Living In Freedom: Our Week...Busy!!!

Friday, June 15, 2012

Our Week...Busy!!!

Whew, what a whirlwind of a week! Late Sunday night we said goodbye to my older son, as his plane left out WAY EARLY on Monday morning. It is always hard to say goodbye, but it's something that we've gotten used to as an Army family. Still, it's much easier this time since he is now back in the states (well, sort of) and NOT headed back to the Middle East. And, pretty soon, his new wife will join him so they can start their "real life" together as a married couple. So exciting!
There was a lot going on at our house this week, as you'll see in the pics below. But, I'm not complaining. Staying busy is a good thing sometimes. Still, though, we managed to find plenty of time to relax and enjoy being a family. As usual, there have been ups and downs, and highs and lows, but it's been a pretty nice week for us. One of the highs for me personally was when Doodles and Bug planned & prepared dinner one night. It took a load off me...thanks, guys! We are still working on our "regular school stuff," but we are also chasing a few interest-led rabbit trails, as you'll see below.
I finished reading The Connected Family and am currently reading Siblings Without Rivalry. Wow, both books have been so helpful to me! I highly recommend each of them. Next on my reading list is How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk. We sat down as a family and wrote down things we'd like to do together, and now we are working on putting everything on the calendar. If you want to make sure it happens, then schedule it! Tonight we are having a "Girls' Night" and a "Boys' Night," per our kids' request. You will see the activities they chose for tonight in the pics below. Usually we do things all together as a family, but every once in a while we separate for more one-on-one time, which is really nice.
Doodles officially moved into her older brother's room since he is now married and no longer lives here. And, boy, can that girl clean and organize when it benefits her! Of course there is still a ton of stuff piled in my entryway as we continue to sort through everything that she cleaned out of the room. That is our task for this weekend...what fun! (sarcasm here...LOL) Also, Doodles did her typical school stuff this week, but now she is also doing an interest-led Twilight unit study. We got the idea here: Twilight Unit Study. We are HUGE Twilight fans around here-both the books and movies--and literally have a countdown for when Breaking Dawn Part 2 hits theaters!
Bug continued with his interest in volcanoes, so we took a "detour" from his usual work on Friday afternoon and focused on volcanoes. You will see a few things we did in the pics below. Also, he got to make both craft dough and yeast rolls as part of his Sonlight science this week, which was awesome! I got in on the action, too. There is something quite peaceful about kneading dough. :)
And, we had a MAJOR victory with Baby Girl this week! Several times a day, every day this week, I read Goodnight Moon to her. Then, today, she picked it up from the coffee table, brought it to me, and said, "Doodnight Moon." Yes!!! This is the first time she has truly connected with a book. She LOVES this book, and so do I! Thank you, Lord, for this blessing.