What's on my nightstand

Not exactly on my nightstand, but on the end table and in the library basket and other places. These are the books (and DVD) currently checked out of the library. You'll see a couple themes. :)

Just because we checked them out from the library doesn't mean we endorse them. :)  But we do love "No More Pacifier, Duck!"  and we love that Little Guy is learning a Bible verse with "Give Thanks to the Lord."

	Choices in deafness : a parents' guide to communication options
	Let's talk together : home activities for early speech & language development
		Snow Stojic, Manya.
	Potty power for boys and girls [videorecording] : say goodbye to diapers!
		The potty book for boys Capucilli, Alyssa Satin,
		The no-cry potty training solution : gentle ways to help your child say good-bye to diapers Pantley, Elizabeth.
		Even firefighters go to the potty : a potty training lift-the-flap story Wax, Wendy (Wendy Anne)
		1-2-3 magic for Christian parents : [effective discipline for children 2-12] Phelan, Thomas W., 1943-
		No More Pacifier, Duck Dahl, Michael
		Thirty million words : building a child's brain, tune in, talk more, take turns Suskind, Dana, author.
		Give thanks to the Lord : celebrating Psalm 92 Wilson, Karma.
		Flaptastic farm Gardner, Charlie.
		Flaptastic numbers Gardner, Charlie.

Ordinary Bins

Harvest 2015 is finished!  

A few days ago I gave my husband a ride out to the farm where these bins are, so he could drive the combine home.   While these may look like run-of-the-mill grain bins, these bins are more.  You might think these bins are just like every other bin that you see dotting the landscape as you drive through the midwest, and they are, but they are also more.  These are holy bins on holy ground. 

I never met the people who owned this farm.  They went to heaven before I came here as a farmer’s wife.  But I know they loved the gospel of Jesus Christ and they loved children.  I know they viewed their land as a stewardship entrusted to them by the Lord.  And I know that they left the land in a trust to benefit a certain ministry, so that children could know the gospel of Jesus. 

These bins are filled with corn & beans, yes, but the grain in these bins will be sold to profit their chosen ministry.  The grain in these bins will be transformed into house parents and cooks and teachers and horses and carpentry supplies and food and school books and electric bill payments.  The grain in these bins will be turned into love and grace and training and structure and vocational experience and devotions and education. 

Lord willing, this grain will become another harvest: a harvest of souls, a harvest of young men who meet the Master and grow in grace, a harvest of a new generation of godly men loving their wives and training their children in the gospel of Christ.  These bins are holy, set apart for God. 

How many children will greet this couple in heaven to say, “Thank you for giving to the Lord?” 

What ordinary thing can I give to the Lord?  What ordinary thing can I set apart for God?

Who made raspberries?

While eating delicious raspberries at breakfast this morning, I spontaneously asked, "Who made raspberries?"

Little Guy:  "God."

So I asked a few other questions.

Who made dogs?
God

Who made peaches?
God did.

Who made Little Guy?
GOD DID! (said with much glee)

The question is an adaptation of question 1 of the Catechism for Young Children.   A few times last fall, as I struggled to find topics to keep giving our son a language-rich environment during our stroller walks around and around our block, I asked (and answered) the first five questions.  I have not been consistent in repeating it, except for periodically (less than once a month) asking the first one.

But he knows the answer! And can transfer the concept.

It strikes me that our combine conversation (which now includes another line with the answer, "Auger") is actually a combine catechism-! :)

These little minds really are sponges.  (Hopeful post coming soon on the book Thirty Million Words and the importance of a language rich environment.)

Do/did you teach the catechism?

Geography Lessons

Little Guy has a cousin whom he absolutely adores.  At the end of the school year in May, said cousin received a beach ball from her teacher.  Every time, LG goes to his cousin's home, he walks in the door and starts saying (in present continuous tense), "Big ball!"

So, he was delighted when he received a package in the mail with a beach ball for me to inflate.  This is no ordinary beach ball, though!  It is a simple globe (one color for land, one for water).  After a while of playing with it, I realized there was a hidden educational opportunity. :) And so, I pointed to where Ana & Papa live, and where we live, and then I pointed to the North Pole and said, "Grandpa went here," and then to the South Pole, and said, "Grandpa & Grandma went here," (taking a little editorial liberty to express Antarctica).

Today, he was showing Daddy all the places on the globe that he knows.  And Jim made an astute observation, "Not every little boy is pointing to the North Pole to say Grandpa went there!"

:)

Continuing with the geography lessons, he looked at a picture of the solar system and accidentally found a true object for his favorite "big ball" description - the sun!!

So, what should our next geography lesson be?!

Combine

The word of the day fall for Little Guy is "Combine!"

We look on Facebook at cousins' pictures with their Daddy and of a grown-up friend's pictures of her Dad's harvest.  We repeatedly read tractor board books and point out the combine.  We watch YouTube videos.  We spy them in fields and implement dealership lots as we drive by.  If I had a quarter for every time I've heard the word, "combine," I'd have a LOT of quarters. :)

On two VERY special days this fall we were able to go and RIDE the combine with Daddy!!!!

Little Guy is good at telling the story. 

LG: "Combine!" {sometimes followed by "Daddy."}

Me:  How does the farmer get in the combine?

LG: "Up, up."

Me: What does the combine do?

LG: "Round and round."

Me: Where does Daddy put the grain?

LG: "Dump in wagon." "Auger."

Me: Who drives the wagon?

LG: "Grandpa!"

 

When Daddy says, "Sometimes Daddy drives the wagon or sometimes Uncle S- drives the combine. We take turns," LG says the name of the little boy next door, because that is who HE takes turns with (on his toys). :) 

1000 Gifts, Vol. 5, #3

21.  good sleep for all for several nights in a row (Aaah!)

22.  very, VERY encouraging reports from both the speech therapist and the aural rehab therapist this week!

23.  Little Guy finally getting used to our Tuesday schedule (Read: a Tuesday without tears) (For reference, we leave at 8.10, go to BSF 9.10-11 and to music therapy 11.45-12.45, which pushes his nap late, and arrive home at 1.20-ish.  Ideally his 30 minute nap in the car continues when I transfer him to his crib.)

24.  all that he is learning in his BSF class - in addition to his prayer life changes, this week he will tell you that Jesus is coming "down on the clouds."

25.  encouragement from reading a book review about Thirty Million Words

26.  computer repairs so that now both photos & iTunes are back off the external drive & onto my computer WITH more space found

27.  the card reader Jim ordered me so I could & can upload photos from the camera

28.  teeny tiny baby steps forward in the arduous task of sending 80-100 photos and 16 lengthy answers to our profile designer (current hold-up in becoming an active waiting family with Faithful Adoption Consultants)

29.  deep face-to-face encouragement from 3 or 4 people this past week about the current hold-up

30.  harvest is almost over - HURRAH!

A morning in our life

After a middle-of-the-night cry session (by the youngest; not by me! Mine was mid-afternoon yesterday!), we all were eager to sleep in, but the farmer had to heed the alarm and drive 45 minutes to pick up a part as soon as the shop was open, so he could get back to the farm and install it and get to work.

Little Guy slept in until 8! (Cue the happy music, and wonder why we didn't introduce blankets to his crib earlier?!)  While he ate, I finished packing the red lunch box with two meals to get the Farmer through the day.

Then we spent a little while leisurely watching YouTube videos of combines, last year's photos of Little Guy in the combine, and a friend's photos posted on Facebook of her dad's harvest operation.  Alas, all good things must come to an end, and eventually we had to stop and get dressed... in layers, and a fleece, and a hat.

Play group was fun for all!  The stream of tractors, semis, and grain trucks has slowed down quite a bit, but one little boy brought some toy diggers and dump trucks which added to the fun.  The youngest one there just took off walking this past week, so watching him was fun.  A newcomer decided to venture forth from his grandma and entered into the fray.  The more, the merrier!  LOTS of energy was expended, running and climbing, and generally being outside.

Then off to the post office, where the post office box did not disappoint, and Little Guy had a green package slip to place on the counter, though, sadly, neither of the packages were thin enough for him to carry. 

More play in the living room, some books, some bloodshed (from Little Guy's mouth - not sure at all how that happened, but I have the stain on my nice khakis to prove it), several graham crackers.  And then off for a nap, under two fuzzy blankets!!