groundspeed

Easter Weekend

Matching shirts:

Egg decorating:

And counter top staining:

(not really, it cleaned up fine)

Pretty eggs:

(The swirls are melted crayon - the vibrant dye is just good 'ol warm water and vinegar and food coloring - stuff we had on hand, no need to buy any of the store packages)

Candy and treats for breakfast:

Like the little cookie basket? It was this, sorta. I just skipped the coconut because I hate the texture of coconut flakes and I used mini Cadbury eggs because I also do not like jelly beans. I made a zillion of 'em for our church breakfast (and a hashbrown casserole).

Because no, Easter basket candy was NOT the kids only breakfast. Our church does a big pot luck breakfast before the Easter service.


And a hunt. Where Toby couldn't decide... Do I want these eggs or not?

Oh, ok...

And then apparently, the day was all about the food. Because after church we had a light lunch that included Resurrection Rolls I had the kids help me make. No pictures of this, but you should still know because A. They were super yummy and for that alone a worthwhile new tradition and B. Blue has been going around saying, "Marshmallow Jesus melted." So now that sentence won't be so confusing when you hear him say it.

Then I took a nap and Kevin watched some golf and the kids were entirely neglected.

But we managed to get it together and unearth a new batch of clean shirts for dinner at the Dolphin Bar and Shrimp house.

My mom let me pick the restaurant AND paid. And then I go and post this goofy picture?

Ok, here's a better one:


Yes, of course there was also a church service in the midst of all this. But it's all church, isn't it? Celebrating life. Celebrating blessings.

Oh, Death! Where is your sting? 
Oh, Hell! Where is your victory?
Oh, Church! Come stand in the light.
Our God is not dead, He's alive! He's alive! 

(From Christ is Risen, a song by Matt Maher, that we sang at church Sunday morning)

Good Friday at the Beach

Psalm 8

¹ LORD, our Lord, 
   how majestic is your name in all the earth!
  You have set your glory 
   in the heavens.  

We HEARD the waves while still walking up the sidewalk, long before pavement gave way to sand. And then... Red flag. High tide. We weren't sure how our beach day was going to work out.

² Through the praise of children and infants 
   you have established a stronghold against your enemies, 
   to silence the foe and the avenger. 

The kids enjoyed dancing in front of the waves but even later in the day when the tide receded and things smoothed out, Kaden was too scared to get in the water. He'd heard and seen the strength of those wave breaks...

³ When I consider your heavens, 
   the work of your fingers, 
the moon and the stars, 
   which you have set in place, 

Meanwhile Kevin fully enjoyed God's handiwork.

⁴ what is mankind that you are mindful of them, 
   human beings that you care for them?

Big waves. Small man.

 ⁵ You have made them a little lower than the angels
   and crowned them with glory and honor. 

This troublemaker? A little lower than angels? God IS gracious. :-)

⁶ You made them rulers over the works of your hands; 
   you put everything under their feet: 
⁷ all flocks and herds, 
   and the animals of the wild, 
⁸ the birds in the sky, 
   and the fish in the sea, 
   all that swim the paths of the seas.

And brothers. Because here Toby has his brothers under his feet.

 ⁹ LORD, our Lord, 
   how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Yesterday it was animals. Today it was ocean, surf, and sand. There have been times in my faith walk when my intellectual side has leaned toward atheism (just being honest) but in creation... I can't imagine it all occuring by chance. Surely this beach, yesterday's peacock were the design of The Artist.

And if I accept a Master Designer, then I can accept that He is perfect, and I am not, and there must be a bridge to overcome that gap.

Today, more than any day, I humbly acknowledge Christ's sacrifice in creating that bridge. 

But on this side of the cross, it's not such a solemn day. There may be the dark skies, heavy thunderous waves... but they give way. The skies brighten.  The sea calms.  The beauty reveals. 

I know. I've seen.

