4 hours ago
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This book is a thorough introduction to modern watercolor painting. Rainey explains her choice of supplies and color theory in the introduction, and then she jumps right into 30 days worth of watercolor projects designed to help you develop your own painting skills. I loved that Rainey didn't just tell you how to paint each project, but she really explains the reasoning behind the different techniques that she uses so you can take them and apply them to different subjects.
The book is also just gorgeous to look at.
The book is also just gorgeous to look at.
I really appreciated how Rainey guides the reader into thinking about the shapes of the subjects and how the light should fall, and I am excited to practice. I love Rainey's style of painting, and this book is perfect if you would like to learn to paint in a similar style. After reading this book I feel like learning to pain in watercolors is that much more attainable.
Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to read this until after Georgie was born, and I haven't been able to actually sit down with paint between adjusting to five kiddos! But one of my goals for the new year will be to get back into practicing, and I'm excited to work through all the projects in this book. I'll hopefully share some of the projects in 2018 - my goal is at least one a week! Highly recommend if you are interested in the watercolor medium.
Note: I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for a review. This is my honest opinion.
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The Austen Escape is about an electrical engineer, Mary, who has a crush on a consultant at work, Nathan. She also has a tumultuous relationship with her childhood best friend, Isabel, but Mary ends up going with her to England anyway for an Austen-era experience at a house in Bath. While they are there, Isabel has a nervous breakdown and thinks she is actually living in the early 1800's, and Nathan shows up to help Mary.
I would say I enjoyed this book, but I thought it could have been stronger. While in Bath, Mary works through a lot of her own internal feelings about the way Isabel treats her, but I felt the ending left a lot of things unresolved. Isabel has a moment of repentance at the end of the story for the way she treats people, but it didn't really feel like she and Mary were fully reconciled. Through the story we also learn that Mary had emotional problems connecting with her mother growing up, and while I suppose knowing this about Mary added some depth to her character, I didn't really see how that struggle added to the story since there was no realization related to this in the end aside from a brief conversation with her father.
I also felt like the main character was a little hard for me to personally relate to, probably because of personality differences. Mary's character was very introverted and analytical, and though Reay tries to convince us at certain places in the book that Mary is a "romantic at heart," I didn't get that at all. Nathan seemed to be the one in the relationship that was more emotionally in tune with Mary. Though I'm not saying that women can't be analytical or men can't be emotional, I do think that it is a less common relationship dynamic, and somehow with the way it was executed I had a hard time buying it.
I also felt that some of the relationships with the peripheral characters could have been developed a little better, and it would have strengthened the story. But then, there was a lot of emotional issues going on in this book, so maybe it would have been too much. I just know that I would have liked the secondary characters integrated more into the main storyline, and Mary's inner turmoil focused a bit more.
Aside from some of my frustration with the elements listed above, I did actually enjoy the book! Reay's novels are always slower-paced, but while they take longer to get into, they have a comforting vibe to them. I also think it could be argued that the multi-faceted emotional side of the characters does add a real-life element to her books, because rarely do we have all of our emotions resolved and tied up into a neat little package in real life. In that way her characters and situations are really believable.
I really liked the ending and thought it was nicely done, though I wish I could peek a little further into the future and make sure it all turned out well long-term! Maybe she'll give us a glimpse of some of her characters in future books? (Katherine Reay, if you are reading, that's a request! Because I will pick up more of your books in the future.)
Note: I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for a review. This is my honest opinion.
1. Gingerbread House. The kids all requested a gingerbread house this year, so I want to make sure that happens. Derek put the structure together last night, and we're hoping to get to the decorating this week!
2. Christmas Cards. I addressed cards to all the critical people, like family, and I'm just going to keep this low pressure and either 1) write a few addresses here and there as I have time or 2) just focus on returning cards to people who send them to me.
3. Baking. There really isn't any way to simplify the work of baking, so my goal is just to do one type of cookie a couple times a week until Christmas, and then freeze them. I've already got ginger cookies in the freezer.
