April has been lovely. Only two weeks in but can’t resist sharing some randomness.
Once a month I used to bake cupcakes for a company’s celebration, nothing fancy here, just plain old cupcakes with a butter cream icing. As that job wound down, I was approached with another one. A lunch for 6-8 once a month. Here’s a snapshot of the baking because it looked yummy. Again, nothing fancy – just good. Those are magic bars, banana bread and orange pound cake you see there. Again, all baked in my favorite mini loaf pans.
Isaac has taken to dumping out his toys and crawling around with the basket on his head, laughing all the way…ha ha ha…
Mommy and Chloe thought our shoes were pretty the other day as we headed out for church, so I thought I’d share with you too.
Our pastor’s wife did craft for Junior church the other week, a mosaic cross. I looks lovely on the window when the sun shines through it. The picture doesn’t do it justice!
We had a fun mail day earlier this week. Not receiving but sending. It is more blessed to give than receive; I’m not sure the children would agree with that entirely though. While they love to send letters, they really like to get mail too. We had a handful of colorful envelopes for the mail lady!
And someone was eating my deodorant again. Just thought I’d throw that in there to keep things real around here.
With the warmer weather back, the children are outside constantly again. I’m not sure if it’s Beatrix Potter related, or has anything to do with Uncle Wiggily (whom the children love) but they’ve been enjoying making houses and homes for the little plastic garden animals this week. The moment they have completed their jobs and schoolwork {and sometimes before!} they are begging to go out and work on their little ‘animal world’.
Today was yet another amazing day. It started out with John discovering that all the worms that he had put under a bowl {with a rock on top} had died. He had hoped they’d be his ‘fishin worms’. But he moved on quickly.
We walked down to the pond and then along the river. The children flew their Styrofoam airplanes and pretended they were missionary bush pilots; landing here and there to deliver supplies and bibles. They floated acorn caps down the river, pretending they were sending bibles to the people down river. Then they would run down and try catch them. Though they did get very muddy, no one fell in. This seemed miraculous to me. {Again keeping it real, they don’t always play ‘missionaries’. Sometimes they play something that resembles ‘lets try to kill each other’ or ‘what can we do to drive mama crazy’}
We came home and, much to the children’s delight, we had our first outdoor lunch of the season, complete with homemade lemonade. Homemade lemonade is so easy and delicious. Unfortunately, my husband tells me that lemons are awfully expensive right now but I’m sure the lemons from the fridge cost less last week 😉
The last little random photo to share is Big Ben – a 3D foam puzzle from Little Passports. I LOVE how God works out the little details in life in such an amazing way, a way that could easily be overlooked. We started reading Reasonable Service – The Olive Brittain Story this week. It is the story of an amazing lady at our church who was called to be a missionary in India. I think she went 1954-1991? Anyway, we’ve read a number of missionary stories in our family; as homeschoolers it’s a great way to learn about how God uses people, how He provides, how He still works miracles and of course it’s perfect for geography and learning about world cultures as well. I just love that we can read about a missionary we KNOW. So we start reading about her journey starting from Simcoe to Hamilton and then to NYC. She took a ship from there to Liverpool and then a train to London where she met up with another missionary lady who would go with her to India. They spent two weeks in London before continuing on. We started looking on the map at where these places were and then what should come in the mail that day? Our monthly Little Passports package and it was on England, with a 3D puzzle of Big Ben to put together. It seems like a little thing but I truly believe that God’s hand is in the littlest things {like matching our Little Passports country to what we were reading about!} as well as in the big things {like my van!}
Sometimes life is such a whirlwind of appointments, therapies, lessons…this week my husband’s car was in the shop and so he had my van every day. It was a welcome reprieve from the busyness that often overtakes us. I’ve been enjoying our time at home with nowhere to go and nothing to do but live, laugh and learn.
