2012 Photo Challenge: April

Not super great ones, but I'm trying to focus on the fact that we are all in one picture together and not on the fact that I wasn't behind the camera getting things just "right." I got two this month: One slightly disheveled after church on Easter look and one of our new favorite evening ritual: cuddled up and watching Andy Griffith. (Emma Lee recently asked me if the world used to be all in black and white. Funny thing is Andy and I both remember having that same thought as a kid.)

DIY Marriage Retreat

Last year, Andy and I attended our first marriage retreat. We really enjoyed it and made the decision to make it a yearly habit - in some form/fashion. This year, we planned out a kind of DIY (do it yourself for those of you not addicted to pinterest or home improvement shows) retreat, and we enjoyed it even more! Andy covered some of the highlights and details in his post here, so I won't repeat it. We decided in advance to both separately read through Tim Keller's The Meaning of Marriage, so we planned out four specific times throughout our weekend to discuss the book and our marriage.

I decided to take my camera along almost everywhere to take pictures. Other than our honeymoon pictures (from 9 1/2 years ago!), we have very few pictures of us doing things together (minus the kiddos). I thought when we're old(er) and gray(er), we'll appreciate them - haha. Here are a few of our "outings":

Getting some house ideas for this summer when we have a new place to decorate/live in (and eating some yummy cinnamon rolls, of course!)

Enjoying a beautiful park

Yummy meal at a favorite place 

First time at the Fox, and we definitely were not disappointed!! Amazing place - amazing performance!

Another favorite place to eat

Enjoyed a funny improv show 

Underwhelmed by Underground Atlanta, but we found one place worthy of going in!

I realize what a blessing it is to be married to my best friend, and I thank God every day for the marriage and family He has given to me. We both fully believe that any marriage - no matter how strong - needs work/time/attention. We also believe that marriages do not get strong/stay strong on their own. Just like any other relationship, the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. Also, no matter how much I love my girls and how much I want to include them in everything we do, I know that the best gifts I can give them is parents who have a great marriage and an example that marriage should be a priority. It might take some extra effort, planning, sacrifices, etc., but the benefits far outweigh all of that.   

School Recap: March

Wow, I just realized that I never posted my March update. Here it is - better late than never! March was the month of field trips for us! Our special focus was on animals, and we went on four field trips to get up close and personal with as many different types of animals as we could! First, we learned about the different categories of animals and what characteristics are common for each category. Our field trip to an animal show at the science museum supported our learning of these categories.

We also took a field trip to the Go Fish Education Center a short distance away. With 100 other homeschoolers going, I was a little nervous that things were going to be too chaotic and hectic, but the people there did a wonderful job, and it was an excellent experience. We all gathered together in a large room to watch a short introductory video, and then we were split into 3 groups to take turns participating in the 3 separate areas. First up for our group was fishing (using hot dog bait and real hooks!) in a well-stocked pond. Even though people were catching fish left and right all around us, somehow, neither girl managed to pull one in.

(I have to admit that I was kind of ok with that. I could just see Kerri becoming the next "Ordinary Amos and the Amazing Fish" kind of story!)

After our fishing time was up, our group rotated to the classroom to learn about fish and reptiles. Then we transitioned to the aquarium/fish hatchery part to get an up-close look at different GA fish.

 We also visited the zoo and had lots of adventures at a drive through "safari" and petting zoo place.

 

The girls were given the assignment of choosing one animal each, researching it, and giving a report on it. Kerri quickly chose tigers, and Emma Lee eventually settled on zebras. They read books, took their own notes, prepared a poster, and gave us a little report. They really got into the whole thing, worked hard, and did such a great job!

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
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In other school news, the girls learned about prepositions, prepositional phrases, and objects of a preposition. We're still adding new prepositions, but they've really caught onto it. We did a fun "scavenger" hunt all around the house. After they found their prizes, we took the clues and identified all the prepositions in them. I took a video, but it's pretty long, so I'll spare you! Emma Lee has learned every letter in cursive and does a great job reading and writing almost anything in cursive. Everything else has been a lot of review and making sure that they really know what we've learned throughout the year.

We also took a week (almost, one day was one of our field trips, so I counted that day) of spring break even though I hadn't planned on it. One Monday, I planned a fun day full of Cherry Blossom festival stuff with the girls and told them we didn't have school because it was our spring break. They were excited, and we had fun. Tuesday morning comes, and I tell them to go downstairs - it's time for school - and they about had a fit. They insisted that it was spring break, and I said, "No, that was just yesterday." Somehow they knew (and insisted!) that spring break is supposed to last a whole week - not just one day, so I gave in (and enjoyed the break myself by doing a little sewing project!). We've had a great year, but I'm already looking forward to a summer break!

#6 for Kerri

Another tooth lost in the Johnson household tonight! I guess it's getting to be old news around here because Kerri just paused and said, "Oh, I lost my tooth" in such a normal voice that I didn't even believe her enough to turn around and look!

