Strawberry Pickin'

Last week, we decided to make our school lessons strawberry-related since we decided (sort of last minute) to go to Sweetberry Farms to do some strawberry picking.  The kids really enjoyed all of the fun seatwork we found here: http://moneysavingmom.com/2014/04/free-strawberry-printable-pack.html.

The fun lesson pack was geared towards kindergarten/first grade, but I was able to adapt it for Abbey as well.

There were so many fun activities, like this "color by sight-word" coloring page.

And it seems we can always find a way to bring legos into our schooling.  One morning last week, we used Lego figures for our mathwork. 

On Thursday, we made the beautiful drive to the farm to pick the strawberries.  I was in awe of the beauty of the spring landscape all along the way.   I saw so many beautiful wildflowers and scenery; and honestly, if the kids were not with me, I would have stopped many times to take pictures of the beauty so I could share with Drew.  It truly was breathtaking!  

We had a lot of fun at the strawberry farm picking strawberries.  Here are some of the photos of our little adventure.

 

there were plenty of strawberries to pick!

trying to decide on the best ones to pick...

Look at that concentration!

She looks pretty proud of her find, doesn't she?

Another big juicy strawberry!

It took quite the planning to find the perfect row, because on each end of most rows was a ton of mud.  I finally found a great row and a way to maneuver around the very deep mud that was at the end of it.  We worked our way to the middle of the row and began picking. A few minutes later, I decided to step over the row we were on to the next row.  I brought Abbey along with me.  I figured that way we could cover more area and get the best strawberries in the middle (and dry area) of both rows.  We were picking strawberries for about a minute in that new row and I looked up suddenly to find Luke at the end of our row stuck in mud.  Both feet were almost entirely covered in mud.  I guess he heard Abbey and I's "oooooo's" and "ahhhh's" over the beauties we were finding on our row and he felt he was missing out.   He must have gone back down the original row we entered rapidly and tried to trek up the very muddy entry of the row we were on at lightning speed, because we weren't on that row long at all before we saw him stuck.  I literally had to pull him out of the mud, because he couldn't move his feet. 

Only the very tops of his white shoes were untouched by the mud.  Oh, boys!

Muddy hands and strawberries

She looks up to her big brother.  It looks like she is trying to copy him in this picture.  :-)

Abbey was really distracted during the strawberry picking because she kept hearing the goats.  She was excited to see them.  So, we picked quickly and then went over to visit them.  Poor goats.  Luke and Abbey were afraid to get too close with the grass they picked (in hopes to feed them).  This was as close as Luke got.  :-)  He threw the blades of grass at the goat, hoping one might land in its mouth.  Ha!

He has a pitiful, "feed me" look.

And, of course, we had to finish our trip with some jumping on the big bouncy pillow.

Abbey had to take a little rest and check out other people.

A Nature Walk--Homeschooling adventures

Homeschooling is so much fun.  I definitely didn't think I would be saying that a few years ago, but now I realize it truly can be play.  Learning doesn't have to be so structured and strict (and boring).  And, as I mentioned in a previous post, my teaching style has morphed into something totally different than it was at the beginning of our homeschooling adventure.  When I first began, I had a curriculum all ready to go and would pull all of the days lessons each morning.  It was very structured and Luke really was learning a lot.  But, I have to admit, although there were a lot of fun games, I found it to be a bit boring and repetitive at times.   With our move, our homeschooling really became more relaxed.   Besides just being super busy, I think another reason for the relaxed nature of our homeschooling now is that I am more experienced and am starting to really understand how both of our kids learn.   As I have relaxed and become more comfortable, so has our schooling.  And, I imagine our "curriculum" will continue to get tweaked as we go along and figure out learning styles and my teaching style.

Today we started a "strawberry-related" unit study in preparation for a field trip we plan on taking to a farm to pick strawberries.

Luke and Abbey both did some pattern games and some math.   Then, Luke worked on a word search on strawberry-related words and did a "color-by-sight word" picture(instead of "color by number"), while Abbey painted a strawberry patch.

