New around here

So, what's new around here?  

Well, I'm working on adding some different things.  

Good things that I hope will add to our life.

Two things that I got from Ann at Holy Experience we have added to our mealtimes.

Candles and The Word.  

I saw that Ann had candles on her table and thought, "That's a great idea!" So I started lighting candles at dinnertime and the boys love it.  It makes dinner special and creates a little calmer mood (and heaven knows we need a little calm at dinner).  And the boys and I had fun smelling all the candles at Wal-Mart to pick some more for our table.  

One of them was "Ocean" and after Caleb smelled it he said, "That smells like a bath!"  

The other thing that Ann does that inspired me is that they read the Bible after every meal together.  Now, we read the boys' Jesus Storybook Bible but I was waiting until they were older to read the real thing.  But I decided to try it.  

Of course, I edit.

And they love it.  Well, Carter loves it.  Caleb listens sometimes, wiggles a lot, and acts silly sometimes.  But overall, it is a success.  We don't always read after all 3 meals, but I try and read after at least 2.  I am excited about reading through the Bible with them (appropriate and non tedious parts left out, of course) and am thinking about making a notebook where we write and draw the major events and keep them in a notebook to give them a timeline of the Bible.

Another new thing that I have added is Thorton Burgess' Adventure stories.  We will be reading Burgess' Bird Book in first grade but I have several of his Adventure stories so we are reading Paddy the Beaver together, a chapter a day (each chapter is 1 page front and back) and we are so loving it!  So, since Carter has quiet time (aka Mommy's Sanity Saver time) during Caleb's nap, I checked out Librivox (free downloads of audio books) and found they had several of the stories recorded.  So I downloaded Adventure of Buster Bear and Adventure of Johnny Chuck.  An entire book won't fit on a CD but I split it up for now.  I've got an old ipod that I'm going to download them to so he can listen to the entire book.  He absolutely loves these stories.  He listened to Buster Bear over and over for a week before I downloaded Johnny Chuck.  These are wonderful animal stories where you learn all about the animal, it's habitat, sound, and specific abilities, all in an adorable story.  And the reader is GREAT!!!  He does different voices for the different animals and has such a pleasant voice.  Loving adding some good living books to our everyday!!

Now something we have taken away - the thumb. 

Well, we didn't get rid of his thumb, just the thumb sucking :)  Unfortunately (or fortunately for our wallet), he can't decide on a train.  Well, he did decide but Mommy and Daddy decided it was just too expensive of a train.  We're trying to talk him into something a little cheaper.

Another thing we are trying to take away is the whining and arguing.  A couple of nights ago God gave me inspiration.  I told Carter that starting the next day if he started whining or complaining or arguing that I was going to say a secret code word. 

That got him listening.

Our secret code word, "Twinkle Toes".

When I said "Twinkle Toes" he was to put his hands over his mouth and pray, "God, help me to stop whining, complaining and arguing."

So we did a practice run.

It made him giggle.

Four days later, it's actually working.

THANK YOU GOD!!!!!

Isn't he just too grown up?

And of course we are always adding lots of cuteness.