54% of the way there...

46% of the way and 19 days left!

"Even the poor people Tosha?"

Aliya, Matthew and I discuss things, a lot. We talk about God, friends, family, the news on the radio, sports, school, me NOT being married, church, the bible, music, celebrities, etc. As you can imagine, it is usually me fielding questions, but not always. These children are very clever and always willing to share important information and sweet words of encouragement. They are very caring children and able to think beyond themselves. So much so, that many discussions end with "Even the poor people Tosha?"

Matthew always wants to know if the poor people have it too, like are they smart, do they know Jesus, go to college, get married, have kids, eat vegetables?!

And my answer is always "Yes Matt, the only thing most poor people don't have is money."

To which he answers, "And money isn't everything!"

Look who can...

Tie his shoes!

(notice the cute haircut)

This is a huge success for both Matthew and I. I told him that when he learned to tie his shoes, we would go get sporty new sneakers that tie. I have been teaching/having him practice about every other day. He has to tie it 5 times, usually taking him about 10 minutes. I got a Melissa and Doug shoe back in October for the children to learn on. It has bounced around and been used for other things, until lately. I went online to learn 'the best way to teach children to tie shoes' and didn't find anything to be that helpful. I got some advice from a friend and Matt and I tried a couple different ways. His little fingers seem huge when he is trying to get the lace through the opening, but he was patient. I think he was also eager to do something before his big sister! Princess Aliya said she has tried, and that she can't, tie shoes. Why should a princess have to tie shoes anyway? I mean isn't there someone to do it for them? Actually don't princesses wear shoes with straps and buckles? Yeah, never mind! So, on Thursday he was really fast at tying them. I also noticed that he did better when I wasn't watching. On Friday he did it all by himself and brought it to me. It was tight and neat. That's when it hit me; he can do this, he tied his own shoe and I taught him! :) We celebrated momentarily before going to walk at the mall and planned to do some shopping after for sporty new sneakers that tie!

And look who is getting a school uniform! Is this not so cute? I went to order Aliya's school uniforms (for next year) and saw a doll sized version of it. I asked the clerk where to get them and she steered me to a website.I checked it out when I got home and just had to purchase one for Samantha. After all, Aliya will be turning 7 years old on April 6 and this will make a great birthday gift! I think it will be great for them to have matching uniforms and she will have it forever to remember her elementary school uniform!

Here is Princess Aliya in her uniform.

We went to the library for a special activity about money. The first activity was to match the presidents to the coin they are on. Aliya knew most of them and learned the rest. The second activity was to fill in a Needs/Wants paper (seen above) with pictures they could cut from flyers and magazines. We talked about needs verses wants and she went to town cutting and pasting. Note that there is a cat and dog under 'Needs'. According to Aliya, no matter which way I explained it, she insisted "Me-maw and Pop-Pop cannot live without Jazzy!" The third activity was to make a piggy pank with construction paper. They earned 'library dollars' to purchase toys once each activity was completed.

I helped Aliya cut some pictures out, but my hands were otherwise unavailable. You see, a certain cranky pants needed a nap, and it simply couldn't wait any longer. I decided against waking him when we got to the library, due to said crankiness of the pants, and so I just held him. While my arms were heavy, my heart was full. Something about the innocence and peacefulness of a sleeping child!

Stempershoot!

Stempershoot? Whats stempershoot, you ask? Well its stewardship actually, but who could expect a 4 year old to remember a BIG word like that?! We started the Crown Financial Ministries lessons this week. There first lesson is on stewardship: taking care of what we have because it all belongs to God. We watched a short video, read a little (from the Bible and a workbook) and discussed what stewardship means. The kids both got it and tried very hard to find ways they have been, and will be good, stewards. Then, as a follow-up, I kept asking them (every few hours) what the word was and its meaning. Matthew put on his thinking face and then blurted out "Stempershoot!" Love, love, love these children!

