Twenty!

That's where we are on the Shepherd's Care wait list as of May..

#20

Our agency places around 50 children a year...

and we are number 20...

I just can't help thinking that our family may be getting an amazing Christmas gift this year!!

A Letter to Our Local Library

My children, aged 4 and 7, and myself visited our local library branch today, something we do quite often and with much enjoyment. When I was sorting out the books we had brought home I noticed that the kids had selected a novel. As my oldest has just learned to read novels I was interested to see what she had selected. You can image my disgust and horror upon opening the book to read a graphic description of a dog who had been killed by a pitchfork, how the blood was running down the protagonist's skin and the liberal use of profanity!!!








Flipping through the book I found it was liberally laced with profanity.







I would like to know what was going on in the mind of the person who selected this for the children's library? I would like to ask them if they think parents would enjoying hearing their young child sounding out F--U--CK, F--UCK--FUCK? If they think that is adorable and precocious?







I am afraid those questions might sound a little rude and angry (which I am) and so instead I will strongly suggest that the library adopt some system of sticker labels for books with questionable content in the children's section. We have them for videos and music already, so why not for books?????







I am so extremely relieved that I inspected the book before my 7 year old sat down to enjoy it. I take my kids the library to enrich their minds, not to fill them with FILTH!







Sincerly

Rumour Has It

Someone in our house may have turned 4 recently.

I will neither confirm or deny these rumours

(also, we are Canadian, so we love us our "u"s )

Because 4 sounds awfully old

Impossibly grown up

For my baby boy

(apparently when you are 4 and your Mom lets you eat

candy you need a photo of it..on top of your head)

Slow

Today the beauty was easy to see

(Seriously. This face is why he gets away with so much)

I like to take pictures of my feet in happy places

Nature study

Today I let go of my agenda.

We slowed down, listened to the waves, investigated any little thing that caught our eye.

We walked slow. My little man, so recently non-verbal told me a fantastic story as we went.

The laundry didn't get done nor the garden weeded...

I'm learning, slowly be to more than okay with that.

Beauty & Slime

It wasn't long after making the decision to homeschool that I stumbled across the Charlotte Mason method of education. It was actually one of the things that made me feel comfortable about the decision to educate our children at home because it was everything I longed for as a child but struggled to find in my cookie-cutter schooling. It also reminds me so much of my beloved Grandmother. So much so that I tend to picture my "Merdi" in my head when reading CM's writings. They both were passionate about good books, children and education being about living not dry, dull lessons.

With a few years of homeschooling under my belt I'm confident to say that we've found our niche with a combination of classical studies with a Charlotte Mason approach.

One of the things that really drew me to the CM style was the emphasis on time spent outdoors and nature study. I don't know if it was just the age of my kids though, but I have really struggled to institute the nature study part of our homeschool.

Physically, we are set. Beside our back door hangs our three Ugandan bags. Each with a drawing book, magnifying glass, binoculars and sketching pencils. All crisp and new and totally unused.

I've just finished reading the section of CM's original writings on the importance of nature study so I decided that today was the day. We put aside books and housework, grabbed our bags and headed out into the sunny spring day.

I think this new little footbridge is going to become a favorite spot. All the thrill of a bridge with none of the worry of falling into the pond.

Sun! After months of grey and rain.

It's still very early spring here. The kids decided to investigate the slime growing on the water. I'd never really looked at slime that closely before. It's actually quite neat. How the threads are strung together, trapping air so it doesn't sink.

We looked for signs of growth to come. Only the dandelions out so far.

We took time to look for the beautiful that we might otherwise overlook.

 

I don't know if they learned anything in particular today but I hope that we can do this more often

 I hope that what they come away with is the habit of slowing down and seeing what is all around them.

Seeing the beauty in the world

in the obvious

and even in the slime.

jumping in mid thought....

I remember the years in between Caley and Matthew.

When we were trying to grow our family.

Unsure why it wasn't happening

Wondering if it ever would

Wondering if we would be okay if it never did.

Looking back it was the not knowing that made it the hardest, the uncertainty.

Though I was beyond thrilled when we became a family of four, I do wish that I had taken the time to really appreciate that season of life, life as three.

I wish I had focused more on the gift of the present.


Flash forward five years and I find myself again in this place.

Wondering, praying, hoping for a child.

Will it ever happen?

Will we be okay if it doesn't.

Only now I have the answer to that question. We will be okay no matter what the future holds for us because God is good and His love never fails.

He has promised to never leave us and He has sworn to sustain us.

And in the waiting?

He is growing us.

And in the waiting?

I am living each moment, thankful for the gift that is now.

Ski School!

We really are blessed by the number and variety of home schooling activities available in our area. Most are too old for Caley yet, but we jumped at the chance to participate in a 3 session cross country ski school.

I would never have guessed that the Little Miss, who graciously admits that most sports are "not her talent", would be such a natural skier!

I however demonstrated how to slide down a hill on your face a few times...you know, to show the kids and all :O)