Happy 6th Birthday, Mary!

February 3, 2010 — threelittlejewells

Here is a repost of what I wrote on her birthday last year- I will do an

updated post about today’s birthday tonight or tomorrow.

Mary turned 5 years old today!

When I was pregnant with Mary, I prayed diligently to the Lord during those first few months of pregnancy to help me to be content with whatever the sex of our baby was. I desperately wanted a girl but more than that I wanted to be content with whatever child I was given. The Lord was gracious with me and blessed me with the desire of my heart- a blue-eyed little girl to name Mary after my grandmother. What a blessing it is to be her mother.

She brings me great joy and is the delight of my days.

Mary is named after my Gramma- Mary Elizabeth Caster Fairchild. Gramma Mary was loved by all who knew her. She was a devout, Godly woman who loved the Lord. Gramma had that wicked Caster humor. Her blue eyes twinkled. She loved to read, as all Casters do. Gramma was quite the tease. She loved the outdoors, especially birds. Gramma had firm convictions based on biblical principles but never pushed her ideas on others unless asked. Gramma would smile and nod whenever someone tried to push her into doing something but then would quietly go on and do what she wanted without every making an argument or causing a fuss. (something I could learn from!)

Gramma Mary was named after her Grandmother, Mary Rowe Bargy. Great Great Gramma Bargy is our grandmother who is famous for eyeing down the panther in the big woods. She was fearless. She was known to be wise with her money. She was tall and strong with piercing eyes. We have many family stories about her that we tell often when our family is together. She was born in 1850 so Mary’s name goes back over 150 years in our family. My one picture of her is one of my most treasured possessions and someday it will be Mary’s.

I hope that as Mary grows into a young lady she will possess the best character traits of both Marys. May she be a true and devout follower of Jesus. I pray that she is fearless in her convictions but still kind and humble with a teachable spirit. I hope that she is wise with the blessings the Lord bestows upon her. It is my dearest wish that she always remembers who she is and where she comes from. That she knows who her people are and tells their stories faithfully. Let her be a great tease and teller of stories as all Casters are but still possess the “meek and quiet spirit” of a truely Godly woman.

Mary, August 2008

How in the world did she grow up so fast? Surely it was just yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital… She’s not “little” anymore- she’s officially a “kid”. I can hardly believe it.

Mary Madison, 2 months old, April, 2004

There is so much deliciousness in this picture. The little cheeks, the sweety pacifier, the gorgeous leg chublets…

Mary and I on our way to her first church service. Easter, 2004

Important Things to Know About Mary at 5 Years Old…

Mary loves cooking. She is a champion pie-baker and cookie-maker.

She loves her “chores”- setting the table, feeding the pets, making her bed.

She loves her stuffed animals- particularly the small “beanie baby” type animals.

Mary has big beautiful blue eyes. She calls them her “magic eyes”.

She has a good sense of humor. She loves telling knock-knock jokes.

Her favorite thing to drink is water. She doesn’t like milk and will usually choose water over any other beverage. She likes her water to be “fresh” which means with ice.

She enjoys her school work. She is on day 124 of Kindergerten. She is learning to read, working on math, history, science, handwriting and bible.

She loves, loves, loves drawing.

She really likes spending time with her grandparents.

Mary is a people person- she has never met a stranger and everyone loves her.

Mary is taking Tae Kwon Do lessons twice a week. Her instructor says that she is a “natural”.

She loves to ride her bike.

Her favorite thing to do when we go for a walk is to visit the neighbors. She will say to me “So, Mama. Who are we going to visit today?”

Mary loves her siblings. She does not like to be apart from Nathan and loves to take care of Savannah.

She loves to spend time with her Daddy.

Mary is quite small for her age- in the 10%.

Mary loves to do puzzles and play games. She can complete 40 piece puzzles independently but needs a little help on 70 piece puzzles.

Mary enjoys playing with “play sets” a lot. Such as a farm and it’s animals, doll house, the Indian set, etc. Those are probably her favorite type of toys to play with.

She loves to be pushed HIGH on the swing. She will go as high as you can push her or as high as the swing can go and love every second of it.