4. Finish our stack of Christmas books. I rented a whole stack of Christmas picture books from the library,and we are slowly working our way through them! The kids are so excited every time I pull one out. We also got this adorable book from Tommy Nelson to add to our permanent collection!
Christmas Blessings has a different Christmas poem on each page, and my plan is to pick this up this week and read one poem a day to the kids. The poems are sweet celebrations of different aspects of Christmas. I think my littler ones will especially like this book, because the illustrations are so cute, and it would be fun (and easy) to even memorize one of these poems with the kids! I also love how so many of the poems point in some way back to the reason we celebrate Christmas as Christians, which is to remember what Christ has done for us through His birth, and later his death and resurrection! This book is a great starting point for reminding little ones of that.
5. Wrap Presents. I have a couple presents left to wrap for my extended family, but I'm happy to report that Derek and I knocked out most of the present-wrapping before Georgie arrived! So there is not much left to do here.
6. Advent. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law make doing advent with the kids so easy, so this one is more for me to remember to do my own advent devotionals each day! As I wrote last week, I have to make time for focusing on Jesus at Christmas, or I start to resent all the Christmas to-do's instead of celebrating the joy of His birth.
Notice one thing that is not on the list is shopping! I am very happy to have all of that done early this year, but if you are still struggling for some gift ideas, I've got a post on Tommy Nelson idea with gift ideas for boys that will last! Read and tell me what you think.
What do you have left to do before Christmas?
Note: I received a copy of Christmas Blessings for free from Tommy Nelson in exchange for a review. This is my honest opinion.
The kids have been asking me every day how many days are left until Christmas. I have to say, it brings back memories of my childhood, when it felt like Christmas would take so long to arrive. The anticipation was almost too much! Ah, childhood. We made paper chains the other day for the countdown, so I haven't had to answer the questions as often.
I've mentioned before how Christmas is usually filled with more stress than joy for me as an adult, but this year feels different. After six years of Christmas as a mom, nine years of Christmas as a married lady, this year I finally feel like I'm figuring it out.
Being due with our fifth baby so close to the Christmas season definitely has had something to do with it I think. Not only did I get started on Christmas to-do's earlier, but I have overall put less pressure one myself to do everything this year, and I feel the difference. So, I have to write down what is working for me, so hopefully repeating it next year will bring about the same results of less stress, more joy!
Buy presents early.
I bought all of the presents early this year because I wanted to finish all my shopping before Georgiana was born. I don't think I realized how much stress present shopping causes me when I save it for December. It has been so nice to not be out and about so much so far this year, and I feel less stressed about finances since most of the purchases are already made.
Do all the Christmasy things as soon as I feel like it.
I used to feel like I had to save all the Christmas activities until December, and that they had to be made into a big production. This year I am spacing things out a little more and doing all the Christmas things as the mood strikes. Example: Christmas cookies. If I feel like baking Christmas cookies with the kids early in December, we'll just bake whenever the mood strikes and freeze them for later. If we feel like wrapping presents and listening to Christmas music in November, why not? It's more fun to do Christmasy things when we feel like it, instead of "saving" the Christmas fun to the point of procrastination and then getting stressed out when we have to squeeze it all in.
Take the family picture early.
I'm continuing my strategy of taking a family Christmas picture before our actual Christmas gatherings. If I get everyone dressed up in their Christmas clothes and get some good pictures on a low-stress day, then I don't feel like I have to try to wrangle everyone together for a family picture on days when we are actually going somewhere. I can just enjoy being present and not worry about it, since I know we already got a good picture of the family at Christmas.
Cut out the non-essentials.
I don't know why it took me so long to realize that I don't have to do all the Christmas things. I'm learning to be a little more particular about what we choose to participate in at Christmas time, because it's a lot easier for me to enjoy the Christmas season if we have more days when we aren't doing anything specific. When we all have more room to breathe, the Christmas fun happens more naturally, and it's a lot less stressful on me.
