First Day of School.

So just in case you missed the big announcement (maybe you have been on the moon or something!) - we have decided to stop homeschooling and the girls are enrolled in the local public school. This was not a decision we took easily and it has been coming for a while. I think was trying to hold onto something God was telling me to let go of...It took weeks of prayer and many tears for me to let it go, but once the decision was made a great weight was lifted from my shoulders and I knew it was the right thing to do. As for the why - there are many reasons and I won't bore you with them, but I know we have done the right thing .
The girls are settling in to school very well. They are enjoying being there and are learning lots. They have made friends and are enjoying things they didn't get the opportunity to experience before (music, PE and their favorite - riding the big yellow bus!) Of course the early mornings are new to us all so we have been pretty tired, but even that has not been as bad as I thought it might be.
Here are some pictures of their first day of school!

'My Jesus'

This song is my current favorite, it's by Todd Agnew and is called 'My Jesus'. I love the words, I'm crying each time I hear it. Read them and weep people! ;-)
If you want to listen along I have it on my playlist to your right!

Which Jesus do you follow?
Which Jesus do you serve?
If Ephesians says to imitate Christ
Then why do you look so much like the world?

Cause my Jesus bled and died
He spent His time with thieves and liars
He loved the poor and accosted the arrogant
So which one do you want to be?

Blessed are the poor in spirit
Or do we pray to be blessed with the wealth of this land
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness
Or do we ache for another taste of this world of shifting sand

Cause my Jesus bled and died for my sins
He spent His time with thieves and sluts and liars
He loved the poor and accosted the rich
So which one do you want to be?

Who is this that you follow
This picture of the American dream
If Jesus was here would you walk right by on the other side or fall down and worship at His holy feet

Pretty blue eyes and curly brown hair and a clear complexion
Is how you see Him as He dies for Your sins
But the Word says He was battered and scarred
Or did you miss that part
Sometimes I doubt we'd recognize Him

Cause my Jesus bled and died
He spent His time with thieves and the least of these
He loved the poor and accosted the comfortable
So which one do you want to be?

Cause my Jesus would never be accepted in my church
The blood and dirt on His feet would stain the carpet
But He reaches for the hurting and despised the proud
I think He'd prefer Beale St. to the stained glass crowd
And I know that He can hear me if I cry out loud

I want to be like my Jesus!
I want to be like my Jesus!

Not a posterchild for American prosperity, but like my Jesus
You see I'm tired of living for success and popularity
I want to be like my Jesus but I'm not sure what that means to be like You Jesus
Cause You said to live like You, love like You but then You died for me
Can I be like You Jesus?
I want to be like my Jesus

Comfort food cravings!

I've been craving Rice Pudding for weeks now. It is one of those comfort foods that I grew up with and I have never made for myself. Without my Dad here to make it for me (he always made the rice pudding when I was a kid) I had to take matters into my own hands and make it myself.
As I investigated this tasty treat online I found there are many variations on this so basic dessert - I was overwhelmed! There were recipes for the stove top, recipes for the oven, recipes with raisins and some without, recipes with all sorts of flavorings, but none that seemed to be like the one I grew up on.
...I had to take matters into my own hands and thankfully it turned out perfectly.
Here is my very simple recipe:

'Just like Dad's' Rice Pudding.
1/2 cup Arborio rice (we have Pudding Rice in the UK, but not here in GA!)
4 Cups Milk (I used 2% and it was fine)
1/4 cup sugar
Add all ingredients into a pot stir and bring to a light boil.
Once boiling turn down heat and simmer for 40 mins until consistency is how you like it. Check the rice is tender before serving.

That's it! So simple and so good - its just such a shame I had to share!

A Day in my life!

Okay I had set apart today to write a play by play account of my day but with the way it started out I was tempted to forget it and try another one. The thing with that is that the reason I am doing it is to show our homeschool in all it's glory - warts and all - so choosing another day would not be me keepin' it real. So, here is our day, a pretty typical day if truth be told, kids maybe a little more grumpy than usual due to staying up late last night to watch American Idol, but this is pretty typical!