After we did this "seatwork" we decided it was just too nice to stay inside for any longer!   We spent the entire rest of the day outside.   When i first began homeschooling, I used to say to Luke when it was time to begin our schoolwork for the day, "Ok, let's do some school."  I've learned that I do not have to use that word any longer.  Now, he often doesn't even realize we are doing "school."  For example, when we were doing our seatwork, I told the kids we were going to do some fun things to get ready for our trip to the berry farm.   Then, when we were finished with that work, I told them it was time to go on a fun nature walk.  Of course, there were many learning opportunities along the way, so it was a great learning adventure for both of them.

We decided to try to see how many different varieties of flowers we could find.  We are nearing the end of the wildflower season here, but I knew there would still be a few stragglers.    I let Luke and Abbey take a picture of the flowers with my phone camera when they spotted them.   They did a really good job!

I also had Luke keep a tally sheet of all the flowers we found, so that he could learn about using tallies for counting.

Luke and Abbey decided they wanted to bring a little wagon and a storage container in case they found any treasures they wanted to bring back.

making the trek through our backyard over to the trail along the creek.  

Abbey found a treasure right away.  (I love her chubby wrists and her hello kitty tattoo!)

It wasn't long before we found more treasures.   They found the motherload of pecans and wanted to bring some back for daddy to eat later.   We counted them.

We also found several Mulberry trees with tons of ripe fruit, which I was super-excited about.

Between collecting the pecans and mulberries, we felt like true foragers.  The only way to harvest mulberries is to collect the fruit off of the ground.  If you have one in your yard, you can put a tarp down and then shake the tree.  The ripe fruit then falls on the tarp.  We didn't have a tarp, but I shook the tree a bit and we collected some mulberries from the ground.  They were so yummy!  Luke says he has a new favorite fruit!

They were all over the ground!

This trail is just so lovely. A bonus is there are many benches and picnic tables along the way.  We made use of this one to eat our oranges that we brought as a snack.

Luke found a snail shell, which was his favorite treasure of the day.  We have found a ton of these over the past month.

spotting more treasures

It was such a beautiful day!   The sounds of birds singing glorious songs, the running creek and waterfalls even made it more magnificent.

As we were walking along on our hike, we talked about how awesome God is to create each of these special things.  We saw so many different bugs, plants, trees, flowers, grasses, birds, etc.!  We talked about how God created each individual thing specifically for a purpose.  Luke said, "God is pretty cool. I like God!"  I replied, "He's pretty awesome, isn't He, Luke?"  Abbey exclaimed, "Yeah!"  I asked Luke and Abbey about their favorite treasures from the hike. Here were their responses:

Luke:  "The snail shell"      Abbey:  "The pecans"    And my personal favorite treasure was all the mulberries.  I was like a giddy little kid over those!

By the time we got back, it was time for dinner.  With the weather being so absolutely perfect, of course we had dinner outside in our backyard.  The picnic table was calling for us to sit at it to enjoy our meal as we passed by it with our treasures.

Thankfully, we had plenty of leftovers from last night's meal, so it didn't take too long to prepare.

After dinner, Luke wasn't ready to go inside.  In fact, he pretty much stays outside all day (when we are home) since we moved.   I love it!  I'm so glad God gave us this fun place where he can stay outside all day and play and explore.  We are all enjoying the space so much.

There are so many things I love about homeschooling.   As you see, we were able to cover reading, science, math, Bible truths, and so much more in our afternoon.  And, I don't even know if the kids realized the whole time they were actually being "schooled."  I am so thankful that God has called me to this homeschooling adventure, and is equipping me and enabling me each day to do so.

