One Week...

It has been one week without yelling at the boys. I know this seems like a weird thing to bring up, but what a celebration! Over a week ago our days went something like this...

Logan is screaming his death defying holler, reaching for me to pick him up while I'm trying to carry the load of laundry to the laundry room. At the same time Luk is screaming I wanna do this, I want this, can I have this... and BOOM!!! I EXPLODE!!! All I want to do it be able to carry the load of laundry to the washer without hearing that screech that is like a thousand nails scratching a hundreds of black boards or without hearing Luk complain that he wants a snack (when he already got the answer "no").

The days were like that all the time. If I wasn't doing laundry, I was trying to get something done for the husband or even trying to do school with Luk. Logan would be screaming, and for Luk that gave him the excuse to goof off and not answer the questions to his work. BOOM... EXPLOSION!!! I was sick of yelling at them, and I hated it! So, last Monday I made a pledge no more yelling!

This has almost become a detox phase, really. =D I'm used to yelling. Did you ever watch "My Big Fat Greek Wedding?" Just turn that into Cuban and that is what I'm used to. When Reson and I got married, and we moved to Louisville, and I got used to talking in a whisper to the point that when my mom visited she couldn't hear me. Well, needless to say when we moved back the yelling commenced.

With this in mind, the detox of yelling has been almost like trying not to stick that piece of yummy chocolate cake when you already had one slice. However, I have caught myself before doing it, and my conviction has been one with sincerity. So, it has been one week with no yelling for me, and I must say I can thank God for giving me the self control to maintain this.

Proverbs 16:32

  Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
   and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.

I want to my boys to know that their mother is one that wants to talk it out not shout it out. Today was a true testament, and I didn't realize it until, now. Let me explain why. Today, I packed away FOUR bags of clothes that the boys out grew, reorganized their FIVE shelves of books, and reorganized their TWO bins of toys. They had their moments of screaming, crying, and asking questions, but God certainly gave me control when I wasn't even trying to do it. I didn't have to stop myself from yelling because I didn't have the desire to do it.

I praise the Lord for helping me this week, and I pray that He continues to transform me into a Proverbs 31 woman of God!

Wake Up Call

As I lay in the bed slowly waking up, I hear Logan "talking." This is usually a great morning because usually he just cries, and is ready to get out of that crib! However, days like today come few and far between as my little man was just cooing, calling out Mama, ba-ba, and laughing. When Luk was this age, I would give him about twenty minutes to a half hour to just chill in the morning and play. He was an early riser, and this helped me get focused on the day ahead. Luk, now, will sleep as late as Logan will let him, which is usually 8:00ish. Unfortunately, my four year old didn't think that Logan's talking was enough to get my attention. So... the sweet sounds of Logan's chit chat turns into hearing Luk saying "cry, cry, cry, cry, cry, cry, cry!" Do you get the picture?

Inside Head thought:

Shocked, maybe. He was going to some great length to make him cry in my book.

Sure enough the water works descended, which for Logan Tender-Heart is not very hard to do. He is 100% Momma's boy, and he is ultra sensitive. Example- loud noises (vacuum, sirens, etc) tears start flowing. I leave the room, or try to hand him over to dad; tears. So, is the beauty of Logan's heart. With the chanting of "CRY!" from Luk, I enter the room. Luk immediately silenced. He knew he was in for it.

Dialogue between me and Mister Let's make my brother scream:
M: L, why were you screaming, "CRY!"
L: Because... (looks away as if ready to lie)
M: You know that if you lie to me you will get into more trouble than if you tell me the truth?
L: Yes, Mama. I'm going to tell the truth.
M: Okay.
L: Well (this is he catch phrase at the moment), I wanted him to cry so that I could get up and play.
**side note** Luk knows that in the mornings once Logan is awake, he can play with Logan and his toys.
M: You know you are allowed to get up and play once Logan is awake, so why are you doing that?
L: Well, I don't know.
M: Logan is your brother. You are to love your brother, and you making him cry and yelling at him is unacceptable. I am upset that you were doing that to make your brother cry. God did make you to be ugly and mean to your brother and to others. I want you to repeat after me: "I will not say mean things." I want you to say that three times.
L: "I will not say mean things. I will not say mean things. I will not say mean things."

Surprisingly, Logan stayed quiet and just watched. Luk later yelled something to me, and quickly said, "I will not yell. I will not yell. I will not yell."

We are starting the day off pretty good. I hate to yell at Luk, and it seems that it happens everyday at some point. Logan is attached to me. If I try to put him down to laundry or anything he will literally cry and following me pulling my pants. In addition to that, Luk is asking redundant questions after he has gotten the answer "no." So, I decided I needed a change in action, and it has worked today. We will see how it goes. I know that everyday will not be like this, I know that I will have to practice self-control when it comes to raising my voice, but I am happy to see that Luk is getting it.

As he begin his segment of ask mom the same question over and over again. I said to him, "Luk are you obeying and listening?" He said, "No. I will be a good listener. I will be a good listener. I will be a good listener."  It is nice that without prompt he knew that I was going to say something about it. He is practicing his self-control, which has led to a pleasant morning. Thanks to Tristan for posting on "Taking Emotion Out of Discipline" over at Our Busy Homeschool, she reminded me that I wanted to implement some of these things after reading Duggar House Guidelines.

