Sweet September

After we returned from our end of the summer vacation, September seemed to go by in the blink of an eye.  My brother Joe and his fiancé Beth came to town and we had a vacation reprise while we joined them on their Michigan fall tour of the zoo...

…the apple orchard...

…and even the local art festival near our house.  We also felt right at home at our cousin's chicken themed birthday party...

…and met my parents at the local cider mill for a fall hike and Apple Fritter Friday.  We enjoyed our third annual Cemetery Walk, where local residents from the past are featured by community actors and actresses.  This year's theme was all about women who shaped our city and the most memorable story depicted was of two sisters named Lucy and Anna who owned a dress shop on Main Street.

Our sunflowers were in full bloom this past month, despite our late planting of them earlier this year.  They were not only beautiful but attracted monarchs, bumble bees and of course my honey bees.  Now we are drying their heads so that we can save some of the seeds for next year and eat the rest.  

Interestingly enough, our sunflowers captured all of our affection with lots of water and care, whereas the rest of our garden was mostly neglected.  Our two apple trees produced the best tasting apples we have ever eaten - one tree boasted Honeycrisp and the other tree had beautiful Empire apples.  It is so fun to pick a snack right from your own backyard and enjoy it right down to the core, and then toss the core to our chickens.  We made applesauce from buckets of apples from a tree at Will's work, zucchini muffins by the dozen and I perfected one of my favorite soups from a local restaurant - crushed lentil.  And best of all, everyone in the family likes it!  This is huge for me and honestly, I am so excited about this economical, healthy, high in protein, tasty soup that it may be on my top ten list of accomplishments.

There is definitely not enough time in the day to accomplish all that I want.  Between my kids education, feeding them nourishing foods, playing with them, exercising and finding time to spend individually with each member of my family, including myself is not easy.  Oh, and keep the house clean, the social calendar intact, everyone's health in order, and of course our side businesses humming along - there hasn't been a day yet where I accomplish all of my priorities.  BUT, I'm pretty certain that God gave everyone the same amount of time for a reason, and I just have to be intentional about what I do each day.  Sometimes that means rolling with the craziness as it unfolds, and other days it means saying no to things that don't align with my priorities.  Either way, I feel like I do not have the balance figured out yet and I am starting to wonder if that is just life.

In the above picture the girls are playing outside, a top priority on my list of intentional living.  Sometimes my hopelessness at achieving balance is given a boost of faith when after an especially harried day one of the kids tells me as I tuck them in at night that, "This was the best day of my life mom!"  Not only does this shift my perspective and remind me that sometimes the little moments are the biggest moments, that maybe I'm not failing hopelessly after all.  I just sincerely hope that my kids childhoods move at a slower pace than I feel like the world is trying to push us.

A wonderful milestone was achieved just days before the last day of summer, which makes me smile at a summer well done.  Both Lucy and Emma learned how to ride their bikes without training wheels, and it was an amazing experience to watch how each day they accomplished big steps until a week later they were riding their bikes like they've been doing it all of their life.

One of my dreams is to build a business with my kids so that they can learn first hand the ins and outs of entrepreneurship in a fun and hands on way.  I don't need the business to make millions, I just want it to stay out of the red and be something that we can strengthen our family's relationships with while learning an important skill set.  Lucy and Emma are very happy to help with my honey business, from stamping shopping bags with my logo, to labeling product, to assisting me with my honey bee classes.

 

We had our friends and families with kids come to a class this past month and had a blast.  In the above picture, our Uncle Fred (a kid at heart) didn't let a little mud stop him from getting his hands dirty while making seed bombs at the class.  Lucy and Emma had fun selling various products after the class, although I caught Emma saying, "I'll take your money!" before our friends and family had even contemplated buying something.  

