When Words Do Flow

When words don't come I sit and doodle or think or trace the dated page over and over. I stare at the page and wonder.

It's a part of me. Writing. How I work things out, how I see things clearly. How I reach out or dig up or pile over.  But when words don't come I can't force them. They've a mind of their own and sometimes I think I'm just the vessel they use to make their voices heard. But I need them like water and I want to flow like it, too. Flow words like water. But when the tap is dry there is nothing I can do. Maybe.

But then, words are still a part of me, whether written or spoken or read or thought or heard. And so sometimes, when words don't come, I find myself thinking on them anyway. On the words I used with my husband or the cashier or my children. I think on the words I let myself take in through the t.v. or the radio or through the lips of a friend. I wonder on the tone I used to deliver them, the attitude I had to receive them, the motive I had before I said them.

I think, too, about His Words. How He promised that what He wanted them to achieve they would. Like water to the earth. (Isaiah 55:9-11) I think about how He is the Word, (John 1:1) and the power of Words. How they can build a person high or bring them crashing, falling, low. How they can fill and enrich or drain and destroy. How is a person after walking away from my words? How am I?

When words don't come, I take a moment and ask- what would people say, how would they feel, how might they live- when they do come? And if I can't say, with certainty, they would feel blessed, they would feel loved, they would feel uplifted, they would feel filled- well, then. If that is the case, then God take my words and transform them into something beautiful. Not for me but for your glory.

Unless words please the Lord there is no point at all in saying them, or typing them, or reading them, or hearing them, or thinking them.

"May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer."Psalm 19:13-14

Let it be so...

Having my Monster Cookies and eating them, too!

I made promises this summer that I intend to keep, even if that means making some sacrifices. For instance, I promised the Texan and one of my former students, a fifth grade girl we'll call "Julie" (I don't know why) who I am providing care for this summer, that I would bake with them this week. So bake we shall! 

Today we made Monster Cookies. They are good. They are very very, sinfully, good. The kids thoroughly enjoyed making this recipe but of course, as is the case with all good cookie recipes, they enjoyed eating the cookies the most. I didn't take any pictures during the process because I was too busy drooling. But, here's some of the finished product. (Some, mind you, because we have already eaten a considerable amount and we also sent 3 bags home with Julie. Quart sized bags not gallon, because I have trouble parting with cookies.)

This is an awesome recipe from my friend Mindee's blog. In fact, we'll be making most of her recipes all week long. Tomorrow is her Devil's Food cake, and Wednesday her cinnamon rolls. Thursday we're cheating and making a homemade ice cream sandwich recipe that I found online which doesn't actually require any baking at all, but it looks yummy and simple. SIMPLE. And I may have implied that this Friday we would take a field trip to a local gourmet cupcake shop to gorge ourselves learn more about baking.

It's a tough job, training young children in the culinary way they should go. But...I will sacrifice my time (and apparently my waistline) to answer the call.

The recipe! Just scroll down a bit!

What we all need

It had been a long day for my little boy. His little 7-month-old body was tight and tense and long, loud cries escaped from his mouth. Tears ran down his face which was contorted into a defeated and angry expression. It was bed time. He was done. The day of breaking in 6 new teeth had proven too challenging for him. He hadn't napped all day, hadn't been too interested in playing or laughing and now, now he was just done.

I scooped him out of his bouncer chair and turned the lights down in his cozy room, turned his sound machine on low- the sound of soothing rain, sank down into the recliner in his room and I nestled him close- one last time to nurse before bed. And he settled. He settled. His little eyes stopped seeping tears and his body relaxed and he melted into me. He was finally where he wanted to be. I looked down at his sweet little face, the face of the one I love, and I cried.

I cried.

Big, heavy tears shaking from me, maybe shaking me loose? Because, Oh God, isn't that where I want to be? Maybe where we all want to be? Oh to be nestled close to You where You can soothe the things that hurt. That have hurt so long. That hurt so deep. Because in 13 days the calendar will mark the date when she took her last breath 3 years ago and I'm still hurting for her, that sister who left too early. And there are other things, too, things I don't understand and can't make sense of but that hurt or make me pause and shake my head and wonder why? Isn't close to You, oh God, where You nestle me close and rock me still and settle me? As he settles- sweet little child- in my arms, I cry big, hard tears and wish and pray that You could settle me, too.

Isn't it what we all want? Oh God, ain't it what we all need?

And immediately, (oh, that hard hard lesson of gratitude), immediately I feel thankful that You are the settling type of God.


A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped...The disciples woke him [Jesus] and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm...


..."Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!" (excerpts from Mark 4: 35-41)


Who is this? Oh, He's my settling type of God.


He does care. Care if we drown. If the sorrows of life- the hardness of life, the "why's?" and wonders and things that make us sadly shake our heads- threaten to swallow us up, to drown us completely. He cares. So when the day has been too long and the challenges of life have proven to be more than we can bear, He draws us close, nestles us close, and brings the stillness and the calm that we all need.

