Saturday, May 19, 2012
Friday, October 29, 2010
Halloween 2010
Procrastination and frugality joined forces this year and pushed me to make the kids' trick-or-treating costumes from scratch. I have to say, I had so much fun scouring the basement for random materials and seeing the ideas come together that I doubt I'll ever go back to store-bought costumes (please, don't hold this statement over my head if I contradict myself next year!).
The kids' requests were a horse (Annabell) and Thomas the Train (you can guess). Without spending a dime apart from my time, here's what we came up with in 24 hours:
Aunt Tina also sent adorable trick-or-treating bags for the kids to finish decorating. We had some great craft time on Thursday and Friday getting them ready for the big event! There was even a third bag for me to decorate on behalf of Baby McLennan. :)
Here are more photos of this year's Halloween festivities:
Liam Visits the Island of Sodor
As all who read this undoubtedly know, Liam is obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine and his many steamie friends from the Island of Sodor. When I asked Liam what type of cake he wanted for his 4th birthday, it was no surprise that he answered, "A Thomas cake, with a train track on it and Thomas on the track."
My first inclination was to create a repeat of the cake I made for Annabell's 3rd (?) birthday: a simple rectangular sheet cake with frosting tracks and a miniature Thomas on top. But I've never enjoyed repeating myself, and given the magnitude of Liam's love for all things Thomas, I decided to go all out and try to match his enthusiasm.
As usual, my grandiose vision turned out to be far more work than I anticipated, but the delight on the kids' faces was worth every penny, hour, and crumb in my carpet.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Suffering Is Not Defeat
Earlier this year I read and reviewed a book called Christianity in Crisis, which discusses the beliefs and proponents of the so-called "prosperity gospel." I was vaguely familiar with this movement before reading the book, but downright enraged by it afterwards. My eyes have been opened to how thoroughly this false teaching has infiltrated the American church, and even my own extended family. Given what Tim and I have been learning about the role of suffering in our own lives and those around the world, the prosperity gospel is more detestable to me than ever.
This morning I was reading a blog by a family who is currently struggling to keep their newborn son alive. They had posted the following video, and I found it so striking I just had to pass it on.
This morning I was reading a blog by a family who is currently struggling to keep their newborn son alive. They had posted the following video, and I found it so striking I just had to pass it on.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Our Homeschool Adventure
Last winter when we decided to homeschool Annabell for her kindergarten year, I planned to keep things simple and do our work at the dining room table. But then I came to my senses. Our dining room table is the catch-all of our house. I knew that if I had to clear it off every morning, get out our schoolwork, and put everything away again in another room at the end of the day's lessons, we'd never get anything done.
Thus our decision to transform Annabell's bedroom into a classroom. She had been sleeping in Liam's room for months, but we were holding out on doing anything to her bedroom until we heard from Rwanda. If our baby is a girl, we were going to move Liam into the small bedroom and let Annabell and her sister share the big room. Is our baby is a boy, he would room with Liam, and Annabell would move back to her old room.
Well, desperate times call for desperate measures. Deciding that it wouldn't hurt our kids to ALL share a bedroom, we found some bunk beds and rearranged Liam's large room so that it could also accommodate a crib when the time comes. Then we set to work assembling a classroom.
The kids were so excited when we finished. They wanted school to start right away! But we held off until yesterday. September 9 was the first day of the 2010-2011 school year in the McLennan household!
Here are some pics from our first day...
Starting off on the right foot... We began our day by praising God for creating our minds to learn new things, and for giving us an amazing world to explore. Then we recited the pledge of allegiance, followed by another prayer for our baby in Rwanda and our Rwandan Compassion child Kansime, who is also attending school.
Tim helped me make these tackboards for displaying the kids' artwork out of homosote and cute cloth I found at Walmart. The rain-gutter bookshelves are exclusively for library books, so we always know where they are - top shelf for Annabell and the bottom for Liam.
I made this laminated calendar and applied velcro pads to each day for noting special occasions and holidays.
Some of the special days/events we're anticipating this year.
My eager students. Let the games begin!
When Annabell's lessons are too advanced for Liam, he'll have the opportunity to play with some special new schooltime-only toys. This was his first experience with Legos. What did he build? Why, a train, of course. And a train station.
We'll also be keeping track of the weather each day. Whenever the chart fills up, we'll tally the sunny, cloudy, rainy, and snowy days and distribute coins for each. Sunny=pennies, cloudy=nickels, rainy=dimes, and snowy=quarters. This will come in handy with some counting and math lessons as well.
The hardest part of creating a classroom - organization! Annabell's alcove to the left contains all our homeschool materials. The now-doorless closet to the right is home to my craft supplies and games. SO nice to have them out of the basement and accessible again!
First library run. They couldn't wait to fill up their shelves!
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