Rinn Reflections

Emma and Isaac have choir every other Wednesday night, so on those evenings Josiah loves having "Daddy Night" with Dave at home.  My parents gave him this "Richard Scarry" game for Christmas, and he loves to play it!  He is so good at spying Goldbug with his magnifying glass. :)

Stephanie, Avary, Nickie, and I hosted a wonderful shower for our friend, Julia, and her new son Jamesson!  Julia and John adopted Jamesson in December after fostering him for 21 months.  Each of the hostesses wrote questions for Julia ranging from funny to Biblical about Julia and John's experience of Jamesson's adoption.  Julia had time to work on her answers ahead of time, and then we asked her the questions as part of the shower.  It was so special to hear how the Lord worked through her family and in Jamesson's early life to ultimately lead to his adoption.  It was a special night with sweet friends. 

We celebrated Josiah's third birthday that weekend!

 

The kids, especially Emma and Josiah, were so excited about the blossoms on our tree that appeared this spring!  After we sing "Count Your Many Blessings" during Symposium each school morning, we each share something we are thankful for that day.  One morning, Josiah said he was thankful "for the blossom tree."  It doesn't look nearly as beautiful in this picture as it was in person!

Uncle Mike came for a visit!

Emma love to take pictures! :)

One morning when we were finished with school, the kids were playing outside.  They brought in this glass which they had filled with water for the blossoms they'd picked in the backyard.  The sticky notes around the bottom said "we love you mom."  

I can't believe how grown up Emma looks here!

The kids like playing "broom hockey" on the driveway at our house and my parent's!

A highlight of the month for me was definitely the Great Homeschool Convention in Fort Worth!  I was so encouraged by the speakers and by spending time with such wonderful friends. 

dear friends Jenny and Tiffany

One of my favorite authors and bloggers, Sarah McKenzie~she has a wonderful new book out called "The Read-Aloud Family!"

It was also so great to spend time at the conference with Jennie and Melanie, also Taylor alum!  

This is my other favorite presenter who has impacted my homeschooling largely through her book recommendations and encouragement, Jan Bloom!  She is also from Minnesota and even worked at the same Bible camp, Covenant Pines, where I worked in northern Minnesota!  She and her husband were in town again in May for another convention, and we had them over for dinner then!  

Isaac and Emma participated in their first Sparks boat regatta at Countryside.  Both of them even made it to the final heat!  Isaac's ship was "The Dawn Treader" and Emma's was "Fairy."  Dave built and decorated the ships with the kids while I was at the homeschool conference.  

So excited!

When Isaac got to the final heat, he set his boat in the rain gutter and started practicing his blowing.  He was huffing and taking such huge, deep breaths to "practice."  I don't even knew if he knew he was doing it, but he was so focused and ready!  One of his Sparks teachers, Jessica Pennington, and I saw him and couldn't stop laughing!  I love his intensity in all things.  

My friend, Tiffany, had a fun getaway in March also.  We talked for hours, laughed, and browsed at the Painted Tree!  Here are a few gifts that made us laugh!

Emma loves smothering our foster baby with kisses.  She says, "I'm a kissing machine!"  Also, this is an outfit she picked out herself.  I love seeing which clothes she picks out to wear and her reasoning for why they match--she always has a specific reason!  For example, this outfit matches because both top and bottom have flowers!  One thing's for sure--she always picks soft clothes!   

Breakfast time with Kirsten

We had a fun hike with our friends, the O'Briens, at Bear Creek Park!  They have shown us the best, hidden places at the park where the kids love exploring!  

Three Easter cuties ready for an egg hunt!  

Our friend, Ashley, hosts an egg hunt each Easter.  This year she had 1500 eggs, including 10 golden eggs!  Isaac found one of the golden eggs and a tiny snake, which he loved showing all the other kids!  

Emma cut her bangs the night before Easter!  She said, "I found scissors and cut it!"  Ha!  I found the hair tucked into the floor of her Calico Critters house, sort of as a nest for her creatures.  A few weeks later, we were reading how Samson couldn't cut his hair and discussing the requirements for Nazarites. Emma said, "They can't cut their hair, like I did!"  It still makes us laugh when we see her short bangs! 

Coloring Easter eggs! 

February in Pictures

This is a typical lunch on a school day for us with every kid reading something!  Other days, I do our read aloud during lunch and either eat quickly or wait until everyone is down for quiet time to eat.  

