Where does the time go??

It's been almost a month since I've posted anything! I've meant to post, I've had lots to write about, it just seems that there are never enough hours in the day, days in the month...well, you get the picture. Here are some things that are going on with us.

1)Jacey accepted Christ as her personal savior on April 20th. Well, that's the official date that she went down front at church. She started talking about it on April 13th and I think that's the official date. This is just to important, so I'll have a separate entry about this later.

2)We finished Life School Musical at church. Production date was May 4th and it was FABULOUS!! Again, it is worthy of it's own post, and I will get to that soon hopefully! Thanks to my friend Jenny D. I will be able to put up a clip of Jacey singing her first solo ever. She also danced in the musical, but being technically challenged like I am, I can't figure out how to get the recorded dance out of the recorder and onto the computer. Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated.

3)The girls had their first piano recital on May 10th. I will have pictures in the future, but for now they are in an old-time camera that requires development. Our digital camera broke on our hike up to Anna Ruby Falls. That hike actually deserves it's own post as well, so that makes three things I now need to post about.

4) Soccer season is over YEAH!!!! It was a lackluster season and I'm not sure we'll be playing again in the fall. There are several reasons, but mostly it's the time involved vs. the return on investment. Once ballet is over (end of this month) we probably won't be doing it again in the fall either, mostly for the same reason.

5) Abbey is finishing up her pre-k work and will be ready for Kindergarten in just a few weeks. She's really come along way this year in her number recognition (8 and above) and her ability to write legibly. She doesn't LIKE to write and complains about it a lot, but the hard work is definitely paying off!

6) Jacey is working HARD on her reading and phonics books. She's done with books 1 and 2 and should be done with 3 and 4 by the end of June. We didn't start this program until November which is why she seems a little behind. She's doing great though and she is becoming a really good reader. Her comprehension amazes me. She finished her Kindergarten math (Math-u-see) in March so we've kind of been taking a 'math-break'. She said today though that she wanted to get back to working on math so that's what we'll do.

We had ballet recital pictures last Friday. While I don't have the pictures back yet, our cousin Stephanie thought to bring her camera to the photo shoot. Here are a few pictures of the princesses. The little girl with Jacey and Abbey is Catherine, she's their cousin.

'Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy

Well Now.... It seems I have your attention! Haha...

No, this post isn't about kissing, or guys, or even kissing guys. This post is about something that I have always enjoyed - misunderstood, misheard, mispronounced or otherwise mangled song lyrics. This has been something I have enjoyed reading about since I was 9 or 10 years old. It was at that time I received a book that has been one of my all time favorites. Misheard lyrics actually have a proper name it's Mondegreens. The term was coined by writer Sylvia Green in The Atlantic in 1954. A mondegreen is a word, phrase, line of poetry or song lyric that you hear incorrectly. Now don't say you didn't learn something today!!

You may be wondering, why in the world is she going on about mondegreens? Well, I'll tell you. Tonight as my beautiful Abbey was playing in the bath, she was singing, this is customary. What truly got my attention and made me laugh out loud was what she was singing. It went like this "Mama's little baby loves short men, short men, mama's little baby loves short men yeah". I didn't have the heart to tell her what the song really said, and besides, her version made just about as much sense! You may be wondering, where a four-year old heard a plantation song, which is titled "Short'nin Bread", it's all Laurie Berkner's fault.

'Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy' is one of the most widely known mondegreens. The song actually says, "'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky". It's a Jimi Hendrix song that was popular in the 60's, but if you've listened to the radio (classic rock)in the last 25 years or so, I'm sure you've heard it.

Here are few more of my all time favorite mondegreens:

You made the rice, I made the gravy.
Actual lyric:You may be right, I may be crazy.
(Billy Joel)

There's a bathroom on the right.
Actual lyric:There's a bad moon on the rise.
(CCR)

The girl with colitis goes by.
Actual lyric:The girl with kaleidoscope eyes.
(Beatles

She's got a chicken to ride.
Actual lyric:She's got a ticket to ride.
(Beatles

Jose can you see?
Actual lyric:O, Say can you see?
(The Star Spangled Banner)

I wanna know
Have you ever seen Loraine?
Actual lyric:I wanna know
Have you ever seen the rain?
(Creedence Clearwater Revival)

I'm noticing a theme here, it seems CCR and the Beatles have a lot of mondegreens. I wonder if that was a sign of the times (the 60's) or if they were just hard to understand?

If you want to read more and laugh til you pee, go here.

Thank you sweet Abbey for the laugh, and for the inspiration for this post.

Words of Five Year Old Wisdom

We had a little incident last week. Abbey lied to me about her dinner, she said she had eaten it, when in fact she had thrown it in the trash. Lying is something that we don't tolerate so the situation was dealt with accordingly. After someone receives punishment, I like to take the time to talk about it after the hurt feelings and DRAMA have died down. Well, as is customary, Abbey and I were discussing her infraction during a calm moment. Jacey happened to be right there with us, listening and taking it all in. When my oldest child opened her mouth to speak, my jaw hit the floor and my eyes filled with tears. She told her younger sister (younger by 12 months and 3 weeks), "The Bible says" (and this is her quoting!) "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truthfully are his delight." That's Proverbs 12:22 for those of you reading that might not know.

My sweet, wise-beyond-her-years, God loving child not only quoted scripture to her sister in a biblical way, but she also used it in the correct context AND got the verse right! PRAISE THE LORD for the AWANA program and the teaching children receive there! If you ever have the opportunity to work with this program or put your children in it, please look into it. It's invaluable!

