Every Season

Well, we've lived in this house for all of the 4 seasons now, and quite honestly I can't tell you which one is my favorite. Each season brings a new opportunity for me to wonder at the splendor of God's creation. What a gift He has given us!! This year, with being pregnant, the seasons (as well as the seasons of the church year) just seem so relevant. The seasons of my life this year just seem to mirror nature so well. In fall, nature gives everything without regard for itself, knowing that it is best for what is to come. In winter, nature sustains life inside while appearing unchanged from the exterior. And in the spring, all of nature bursts forth in new life and new growth. It sounds just vaguely familiar...

I'm also looking forward to going through the end of my pregnancy during Lent. I think it will be an incredible time of anticipation and sacrifice. Boy, will Easter seem triumphant!!

I took this picture out my kitchen window today and just had to share. Don't I have a beautiful view? And oh the colors!!! Okay, so the picture hardly does it justice, but you get the idea.


Also, along these lines, I wanted to share a video of a song that I love that talks about these exact sentiments. It's called "Every Season" by Nichole Nordeman. Just click the name to watch the video.

God bless you in all the seasons of your life!

Rainy Days

"On rainy days we stay indoors

We have a lot of fun

But there is so much work to do when rainy days are done."

(verse taken from Richard Scary's "Just for Fun.")

Story Hour

Today, Ira got to go to Story Hour for the first time! The little town just down the road from us has Story Hour every Thursday morning, and although I've been wanting to take Ira, I haven't felt the best. This week though has been so much better though, (SO much less nauseous and gaggy!) so I thought we'd give Story Hour a go!

What an incredible little program! There were probably 10 kids there, ranging from 17 months to 5 years in age. The kids got to: make block patterns, act out numbers, practice writing their names, glue leaves in a number book, have Show and Tell, play with balls in the gym, and eat a snack! (They ran out of time for the story!) Parents are welcome/encouraged to stay and participate with their kids. Let me tell you, as a teacher and a mom I was IMPRESSED! I think it's just what we've been looking for for Ira.

For one reason or another, the thought of Preschool just doesn't excite me much. I think Ira gets plenty of "schooling" at home and has numerous opportunities throughout the week to interact with other kids. I also think that 5 is plenty young to begin a regularly scheduled schooling experience. Now, that's not to say I will never send a kid to preschool (as a mom I've learned to never say never because more often than not I end up eating my words.) I just think that for now, in our current situation, there is no reason to send Ira to preschool.

This Story Hour is great though, because it gives Ira ALL these opportunities to learn things like: listening to the teacher, sharing with other kids, waiting your turn to talk, using "glude sticks", practicing writing, standing in line, sitting at a table working on an activity for a specified amount of time, etc... It's just the right amount of structure for him, and it's just one day a week for an hour and a half. (I like it too b/c it's low commitment - "come when you can" is their philosophy - which works well since I have "Together" every 2nd and 4th Thursdays.) And it sounds like they do a couple of field trips each year as well!

As you can tell, I'm pretty excited about this. I've been wanting something for Ira to do during the week that gives him a little bit of structure and a little bit of practice for school and I think this fits the bill perfectly. We're pretty unstructured as far as activities go at our house, we just kind of do whatever, whenever. If it's nice outside, sometimes we go outside, sometimes we don't. Sometimes we spend the entire day playing trains, sometimes we spend the entire day doing a million different things and at the end of the day the house is a TOTAL loss. So as I said, I think this is going to be a great thing.

Lastly, here's a couple of pictures of Ira before going to Story Hour. I can't believe how big my little boy has gotten!