Bigger isn't always better...

Sometimes it seems like our society is consumed with wanting everything bigger, better, faster. We've been finding out lately that we enjoy a slower pace in life (though with 3 kids in ball right now, we're really having to work to find days for that, and the crockpot is our best friend lately, and the George Foreman grill also). Today we had a nice relaxing day (though poor Matt is a bit under the weather). We skipped the chore charts for the day (but did do a bit of tidying up now & then, we have to or it's CHAOS here for sure). We let the kids watch a couple of videos (Harold & the Purple Crayon and some educational nature video). We spent a bit of time in the yard together (need to work on the garden more though, those fierce storms blew down the corn, irises and sunflowers). The kids had fun playing in their little inflateable pool. Elizabeth (with her grownup helper, me) made spaghetti for dinner. (By the way, the Mash & Smash cookbook is excellent! I just posted a review there that should show up within 48 hours if you are interested.) I finally got around to clearing out and organizing our video collection. I also worked on a bit of sewing and cut out the pieces to make small dogs for the girls' dolls.

Last night we pulled out a couple of small puzzle/logic games & the kids enjoyed that a lot. Katie especially loves puzzles, so these seemed particularly appealing to her. She really loved Rush Hour Jr. especially. Since it was storming so severely and they wouldn't sleep anyway, we let them stay up later than usual. We spent a lot of that time praying that God would comfort us since we were afraid, and praising Him because we know that He is able to calm the winds and waves, and we knew He would also calm the storm. We do praise Him for keeping us all safe from harm last night!

We also worked a bit last night on these easy doll quilts. The girls have become interested in sewing, so I am going to have to learn more about it myself so I can teach them better, and it seems like a fun thing to do together. Right now I have a couple of library books on hold, and am on the hunt for a couple of good beginner sewing books that we can all enjoy. The more I start trying to sew, the more I realize there is so much that I need to learn!

I know a lot of people think cooking from scratch, sewing, etc. are old-fashioned things that are more a bit of nostalgia than anything else. However, we are finding these things really rewarding and really helpful skills to acquire. Besides, I like being old-fashioned. My favorite thing to wear is long, black, flowing skirts, perhaps reminiscent of days gone by, but I find them comfortable & they make me feel very feminine. I do want to improve my sewing skills though, as it's so hard to find decent long skirts, and it would be nice to have some in a variety of colors. It would also be nice to make some for the girls. Last week, I bought a beautiful fabric from the $1/yard section at Walmart. It is white with purple flowers all over it. I bought the whole big lot of it. I think mother-daughter matching skirts would be very cute!

Back to the title of my post about how bigger isn't always better, today we made a change that we think will suit us wonderfully. We took the leaf out of our table and went back to it being a small (four foot diameter) round table, instead of a 4 x 6 oval. It's great to be able to hold hands when we pray before meals. There also isn't as much surface area for clutter to build up on, and there is no room for that guest that really doesn't need to be on during mealtimes anyway (that is to say, this laptop I am currently using).

Last week we found this table manners chart posted at a friend's house. We found the source (this link), (scroll down for the table manners one) and printed it out to adorn our pantry door. I did have to add "No reading at the table" and yes, that goes for me too.
Another advantage of our nice round table is that we can all see each other and talk to each other much better from this vantage point. We can see and hear every person at the table equally well, which I really appreciate!

One final note, we've been finding lately that if we don't have our quiet times first thing in the morning, they aren't likely to happen. We try to encourage everyone in our home to have a quiet time. Elizabeth has this Kids' Devotional Bible that has daily devotions interspersed throughout the text that she can read independently. It's really pretty quick, and then her "job" is to help Katie & Michael with their quiet times, so Matt & I are free to continue on with our own study. Katie has the Day by Day Begin to Read Bible that was presented last fall to all new kindergarteners, by our church. She can read a lot of it now, but still needs help, so we have Elizabeth help her with words she doesn't know. Finally, Michael has about 4 or 5 of these Baby Bibles, though I think they are perfect for his age too (short & sweet). Each story has a picture and you read a few sentences and they do a motion or something (like "wave your hands") and then another few sentences, another motion, another few sentences, another motion and then a brief prayer. We try to aim for two stories a day, and Elizabeth helps here also. She really is growing into quite a helpful and beautiful young girl, who makes me proud every day!
About having our quiet time first thing, I did rearrange our chore charts so we could have our quiet times first thing, then work in the kitchen a bit before and after breakfast, then brush teeth & do our bathroom chores, then go to the room to get dressed, make beds and tidy up. We're going to try that out this week and see if it helps. I figure if we get dressed last, there is less opportunity for them to spill something like food, toothpaste or dishwater on their outfit for the day. And this way we can get to our quiet times first thing (though I wasn't very good about that this morning, so I also have a lot of growing room in this area). It's amazing to me how God uses our children to be like mirrors to help reflect my own flaws & sins back to myself, and uses our children to help me to grow in wisdom and in other areas. A couple of years ago when we went to the Five in a Row conference, we did talk a lot about how if you want to initiate change in your children, that perhaps you should look at yourself first (or something like that, I can't remember exactly). Or maybe it was on the boards and not at the conference. Either way, I have grown and learned so much about myself, about God, about parenting, and about life in general through our years in association with my friends from the Five in a Row boards (some of whom I've met in real life at the conference) and am blessed to know them in my life.