We Love FLA

Monday's are kinda a big deal around here. It's probably the only thing we can actually get to on time because we can't WAIT to get there. One of the greatest parts of homeschooling is creating something you want for your family. The Family Leadership Academy is the best kept secret in all of homeschooling.

10:00 am class for Hannah and Nathan
Heroes in the Book of Mormon. It is just as cool as it sounds! Yesterday's hero was Lehi and his dream about the Tree of Life!
The kids did a faith walk which had plenty of bumps along the way. I was a deceiver and tried to get them to let go of the rope. Their only instruction was to hold to the rope and do not let go. Follow it to the end. It was pretty neat to see the kids huddle together on the rope and encourage each other to hold on and not let go. Those who did let go, were quickly encouraged to come back from their friends. When they were all done and gathered in their classroom, I was excited to realize that only a few drew the parallel of this exercise to Lehi's dream and the iron rod...until one little boy shouted out while one of the mom's was talking about this experience, "hey, it's like the iron rod!" Then all the light bulbs went on and the children understood the meaning of what they just experienced. Then, when we talked about how some moms were trying to tempt them off the rope, that's what Satan does. He tempts us to fall away from that iron rod so we can't make it to the tree of life. We pointed out how some walked the rope with friends who helped them to stay on course and still others who had finished the course came running around to help the rest make it to the end. Isn't that so how life is? We aren't alone are we? We have friends who are good examples to help keep us on the straight and narrow, and then we have others that we can't see, who've been here before and they too act as support and encouragement. It was awesome! Loved it!!

 Here's Hannah coloring a tree in her copy of the Book of Mormon to remind her of this story and of Lehi; a true scripture hero!

12:00 Nathan and Abigail have Geography. This day they flew to Fiji and now I really want to go to Fiji with my whole family.

12:00 Hannah has a jump rope class and it kicks bootie! No picture
1:00 Hannah has Polkadots. It's a singing and dancing group of adorable girls. Here they are practicing the song "Sisters". They'll perform it for some elderly at a nursing home soon.

Nathan has a exercise class. He doesn't love it.

Abby's class is called Nibble and Scribble. And that's exactly what she does. Good fun!

2:00 Hannah has a craft/sewing class. They just finished a cross stitch of a little dog and their newest project is a pillowcase that they will donate to a hospital for children with cancer. Love that she's learning these things.
Nathan has Legos during this time and he's in heaven! He loves everything about this class.
Abby goes to Five in a Row. A fun class where she's read a book to while eating a snack and then they do a fun activity that goes with the book.

Our last hour Hannah is taking a Great Women in Literature class. Yesterday's class was on "A Little Princess". Taught by a mom and daughter on the attributes of a princess and specifically Sara in this book. So good. So good. So good. Then the girls were given a craft to make; mirrors that they could glue jewels on to make into crowns so they could see themselves as princesses all the time.

Nathan stays in Lego's and Abby hangs out with me or Nathan, depending on her mood. Then we pile back in the car, Joe crashes before we even make it out of the parking lot and I sigh another huge sigh that we made it through another Monday and my heart is full to the brim of the bounty of goodness that comes to us from these wonderful families. The other moms have become some of my greatest friends and biggest support to me. And each time I'm with them, I try really hard not to be sad that my time with this group is coming to an end at the end of this school year. Wish they could all move to Idaho with me!

Chubby Hands

Don't you love chubby hands? I do. Like, I really love them a lot. I love when those chubby hands take hold of my finger and walk with me. Or when those chubby hands grab for something, anything. It's the first thing I miss when my babies start thinning out.

Joe still has plenty of chub on him and I don't see him growing out of it anytime soon. He's handled his baby sister much better than I thought he would. In fact, he's down right sweet to her. I'm so glad he's still my baby too.

Holland is 2 months

"The Spirit beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." Romans 8:16

This cutie patootie is growing, but fortunately not too fast. 

weight: 10# 14.5oz 26%

length: 21.7" 9%

head circ: 38.5 cm 44%

She's cooing, rolling over from tummy to back, smiling, and sleeping enough for me to not be a grouch. I love her to pieces!

A New Year

I'm a fan of new starts. New goals. New adventures. Starting over. Yes! 2013 was a pretty great year overall for us. Highlight of course was giving birth to Holland and having her apart of our family. She is the perfect medicine for me. The calm I needed in my life.

Aaron and I both are goal oriented people. We write them down and look at them often to keep ourselves in check. We've been able to check quite a few of our personal goals off the list. For FHE this week we talked to the kids about goals and asked if they wanted to set a goal to work on this year. We encouraged their goal to be something that was in line with our family motto: Live to Serve, Learn to Achieve, Listen to Love. This is what they decided.

Hannah - "To serve Nathan so my relationship with him will be stronger".
Nathan - "Exercise and run in a race with dad".
Abigail - "Learn to ride my bike without training wheels".

I was pretty pleased with their choices. And they were their choices.

I have a slew of goals for myself. Most of them have to do with homeschooling and reading and becoming a better mentor for my children. I'm taking a reading and writing class this semester at our Family Leadership Academy. Our first assignment is Cymbeline by Shakespeare. I read a plot summary and was totally lost, soooo it should be a good challenge for me.

Here's to a great 2014!