School and Pippi

Some various things we are doing in Homeschool these days...

Story of the World History always has some good projects and a lot of the time we just don't get to them. But cutting out paper dolls of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella is always fun, they had a blast with it. 

They were still working on their 'Tower of London' from the previous section where we talked about the "Princes in the Tower" and how Richard III 'did away' with them in a tragic tale.

They decided to put the Spanish King and Queen in their Towers of London, which I was okay with as long as they knew it wasn't historically correct.

I did promise to take them star gazing, and try to navigate like Henry the Navigator, but we haven't done it yet.

That same week Sophia was reading one of our National Geographic Kids Almanacs for 2015 and said: "MOM, they found Richard III's bones!!!" This was so timely and so we read up on it, how they figured they were his, etc. It fit perfectly into our history study.

We are hitting our last six weeks of Cycle 3 of CC. I know in the U.S. all of this is winding down, but we are still early in our semester since we started so late. We have moved away from our study of the human body and have moved on to Chemistry. I have done an experiment about every other week, not weekly. Here we made a 'bubbler' . I told them most chemical experiments can be performed with substances in our kitchen.

 Chem lab happened to be my favorite college course.

We just finished reading Pippi Longstocking, a book everyone enjoyed. Bella then wanted me to try to do her hair like Pippi. The chopsticks in her hair were Sophia's idea, and worked well. Bella was a little embarrassed, so these did not last too long. 

Sophia is getting tired of "being around people who are mean to me all the time" so her Chinese school semester has not gone as well, but she is still doing well over all, and is doing great with her studies there. We will persevere through this semester and then re-evaluate whether she will continue in local school, This would/could/should be its own post, but I doubt I will detail it all here. Just pray for us to have wisdom in these big and small decisions for our children.

Water Splashing 2015

 Just like Chinese New Year, Water Splashing festival is something you have to experience to believe.
It looks all pleasant in our back yard and baby pool, but I assure the streets were ripe with splashers throwing their buckets of water and balloons! It is actually a bit dangerous on the streets but David manages to take our kids to fun places that are not too dangerous. We always hear of people getting knocked off of their motos...

This year we did have a blast, and since I wasn't nursing or having a baby I participated a little more than normal. David took the Sat/Sun outings, and I took the kids out on Monday, the last day.

Meanwhile on the first two days (and before that) I started my labor of love: water balloons, I tried to keep track...but lost count, I am sure I filled up at least 250! 

 The first day Bella came back early and played with G in the pool.

Look at those curls.

The second day, Tobin decided to stay back and play with Gabrielle.

The crew: supersoakers unite!

Per tradition they came in to hot chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles!

What Kara Tippitts is Still Teaching Me

I started reading Kara's blog over a year ago.

And after about a month I took her blog off of my reader list.

I knew she had a lot to offer, but I also knew she was dying.

At that point I was not in a great place. But it was also a horribly crucial place in my relationships with God, David, and my kids.  I was about four months postpartum with number four; I was struggling. This was a real spiritual marker for me that I wrote a tad bit about HERE. 

I knew, that in my emotional/spiritual/physical state, I could not invest deep and well in a blog 'friendship' that had me walking with someone to their death.

God's grace abounded to me over those next few months, and I actually forgot about Kara Tippitts.

Then she went and wrote an amazingly poignant letter to a woman committing suicide in order not to suffer.  This letter was linked to all over the internet and I read it. And I remembered why I started reading her in the first place.

Kara was not your typical Christian with cancer saying: 'give God glory in suffering', 'it is for His glory, my good', 'it hurts but His grace is sufficient'. Those are true statements and maybe she did say those in some way. But she was deeply real about the fight to see God, to love Jesus, to live well with others while living and dying at the same time, which is what we are all doing anyway.  She candidly admitted the struggles and victories. She did indeed show that suffering can be beautiful.

BUT that is not what she is teaching me.

As soon as I re-started reading her blog, I knew it would be hard. And as her beautiful face and

family moments came across my screen I started to relate to her more and more.

She was 38. I am 38.

She had four kids. I have four kids.

Three girls, one boy. Yep, me too.

Her third is the boy, as is mine.

I just completely started putting myself in her shoes and putting each of my kids in her kids' shoes, which was quite easy to do since we had so many similarities.

And one night when I sat on our couch and cried at my lack of kindness towards the kids once again, and voiced my desire to David  to be changed by the gospel to the very core of my being….

He spoke truth in, and reeled me back from despair like he often does.

Then.

Then I opened my kindle and started reading Kara's book that I had bought a week prior. Not the one she is more famous for  ('The Hardest Peace'). No, I read her little ebook called Big Love, about how Love being kind will change your life.

And this is already what God had been working in me to really see and fight for: Kindness that brings peace.

As I read her story through this book she sounded just like me.

