Notice that change?

Have you ever been gone long enough to notice some change the next time you were there?  Has it ever been a mirror to the ways you have changed yourself? I found this to be true when we were back in America for our furlough and especially when I was at something or with someone familiar. It may not have changed, but I had! Maybe my tastes had changed, maybe I was less insecure {Praise God!}… There were clues that I was different in encouraging ways for the most part.

Now we’re back in Portugal. We love discovering changes or new things in our town since we had left. For instance, most of the road construction that’s been happening for years it seems is nearly finished! Our city made some great choices with new sidewalks and flowerbeds, even using cobblestones in white and black to make the crosswalks. Another item that got a big “WOW” from the family were the parking covers at our local LIDL, similar to ALDI if you’re familiar with that.

To see how much our plants and trees had grown at our home was nearly overwhelming! We get a lot of sun here, and since we have sprinklers, all the green things are loving life. I wish I had a before so you could see the difference. Needless to say, we had a bit of pruning to do to make the front of our house look less like a jungle!

This flower bed needed a rehaul with some flowers dead and others overtaking. The giant cabbage had to go! We actually took babies growing from it and replanted those. That’s a large onion stem that got broke off, not a snake—made great baked onion rings though!

The other big surprise was our nectarine tree. It’s on year three since we planted it. We got maybe four fruit from it last year. Check out our coming harvest!

So, we continue to look for changes in all places: finding non-vacuumed-packed corn-on-the-cob and Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup at our local grocer for the first time ever was a recent win! I was amazed!

I can tell I am still in adjustment phase as I start week 3 of being back in Portugal. It’s not bad, just weird. I look forward to noticing what has changed in me {for the good hopefully!} once the dust has settled.

How about you? Any recent victories with desired changes around you or in you?

Better Each Time

I’ve been back in Portugal for a week today and was actually able to get out of bed by 7:10AM!  Quite a victory when noon felt like 7AM days ago. I’ve been on a blogging hiatus for nearly four months. Several times I felt inspired to write while we were on our three month stint in America but… here I am now. I hope to recount some of the good things we’ve experienced still.

Before we left Portugal, I felt like the Lord encouraged me to believe that every mode of transportation would be better than the last for this trip. I had nine flights in the last 90 days. My husband had 14!  I didn’t keep count of miles driven. The return overseas flight was my least favorite to look forward to. We had 10.5 hours Houston to Frankfurt before flying to Lisbon. Normally we have a short 6.5 hour jaunt from Newark to Lisbon! I know people were praying {I had Facebooked that request—thanks if it was you!}.

Even though I am not a great plane sleeper, I got a little sleep every time I thought I couldn’t make it any longer—when slumber party nausea tried to set in—how you feel when you stay up all night and don’t eat. My kids and husband slept wonderfully. I really enjoyed a book I started reading, got some cards written even in the midst of prolonged turbulence and really felt encouraged in the Lord. Try listening to Bethel’s The Loft Sessions on a flight. Makes an hour fly by wonderfully!

On our last flight the daughter I was sitting with graciously said she wanted to rest rather than me help her with an activity. A little more sleep for me! It was a joy to be on a flight where people were excited to be landing in Portugal. Some were taking pictures out the window; many clapped upon our arrival. I was thrilled to have made it back.

Two years ago, I had been praying some declarations out of Steve Backlund’s book, Igniting Faith in 40 Days, and I had no idea it would affect me in travel. I had previously been dealing with fear including quite a bit in flying (not just having a crash but also getting sick as I had in the past flights). Within the first few minutes of our flight from Houston to Newark, I felt the Lord say in my mind “Be as if you never had fear,” and I was filled with an amazing peace and joy. I’ve had plenty of chances to test that word since then!

So, on this side of all the travel this summer held, I see that every time I was going from one place to the next, there was grace for me to respond in my heart better than the last, even with lots of turbulence.

Lego Friends Party

Have you seen the new Lego sets for girls? They’re great and they came out just in time to add some girly-ness to my now 6 year old’s Lego party. Thankfully there are gobs of ideas for Lego parties. We just had to add the Lego Friends part {we did not put out the brand new sets since my daughter had just received them that morning—too tiny for 12 kids to play with}! We also did not not buy a lot of extra things for the party, mainly because I’d have to order it all from America. I’ll show you what we still able to do for the décor and the games we played.

For party decorations, I asked a Lego-loving friend to make a large heart out of Legos for a centerpiece. He had to use some cross bar pieces for support, so we used it as a platform for the tiny Lego Friends girls. We didn’t have a stash of the more girly colored Legos yet {although my daughter got some as a gift for her birthday!} so the heart was made in traditional Lego colors.

