The 'Ease' of things now... and an announcement!

Holy cow.  Well, I definitely broke a promise made long ago to you guys.  Something about shorter, more frequent posts.  haha.  That didn't pan out.  We've been up to quite a lot the past 5 months or so.... I'll try to get to it all!


One particular library trip resulted in a serious treasure - a HUGE Star Wars pop up book! Score!

Our Schedule Fall and Winter
M - Classical Conversations 9am-12pm
T- Crossfit 945-1045
W - off in the am, 4:30-530 Y bootcamp
Th - Library or off
F - Crossfit 945-1045am
S - Daddy take boys out in the am (Mall, Graeters, home depot) Mommy grocery and laundry.
Sun - Church in am, Awana in pm 6;00-7:45pm

The Fall was kinda hectic with Joel travelling a lot. This was the routine we fell into.  It worked.


Judah receives his Awana award for completing a year of Cubbies.  This year, his teacher, Lydia in the orange said, "it was fun to see Joel is more like a 'normal' boy when Judah is around. You know, instead of being a perfect angel like he was last year." Oh boy.

Joel just loved his "CC" class on Mondays and we have already re-enrolled him for next year.  This particular class was so fun...full of boys! Lots of energy but very inquisitive and impressive with their memory work!


Joel's "End of the year Celebration" or "Recital" for Classical Conversations.  He did well and looked cute. what more can you ask?


Bethany is Speaking? AIA Christmas Coffee & "Rise up" Women's retreat
I was asked by a dear friend of ours, Julie Rode, to speak at the AIA women's Christmas Coffee.  It was challenging to prepare and deliver, but ultimately I am so glad I was forced to depend on the Lord.  I do believe He used me to clearly explain his Word.. Which is funny because most of the time I don't understand it!  This particular talk was 25 mins explaining scripture and included a gospel and invitation.  The student athletes were very polite and attentive and I heard later that there were many first time decisions for Christ! Wow.

The 'Rise up' Women's retreat was a weekend retreat held by a church who partners with us in our ministry, Ebenezer Baptist Church.  This talk was a 40 minute talk explaining scripture to largely a believing audience.  All Women.  It was a VERY easy crowd, they were super ready to listen and laugh at my jokes.  In this talk I used a lot of the same material from the Christmas talk, but chose to relate Jesus' example of humility in Phil 2 with our calling to humility as women.  The ladies were very complimentary and it was a great environment!   I was also able to speak to the young Awana girls at my own church, Northwest Bible.  It was an energetic group, and a fun time.  I'm thankful for what God has taught me through these challenging experiences!

Christmas

 Christmas was a lot of fun, as always, visiting with family.  This particular Christmas the boys were on the fence about either going full fledged into 'Super Heros' or 'Star Wars' Mommy got them lots of Super Heros and literally about 1 week later, J&J both decided they were going to be obsessed with Star Wars.  The Star Wars obsession continues to this day and I don't see it easing up any time soon.

Mommy did (thankfully) purchase two lightsabers to go into the boys stockings.  They wasted no time entering into a fierce battle.

Away from home for about 2 full weeks for Christmas produces lots of "stuff." This pic was taken the moment we returned home.

Joel's BDay
Joel turned 5 on January 17th.  We went 'ice skating' at Easton Town center where they had an ice-less rink set up.  it was actually kinda perfect for little kids.  kinda frustrating for adults, but fun nonetheless. Then we went out for Pizza.  Joel truly has been a different child since turning 5.  He is disciplined WAAAY less, he is actually very pleasant and obedient.  He has such an interest in spiritual things and prays OFTEN.  He is constantly reminding me what it is to have 'childlike faith.'  I feel so grateful that after 4 years of 'difficult times' I can finally enjoy Joel's personality.  Not to say years 0-4 aren't enjoyable, because they are :) It is just a nice stage now. I"ll leave it at that. :)

"ice skating"

My attempt at a Star Wars cake

Wuerfful
Every February we attend the Wuerfful Trophy banquet and spend the weekend with some of our now dear friends.  This February, we were able to take the whole family and an awesome sitter and famly friend, Linnea Huck.  Linnea was so incredibly helpful that Joel starting doing calculations in his head to see if it was mathematically possible for us to have about 12 kids and a live-in Nanny.  (answer - no its not possible! haha). But seriously, she was amazing, and the whole trip was much more enjoyable for us with Linnea there to help.  The boys had a blast with Linnea and enjoyed lots of trips to the beach.  The most pleasantly surprising aspect of the trip was perhaps how well the boys did on the 12 hour drive.  With ample videos and snacks, of course.


