No Swimmies!

The children are making great progress at the pool! Joshua and Esther are both swimming now, and Abigail is close. Hannah, Noah and Joseph are still a little apprehensive, but that is perfectly okay with me! My goal for them was to become more comfortable in the water, and they have. I would honestly rather not have them swimming on their own this year. I think that they need to have a good, healthy fear of the water at three, two, and 13 months!

We went to our neighbor's pool last night and I took these videos of Joshua and Esther.

Noah Funnies

This little goober is something else. That look tells me that Noah is coming up with some sort of creative scheme. Just look at those eyes. You can tell he's up to something! It's interesting to watch how each of the children develop and grow and deal with their sin nature. Most of our children are on the quiet, sneaky side when it comes to rebellion and disobedience. They often try to hide their sin. This little guy is the complete opposite though. He'll look me straight in the eyes and do exactly what I told him not to do. He keeps me on my toes! It's hard not to get SO frustrated with him sometimes because he is very stubborn, but it's impossible to be frustrated with him for long. He's so incredibly cute, and he's hilarious!

Last week I was thinking about how I am more like my quiet, sneaky children. I don't like to advertise my sin. I'd rather put my unwanted food down the garbage disposal and out of sight than put it right on the top in the trash can. "Who, me? I would never do a thing like that!" I think that is why I find it harder to discipline and instruct Noah. I can deal with the lying. We have set-in-stone consequences for lying, and there are multiple Scripture verses and examples to use when helping the children understand why they are not permitted to lie. But seriously!?! Did you really just stand there and tell me that you hit your sister on the head with a wooden sword on purpose because you just felt like it??? In reality, this is quite a simple scenario. Discipline and instruction should not be hard to administer if I was thinking clearly. Instead I often find myself just standing there gawking incredulously at my 2-year-old. I suppose I should be grateful that lying is not something that Noah struggles with (yet!). But, in all honesty, I would have told a falsehood if I had been in his shoes to try to avoid the discipline. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around. Thankfully God promises to give wisdom to those who ask for it!

Now back to Noah's funnies. The boy is literally a scream. I'm sure we think he's funnier than you would because...well, he's our son! I wanted to post a couple of things he's said recently so that I don't forget them. If you don't think it's funny, just try to humor me. :)

The other day Noah was standing on the stool in the kitchen watching me make sandwiches for lunch. I told him to run upstairs and tell the other children that it was time to eat. He loves it when I give him a job to do, so he jumped down and ran towards the stairs. I guess he decided that it was too much work to actually walk up them though, because he just stood at the bottom and yelled as loud as he could, "Guys! Get your behinds down here!!"

I was feeling a little sick last week and had sat down on the couch and propped my feet up. Noah likes to attack me when I sit down, and he was climbing on the couch beside me. I could tell that he wanted to jump off, so I told him to please not jump on my legs. Without skipping a beat he gave me a ornery look and said, "You're full of bologna!" It took me a good long while to stop laughing, but I did eventually inform him that it was rude and disrespectful to say that to his Mama or any other adult. He said "Yes, ma'am" and went on his merry way. I haven't heard it come out of his mouth again, so I guess he understood!

Cloth Diapers For Sale

I think most of you already know, but we are getting ready to move. Adam is going to be practicing about 3 hours from where we currently live, and we are planning to load everything up and head out sometime in August. I am working on purging/packing a little every day so as not to get overwhelmed come August. I tackled the nursery this morning. Two rooms down, twelve to go! :)

I came across some cloth diapers that I would like to sell if I can. We cloth-diapered our first four babies. When #5 came along, something had to go and those extra loads of laundry are what got axed. I've had these boxed up in the closet since then. I honestly do not remember what I paid for any of these, so if you're interested, just make me an offer! I just put this up on Facebook, so they may go quickly.

Here is what I've got:

1) 8 white-edged Chinese prefolds. Not sure of the size, but they measure 14" x 12". Maybe smalls? They're in really good condition with the exception of one, which has some obvious staining.

2) 12 blue-edged prefolds. 20" x 14"...I'm thinking maybe mediums? These are in great condition and were only used a few times.

3) 22 green-edged prefolds. 14" x 12". These are well-loved but still have a good bit of life left in them.

4) Medium white Proraps cover in great condition.

5) 5 Thirsties (or possibly Fuzzi Bunz...can't remember) inserts

6) 12 liners

Giveaway

Laura at The Muncks Quiver is having a giveaway this week! You can enter to win a bottle of sunscreen and a monogrammed beach towel. Even if you don't need the sunscreen and towel, be sure to visit her blog to see pictures of their newest (and 11th!) little one...sweet little Mary Ann. :)

Nikki and I recently started taking our children to swimming lessons at our friends' house. It's the perfect setup! Audrey and Jacqueline (and their mom, Nikki) are so sweet. They are wonderful with the children, and my six think they're the greatest! Joshua, Abigail, and Esther have always been very apprehensive around water, but they've gotten so much more comfortable and adventurous in the last 2 weeks.

Joshua loves being able to touch the bottom with his head above the water this year. It's given him a whole lot more confidence to get his head under and experiment a little.

Abigail is working on putting her face under without holding her nose.

Esther is the boldest. She can swim underwater for fairly long periods of time and she loves it!

Hannah likes to camp out on the steps. She got her head under and choked a little last week, which scared her, so she's kind of starting from square one again. I'm sure she'll be swimming around like a little fish before I know it!

Noah sits with me until after swimming lessons are over and then he can get in. He was pretty terrified of the pool until this past Tuesday when I got him to jump off the side and swim around with his swimmies on. He's fine as long as I'm holding onto him. :)

Here is Joseph thinking about falling into the pool. He relaxed and started enjoying the water this week too.

Then and Now

We picked 15 pounds of fresh, organic blueberries at a local farm yesterday. They are SO good! I've been craving them lately and have bought some at the store, but they're pretty pricey and since I can't seem to stop eating them they're gone in no time. We plan to make some blueberry jam later this week and I may freeze some, but I have a feeling we'll be eating most of them fresh. I'm sure we'll go back to pick again in a couple of weeks!

I looked back at our pictures from blueberry picking last year and was amazed to see just how much Joseph has changed. Here is is at almost 2 months last July.




And here he is at almost 13 months now...eating blueberries out of his hat. :)



Since I didn't get any pictures of Hannah last year, here is one of her picking yesterday!