I set a tray with the treat bags on the table. I’d made them by printing out the kids’ names in a free Lego font on a paper sack. {I saw other cute treat bags online with dots on solid color bags, but I couldn’t find small ones here.} I read a tutorial for sending paper sacks through the printer that helped a ton!

I suspended glittery hearts, stars, and flowers with baker’s twine from our chandelier since the Lego Friends have lots of those girly symbols. You can see in the photo below that I used some Duplo blocks to make a tray for purple/red/orange layered jello cups and a stand for some “pigs-n-blankets".” I got the layered jello idea from Crackers Blog {go check out their amazing Lego cake!}.

I printed out some pictures of the Lego Friends sets and several of the logos from online for the doors that go into our living room.

The pièce de résistance was the pink Lego cake my friend iced/decorated for us. I tried to “help” in baking the cakes for her. She graciously coached me in how to get the cake pans right for this project!

I thought the pennant banner might add a fun touch, and I used the same glittery scrapbook papers that matched the invitations and other girly décor.

I attempted cake balls for the first time using a cake ball baking pan set my mom sent me. Worked like a charm—getting the large flower sprinkles to not fall off with the dipping chocolate was another thing. But they sure tasted good!

Our first game was pin-the-circle-on-the-lego. Kids ranging in age from 3-8 years had a ball with this! I first saw this idea at Money Wise Moms.

I wanted everyone to know this was supposed to be a Lego {for the most part I was speaking broken Portuguese to kids who needed all the help they could get to understand what we were doing!}. I used my Silhouette program to print a mirror image of the word Lego. Then I used a charcoal pencil to trace the outlines. I found the charcoal pencil left better marks when I copied it facedown below.

Afterwards I had a template to retrace with a marker. You could save time by printing out the LEGO word and cutting out the circles, but I didn’t want to make a run for more paper or cut more circles.

Next we had two groups hit on our Lego piñatas. I got the idea for these from Delia Creates. Hers is a pull piñata—we did the hitting kind.

I spray painted two boxes, and my husband helped me put ends of Pringles cans in one and Playdoh containers in another. I hot glued them in, spray painted them some more, then wrapped them in fringed crepe paper {so thankful to have found this—what a time saver!}.

The last we played was building the tallest Lego {or Duplos in this case} tower in 60 seconds. We had 3 kids build their own at a time with a winner’s round at the end. We played music and had a countdown. The kids really got into it!

An unplanned game of dodge ball in the back yard let to lots of free outdoor play.

The party was a lot of fun! Our birthday girl was pleased!

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Plates and Frames

I got my daughter’s superdad art back nicely framed and matted last week so I was able to finish decorating the wall behind our new headboard!

You may have seen how I began this process in my last post. I cut out paper pieces for all the things I’d been collecting to use to try them out. I have always loved the plate walls you see on Pinterest and other places.

I tried several configurations on the ground before I came up with the one I went with {ignoring the heater and alarm clocks cords!}.

Several of the things did not end up in on this wall in the end, and it freed me up to hang them elsewhere.

A splash of plates…

and some unconventional frames. The big frame held the angel print I’m selling in my etsy shop. The other one was already empty when I found it at the flea market.

This one is a tin that came from that box of tins I got for a steal! We screwed only the back to the wall so it still opens {what to put in it though?}.

I didn’t feel the other side of the bed needed as much since the space was smaller, and in full view of this wall, the other side needed some weight and height.

I am enjoying the whimsy and life this wall adds to our master bedroom!

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Our New Headboard

This project has been 2 years coming. We decided to not use our old headboard from America when we moved here {it did not get used in Germany either because of sloped ceilings}. We wanted to use this old piece of something…

Maybe it was the top of a doorway? Regardless, we liked it and got it next to nothing years ago not knowing what we’d use it for one day. Then we’ve toted it around the world it seems.

The board next to it is one of the supports my husband cut for the side to hold it up. We stained all the support pieces a dark grey brownish tone.

My husband anchored the supports to the wall because the piece is quite heavy—not something you want rolling onto you in the night!

We used our old upholstered guest bed headboard to fill in the middle, but I decided the beige was not going to work last minute. {It was last covered in fabric from an IKEA curtain panel—this was what was underneath.} I went through my fabric stash, and we decided on a green brocade fabric we’d hung in our living room in Germany—so fun when things get used again!

