Life At The Circus

I glanced out my back window on Saturday and saw this Only,  I didn’t just see this precious moment in time, but simultaneously, my mind flashed back to several other similar moments over the past 5 years…. September 2009 August 2008 And, April 2007 One can’t help but notice a few things when observing these father/child bonding moments in the back yard. 1.  Believe it or not Scott, we’ve been VERY successful in growing grass in our backyard these past 5 years!  Look at the dirt our son is mowing back in 2007! 2.  While the girls seem to prefer following close in step to Dad while mowing, both sons take a “I’ll take this section, you take that one Dad” approach to the lawn mowing duties.  Love those sweet moments of repetition… passages of time that remind you that while so many things change, some things stay the same. 

Heard round the circus this past week… From my 4 year old: “Your right hand can’t know what your left hand is doing…unless your giving a hug, then it’s ok.” Again from my 4 year old: After pouring peroxide on her cut, she looked up at me with tears in her eyes and said, “Mom, that burns like Sprite!” (soooo hard not to laugh while she was obviously in pain) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When my almost 2 year old spilled milk all over the table, I said, “Thanks so much buddy.”  He looked up at me with a huge smile and said for the very first time, “Your welcome!”  ( apparently sarcasm is lost on the under 2 crowd)

For the past four and half years, this has been her “go to” position for comfort.  As a baby it was great… she totally self soothed… no pacifiers to chase down or beloved blankey to snuggle.  Just pop her index and middle fingers in her mouth backwards and start rubbing her ear (or twirling her hair) and she could instantly calm herself to sleep.  We knew of course this would have it’s trade off.  We knew that the cost for an easy night sleep would pay its dues when it came time to break her of the habit.  Because unlike the pacifiers her older siblings used, you can’t exactly throw away her fingers when you want her to stop sucking them.  And so, we put forth our best efforts to rally a campaign of no more finger sucking at age 3…. which then became age 4…. So, here we are, almost 2 months from her fifth birthday and she’s still sucking her fingers in the car, when she’s falling asleep, and when she’s snuggling on the couch…. Until this ...

My son has loved baseball since he was 2.   A fan of his own right.  Loves it inside and out.  But, I thought last year the flame might die.  Or be killed a slow and painful death. It was a painful combination of not yet seeing a winning baseball game in his life and playing on a team which didn’t win a single game all season, topped off with having a coach that didn’t coach, just yelled in frustration at the discouraged players.   My poor guys face just got longer with each game.  This season has been a complete turn around.  Not only did he see his first winning Orioles game (season opener none the less), but he got put on a team with a great coach.  One who knows how to instruct the kids on actual baseball skills and how to motivate them when they are behind and keep them motivated when they are ahead.  He’s positive and encouraging and has truly helped bring the fun back into the sport.  (and as an added bonus, the team is...

Love this picture I snapped of my youngest trying to do a handstand like his sister!

We’ve had an exciting little addition to our homeschool room this spring… well technically, it is outside of our room, but it is best viewed looking out the window from our school table.  It seems the nest that was used 2 years ago , has been revisited this spring.  Given the fate of our feathered friends 2 years ago, we were all a little nervous when we saw a Mommy robin sitting on the nest this spring.  I am not sure how many eggs she started with, but we have been able to observe one baby bird grow up in that nest.  Look at them snuggling!! Here the Mom appears to have spotted me with the camera and is telling me to stay away from her baby! I know this picture is kinda blurry, but you can see the little baby head sticking up to get its dinner… Look how much the bird changed in just one weeks time! I love his fuzzy little head.  The kids decided to name him Robin Hood… since he is a robin and all.  Look at him getting brave and st...

I don’t homeschool because I hate the government.  Nor do I homeschool because I think the public school system is all evil.  Nor do I homeschool because I want my kids to be smarter than yours.  In fact, raising super smart kids isn’t even my main goal of education. I homeschool because I want to spend the time with my kids.  That’s it, in a nut shell. But, if I may be honest and come clean with you, it’s hard.   In my head I have this picture of me sitting round the table with my four children dutifully working on their studies… a quiet calm in the air. yea… stop laughing…. And every once in a blue moon, such a solitary moment will occur and I’ll snap a picture because it makes me smile and I want to remember it forever.  (or on those days when I am crying in the living room amid piles of dirty dishes and laundry and children screaming that they hate spelling)  And sometimes I’ll post these pictures to face book because I am so overjoyed to finally have one of those moments… one of t...