"A Jesus Advent Celebration" by Ann Voskamp

At the Homeschool Convention this past May, I bought Binding Books Beautifully Kit. I had seen the kit the year before, and I had talked to my husband about it. So, we bought it this year. I have yet to make a book yet, however when I came across this Jesse Tree Advent Devotional "A Jesus Advent Celebration" by Ann Voskamp I knew I need to bound this thing. It is free with subscribing to her updates (which is free, too). Here blog, A Holy Experience is one of wonderful experiences shared, and how she and her family celebration their traditions. The other beauty to this book is the pages that talks about Compassion, and the gift of giver verses receiving. The devotional is 80 pages long with eight pages that have the ornaments you need for your Jesse Tree.  What I love most about this project was that I can see it being something that my boys will want to continue with their families as they become adults.

Binding Kit

The Pages

Pages are divided into equal parts. The pages are put into the BBB wooden binder tool. 

The directions in certain areas are a bit ambiguous, but like I told my husband, "They expect us to be smart with this!" =D We started by only doing every other nail because the space is just close enough to make it difficult to hammer it straight.

The pages need to be clip on the other side for the process after this.

Once it is all nailed. The nails need to come up, and the holes will be perfect to sew.

Reson did the first half while I began sewing the bottom half of the pages.

Here is where the directions are quite ambiguous again. You need to savvy in reading/looking at picture to figure out the sewing pattern. I used a crochet thread for this because I knew that it was going to be a big book. When doing a smaller book you can use dental floss or thread doubled.

Another area that seemed vague was the book cover. I recommend you doing AFTER you have sewn the pieces together. We did it before and it was too big even though we measured it. So, do it afterward, and you will get better results.

Book Board (not card board) with a spine.

This was the most time consuming part. If you look closely you will see next to the white paper that there is masking tape. that space is where the needle goes through to connect the pages to the cover. It was very tedious and time consuming being it such a large book. Reson and I joked that the directions say to do your first book small, but why do that when you can do it BIG! LOL.

Here she is all done:

The beauty of this book is how you learn that the story of Christmas came from the very beginning when there was a universe of nothingness. It is beautifully written and deserved to bound. I hope that this will be a wonderful keepsake for our family. I want it to be a tradition that my boys will grow to cherish doing year after year. Here is our Jesse Tree with the ornaments that we have done so far. Today we went over December 3.

The Story of Christmas

We don't do Santa at our house, and guess what it doesn't ruin Christmas! Amazing! Luk knows the story of St. Nicholas, why there are Santas in malls, etc. We still enjoy the Santa movies and the spirit that the Santa story brings. We just have chosen not to do the pretend thing. We are open and honest with Luk about everything else, why would we start "lying" now with something so big that could last years. Yes, "lying" is a harsh word, but in truth that is the correct word. I was told about Santa. I have no problem with those that do. I respect that decision, and we tell Luk regularly not to share this fact with others especially when there are children around.

With that, I get daily newsletter from a wonderful website called iMOM. It gives some great insight to situations, resources, and tools to dealing with being a Christian mom. This is mom site to Tony Dungy's All Pro Dad, Family Minute, and Family First. Today, they gave resources to The Story of Christmas, and I was on top of it. The figures are playful and professional looking. The story is straight from scripture. The best part is it's free.

 Speaking of telling Luk all about truth... I will have to post later today what happened when we discussed that women need men to have babies. Yep, that one was fun. =) This is were I have to make it very clear that truth in moderation and age oriented is very important. LOL

Logan

It seems that since this is a homeschooling blog that poor little Logan gets left out of the mix because he is in fact only one. However, I have to say that him sitting in and observing Luk has him on an upscale from where Luk was as a one year old.
Logan mimics really well. His favorite show to entertain him while I'm schooling Luk is "Me-Mo" aka Mickey Mouse. His favorite dance is "Ho Doe" aka Hot Dog. He will not say these "words" all the time, however it is a riot hearing say it when he wants it. He also says "mama," "dada," "coocoo" (which is my mom), and "WHOA!" LOL. It's funny hearing him say that one.

So, unstructured schooling for the young one happens at times that are just narrating through the daily life. It is fun hearing him try to say words. He has attempted thank you with "Tha tha." It is never too early to teach manners. =)

Here is my little cutie.

Library Time

This past Thursday at Library Time, our lovely Mrs. Dee had the kids make Caramel Apples as their "craft." It was fun time of reading about pumpkins (which they carved a few weeks ago) and Halloween. It is a great time of fellowship with other moms, the children have fun doing these activities together, and afterward seeing the importance of looking for fun books to read.
Here is some of what happened during that time

The Tortoise beats the Hare

Right now, we are moving at tortoise speed this year. It does make me feel better that Luk is four years old, and I have noticed that each day we do school he does better. It is true that with his phonics his maturity makes it more tolerable. He is doing really well with math. I struggle with the balance of Logan being in the picture. He is very much a momma's boy, and this leads to wanting to grab and interrupt school. He is not satisfied doing something else. I have been trying to do school while he is eating, and that has helped. We don't do school during nap because Luk still naps and it is at the same time. So, we are trucking along just in slow mode.

We need have a great Co-op lesson last week about Harold and Purple Crayon. The kids read the book, watched the movie, made crayons, learned more about primary and secondary colors, and had purple snacks.