Caleb's 2!

This month has flown by! It's been quite busy with homeschooling, playing the piano for church, and grading SATs. And...birthday celebrations, first Caleb's, then Will's. Caleb's favorite gift was his fishing rod. Will loved his homemade sour cream pound cake the best, I think. :-)

Caleb has added 2 words to his vocabulary, "probably" and "actually" and uses them correctly. "Actually, we don't eat sand. We eat snacks." Or "Probably, Daddy can fix it." Yes, son, he probably can. Oh, and he often calls Ella, "young lady." And not in such a nice tone. Hmm, wonder where he learned that? Just the other day, I heard him squeal, "That's mine, young lady!"

Ella's doing great in school. I decided to go through 100 Easy Lessons again and this time I'm more consistent-we do a lesson every day instead of one every week (like we did when she was 4). She's currently on lesson 48-woohoo! We stopped at 50 last time, so I'm excited about passing that milestone soon. Her prize for finishing 1/3 of the lessons was an afternoon at the park with a friend and Chick-Fil-A for lunch. For her next milestone-Lesson 66-she'll get a picnic w/me and Caleb at a local *free* petting zoo. She can't wait! And she's loving Math-U-See! So glad I got this. And I must say I understand math-especially place value-better by teaching her with this method. She's been building and reading 3-digit numbers and Caleb enjoys building w/her manipulatives and putting them in between his toes!

Miss Ella is getting plenty of social interaction with her homeschooling club day classes in town. She's taking an arts/crafts and tea party Bible study class. She also takes ballet and tap on another day. But her most valuable social interaction is precious time with her baby brother. Just the other day, while I was chopping veggies for lentil soup, I observed them out the window. Hand in hand, splashing in a mud puddle and both of them under her princess umbrella. Priceless. She would have so much less time and memories with Caleb were she in traditional school all day long.

And we're all loving our baskets of yummy fruit and veggies since we joined our local CSA. For a while there, I must admit, I was growing weary of eggplants; however, we just cooked some delicious mustard greens and broccoli (no cheese added!) that both children gobbled down. Awesome!

And I've been reading Crazy Love. Wow. Definitely not a book you can read quickly. In fact, I finished a little over half and had to return it to the library, so will have to check it back out again soon to finish it. It has really got me thinking about what it means to be a follower of Jesus. It really is all about loving God and serving others. That's it but yet those two commandments are the hardest for me to follow. Why is that? Do I really love Him most? More than anyone else, including my own children? Do I long for His coming? Really and truly long for Him? Am I doing the will of my Father by serving "the least of these"? Do I delight in serving others? Do I see them as God does-treasures created in His own image- or as an annoyance that I must try to fit into my schedule? Truly God has been revealing my selfishness. My heart needs to be cleaned out, renewed, restored. I've been praying Psalm 51 a lot lately, crying out to Him for He alone can rescue.