Baby Jack just wants to nurse all the time, so that's what he's doing now.....while also watching TV! LOL!

Jayla is watching PBS cartoons.

The boys are playing with their new train set and other toys they got for Christmas. I can hear them choo-chooing in the play room. :)

It has been snowing for a while, so we'll go out and play after we eat something. I think hot chocolate will be perfect for afterward.

Right now Jacob is watching a show about trucks called "Real Wheels". Jonathan has always loved that show, but it's not on very often. We don't have cable, so they pretty much only watch PBS, DVDs or videos, but that still gives us lots of choices! He is also trying to share a car with Jayla and is getting upset because "Sissy won't share it." She doesn't want to play with it! I think he's really sleepy. LOL!

Jayla is also watching the show with Jacob, but she is concentrating more on the snowman she cut out. She is getting quite good at cutting! I really can't even tell the difference between her cutouts and Jonathan's now! She has also learned to ask before she cuts, because the other side had something on it that I was going to get. It was sort of a coupon, and now I don't have it. She is probably more disappointed than I am, so hopefully she'll ask next time. :)

Jack is also watching the show! LOL! He has been very content all morning so far. I've just nursed him a couple of times, but otherwise he has sat contently on the couch with Jayla. She is playing with and talking to him some. Earlier this morning Jonathan carried Jack around for a few minutes in his own pouch sling. It was really cute, and Jack seemed to like it!

Jonathan is doing the laundry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He recently learned how to work the washing machine (he could have learned it long ago, but I didn't want to teach him all of it at once, so I only taught him the dryer), so now that he knows it all, he is shuffling around the laundry for me! I told him last night how much it helps me and that I really, REALLY appreciate it! He did 2 or 3 loads yesterday and is on the 2nd one today! Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, now he came through the house with a shovel so he can scrape the rest of the ice off the front porch! I'm not sure where this desire to work is coming from, but I hope it continues! LOL!

Now Jack is calling again. Another great "moment" in our house. :)

Jack just woke up, so Jayla is going to get her coat that he was laying on and go outside with Jonathan and ride bikes again. Jacob is watching cartoons. Their favorite, Curious George, just ended.

Jonathan (7) is watching Reading Rainbow and learning how to make costumes from the first sketches to the finished product. He is interested in watching that because he really wants to make costumes for his team of superheroes. :)

Jayla (5) and Jacob (3) are taking turns riding her bike. It still has training wheels and Jonathan's doesn't, so they really are learning how to take turns and be fair with the amount of time they spend on it. (Jonathan just learned how to ride, btw, and is getting quiet good! He is getting a new, bigger bike for Christmas, and Jacob will get his old one.)

Jack (5 mos) is sick again! :( He is sleeping beside me.

Jonathan is really into this group called "Sons of Tennessee". www.sonsoftennessee.com They sing some hymns as well as patriotic songs, and he just absolutely loves the CD! He is very patriotic! He is singing along with it right now. He actually has the first song on repeat. LOL

Jayla is playing with Jack right now. He is laughing at her. :)

Jacob is playing in the kitchen with a fire truck. He likes to roll it around on the hard floor because it goes farther. It is also louder in there because of the acoustics!

Now Jonathan is in here playing with Jayla and Jack. Jayla has connected her arm to Jack's arm via his sleeve. LOL Jonathan is smiling at Jack telling him how silly Sissy is.

Jacob just wrapped his fire truck in a jacket then unwrapped it and said "My new fire truck!" LOL He's been bringing me my Christmas present from him several times a day wanting me to open it.

Now Jonathan is climbing the wall in the doorway. Man, so much can happen in a couple of minutes!

Jayla is playing with Jack. He is sitting under the tree looking at the lights. :) She is also drawing.....we have been drawing different cats and dogs all morning.

Jonathan has been working on his comic book. (He has been building a whole team of superheros for a few months now and even has a few villains!) Now he says he will finish it later and is "helping" Jacob with a toy.

