Z is for ZZzzzZZZ

We have two little boys that are two years old and under. Sleep is hit and miss here. We can be awake for extended or multiple times during the night due to anything from feedings, seasonal allergies, croup, ear infection, to teething, blow outs, upset tummies, etc. Anyone with little ones can attest to learning to make peace with less sleep for a time. As much as it takes out of me, I agree with a friend that it may be exhausting, I still would never trade being the one thing my children want when they're not at 100%.

Y is for Young nieces and nephews

This will be fun to organize. We have young and not so young nieces and nephews by blood and marriage. The oldest niece is 27 and the youngest is 10. There are 14 total, 7 on my side and 7 on Billy's.

My brother's children are the 4 legged kind ;-) To be fair, if I had a picture I would post it. He and my sister in law love those animals!

Lisa's boys:

2005

Leah's kiddos:

2009

Billy's siblings' kids

Mike's kids:

2009

Shawna's kids:

2009

Dee's kids:
They are grown and spread out around the country with their families. I can't locate a picture of all of them.

X is for eXtra special grandparents

I have two sets of parents on my side of the family. It just takes that many people to love us. They all live about an hour away, but we keep in touch via Skype, facebook and blogs. We love all of them very much and are so thankful for their support and love in our lives.


Grandad and Sheribeari will pass on to the boys a zest for life. They are enthusiastic, fun and loving.

Grandma and Grandpa will pass on a warmth and tradition of family cooking.

W is for Words

I've been blogging since.... haha, I went looking to see when my first entry was. That was an hour ago. It was June 2007 at the encouragement of a couple of friends. Thank you Miranda and Sarah W. :-)  That was almost 5 years ago. Wow, God's brought us through so much since then. Our two beautiful children, jobs, homes, whheee.. I'm not sure I'm any better of a person. I know I need God, I know He loves me. I try to trust Him, to honor Him, to give more of myself to Him. There is still so much in me that still needs Him to fix. Unresolved hurts, grudges, etc... if I'm honest with myself.

20 journals .......

Blogging was a slow start, but I knew was a great idea for me as I've kept a diary/ journal since I was about 10 years old. I was inspired as a young girl growing up watching Little House on the Prairie. I would listen to Melissa Gilbert beautifully narrate her earlier days as a girl on the banks of Plum Creek. I have a basket of filled in journals beside my bed. Billy has strict instructions to burn them should I pass before him. They are part of me and I can't bear to destroy them. But, no one and especially my children don't need to read the dark days. As a younger girl with strong emotions, I only wrote when I was upset. It seemed as though I was never happy if you read straight through. The older I got, the journals became a great place to write personal prayers, thoughts, ideas, sermon notes, small group prayer requests from others. Once I became comfortable with the computer, how I processed life changed. I don't think I could ever close this site down. It's five years of my life so far. I'm pretty invested in this. I almost didn't want to start a separate blog site for homeschooling, but I know I've gotten so excited about that endeavor that it needed it's own dedicated space.

Past journals

This venue is cathartic to me. I enjoy sharing my life here. I use more of a filter than if it was a private journal, but it's still a great outlet.

V is for Vows

Vows were taken on February 12, 2005 and I became a Turnbow. I've heard the saying that you'll meet a man one day that will make it clear why any other relationship didn't work out. Billy is first and foremost an answer to prayers. He is God's proof of grace, mercy and love in my life.  We are both flawed and terribly imperfect. Our marriage is built on the acceptance of imperfection while praying for God's growth and holiness in each other.  He was an amazing friend through the loss of my sister before we ever became involved as a couple. Once we started trying to have children; He was solid, full of hope and belief that one day we would be parents. He is loyal, consistent, trust worthy, honest and full of integrity. He is also one of the funniest and silliest people I know. He is down to earth, unpretentious and approachable. He has a servant heart and a God given gift of prayer. He loves me, is supportive and understanding. He's in my corner. Billy as a dad brings me to tears. He loves our boys, is silly, tackles, plays, changes diapers, disciplines, listens, corrects, spends time, helps and teaches. He's real and vulnerable as a parent. He's humble and generous with a heart for God.

