But What Will Happen to Jesus?

Last week, my dad went to the hospital for an in and out procedure and decided to take up residence there...for a week. Well, it wasn't actually his decision. Obviously, no one wants to stay in the hospital for a week. While Daddy was being monitored after the procedure, the doctor discovered his blood pressure was extremely high. He made him stay until they could get it under control. As they continued to monitor blood pressure and heart rate, it was decided that Daddy needed a pacemaker.

The day he was to get the pacemaker, Jacob and I called Papa to see how things were going. While we were on the phone, a nurse came in to say they were going to take him back for surgery earlier than expected. When we hung up, Jacob looked a little confused.

Jacob: What were they doing to Papa?

Me: Well, the nurses are getting him ready for a little surgery. The doctor is going to put something in his heart to make his heart beat better.

Jacob: You mean....like a little ouchy?

Me: Yes, it will probably be a little ouchy.

Jacob: (pause) Well....Jesus is in there. What will happen to Jesus if they stick an ouchy in his heart?

Me: Oh, Jesus will be fine. Jesus will make the ouchy all better.

Ahhhh.....the mind of a child. :)

Jacob continues to amaze me with his ability to memorize. So far, he has memorized Ephesians 6:1-5. Each week, he learns a new verse. The goal is to memorize verses 1-24 by the end of the school year.

Since he's been doing so well in school, Jacob got a surprise on Friday. We bought him the new Imagination Movers CD, autographed by the Movers. He was ecstatic. We've been listening to that CD nonstop for three days. Fortunately, I like it too. :) New Imagination Movers music means dance parties...and lots of them.

While his little sister likes to play in toilets, Jacob likes to draw them. He was very proud of his magnadoodle toilet drawing. Wow. Now, that's art.

It's Not a Black Eye. It's a Beauty Mark.

She plays hard. She plays rough. She gets dirty. She falls down -- just another day in the life of our sweet little Annabelle. Last weekend, she fell face first into a coffee table and her cheek instantly turned purple. "Well, she may have a bruised cheek, but at least she doesn't have a black eye," I thought. So much for that. By Tuesday morning, the bruise on the side of her face had crept up to her eye, giving her a splendid shiner. She didn't mind. Actually, given her personality, she was probably quite proud. Her first black eye. For some reason, I'm thinking this won't be the last. I think from here on out, I'll just refer to them as Annabelle's beauty marks. It's been a week now and we've watched the bruise under her eye slowly fade from black to purple to gray to yellow. Another couple days and this little beauty mark should be gone.

This picture was taken Monday morning, before her eye got bad. It was just starting to turn purple. I should have taken a picture of her Tuesday morning, but didn't think of it.

Her hair is finally long enough for pigtails and this makes me very happy. They are just so cute! So what if they look like little plants sprouting from the sides of her head. I think they are adorable! Besides, they draw attention away from her black eye. :)

Did you catch the concert going on in the background? Jacob was giving a piano concert while Annabelle played. He had been on the piano for quite a while before he finally ended with, "Thank you. Goodnight!"

I had nursery duty last Tuesday morning during Jacob's Classical Conversations class. Jacob did just fine without me being in the classroom with him. I understand his presentation went very well. The topic was "a favorite joke." I asked Jacob what joke he wanted to tell for his presentation. This is what he chose:

Knock knock. Who's there? Cargo. Cargo who? Car go BEEP BEEP!!

He said none of the kids laughed, but all the mommies did. Well, at least someone got it. :)

Now, back to my original story....nursery duty. There were 13 children in the nursery, ranging from 16 months to three years old. Whoa. Talk about exhausting. For three hours, all I did was wipe runny noses, change dirty diapers and try to keep my own child from playing in the toilet. No, I wasn't the sole caretaker. The girl who usually stays in the nursery was out that day, so one of the dads helped out. Thank goodness. I don't think I could have handled 13 kids on my own.

One of the little girls in the nursery is about the same age as Annabelle. In fact, I think they are only a couple weeks apart. Yet, they couldn't be more different. There was Annabelle (with the lovely beauty mark around her eye) splashing her hands around in the toilet and clogging it up with paper towels, while the other little girl sat quietly on the floor playing with a toy...the ENTIRE time. Later that afternoon, I told Heath about this to which he responded, "Hmmm...so it's NOT just her age. It IS possible to have calm, quiet children." Yes, I guess it is possible. Obviously, God had other plans for us. Hey, our children may be crazy (I mean that in a good way, of course), but they are so much fun and there is definitely NEVER a dull moment around our house. :)

Heath took the kids to the playground Saturday afternoon and when they walked in the house, Annabelle was a mess. Her hands were black and she had dirt all over her face. "Do you know why we came back?" Heath said, sounding a little exasperated. "Annabelle kept eating dirt. She was EATING dirt!" That's our Annabelle!

I can feel it. Fall is coming. We went outside to play this morning and I was pleasantly surprised. It was one of those perfect mornings when you'd like to stay outside forever -- lots of sunshine, deep blue skies with white puffy clouds, a comfortably warm temperature, a gentle breeze. Perfection.

One of Jacob's favorite books is Little Cloud by Eric Carle. Every time we go to the library, he asks for this book. Every. Time. He loves it. It is about a little cloud who changes his appearance in the sky to look like a rabbit, shark, trees, etc... This morning, the three of us (Jacob, Annabelle, and I) laid in the grass and looked up at the clouds. Jacob immediately said, "Hey! I see little cloud!" Then he proceeded to tell me what he thought the clouds looked like and this developed into a story about a flying dog and a mean guy chasing after the dog and later ended up with the three of us pretending to be pirates, sailing the high seas on a pirate ship. He even gave us each a new pirate name because "pirates do not have regular names." He has such a great imagination.

