Make a Smilebox slideshow

We're Back!

Our structured learning has finally begun after a several week long break. I put it off a bit this week, waiting until Wednesday when I felt up to the small challenge as opposed to jumping in on Monday. But we had so much fun with our Bible lesson today that I wondered why I was kind of dreading it. I think mainly I was feeling lazy and was leaning toward preferring to be sitting on the couch than teaching Joshua and Hannah about Jesus. I'm glad we went for the lesson today.

I'll have a video and post on our Bible lesson of the week either tomorrow or Friday.

Joshua did actually start having some violin time last week. He received a violin from my parents for Christmas (passed down from his aunts, Hope and Grayce). Now that he has an instrument that is more his size (it's still a bit big for him, but he's growing so it won't be that way for long) he doesn't want to put it down.

He has learned rest position and playing position, made himself a little practice mat so that he doesn't wander around the house (monkey see, monkey do!), and he is having fun experimenting with fast, slow, long, short, piano, and forte along with playing along with me or with one of his favorite CD's. I'm not sure why, but I wasn't expecting him to be as interested as he is in the violin. He literally did not want to put his violin away each day that he practiced last week. It's fun to give him a bit of a lesson (he reaches his limit after 5-10 minutes and determines that he knows what he should be working on and how) I can let him play until he grows tired of it. I'm really glad that it is a source of enjoyment for him, hopefully it will always be that way.

Joshua even prayed before his first official practice session, "Thank you Lord for this time to play violin." :)

Below is a photo of Joshua practicing. I know...he probably shouldn't be waving his bow around like that, but it's made to look worse by not having used a flash. And he was just so excited and proud of himself for learning rest position that the correction of how to treat his bow had to come after the photo opportunity.

I'm his mom, so maybe I'm supposed to say this, but I think he looks pretty natural holding that thing. :)

Reading List Update

I just added a few books to the reading list. The month of December got away with us. We were still at the library every week and reading tons, but I never did get around to taking down names of authors or even taking note of which books we really enjoyed. But now that we're back to our normal routine and I'm looking to start our Bible and other school activities, the book list should keep growing.

Today's additions include:
Firefighters (Simon/Paparone) - Joshua liked this so much that he checked it out again. Hannah liked the dogs.
Flip Flop Bop (Novak) -This one made me want to be back in Phoenix. It also inspired Joshua to make up silly rhymes (ie - Praise the Lord dippy, praise the Lord doppy!)
City Lullaby (Singer/Cneut) - Joshua was quoting this all week.
Wow! City! (Neubecker) - We all enjoyed the bright illustrations.
I'm Taking a Trip on My Train (Neitzel/Parker)
We're Making Breakfast for Mother (Neitzel/Parker)

A Quick Post

It's New Year's Day and I'm wondering where Claude and the little tikes are. They went outside to move the car (thank you, Hartsdale winter parking restrictions) and haven't returned 30 minutes later. There must have been a snow plow sighting or something of the like.

This is, in fact, a very short post to keep this blog active. A more substantial update and hopefully a 2009 in review post will be coming soon. The blog tends to get put on the bottom of the priority list when things get hectic around here, and they've been hectic!

Why have they been hectic, you might ask. We moved - during Christmas week - with about 3 hour's notice of the actually starting day and time of our move. But it's probably not as crazy as it sounds.

The Lord provided a wonderful apartment, two buildings down the street from our previous residence. It's quite a bit larger, although still only one bedroom. The features include a giant hall closet, large enough to make a small study out of it we didn't have so much to store in there; a kitchen that is about three times the size of our last kitchen; a dishwasher!; a bigger dining area; a better layout in general; and the best part...

...NO DOWNSTAIRS NEIGHBORS! What a relief to allow Joshua and Hannah to run around freely this morning at 6am without the fear of disturbing others while they try to sleep in on a holiday!

So, that's the big news for the time being. As I said, another post will be coming to sum up the past year. It may be a while before that comes up. Now that we've moved in and gotten set up, I'm looking forward to starting a new pre-school term with Joshua and Hannah, so planning for that will most likely trump the blog posting. And with some new ideas and an every changing and growing philosophy on teaching the little guys, there is probably a bit more planning than I may have anticipated.

For the record, our new address is as follows:

The Chews Four
150 E Hartsdale Avenue Apt 1C
Hartsdale NY 10530


Ah, and this post is finished just in time to welcome back my little car movers. :) More posts coming soon!

Many blessings to you and yours in 2010!