Health Update

I have had quite a few people ask me lately how my health has been, so I thought perhaps it was a good time for a blog post on the topic.  I think the last time I posted about my cancer treatment, it was in January and I had just seen my oncologist.  She wasn't too keen on my canceling of my ovary removal surgery that was scheduled for December 2014.  She asked me to reconsider treatment involving suppressing or removing my ovaries and then wanted me to come back to see her in 6 weeks (in mid February).   But, between those two appointments I received a billing statement in the mail from the oncologist office for that short visit that I had in January.  Whoa!  We are on a high deductible plan again this year and oh my goodness those appointments are expensive. Because I had no change in peace of mind about changing my treatment plan, I cancelled my appointment.  I figured there was no sense in bringing both kids with me, waiting for a while to see the doc, and then paying a ton of money just to hear the same thing I heard last appointment (especially since I had no change in desire to get that new treatment).  In the meantime, a 6-month follow up with my radiation oncologist came up as well.   Cancelled that.   I am not even sure if I am on an every 3 month appointment schedule still with my oncologist or if it changed to every 6 months.   However, my oncologist isn't scheduling any more imaging studies on me anyway unless I have specific issues.  

I'll be honest--since cancer, I constantly have little "specific issues."   Most seem to be treatment-related, and I know if I mention the issues to my oncologist, the solution is usually to scan me to rule out cancer returning.   For example, I actually have been having some pretty severe knee pain for the past 2-3 months.  It hurts if it is touched by anything.  I am pretty sure i just whacked my kneecap with a large dumbbell during bootcamp and it is struggling to heal.  But, I am concerned that if I mention it to my oncologist, I will be getting a CT scan tomorrow.  CT scans are expensive, folks!  Also, I don't want to accumulate any more radiation in my body than necessary.  So, instead I just wait for it to heal.   I am getting much better about not constantly thinking about every little pain and wondering if it cancer returning.  I am getting much better at resting in the Lord's sovereignty and trusting Him to take care of me.   If I feel the Lord's prompting to get it checked out, I definitely will.  But, I really want to be normal.   If I hadn't had cancer, I probably would just wait a long while for this knee to heal on its own before I ran into the doctor's office.  I don't want to run to the doctor for every little pain or issue.  My body just doesn't heal as quickly as it did before. It took quite a beating from the toxic chemotherapy and radiation.

Current treatment: my current treatment still involves taking Tamoxifen daily. I also take vitamin d (5,000 i.u.), vitamin C, and DIM.   There is actually a current evaluating the efficacy of supplementing with DIM (diindolymethane) and taking Tamoxifen simultaneously:       http://crcphp.arizona.edu/research/research-projects/evaluation-diindolylmethane-supplementation-modulate-tamoxifen-efficacy.  I am trying to go as "natural" as possible in my ongoing recurrence prevention.  But, Tamoxifen definitely isn't natural and is actually quite toxic.  It is beginning to negatively affect my vision again, so I may need to make some decisions soon about changing treatment.  According to most oncologists, due to my tumor size, staging and the aggressive nature of my original cancer, I am in the high risk category for cancer recurrence.   So, according to most doctors, I should be on a drug (Tamoxifen or Aromatase Inhibitor + ovary suppression) for at least 10 years post diagnosis to prevent recurrence.

God is teaching me so much through all this.  I have learned to take life day by day---all the while being thankful for each day He has gifted me.  And, I am still praying for complete healing!  I am so reliant on prayer.

My Favorite Spaces (post #1)

This is my first post in a new series titled, "My Favorite Spaces."  The space that gets its own first post happens to be a space at our new home.

When we bought this home, we fell in love with numerous spaces outside.  As soon as we looked at the home, I began dreaming of all the fun things we could do with family and friends in these spaces.  The first space I imagined spending lots of quality time is right here:

See the mulched area between the two large live oak trees?

It is tough to see in this photo, but those trees are expansive.  They provide a beautiful blanket of shade for the back of the home.  This photo was taken at the beginning of the live oak leaf drop, so the leaves were not nearly as thick as they now are.  I imagined (immediately upon seeing the home) placing a large table there in between the two oaks where we could enjoy many meals together as a family, and with friends.

That dream became a reality this week and we enjoyed our first meal together last night night in the space as a family.

