Let Them Play.

I love to read.
It is one my deepest and greatest joys.

My husband, however, is not a fan.  I feel like I could even safely say that he loathes it...but that might be a little bit too strong.  Let's just say, that for him it is painful, while I could get lost in a delicious Read for hours.  And I do believe I have my Mama to thank for this addiction.

My girls.  Nothing to do with reading.  I just love them.

Growing up, my parents chose to (figuratively) chuck the t.v. out the window during most of my childhood years.  My Mama was cool that way.  Looking back, I can see that she often did things that were kind of against the flow of her day.  Maybe I'll write a post about that later, but she was awfully good at choosing what mountains to die on, and she often didn't pick the ones that others were picking.  She sort of marched to the beat of her own drum, which is one of the many reasons why I love her.  I want to be like that.  She noticed the issues of the heart, she didn't get caught up in the trends of her day; and she just sort of did what she felt was right for her own kids regardless of what the Jones' next door were up to.

She didn't push sports, but she didn't care if we wanted to play.
She didn't expect straight A's, but she expected us to do our best.  Our best was always enough.
She didn't load our schedules with activities, but she greatly valued "play."  Especially outside play.

London's version of "T.V."  The five wee Hoolies.  Her entertainment, for sure.

And because she wasn't a fan of us being lazy slouches and forgetting that we had God-given imaginations in our little brains...one day she just decided to put the t.v. away "for awhile."  I think she planned on having it be like a month or so experiment, but it actually turned into "my entire childhood."

Enter my love for books.
And for playing outside.
For nature, for playing pretend, for chickens and gardening, and for never ever using the phrase "I am bored," because if that sentence was uttered, then chores miraculously appeared out of thin air, and I suddenly found myself buried in a jungle of weeds out back in our behemoth side yard known as "the garden."

Planting seeds for Science.

I learned quickly.
I was never.  ever.  bored.
To this day, I abhor that phrase.

But, I also firmly believe that out of boredom stems some of my boys' most creative afternoons.  Once they realize that they've been given "the boot" out of doors and that there will be no re-entry for such-and-such amount of time -- goodness, entire new worlds of awesomeness are created out there!  They are mighty hunters, they're knights, they go exploring, they plant things, they "cook" things, they invent things, they build things....and nine times out of ten, I have to call them back inside for supper to the tune of my Jesse's "Best day EVER!"

Sick of waiting for Spring for hotdog roasts...

One of my greatest goals in Homeschooling - and in life, really - is to instill the love of reading and the love of creating and imagination into my children.  It's one of the reasons why I have chosen to homeschool.  I am in charge of the schedule of my own life and my children's as well.  I can say "no" to the tyranny of the urgent.  And if they are in "creation" or "imagination" mode, we can flow with it and re-arrange our day as we see fit.  Today Jesse painted all morning, and all three boys have been building and setting "traps" all over our property.  Kaden is into hunting...and skinning....and tanning squirrels.  Ransom is into cutting, and taping, and gluing....and all manner of destruction....And London is into eating anything that falls onto the ground from the table.

Skinning squirrels.  Waiting for Charlie and Mama...or YouTube to teach him to tan.

And I am into learning to let go of my to-do lists.
I am learning that it's okay if all of our work doesn't get "checked off" for the day.
I am learning to embrace the mess and the chaos.
And I am learning that "play, really is indeed the work of childhood."

In the interest of keeping all things real....I have not followed in my Mama's footsteps, and I do indeed have a t.v. in our living room upstairs.  The boys have earned and paid for their own Nintendo DS systems, and they get screen time every day.  When the kids first wake up in the morning, they are allowed to watch cartoons while I get my bleary-eyed brain on straight.  So, I am surely not opposed to technology.  Goodness knows, I love me my Blacklist and a good Netflix movie.  And there are many MANY days when I hear "There's nothing to doooooo!"

