Baseball brasky house

Baseball season has begun!


(Ashton's 1st game)
















Icecream after Ashton's 1st game.


Josie's 1st practice.






Josie's first game!












Bowling with our church.


















Along with some springtime sickness that seems to come and go with the roller coaster weather.




Being home.


She puts lilacs all over her room.










A collection of Josie's "art."


The caterpillar and a spaghetti dinner.


Eli LOVES books. He will giggle uncontrollably when we take his animal book off the shelf to read.


Spring.












Always in the dirt. All 4 of them.








Josh begins his new job tomorrow morning. Our friends gave him a congratulations BBQ last weekend.










Back in 2011, Josh began his job at Burdick. During his first interview, Ashton, Josie and I sat in the car for over 2 hours. It was a rainy day and I remember how hard I prayed for him during that time. Waiting to hear how it went. He had just been laid off from his other IT job and everything was so scary and unknowing. We were all so thrilled when he was hired and it was a huge blessing for our family. I'll never forget it. Please pray for him as he begins this next chapter in his life. He will be doing IT support for a state school. He's both nervous and excited to begin. I'm so proud of him.

First day


Last day



The drive in.






Mother's Day!


My mother has always had an unbelievable amount of patience with children. I would spill my cereal bowl every. single. morning. and never. not once did she raise her voice or complain. I think about that often with my own children. I try to stop myself and remember how much it meant to me that my mom never yelled or complained about such things. That accidents are accidents. That chores are just chores. Often, I fail at the complaining part.

She did all the wonderful things you hear that good mamas do and she did all of this during a difficult marriage. I did not really know my father for the 16 years he was in my life. I simply just remember feeling incredibly uncomfortable around him. He did not know how to act around children. I remember him sleeping a lot or being gone. If it weren't for pictures, I might not remember what his face looked like. I say all of this; not with a hard heart but with one that is being truthful. My mother was living life that closely related to one of a single mom to 5 children. I'll never know how she was able to stay so gentle.

Mom, I love you. Thank you for teaching me kindness and compassion. Thank you for loving me. For worrying about me. I know how much heart and prayers you put into raising us. And I am blessed that of all the mothers in this world, God gave me you.

"A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie" ~Tenneva Jordan

Thank you, mama.



Josie lost her 1st tooth! She sat down for dinner and out it popped!




Before she went to bed, she asked if I could quickly write a letter to the tooth fairy for her.




The next day, Josie lost her 2nd tooth!


Our school. When we first began homeschooling, I had this vision of what I wanted our school to look like. -Lots of play, lots of literature, lots of time in nature. My hope was to have them build an even stronger sibling bond. To make friends of all ages. As we near the end of the school year, I am filled with so much gratitude for this path. Whenever I feel down or insecure, I feel so much appreciation for those who have spoken with such kindness and respect and support. For every high five and hug. Words that have carried me through and helped me believe in myself. Really, people are awesome.




Earth day.




On Wednesdays, a local gymnastics center opens for homeschooling families for an hour and a half of unstructured play.


I captioned this, "cool looking classroom."


Now that our homeschool co-op is over for this school year, we are meeting with a group of friends once a week at different local parks.














A nature scavenger hunt.








We have been learning all about the wonders of nature for our Science.

The kids made a bug house from a recycled container and some screen.




We made a paper mache ant and read all about insects.






They made an ant farm.




We also made bird feeders and read about local birds.




We learned about animal tracks and played an animal tracks matching game. -Matching the tracks with the animal.


When they'd find a match, they'd write down the name of the animal and we'd look it up and read about it in our animal encyclopedia book.


They also learned how to make their own animal track mold.






They learned about bees and pollination. They made flowers and we put our pollen in them (Cheetos)! I taped a little bee on their hands and they flew to their flowers and ate some Cheetos from the bags. Then, they flew over to the next flower and landed on it. They saw how some pollen is left on the next flower. They pollinated a flower!






You can learn a lot about life by playing in the dirt.




We learned all about clouds and made a cloud in a glass.




They also made a picture; making each cloud type with a cotton ball.


and described each one.




We also practiced sight and spelling words in our own clouds. (Shaving cream).










That about does it for now. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead and please know I'm here if you need me. I love you.




xoxo, Jessie





Comments

Amy said…
So many awesome pictures and beautiful memories! :D Love you! xoxo see you soon <3

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