What happened yesterday? The Echols house is shaking and quaking.
We learned all about earthquakes and then had a few of our own:)
Let's see:
How many times can we fight about petting the cat? How many times can the baby cry? How many times can Hannah rip the library book, bible, and color on the ottoman? What write a report? (Oh wait, that was the volcano!)
I love my family but the earth needs to stop shaking! Really:)
By the way Zechariah is now 17 weeks old and is the cutest thing ever. I am totally over the earthquake!
All you have to do is look into the eyes of your 12 year old. She smiles and who can be mad! Plus, who's fault is it that the books were out! I mean really what was I thinking.
Track meet in the rain, Earthball sandwiches, Hugs and kisses! Life is good. Thank you Lord for perspective.
Gazing into the eyes of my newborn!
This morning I couldn't help but start crying as I gazed into the eyes of Zechariah. I am so thankful for this little blessing. I could never have imagined how much this little man has affected me.
Two 7th graders!
Well sort of! Brooklyn graduated from her SOS 6th grade program! She passed all the tests! Which means she did learn what the state required her to know by the end of 6th grade!!!
Deep breath! Ahh now a sigh of relief as Kayden finishes 7th grade.
Deep breath! Ahh now a sigh of relief as Kayden finishes 7th grade.
Rock and Roll
We have been learning about the Rock cycle and fossils this last week. It has been interesting to say the least.
To finish the week off strong we went to the Rice Northwest Rock Museum. The museum was amazing. I personally loved seeing all of the fossils. The kids loved all the gems and precious stones. The tour guide however, gave up on us after Hannah burst into echoing tears for the 5th time. Can you say stressful? The worst part is I knew better. Who takes an 19 mos. old who has been sick for almost a week to a museum? Duh!
We paid to be in there, before the melt down and there was no refunds:( Although I am sure they wanted us to go. Adam got stuck by a train and instead of getting there in 20 min it took him almost 45 min. Which is a lifetime, by the time you pull your wailing daughter off the petrified wood and watch yet another melt down. The ice age (if there was such a thing) has nothing on Hannah!
I think the kids learned something? Why am I doing this? Am I teaching the kids anything? I don't even remember what I taught them. Augh! Then Adam arrived and took Hannah. Peace at last. When I looked up Kayden and Brooklyn were working together in the Rock pile. Looking for that perfect rock to remember our trip to the museum. The best part is they both picked a blue granite! Yep, blue pretty much summed up how I was feeling.
I don't think I said more than three words on the way home. Brooklyn caught me crying as we were getting out of the car. One thing I can say about her is she is always caring and sensitive to my needs. She asked me why I was crying. I told her I felt as though I am a terrible teacher and that this did not go the way I wanted. She said, "mom this year has not looked like a regular school would have but, we have learned alot. Like how to take care of the babies, how to clean the house, how to get along(still working on this one), and yes we are learning school stuff. We learning how to be grown ups and do it all at the same time. We would not learn that in regular school." I am excited to see that they are learning practical everyday useful things, not just book knowledge however, the perfectionist in me wants more.
I can't lie and say that I am completely satisfied with our school year so far, but I will continue to strive for excellence.
To finish the week off strong we went to the Rice Northwest Rock Museum. The museum was amazing. I personally loved seeing all of the fossils. The kids loved all the gems and precious stones. The tour guide however, gave up on us after Hannah burst into echoing tears for the 5th time. Can you say stressful? The worst part is I knew better. Who takes an 19 mos. old who has been sick for almost a week to a museum? Duh!
We paid to be in there, before the melt down and there was no refunds:( Although I am sure they wanted us to go. Adam got stuck by a train and instead of getting there in 20 min it took him almost 45 min. Which is a lifetime, by the time you pull your wailing daughter off the petrified wood and watch yet another melt down. The ice age (if there was such a thing) has nothing on Hannah!
