Late Lenten Trays

I'm going with "better late than never" on this one.  I took these photos in lent, but they never made it to this space.  I had so many plans for our lent together this year, but they met with resistance, so it was a fine, though unremarkable lent.  The one project that was finished (though not used as much as I thought it would be) was to make some seasonal trays for Rowan to use while Jonah did his skill work during lent.  I found these little trays at hobby lobby and am thinking some chalk paint will make them something special one of these days, but for now, they are unfinished wood trays lined with seasonal scrapbook paper.  If you changed the colors, these trays could work for the season of Easter too.   

Word Building: I made this set last year and we used it in our godly play room at church for a work option.  Laminated watercolor paper with purple-painted wooden letters, they are simple and perfect for mister three, who is lately showing interest in letters and sounds.  I bought unpainted wooden letters for a couple dollars at a craft store in St. Andrews and traced them on the paper before drawing and water coloring the objects.

 Beading: Beads on pipe cleaners is a real favorite around here right now.  They are fun to string and then connect into long, long necklaces.

A Sensory Bag: I made the sack from the same fabric as our palm sunday underlay.  It is basically a drawstring bag, but instead of a string I used elastic at the top so an arm can slip in, but you can't see what is inside.  The idea is to don a blindfold mask and then reach in the bag and find an object.  I filled it with a lego, an egg, wooden bunny, small cross, piece of train track, and a wooden peg doll.  I would love to make a card with pictures of the different objects (maybe next year), but it works to have Mum say an object too.

I made these little blindfold masks a couple months ago and have been doing a few different sensory exercises with the boys.  They are fun exercises and are stemming from some research in helping the early cognitive child.  They help with motor and sensory skills that sometime are skipped when a child focuses on reading and other cognitive development earlier than most.  And mostly, I love that sensory games are always eagerly met because they are fun and different.

And, now I'm off to pack these little trays  before I go to bed; slow and steady we prepare for the move!

School

This is our last week of first grade.  With move details, Mama being sick, and most of our curriculums being finished, we've mostly been focusing on our summer writing curriculum the past couple weeks.  Its not the big finish I was hoping for, but we'll do something over the weekend to celebrate before we officially declare summer has started.  

I have a lot of mixed emotions as we finish this year of homeschooling.  We've never felt like we'd always be a homeschooling family, but we've also always been open to that possibility.  The best advice I received when we were first asking the questions about Jonah's early years of education were from a mama (who had done a mix of public, home and private schooling) who said, "Look at every child every year and decide what is best for them and what works for your family. There is no one right way to educate a child."  I've quoted this to countless others and to myself many times over the past few years.

Have we enjoyed homeschooling?  Yes.  Am I sad to be finishing this chapter (at least for now)? Yes.  

But, I'm equally excited to be joining an educational community that shares our values and love of education.  I also feel a sense of relief to be sharing the huge job of educating the boys.  The classical method is a wonderful fit for Jonah and I'm confident he is ready to launch into a more intense academic environment.  We're grateful that we'll be living nearby and that Jim will be at school too.  I'm praying that school will not feel fragmented from our home community, but instead be an extension of it.

When I was growing up my mom always said "We homeschool, you just go to public school too."  And it was true, as I look through all the homeschooling lists of literature I find that I read most of them as a child and as I think back on my childhood I remember being taught so many things by playing games and romping on the farm.  And, in the same way, I don't picture our home life changing all that much next year, we'll still be learning and reading together, because that is what we love.  We'll just have a community to help us as we educate the boys (and I'm thrilled to be passing off the job of handwriting taskmaster!)  

I'm excited.  A little sad, but mostly eager for this new adventure.

 This is one of the buildings the school will be moving into next fall.  I think both Jonah and Jim will be in this building.

Vera Rose's Birthday Crown

 Well, this is the latest Birthday Crown.  I wanted something springy for my April born niece.  I really wanted light yellow or pink wool felt, but I couldn't find anything locally and most online stores make you buy a larger piece than I needed, so I decided to make do with what I had.  And, in the end, I think it has a spring feeling and I'm happy with how it turned out.  I used the book Doodle Stitching to inspire the flowers.

Happy birthday sweet Vera Rose!

We Came. We Saw. We Bought a Home.

 April 15th... has it really been that long since I posted.  Oh my, I will do better soon (though the next few weeks might be a bit hit or miss) because soon there will be much to post about!  Jim, Isaac and I were in Richmond last week and are now a month from our closing date and the packing and sorting have already begun. 

If you've ever bought your first home then you probably know the emotional roller coaster it can be.  You know how hard it is to make this massive purchase (the biggest price tag we've taken on has been airline tickets across the ocean) and understand it both as an investment and as the place that needs to function as your home for the next however many years.  We've lived in seven homes in the past nine years (not counting our parent's homes where we've been this year) and three of those moves were because the landlord decided not to let the property for the following year.  So when we decided to move to Richmond and began looking at housing options, my longing for a home of our own, one that no one could force us to move from was intense.  I kept thinking about serious gardening, painting, building a chicken coop... all those things that we've wished we could do, but couldn't.  Till now.

Goodness, I had no idea how exhausting the process of buying a home could be.  It is fascinating to look through homes and imagine what life would be like in them.  It amazed me how a small kitchen being surrounded with walls with no room for a table made me outright reject an otherwise workable home (I spend so much time in the kitchen and having no place for the boys to sit and chat while I work just isn't workable).  I love the process of thinking through life and what we do and want to do in our home.  It made us ask so many helpful questions like 'What do we want at the center of our home?' (a table to gather and nourish), 'What to we need lots of space for?' (books!), 'What will we need in a home 3 years from now? 5 years?? 10 years??? 

