One of Esmé’s finds when we were sorting through cousin clothes last weekend. She insisted on being an “African” princess for church today, so I had to remind her of her “Russian princess” aunty, the source of the dress…
I am a daughter of royal birth.
My father is King of heaven and earth;
My spirit was born in the courts on high;
A child beloved, a Princess am I.
~Anna Johnson
Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principal one was that they escaped teething.
~Mark Twain
Miss Esmé at the dentist’s office yesterday for a routine checkup. She got an A+! Two permanent teeth in, lots more to come… Most importantly, she got two prizes from the prize container.
Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.
~Robert Fulghum
The teacher’s report:
“Esmé is very bright and making new friends. She seems to have her own agenda. I’d like her to listen and follow directions the first time.”
No surprise. Sigh…
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.
~ Groucho Marx
We got a nice big package in the mail today! Now, this wasn’t a rare thing in the past, but I haven’t requested any review books in a long time. It was an awesomely beautiful set of Sylvan Dell books with educational components that would make any home-educating mama’s heart go pitter patter pit. 
These were books I had signed up to review back in June, and it makes me realize how very much I miss the excitement of review packages in the mail. I’ve been feeling too overwhelmingly exhausted to keep up with the review products already on my shelf, but I’m tempted to do some switcharooing to fit it back in somehow…
This is Esmé’s current “read-it-again, read-it-again!” practically-memorized book, which just conveniently incorporates one of her top-10 places to visit. I figured I should take a photo to memorialize it…
”My name is Skippito Friskito,
And I’m off to see old Egypt-ito.
My chicos insist,
And I dare not resist
The chance to go meet a mummito.”
In the midst of our brown thirsty yard is this:
The desert will rejoice, and flowers will bloom in the wastelands.
The desert will sing and shout for joy; it will be as beautiful as the Lebanon Mountains and as fertile as the fields of Carmel and Sharon. Everyone will see the Lord's splendor, see his greatness and power.
Give strength to hands that are tired and to knees that tremble with weakness.
Tell everyone who is discouraged, "Be strong and don't be afraid! God is coming to your rescue, coming to punish your enemies."
The blind will be able to see, and the deaf will hear.
The lame will leap and dance, and those who cannot speak will shout for joy. Streams of water will flow through the desert;
the burning sand will become a lake, and dry land will be filled with springs. Where jackals used to live, marsh grass and reeds will grow.
There will be a highway there, called "The Road of Holiness." No sinner will ever travel that road; no fools will mislead those who follow it.
No lions will be there; no fierce animals will pass that way. Those whom the Lord has rescued will travel home by that road.
They will reach Jerusalem with gladness, singing and shouting for joy. They will be happy forever, forever free from sorrow and grief.
~Isaiah 35
One of the many benefits of having lots of cousins: Seasonal wardrobe changes are like a trip to the clothing store.
Bed piled high with mounds of clothes…
Plastic bags of clothes to pass on to others,,,
Rubber bins to pack away for the next season or size…
And a closet full for winter…
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.
~Matthew 6:28
Nothin’ like a rousing game of ring-around-a-rosie before Adventurers investiture.
Plus, I wanted to document Esmé in uniform. That is no easy feat, I tell you.
When you put on a uniform, there are certain inhibitions that you accept.
~Dwight D. Eisenhower
If you hold a cat by the tail, you learn things you cannot learn any other way.
— Mark Twain
Cat continues to add value to our homeschool. Here he makes a perfect card table for our addition game during math time.
I’m proud of my girlie!
This was snapped just before heading to her school’s fundraiser something-a-thon. Little Miss 5yo ran 4 miles – without a break – more than any other kid in her K-6th school.
She won a $20 gift certificate – her first significant contribution to the financial well-being of our household. But that’s just a side note. :)
But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
~Philippians 3:13-14
We’ve been doing a rotating inventory through our stores – a long full day each month. I get to spend lots of time clicking on this handy gadget.
I had a hard time finding inspirational quotes on inventory. Not even any jokes. What’s with that?
So I’ll leave you with this…
Man stands for long time with mouth open before roast duck flies in. ~Chinese Saying
This little cutie, hanging out on Susan & Dave’s property, cooperated with a nice little photo opp for me… :)
And it reminds me of our favorite Llama Llama books. Here’s a link to Llama Llama Mad at Mama on YouTube:
“Please stop fussing, little llama!
No more of this llama drama!”
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
~Psalm 119:105
Nothing sweeter than watching your baby apply her new reading skills to Bible stories…
You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
~ Franz Kafka
It’s a day which has no event, no single defining moment, to capture. So I sit at my table, and look around, and I see a cat. And I see supper. And that is all.
What are little girls made of, made of?
What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice, and everything nice,
That's what little girls are made of.
Reaaallly? More like frogs and snails and puppy dog tails, methinks…
A Sunrise staff campout on the Umpqua River gave Miss Esmé the opportunity to become educated in the fine art of catching tadpoles – with help. That water bottle in the last photo contains two of ‘em.
Thank you to the cousins who inspire us to bring out the coloring books!
My skin is kind of sort of brownish
Pinkish yellowish white.
My eyes are greyish blueish green,
But I'm told they look orange in the night.