I'm just saying that I am fully aware that our children are growing up in a generation where sticks and bicycles, flying capes, and running wild and free in our big backyards are becoming more and more things of the past.  Where lives are dictated by the schedules of coaches and instructors, and where fingers tapping on a keyboard or game pad is the only form of bodily movement.  I just plan to do my darndest to instill in these four kids of mine the joy of "play" and the love of a good page turning book in addition too - or maybe even, in spite of - all of that. 

Call me old school.  Tell me I'm marching to the beat of my own drum.
I'll consider it a compliment, and I'll make my Mama proud.

A Scraptastic Getaway.

This is how I left my dear hubby this past Friday, right before I kicked it for three solid days:

Bachelor-ing it with ALL of the kidlets.
Yup.  He rocks.

Little Missy Chunky Chunk.

And not only did me, myself, and I kick it for the weekend, but so did my housemate, Shandy, as well.  So, the two men truly held down the fort for the entire weekend.  You know your living experiment is going well when you leave Home for the week-end with your housemate in tow!  We kind of really like each other....

When the boys found out I was going to work on London's album, they wanted to look at theirs.
THIS... this right here makes my heart happy.

This past weekend was my annual one-time-a-year-that-I-touch-any-of-my-scrapbooks-Getaway.  For 3 out of the 365 days every year, a group of us girlies drive down to Bar Harbor for the weekend where we all find ourselves at various levels of panic in trying to get ourselves caught up in all things memory keeping. Some girls view this as a mini vacation, and they spend their time shopping, watching movies, taking naps, and doing an occasional page here and there.  Some - like me most years - view the weekend as a marathon and set themselves crazy lofty goals to meet.  And others - like me this year - find themselves a little bit in between the extremes.

Most years, I don't go to sleep before 2:00 a.m. and I am the first one up and at 'em in the morning with "Conquer! Conquer! Conquer!" as my mantra.  This year, I had myself in bed before Midnight, and my eyeballs didn't even open before 8:30 a.m.  There were no boys jumping on me and there were no babies howling in the night, so my body kind of went into Hibernation Mode for 8 solid hours straight both nights.

It.  Was.  Divine.
And so, between sleeping, and pumping - because I didn't have my wee one with me....and between visiting and going out to eat here and there...I didn't reach my goal of 100 pages like I usually do each year.  But, I did do 75 pages, and I got London caught up from not even existing to two months shy of where she is right now in life for her baby book.

Not too shabby.

My "workspace."  A bit of a sty...but 'tis where masterpieces were created...

And it was so much fun.
And our Hubby's were such rockstars.

We came home to a clean house and happy children.  (All except for London who scolded me for the entire first day.  She was not impressed with Mama.  At all).  We came home to husbands who still had all of their hair and to 5 little boys who had tales of glory about bonfires and hot dog roasts.

And we came home to the classic re-entry of bedlam and mayhem, crazy chaos, and the life of two Mamas wrangling six small children between us.  Sometimes re-entry is a little bit painful.  And sometimes being reminded of what it's like to sleep in as late as you want to is a little bit painful, as well that next morning.

 But, mostly it's nice to be back home with all of my Crazies.

 I kind of love them.

10 Months.

So, my not-so-wee Little Missy Miss is 10 months old today.
10 months.  Holy Hannah.
That's two months shy being ONE.
Whaaaat?  Crazy.

She now has five teeth in which she thoroughly enjoys biting whatever she can wherever she can - including shoulders, arms, or whatever part of anyone she can come in contact with...she is now crawling to beat the band, and just this week she is pulling herself up to stand.  This home no longer has need of a puppy to clean up the floor after meals, because we now have a mobile London - who can often be found under the table eating who-knows-what from who-knows-when. Or where.

I eagerly await each and every diaper change to see just what exactly this child has consumed when my back was turned - with five little boys in love with all things legos, bracelet bands, marbles, and all things small and choke-able.

I do believe it will be a miracle if this girl lives to be one....

Speaking of diapers...
There was one night while I was at work when the boys fed her a plate of baked beans.
She loved them.  Obviously.
End of story.
Except not really...
There's actually more to that story.  SO much more...that happened the next day...if you know what I mean.