I think the kids learned something? Why am I doing this? Am I teaching the kids anything? I don't even remember what I taught them. Augh! Then Adam arrived and took Hannah. Peace at last. When I looked up Kayden and Brooklyn were working together in the Rock pile. Looking for that perfect rock to remember our trip to the museum. The best part is they both picked a blue granite! Yep, blue pretty much summed up how I was feeling.
I don't think I said more than three words on the way home. Brooklyn caught me crying as we were getting out of the car. One thing I can say about her is she is always caring and sensitive to my needs. She asked me why I was crying. I told her I felt as though I am a terrible teacher and that this did not go the way I wanted. She said, "mom this year has not looked like a regular school would have but, we have learned alot. Like how to take care of the babies, how to clean the house, how to get along(still working on this one), and yes we are learning school stuff. We learning how to be grown ups and do it all at the same time. We would not learn that in regular school." I am excited to see that they are learning practical everyday useful things, not just book knowledge however, the perfectionist in me wants more.
I can't lie and say that I am completely satisfied with our school year so far, but I will continue to strive for excellence.
Ahh a sabath!
Sunday for years has been such a busy day with Adam preaching and I am usually singing. We never got a Sabbath. Well God told us 3 years ago that we needed to change our focus. Put the kids first, make choices based on raising them up in the way they should go. Slowly but surely that is the direction we have been heading.
It's never easy to give up that what you love, especially if it has to do with serving the Lord in the capacity you want to:)
Well I decided on Saturday, that after my meeting I would take a Sabbath from 2pm-2pm. Now I don't mean I didn't do anything. If you read my previous post, you know I took care of my baby girl, but I didn't work, clean, just spent time with my family and well I can't forget the big nap I took in the middle of the day!
I needed that.
I know God is using us and I pray that I can honor him by following his lead and not trying to take over. It seems just when we get comfortable he calls us to a new understanding and a new direction. Change is never fun/easy but I know it is where he lead us. Blind faith.
Is it Saturday, yet? Just thinking about all this, is preparing me for the next Sabbath!
It's never easy to give up that what you love, especially if it has to do with serving the Lord in the capacity you want to:)
Well I decided on Saturday, that after my meeting I would take a Sabbath from 2pm-2pm. Now I don't mean I didn't do anything. If you read my previous post, you know I took care of my baby girl, but I didn't work, clean, just spent time with my family and well I can't forget the big nap I took in the middle of the day!
I needed that.
I know God is using us and I pray that I can honor him by following his lead and not trying to take over. It seems just when we get comfortable he calls us to a new understanding and a new direction. Change is never fun/easy but I know it is where he lead us. Blind faith.
Is it Saturday, yet? Just thinking about all this, is preparing me for the next Sabbath!
Croup! What is croup?
I still don't fully know. Adam took Hannah to the Dr. (Note to self, next time take her myself:)
Hannah woke up on Friday with a deep rattle in her chest and her voice sounding terrible. She slept most of the day for the exception of 2 baths. She loves bath time so brother and Daddy spoiled her twice!
Yesterday she woke up and it sounded like she could barely breath. Poor thing. I had my 1st meeting here at the house and everyone was on their way. We decided we had better take Hannah to the Dr. So what's a mom to do but have Dad handle the task.
Adam is the best Dad out there and worrys about our kids probably more than I do. However, when it comes to details, well he just thinks differently than me. 1st he heads out to the dr's which is convienently located next to Krispy Cremes. 2nd he stops at Krispy Cremes to treat both Brooklyn and Hannah to 2 dozen donuts! 3rd he goes into the dr's and comes out with a piece of paper that explains what Croup is. The funny thing is the paper gives all medical facts and nothing you or I could understand. Like is it contagious, is there any other meds we can give her, etc.
The only info I get is a piece of paper and a sweet p.s. tonight is going to be your worst night ever:) Gee wiz that sounds fun.