Our engagement picture

Our wedding:

Billy has this picture of me from our wedding day on his desk at work. 

My sister was matron or honor and Billy's brother was the best man

Wedding Party

Billy's side of the family

My side of the family

Groom's Cake reflecting Billy's techy side 

We took a Disney land and sea package on our honeymoon. We spent four days at the parks in Florida and 3 days on their cruise ship to the Bahamas.

U is for Uncles and Aunts

Matthew and Daniel have wonderful Aunts and Uncles on daddy's side of the family as well. Billy's sister and her family are out of state and we get to see them every other year. They are a warm close knit, active tight knit family.

Billy's brother and his family live in our town. Billy and Mike also get to work together.  They are a fun, loving and welcoming family whom we love very much.

Me with my other sisters

The extended Turnbow clan

T is for Taking Pictures

I didn't have a camera growing up. As a third girl and child in my family, I have discovered maybe 2 pictures of me before kindergarten.  The first time I helped make a scrapbook was in 2002 for our singles intern with a few friends. It was really fun and I started taking a few more photographs here and there at fun events and holidays. I made my first solo book for my room mate as she was getting married a couple of years later.

"See here, we have to do it. Your ear huwts"

 I didn't really get interested in capturing so much of life on film until my sister passed away. I went through everything I had after she passed away and made a scrapbook. When her best friend posted a few I had never seen  some time later, it was discovering part of her I didn't know. The pictures won't bring her back, but there was something about having the physical proof. I can have fun with out taking out my camera, but part of fun during an event for me is capturing it on film.

"It doesn't hurt, see? Mommy and daddy took off the pokey end..."

I enjoy that they play on our Window Media Center on our TV from our hard drive. My understanding husband has an external back up for my obsession hobby. I have scrapbooks of our wedding, honeymoon and a family book. I have a few framed around the house on walls. Mostly I post them here and on facebook for family to see. Most of our extended families do not live near us. My current focus with my camera the last couple of years has been my sons, so I think the general public around me is safe for a while. I make photo quilts that I already posted about and I do plan to make scrapbooks for both of the boys of their childhood.

Having a snack together

I go back and forth on going up to a DSLR. The zoom and stop action are desirable, but the thinness of the point and shoot ensures it fits in my purse. I want to make sure I'm capturing moments away from home. My name is Lori and I have a camera problem. There are 589 pictures in my April 2012 folder. March has 858. Man, I think I'll stop there *gulp*

Hanging out

This post would have been boring had it not been spruced up by these adorable faces :-)

S is for Schooling

Our family decided last summer after months of prayer, conversation, seeking advice and research that we would homeschool our children. In September, we started with the mindset we would do this through at least preschool and we'd see where it went from there. The flexibility, the biblical focus, the one on one time with Matthew, tailoring it to his needs, a more peaceful flow to our days not getting a 2 month old at the time in and out of the car sold us on this approach to education. Those were the top reasons, there are many others .

It's April now and we are hooked.  Pardon me while I get a bit excited...The  long term effects for our children's faith knowing we are presenting facts and knowledge from God's view, not the world's played a large part. Freely discussing God in literature choices as well as science and history curriculum was another. Spending half the time to accomplish twice as much academically. Who is more invested in my children's success and development than I am? They will be a light out in the world if/ when they have invited Christ in to their hearts.  Most importantly we are encouraging God's definition of success, not lawmakers or a stranger's. In the end, it's not even really about the transmitting of information because academic knowledge alone is not enough.  It's about God, faith, family and character. Bottom line is, it just fits for our family.We aren't alone. The last statistic I saw, there are over 2 million homeschoolers in America. Just as no two Christian homes look alike, no two homeschool families do either which I LIKE. We aren't replicating anyone. We are using materials, ideas, lessons and activities from multiple resources to benefit our sons' growth.  I'm a quality time person for my love language and it just spoke so loudly to me the best I could give my children was me. I can only give them the best education for their talents, gifts, struggles, interests, learning styles and personalities through reliance on Christ alone. We'll be educating our children this way as long as the Lord leads us.