In nature. In my life. In the life of my kids.

So this solemn day was not so solemn. We played at the beach. We lunched at the Jensen Beach Mulligans. We napped and watched Star Wars. I shopped for our church's Easter breakfast and worked on vases for table decorations. Preparations... 

THE day of celebration for Christians is almost here!

January Thankfulness

I've been slowly reading, unpacking One Thousand Gifts. When I finish it, I plan to turn back to the beginning and start over. And, of course, I've been keeping my list.

Appreciating.

Practicing thanks.

A few from January...

13. Turning the heat on for the first time this winter.

14. Best honeybell orange ever.

17. In birthday phone conversation with my dad, he asked if I have any gray hairs yet. This was a joke. At 66 my dad has very little gray and he very well knows that at 34 I have none.

24. Men in pink tutus.

27. The smell of oregano.

32. Andrew Peterson our morning routine soundtrack.

38. Uno game before bed. Blue's too-little hands dropping cards.

40. Another safe flying day for Kevin (and all of MFI).

43. Toby high-fiving a big black guy in a restaurant.

44. Poppy! In a play!

49. Animated book group.

52. Ms. Agi always waiting for Blue with hugs.

54. Soft butt landings after 4 ft tree falls. (Blue)

58. The word "guppy." It makes Toby giggle.

61. A conversation with Blue in the car about aliens and bug eating and doing puzzles in space.

64. Morning tea.

67. Brothers. I get to raise brothers.

In All Seasons... Thankful.

I spent a lot of time at the end of last year pondering my own lack of thankfulness. When the dust (or rather the urine) has settled and Blue was consistently behaving (for Blue) again and I had time to reflect on my own whininess and, lets me honest, anger, I knew my lack of joy in those circumstances (still dwelling on I Thes 5:18) had everything to do with entitlement.

I am a fragile X carrier. I dealt with that blow. I adopted a boy from Russia.

I loved, LOVED living in Wilmington, NC, but God called us to Texas for Kevin's flight training. Me, a democrat, moving to east, podunk Texas. Talk. About. Sacrifice. (But I came around. There's definitely a soft spot in my heart for Texas.)

And in Texas, we terrific martyrs that we are, become foster parents

Foster parents who ended up in a legal nightmare. But we won. And we adopted again.

Meanwhile I ended up pregnant (surprise!) and shortly after our third son was born we received his Fragile X diagnosis.

And then we moved. With very little money and the knowledge that Kevin would be gone all the time traveling to raise his support/salary before we could be full-time with MFI.

During this we lived with my mother.

And I shared a room with my terrible-sleeper baby so for 5 months I didn't sleep. As in, four straight hours, was a good night. FOR FIVE MONTHS.

But then we got a house! And we loved our house! And Kevin had enough support to start with MFI! And we were all together again! And Toby started sleeping! And from August 2010 till about mid-January 2011 life was really, really good. 

And after so much struggle and sacrifice and I felt entitled to be in this good place. I felt as though 2011 would be our year to breath a little and focus on the little things. Like having people over for dinner. Seriously our main goal for 2011 was having more people over for dinner.

And then my perfect, happy year with perfect happy dinner parties crumbled because of the defiance of one pissy four-year-old.

And I lost my joy. 

Because I wanted one NORMAL year. I felt entitled to one NORMAL (bleepity, bleepin') year.

I was angry. (How dare you, God not give me a year off from sacrifice.)

But come fall. When things started to get better. I felt a little like a, well, four-year-old.

And I felt a little embarrassed that after an adoption, legal battle, moves, Fragile X diagnosis, etc, it took a four-year-old pissing all over my house, to cause me to lose my joy and shake my hand at God and say, ENOUGH.

In hindsight, feeling a little sheepish about that.

In 2012 I want my joy to overflow from thankfulness. In all seasons. In all circumstances. 

And a friend sent me the perfect gift for this goal.

