It is all in His hands

One of the toughest parts about military life has hit us. Deployment.

I was waiting to write this post until I was on an up part of the deployment roller coaster. He's been gone for a little over a week & I feel like we are beginning our new normal. Although, I imagine that, like I said, it's a roller coaster. Times when you feel good, things are truckin' along & times where it feels like the day couldn't get worse & it lasts forever.

I pour my heart out to God daily & he shows me the many ways I am blessed. How vast is His love! I am so thankful for the man my husband is. I am thankful I have two healthy babies that keep me on my toes. I am thankful for miss. molly who cuddles me at night. I am thankful for family who checks on me. I am thankful for friends who love on me & encourage me & inspire me. I am thankful for sisters in Christ!
Someone said to me today that I am a godly woman. a godly woman... I am so thankful that God has chosen me, changes me, refines me. My heart overflows with God's love.

I miss C so much & wish he was right here with me (maybe rubbing my shoulders, ha!), it kills me when W cries for his daddy, & my life is NOT perfect, hunky-dori, but I KNOW who is in charge! I know my God is not a chaotic god. Everything we are given has gone through his hands. There might not be some glorious, big, obvious reason for C to be deployed, but God has this for us, we will bring Him glory in it! I have learned (mostly) how to trust God with my life & surrender it to His will, now I am learning to trust him with my children. How much more he loves them than even I do, he will surely help W & S through their pain.

I pray for my family, for my kids, for all the military families that have been or are separated from loved ones. I pray that you can have hope in God & that you can reunite your family soon.

Unit Ideas

So during the summer I may have slacked off a little with teaching W. We don't sit down & do rote learning or anything like that, but just things I would've done in my 2-year-old classroom back in the day. W is going to school 3 days a week now (for 3 hours each day), so I have less time to teach him, but now it's more exciting to teach him, because I miss him. Plus, S is getting to the age where I can start teaching her more intentionally. She loves the one-on-one mommy time & so do I!

I've decided to come up with some ideas for themed units (especially for the time C is deployed, it'll help things go faster). I am planning for each unit to be a week in length, but am fine with them overlapping because we will inevitably end up missing things. So here is what I've got so far.

September-

• Apple

October-

• Autumn
• Pumpkin

November-

• Thanksgiving
• Mommy (my birth month), but will NOT be the whole week

December-

• Advent
• Family
• Maryland
• Jesus birth & Christmas

January-

• Winter
• Hot Chocolate

February-

• Love
• W (his birthday is this month & this week will be ALL about him)

March-

• Spring
• Garden
• St. Patrick
• Cleaning

April-

• Easter
• Rain
• Daddy (his birth month), again not the whole week

May-

• Mother's Day
• Beach (we'll be preparing for a beach vacay)
• Travel (we'll be in MD)

June-

• Maryland
• California
• Father's Day

I don't want to fill up every week, because I want to leave room to create units/themes based on their interests as well. Like right now W is into hoarding collecting rocks, so Earth might be a unit. S is really into climbing & standing, so Climbing or something might be a unit. However, I still need some more theme ideas, so if you have any please feel free to send 'em my way by leaving a comment, FBing, emailing, or texting me! haha Thanks & I hope I've given you some ideas!

Look for posts about our units!

Sensory Table Fillers

I have missed using the sensory table/sand & water table. So I'm going out to buy another one. (Ours broke this summer. It had been left out in the sun & apparently cracked easily when Corey stepped on it?) All I use is a clear Rubbermaid container. I think this time I will get the kind that roll under the bed (ie shallow) & maybe I can make some sort of stand so it W/S height!

So I've come up with a list (with the help of the web) of sensory table fillers! Hope you use 'em!

1) Rice
2) Fish tank gravel (clean first)
3) cornmeal
4) bubble solution (with things to make bubbles of course)
5) cotton balls (good one for S)
6) Clean mud (wet, soapy, toilet paper)
7) gelatin (you can buy packets in the baking aisle)
8) dirt/soil
9) shredded paper
10) hay
11) lids (different sizes, another good one for S)
12) poker chips (? where would i get these?!)
13) cut up sponges/sponge shapes
14) colored sand
15) ice cubes
16) leaves
17) shells (although I like the idea of this one in sand)
18) various size beads & buttons (large ones for S)
19) pebbles & rocks (W is LOVING rocks lately, so this is a MUST)
20) grass clippings
21) shaving cream
22) cut up yarn (I have a bunch leftover from my crocheting days)
23) fabric scraps (YES!!, don't have to throw away bits of my favorite fabric anymore!)
24) gel (not for me)
25) ooblek (cornstarch & water)
26) Styrofoam peanuts
27) bubble wrap
28) flour
29) flower petals
30) dried corn on the cob (not for S)
31) different colors of play dough
32) pompoms
33) strips of newspaper (have wipes handy for cleaning hands)
34) bird seed
35) macaroni (although I personally try to stay away from food items as much as I can. People can eat that!)
36) cocoa & flour together (mmm just got an idea for hot chocolate themed week)