Mothers Day Flowers

I'm not a huge believer in buying cut flowers.  I do appreciate them from time to time but I struggle with the cost of something that just doesn't last for very long.  SO... here are my mother's day flowers.

Hopefully these will that they last for many years to come, if they get enough love and water (they are right outside my kitchen window so surely I'll remember to water them).

Accepting how it is!

Normally my first post for the new month would be the character trait we are going to work on that month.  Well, last month we were meant to be doing Self Control.  And we did a few minor things but I don't feel like I spent enough time on it with the boys for them to gain a true grasp of the trait.  I was going to move on to the next one but realised that I need to be real with where we are at, or in this case not at and do what I need to do to fix it.  And that is do Self Control again this month.

The things I have learnt from the past month are

• I need to be more intentional about the activities we do with each trait 
• plan the activities well in advance so that I can focus properly when we are doing them
• make a plan for when we are going to do these activities

So my plan is to do these activities on Wednesdays as part of our circle time and that means I will aim to prepare on Tuesday nights.  Here is what we did this morning.

We made traffic lights, 

• red to remind us to stop and use our self control (I wrote specific things the each boy has trouble remembering to use self control with to help them understand), 
• orange to remind us to have caution - is my attitude right (or do I have a happy heart) and 
• green, all is good, go for it.

Hopefully as we do an activity each week that relates to our character trait and we talk about it more intentionally throughout the month, it will sink in with both the boys and myself.

Weekend Clearing

This weekend I went to a clearing sale with my mum and three boys.  Here are some of the treasures I found.

A outside rocking horse for the boys

A beat up old tin trunk

It's going to be my wood box by my fire this winter

Outside Time

Here is some of the things that happened outside this week - moments I want to remember.

Happy Easter

Here are some of the things our family did to celebrate Easter and started some new traditions.

On Friday morning we built a hill and made crosses and Jesus and the robbers.

 Friday night we wrapped Jesus and put him in the tomb and put the big rock in place.

Sunday morning when the boys got up, the tomb only had the cloth inside - Jesus is risen.

Then we did an Easter egg treasure hunt!

Each 'egg' had a part of the resurrection story and the clue to find the next part of the story.

Our story ended with this!  So we all had eggs before breakfast.

I asked Isaiah what was in his egg (expecting him to say nothing so we could talk about how the tomb was empty too) but he comes out with 'A new life'.  

I was happy with the mix of chocolate and the real reason for Easter that we managed to establish in our house.  Did you do anything special with your family this Easter? How do you mix chocolate and Jesus in your house??

Easter 'Advent'

Easter is pivotal in our faith and we want help our kids understand this.  So I am aiming to do an activity with them each day and gives us an opportunity to learn more about why it is so important.  We have very active, hand-on boys so doing physical things with them helps them learn, rather than just talking about it.  Here's yesterdays activity.

Oh how I wish I could share the smell that came from my oven as these cooked with you.  It was so good.  My boys thought this was the best lunch we've had in a long time!  We are definitely going to make these again.  My husband reckons they were as good as ones from the bakery.  Yay!!!!

In April

I don't think this is what I originally had planned for this month but I think I need to work on this with my kids at present. I love the resource Character First that helps us get a better understanding of these character traits and gives the kids concrete concepts to help them at their level.