JustJessie

A Little More Grantinese

It's been a LONG time since my last Grantinese post, hasn't it? I figure I better do one before a)I forget all the cute things he has said, or b) He grows out of all his little foibles.  So, get set for some cuteness!

For a while we've been listening to Winnie-the-Pooh books on cd, and the boys love to act out certain scenes.  Grant likes to be Pooh, and he likes Grayson to be "Principal Robin."  I have corrected this little mix-up, so he now says very carefully, "Chris-ta-bull Robin."

The boys recently got the Star Wars Lego game for their Wii, which has led to a sort of obsession with Star Wars.  They're only allowed to play at certain times (usually when I'm cooking and can't keep an eye on them), so the rest of the time they pretend to be characters from the movies.  Grant especially loves to be "Wuke" and for me to be "Weia" and for Grayson to be "Darf Bader, the daddy!"  He calls C3PO "3-Seep", and Han Solo is "Wan Sodo".

Grant is a very appreciative little fellow.  He's always the first to say "Sanks" when he gets something or someone does him a favor.  Being the little brother and the littlest cousin, he also gets a lot of hand-me-downs.  He never seems to mind, though sometimes I feel bad when, handed a piece of clothing, he automatically asks whose it used to be.  The same is true for his preschool workbooks.  I had never bought him his own, because we had pieces of about five different ones that we worked from.  I decided, since he is doing "school" everyday now with Grayson and me, that he should have his own book.  When I saw one at Costco that was hard-backed and covered every single thing in one big book, I showed it to him and asked if he would like to have a school book of his own.  Oh my goodness.  Y'all, you would have thought I had handed him the secrets of the universe!  He hugged the book to his chest, and said, "Really??  A school book of my verrry own???  Mom!  You're the best mom ever!"  The rest of the trip around Costco, he sat in the seat of the shopping cart, singing my praises.  "Mom, you just do all the best things!  You swim with me; even I can cook with you; even you teach me stuffs; even you make stuff on your sewin' thing."  On and on it went, melting my heart all the while.  Then it turned into telling me how much he loved me.  "Mom, I love you even in the heart!   and in the whole world!  and even I love you in the sun!  and Mom, I even love you in the whole awexy! (galaxy)." The best part was, a little later he started making these pitiful crying noises.  I asked him what was wrong, and he said, "Nothin's wrong.  I'm crying cries of joy!"   I know it's impossible, given the amount of testosterone in our future, but I wish this sweetness could last forever.

Fresh off the Press

I don't have time for a major post right now, but I wanted to share my latest paintings with you! 

 

This one was a gift for a friend.  When I saw pictures of her two elder daughters dressed up for their ballet recital, I begged her to let me paint them! 

 

And this little beauty is a commission from a couple we've recently reconnected with through facebook.  Painting their twins was probably the most fun I've had with a brush in hand in ages!  I have had to fight down the baby fever in a big way,though, staring at those pink cheeks all week long!

Okay, gotta run, but there WILL be posts on all our summer fun forthcoming!!

Hummingbirds

As a way of gearing up for our study of birds this year in science, the boys and I have become sort of amateur bird watchers.  We have placed feeders in our backyard, trying different foods to attract the birds we want to come.  The birds that cause lots of excitement because they're so cute and quick and fascinating are our Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds.  So far we have only gotten photos of the female, but I'm sure she has a boyfriend around here someplace. 

We're all doing watercolors of our backyard birds as part of a larger project that I'll show you soon! 

Little Mister Muffet

   

Credits:

Narrator and Props:  Grayson Keith

Mister Muffet:  Grant Keith

**You can't really see it in the picture, but there is a giant spider made from wire coat hangers on the rope Grayson is lowering!

Little Farmer Boys

My boys have had their corner of the garden planned out since at least early March.  They had a definite plan to plant baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, and popcorn.  Until we started reading up on vegetable gardening this year, I didn't even know there was such a thing as a popcorn plant.  I though they just did something to regular corn to make it like that.  I was wrong, and that is the one crop the boys have been ecstatic over.  Imagine our disappointment when we went garden shopping, and everyone was out of popcorn seed!  Some farmer in the area bought all 50 pounds of it that our farmer's cooperative stocked!  Luckily for us, my parents knew the lady working there, and when she came across a stray 1/4 pound of seed, it was us that she called!

Mom and I laid out a line for the boys to follow, and they hoed their rows, then sowed their seed, and watered it before stomping it in.  They were so painstakingly careful, that it took a LONG time, and we almost lost their interest completely before they got their carrots in the ground!

 

There was just enough time left to splash some dirt off in the hose and play with the neighbors puppies before it got dark! 

 

Y'all, I just can't tell you how much I love this.  Having both my boys... being "us" again...  It's like we've come home to rest after some long strange break from ourselves.  Everyday thus far, both boys have proclaimed the best day ever (except Disney World.  They always throw in that disclaimer!), and I have to say I agree.  How could it get any better than this?

Adjusting and Enjoying

 Summer has finally arrived here in our little nook of Alabama.  Grayson has been out of school for a full week now, and it's strange in a lot of ways having him here again.  He's been used to someone else filling every time slot in his day since August, and he's also used to being around people who don't treat each other the way we do at home.  There have been lots of gentle reminders that he and his brother will be friends forever, and they should show love to each other.  There've also been lots of reminders that people are more important than "things", and when we argue over a toy we're putting the toy above the other person.

