Our biggest girl is 10 today!

Happy birthday to our dearest Truey! We love you!!!

In just a few short days, I will have a 10 year old! Insane! These past 10 years have gone so fast. What a blessing it’s been to be her mother, and what a blessing to get this opportunity to disciple her heart, even if there are a lot of “Please forgive mes” said over and over again (she’s learning just as much from my shortcomings too). I am a far from perfect mother (nor is she a perfect daughter), but we are both learning how to trust God, who is the perfect parent, more every day. It’s been 10 years of learning from each other and experiencing God’s abounding grace.

She has a bucket list of things she wants to do before she turns 10, so we will be off trying to complete it. We can’t wait to get her little adventure started.

You all know I love things clean and tidy. Fridays are my days to clean to start the weekend off nice and organized. Every night before the girls go to bed, they have to clean up their spaces to get it ready for the next day. I walk around the house and put things back in their place, so the next day we all start with a clean space.

With kids, there’s a lot of happy chaos, but if we don’t keep up with it, it can get overwhelming quickly (then the chaos isn’t so happy). Thus, I try to manage it, instead of the chaos overwhelming me. I don’t handle mess stress well.

A few years ago, during the craziness of my book writing, Ben and I started budgeting for a cleaning lady to come. Let me tell you how that has helped my sanity so much. She only comes once a month, so we still do a lot of our own cleaning, but having someone to do all the deep cleaning stuff, and things I don’t have time to think about like baseboards and dusting window sills, is such a blessing. With the four, homeschooling, and all the things we are involved in, this is a little splurge that I really cherish. Everyone says cleaning day is mine and Soul’s favorite day of the month. There’s truth to that. We aren’t here when she cleans, but when we come home, Soul and I are the first to enter, and we breathed deep and exclaim, “We love it!” We are silly.

While we do know this is a splurge we budget for, we still want the kids to learn how to clean and take responsibility for our home. We aren’t believers in giving an allowance (that’s not how real life works), so they are all given chore charts. There are some things they have to do daily/weekly because it’s their responsibility (they are consequences if things don’t get done), and there are other things they can do to earn money (this is how real life works). They sweep, vacuum, fold and put away laundry, clean out the dishwasher, and take care of their own spaces. I’m getting ready to teach Brave and True how to start cleaning bathrooms too. I started cleaning bathrooms in fourth grade, so it’s about time they learned too.

Saturday mornings are our big chore days. They eat breakfast, then clean the inside of the car, put away laundry, pick up leaves in the yard, and when all is done … the Saturday play commences.

When it comes to cleaning, Brave takes the longest because she dances and sings while she does her work (as seen in the photo above). It’s cute and funny, but I feel kind of bad when she’s been sweeping for two hours. Oye!

Oh these girls … drive me nuts, but I love them so much. I thought it would be easy to get back in the swing of things after spring break, but we have been behind all week. Everyone has a had a tough time staying on task and we are having trouble completing all my lesson plans for the day. I hate the feeling of being behind. While I work with True and Brave, Soul and Glow love turning the house upside down. They say they will clean it up, but when it’s time to clean up, Glow suddenly wants to go to nap. Then, Soul starts crying because she doesn’t want to clean by herself. Glow gets reprimanded for having a lazy and selfish heart, and well, you can imagine the tears from both of them. Maybe, on a good day, things get cleaned up two hours later. Unfortunately, it’s not clean clean and things get stuffed in random spots. Meanwhile, True and Brave are still not done with something they should have finished two hours ago. You know… it’s just regular life over here. The good, the bad, and the messy of rearing children is such a blessing (though sometimes I forget). #graceupongrace

While I homeschool 3 of them officially, Glow’s been expressing an interest in being part of homeschooling lately, so I’ve started doing more intentional learning lessons with her too. I’m thankful True and Brave are pretty much at the same level (makes my life a little bit easier), but it definitely takes juggling to cater to the 3 different stages the girls are at. We started off the year trying to include Glow, but she would zone out quickly, so I didn’t want to pressure her if she wasn’t ready. I would send her off to play (I believe a lot of learning is done in play too) and she would be nearby while the rest of us did school. Now though, I see she is paying more attention to what we are doing and wants to be part of it. It’s made my mornings a bit more full, but it’s exciting to see her interested.

The day I have Soul and Glow completely reading on their own, I’m definitely going to do a happy dance and treat myself to ice cream (or shoes). I thought reading was going to be the most difficult thing for me to teach, but math is where we have had the most obstacles. It’s been better lately and we all have grown to like math a little bit more (thanks to Life of Fred). With the end of the school year not too far from now, I’m starting to think about curriculum for next year. I was thinking about trying out a math curriculum with a video component. If any of you have any suggestions of math programs you have had success with, I would love to hear.

The girls’ rooms drive me a little batty because it isn’t the “clean” that I would like, but it is really cute to see their personalities come out in their spaces. Obviously, you know my girls love Star Wars, and Brave is really into super heroes, Rey and Spider-Man are her favorites (I love all the things she has taped up next to her bed). I’m in the mood to do some reorganizing and slight redecorating in their rooms. I’ve definitely been bitten by that spring cleaning bug. Anyone else get bit too?

Woot! We are officially on spring break! Technically, our spring break was supposed to be this past week, but since we homeschool, we did a little switch-a-roo because I much prefer having a week off after Easter. I have some plans to get some sewing done (help the girls sew some clothes), organize closets, and finish taxes (argh!). The girls have their own agenda too … they want to paint and go get ice cream. I’m also hoping we can have a day to stay in bed and read (or watch movies). Of course, we have plans to hang out with some friends too. My list of things may be a little ambitious, but I’m going to aim high anyway. What are your spring break plans?