33 pages in and the ice of resentment birthed from my entitlement is melting. When I closed the book for the day I headed over to the author's blog and came away with yet another gem:

There’s only one address anyone lives at and it’s always a duplex: Joy and pain always co-habit every season of life. Accept them both and keep company with the joy while the pain does it’s necessary renovations.

In 2012 I will accept the residence of joy and pain together. 

And, in the journal gifted to me by another friend, I will keep a list of 2012's daily gifts... 

Today I began:

1. Friends who give good and perfect gifts.

2. Kaden and Blue racing on the beach.

3. So many shades of blue in one land(sea)scape.

4. Piles upon piles of incredible shells just heaped onto the beach for our perusal. No hunting and gathering work needed, just to plop in the midst and scoop by the handful...

5. Legos keeping the boys entertained and a perfect playlist keeping me entertained while I made beans, corn bread and zucchini fries for dinner.

6. Kevin doing his nightly Bible study with the boys. 

Just getting started. ;-)

Merry Christmas 2011

If you haven't already gotten our photo card/Christmas newsletter. Um, it's probably not coming. Sorry. But! Now! Here! Tonight! You can get the pictures and Christmas letter part of that mail-out sans the tree-killing and carbon omitting postal services. Super awesome!!

(I like using extra exclamation points in and around Christmas letters because of the David Sedaris short story, Season's Greetings. If Santa has never brought you a copy of Barrel Fever, you need to have a talk with him... OR! get over it, and listen to this story on youtube: part one, part two.)

Alright, alright... the official letter:

Merry Christmas! We hope you have had a happy and fulfilling 2011.

No worries, no one fell off the dock.

When I write these annual Christmas letters I’m conscious of how to convey the fun! celebrations!! of our year!!!! without glossing over… ya know, reality. So, reality: For the first half of 2011 my world smelled like pee. (Merry Christmas!!!) Somehow a button got pushed in Blue, our middle kiddo, and he just went out of control. He began breaking things, sweeping his arms across a shelf to crash its contents to the ground, and peeing on things on purpose. Every day. Multiple times a day. I was going Out. Of. My. Mind. Blue and I started meeting with a psychiatrist, and after many failed efforts (good job dollars, star charts, putting fun things in the toilet to pee on) either our consistency, your prayers, or Blue’s boredom with the whole thing brought us out of it. By the middle of summer things started turning around.  PRAISE GOD. (Because you surely didn’t want to read an entire letter about bad behavior; you can watch Super Nanny for that.)

 

He sure looks cute and normal, doesn't he?

In other, more fun, news: The boys started t-ball/baseball for the first time. Kevin coached Blue’s team and we hosted Blue’s end-of-season party. In March Kaden turned 7 and we celebrated by taking a few friends to see a Disney on Ice show. In May Toby turned 2 and right around his birthday he and I traveled to Chapel Hill for a research study on the brains of kids with Fragile X. Toby continues doing numerous therapies and we’ve added a membership to “My Gym” a kids gym with directed classes for little tykes.

Love those laughs!
In the summer Kaden and Blue went to a VBS and a number of camps, but the best camp, from my perspective, was “Camp Gran and Papa” where they went for a week (with Toby too) so Kevin and I could enjoy a tenth anniversary trip WITHOUT KIDS! We spent one night in New Orleans and then continued on to Montana where we met up with our friends Ryan and Courtney Tucker. We rented a cabin in Red Lodge so we could spend our days hiking around the Bear Tooth Mountains and Yellowstone. We had perfect weather for our hikes, lots of animal sightings but no animal encounters, and a hot tub at our cabin where we watched shooting stars each night.  Perfect. 

In the fall Kaden started second grade… twice.  He returned to the school where he’s been enrolled since we moved to Port St Lucie, but two weeks into the semester we got a letter saying he could move to a school where we’d had him on a waiting list. He’s much closer to home which makes the drop off / pick up routine nicer. Also, he has more church friends at his new school, so we’re pleased with the change. 

