2011 has gotten off to a good start and somehow we are already halfway through January (the month that I seem to have a love-hate relationship with). February is right around the corner and life zooms onward.
I was SO excited to actually do a tiny bit of scrapbooking over the holiday break, I got our little "Christmas highlight album" completely up to date (2010 is even in there!). Eighteen years of Christmasses in one place, children being added to our family and growing before your very eyes as you flip through it's pages. This is a feat for me to have anything up to date in the scrapbook arena, you know! So, feel free to throw roses at my feet, send me boxed chocolate (dark, please) . . . at the very least applaud for goodness sake! =)
Okay, silliness aside, it was such a needed thing for me to have something "scrapbooky" up to date, an album that actual has Samuel and Anna in it! (Those 'poor, neglected children' don't even have baby books begun for them yet . . . guess what's next on my list?!). It does my heart good (in a 'happy-sad' sort of way) to look at it and remember. It offers a strange bit of comfort, a balm for that ache that creeps into my heart as I wrestle with how quickly time (and childhood) passes.
We had a reluctant start to the new school semester (the reluctance was largely on my part because, truth be told, I really wanted to be scrapbooking!) Our enrichment program started back up entirely too early in my opinion, but the kids went and were thrilled. They were also very excited about Community Bible Study resuming (it's our first year being part of it and they love it). It's halfway through the month and we are finally getting back in the groove.
Somehow I had forgotten how much time and energy is involved in teaching children to read . . . I'm a bit puzzled at how I could have forgotten this, since I've been known to even plan pregnancies around that very thing! ~ nevertheless it has somehow taken me by surprise this time. Samuel and Anna are working on the task together right now, the younger proving herself far more eager than the older brother ~ but both are zooming toward that lightbulb moment when the pieces fall into place and a whole world of wonderful possibilities is opened to them (the moment when reading really "clicks" for them).
Right now, Anna is following in Daniel's mathematical footsteps. She wakes up ready to do math and throughout the day (if she thinks she has perhaps caught mom in an unoccupied moment), begs with great persistence to work in her math book. It's currently her idea of fun to do math (Emily would of course argue that that's only because she isn't doing Algebra!) She was so very excited to finish her "Kindergarten A" book (we made a special homemade ice cream concoction to celebrate!) and is looking forward to starting a 1st grade book soon.
Samuel, on the other hand, is quite content to ignore math completely and is happy to talk about letters, sounds, long and short vowels, consonants and such ~ provided he can scurry along a high ledge somewhere while doing so, or at the very least continue building himself a fort out of the couch cushions (while we talk).
Emily has spent her spare moments either babysitting for the little boys across the street (bright and early before school) or writing, a few different pieces of fiction that she is really excited about right now. She's eager for dance classes to start again. At the moment, she is with her cousin (Hope) at "Snow Camp" in the mountains. We did a 'cousin swap' for the weekend, so we've had Tommy in place of Emily since Friday afternoon. We're trading back this evening and looking very forward to seeing her!
Daniel is moving forward with gymnastics and just competed in his second meet of the season yesterday (at the Air Force Academy). He was thrilled to bring home two medals! (they gave out a lot of medals). He placed 8th in the rings and 10th in the vault. It was a lot of fun to watch him!
It's also been really fun listening to Levi play the piano lately, he's really gifted at playing things by ear. A few hours ago he was plunking out a song he hears on the radio (that he doesn't have music for) ~ and it sounded just about right!
I'll wrap this up for now, Kevin seems to have caught a "rearrange the house" bug and I should probably find out just exactly how that's going to affect me! (I think I might actually be getting a better scrapbook corner out of the deal . . . I love rearranging!)