6:00am - Alarm goes off, hit the snooze button "just ten more minutes is all I need"
6:10am - Alarm goes off again, hit snooze again "that couldn't have been ten minutes!".
6:20am - Alarm goes off again, this time I'm awake, turn off alarm and get ready to get up.
7:20am - I hear baby crying on the baby monitor, check clock and see that I missed my window of opportunity to get to the gym! Where did that hour go??
7:25am - Get baby and nurse her in bed - turn up the heat to warm the rest of the house.
7:45am - s get up and try to get into bed with us. Send them to bathroom. Spend time chatting with Kunle and playing with Kemi.
7:50am - Niyi wakes up and takes himself to the potty - cool, potty training is really working!
8:00am - Tayo in bath, Lola brushing teeth and Niyi yelling for breakfast - guess I should get up now then - it's just so cold!
8:15am - Settled Niyi in front of TV (don't look at me like that....you know you love that electronic nanny too!) jump in the shower.
8:30am - Out of shower trying to get dressed in peace, but Niyi still wants juice and breakfast. Forget drying hair, run to kitchen to put oatmeal on and make the now infamous juice! Yell at Tayo (ahem - I mean gently ask her!) to get out of bath. Lola gets in bath.
8:45am - Feed Niyi his breakfast. Make sure Tayo is getting dressed - it's a miracle she is! Give her breakfast.
8:55am - Off to wash and comb Lola's hair....let the screaming commence!
9:20am - Finally finished with her hair, calmed her down (she's such a drama queen at times). Feed Kemi her cereal and make myself a cup of tea!
9:30am - Put chicken in Crock Pot for dinner tonight. Say goodbye to Kunle as he is off to work - can I come too??!!
9:35am - Give Lola breakfast. Niyi and Tayo are playing quietly in the living room. Make myself some toast.
9:40am - Take toast to bedroom to check email and Facebook.
9:41am - First argument of the day - go to settle it!
9:44am - Back to computer.
9:45am - Now Niyi has hurt himself - give up with computer!
9:50am - Niyi is now coloring and the s are about to start their Independent work. Tayo and Niyi argue about a pretzel - Tayo has a meltdown.
9:51am - Tayo to timeout. Lola is working on her prayer journal.
9:56am - Talk with Tayo about behavior. Kemi crying - feed Kemi.
10:10am - Tayo has another meltdown - back to Time out.
10:15 - Get to haert of issue with Tayo and pray with her. Put Kemi down for her nap.
10:27 - Tayo upset again by...I don't even remember...cuddle up and make it better.
10:30am - Tayo begins prayer journal and is now happy. Lola begins Math. Niyi is bored of coloring so plays with his cars.
10:33am - I do laundry, sweep and empty dishwasher, enjoying the quiet that has descended!
10:50am - Praise and Worship with the kids, they are dancing and enjoying their time. We read the bible discuss and spend time in prayer (boy do we need it today). Pray for Ama our sponsored child, which reminds me that we need to send a letter soon.
11:18am - Back to the table with Niyi to work on his Cars lapbook. Tayo is doing math and phonics on the computer, Lola is continuing with her Independent work.
11:35am - Help Tayo on the computer, Niyi wants apple slices, so I go get apples for everyone.
11:40am - Do spelling with Lola.
11:45am - Check on laundry while continuing to do spelling.
12:00pm - Kemi wakes up, put her in high chair with a snack. Tayo has finished work on computer so is playing with Niyi. Lola is doing copy work. I am making up a lapbook piece that I need for lesson after lunch.
12:10pm - Lola and Tayo arguing again - go sort it out. Boy is everyone grumpy!
12:15pm - Niyi watches me on the computer, sees a car in my clip art file and wants one. Print out a sheet with lots of different cars on it. He loves it and goes off to color them in!
12:30pm - make lunch
12:40pm - Feed Kemi - she's not interested right now, her teeth are bothering her again.
12:50pm - Cut up lapbook piece I just made up and listen to the s talking about the vocabulary words the learned last week - moment like these make it all worthwhile!
1:00pm - Kids playing downstairs. Call Kunle for a chat. Friend from England calls for a chat.
1:15pm - Kids arguing and all come up stairs in various states of unhappiness! Lola decides to rest in her room saying she doesn't feel well and Tayo and Niyi go off to play again.
11:25pm - Try to feed Kemi again, she eats a little.
1:30pm - Clean up lunch mess. Lola works on her copy work again, taking more time and care over it this time!
1:35pm - Put Niyi down for his nap.
1:40pm - Work on Tayo's lapbook with her. Do an activity on the short vowel sounds.
1:50pm - Work with Lola on her taste lap n note. Feed Kemi her fruit at the same time.
2:00pm - s on computer for 30 minutes while I eat lunch.
2:30pm - Send s to room to rest and read while I start typing this post (have been taking notes all day!)
2:45pm - Discover s jumping around room and not resting. Get them to clean up room and inform them that they are not going to be staying up for American Idol tonight as their behavior has been off all day.
3:25pm - Still typing this post. The s are cleaning their room and Kemi is now sleeping. Off to make a cup of tea and will enjoy some peace for a few moments.
4:00pm - Finally made cup of tea (got sidetracked on Facebook!), put ingredients for garlic bread in the bread machine and hit 'start' ( I love my bread machine!). The s are still cleaning their room and are now begging me not to tell Daddy about their behavior! Lol :-)
4:10pm - Kemi wakes up from nap, still not interested in eating, doesn't want to be put down so clean up kitchen with one hand!
4:20pm - Niyi wakes from nap. Get juice and banana in him asap to avoid his afternoon grumpy spot.
4:30pm - Check on s - yep they are still cleaning (and arguing and whining!). Play with Kemi and Niyi.
4:50pm - The room is pretty much done (at last!) I start dinner and the kids all watch TV for a while.
5:30pm - Soup is simmering, bread is doing its thing in the bread machine. I am tidying up and the kids are all quiet!
5:50pm - Make garlic bread rolls and put in warm oven to rise. Try to feed Kemi again, still not interested!
6:00pm - Kids watching Animal Planet and I'm here updating blog. Rolls should be ready in about 20 minutes - dinner smells yum-o!
6:10pm - Feed Kemi a bottle, she eats half (she prefers a bottle if her teeth hurt!).
6:30pm - Kids eating homemade chicken noodle soup and garlic bread rolls.
6:40pm - Niyi decides to try painting with aforementioned Chicken noodle soup! I guess he's done - throw him into the bath tub!
6:50pm - Niyi is bathed, now to see if Kemi will eat. She dislikes the food I give her so yet again gets fruit and cereal. She really needs to expand her food preferences!
7:07pm - Kunle is home!!! Yippeee!!! He gets the kids all situated in bed while I continue to feed Kemi and giver her a bath.
7:45pm - Now my turn to eat! Pour big glass of wine and prepare to eat all that chocolate Kunle came home with!