We also started the give, save, spend aspect of the Crown lesson. Aliya got $1.35 from the Tooth Fairy and they both got $0.50 for helping take down their Christmas tree. I paid them with change so we could split it up to put different amounts in each container. Matt and Aliya both enjoyed this part! We'll have to see how they like taking it out of the give container and giving it at church! :)

Ski lessons started this week. It was cold but they sure did look cute all dressed up in ski gear. The girl was not so impressed (as you can see), but the boy was excited. They had lessons for an hour and the first thing they both said to me when they saw me was, "I'm hungry Tarsha!" I was right on it and have never seen them eat everything in front of them so fast. Note the little green ski passes on their zippers. These have all their info, name, b-day, emergency contact, allergies,etc. I mention this because by mistake I put that both Matt and Aliya had an allergy to nuts. But really, Matt has an allergy to nuts and Aliya is allergic to bunnies. Her response to this was "Tarsha I feel strongly about this tag!" Of course she feels strongly about this. I mean with all the bunnies on ski slopes in MA, why didn't I mention her allergy to them on the sign-up sheet for ski lessons?! We'll see if she still feels as strongly about it next week.

It was time for the boy to get a haircut again. His hair was getting in those beautiful baby blues, and we can't have that! I took him to Snipt-its, this incredibly cool-for-kids hair salon. We don't have these kinds of places in Maine, and my mom or aunt always cut my hair while growing up, but I would have appreciated this kind of place as a child.

On Saturday, I brought the kids with me to volunteer at the church. Aliya made some cards but Matthew said "I want a different job." They made a friend and played while I finished my crocheting.

All kinds of adventures...

Matthew would like a basketball hoop and hot wheels track.

Aliya REALLY wants a Samantha American Girl Doll.
Decorating 1 of the 4 Christmas trees.

Last week we decorated for Christmas, a lot. The house seems to be transformed more and more each day. The kids wrote letters to Santa and I delivered them to him myself last weekend when I went to the North Pole. Annie (Mom) thought that was the fastest and most efficient way to get the letter to Santa. I agreed and it was my pleasure to bring him their letters :)

Have I mentioned I love my job? I actually got a nap on Monday with Matthew! He was tired after his snack and said he wanted to rest. I got my crocheting and went to lay with him. After some squirming and chatting, he fell asleep. I was on the edge of the bed, because everytime I would move to get a little space, he would move closer. I decided I did not have adequate space to crochet any longer, so I stopped and cuddled a full cuddle. Well, I woke up over an hour later, in the same position -almost falling of the bed with the little man thisclose. He went on to sleep almost another hour.

During a conversation in the car last week, Aliya mentioned "Mommy said Jesus was God, and Daddy said God was Jesus. Its really confusing to me." I couldn't help but add my two cents. "Well actually He is three in one Aliya, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

Matthew piped in with his 4 year old knowledge to set us both straight. "God is Jesus' father and Jesus is God's son Aliya!" Out of the mouth of babes!

I was reading to the kids last night and Matt was sitting on my lap. He wanted to pretend I was the mom and he was the baby Grinch. This turned into the whole 'when are you going to get married and be a mom' conversation. I asked them if I could ask Santa for a husband and if they thought I could ask him for a baby as well?! Matthew said I could marry him, which is a new thing, because just last week they had me marrying Jack, the 12 year old boy who lives next door. Aliya says she is going to marry Robbie, Jack's 7 year old brother, and Matthew said he is going to marry Samantha, their 10 year old sister. Oh to be 6 or 4 again, their world is so small and simple!

So, the American Girl doll Samantha is sitting in my closet! She came earlier than expected and will indeed make one little girl VERY happy in 14 days. Aliya talks about when Santa brings her, not if he brings her. She asked me if we could go to the American Girl store after Christmas to get her some more clothes. Samantha will need more clothes than just the ones she comes in after all. Oh boy, I can hardly wait!

