Enjoying Our Rhythm

Our days have fallen into a sweet gentle rhythm here!

Chad comments often on how much he enjoys the rhythm of days at home.

I love that so much!

Worship first thing before school is sweet.

I would encourage you all to do this with your children!!

No, we cannot sing very well!

But the Lord hears our voices in a whole different way – straight from our hearts.

School is at such a sweet spot too.

The Lord is blessing the planning I did over break, and the changes we have made around here too!

Spelling tests with scrabble pieces are way more fun.

Try it!

We subscribed to Rosetta Stone over a month ago, and Chad is learning French!

I spoke French as a child because we lived in Brussels, Belgium, from the time I was in fifth grade until I graduated from High School.

Hopefully we will be having some good conversations in French soon, ha, ha!

Our read aloud time has picked back up again, and they never want me to stop!

Our afternoons have a sweet gentle rhythm too, even though they are different everyday.

We play a lot of games in the winter months.

I enjoy it very much!

This game is from my childhood!

We all are always reading.

The one thing I pick up and put away the most is books!

That is not a complaint, but a JOY!

We swept out the garage one afternoon and let some little people get some wiggles out.

Afternoons are meant for errands with a handsome helper too!

Our biggest stock pot seems to be filled and emptied so very much!

But we love soup, which means we need the chicken stock to make the soup.

I have plans for tomato soup, white chili soup, chicken pot pie soup, and mexican soup all this coming week!

We still eat.

A lot of eating.

All the time we are eating!

We have our first batch of kombucha going!

Excited about it!

There have been a few children who have been wearing the hats they were gifted on our field trip last week.

Good grief, is he CUTE!!

Lane.

His heart is SO PRECIOUS.

He was helping Eliza with her memory verse while she ate breakfast.

We also have the most blessed time when we are with our favorite people several times a week!!

River loves his sissy.

The sky here at Twin Oaks has been gorgeous lately.

Look what God did!!

We have been getting more snow too!

I’M SO HAPPY ABOUT THAT!

I’m still finding notes beside my bed at night from the sweetest six year old girl in the world!

She makes me smile!!

I like to leave notes too.

Isn’t that so true though?

Our purpose for life here!!

To glorify God!

I love that so much!

Enjoying our rhythm indeed – but it’s all really just a matter of how you look at things!

Happy Wednesday, friends!

January’s Adventure

This past Tuesday we took the four youngest kiddos on a field trip!

Our January adventure!

This adventure did not start until after lunch, and was only about a 25 minute drive from Twin Oaks.

First we headed to Mathews in Sparta!

They make hunting bows and we were scheduled to have a tour of their factory!

Before we headed into the factory we had to put on eye protection and promise not to take any photos inside.

So I grabbed these photos quick in the lobby!

Learning about how they make the hunting bows was SO fascinating!

We saw robots in action!

And so many different types of machines in action.

After the tour was over we headed next door to McPherson’s Guitar where they make guitars.

These two companies are owned by the same man.

We were taken on a tour of the guitar shop as well and learned how the guitars are made!

I thought the guide said no photos while on the tour of the guitar shop, but my crew told me later that he said I could take all the photos I wanted.

BUMMER!

We left Sparta and headed to the movie theater in La Crosse to see the movie Mary Poppins Returns.

Such a cute movie!

We looked at that movie from such a different view point now that Chad was in that play back in October.

We appreciate the production aspect of it all SO much!

We were home in time for a late dinner that Grant and Addie Mae had waiting for us.

It was a wonderful day!

I’m SO thankful for the investment Blake is making in coming up with these field trip ideas, scheduling them, and taking off work to join us for them.

Our February adventure will be here before we know it!

Looking forward to it already!

Majestic Creatures

While teaching school one morning recently one of the boys shouted, “Everyone, come here!”

We ran to the window to see these beautiful eagles eating something in the field across the road from our home!

I put the long lens on my camera to try to capture this memory.

We have seen many eagles around Twin Oaks for months now, and we could not be more pleased about that!

They are so majestic.

They are a joy to watch.

We are hoping to see them up close again very soon!

“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
Isaiah 40:31

All About Hippos

Our first Five In A Row (a curriculum we use for the youngest three) book of this new year is called Hanna’s Cold Winter.

There was SO much good learning that happened based on that book!

Hanna is a hippo – and so we learned all the things about hippos.

They are amazing creatures!

I planned our art class around a hippo during the study of this book.

We also had so many great go-along books to read with this FIAR study.

My favorite ones were the books about Fiona, who is a real live hippo who was born prematurely in January of 2017, survived, and still lives at the Cincinnati Zoo.

We watched videos about Fiona’s rescue and survival and it was fascinating!

Our art class this day was drawing a hippo under water, coloring it with oil pastels, and then using the water resist technique with water colors.

Our water colors did not do what we thought they would – but we still enjoyed the oil pastels very much!

Yes, I do the art project with my kiddos.

I enjoy doing them, and it helps Tate who lacks confidence in his abilities with art – so he can copy what I do.

Which worked out perfectly!!

Hanna’s Cold Winter and all that went along with you – you were a HIT!

Reading books and running with all angles of learning from them is MY FAVORITE WAY to learn with my children!!