So far we have been very fortunate with beautiful weather on the days I've had my bee classes.  Of course the day our friends and family were coming it was supposed to rain all day.  After watching the weather like a nervous bride planning an outdoor wedding I decided that there was nothing more to do, but to go clean the garage.  Let's just say by the time I was finished, my dust pan had every color and variety of bird feather you can imagine, plus the tails of several squirrels, chipmunks and a rabbit.  It seems our cat is a really good hunter.  And I don't know if I am now aware of it more or he is preparing for winter, but he has been eating about an animal or bird a day and it's kind of depressing.  I know it is what he was designed to eat, but I can't help but feel sorry for his prey.  There is a gray dove that sits alone now on the telephone wires next to our house that used to always cuddle next to its partner.

Violet and Charlie have a strange relationship.  I think Violet is jealously fascinated by Charlie and Charlie is cautiously jealous of Violet.  Violet can't handle Charlie playing with any toys and will yank them from him, which Charlie thinks is just a part of the play.  It usually ends with Violet screaming and crying and Charlie running confusedly away.  

We have found our groove for the time being with school work.  Violet is starting to be more compliant during school time, and we've found setting a timer helps Lucy to focus and get things done in a timely fashion.  Emma is just happy to do school like her big sister, and is holding her birth order spot as middle daughter in a very stereotypical way.  I have to make a point to go over and above for Emma, for if not, her more boisterous sisters will steal the show.

 We have had quite a run of sister fighting.  This fall we started back up with their yoga class and they are the only two kids in the class right now.   I was disappointed at first, as part of the point of taking extracurricular activities, especially for homeschooled kids, is for the socialization and Lucy and Emma need a break from each other, not more alone time together.  Until Will pointed out that I should ask the teacher if she could focus her classes on sister love, or in other words, to use it as a sister therapy session.  Our wonderful yoga teacher took that idea and ran with it and I am not kidding when I say that it has made a HUGE improvement in them!  They haven't stopped fighting, but I feel like the tone of the fighting has changed.  I can see more love than anger now and it is such a relief.  Here they are below at yoga class and the library.

 We have had a great month at our house, and mostly because of the harmony between the sisters.  I realize this could just be another phase, but I will bask in it's peacefulness for as long as it lasts.

Although now that I think about it, I did try one other tactic to create solidarity and love between the sisters...

 …matching outfits!  It occurred to me that schools have uniforms for a reason, so why not try out a sister uniform?  Success!  They love matching and I can't tell you how happy I am to spend my days with such adorable and SWEET girls.  The leaves are changing and so are we.  And we will continue to evolve, as we learn side by side the secrets to an intentional, peaceful and joy-filled life.

Our End of Summer Vacation

As the summer winded down for us and Will headed back to work, I started panicking and regretting our decision to stay home this summer.  I crave time up north, and without at least a couple of days each summer spent in the aura of Michigan beach and pine tree, I can't fathom getting through another Michigan winter.  After several weeks of searching, I finally found a little cottage an hour away from Will's work that was available for Labor Day weekend.  We found a loop hole in our one hour radius with Violet (we can only handle her car screaming for an hour), by picking up dinner and taking it to Will's work.  After we ate dinner, we left Will's car in the parking lot of his school and headed together as a family to the cottage on the lake.  We arrived in the pouring rain, well after the kids bed times but we were able to handle Violet's crying.  Here we are below in clockwise order from the top left: waiting for our carryout at our favorite restaurant before bringing it to Will at his work, our rented cottage, the girls riding in the car listening to a wonderful audio book entitled "The Penderwicks" about four sisters time spent at a summer cottage, and finally, a picture Lucy took of the sunrise on the first morning of our vacation.  Bless her that she used my phone to document it and let us sleep instead!

Still scarred by our up north vacation last summer, I took every precaution I could think of in planning this last minute trip.  It was still extremely stressful packing for the trip by myself as Will had to work up until the very last moment, but I was able to cut a lot of corners since this cottage wasn't in the middle of nowhere like the one we rented last year.  Even still, I'd pack a box of items and Violet would unpack it just as fast.  Lucy and Emma couldn't stop fighting and the clock was ticking for us to get to the cottage before check-in time was over.  We pulled it together though, after I had a melt down around lunch time and told the girls we weren't going as it wasn't worth the trouble.  After my melt down, Lucy and Emma did an amazing job helping me pack the car and clean up the house and I have to say, the rest of the trip went off without a hitch once I was able to get our luggage arranged in such a manner that all four doors and the trunk of our car could close.  I stand by my theory of there being no free ride in life though, as the amount of stress I felt the day packing for the trip was probably equal to four regular days of parenting.