I also think one of the reasons I have had a hard time enjoying Christmas is because I rush around so much, trying to make everything perfect, and I don't allow myself to have time to just relax and reflect on why we are celebrating in the first place. Having a newborn this year has given me the perfect excuse not to do things. I am enjoying Christmas so much more since deciding to say no and allowing myself enough mental rest to reflect on our Savior. Which brings me to my last point.
Prioritize Advent.
It's tragic really, how often I let this get overlooked in previous years in favor of all the more commercial aspects of Christmas. I think having the shopping done before the season started has really given me the space I needed to focus less on things and more on our Savior. He is the reason our family celebrates Christmas in the first place, after all.
I am doing this advent devotional, and listening to my favorite Christ-focused Christmas songs, and I've been spending a lot of time reflecting on why He came (to seek and save sinners) and my part in that (the great commission). Of course I did advent stuff in years past, but I think the fact that so much of my other Christmas prep is already done this year has left me more space to keep advent in the "because I want to category", instead of the "I have to do this or my kids won't remember that Christmas is about Jesus" category. I am convicted that I even let the Lord get relegated to the "have to" category during Christmas. If other things have to take a backseat for our family to have the time and space it takes to focus on Jesus, well, that's what we'll do! It's as it should be, even especially at Christmas time.
As I've guarded my time a little more this year, and given more of it to the Lord, I feel the joy that I've been missing in years past coming back a little. It makes sense. He is the only true source of Christmas joy, after all. Everything else ends up being a disappointment eventually, but in the gift of Jesus's birth and sacrifice for us - that's where the joy is.
And it only took me nine Christmases as an adult to figure that out.
Do you do anything to guard your time at Christmas? How do you make sure the focus stays on Jesus during Christmas season?
I feel like I should preface this post by saying that many of my days alone with the five kids so far have ended with Derek coming home right as I'm about to pull my hair out, and me escaping to wash my hair - even if it doesn't need washed - just to have a break.
But yesterday, it wasn't like that. We had the most peaceful day that we've had, not just since adding our sweet Georgie, but in months. I'm trying to go back over it in my head to figure out the "secret", so I can repeat it, if that were possible.
The morning went pretty normally, with the kids waking up before me. Clarice climbed under the covers with me at some point, and I feel like I remember her reading a book in my sleepy haze. After drifting in and out for a half hour, I finally got out of bed and got ready for the day. The kids woke up Georgie because they went into her nursery to take care of her (which wasn't as tragic as it sounds, because I heard her stirring anyway). I fed the kids oatmeal, I fed Georgie, and wrapped her into our Solly wrap.
She fell asleep, so I pulled out the play dough (which I've been meaning to do for the last two weeks), and read to the kids while they created things. We read about Christopher Columbus. We read two chapters of Dr. Doolittle. We were on a roll, so I pulled out the next catechism question, and we worked on a memory verse, and we read the Christmas story from Luke (I figure if we read it every day for the next month, maybe they'll inadvertently memorize it). And nobody cried (at least not until we were done with all our read-alouds).
I made lunch and got the kids down for a nap in the nick of time before Georgie got hungry. I fed her and then practiced some reading with Wyatt while she slept on my lap. I snuck her onto the couch and she stayed asleep, so I edited some of the pictures we had taken of her first two weeks.
Kids got up. Pulled out the play dough again, and they entertained themselves for another hour while I chopped up potatoes for dinner. I made dinner! On my own! Potato soup was bubbling on the stove by the time Derek walked through the door.
I still can't figure out what made it go right. But it's nice that it happened on Thanksgiving week, because I suspect it had more to do with my attitude than with the logistics of the day. I watched this video, and while I'm mulling over some of it, what I do think is true is that gratitude makes all the difference in the level of happiness we feel. When things start to feel overwhelming or frustrating, it is usually about the same time that I forget to feel grateful. And when things go relatively smoothly it seems that it is usually because I decide to make the most of the day with my sweet children, from a heart of gratitude, instead of letting things just happen to us.
"Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever." Psalm 118:1
I had this verse on my chalkboard all last year, but it is sad that I didn't let it sink into my heart a little more. There is a reason Scripture tells us to "in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
There is so much for which to give thanks - each day I have to spend with these sweet children, each day my wonderful husband comes home to me - it's such a blessing. Somehow, having Georgie come at this time of year seems really appropriate, because having her here has reminded me that God didn't have to give me any of this. But He did, and I am so grateful. I think the Lord let today go so well to remind me what it looks like to slow down and give thanks, to marinate in that gratitude a little bit more. (Marinate - ha! Because it's Thanksgiving week? Turkey? Oh, never mind.)
My hope is that I'll remember to be grateful on the rough days too, long after this Thanksgiving week is past.
On Thursday I'll join the rest of the country in "giving thanks" - giving thanks to God for all the blessings He's given our family, and the way He has guided our nation so that we even celebrate this holiday in the first place, and for the greatest gift He gave by giving us His Son to save us. But I want to carry that gratitude on into the craziness of December and through the New Year too. And I wish the same for you, friends! Because there is so much to be grateful for when we remember to slow down and look, and giving thanks "in everything" can change a lot.
Happy Thanksgiving Week!
I have no big plans for the day, aside from homeschool and working on my Christmas card list (Christmas time and this baby's arrival are looming). I will probably do something a bit more elaborate for dinner, and by that I mean I'll spend the 45 minutes it takes to cut up potatoes for potato soup. It's a potato soup kind of day.
But for now, it's quiet, and I'm hunkering down in my room, trying to figure out what to write today. I was going to write about more frivolous things, but there are a few deeper thoughts left in the month after all. Snow always puts me in a reflective mood, and this morning I'm reflecting on keeping a good balance between memory-keeping and memory-making.
Much has been said about how obsessed we all are with getting the perfect picture to share on social media, and viewing our lives through the lens of our phone instead of the lenses of our eyes. I'm not sure I'm going to go that route with this post, because I've written this month already about how it's hard for me to even remember certain events without some documentation. I am not gifted with an impeccable memory for times and places and events, so writing something down or snapping a picture keeps these things from being lost to me forever. I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting to document the past, and indeed I think it's important. It's most important I think so we don't forget what God has done. How far He has brought us, and how He has worked in our lives and grown our character up to the present moment.
However, I think there is a certain danger in getting too caught up in the past. How we've "always" done things. How things "used to be".
Because the more years behind you the more you realize that things never stay exactly the same.
And that statement sounds wistful and sad somehow, but I don't really think it has to be. Because would we really even want things to stay the same forever? Would we want to never move to the next stage of life, to never watch our babies get bigger and develop their personalities, to never develop new traditions, try something new, grow?
There is room for a bit of sentimentality about the past I think, as long as we don't get stuck in our reminiscing about "the good ole days". Because these days that we're in right now, these very present moments, are good too. They drift on by, and tomorrow will be a memory before we even realize it. And I think it's good to embrace the way things change, to hold on to our memories while making fresh, different ones in the present moment, and not to resent the fact that things aren't always "the same". Because really, how boring would things get if they always were?
My goal I think, in all this memory-keeping, is to remember all that God has done for me this far, but not so I can wish for the way things used to be. I want to remember His faithfulness and gifts in the past so my eyes are wide open for His faithfulness and gifts that are still in the future. And when I keep that balance between the memory-keeping and the memory-making yet to be done, I think it's easier to live fully in the blessings of right now, and to be grateful for them.
Today I want to talk about a practical aspect of memory-keeping, namely, how I go about organizing photos.
First, I feel like I should clarify that I am not actually very good at this. I have plenty of photos stored on my computer, and I have something of an organization system, but there is much room for improvement. Still, I thought I'd share what I do and ask how you all go about organizing photos!
Organizing Digital Photos
For my digital photos, I try to keep the photos I take organized in folders by year and month. So I'll have a folder for 2017, and in that folder I'll have a folder for each month. In recent years I've organized them even further and I try to split each month into separate "event" folders - for example, in my September 2017 folder I have folders for "Autumn Hike", "Clarice's Birthday", "34 Weeks Pregnant", etc. I think this helps me find the photos I'm looking for a little easier, assuming I can remember the year/month of the event - which I usually can, because I somehow am able to remember pictures I take even better than the real-life events. This is one reason why taking photos is so important to me! It helps me remember the different fun things we did together.