I took the kids Christmas shopping for their gifts. We had already discussed that I would bring them shopping, they would pick out things they liked, and I would buy it. However, I would bring the gift to Guatemala to give to a child that lives at the dump. I will take a picture of the child who gets it, if possible, so the kids can see their gift making someone else happy. I explained that God likes it when we give things to others and that we have a lot, while others don't have anything. It was so precious to see these kids picking out things they wanted, knowing they weren't actually going to be able to keep it. Aliya picked out Tinkerbell and Hannah Montana stuff and Matthew picked out balls and dinosaur stuff. I hope that this is only the beginning of their philanthropic side :)

I was woken up at 5am this morning by being sat on. Peter was away last night and Annie left at 4am to go to Texas for a conference, so I was the go to girl this morning. We talked about this for 2 days, so both kids would feel comfortable knowing mommy and daddy weren't going to be here, and they could come down to my room. Aliya jumped at the opportunity and climbed right on me bright and early. It took me a second to realize what was happening, then I just moved over, made space and we both went back to sleep. Again, I had a little face thisclose to mine and I got kicked a few times, but nothing to worry about.

I am headed to New York City this weekend to see it in all its Christmas glory! It has been something I have wanted to do for a long time. Tracy, Ben, my best friend Allison and my traveling companion Mike are all coming. I hope to get lots of pictures!

"Do Grandpa's have babies?"

Matthew and I were at Friendly's for lunch today when he asked this question. I was going to explain about grandparents having babies and them being our parents, when I turned around in my seat and saw why he was asking this particular question at this particular time. I saw a 'grandfather-like' man with a 'pregnant-like' belly. Oh my goodness, did he just say that as loud I as think he did?

"Do you mean have babies in their belly Matt?" I asked much quieter than he had asked the original question. He nodded his head and proceeded to stare at said man. Still giggling, I said, "Matthew, please look at Tarsha (to stop the starring). No, men don't have babies in their belly." Before I could say anymore, he piped in loudly, "Then why is his belly like that?"

Oh dear...I hope that man didn't hear him! I leaned in on the table and whispered, so if he wanted to hear he would have to come close, "Sometimes when people eat too much, they get a big belly. It doesn't mean they are having a baby though. And remember we don't say things out loud about people being fat? It might hurt their feelings." He smiled, that was that, and onto the next topic. "Can I get sprinkles and cone with my ice cream today?"

After Friendly's, he wanted to go do 'the money thing'. "You know Tosh-a, with the letters?" You see, yesterday we got a package in the mail. Matthew always gets excited when this happens, even if it is an American Girl Doll item for his sister or a book for me. He shouts "We got a package! Oh, I hope its for me!" I explained that this package was indeed for him, and Aliya, and we were going to learn about money. The package was from Crown Financial Ministries , and it is going to help me teach them about earning, then giving, saving, and spending money. I did an activity very much like this with my Aspirations Club (middle school students living in low income housing) while working at Lewiston Housing Authority. However, Crown ties in the bible and all the reasons why we should give and save money. Check it out! I took the adult class (twice) and it was very informative and eye opening! FYI, if you want to know if you are compatible with a potential partner, take a class about money with biblical teaching, you'll learn REALLY fast how compatible you are! I might have learned this first hand, and would just like to throw it out there! :)

Matthew and Aliya are smart, sweet, and adorable, but they have a hard time giving their things up. For example, we went through their clothes and toys and weeded out. They were having some trouble with the idea that their toys and their clothes would now be played with and worn by other children. So, we did a second round of weeding. This time we went through the stuff to be given away, and did some take backs of the 'special stuff'. Then, we had to take pictures of the give away toys so they would always remember them. I tried to clump them all together, but both children corrected me and laid their toys out so each toy got its place in the pictures.

I am excited to teach them the value and meaning of money. It will be especially easy (on my wallet anyway) seeing as it won't be my money I 'pay' them with. I'll post about our lessons. :)