Sister as Hero

Hannah has a hero and her name is Caroline.  Caroline is five years older than Hannah and it is so beautiful to watch the special place that her big sister has in Hannah's life.  Yesterday, while Caroline was at ballet, Hannah suddenly broke into tears, "I miss Caroline.  It isn't fun when she is gone."  Caroline paints Hannah's nails; Caroline fixes her hair almost every day (in colors and styles that no mother would think of).  Caroline encourages and distracts Hannah when she is sad and can always get her to stop crying.  Caroline is patient with Hannah and includes her in all that she does.  I watch with joy at their friendship, but I also realize I am missing out as a Momma.  You see, I was the one that thrilled Caroline when I painted her nails or braided her hair in a french braid.  I can remember how excited she was to have tea parties with me, to eat hotdogs with toothpicks on our back porch.  Hannah doesn't even know I can do these "fun things" because she is so busy having fun with her big sister.  There are many articles that talk about what a shaping influence siblings have on your life.  I am so thankful that Caroline is a beautiful shaping influence.  And I will wait and one day I hope I get to show her the fun side of Momma.

School Days

I think school decisions can be some of the hardest decisions parents make for their children.  They feel more powerful than the many small ones we make for our kids everyday.  (Although I think this is not really true...it's those thousand character shaping moments of yelling or patience, prayer or anxiety that probably really matter...).  We look ahead and see two roads diverging...and we must choose one.  This year we chose to homeschool, but I am far from a homeschool poster child. I wanted to place these pictures here to remember what I love about that road for us, at this point in life.  

First, Hannah in her bathing suit (dancing of course!).  Hannah has been wearing her bathing suit daily for about three weeks now.  It really bothers me, but I try to role with it, reminding myself she will not wear her bathing suit to college one day.  At night, we bathe Hannah, put on clean pajamas, tuck her into bed....and in the morning, we find her in her bathing suit.  She keeps it on for school.  Thankfully, we are able to accommodate this clothing request in our basement schoolroom.  She can be three years old, and well, the rest of us can enjoy Hannah being Hannah.

This is a picture of Henry reading to William and Hannah.  Henry loves books.  He started looking at them when he was nine months old, pulling them off shelves and pouring over the pages.  But reading has been slow and hard work for him.  Henry is finally starting to turn the corner, and I love to listen to him read to his younger siblings.  He loves being able to share a story with them now.  It has been good for Henry not to know if he is in the "blue reading group" or the "green reading group", etc.  He has been coming along at his own pace and it's a joy to see it come together finally.

Every year, we draw the same animals from the book Drawing with Children.  I love the book because it teaches you how to use straight lines and curves and dots, basic things, to slowly build a picture.  And because I wish I was an artist who could make beautiful things every day.  Anyway, back to drawing...we do the same pictures every year in the fall and compare them with the previous year.  Every year, our lines are stronger, the proportions are better....Well, John Mac has never been willing to try and draw with us.  He didn't like to color or pick up a pencil for any reason really.  This week he drew with us for the first time...and look!  So fun to see what you can do when you try.  We were all amazed at what we could do this year.  We sat for an hour with classical music in the background, drawing and coloring....and it was all that is good and beautiful about homeschooling.  

I won't show you any pictures of the day before this when William screamed for 30 minutes in the pack and play because I wouldn't give him a gumball.  And Hannah put play dough on the carpet.  And Caroline, my stable strong student simply cried on me over her math for no clear reason.  We all have our days, but it can be tough when we have them all together.  And it can be good, very very good.