My recent project - and by recent I mean the project I've been working on over the last year and a half - is going through all these folders and deleting the photos that were no good. In the past, I've gotten lazy and just dumped photos into a folder without editing them or deleting the throw-aways, so I'm trying to clear out some of the photo clutter. I am in the process of creating a folder for each year of my "favorite" photos, the ones that I would actually like to get printed up (this is difficult because there are so many).
Which leads to the next aspect of organizing my photos...
Organizing Printed Photos
I am really struggling with figuring out how to organize my printed photos. I have albums from our early years of marriage and Wyatt's first couple of years, but I quickly realized that I'm not going to have enough room in my house to store albums of all our family photos. So what to do? Like I said, I have a ton of photos that I hope to eventually get printed. I need to narrow them down further, but then what?
I'm considering just buying cute-looking boxes to hold each year of photos - I can fit a lot more prints into a box than in albums. However, I'm also aware that this is a messier option and not as fun as an album to look through, so I'm still debating on what to do. It's going to take me a while to get caught up on printing photos, so I guess I have time to figure it out!
So how do you all organize your photos? Do you have any sort of system? Are you better than I am at getting them printed up? Give me your tips!
Like Disney World. This last year everyone and their mother seemed to be going to Disney World, and I started to wonder if my kids would be deprived of something important if we never make it there.
Over the last few months though, my attitude has started to change on this a bit. I still think memories are important, and I work toward trying to give my children good memories. But I think the more I slow down and remember my own childhood, the more I realize that a happy childhood doesn't have to be made of big memorable moments. Some of my favorite memories with my mom and dad were just times when we did ordinary things together.
When you are a kid, having mom and dad join in with your activities makes them so much more fun.
I vividly remember when I was in elementary school, my mom and dad joined in with our game of hide and seek one day. But instead of just hiding, they changed up the game. If it was mom's turn to hide, she would take each of us kids and tuck us away in different spots throughout the house...and then my dad had to be the one to find us! They came up with the best hiding spots, places that we kids couldn't possibly reach by ourselves. My dad hid me on the top shelf of the closet. My mom hid us behind the TV stand. It was so hard not to giggle when I knew I was getting close to being found.
I try to think about things like that when I'm considering how to make good memories for my kids...because as fun as a trip to Disney World is, things like hide-and-seek can be just as memorable, and just as fun. (And these things are free.)
I was thinking about this yesterday. The little three were down for a nap (and they were actually sleeping, which is rare these days), and Derek and I were on the couch reading while Wyatt worked with his Legos. He sat over there, silently laboring over his Lego boat. He asked me to come help him figure out how to make it into the shape he wanted, and I have to tell you right now, my Lego skills leave much to be desired. After doing what I could, I mentioned that we might have to ask Daddy to come help us figure it out, because he is better at Legos than me.
I started googling how to make a boat out of Legos, and Derek came over to see what I found. He and Wyatt declared the plans I found to be "boring", and Derek sat down with Wyatt and started to sort through the Legos. Wyatt bounced in his seat as Derek started helping him form the base of the boat.
"Wow, that's perfect! Dad, you're really smart at Legos!"
They built a pretty impressive boat together, complete with a hook to haul things out of the water and a movable ramp. Wyatt declared it a "rescue boat", and he's been carrying it around with him ever since.
I stood their in the kitchen and watched my husband and oldest son building a boat together, and I just thought, this is it. This is what makes a happy childhood. It's not these big, extravagant offerings that I so often worry that our kids will not experience. (Because hello, we have five kids. Disney World vacations are likely not in our future, at least not anytime soon).
No, kids need far less than we often think to be happy. It's these little moments, when we parents take a minute to slow down and step into our kids' worlds. To show them our love by giving them our time and attention in the little things. To make an ordinary game, an ordinary interest that much more exciting because we're willing to join in. It's enough to make a child's day. Maybe even enough to make their whole childhood.