.....so that was my day - how was yours??!!!

Our Rechenka's Eggs fun!

Our first week back at school was spent learning about Russia, Oviparous animals and eggs with some math and art activities thrown in as well! we used the Homeschool share literature unit - Rechenka's Eggs.
Here are the girls complete lapbooks - they were so happy to be back to school!

The front covers - they are very particular when choosing clip are and fonts for these!

Inside Tayo's showing Russian eggs she painted, a poem about egg laying animals, books showing Russia's landscape and a math activity to learn how many are in a dozen.

Second flap of Tayo's showing vocabulary words, egg diagram and geography books

Lola's first flap - vocabulary, painted eggs and the poem (used the poem for copy work this week)

Second flap of Lola's lapbook with math patterns (skip counting), landscape, egg diagram she labeled following our egg dissection and map and flag of Russia.

But she's only 6 months old!!!

Yep here she is my little Kemi after climbing into the underneath part of her standing toy thingy!She was completely stuck!!! She is all over the place now - getting into everything and even running away from me when she knows I'm trying to pick her up - giggling the whole time! Oh boy will I have to get some energy to keep up with this little one!
Isn't she just so cute though!

I'm baaack!!

Okay I know I've been MIA for about a month, but hey I've been busy... (four kids will do that ya know!)
So Thanksgiving and Christmas were great! The kids are growing, we're all doing well and that's the end of my update! Now we should be back to more regular posting! Here are some random photos I *finally* downloaded today!

Thanksgiving day was a quiet one, with a great time in the great outdoors!

Yep she is crawling!

Christmas was great fun!