She is SUCH a little “Caster”. Caster’s are Gramma Mary’s side of the family. Casters have blue eyes. We are great story-tellers, we are charming and good with our money. Casters are joke-tellers and have a bit of the drama gene. Mary is the epitome of a Caster and that brings me great joy.

Mary’s favorite color is red.

Pictures Of Mary Madison from the past year.

November, 2008 Mary and her best buddy, Nathan.

April, 2008 (I think) Going on a treasure hunt.

September, 2008 Such a diligent student.

Fun with the marble run.

Handwriting practice…

Going to the ballet, October, 2008

November, 2008

December, 2008

January, 2009

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Devotions

January 9, 2010 — threelittlejewells

Family Devotions

A friend recently asked me about what we are using for family devotions in the evenings. Here is the email I sent her.

The book is “Leading Little Ones to God” by Marian Schoolland. Here is the opening to the book, which I like…

“This book is intended to be a guide to parents who desire to teach their little ones about God. Parents are the child’s best teachers, and perhaps there is nothing more important in his or her spiritual development than quiet talks with Mother or Father about the great God who made us and loves us.”

The book is divided into 14 parts with each part having 4-8 devotions.

1. Looking for God
2. God is Very Great
3. All that God Does is Good
4. Sin Spoiled the World
5. God’s Law
6. God Loves Us
7. What Jesus Did
8. About the Holy Spirit
9. How We Become Children of God
10. How God’s Children Live and Grow
11. God Helps His Children Live for Him
12. When We Pray to God
13. About God’s Church
14. Things That are To Happen

For example, Part 12. “When We Pray To God” contains these devotions: What it means to Pray, Praying in Jesus’ Name, Where we should pray, How we should pray, What we may ask for in prayer, How God answers our prayers, The most important prayer.

****Something else we do, that I forgot to mention on the phone last night, is memorize scripture & prayers. We used this idea for our scripture memory system and it is working beautifully. http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/

Love that it uses things you already have or can find at Wal-Mart.

We started memorizing last spring when Nathan was a young 4 and he has picked up quickly. I would bet that your son could memorize some of the shorter verses pretty easily.

Some that we have memorized are Prov. 28:13, Phil. 4:13, Luke 1:37, John 14:6, Genesis 1:1, Ephesians 6:1, Psalm 119:11.

They are currently working on memorizing this prayer: (Mary has it down pretty good, Nathan is almost there)

A Child’s Prayer

Lord, teach a little child to pray,

And then accept my prayers,

For thou can hear the words I say,

For thou are everywhere.

A little sparrow cannot fall

Unnoticed, Lord, by thee;

And though I am so young and small,

Thou does take care of me.

Teach me to do the thing that is right,

And when I sin, forgive;

And make it still my chief delight

To serve You while I live.

To help them memorize: I simply say a portion out loud, have them repeat it, I say the next part, they repeat it. We do it once or twice a day until they have the whole passage memorized. It takes almost no time. For example:

Ephesisans 6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.
Me: Ephesians 6:1
Mary: repeats above.
Me: Children, obey your parents
Mary: repeats
Me: in the Lord
Mary: repeats
Me: for this is right.
Mary: repeats.
We might do this twice in the evening.

******In addition to LLOTG, scripture & prayer memorization, the children are also memorizing the Catechism for Young Children.
http://www.reformed.org/documents/index.html?mainframe=http://www.reformed.org/documents/cat_for_young_children.html

I initially printed out the entire document above but that was a little bulky for daily use so last year I bought it in booklet form- these are 2 small booklets and I keep them with the above memory system. There are 2 booklets and they are $2.75 each- pretty cheap.
http://www.doorposts.com/details.aspx?id=8

So far they have memorized questions 1-20- SUCH a good foundation for basic knowledge of the Christian faith. As we work through the catechism, if there is a question/answer we disagree with theologically I will either skip it or design my own “answer” for them to memorize. So far it hasn’t been a problem.

*****I’m sure you have a good Children’s Bible but I thought I’d mention this one just in case. After hearing several recommendations for Egermeier’s Bible Story Book we bought one and are very pleased with it. Nice illustrations. Short stories that are readable in 5 minutes or less. BUT- best of all- so many Bible Story Books only contain the main Bible Stories- what I like about Egermeier’s is that it starts at the beginning, works through the entire Bible- it is VERY comprehensive.