The CrossFit Open
Every once in a while, in this life, you get to find out that you are actually really good at something that you didn't know.  Its an empowering experience.  This is what the CrossFit open was for me.  I knew I could do CrossFit, but it was just a blast to find out my true capabilities. The CrossFit open was a 5 week 'competition' where thousands of athletes from around the world all competed in the same workouts (different weights for men vs. women)  Workouts were completed at your home gym with a judge watching and counting reps.  Every athlete (whether beast-like, fit, fat, or frail) was given the same workout.  As an example - higher level athletes would have much higher scores (reps) than lower level athletes given the same amount of time.  Scores were tallied and the 'leaderboard' was watched obsessively by thousands.  I ended up placing in the top 11% of women in my region, which way exceeded my expectations.

Joel and the boys "cheered me on" for the last workout .. 14.5.  Which was, interestingly, was my highest placement of all 5 workouts! Coincidence? I think not!

Penton Family RV Trip

Our ministry, Stand for Truth, now owns an RV.  This particular trip, the whole family traveled with Joel to a few of his speaking engagements in Missouri.  We prepared a detailed schedule ahead of time and bought all necessary items.  The first two days the boys struggled to sit in between meals and naps.  They tried to run around the RV, press all buttons, and pull out all drawers.  Eventually either they got so tired, they were able to sit on the couch and color or play with electronics during awake, non-eating time.  As you can imagine, it was super useful to be parked right next to a park, and we utilized that position about 5 times throughout the trip.  We even went back to the same parks on the way home that we hit on the way there! We stayed 1.5 days at Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City.  I don't think I've ever seen the boys so exhausted, but they stayed positive with no complaining.  I think they were just shocked that we kept going back to the waterpark! By the time we left, the 2 little boys were able to go down the baby slide and swim in the baby pool without being scared, and Joel 3 went down an ADULT SIZED water slide, which shocked Mommy.  (In fact, I think there was a bet placed between Mommy and Daddy about this very issue and Mommy lost.)  Meal times and sleeping time was fairly easy and even enjoyable in the RV.  Each boy had his own space with a hanging blanket as a visual barrier.  We used a loud sound machine when the generator wasn't on.  When the RV was moving, J&J were awesome.  Luther was rather difficult, though.  He actually did better in the mini-van on the way down to Florida.  We attributed it to the fact that I was 'allowed' to roam around the 'house-like' structure and he didn't understand why he couldn't also do that.  But we still aren't sure why he was so cranky.  After a few days we figured out that it was actually pretty easy to get driving done after the boys went to bed (7pm) and during naps (1-3pm)  Boys needed to be strapped in while the RV was moving, but if they were laying down and asleep, I was ok if they were in their beds.  We utilized lots of DVD's and the Ipad and IXL.  A LOT.


There's always time for a Lightsaber fight! Plastic spoons make the best Lightsabers!

Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City, the boys just LOVED it and swimming progress was made!

at Great Wolfe Lodge in KC, Missouri.  The boys hang out with the iPad "reading" them a book, while Mommy and Daddy rest. Everyone is exhausted!

California

The Groskopf Grandparents got lucky and spent 4 long days with our 3 little boys as we enjoyed our time relaxing in California:)  Joel had a few speaking engagements out there and we spent an extra day to enjoy ourselves.  Highlights included - dinner with Ian and Crystal Penton, Dinner with David and Anansa Patterson at a Brazilian Steakhouse in LA (driving there was not a highlight), riding bikes along Venice beach, "The Grove," and In-N-Out Burger (Specifically their 'protein style' yes, there's a name for no bun/lettuce wrapped cheeseburgers out there. :)

Our lunch.  My mouth is watering just looking at this again.  

