More soccer...

We are really enjoying this spring soccer season. It is well organized and manageable (in terms of time) and we can see Jeremiah enjoying himself and building his skills. He continues to really enjoy playing defense positions and on Tuesday night got to be goalie again! (This league doesn't usually play with goalies, so he had been taking a break from that.) On Saturday morning he got to play more offense than he usually does and he scored a goal! We can really tell that he is understanding the strategy and mechanics of the game - passing, blocking, being in position, directing team mates. It is very fun to watch.

We have designated May as a media free month in our house as part of a project/fast that I am doing with a group of women from church. We plan to fill the month with school work, house work, hanging out with friends, and spending more quality time with each other. I may pop in here every now and then to post but we are giving up Facebook, reading blogs, watching Netflix etc. So if you need to contact me in May the phone or email are your best bets. Or a smoke signal may work too. Ha ha.

Meeting Lieke!

Oma and Opa along with Aunt Ramona and Lieke came for a visit last week! It was so much fun to have them here. We enjoyed some beautiful spring weather, treats, walks, and lots of snuggles. I didn't take a single picture, so these are all stolen from Ramona's Facebook page.

 

The boys loved to entertain Lieke and she seemed to enjoy the attention. They sang her little songs and made funny faces and generally tried to keep her smiling. They are wild and crazy boys but they can also be sweet and gentle.

 

We got some fun girls time in, which is a nice treat.

 below: A nice evening walk after some icecream at Sonic.

outside

We have been spending lots of time out of doors lately. We are still about 2 weeks "behind" in our Core curriculum and I wanted to catch up a bit last week but I just couldn't bear being stuck inside. So I decided to move all our stuff outside and we had 2 beautiful mornings of doing our work out on the deck!
There is a place near our house where for a short time in the spring the wildflowers bloom prolifically. I hate to miss the flowers so one afternoon we headed out for an after-nap hike. We met friends and then enjoyed some great pizza together. It was a gorgeous evening.
We are gearing up for a visit from oma and opa this week. And along with them Ramona and her new baby Lieke! We are so excited to see them all and to finally get to meet the newest and first Viss cousin!

nature center

 

I purchased a family membership to the Chattanooga Arboretum & Nature Center for my niece and nephew for Christmas. Since it was such a great deal via Groupon I went ahead and got one for us too. It is going to be a beautiful place for us to explore and enjoy!

Spring soccer

 

We have participated in fall soccer for 4 years now. This year we are trying out a spring soccer program in a community about 15 minutes north of us. The program is run through the YMCA and although there have been some surprises we have been generally impressed with the organization of this program. Just Jeremiah is playing this year and Aaron was asked to coach again.We enjoy being out in the fresh air, meeting new people, hanging out with old friends, and getting some exercise.

is there such a thing as too many lego's?

 

Thanks to Craigslist we are the proud owners of a 17 gallon storage bin full of Lego's. Probably about 30lbs worth. Yikes. The only way I can justify this is the hope that all these Lego's will provide hours and hours of stimulating play. Right?

He is risen!

We were eagerly anticipating our Easter tradition of having lunch at Mrs. Linda's house and smashing confetti eggs. But yesterday Jeremiah spiked a fever and was diagnosed with the flu. On this Resurrection Morning Nathaniel and I slipped into church and celebrated Christ's victory over death. We tried to keep our distance from people as much as possible in case we are contagious. This year especially I feel such joy at knowing that the price for my sin has been paid and I am free to live in the joy and victory of Christ's resurrection. After the service everyone was given a white balloon. We stood in the parking lot as Pastor Travis proclaimed, "Christ is risen!" and we let the balloons fly. Yes, he is indeed! I saw those balloons drift off and felt part of my heart let go of the guilt and shame I have carried lately. It was a bit disappointing to not head off to Mrs. Linda's but we came home and made a delicious pot of chicken noodle soup. We have taken restful naps and are going to spend the evening snuggled on the couch watching movies.

Tomorrow I will have surgery to have my gallbladder removed. We are praying that Jeremiah's germs don't spread and everyone else in the house stays healthy. Aaron is home all week on spring break.

*The balloons and strings were all biodegradable. Smile.

just for fun - new hair

I hate taking pictures of myself and I hate seeing pictures of myself. But, I got a haircut today and I am going to post the pictures. Just for fun. And because I have been reading blog posts about embracing who we are. Being comfortable in the skin we are in. Not hiding behind the camera. So this is me.
My hair has been long ever since an ill-fated (short) haircut when Nathaniel was a baby. I like long, but recently felt like it was weighing my face down. And it always ended up in a ponytail. So this time I went for a straight, shoulder length bob, hoping it would feel fresher and lighter. My "stylist" thought that I should let my bangs grow out. I am not so sure about that, I like to keep my forehead covered.

Resurrection Garden

 

 

 For a number of years now I have been wanting to use a Resurrection Garden to help us walk through the two weeks before Easter in a more intentional way. This year I put it on high priority. This morning after soccer practice we headed to Home Depot and got our supplies. We had a friend with us who helped us. The boys got really excited about it and enthusiastically ran around the yard gathering the appropriate sticks and rocks. When it was time to take their picture they said, "How about instead of saying 'cheese!' we say 'GRACE!'"
This was s simple and fun project and like our Jesse Tree at Christmas time I hope this will be a visual reminder that will help us focus our hearts as we contemplate the sacrifice and victory of our Savior.
(I patterned our Resurrection Garden off of the one that Ann Voskamp shows in her blog A Holy Experience. We will also put the stone in front of the tomb on Good Friday and I bought a pretty butterfly to put in place on Easter morning.)

somehow we are still learning

This is our 3rd year of officially home schooling. As I gain confidence and see how well home schooling is working for us I have been much more relaxed and less worried about sticking to an exact schedule, or even to our curriculum. We are still disciplined in getting work done, but in a much more flexible and fluid way. Especially recently, when I haven't been feeling well and my energy is really low, we have had to prioritize what gets done in a formal, sit-down way and what can be learned in more relaxed and independent ways.

For example, our Sonlight curriculum comes with a Language Arts program for Jeremiah. However, with my energy so low I have chosen for us to not worry about whether or not we complete that program this year. That doesn't mean that we aren't doing Language Arts at all. Jeremiah reads voraciously (about 2hrs a day on average), still does copy work, and is enjoying using the Usborne Write Your Own Story book. After his birthday party I had him work on writing thank you letters.



Nathaniel has an August birthday so he is a strange stage. If we were choosing to send him to public school we would have held him back from Kindergarten until he was 6. So this year I took a very laid back approach to his schooling with the goal of focusing on learning to read and starting handwriting. I also ordered a Kindergarten math workbook from Horizons. At the beginning of this school year he was pretty easily distracted. We alternated math and reading days and even then he was reluctant to do our reading lessons. Recently he has all of the sudden shown more maturity and self-motivation in wanting to do his school work. He really enjoys math and as he progresses and gains more confidence he gets more excited. Reading and writing have continued to be a struggle with me trying various methods of holding his interest. Suddenly this week something is clicking and reading has become more interesting to him. Here is the page he did today - completely independently!






This encourages me that with the right environment kids do in fact learn when they are ready. Even though the past few months our home schooling has be much less structured than usual there is still a whole bunch of learning going on here!