While Jacob continued his story (he was up and running around at this point), Annabelle laid beside me in the grass, gazing up into the sky with the funniest look on her face. I think she thought this was a silly idea. Before she joined me on the ground, she gave me one of those, "What in the world are you doing?" looks. The whole time she laid there, her expression never changed. It was the same look she gave me yesterday when she heard opera music.

During his Classical Conversations classes, Jacob's teacher plays classical music while the children work on drawing or whatever the art project is for the day. I do this at home, too. Yesterday, Jacob finished his project and we went into the kitchen for lunch. The music continued to play while we ate. Jacob ate and listened, calling out the different instruments as he heard them. Annabelle was much too focused on devouring her string cheese to be interested in the music...until....an opera song began to play.

The song was Flower Duet by Leo Delibes. The look on Annabelle's face was so funny, I was, very literally, doubled over with laughter. I had never seen her look more confused. She had never made that face before. As I laughed, Jacob said, "What kind of instrument is THAT?" I laughed even harder. My children obviously haven't had much exposure to the opera. Even now, when I think of Annabelle's face, I can't stop laughing. It was one of the funniest things she has done to date. I so wish I'd have had my camera in hand and ready to go at that moment. If only YOU could have seen her face!!

A couple weeks ago, my sister, JoBeth, visited us for a few days. It turned out to be a very busy week with school and church events, but somehow, we managed to carve out a little free time in our hectic schedule. We even went to the beach one morning. I must say, it was a very fun four days and we were all sad when JoBeth had to get back on the plane to head home. As JoBeth made her way through security, Jacob, Annabelle and I watched a couple airplanes take off from the runway. Jacob looked up at me and said, "Is Aunt JoBeth gonna BLAST off?????"

Here are a few pictures from JoBeth's visit. (Thank you, JoBeth, for remembering your camera when I didn't!!)

JoBeth stayed home with Annabelle while Jacob and I were at Classical Conversations. By the looks of these pictures, I'd say they had a fun morning. :)
Can't you just imagine what is being said in this pretend phone conversation? I think Annabelle is saying, "You've GOT to be kidding me...."
Mommy bought me a backpack. Can I go to shcool too?

It was a beautiful morning down by the river.....

Are You Smarter Than a Four Year Old?

It's Tuesday afternoon and all is quiet at our house. Annabelle is taking a much needed nap. Jacob is relaxing on the couch watching "Timmy Time" (a new Playhouse Disney show) after a busy morning at school. He should probably be napping along with his sister, but for now, rest time will have to suffice as he now believes "nap time is for babies."

Tuesdays are Classical Conversations school days. Jacob looks forward to Tuesdays, as do I. Annabelle seems to enjoy herself in the nursery, too. We are now four weeks into our homeschooling / Classical Conversations journey and I am happy to report, we are doing quite well. We've managed to get into somewhat of a routine. We don't have a definite schedule as far as time goes, but we do have a routine. That's a big accomplishment...for me. :)

These were his "first day of school" pictures (taken a couple weeks ago). We had actually begun homeschooling a week earlier, but this was the first day he attended his Classical Conversations class. He's such a big boy!

Jacob loves the Math-U-See program and begs to do math all the time. Hooked on Phonics is working out great. We're flying through the preschool material and will probably begin the kindergarten program next week. He's definitely ready. I guess I could have started with the kindergarten books, but the preschool materials have been a good review. Besides, Annabelle has learned a lot just from watching the videos. Jacob is already sounding out words and I'm confident he'll be reading in no time.

Classical Conversations has been an incredible experience so far. I've always heard that children have a much easier time learning and memorizing information than adults. This is no joke. It is absolutely astounding the amount of information Jacob has memorized in the past four weeks -- everything from great historical events, to science facts like the seven types of biomes, to fundamental concepts of english grammar. My four year old is now smarter than I am. He is an intellectual genius. ;) Just curious, do you know the eight parts of speech?

In case you didn't catch all the words, the eight parts of speech are: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections, prepositions, and adjectives. Pretty impressive, right?

Know anything about William the Conqueror? No? Jacob will enlighten you on the subject.

Again, in case you didn't pick up all the words....After the church split into Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox, William the Conqueror defeated King Harold of England in 1066 and started feudalism.

Classical Conversations classes always begin with presentations (a.k.a. Show and Tell). Jacob doesn't seem to mind speaking in front of a crowd. I didn't figure he would. Anyone who knows Jacob knows that he talks incessantly...to anyone. Today's presentation topic was "My Favorite Bible Verse." He did a great job. He did the presentation much the same way as he did here in this video. Check out these skills:

Last week's topic was "My Family." I let him use the ipod to show pictures of his family. Of course, he loved that. My favorite part of this show and tell was when he said, "....and today, I am going to introduce you to my family."

Besides school, Jacob also had an eventful night at church last Wednesday. He is now an Awana Cubbie and a member of the preschool choir. He was sooooo excited about going to preschool choir and even more excited about becoming a Cubbie. His Cubbie vest instantly became a prized posession and he refused to remove it from his body. He is, indeed, proud to be a Cubbie and announces his new status to anyone he sees.