Counting my blessings: 1, 2, 3.

Here's a recent photo of what I've been doing with my time, in case some of you are wondering why I'm not blogging everyday.

"Me ready-go, Mom."

Now that I am on my third child, I feel I've learned a thing or two.

First off, too much t.v. really does rot their brains. Just try and get a kid to focus after a few days of vegging out.

Without water, sandboxes are just plain boring. Think about it. Would you want to play in the middle of a desert?

Babies cry for a reason. They're hungry or tired or they have gas or maybe they're just bored, but they don't just cry because they are babies.

"Sleep when the baby sleeps" is advice that only works for a mother of one.

Clean sheets are more important than matching sheets.

But over-used and dirty kitchens are superior to those that are underutilized and crystal clean.

It's a godly thing to give children gifts for no reason.

You don't have to yell to be heard.

Knickknacks are good for one reason and one reason only: providing your children opportunities to learn from breaking them. 

The amount a child will enjoy a toy is directly proportional to what you spend (or don't spend) on it.  Meaning that if it costs a fortune, they will use it once and then throw it down. If they found it on the ground, they will play with it all day. 

Bible verses like "turn the other cheek" weren't just given for dealing with rude strangers and demanding bosses. They apply even more frequently to husbands and wives and parents and children.

And most importantly, cupcakes actually do taste better with sprinkles.

"Me do school, too?"

Avril asked for school so we started doing a few things together.

Let's Cut Paper and My Book of Coloring by Kumon.




No, we don't do this everyday! I don't even do school with her older sister every day at this point!

But we keep this little pile of books, scissors and crayons in the kitchen and when there's time and opportunity, I call her to the table and we pull them out.

I only takes about five to ten minutes, but Avril really loves it.

I've done a few hours worth of labor in the vegetable garden over the last few days, running outside as soon as the baby is fed or sleeping to do a little more here and there.  I've tilled up the ground, added topsoil and compost, and planted a row of peas under the trellis you see in the photo above. And in that pot you can barely see behind the bag of soil, I mixed up the right proportions of sand and soil and planted carrot seeds.

As I've been working (and spending money on the garden), I've been confronting doubts about my ability to pull it all off. I've entertained fears that I might be doing all this for no reason because something might go wrong and I might not get a harvest after all.

But on my bed last night, as I was drifting in and out of sleep, a verse of Scripture came to my mind, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." -Galatians 6:9 All at once, that Scripture made more sense to me than ever before and I woke up just long enough to realize that it takes something like faith to work and plant and wait in hopes to reap a harvest later on.

And I didn't take the verse as a promise that my peas and carrots will come out fine, but I was encouraged by it. I decided that I'll keep working in hopes of having a harvest later this summer and before I fell back to sleep, I said a silent prayer of thanks to God, acknowledging that even as I lay on my bed at night, He instructs me. -Psalm 16:7

I've been firming up plans for this summer, marking the calendar with things I'm going to do with the kids. Just like I (sort-of) plan their home school lessons for the year, I find it helpful to (sort-of) plan their vacations, too. I don't want to miss out on anything we could do together, but I also need to be realistic about what's even possible with our time and financial restraints. So I've found that it's best to think way ahead.

If I don't plan way ahead then I end up kicking myself because I forget to do something like plant the sunflower seeds in time to make the sunflower house I have wanted to make for at least two summers now. But, I happen to be on the ball this year and as you can see, the seeds have already been purchased. (I got the tall ones I need and shorter ones for decoration).

Along with plans to make a sunflower house, we'll be maintaining our vegetable garden, making Norah's fort in the backyard, reading for prizes, keeping track of the birds in our yard, going to a few places on Norah's list, playing wall ball (Seriously. I'm thinking about taking Norah to a park with a wall so she can learn this classic childhood game.), eating ice cream cones and taking lots of walks and riding bikes. I know all of that sounds very simple, but if I don't plan it, we'll end up watching PBSkids.org till noon and we'll miss the simple pleasures of the season.