Blast from the Past

Two year old Katie and our dog Molly sharing a snack.

This picture represents the tail end of the most magical years of my life. When my husband and I found out we were having our second daughter, we decided I would leave my job and stay home with her. Our oldest daughter was still in public school, as this was before we'd made the decision to homeschool. So, for two glorious years it was just me and my new baby girl six hours a day. 

I was eighteen years old when I had my first daughter. I was young, naive, and self-absorbed. I didn't understand that babies were meant to be enjoyed. I was always looking forward to what she would do next.

Words cannot describe the bliss that was being home every single day with my baby. I was older, and as is the case with every second child, I was a little wiser. I knew how fast they grew. I knew to sit back and just enjoy her. Every minute with her. I spent entire mornings just holding my baby. Just sitting there, holding her, doing absolutely nothing else. My husband was at work, my oldest was at school. I had nothing at all to do but love my baby. And love her I did. I cherished those hours we had together. I got to help her grow from a helpless newborn into a bright, loving, talkative, rambunctious, amazing toddler. I finally knew how it felt to be a part of every single moment with my child. There wasn't a day in her life that passed where I didn't know everything she'd experienced. It was such a blessing, for both of us, that we had the opportunity for so much alone time. To this day we have a special bond because of that time together.

Our third daughter was born three months after this picture was taken, and not long after that we brought our oldest daughter home to be homeschooled. Needless to say, you probably won't find a trace of that peace and quiet that used to exist here. What you'd find in it's place is louder, crazier, and more hectic. But it's also filled with more love, kindness, and oneness than I ever could have hoped for. I am so blessed!

For more Blast from the Past, go visit Debbie over at Debbie's Digest

Going for a walk. A blog walk, that is.

As I mentioned earlier, there are over 200 of us on the Homeschool Crew this year. That is a lot of people to get to know, so I will be visiting ten blogs a week until I've visited everyone. I'm posting the links here for you because I know there is a great wealth of knowledge to be had. Happy reading!

Second star to the right and straight on till morning

Reaping a Harvest

Pink and Orange Coffee

Live, Laugh, Learn!

Family Style School

Surviving the Testosterone

Mrs. Mandy's Musings

The Fantastic Five

Refined Metals Academy

Just a Moment in Time

He was with me.

Our church is going from two services to one for the summer. Because of this change, the kids will have different teachers every week until fall. In preparation for this, I had been talking to the little girls every day last week about how church will be different on Sunday. I told them how they would come upstairs and sing songs with us first, and then go down to their classes. Every time we talked about it, Francesca would ask me if we were going to sing "Holy is the Lord". (She LOVES that song, it is one we play frequently around here.) Since we sing a lot of different songs, the odds were definitely not in her favor for that to be one of the three or four we sing on the day she wanted it. I gave her the old "Hmm. Maybe. We'll see" and hoped that we would. She just wanted it so bad.
Fast forward to church this past Sunday. We take all three girls up with us and find our seat. It's more crowded than usual since we're all in one service, including all the kids who are usually downstairs. The girls are excited and chatting up anyone who is in earshot. (Francesca even grabbed a bible, opened it and held it next to the woman's head in front of us saying "Here. You need a bible" until the woman heard her and turned around and talked to her. Thankfully it was a really sweet woman who didn't mind being pestered by my chatty four year old.)
After a few minutes it's time to sing. As the first song begins I've got Katie standing on the bench next to me so she can see the screen, and Francesca on my other side, singing along (Kind of. It's not her fault though. The words she can read include things like rat, bat, sat. You don't find a lot of those in worship songs.) and wiggling and dancing around. After all this build up can you guess what the second song was? Yep. It was Francesca's song!! You should have seen her! It was one of those moments I wish I had captured on film, to relive over and over. She was so excited! She sang every single word. She danced. She threw both of those sweet little arms up in the air and just praised God! On my other side was Katie, singing as loud as she could with both of her arms up in the air! (Sam was in the balcony with her friends, she was the only thing missing) I wish I could describe to you the pure joy I felt in those moments. To see my babies singing with such abandon. To be so happy praising God. I couldn't contain myself. I stood there singing and looking back and forth at both of them with tears in my eyes and the biggest, silliest smile I've ever had at church. What are the odds, really, that the song she wanted would be in the lineup on the day she wanted it there? I know in my heart my Lord was giving me a small glimpse of Himself that day. He was giving me a gift, filling me with such indescribable joy it just warmed my soul. It's so amazing being given those rare moments to reconnect with Him like that. To feel that closeness with Him...it's definitely worth waiting through the lows. "Holy is the Lord, God almighty. The earth is filled with His glory". Amen!

Whoohoo! I'm on the Homeschool Crew!

I recently learned that I was accepted to be part of the TOS Homeschool Crew!! For those of you who have no idea why this is the coolest thing ever, let me explain. The purpose of the Crew is to provide vendors with reviews of their product. So, we are a  group of people who receive a product to review, examine it, get to know it and use it with our families, and then write a review about it.  Amazing, right? Well, it's even better than I thought because there are over 200 people on this Crew!! Talk about new friends! I just feel so blessed and excited to be part of this. I can't wait to get started!!