stone floors, pink paint, shag carpet

I’ve been terrible at documenting the “befores and afters” of our house. Granted, there has not been anything too dramatic, but I would still love to have some pictures of the changes. What I would really love to have are some pictures from the house from the 60s to 80s. After the big flooring and baseboards job, we’re contenting ourselves with sanding and painting all the doors and door frames. Cheap, if not dusty. And what have we discovered during all of this sanding and hinge-removing? Only that the bathroom door and frame (both) were at one time painted Pepto Bismol pink and then a lovely dark aqua. We are wondering if the pink coincided with the time frame when the bathroom floor was covered in red shag carpet.

But the big floor refinishing has definitely been the most dramatic thing we’ve checked off our to-do list. Terrazzo floors were big down here in the 50s. We hear people say they are becoming “in” again, but I think the primary reason they’re “in” is because the homes that have it are the ones people in our stage of life can afford. Ha. We’ve seen homes with pink stone and black stone and everything in between. Ours is in the more neutral cream/tan color family and was in fairly good condition, so we decided against covering it. Would you believe that it would cost between $35,000 and $75,000 to have these floors poured today?! Crazy. And after being ground down and polished and buffed and repaired, it’s just lovely. And watching them do it was great. In the pics below, they ground holes in the damaged area, color matched new stones, and then ground them down. Amazing.

Terrazzo Before ::

Terrazzo After ::

Elisha is seven

On Wednesday my oldest turned seven. Elisha always has “big plans!!” for things, so I didn’t think I’d luck out with as easy a birthday as Lenna. He is also seven, not three, so I really didn’t think fruity cereal would thrill him the way it did his sister. But it didn’t take much more. The house was still in floor-refinishing mode, so I was at least hoping his big plans didn’t involve multi-colored tiered cakes or time consuming main dishes. And he didn’t disappoint.  ”Mama, can I have hot dogs, beans, chips, ice cream, and Oreos for my birthday?” he asked. And before boy #2 could yet again insert his influence making elaborate meal suggestions, I closed the deal with Elisha. Hot dogs were eaten and he was happy. He seemed quite grown up during his party. He loved his pirate ship kite, his light saber popsicle molds, his new bible, and I’m loving his new Perplexus.

Happy birthday, sweet boy.

she turned three and we ate cereal

She turned three yesterday. She will tell you that she is seven, or maybe six, but she is three. Our week was full of house repairs, so we were staying at my parents’. Two days of work turned into five days of work, so by the time I got around to asking Lenna what she would like to do for her birthday breakfast I was hoping she’d go easy on me. And she did. The blessed child said she wanted cereal for her birthday breakfast. Asher tried to intervene and remind her of all the amazing things she could ask for, but I quickly shut him down. Can I just say that cereal, strawberries, and milky coffee eaten on the back porch makes for a very easy and chill birthday celebration?

Hello Kitty cupcakes and presents rounded out the day. She adored the bed we got for her dolls, squealed when she opened a little stuffed dog that came housed in a purse, and clicked away on her new camera.

I still can’t believe she’s three.

we introduced a friend to miami yesterday

city skyline
Coral Way
old house
Coral Gables
Chocolate Fashion
cortaditos
Books & Books
Calle Ocho
car horns
Design District
Michael’s Genuine
passion fruit pot de creme
South Beach
neon
tourists
Lincoln Road
dodging rain
driving rain
home

when we get up

A while back I began to realize that the school morning went much smoother if we started on the couch reading a few picture books. The smooth factor is raised even higher if we let Lenna be the one to choose most of these. She’s content to call it her “school” and leaves us (mostly) in peace for the rest of them time. Over time, I started adding in a brief bible time, included a song or two, said our ABCs (again, to include Lenna), and counted by 5s or 10s (or did something else math related) before we started in on more formal writing or history or math. I loved this time. The kids loved this time. I wanted to do more but wasn’t quite sure what “more” looked like. I was fortunate to be able to visit a friend and get more ideas from her. She told me about the poetry her kids memorized and how she started off her school mornings.

And then I came across the Circe Institute blog and one of their contributors, Cindy Rollins. She has a blog dedicated to Morning Time. And what is Morning Time? She writes:

Approximately 20 years ago as a result of my early home school adventures and the reading of For the Children’s Sake (Susan Schaeffer Macaulay) followed by The Original Home school Series by Charlotte Mason, I began a morning meeting with my children as a way to incorporate subjects that were important to me but easily lost in the shuffle of conventional schooling.

