Extra, Extra, Read All about It!

Every summer, I try to find the perfect balance of constructive activities and free time.  I want our summers to include scheduled times of learning, as well as lots of time to simply have fun.  That balance is not always easy to achieve, and I freely admit to erring on one side or the other quite often.  And even when I think I have a pretty good plan, God has a way of stepping in and rearranging the schedule.  He's good at that, you know.  ;-)

This particular week turned out to be one of the busiest of the summer.  Besides normal life, which is full in a household of seven people, we had two extras thrown into this week.  One was Vacation Bible School for the three oldest boys each evening, and the other was Musikgarten classes for Tobin and Shav each morning.

When Josiah was young, he got to take some Musikgarten classes...and then David came along and had his turn...I've been waiting for the time to be right for Tobin and Shav to do it...and this week was it.  With them only 18 months apart in age, they could be in the same class, which was extra special for me.  I had a ball doing this with my "little" boys!  (I'll mention here that one day this week, I had to take Moriah along with me, so I prepped Tobin and Shav that I would probably not be able to participate in all the activities because I would have to care for her if she got fussy.  But as it turned out, the mother of one of the other boys in the class asked if she could please get Moriah out of her carseat and hold her.  This boy's father was there, too, and he participated some with the child, so the mother was sort of an "extra."  She held Moriah for quite a while, and I kept asking her, "Do you want me to take her now?  Are your arms tired?"  She always answered no.  When she had to leave to go check on her other child in another class, she handed Moriah off to her husband; and he actually held her until she fell asleep.  As it turned out, I was able to participate in the whole class with my boys after all.  Kind acts - no matter how small - give such pleasantness to life and are so appreciated!)

This first picture is fuzzy, but it holds a happy memory for me because it proves I was actually there.  ;-)

I'm so grateful that all of my boys have gotten to have Miss Christy as their teacher.  The best thing about her is that she really cares about her students.

Wouldn't you know, her students really care about her, too.  ;-)