what these mission workers are doing right now on the ground in Haiti.

I am also asking that each one of you, if you have a blog, please write a post about Healing Haiti and buya.org on your own blog, to spread the word and further this great work. You may rewrite this post, word for word, or you may write me at jugglingveggies at gmail dot com and I will send you an exact copy with html code for links and videos already in it, so all you have to do is copy and paste.

If you don't have a blog, but have a facebook page, you can write a post about it there, or simply post the video on your facebook page by writing the url in your status box.

Thank you!

May God bless you with the opportunity to serve!

A prayer for Haiti.

A few posts ago I mentioned a wonderful blog from an American mission worker who is in Haiti providing water, and relief to orphanages and orphans. In his blog post here, overwhelmed by the devastation and desperation he sees everywhere, he prays this prayer for Haiti:

"Dear Father, hear the cries from Haiti, send your angles of mercy to give them comfort. Move your armies of believers to be your hands and feet and fight for the poor, the injured, the dying and the dead. Let it be us that gives them dignity, a dignity that they have never known. Let this weigh heavily on our hearts, that it may be etch in our minds, that we are the miracle that Haiti is seeking and miracles only happen if we are obedient to your call. The Lord asks, "Whom shall I send, who will go for me?"... let it be us that say, "Here I am... send me!"."


....and all God's people said, "Amen!

what is this?

bloodcurling screams for mommy, cries of terror, grinding steal, whirring blades, creaking wood, clanging dishes.....

what is this?

Why, it's Claire, of course! In her secret mission to steal the Nutella jar from the countertop, she turned on the Vitamix blender (which was set on high). Of course, this is the one day in weeks that I left the breakfast dishes undone, and left the blender 1/2 full of hot cocoa without the lid. In her terrified flight she knocked over a few things in the sink and climbed down the creaky bar stool while she and eveything in the vicinity were showered with icky sticky chocolatey mess. I came rushing in, saw there were no injuries, turned off the blender and started laughing amid her terrified screams, and she finally stopped screaming and instead hung her head and cried. She was not amused. Poor little girl! That will teach you not to steal the Nutella!

Blessing and Frustration

If you've been reading, you should know that the orphans of Haiti, the children of Haiti, and the situation in Haiti is heavy on my heart. With Haiti falling farther and farther away from the headlines, I have become increasingly agitated and frustrated. There is so much need, and I'm so far away. I've been asking God to show me what I can do to help. I want to reach out to the fatherless there, but how am I to do this? Well, about a week ago I became aware of a sibling group of three children who are the same ages as my oldest three children - two boys, ages 7 and 4, and one little girl, age 2. That really caught my attention. They have been living in an orphanage since 2008. It's an orphanage that not only houses healthy children, but also physically and mentally handicapped children. Thankfully, the children survived the earthquake, and so did their caretakers, but the orphanage was severely damaged and they are all living outside. I read that their orphanage was in desperate need of supplies.

This was all the information I had, until today when I did a bit more searching.
What I found really touched my heart. The orphanage is run by a wonderful Christian woman named Gertrude. She was in her home when the earthquake hit, and made it out alright. I was really touched by her spirit and obvious love for the Lord's work. You can see a video about her and the work at their orphanage there at this link:

Link to video of Gertrude Bien-Aime and St. Joseph's Orphanage

This is a video from a mission worker who arrived at the orphanage shortly after the earthquake, and put a request for help on YouTube. You can see the children living outside, and the need is obvious:

Missionary at Orphanage

Here, also, is a very detailed blog from a committed Christian couple who works with orphanges and with a wonderful organization committed to helping the orphaned children of Haiti live a life of significance. They also work with St. Joseph's orphanage, and are curretly recording their time in Haiti, and relaying what they are experiencing and witnessing to the world outside. I urge you to go to their blog and read their moving entries, join with them in prayer, and also go to their site buya.org to contribute to their relief efforts which go straight to helping Haitian orphans:

Click here to read the blog.

Click here to read about Grace Village, an orphanage and feeding center for street children.

Click here to read about and support relief efforts.

I am so thankful for this fresh breeze of news, and a way God has shown me that we can be of service and allow his riches to flow through our hands into the hands of our neighbors who have such desperate need.

Organization

Organization is something I really need. It was easier in my other house, with a larger-than-life chalkboard calendar in my kitchen. I didn't miss as much as I have this school year, because I could easily see things like "no school" or "early release" or "field trip money" written on the calendar. This is something I haven't had this year, and let's just say, I've screwed up nearly every time. :) Time for heavy-duty intervention!

So this past week I painted a small wall by our kitchen and garage door. I first layered on a magentic primer (primer with little bits of metal in it to give it some magnetic pull) and then topped it with chalkboard paint. Some extra-strong magnets, and some chalk, and we were good to go! Already it's helping. School calendar is up, school reminders are up,and I'm much less likely to lose track of important papers in the "to-do" cubby.