In that room, that quiet room where my little boy sleeps nestled and firm in the arms of a momma who loves him, I cry crazy gratitude that You are the God who settles and that I can sleep firmly nested in arms of a Father who loves me. Who calms the storm.

Isn't that what we need, oh God? Isn't that what we all need?

60/30 Time

Right now at "Blessed" it is Sixty-Thirty Time. When I was little this time was called "Grown Folks Time"- and I hated it. Now, as a "grown folk" I can't think of anything more wonderful. Sixty-Thirty is a name inspired by a local camp I used to volunteer at. There it was called "Thirty-Thirty Time" and meant that campers were to rest for 30 minutes and then be involved in some sort of devotional activity for 30 minutes.  Right now, here, sixty-thirty time means 60 minutes of IN YOUR ROOM non-screen activity, and 30 minutes of IN YOUR ROOM free choice time.  Did you get the "in your room" part? That's the best part, you see.

Things are actually going really well with having my nephew here, so far. He is using his summer passport daily! I haven't heard "I'm bored" yet and he's been here almost 2 weeks now. That being said, Momma still likes her quiet time during the day, and having a 10 year-old who doesn't nap was impeding on this self-proclaimed necessity of mine. That's when an angel of the Lord appeared and told me to implement 60/30 Time. (Okay, there was no actual, literal, angel, but I feel like it was a gift from the Lord!) Surprisingly, Texan boy was eager to begin this new tradition. (Perhaps he realized Auntie was getting crabby without her nap and he was anxious to be invited to leave her presence? Hmmm?) The first day we started, I helped him gather his much needed non-screen activities: books, poster board sized coloring pages of super heroes I bought him at Wal-mart, a box of wooden Tangrams, and a set of basketball cards; noted the time we were starting and then let him calculate when we'd be ending (that's right, I made it a math problem), and bid him not to come out of his room until the time was up. He dutifully (and quite quite surprisingly) obeyed.  I peeked in on him a couple of times puzzling over a Tangram and then arranging the basketball cards in some order only he could explain, then smiled and ran to my bed for a quick nap before the 7-month-old awoke from his. For each consecutive day I have just checked to make sure was settled and then let him be.

I LOVE 60/30 time. I want to make it a Valentine and ask it to go steady.

Eventually, I'd like to use some of 60/30 time to encourage the Texan to do a devotional, memorize scripture or read the Bible. I'm not a big fan of forcing that, though, so I am thinking of some ways to make that fun and interactive so that he'd desire to do this instead of feel like it was a chore. I have a great book I'm using to help with some ideas, called "The Well-Versed Family".

Here are our 60/30 Time Rules:

1. This time is flexible, not set in stone each day. (I usually begin it when the toddler goes down for her nap.)
2. Activities during this time must be able to be done in your bedroom and may not require adult assistance.
3. Unless it is an emergency, you may not leave your room at this time.
$. All activities need to be quiet to moderate in volume so as not to disturb sleeping 2 year-olds (or 28 year-olds).

If you don't have some "Grown-Folks Time" during your day, might I encourage you to implement something like this? It's so so very wonderful.

Stress Free Summer 2- Activity Passports. Avoiding the phrase "I'm bored!" All summer long!

As many of you know, my 10 year-old nephew lives with us for the better part of the summer each year. He will be here in less than a week. He's a wild little boy with beautiful eyes and the holder of a special place in my heart. I love him. And, quite often?

He drives me nuts.

You see, for some reason, this young boy feels the need to be entertained daily. Every hour. Every minute. The previous summers he has spent with us he has expected daily trips to the zoo or the park or the water park, or visits to a friend's, or visits from a friend, or a trip to the movies, or brand new video games, or trips to the Children's Museum, or something new and grand and different and life changing every single solitary day! ...I can't, I just...I can't... There is NO way I can meet all of these demands requests.

This summer, while considering how I may indeed tie him up and gag him if he repeatedly tells me he's bored and/or rolls his eyes and stomps his feet when I yell, "Nothing!" in response to his repeated "What are we doing today?" questions, I decided to be proactive.

While browsing one of my most favorite homeschool websites, I discovered these cute little passports this blog author and homeschool momma used in a geography unit with her children. I loved the idea of recording a learning objective and then stamping the objective in a "passport" once the objective was met.  I decided to create one for my wild boy, which will be met with much grumbling and complaining. Good thing I have 2 years of parenting and several years teaching experience under my belt which have fully prepared me to not care at all about either of these responses.

Now, the "Passport" I created is not cute at all. In fact it's just three different pages with lists of activities, followed by a recording/stamping page, all bound together in a three-ring folder. You could totally put it into any format you want, though, and even add pictures and clip-art. I did not, but my nephew is quite the little artist so I will tell him to jazz up his folder and the pages with whatever he sees fit! This could be modified for younger children by using pictures of activities coupled with words.