We had to first undo the sides so my husband could trim the sides down a bit to fit. You can see here the headboard is MDF with a layer of foam and fabric stapled around it. Great memories in how these pieces were found in Germany--not the simplest of tasks {Gummi Bender, Rachel and Kim?!}.

The upholstered piece slid between the side supports, then my husband attached the front side pieces. Next he slipped the old wooden piece in, so that the front thinner decorative wood piece rests in front of the upholstered part. Last he attached the front side supports to hold it all together.

It’s a great bed to sit back against, and I don’t feel that top round part is hanging over my head!

And I finally get to decorate this wall! A peak at what I came up with {a template to start}—hopefully the completed wall in the next post!

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Homeschool Curriculum, Part 2

You might see more from this list of our second-part-of-the-day curriculum that I’m loosely following a Charlotte Mason style of homeschooling: short lessons, good literature, narration, nature study…  Most of these things we do together versus the earlier-in-the-day items are one-on-one with each daughter.

For what we do first in the day, check my first post on our homeschool curriculum.

Literature: Ambleside Online

We’ve been following the reading schedule for Year 1 on Ambleside Online’s curriculum guide. We’re reading books like Our Island Story—learning the history of England in a story format from 1905. I would have never imagined we’d be reading literature that I now find so rich in comparison to other less classic books. I really wondered how the girls would do when we began! It’s been wonderful to see them really pick up what they’re hearing. We also practice oral narration after a story or poem is read. They never know who I’m going to call on, and I always let the other girl fill in anything the other may have forgotten.

There are some stories in our books that I do not feel are appropriate for the girls now {ie: gruesome death details}, but overall I’ve found we have all enjoyed the literature recommended. Many times they ask me to read ahead! One plus is that many of these classics are available for free online.

Portuguese: I make it up

It hurts a tad when I see all the great teaching helps out there for kids to learn Spanish. Then I have to remember my children are already speaking a second language, and I just need to reinforce what they’ve learned. I have found Portuguese/English sticker books to use and many dictionary-type kids books that we can review words with. Once a week the girls listen to a story on CD that goes with some books they have or watch a kids’ show in Portuguese. Of course our best learning goes on when our neighbors’ kids come play!  I don’t plan on teaching Portuguese grammar until 4th grade or so.

Bible: Positive Action Bible Curriculum

Because I have one daughter in kindergarten and one in 1st grade, I felt I should wait on starting SCM’s Bible Modules. Now I think I could have just followed a Bible reading schedule/highlighted stories as per Penny Gardner. However, I had already bought two levels of curriculum from Positive Action Bible Curriculum. When I got them I realized I’d be doing a lot of separate teaching for each level. My husband encourage me to go with the kindergarten level so both girls could do the workbook activities. That has worked out fine.

The lesson plans appeared like way too much to me at first, but I’ve found a groove that is simple to follow. Usually there are two days worth of Bible readings of a story with a introduction and discussion questions at the end. The 3rd day I follow the teaching strategy with the workbook pages. The 4th day we read the Bible verses and fictional story in the guide. Lastly we focus on that week’s character trait, fitting it in on Friday or whenever it seemed fitting.

The girls have enjoyed the workbooks and stories. I am thankful for the questions and comments that get at the heart. I haven’t decided if we’ll continue with this next year, but it has been a good experience for this first full year of homeschooling.

Science: Simply Charlotte Mason and others

We recently finished the Outdoor Secrets book and Outdoor Secrets Companion, a recommended “living book” and it’s teacher guide published by Simply Charlotte Mason. We would do a lesson two times per week. Many lessons gave direction in our nature study time and nicely followed up one of the readings.

My mom brought us sturdy sketch books from America that the girls take outside to draw in for our nature study time. I need to do a better job planning time for them to be outdoors for this in different settings besides our backyard {which is not that big} and street.

Now that we’ve finished Outdoor Secrets, we started reading Among The Forest People—a book from 1898 that personifies the animals and helps us learn about them through the story. The girls are enjoying it as well as science-oriented selections in our Ambleside readings.

A huge help has been owning a bird field guide for our region of the world. We like our RSBP Birds of Britain and Europe. It is a bummer when many of the birds in the stories we read are not the same as those found here {they were written in America}, but we find the closest species that we may have here.

Geography: Expedition Earth

I purchased Expedition Earth: A Journey Through God’s World last summer after seeing my girls’ interest to learn about a certain country. I thought we could continue to use it this year, and it has been a great base to learn about many nations. Beware that there are many books that you need to borrow/purchase since I did not understand that when I first bought it. One our our favorites we did buy has been Children Just Like Me: A Unique Celebration of Children Around the World.

