I nursed Benjamin from about 5:50am until 6:20 or so and then handed him over to Steve to take downstairs. Steve is so good about helping with Benjamin whenever he can. Steve let me sleep until about 8:00. During that time I dreamed that Steve wanted to add on to the trip we are taking, a few day trip to Africa. I really thought that Africa was too far out of the way but I was excited nevertheless. I will write more about our upcoming trip later. (Instead of going North we are going West!)
I pulled myself out of bed, put on my pajama pants, pulled my hair back in a rubber band and went to the bathroom. In the bathroom I read a Psalm (trying to get the Word in whenever I can :).
When I got downstairs Steve was heating up pancakes for the boys that I had made and frozen a few days ago. I picked up Benjamin and sat down on the couch to nurse him again. I told Steve I wasn't having pancakes because I just don't seem to handle grains well. He made me a yummy green smoothie instead.
While I nursed and drank my smoothie I listened to the story of Joseph as Steve read it to the boys from the Story Bible. When the story was over I took Benjamin upstairs to nurse him, yet again, but this time just to put him to sleep. I read World magazine while I nursed.
When I came downstairs the boys were doing their chores and I headed outside to the garden.
These little green beetles are eating horrible holes in my green bean leaves so I've been knocking them off into my little black bucket to drown. How nice of me, I know.
I then examined my tomato plants as thoroughly as possible to find any caterpillars. I found one today. (An evening inspection revealed much more....stay tuned)
I noticed my potato plants have pretty little white flowers on them and I wondered what that means. I know that flowers mean fruit, but usually the fruit grows right behind the flower and the petals fall off, but I know that the potatoes aren't going to start growing suspended in the air. Hmmmm....
I examined Andrew's watermelon plant and found that so far, we have three tiny watermelons growing.
Then it was around to Adin's garden. More ripe blueberries! I knocked on the playroom windows to the boys, who were done with chores and playing. They came around and unlocked the front door. I asked them if they wanted to come pick blueberries and I got big grins and two little boys followed me outside.
While we were picking berries the boys found a caterpillar and a snail so I cleaned out the small plastic aquarium for them.
Now, on to morning lessons...
We read over our Bible memory verses using this Bible Memory System and then read from the book of Matthew about how Jesus is the "Lord of the Sabbath." After that we prayed. All of us except Andrew. He is usually "too tired". We don't make him because I believe that prayer should come out of an overflow of the heart. He will want to in time.
Now onto the stories we are reading...
After stories I told Micah and Andrew they could play for a little while and then we would do their lessons. I started getting hungry and grabbed a handful of these....
Yummy almonds I made a few days ago. We had a bag of raw almonds in the fridge for the longest time. I knew the only way to get us to eat them was to roast them with butter and sugar....yummy.
Then I went in to get Micah for lessons and instead sat down to make marble mazes with them out of our new wooden marble maze set. (I've wanted a wooden marble maze set for a long long time but they are a bit pricey so I've not bought one. To my delight Micah walked over to me at the thrift store on Monday with this one... it was only 3.50!)
After we finished building marble mazes I heard Benjamin waking up. At this point it was about 11:30. Micah and Andrew hopped up and immediately wanted to go get him. I told them they could go in and get him but close his door and wait for me. His room is right by the stairs so I get nervous he will fall down them. While they played with Benjamin I went in to make some lunch. I of course, was starving. As usual. I can't seem to figure out how to feed myself frequent enough to keep myself from getting so hungry I'm shaky inside.
Once I started to hear the boys saying, "Can we come out???" I headed that direction.
Micah had decided to try to carry Benjamin down the stairs but then turned back as his luggage proved to be very wiggly.
He decided to wait for me at the top of the stairs.
Benjamin was very happy to see me. So cute....
I made the boys lunch and then headed upstairs with Benjamin to take a shower. When I came back downstairs I got out of the refrigerator a watermelon. I put it on the counter and turned around and something inside told me that the watermelon was rolling. I turned back and lunged full speed ahead to literally catch the very heavy watermelon in mid-air. Talk about excitement!
After I had cut the watermelon in chunks and given the boys their bowls at the high bar, I pulled up a stool to the counter to eat mine. Shortly thereafter, arrived two small guests. One on each side. Micah and Andrew pulled their stools around to be with me. We really love each other :)
After watermelon, (and lots of drips and spills on the floor which would lead to a mopping job later), I sat down with Micah to start his lessons. I read to him...
and then he began his handwriting
while I continued on with Andrew's lessons.
Andrew and I started with speech and worked on words that end with an -st-, like burst. He did quite well, but as usual, became exasperated and tired within about 5 minutes of practice. That's okay. Slowly but surely his speech is improving. After speech came Bible where we read about how terrible our sin is and how we deserve to be punished. Of course we learned about the good news too!
After I finished with Andrew, Micah was ready to sit down and do his reading lesson. This child amazes me. This was the year that we were repeating Kindergarten because I dropped it last year, half way through the year, because he was giving me such hassles during reading/math lessons. Now he reads at probably a fourth or fifth grade level. I think I've posted about this before.... If not I will if anyone is interested.
Now it is nearing 2 pm and Benjamin is ready for another nap. This will work out well, because I want him to stay up later anyway, because it is boys night out with daddy! I carried Benjamin upstairs and nursed him to sleep while contemplating what I would do in the afternoon. I got the urge to go to Goodwill and these urges are usually really strong and irresistible.
Kind of sounds like an addiction, huh? I prayed about it and God helped me! I didn't go! Instead I.....
got shot by my boys.....
Until I reminded them that they are supposed to protect women, and then they began to defend me vigorously from an unseen enemy.
I served my boys a snack in our new wooden bowls from the thrift store.... (I prayed specifically for a stack of wooden bowls and low and behold I found a stack of 6 wooden bowls on the shelf behind some things at the thrift store :)
I read them stories on the couch....
And giggled at my very silly boys.
I also spent time cleaning up and doing a little preparation for our trip coming up. The kitchen floor got mopped, which it seems to need to be mopped about every other day now. Then I got the boys ready to go out with their daddy.
While they were gone I puttered around, worked on this entry, went out to the garden, and did some more decluttering and cleaning. Here are some of my pictures from the garden...
I spied a little bit of color in my tomato plants! I was disappointed that upon closer inspection, some caterpillars have been feasting on these tomatoes.
We bought some sort of "stripey" tomatoes for fun. They are a neat and different shape.
I couldn't believe my eyes when they focused in on this geniusly camouflaged caterpillar. Just FYI, all that yeller stuff on the green tomato in the bottom of the photo is, well, poo-poo. Yuck.
I put this beauty in a box to show the boys and headed back inside. When the boys got home, I had Andrew and Micah clean up the playroom. Then Andrew and Benjamin had a bath and I played a game of war with Micah. Then there was the game of war with Andrew. And then they were off to bed and I put Benjamin to sleep. After that, here I am. Blogging. Now it is bedtime. It was a good day.
(PS: I forgot to mention that I fished a MARBLE out of Benjamin's mouth at some point during the day...yikes. I'm sure there are some other unmentionables that I just can't remember.)
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