Lately…

Wow.  Time sure flies when you’re having fun.  And when you have three kids. Not that they are the same and not that one cancels out the other.  I think you know what I mean.

So lately we have had some very full days.  Ruby has been taking a few classes at Timothy Ministry on Tuesday mornings.  She loves her Cookie Creations class.  She brings in baked cookies in different shapes and learns how to ice them.  Not a bad course for an 8 year old.

Very cute cookies have been coming out of that class!  I’m glad she loves that class.

Her next class is knitting.  Ruby is not a detail person.  She sees the big picture.  She likes to run and play and read.  Her imagination is out of this world.  When I asked her if she wanted to take piano like Molly and Mack, she said, “No,  I just really don’t want to sit down and figure out all of that.”  However, when we were signing up for her classes this semester she told me that she would like to try Beginning Knitting.  Well, let’s just say it isn’t quite going like I thought.  First of all, Ruby is left handed, and we all know this is a right-handed world.  She came home with directions for a dishcloth and lots of excitement about giving it a try….but we couldn’t seem to remember anything about what to do to get started.  I you tubed left handed knitting, and she got going.  But it wasn’t quite working.

We went to a friend’s house who gave her a personal lesson….it didn’t seem to take.

I figured that if Ruby was going to get out of this class with anything, then I better get to figuring this out.  Now I know that I could have just let her go through the class and try to figure it out on her own.  I just decided that this time I wanted to be helpful and see if she could get the hang of it if I could help her here at home.

Sure enough, I taught myself how to knit left handed.  Here is a my dishcloth about 1/3 of the way through:

Not bad.  Not great either, but still! I was impressed with myself.  I don’t plan on knitting my own dishcloths seeing how they sell them at Target, but I did enjoy sitting and knitting.

Occasionally, Ruby would walk by me working away and say, “Thanks so much for knitting for me.”

“Um, Ruby, I am not knitting for you.  I’m knitting so I can help you knit for yourself.”

She started her own dishcloth yesterday and is doing very well.  It may be the only thing she leaves there with this semester, but I would be happy about that!

Ruby is also taking a  Bible class that she loves.  She always has something new to tell me about God’s Word from her time in class, which makes my heart soar!

Valentine’s Day was a fun day around here.  We got packages from each grandparent’s house, and Mack and Josh brought home some fun treats for us girls.
 I love Valentine’s Day!  It’s always been one of my favorite days of the year.  Just a fun, loving, candy-eating day!

We have also been doing a lot of school work!  This year is going by so very quickly.  We start week 26 on Monday, which means we have about 10 more weeks of curriculum before we take a summer break.  We are all looking forward to some warm days by the pool.  But, until then…

Mack started the first grade Saxon Math book this past week.  We have been doing Kindergarten math this whole time.  Lots of writing numbers, patterns, sorting, counting by 10’s, and basic addition and subtraction.  I think he is ready for this, so we shall see.  He was very excited about it!  I told him he had a test to take Monday, and he strutted around the house making sure the girls knew he was big enough to have a test.

Molly is reading more and more.  This week she read a book that I remember loving as a kid.  After reading it the other day, I have no idea why I loved this book, but I did.  Molly would rather be texting and eating fruit roll-ups, but she does her school work very well.  Her handwriting is very neat.

Ruby and I are reading all about George Muller and loving it.  Every now and then Ruby stops and says, “Can you believe that this story started out with him drinking when he was 12 years old and stealing????”  We get to talk about the grace of God and how we all need Jesus.  He can change anyone’s life.

Josh continues to work hard and be a super husband and daddy.  I sure am glad I am a woman…I would not want the responsibility that the man has.  Josh handles it well, and we sure do appreciate him around here.

So that is a little about what has been going on around here lately….nothing overly exciting, but enough to keep us hopping!