The weekend before last I began to pray as we searched through listings that the right one would appear late in the week, just before we flew to Richmond.  A few of my favorite listings had just been sold.  Nothing seemed quite right or close enough to school (we really want to stick to one car and mostly walk to work/school).  

I arrived home from pilates Thursday afternoon, 24 hours before we were taking off for Richmond, and Jim said "look at this listing!"  A sweet little four bedroom only a block and a half from Veritas (where Jim will teach and Jonah will attend) with a reasonably sized city lot.

And, while we looked at lots of homes, in the end it came back to this little home.  And while it isn't perfect, this house is the one that came closest to meeting our hopes and we really love it.

There are obviously a few things that need to happen (the appraisal and the inspection...), but our name is on the line and we have a closing date.  I've already been sketching garden plans, designing room layouts in my head and thinking chicken coops (thought that will be a much later addition).  Is thirty-two tomato plants too many?  A few will probably have to do for this year, but a girl can dream, right?  In what season do you plant rhubarb?  

Goodness there is a lot to learn and create in this new space we'll be calling home!  Below is a fuzzy photo of Isaac in 'the library', which isn't a very big room, but it has two good walls for books and room for a table to play games and read.  This was the third walk through of this property right before we made the offer.  Isaac lost it after this photo, so I decided that there will be plenty of time for photos later, which is better anyway because right now, it is just a mostly empty house.  I'd rather introduce our home in the fullness of its life... meaning you will never see a photo with it this uncluttered again!

Happy Easter!

Welcome, belatedly, to the season of Easter in this space... though the header might be a day or two in the making.

We don't have may plans for the Easter season this year as we are working toward the move (lots of waiting right now and hopefully browsing homes online.)  But, we are hoping to take extra time to have some fun and see some Houston sights before we take off for the north.

Thanks for all your comments and messages rejoicing with us on the job and move to Virginia.  I'm so grateful for all of you who journey with us in this space!

Book Note: The book A Truck Goes Rattley-Bumpa has been the number one favorite book of all three of our boys at this age.  Isaac wakes up in the morning saying 'Bumpa' asking to read it and then asking again and again and again...

Richmond, VA

Well, the decision is made and we are headed to Richmond, VA.  We are hopeful that the move will be early this summer, but there are still pieces that need to fall into place before the move can commence.

This year has been riddled with discernment for us.  An opportunity to perhaps work at Swiss L'abri - our dream job in so many ways, but far from family, and paper work to get Italian citizenship (in order to get a visa) has taken hours of work and weeks of waiting for documents... this still isn't resolved and won't be till fall.  It didn't feel right to wait for this uncertain possibility.  The thought of working at a college in Lithuania - what a vision the school has, what an amazing adventure that would be.  An arts pastor in Illinois?  A upper school teacher in CA, TX, OK, ID...?  All thoughts that have been tossing in our heads and taking so much imaginative energy and thought.  There were times when I wondered if we would ever be truly content choosing any one of these jobs.

But, in the end, a small (but growing) k-12 classical school in Richmond, VA just seemed right.  It is close to my family (at least in comparison to Scotland).  Opportunities for Jim to teach college or seminary classes seem like a possibility.  The school has a vision for community that is in line with ours... the vision of L'abri (hospitality) came up in conversations and Jamie Smith's book Desiring the Kingdom was on the headmasters desk.  Jonah will go to the school, which we are excited about (I'm sure I'll write more on this later).  And with a nine month contract, summers to write and travel are very alluring.

It is funny, because I think if you had told us a year ago that we would be genuinely excited about Jim taking a upper school teaching job I would have been surprised.  But, we are so excited, and not just to have this job, but to be moving to this place at this time.  We have a vision of putting down some roots in this place and building community in Richmond.

We feel content with this choice.  More than that, I feel a peace that this is the right choice for our family right now.  And, while I feel sad that we won't be at L'abri this year and that other interesting adventures are not ours, more than anything I feel grateful for all the options and choices that have felt overwhelming through the year.  Somehow in this crazy process of thinking about what is next, we've figured out where we are to be and it is somewhere in all that imagining that we became confident in this choice.

So, there it is my friends.  Another grand adventure lies before us.  Richmond, here we come!

Marching into Holy Week (a few days ago)

 Don't mind the late post, I've just accepted the fact that I'm not going to have certain things organized until we are settled.  With the thought of a new home looming, I'm getting more creative motivation in the past couple weeks.  (You can expect news on where we are headed by next week, we're down to two offers we are deciding between and are 90% sure of where we are headed.  And if you think you can't wait to know... I can't either! :o)

Anyway, my mom gave me a yard of fabric in the fall and I immediately knew that it was meant for palm sunday.  A boutique with a base of purple (for lent) and a fern/leaf pattern that reminded me of palms, it was perfect.  I originally wanted the boys to use fabric markers and inlay a table runner with their art work of the triumphal entry, but decided on a simple underlay (mostly because I can't find my fabric markers... maybe they are in storage?)  It is simple, two layers of fabric with a bit of machine quilting to give a bit of interest.  I also cut out new robes and palms from fabric and felt.  We've lost quite a few over the years (I made our first ones here).

We had a bigger Jerusalem Sunday and the little red truck is a later addition, but I always love to see the interacting with the Biblical story and their here-and-now play; melding the sacred and their daily life.  Yes, when the story has been played with and even added too, I am glad; scripture is not fragile and they are discovering that these stories are for them.  And I am discovering that these stories are indeed forming their imaginations and that makes a mama's heart very grateful indeed!