Mine!

Luci's latest word that seems to fascinate her is MINE! She was drinking from her sippy and the cat walked by and she said, "Mine. Juice Mine. Mommy, cat take my juice. It mine." Then she picked up her shoe and said, "Mine. Shoe Mine." then walked over to a sleeping Celestial and said "Mine. Shoe Mine" again. Then again to me. She just has had this thing lately about telling me everything that is hers is hers (and somethings that aren't hers) and thinking everyone or thing is trying to take it from her. Can we say possessive?

So, I am reading this book...

I just started it. It's called Heros at home. I ordered it from MilitaryOneSource.com . Did you know that military can order books for free from them including shipping? I have received so many awesome books that I love! If you have a chance, read: "The Long Road Home" by Martha Raddatz, "While They're at War" by Kristin Henderson, and "Going Overboard" by Sarah Smiley. Military or not, awesome books!

Anyway, so I am now reading "Heroes at Home" by Ellie Kay. I just started but found a chapter with a cool exercise in it. Try this.

Step One: Think about all the things you enjoy most in life right now. These must be things that are on the outside of your home, and they cannot be your own family.

Step Two: Narrow your list to the top three.

Step Three: Walk over to the trash, and throw it away. You just moved and no one cares.

Now, image doing this over and over again with very little warning to places you have never been. This is the life of military. Only with the military the spouses get to do it alone most the time. No one to take turns getting up with the baby (and the baby may not even know Dad when he comes home). No one to fix the garbage disposal. No one to go on a date with, accompany her to the principal or doctors' office. No one to share the funny little thing that Holly did or Hunter said that only the other parent would find so endearing. No one for Hunter to play catch with or take Meg to the father/daughter party. No one to kiss tenderly, wipe her tears, and most of all, no one even to know she cried herself to sleep or to snuggle with at night.

Those are some of the things Ellie Kay lists in this chapter. She isn't looking for people to pity military wives, just understand where we are coming from when maybe we seem emotional, air headed, or can't seem to get the kids to behave. The book goes through the lives of different military spouses with different experiences. I don't know about you, but I love learning about other people lives and experiences, military or not. So, gives these books a thought, and if you happen to see some parent at their wits end, just remember there is probably a very good reason for it.

Update on curriculum and kids

Curriculum update on top. If you just want to read about the kids, skip to the bottom.

So a few weeks ago we started a new curriculum. It's a living books curriculum following the Charolette Mason method (reading entertaining, historically accurate books instead of textbooks and lots of hands-on and outside time) from http://www.livingbookscurriculum.com/ . I thought I would update ya'll on how it is going. So far, I think it is the best one we have had by far. It is not perfect. I would definantly change somethings. There are some typos that make lesson preparation confusing at times but for the most part, it is soooooo easy to prepare the lessons is a very short amount of time. Most the books are so wonderful and I love all the classics (like Pollyanna, Pinocchio, and The Jungle Book) though there is one book that is great for older kids but not so much for the little ones so I kinda summarize it. I love the nature study outdoors stuff. My kids are the types that love to spend all the time they can outside. They do not provide math so I am still looking for a better one to fit my kids than the ones we have used in the past. Right now I have kinda a mix of different ones. All in all, I would definantly order this again if I had to do this all over again (thank heavens I don't).

Ok, on to the kids. Luci is now walking and talking like crazy. She will be 20 months on the 19th. This morning she said to me, "Mommy, I want down please." She loves to tell the dogs, "Deliah, leave me lone." (Their names are Delilah and Jezzabel but she calls them both Delilah, who BTW hid a garbage sack from me that I can't find but that is another story.) She insists on being with the kids at all times. She loves the outdoors and as soon as she wakes up tends to say, "Outdide, Outdide". I have to watch her closely cause she loves to walk up the road. The other kids tend to leave the door open too and I will find her outside every time. She is very attached to Ben and when he isn't home on time she will wonder around the house calling, "Daddy, Dad, Daddy" and if he doesn't answer she will go into our bathroom and find something of his (yesterday it was his electric razor) and carry it around until he gets back. It is amazing how many things are missing now.

Celestial has taught herself to add and reads small words. She has really been pushing her limits lately and driving her dad and I nuts. Her hair is finally growing and is past her shoulders by a couple of inches. She has the little boy across the street, Brody wanting to marry her. Even with her pushing it lately, she is still our easiest kid so far.

Israel is now bald. He talked his dad into doing it and I was shocked (the pic looks like he has more hair than he does). But he wanted to look like Daddy and he loves it. His reading has really taken off lately and so has his math. He is able to sit longer through school and having much fewer tantrums. He used to Hate to draw but now he loves it. Ben bought him his own notebooks for drawing and making paper airplanes and for a while, every prayer he said (which is almost all we have) he thanked Heavenly Father for the notebooks. He made a whole bouquet of airplanes and put them in his Easter basket and has made pictures for all of us and uses tape and staples to make books. He has really turned into quite the artist.

Eden had her hair cut finally. It turns out I am the ONLY one that has ANY idea as to how to take care of her hair when it is long so we got it cut so she or anybody else that needs to can care for it when I can't. She looks really cute and she loves it. She has been quite the helper around here and hasn't been sick much at all, yeay. Now if I could just get her to keep her room clean...

As for the rest of us, we are preparing for Ben's deployment. He is in WLC right now until the end of May. He will leave for NTC a month or so later. They have a month there and will be home for a little bit (with field trainings to keep them gone) and then off to Iraq again. We are looking forward to getting out and returning to Idaho but we have just under five years left. The kids keep begging to go now. They really miss my family. All in all, we are doing pretty well. I know things will get more difficult with Ben leaving, but we will just have to enjoy him while we can.