Hall Family Farm 2017

A Sunday School Prayer

This was one of Jack’s prayers today (I can’t remember exactly but this is the gist of it):

“Dear God, thank you for Sunday School. . . Please help us to learn about you. . . And please help it to not be too crazy. . .Thank you for Evie, and help her do a good job teaching us. . .Help her to learn about you. . .Amen.

I was biting my tongue and shaking in my seat trying not to laugh at the “not be too crazy” part, but really–how many of you teachers/parents can attest to your own prayers basically asking the same thing?!  “LORD, PLEASE HELP THIS DAY NOT BE TOO CRAZY!”  Can I get an AMEN?

(By the way.  Jack’s class is made up of four four-year-olds, and they have a WONDERFUL teacher who would never let it get “too crazy.”  So, Evie, thank you for spending your time each week with these CRAZY kids, and we are so blessed to know you and your family!)

 

NASCAR!

This post is brought to you by some really great in-laws who drove all the way from Atlanta to spend Saturday with the kids so that Matt and I could go out for a day. The plan was to meet some friends for a NASCAR race!  I have NEVER been, and, to be honest, it wasn’t the real experience because it got rained out and was post-poned until the evening when most people had given up.  Then, the race didn’t get to start until the time we had planned to leave.  Womp-womp.  I’m still willing to give it another go, though.  It was pretty thrilling when all those cars started racing around so fast that it made my hair blow around every time they passed!

Edumacation

Math? I already know math! Like, 1+3=2!

Science Wednesdays

We have accumulated quite a few kids’ science experiment books people have given us (THANK YOU), so we have decided to start adding “Science Wednesdays” to our weekly routine.

This may last about two weeks.

But Jack LOVES “science experiments,” so it’s an attempt to schedule it in.  Matt has said he will try to take a lunch break for them to help explain all the science-y things.  During this experiment, I think I was asking more questions than the kids, which is saying a lot if you’ve met Jack.  Besides, Matt is the one with test tubes and a microscope in his office now, so I think he’s required to be the kids’  science teacher.

In this weeks’ lesson we learned about solvents, which is exactly the kind of stuff  with which Matt works.  So perfect, right?  We drew on some little bags with permanent marker and then sprayed them with rubbing alcohol, which dissolved the inks and made them run, giving them a tie-dye affect.

It’s always funny to post the pictures because you notice things–like the kids’  with shirts off was intentional because we were using permanent markers.  However Lucie without pants twice in a row on a post was not, although it may be pretty true to how she is usually dressed (at home, without company).

 

Felt Food

A crafty friend from church came to help me make some felt food for the kids today.  Meaghan is now 13, but was making her own felt food at 8 years old, so she had some great ideas.  It was so fun, and there is something weirdly addicting to making this stuff.

We started out being really particular, loop-stitching everything together, but that was getting reeeeaaally tedious with a 4 yr old and a 2 yr old running around, so we resorted to hot glue which was so much faster/easier/safer (I kept sticking myself with the needle).  It still looks pretty cute, too.

And here it is!  Ta-dah!

By the way, Jack does not get to use glue guns as it appears in the last picture, but the kids love playing with them unplugged when I’m done.

Well, can you tell what everything is?

Working Hard

Matt added  some gravel to part of our front garden bed thingy this week, and he got Jack to come out and help  (with his little kid’s shovel)

.  These are some of the conversations that went on during their work:

Jack:”Dad!  Don’t quit!  You gotta work hard; we gotta finish the job!  You can do it, come on!”

Matt: “Jack, I’m just getting a drink of water.”

Jack:  “Ok, but we gotta finish the job.  Let’s keep going.  I have lot’s of energy!  I took a gooood nap today, so I have lots of energy!”

I don’t know how they got to this next topic, but at some point it went like this:

Jack:  “Dad, I would be sad to leave you.  I want you to always be my Daddy.”

Matt:  “Aw, son, I’ll always be your daddy, but one day, you will have a family of your own.”

Jack: “But, Dad, I don’t know how to find a house!”  Pause. “Will I have kids inside my tummy?”

Matt:  “No, your wife has the babies inside her tummy.”
Jack:  “But, Dad, I’d be so sad if I didn’t have any kids!”

Matt then tried to explain that, of course, they’re still his kids, but I think he started losing interest at that point.

And here are the two very silly, very hard workers.

No Place Like Home

Jack upon coming home after we all had been on vacation for a week: He starts walking around the house looking into all the rooms. “Mom, I’m just looking around at our house. I like our house. Lucie’s room looks good, my room is nice and clean. . .these curtains are nice. Yeah, I like our house.”

By the way, this was not saying he doesn’t like Deedee and Papa’s house or any other house. He tells me he likes other people’s houses all the time, including my parents’. It was so cute, though, to hear him pleased with his own home–curtains and all!

Fun Facts

“There are two ways to get milk. One is from a cow. The other is from a cauliflower.”
–Jack

Lucie is 2!

I realize this is tardy, but here goes. Her birthday was April 26, and our poor girl woke up with a cold. We had to cancel the dinner we had planned with friends, but she was cheerful nonetheless and had a fun day despite the sickness.

It is so hard for me to wait on opening presents, so we decided to let her open the gift from Matt and me after lunch. We gave her a small wooden train set with tracks and a few accessories because she really likes “choo choos”. She and Jack got involved with the trains for a while, so we waited a little later before eating cake. Leah had been helping me out with cleaning that morning AND baked Lucie’s cake for me: pure chocolate. All I had to do was stick two candles in and sing “Happy Birthday!” Lucie did try blowing them out, but eventually Matt had to help get the job done.

While taking her nap she got a few more presents in the mail–toy cleaning supplies–and played the rest of the evening with them. Whenever she finds a rag, she starts wiping everything she can reach, so she had a lot of fun with these. It was really a sweet day despite our colds.

I guess I should write in a few ways she is growing so big! She’s still learning to talk, but here’s a list of some things we can decipher:

Otay: ok
Tay-too: thank you
Dit-dit: band-aid
Dack: jack or snack
Wash: wash (remember how she loves pretending to clean things)
Gilk: milk
Wa-oo: water
Ah-ohn-too: I want to or I don’t want to; defer to context to figure out which one
Mee-mo: Nemo
Baby geek: baby swing (recently improved from “abu-geek”)
Touch kitty!
Her clearest words are “APPLE JUICE!”

Everyday she surprises me with new words and phrases. Isn’t it a fun stage?

She also loves all the animals and especially likes to make their noises (“moooo”, “cack-cack”, meow/weow,” …)

I think what will also stand out about this year is her ability to get her way with snuggles. Because she has a queen sized bed, if she wakes up in the middle of the night, it’s so easy to lie down next to her. She scoots over as close as she can next to me, and, well, how can I resist when she puts her hand on my face and says “teep (sleep)! Before I realize what is happening, I wake up an hour or longer later, still in her bed. ( Matt has been known a time or two to fall into this trap as well!) Sometimes it does become habitual, and then we get serious and push her to go back to sleep on her own, just so you know. Ahh, well, I will remember it with a smile.