Kinda Mama

I knew at an early age that I wanted to me a mama. When I was pregnant with Bunny, I was so excited to be a "real mama". But I have a been a "kinda mama" for a long time now. Actually, I think that I was first a mama to my little sister, Katie. We adopted her and her two older brothers when she was four. As part of our intentional bonding process, we babied her. We carried her everywhere she wanted us to, we rocked and cuddled her to sleep, we called her Katie Koo (and still do), we sang her special songs, etc, etc. She slept in a trundle bed that pulled out from under mine. She would often climb into my bed or Mama's bed down the hall. And she slowly became our baby girl. From there, we were able to teach her and help her grow into our little girl.

I took it upon myself, at the age of 11, to teach her preschool (we were all homeschooled). I spent about an hour a day teaching her school, and countless hours teaching her life and love. Though a general lesson plan was supplied by Mama, I was responsible for the sculpting of her young mind. A responsibility that I did not take lightly. I gave her my all, and she gave me hers. I saw the pride in her eyes when she would grasp a new concept or learn a new skill. I felt the pride in my own heart, knowing that I had taught her that skill. She had very poor speech due to having no teeth (she had to have them all pulled after she was removed from the birth home) and for a long while, I was the only one who knew exactly what she was saying. Though I am her sister, I am also her kinda mama.



Katie and Bunny


It has been over nine years since I first met that little girl with pig-tails. Katie is now 13. She has braces and wears bras. She has lots of friends, is very outgoing, and gets mad when somebody says that she "like likes" a boy. She is in ninth grade, still homeschooled, and though most of us ended up going to public school at some point, she says she never will. She is stubborn and sweet. She wants Bunny to call her "Aunt Sissy", because she thinks that they are sisters. She is my helper, my minion, my right hand man (or girl). Some days, she is so mature and responsible that I think she doesn't need me to teach her any more. Some days, I wonder if I have taught her anything at all. Then every now and then, she teaches me. We have no secrets, her and I. We couldn't, it would drive us crazy. She spills her guts to me. She cries on my shoulder. She wishes that she was always ours, that we had "raised her from a baby". But the truth is that she was and we did. She was our baby girl, our little girl, and now... she is just ours.

A White Christmas

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas!

And I don't mean the snow covered ground kind (though that would be nice too).

I mean a White Christmas filled with togetherness and family traditions.

Because our last name is White!

A White Christmas~Our holiday traditions.

Nov 20-24~ Thanksgiving break! We use these days to clean and organize the house, and to catch up on projects. We declutter and give things away to a local charity.

Nov 25~ Thanksgiving! The last day before the Christmas season. A time to be thankful, to celebrate, and to eat together. As a family rule (started by my parents), we do not do anything Christmasy (sing songs, watch movies, decorate ...) until Thanksgiving is over (shh, don't tell them that I posted about a White Christmas).

Nov 26~ Black Friday shopping! All the girls on our family (mamas, sisters, and  daughters) leave early in the morning to hit up the deals.

Nov 27-28~ Decorate! Hubs and I dig out the boxes of decorations and get busy (Hubs puts the star on the top of the tree). We also watch our first Christmas movie of the year (we watch at least one or two Christmas movies a week).

Dec 22~ Daycare Christmas party! We make/eat Christmas cookies and each child receives a present.

Dec 23~ Christmas Eve Eve! Mama and I take off from daycare to prepare for Christmas. We do any last minute shopping (groceries, presents, decorations ...). We also finish any baking, cooking, decorating, and wrapping presents.

Dec 24~ Christmas Eve! Brunch at Mama's with her side of the family, then our family Chrismas Eve that night. We all open two presents (a book and pajamas) from mama and dad, and Bunny will open two presents from us (another book and a Christmas Day outfit) and we open presents from her. Then our normal bedtime rhythm. Once Bunny is in asleep, Hubs and I set out her presents and exchange presents ourselves. As we go to bed, we hang our stockings on our foot board (we open these first) and tuck a small stuffed animal or doll in bed with her so she will find it as soon as she wakes up.

Dec 25~ Christmas Day! We wake up (Bunny finds her new doll) and open our stockings which includes a small breakfast item such as a banana or a granola bar (this buys us some snuggle and snooze time in bed). We read in Luke about the birth of Jesus. Then go open Bunny's three presents. Later we head to Mama's (still in our new pajamas) for Christmas presents there. After that we go home to dress and rest from the morning's events. Later that day, we eat dinner with my dad's side of the family at my Grandma's house and stop into visit Hubs' Grandpa who lives where Hubs grew up, 1/4 mile down the road (thus how Hubs and I met).

