judging

Yesterday someone told me that they won't do Facebook because they know they'll just spend tons of time on it and ignore their children.  I thought that was a pretty accurate picture of what I do...  So it got me thinking about alcohol.  I don't drink alcohol because I was raised not to.  And over the years I've seen the terrible effects it has had in some peoples lives.  So now as an adult, it doesn't tempt me because I am sure I might become an alcoholic.  Sure I might be able to be a recreational user, and only a bad drunk.  But it's not worth the risk for me.

In the story of "Hansel and Gretel" the real moral of the story is in how the woodcutter's wife gets him to abandon his children a second time, because he did it one time.

These girls

lP and M have so much fun.  M teaches lP to be wonderful, and lP teaches M to be patient.  That's a fair trade I think.

They play together because they have no one else to play with.  Add G to the mix and they all play together.  Or fight together.  I love how compliant they are.  Mom says fighting and hating each other is not allowed.  And they nod their heads and say "Yes, mom."   Sometimes.

Homeschool

This is what homeschooling looked like today.  I took a big paper and M drew the alphabet.  Then we went around the house finding things for each letter.

G gets most of his academics at his school school.  We do math, art, speech, music, and what not at home. Most days (when I'm not a raving mad woman at night) we read a chapter of whatever he wants.   We talk over vocabulary and sometimes take turns reading.  For a while he was reading the male speaking parts of all our books.  From Geronimo Stilton to Charlie and the Glass Elevator.  G is exposing me to a wide range of stories I never read as a child.

M's main focus is piano.  That's her work.  She started piano the last week of February last year, and she's finishing the 1st Suzuki book this week.  She's also gone through 2 Piano Adventure primer books and will start the "real books" soon.  She reads chapter books and loves to draw.  We kid her about every new skill she acquires, that now she's ready to go to college.

lP is really funny.  Being 3 she's also really frustrating.  But I'm able to appreciate her cute nose and adorable words more often lately.  This morning she said "I am having trouble making my bacon sandwich.  I think I need a bigger pancake.  Can you help me?"  I read something recently that helped me change some of my bad habbits with her.  I hug her more often.  I ask her if she's getting enough love.  When we're hugging we talk about filling up our hug tanks with the hugs we're making together.

 bB is really too cute.  Literally!

His skin is made of butter.

He has the most endearing way of dropping his head against your chest and going limp.

He also has the most piercing scream ever.  I console myself with the hope of him having an amazing voice, someday.

This thought blew my mind.

A relative of mine has a cat that ate string.  I don't know if this is the cat that is always misbehaving or the "good cat".  But the cat needs surgery to fix their intestines.  In her comments about the situation she joked (maybe, probably) that it's Obama's fault that pet medical care is not included in the AHCA.  My initial horror was the idea that the government should be involved in caring for people's pets.  People choose to have pets! 

And that's when it happened.  I imagined someone having that thought about my children.  I'm fairly horrified by the amount of resources that are, in my mind, wasted on pet toys, pet food, and especially pet medical care. 

Today a child at G's school asked me if my children were deaf.  I told him that these 3 were hearing but that we had 1 deaf son.  He asked me why I kept having kids.  And he possibly was asking why I kept having hearing kids.  But he was definitely asking why I kept giving birth, again, and again, and again.  I told him I like kids.  And I asked him if he has just 1 toy or more than one.

From a theological point of view I know my children are the point of creation; to give bodies to Heavenly Father's children, and enable them to progress toward godhood.

I don't have any understanding of God's plans for pets.