Jacob is having cute little conversations between the different truck drivers. LOL

It's another fun day! Gotta run. Jack needs me again!!!!! Jayla is bringing him to me. :)

The kids are eating gingerbread cookies that they just made a little while ago. They are actually premade Wilton gingerbread men that they put icing and candy on! They are also watching this cute little oppossum eating right outside the glass door. It is literally inches away from the kids as they watch him. I am sitting about 8 feet away.....he's so cute! Jacob was beating on the door and it didn't budge! I guess it's too hungry to be scared away! My mom and dad feed the wild animals, so they have all kinds come around for the food; turkeys, cats, armadillos, birds, squirrels, an EMU!!!!! They are all really unique in some way and so fascinating to watch.

My kids are having so much fun right now. At the moment they are playing with their baby brother, helping him hold on to objects and watching to make sure he stays safe with them (it's a toy lizard and a pen). For a while before this though, they were making different shapes with clay and making up funny poems, different variations of nurery rhymes they already know. They just crack themselves up! LOL! Actually, they're cracking me up too! :) Since their baby brother's name is a common name in nursery rhymes (Jack), they're always going around chanting the little rhymes, filling in other words that might fit better for what they want (like "baby" instead of "little" or our last name in place of "Little Jack Horner", etc.)

Okay, Jack's done with them! More "moments" to come.

I slept in LATE this morning! My kids just let me sleep while they quietly watched cartoons and played. So this is what our home looked like this morning when I woke up.....at 10:00!!!

The TV was on PBS, very low volume, and there was some science show on talking about microbes. We watched it yesterday too. The kids were all sitting on the floor playing very nicely together with the Magnetix. They haven't gotten them out in months because Jacob would put the little magnetic balls in his mouth. Jonathan told me that Jacob had put one in his mouth this morning, but he took it out when Jonathan told him to and didn't do it again. I'm glad Jonathan was paying attention!!!

It was so cute. Jayla discovered that the magnetic pieces would stick to the dominoes tin (I guess they had been playing with those too), so she built this maze thing. She stood the pieces up on end and had them spread out all around the tin. Jacob asked her if a car could drive through there. :) She was even sticking the pieces to the sides so that they stood up really tall. Next she took all the little balls she had (9 total) and started grouping them and then added, subtracted, multiplied and divided the little balls. She was having a blast! Also, the whole time she was practicing saying her R's. She's really good at it now, but she just doesn't always remember.

I think Jonathan was trying to make similar shapes to the microbes he was seeing on TV. He asked me questions about germs and asked me what a heart really looks like (which we just looked up). Jacob kept sticking the different magnetic pieces together and saying "Look at this-uh, Mommy. Quick!" :)

Once I was done feeding Jack, Jonathan helped with the laundry and Jayla burped Jack for me while I made some oatmeal. So far it's been a great morning. :)

Right now Jayla is sitting next to Jack (who is sleeping) "reading" a book. She told me she is making a story up from the pictures. I'm not sure what book it is, but she's telling me she really likes snow. Earlier, on the way to a friend's, Jonathan had his Bible in the van and he was helping Jayla read some words! :)

Jacob fell asleep just down the street from our house and I couldn't wake him up to walk inside! So I had to carry him in, and he is still sleeping. We're about to leave, so I'll have to carry him back out. (sigh)

Jonathan has been reading a book about experiments/crafts. He just showed me something he wants to make for Daddy. He recently did one experiment (from this book) where you put toothpicks in a potato and leave it half-submerged in a jar of water and it is supposed to "grow a jungle". He made one for Mandie's daughter too, so we'll see which one grows faster (if she kept hers). He wants to decorate his room with a jungle theme! LOL! Now he is finishing up a story we were all making up on the way home. We each took turns to tell different parts to the story. They usually turn out pretty funny. :)

We also talk about Bible stories and play math games in the car as well as lots of other things. It seems like there is always a lot of learning going on when we are driving!!! Oh, another thing we were just doing today is we were taking turns going around saying words that rhymed. Jayla did a lot better than I thought she would! It was fun! :)

Okay, time to go to dance and AWANA! There are sure to be more stories and games as well. :)

Well, I heard the back door close a minute ago, and I thought it was Jonathan either coming in or going out.....I wasn't sure. So I was about to type that the kids were watching Little House on the Prairie (which they love, but I think they're moving on to other things), but when I turned around they were all gone! LOL!

