Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Yard work

We've been working on our front yard-we pulled out overgrown plants, groundcover, cut out new flower beds, hauled in 4 truckloads of soil, planted perennials, etc. It's been a family effort...Cade and Claire have hauled wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of soil and bark, Emily and Ashley have collected worms. Kailyn prefers to serve the family by cleaning the house and making lunch for all of us, so we're thankful for that as well. : )

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Kids

Having five children ages 5 to 14 ensures that there is a lot of variety in my day. I go from listening to Kailyn conjugate Latin verbs to helping Cade with his pre-algebra to singing the ABC song with the twins. One day recently, though, I was struck by the wide gap in their ages and abilities...Cade was working on his final project in geography-free-hand drawing a map of the entire world complete with all of the capitals and countries labeled (Did you know that the capital of Swaziland is Mbabane?) Shortly after admiring his amazing detail, Emily brought me a portrait that she had drawn of "mom" and "dad". (She was very proud that she had drawn in daddy's goatee.) I am so thankful for the privilege of being a mom!