What is Goin' On?

Free form here...

(the following pictures have little to do with the content of this post and are put in for a fun distraction)

Outside my window...

Sunshine for a few hours today. It has been weeks and weeks of rain. During the break in rain (though clouds loomed)  we made paper boats (wax crayon on all sides), went out to a village, open rice fields, and a very nice flowing river. This is always a FUN activity for all. We saw lots of water buffalo and the rice almost ready to harvest. It did start to rain, but we went on a little walk and enjoyed the valley view as the storm came in. The ride there and back was so bumpy, the kids 'weeeed' and 'oohhed' and 'ahhhed.'

 I said..."who needs Disney rides when you have back roads in China?" to which Tobin promptly replied: "I do."

In my kitchen...

For Coker summer school I adapted a friend's 'kids in the kitchen' curriculum and have tried to get Sophia moving towards independence...this will take a long time, but it is a start. We are loving local school break, and a lot of days she will just jump in there and help our helper chop things or shred cheese, etc. I found a can of cherries about to expire, I have no idea where I bought those...but I made a cherry dump cake. I had to chop my own pineapple for this, but it was still fabulous. This is David's fave right now. I also made this cinnamon roll cake from scratch, that I really loved but it was very sweet. It went over well.

In the School room...

We are in the middle of Coker Summer School. We finished up a few subjects, and do year round on most core stuff. But I added a few things during the lull. Like Poetry! Yep, it's back. We had memorized quite a few poems a few years ago. This is more intro to fun poems and famous poets. We will have a midsummer celebration this Saturday for reciting some CC memory work, poetry, and original stories or a dance, the kids are so excited, Tobin is doing it too! This is all for David, btw, our audience. Plus, mommy will participate with her own recitations. FUN. Added on is some piano, since the girls just started and are doing really well. I may do a single post on our summer schedule and what's old and new, and coming up.

Our school room itself is accented beautifully with the button tree art that they did with the TCC team.

On my night stand...

      Just finished up Stepping Heavenward for the 2nd time. I read it a lot slower this time and underlined new things. I read other books alongside it, but was steadily encourage and convicted as I came back to it. 

     I am in the middle of Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child. This book is brilliant and inspiring. It gives thought provoking anecdotes and analogies in its cultural critique and so far has me motivated and reading on. I highly recommend it! To whet your appetite: 

     "A good book is a dangerous thing...it carries within it the possibility...of cracking open the shell of routine that prevents us from seeing the world."  And..." for the first time in human history, most people are doing things that could never interest a child enough to make him want to tag along." I did take these quotes out of context...but dive in and be challenged by the author's perspective. 

     I just started Bruchko and am not that far in. I often 'vet' books to see how age-appropriate they are for our particular children regardless of the recommended age, I am doing that here. It got rave reviews, so I am excited to get into it. 

Exercising...

After a Thailand trip, a team from the U.S., and a whopper of a lung infection that sidelined me for a few weeks, I am re-starting Kettle Bells and running! Well, I ran today at least just to give my recovering lungs a go. Went okay, not full speed for sure. David is leading the kids in PE about 3-4x/week and they are having a blast. They also go swim at least 1x/week (covered/almost indoor so rain doesn't matter). 

 

Planning...

I am in the throes of Homeschool planning our next year. Yes, we do year round and have not stopped, but mainly I am figuring out how to implement some of our goals for next year and start the next level of history and a new CC cycle, with Tobin participating more this go round. I have planned Science, Fine Arts, Geography coinciding with CC, then my own GeoMap for map drawing, looked ahead at math and LA, and am now starting the history plan, which will take the longest!

TCC 2015: post 2

Rachel reading aloud to the kiddos, yes, please!

I did ask Heather if her health/life insurance was current as I took her on the back of my moto during the busiest time of the day.

I cooked only one meal for this crew because we had to take them to all of our favorite dives that proves this town has the best food in the world.

Guess what we ate this day? Noodles! Pulled Noodles. I often don't have her use a bib anymore, we are cleaning out the 'baby' stuff. Less stuff, more messes like these. Not sure which is better.

At the pulled noodle restaurant we asked a guy that works there to play the gorde flute for us, he is really good, and he obliged.

Sewing! The girls were so psyched about this...but realized it can be slow going. Truth be told, Sophia still isn't done. She will finish tomorrow.

Heather, the patient teacher.

Getting to know Uncle Travis

Two cut-ups right here.

And not to mention this little guy, whose devotion to Travis was greatly strengthened when we told him he was Cousin Isaiah's dad!

