Days To Remember G's Blog

Hezekiah and Eli were both home today from school with a fever and sore throat that was just a virus.  We went to the doctor today.  Hezekiah was home yesterday too, so I had him help me collect acorns over at Page's work. Then Hezekiah and Page rode their bikes to the park yesterday and collected pine cones for me, while I took Eli and Maggie Beth to the gym. We also gathered some leaves this morning. Tomorrow at MOPS we are having a Celebrate Fall day and so I thought, hmmm, I probably should try some of these things out that we have planned to really see if preschoolers would enjoy it.

So I am doing the sensory items to celebrate fall so I have gathered a few things and thought, "Hey, let's have some fun." So the kids (Maggie included) touched and felt the pine cones, the acorns, and the leaves and we talked about why leaves change colors in the fall. We talked about the "hat" on the acorns, and why the pine cones feel prickly.  All things they came up with to talk about without me even to try to get them to talk about how the items felt. Maggie Beth also tried to eat everything. . . .her sensory is all about putting everything in her mouth. . .ugh! Then they guessed what items would float or sink in their tub of water. I also have some fake fall leaves that they enjoyed sorting into colors and pretending they were falling from the sky. They are going to be even more excited later when I have to practice to see the amounts for the trail mix for tomorrow. Crack me up! Anyhow, this is how we spent an hour or so of our morning celebrating fall. I am looking forward to the other ideas we get to see tomorrow at MOPS!

Alright, here are my stats for the Triathalon. These are from all the swimming splits! For the mile swim out of all 135 competitors I placed 48th in the swim. For the teams I placed 4th for my swim. Out of 46 women who swam the mile I placed 11th! Not too bad for my first time in a competition since college! And some pounds heavier! Crack me up! Anyhow, I hope to do this again. It was a lot of fun!

This morning I woke up early, 5 a.m., to do a Team Triathalon! Yawn, Yawn! My first! It was really exciting and a new experience for me. My team mates were Jackie, who rode the bike, and Coleen, who was our runner. I got there a little before 6 and had to get marked. Our team number was 512. I was in the third wave of swimmers (the pink caps!), and I swam my mile under 33 minutes which was pretty exciting. I figured it would take me 35-45 minutes, but thankfully it was less. I am pretty sure I was the eighth in my wave to return back to the transition area so I could give our ankle band to Jackie. Jackie rode 26 miles, which is insane, I think! She did awesome and it took her about 2 hours. Next Jackie had to trade off the ankle band to Coleen, and she had to run in this stinking hot weather and poor things, I felt so bad for them both because it was VERY hot here. (I was glad I got to swim at 7:25 a.m. and was in water........they had to be on the hot pavement!) But they did fabulous and I think it is just awesome. Coleen ran the 6 miles in about an hour and 15 minutes, and she too was awesome! When we saw Coleen running to the finish Jackie and I ran with her so we could all go under the finish sign.  Did I say that we did a TEAM OLYMPIC Triathalon? What an accomplishment. Page brought the kids to see me swim and I got to see them right before I swam in the river and I got to see them all when I got out. He is such a great daddy and I was so thankful that our kiddos got to experience that with me. So, I guess I am up for the next team experience. Maybe one of these days, with LOTS of training I could do a sprint triathalon.

Eli said the other night, "I'm trying to open my eyes, but my eyes are not letting when I try to go to sleep." What a peanut. Here is a picture of Maggie in her sleepy time garb. She has been so sleepy lately, we have been putting her to bed at 7:15, she just crawls up into our arms and rests her precious curls on our shoulder and cuddles until one of us puts her to bed. She even went in and stood by her bed last night. Oh, I love sleepy time! And I also love any comments that you might have for my blog. Let me know if you visit and write a comment and where you are visiting from. I love comments and especially helpful tips on childrearing!

Alright, the picture is just a pic of my birthday cake! Is it not the cutest! I loved it and well also ate it! Just a plug for my favorite bakery, Sweet Temptations here in Melbourne. The rest of this blog is my morning routine!