Dec 26~ Worship with my family at Real Life Church (you're welcomed to join us)! Later we clean up the mess from Christmas (the tree and other decorations stay up until after New Year's Day) and prepare to do daycare the next day.

Dec 31~ New Years Eve! During the day, I like to do some cleaning so that we start out the new year with a clean home.That evening, we all gather at Mama's house (we stay as late our various bedtimes allow) to play games, eat the last of the holiday food, and some of us even make New Years Resolutions (another post for another time).

An Enchanted Childhood~ Daycare: Week 11

We have been asked many times to write up our "lesson plans" so others could use them.  Honestly, we just spend a little time thinking about how we want the "school year" to look and go from there.  We wing-it a lot, doing impromptu things that add to our plans.  I am always amazed that anyone would think what we do is worthy of writing down for others to read, but here it goes!

This year, we are doing "Childhood Classics"--reading great children's books--you know, the kind every child should get to know, and then doing little activities to go with it.

With us on vacation Thanksgiving week, we did our books and crafts celebrating the holiday this week.  Our two main books were Thanks for Thanksgiving and This First Thanksgiving Day.  The children enjoyed both books very much.


Tuesday-We continued with our "seasons" song and our "fall" song.  We read Thanks for Thanksgiving and talked about things we were thankful for.  It helps to tell them these are things they are happy to have.  I always love to hear their answers--mommy, daddy, toys, Bunny, a new baby...  For CreativeTime, we colored a paper plate, then glued feathers to it, as well as a beak and goggly eyes.

Wednesday--We read both books and made our traditional handprint turkeys--some of the moms keep these year after year and are able to see how much their baby has grown.

 



Thursday--We took a break from our regular activities and had a daycare birthday party!  The "theme" for the party was "Wild Things" so naturally we read Where the Wild Things Are.  We colored a wild thing for CreativeTime.  I lined the pictures up by the age of the artist.  It is interesting to see the developmental differences based on age and gender!

Top row-4. years 7 months (b),  just 3 years (b), and 2 years 9 months (g)
Bottom row-2 years, 9 months (b), 2 years, 4 months (b), 2 years, 3 months (g)

Friday--Our last day together before break.  We read This First Thanksgiving Day and talked about the 1st Thankgsgiving and Indians and Pilgrims.  The children water-color painted "feathers" and used markers to decorate a headband.

 

We are off next week for Thanksgiving.  We'll be back in two weeks with new preschool ideas!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Linked to--
Autumn Blog Hop

An Enchanted Childhood~ Daycare:Week 10

We have been asked many times to write up our "lesson plans" so others could use them.  Honestly, we just spend a little time thinking about how we want the "school year" to look and go from there.  We wing-it a lot, doing impromptu things that add to our plans.  I am always amazed that anyone would think what we do is worthy of writing down for others to read, but here it goes!

This year, we are doing "Childhood Classics"--reading great children's books--you know, the kind every child should get to know, and then doing little activities to go with it.


This week, we studied birds, in preparation of the winter birds returning to our birdfeeders.  We read Outside the Window (written by West Virginian Anna Egan Smucker) and Backyard Birds of the Winter.  We also read Are You my Mother !!

Some of CreativeTime activities included painting birdfeeders, coloring various "winter time" birds, and making binoculars to birdwatch!

 

 

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspiered by SouleMama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Back To Basics~Homemade Happiness

{I am a woman on a mission. A mission to declutter our home and our lives. To make more and buy less. To find the things we truly love in life and hold onto them. A mission to get back to basics. The progress is slow as I work full time (at home) and have a husband and baby to care for. However, what we have accomplished has made a great improvement in our lives.}

Mushroom Seats~

One of the main reasons I love doing daycare and being a mama is because, at times, I myself still feel like a child. I feel the magic and sense the wonder and I long for them to also. It is because of this that I try to make life enchanting, in every way possible. From the books we read, to the walks we take, to the toys with which we play. My mama and I are always coming up with new ways to make things more enchanting. We sometimes come up with these ideas together and sometimes we come up with them on our own. Either way, we almost always agree with each other's ideas and try our best to implement them into our life.

