Last Days of May '12

I'm sorry I have let so much time go by without posting. I've recently bought a smartphone and am using the Whatsapp to communicate with pictures via our phones to family instead of sitting down to blog.

God has been working on us and I am thankful to say that grace is starting to penetrate our parenting. One night last week I realized how different Scott and I are now when one of the kids got out of bed and instead of sternly telling them in exasperation to return to bed and angrily asking "why are you out of bed?", we were able to embrace that time and hug on the child and get to the heart of why he/she was out of bed. Time and time again I catch myself thinking, "Ann, God wouldn't kick you when you are down; he'd help you up and give you another chance." I'm truly trying to apply that to my parenting.
I am thankful for a husband who prays aloud over me every morning. His prayers are being answered. I am thankful for books like A Mother's Heart by Jean Flemming, You Can't Make Me [But I can be Persuaded] by Cynthia Tobias, and Grace Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel. I am thankful for Beth Moore's study on the Fruits of the Spirit. It's teaching me how I can not possibly posses love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control WITHOUT the aid of the Holy Spirit. When I think about not wanting to extend goodness, I first reflect on God's goodness to me. When I think about not wanting to extend patience{particularly to my kids}, I think first of God's patience with me. etc....

I took the 3 older kids to the Botanical Gardens last week.

 Matthias was quite sure he was just as old as they are.

Now that's a leaf!

 A bonus as we were leaving....The dinosaur exhibit was packing up to leave and we got to get close the a dino without having to pay $10 to see it again. Scott took them to the exhibit in February, but of course they had been begging to go back...mainly because Adeline was SURE the dinosaur eggs had hatched by now.

 Scott and I went to the International Women's Club Gala on Saturday night. We had so much fun and even though we didn't arrive home until 2a.m., we both felt the night wasn't long enough. I'm SO thankful we still have fun together after 7 1/2yrs of marriage and 4 kids. We will have known each other for a decade this June.

Matthias insists that he needs to be a part of bedtime story time now. 

kids HARD at work

I could go on and on and on about Darton and how we are learning to parent him. He regularly puts his fingers in his ears these days in order to not hear our reprimand, instructions, explanations, etc. 

Adeline sounding out a note she was writing to me. 

For now, Darton is learning ONLY from absorption of his environment. He will have nothing to do with sitting down with me to learn something UNLESS it's his idea. 

Adeline continues to love bugs and insects. This is a snail she found in the yard.