Feb 10, 2007

Is it sick season again?? Why does that always come with Cabin Fever???

So it seems we have also been fighting off a sickness; Grace has been running an on-again, off-again 101-102 degree fever almost all last week~ and of course she has been cranky and extra needy for momma. Poor Gracie! But, she has not gotten sick and we are grateful~ whatever it is, she seems to be fighting it off pretty well :)
The boys have been fine health-wise, but they have a different kind of fever: cabin fever Lol It has been so cold, and so uninviting, outdoors that we have kind of holed ourselves up as of late and at least made good use of our time reading aloud with each other and watching some better good old classsic movies we had all forgotten about in the kids collections. I can't tell you how many I had to throw away once we went through them~ had to be upwards of twenty. The standards purity calls for are pretty high, and very few kids movies-never mind adults one's- make the cut. But, out with the old and in with the new-old Lol ~ only the one's mom felt good about stayed on the shelf. Can I just say again how glad I am that God stepped in when He did? I didn't think any of those movies were unfit for my child 4 years ago. And how good God's timing was; Ty remembers very little of many of the things that left a sour taste in my mouth after reviewing these movies I either bought for him myself, or accepted as gifts, for him. I'm not advocating that smaller children do not pick up negative teachings from movies or t.v.-we all know they do- but just rejoicing in God's provision that it has worked out the way it has-all under His management:)

I was noticing not too long ago how different Ty seems comapred to many other boys in his age group, and I began to wonder what it was. In some ways he seemed less mature in his interests ( I count that to be a good thing)and in other ways, more mature- most of these boys are interested in ipods and MySpace; Ty is enamored with Military History and reads The Hardy Boys stories gratefully. All of the sudden I was flooded with gratefullness for those differences. Ty talks to other boys about the gospel and just somehow works it into play as if it naturally belonged there, seamless and off the cuff- not rehearsed, but from the heart and very spontaneous. Who is this child's mother?? It can't be me! God is so good, is all I have to say about that. Josh's little personality is yet to be seen, but I know with such a good example, in this way, from his brother he will be in an even more encouraging environment for growing and sharing his faith. And the same for Grace. And what is of more importance, anyways? I can think of nothing.

The school year is really progressing rapidly, and there is much left to do- yet it is the season to look back on all we have already done, and share memories of favorite projects and wierdest facts we remember, etc. As I had a pile of Ty's work and his portfolio layed out open on the floor in front of me Thursday night, we all got to remember past work and past fun as we slid pages of work into sheet protectors together, and conjured up neat subject drawings for the dividers. I was amazed at how long Ty's reading list is already. This child ( oops sorry, pre-teen ;) is just as avid a reader as I was at his age. And he's a boy! No offense to the guys, but I thought girls read more. Oh well I guess I was wrong about that!! Ty has me beat for this year, for sure. The extent of what he can underdtand is very neat to see; I can read aloud from Hemingway and he will tell me that while he can't ununderstand all of what he is saying just yet, he can understand enough of it to get the general idea! Not trying to brag just amazed at how capable children are- we just do not give them enough credit in society. They do not need dumbed-down material, just material digested and taken apart to meet their current cognitive processing ability and, voila! whole new worlds of understanding are available for them. Ty even reads from a King James bible nowadays, and he understands most of what he is reading. How does God create these minds?? Crazy! I'm sure many of us have similar stories - I would love to hear them :)

Well I have been going on forever and there is much to be done before the kiddos and dadda of the house get back home ( the men & boys are at the Outdoorsman show in Harrisburg, the ladies and Grace are hanging out with Al's mom this afternoon) and I, being granted an afternoon off, am still missing them since Al worked late almost every night this week and, besides that, let's face it - I am used to having my kids with me all the time Lol But I am off to my friend Jen's- are you reading this, Jen?? Probably not!- this afternoon and I promised myself I'd make a blog entry
( because I'm sure your missing my entries a lot , yeaahhh) and bake something for their return, after I got back from the post office and store to stock up on baby items again, so yeaahh I just got back from those places but I still gotta bake and I don't know what I wanna make-- I just hope it turns out yummy Lol :)
God bless and I hope your February is abundently blessed, so far :) I know for sure many of yours are!!! :) :)

3 comments:

Kelly said...

I'm praying for your little Gracie! Poor thing! xoxo

julie said...

hi stacey! what kind of videos are you looking for the family? give me some ideas. i may have some around here to pass to you and i am always finding some good ones at the local thrift shops. i would love to send you a care package!
love,julie you can email me psalmnine1@juno.com

staceyhoff said...

Oh, thanks Julie :)