Here it is:


Obviously, Collin already got to the chalk. I love how all of his monsters are always friendly and smiling. :) tee-hee-hee

Good Morning

Collin's enraged little face looked at me from the door of the kitchen, where Claire, Spencer, and I were already eating Cheerios for breakfast. "You mean I have to clean up my whole whole whole mess all the time for 40 years before I have breakfast?!" Knowing that "whole whole whole," and "all the time" and "40 years" are Collins common exaggerators and guilt-trip ingredients, I gave him the lazy eye and said, "Mm-hmm." "It's not fair!" he screamed.

Now, this hasn't exactly been a good morning. In fact, it hasn't been a good couple of days at home. Claire has taken to refusing naptime and spending her naptime jumping on the bed, running around the upstairs, pulling all of her clothes out of her drawers, pooping her pants, trying to change her poopy pants herself, and then finally calling me when she realizes she's smeared poop on the floor...again. That's when she's not raiding the pantry, digging through cupboards she's not supposed to be in, hurting Katya with an over-eager love, or breaking things.

This morning was already promising to be no different. At 3:30 I gave up on going back to bed because it's just too disappointing to be awakened again by a crying baby who really doesn't need to be eating, and to have to get out of my cozy bed, so I slept my final 2.5 hours on the couch. At 6:00 I was awakened by the sound of Collin tumbling down off of his bunk bed ladder, and Vlad saying to him, "That's why you need to pick up your messes - so that doesn't happen." 30 seconds later there was a herd of wild buffalo coming down the stairs. The whole gang woke up at once and all came thundering down. I was still cross-eyed with lack of sleep. Laying there waiting for the world to come into focus, I was dimly aware that Claire had gone into Vlad's office with one obvious intent: to raid the cute turquoise pottery dish I'd put in Vlad's office full of pistachios for a special homey touch just for him...which Claire immediately claimed as her own private stash. It was only 6:05 in the morning. "Claire, don't go in there..." I grumbled.

About 20 seconds later, I heard a crash and then Claire saying, "Mommy, a foo- Mommy, a foo-" Which meant something about food, but I wasn't sure what. I trudged over to the kitchen only to realize that she'd picked up the pottery bowl to carry it to the kitchen (not allowed) and dropped it. Pistachios and pottery chards were everywhere. I was pretty disappointed, and very upset. I'm ashamed to admit that the first thing clearly out of my mouth this morning was yelling at Claire. Cleaning that up was a chore. I confiscated the pistachios that she'd saved from the wreckage, and was salvaging what I could, when I saw the drops of blood. No one was complaining of an ouchie, so I told everyone to check their foot for a cut. I checked Claire and found the culprit: A sliced pinky finger, dripping blood.

And she didn't want a band aid. I mean, she really didn't want a band-aid. I had to squeeze the finger to stop the bleeding. She screamed, and cried, and yelled "NO, NO!" She hissed at me - something she learned as a war tactic from her brothers. I gave up trying to convince her that squeezing was going to "fix" her ouchie, wrapped it tightly in a band-aid, and went back to cleaning up blood drips. Then I saw that all of the pistachios I'd confiscated from her were also bloody. Gross Gross Gross. Threw them away. Claire started calling out in alarm, "Oh! Oh! Oh!" I looked, and her bandaid was alread soaked through. I got it off, and this time she let me squeeze it for while. I finally got it stopped enough, and replaced the band aid. Little Girl laid her head on my chest for a cuddle. A small respite from our toddler-mommy battle.

Finish cleaning up, pour some cereal, and thank God for a moment's peace. I was still waking up. Enter Collin with his mess-cleaning tantrum. And I really really wasn't in the mood. "It's not fair!" he screamed. Poor guy. Here I was, following the morning routine and the mess-and-dress-before-breakfast rule, and was taking all the responsibility for myself and not being fair to him! I looked at him. I wanted to scream. I wanted to spank him. I wanted to do anything other than what a good mommy would do at the moment. So I grabbed a pen and pad of paper and sat down on the tile floor. "Okay, Collin, you want me to make it fair? This is what we'll do: We'll make a list of all the work that we have to do today around the house, and we'll make it fair for you, okay?" He liked that idea. We listed:

do dishes
make beds
make lunches
make breakfast
feed dog
shovel snow
clean out van
do laundry
windows and mirrors
change katya's diapers
clean up basement
clean toilets
water plants
vacuum floors
mop floors
unpack boxes
Collin's bedroom mess

"So, you can do this half, and I can do this half," I said.

Spencer, really enjoying himself, chimed in, "That's fair!"

"What?!" Collin whined, "That's not fair!"
"Sure it is! We have work, we share it. That's fair."
"But all I did is one little mess!"
"Oh, it's a little mess now? Okay....then you can take half of my work, or you can go do your own one little mess."
Collin, very happy and relieved. "Okay, Mommy!" and off he trotted to do his work.

Fifteen minutes later, he came down, mess supposedly cleaned up, and him all dressed. As he devoured a big bowl of Cheerios, and a second, and a third, he looked at me and with a chipper little voice, said, "Good morning, Mommy!"

I guess it IS a good morning, after all.