SHE knows what I mean....

This girl.  She.  Is.  Awesome.
She's funny.  She's naughty.  She's happy.  She's silly.
And she has each and every person in this house completely wrapped.

She's also pretty chill.
And she puts up with a WHOLE lot of loving.
And a whole lot of boys just being.....well, boys:

Baby girl tights are still quite a novelty in this house.
Methinks a whole lot of shenanigans take place whilst I am at work in the evenings...

Baby Girl...
London Faith.  How we love you, dear One.
Such joy and laughter you have brought to our home.
Such sweet softness from your three big brothers.
Such a tenderness to this Mama's heart.

These ten months have been a sweet, sweet gift of You.
And I have savored you thoroughly.

"Babies are such a nice way to start people." ~ Author Unknown.

Indeed.

Winter Play.

There's this sweet little pond nearby that is stocked with about 500 trout each winter.
And it's just for kids.
Now weren't my boys just in ice fishing Heaven when they heard this news a few weeks back.
Ice fishing is one of their most favorite things.

And so....
We donned all of the winter layers of gear that we could possibly find, we made up a thermos of hot chocolate, and we purchased ourselves some wee little bait fish.

Speaking of bait fish...
Want to know what happens to whatever little fishies don't end up with a hook speared through their spine? They end up in a fish tank on my boys' bathroom sink as "pets."

"Please, ooh pleeeeez can't we keep them Mama?  Pleeez can't they be our pets?  Just til they die?"
And so...the murderers become lovers of the tiny little minnows that are left over until they are flushed to their watery grave as they each die off one by one by one....  How precious.

But I digress.
Back to my boys' love of ice fishing....

Can anyone find the baby?  Clue:  She sleepeth beneath the black blanket...

So.
This is how we have spent just a few of our Family Day's this winter.  If my boys had their say-so in the matter, this is how we would spend every. single. Family Day this winter.

I like it.
I don't love it.
I hate being cold.
So we compromise.
I get a Big Daddy coffee on our way.  And sometimes on our way home, as well.

But, I do love that this little pond is so close.  We can scoot over for just a couple of hours, and then we can scoot back home - or over to Starbucks - if anyone (read: me) gets too cold.

Each kid is allowed to pull up two fish apiece.  And with a pond this size stocked with that many trout, they can each get their daily allotment really quite quickly.  And it's really pretty fun and exciting to watch the arrows fly up when a fish bites onto the hook.  Everyone goes running and whooping across the snow to see who can be the first one to the flag to pull up their prize.

For a few months, Kev worked for some friends who own a business making ice fishing traps.  While he was there, they gave each one of our kids a trap for their very own - which was so kind of them to do.  London even has her very own pink trap for when she gets a little older.  It's pretty sweet.

This was London's first experience ice fishing.  Once she woke up from under her 8 million blankets, we put her in her snowsuit and took turns wearing her in the back pack.

London:  "Heeeere fishy fishy!"

Kaden likes to fish with a little jig pole, so London kept him company at his "lucky hole" for part of the time. When she got bored watching Kade, Kevy threw her up on his back while he made lunch.

Good thing she's chill.
She got flung around a lot that day.
Poor baby girl.
Welcome to the world of boys.

It was a good day.

~ Sweet, simple fun.
~ Little boy joys - hot dogs and hot chocolate.
~ Rosy cheeks.
~ fishing success.
~ Piping hot coffee.
~ New wonder on a baby girl's face.
~ Wide, open spaces.
~ Fresh air.
~ Cold noses.  Warm hearts.
~ Time with Him.  Time with us.
~ Reminders of childhoods past....

 #5152-5162 ~ My Joy Journey.

"Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood."

And so...
Even though the calendar promises spring to be but three weeks away...
The days are still cold, and the snow is still deep.

But, we wait.
And we see winter through the eyes of little boy wonder...and baby girl awe.
And we are content.