How can he already be in 2nd grade?!

Blue attends the same school where he went 2 afternoons a week last year, but now he goes every morning as part of the free Voluntary Pre Kindergarten program in the state of Florida. We love his Christian school and we love that the state pays for it! 

In October we celebrated the wedding of my oldest niece. Blue and Kaden served as ring bearers. It was a destination wedding to Panama City Beach for the Tennessee bride and groom so all the family made a vacation out of it. We were able to rent a small beach house that the boys are still talking about. (When are we going back to that little gray house with the pool and the Wii?) Unfortunately, while en route to PCB the transmission of our van died. Because it had close to 200k miles we chose to sell it without fixing it.  Right now we’re adding to our savings for a down payment on a new van and in the meantime borrowing Kevin’s father’s old car. I begrudgingly became a minivan mom, but now, not two months away from van driving, I sorely miss it!

Kaden just wrapped up spring baseball (two seasons and one camp in, and we’ve seen big improvements!) and is now beginning practice for his first time playing Upward Basketball. On December 1^st Blue turned 5. He had a Kung Fu Panda party at a Martial Arts Studio.  Blue recently began taking karate at his preschool one day a week. He loves it! (Gotta direct that energy somehow.) 

We’ve been through a lot this year watching one of our sons get so off track. It was particularly hard on me because I saw a lot of personal goals go unmet as I poured all of my energy into managing Blue. In September, part of a women’s conference I attended in Orlando, I was able to go to Casting Crowns concert. The lead singer shared about trials he’s been through getting his daughter, adopted from China, healthy. They then went into their song, Praise You In the Storm. I felt like such a whiner! With both Kaden and Blue we knew that even though the adoptions were finalized, their places in our family sealed, that adoption would always be an on-going journey. Blue’s journey hit a bumpy patch (Behaviorally, Blue is underdeveloped and resorts to “primitive behaviors.” Thank you, psychiatrist.) and where was my praise?  (1 Thess 5:18 Give thanks in ALL circumstances.) It’s easier now that we’ve gone on two restorative trips and Blue has improved, but I hope to be better equipped no matter what our family faces in 2012.

And if, between all that news and the family blog, you still haven’t gotten enough Stratton news, we have a guest bedroom! Come visit! Merry Christmas! Happy 2012!! Love!!! Faydra!!!! (and the boys!)

 

Oh Great Light of the World

It's the first Sunday of Advent.

Toby, Blue and I finished off the leftovers while Kevin and Kaden were at an Upward Basketball practice and came in as I was putting Toby to bed.

We didn't talk about advent.

We've talked about Christmas lights. (Outside lights done!) And decorations. (The kids are already nagging me, but I wanted to clean first. That happened today.) 

And Blue has been saying the next BIG event after Thanksgiving is HIS birthday. (Christmas Smishmas - BLUE IS TURNING FIVE THIS THURSDAY, People.)

Preperations for the light, the hope, faith, joy, and peace, of the world... Not yet. At least not in the light-a-candle symbolic way we like to observe this time of year. Tomorrow, when we sit around the table for a meal together (no basketball, no other disrupting plans) we will light a candle; we will talk about what we're getting ready for. We'll begin discussion about why we will begin to decorate, set up a tree, and plan special holiday events because of who the hubub is about.

We try to keep the focus on faith and not stuff. We don't do Santa or have the kids write Christmas lists. I'm one of those snooty people who avoids Black Friday on principal. (Even so, I found myself at Walmart at 3pm on Friday buying outdoor light hooks.) But I've already got my Christmas cards ordered even though I haven't gotten my advent lessons in order. Hmmmm. (Sigh.)