As I've relayed this story to a few friends over the past several days, I find myself tearing up each time. I'm not sure what that's about. I don't think it's pride, because it's nothing I've done, it's all about the Lord. I've been thinking maybe it's jealousy. I don't like to think I'm capable of being jealous of my daughter, but I could be. I find myself wishing that at such a young age, I would have been on the same journey she's on in her personal relationship with God. I didn't even know a personal relationship with God was a possibility until I was in my 30's! I'm still not sure where all the emotions are coming from, but I do know that I thank GOD for her love for Him and I pray it continues to grow as she continues to grow. Thank you Jesus!

Our New Addition

I only wish it were a HUMAN little bundle of joy. But I suppose a puppy is the next best thing (well, maybe...). Our new little guy is Tucker. We got him at the soccer field last Thursday and he's been providing entertainment and a source of constant friction in our home for the last 3 days! Even though he has FOUR legs, Jacey and Abbey don't seem to think he can and/or should walk around. They carry him everywhere or he is constantly being held. Of course there is the obligatory fighting between sister, "She's had him for HOURS!", "I haven't gotten to hold him all day", "Is it my turn to hold Tucker?", I'm sure you're picking up on the theme here. At one point I had heard so much whining, complaining and DRAMA, that they were both put on puppy restriction for an hour. Of course the quite only lasted a short time then the question was, "How much longer until we can hold Tucker?" AUGHHHH!

You know how sometimes it's hard to pick out a name for a puppy, and then you wonder if you've named him the right thing? Well, our list of possible names was a short one, they included; Tucker, Clancy, Huck, and Dylan(that was Jacey's suggestion). We settled on Tucker and it has turned out to be the PERFECT name. He is ALWAYS TUCKERed out from being played with, held, drug around and loved on so much. Below are some pictures of him in one of his two states of being, in someones arms or asleep.

I'm a Question Mark...

You Are a Question Mark

You seek knowledge and insight in every form possible. You love learning. And while you know a lot, you don't act like a know it all. You're open to learning you're wrong. You ask a lot of questions, collect a lot of data, and always dig deep to find out more. You're naturally curious and inquisitive. You jump to ask a question when the opportunity arises. Your friends see you as interesting, insightful, and thought provoking. (But they're not always up for the intense inquisitions that you love!) You excel in: Higher education You get along best with: The Comma

http://www.blogthings.com/whatpunctuationmarkareyouquiz/">What Punctuation Mark Are You?

More Nature Study Picture

I'm not going to write much, but I did want you to have the pleasure of seeing Jacey's rendition of the creek

Also, some really cool pictures I took of a fern. I had never seen a fern that hadn't bloomed (is that the right word?) but here it is. All those squiggly light green things are actually fern fronds. My 4 year old said the completely shut ones looked like seahorses, I think she's right!

And a picture of a new fern, just beinging to uncurl. God is SO amazing!

Our First Nature Study

OK, I'll admit it, I'm really not an outdoors kind of girl. I don't enjoy the bugs, or the hot, or the cold, or the dirt, but I do enjoy seeing the things our loving God has created, which is going to require me to spend more time outside and 'become one with nature' (not really!).

I am going to work really hard though on trying to get out more, at least once a week, and to teach the girls a lot about God, life and science through being in the great outdoors. One of the foundational thoughts of teaching with the Charlotte Mason method is "Out of door nature study lays the foundation for science". (Vol.3 p.281). So out the door we went. We carried along our sketch books, field guides and water color pencils, all in our handy-dandy waterproof bag. As we walked into the woods, I explained to the girls some of the rules of nature. 1st, don't EVER go in the woods by yourself. (You see where we live, we have woods on all sides of us, so I'm basically saying, don't leave the grass). 2nd, before you step over a log, look on the other side to make sure there isn't a snake laying there and 3rd, watch out for briers! That's about all I could remember from all those years in girl scouts. I'll put that on my to-do list, look up safety tips for woodland adventures!

As we walked, we saw many neat things. A lot of trees had fallen and we got to see a really large one with all the roots showing as well as the big hole it had left behind. As we trekked further down the hill and into the wood, we came to the creek. You would have thought I had taken them to Angel Falls in Venezuela. They were so excited. If course the first thing they wanted to do was get in it. Being the good mother that I am, I said "No, it's to chilly to be in the water" then remembering what a drag that was to hear all my childhood, I changed my mind and said "OK, but just walk across on the rocks and try not to get your clothes wet. Jacey made it across first.

Then Abbey made it across (and she didn't for get her sassiness!)

Of course, children being children, it wasn't long before both of them had fallen in the water (I think Abbey fell first), but they were having to much fun for me to stop them, and besides everyone knows colds come from germs, not wet feet in April! (right??)

Here's a picture of them together in the creek

After I felt they had gotten wet enough, and they had started pushing the limit just a little to far, we all sat down on the bank and looked around for something to draw. The story and picture of Abbey's drawing is on the previous perfectionist post. Jacey decided to draw the creek, a water bug we saw and the weeds and briers growing on the bank of the other side of the creek. I'll upload her drawing on a separate post as I think this one may have to many pictures.

We had a great time on our first nature study and I plan to do it much more often (unless it's hot, wet, humid, dirty, sticky, sunny, or cloudy outside!) (Just kidding!)