Flat Cheese, More Cheese, and Chocolate

Tirzah LOVES what she calls "flat cheese". Come to find out, that is actually sliced cheese. She was not impressed with the blocks of cheese we usually buy, and apparently made her Mamoo feel so bad for her that she bought her an entire oversized package of sliced cheese to take home with her recently. I have started letting the kids make their own lunches sometimes, and Tirzah almost always picks the flat cheese. No peanut butter and jelly for this sandwich snob.

I admittedly am not always paying 100% attention to what they are making for lunch until its already made. One particular day I realized, after they had sat down, that Tirzah's lunch looked like this:

I mean, not exactly a well balanced meal. But I'll give her an A for effort, or maybe a C for cheese. She didn't even bother to include bread this time...just the beloved flat cheese, cheez-its, and dark chocolate kisses. I'm also going to go ahead and admit that I let her eat it. But she definitely had baby carrots for her snack later. 

Attention Hog

It seems like ever since she was born, Amaryllis is determined to steal all the attention. She was determined not to fall into the typical "fourth baby" spot where you might get lost in the shuffle. She has definitely gone out of her way to leave her mark, and make herself heard, every chance she gets.

She's also following in her older brother, Jericho's, footsteps it seems when it comes to being a lazy baby. She still doesn't seem to care to sit up, although she can somewhat. She does roll over but would rather not. She just likes lay in the floor, or sit in her bumbo, and have her minions wait on her. Which they all do, readily. This may be part of the problem. ;) In her defense, however, I don't think the first few months of having to keep her propped up on her back at all times due to reflux helped with her laziness. She has taken that pickiness and run with it. Fancy pants fo sho.

This kiddo can't even sit and watch TV (what, you're 7 month old doesn't watch TV? oops) without putting on a big show and screeching every few minutes to make sure everyone is looking at her and not the TV. She makes SO much noise, happy or sad. Loudest Barron baby ever. (And that's saying something with as loud as they all are...and I thought Tirzah was loud.)

I think her being an attention hog isn't all her fault, though. I mean, look at that face. We DO kind of go overboard with heaping it on her. After she got the screaming sorted out, she's really turned into such a chill baby that we just can't help raving over it. She might get really far with this, ya know. If she keeps reminding us that she doesn't scream anymore. Now if we could just get her to sleep through the night, we might be willing to give her all kinds of stuff. Cars, diamonds, iPhones...what's it gonna take, Fancy Pants?

Bleached.

Sometimes it seems like certain seasons do that. Bleach you, in a sense. That's not necessarily a bad thing. We usually bleach things to get rid of grime and leftover stains and dirt. So, just different, maybe. You don't come out looking like you did, but you come out better, cleaner, brighter. I'm kind of looking at this winter that way...as we treck through the cold and the gray, and we work through the long stretch of school and Billy's long hours at work. Excited to see how we come out on the other side.

This year and last have been much easier on our family, and for that I've been grateful. We have been making an effort to make this be "the best year yet"...not saying trials won't happen, but we've realized that a lot is changed in the handling. We are planning to leave a lot of grime and stains that have gotten stuck in our souls as we move through this year, and letting the grace we know be the bleach that makes it happen.

Snow Day(s)

I haven't ever actually let the kids have a snow day. (I know, I know. So mean.) I just didnt see the point when we were stuck in the house anyway...might as well save the days off for warm weather that I actually want to spend outside. This time, however, I broke down. ;) We ended up spending the day sledding at a nearby park with some of our good friends from church. The kids had a blast...and I even went out in the snow. You guys should be so proud.

They spent hours going down the hills at the park. They also ended up in briar patches, ran into trees, they ran into each other, ate snow, and generally had a blast. I don't think they missed school one bit. (Neither did I, to be real. Even moms need snow days I guess.) They were highly upset with me when it was back to normal today. But they were sure to finish their school as fast as possible so they could spend more hours out in the backyard.

I'm amazed at how they can stand the cold for that long, but typically when they are in the house they are fighting like cats and dogs over sitting by the space heater. I think they are a little tougher than they let on, maybe.

There is still a load of snow in the yard, and we are going to have lows of 7 degrees, -4 degrees (what the world) and another 7 degrees. So I'm thinking it's not going anywhere. There will be lots of after school sledding happening this week. I'm also hoping this means that we will have an extra warm spring and summer. I mean, to keep things fair and all.

You're so vain.

People often ask me how I get all of my kids to smile/look at the camera when I'm trying to get pictures of them. The answer really is nothing to my credit whatsoever. Quite simply...I bribe them with looking at the pictures of themselves when I'm done. They are vain enough to like looking at themselves, so they'll sit there (for a few seconds at least) so they can see what they look like.

We do still have to work through grimaces, get-off-me, where-exactly-are-you-looking, babies who aren't vain yet, and the classic "constipated face" that comes with forcing kids to smile. But all in all, this is the strategy that seems to work best for me. Try it and let me know what you think! ;)

Reprieve

The last couple of days have been so nice and warm. (Warm being about 50-60 degrees.) It was so nice to have a little break from Winter, especially over the weekend while Billy was home and we could get things done and play outside. The kids have been outside for hours over the last three days. We didn't even do school until about 2 this afternoon, after they'd spent the morning playing outside.

I feel like we might pay for this once the weather goes back to Winter mode again. But it was good for my soul to have a little warmth and sunshine to break up the cold and gray. I am living proof that S.A.D. is a thing.

I told Billy that this weather made me so excited for when Spring will come around again. I know we have a little ways to go for that, so I'll try not to jump the gun. It also serves as a good reminder to continue to try to enjoy every season (of life and the weather), because they each offer moments that I'll only be able to have once.

Open to Interpretation

Homeschooling wasn't always something I wanted to do. There was a time when I didn't even think I wanted kids, much less to homeschool those kids. I now really appreciate big families, but growing up it wasn't always easy to be part of one. Same goes for homeschooling. Growing up I didn't always appreciate all the extra it required of my parents, financially or time-wise, but appreciate the benefits I feel I have reaped from it as an adult.

That said, choosing to homeschool once I had kids was kind of the first option for me. It was just something I wanted to do. Even though Billy went to public school, and had a great experience there, it was something we always agreed on. Also once he realized not all homeschoolers are weird, he was all for it. (I'm a homeschooler, I am allowed to say that sometimes we earn that "odd" label. And I feel like recently, with the uptick in those choosing to homeschool and it being more mainstream, we are getting even less weird. Yay!)

Anyway, just because you choose to homeschool doesn't mean you automatically turn into a fabulous teacher with loads of patience. It's been a struggle, but I love being the one teaching my kids. I also love sharing their interpretive readings with the world. Like the time Merrick read the picture above as, "Phil likes elf nuts." (He couldn't understand my wild outburst of laughter.) Or like yesterday, when he interpreted the picture below as...wait for it..."eggy poot". That's just all kinds of disturbing if you ask me. Maybe even worse than Phil and his elf nuts.

Moral of the story...if nothing else, homeschooling will help you learn to have patience.
And provide you with loads of good material for the future embarrassment of your children.