On my end, it's been an adjustment to his chatter and his need of attention.  Neither one is a bad thing, just something I'm unused to being with all day.  I have to force myself not to blank out on him when he's been talking for a verrrry long time about the same thing.  Eventually we'll both settle back into things... me being more attentive, and him realizing he doesn't have to fight for my attention. 

As for enjoying, we are thoroughly enjoying our summer thus far!  It FINALLY dried out enough to till our garden plot yesterday, so we spent the day raking, hoeing, digging, and planting!  Woohoo!  We were filthy, stinky, happy people at the end of the day! 

 

Of course, our day wasn't all work! 

Awards Day

Yesterday was Awards Day at Grayson's school.  He was so excited to come home with four awards.  He got one for Cooperation, one for using "Wow Words" in Vocabulary, one for Reading a bunch of books, and one for... um... some other thing that escapes me at the moment.  (Gimme a break, it's been a long day!)  Oh wait!  A/B Honor Roll.  That was it. 

On the ride home, he was showing his brother all of his certificates and reading them to him, and Grant started talking about his own awards.  He was referring to the stickers that I put on his worksheets and stuff here at home.  Being the super sensitive sweetie that he is, it really started to bother Grayson that Grant didn't have any actual certificates of his own.  When we got here, this is what he made him:

 

Just how precious is that?  I love that it's an award for best "stoodent".  Did I mention that we got no awards for spelling?

Look Alike

This morning Grant and I were snuggled up together on the couch as usual.  I was sipping a cup of coffee and checking facebook on my phone, flipping through some pictures someone had posted.  I didn't even know Grant was paying attention until he said, "Mommy, is that you?"

It wasn't me, and I told him so.  Then he said, "Well, it looks like you, doesn't it?"  Hmm... Red hair vs. Blond, Early 20's vs. Early 30's... I was a little puzzled as I asked, "Um, does it?"

"Yeah, she looks like you.  She's got those hangin' out things like you do (here he's patting my boobs with both his hands), so I thought she looks like you!" 

My three year old son... Already noticing women only for what they carry from the neck down.  I think I'm going to need some help with this one when puberty rolls around.

Change is in the air!

Hey y'all!  Long time no blog, huh?  Things have been chugging along at a much different pace around here than I am used to, and I haven't figured out how to fit regular blogging in with it yet. 

The first major change on the Keith scene is this... We're homeschooling next school year!  I am so excited about this.  After all the drama that was involved the last time I wanted this, I didn't think Jeff would ever agree to it.  Of course, he was right to work things out with the school and let Grayson finish out the year there.  Now he can walk away from public school feeling like a success, and not like he "had" to homeschool, because he couldn't hack it in the real world.  I also see God's provision in the fact that with me having surgery and being totally unable to do anything for myself or my kids for a while, we would have had a really hard time homeschooling!  Now things are falling into place so wonderfully that we would be crazy NOT to take advantage of it.

The second major thing that's been going on is that I have finally decided to take the plunge and send one of my children's books to a publisher.  YIKES!  I am so excited and scared and happy and discouraged all at the same time.  Since I first contacted them I have had trippy dreams and nightmares every night, because my whole person is just knocked out of whack.

Oh, and speaking of my whole person, that's the third change that's been taking up my time.  I've revamped my families style of eating and living, trying to become the healthy person I want my kids to emulate.  I know, I know, you've heard me sing this song before right?  The difference, I think, is the fact that it's not just food this go 'round.  I'm organizing and decluttering our whole life to the best of my ability.  That means clean house, no piles of laundry, organized closets and storage spaces, decluttering our brains by more reading and less television.  I've been working on this since January, when my mom came in and helped after my surgery.  She got me kick-started, and it's been a process ever since.  Basically, if Jeff and I are going to be the main adults that our kids see on a daily basis, we better be setting a darn good example for them. 

SO!  That's our last month or so in a nutshell.  Now that we've sort of adjusted to our new rhythm, I'm going to try to be more regular here... We'll see how that goes!

Easter Weekend

We are enjoying a nice, calm Saturday morning with no urgent plans and no sick children, so I thought I'd take a few minutes to post pics of our Easter weekend.  We had a busy one, but it was really nice... so full of family and friends! 

The weekend began with a church "Easter Egg-stravaganza" on Saturday morning.  It was SO COLD!  I dressed the boys in long sleeves, but I really should have made them wear a jacket!  (On a side note, do you realize how odd it is to need a jacket in AL in April??)  They had boxes upon boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts (be still my Weight Watchin' heart) to get the kids all revved up on sugar before the hunt!  Grant enjoyed his thoroughly! 

They had the church property divided up so that each age group hunted in a different area, which I thought was very nice.  Grant was one of the oldest in his age group, and I was so proud of him!  The eggs were very easy to find, so he got a lot quickly (that's not why I'm proud... that part comes in a minute).  After a couple of minutes of picking up eggs, I asked him if he thought he had enough, and shouldn't we let the smaller kids get more eggs.  He looked in his basket, and said, "Yeah!  Sure!" and walked off the hunting ground to inspect his haul.  Then when we were looking through his stuff, we saw that he had two prize eggs (they contained numbers that could be traded in for bigger prizes).  I asked him if he thought he should give one to a friend since he had two, and he immediately agreed and gave one away!  It just made me so happy inside to know that he was willing to share in an environment where so many kids just get plain ol' greedy. 

This post is getting kinda long, so I'll spare you all the easter bunny pics from Sunday morning, but I'll leave you with one of all my good lookin' fellas before we headed out to church!