Enjoying My Kiddos

It takes effort to just sit and enjoy my kids. I am much more of a Martha than a Mary. I've recently had some success in my efforts though :)...praise be to our gracious God!

We have begun to enforce chores and the kids have a chart to put a star by their work. It's hit or miss if they remember to put up the star, but they aren't forgetting the work! I've been amazed at their willingness. While working in the kitchen with mom isn't a chore, they sure are enjoying it....and me too! Last week we worked hard at making two salads for dinner (pictures below). 

My sweet Darton is a work horse! I've written about his work habits in the past, but he has taken it to a whole new level these last two weeks. You can't give the boy enough to do! His number one talent, hands down, is sweeping. He is so meticulous and you don't have to ask him to do it! He just shows up with a broom and does it! I know this is a lot of exclamations marks, but I just am continually amazed. While I've struggled with knowing how to raise (and even enjoy) my second child, God is showing me just how fun and lovable he really is. 

 Darton had a play date with his buds. We were only able to go to the date because we live in the DR. Let me explain. At the same hour D had a date, Adeline had dance class on the other side of town. Problem number two was that Matthias had a 24hr virus that was working its way through the family. I had two employees working that day, so I sent one in a taxi with Adeline to dance and she sat there and then brought her home and then the other employee stayed with Matthias here at home.
People say, "Wow, how can you live in a foreign country raising small children!" And to it I reply, "How could I live in the U.S. and do it?! While the Lord's grace is sufficient in all circumstances, I say that if I was currently living in the States (aka without house help and a nanny) then either CPS or the Loony Bin would have come and picked me up by now."

Darton has been sick with what dominicans call "gripe." It translates into the flu or just sinus problems. He hasn't been able to consistently kick the fever, so here he is drinking his fever/wellness tea and doing a life cycle of a butterfly activity.

 Sometimes I will come upon something a house employee is doing and think "what are they thinking!!" And then this past week I was so pleasantly surprised by Ana when she used a bunt pan to make fresh orange juice...ingenious!

 We are plugging away at homeschooling and have added a science curriculum this year to our workload. If you have not checked out Apologia Science, YOU MUST! It's a creation based program that arms the student with facts to fight the mainstream science teachings. For example, when we learned about  thermonuclear fusion, we learned not only is it God's design to give the sun power, but also it makes the sun brighter each year. Which when you work backwards seeing that the sun gets dimmer and dimmer each year, you can prove that our sun can't be billions of year old!
When we learned about sunspots on the sun, we learned that they are cooler than the rest of the sun and help regulate the sun's temperature as well as the earth's temperature. Then the curriculum makes sure to give God the credit for his absolutely perfect design.
Apologia Science is truly what we want out of a curriculum....God being the life support of it. He's the veins of what we are teaching; the blood that gives the knowledge life.
The curriculum is FULL of activities to do. We've melted chocolate and burned a leaf with a magnifying glass. The picture below the kids are making Mercury out of a dough that hardens and then we painted it today.
And we are reading!! Whoohoo! The process really flowed so naturally with our phonics program that there haven't been any tears shed or hair pulled out. I've been asked if I feel successful because I've taught someone how to read....not really. Again, I give Barbara Beers all the credit for creating a curriculum that made reading so natural.

 Matthias will no longer sit idly by and watch :)

Macklin is just short of 7 months and we started veggies today. He loved carrots :)  For the last month and a half I've made rice, oatmeal, and quinoa cereal. This was my first time to make cereal and it was SO easy! For the rice and quinoa, you toast it on the stove until it begins to pop then grind it to a fine powder (I use my coffee bean grinder). To cook it, you do one part cereal to 4-6parts water depending on your babies stage.