Our Candy Village

Little Carolers

I really need to sit down, take some time, and write about our Classical Conversations community.  What a blessing it has been to us!  Today we went caroling at a nursing home.  Silas, Simeon, and Lieren did so well interacting with the residents with some support from me.  

My favorite moment was after the children had sang the songs and played the music, as we lingered in conversation with a certain Ms. Lillian.  It was she who the children will remember.  Because it was she who melted into happy tears after Silas shared a scripture verse with her.  Simeon then wanted to tell her one too.  And Lieren hugged her tight.  They blessed her and she blessed us.  The way Christ intended it to be.

Little carolers arriving at the nursing home...

Such a sweet group of children...

Lieren and the Worst Tooth Fairy Ever

Lieren was thrilled to finally lose her first tooth.  It held on for a couple days when we were sure it was about to come out so when it just fell out the other morning, it was an exciting moment all around.

 That night, I had Blaise and Simeon awake in the night and asleep in the bed with us by morning.  I was barely processing the start of a new day when Lieren came into the kitchen with tears, asking why there wasn't money under her pillow.

At first I stared, not sure what she was talking about.  

Then I could have cried.  

I gave her a big hug and said that the Tooth Fairy had a very long night and that if she went and slept in Blaise's bed maybe it would give her more time to come visit Lieren.

Our girl was more than willing to go along with it.

I grabbed a marker and paper, wrote a sweet note, pulled out the cash, and added an envelope of sugar sparkle dust for good measure.

When Lieren decided to get up and went back in her room, the whole production delighted her to no measure.  Our kids don't believe in the Tooth Fairy and she knows I did the whole thing but they sure love the idea of the magic of it all.  

The moral of this story, for this forgetful fairy, is that a little sparkle dust can never hurt.

#homeschool

Some things...

...just make life feel a little better.

And while I am at it, I will thank the Lord for another sweet blessing.  After no coffee for a few weeks, this was a little pick-me-up this afternoon...

Thankful

On Silas

There is something I need to put down in writing because time doesn't keep, does it?  The days move on and sometimes I am lost in getting everything done that I forget to take a minute and not only think, but to see.

Our youngest is four and a half.  It seems impossible, but with every turn of the calendar, I am watching the baby days fade into the past.  I truly, like every mom before me, when I was living in those days of nap times and diapers, thought they would never end.  

And part of me never wanted them to.  

There is a sweetness and delight mixed with the messy and the hard of infants and toddlers.  Everyone told me to cherish it.  So I did.  Not every moment.  And not near perfectly.  But I did.  

So now our oldest is 8.  And there aren't any diapers here anymore. And everyone puts on their own shoes.  And could kinda get breakfast if they needed to.

And listen, no one told me.  

No one told me how fun this age would be.  No one said the conversations would be so rich.  No one said he would be so funny. No one said he would help so much and understand so much and want to know so much.

Silas had a costume planned for Halloween but on the afternoon of the 31st, he decided it wasn't going to work.  So much to my chagrin, he announced he wanted to make something different.  I was less than enthused but encouraged him to figure it out.  And as I watched him pull it together, I couldn't help but jump in and make it as good as we could.

He decided to be a lion.

It was the best.  His delight made my heart sing.  There was nothing he would have wanted to be on Halloween night more than that paper-maned, karate-belt-tailed, red and orange lion.

I wish I could have bottled some of his joy.  As simply as I can put it, he was pleased.

Last week our CC community celebrated medieval day so the children dressed up.  We had a princess and a couple makeshift knights in Star Wars garb.  

But Silas, he wanted to be Shakespeare.  (Who we all know was in the Renaissance Period, but let's not get technical, k?)

The pride with which he wore that outfit made every moment of cutting and pinning the old sheet onto my jacket worth it.   

I kinda wish someone had told me to love the baby days but to know that some really precious days are coming.  

Silas, I want you to know that I see you.  We are in a whole new chapter now.  And even though no one told me, it is so so good.