iSonto #54

Mercy "taking Bill for a walk".  Mercy feels very blessed that we have a baby, even such a big one who is becoming more little boy than baby. Last week Nate said "We birthed Bill ages ago"!

Mercy and Nate have been earning dress ups when they accumulate seven clean and dry days (yes, they still need toilet training). Here they are as king and queen.

We have a great book called "The Big Book of Bible Story Art Activities". For this one we made playdough and used it to create gardens with pasta shapes. It occupied the little ones for about an hour. You can see below that Bill is a climber. At sixteen months he pushes a seat up to the bar stools and climbs onto them. I like to describe his increasing skills as "bracing" . . . for me, that is!

Nate has decided he needs a "desk". He likes to look at photos on the computer. Behind you can see the pink case we picked up for Mercy at a garage sale for our trip. We also got Nate one and they are old enough to begin anticipating our trip and running around with their cases pretending to go on an airplane.

Here are some more things to be thankful for I jotted down over the past two weeks:

Nate saying he would come home and make me vegetable soup to cheer me up!
Nate being polite at grandmas birthday party.
Bill learning to love books and sitting with me for 25 minutes listening while I read to him!
Bill loves being outdoors.
Mercy loudly singing to a praise CD, and dancing.
Nate matching letter blocks. I tried this about two years ago, and every few months since then, with no interest until now so it is lovely to have it happening now!
Nate telling me he wants to live with me forever because he loves me so much! (This is sweet because I trust he will feel differently when he grows up . . . not about the love, but about his living situation).
Dancing with Mercy to the praise CD.
Dave bringing me home flowers.
Nate building sand castles.
Nate creating lots of stencil pictures with colorix crayons.
Mercy creating a train family.
Happy children eating garden carrots and "camping".
Scent of jasmine
Mild winter day
A little girl walking up to me at kinder gym holding mercy's hand saying "I have a new friend", both looking starry eyed!
Renewed appreciation for breathing through my nose after having a cold.

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iSonto #53

   Mischief Billy was into sister's jewelry box. 

Elnathan was excited to create an E shape from blocks.

Bill gained an interest in puzzles and continued with his interest in climbing onto chairs and then onto the table. The latter is an interest we are aiming to redirect!

The children decided some plants needed moving . . . our winter garden belongs to them and the chooks! We are still getting some kale leaves from under the net at the back.

I love the blackboard we stuck onto our wall like contact where we are now displaying a verse to learn each week. This one is longer and is taking a couple of weeks.

Finally, here are some gratitude points I popped in as they came up over the course of the week.

Dark and stressful days remind me of the kind of mother I would be without the benefits of being a child of God. Truly all the good in us is only from Him.
Children pretending bean bags are platypus.
Ribbon bow in mercy's hair.
Mercy asking for it again the next day.
Mercy is quiet most of the time when I brush her hair now
Watching Bill focused and content playing with the same wooden block train that was Nate's first toy.
Heaping encouragement on the person who reminds me of mini-Nate, a chance to try again and experience "all things new".
Keeping the good and adding to it as we go on in parenting.
Our flights Sydney to Hobart on the way back from South Africa will cost us nothing thanks to credit card points (it pays to keep it in the positive)!
Able to photocopy pages from parenting books here at home.
Friends serving us a yummy chicken curry at their home for dinner and our children happily gobbling it up, I was grateful not to have rudeness issues with them!
Children able to undo buttons and put on shoes.
Nate able to do up buttons.
After years of effort Nate is quite reliable at sitting through church.
Going to Crossroads feels like going back to a spiritual home.
Seeing old friends.
Revive our hearts 30 day mom challenge and stress jar idea from one of the emails.
Mercy concentrating as I showed her the numbers on our alphabet blocks. Then she wanted me to spell her name Lorraine.
Extra grateful for every day of life after sudden death of child whose family we know.

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iSonto #52

Nate had a renewed interest in Duplo, resulting in this fun creation.

Mercy made a boat for her "friends" Morgan (the one in the red shirt with the black hair) and co.

Nate was also into the lego.

More things to be thankful for . . .

Bill slept well after dinner with cousins
I love our house!
A chance to sit and look at scrapbooks and rejoice in god's kindness.
Janelle invited us for dinner.
Nate made a love collage with duplo and it occupied him for half an hour.
Dave found a scripture about provocation to help us teach about this, Proverbs 27:3.
Nate made a frog garden on an outdoor window sill with bricks, weeds, branches and a pond.
Put away washing and finished online food shopping without interruption!
Sticking cloves in oranges occupied children for half an hour. This was one of the suggested activities for the letter "O" in their Sonlight curriculum. They can be used as scented ornaments hung from ribbons.
Mercy told us that our family is rich because we have plenty of food :). Grandma is very rich though because "she has a farm".

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