And The Mother of the Year Award Goes To...

So most of you know that I've been doing "pre-k" at home with Cade.  It has been going wonderfully.  We usually focus on letters and practicing writing them.  Cade has been learning so much and I've been so thrilled with his progress.  In fact, the other day we were practicing the letter "R" and he decided to write it on his own without tracing mine first.  He did it perfectly and then decided he wanted to write the word "STOP."  (He knows how to spell it because he likes to point out every single stop sign we come to and shout, "S-T-O-P!") He just sat there and wrote it.  We haven't practiced S or T or O or P.  He just did it.  I was shocked.  It was a day that I felt like I was doing a great job at this "teaching my children" stuff.

Like I said, most days we do letters.  Some days we do other things, like learning about plants.  Or like the other day when we learned about hot and cold and how that can affect water.  I thought a great lesson for that would be to make some Jell-o.  Ali was not tired at all, so I thought she could stay up a little longer before she went down for her nap and help us.  We started off by putting a bunch of ice cubes in a pot, then turning on the burner and watching the ice melt, then boil and turn to steam.  I don't know how many times I emphasized that the burner was HOT and to never, ever touch it.  So far, so good.  Both Cade and Ali stayed away from it.  I even showed them my nasty burn I just gave myself last week reaching in the oven.

We poured in the Jell-o mix and they took turns stirring.  As it was nearly dissolved, I took the last turn to make sure it was ready to pour in our pan.  As I did, Ali was convinced it was still her turn and, being the stubborn girl she is, reached out to hit something in her anger.  Of course, it had to be the scalding burner.  Thankfully, she only got two of her fingers.  I immediately ran her over and put her hand under cool, running water, then put the Jell-o in the fridge.

A few hours later she still sat with her hand in a cup of water, refusing to take it out.  I had planned on making some bread, so while the kids watched a movie (Cade was getting sick and spent the next day puking), I started the bread.  Soon it was time to make dinner and since the kids had had a rough day, I planned on putting them to bed early.  I got the bread dough in the pans and was on the last step of letting it rise.  We ate dinner, but Ali still refused to take her hand out of the water.  I knew she couldn't sleep like that, so we ran out to the store to get some burn soothing cream.

By the time we got back and I got the kids in bed, I realized I completely forgot about my bread.  It had risen an hour longer than it should have.  I went ahead and baked it, and it tastes fine.  Other than the fact it is about 2 inches tall.  The top was so enormous that the whole loaf just completely squashed.

So, to sum it up - Ali got an incredible lesson about hot and cold, my husband got flat bread to attempt making sandwiches with, and Cade spent the next day watching movies all day while vomiting.  

You Know Who You Are

...and hopefully you read our blog.  While reading my scriptures tonight, I came across this and thought of you.

 To our good Samaritans - Luke 14:14

Lightroom

I've already posted these pictures of the kids at Tybee Island, but I like the way I fixed them today.   This is mainly so the Johnson's know I've been playing with my Lightroom... ;)  Thanks for the push today, Sherrie!

Be prepared for more to come... much more.  (Of different pictures, of course.  This was just a trial)

Cousin Camp 2009

This past weekend we did a "Cousin Camp" at my in-law's.  I thought it was FANTASTIC as well as all the kids.  All the moms and kids went down Thursday and Kirk and Layne came down Friday night (Tyler was working - surprise, I know.)

We started it off by making jewelry out of glass.  (My mother-in-law works with glass)  First we cut it, then we put it in the kiln to melt everything together.  It was really a fun learning experience.
Here are the necklaces I made. I didn't get a picture of the earrings because my glue was drying -

Friday morning we woke early and drove up to the Mayfield Creamery and took a tour of how they process the milk there.

The tour was quite informative, I thought.  And I really LOVED the hair nets we had to wear... as did the kids:

(I know Jana will love me for putting this one up).  Here's Cade trying to avoid me taking his picture:

And after the tour, we had to try out Mayfield's famous ice cream.  This was our lunch, so everybody enjoyed it.

 

Finally, what trip to the Mayfield Creamery wouldn't be complete without a picture by this gigantic cow?

(And, yes, if you are wondering - Karlee is trying to milk it.)

Later we stopped by the Farmer's Market and saw some really cool stuff from all over the world.  When we got back to Grandma's, it was craft time again.  The kids each had their own personal pottery lesson and got to make something.  Here's Cade's bowl - 

And I even got to make a few things!

