This & That

Dinner time. Jenna was "helping" Amarin with the refried beans on the night we were having nachos. The kitchen counter is where she likes to be when meals are being cooked.

On another night, Jenna helped me cook dinner. Because she helped, she got to stand up and take a bow for a lovely dinner. She thought this was pretty cool!

Blanket time. I love this idea, and glad I remembered having heard about it from a friend.

Since we've been home, school lessons have been a bit challenging to say the least.

The little ones are a tad bit noisy, and usually end up wanting the same toy...no matter how many may be in front of them. Trying to referee them while teaching the big boys was not my idea of an ideal school day.

So, blanket time has been instituted.

They both have their own blanket, a "slight" distance away from one another.

They have to stay on their blankets, with the toys that I have given them, for 1/2 hour, or until I give them the "all clear."

If they don't want to play with the toys I've chosen for them, they can sit quietly, or lie down & rest. What a difference and lessons are now back in full swing!

The "blues brothers" all went for an eye checkup.
Six healthy eyes! Yeah!!
And they even got cool sunglasses to wear home because the sun was
uncharacteristically shining that day.

Jacob's turn to help me make dinner and for the first time we wrapped grape leaves, with rice, feta cheese, and spices. They were sooooo good! And it gave us a good 45 minutes of Mom/Jacob chat time. Most of the time was spent unwrapping the leaves...they rip very easily!

The thankful jar.

A sweet friend led our small group/Bible study last night, and gave all of us colored marbles and glass jars. The idea is to fill the jars every day with the marbles...one marble for every thing we're thankful for. Charlie is thankful for lots of things, and Jenna is just saying "thank you" right now as she puts them in the jar.