Lake Huron was a flight of stairs away from our cottage and it was perfect in every way.  The beach was private, and all ours for the next four days.

The beach was very rocky, but we had planned ahead and brought water shoes for everyone.  Violet was not a fan of the feel of sand between her toes despite having water shoes on or the fact that the waves kept moving back and forth along the shoreline.  We timed our beach play for the mornings and late afternoons to avoid the hottest part of the day for Violet's sake, but she still spent the majority of her time on a blanket under the beach umbrella or in mine or Will's arms.  She did take a nap one afternoon under the beach umbrella, and the rest of us had a memorable time in the water while she slept.

We found lots of sea glass and fossils along the beach, and even found a pocket of clay near the water that we made pinch pots with.

We visited a nearby lighthouse and I climbed to the top with Lucy and Emma while Will and Violet took our picture from below.

We also crossed a super long suspension bridge at a local park, walked the pier, ate frozen custard, and explored a near by playground.

 We enjoyed campfire meals every day, and marveled at the view from our cottage out across the lake.

It was good for us to get out of our element.  I had contemplated packing my tea pot since the cottage owner mentioned there wasn't one but at the last minute I decided it wasn't worth taking up space in our already packed car with a tea pot.  I changed my mind once we were at the cottage as it was so chilly and damp at night.  So we picked up some tea at the local grocery store and I fashioned a double boiler out of an aluminum pot and a glass measuring cup and never did I appreciate and savor a cup of tea as I did each morning and evening on our vacation!  This was just a small example of why the trip was good for us.  I also felt so much love and appreciation for our house when we returned, especially my own shower and my own bed.  It was a restful and memorable little trip, and I can welcome fall with no regrets from the summer of 2015!

Violet Plays at 17 Months

 

This girl has a grin that can brighten any day.  Which is a good thing, because the days are long and the sleep is short with this one!  We are still trying to find the perfect recipe for sleep with Violet.  This month we are trying out a big girl bed of her own, under a ceiling fan with a gate on her bedroom door.

This has helped her sleep a tiny bit better but we are now trying to figure out our next challenge - how to keep her dry for the entire night.  Because she doesn't sweat she drinks more fluids to maintain her body temperature and as a result, we have yet to find a diaper to hold it all.  Here she is below, enjoying a plastic ice cream cone while she tries out the potty chair.  They say that when kids start to enjoy potty humor that they are ready for potty training.  Violet officially thinks farts are funny, and will go out of her way to pass gas for a laugh, and will also point her finger accusingly at one of us and laugh when she hears anything resembling a toot.  Potty training makes life more difficult, not easier, for a good stretch of time so I am officially over potty humor, meaning I am not ready to potty train.  So we shall continue our quest for a diaper that holds it all.

The biggest change this past month is Violet has evolved from destroying the house in her free time, to playing.  Don't get me wrong, she still destroys the house, but now she is actually playing while she makes a mess.  She loves feeding and changing her baby dolls diapers as well as pushing them in a stroller and snuggling them too.  There is no shame in taking a sip from the baby doll's bottle either.

She also seems to have a passion for shoes.  She loves walking around in different family member's shoes, and she has become quite good at walking around in Lucy and Emma's dress up heels.  In the bottom right hand picture Violet surprised me one morning by making a pretend cup of tea, complete with pretend honey and a play tea bag.  She handed it to me and proudly said, "TEA!"

Violet spends her entire day either playing with me, or practically yanking my finger off as she tries to drag me away from whatever I am doing so that we can play.  She is very determined and usually will not be convinced to play with Lucy or Emma, despite their trying to please her.  Fortunately if Will is home, he is a suitable playmate in her eyes.  She loves to get us to play with her by saying, "Roll?" for roll the ball, "Ride" for go for a basket ride, "Book" for read a book, and "Bo-Boat" for playing Motor Boat, which is similar to Ring Around the Rosie.  Once she has recruited myself or Will for "Bo-Boat" she will then search out every other member of the family and drag them over to join in "Bo-Boat" with us. 