Over the years I continued to add to this time so that it eventually made up about 2 hours of our morning. As my older boys graduated and flew away they often returned and encouraged me that the most important things they had learned while growing up had been in MT. MT became our daily family colloquy. It was a way to bring all my educational philosophies to the table. It was a way to incorporate poetic knowledge into the hearts of my children. It was a way to share my faith and even preach a sermon every single day.

I loved this. It’s what I was looking for. The part about incorporating subjects that were important but easily lost in the shuffle of life and the rest of schooling really hit home: poetry, Shakespeare (here is a great article Cindy Rollins wrote about teaching Shakespeare to children), fables and fairy tales, music, random facts and history bits, prayers and creeds and catechisms. Check out the blog. She has lists and schedules and books and many ideas about how to develop your own Morning Time routine and what to include. I’ve also appreciated this blog’s (Permanent Things) description of what their Morning Colloquy looks like.

No morning looks quite the same, but it usually takes about a half hour to 45 minutes. I can see it getting longer as the kids get older. Life happens and some days Morning Time doesn’t find its way into our routine. But the kids are actually sad when it doesn’t happen. I get a cheap thrill from that. Ha.

Here’s a bit of what our Morning Time includes right now. We don’t do each thing everyday but I try to touch on most of it:

Memorizing the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostle’s Creed
Reading a fable or a fairy tale and then discussing it for a bit
Shakespeare’s Stories for Young Children
Learning an old United States song I learned as a kid
Going over some of the more basic civics questions found here.
A lesson (we focus on one for the whole week) from Get Widsom!
Reviewing our monthly bible memory passage from church
Math memory work
Poetry review and memorization (currently learning Sea Fever by John Masefield)
Learning the first couple verses of a new hymn each week
Reading a few Lenna selected picture books

the one where i fail at the Whole30 program…

…and eat some marshmallows while I tell you about it.

I was wooed by the Whole30 program. I had been noticing that our typically chip-free, snack food-free, dessert-free (I have excellent willpower against not-so-good-for-you foods in the store. If they make it into the house? All bets are off.) kitchen was becoming the comfortable home to lots of stuff that I don’t typically like to eat all the time. In similar and saner times of my life, I usually just tossed it or had everyone eat it all up before we started fresh. But this time I went a little crazy and got Omar to go along with me on a 30 day diet reset.

10 days into our dairy-free, grain-free, bean-free, legume-free, sugar-free, alcohol-free adventure, I realized that I was thankful for the nutritional reset but completely unthankful for the constant 9 day headache. If I had some underlying health concerns that I thought this could help, I would’ve gladly stuck it out. I know several people who have loved what this program has done for their health, and I am incredibly happy for them. My kids were incredibly happy once their happy mama was returned to them. And believe it or not, one muffin did the trick. Headache gone, happy mother present.

daily march

march morning ::

march afternoon ::

march evening ::

I delight

In a girl who finally lost the battle against the “But I’m not tired!”

In a house of playing and scheming and running cousins

In walks by the lake and kids in trees

In realizing I have two issues of Mars Hill Audio that I haven’t listened to

In beautiful books

In books that minister to a soul that has been confused and in need of encouragement

In beautiful weather and late-March cold snaps

In kids reciting poetry

In boys discovering the world of Settlers

In rest

33 on 3.13.13

As my 33rd birthday was winding down, I realized I wanted to try and get a picture of me with the kids. This is the best we got. At least two out four are looking at the camera, and this was one of the few where Asher wasn’t squishing Lenna’s cheeks (?). This is all part of my quest to be better at documenting faces and places in photos and not just food and books and caterpillars.

The birthday was wonderful. The kids marched into my room in the morning with scribbled cards and sloshing coffee. Omar lovingly added to my Penguin Classics books, to which Elisha commented when he saw my excitement, “What? A book? I would have at least asked for a movie.” Ha!

here

February and March have always seemed like the quiet months in my years. My birthday pops up in the middle of March but other than that, life is usually quite steady. This year, though? There were two trips to North Carolina in nine days – one planned, one not. One trip was bittersweet. Sadness and sweet friends and fellowship were all mixed together. The second trip was restful and full of encouraging conversation and good food and my friend’s sweet family.

And life here continued. Kids called me to tell me of lost and found stuffed animals, detailed (always detailed) events of their days, and all the great places Grandma and Grandma and Papi took them.

Now I’m back with no trips on the horizon for a few months. School has found its winter groove. Plans for first day of spring celebrations with the cousins are in the works. The caterpillars that decimated our butterfly plant have rewarded us with daily, sometimes hourly, transformations into butterflies. Everything marches on.

hey! a quilt!

And now she quilts.

