This is a girl who loves her some piano. Poor Luke rarely gets to practice in peace, because she MUST play if he is playing (or we get to listen to her shrieking—lovely (not)). When she gets bored with playing the keys, she STANDS on them to play with whatever is on top of the piano. Yep. I think my hair is turning gray.
Blurry action shots…
Her little pointer finger cracks me up.
I would have never guessed (during her quiet, sleeping, watching, serious babyhood) that my Lola Bug would turn into an independent, daredevil, opinionated, adventurous, silly little girl. She is climbing all. over. the place. (And has the bumps and bruises to prove it.) She is fiercely independent…and, boy, howdy, will she let you know if you are in her space or messing with her things. Daddy is still the most favored one, with her boys coming next in line. She weighs about 24 pounds. She LOVES to play the piano. Her silly bum-scoot is gone (sniff), and she is a fast one on her feet. Her fingernails are lethal sharp, but she hates to have them trimmed, so we both often wear ugly red scratches. She has a very pitiful ‘you broke my heart’ cry that starts with a lower lip out to *there* when she gets in trouble. And then there is the mad cry which lets you know that there is *nothing* wrong with her lungs.
Have I mentioned lately how much I love this little girl? And how much her Daddy and boys adore her? I think we’ll keep her.
This beautiful and, oh, so loved and adored baby girl is going in for open heart surgery tomorrow. I know that her family would appreciate all prayers on behalf of Charlotte Joy. Faith has started a blog documenting their journey at Getting By On Grace… and Coffee.
UPDATE, 1pm on Tuesday. From Faith:
Thanks for the prayers, everyone!!
This isn’t a very fascinating post for the first day of a New Year, but I have a few things on my plate today, including a 10th birthday party for my first-born son. Maybe I’ll have some fascinating, inspiring, colorful posts this coming week (or not), but for now this is it.
Making Men without Chests: The Intellectual Life and Moral Imagination by R. J. Snell
Where does such courage come from? Or honesty? Generosity, magnanimity, dignity, liberality, patience, industriousness, modesty, forbearance, good humor, nobility, and reverence? Where do these come from? All these virtues we need to live well—where do we get them?
They don’t come from argument. And they don’t come from theory. They come from imagination, or a certain kind of imagination which some have called “moral imagination.” They come from stories, theater, images, symbols, ideals, character types and archetypes, and, in an eminent way, from liturgy. From knowing the stories of David and Bathsheba, Samson and Delilah, Joseph and Potiphar’s wife.
The Gospel According to Sleeping Beauty by Angelina Stanford
When sleeping beauty awakens, her entire kingdom awakes as well: her attendants, the horses and dogs, even the flies on the wall. Likewise, when Christ calls for His bride, the whole of Creation will be redeemed as well.
All in the Timing: Why reading ahead of your grade level isn’t necessarily a good thing by Dashka Slater
As a children's book writer who has yet to outgrow the habit of reading picture books for pleasure, I find all of this a bit disturbing. Of course it's wonderful that children are reading, and wonderful when they read complicated books. But in the fuss about literacy and reading levels and school achievement, something fundamental gets lost: the pleasure of the book for its own sake.
Between Christmas and illness, we didn’t do much formal school work
Christmas:
Storybook Land
St. Nicholas Day Celebration
Lots and lots of Christmas books
Faith:
The Handel's Messiah Family Advent Reader
Math:
Teaching Textbooks
The Critical Thinking Co. math workbooks
Life of Fred (all 3 boys; finished Apples, Butterflies, Cats, Dogs, Edgewood, Farming, Goldfish, and Honey)
Science:
Nada, unless you count Sid the Science Kid, Wild Kratts, and How It’s Made
P.E.:
Swim Team (Levi)/Swim Lessons (Luke)
Fine Arts:
Monthly Fine Arts Study (Handel, Rockwell, and Christmas Poetry)
Piano lessons (Luke)
Language Arts:
MCT Vocabulary and Grammar (+sentence diagramming) (just a little)
Writing With Ease (just a little)
All About Spelling Level 2 (just a little)
Handwriting Without Tears custom worksheets (all 3 boys)
Geography:
BrainBox USA and World games
Place the State online game
History/Literature/Historical Fiction:
The Story of the World: Early Modern Times (chapters 22-23
DK Children's Encyclopedia of American History
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (Levi-IR)
Mr. Revere and I by Robert Lawson (Levi-IR)
Sam the Minuteman by Nathaniel Benchley
Phoebe and the General by Judith Berry Griffin
Where was Patrick Henry on the 29th of May? by Jean Fritz
And Then What Happened, Paul Revere? by Jean Fritz
Let’s Ride, Paul Revere by Peter and Connie Roop
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, graved and painted by Christopher Bing
The Many Rides of Paul Revere by James Cross Giblin
Yankee Doodle Boy: A Young Soldier’s Adventures in the American Revolution by Joseph Plumb Martin (Levi-IR)
Why Not, Lafayette? by Jean Fritz (Levi-IR)
Guns for General Washington by Seymour Reit (Levi-IR)
Traitor: The Case of Benedict Arnold by Jean Fritz (Levi-IR)
Can’t You Make Them Behave, King George by Jean Fritz
…If You Lived at the Time of the American Revolution by Kay Moore
When Mr. Jefferson Came to Philadelphia: What I Learned of Freedom, 1776 by Ann Turner
The Matchlock Gun by Walter D. Edmonds
Revolutionary War on Wednesday by Mary Pope Osborne
Independent Dames by Laurie Halse Anderson
Farmer George Plants a Nation by Peggy Thomas
When Washington Crossed the Delaware by Lynne Cheney
The Revolutionary John Adams by Cheryl Harness
George Washington: A Picture Book Biography by James Cross Giblin
Liberty’s Kids (Netflix streaming)
Literature Study:
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (unabridged, Levi-IR, part of the Michael Clay Thompson Time Trilogy Literature Study)
The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm selected by Lore Segal and Maurice Sendak (Levi-IR)
Levi’s Reading:
More All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown by Sydney Taylor
The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
The Road to Oz
The Fire Within by Chris D’Lacey
Icefire
Fire Star
The Secret Zoo by Bryan Chick
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
The Jack Tales: Folk Tales from the Southern Appalachians Collected and Retold by Richard Chase
Parzival: The Quest of the Grail Knight by Katherine Paterson
The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban
Luke’s Reading:
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
Pippi Goes on Board by Astrid Lindgren
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
Leif’s Reading:
Twister on Tuesday by Mary Pope Osborne
Night of the Ninjas
Civil War on Sunday
Pirates Past Noon
Polar Bears Past Bedtime
and a bunch more!