She talks about taking bad habits into her marriage, not fighting fair, just wanting to be right. She talked about her husband being so patient with her and having 'the long view of her'.

I could have written those lines.

She talked about  seeing her sin in her child and being completely broken. Yes, me.

And then she opened my eyes to see truth in a verse I had been meditating on all year, one that I have been trying to brand into my heart: 1 Pet 3: 4: '...let your adornment be the inner self with the lasting beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God's sight' (RSV). When she read this verse she felt 'doomed'.  Every time I read this verse I feel it too: the utter 'never-ness' of it.

Here is what I am learning from Kara Tippits: "If it's the desire of God's heart to change us, He is a gentleman in growing us--patient, slow to anger, and ever-loving in our mishaps. I can now look at those verses without being tied in knots. Am I gentle? I have been gentled. Is my spirit quiet? My spirit has been quieted."

Yes, this. This truth of progress and process that has me being 'gentled' by my Savior, and 'quieted' by my God as I seek to live in a love that is kind. It is not my becoming a gentle, quiet spirited person (though I do continue to  beg for it), it is God making Lorraine more gentle than she was, I am 'being gentled' by Him. It is God quieting me daily, not instantly.

Her kids faces taught her "the value of being wrong, seeking to be gentle, a heart that longed to love generously. I longed to not withhold love when it was inconvenient to give it." This is such startling truth to live, and the exact place the Spirit had been working in me since the birth of Gabrielle. A desire to love differently than I had been. That meant loving myself and all my 'rightness' way less, and letting Jesus' 'lavish' love take hold and transform. This is what Kara is teaching me.

THEN, she started quoting Psalm 73. This passage is  an anchor passage for me, one that has pierced through, helped me see clearly, and given me hope in the darkest of times. And my 'dark times' don't compare with Kara's.

She reflected: 'The absence of suffering in my life is not my good. The nearness of God is my great, great, GOOD!!!"

She says: "I love that even in my brutish attitudes and failures, I am still continually with God. His nearness is my good. Know Him, know his nearness, let him love you. It is really the very heart of parenting with kindness."

Just a few days into my reading of her book, Kara Tippits died.  There I was resonating with all God had put on her heart, tearing up and reading things aloud to David at night, and there she was breathing her last breaths.

That  morning I turned the computer on and said to David: "She died, she's gone"  and he just hugged me. I didn't cry right away, but when he embraced me, and I leaned in...there was nothing for me to do but weep. 

There had been SO much 'crisis- mode' stuff going on in our life at that time, counsel upon counsel given and taken for various things, startling news, sad news from SO many people we are close to, that when Kara Tippits died, I seriously lost it for a few moments. 

And, while I was prepared for her death, I was not prepared for how I would take it.

I was actually grieving. I was grieving many things at that point.  And it was Kara's death that God used to help me start letting go of some emotions and really dealing with and talking through serious points of pain and uncertainty in our life.

It was/is a good grieve.

I am thankful for Kara Tippitts, her boldness to expose us all to her heart and let us see Christ being able to work in the harsh truth that death is coming, But His nearness is our good, and in His presence is fullness of joy. Praise Jesus, Kara  is indeed in all that fullness of joy right now.

Tobin at Four

Tobin is a super charmer, all rambunctious boy.
Here are some of his interests/quotes of late:

• He still talks about his cousin Isaiah a bit, and tucks his shirt in like him. When they play 'family' he is always 11 (now 12) years old, 'like Isaiah'. 
• "Can Poppy teach me how to fly an airplane, then when I grow up I can fly a helicopter and wear a helmet like this one (shows me the picture of the helicopter pilot and his gear)?"
• After Bella mentioned what she wanted to do when she grows up Tobin nonchalantly said in all seriousness: "I want to fix airplanes and be a super hero"
• he is really good at building things with legos, he can look at the pic and do it himself, or just picture it in his head and build something cool
• For a just four-year-old with very little practice (read: we don't do PE in our homeschool...yet), he has some pretty good ball skills with a soccer ball. And he hates to lose. 
• We have a book on SPEED that I recently got out for him. It is all things FAST. When he got to the fastest man in the world...Usain Bolt, he became a little infatuated. "can I have some shoes with Usain Bolt on them?" "Can I have a shirt with Usain Bolt on it?" I finally figured out that he wants the shirt, shorts, and shoes that Bolt is wearing in the picture, basically the Jamaican track team jersey!
• In all seriousness he asked me: 'Momma, who is faster Bolt or Dash (from the Incredibles)?" my reply (at first): 'honey....Dash is not a real person....' (seeing his face not understand, I decide to back pedal a little) "in the superhero world, Dash is the fastest, in the human world, Bolt is the fastest"
• because we tell him about how things like spinach and meat will help build his muscles, he eats a bite and then says 'see?!' and shows us his arm muscles.
• One day, taking B and T to school, I let them sit in the very front seat together (like the locals), (this is a short distance with very slow car speed). Bella started coming up with very creative things that our car would turn into if you pressed a certain button....then I said: " I don't know if daddy told you but he got a jet engine put in our car, and if you push this button it goes as fast as a fighter jet. But we can't use it in town because of all the cars on the road....really...ask him about it." Tobin smiled at me the whole time, so I didn't think he was buying it, and I am sure Bella didn't. Then Tobin, quite a few minutes later said: " I know mommy, you know at night when the cars are not out?' "cars or stars?" "Cars! when the cars are not out, we can go out on the street and press the button and use the engine!" 
• Tobin has a very sweet personality that is super fun. He loves playing with each of his sisters and is protective of Gabrielle. We are so blessed to have him in our lives, can't wait to see what the Lord does with him!