"The Grove" The highlight of this place was eating cupcakes at "Sprinkles Cupcakes" Mine was gluten free and sugar free because, well, its California and everyone eats like that there!  

Taken on a pier very close to Santa Monica pier.  

You can't leave California without a little Slackrope.  It's like tightrope walking but more like 2-3 inches of width.  Its incredibly difficult, I was very sore the next day, and this pic was taken very quickly in the mere 5 seconds of balance that I accomplished.

Sunset on Venice Beach. After this, we literally ran back to our car because 1. it was cold. and 2. we feared for our safety.

Because of the beautiful weather and agriculture the grounds in California are (no joke) littered with Strawberries and flower petals.  I am not kidding.  No, you won't find trash on the street, but you might find a lonely, juicy, luscious strawberry! (This actually happened and Joel had to physically restrain me from eating it)   I wish I had a picture of that actual strawberry, but this one had to do. (it was taken the next day after stopping at a strawberry stand on the side of the road.


Luther's Birthday and Easter

We had a great weekend celebrating Easter and Luther's birthday which is April 19.  He has turned into a very talkative and emotional little guy!  He is a blast to be around, very funny, cute, and amazingly smart, but he can be EXTREMELY exhausting.  "What's that sound?" "I NEED dat." "Don't DO DAT JU-DA" and my favorite.. "I WUFF YOU!" While leaning waay forward to hug you even if you are far away.

Luther gets excited pretty easily!

If you look closely you may observe several Star Wars gifts in the boys Easter Baskets.  They were delighted!!


The 'Ease' of things now...

I thought I should comment on how much easier it is to parent these boys now.  Since Judah has been around 3.5 years old, he stopped pooping in his diaper, and is now able to get himself up, take his PJ's off, put his clothes on and even put his shoes and socks on! Joel 3 can of course do the same thing (no pull up involved) and even matches his clothes!  Joel can also get Luther out of bed, and Judah buckles himself into his carseat.  Pretty soon, Joel 3 will buckle Luther into his carseat and I wont have to do anything!!! Well.. at least for a while. :)

Also - Luther is potty trained!! He took to it pretty easily.  We did the same "naked below the waist" method and this time we only had about 1.5 days due to other activities.  I was most shocked by how chill he is sitting on the 'big potty'  The Big Potty scared my other two boys so much that it was like another whole phase of potty training to get them to go on it.  We usually use a small baby bjorn potty for the first phase of potty training.  Luther sits on the big potty like its no big deal and goes immediately.  Sweet.

We finally splurged this Spring and bought all the equiptment needed to go biking as a family: Two adult sized bikes, a two kid trailer, and a larger bike for Joel (not pictured).  Its fun, but Joel is still pretty slow. We are hoping he gets faster soon.  The little boys LOVE the trailer though.

Less chaos at home means Judah can finally go on special 'trips' with Daddy. This one was a trip to the movies to watch 'Frozen.'  Judah did not move a muscle the entire time and ate this entire box of popcorn all by himself.  You would have thought he died and went to heaven.

AND FINALLY.....

We are so pleased to announce that we will be expecting Penton baby #4, Lord willing, around Christmas!!! Thank the good Lord for this amazing little blessing. Although, Luther doesn't look too happy about it...

Just the 3 boys and Me!

Have I really not posted since August? That's sad. Well, obviously its been crazy around these parts. Here are some of the updates.


Life without Daddy
This Fall has been Joel's busiest since having kids.  Honestly, though, it doesn't feel that bad.  Something about not being pregnant or breastfeeding probably has to do with it.  Also we are keeping super busy, and the boys love going places all the time!

This Fall our schedule was this:

Monday - Joel's homeschool co-op (Classical Conversations) from 9a-12
Tuesday - CrossFit 945-1045
Wednesday - Off. laundry and cleaning at home.
Thursday -Skill Builders at YMCA.
Friday - Off. Daddy home.
Saturday - Daddy home. Play with him.
Sunday - Church in am.  Awana from 6-745pm.

Skill Builders at the YMCA...