After some pottery, Grandpa took the kids and helped them build birdhouses:

Of course there was also lots of swimming in the pool and hot tub, watching movies, playing dress up and playing the Wii.  While the kids stayed busy with all their fun, we mommas had some fun of our own.  My sister-in-law, Betsy, learned how to make these adorable skirts from old jeans, so we all made some for our girls.  I think they turned out SO CUTE!

And I just like this picture of all the girls lined up.

Anyway, it was a WONDERFUL weekend and much too short.  I'm really up for making this a yearly tradition... but I guess we'll see how well my in-laws can recover, first ;)

Pushing the Envelope

For whoever left the envelope, thank you.

Late Sparklers

I know the 4th of July has come and gone long ago, but our kids fell asleep early on our way home from the lake so we didn't get to do sparklers with them.  I was really determined that we do it (mainly for the pictures), so we figured better late than never.  I changed the exposure time to get some awesome shots.  Check these out -

Some little firecracker thingy...

I love this one.  It's a 30 second exposure - 

Here's one with a 5 second exposure.  (Cade holding 2 sparklers) 

Another 5 second exposure.  This is Tyler twirling 2 sparklers all around himself.

And these two are just awesome.  Here's Samantha making a heart (8 second exposure)

And, of course...

Our Decision on Pre-K

I know a lot of you have wondered about our decision not to put Cade in Pre-K this year.  We've talked with some of our friends and family about it, but wanted to clear the air for those of you who were still wondering.

A church discussion in Sunday School one Sunday got Tyler and me talking about whether or not it was right to enroll Cade in the state funded pre-k program that Georgia has.  Since it is funded by the lottery, Tyler was absolutely against it after we talked about the evils of gambling.  I felt uneasy.  I was thinking of our son.  For months we'd been telling him he would get to go to school.  I was looking forward to having a little more one-on-one time with Ali.  Plus, I thought it would just be good for him to have that social interaction with other kids his age.  I really wanted him to go to pre-k.  

In fact, I was so stubborn about it that I went out the next day to register him.  Tyler decided it wasn't a fight worth our marriage, so in a compromise, asked that we put him in a Montessori school (which I totally agreed with).  I thought I'd feel better after doing that, but I still felt uneasy.  There were a few things nagging at me about the discussion we had.  First, the church does not accept money from gambling winnings.  Why?  Because it is wrong.  There is a lot of good that could be done with that money, but it is the principle of the thing.  If they don't use it, should we?  That was a question that kept popping up in my mind.

Also, any time I would say to Tyler, "What difference is it going to make?  We are one family.  It's one kid that won't be using the money that is ALREADY there.  It is not going to make a bit of difference if we use it."

"True," he said.  "It's not going to make any difference to the school or the state if we use that money or not.  But what kind of difference is it going to make in our family?  To our children?"  Hmmm.

All day, those thoughts were going through my mind.  I finally decided to do a little research.  I went to the Church's website and found a talk given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks entitled, "Gambling - Morally Wrong and Politically Unwise."   The entire talk is very enlightening, but there was one part in particular that stood out to me.  He says, "A related technique of the adversary is to get people to focus so intently on the desirability of ends that they ignore the morality of means. Screwtape [from The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis] and his helpers could undercut the moral base of an entire society if they could just persuade citizens, bit by bit, to ignore or justify immoral means on the basis that the ends are good."


I felt this was the answer I had been looking for.  Immediately I knew that just because we are not the ones gambling, does not make it right.  The ends are good.  It is a good thing to put your kids in school.  BUT, pre-k is not required.  Right now, we have a choice.  And though we are not making one bit of difference with the legality of it all, we have an opportunity to teach our son about right and wrong.  I called the school and told them right away he would not be attending before I had time to talk myself out of it again and felt at peace - something I hadn't felt since this whole thing began.


We talked to Cade about it, and of course he was upset that he wasn't going to get to go to school.  But, eventually, he was ok with it.  Having had more time to think, I realized how happy I am that I get to keep him home for one more year before I send him out into the world on his own.  There is so much I have not prepared him for.  I know I'll never feel like he's ready for everything, but I've decided he's too young to be gone away from me all day.  In the meantime, he has his primary class on Sundays, play dates with friends, story time at the library and "pretend school" at home.  


I know that probably all of our friends are still going to be putting their kids in pre-k, and that is fine.  This was just a personal decision for our own family.  We in NO WAY think less of anyone who chooses to do pre-k. 


We also know that there are a lot of other programs the lottery sponsors that we don't know about.  We will cross those bridges as they come.


*This post is strictly to confirm to those of you who think we are crazy that we are.  Please do not leave nasty comments.  You are not going to change our minds on the matter.