Lessons from a Sparrow

I had such a fun post all planned out to do yesterday. It involved our cute little temporary house guest I mentioned in my last post. Found by our neighbors and named Peeps (fitting name since it was Easter), we took it in with plans to rescue it and let it go when it could take care of itself.

 After comparing it to pictures online, we determined that we think it's a sparrow.

I might have been well on my way to becoming a crazy bird lady. I squeaked out "peep, peep, peep, peep" in the highest little voice I could make when feeding it to get it to open up its mouth.

Before I even realized what I was doing, I actually clapped and excitedly cheered "Good job!" when it took its first little fall/jump/flapping/attempt to fly. I religiously fed (every 20 min or less), cleaned up poop, fed, cleaned up poop, fed, cleaned up poop, all throughout my day. I took it to a lunch at church, in the cart with us at Walmart, and all around town while we ran errands. It slept on a heating pad and blanket in its little toilet paper nest on the floor beside my bed at night, so I could hear it in the morning.   

Oh, yeah, did I forget to mention that I bought props and did a little "Peeps" photo shoot with it?

Crazy bird lady.

I was happy and proud of the little life we were saving. Then, yesterday morning, there was an unfortunate accident, and Peeps ending up not making it. Emma Lee had been letting it hop around downstairs and walked away and left it for a little while. Kerri didn't know it was there and tripped over it. As I held a tiny dying bird in my hand that I had somehow gotten so attached to, I struggled with so many emotions and tried to keep my thoughts to myself because I was so upset about the bird, but I really didn't want to say the wrong thing to the girls because I knew that they were also upset.I spent pretty much the rest of the day upset and depressed about what had happened.

This morning I decided that enough is enough, and I tried to think about what I could learn from the situation. I read in Matthew chapter 10 the following verses:

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows." 

So, I don't know why it had to happen, but here's what I do know. As much as I was attached to the little sparrow, even in the moment of crisis, my first thoughts were about my precious girls and how it was going to affect them and how I wanted to handle the situation carefully so as not to make it any more traumatic for them than it had to be. They are more valuable to me. These verses tell me that God is like that - to a greater degree. He created the sparrows and even with everything else in the world going on, he pays enough attention to them to know when they die. BUT He loves us so much more. He knows everything about us, and we are much more valuable to Him than the rest of His creation. That's a pretty comforting thought. We have someone looking out for us, handling our situations carefully, not making things more traumatic than they need to be for our own good. He consider us valuable, even when we've messed up and caused Him hurt or pain. He loves us!

That's a pretty important lesson to remember, and I'm thankful that it's one that the girls and I could start our day off with.  

Happy Easter

 Seems like we can never celebrate any holiday with just one day, but that's ok by me! Yesterday, we had a great time at our church's family fun day and then we attended a Saturday night service so that we could all go together as a family. After it was over, we headed back home and let the girls hunt for their Easter basket treasures and candy (since Andy had to leave much earlier than us this morning).

After they found everything, they began to check out their spoils. It was so funny to see their different personalities come out - I jut had to snap a couple of pictures. Here's Emma Lee - neatly opening everything and categorizing her candy in little piles.

Here's Kerri - haphazardly opening eggs and quickly moving on to the next, creating a mess all around her.

This morning, I came downstairs prepared to fix the girls some breakfast, but Kerri informed me that she had "accidentally" already filled up on Easter candy - guess that's what happens when you give it to them Saturday night! Today, we all went our separate ways at church and then came home for a yummy lunch and some time spent relaxing around the house (and eating way too much candy). (We also were so relaxed that we forgot to make calls to family - oops - hope they'll forgive me! Sorry and we love you!)

Tonight, we had a cookout at a sweet friend's house and made our first ever peep s'mores. I'm pretty sure it just became a family tradition!

 

 We also had a temporary house guest join us for an indefinite amount of time  - but more on that tomorrow! 

Eggs, Eggs

I feel like I've been functioning (barely) within a cloud of busyness and have had too many things going on at one time. Yesterday, I decided to remedy that (at least for a few hours) by having some spontaneous fun with the girls. It was lunchtime, so I put together an Easter egg lunch hunt, and they loved it (of course!). I gathered up 12 different colors/kinds of Easter eggs (2 of each one) and placed a different food in each kind: grapes, carrots, sandwich squares, sunflower seeds, cheese blocks, goldfish, raisins, etc. I hid them around the house, and the hunt began!

Yes, Kerri decided black eye shadow would be the perfect touch for the dress she picked out to wear....

After they each found their 12, they took them to the table and began to eat their lunch, in random order since they didn't know what was in which egg (Emma Lee was excited that she got to eat a piece of candy first!). It was a hit, and I felt better. I love making special memories with them and hate it when other things start stealing too much of my time and attention.

 

We waited until Andy got home, but we also dyed some Easter eggs too - can't believe that it's a few short days away!