Judah is 3!!!
3 is a fun age, but it does not come without its challenges.  Judah has REALLY enjoyed being in Skill Builders class and Awana with Joel.  He has had a hard time learning to sit still and "Focus." He struggles with that, but he is doing better. Joel and Judah are learning how to play together (and on their own) without disobeying all the time, which is incredibly encouraging.  Judah is doing much better at taking care of himself.  He will put on his shoes, clothes, take himself potty and he even gets himself up after naps and takes off his diaper and puts it in the right place. Of course, we don't go a day without a loud SCREAM of frustration from him as he tries to do something he cannot quite figure out.  Like socks.  Or coats.  But all in all, he's a pretty easy boy.

Sept 19th, Judah turned 3 years old!  Pictured below was our first family gluten free & sugar free cake... it was enjoyed by all :) 


His favorite gift...



Awana...



Joel III - sleep
Why does that oldest kid always pose the biggest problems for the parents? Well, Its because the parents don't know what they are doing!  We wasted  invested a good 6 months of our time and energy wondering, praying, stressing over Joel's crazy long temper tantrums and it turns out all we needed to do was take away his nap and put him to bed at 700.  This kid has ALWAYS needed his sleep, and he doesn't seem to cope well if he doesn't have enough sleep (sound like someone you know?;)  I should have figured that was the problem earlier, but, that's what happens with that oldest child, right?

Joel III - homeschooling schedule
Figuring out Joel's schedule took some serious thought.  I knew I would have to teach him during nap time.  As much as I would have liked to spread out his teaching time (20 min of math in the am, 30 mins of phonics later on.. etc.) I knew that with Judah around, Joel would not be able to focus. Teaching during naptime is working out just fine.  At first I wanted to do just 4 days of school for around 1.5 hours each.  Quickly I learned that was too much to expect for Joel.  We switched to 6 days a week for 40 mins-ish, and that worked out much better. Joel's Classical Conversations co-op is not your average homeschool co-op.  It is incredibly intensive and structured!  We knew this going in, but we are fans of the classical model of education and were excited to see how this could supplement Joel's education.  Yes, I did just say supplement.  The CC material is awesome, but it does not cover Phonics (including teaching the child to read), Math, or Handwriting.  "What else is there for Kindergarten?" you say.  Well, you are kind of right.  I knew my focus at home would be the Three R's.  Therefore, paying and investing a ton of time into a program that wasn't exactly helping me with those Three R's seemed counter intuitive.  I don't think I could have been more wrong, but I will get into that more below.

After a few weeks of tweeking with the schedule, we settled on something like this:

Monday - no school. (due to just doing 3 hours of school)  Watch videos taken by Mommy during class.  Up to quiet time by 1:30,nap if needed. (Awana the night before makes him super tired for school at times)

Tuesday - 1:00-1:45 CC review. (yes, the first day takes forever, learning all the new material is just as hard for me as it is for him.. maybe harder!) 1:45 something easy like a handwriting worksheet, Reading Raven on my ipad, or Letter School on my ipad.

Wednesday - 1:00-1:30 CC review.  1:30-1:50 Reading Lesson. 2pm up to quiet time.

Thursday - 1:00-1:30 CC review.  1:30-1:50 Easy Reader book. 2pm up to quiet time.

Friday - 1:00-1:30 CC review with Daddy.  1:30-2:00 Math.

Saturday - 1:00-1:20 CC review.  1:20-2:00 Math, Prepare for CC Presentation.

Sunday - Off.

Joel III - Classical Conversations
"So, just what are you DOING during this 'CC Review' time?"  Glad you asked.  There are 7 subjects covered during Joel's CC class each Monday: Timeline, History, Math, Latin, Science, English Grammar, and Geography.  Each subject contains a sentence or two of information (which may or may not include a song or hand motions) that is to be memorized.  Some of this memory work is easy. Like counting by 2's, or listing the nominative pronouns, or pointing to France or Spain.  Most, though, can be pretty involved and sometimes hard to commit to memory.  Like counting by 14's.  Or, lets take for example, the History sentence this week -
Q: Tell me about European Exploration.
A.  Between the late 1400's and the mid 1500's Dias rounded the cape of Good Hope, Amerigo Vespucci sailed to the Americas, Balboa crossed central America to the Pacific, Magellan's crew sailed around the globe, and Coronado explored the American Southwest.