While building a set of bunk beds (another post for another time), I realized that the large foam mattress pad would make our mattress too tall for the top bunk and would have to be taken off. Now I had a huge foam mattress pad just siting in my hall, waiting for me to do something with it. I ended up cutting about four feet off and using it underneath Bunny's bed to raise it up to the same level as our bed (once again, another post for another time). Then I had about two by four feet of thick foam pad and nothing to do with it.

Then one day on a nature walk, we were looking at some mushrooms.  I was pointing out that they looked like little stools. I began to imagine fairies sitting on them (part of the whole feeling like a child thing). Suddenly I knew how I would use the foam. I decided to make mushroom seats.

1. I bought one yard of yellow and one yard of red fleece and 1/2 yard of white felt (I ended up with some of each left over). I cut the foam pad into three different sized circles, and covered them with the fleece (pinning it to the back). Then I cut out small circles of felt using cups for a template. I stitched the felt onto the fleece and now had the tops of my mushroom seats.

2. The next part I had Hubs' help for the design and labor. Looking back, I should have done this step first. He cut three circles of scrap plywood to fit one inch smaller than the three mushroom tops (so there was a little over hang). We then glued the plywood to the bottom of the foam (after removing the pins and fabric). And re-streatched the fleece over the foam and the wood and glued and stapled it to the bottom.

  

You could choose to leave your mushroom

seats this way and use tham as floor pillows.

3. For the bottoms Hubs found a branch/log wide enough to fit about even with the plywood circles. He cut them in three different thicknesses 4, 5, and 6 inches (to staggar the heights). He then drilled about half way through the wood with a large driil bit (this made it thin enough for screws to go through). Next, he attached the stump part to the mushroom's top using wood glue and screws. We set them upright, gave them a quick clean up and fluff, and we had three little mushroom seats for the children.

 

Shared at:

Eco-Kids Tuesday

This Moment

 {this moment} - A Friday ritual inspiered by SouleMama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Happy Veterans' Day!

Sometimes, what makes a veteran a hero has nothing to do with being a soldier. Sometimes, it has nothing to do with going to war, fighting, or even joining the military.

Sometimes, a veteran is a hero long before any of that.



Iraq

 

He might have become a hero by some great feat of bravery or strength.

He might have become a hero by saving someone or stopping something bad from happening. 

 

Him with Dad



Him with Mama





   





Him with his girlfriend





Him with the daycare children




Our whole family just before he deployed

 Or, he might be a hero just because he was the best big brother in the world to his little sister.

To her, that is why he always has been and always will be a hero.



Him with me



Happy Veterans' Day!





Him with Bunny



P.S He is the best uncle in the world too!





An Enchanted Childhood~ Daycare: Week 9

We have been asked many times to write up our "lesson plans" so others could use them.  Honestly, we just spend a little time thinking about how we want the "school year" to look and go from there.  We wing-it a lot, doing impromptu things that add to our plans.  I am always amazed that anyone would think what we do is worthy of writing down for others to read, but here it goes!

This year, we are doing "Childhood Classics"--reading great children's books--you know, the kind every child should get to know, and then doing little activities to go with it.

Monday--We only had two daycare children, so we got to relax a bit.  We stuck with our normal routine... because routine is sooo important to children, but we could "play" more and did some simple activities.

Tuesday--Election Day!!  We decided to do an impromptu lesson on Election Day and voting.  We explained about voting and then allowed them the chance to vote on some of their daily activities--which song to sing, what snack to eat....  We said the Pledge of Alligance and sang The Star Spangled Banner.  The children colored "posters" of the flag.

Wednesday--Our oldest/longest here daycare boy got his tonsils out today, so we spent CreativeTime making a "handprint" bouquet (or balloons lol) for him, as well as a card and a goodie bag.  Sad to say, I took no pictures of the adorable artwork.

Thursday--Since we had not been on "subject" all week, why start now?!?! We did our usual morning rountine (TableTime, CircleTime, Snack) and for CreativeTime, we made yummy spelling "pumpkin pie" playdoh. (made with our usual playdoh recipe just add in pumpkin pie spice as the scent.) There is nothing more cozy than kneading the warm, yummy smelling playdoh.

Friday--Finally. on Friday, we decided we should introduce our topic for this week and next--Birds.  During CircleTime, we used the woodland animal finger puppets (which includes a duck) to sing songs. We read Owl Lake and then made cute "shape" owls--using hearts, circles, and triangles.

Wordless Wednesday

What I Am To Me ~ Part Two

My mind is, quite often,

 In a time long ago.

In places, with people

That I'd like to know.

My own imagination,

Gets carried away with itself.