The truth of the matter is Hannah pretty much slept from 2-7pm, woke up had a bottle, 102 fever, gave her tylenol, fever broke, she cried, laid their lethargic, fever came back, oops nope must be breaking she is sweating like a pig, more tears, all better "Hi Zechy!", kiss Zech, hey moms not looking, more kisses to Zech, nope fever back, cough, cough, and off to snuggle with Daddy now, you get the picture. She actually asked to go to bed at 11 and slept til 7am.
She is coughing now as I type. I better go snuggle:)
Hannah woke up on Friday with a deep rattle in her chest and her voice sounding terrible. She slept most of the day for the exception of 2 baths. She loves bath time so brother and Daddy spoiled her twice!
Yesterday she woke up and it sounded like she could barely breath. Poor thing. I had my 1st meeting here at the house and everyone was on their way. We decided we had better take Hannah to the Dr. So what's a mom to do but have Dad handle the task.
Adam is the best Dad out there and worrys about our kids probably more than I do. However, when it comes to details, well he just thinks differently than me. 1st he heads out to the dr's which is convienently located next to Krispy Cremes. 2nd he stops at Krispy Cremes to treat both Brooklyn and Hannah to 2 dozen donuts! 3rd he goes into the dr's and comes out with a piece of paper that explains what Croup is. The funny thing is the paper gives all medical facts and nothing you or I could understand. Like is it contagious, is there any other meds we can give her, etc.
The only info I get is a piece of paper and a sweet p.s. tonight is going to be your worst night ever:) Gee wiz that sounds fun.
The truth of the matter is Hannah pretty much slept from 2-7pm, woke up had a bottle, 102 fever, gave her tylenol, fever broke, she cried, laid their lethargic, fever came back, oops nope must be breaking she is sweating like a pig, more tears, all better "Hi Zechy!", kiss Zech, hey moms not looking, more kisses to Zech, nope fever back, cough, cough, and off to snuggle with Daddy now, you get the picture. She actually asked to go to bed at 11 and slept til 7am.
She is coughing now as I type. I better go snuggle:)
Moving the Earth
Are we back to life as normal? Ha Ha! I guess it is as normal as a family with teenagers and babies can be.
We began our study of the earth last week. Hannah has really been enjoying finding rocks. Kayden and Brooklyn have enjoyed eating the rocks!!! Well ok, so we made earthballs! Meatballs with cheese in the middle. Then we made rocks out of peanut butter and chocolate chips, again using the same ingredients we applied heat and now have a different type of rock.
There are days that I doubt my ability to teach the kids, especially with the Hannah climbing all over the table covered in mud from digging up the layers of topsoil:), Zech screaming at the top of his lungs. Then we all sit down to dinner and discuss what they learned and I am shocked about how much they retained. They never remembered this much at school. I keep moving on knowing that God will see us through. It definately does not look like regular school and I have to remind myself that it does not have to.
We really are looking forward to Grandma coming up. I know she will love getting down and dirty with the kids and I will have an extra set of hands to help with the wee ones. By golly, I might even be able to get my hair done by a professional:) I have forgotten what it is like to have a haircut!
We began our study of the earth last week. Hannah has really been enjoying finding rocks. Kayden and Brooklyn have enjoyed eating the rocks!!! Well ok, so we made earthballs! Meatballs with cheese in the middle. Then we made rocks out of peanut butter and chocolate chips, again using the same ingredients we applied heat and now have a different type of rock.
There are days that I doubt my ability to teach the kids, especially with the Hannah climbing all over the table covered in mud from digging up the layers of topsoil:), Zech screaming at the top of his lungs. Then we all sit down to dinner and discuss what they learned and I am shocked about how much they retained. They never remembered this much at school. I keep moving on knowing that God will see us through. It definately does not look like regular school and I have to remind myself that it does not have to.
We really are looking forward to Grandma coming up. I know she will love getting down and dirty with the kids and I will have an extra set of hands to help with the wee ones. By golly, I might even be able to get my hair done by a professional:) I have forgotten what it is like to have a haircut!
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