It's ok. Mary/Joseph/Zacharias didn't seem ready for the news when it was first sprung on them. (Angels!) I'm sure their preparations for the long-awaited savior didn't go exactly as planned either. (Zacharias lost his voice which made things difficult to explain, duties as priest difficult to perform... And poor Mary, before forced to travel for some stupid government census right at month nine. Travel by donkey NOT how I'd want to spend my final days readying for a baby.)

So we celebrate as we can. We worship, observe, reflect when we can. We get caught up in the nothing-to-do-with-Jesus commercial craziness or cultural expectations and then (hopefully) we catch ourselves and pull back for a few silent and holy nights.

I do love Christmas, but in our household we are still tweeking its celebration. We aim to be intentional and not just swept along. It's not about finding balance, it's about faith pervading every aspect of this season. (Or any season.)

Trying. So not there. But trying.

Thankfulness Tree

In the corner of the dining room sits my attempt at a thankfulness tree.

Supplies: a few limbs from a nearby empty lot spray painted gold because of the spray paint we already had on hand this seemed best, a vase I already had, some potpourri pinecone mix thing I bought at Michaels to fill up the vase, leaves cut from cardstock, and some yarn I had on hand. Oh, and the big pinecones at the bottom will be for something else. It's just a place to put them for now.

The idea: periodically during family mealtime discuss our thankfulness, record on a leaf, and hang. Unlike most fall trees that lose their leaves our tree will grow fuller as we get closer to Thanksgiving. 

I've had the tree up for about a week but tonight was the first night we added some leaves. Blue was the first to chime in - he's thankful for the our new outdoor basketball goal that some friends passed on to us and Kevin went and picked up Saturday.

I decided to date each leaf because, who knows, maybe I'll keep them and then, if this becomes a tradition, we can look back and see what we were thankful for in years past.

The discussion went well with the kids, but Kevin was my cut-up (pain in the butt). I can never get everyone to behave at once. Sigh.

It's not much now, but I think once we keep hanging the leaves it will turn into the colorful reminder it is intended to be. (And we're a sit down to dinner every night kinda family so, shouldn't be long.)

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. I Thessalonians 5:18 

Thanksgiving

Psalm 100
¹ Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth! ² Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy.
 
This morning we woke up at 6:45am to Kaden rushing into our bedroom telling on Blue who was "ripping stuff".  Upon inspection, yes, Blue had torn apart all sorts of flash cards in their room.  Nice.  I sent Kaden back to his room to play and made Blue sit in our room in the time out position (criss cross apple sauce, hands on your knees) as Kevin and I attempted to linger in bed a little longer.  Soon came the sound of Blue's whine, "I have to peeee-eeee."   My arm emerged from the covers and I pointed to our bathroom.  The sound that followed was odd then clearly he found the bowl then the odd sound again. "He's peeing on the floor," Kevin said.  I threw back the covers and stomped to the bathroom saying, "I am NOT thankful for that boy," as I went. I'm not sure how we confused the sounds but he'd peed on his shirt, not the floor. 

And so began Thanksgiving in the Stratton household.

I made biscuits and gravy for breakfast and then Kevin prepared to head over to my mom's because he's painting her house this weekend.  We decided he should take Blue with him.  We want the boy to see his 4th birthday and we figured his chances were better with Kevin than with me.  

Blue. (yesterday in the cockpit of one of MFI's DC3s)

And today en route to giving Gus some bones.  Note that the bone on the left has bites taken out of it. The kid will eat a dog bone but didn't touch a bite of his Thanksgiving dinner.  (Probably because he was so stuffed from eating that dog bone.)

Oh fine.  I'm thankful for Blue.

³ Acknowledge that the Lord is God. He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name.

So Blue and Daddy went to work leaving Kaden, Toby and I to hang out.  And we're good hanger outers.  I cleaned up from breakfast and prepared a green bean casserole.  We went on a walk in the neighborhood.  The boys watched a Christmas movie and snacked while I prepared a cranberry apple crisp. The boys watched the parade and snacked while I cleaned the kitchen again and started on deviled eggs...  We did have one pause in this so I could read Kaden and Toby a Thanksgiving story and then comes my inevitable frustration with Kaden.  When we're just hanging out, Kaden and I are great. Try to actively engage the boy in something and hello frustration.