And a bunch of wonderful picture books from the library and books from our Christmas collection.
We’re going to get a good start on our new year. Our menu will be mostly Paleo but with some cheese snuck in here and there. This time I’m going to work in some form of exercise. I’m posting my general menu ideas for reference.
Anyone joining me? {Come on. You can do it!}
Breakfast:
Sliced bananas or sauteed cinnamon apples with pecans and coconut milk
Banana with almond butter
Chopped nut, seed, and dried fruit cereal with coconut milk
Eggs, eggs, and more eggs
Sausage or Bacon
Green smoothies (banana, OJ or canned unsweetened pineapple, baby spinach, and frozen berries in Vitamix)
Sauteed steak and veggies
Pumpkin/apple/bacon biscuits
Lunch:
Tuna, lettuce, cherry tomato, and sunflower seed wraps
Various soups, salads, or leftovers
Snacks:
Deviled eggs
Almonds and dried cranberries
Veggies
Black olives
Celery with almond butter
Sweet potato chips
To Go:
Lara Bars
Dinner:
Bun-less loaded burgers
Grilled meat + roasted veggie (cauliflower, cabbage, sweet potato) + green salad
Roasted broccoli with chicken apple sausage and slivered almonds
Pizza salad or taco salad
Pizza with chicken or cauliflower crust
Grilled Lemon Chicken and Faux-tato Salad
Ginger and Cilantro Baked Tilapia
Chicken antipasto kabobs (chicken, artichoke hearts, olives, cherry tomatoes (mozzarella))
Slow Cooker Latin Chicken
Egg flower soup and Chinese meat and veggie platter (take-out)
Shrimp and Egg Flower Soup
Beef and veggie stew
Chicken and veggie soup (or pumpkin veggie chicken soup)
Sausage tomato soup
Cabbage soup with chicken and pork
Moo Shu Vegetables
Almond-Crusted Chicken Fingers with marinara sauce and green salad
Indian Chicken Curry
Garlic Shrimp and Tomatoes
Zucchini Lasagna
Fajitas in lettuce bowl or fajita chicken salad
Spaghetti meat sauce over spaghetti squash
Roasted Brussels sprouts, apples, and bacon
Avocado, tomato, cucumber, (mozzarella) salad
Chorizo Mini Meatloaves with Chipotle, Tomato Relish
Pulled pork spareribs with coffee/molasses barbeque sauce (for cheat-nights :))
Cook hamburger and onion in olive and sesame oils. Add a teaspoon of coriander then toss in a bag of frozen chopped broccoli. Serve as is or stuffed into a baked acorn squash or bell pepper.
Sautee zucchini, yellow squash, and onions in bacon fat. Add shrimp and crumbled bacon. Add baby spinach at the last minute. Top with lemon juice.
Drinking:
Good Earth Lemongrass Green Tea
Lots of water
Desperation:
Chocolate milkshakes (frozen banana, coconut milk, cocoa powder, a couple frozen strawberries in Vitamix)
Chocolate date balls (pecans, dates, and cocoa powder in food processor; roll into balls)
Cheating:
Chocolate Mug Cake (with coconut milk and almond flour)
Dates with cream cheese
It never ceases to amaze me, this time speeding by like a freight train. I feel all funky, and busy, and lazy—all at the same time. Life is good, so good. I want to be content, but not complacent. I’m thinking of this past year, so close to an end; this new year, just on the brink.
My reading was almost non-existent in 2011 because I had so little ME time and I just needed sleep. I need to return to intentional reading.
May was a great month of healthy eating, but bad habits slowly returned and December has been a very unhealthy one. I haven’t spent regular time exercising since I stopped walking with my sister in 2010! I need to return to healthy eating and exercising.
LIFE was my one little word for 2011. (I’m all about 4-letter L words…) What will be my focus for 2012? Will it be just one little word?
Are you thinking about the new year? Are you making plans or taking each day as it comes?
Homemade breakfast burritos and pre-Christmas crafts and baking.
Christmas day at ‘Bambi’ and ‘Poppy’s’ house.
(Manger built by my nephew, Drake:)
(Luke reading the Christmas story:)
(Drake made catapult kits for the boys, wrapped them himself, and then helped the boys build them!)
(Bambi made capes, tunics, and Robin Hood hats for each of the boys. I’m pretty sure Levi is going to live in his.)
(My Dad came walking with us! It’s been six weeks since his open-heart surgery.)