This deserves its own post and may or may not get one...but for Bella's kindergarten graduation, her class along with one parent learned a dance and did it in front of a few hundred people. We wore the same outfit, put on glitter make up, and spent many weeks prior practicing. It was hilarious. The team was there for the main event so they went and stayed until we were done. The group of kids after us danced to Michael Jackson's 'Billy Jean'.

Brooke was our resident hair stylist, braiding our hair the same way.

We drove about an hour away and less than a mile hike in to these waterfalls. This was an adventurous day towards the end of their trip

We packed picnic lunches and made the journey. Gabrielle on my back again. She did great, except in the car where she cried on and off almost the whole time until Rachel comforted her with games and songs...what a lifesaver for the peeps in my car!

Look tough guys!

still more to come...

And I forgot to tell the team (who doubted our whole 'rainy season'): it has rained almost non-stop since you left. Seriously. It just stopped today. That is eleven days of rain folks. And even though I still have a low grade fever and feel uck (also 11 days), I took the kiddos outside for a short walk just to breathe the air and look up at the puffy clouds and hear birds chirp. It was great for the soul.

TCC 2015: post 1

Three days after arriving back home from Thailand a seven person team from TCC arrived to explore our city, get to know us, and pour into our family. We had an incredible time! This was a special team because Uncle Travis was leading it (our bro) and my BFF was a part as well. She does not love China (this was her third trip), but she does love me, so she comes and serves and makes me laugh, laugh, laugh! 

We found it quite amazing that this team was laid back and SOOO easy to host. What a blessing. 

 

Of course the trip started with the traditional girls v guys scavenger hunt around our city. The rules were simple, get your list of items accomplished, no helps unless you find an English speaking person. Sophia, Bella, and I tagged along with the girls and it hurt us not to help them in any way, especially when they were standing in the wrong line at KFC and we couldn't even nudge them in the right direction.

Rachel was on it! She found a girl who could speak a few words of English.

 

In the end we ran into the guys...who won the whole thing quite fair and square. The girls went wayward from the beginning when they went down the wrong street and their taxi driver had no idea what they were saying.

The team got a good little picture of rural China and the beautiful valley in which we live.

The rice, indescribable green...

a pig farm...

Lots of playful times with Uncle Travis.

We stumbled upon this farmer letting his water buffalo have a romp in the water.

We took TCC to visit  friends in the village.

This girl...Heather. She came up with the crafts for the kids during our 'retreat' study time. She actually went to my Pinterest page and then asked me ideas from there. A fabulous idea. She taught Sophia and Bella how to sew! Brooke helped the kids glue buttons on trees for one of my fave crafts, and Rachel helped the kids make beautiful paper stars that are already hanging in their rooms. So thoughtful.

Brooke became a besty of Bella, who still talks about her.

This guy, our local friend, has always loved Tobin.

Travis was reenacting what he was doing last time TCC visited our town, six years ago. Bella was being rocked in arms like this! Growing up fast.

I cannot document all that we did with the team, but I will say a highlight was the intentional time to do a study together on fear and anxiety, simply to encourage us in our fight for joy and His presence! 

Each person on the team, in their individual way spurred us on in our love toward God and others. And watching them love on our kids was quite special for us.

We had lots of parenting discussions, with resident daddy expert, Travis, here. (He would not call himself that, but he is. He is intentional yet laid back, and always seems a trove of wisdom when we pose certain parenting issues to him. )

more to come....

And fyi, they left on July 13th,  I got very sick the day before, cold/fever/chills/cough. It lasted 4-5 days, got a little better and then came back. I am still sick, functioning at about 1/4 speed, if that. I may visit the local hospital in the next few days if I don't get better. Going on day 12!

Sophia's Teeny China Party

I did promise that we would invite Sophia's fave friends over for brownies when we returned home. 

We arrived back at almost midnight on the 1st, the kids went to school the following afternoon and on the evening of the 3rd we had three girls over, onne from her class, the other two from the neighborhood!

A candle in a brownie:

 It was also LBH's birthday so we celebrated together and they exchanged gifts.

 love this girl!

New friend.

 Anyone who will give me food is a friend:

Bro and sis, at our house daily.

Happy Birthday again and again!
TCC team arrives tomorrow!

More Fun Photos Before our Return Home.

Bella eating Pad Thai. Yum and then sum.

Gabrielle love/hating the water.

Tobin can swim very well and come up for breaths with no floaties!

 But he still prefers just to romp around and jump in!

LOVE:

This place has a tall tower to climb and overlook the beautiful scenery:

It is in her hands, folks: