The Bratcher Boarding Academy is back in session. I ordered a new white board, so we still need to get that up, but we’ve slowly been getting back into the swing of things. Glow read two short books on her own, Soul continues to grow her reading skills, and I’ve been impressed with the writing True and Brave have done this week.

I remember when True and Brave were starting off, I could not imagine getting to where we are now. When you start homeschooling, it can feel overwhelming (and many times it is), but just go step by step, and then one day you’ll look back and see what you’ve accomplished together. It takes team work with a whole lot of God and His grace too. There have been many mistakes made, and I don’t always love it, but when I see how my girls have grown and how their hearts have been nurtured, I’m thankful for this time with them. Thus, here we are, our sixth year of homeschooling, and Glow is officially on the roster too. It will take a lot of team work to keep this multi-age classroom going, lots of praying and loving selflessly on my part, which I’m not good at, but we can’t wait to see how God grows all of us this year.

Cheers to our sixth year of homeschooling!

School is in session, and in honor of going back-to-school, I’m taking over Family Fun Magazine’s Instagram account to share some tidbits about some of our favorite school things and projects. Check it out here to follow along!

P.S. There will be some peeks from projects from my book, Let’s Sew Together.

My mom is the queen of hospitality. It is her gift, she excels in it, and she is always serving others. You see Jesus in how she lovingly serves people… family, friends, even strangers! For her birthday this year, siblings and I planned a little feast to celebrate and serve her. We didn’t want her to do anything, so we divided up the responsibilities and costs (we are all adults now, so it’s about time everyone chipped in) to put together a small Korean BBQ style feast. We set everything up at my parents’ house before they got home from work.

To get our feast table ready, we laid pink paper on the table, and painted “Happy Birthday Mom” and “Happy Birthday Grammy” on it. I made all the side dishes ahead of time ; we plated them in cute little paper boat plates (this site helped, along with my BFF who taught me everything I needed to know to throw a legit Korean feast ). There were 2 grills in the middle of the table for all the delicious meat (I picked up all the meat at the Korean market the day before). My girlies set out cards they made and a special floral crown. They said, “Grammy needs her own crown for her birthday.”

We all hid in the family room, so when she entered, we yelled, “SURPRISE!” followed by a rendition of the “Happy Birthday” song. She was definitely surprised and elated to see everyone together. We all went to the backyard to surprise her with the feast we prepared for her. For dessert, we picked up kievsky cake from Karina’s Cake House. This was another surprise, since it’s a new cake my family had never tried before. Our go-to cake is Filipino mango cake, but I had a feeling my family would really like this one just as much, and they did. It’s so good… will someone please pick this up for my birthday?!

During dinner, we all went around the table sharing stories about how my mom has blessed us. I think what Ben shared really summed her up well. He recounted the story of  The Giving Tree, and described how my mom is that tree. She gives, and gives, and gives, and gives, and gives… and she was happy. I’m thankful that we had an evening for all of us to shower her with love, and she was definitely happy with that too.

I love photo boothin’ with my peeps. We will continue to try to keep squeezing into one for as long as we can (even if it’s only an ear or forehead that’s makes it in the photo). This was taken at our trip to the OC Fair this year.

I’ve never been a mushy, super attached, sentimental mom, at least not for these first 10 years. But after True hit that 10 mark, I’ve become much more mushy and emotional about parenting. Suddenly, I get it. The days really are long, but the years feel short, and that it’s going to end soon. I’ve known that. People tell me that often, but now I really feel it. I want to rewind and do all the years all over again, even all the hard parts.

Ben and I feel the time crunch to redeem our time with them wisely, and to keep impressing upon them grace and the gospel. First though, it starts with us. We need to be savoring Jesus and worshiping God in our own lives. If it’s not evident to them that Jesus is our all, it certainly won’t want them to make Jesus their all.

I love my peeps. I treasure them and I thank God for giving me an opportunity to love and mother them (and have Ben as my teammate). I’m a not a perfect mother, and my list of shortcomings is miles long, but I’m thankful that my failures point me to Jesus, and through them I can talk to my kids about Jesus and what He’s done for me (and for them).

Looking at these pictures, I see my 4 little loves who are image bearers of God. I praise God for the gifts they are, even if they drive me nuts sometimes (I drive them nuts sometimes too), but these 4 girls teach me to savor and love Jesus more.

To celebrate Brave’s last single digit birthday, we did something on the 9th minute of every hour for nine hours. We would all count down the last 10 seconds right before time changed to :09. Our Brave was so giggly and excited to see what the next surprise would be.

8:09– She got her breakfast in bed, as well as a new pack on instax mini film. Ben made her a little grape ant to go with her French toast.

9:09– On her birthday list was a “new watch” because her Timex one had broken. I checked it out, and the battery was just dead, so we replaced her battery, and her watch was working like new again!

10:09– Of course, every birthday has a birthday dress! I made her a denim one (inspired by this dress) and sewed on fun patches in random places, with an 09 to commemorate the occasion.

11:09– She requested a sushi lunch, so that’s what the birthday girl gets. We had some special visitors over for lunch, and we were all so busy chatting, I forgot to take a picture of the kids, who were not as chatty due to the language barrier. The kids created their own California hand rolls and the adults made ahi tuna hand rolls. It was a wonderful afternoon celebrating and chatting away with them.

12:09– A simple request of mechanical pencils was easy to grant.

1:09– With all the swimming they do, a new bathing suit was needed. It was supposed to be for our weekend away, and while we didn’t get out of town for the weekend, she still was able to get some swimming in at what we like to call the Garza Resort (Ben’s cousin’s home).

2:09– This wasn’t on her birthday list, but I knew a reading light would come in handy for her late-night for reading. She had liked this light at IKEA a few months back, so I picked it up for her birthday.

3:09– She wanted a photo album for all the mini instax pictures she takes, so we got her this one.

4:09– The celebration ended with 9 sprinkle donuts and a couple jolly rounds of “Happy Birthday” for our new 9 year old.

Since, we had some friends over for lunch, we all got carried with playing and talking, so we continued the 1:09 and on countdown the very next day. Brave didn’t mind that little adjustment because that meant another day to celebrate her birthday. True (and Ben) started not feeling well the next day, so we had to change our plans from leaving out of town to staying home. We spent all of Saturday in our master bedroom, which we dubbed room 8416 (her birthday is August 4), and Ben made her a hotel key that said, “The Bratcher Comfort Inn,” and we did all the things we normally do at a hotel. Lots of snacking, movie watching, napping whenever, and the only thing we missed out on was the swimming, which we did the very next day at the Garza Resort.

We are so thankful for our Bravey’s sweet heart and her ability to roll with it when he had to change some plans due to some unforeseeable circumstances. I definitely was not as gracious as a child (I was more bratty). When we would ask her what she wanted, her reply was, “I just want to cuddle.” She said cuddling was her favorite thing. Thus, as we watched movies all day long on Saturday, we made sure to do lots of cuddling with her.

Dear Bravey, we love the kind-hearted girl God is growing you into. We are so thankful for your selflessness and how you strive to love others above yourself. We are praying that God continues to open your eyes to understand who Jesus is and what He has done for you.

We’ve got 10 years of this tradition under our belt, and the only reason we go to the fair is to keep this tradition going. We love the photo booth, and we make sure to get a photo of our family taken outside of it when we are done. It’s been the same lady manning it for the last several years (and the one who takes this family photo) and she always remembers us. She says, “That’s right! The family with all girls!” Here are some things I noticed about this newest family photo versus the previous years…

Glow is wearing the striped dress that Soul wore in 2013 and 2015, and True wore in 2012.

Ben is wearing the same exact outfit from last year. The shorts are covered up by the girls, but they are indeed the same ones. Therefore, it’s the same shorts 4 years in a row.

While his clothes never change, his hair does.

True’s the one wearing glasses now. Hers are prescription versus Brave’s faux glasses from the previous years.

Second year in a row, no baby in our arms. That’s cause we are out of the baby stage for good (at least as far as our plans are). Glow makes sure we all know she is the baby for life.

The girls are wearing no hats this year.

I’m always standing to the left of Ben; I like this side better. lol

Anything stand out to you regarding this year’s photo? Read last year’s comparison’s here.