7 Quick Takes - From Youngest to Oldest

1. Annie Loves Sunshine – Annie’s Godparents have a little song they made up called “Annie Loves Sushine.”  They sang it to her when we visited and now I sing it to her and she smiles and laughs.  It’s a sweet thing.  She is pushing up a lot these days. She also sits. She babbles at us a lot.  She is also smiling a bit more these days. She likes grabbing things and trying to get them to her mouth.  She likes music a lot.  Whenever she is crying in the car, I only have to put music on and she is quiet again.  Just a couple of weeks ago I lamented my little newborn was gone and she now grows too fast.  But now, she is becoming and fun little infant.

2. Kristiana Two Going on Twenty – Little Miss KK loves to talk to adults.  If any adults acknowledges her, she starts jabbering on.  No one knows what she is saying.  She must be saying something real, because I understand a word or two as she goes on.  She gestures wildly as though her gestures mean something.  She is such a head strong little girl.  She knows just what she wants and won’t accept any thing less.  Lately she has been telling me she is a princess; everything has to do with princess.  At dinner she told me she wanted a princess orange.  She is such a dainty and effeminate girl too.  I don’t know where she learned to act so girly.  This picture is typical Kristiana. 

3. Alex Learning Patience – As I have said before, Alex and I have been working on “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.”  Overall it has been going well.  He is now reading short sentences from the book.  However, he IS a typical boy in every way.  He always has been.  On Monday, it took more than an hour to get through our lesson.  He was wiggly and not doing what the instructions asked.  I kept asking him to put his finger on the words and make the sounds and he would just flop over.  I kept telling him that clearly he did not want to do the lesson today and we would work another day and I would close the book and walk away.  He kept begging me to come back.  I would sit back down, open the book, and he would look at the lesson and remember how hard it was and shut down and we would be back to square one.  But he wanted to finish it and I don’t know why.  By the end of the week the lessons only took the appropriate 15-20 minutes.  Perhaps he is learning patience and reading at the same time.

4. Renee the Way – I have been meandering my way through Great Fast.  It seems like two steps forward and one and half steps back.  It seems the harder I fight to pray and fast, the harder evil fights back at me.  It seems every day I see evil running through my life like a freight train I am powerless to stop.  All I can do is hope that the Lord will push me out of the way when the train comes too near.

I am just juggling all the house hold duties and more—paying bills, cleaning, dog walking, cooking, diaper changing, laundry (Oh, woe is the never ending laundry!); and breastfeeding is a job on it’s own; reading lessons, play dates, among other morning activities—then there’s my mom’s book study and retreat planning, and learning about home schooling, and icons.  Then I must have an hour of leisure each night.  It’s a busy life and there hardly seems time for it all.  I look forward to the day when the children can help more with the chores.  Obviously, this will be essential to becoming a homeschool family.

5. Andrew of Joy and Madness – Andrew seems to have had a good week.  Early in the week, he had a student mouth off in class about the impending college basketball tournament.  He saw that the student was showing his youth and ignorance.  He challenged him to put something on his mouthy exclamations.  The student thought about it and it was decided that if Gonzaga lost to St. John’s Andrew would shave his head.  We now know Andrew does not have to shave his head.  Oh how I wish he would not make such wagers.  But, March Madness makes Andrew both joyful and mad.

6. Friends and Family Focus – It seems so many of our friends and family are facing trials and tribulations at the moment.  It is hard to know how best to be charitable towards them.  It is hard to do anything at all without making their troubles greater.  All I know to do is to pray for now.

7. The Living House – No one ever told me that houses have lives of their own.  I knew there was going to be expenses and maintenance with owning a home, but it seems as though this house has a life of it’s own.  We have to plant a garden bed now.  We have a big ugly, empty garden bed right in front of our house.  All the rest of the landscaping can wait, but this needs to be done.  Anyway I slice it, to make it look halfway decent is going to cost $200.  Andrew and I would much rather spend that $200 on other things, but this house has a life of it’s own.