What else we have been up to...

I can't believe my last entry in this here little blog was nearly four months ago. Life was different four months ago.

If my life was a newspaper then in mid October the headline would have read "My Mom has Cancer." Sometimes I still can't believe it. It was so hard to face the possibility of losing both my parents just as I had crossed over into my thirties. For heaven's sake--my mother is only 53 years old! But cancer doesn't care about that kind of stuff. And lung cancer is especially brutal. Without treatment the doctors gave my mom 6 months. Mom was not sure she wanted to endure chemotherapy--I can't say I blame her. I get wickedly sick and exhausted while pregnant and that has made me appreciate my health more than most people my age I believe.

Mom chose to undergo treatment and as of right now she has two sessions of chemo left. Her tumor has shrank 50%--somethign her doctor did not expect to happen. Her doctor has been happy with her blood counts--another miracle. I don't know if its possible for her to go into remission--its very unlikely she will be "cured." But she is fighting the good fight and hanging in there. I'm so proud of her--she has faced this with amazing bravery and has kept her sense of humor. I know she has terrible days--she doesn't say this to me but I know they have to be there. But above all she has concrete faith in the Lord and His plans and has surrendered herself to his will. This has been an incredible blessing to me--I know she is in the Lord's hands. We will see each other some day! When she gets Home she will have so many waiting for her--my dad and the baby Jason and I lost are two people who come to my mind.

My Mom and I have had more than our share of mother/daughter conflicts. We are both incredibly stubborn people. I think she might actually be worse than me and that's pretty amazing! I love her so much though. She was the best mother ever when I was a little kid and I always felt loved. I hate the thought of losing her but I am ever so grateful that we've all been given the gift of being able to say goodbye. And who knows--we might not have to say goodbye as soon as we think! Who knows what God has in store?!

The Happiest Baby on the Block...

is MINE :)

I don't think there is a happier baby anywhere! This little girl even smiles when she cries (and
it is not often that she is upset enough to make a fuss)! She wakes up happy, goes to bed without a peep, and smiles constantly (ok--she is a terribly unpredictable napper but we just roll with it). I just had to type that I am so blessed to have this sweetest of babies for my fourth daughter.

New Curriculum!

After much thought and prayer we decided to make some changes to our home school. We had been doing "Five in a Row" and initially it was a hit. The girls liked it and it was easy for me to plan lessons. That worked very well while I was pregnant and then while we were adapting to baby number 4. I still love "Five in a Row" but school was becoming a battle--the girls were not interested in hearing the same story five days in a row! I secretly agreed--I found myself almost dreading reading the book for the third or fourth day in a row. So we knew it was time for a change:)

We are now using Tapestry of Grace . Today was our first day :) A good friend uses this curriculum with her family and I fell in love with it a few years ago when she shared it with me. I had planned on beginning it with my children in 2010 when (hopefully) both of the older girls were reading (Hailey reads very well, Reese is progressing well but NOT reading yet). No big deal though--apparently it works just fine with me reading the material to both girls. Anyway, I am extremely excited to be starting this new study and I hope the girls continue to share my enthusiasm!

This week we are learning about ancient Egyptians. The girls enjoyed the first book we read today about life in ancient Egypt. Pretty fascinating stuff! When Hailey found out that they didn't have dishwashers back then she decided that she wouldn't have wanted to live back then :) We have a few activities planned for this week and next--we will begin making a salt map to illustrate different geographical terms; next week we will make a paddle doll (Egyptian version of a baby doll). My girls love hands on learning so my goal is to do one craft/hands on activity a week. I am not a crafty person and honestly, I HATE the mess that goes with these projects but its something I am just going to have to get over :) Plus I have helpers to aid in craft aftermath clean up!

Again, I am very excited about this new addition to our school. I look forward to relearning history alongside my girls!

Goodbye Crooked Finger...

A week ago today Paige had surgery to remove a bony tumor in her finger (technical name: osteochondroma). The surgery went well. She went to sleep happy (she told me this) and woke up happy (I was witness to this). It was a little nerve racking for her parents because the surgery was supposed to take 30 minutes and ended up taking 1 hour and 45 minutes because she's a tiny kid with a tiny crooked finger :) Jason and I know that God is in control and we know that anesthesia is generally safe (this is our fifth experience with a kid being put under). But its still a little tense while you are waiting to hear that everything went ok!

The biggest deal was going to be keeping Paige from removing her bandage. Harhar. Well, we didn't have to worry about that for too long because Paige removed it that very afternoon! I made a frantic call to the surgeon while Paige's incision dripped blood and she remarked at how it didn't hurt (poor kid--the nerve block was still in effect. The pain would come later.). Doctor's orders were to re-bandage it and use the fingers on either side of the affected finger as splints. Oh and to try to keep her from whacking her hand for the next couple of weeks. Hmmm. Real fun considering this is how Paige spends her days:



So we've been trying to stick to quiet games, like dress up.


And playing with rusty clippers.



Oh, this is the finger the evening after surgery. Yuck! It looked much more bruised the following day but I didn't manage to snap a picture.

Storm in the Night

Last we did "Storm in the Night" by Mary Stolz. Nice story and appropriate for our week because we actually had a few storms (and one was at night too!). We did a little lesson on weather, mainly focusing on thunderstorms. We read the thunderstorm book by Magic School Bus and that was a hit. We touched a bit on the five senses--the girls' favorite activity was when we all piled into my closet and turned off the lights and noticed how much better we hear and smell without our sense of sight.

We also talked about fear and our verse for the week was Isaiah 43:5 "Do not be afraid, for I am with you;". Once again, GREAT story for this past week as on a occasion we deal with a little thunderstorm anxiety around here!

A nice side note: the heavy rains we were blessed with gave us the largest amount of rainfall our area has received since July of 2007! Amazing! This drought has been so bad--our lawn was really suffering (not that this is the most important thing but its where the effects of the drought were most felt by our family). Now its all green and overgrown--gorgeous! A lawn in central Texas is really something worth preserving--locals know what I mean! Huge mushrooms sprouted up all over the yard. I have never seen fungi like this in Texas!

Photo session

So we decided to do a little photo shoot in our backyard since we have precious few pictures of all four girls together. Oh man. It was like...well...exactly like trying to get four little kids to all look at the camera at the same time (everyone's eyes open and no goofy faces or panties showing). I think we took over fifty photos. These are some of the best:






Looks like I'm about to flip Jason the bird.