I am now a fan of quilting that involves no measuring and no binding. I bought some of last year’s line of fabric by Denyse Schmidt for Joann’s last summer. And then it just sat. And sat. I was very tempted to dive into Anna Maria Horner’s Feather Bed Quilt but figured that was a bit ambitious for a first quilt.

So I settled for a quilt made with long strips of random widths interspersed with a bit of linen. And then I added lots of linen for the back, not realizing that this would result in The World’s Heaviest Quilt. But I love it.

The Feather Bed Quilt is next.

blue in the deep

I think that I could live in south Florida for 50 years and still be shocked at how blue the water is here. Every time I walk up over a dock or a sand dune or a path and look out to the ocean it amazes me. And I will never get tired of taking pictures of little people running and jumping and crashing into sand and waves.

hearts and chicken

Valentine’s Day morning started out a bit rocky. One boy cheerfully greeted me with a “Happy Valentine’s Day, Mama!” and as my heart swelled a bit at this unprompted sweetness, it was deflated quickly when the greeting was followed with, “So whatcha gonna do special for me today??”

I had the gut reaction to want to go into full-on lecture mode about how we need to think of others before ourselves, but I sensed that wasn’t going to do much that morning. I quietly excused myself from the room and regrouped.

About an hour later I piled them in the car, and we dodged the rain to go have an “important meeting, complete with notes” at the local Starbucks. So there they sat with their little hot chocolates and paper and pen, and somehow I managed to get them to believe that throwing Papi a special Valentine’s dinner that they got to plan was better than  any candy or treat that I might give them. It was hilarious. Asher started in on the food ideas and was conflicted about whether or not salsa or guacamole was a more appropriate Valentine’s food. I think he thought this would be a suitable main dish, so I steered him towards Elisha’s suggestion – roast chicken. To which Asher added, “And make it with that delicious gravy soup stuff!” Done. Elisha thought strawberries, nectarines, and whipped cream would make a good dessert. Done, again.

The rest of the afternoon involved lots of heart coloring and paper chain making and card creating. The house got decorated, the food was made, and the kids were beyond thrilled to surprise Papi with a party they planned.

top five :: school time

I could easily list the Top 5 books we like or my Top 5 curriculum choices of the moment. But since the kids themselves are an integral part to this whole homeschooling thing (ha), I figured it would be good to consult them and ask what they enjoyed about school. Here is the blended list of all our opinions:

1 :: Sonlight’s Read-Alouds. This is our third year using Sonlight’s suggested read-alouds. It’s basically just an age appropriate list of novels to read to the kids, but the kids have loved almost every book. Many book lists include books that kids read to themselves, but I love that with Sonlight’s suggested books, they are being exposed to stories and language that are more advanced but still not too over-their-heads.

2 :: I love geography. I love maps and globes and random facts about countries. My kids enjoy it, too, but they especially love it when it’s taught using Little Passport’s Sam and Sophia. Each month they get a package in the mail with contents about a specific country from travelers Sam and Sophia. They get stickers for their world map and little suitcase that comes with the initial package, a country sticker for their passport, a letter from Sam and Sophia, a postcard or picture, and a little souvenir. It’s simple but quite effective for my kids, and they love (LOVE) anything that combines mail, stickers, and postcards.

3 :: Writing With Ease. I’ll be honest. This choice for the Top 5 is more mine than Elisha’s, but this writing curriculum is one of those things that clicked for both of us. He enjoys writing (in small amounts), and I wanted something that combined copywork and narration and dictation using real books. This is a great fit for us right now. The amount of writing is not overwhelming, he’s not forced to come up with his own words or ideas, yet, and each week focuses on a different fairy tale or novel. To read a great intro to the philosophy behind this kind of writing, click here and scroll down to the Writing With Ease Instructor Text PDF sample.

4 :: SAINTS. This is essentially p.e. for homeschool kids. And they absolutely love it. And I absolutely love it. I drop the kids off once a week for three hours of everything from archery to capture the flag to dodgeball.

5 :: Spotify. This might seem like a random choice, but our days are filled with music. Most mornings start off with something along the lines of classical music. They have their own preferences and requests for when they are drawing or having snacks. If we are talking about a certain song or instrument, it’s a great resource for tracking down specific music. And the Jim Weiss story productions are listened to almost daily.

And to end, my boys make up stories all the time. Sometimes they make sense and other times they are random and creative thoughts. The little boy who narrates this video by a film student would fit in quite well around here.

(via The Wine Dark Sea)

a dress

About three years ago Liberty of London had a line for Target. I snagged a couple of toddler dresses for Lenna while I was still pregnant, and I quickly forgot about this dress because it looked absolutely huge at the time. But now she’s almost three and completely not the size of a little newborn. I love it.