A City Life For Me

I just have to brag on my kids for a minute. They love watching Wild Kratts on PBS, and since it's not laced with evolution we enjoy letting them. They have learned so much about Gods amazing creatures! In fact, zoo trips are not usually educational anymore.  My kids can spew out creature facts faster than we can read placards! So…all on their own…they came up with an idea, that they needed to tell Martin and Chris Kratt Who made all these wonderful creatures. My kids decided that the best thing would be to send the Kratts a Bible and tell them about Jesus. So today Elaine and Daddy drafted a letter which Elaine copied out neatly. We ordered a blue and a green Bible, because those are Martin and Chris' favorite colors. And we included a tract, a picture of our family, and some pictures colored by the kids. I'm so thankful they want to share our Jesus with others, and that they are not afraid to do so! #keeponcreatureadventuring #gospelnews   Elaine writing the letter  ...

We’ve been back for a bit now and life is perhaps starting to settle in a smidge of a routine.  I hesitate to say that because I’m sure it will spin out of control on me again at any minute!  This is what we’ve been doing recently… We are learning about the sun, moon, and stars in science class.  Elaine and Nolan enjoyed making some moon crafts (complete with glitter – one of my least used craft items because of the mess!) Elaine’s Nolan’s Then we conducted a project to visualize the size difference between the sun, the earth, and the moon. The large make-shift paper circle represents the sun (54.5” wide).  Ours is about three inches too small because that’s just how it worked… A mini-marshmallow (1/2” diameter) represents the earth.  The sun is 109 times larger than the earth, so we lined up {almost} 109 mini marshmallows across the center of our “sun” to visualize the vast size difference.  It was very helpful that we had just visited the planetar...

City kids are definitely different!  We got a good laugh in family devotions today from Elaine.  We were discussing Creation, and reviewing some of the days we had already talked about. Ben: “What did God call the dry land?” Elaine: “Sidewalk!” Here’s another one: Ben: “Who is Daddy’s Helpmeet?” Elaine: “Mommy” Ben: “Who helps more?  Does Daddy help Mommy more, or does Mommy help Daddy more?” Elaine: “Mommy helps Daddy.  You leave all your stuff in the floor and she picks it up!” Happy Friday!

Last week Elaine won the most Bible verses in her age group at VBS.  Though I knew kids could learn fast and easy, it reminded me just how much of a sponge my children are.  Ben was having fun pouring some silly things into our sponges this week – like nursery rhymes.  They didn’t know any – I guess I’m a bad mom! So get ready to chuckle and press repeat, because I think you will enjoy these renditions… Elaine – “There Was an Old Woman”; “Jack and Jill”; and “Humpty Dumpty” Nolan did “There Was an Old Woman” – after hearing Elaine say it only one time!   He added hand motions – all on his own – and just made me melt with his cuteness!

This post is so that I can remember these funny days and the things my kids say.  It’s also to make you laugh…in fact I think I can hear Grandma Sissy laughing already! We didn’t tell Nolan & Elaine what we were going to name the twins.  Nolan didn’t matter so much, but Elaine would have told the secret.  A couple of times we tried the names out on her, in a game.  Ben would say, “What should we call Baby Sister?  Do you like the name Liberty?”  She would say “No.”  We would throw out other names and she would laugh and turn down all of them.  For most of my pregnancy, Elaine insisted that Baby Sister was going to be called Corrine.  I don’t know where she heard that or got it from, but she was consistent. After we got the van, we were again playing the name game.  Then Elaine suggested that we needed to name our van.  We had just mentioned the name Liberty for Baby Sister, and it was again turned down by Elaine.  We s...

:: When driving home, the Verrazano Bridge was shrouded in heavy clouds so that you couldn’t see the top of it.  Elaine looked up and said, “Oh, no!  The bridge is broke!” :: Once when Nolan was wearing his sunglasses I told him he was “hot stuff.”  After we left the doctor’s office, Nolan put his sunglasses back on.  Elaine said, “He looks like hot stuff again, right Mom?” :: Elaine wanted to know where a certain man’s wife was.  The man is a widower, and we tried to explain that his wife was with Jesus in heaven.  Elaine:  “Oh, well he needs to get a new wife.” Me: “Well, maybe he will sometime, but probably not yet.  He’s not ready yet.” Elaine:  “So, in phree (3) hours he will get a new wife?” :: At naptimes and bedtimes we have really been praying for the babies to come soon.  Today Elaine made this announcement: “We have been praying for them a lot, but they are taking a long time to come!” :: There is a Smart Car...

Elaine has been a riot lately…when she hasn’t been sick.  Here’s a few things I’ve laughed at recently. Elaine came out and said, “Sall {her baby doll} is sick.  I’m taking her to the doctor.  Dr. Holly {our doctor is Dr. Mahale } is going to give her a shot and a bandaid and then she will be all better.”  A few minutes later… “We are all done, Mom.  We are riding the train because we don’t have a car today.  Sally is taking a snoozy.” Nolan is playing on the bunk beds.  Elaine climbs up with a cheery, “Hi Nolan.  How’s it goin’ up there?” I had dusted the house to get ready for visitors. Elaine found my duster and wanted to help, so I said she could dust the books. When she finished she said the following: “Want me to dust the computer, Mommy?” “No, I already did it.” “Oh, well, you didn’t do a very good job!” At lunch Elaine asked for me to take the crusts off her sandwich. I said, “No, that’s not necessary.” “...

Instead of a Wordless Wednesday today, I just want to share a few random pictures, and some of Elaine’s conversations recently.  She cracks me up! Elaine anxiously watching the window for her friends to arrive so the party could begin.  The doorbell finally rang and she ran around jumping up and down shouting “My friends! My friends!  Oh that’s my friends!” Nolan’s giraffe hat at the princess party.  And yes…I gave up on taking the paci away for now.  I’ll try again after our flight for Christmas. We had Oreo cookies with lunch.  I had two, and the kids each had one.  Elaine wanted to know why she didn’t get two.  So I explained, “These cookies are for the two babies in Mommy’s tummy.”  She gave it a little thought.  Later that afternoon she piped up with this statement out of the blue, “I have some Elaine’s in my tummy, so I need to eat lots of cookies, okay?”  Yeah…nice try. Playtime at our house is never clea...