I love how my mind works...

....Except when I don't.

...Or it doesn't. 

Work, that is.

I was having a face to face discussion with Bubbles, aka Mini-E. She's not quite so Mini any longer. She's going to be 5.

Five.

5.

4 + 1 

6 - 1

Five. Five. Five.

Hold up your hand with all fingers and thumb sticking out -- that many.

Five.

Watching her eyes twinkle and her face light up as she smiles, I reveled in her nearly five-ness. It was with a bit of a stun that I realized she'd gone through her 4 1/2 phase of life. Or at least she's passing it. 

I didn't notice it because she's always been my challenge of a child.

Today, I'm fairly certain she stuck her tongue out at me...though i couldn't be ABSOLUTELY certain. It was that faintest hint of doubt that saved her from a smack on the bum. That and I was in a really awesome story arc of a story no one will read.

If I had been absolutely certain, I'd have dropped the arc and gone for the swat. Promise.

She's just that kind of girl.

World Changer. Future leader. Future rabble-rouser. I don't know...but it's going to be awesome.

Miss Awesome-world-changing-rabble-rouser is going to be five in February. 

I got teary eyed. 

Seriously. 

Then I stopped to analyze WHY I was teary eyed and choked up. ("Seriously. There could be tears.") (Firefly reference FTW!!!!) 

Yes, I stopped my sweet moment with my nearly five year old to analyze. 

I've never been one to rue the passing of time. I do not get maudlin when the age passes. I do NOT miss the baby stage. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the walking and the falling down. I enjoyed the toothless laughter. I enjoyed the discoveries that they made.

But I will not miss it. 

I celebrate the milestones. Each and everyone. That's why I don't look back and get yearny. I'm thrilled that she's turning five. (In four months -give or take a few days - I know. I did the math.) But still...I celebrate that she's going to be five.

That is what brought me to tears. That's what choked me up. I know it is. I'm okay with that. 

All gooey in fact.

Of course, it might have been the fact that she survived to tell the tale.

Naaaaaahhhh...

So here's to milestones!!!

Huzzah!!!!

(here's to surviving the hardest child I've ever had to train!!!) (HUZZAH!!!)

(we're not done yet, either.) (...)

Did you hear?

Oklahoma had an earthquake.

Oh, yes. We're so proud. Our very own earthquake.

The local news media even got their computer people busy.

 Are you impressed??
Seriously, these guys have mad photo layering skills or something - no sooner (snicker...)(OK *is* the sooner state) ... No sooner had we figured out that we'd had our very own earthquake - they had this out and running.

I guess it helped to have an earthquake last year...but that was really quite localized. 

My neighbor called me and said, "This is going to sound crazy - but I think we just had an earthquake."

OH!!! "Well, that makes sense. The bed just shook like the cat was jumping on the end- but there was no cat."

She was properly freaked. I was just amused.
The more she freaked - I actually got annoyed at her.
Sheesh.  She was messing with my amusement. 


I called the Professor, "Hey. I think we just had an earthquake."


"We did."


Cool.


Of course, the hubbub about it lasted longer than the actual earthquake.


Some people have gotten a lot of fun out of the entire deal. There's a facebook group wanting answers for the 'mysterious earthquake'. Before the day was up there were TWO groups saying "I survived the Oklahoma Earthquake"


Then there's my favorite:

After reading that someone had purchased Earthquake insurance and remembering my freaked out neighbor, this picture just makes me laugh.

Of course, we don't have the earthquakes that California has. 
It wasn't a quake on the New Madrid fault (That will be a big freakin' mess)...
And I didn't have to sit in my bathroom for an hour waiting on the tornado to pass over head....

So I'm allowed to be amused.

Siblings...

Do you suppose Cain and Able squabbled BEFORE that fateful day when Cain bashed Able over the head?? 

Oh... I love the part in that story where the God of all creation...the God who SEES EVERYTHING asked Cain, "Where's your brother?"

And Cain said.... like an idiot... "I'm supposed to keep up with him??" 

He HAD to know that God sees all...knows all. I mean.. Cain's DAD walked with God on a person to person -out for a stroll kind thing. Of all people... you'd think Cain would know not to trick God. 

Oh, well. That's not what I wanted to write about.

Today we hit a milestone in our schooling.

Besides the fact that we actually DID school... J-man and Bubbles know their vowels. It's been a long haul to get there. 

Our speech therapist has been wonderful explaining that J-man's hearing issues really did delay other areas of his life. I've felt like a failure for not teaching him the way the others could learn.

In fact, I prayed, actually prayed that Bubbles wouldn't learn to read before he did because J-man desperately wants to read. His brain just hasn't been processing things well.

However, the kid is rolling in math. He's acing and pushing. I may have him in first grade before the year is up. Phonics though -- So today was an encouragement to Me.

And to Him.

-----

I teach J-man and Bubbles at the same time when we do phonics. 

And I can't. Or at least there can be no sense of competition in what we do.

There is literally too much "I'm smarter than you." going on. 

No matter how much I explain that this is a wrong outlook - the competitiveness is still rampant. 

Even to the point that the seven year old told the ten year old "I'm superduper smart and you're just a little bit smart".

Sigh.

THIS IS NOT in ANY of the Homeschool how-to books. NONE.

Not that I've read them all .... but i can guarantee you it's not.

There is a lot of "It's my turn"...and..."No! It's my turn!!"

I'm trying to take it all in stride...but sometimes it's not easy. 

All the competition really boils down to the fact that I've got four leaders in my house. 

Four world changers.....

...and, as someone pointed out, they're learning how to deal with the world through their interactions with their siblings.

Great.

Look out world....

Captivated...

I had this song in my heart when I woke up this morning...

The line that kept repeating was "I am captivated by you ...."

When I hear a song come to me this way, I know God's talking to me. 

Laying  in the covers I thought, I am captivated. But really -- I knew that He was singing to me. It was a little difficult to accept.


I know where my faults lie.
I know my selfishness.
I know my sin.


Yet He's telling me, "I am captivated by you."


It's hard to think that He's looking past the sin, selfishness and faults to find the good.
He's looking at the personality. The heart for worship. He knows that I find it difficult to understand that He is pleased with me - and yet He tells me so. When He talks He speaks my language so why is it so difficult to receive His pleasure.


I get too focused on the bad stuff that I know of....and He sees my heart. He sees the blood shed for me. So really - He sees Jesus. 


So I hear Him sing to me and can do nothing else but turn it around in worship.







 

A little Daffy...

J-man loves to play act what he sees. He makes stuff up - he takes a character and runs with it. 

He's actually a lot like me.

When I was  younger, I put myself in movies. Or took the characters and made new scenes for them. 

I would have made an excellent fan fiction writer. And really, I'm not saying that just to say it. I just didn't know what Fan Fiction was back then. 

So when J-man takes something like "Zorro" or a "Jedi Knight" and makes it his own, I commiserate with him. It's good for his imagination. 

It was good for mine. I was rarely bored. 

Tonight he was taken in by "The Scarlett Pumpernickel" as played by Daffy Duck. Gotta love it.

Okay, I guess you DON'T.... but I do.

It's rather fun to identify with your kids, I think.

It just makes life fun.

He took The Scarlett Pumpernickel to his video game and before long I hear him voicing the characters..

The bad guy says: "Ha HA!!! I've got you now Scarlett ExtraNickel!!!!"

I love that kid.