Days To Remember G's Blog

Love............this child of mine.  I love him.  About a week ago, during quiet time I found him crying in my room. 

I asked him what was wrong, and he said, "It's kind of difficult to explain."  So, I said, "Well, when you are ready to tell me I want to listen."

So, a couple days past and then I found him again in my room crying.  I said, "Eli, you know why God gave you a Mommy and a Daddy?"

Eli, "Why?" 

Me, "So, when you are sad about something we can help you and talk to you about it."

Eli, "Well, it is kind of difficult to explain."

Me, "Well, why don't you try to tell me."

Eli, "Well, when I get older I don't want to leave and go and live by myself and get married.  I just want to stay here with you and Daddy.  I love you.  And I don't ever want to get rid of any of my toys in garage sales." 

Me, "Eli, oh honey, you know that you can stay with me and Daddy for as long as you want to, you do not have to leave, I love you so much and so does Daddy and if you want to live with us forever, you can, you are more than welcome to stay with us.  And you know Eli, you do not have to get married either if you do not want to.  And when you are ready to sell something at a garage sale, you can decide when the time is to sell it.  How does that sound?" 

Eli looked up at me and smiled and I gave him hugs and kisses.  A look of relief came upon his little face. 

I asked him, "So, baby  is this what you were crying about the other day too?"

Eli, "Yes, Mommy."

I said, "Well, you know you need to tell Mommy these things, because you were worrying yourself about something you did not need to." (How often do we do this ourselves???) 

Oh, I love that I can homeschool and have the time to listen and hold and hug and help when those overwhelming feelings come for my little ones.  It is such a blessing to be here to hear them and their concerns.  Even though it may come a time when Eli is a teenager and he is ready to be on his own.  I will remember these little tears and this conversation will be forever imprinted upon my heart.

I also loved that today when we were talking about changing out his booster chair in the car that he got all teary eyed and wanted to keep his old one in the attic.  Poor kid, just cannot part with those "things or toys" it seems.  Oh, he is a sweetie pie. 

So if you see some kids sporting head lights..........in Wal-Mart..........yeah, those are my kids! 

Maggie Beth had her Thanksgiving party today at preschool.  We braided her hair to go along with her Indian headdress. 

Oh, I love this kid!!! 

Yesterday we spent some time together learning about how movies are made (Indiana Jones), special effects (Backlot tour), animation (this time we created Tinkerbell in our animation class), history of movie making, stunts in Hollywood. 

We rode the Rockin' Roller Coaster; Hezekiah, Eli (who must have grown since last visit b/c he was 48 inches), Page and I.  Hezekiah and I screamed our heads almost off on the Rockin' Roller Coaster.  Hezekiah and Eli declared that it is the funnest ride there.  Maggie took turns with Page or I snacking on a chocolate covered marshmallow with M&M's...........yeah..........she did not eat it all.........she really wanted to ride the roller coaster. 

We watched Disney Junior Live.

This is what happens when the day is spent and it is time to go home. 

We met Mike from Monsters Inc. and shrunk the kids.  We even went into Toy Story and Eli was winning most of the time, but somehow I pulled out 10,000 more points in the end.  But Page surpassed us all in the Toy Story points. 

And if you think it was all fun and games it was, but the boys did do all their schoolwork prior to 9 a.m., by completeing the majority of it on the ride to Hollywood Studios. 

So we were ready to rock once we got there. 

I am so thankful for God's blessings, a wonderful family and time He has given us together. 

After church today Hezekiah and I spent sometime at the zoo working on his wildlife conservation belt loop for Boy Scouts.

He learned about classification of organisms, paw prints, how to make an oyster mat so that the oyster larvae will have places to grow and their populations will rebound. 

He also learned how oysters are filter feeders and that they are a keystone organism.

He created an insect collage. Learned about food chains and presented his conservation homework on Cheetahs to his group.  He did fabulous! 

The other scouts and he also got to meet some animals up close, such as a hog nose snake, a chinchilla, and a Tanzanian bullfrog. 

Check out our new tire swing.  (It cost us nothing.......we found the tire next door and had rope already = instant fun in the front yard).

Check out our silly kids at the beach.  So cute!

So sweet!  I love this one of the boys hugging with Maggie Beth between them.  LOVE!!!