It is just amazing to me the changes this past month in her play.  As long as I am sitting on the ground near her, she will do some play by herself.  The other day I slyly watched as she pushed a stuffed dog around on the floor while she kept saying "Ruff!  Ruff!"  She steals my heart when she plays a game that I have entitled Mama Polo.  Think Marco Polo but replace the words with Violet chanting my name in a sweet voice and me responding to each chant of Mama with Violet's name.  This usually takes place on car rides or stroller walks.  "Mama."  "Violet."  "Mama."  "Violet."  And on and on and on.

She still is up to her usual trouble, which she times nicely for when I am preoccupied with Lucy and Emma doing schoolwork.  The other day I caught her trying to climb on top of the stove.  Her efforts were foiled when the oven door handle she was using to prop herself up slowly opened the oven door instead causing her to hit her mouth on the door as she fell backwards.  Fortunately, the oven was not on, however it did make me wonder why our newish oven did not come with an oven door lock.  Our old oven had one, and at least now I know she can't be left in the kitchen alone if the oven is on.  Here she is below caught chewing on a stolen plastic eye dropper from a science kit in the left hand picture.  In the right hand picture you can see the results of chewing and swallowing a piece of green chalk.

Based on the above pictures, Violet is definitely teething!  She popped her sixth tooth this past month which was met with much celebrating.  We have been told to expect just a few teeth in Violet's mouth, so each tooth, no matter how it's shaped, is cause for rejoicing.  It is much easier to cap a misshapen tooth than it is to put an implant in.  Around two and a half years old we will begin the process of getting her fitted for partial dentures, and they will use her existing teeth to anchor it in.  Her teeth don't hold her back too much when it comes to eating, however she does prefer softer foods and is my number one fan of the soups I love making.  I can't tell you how great it is to have one of my children appreciate my cooking!  Just having a couple of front teeth has not held her back from corn on the cob or apples though, and she is always so proud to eat food like her big sisters.  New words this past month include "apple" and "cheese stick".

Since receiving Violet's diagnosis, Will and I have come up with canned responses for when people make comments about Violet's appearance.  We have decided that the responses aren't really for the people asking, but more for confirming to Violet that she is loved, beautiful, and made exactly how she is supposed to be.  This past month I thought I was facing my first real challenge.  It was the girls first yoga class of the year, and I was dropping Lucy and Emma off while Violet sat in her stroller and ate her lunch.  Our beloved yoga teacher was excited to see the girls after a summer off but when she looked at Violet she immediately exclaimed, "What is wrong with her mouth???"  I took a deep breath and I launched into my speech.  After saying far too much, our sweet yoga teacher looked up at me with the most confused look on her face and asked, "But why would that make her mouth BLEED???"  Shocked, I leaned down to look at Violet's mouth and saw red, dripping all over her face.  It took me a second to realize that it was raspberry juice and not blood, at which point I started nervously laughing and turned the color of a raspberry myself.  After explaining to their teacher that Violet just finished eating a bowl of raspberries you could have cut the awkwardness with a knife.  When I returned to pick up the girls after their class was over, their teacher had recovered from her shock and had lots of loving questions and affirmations for us.  I regret that I wasn't recovered enough to apologize for the information overload.  Most importantly, I realized that I need to shorten my canned response and to always assume less is more when it comes to information!  I just hope Violet knows that I am learning as I go, but am oh so proud of her and her beautiful smile.

The Threads of August

I've been really thinking about the purpose of this blog lately, and feeling vulnerable for putting my life out there for all to see each and every month.  It would be safer for me to keep the fabric of my life private.  As I have mentioned in the past though, I believe this blog was a gift from Luke and that he has given me the push to put my unfinished tapestry up on this blog for all of the world to see.  This leaves me feeling exposed and nervous because I am still a novice and my work isn't done yet.  Most of the time I am rewarded by encouragement, love and a renewed commitment to what I am doing as well as positive accountability that keeps my writing regular.  Lately though, I have felt repeatedly judged and attacked, hit by ammunition taken from the very details I have shared on this blog. 