If you are expecting this list to be populated with all the "children's classics", think again, my friends! When I was in elementary school I mostly read a few series that captured my attention at the time. I don't think they'd be considered great works of children's literature, but they did get me reading! Just for fun, today I thought I'd share a few of the book series I remember reading as a kid.
The Saddle Club Series - These are some of the first books I remember being interested in, ever. I think what drew me in was not so much the stories, but the collectible cards that came with each book. Not to mention that I met my closest elementary school friend because she was also reading the Saddle Club series. They were basically just stories about girls and their horses, and I remember very little of them now. Like I said, I was in it for the cards.
American Girl Series - Did anyone in my generation not read one of the American Girl book series? My favorite was always Felicity, because my favorite era of American History was the Revolutionary period, even back then.
Encyclopedia Brown - I used to love these books! Each book had multiple stories - mysteries with clues! And it wouldn't tell you the answer at the end, you had to guess who you thought "did it" and turn to the back of the book to find out if you were right. I was always so proud of myself when I picked the right culprit.
Grandma's Attic - Okay, this one is sort of a classic. I mostly remember whichever book is the one where they pull an old quilt out of the attic, and each patch on the quilt has a different story. Really cute stories.
Grandma's Attic - Okay, this one is sort of a classic. I mostly remember whichever book is the one where they pull an old quilt out of the attic, and each patch on the quilt has a different story. Really cute stories.
American Adventure Series - I'm actually relieved to see you can still buy these! Around the time we started homeschooling, my mom bought a couple of these American History books and assigned done of them to me for school. I didn't get too excited about that one, but about a year down the road I got a hold of a book a little further in the series. I was hooked. Each book in the series follows the children of the characters in the previous book, so it's like one long family story down through all the eras of American History. I used to save up my own money and march into the Christian bookstore with my $4 to buy the next book in the series. Until a friend started loaning me the books, which I kind of regret now. I wish I had kept buying them so I could have completed the series. The ones I did buy are in a box under Gwen's bed, waiting for my children to get old enough to read them.
What did you like to read in elementary school?
My siblings are twins and are two years younger than me. We had a lot of fun growing up, being so close in age. I remember so many different games we came up with, and we would play with each other for hours. We had pretty good relationships with each other, and I loved having both a brother and a sister.
I think when we are young (especially us girls), it's easy to think that you get to plan your whole life out. When I was in middle school, I decided I wanted to get married at 22 (my mom's marriage age), wait two or three years to have babies, then have three kids (because it seemed to work for my family of origin). I even had names picked out (because of course my husband would love every name that I did).
If you have been following this blog for a while, you know that none of that worked out like I thought it would!
So to answer a question from my blog buddy Natalie, I didn't always want a "big" family (unless you consider three kids "big", which I don't).
I continued on with my well-planned-out life, and when I was 19 years old and in dental hygiene college I read a book called "America Alone" by Mark Steyn. I can say with certainty that this was the point when I started to think about family size a little differently.
This book was not necessarily about family size, it was about international politics, but it did address the history and current state of birth rates in different countries. In the book, Steyn presents evidence that countries or cultures that have higher birth rates tend to accomplish more in the world, and those that have anemic birth rates tend to go into decline.
This was a shifting point for me, because for the first time it occurred to me that maybe choosing how many children to have isn't a decision that should be merely based on personal preference or some arbitrary "ideal". It introduced to me the idea that having children is a way to pass something on, and if there are more children in the family, there is more of a chance to pass it on to more people. As a strong believer in Christ, that idea was interesting to me, because I want to pass on my faith to my children, and for them to pass it on to their children. For the first time I thought about having four kids instead of just three.
I think the Lord used that unexpected book to get me thinking in a new direction, because a year later Derek and I got married, and a year later we went off birth control because of our pro-life convictions. Still, I clung to the idea that I could control everything in my life, including the timing and size of my family. This was my decision, and I didn't think about God's opinion about my family much at all.