Our morning routine is pretty laid back most of the time as long as mommy gets out of bed! Crack me up. Thankfully, that has not been much of a problem. I know when it starts getting cooler though and darker in the mornings I will want to sleep in. Thankfully, our mornings are not too early since the boys are not at school til 8:45 a.m. for Hezekiah and 9 a.m. T,W,TH for Eli.

One thing that I have really felt to be important is having a morning devotion with my children and prayer time with them in the morning at the breakfast table. We started with the book "Small Talks About God". At first this is exactly what Eli and Hezekiah called our time each morning and they would point to the book I had on a little wall shelf and say, "Mommy, we have to do our small talk about God!" We have our family Bible that a dear teacher friend gave me when I had Eli that I have used as well. But most of the devotional material that I have received I have gotten from my church library. I have a book now called "What is Prayer?" We have used this book the past week and it is on a Kindergarten/Preschool and I guess even 17 month old level. I have also used a book titled "Tales of Virtue" that went over stories in the Bible on honesty, purity, forgiving, and sharing to name a few. I have really enjoyed reading the verses and the stories to my kiddos and then praying with them and asking them if there is anything they would like to to pray about. It is cute, Maggie Beth folds her hands and mumbles little words. Hezekiah and Eli sometimes get out of their seats and get on the tile floor get on their hands and knees and bow with their faces in their hands.......it makes me teary eyed. Now, granted some days it is just pure craziness trying to get their attention, but I am adamant to be consistent with our time to learn and talk about and to God. I want them to know that their mommy prays for them each day and I want the truth to live in their hearts and I pray one day that each of my children will come to know the saving grace of our Lord Jesus. It truly has been a blessing and I am consistently looking for other good materials to use for this age, so if anyone has any recommendations please let me know!

This morning before church after breakfast I let the boys watch some of the Magic School bus while I got ready. Well, a commercial came on for Nationwide and you know the slogan, "Nationwide is on your side!" Eli says, "Nun unh, only Jesus is on our side!" Crack me up! So, I guess there is hope, some of the Word is sinking in. Anyhow, pray for us and mommy that God would use His Word and these vessels of His (mommy and daddy) to raise our children in a way that is honoring to Him. I seek wisdom from Him, but also from you my friends who have been there and done that. Thank you in advance for your prayers and your insight.

Our backyard is a fun place to play. We are thankful to grandma who bought us a playground when Maggie Beth was born so the boys had a place to play when their little sis was napping! We actually had a few "cooler" days to enjoy this week, but now it is super hot again. The boys and Page had played Simon Says outside which is too funny to watch. They come up with some funny things to do, I think my favorite was act like a rock star. Their performances were incredible. Maggie Beth enjoys swinging in her swing, walking around with buckets, playing in her cozy coupes and going down her slide. Page captured this picture of her outside. She is just adorable, wouldn't you agree.

We have also had art school lately. The boys have really been enjoying drawing robots, brains, rocket ships, cars, trains, an assortment of things I guess boys like to draw! Eli drew a picture for his friend Garrett of a "Go Gators" (an alligator) with him and his buddy in a spaceship. He had to take his picture to his friend at school. He said, "Garrett likes those Go Gators." So I will need to post some of their artwork. It really is amazing to see how their little minds work when it comes to creating things. We also got some new cork boards, my fridge was becoming overloaded with all their artwork so now we have two cork boards one is Hezekiah's and the others is Eli's and we display their new work there instead of the fridge. Hezekiah has also been making books at school with the moving alphabet, when he makes a book he writes the words of the objects and to my knowledge has to sound out the object, put the letters, write the letters down on his paper (he also has to go get the number of pieces of paper for how many objects he has) and then once he writes the word down for each object creates a book.  He has brought numerous books home. He also wrote a sentence last week and brought it home. We are so proud of him and his hard work.