And I end up with faeries,

Or gnomes, or elves.

When I find that I

Can no longer fight it.

I pick up a pencil,

And I start to write it.

I research the facts,

Cause I don't like to be fooled.

It is my advantage,
That I was homeschooled

  

I do love my curly hair,

But I always wear it up.

God gave me so many blessings,

They're overflowing my cup.

I co-sleep with my daughter,

I responsively nurse.

I say OMGosh!

And I (almost) never curse.

I selectively vaccinate.

I'll home birth next time.

I like to write poems,

Cause I like things that rhyme.

My husband is my hero.
He's strong but sweet.
When life knocks me down,
He stands up for me.

In my own life,

There is plenty of bad

But I feel for those,

Who don't have what I have.

I must stop now,
Because I'll start to rant.
But I'll be back later,
For What I Can And What I Can't.

OMG!

Oh, my God is wonderful!

Oh, my God is mighty!

Oh, my God is kind!

Oh, my God is awesome!

OMGosh, I love Him!

Wordless Wednesday

US

I miss those like Robin Hood and his merry men.

I often wish that they would come back to life again.

I miss the way they fought, and the way they won.

I miss the way that they were heroes, when all was said and done.

I miss Patrick Henry, Ben Franklin, and Washinton too.

I miss the way that they would have died for what they knew was true.

I wonder what would happen if they were here today.

I wonder what they would think. I wonder what they'd say.

I miss the Constitution, freedoms, liberties, and rights.
I miss proof that our star spangled banner is still there through the night.

I miss money on the barrel. I miss working for our food.

I miss Davy Crockett, and all those who stood for good.

I miss hometown heroes. I miss walking tall.

I miss my America. The one I hardly can recall.
I miss little lights shining. I miss doing what is right.
I want to have the old days back, this I want with all my might.

I miss Jesus Christ of Nazereth, though He is with me now.

My heart and soul long for the day when He comes down from the clouds.
My heart will leap for joy. My knees will hit the ground.

Oh, that glorious, wonderful day when I hear that trumpet sound!

I am not afaid to die because I know where I am going.

I will not be afraid to live if You tell me what to be doing.

We are one nation under God. The whole universe is under You.

 I just pray and I will trust that You will see US through.

An Enchanted Childhood~ Daycare: Week 8

We have been asked many times to write up our "lesson plans" so others could use them.  Honestly, we just spend a little time thinking about how we want the "school year" to look and go from there.  We wing-it a lot, doing impromptu things that add to our plans.  I am always amazed that anyone would think what we do is worthy of writing down for others to read, but here it goes!

This year, we are doing "Childhood Classics"--reading great children's books--you know, the kind every child should get to know, and then doing little activities to go with it.

During the week of Halloween, we usually read a few halloween books.  Since one the children's favorite books is Sheep in a Jeep, it was a lot of fun to read Sheep Trick or Treat.

Monday--During CircleTime, we sang Five Little Monsters Jumping on the Bed using the finger puppets.  We also did the cute little "poem"/finger play from many years ago--Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on the Gate.  We read Sheep Trick or Treat.  For CreativeTime, we made pumpkin and ghost magnets.  While the children waited for their turn, they played with playdough.

Tuesday-- We added a couple of library books to our Halloween reading basket: Spot's Halloween and Where is Baby's Pumpkin?  During CreativeTime, the children made awesome paper plate pumpkin masks!  We used leaves that we had gathered on our NatureWalk Monday.   (Thanks Eileen for the "leaf" idea.)

Wednesday-- We continued with the same songs, finger plays, and books.  We then headed over to the table for CreativeTime, where we made our footprint ghosts.  This is the 3rd year we have made these and the moms love to compare their child's feet, from year to year.

Thursday and Friday--Halloween parties!  We started off both days with ghosts (bananas with chocolate chip eyes) and pumpkins (toast cut with pumpkin cookie cutter, covered with jam and chochlate chip eyes, nose, and mouth) for breakfast!  In addition to singing our Halloween songs and reading our Halloween books, we painted little pumpkins--a yearly tradition here at our daycare.  After painting the pumpkins, the children decorated treat bags to hold all their goodies.  With our CreativeTime behind us, we dressed all the children in their costumes, tooks lots of ppictures and then headed off on a hayride down the road to "Mommaw Glenda" and "Poppaw John's" house.  (Friday it rained so we had to be content to party inside.)  Lunch was mummy dogs with oranges and carrots.

 Linked to--

Autumn Blog Hop