Wordless Wednesday - Seven! (of a Different Sort)

Do you like my shirt?!

Joining our family in late August!

Wordless Wednesday - Seven!

Then:

Now!

My sweet, always smiling Joel celebrated 7 years last week!

Milestone!

7 Quick Takes Friday - Volume 14

I have some wonderfully exciting news!  See this adorable couple here?

That's my sister and her awesome husband.  They're celebrating their 2nd wedding anniversary this month, and they are expecting their first baby this summer!!  I am over the moon with joy and excitement for them!  Because of a few health struggles each of them has had, they actually didn't think pregnancy was at all possible... but the Lord had other plans!  It's such a neat feeling to watch my little sister go through the transformation into mommy.  I can't wait to meet my new niece or nephew!

We have hit birthday season at our house.  Last month, Isaac turned 11!  That's weird, to think he's only 2 years away from teen years!  *gulp*  Here was my sweet little boy back when he was little...

Here he is now!  He's exactly 5 feet tall now.  By next year, he might be my height!

Please excuse the lollipop stick hanging out of his mouth!

In the next two months, we have four more birthdays coming up!  Excitement abounds!

I've always heard stories of younger members of larger families learning to read on their own, basically through just absorbing what their siblings were being taught... and I am AH-MAZED to announce that Nathan (almost 5) is one of those examples!  We've been doing basic phonics work (Explode the Code Get Ready for the Code books), and he plays Reading Eggs once a day, but I have not done any formal "this is how you sound out words" type of instruction with him at all.  I almost cried when one day a few weeks ago he came to me while I was cooking dinner, asked me to sit on the floor with him, and read me a Bob Book... one that hasn't been read outloud to him, ever.  He sounded out each word, only needing help with "and".  Totally out of the blue! He then read me three more! I was so proud!  Of course, I still plan on doing formal instruction with him, but he's definitely got a head start and a good foundation.  I'm still in shock!

We passed another awesome milestone in our house - Judah is officially potty trained!  Phew!  I think I've expressed before how much I dread potty training.  It was surprisingly easy with Judah, though.  I had tried a few months ago and only got frustrated because he just wasn't getting it.  Waiting those few months made all the difference!  In the month that he's made the official switch to underwear (I don't use pullups), he's had maybe 6 accidents total?  It is SO nice having only one child in diapers!  And just because I adore this picture of him, here's the little man:

 

I have to recommend a wonderful book - it's called "Loving the Little Years" by Rachel Jankovic.  It has blessed me so much through it's encouragement and very practical helps for dealing with all of these little people God has placed in my charge.  I have been kind of burned out on Christian motherhood-themed books, because often they either aren't very helpful, or can almost be discouraging in the "picture perfect mother" ideal they present.  "Loving the Little Years" is none of those!  I walked away from it feeling refreshed and with new ideas and insights!  I can't recommend it enough!

To get a feel for her heart, and enjoy some wonderful encouragement, be sure to watch her series "Motherhood and Work" - there are 4 in total, all are less than 10 minutes long, and are chock-full of wisdom!

• The Vocation of Motherhood
• The Conservative Tendency to Over-Romanticize Motherhood (I love this one!)
• Cleaning House and Cleaning Hearts
• Too Many Straws in my Milkshake (I love her simple statement here: "Just pour!"  I have to admit, I had never, ever thought of it that way!)

I've posted a few of the pictures we had done as a family over Thanksgiving, but I'll go ahead and share a few more.  I love the ways these came out!

Yes, they had a portrait done by a disc golf basket.  Very appropriate!

All of us with my parents, and my sister and brother-in-law!  I love this picture!

A little while ago I was reading in Romans and a verse stuck out to me (I love how that happens).  I had to mull on it a bit before I shared my thoughts about it, but I think I've gotten them coherent enough now.

Romans 1 talks all about those people... you know, the lost ones.  The ones that have no excuse but still harden their hearts to God?  The one I used to be but am not anymore. (Thanks be to God and His merciful grace!) Right?  I always thought that, until verse 21 stuck out to me:

For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Wait, they knew God?  What was it that caused their heart to be darkened?  They did not honor Him as God, or give thanks.  That stopped me in my tracks!  How many times do I go through my day to day life, not only not giving thanks, but even grumbling about various minor inconveniences?! How many times to I allow my thoughts to give into worry, instead of honoring Him as God and trusting in His sovereignty?!  I know God.  I believe His word. There is no denying there is an all-powerful, mighty God!  Look at His creation, it gives amazing, beautiful evidence of Him!  Just like Romans says!  But, if I am not honoring Him as God, nor giving thanks to Him... is my heart becoming foolish and darkened?

These thoughts have given me a whole new perspective on the discipline of giving thanks, and of simple faith.  I'm not trying to get into anything deeply theological (I am hardly qualified!), but I did want to share how the Spirit worked in my heart through those verses.  Have you stopped and given thanks to Him today?  Are there ways that you are allowing fear to shove out faith, or even worse, anger to shove out His love?  It's worth a little bit of thought!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and is off to a blessed new year!  Thanks for stopping by!

Top Ten Posts of 2011

Here are the top most read posts during 2011!

#10 - It Only Took 2 Weeks (this post is actually from 2010!  But apparently, it's pretty popular!  And yes, we still LOVE Sonlight!)

