Our Ducks are Back! (Musings of Spring)

It has become my true harbinger of Spring ... when my ducks come back to our yard! For the last 3 or 4 years, our yard and bird feeding area has been a welcoming place for the return of a pair of mallards. I can't for sure tell if they're the same ones, but I do know when I moved my feeders from the side of the house to the back of the house they found them ... and they are the only 2 ducks that come each year around this time and visit every day. So I call them "our ducks".

Our Cute Ducks

To rewind a bit and share why this is so special to me, when we first moved into our home, (a condo with a sparse yard which is close to a 4-lane road), I didn't have a lot of hope for viewing wildlife here. Yet I did pray that the Lord would bless our little yard and allow it to be home for any critter he would choose. Over the past 8 years here with our little condo yard, we've been blessed to see so many different creatures. They've included a wild turkey who once visited our feeder, a ground hog that made a temporary home in our rock wall, several litters of 13-striped ground squirrels and chipmunks that grew up here, a raccoon who ransacked our feeders a few times, a couple gray squirrels and various birds like sparrows, grackles, chickadees, mourning doves, a pair of resident cardinals, a robin pair, a few blue jays, house finches, an occasional goldfinch or two and the Cooper's Hawk who comes to hunt them. Yet the ducks remain my favorite. They come at the end of March and visit every day, and are usually gone by May. Momma duck loves just sitting in my bird bath, which is just a giant plant saucer I leave right on the ground and fill with water.

Our Backyard Critters

This time of year is such a special time for me. I love watching the birds flying around with straw in their beaks as they bustle about making their nests. Once the baby birds come, I love watching the parents feed their fledglings and see them learning to fly as they hop around the small back yard. I love watching the baby ground squirrels as they wrestle around and play near the rock wall which is their home.

I love taking rides out in the country and visiting the state parks nearby. This weekend was our first trip out to the state parks in the area and we enjoyed a lovely ride out in the country. I love seeing the rolling hills, the open farmland interspersed with swaths of trees, fields dotted with cows. The smells, the sights, the sounds are such a comfort as our little corner of the world is warming up and new life abounds. It also means I'm out prepping our garden; cleaning out the flower bed, pruning, preparing to plant.












































I love the deeper meaning for me, of how the Lord working in my life is like this. He seeks out the hardened areas of my heart, the places that need weeding out like ugly attitudes, bitterness, selfish tendencies and he brings light and warmth into those places encouraging me to let him in to refurbish and refine me. It's a season that I like to take time to pause and reflect, not only to enjoy what's happening in nature but to look within to work in the garden of my own heart. April 22nd is the anniversary of my adult baptism in 2001, and I like to celebrate every year in this way. We're several months out from the new year and it's a good time to take stock again of what ways the Lord wants my garden of life to grow.

Recently, we had a speaker at our mom's group who talked about taking time with the Lord every day. She encouraged us to learn our pathways to God. She was inspired by a book she read called Sacred Pathways (Discover Your Soul's Path to God) by Gary Thomas. He talks about the various ways we connect best with God. For some it is through nature, some through group study, some through worship, etc. This really resonated with me. For me, nature is the most powerful way that I connect with the Lord. Being out in his creation, enjoying nature just renews and fills my spirit. What is your favorite pathway to God?

We Love to Learn Through Play and Tot School

I love being a stay-at-home mom and feel really blessed spending my days with my son in this way. I also love taking pictures of all the things we are doing. Instead of doing separate Tot School and Play-Time posts, I decided to combine them since it's all part of learning. Some of our time is geared toward open creative play, and some of our time is geared toward intentional learning activities. All of it is about having fun while learning.

**J is 34 months old**

Come over to play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up:

J's Rocket Drawing










This is only the second time that J has drawn something that you can tell what it is. He's been fascinated by rockets lately and out of the blue he drew this one so I took a picture. I was so excited to see it.


The Doctor is In




























J got the idea to get out his doctor's kit and lined up his stuffed animals as his patients. I enjoyed watching him listen to their hearts, check their reflexes, give them pills and give them something to drink. Then he came over to me and checked my reflexes. He then put the scope to check my ear and I love it that he got mixed up and said, "Say AHHHH."


Dinosaur Sensory Bin





































J is really into dinosaurs, so when I saw this on The Imagination Tree I was inspired to put one together. I used some beans, twigs, leaves and a few of his little dinosaurs and he enjoyed playing with them.

