He's growing up...

I'm supposed to be posting some pictures from Saturday, and I also still need to finish blogging about my family members...but the wireless card on our main computer apparently needs replaced, so I'm on Jeshurun's tiny little netbook, which is such a pain to use! So I'm postponing (again) some of the posts I've been promising for ages...

I just wanted to share with my mom friends about how big my youngest is getting now. In fact, he has abruptly decided to wean, which has taken me quite by surprise! I guess now that I think about it, I should have seen this coming, but I didn't because I was assuming that he would be nursing for at least another six months or so. But nope, he's made it quite clear that he is no longer interested! He is also making great progress at giving up the pacifier. Now all that's left is potty-training...

I posted this before when my oldest weaned, but here's a great informational page about extended breastfeeding: Extended Breastfeeding Fact Sheet
There's a lot of useful general nursing info on the KellyMom site, so if you are or will be a nursing mom, I highly recommend checking it out!

Another sign that Noah and Elijah are growing up: they are getting along so well these days! They still argue from time to time, but for the most part they play together quite nicely. They even share things, and take turns, voluntarily! Right now they are playing church, which is one of their favorites.

Must run--will post again soon (I hope).

I was going through old pictures...

...and found a few to share.

I am very sad that here in Texas, we don't have a proper fall (autumn). I miss fall. Here is a photo that reminds me of the beauty I left behind in the Midwest. From left to right, Jeshurun, Rev. Watkins, Mercy.


When my folks lived in Indiana, they had a small hobby farm with about 10 acres and up to 70 sheep plus various other animals. We Hembds believed then as we believe now that it's important to instill a good work ethic at an early age. No better place to instill good work habits than on the farm. Here is one of Elijah helping with some farm work.


Lastly, just for fun, here are some familiar faces for y'all. We have all of the Hembd family here, plus a few of the Smith boys, plus one extra. From left to right, back row: Jesh, Mark, Carl, Jett, David, Caleb, Joseph. From left to right, front row: me, Mom, Dad, Mercy, Ben (then known as Joe).


I'm not sure if the scanner is dusty or if the pictures themselves are dirty...if you click on these you'll see what I'm talking about. Sorry about that.

Also, I found another good one of Caleb. I added it to this post

Bye-bye pacifier!

Those of you who see us regularly will know that Noah still uses a pacifier. I've kind of spoiled him because I think of him as my baby. :) But the pacifier needs to go, as it's affecting the development of his teeth and gums.

The question is, how to go about it with a minimum of fuss? I did a little google-ing and found the suggestion to prick a small hole in the pacifier. I immediately remembered an old pacifier that got a hole in it somehow--he didn't care for it at all! He said it was too "squeaky." So I guess all of the pacifiers will be getting holes in them as of today. :) Hopefully, once he realizes that they are all "squeaking," he'll lose interest.

I'm posting this here for accountability! I hope it works!

A Nice Picnic

Leah & Shona, Mercy & Olivia, Sarah, and the boys & I got together for a little picnic the other day. It was pouring rain and a little chilly, but we ate under a shelter/pavilion thing and enjoyed ourselves anyway. Olivia and Shona were looking really cute and snuggly bundled into their little blankets.

Shona just lights up when you talk to her.


I can't decide if Olivia is really, really calm, or really, really, intense.


In other news, I made refried beans with dry pinto beans that Mom says were at least ten years old [EDIT: Make that SIXTEEN years old]. And they turned out just fine. I guess dry beans really do keep forever. I soaked them with baking soda first, maybe that was the key (3/8 tsp. baking soda per cup of dry beans).

Happy Birthday, Caleb

Happy (belated) birthday, little brother!

Edit: Here's another one for ya.

So I opened an Etsy shop...

Etsy is a site to buy and sell handmade and/or "vintage" items. I opened a shop to sell some century-old postcards, part of a collection that had once belonged to a distant relative. Check it out:

www.thoughtfuloldrose.etsy.com

Eventually I'll be selling some handmade bags and other handmade odds and ends via Etsy, so this vintage shop is sort of a practice run, if you will. I'll post again when I open that second shop.

So what are you doing this morning? We're going to the library and the park--an exciting morning for the little ones! And later, during Noah's nap, I will head out again to (hopefully) find a new pair of running shoes, as the pair I have has about had it with these country roads.

On the back patio this morning...

Tucked into the corner right up against the back door, Ben found this critter:

I know it's fuzzy, but do you see the red markings on its abdomen? That's right, it's a black widow, a big fat mama black widow. She was surrounded with little babies, too, and a few egg cases. *shudder*

She was dispatched thanks to half a can of bug poison, sprayed liberally about (by Ben, I wouldn't be so brave).

Once deceased, she served as the subject of the following photo:

Look what I got!

I went to an estate sale this morning, and look what I came home with:

The spider plant is easy to identify, but I don't know what the other three are. Any ideas?

Baptism Revisited

Hello friends,

Recently realized that I never updated y'all about my investigation into the topic of baptism (see previous post).

I am now a paedobaptist. :) The key was a pamphlet entitled "Covenant Baptism" by Peter Bloomfield, which I borrowed from a family at my church in Bloomington. My sticking point had been my understanding of the covenants, but Mr. Bloomfield explained the Covenant of Grace in such a way that I could finally understand the continuity between the Old and New Testaments. As I read this I felt the light bulbs going on! It was such a delight to have it all finally make sense, after days (weeks?) of reading and pondering.

Love to all,
Sharon

P.S. The booklet by Mr. Bloomfield is only three dollars, and I highly recommend it to all.  The first three pages are the best part.

Homeschooling!!?! Yikes!

Elijah is officially reading now, well enough that he can sing along in the Psalter, for instance, or read most any children's book. He still does quite a bit of bouncing off the walls (literally) and building with Lego, but now he also spends large blocks of time reading to himself--standing on his head, as often as not; right now he's sort of rolling around on an end table while reading "The Sleepy Story."

He's obviously learning quite a lot on his own, but lately I've started to think that perhaps I should be directing his education a bit, via some proper schooling. I started looking at homeschooling curricula, and boy, talk about system overload! There is so much to choose from, it's overwhelming. Plus, there are many radically different opinions about how children ought to learn--so far, "unschooling" has worked pretty well for us, but recently I read this article:

Homeschooling With Textbooks

Mrs. Maxwell makes some good points about textbooks, I think. I don't think she quite understands the motivation behind things like unit studies, and Mom-selected learning materials--she assumes that it's all about making learning fun, but I always thought it was more about going straight to the original sources for info, rather than getting things filtered through a textbook author's lens. I like the idea of reading "real books" a la Charlotte Mason.

But she makes a good point about textbook learning being much easier on Mom. As a single mom, I do have to work a bit, though so far I've been blessed to be able to work from home. Still, I don't have the freedom to devote all of my time to educating my children, so if textbooks would make it easier for them to learn on their own, I need to consider them. Also, I do feel strongly that my children need to have the self-discipline to work and learn independently, even on topics that aren't their favorites, and perhaps some textbook work could help them to learn self-discipline.

But which textbooks? That decision alone is enough to make me learn towards unschooling--besides, textbooks cost money, and the library is free. :)

If you have an opinion to share, feel free!