I will not let the critics of the world ruin the design of my tapestry or alter my vision for it.  As lonely and as painful as the stitching may feel at times, I will keep weaving this tapestry with the thread that began with Luke.  Although the pictures and stories tend to show the front of the fabric, I hope that I am providing enough behind the scenes glimpses of the back of the fabric that you know the real me, and that myself and Will and my kids can look back one day and read the step by step story of how our family's tapestry came to be.  It's such a fine balance between a realistic, truthful portrayal and trying not to hurt anyone's feelings while respecting the privacy of my husband and kids too.  There are some thoughts and feelings that I leave unwritten, that are a tangled mess underneath the fabric.  Sometimes I figure out how to resolve the issue and smooth the stitches and can write about it here in a nice, tidy, happy-ending type story.  Other times the colors our family chooses to sew in, or the placement of my stitches make no sense to the people around us.  I may like purple (a lot) and you may like green, but both colors add to a beautiful world and each have their place in the rainbow.  I may not make it clear that I was up all night, stressing about what step to take next or how to tackle a stitch I have never done before but I want you to know that I have no more experience at this tapestry of life than the next person and am simply doing the best I can and would appreciate your unconditional love and support and an openness to see that although I may stitch differently than you, I think that your stitches are beautiful too.

I am starting to become more bold with my pattern choices and less patient with the critics.  If a thread keeps breaking, or tangling over and over again I am going to try my best to work with the materials I have but at some point I will have to decide if that particular material is no longer meant to be in the tapestry of my family.  I am now juggling multiple threads and I feel like once my glittery and fine thread named Violet was introduced that I lost the ability to balance some of the threads that were continually making my fingers raw.  But here's the good news.  I am at the point in my weaving now that I am okay with letting some threads go so that I can focus on what will make this tapestry my masterpiece - Will, Lucy, Emma and Violet.  If you have a problem with how I sew but aren't putting any effort into your own sewing, then your opinion is not worth my time.  I've realized that the people in my life that are busy putting their best into the tapestry of their life have no time or agenda to judge my handiwork but can instead come along side me and offer encouragement and support on this project called life that we are all in.

So with love, light and courage, here is my family's August summed up in pictures and stories.

My sister Jane was in town for a couple of weeks before her big move to the east coast.  I am still in denial that she is now a full 12 hours away, but it is slowly sinking in.  We had a memorable trip to IKEA with her, to help her pick out the most stylish and comfy furniture and home accessories for her new place.

My sister and I did not get along when we were growing up, and the relationship I have with her now is my light at the end of the tunnel with my own daughters and their incessant fighting.  Here they are below taking good care of each other, which is why I took a picture, because I wanted to remember it.

I've heard that sisters fighting is completely normal but it just wears me down and leaves me feeling angry.  I tell the girls repeatedly to imagine someone smacking or being mean to the person you love most in the world.  It's a frustrating feeling.  Now imagine that the people you love most in the world are being mean to each other.  It's like a double whammy and it pushes me over the brink of insanity when my beloved babies are mean to each other.

We spend a lot of time together, and I think that is part of the reason that tempers flare and patience is short.  Our house is not big by most definitions and so space is limited and I feel like we are drowning in stuff.  Violet is always getting into the older girls toys which of course have numerous tiny pieces which end up all over the house.  Lucy and Emma both are creative with their play, and so regular household items like staples, tape rolls, potato chip clips and empty tissue boxes are regularly found stuffed in corners and under furniture.  There is nothing like stepping on a Lego that your sister left laying around to put you in a bad mood.  But here's the thing - I wouldn't trade my kids, my house, or my life for the world.  No one said it was going to be easy, and just because it is hard doesn't mean I am doing it wrong.  Sometimes life is just hard.  I am hoping the investments I am making now will pay off when they are older and that all of the fighting will just be funny stories to us, reminisced over Christmas dinner.  In the meantime, I am not going to let life being hard stop me from moving toward the dream of a close knit family who enjoys being together.

Some of the things we are trying to learn as a family is what to do when we are in a bad mood.  I say, when life gets tough, go outside and pick flowers.  It is impossible to stay in a bad mood when picking flowers!  Especially if you then give the bouquet as a peace offering to your mom.  In the below right hand picture, I am getting ready to throw some left over seed bombs which is also a great way to dispel frustration while also helping the environment!

Petting our loving cat Charlie always puts us in a good mood too.  There is something about his purring that just radiates peace and calm and love into us that I think Charlie may hold the key to world peace.  How can you stay mad with a friendly fur ball looking adoringly into your eyes?  Charlie continues to scare us though, as this past month we took our car into the dealership for some recall parts and when we went back to pick it up the mechanics gave us a kitten collar that they found in the engine.  Thank God it was a break away collar, as I shudder to think what may have happened to our Charlie.  In the top left picture, Charlie enjoyed spending time on both floors of a doll house our neighbor garbage picked for the girls.  Charlie even got a kick out of using the doll house door to come and go.

Observing nature also helps to improve our spirits.  In the top right hand picture the girls released a monarch butterfly on our cousin in heaven's birthday.  If you look super close at the bottom left hand picture you might be able to see a tadpole just above a frog.  The frog just days before looked like the tadpole above him.  It has been amazing to watch the transformations between caterpillar and butterfly and tadpole and frog.

Playing in the sprinkler or even just with the hose is a good way to blow of steam too, and in the bottom left hand picture you can see us chucking seed bombs into the field across the street from our house.  In the bottom right hand picture is a glimpse of what Will loads into our trailer on a regular basis - cat food, chicken feed and free wood chips from the city.  The free part puts Will in a good mood.

 Playing with friends and cousins is a guarantee for a better day...

…and doing crafts together is even better!

We got on a stepping stone kick this summer and had to laugh when Will read the directions on how to mix the concrete.  "Stir the concrete until it reaches brownie batter consistency" the instructions stated.  Will pointed out that as he is super manly, he stirs concrete until it reaches concrete consistency.  Clearly, the instructions were meant for a different target audience.  We used Will's concrete talent for many stones to decorate our garden with and even made my mom a stepping stone for her birthday that I wanted to keep for myself.

Harvesting food from my yard puts me in an amazingly good mood.  Especially when the harvest is my favorite food in the entire world - fresh, ripe peaches.  Peaches are such a finicky fruit, and I am very picky about what constitutes a delicious peach.  The peaches from my front yard were the best peaches I have ever eaten.

So far the peach tree seems to only give us peaches every other year.  I don't know if it's the rarity effect, or if they were that good, but I savored them and even ate them in secret so I wouldn't have to share.  This backfired on me though, as one evening I went to eat a peach after the girls were in bed and realized that the remaining third of my harvest had rotted in the bowl.  This was devastating for me and I learned to never stack peaches.  I also learned sharing is good too.

We harvested tomatoes, pears (two from our tree a bushel from a wild pear tree across the street), peppers and blueberries.  I made more Popsicles, enjoyed my cousin's shagbark hickory syrup on waffles, and made my own crescent dough for a chicken, cheddar and broccoli combo that was heavenly.  I also processed the wild pears into pear sauce, which was super time consuming and I wonder every year if it is worth my time.  The kids love the pear sauce though, and it is like the dessert version of apple sauce.

Despite my excessive dessert making, my kids had a clean bill of health at the dentist this past month too.  I always hold my breath, as if cavities are a reflection on whether or not I am a good parent, even though my rational side knows that this isn't a logical thought process.

 We finished the Outdoor Explorer program that we started with our friends in July...

 …and hit the zoo one more time with Will before he headed back to work for the school year.

We also enjoyed lots of playtime outside including performances put on by the girls with the empty garage as their stage, play doh and science experiments on the picnic table for easy clean up and forts inside when the weather got too hot.

Will cleaned out a section of the basement for me and installed recessed lighting and shelves so that I could have my own honey room.  I am really excited to have a permanent location for my side business and I had fun getting all of my supplies organized, labeled and together in one place.  I have had a horrible year with my bees and will probably get very little honey.  Will accidentally dropped two frames of honeycomb when we were working in the bees this past month and as bad as we felt for damaging the bees hard work, the silver lining was we were able to harvest some honey that we otherwise wouldn't have in good conscience been able to take.  Sorry not sorry.  In the bottom right hand picture Lucy is enjoying a taste of honeycomb and in the bottom left hand picture Will is prepping an order of math posters.  We had a great season for math posters, so our side businesses weren't a complete loss this year.

After much thought and discussion, Will and I have decided to home school Lucy for first grade.  It never occurred to me that this was a decision that other people would feel strongly about.  Will and I feel very strongly about education, and obviously Will's career IS education.  Our view of education is that it is something that is a life long process, and is exciting and integrated into the daily routine of our life.  Homeschooling Lucy for preschool and then kindergarten showed us that it is just an extension of how we already live our life.  We never set out to home school our kids, but feel as though we have been lead to this decision through many baby steps that we believe God directed us through.  We are happy with our decision, despite the opinions of others and the fact that it does not make my life any easier in a lot of ways.  Because of this, it does feel lonely a lot of the time, but again, just because it is uncomfortable and challenging does not mean that we will be detracted from our decision.

After Will went back to work the second week of August, the girls and I started back to school and had a very successful review of last year's lessons.  We viewed the three weeks before public schools headed back to class as a trial period to determine if we were confident in our decision.  Fortunately for us, we are blessed with the ability to have multiple school choices, and if homeschooling turns out to be something that we no longer feel fits our life's goals, we have an excellent school system just a couple of houses down the street from us.  Here the girls are below opening up their curriculum for the new year.  It was like Christmas morning at our house as the girls went through their new books for First Grade and Pre-K.

Violet is our wild card, and that coupled with Lucy and Emma's fighting presents the biggest challenge to pulling off our homeschooling goal.  Usually our routine is that Lucy and Emma do their school work directly after breakfast is cleaned up while Violet systematically destroys the entire first floor of the house.  Here she is below after I found her sucking on a blue and then a yellow bingo dauber.

Perhaps there is just not enough known about homeschooling and that is why it is practically drowning in stereotypes, fear and opinions.  I will be happy to answer any questions people may have about it, as long as they are asked with an open mind and no hidden agenda.  I feel nervous about this post, but it is something that has been on my mind for several months now and situations keep happening that have given me the fuel to post this, and find the courage within me to even continue this blog in the public arena.

This blog has become a steady presence in the fabric of my life.  Writing monthly blog posts is therapeutic for me, and the routine review of my life helps keep me on track with goals and reminds me of how far I've come, overcoming obstacles and realizing dreams.  For now I will trust that the intricate patterns I am figuring out now will become beautifully established in the future, and that the tension of my thread is balanced, my needle is straight and my vision is clear.  If you have loyally followed the weaving of my family's life, free of an agenda but instead with love and support, I thank you from the bottom of my heart and I assure you that you have greatly contributed to a one of a kind piece of art.

Our Wild Card at 16 Months

Violet is establishing herself as the comedian of the family.  Her vocabulary has grown so much this past month, and she is definitely using it in her comedy.  The other day Lucy and I were locking horns as we were trying to get everyone in the car to get someplace on time.  As I was buckling Violet into her car seat, I leaned over her and put my face right next to Lucy's and asked, "Who's the boss?"  Silence and a cold stare back from Lucy followed my stern question, so I asked again, "Who's the boss?"  Silence and more icy stares from Lucy until Violet piped up and yelled with glee, "MAMA!!!"  We all burst out laughing and it's safe to say that Violet saved the day.