Usually Joel has his memory work down by Thursday, but this week was particularly difficult.  I am not sure if it was the material, or the fact that we stayed out late for Halloween festivities 4 nights out of the week and so he needed a nap and had a hard time focusing during school time.  Who knows, but, when something like this happens, we need to call in emergency measures, like this:

If you look closely, you can see that each section of the paper has a letter to represent each explorer, and a picture to help Joel remember what they did.  Whew.  That was a tough one!

Of course, Joel III has no idea what the "late 1400's" means.  But that is intentionally part of the Classical Method.  This phase, the 'grammar' phase, focuses on the basics of an education, enabling the child, whose brain is like a sponge, to soak up tons of valuable information while he/she is still so easily able to do so.  Later on, during the 'logic' phase, the child will learn more in depth about what the "late 1400's" actually means, and why all of these explorers were a big deal in history. In the last stage, 'Rhetoric' The child will be able to express his/her ideas about European Exploration in the form of a paper or a speech.  Does that make sense? To give you an example on a very very small scale - Joel was taught in week 1 all the continents and oceans. So,when we got to "Balboa crossed central America to the Pacific..." he said "Pacific!!! I know that place!!"

Of course, I am not on my own for any of this.  CC is a nation-wide program and there are tons of resources out there to help.  We use an app on my ipad daily to help me keep track of what subject we are on and what he should know.  (They have books for this too, but those are much less exciting;) Here's a screen shot of the app for History week 8.

There are also songs and hand motions to almost everything that is somewhat complex.  Which really helps.  That is why I bring my ipad into the class and take a video of almost every subject ;) "Wait!" you say. "Why are YOU in class?" Haha.  Well, in keeping with the spirit of homeschooling, and knowing how challenging the material can be, the parents are requested to be in the building with their children up until High School age (I think).

After the new material is taught, there is a science experiment, and a fine art time.  (both of which, I would never do at home;) Last week's science experiment was in the gym and included soccer balls, golf balls and marbles.... (and for the adults, a tape measure and rope) and it was an instructional time on the Solar System.  The fine arts time is either drawling/coloring, or tin whistle playing. (its like a recorder. Yeah. Take your Excedrin.) Then finally there is presentation time/snack time, and review.  Presentations are done during snack time. Each boy (Yes. Somehow Joel's class has 8 boys and 0 girls.  But actually, I think that is a good thing.) sits in front of the 'class' in a special chair and gives a 1 minute talk on something.  Usually it turns out to be sort of a 'show and tell' type of time, however, it is amazing to see the improvement in these boys after just 8 weeks! They are not only speaking more clearly, with less ummm's and figiting, but the other boys are listening much better too! Very cool.  The review time consists of playing some type of 'game' while the boys spit off info from the past weeks memory work.  They are getting better at retaining the info than I am thats for sure!

Whew. I"m not sure you wanted to know all of that, but hopefully it was informative for you.  We are so pleased with Joel's progress and with the program in general.


Luther talking!!
Luther talks like crazy and its cute. His most common expressions are "Haaa-me." for "Help me!" "None!" for "All done." "Hi!" for "Hi" to anyone new he sees:) of course, "Book." for "Book." and "Reed-it" for "Read it." He is still proving to be a little mix of Joel and Judah.  He is sensitive and sweet (like Joel) but he also thinks everything is a game and is incredibly personable (like Judah).  He already needs less sleep than Judah, which is so strange considering Judah is 3, and Luther is 18 months, but it is true.  Luther needs about 1 hour less sleep than Judah.  Luther eats everything in sight and is constantly on the move.  He does not just stand still.  When he's put in the stroller he is ok with it, if its moving.  The only time I EVER see him sit down is when he is in his crib after naps, and he sits down to 'read' books.  Flipping through the pages for.. well.. sometimes.. hours.

Boo at the Zoo...

Northwest Bible Trunk or Treat...

Talk to you next month!!! 

Bethany

Full Steam Ahead!

We, like everyone else in America, are in full-gear mode.  It is nice in a way to be busy with bookings and travel again, but this summer seemed really really short!!! Here are some pics from late summer...

