Busy... Farm... Fun...

Yesterday my morning baking was interrupted by a very excited cry of "The cotton pickers, the cotton pickers, mum.  Can we go please?? NOW???"

Picking is a great time - very busy but lots of fun.  There is action everywhere, 3 pickers, 2 module builders and 3 very excited boys.  They like to 'help' me build modules, ride in the pickers with Dad, Uncle Matt or Pa (whoever is going past at the time) but the best thing to do is play in the cotton module.  We see all sorts of flips, flops and falls into the soft fluffy cotton.  This is the life we love!!

(Top 4 photos by Isaiah)

Our Weeks End

We had a wonderful quiet weekend together as a family, enjoying having nothing we 'had' to do and crossing a project off that ever growing list!!  My garden gate and entrance.  Mr 5 (nearly six he keeps reminding me) had lots of fun for his first time on two wheels!!  The biggest smile I've ever seen on his face.

Benevolence - Here's what we did

Well we had lots of fun learning about Benevolence this month.  I tried to do at least one activity a week with the boys and then talk about it lots during the month as well.

We started the month by making this 'Love is' sign that hangs in our dining room window.  

  

          

Once or twice a week we added these hanging circles to it.  As we did each circle we read the whole verse from 1 Corinthians 13.  Then we talked about what that means for our family and how we actually do it.

We talked about showing others that we love them.  We made these cute little cards for our friends and family telling them why they are special to us.  The boys loved doing this and really took time to think about their friends and why they are special.

We read a Berenstien Bears book about loving your neighbour.

I gave each of the boys a really long handled spoon telling them they could only hold the very end, placed a big bowl of M&M's on the floor and told them they could eat as many as they like using only the spoon.  This was so much fun.  They tried to feed themselves and quickly realised that they couldn't.  The youngest two kept trying and the oldest lay on the floor crying because he couldn't get any!! I left them to it for a few moments and then suggested that they could show love and think of others.  They soon realised that needed to feed each other.  Such a fun activity.  (Then I sent them outside to run off all the sugar!!)

We also made these love paper chains.  At dinner we talked about if they day had been characterised by actions of love or lack of love.  If they had shown love and done well, a link was added to their chain, (they had one each).  We did have to talk about it not being a competition with each other but doing better themselves each day and we did not remove links for lack of love.

We had lots of fun with these activities but I also think that the boys are actually beginning to get these things in their hearts.  Somedays anyway!!

February Character Lesson - Benevolence

In February we are working on ...

Holiday

I've been on holiday!!  Both literally and figuratively speaking.  We had a few short breaks over the normal holiday times, at the beach and camping & water skiing.  I have also been using January to try and get some order in my life.  Here's what I've been doing...

• Mind Organisation for Mums (Power of Moms)
• implementing the Freedom Filer
• Planning for 20 weeks of lessons in Five in a Row
• Reorganise our middle room (playroom/lesson room)  
• Sorting out our new craft cupboard

Therefore I've had no extra brain space or time to consider blogging.  But I have spent some time thinking about what I'm wanting to do with the space this year.  

I plan to

• share the character traits we are learning about and the activities we do with these.  
• show you some of the things I make through out the year
• share something we are working on once a week on a Friday - this could be something I'm making, a habit I'm trying to cultivate, something the kids and I are doing together or a lesson I'm working on with the kids
• update with how we are going with what we are working on

So I'm aiming for a weekly Friday post.  I'll see how this goes and how realistic this is!!  But I'm not starting yet.  I still need a couple more weeks to get my organisation implemented, then I'll be back and committed to posting once a week at the least.

Hope you will join me in my journey.

New Family Member

This (currently nameless) little fellow arrived this morning - just hours before these pictures were taken.  His arrival has been talked about for a few weeks now as his mum were showing signs of the impending birth.  However it was taking so long we had almost given up hope.  I'm thinking the wait was worth it.  We have 3 very impressed boys.

Truth in the Tinsel - The slow finish

We finished a little slower than we started off with Truth in the Tinsel.  We went to the beach for 5 days before Christmas so I took all the supplies for our crafts. But really what boys want to sit and do craft when they could be swimming in a lake that is less than 50m away??

So we didn't do them all and some we did the colouring rather than the full activity.  We usually did them over breakfast so we could talk about the meaning of each while they ate and then made the craft.

Here are some pictures of the ones we did do.  I couldn't find a few of them - the kids have enjoyed playing with them so they didn't always make it to the tree.

A stable

Colouring in on busy days - Bethlehem by Eli and a Manger by Isaiah

Sheep that the shepherds were watching

Angels that came to tell the shepherds

A shepherd telling people about what he saw 

Wise men

Talking about the name of Jesus 

The censes - all the people that need counting

Final thoughts - I've really loved doing this with our boys.  The truths they have learned and remembered as a result of these activities are amazing.  Sometimes it felt like hard work, fitting it into the pre-Christmas craziness, (including going on holidays).  BUT I would say it is totally worth the effort and I'd do it all over again.  So thank-you Truth in the Tinsel.