Each page is a different category: Math, Literacy and Free Choice. I chose math and literacy because he still needs to work on some school related objectives during the summer to help his success during the school year, and free choice because he can never seem to think of what to do in his spare time. Which results in him asking me the aforementioned question constantly, which results in me locating the duct tape and threatening his existence, which results in really just a negative atmosphere for everyone.

Anyway, on each page, I listed 12+ ideas that fall in the category, with space to add more as we think of them. He then chooses from the ideas and records what he wants to do that day in the passport section. Requirements are that he must choose at least one objective from reading and math each day, and then he can do whatever he wishes from free choice the rest of the day. He is not allowed to say he is bored because he always has options before him of how to spend his time. At the end of the day, I'll stamp his passport for him, and by the end of the summer, he'll have quite a nice little log (and some cool projects) to show for what he did all summer. Some projects are lengthy and will take more than one day to finish. That. Is. The. Point. :) Oh, and also he'll be enriched by learning and trying new things, yada yada yada.

I tried to make it as fun and creative as possible. Here are some of the activities I listed for him in literacy:

Literacy Passport Destinations:

• Write a play or puppet show and then make the puppets or props

• Make a comic book

• Write a poem

• Write a story

• Make a book with illustrations, a cover, a title page, and an author page
• Make a dictionary of made-up words- don't forget to use ABC order and to tell what part of speech each word is and to use it in a sentence!

Mathematics Passport Destinations: (Disclaimer- is there a way to be fun and creative with math objectives? Someone help me come up with more fun ideas!!)

Mathematics Passport Destinations:

• Choose a math activity from softschools.com- 20 minutes
• Play Number Munchers- at least 15 minutes
• Sort Number Cards by multiples
• Write and solve at least 5 word problems
• Write a math story using at least 5 math vocabulary words

And then Free Choice consists of things he loves to do like play the Wii, draw, arts and crafts, making his own snack, playing outdoors, etc.  I'm sorry I don't know how to give you a PDF copy of my Passport yet, but I assure you that the lists I showed are really all it is. Oh- and the stamping page looks like this:

Passport Stamp Page

Date_________________

1. Activity_________________________________

2. Activity_________________________________

3. Activity_________________________________

4. Activity_________________________________

I just stamp the end of the line when he finishes the activity.

I really hope this, and the other fun stuff we're doing this summer, which I'll highlight tomorrow, will be enough for me to avoid the dreaded phrase. We'll see! I did stock up on duct tape just in case.

Oh, and here's the link to the inspirational website!

Wish me luck!

Stress- Free Summer 1

Even though I haven't taught formally in a classroom since the early beginning of last school year, I still consider myself a teacher and run on teacher-time. That means summer is supposed to be laid back and stress free. No meetings to attend, no IEPs to write, no classroom set-up to configure- just relaxation. Well...with two young children in the house and a 10 year-old Texan on his way soon, that simply is not my reality! Plus? I don't do too well on relaxed and casual schedules. Part of what I loved about teaching (aside from getting to hang out with sweet kids everyday) was the order and structure of the classroom environment. I am a firm believer that structure and organization are the best components and most necessary ingredients to a successful classroom environment. Not because it keeps children under control and in a box, but very conversely, because it gives children the freedom to learn, roam, express themselves, try new things- all in an environment that is predictable (like- they know where to find pencils and paper each day), clutter free and prepared to accommodate their learning whims!

So...if I were to transfer that philosophy to my own home which is my children's classroom, well, then, I've got some work to do!

I fought to be organized in my classroom, and it is the same fight at home! I am the walking, living breathing definition of a scatter brain. I forget where my keys are constantly, always put things away in a different place and never know where my cell phone is. I see very clearly how this affects me day to day, especially how much time I spend looking and re-looking for things each day. And I wonder how a mixed-up, non-organized environment may affect my children as well as their organization skills down the road.

So, this "relaxing and stress free summer" is going to be about getting my home organized and in good working condition for me, my husband and my kids by August which is when our first homeschool year officially starts! And of course I will go about it in true teacher fashion and draw up "classroom plans" of how I want things to look and then I will implement my plans. I may also use a few websites I've found that may be helpful in assisting this effort, that I will highlight this summer.

I'm hoping to take pictures of each area I change, before and after shots, to involve you in keeping me accountable, so stayed tuned!

Also to come? A cute little plan I modified to avoid hearing this phrase, "I'm bored. There's nothing to do!" from the 10-year-old all summer long! :)

Summertime!

I either have a very lengthy case of writer's block, or I just have nothing really pertinent to write about. But here are some of our summer time pics so far. Maybe at some point I'll find the words to share as well!