Random notes from January

January has not been the month I had wanted it to be. Somehow the month escaped before I had overhauled my homeschool records or finished our year long kitchen makeover. Not surprisingly, the dogs didn't get the bath they needed and my sunroom is trashed. Again. And, there are a measly total of 6 7 posts to this blog thus far for the new year! What is that all about?

Obviously, we are not off to a good start this year. Therefore I have made a monumental decision! No really. I've decided that we will just pretend that the New Year hasn't started yet adopt Chinese New Year as our actual new year! I can do that. I have a Chinese daughter. Hello! We will be celebrating the Chinese New Year beginning February 14th. So that will work, I think! Right? There. That's decided.

But, January wasn't a total loss! Oh no. There is always a silver lining on my clouds, a pot of gold at the end of my rainbow, a bee in my bonnet....wait, that's not good! Anyhoo.

Isabel

Lost another tooth! Yes, she did!

If she keeps this up, I'll have to purée her dinner!

Not that I'm complaining.

The boys on the other hand, have quit losing teeth and now the dentist wants to pull them.
Goody!

Claire, who used to cry the minute we bowed our heads to pray, has started participating in prayer times. She says the GODISGREAT blessing at the dinner table and will often volunteer to pray aloud at devotion time. We usually pray at the beginning and end. This morning, Claire was busy rummaging in my closet for who knows what while her brother was leading one such prayer time. He respectfully asked the Lord to open our eyes, hearts and minds to what He would have us gather from our devotion and Bible study and then, from the depths of my closet abyss, Claire hollers out, "AND DON'T FORGET TO HELP US OBEY OUR PARENTS!"

That kid cracks me up!

This is her favorite outfit, y'all.

An OU shirt that Papa brought her back from....Oklahoma, of course.

She would wear this thing every day if I let her.

Every. Stinkin'. Day.

Not that I mind, that much.

But, every day?

This guy...

Came and tuned our piano. For the first time in 10 years! I didn't really notice that it needed tuning. That ought to tell you something. Hence the reason, I'm not teaching them to play....or sing....or do anything musical!

But, why would I when we have Sara to do that!

Sara = ♥

Claire is getting smarter by the minute. I'm serious. I can't keep up. She is reading now. She does all those three letter consonant-vowel-consonant words like cat, pat, mat, rat, fat.... I'm in love with Leap Frog. Leap Frog is just genius, I tell you. More on that later.

She soaks up every darned thing! I just put the months on her board this week!

The children were reciting the books of the Old Testament and every time a child paused to think of which book came next she would blurt out the book! The other kids just loved that! I don't think they thought she was even paying attention while they've been doing memory work.

Noah just yelled up from downstairs, "Mom, tell Parker to stop cheating!  He's using a gun in a blow dart fight!".  Okay, not something you hear everyday.  I love that my boys are still.....well, boys.  At 13 they still love a good Nerf gun war!   

There's a rumor going around that the kitchen is going to be finished very soon!  Of course, that could just be a rumor....