Silverwaters

Word press

silverwaters — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 21:01:58 +0000

I’ve moved. Read my blog here:

it doesn’t seem to work, though I did post the link. Sorry about that. Just type silverwaters.wordpress.com. Just one of the reasons I switched…

There’s not anything new there yet, been too busy, heh.

CC sick

silverwaters — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 20:53:05 +0000

Seems she got the flu too, now, poor dear. She’s taking it pretty well, and trying her best to smile through it all. I had a bit of time off to do more cleanups, messages, etc. I’m feeling a bit tired, too, though, so I would appreciate your prayers. I’m trying to get Jordan off of nursing at night to go to sleep, as he’s been keeping me awake at night nursing way too much. He doesn’t nurse at all during the day, so he’s ready to move on to going to sleep without it. Thanks for praying for that as well.

Christmassy spring

silverwaters — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 14:50:48 +0000

It’s been snowing all day without any sign of it letting up! We already have at least 10cm new snow, and everything looks white again after a mild day yesterday which melted it all! Charlotte was singing a Christmas song, “Little children come and sing” to which I rhymed for fun “singing Christmas songs in spring”. She laughed and said, “That’s because this is a Christmassy spring” Actually, spring hasn’t officially started yet, so we still have a couple days to ‘enjoy winter’, though to be honest, I’m dying to have it be warm, wear less layers, have to heat the house, etc. On the other hand, warm wine and honey bars sound good, too…we’ll see!

old, but very good points

silverwaters — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 22:10:36 +0000

Valentine’s Day Not for Lovers Only
MONDAY, Feb. 13 (HealthDay News)—Valentine’s Day isn’t just for couples.

It’s a good opportunity for parents to think about how they can show their love for their children all year round, says the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Here are 14 tips on how to do that:

Use plenty of positive words with children.

Respond promptly and lovingly to your children’s physical and emotional needs, and banish put-downs from your parenting vocabulary.

Make an extra effort to set a good example at home and in public. Use words like “I’m sorry,” “please,” and “thank you.”

When children are angry, argumentative or in a bad mood, give them a hug, cuddle, pat, secret sign or other gesture of affection they favor and talk to them about their feelings.

Discipline. Parents should institute both rewards and restrictions many years before adolescence to help prevent trouble during the teenage years. If parents allow children of any age to constantly disobey important rules without being disciplined, it only encourages more rule violations.

Make plans to spend time with your children to do things they enjoy.

Mark family game nights on your calendar, and put a different family member’s name under each date. That person gets to choose what game will be played that night.

A pet can make children—especially those with chronic illnesses and disabilities—feel better by stimulating physical activity, providing constant companionship, and enhancing their overall attitude.

Encourage children to cook with you to help familiarize them with healthy food choices. Let them be involved in the entire process—planning the menus, shopping for ingredients, food preparation, and serving.

As your children grow, they’ll spend most of their time developing and refining a variety of skills and abilities. You should help them as much as possible by encouraging them and providing them with the necessary equipment and instruction.

Safeguard children’s health by keeping them safe from accidents, providing a nutritious diet, and encouraging them to exercise.

Help your children foster positive relationships with friends, siblings and members of the community.

Give your children the gift of self-esteem by offering them steady support and encouragement to discover their strengths. Your children need you to believe in them as they learn to believe in themselves.

Don’t forget to say “I love you” to children of all ages.

Home alone

silverwaters — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 22:08:36 +0000

The girls went with Jo down to ZG to as they were invited to their birthday party. In total, they have 5 kids celebrating birthday this month, but today was for just two. I didn’t go, as I had a lot of catch up work to do, seeing as I was out quite a bit this week, and the kids were sick, and I was tired, etc, etc. So what does Mommy do when she’s alone at home? Clean, clean, and clean some more. Actually, I didn’t get it all done, as Jordan was a bit clutchy in the afternoon, but I did get the spring cleaning done in my room, so hopefully I’ll be breathing better at night again soon. I found that I have to dust again and again, as my pulling stuff out from under the beds, etc, just stirs it up, so I need to stay on top of that!

I also completed Charlotte’s school records for the quarter (December through February, which is why the hours and days seem low; Christmas vacation included). Here are the stats:
14 completed LightUnits, 46 school days, and 107 school hours. She went to dance school, went on two field trips: visit to the shoe factory and a museum, and started Croatian classes in earnest (before, it was just during dance school and some play time with Croatian friends). I am now putting together our order for 2nd grade, as she’s nearing the end of 1st (about time! My fault, as we didn’t order the books early enough!) and going through it really fast! She likes school some days more than others, of course, but in general is fun to teach!

Sucker for Love

silverwaters — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 21:57:17 +0000

My kids’ new favorite song to watch is the ‘Sucker for Love’ video clip. It’s very well done, and I explained it to CC, so she understands what he’s going on about. Jordan just sings ‘na na na’ over and over, ha. Charlotte also really likes ‘Living in the Light of your Love’ as she agrees with me that he’s the Jesus (as in the actor) that we like best. She sings almost all the words already, and tonight we just sang it out at the top of our lungs. Heh, great fun! We also got clips from WordStock and Eurorock, which I have great fun watching when the kids aren’t around. I’m loving the music that is being done these days, our musicians rock!

bone picking and more

silverwaters — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 21:43:14 +0000

Cherise is sick with a nasty tummy bug. It seems like she’s the only one for now, thank God, but it hurts to look at her, so tiny and usually so full of life, just lying there, calm and not moving much. I had to go out in the afternoon, but since Jo was out for the day in ZG, I didn’t know how to get there. I was thinking of hitch-hiking, but it would have taken too long, so I called my good friend who usually works during the day. As it turns out, she got off work early, and her father came back early with the car, so she drove me there and back. Thank God for His little set ups and that He worked it all out in the end. I’m just jealous that Jay got a nap with Cherise while I was out I need rest…

Cute kid: Cherise’s word for chicken nuggets–luggets

Jordan says thank you for everything right now. I hope it’s not just a faze, it’s so cute and well mannered. He’s also incredibly clean at the table. I was told I was like that as a small child too, though I distinctly remember making up for it around 6 yrs old when my dad threatened to put a bib on me, I was so messy, ha! We picked the bones together today after boiling the chicken for soup. He would pick a bone and eat the meat off (I’m talking little rib bones, not legs and such), and then wipe his hands on the little cloth he HAS to have next to him at meals. Each. and. every. time.

