Happy Love Day

Isn't technology cool?  I made these on Shutterfly to pack a Christmas Thank You/Valentine's Day one-two punch.  You can import your pics right from Facebook and Instagram, and let's face it, that's where most of our pics are stored now.  Not an ad, just a fun share.

Happy Love Day!

Photo Card

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Sherlock & Downton: Besties Go To Claires For A BFF necklace & Don't Cross Bates

Ah, TV.  You're a giver.  I overindulged in my addiction of choice (as opposed to copious chocolate eating) Sunday night, starting with the Grammys, a bit of rapid tweeting with friends, then onto Downton, thinking an extra hour up was totally justifable, then inevitably, sitting through the 2 hour Sherlock telling myself I'd stop at midnight. Riiight.  In all fairness, I caught up on my rest the night before thanks to a super helpful stomach bug.  It all evens out.

This format of the last two Sherlock installments has been very different.  The Sign of Three split its focus between John's wedding day and several unsolved cases that end up being related. And of course last week's episode focused on Sherlock dealing with reaquiting himself with his old life while solving keeping Parliment from blowing up.

More importantly, Sherlock is really quite likeable.  And I'm not sure if I don't like the abrassive Sherlock more.  The Best Man's speech?  How he really didn't understand important things like love and beauty and commitment and John did?  I think he mists over at one point. How he solved murders but John saved lives?  And putting John and Mary's happiness over his need for routine?  Awesome, but where do we go from here?  Also, he seemed a tad disappointed that the maid of honor found a guy to dance with and didn't need him to sniff out a man for her anymore.

I'm all in for the last in the series and I'm sure I'll have to rewatch all 3 to stave off the Sherlock sized hole in my entertainment schedule.

Onto Downton...

This week's episode felt like a placeholder to move the series along.  The gist:  Lord Grantham helped a landowner keep his farm.  More guys are into Lady Mary.  Tom wonders if he should go to America to give his daughter a better start, though I doubt he will. I felt like they were just giving the character something to say.  Violet thinks a new gardener stole her letter opener (yawn).  And the Doctor and Isobel are so going to happen.  Downstairs, Alfred tested for an opportunity to become a trained chef and narrowly missed, pleasing Daisy who really likes him.  Thomas continues to be oily and brings in a friend to turn the other staff around to liking him. Bates learned the truth about Anna's attack and is quietly planning his revenge (he's scary).

The last Sherlock and the next Downton resume February 2nd.  For some more blogging fun, head over the the Pioneer Woman's blog under Entertainment for BigMama and BooMama's take on the respective series.

A Few for the Win Column!

 Look what my boy did!  His OT presented me with this work sample and I asked, "Did you dictate this to him?  Cover his paper with your hand?"  She said she opened the handwriting pad with the alphabet as a model and he copied it on his own, with little coaching.  I just couldn't believe it.  My son?  Writing in the lines?  On task for an extended period of time?  Wow!  I'm such a teacher nerd, when I said  I'd be sharing this on the blog, the OT remarked that she hated to have marked up the paper.  "No! That makes it better!" I assured her.  Trusty are the marks of a red pen in the hand of a teacher.  I AM SO PROUD.  I just made a "kids' brag folder" in my Dropbox account.  I've got some masterpieces to begin saving. :)

Secondly, we had a major personal victory yesterday.  We've been working on toileting independence for 2 1/2 years with Jay.  It's been a major struggle and to be frank, a tremendous source of stress and even shame for me.  It took me a long time to understand that this would happen later developmentally for Jay, but it would happen.  I'm in the kitchen and I hear the sound of a male child going to the bathroom.  What's significant is that he is going without being told.  I ran in the bathroom, whooped and hollered, got Rachel in on the celebration and called Dad to share.  As I was leaving a voicemail, I almost doubted myself.  Wait... he was throwing bits of paper in the toilet as it flushed.. maybe he was playing... nope, saw him standing, heard the sounds, saw the hiney; he did it!

World, my son is consistently in underwear (Pull-ups, we are never getting back together, like EVER), is night trained, his tummy troubles are much better (not solved completely) and he chose to go the bathroom without Mom's nagging.   JOIN ME IN REJOICING! 

The Lord makes everything beautiful in his time, and this, all joking aside, is beautiful.

My son is beginning to make decisions for himself, because he can. 

Quiet Play Ideas

I've been given or recommended to a few great educational books and apps that I want to share.

1) Lakeshore Learning Apps  Our ST uses the All About Letters app with Jay.  It works on letter sounds, formation, and memory chants.  Memory chants such as those found in Handwriting without Tears really helped Jay learn to write his letters and numbers in a short time.  We also purchased the Beginning Letter Sounds app from LL.  This company also makes fantastic educational and therapy helps.

2) Dry Erase Alphabet/Number Books  Jay was given two large spiral write-on books to practice his letters and numbers.  He loves this and it is self-motivating for him.  I like that fact that he has a model to trace and that I can work on pencil/marker grip when I am working with him.

3) Salt Tracing: A tip for our curriculum suggested using salt to practice forming the number 5.  I poured a heap of salt on a sturdy plastic plate with a raised edge and both kids played and played.  It's one of those things I can pull out before dinner so they don't pull at my leg begging for gummies to eat. 

Those are a few new things we've found to save sanity and keep TV off.  Please share your latest finds in the comment section!

The Little Stories or the Big Story?

I subscribe to a youtube channel called What's in the Bible, a new Bible series & DVD curriculum for children created by Phil Vischer who also pioneered the Veggie Tales series.  These short clips (1:30 and 2:30 respectively) really made me think and echoed other teachings I've heard recently about teaching and modelling our faith to this generation.

Watch these to get the context of my thoughts:

 






It's hard to be good without God. Absolutely.  I can tell my toddler to stop hitting her sister, and tell her sister to stop hitting her back, but until they have the beginnings of a conviction that hitting or lying displeases (and even hurts) God, it will just be a rote directive.  I appreciate how Mr. Vischer admits that while his stories where carefully designed with biblical, moral lessons, the higher aim is to teach our children the WHY behind the DO.  Until the heart begins to change, we will keep missing the mark, the very definition of sin.  God is much more concerned about the motives and condition of our heart than our piety.

Am I trying to teach (my) kids to behave more "Christian-ly" or am I teaching them Christianity?  That hit the nail on the head for me.   I know I often feel that I'm not doing enough to teach my kids the basics of the faith or that I could be doing it in a more systematic way.  What resonates with me is that is if we don't connect great stories of the Bible to the BIG STORY, God's redemptive plan woven from beginning to end, it may be shrugged off as "so what" when our kids are presented with other worldviews as they mature.

This is big stuff to tackle.  We have the tools.  What we need, what I need,  is the dedication to sit down and start the discussion with our littles about the WHYs.

This clip sold me on the What's in the Bible DVDs.  The 12 installments cover God's story from Genesis to Revelation.  I plan to buy the 10th in the series Jesus is the Good News leading up to the Easter season.  I'll jump back on here then and let you know I thought.