Joel and Judah at "Touch a Truck"...

Gamma, Joel and Judah at Indian Lake on Uncle Mike's boat...

 Luther, Judah and Joel coloring with chalk on the deck. Yes, Luther is eating the chalk...

Judah and Mommy watching the July 4th parade...

It's Time to be a Married Couple!

We had some time in July to be a 'normal' married couple, whatever that is anyway.  Here are some of the things we did together!

Home Projects

We spent a lot of time in July doing home projects. We installed new blinds for the entire 2nd floor, we installed shelves and double racked our closet, we (Joel) installed 3 new water conserving toilets (much needed!), Joel built a bench out on our deck, We enclosed our loft to make another bedroom, and we painted our master bedroom!  The master bedroom project in particular was quite therapeutic for me. Our boys went to Gamma and Papa Groskopf's house for a good 3 days while we worked hard.  It was amazing to see the progress and enjoy each others conversation and the quiet house.  It was also quite nice to eat meals (or even.. not eat meals) whenever we wanted ... oh yes, we took full advantage of our time and had 3 glorious dates in a row! Thanks Gamma and Papa!!

Master Bedroom before & after ...

Home Workouts

Usually Joel joins me in whatever kind of workout phase I am going through in all of July and most of August in order to 'prepare' for the upcoming school year.  I think his body is naturally inclined to working out hard during those months after so many years of football. This year Joel joined me for about 1-2 weeks (3 times a week) of home WODs. (workouts of the day) These were modified CrossFit workouts made up by me.  He beat my time 3 times in a row and then once I accused him of cheating.  After that I didn't see him in the basement much during nap time anymore. :(

Home Bible Studies

After years of strong hints dropped by me, Joel finally suggested we do our own Bible study together.. praise the Lord! It has been fun to see how he is as a one-on-one 'teacher' and even give him some pointers!  We have been studying through Ephesians and its humbling to absorb and try to remember all that Joel is teaching me.  I am not sure any of it is sinking in.  Oh well..there's always the Children's Bible with pictures to help me out;) Seriously, though, I have learned so much from reading Children's Bibles to Joel 3 constantly. The "Jesus Storybook Bible" the "Action Bible" and the "God's Love Bible" by Positive action (its actually an app.) are some of our favorites. It's like Joel has 4 children to disciple! haha.

It's Time for School!

We are so excited for Joel's homeschooling to begin.  At 4.5 years old I won't be spending a ton of time on a rigid curriculum but will focus on reading (teaching him to read and reading to him), math, and writing.  I plan for these activities to take up about 3 hours per week.  Perhaps that will change, I don't know at all what to expect.  Along those lines.. we are super excited for Joel's co-op called Classical Conversations.  We will meet with other families from 9am-12pm on Mondays during the school year.  After the school day the families all get together and eat lunch outside from 12-1pm ish.  During these times the children will speak in front of a group, recite memory work, and partake in art and science projects.  I've heard the memory work is extremely intensive especially for a 4 to 5 year old.  The memory work is almost identical for the first 3 years so definitely the first year is the hardest.  I am expecting some additional time to be devoted to memory work for his Classical Conversations class as all of the students will be expected to retain what they have memorized. However, I have no idea how much time we will need to devote to this. Perhaps one of the aspects I am most nervous about is the LONG morning.  Judah and Luther will be in childcare for an entire 3 hours and I wonder how they will do.. specifically Luther.  I also wonder about the lunch afterwards and other activities with the Classical Conversations group.. we would love to do as much as possible with the group, however, almost every single family involved has much much older children who are much more flexible with their schedules.  (i.e. 8 year olds who eat 1/2 hour later than normal or  stay up past their bed time don't fall apart screaming and crying like they are dying!) Thankfully, there is a family at our church who is new to Classical Conversations and also has a 4,2 and almost 1 year old.  We might be hanging out a lot;)  I will keep you all updated on how it goes!

It's time for Technology!

Ok this might seem like a crazy thing to include but our family recently got an iPad.  I have such mixed feelings about letting the children use it.  So far, I allow Judah to use it with me while sitting on my lap.  Much like reading a book.  We talk about what he's doing and limit the use to about 20 mins or less maybe 2-3 times a week. Joel uses it much more.  I allow him to sit by himself and 'read' the God's Love Bible about 5 times a week for maybe 20 mins.  When he does other programs that I have chosen that are educational focused (particularly phonics and math) we do those apps together for usually 15 mins about 3x a week.  I am thinking of integrating the apps into his school time as a 'treat' after we have completed whatever tasks I have deemed necessary for the day.  Since I plan to home school

during Luther and Judah's naps I do not foresee Judah needing to use the iPad to keep him occupied while I teach Joel, but that might change.  

Thanks for hanging with me! We are pumped to be going 'Full Steam Ahead' and are looking forward to the challenges and adventures of this Fall! 

"It's the most wonderful time of the year...."

Sorry I've been MIA.  It seems every time I sit down to blog there's some sort of catastrophe.  Then of course, it gets put off only to be a larger task when I get free time to blog again a few weeks later...

Yeah, it definitely is the most wonderful time of the year.  For us. :)  Joel speaks around 3 times a month in the Summer, as opposed to 30 times a month during the school year.  It makes a huge difference.  We dedicate that time to other ministry projects that we have been putting off as well as some much needed family time and family projects. Yeay for Summer!

VEDA (video every day in April) recap
Veda was fun.  But, I"m not gonna lie, much harder to complete this time.  The videos weren't as polished by any means.  Ohwell.  They got done and that was the goal.  One popular video was actually my very last VEDA in which I spoke about some of the reasons we are choosing to homeschool our kids.  Here it is.



Joel 3 is doing very well learning to read.  He doesn't enjoy his reading lesson at first (like when we say, "Joel its time to do your reading lesson!") but once he's into it, he really likes the 'story' at the end and of course, the picture that goes with it.  It has been so fun to see him learn in this area and observe his style.  For instance, I am very visual so when Joel forgets to make the sound of a certain letter I point at it but he doesn't look at where I am pointing, he would prefer to sound on the word again slowly and in a different way as he like looks up at the ceiling or something.  I am thinking, "what is he doing?" and then he gets it! He likes to hear himself talk, thats for sure. :) Judah, on the other hand, is very visual.  He can look at a pattern of objects and point out what one doesn't belong quicker than Joel can.  It is cool to observe these different gifts.

**edit - as I am finally about to get this post done, a couple months later, Joel has regressed with reading a bit.  It started with a short 'break' that we gave him of about 1-2 weeks, actually after that break he was much better.  Then we forgot about it too often and when we reintroduced the reading lesson book 1 full month later he couldn't remember vowel sounds! Oh well. We will truck along, with an emphasis on reading the story (not the drills).  He seems to do much much better while reading a story and he enjoys it more!  Go figure!

Luther and Mommy


 On April 19th we celebrated Luther's 1 year birthday!!

It has been so much fun to see his personality really come out these past few months.  I am thankful that he really enjoys books and brings them to me like his brother Joel did at this age.  Although, he is much more of a handful than either of them were!  He is so curious and wants to know how everything works and how it feels and what will happen if he breaks/tears/throws/hits it.  He loves to play games much like Judah at this age, but also is very very hurt if spoken to harshly, much like Joel.



At 13.5 months I decided to wean Luther.  It was bittersweet.  Sad that I couldn't nurse him longer which was my goal.  But happy that I have my body back.  Here are some of the things I learned the past 14 months while I struggled to feel 'normal' after Luther's birth -

1. our bodies are broken.  Self-explanatory.  Because of sin, this is a consequence we reap. No 'perfect' treatment of the body will make it 'perfect.'
2. God is sovereign.  We can chose what we want to chose, but ultimately God is in complete control. Why waste so much time 'figuring' things out when you should use that time to just pray.  Ask Him for help.  He's the only one who can really Help you.
3. As a Mommy I am extremely valuable, even if I am not nursing or pregnant.  Yeah.  This one was tough.  Apparently being pregnant or nursing for 4 years straight can really mess up your whole self worth.  I began to realize a fear I did not know I had - NOT being pregnant or nursing! Weird.

My Bday on May 21st...



