The Future Occupation of Blossom4

I'm thinking that Blossom4 is going to grow up to be a Trick Rider.  That's what I used to want to be when I was a girl. 

I love how creative little ones can be! 

Have a terrific weekend!

Let us put God first

I was reading a post on www.myjoyfilledlife.com regarding making God the priority of your homeschool.  This quote is wonderful:

 

"If you don’t put God first in your homeschool,

if you don’t teach your children about God,

then you have failed."

 

That's pretty hard core, but I appreciate that kind of honesty.  Plus, reading the entire post let me see that this quote came from a seasoned homeschooler.  The beauty of this quote is that you can remove "homeschool" from the quote and insert "parenting."

 

Many Christian moms are borderline obsessed with having more children, yet they've not mastered the most basic building block of Christian motherhood - their part in their child's Christian education. 

 

You are a disciple maker - literally. 

 

This child came into the world by your body and now you have a heavy responsibility to make a disciple of her (or him). 

 

 

At the end of the day, what will you have done to that end?

 

Let us put God first.

What Love Is...

This is love.

I got to spend the weekend at my parents' house with the girlies.  My Mom said, "What do YOU want for supper?"  I wanted her egg rolls, except she can't eat deep friend food, so I gave another answer.  Lo and behold, guess what she made anyway. 

 

Yep, EGG ROLLS.  They are like no other.  (Egg rolls at a Chinese Restaurant don't even deserve the name of egg roll, for your information.) 

And, they're such a labor of love. 

Chop all the veggies and chicken,

stir-fry them,

roll each egg roll by hand

and fry til blissful deliciousness. 

 

I ate four.  I was only sorry I couldn't stuff any more in my guts. 

 

So, yep, that's love.  Egg rolls.

A Friday Thought

An inspiring quote I stumbled upon the other day:

"The work will wait while you show the child the rainbow,
but the rainbow won't wait while you do the work."
Patricia Clafford

Cabin Entertainment

We got to get away at the cabin for a few days recently.  Upon arrival, we had a slight hiccup with the stovepipe, prompting us to have a colder first night than usual AND prompting a trip to the hardware store in a town over the mountain on the following day.  I told the girlies it was an adventure and they just rolled with the punches, I'm glad to say.  The Blossoms were so glad we had to go to the hardware store, because that meant they got to attend the Flaming Foliage Festival parade of queens.  This is monumental, in fact, because Blossom1's 4-H leader won Fair Queen this year and is something of a local celebrity to the Blossoms.  Additionally, if you know the Queen, you get extra candy, just sayin'. 

Aside from the small stash of odd and ends of toys that I have stowed at the cabin, I don't pack much in the way of entertainment.  That is, unless you consider countless e-books as entertainment, then, I pack uber heavy (in the form of a Kindle Fire).  Otherwise, the Blossoms entertain themselves.  (There's woods, water and fire, what more do you need?)  This long weekend included swiping some mountain family kindling to repurpose into "The Hammersley Queen," a vessel fashioned exclusively for sailing the spring waters of our nearby creek. 

 

Her trusty captain, Blossom1, worked diligently and was rewarded with a seaworthy vessel. 

 

 

 

Blossom2 discovered a deer jawbone while the whole family was hauling wood for the winter cabin stash.  She derived great pleasure from carefully removing the teeth from the jawbone to add to their collection/museum.  Yes, there are now deer teeth in my house.  It's a scary thing that I'm mostly ok with that.

Blossom3 decided to make her scrap wood into a penguin, in honor of Blossom4's favorite animal.  Mommy thought his beak was cool, though it hadn't made it on him yet in this pic. 

Blossom4 was content to climb on the picnic table and lose everyone's nails (much to Mommy's chagrin) or steal the hammer and run.

While Daddy took Blossom1 and Blossom2 on a (long, locational-skill sharpening) hike, I did a little walking with Blossom3 and Blossom4.  Autumn light is a magical thing, in my opinion.   If it's just a glimpse of the beautiful light that exists, it makes me think that light in Heaven must be breathtaking.  (See Reepiceep's experience with liquid light in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader for more inspiring thoughts on light.)

Some of my time with the "little Blossoms" included teaching Blossom4 how to throw sticks and stones into the creek.  She loved it!   She kept using the sign for "more" and "again!"