But God wasn't finished working on my heart, and I was rudely awakened to the fact that maybe I wasn't in control of this. Things weren't working quite right after I went off the pill, and for the first time it occurred to me that maybe getting pregnant isn't as simple as I thought.
We went through about eleven months of waiting for things to get back to normal, and I very quickly went from thinking we'd wait to try to get pregnant to being desperate to have a baby. This was what God used to turn me toward what He wanted for our family, instead of just what I wanted. This is what He used to change my view of children from something to check off my list, to viewing them as a true blessing that He was in charge of giving.
Fast forward a few years later, and instead of the two or four Derek and I said we originally wanted, we are expecting our fifth baby. Until about two years ago, the idea of five never even entered my head - but I credit this baby completely to God working in our hearts and family. After we had Clarice there was just that nudge from the Holy Spirit to wait, to not do anything permanent quite yet, and we wouldn't have been listening at all if not for all those years of God slowly changing my attitude on children. We would have cut things short long ago if God hadn't used our trouble getting pregnant to teach me to seek His will for our family, not just my own. He used a stressful time in my life of dealing with sub-par fertility to actually bring me more babies than I would have otherwise! Looking back now, I'm amazed at how gentle He was with me. He gave me just the right resources and circumstances at the right times to change my heart.
So here we are, having a "big" family. (I can probably say "big" without quotation marks now - it's just that the Duggars and Bates kind of redefined "big" for me.) Derek and I never really planned this out, but looking at our five babies (even the one still in my belly), we really cannot imagine not having them here. God has been really gracious to us, and He gave us what we didn't know we needed.
So, to finish answering Natalie's question, my favorite part of having a big family...well, they are all running around, laughing as I type this, and the joy is pretty infectious! (Of course, there are also times of everyone crying, but let's just skip over that.) I think my favorite part of having a big family is those moments when they are all gathered around me for school or Bible time, and we are talking about something really important, and I know that this is it. This is what God made me for, and these children are one of the only things I will do on this earth that will really last...and He trusted me with five of them.
It's a powerful thought, and it's humbling, and it makes me want to cry for the responsibility and privilege of it. He's been really good to me, and I see that nowhere more clearly than in these little faces that look back at me every day.
P.S. If you asked Derek his version of the story, he'd have a very different one than mine...but I saw how he kept his heart open to what the Lord might have for us over the years too. There is a reason God sent us each other, and these five kids are good proof!
P.P.S. If you have any "getting to know you" questions for me, now's the time! It'll help me come up with material for the last two weeks of my 31 Day Writing Challenge!
I listen to a lot of homeschool and book-related podcasts, and a recurring theme seems to be the question "How do you turn your kids into readers?" A lot has been said on the subject, most of it quite a bit more scholarly than what I am sharing here. But whenever I hear this question come up, I start to think about my own childhood. What made me love books? What turned me into a reader?
I'm sure much of it has to do with some of those "right" things parents are supposed to do. My mom always had an abundance of books around, and I used to love digging through the boxes of books she had hidden away in our basement. I saw my parents reading frequently - usually when I came upstairs in the morning, my mom would be sitting at the table with a cup of tea, her Bible and devotional book stacked neatly next to her on the table (I could tell she had read God's Word first), and her nose in a book. My dad would bring books when he knew we would have lots of leisure time (like on vacation), and it was fun to see him get involved in a good story.
But one of my best book memories from my childhood is when my mom told me one evening that tonight was going to be a "reading night".
I didn't know what a reading night was, but I laid awake in bed as slowly all the lights in the house went out. My brother and sister were in bed, even my dad was in bed, when my mom snuck stealthily into my room and told me to come with her.
We went up to the kitchen, and she pulled out two mugs and made us some tea. She pulled out a Hershey's chocolate bar and gave me half. We went to the living room and settled onto the couches with our books. I drank my peppermint tea and savored my chocolate as we each read a chapter of our books.
Once I was finished with my chapter, I put my book down and looked up to my mom grinning at me. "What happened in your chapter?" she asked. And I told her all about what I had read (I don't remember the book, but I am willing to bet it was a Nancy Drew mystery). We discussed my favorite parts of the book so far, and what I thought was going to happen. Then she told me about her book, and what was happening in her story.