The 'other' Boys

Joel 3 attended our church's VBS in June and he had a blast. I was shocked at how much he loved it.  We weren't sure if he would be apprehensive as he hasn't left us for that long without many people he knows.  But, we couldn't have been more wrong.  I seriously don't think he's ever enjoyed anything as much as he enjoyed VBS.  He loves crafts, games, singing,  and sugary snacks, so it was really just a perfect combination of all the stuff he loves.  He came home each day super obsessed with the theme, which was International Spy.  We were instructed to play spy with him which apparently is a scavenger hunt.


Joel is finally starting to mature a bit as he can understand some reasoning, and is helpful and obedient most of the time.  Of course he does have loud complaining fits a few times a week still, which are quite dramatic.  But overall, I am liking the age of 4 quite a bit.

Judah has finally given in to the fact that he is almost a full 2 years younger than Joel.  He has been pretending for quite some time that he is Joel's age and can stay up with him, run as far as him, and do most things by himself like Joel.... but that facade is over.  He loses it at around 1200 if he hasn't eaten lunch or gone to bed, He pees on his shorts if nobody helps him go potty, and he asks "pick me up please?" if we have been walking far distances.  Maybe its some sort of growth spurt.  Of course, he is still ever so cute saying things like, "I haaafff stuff-ing for you!" and his "Why he do that, Mommy? Why?"  Also his 'conversations' are very cute now as well.

Joel has enjoyed working from home a little bit more often now and taking care of Joel and Judah.  It helps that Judah is a bit more self-sufficient than last Summer and Joel is more mature, but they are still a loud, overwhelming couple at times.  In fact, we have resorted to putting Judah in a pack n play in the basement almost full time now, because the two of them cannot control themselves when they are alone but together.  They just get waaay too excited and do dangerous things.  I wonder where they got that tendency? But anyway, back to Joel ;) He has enjoyed running much more recently than ever before and actually set a new record for his 1 mile run. 6:30!! Yep that's quite an accomplishment for a former defensive tackle.

Joel decides to warm up...

 

So does Joel 3...
 

So does Judah...
 

And, So does Luther...

 

Joel ran a 6:30 mile, this pic was taken at 6:32.



Joel finally turned 30 on June 26th, so I had to write it all over the cookie cake ;)

in other news...
Joel 3 split his head open again in late April.  Here's a video of me explaining the story.



he did a great job getting the stitches, which was a HUGE answer to prayer.



One of the cutest things was Judah's reaction.  Judah, is apparently so close to Joel that he thinks they are the same person.  At first he said "Joel has hole!" over and over again.  Then it turned into, "Judah have hole?" over and over again.  Very cute.  He had to be reassured that his head was ok by looking in the mirror frequently.

Mayn, stitches every other year is starting to get expensive!!!

Time with Family
We are so grateful for extra time with family during the Summer.  My brother, Michael, recently treated us to a trip to the Cincinnati Zoo with all of Joel's cousins!  It was a blast.  Joel said his favorite part was the Popsicle and the Carousel.  Judah said his favorite part was the alligators.  Luther enjoyed riding the train and started bouncing up and down and smiling while the train was going.



The next day, we left Cincinnati early for an 8 hour trip to Virginia to vacation with Joel's family.  Our destination was a farm in Gordonsville, VA.  The car ride (first car ride over 2 hours with 3 boys) was long and difficult at times, but not any worse than expected.

A  tired Judah eats his lunch in the car...

 The farm was great.  We had a blast relaxing with family.  The kids loved going on golf cart rides with GranDad, feeding the horses, and swimming in the hot tub (set on the coolest possible setting).  Joel spent most of his time tagging along with his cousins, he had a new favorite cousin each day.  Judah roamed around alone and mooched the most golf cart rides off GranDad, I think.  Luther enjoyed scaring us half to death by falling into the hot tub (it was really just a slight head dunk), clumsily maneuvering the adult-sized broom and dust pan, and playing with the fire poker.

Here's a video of the cousins feeding the horses...



Here's a video of our place, we loved it!!!



Well, guys, thanks for hanging with me on this LONG post.. I will try harder to post more often and shorter.  For everyone's relief. :)