So Jonathan just came in and sat down to eat his oatmeal. He's been out feeding the animals. Jacob finished his oatmeal and went out to play, and Jayla wanted to finish her oatmeal outside, I guess. I just hope she eats it before the dogs get it! Jack is starting to wake up, so I'll have to feed him. Jayla just screamed, so Jonathan is checking on her. How sweet. :) She's okay. The dog was trying to get her food and she fell. Jonathan is starting to watch the Nature show that he didn't get to finish last night.

We're getting ready to go to the library for scrapbooking and play. I'm going to bring a couple of games for the kids.

Time to feed Jack.

Right now Jayla and I are just getting settled since we just got home from Disney on Ice. She saved some cotton candy for her brothers, so they are enjoying that while watching a Nature DVD from the library. Myles just gave Jacob and Jack a bath, and now he is taking one. I'll have to feed Jack any minute now, I'm sure, but for now we're just all relaxing and winding down for the night....and learning about chimps at the moment. :)

I'm doing my own variation of square foot gardening, and we FINALLY planted our first seeds in the ground just now! :) We planted corn, sunflowers (for the cukes to climb), carrots, beets and some nasturtiums (for pest control). We still have quite a bit more to plant, but some will be started inside (late on that too!) and some will have to wait until after the rain we're supposed to get tomorrow. We had such a special time though. The kids planted most of the squares by themselves (with my guidance), and when we were done with what we had for today, we each prayed that God would bless it. I hadn't planned on the prayer, that was just a spur-of-the-moment idea, I'm sure from God Himself. :) Jonathan prayed that the sunflowers would grow as high as a skyscraper. LOL! Jayla told God that she's wanted a garden for a really long time. :) I loved it!

My own unschooling moment of the day, if you want to call it that, was at a friend's house for Lego Club. It was with the snacks. I expected my kids to be begging for candy the whole time, but they just played without eating anything until close to time to leave. Not only that, but they were satisfied with the limit I put on them (I just can't totally "let go" when it comes to food because I just feel so strongly about it). Then my youngest didn't even have any candy to my knowledge but chose a banana instead! Woohoo!!! :) So I guess my point is that I let them have more freedom than I used to, and they made better choices than I really expected! I just really need to trust them more, even when it comes to food. Sure they'll make bad choices occasionally, but they will learn from their own mistakes (upset tummy or something like that). I draw the line when I feel it is a safety issue, but otherwise I am still learning to let go little by little and let them live as I guide, not control them. :)

Well, we're watching cartoons right now (Thomas, now Curious George), but just a half hour or so ago, we were cleaning the very messy living room since Daddy has been requesting it all week!!! We've also been drawing on the easel that has a chalkboard on one side, a dry erase board on the other side and a roll of paper in the middle that you can pull out and over the top to draw on if you don't choose the other sides. They've been drawing all week on it!

The kids also got to spend their own money earlier this week, and they chose wisely. I was so proud of them. :) Jonathan even had a little money left over. One of the things he got was a Hotwheels race track for $5, so they've been playing with that for the last 3 days too, as well as other tracks.

Jayla recently got a paper doll craft set, so they've been making several paper dolls using stencils, paper, stickers and markers. Oh, and we also went to the Moore library book sale last weekend and bought several books, so they've been reading a lot trying to get through all the "new" books.

So that's mostly what we've been doing all week, but at this moment, it is quiet and they are watching cartoons. I actually have a moment to myself. :) I'm thinking it's nap time!