We continued our occasional reading nights all through my middle school and high school years. I was the oldest, so I got to start reading night first, but I know my mom did reading nights with my siblings too.
Whenever the question comes up of how to make your kids into readers, my mom's reading nights always pop back into my brain. I can't pin down exactly what made me a reader, but I can pin down those reading nights as one of the things that made reading fun.
It's a tradition I fully intend to pass down. I'm counting the days until my kids are big enough to be reading chapter books, and I can mysteriously tell them that tonight is going to be a reading night.
I never said these memory posts were all going to be serious, did I?
Back When I Was A Blonde: Birth-Two Years Old
Yes, my friends, despite being solidly in the brunette camp now, when I was a toddler I was blonde. A picture in case you don't believe me:
When people wonder where my kids got their blonde baby hair, I can say for certain that it was from me. I don't remember what it was like being a blonde. Did I have more fun back then?
The Brunette Phase: Three Years Old-10 Years Old
My hair changed rather suddenly to a light brunette when I was three years old. It still changed to blonde in the summer when the sun would bleach it during all those hours outside, until I was in first or second grade - then I was solidly a brunette, and it's only gotten darker since then.
The Frizzy Phase: 11 Years Old-14 Years Old
Ah, puberty. That was a rough hair time for me. Something about the hormones made my hair want to try to turn curly, but it wasn't quite succeeding - I ended up with a semi-wavy frizzy mass. I am quite thankful for my mom during this period, who tried to help my hair situations with different anti-frizz products she would buy for me. But my hair just refused to decide if it was going to be semi-wavy, or sort of straight, or full-on curly, so it was a confusing time.
The Curly Phase: 14 Years Old-16 Years Old
My hair finally curled up enough for it to actually look like it was on purpose, and we found some decent products. Still, I had a hard time accepting my wavy/curly hair. The preferred hair style in the culture at that time was definitely sleek and straight, and my hair was just...not. I always felt like it was a little out-of-control, and it was hard to get my curls to look right because they were still half in the "wavy" category. (I'm still not sure how to deal with my curly hair au natural, to be honest).
The Straightening Phase: 16 Years-20 Years Old
I finally got a hair straightener and started using it more regularly. I found at this time that I liked my day three hair the best. The first day I washed and straightened it, it would still be on the frizzy side (I'd try to wash it on days we weren't going anywhere). The second day, the frizz had calmed down some. By the third day it actually looked pretty smooth! But by then it was time to wash it again. I wrestled with my hair in this manner until my 20's.
The I've-Got-It-Figured-Out Phase: 20 Years Old-Present
I got married and started working at a real job (and hence earning my own grown-up paycheck) at 20 - which gave me a lot more wiggle room to try out different products. And what do you know, I finally found THE product that would make my hair cooperate! Sexy Straight Hair (that's what the product was called). I even had the courage to try growing my hair long once I found this lifesaver.
It didn't last long, I think I'm more of a bob kind of girl.
I eventually switched to a Chi straightener (game-changer) with the Chi Shine Infusion Spray (which is pretty similar to the product above, just easier to find), and that's what I use today.
I do have one regret about the different stages of my hair up to now, and that is the fact that I have never figured out how to wear my hair curly and like it. I am not sure if it is because of the semi-traumatic experience of having my hair go rogue at a stage when everything else was changing too (oh, puberty), or if I internalized too much of the straight-hair-is-better message of that time when my hair was changing, or if I have just never found the product that would make my curly hair manageable enough to suit me.
But I do wish I could have figured out how to make it work and love it, because I would love to be an example to my daughters in that way - I'd love to teach them to embrace the unique beauty of their individual hair types, like my mom tried to do for me.
Maybe that will be the next stage of my "hair evolution" - The I-Finally-Get-My-Curls Phase.
Do any of you have wavy/curly hair? What products do you use? Did you ever figure out how to tame the curls, or do I just need to learn to go with the curly-hair flow?
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