We do a monthly bible focus. For example, In March every week we did something Easter Resurrection related.

Every week do a bible story and scripture:

 

 

 We have a letter of the week and color, shape and number of the month. Here are some boxes of fun from last month. For example March 5-9, we focused on the letter R and color green. March 12-16 was our spring break, although we did stretch out from the prior week due to some unexpected events that came up. March 19-23 was the letter S and shape triangle. March 26-30 was the letter T and number 7.

 

 

  I'm excited to continue to see what God will do with this decision. We're looking forward to watching our boys grow and learn spiritually, academically, socially and physically every day. If you're interested in this approach to education even a little, know God will direct  and equip you. Also, know the socialization fear is from a lack of education. There are SO many avenues to relate to other children and build life long friendships. There is tons of support from co-ops, homeschool groups, field trips and extra curricular activities like sports, instrument/ music lessons and community opportunities. We have weekly play dates even at this age, plus what he gets from weekly bible class. As one mom put it, "Mainstream socialization seems to be focus on what to buy and wear, where pop culture is the only culture. No, thank you." As far as feeling equipped, I have incredibly supportive public and private schooled teacher friends who share resources and ideas.  I've already plugged in to some great online, magazine and devotional resources. If you're concerned they aren't at least comparable to brick and mortar learning, there are standardized tests you can administer or check against. There is a homeschool book fair in May we are attending to start scoping out bible, character and academic curriculum for the rest of preschool. Ultimately, if this is God's will for your family, He will be your best resource. 

We've used quite a few Montessori concepts this year and Matthew has responded very well to them. Some favorite tools have been sensory bins, sand paper cards, salt tracing and a geoboard. I reoganized the main learning room to be more at a child level so I can see what captures his attention and follow his lead. I've found more toddler/ preschool activities via facebook, pinterest and blogs than I could fit in this year.  It's mostly very activity based. We use every day items like cookie sheets, gf soy doh, puzzles and books. We do activities with crafts, games, education cubes, blocks, chenille sticks, lacing cards, window clings, toys and i-spy. We do some paper based learning as well with flash cards, and coloring. Matthew has a blast using window markers, dry erase marker, crayons, sharpies and do a dot markers for fine motor skills. We utilize technology like learning web sites, videos, music and iphone apps.

Although I don't expect mastery and especially at this young of an age, it's more about exposure and influence, I did set some goals. Year 2 goals were accomplished. We read, colored, repeated and talked about a weekly scripture.  I built up our bible story and faith holiday book collections. This year we began several new faith based holiday traditions. We plan to continue that next year as well. Matthew can identify all the capital and lower case letters as well as know to read the letters going from left to right.  He knows his numbers 1 through 10. He can count to 14 verbally and to 3 with one to one correspondence.  He can identify basic shapes like square, heart, triangle, circle, rectangle as well as the basic primary and secondary colors. His vocabulary has really taken off. He doesn't just repeat but comes up with his own full sentences. He's doing great on positional words, pattern, sizing, sequencing and other critical thinking skills. He can point to all of his body parts. He's independent, creative and gets excited when we get new ideas. He asks for 'fun' :-)

Spiritually, we have been doing at least a verse a week through book, visual and song support. Anyone with a 2 year old can attest to working on character development every single day. Especially with a sibling in the house. We've been working towards leading the boys that it's not just 'nice to be nice'. It's our way of showing we love Jesus and telling God how thankful we are for His son. We are following God by obeying His rules a.k.a 'being nice'. There are many opportunities to talk about sharing, kind hands, not taking, using a calm voice, respecting someone's feelings, among others.