Spring cleaning

silverwaters — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 21:15:14 +0000

It’s about time I attacked the dust balls under all the beds and lurking in those hard-to-reach corners. Every year for a few years now I’ve been getting terrible allergies, kind of like hay fever when the snow begins to melt. I’m not so sure it has to do with seeds or anything like that, but more the amount of dust that gets everywhere once the snow melts and things dry out a bit. I’ve decided to try and get ahead of it this year, as I’ve been feeling itchy the last few days since the snow is melting. We’ll see if it works. Oh, and I’m getting a great workout at the same time, working the arm muscles while cleaning windows, doing squats to get under the beds clean, etc. Somehow, I know this will be good for me…

More carneval stuff

silverwaters — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 22:40:43 +0000

So it was up bright and early (considering it’s SUNDAY!) and off to a town over the mountain, around the hill, across the bridge, past the tree, into the village…you get the picture. We were invited to a little town carneval, so Jo and I took Cherise, two of our Croatian friends (who also helped with the animation, God bless them) and wound our way into the village just in time for our stomachs to settle with lunch. Cherse’s tummy was so upset, she couldn’t eat for 2 hrs, poor thing! We finished lunch, and then found out where the ‘parade’ was to be. We sloshed through the melting snow into the school courtyard where half the village was gathered, looking like, well, carneval. After the band led up the circus sounding music, we paraded through the streets to the delight of the other half of the village. I’ve never been in a parade before, as in, part of it, so that was a new experience. We just had to smile, wave and the girls did their juggling. Once in the little square, we were introduced and then the kids ran over to our little table to see the little gags we had brought and get balloons, of course. Since we didn’t have a stage, I ended up getting on top of the table with one of the girls to translate, and then the little volunteer got on the table as well. That was fun! Since we didn’t have enough balloons (we only got 2 bags rather than 4 from the guy who had told us he would get us 4…) we could only make balloons for the little kids, which made for a little riot. It reminded me of Drnis in the summer where we were swamped, but thankfully without the very rude preteen boys and with our two Croatian girls who were bold, tough, and made them get into lines (most of the time) and explaining over and over why not everyone could have one. I remembered that we had a big bag of regular balloons which we handed out to the bigger ones, and that made most of them happy. It was great fun making animal balloons from the table top where I stayed until the crowd was gone!

Back at home, Charlotte made a beautiful mask for the little kids disco party that one of her friends at dance school invited her to. She’s never been to a disco/dance party before, so she was looking forward to it. We basically had to take her as soon as we got back, and after one hour of hopping and jumping and wiggling all around, we headed back home where we watched the closing ceremony with a late dinner. My, what a busy day. I’m so glad I decided to get up early for my special time alone with my Maker and His Words! I’m bushed, the kids are happy, and the house is messy…will take care of that tomorrow…

Carneval and school updates

silverwaters — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 22:21:51 +0000

We were asked to entertain at a local supermarket for their carneval children’s competition. There was a competition for the best outfit, and we were to entertain before it started and make balloons afterwards. It was fun for the kids to get out tracts and meet other children, and Cherise got 5th place for her little fairy outfit complete with facepainting. Tomorrow we have another program, and on Tuesday the madness ends, TG. Actually, we’re really thankful for these jobs, seeing as Feb is a bit of a ’slow’ month.

In other news, Jordan talks in sentences now. It’s adorable how he puts words together, and we all have fun just listening to him talk. Sometimes he just says jibberish since everyone else is talking, but at other times, he’s very clear. Like at dinner tonight he said, ‘puppies jumping up on me’ as he tried to enter in on our conversation about our day.

Cherise finished her first three readers this last week, and is making steady progress. She’s gettting the point that reading isn’t just quoting what we read at some point, or making up a story. We played a game where she had to point out the words on a page, which helped her to see similarities in words as well.

Charlotte does very well at remembering all the rules she’s learning. I’m amazed at times when she can remember which word uses which spelling, though there’s not even a rule for it. Like dear and deer. It’s amazing to me how much they pack into first grade. She started with vowels and consonants, now there’s consonant blends, consonant diagraphs, vowel sets, short and long vowels, not to mention question marks, periods, capital and lower case letters, nouns, and then of course addition, subtraction, colen, inches, cm, feet, nickles, dimes, pennies, cents, place value, and number lines. She’s also learned the seasons, weather changes, etc, etc. And this is just what comes to mind this minute! Wow! I’m making an order for next years’ books sometime soon, as I want them here before she’s done with this grade. She’s going through the books really fast, as it’s a lot of review, but review I wanted her to have, as it’s important to me that she gets the fundamentals down pat. Her fun activity now is looking through the new Word program (locked to her age group). Even though she’s read a lot in there, there’s always something new to find, and the format makes reading old material ‘new’. I’m encouraged by her reading comprehension, and often ask her something about what she’s read to make sure she’s getting it, which she usually does.