The table is 8 ft long, so it can accommodate a lot of people.  We are so excited to be able to share fun meals with others in our community. 

Below are some photos of our little family breaking in our table.

I picked up a couple of strands of solar powered led lights from Ikea last week and hung them between the two large oaks.  Ikea also sells these fun covers for the lights (the green and white balls).  To our surprise, the lights work very well and stay on the entire night!  Thankfully, they have an off switch as well. 

the first of many colorful meals at our new favorite table and space!

What a gorgeous evening to spend out there together.  I believe spending mealtime together at the table regularly as a family is so important.  It goes beyond the fact that we are getting nourished physically.  Sharing a meal together also nurtures us emotionally, spiritually and knits us tighter together.  And our evening meal is a great time to recap what happened in our day, try to find out a little about Drew's day at work (ha--he doesn't elaborate much), and to talk about what is going on the world.  We even use the time to teach the kids various lessons.  After all, teaching happens all day long with them (Deuteronomy 6:5-7 says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.")  Also, during mealtime, Luke and Abbey have our full attention.   This is important because they haven't seen daddy all day, and there are many times throughout the day where I cannot give them my full attention (chores have to get done and they cannot yet help with all of them).  I believe kids who get that quality time at the table each night with their family are less likely to act out or behave poorly (in order to get attention) during the day.   Miriam Weinstein, author of The Surprising Power of Family Meals, reflects that "family supper is important because it gives children reliable access to their parents. It provides anchoring for everyone's day. It emphasizes the importance of the family."  Also, as the kids learn table manners (such as saying "please" and "thank you"), they learn to share and think of others.   Really, the benefits of sharing a family meal together daily are endless.  But, don't just believe me; you can google hundreds of articles on the subject from folks who have done extensive research.  I also think it is important to invite others over for meals, as it is a wonderful way to build community and show love.  Now that I am moving further beyond cancer treatment and we are getting settled into our new home, I am excited to do that more frequently!  And, I am excited to have some fun space to do that, as it just makes it even more enjoyable!

So there you have it--one of my favorite spaces!  I'm looking forward to sharing many meals with friends and family here.   

Our Easter 2015

Our Easter last weekend was pretty simple, yet memorable.  It was the first Easter in FOREVER that was actually spent at our own home.  We normally spend Easter celebrating with lots of family away from our home, but this Easter it was just spent with our own little family.  I didn't miss the traveling at all, but we did miss celebrating with lots of other family.  And although we missed celebrating with lots of family, we also had a lot of fun just being home.

We started the resurrection day off with a celebration at church on Sunday morning.  It was an awesome sermon delivered by our church's founding Pastor, Matt Carter.  The title of the sermon is "saving vs intellectual belief".  ("If Christ did not rise from the dead, then why worry about anything he said.  But if Christ did rise from the dead, then you must accept everything he said." -Tim Keller)  If interested, you can watch it by clicking here.

Drew snapped a photo of the kids and I after church.  Abbey has that face because she says she is "scared to take a picture."  She is certainly our little actress.  Luke is pretty excited about the balloon.

Then, we came home and made brunch together as a family.  Eggs were included and we talked about how true Easter eggs are empty, which symbolize that we have new life in Jesus as he left the tomb empty.  We also even made a "He is Risen" cake and enjoyed that later on Easter night.

Now, I probably should post a disclaimer before I proceed about the Easter bunny:  he/she doesn't come to our house.  I know some people who read this probably think that is just about the worst thing ever that we don't pretend that a big furry Easter bunny doesn't come bouncing into our home bringing Easter baskets full of tons of surprises.   But, doesn't that sound just a little bit creepy?  I certainly don't judge though as each family has their own personal ways to celebrate.   I know that I remember being told that the Easter bunny delivered my Easter basket full of goodies on Easter Sunday when I was little.  I also remember thinking that it was so far fetched though.  However, Drew and I did hide the kids' Easter baskets on Sunday morning, and they had to search for it to find a small little surprise in each of their baskets.  The kids know the Easter surprises were from us, in celebration of the resurrection of our Savior.  We used those same Easter baskets for our little Easter egg hunt outside after brunch.       