My hair is reddish blondish brown,
But it's silver when it's wet.
And all the colors I am inside
Have not been invented yet.
~Shel Silverstein, "Colors"
Look who came to visit! Eating orchard fruit and spinning in the twilight…
~Adar Burks
When Esmé was furnishing our recyclable English castle, she set up a pterosaur pig herder in the back right corner on an obsidian rock.
It makes me laugh. I have no idea why.
Nothing inspirational for you on this. I’ll give you a quote, at least.
The less said about the pterodactyl the better. It was a spectacle, that beast! a mixture of buzzard and alligator, a sarcasm, an affront to all animated nature, a butt for the ribald jests of an unfeeling world.
~ Mark Twain
I have the privilege of working with – and being inspired by – people with intellectual/developmental disabilities each day.
One man has made it his personal responsibility to make sure our flag goes up each morning and comes down each afternoon, rain, snow, or shine.
Yesterday morning as he faithfully popped into the office to pick up the flag, he announced, “I need to put the flag up at half mast today. It’s 9/11!”
And so he did.
It is not just the soldiers, the first responders, who keep that flag waving high o’er the home of the brave. It is the blue roses, too.
Thank you, sir. For remembering.
Today’s smoothie ingredients: coconut milk, pineapple-orange juice, frozen banana and mango chunks, agave nectar. I impress myself sometimes…
Especially comparing it to the other stuff I’ve been guzzling down.
NyQuil – The stuffy, sneezy, why-is-the-room-spinning medicine.
To keep things in perspective, we’re remembering 9/11 victims and praying for BMA-classmate Tammy’s family as they deal with her loss to cancer today.
It was Princess Ellie’s day!
Source: http://www.hope24seven.com/2012/06/17/prince-or-princess-a-reminder-to-parents-and-the-rest-of-us/
Q: Why did Santa start sneezing as he went down the chimney?
A: He caught a nasty flue.
Lil’ Miss Esmé decided to pick up a cold during her first days of school; I hope this is not a precursor for the germ-laden days ahead.
Anyway, her sniffles meant we spent a *quiet* day at home, initiating the brand-new Hooked on Bible Stories set I had picked up at a thrift store (yes, Sunrise), watching Veggie Tales’ Sweet Pea Beauty, listening to Pilgrim’s Progress (expect some bizarre conversations to be initiated from that), and pulling Santa hats out of the dress-up bin.
Esmé’s kindergarten homework instructions: Color the shapes that are the same on each row. Cross out the shape that is different.
Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.
~Cecil Beaton
Esmé getting a lesson on hammer holding… guess you don’t HAVE to be male to experience the power!
"Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap."
~ Robert Fulghum
I love the idea of milk and cookies after school, but the last thing fruit/veggie-phobic Esmé needs is more cookies.
So we’ve compromised with the after-school smoothie. It’s the only way we get the bananas and berries and cherries into her. And I get my nurturing-mamma-image fix.
Don’t let her late-afternoon glare fool you. She consistently asks for seconds.
And a VitaMix is on my wishlist… :)
~Blaise Pascal
So… this is what Little Miss did during the 3-mile drive home from school this first day of Kindergarten, as eager as I was to quiz her about the day! The catnap was enough to rejuvenate her for the rest of the day, though.
Asked what she learned: “I didn’t learn ANY math or reading. Just the 1-2-3 rule. You get one number each time you do something wrong, and if you get to 3, you have sit in the quiet chair. I only got to 2!”
Yep, that would be something new.
She is adamant that she wants to go back tomorrow. Not sure how she would feel if she had actually gotten to 3…
First Day Of School
( Original Author Unknown )
She started school this morning,
And she seemed so very small.
As I walked there beside her
In the Kindergarten hall.
And as she took her place beside
the others in the class,
I realized how all too soon
Those first few years can pass.
Remembering, I saw her as
She first learned how to walk.
The words that we alone made out
When she began to talk.
This little girl so much absorbed
In learning how to write.
It seems as though she must have grown
To girlhood overnight.
My eyes were blurred by hastily
I brushed the tears away
Lest by some word or sign of mine
I mar her first big day
Oh how I longed to stay with her
And keep her by the hand
To lead her through the places
That she couldn't understand.
And something closely kin to fear
Was mingled with my pride.
I knew she would no longer be
A baby by my side.
But she must have her chance to live,
To work her problems out,
The privilege to grow and learn
What life is all about.
And I must share my little girl
With friends and work and play;
She's not a baby anymore --
She's in Kindergarten today.
There is an appointed time for everything.
And there is a time for every event under heaven ~
A time to give birth, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted.
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to tear down, and a time to build up.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to throw stones, and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace, and a time to shun embracing.
A time to search, and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away.
A time to tear apart, and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent, and a time to speak.
A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time for war, and a time for peace.
~ Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
“At the end of the day, faith is a funny thing. It turns up when you don't really expect it. It's like one day you realize that the fairy tale may be slightly different than you dreamed. The castle, well, it may not be a castle. And it's not so important, happy ever after, just that it’s happy right now. See, once in a while, once in a blue moon, people will surprise you, and once in awhile people may even take your breath away.”
~ Meredith Grey quotes