Noah's Ark Imaginative Play




























J got this wonderful wooden Noah's Ark for Christmas from my sister and brother-in-law. He recently has gotten into playing with it and making up these little stories about how the animals are all playing together. I got him some animal food (seeds) and he loved "feeding" the animals. He has Noah and his wife and he asked me, "Mommy, what's Noah's wife's name?" I hesitated since I wasn't sure and after checking told him she doesn't have a name, so we are calling her Mrs. Noah.


Play Time at Pal Zone




























We continue to love going to our community Pal Zone (a free early childhood program) where they have open play time, circle time with a story and a craft. He loves playing with his friends there.


Imaginative Play with the Little People Park




























This was a Christmas gift I bought for J that I just found stuffed in my closet. I brought it out this week and he started playing with it right away. He's loved Little People since the time he could hold things in his hand. He enjoyed putting the figures on the swing and the merry-go-round and I loved listening as he gave them voices and had little conversations with them. J is also loving wearing this fire chief jacket around the house.


Fine Motor Skill - Using Scissors



















I found this great pair of scissors on the Life with My Giggly Girls blog and got a pair for J. He loves them! He has not been able to get the hang of regular child scissors. He tried several times to use them, but gets frustrated easily when he can't get his fingers right on his own and ends up quitting. He took to these right away and enjoyed cutting up lots of paper! I didn't mind the mess (too much) since he enjoyed it so much.



Breaking out the Bubbles and Playing in the Puddles





































We're finally getting a few warmer days and spent some time outside. We broke out the bubbles one afternoon. I love this huge wand I found that makes giant bubbles. J chased them around popping them. He also spent some time in the puddles and squishing in the mud. It was great to be outdoors.


Christmas Tree Shape Sorting










Although it's not Christmas time, J enjoyed pulling this one out and matching the shape card with the shapes on the Christmas tree. He would call out the name of the shape as he was matching them.


Transfer of Pom Poms using Tongs





































This activity was frustrating for J to do until we found the right tongs. It's still not easy for him, but he loves the challenge and now he doesn't give up. He has gotten a lot better at the fine motor skill of transferring the more he practices. We found these dinosaur tongs at Learning Express Toys in our home town.


Just Being J




























I love seeing J's fun personality develop. He looked so cute in his fire hat and sunglasses which he picked out and put on by himself.



See what others are up to at The Play Academy on the Nurture Store blog.

Thanks for visiting us!

What My Child is Reading

One of J's favorite activities is reading books and I absolutely love cuddling him on my lap and reading. I like to link up to What My Child Is Reading blog link-up. Not only is it a great way to record the wonderful books we've read, but I've found so many new good book ideas by visiting each week. Click on the button below to see what others have been reading!

The Berenstain Bears and the Missing Dinosaur Bone by Stan and Jan Berenstain
J is fascinated by dinosaurs, especially digging for bones so when I saw this one I thought he'd like it. It is a fun little story about the museum curator finding out that the T-Rex is missing a large leg bone and the museum is opening for exhibit and they have one hour to find it. So the Berenstain bears and their hound dog Snuff are on the case. They have their detective hats and magnifying glasses and go on a hunt. They end up finding the bone buried out in the yard with paw prints all around; and the culprit their hound dog Snuff!



Goodnight, Little Monster by Helen Ketteman
J really enjoys books and stories about monsters, and I make sure to find ones that are fun and not scary. This is a great bedtime story, all about a little monster being put to bed by his mama. The book starts off with the monsters howling at the moon. Next, the little monster has a bath. He is dressed in cute little spider pajamas and has a bedtime snack of worm juice and baked beetle bread (eew!). He brushes his fangs, he has a bedtime story and then before hopping into bed they make sure no scary children are lurking underneath. The illustrations are great and very creative like a night light made out of a eyeball held in a claw. Very cute and fun monster stuff.



The Great Kapok Tree: A tale of the Amazon rain forest by Lynne Cherry
On one of the blogs I visited, a mom had a list of green books for kids. (Sorry, I can't find the link now!) The Great Kapok tree was on the list and available in our library. I think it's very important for J to be aware of what's happening in our environment and how to protect it so this book was definitely along those lines. It's a wonderful story about a man who comes into the rain forest and starts chopping down this huge, wonderful tree in the rainforest. He then gets tired and takes a nap. While he's sleeping, he's visited by all these different creatures of the forest who whisper in his ear the many different reasons why he should not chop down the tree. It was very compelling to read and I love that it ends with the man deciding to leave the tree alone and he decides to leave behind his ax in the forest.