I do not do all the recommended ideas in the guide provided, or I feel like we’d be doing a geography project all the time. I’ve found the few things that we really learn well from without having to do all the extras. I’ve not made it something I test the girls over—I am more pleased with their increased awareness of other nations and cultures. It’s peaked their interests in all kinds of other things we go searching to learn more about.

Art: Artistic Pursuits

Once a week we do a lesson from Artistic Pursuits Grades K-3 Book 1 An Introduction to Visual Arts. It has been a jump for us to move from crayons and markers to learning how to use watercolor pencils and oil pastels! But a fun jump I must say! The program does complement the study of fine art by usually highlighting some fine art for each topic we will learn. It also shows other children’s work as examples for each lesson so that encourages the girls that they can do it as well.

Picture Study: Simply Charlotte Mason

Both Ambleside Online {AO} and Simply Charlotte Mason {SCM} have a recommended order of artists to be studied. We have studied the SCM Module 3’s Rembrandt, Velasquez, Van Eyck, and now Cezanne so far—one time a week for six weeks. SCM has created some picture study portfolios that come with nice copies of the art and a teacher guide. I’ve done my best to make sure we’ve got some other books to supplement our learning of the artist and their art. SCM has a link to available books on each artist.

Composer Study: Simply Charlotte Mason

We are following the SCM composer study modules so we’ve just begun Tchaikovsky—also one time per week for six weeks each. Funny enough, the girls are excited about him since they’ve learned a song of his on the CD: Beethoven's Wig: Sing Along Symphonies. They would highly recommend this CD because they really enjoy it!  I also found a list of all the composers highlighted in Little Einstein’s episodes. Doesn’t sound like a very classical approach, but the girls get excited when they recognize the music in one of their favorite shows! We also utilize the online show called Classics for Kids that talk about each composer and multiple You Tube videos of these famous pieces being played or danced to.

Hymn Study

Both AO and SCM have lists of hymns to be studied, but I decided that we’d learn hymns the girls are already singing in worship songs we have. For example, we love Laura Hackett’s version of Joyful, Joyful, so I thought this would be a great place to start learning verses from hymns! I’ve heard hymns sung by Chris Tomlin and other worship leaders these days that we will also learn. This brings some practicality to learning hymns for us, when we don’t attend a church that uses a hymnal per se—at least it’s a place to start.

Handicrafts and Life Skills

Once a week we do some sort of handicraft or life skill that could be baking muffins or learning to use the knitting fork the girls got for Christmas. SCM has a list of what this time could include. Often I see that we’ve already done some kind of life skill learning that day so we don’t need to do something extra. I want to be more intentional about the girls learning craft skills so they can become proficient. For example, my oldest enjoys a latch-hook rug set she was given, but does it so infrequently that she has to be retaught each time it’s pulled out. I know this is par the course for this age, but I know their abilities are increasing as well.

So, lots of info. I hope it is helpful to someone out there like many of the blogs I’ve visited in trying to figure out what we were going to be doing! Please contact me with any questions—I’d love to be more help!

Soda Jet Pack

My desired motto to live by this year is TAKE INITIATIVE. So when I saw this amazing idea on Pinterest, I knew the perfect birthday boy I should make these for! {Our friends’ oldest son! He was a good sport to pose in the middle of watching a movie for me. Bad timing to not get a photo in the excitement of the gift reveal!}

I searched Blossom Bunkhouse for directions since the Pinterest link did not go directly to the post, and I could only find a jet pack for an Elf on the Shelf! Anyway, the whole family got involved in making this project happen.

I spray painted 2 soda bottles by sticking some dowels in the grass {and then covering the grass} to hold the bottles while I painted them.

I bought the black seat belt like strapping for the harness and a plastic latch to keep it tight in front. It was simple to sew onto the strapping. I used my younger daughter as a model to figure how much strapping to use.

My husband cut some slits in the bottles to run the strapping loop through. One error we made was not thinking about which end of the bottles the slits would be best. So the jet pack ended up being a little high on his back.

Another mess we made: We thought that putting expandable foam in the bottles would keep them hard and difficult to crush—also that it would hold the strapping in place. Great idea, but who knew we’d create a volcano of foamy mess that got the bottles all nasty. I ended up using turpentine to wipe as much off as I could! Maybe using a whole lot less would be ok?

To cover some of the mess, I hot glued a grey piece of felt to the back side of the pack. It helped stabilize the bottles too. Lastly, I hot glued pieces of orange and red fabric strips into the bottle opening for the fire.

It was a hit even with all the mistakes! All the kids wanted one!