#9 - Our 2nd Annual Sonlight Box Day!

#8 - Not Back to School Blog Hop: School Rooms  (also from 2010)

#7 - Homeschool Assignment Sheets We still use these every week. They work perfectly for us!

#6 - "Not" Back to School Blog Hop: School Room Week (interesting to see the changes from the 2010 post!)

#5 - WFMW - Keeping a Boy Bathroom Clean

#4 - Solving the Shoe Dilemma (by the way, this has continued to work!  I rarely ever find shoes where they don't belong!)

#3 - TOS Crew Review - Brill Kids Little Reader (this was the only review that made the list, and it's interesting to me because it was not one of our favorites!)

#2 - Not-Back-to-School Blog Hop - 2011-2012 Curriculum Plans

and, the #1 most popular post of 2011....

#1 - She Wears Skirts - this continues to get hits every week! 

Thank you to all my readers for your support!

Treasures of November and December

Because November was a pretty busy month for me, I never got around to posting my favorite blog posts from that month!  So this month's treasures will include posts I found over the months of November and December combined.  Enjoy and be blessed!

Why Does the World Hate the Duggars? at Get Along Home

From Raising Homemakers:

•  Raising Daughters that will Raise the Next Generation
• The Beauty of Imperfection 

From Raising Arrows:

• How to Keep a Clean House and Homeschool, Too
• Help Children Learn to Listen in Church

When You Wonder if You Disappoint at holy experience

What I'm Never Going to Tell You at In the Heart of My Home

10 Ways NOT to Raise Your Toddler at Shine

When White Turns into Gold at home & harmony

Congratulations, You Married Mr. Right at pursuing titus 2

The 5 Best Toys of All Time at Wired

At What Cost?:  Social Media, Behave! Day 3 at Like a Warm Cup of Coffee

Preschoolers, List of Must-Haves at Educating Laytons

From The Better Mom:

• When Social Media Hurts Parenting
• Life-Giving Thoughts {What are we thinking?}
• Where God Meets You in Your Mess 

How to Break Your Child's Heart in Five Easy Steps at Jezamama

The Return of the Washerwoman at Traditional Christianity

Exchanging the Natural for the Unnatural at challies.com

How to Be an Amazing Mom Today in 3 Simple Steps at Inspired to Action

The Tyranny of Advice-Column Christianity at The Resurgance

10 Ways to Encourage Your Children at The Homeschool Classroom

To Mary... or To Martha?  The Pendulum Series Continues at Visionary Womanhood

Loving My Large Family at Large Family Mothering

Enjoying the Simplicity of Staying Home at passionate homemaking

It's All a Lie at A Wise Woman Builds Her Home

Motherhood & Work:  The Vocation of Motherhood at canonwired.com

An Open Letter to Suze Orman at Smockity Frocks

31 Days {Day 5}: It's OK at Bits and Pieces from My Life

From Our Family to Yours...

Happy New Year!

May it be filled with the overflowing love of the Lord!

Wordless Wednesday - Us

TOS Crew Review - World's Greatest Stories

"The World's Greatest Stories" are an award-winning series of dramatic audio CDs that tell the stories of the Bible, using the direct words of Scripture itself. Narrated by dramatic storyteller George W. Sarris, the Bible comes alive through his skill and passion.  Available in both NIV and KJV, there are 23 stories contained in 6 Volumes:

• The Prophets - The Blazing Furnace, The Handwriting on the Wall, Daniel in the Lions' Den, Elijah and the Prohets of Baal, and the Prophecy of Jonah
• The Life of Christ - The Real Story of Christmas, The Baptism and Temptation of Jesus, The Healing of the Blind Man, Things Jesus Said and Did, and The Real Story of Easter
• Beginnings - In the Beginning, A Lame Man in Lystra, A Jailer in Philippi, The Story of Ruth, and The Raising of Lazarus
• Joshua and Esther - The Battle of Jericho and The Book of Esther
• Joseph and His Brothers - Genesis 37:2-46:7 and 46:28-50:26
• Defeating Giants - David and Goliath, Naaman the Leper, Micaiah the Prophet and Jeoshaphat the King, The Sacrifice of Isaac, and Gideon and His 300 Men

(You can hear samples of each Volume here!)

For this review, I received a copy of The Prophets. We opened it up while we were heading for a little day trip about 2 hours from our house, and we finished listening to the whole thing (each CD is about an hour long), the kids BEGGED to hear it again!  They loved the voices and drama that were infused into the Bible stories.  I loved that it wasn't just a version of a story, it was straight, pure Scripture, presented in a way that captured my children's attention and really brought to life the emotion of every scene.

Each CD is only $7.95 and shipping is free if you order 6 or more, which, in my opinion, is a very reasonable price.  My children love audio stories to listen to in the car, at bedtime, or while doing chores, and The World's Greatest Stories are a wonderful way to pour pure Scripture into their hearts in a way that is engaging, exciting, and fun!  I definitely recommend them!

Be sure to see what other TOS Crew Members thought by checking out the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog!

Disclaimer:  I was given this product specifically for the purpose of reviewing here  on my blog as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. I received no other  compensation in regards to this review.

A Song for Saturday