Milestones

Last night proved to be bittersweet as it marked the last time all three of my girls would sing together in a children's musical at our church.

Cayli, a rising 6th grader, moves up to the youth group in two weeks. Of course the twins have another year before they join her, so we get to participate in next year's musical. It will just be different without the trio singing together. Cayli, however, is excited to become part of the backstage crew that will help with costuming and props. That's been the role I've played for the past few years, so next year she'll be my right hand gal as we help put together the stage--together!

Priority #1: Not Blogging

Last night as I lay pondering the finer events of our day, I realized that I need to return to blogging. Honestly I have no time to blog but my family needs this blog as a record of their homeschooling years. So I resolved not to let our busy-ness interfere with the memories this blog provides.

Without this record of events, we would possibly forget all the cute things Micah says:
Hanitizer = hand sanitizer

Christmas Cream = Krispy Kreme
With the red and green logo who can blame him? And it's a place we hardly ever visit because the their coffee is bad and their doughnuts are too sweet...but I surprised the kids with these treats for their last day of school!

And when he can't find Nap Nap, his trusty blanky, he reassures himself with the thought that Nap Nap has gone down the road to the Farmer's Market. Which then cause us to question:
How do we keeping losing Nap Nap? It's over 5ft long! And...
Why does it keep going to the Farmer's Market when we've never been their ourselves?

In this busy season of life blogging isn't necessarily tops on my daily priority lists, but making and keeping memories is. Maybe you can join us as we make our memories!

Farewell 2010

In 2010 I wasn't an avid blogger, mainly because I had other things to keep the kids and myself hopping. Our favorites:

In May I found a new calling in life: teaching violin. I've always loved music and played the violin through college. I was a closet musician for the past 15 years and only dusted it off to play for my kids or teach them how to play themselves. I'm still very shy about playing in public, but I'm delighted to play with my students!


The twins donated 10" of their hair.
Kenna:


Mabry:


Cute:


My little twirler preformed in the children's talent show at church during the fall festival. She twirled to "Surfing USA" and made her own hula skirt from plastic table coverings.



Mabry and Kenna decided not to twirl since they wanted to sing "Sisters" from White Christmas. You would have thought that this song was written just for them.


Micah became our first child to visit the urgent care needed staples after falling from the kitchen table. (Sorry no ER pictures...a little to much blood. But enjoy a cute one from his first time with the preschool choir.)


The girls started harp lessons.


We, along with some great friends, made pillowcase dresses for girls in Botswana.


We've taken our music on the road to play and sing for our church's homebound members. Here are the girls with Mrs. Mary Rogerson, a sweet, sweet lady!


We discovered delicious and flavorful loose leaf Amanzi Tea. Strawberry Magic is my favorite and so is Citrus Splash. (Raspberry Vanilla is good, too, as well as Winter Romance.) This is my favorite pot, but I also like this one too. I've significantly cut my coffee consumption. Haven't quite given up Dr Pepper, though.


Our new favorite handicrat: hand embroidery. Still love and prefer my quilling, but have found embroidery is a great car craft for when I'm waiting on the girls to finish harp lessons. I made this for Matthew for Christmas, featuring the kids' handprints and Psalm 40:5:


Here's what Cayli embroidered for my mom for Christmas:


The girls and I have lots planned for 2011 from pursuing musical abilities to perfecting more crafts to ministering to others with our talents.

Micah's goal is simple: to find out how many licks it take to get to the center of, not just one tootsie pop, but two...


Happy New Year!

Perfect Harmony

to listen to these two practice together:

Mabry and Kenna have only been playing their instruments for a few weeks (thanks to some of our church's most talented musicians), and they are loving playing together.

This was even an unprompted practice session since they took the initiative to play together.

I always knew this day would come. They were born with some musical talent!

Botswana Bound

The dresses--not the girls (though we'd love to go to Botswana!).

Two years ago, Kenna decided that she was destined to live in Botswana after reading an article in a National Geographic. Since she has been very persistent in her Botswana pursuit, I learned as much as I could about the country.

Botswana is the country right above South Africa. Diamonds are actively mined there. If you're into safari photography, Botswana doesn't disappoint. Sadly, the average life expectancy is 35 years as AIDS takes many lives.

So, for our family, Botswana became more a prayer project than a fascinating place filled with exotic cheetahs and expensive stones.

Still we really didn't know what to do. Until 2 months ago, when a lady from our church gave my girls some black yarn and asked if they would like to make hair for rag dolls that are sent all over the world to missionaries working with children.

The coordinator of the doll project called me and humbly asked if they could make 50 pieces of hair for a missionary in Botswana.

Botswana? Seriously? I was totally surprised. Of all the countries she was sending dolls to, Botswana topped the list. I told her how we loved the country, though we have no ties to it.

So my girls have been busy making hair to go on the rag dolls that the ladies sew and clothe.

Then two weeks ago, the coordinator called me and asked if I had ever heard of a pillowcase dress. Honestly I'd known about them for a long time, but only recently did I make one. A group of women from our church had purposed making these dresses for the Botswana children, as the children there only have their ragged school uniforms to wear.

I'm all for sewing for kids, so yesterday I made these for my girls to wear to model for our church as the pastor talked about this new ministry at the church.

We'll be donating the dresses the girls wore and the matching doll dresses that Cayli sewed to the Botswana project.

We feel very blessed to be a part of this project. I'm in awe of how a young girl's fascination for a foreign country has brought about an incredible opportunity for my family!