Happy Birthday, Good Knight
This was our second book in the Good Knight series. In this book, the good knight joins up with the little dragons again. They bring him a problem that they need help to get a birthday gift but have no money. The knight tells them that the most special gifts don't come from a store, but come from our hearts and hands. He takes them to his castle to help them with their gift where they end having several misadventures like making a wreck out of trying to bake a cake; making a ruin of a hand-made card they end up gluing shut and making a mess out of a magic show they try to put on. When the knight later learns this was all for him and his birthday, he tells them they gave him the gift of laughter and they end up eating the burnt cake, opening up the stuck card and doing a little magic trick. Then the little dragons sing him happy birthday.



I Love You, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt
I was interested in this book purely because of the title. I loved the title, and I thought J would like it too. When he found it in my stack from the library, he wanted to read it right away. In fact, he had me read it several times in a row each time thoroughly enjoying it. In the book, a mom is reading her son a story. She says to him, "I love you my wonderful child." He has some questions. He proceeds to ask his mom several different silly questions with my favorite, "What if I were a super smelly skunk....to which momma says, "I'd whisper in your ear, 'I love you, Stinky Face'." As I read each of these to J, he kept laughing at how silly they were with the boy musing about being different creatures like a terrible dinosaur, a smelly swamp creature or a green alien from Mars. I notice this author has a few more books in this series so I've already put I Miss You, Stinky Face on hold.



My Brother, the Knight by Laura Driscoll
Ever since we watched the movie The Tale of Despereaux which introduced J to knights and princesses, he really enjoys books about them. This was a cute story with a boy who is just enthralled with pretending to be a knight. It is somewhat annoying to his older brother and the two agree to a bet with the boy betting that he could live like a real knight for an entire week. As you read the story, there are little boxes with educational information about what a page is, what is a coat of arms and an explanation of a lord among other things. I like the little boxes that give the teaching information. They added to the story for J.



Pedro's Burro by by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
I have had fun finding books that offer a look into different cultures and we liked this one. A boy and his father are looking for a new burro (Spanish for donkey) for their family. They go to market and really aren't sure which burro is the right one. They see tall burros, small burros, light burros and dark burros. They see a burro with a hat on that comes up to the boy and pulls on his shirt. Through the telling of their encounter with this burro they see that instead of them finding the right burro, the right burro finds them!



You Say Hola, I Say Hello by Elizabeth Zapata
I continue to introduce bits of Spanish here and there to J and found this was a great book for doing that. It takes several common words like hello, goodbye, dog, sun, moon, mommy and teaches the Spanish word by using the sentence "You Say ____ and I say _____." After reading this a few times, I noticed J randomly saying a snippet from the book like "You say adios and I say good-bye".



Here are links to a couple other fun book reading link ups:

Cute Tots

Awwwww..... How sweet that J was featured as a Cute Tot over at the Totally Tots blog where I link-up for Tot School. Click on the link to see him and some of the other cuties!

Bloggy Love and Marriage Musings

I have been following a blog for a while that has really been an encouragement to me. I thought, what better way to honor her and her blog than to make a post about it!

She goes by the name "Lovin' Life" and her blog is called Konnichiwa. She started her blog last September. She has a variety of things she posts about including recipes, scripture, her family and her faith. Her blog title "Konnichiwa" means hello in Japanese. I love the verse she has underneath her title, Titus 2:4-5 that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands and I see her living this out as I've been reading the posts on her blog. A few of the posts that have really impacted me the most:
About Motherhood
About Honoring Husbands (this one I actually printed out and leave on my kitchen table!)
About Complaining (I'm guilty too!)
About The Persecuted Church

I hope you are blessed by this blog too.