Luke got a stomp rocket in his basket.  Both he and Abbey have had hours of fun with that toy!

It had rained a little earlier that morning, so we used a tarp to cover the wet grass.  Here the rocket is ready to launch.

The kids and Drew played with the rockets while I hid the eggs in the front yard.  Then, it was hunting time.  Drew posted a few videos to youtube.  If you are interested in the videos, you can head over to his youtube channel and check them out.  Just click here. 

Here is precious Abbey putting her first egg in her basket.

The paces and strategies that Luke and Abbey used on their hunts were vastly different.  It was fun to watch.  If you know Luke and Abbey you probably can guess how they hunted.  Luke was very quick and was all over the place.  Whereas, Abbey moved more slowly and more methodically, planning out her moves efficiently. 

In the end, Luke found just slightly more eggs than she found.

spotted an egg.....literally running out of his pants.  This kid eats so much yet his pants never stay up. 

more careful egg-hunting

although she moved a lot slower than Luke, she really was finding a lot.  Perhaps she needs a larger basket next year.

Luke found the most special egg though.  This was the empty egg.  It symbolized the empty tomb Jesus left when He arose. So, we had a special prize attached with that egg, since that was the best gift we could ever receive--a resurrected Savior!

Abbey was celebrating something-ha!

Counting eggs

sweet sibling love

Once Easter was over....we were back to all of our "moving in" projects on Monday.  The list is so long, but we are also chomping away at it a little bit each day.  We really have gotten a lot done and are so thankful that the Lord has helped us all along the way so that it hasn't been too overwhelming.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter celebrating our risen Savior, as we did!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone!

This is the first Easter in a long time that we are not among lots of family.  With the recent move and TONS of stuff going on here on our "to do" list, we just couldn't make it out of town for the weekend.  But, we have also really enjoyed just being home and starting some traditions for our little family.

Abbey has a little "Happy Easter" wish for you in this short video below (or click here) 





Also, I know I have mentioned BSF before, but I really cannot say enough good things about it!  Not only do I love the deep Bible Study, but they have an amazing children's program (from infants all the way up through High School).  Luke and Abbey are already having "quiet time" and have learned so much.  In fact, even Abbey has learned to share the gospel!  She learned this at age 2!  And, here she is at just 3 years old telling the gospel in this video: https://youtu.be/RVfL5fZ_6T0.



We don't want our Easter to be focused too much on candy, presents, and Easter egg hunts. While those things are fun and there really is absolutely nothing wrong with them, I really want the kids to understand and take time remembering Jesus' death (which was a sacrifice for our sins), His burial and His resurrection. Inadvertently, we did not attend a single "egg hunt" this year. In fact, we didn't even dye Easter eggs. It really wasn't intentional--believe me I really wanted to do these things and even had them "planned." But, time got away from us. And, I am actually not sad about not being able to do these things this year. I really feel by not doing them, we have been able to focus on the reason we celebrate the Easter Holiday. This Easter Sunday, we are planning to start our day by going to church. Then, we are going to have a simple lunch at home where as we tell the kids the story of Jesus death, burial and resurrection again. And, we even have a little gift for the kids--but we will remind them that the gift of Jesus is the best gift anyone could ever receive. We will also hunt some plastic eggs that we have at home on Easter afternoon. I want to teach the kids that an egg means new life. It reminds us that there is a new life inside that can come out (just like little chicks). We celebrate Easter because that is the day that Jesus came out of the grave, ALIVE! An empty egg is a reminder of that. Just as Abbey said in the first video above. "He is not here. For He is risen as he said!" (Matthew 28:6).  Don't worry--we will hide some eggs with some fun surprises inside also.  I hope it will be a fun and memorable day for the kids and they will move forward from it knowing even more about the importance of Jesus in our lives.   I will be sure to take lots of pictures and you know I will be back with a post to document!

 Happy Easter everyone!