A couple of days ago, Will came home from work and settled onto the couch to catch up with the girls.  He put his feet up on the ottoman and Violet waddled over and for some reason sniffed his feet which were resting right at her nose level.  As soon as she took a whiff, she recoiled in shock yelling "EWWWWW!"  We laughed so hard that now every time she feels the need to insert some humor she will stick her feet in our face while saying "Ewww" or she will sniff our feet while showing huge disgust.

For better or worse, we can't help but describe Violet as our Wild Card.  Will and I find ourselves telling a story of something we thought we could do and then our surprise as to how Violet foiled our plan.  Things that we assume are simple tasks are often far more complicated with Violet in tow.  A simple trip to the library?  Sounds fun, let's go!  The reality - leaving the children's section with a screaming Violet and apologies left and right to the little boy she yanked a toy from, the books all off of the shelves, and the general volume of noise that surrounds her with me dictating to Lucy and Emma on how to best clean up her wake of destruction while I remove her from the situation.  Or how about the other day, how Lucy, Emma and I thought a trip to the craft store would be a fun diversion in our free time.  Wrong again!  I bought each of the girls a ball of yarn as the exciting first step in teaching them how to knit.  Then we got sidetracked in the scrapbook paper aisle, looking for cute paper to mod podge on top of old baby food jar lids.  The next thing I know I look down and Violet is a tangled mess of yarn in the shopping cart.  I try taking the yarn from her and she starts screaming at the top of her lungs a new word, "MINE!!"  I decide that it's time to go and as I try pushing the cart with my screaming child in it to the check out line, the cart stops dead in it's tracks and I realize there is a trail of yarn wrapping around and down the aisle we just came through.  After Lucy and Emma tracked down the trail of yarn and came back with the end of it we high tailed it to the check out line and of course there was a long line.  No one made eye contact with us as Violet continued yelling "MINE!!" and Lucy, Emma and I tried untangling the mess she had made so that we could pay for the disaster.  When it was our turn, the cashier laughed out loud at the mess and offered me a pair of scissors.  Clouded by my own frugal judgement of wasting the yarn I declined the scissors, and instead said yes to whatever knick knack impulse buy Lucy and Emma asked me for in the check out line.

We got out to the parking lot, found our car and as I tried getting Violet out of the cart I realized that she had knotted herself to the seat.  I wanted to kick myself for not accepting the scissors when they were offered because now I was left with two options - going back into the store with the still screaming Violet to make a fresh new scene with what was left of my dignity or to detangle her myself in the privacy of the oh so public parking lot.  What felt like ten minutes later, with Violet screaming "MINE!!" for all to hear still, I finally got her free and strapped her into her car seat.  My stubborn and cheap self still didn't know when to call it quits though, so I spent another ten minutes detangling the yarn.  In retrospect, I should have just left the cart and gotten in the car and never looked back as the stares and the sweat and the screams were just not worth it.  Hindsight is twenty twenty.  It's a good thing this kid is so cute.

At Violet's well visit this past month the doctor asked how many words Violet knew.  I realized just how much she knows when Lucy, Emma and I started listing them off: hot dog, pop for Popsicle, box for juice box, stuck, up, wow, ow, mine, hi, bye bye, nack for snack, slide, nigh nigh for night night, wawa for water, boat, duck, socks and rocks!

Violet can also point to all of her body parts when you ask her - belly, toes, feet, legs, nose, eyes, ears, hair, etc.

She is our feisty, funny girl and knows exactly what she wants and doesn't back down for a second.  Here she is below staring down one of our chickens.  "Bawk bawk" is what she says when she talks about chickens.

She has gotten really confident on her feet and can even run now.  I no longer feel like I need to be her second shadow to keep her from scraping her baby skin on the driveway.  I am amazed to say that I even feel comfortable with her on the slide all by herself too.  I mean, she's already figured out how to go down face first, which is far more exciting than feet first.

This kid defies all expectations.  She is a full time job and I love her so much.  She is our Wild Card, and is whoever she wants to be, that is for sure.  I can't help but feel amazed and proud at this child that has been entrusted to us.  Violet, you keep life interesting and are exactly what our family needed!