When I read her post "Honoring Husbands" in January, it was very timely as the Lord had been convicting me a lot about who I was being in my marriage. I was and continue to struggle with focusing on the petty stuff and making mountains out of things that just don't matter. Lately, the Lord has been having me slow down, step back and "listen" to myself in how I am being toward my husband (L). I had a moment where I was reviewing in my mind a conversation L and I had and I said to myself, "Did I actually say that? Did I say "How dare you ...blah blah blah" to my husband?" And I had! I was shocking myself with what I was seeing come out of me. I noticed I have much more patience and compassion in how I relate to my almost 3-year-old son than I do with L. When I took time to stop and pray about it, it was convicting to see how often I am complaining, nagging or starting arguments when something isn't going my way. This has been a humbling thing to acknowledge, yet I feel it's honoring to the Lord and a good place to start. I find the Lord is empowering me to bite my tongue before the complaint/anger comes out. I ask, "Is this a battle I want to fight, or would it be more honoring to the Lord to let it go?" I'm finding strength to let it go. I'm also finding a new joy in my heart in truly serving my husband. Even little things like doing some extra organizing and cleaning because I know how much it blesses him; and less grumbling in the daily chores I do and not looking for acknowledgment, just doing it from a heart of love. I'm also finding things to do that I'll do simply because it's one less thing my husband has to do. These are signs of the Holy Spirit at work in me, because I know this isn't natural for me! The Lord is showing me what a treasure my husband is, a man who has a passion for following Him and who works so hard so that I can be at home raising our son. I'm discovering new things every day about just what a blessing being married to him is.

As I've opened my heart to the Lord by confessing about this and praying for a changed heart, it is amazing the things he's putting in front of me and the door's he's opening. It's like he's pouring out himself to me in what I'm finding to read and listen to. Here's what I mean:

• I found a broadcast this week at Focus on the Family titled "Who Am I As a Wife?" that is just incredible. The things talked about are so pertinent for retraining myself in being a godly wife. I'm only part-way through Part 1 and there is a Part 2 also. Lovin' Life posted this week about complaining (see link above) and this was after she listened to part 2 of this same broadcast.
  
• I found a giveaway on The New Living Translation bible blog for a devotional bible called In His Image. I ended up winning it!
  
• I found a book called What's It Like Being Married to Me and Other Dangerous Questions by Linda Dillow on the Internet Cafe and entered a giveaway by Erica at The Write Web and I actually won the book!
  
• I also found a book called Winning Him Without Words through the Internet Cafe and entered a giveaway at Rachel @ Beautiful Daughters and (no joking) I won that too! This book is actually written for women married to men who don't know the Lord, but they shared how it would edify any marriage.
  
• I found an audio book through our library called Were It Not for Grace; Stories from Women After God's Own Heart. In the intro it talks about these women as those who love the Lord with all their hearts. These women found intimacy with the Lord not without a cost. I am looking forward to listening to this book.

So I'm not sharing all this to toot my horn about the things I've won, but I want to share it as a praise for the Lord who is showering me with the means to pursue this desire, to honor my husband. I feel like I take one step forward and two steps back as my old habits die hard. Yet I am confident and in agreement with his word, Philippians 1:6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. I know the Lord has his hand upon me as I seek to bring him glory in every area of my life, especially my marriage. I also know I will be surrendering this area of my life to him again and again as it is a constant struggle for me. Yet I find that so much of LIFE, (depth, passion, vitality) is found within the struggle. It means I'm growing; the ever-imperfect flower in God's garden.

Tiny Talk Tuesday (A Few Weeks' Worth)

**J is 34 months old today!**

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Tiny Talk Tuesday is a way to share the fun and interesting things our kids are saying. I love joining up for this blog carnival at Not Before 7. Click her button above to see what kind of Tiny Talk has been overhead in the homes of others!
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One morning J was watching a DVD of the show Yo Gabba Gabba. They were doing nap time with stories. He comes over to me and says, "Mommy, I'm bringing you your blanket". And he puts a little blanket on my lap. Then he says, "I'm going to read you a story." He then brings over One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and starts reading it to me. This is the very first time he's "read" me a story! It was just so sweet.





We were leaving our friend's house one night and the smell of skunk was really thick in the air. Somehow it made me think of the skunk tongue twister. A skunk sat on a stump.
The skunk thunk the stump stunk; The stump thunk the skunk stunk.*** I introduced this tongue twister to J and then he said "I have a tongue twister mommy! The skunk sat on a tree. The tree stunk! ha ha ha ha!" He kept on going and did this with "the skunk sat on ___the roof, a sign, the house", and each time he would laugh like crazy which made us laugh our pants off. I just love seeing his sense of humor develop like this!



We were driving in the car one morning on one of these spring-feeling days with the windows cracked open and my son says, "I smell something mommy!" I said "Oh, you mean my coffee?" He says, "No, I smell the EARTH!" Only recently have we been talking about the way things smell, like flowers or food cooking, and it was so neat to hear this.