Seven

Seven years ago today I became a mother. Daddy became a father. We welcomed a wee lad into our lives not realizing how much he would change us.

He’s grown in many ways since then, not the least of which is his sweet spirit. I was reminded of that this morning when he crawled into bed with us at 5:00, wrapped his arm around me, and patted my back. He then tapped me on the shoulder and whispered, “I love you.” Oh, the bliss!

Grandma and Grandpa K spent last night at our house, and Grandma made Baba a special birthday breakfast of crepes (his favorite). He hoped to eat seven crepes in honor of the occasion, but his stomach filled up quickly so he had to settle for three. After breakfast Grandma and Grandpa took him out shopping for a fancy pair of cowboy/biker boots.

Tomorrow night we’re having a party at Papa and Mimi’s house. Baba’s chosen a Spiderman cake, which is in the oven baking at the moment.

We love you, Baba! We’re thankful for the gentleman you’re becoming and look forward to watching you grow throughout the coming years!

What’s a Mother To Do?

What’s a mother to do when she looks across the yard and finds her babies up in a tree? Why, she runs to grab the camera, of course (especially if she’s a bloggin’ momma).

Does anyone understand why my sister found gray hairs on my head a few weeks ago?

Friday Wrap-Up: Week 2

A Summary of Our Week:

Margie: Adam and Eve sinned. They were going to travel around, and they traveled. They weren’t here because they were in the picture. So they have traveled around in the world because they disobeyed God. They had to travel around the world. They had to get out because there was giants, and that was scary.

Baba: I did cuneiform writing. I also made my own solar system. This picture is of me coloring Jupiter:

This is another picture of me coloring Jupiter:

This is a picture of my solar system:

Did you know we made our own words to remember the planets? This is a funny way to remember them: “Mickey Viper eats many juicy steaks upon new plates.” Isn’t that funny? Did you know there are nine planets in our solar system?

Junior: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Grammar

This morning at the breakfast table:

Margie: I’m Mommy’s girl.

Mommy: You are? I love having a girl!

Baba: Then Junior and me can’t be your boys.

Mommy: You mean “Junior and I”

Baba: Yeah. And me too.

Now that we’ve got cuneiform writing under our belts I guess we’ll start English grammar.

Write Like a Babylonian

Yesterday Baba carved his initials into clay (or rather, Crayola Model Magic) using Sumerian cuneiform characters found at the University of Pennsylvania website:

He’s quite proud of the results, as you can see, and I’m also pleased with the skill he demonstrated.

Oh G-Knee . . .

Look what I found! . . .

I’m It!

I’ve been tagged! Thanks, Fannie!

The rules: Remove the blog at #1 from the following list and bump every one up one place; add your blog’s name in the #5 spot; link to each of the other blogs for the desired cross pollination effect.

1. Mommy Brain
2. I Have to Say
3. Messages From Mama
4. Farkleberry Juice
5. Cartoon Living

Next: select four new friends to add to the pollen count. If you’re too busy or too grumpy (hee, hee!), feel free to abstain.

I tag the following friends:

Helms’ Deep
Poppy
G-Knee
Daisy

Karen, I wanted to tag you! We gotta work on getting you a blog, sweetie!

What were you doing 10 years ago?
Just starting my junior year of college (blech!). Rooming with my best-bud. Long-distance dating (BIG blech!) the man who is now my husband.

What were you doing 5 years ago?
Living in Rochester, MN. Mommy to a 2-year-old. Thinking about adding to the family. It wasn’t really a memorable year for me.

What were you doing one year ago?
I was pregnant with my “never-again” baby and still feeling morning sickness. Sooooo thankful to be living back in Wisconsin and near family. Just testing the homeschool waters with Baba in kindergarden.

What were you doing yesterday?
Teaching first grade to my son. Canning applesauce with my sister and her mother-in-law. Eating dinner with my parents.

5 snacks you enjoy (no particular order)
1. chips
2. Goldfish crackers
3. Jelly Belly jellybeans (Juicy Pear, yum!)
4. Gummy bears, worms, strawberries . . . anything gummy
5. My mom’s chocolate chip cookies. No one makes them like she does!

5 songs I know all the words to
1. Just about everything Michael Card has written
2. When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
3. You Can Call Me Al
4. The Wheels on the Bus
5. Thomas the Tank Engine theme song

5 things you would do if you had a million dollars
1. Pay off debt
2. Buy books
3. Buy a motorcycle for my husband
4. Give the rest away
5. That about covers it

5 things you like doing
1. Reading
2. Writing
3. Stamping
4. Teaching first grade
5. Making bread

5 bad habits
1. Reading at the table
2. Leaving dinner plans until the last minute
3. Leaving laundry in the washing machine
4. Staying up too late
5. Sleeping too late (see #4)

5 things I would never wear again
1. culottes
2. jeans with folded-over rolled-up cuffs
3. 100 percent spandex
4. fingernail polish
5. big bangs

5 favorite toys
1. my laptop
2. my books
3. my PDA
4. anything that holds Junior’s attention for longer than 30 seconds
5. TiVo

Shabbat Shalom!

We had a beautiful experience as a family last night. One of the couples in our fellowship group at church lived in Israel for several years, and they invited us over for a Shabbat dinner. This comes at a perfect time for us, because we are studying Shabbat customs in school in a few weeks (Thank you, God!).

After we all settled around the table, our host explained the lighting of the Shabbat candles. The men and boys around the table had to hide their eyes as the candles were lit in order to be “surprised” by the appearance of the lights (which symbolize joy). There were two candles to represent the two commands in Scripture to keep and remember the Sabbath.

The men and boys opened their eyes to view the candles, and then the fathers spoke a blessing over the sons, the daughters, and the wives in turn. Our hosts then blessed the Sabbath wine and passed around a silver cup from which we each took a sip. Then came the blessing of the traditional Challah bread, and again the bread was passed so each of us could tear off a piece. We dipped the bread into salt three times, and ate half of it, saving the rest to eat at the culmination of the meal in order to carry the blessing to the end (Junior grabbed my bread and ate it, so I missed that tradition ).

Our hosts continued with the Sabbath prayers in Hebrew, asking the men around the table to read translations after each prayer. With a shout of “Shabbat Shalom!” we were ready to eat dinner.

After dinner we corralled the kids once again for a few more prayers and the singing of a song. Baba especially paid close attention during the meal, and enjoyed the Challah bread so much that he asked me to learn how to make it (the bread was delicious). What a wonderful evening we had, and we all learned so much!

Margie: Watching Wildcam

“Where are the anmuls? Why don’t the anmuls come?”

“Maybe they’re not thirsty, honey.”

“Mom, let’s not do this.”

“What should we do?”

“Let’s just click this and do something else. I want to do a game.”

Sorry, Fannie, she just doesn’t appreciate nature yet.

But What About Socialization?

This is the kind of socialization we do at our school . . .

I can think of none better!