Kindergarten

I never would have thought that I would be sitting here every morning with this little girl reading books, doing worksheets, math, writing, and spelling.  I never planned to keep her home, until it happened.  I love it.  I love watching her learn something new everyday.  She is doing so well and I couldn't be more proud.  

I don't know why but my bathroom door has become the achievement board.  I started giving her a sticker every time she read a book and she deemed my bathroom door as the best spot to put them.  She tells me often how beautiful it is and asks if I like her decorating.  I'm just glad that she's excited about reading. 

She has now made it clear to me that she's going to "real school" next year.  Part of me is sad that I won't be able to enjoy these moments with her anymore, and there's another part of me that knows she's ready. I'm preparing myself mentally right now for the day she heads off to "real school".  Who knows, maybe in the future she'll decide to do home school again.  I wouldn't mind. :) .   

In addition to our daily school work Audrey has been going to a music class, a ballet class, and an art and science class which we do with a bunch of other Moms who home school.

She tells me that she loves her music class best of all.  She asks me all week when it's time for music class.  I'm so glad that I learned about the "Let's Play Music" program.  It might be the best program out there for younger children who eventually want to take voice or piano lessons.  I love it so much that I'm thinking about becoming a teacher next year.  It'll give me something to do while I'm missing this little girl. :) 

I hope she continues to love music the way that I do.          

Sundays Are The Best Days

Does anyone else feel like Sunday is a breath of fresh air or a sigh of relief?  The only bad part about it is the looming thought of Monday on my heels.  Don't get me wrong, Mondays aren't all that bad for me, except that I can no long ignore the house or the laundry and Paul goes back to work.  I kind of like having him around all the time. 

Sundays make me happy.  It truly is a day of rest from the world. It makes me stop and think about where I'm at, what I'm supposed to be, and what I'm not doing that I should be doing.

As I watched my little primary kids bear testimony through song and words about the Savior last week I felt the spirit so strongly.  

My testimony began here as I sang these exact same songs.  The music we sang each Sunday spoke to me the way nothing else could.  When I'm having a difficult time I still have the words of primary songs enter my mind.  When Audrey gets scared I tell her to sing these same songs, just like my Mom told me when I was her age.  I hope that eventually they will sound in her mind when she's faced with a difficult choice or she's just having a bad day.

I sing to Audrey every night.  If she's acting up before bed I often threaten with no songs before bed and she shapes right up.  It's a good thing because I enjoy singing with her and to her as much as she likes to listen.  It's kind of our thing.  

I'm beyond grateful for this little family that I've been given and that I get to spend this special day and every other day with them.  They are the peanut butter to my jelly.  

Look at how cute they are together?  

A Box Problem

Paul helped Audrey build a box house months ago. It's been sitting there crowding the play room and to be honest she doesn't play in it unless someone else is at our house. I finally told her that the box was going to get the boot. After all, she has this beautiful tepee that serves the same purpose. I mentioned it in an effort to prepare her. She has a hard time letting go of things that I would consider trash.

Well, this last week I was going through baby clothes and all sorts of things. I had a lot of stuff I was going to get rid of and a bunch of stuff that I was going to throw away. Audrey asked if she could have one of the boxes to draw on. I was happy to give it to her. I knew that she would have hours of fun ahead of her coloring and making the box her own.

Well that box stayed in my living room for days until I couldn't take it anymore and put it upstairs in the playroom. Later that day when I went upstairs to help Audrey clean up. I now had two boxes in my playroom and I couldn't do it. A playroom is for toys...right?  I told her if we kept every box that we wouldn't have any place for her toys anymore.

It will be fun, I said. We'll take pictures of it, I said. You will remember them forever, I said. She agreed. I started taking pictures.  She wanted some of herself playing in the house, and then as I ripped the tape off to take pictures of the inside.  The crying began, and it didn't stop. Mom, I made this with Daddy, she said. I love this house, she said. We can't throw it away, I want to keep it forever, she said. And then my Mom heart couldn't take it anymore. I struck a bargain and we threw away the smaller box and kept the box house. I'm itching to throw it away. For now it's safe, but only because I love this little pumpkin more than anything in the world aside from her Daddy.

Watch your back little box house!