***MUSIC- We use Wee Sing Bible Songs- I pick one song and we learn a stanza at a time in the evenings. We sing through it once or twice at the end of devotions until we have it memorized. Pretty simple.
http://www.amazon.com/Wee-Sing-Bible-Songs-Book/dp/B002V1GZAU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262992914&sr=1-1

*So, we do a little of all of the above. We try to work through LLOTG once a year and the rest of the year we read through Egermeier’s. It only takes 15 minutes or so to do the reading, practice the current memory verse & review an older one, go through the Catechism questions and work on our Bible Song. We don’t do it EVERY single night- we strive for 5 nights a week but it is often closer to 3 or 4 nights.

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Kid Sayings

January 8, 2010 — threelittlejewells

Christmas Morning (2009):

Nathan: Dad, do you know what my favorite present was?

Kip & I: No, what was it?

Nathan: Savannah is my favorite present!

Isn’t that sweet? Both of the big kids dote on Savvy & she follows them everywhere, as fast as she can go.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010.

Mary: Don’t worry Mom, we’re Indians, we know what we’re doing!

Me: At this point I decide it’s a good time to investigate what they are doing.

Keep in mind that it’s 26 degrees outside. I found them dressed in nothing but underwear, crocks and their “fighters” (that would be swords tucked in the waistband of their underwear) trying to go outside to “hunt the ghosts”….

I put the kibosh on that little plan so they are currently “hunting” in the dining room. Apparently not as much fun as outside.

Thursday, January 7, 2010.

Mary: Mom, I love you more than a peanut butter sandwich.

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Nathan’s 5th Birthday Pictures

January 7, 2010 — threelittlejewells

On Sunday, January 3, Nathan turned 5 years old! It’s hard to believe the last five years flew by so quickly.

As I’ve mentioned before, we do Birthdays a little bit like Christmas morning. We wait until they are in bed, then wrap the presents & place them at their seat at the kitchen table. When they wake up in the morning they rush downstairs to see what’s there. We also do Valentine’s Day and Easter the same way.

Here’s Nathan’s first look at his presents from Mom & Dad.

The presents… hmmm, wonder what’s in there??? Each child usually gets 3 presents from us, one of which is typically books.

His presents: Large rocket ship, Hotwheels race track & 2 new Usborne books: “See Inside Castle” & “See Under the Ground”.

Playing with the race track.

THE CAKE: The cake is also always a surprise. After the kids are in bed the night before the birthday, we work on the cake together. I found a picture & instructions for making this pirate ship cake on the internet. We worked on it for quite a while Saturday night. Then we hid it in the study until after the birthday dinner. When we brought it in, Nathan was totally blown away!

Nathan’s first sight of his birthday cake!

Birthday dinner: Going around the table, starting on the left. Mary, Ms. Barbara (our regular sitter), Mimi, Melodi (Kip’s sister), Paw Paw, Sarah, Alec, Nathan. For dinner we had Nathan’s favorite meal: Salad, Stuffed Peppers & homemade breadsticks.

Opening presents: Aunt Sarah gave Nathan a stomp rocket, Ms. Barbara gave Nathan a Crocodile Hunter set from Playmobil and Paw Paw & Mimi gave Nathan the Playmobil Sphinx to go with our Egypt set & the Playmobil Shark Hunter set to go with his bath set. A pretty great birthday!

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Pictures- December 26, 2009- January 2, 2010

January 6, 2010 — threelittlejewells

My Mom & Savannah- each of our kids has a family name & Savvy is named after Mom. They both share a middle name- Marie. I plan to frame this picture and hang it in Savannah’s room.

This has become a BIG problem. Savvy stripping off her pajamas and usually her diaper at night. Kip & I will check on the kids before we go to bed and she’ll be asleep in her crib, naked & shivering. We’ve got a few pairs of one piece, zippered pajamas that have open feet. We’ve started putting them on her backwards, so that the zipper is on her back. So far she hasn’t figured out how to get out of them. Look how precious she is though! LOVE the little toes sticking out.