It's those few moments

There's something special about grabbing a few minutes one on one with your younger child. T had four years before he had to share me but F had to share me from the time I brought her home. Yesterday I dropped T off at a yoga class for kids. The day was pretty nice. Blue skies, warm temperatures. I held F's one hand while she held her Minnie Mouse in the other. We stood at the curb, waiting for traffic to relent in its endless stream so we could cross. We turned and wandered down the jogging trail by the creek. We chased each other across a log fallen in the path. Several times we had to stop to pick up Minnie. Then, hand in hand, we headed to a small coffee shop together. She munched a cake pop while I sipped my coffee. Minnie Mouse sat by F's side as she chatted, munched, and watched the traffic streaming down the small town road that divided her from Bubba in yoga. At last we tidied up. She stuck her cake pop back in its sack and scooped up Minnie. I picked her up and prepared to cross the road.
"Tumin' Bubba!"
It was good to spend time together, but how she couldn't wait to see her brother again!

"No Snow? Make It Yourself" Declares 2 Year Old

This exclusive story is brought to you by the BFNews.

- Winter and summer both offer a lot of fun. Everyone knows this. In the summer you can cool off in the pool or by splashing water around the water table. In winter you can stomp in snow, throw snow, and build with snow. Children of all ages agree summer and winter offer a ton of fun.

When it's not summer and you feel the need to splash there are many easy alternatives. The tub, obviously, or your sink. Oh, and there's always your glass of water. The snow on the other hand is a bit bigger of a problem. 2 year old F found herself facing that very problem when the snow in her neighborhood melted. Instead of melting into tears though F came up with her own solution.

"No snow? No make it yourself!" She laughed.

That's exactly what she did as her mom bent over big brother's arithmetic. She pulled on her snow boots and ran around. No issue, her mom thought, as long as she's stomping in circles around us she'll leave brother's book alone.

 Then the stomping ceased. Her mom galnced up. Silence is, as you know, ominous.

 Pantry door was adjar. Flour started flying through the air in enormous clouds, coating the floor thickly. Little F, snowboots on, hands full of flour cried gleefully "Snow!" as she began stomping all over the kitchen floor.

No snow? No problem. Just make it yourself.

How To Make Bamboo Glue (Instructions by a 6 Year Old)

You know the simple delight when children play with natural materials? It was plastered all over my children's faces yesterday as they explored a booth at a convention. This particular booth had color mixing stations, water beads, and herbal play dough. In tin pails by the play dough were rose petals, rose stems, bamboo, leaves, rocks, and other bits and pieces of nature. My children were completely absorbed in their work. Suddenly T picked up a thin stick. It was dangling halfway.

"This needs bamboo glue," he told the booth owner.

"Where do we get that?" She replied seriously.

"We make it!" Was his confident answer.

"How?"

"First you go to Australia, then you get some bamboo, cut it down, mash it into pulp, come home, mix it with American glue and you have bamboo glue!"

Of course!

Church is for the sick but--

Church is for the sick, but not those with colds! We're home today as the kids are contagious. Husband went to church. What have we done at home? YouTube!

The kids: We started with them watching a kids' film called The Lightlings, a cartoon on the effects of the fall and the light of the world. You can see it herehere

We sang several songs, and worked on the Sunday school memory work of Psalm 24

The Love of Christ

O the Deep Deep Love

We Adore Thee

The dog decided to bark along. I found an awesome clip with the words to the apostle's creed
We sang Psalm 24. Sons of Korah on YouTube!
For the Reading of the law we listened to a chapter of Proverbs, then I found a clip with a confession of sin and assurance of pardon on YouTube again. Then came a song on God's goodness.
For a sermon? What better than RC Sproul on the gospel? I'll tell you. Being able to listen to more than half between a fussy toddler, fighting kids,and barking dog. I did find it interesting to be reminded how we focus the gospel on ourselves and our work, as opposed to realizing it's all the work of the holy spirit, and forgetting the essence of the gospel is the incarnation and substitutiary atonement.
To get the kids back in we finished by watching The Prince's Poison Cup before singing O Sacred Head Now Wounded and In Christ Alone.

So excited!

What a different child little F is than her brother T. He had no issues with me calling him my baby at two. She on the other hand insists she isn't. "No baby!"

Speaking of baby, I'm so excited. I've completed my Flowering Baby collection. Hurrah! Now I have all five volumes. I've used volumes 4&5 with T. So far I've drawn from 1&2 with F. Now I'm about to start volume 3 for ages 2-3. What is it? Inspired by mostly Charlotte Mason and with a goal of preparing her child for classical education a mom & grandma in Kentucky created a daily five year developmental activity guide. There are living books, classical music, nature exploration, game ideas, ideas for natural learning in the home, gross & fine motor development ideas all laid out in easy to implement daily doses. I have such fond memories of the activities T & I did in his preschool years. Now it's little F's turn.

How different will this be with such a different child?