Tobin's 4th Birthday: The Celebration

Tobin was surprised by his cake and the decorations, he also thought he had to wait all afternoon to get his gifts. His teachers were sad he wasn't coming back that afternoon, and would not be there when they gave out the 45 sugar cookies I made and iced for them. Forty-one students, that is a small class in these parts.

 Love this kid!

His party was just a family gathering, and he didn't care. I told Sophia they should go out the back door, come to the front and knock like they were kids coming to the party. It was her idea to put the wigs on. "Hi, we are here for Tobin's birthday party." He just laughed!

 And gave this sheepish grin, like he didn't know what to make of his crazy sisters.

Gabrielle got in the mix of course.

See how lop-sided it is? The heat was also taking its toll.

Our new house helper gave him this ball/toy thingy that is quite cool and collapses when it hits the ground.

Gabrielle gave him her gift.

And we did get him a little RC motorboat that goes on real water.

Sophia's medicine wore off and she started feeling puny again.

Tobin played with new toys. I love his mouth making the noises in these pics.

Like the helicopters that fly over our house daily for the past month.

Gabrielle was our trash girl. She is really understanding everything these days. So off she went to the trash every time we asked her.

We had him practice in the bath tub first.

 Then outside...the fish chased it a bit.

It was not officially water splashing festival but I let them play with water.

 

That night we finished watching 'Big Hero Six' and Tobin dressed up like Hero Hamata, the main character. He really looked like him too, with long shorts and helmet. Then he climbed up on David's back who was BayMax at the time and flew Tobin around. It was priceless.

Happy Birthday Tobin!!!

Tobin's 4th Birthday: The Morning

Our boy turned four on April 10th!

We were getting them ready early because they were going to school that morning for a water splashing festival event. The official festival started the next day.

He asked for waffles, but didn't eat much. In the end we determined he doesn't really like them. He definitely does not like pancakes either. Interesting. He loves oatmeal and french toast.

He wanted a real motorboat for a gift and spiderman on his cake. Once again, as always, my cakes never turn out to my liking, but the kids LOVE them and that is all that matters.

Sophia was impressed with the signs. She stayed home with me that day because her school was on a field trip and she had a high fever.

7:30 a.m. ready to go to school in their Minority outfits.

The older classes were the greeters.

Tobin was one of the first to arrive in his classroom. Here he is with a friend.

While they were at school I started in on the cake. I really wish I had taken pictures of it in my oven. I can never get my oven to a good even temp, These cake layers looked like a volcano, It was so weird, I had never seen a cake do that before. I really had a time leveling it out before I froze it, and even then it wasn't quite even as you will see.

What we have learned here on this blog, year after year, is that cake making and decorating is not my forte, I do it because I love my kiddos. And they have no idea either. Sophia said: 'man, I will never be able to make a cake like that'. She was so encouraging. Thankfully I had not shown her the pinterest page I had seen of Spiderman Cakes.

I wanted red icing with a black web, but did not have enough, so I switched it up.

It really is lop sided.

I got out every Spider man he has and added a new one...

I let them eat lunch at school this day because Bella always begs me to and it was a busy morning. Our plan was for a post-lunch one hour party, to fit right smack dab in the middle of David's work day, it worked out well.

Legos!!

'Mom will you take pictures of this and put it on the blog right away!'

They have no idea who all reads this blog, they would be so disappointed...

But here it goes...(it did not happen 'right away' either)

The kids got a few little lego people for Easter and spent all of their free time making a little 'lego city', Sophia, Bella, and Tobin all worked on this and had so much fun, and literally did not fight for hours....blessing.

 They cleared the pillows from their window seat and set up their own legoland.

This was this girl's house, with flowers on the window sill and all.

This girl is on stage with a little audience (clever)

This 'castle guy' is guarding his keep, next to the motorcycle garage.

Below is an ice cream shop right next to a gun salesman, he had quite an assortment you wouldn't wan to see on the streets.

Of course, the beauty salon...

and Tobin's motorcycles.