This is a stroller we tried for a bit this winter after getting our foster baby.  Emma thought it was so fun to ride on the back platform!

Dave assembled this Lego board for Isaac as a Christmas present.  Isaac's favorite thing to do at home  is to listen to audio books (usually "Narnia") in the running room and play Legos!

Dave's back was really bothering him in February, but that didn't keep the kids and Dave from their nightly reading!

Emma and I love matching in our winter wool coats!  Emma's coat is my sister Emily's coat from when she was little.  

We completed Cycle 2, American history, for CC this year.  As part of our American history studies, I mailed a state postcard to someone in each of the 50 states, and then each person signed them and mailed them back.  (Well, we are still waiting for 5!)  We start each school day with what we call "Symposium," where we sing our hymns, review our CC memory work, read a picture book correlating with the season or our CC history sentence of the week, and then the kids rotate drawing a state postcard out of a brown bag.  The child who picks the postcard identifies that state on our big American map on the wall and then hangs it up.  It's been a really fun part of our year, and the kids have learned so much about the states!  

Josiah stays busy reading books and playing while we do school each morning!

Cuties in blue coats one morning at church!

The kids loved that my mom spent the night in February!  She kept the baby home the next morning, while I took the other kids to the library.  (We usually do the drive-up window at the Keller library, so they think it's a big deal to go inside and look at books!)

Valentine's Day!

We had our traditional Valentine pizza from Papa Murphy's!  Emma and I went to the Dollar Tree and bought balloons for the kids, and my parents gave the kids rain boots which they love!  Emma said it was the best night ever!  Emma made each of us a special Valentine completely on her own out of construction paper.  My Valentine from Emma was a pink crown that said "I luf u" ~ I really can't imagine a better Valentine! She made Dave a computer and Isaac a giraffe, and then she said she ran out of time to make Josiah something.  We were all so impressed and touched by her thoughtfulness toward what each person likes/does! 

Emma organized her shoes on her own, and I was completely shocked!  I am going to ask her to organize and arrange more things at our house!

(On the topic of shoes--this picture is out of order but is for me to remember how funny Dave thought it was one day when he came home and found all of Emma's shoes lined up.  I was working through her clothes and shoes for the fall/winter before I went to the Rhea Lana sale.  He texted a picture of this line-up of shoes to our family along with a picture of the boys' cubbies of shoes--which each just had a couple of pairs--and captioned it, "This is what happens when you have a girl!" This still makes me laugh!) 

Our church had a fantastic marriage conference in February, and the kids had special classes and activities during the same time.  The theme for the children was "Boys and Girls on Purpose," and Josiah still says that phrase.  Even last night, he was swimming and said, "God made us on purpose!" Dave and I gleaned so much truth and encouragement from the conference.  What really stands out to me (several months later) was when Mike Fabarez (Compass Bible Church, California) spoke on Sunday morning that the most important thing you can do for your marriage is to prioritize your time with the Lord.  

On Valentine's weekend, Dave and Emma went to a Daddy Daughter Valentine Dance at Hope Church in Fort Worth.  Our dear friends have always told us about how special this event is, and we were so excited for Emma to have this special time with Dave!  

Emma turned six years old on February 20!  As part of her math lesson on her birthday, we played one of our favorite math games, "Go to the Dump," except that we made it a birthday version!  She loved it!  

It was superhero day at CC, and Isaac really wanted to be The Florid Sword from the Wingfeather Series Saga that Dave and Isaac read this winter.  I ran to Kroger late one evening to buy a black shirt and put the FS on it, and he was absolutely thrilled!  

Our dear friends, the Pattersons, welcomed their precious fifth son, Asher, on February 25.  Corrie and I were so happy to meet him!  

Some of my favorite parts of our school day are our bike rides!  The kids love the stream and pond in our neighborhood.  They found a dead fish and were sure we should bring it home, and I've somehow become a mom who says, "Sure!"  :) 

Emma received a fun quilt-making kit for her birthday, and Isaac made a tie quilt for each of the kids in the afternoons while he and Emma listened to Narnia.

Thumbs up for voting early!  

Dave was replacing light bulbs, and Josiah really wanted to help him.  He raced upstairs to get his toolbox, and in his hurry to help they all tumbled out.  These are the precious moments I don't want to forget!