A Day to Remember

We are officially on fall break! Hallelujah!

In December of last year, a brother in the LORD asked me what my plans were for 2011. I sweetly-as-I-could  said “no big plans so far.” In my head I was thinking, “All I have planned so far is stupid doctor’s appointments.” (I can usually have more sophisticated thoughts but that wasn’t long after we lost Klarissa and I just didn’t feel like it.) He went on to talk about how his goal was to bless his kids during the year – he used the words “to make their ceiling his floor.” Maybe that phrasing is common in some circles but it was new to me.

I am so tired of doctor’s appointments. I’ll be escorting two to the doctor this week. Maybe it will be. . .fun?

So anyway, Saturday, I decided to make it a bless-the-kids day. Dad was away and I didn’t want to do anything spectacular, so we spent most of the day hanging out at the house and having some much needed downtime. It was so fun. When they came to tell me their stories, I sat and listened. (As a homeschooling mom, I can’t always do that. As much as they love school, they’d rather tell a story than do math any day or hour! LOL!)

Isaac got some time with the camera and the piano. He also found the soldering iron and finished his speaker project in the shop. He took another beautiful flower picture and I sat and marveled at the variety of his interests and wondered what plans God has for him.

I couldn’t think of any projects at home Hannah wanted to do, so we went to a yard sale with my only motive as blessing Hannah. She scored with a $1 sweater she liked that fit over her cast! I found a wall hanging, two cheap benches for my porch and a jacket for Isaac. It ended up blessing me greatly.

We then stopped and bought a mum. I got the color the girls wanted. I resisted the urge to tell them it was the color of throw-up. LOL! (I really need to work on the language in my head!) We also got some super-cheap-but-soon-to-be-frozen flowers that we planted. Now that the mums and flowers are planted, I know we got the perfect colors.

Samuel spent some time with Spinach and Zucchini, his two slithery snake friends. (Lettuce got away in the shop.) I called him to get the grasshopper that came in with my watering can, and he said, “Hi there, Mr. Grasshopper, you’re about to food for my snake.” He also hung several pictures for me, one for himself, sanded a bed for me, and sanded down a very nice walking stick. That boy is a go-getter.

Faith got to finish her apple project for school. It was originally supposed to be a wreath decorated with dehydrated apples, but she had hinted that it would be neat to make it into an edible necklace. She divided them into three necklaces so she could share J

I played a little baseball with Justin and read him a few books. At this age, I start to marvel at how much they’ve learned in just a few short years. Last week’s speech evaluation showed 53 speech errors and a very low percentile ranking. I’ve already done this long road once, and it’s a little daunting to be doing it all over again. It was nice to pause and reflect and see how far we’ve come.

Samuel made a treasure hunt and gave Justin his duck call. Justin’s been quacking with it for a few days, but now it’s officially his. He had lots of fun hiding and waiting for me to ask, “Where’s that duck? I think I hear a duck!”

And of course, there was a lot of talking and playing and laundry in between. Everyone had a good day.

When Daddy got home, we had to convince him we missed him.

Now, how to make those two doctor appointments this week feel like a blessing. . . .hmmm . . . .