Summer schedule

I've devised a schedule for summer, you know how much I like to have a schedule. :)

9:00 - Morning Devotional (song, scripture story or story from the Friend from me)

9:15 - Chores then play

10:30 - Snack (this had to be scheduled so that the girls would quit asking for a snack every 10 min all morning long.)

12:00 - Lunch

12:30 - School (The girls do several pages from various unfinished workbooks)

12:45 - SSR (Silent sustained reading) for at least 15 minutes

2:00 - Activity while Amelia naps (Emily did not think learning to make and making macaroni salad was an activity, but I beg to differ.)

Note: The schedule is flexible so don't panic (I had to add this because the girls are prone to panic if we don't follow it exactly to the minute.)

Mommy moments

We instigated "Mommy Moments" in our house for additional teaching moments needed to solve little issues we were having. Tonight for example I decided to address the selfish tendency of my girls in regards to "it's not fair" syndrome. Whenever something nice happened to one, the middle sister would pout and complain about it not being fair that she didn't get (invited over to a friends house, receive candy from her teacher, get read to by Daddy, get invited to a birthday party...) compared to her sister. So I made pom-poms for each one by cutting strips starting at the fold of the newspaper, stacking the strips and taping the bottom where the folds were. We talked about what cheerleaders do and how we should be the best cheerleaders for each other whether things were going well, or not. They caught on quickly and we had fun chanting cheers for each other. Then to check if middle sister figured it out, I gave my pom-pom to youngest sister so she had two. Middle sister immediately furrowed her brow in a pout until Daddy and Sarah cheered, "Yeah for Alyssa! She gets two!" Middle sister smiled and finished the cheer with Daddy and Sarah. Hopefully this will work in the future.

More pictures

The past month has been a great month for family events. We feel blessed to have family so close and to have been with them so much. These were taken at Thanksgiving Point.

pictures and stuff

The tulips with snow are from our garden. The beautiful flower garden is from Thanksgiving Point and what I wished my garden looked like. And how could I not include a picture of Amelia when she is sooo cute?