Accepting My Need for Routine

A friend of mine posted yesterday about an article about introverts.  I am quite decidedly an introvert.  In the article she referenced, 22 out of the 23 characteristics mentioned described me.  Her post was interesting, though, because she talked about how our culture thinks there is something wrong with introverts, that we need to be fixed, and how people are finally starting to realize that there is value in these characteristics as well.  It was encouraging to read her post and to read the article because it helped me understand the why of why I do some of the things I do or feel certain ways.  (I am in no way excusing sinful behaviors, more things like feeling panic-y if I have to participate in small talk or feeling alone in a crowd.) 
It also brought to mind something else that I have accepted about myself in the last week.  I need a very scheduled routine.  We are in our seventh week of school, and the first six weeks have been kind of chaotic.  We had no real routine, and many things were allowed to interrupt our day to the point that it was sometimes taking until suppertime to finish our work.  I found this very frustrating because we couldn't fully enjoy the fun things that were interrupting us as we knew we still had work to do.  This past weekend I worked out a rough daily schedule, and this week has gone beautifully.  I feel more orderly in my mind, and we are finishing school before lunch with time to ride bikes and go to the playground.
So you may be asking...why was this so hard for you to accept, why didn't you just set up your routine right from the get go?  Well, my life has been filled with people who have told me that I need to relax, go with the flow.  I distinctly remember hearing from one youth leader that I needed to chill out.  All these voices speaking into my life drowned out what I do know to be true about how I function best and said that there was something wrong with it.  I don't have a hard time with, on a Saturday, just hopping in the car with Joel and doing whatever he wants without knowing what it is.  But in our daily life, I need routine.  And I am okay with that.  The children are functioning much better.  We are getting quite a bit accomplished each day and having a lot of fun together.  Everyone knows what is expected of them.  Life is much smoother!

(Here is the link to the original article about introverts!)

Shabby Apple dresses for a year!

I love Shabby Apple's dresses and actually own one that I was lucky enough to buy on ebay!  They are kindly giving away a dress a month for the next year to one of their fans, and you can enter here!  http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3273394801291705844&postID=7683619539079443558&page=5&token=1349824212474
Go now, what are you waiting for!

Firefighters

Holy cow!  I had to try a couple of times before I could log in because I couldn't remember my password!  We've been so busy and I honestly haven't felt like writing.  I'm kind of getting back into it though, although it probably won't be four days a week like before.  We are almost done with our first term of school, and I really want to write about how that is going!  I love the curriculum we are using.  It is more of a method than a curriculum.  I can tell a huge difference in the girls' observation skills since we started using it.

But tonight I am just going to show you something special:

 These lucky men will become firefighters on Thursday.  There are 15 of them swelling the ranks of those who protect our homes and lives.  We'll be happy to have them.

These unfortunate ones didn't make the cut.  Several of them were a little too rotund to be firefighters.  They sadly are headed to the garbage dump to carry out less heroic duties there.

So when I said I was only going to blog when I had something to blog about, I didn't mean to take this much of a break all the time!  We have just been really busy but not necessarily blog-worthy busy.  So now I am trying to decide what to do with this blog.  It has been a lot of fun, but at the same time, I'm not as motivated to do it as I was.  I guess it could just continue on in the random way I have been.  It will probably be more homeschooling stuff if I get myself organized.  We'll see. 

Meanwhile, Pnut's birthday party that Joel's mom gave her was Saturday and we had a really good time!  My MIL made her this neat cake:

(That is not my MIL, by the way)

LB questioned why he was not receiving things to rip open.

And fun was had with cousins we don't see much:

Summer Fun Idea

I saw this on Pinterest the other day so we did it today:

I froze colored cubes of water and then let the kids put them in buckets of water to melt.  We had done just food coloring in water to play with one time, but they liked this because they could pick the ice cubes up themselves.  And LB mostly had fun squirting everyone with the hose.

Some Cuteness

First for some cuteness:

He wouldn't look at the camera, but he was super-cute!  He looks like he could be from 1930.  He still loves those trains and played with them for at least an hour.

We found this guy in the backyard and observed him for a while:

He is a Yellow Swallowtail Butterfly.  I don't know if his wings were wet or what, but for a while he wasn't flying very well.  Then he was gone.  We enjoyed his visit!

Happy Birthday Pnut!

I'm not sure how we got to six years old already, but here we are!  We love you so much!