This book was not a new story.  We read it and talked about it just a few days ago (and many other times in years past). I asked what should have been an easy question and I'll be blunt, he gave me a really stupid answer.  (Yes, there ARE stupid answers and no, he was not trying to be funny.)  I asked again, rewording to make sure he understood.  He gave me a different, but again, totally wrong answer. Down goes the book, out comes the lecture about listening. Fun times, huh?  This is a pattern for Kaden and me.  Ugh.

But then. 

Toby went down for a nap.  I took a shower. Unpause the parade (I'm thankful for DVR!) and after a little while out comes a school project. 

Kaden's December project is to make a gingerbread man using the template the school sent home.  I asked Kaden if he wanted to do a fun gingerbread man like a Santa suited one or a pirate.  He chose pirate. I love that Kaden spontaneously put on a Santa hat before starting on the project.

And I also love how it turned out.  (Blue's pirate birthday party is on Sunday so we had a lot of stuff available to use - look hard on the left, he's even wearing a gold hoop earring.) No frustrations, just a good, creative time for us.

 ⁵ For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.

At speech this week Toby signed "more bubbles" without any prompting.  The boy just wanted some more bubbles! He signed "milk" for me today.  He's also loving the sound "pa" and does an adorable "papa" when I show him a picture of Kevin's dad, who we call Papa. He has finally started waving bye bye and sometimes he says it too. I am thrilled at his recent language progress.  I am so thankful for this boy, his giggles, his cuddles, even his pouting which often makes me laugh.  

Tonight, Toby was wound up from all the extra hoopla of the evening. When Kevin and Blue returned, my mom and a friend came over and the real Thanksgiving kitchen bustle commenced.  When it came time to put him to bed he screamed and screamed.  Nothing I could do or sing (the singing always works, but tonight only intermittently) kept him settled.  I let him scream.  Then Daddy took his turn. That might have made it worse. Finally I returned and he happily sat with me in the recliner in his room. I kicked it back and he babbled away, and we just sat like that in the dark until he wound down, yawned, quieted, yawned some more.  Moments like this his momma attachment is adorable.  Other times it's exhausting.

Yesterday at MFI, I tried to take his picture but here he is storming me down:

Even so, he did have his times off with the big boys.  He even braved zooming around on a dolly:
 

Thanksgiving was like any other day.  We had the usual frustrations and the usual giggles - just more food around when it all went down.

I am thankful for God's faithfulness to their generation.  That even though I sometimes worry (Will Kaden ever "get it?"  Will Blue ever behave? How will Toby continue to develop?) I can absolutely trust God as their Father, their much more capable parent.  He made them, they are his. (I.E. It's ok to loosen your grip, Faydra!) I'm thankful for reading this Psalm today, for that reminder.

I'm even thankful for these early childhood stages, but I'm also thankful knowing this time will pass. Soon enough they'll be teenagers I can't get out of bed, and I will try to remember that tomorrow morning at 6-something-er-other when, inevitably, Kaden or Blue will come into our room telling us something we don't want to hear probably about Kaden or Blue peeing somewhere we wished they hadn't peed. 

We're not a perfect family but we're... us.  And I'm thankful.

Considering Adoption

A close friend is in the process of having her 4th child.  It's a boy and they already know his name.  (This could be anybody's news right?)  It could, until I add, he is ten years old and currently lives in St. Petersburg, Russia.

This friend has two biological kiddos who are younger then their newest son and an adopted daughter (from America) who is older. 

I love my friends family.  Not because her husband is our Edward Jones rep.  Not because when we lived in Longview we had anytime access to their pool.  (Although these are good things!)  I love this family because they seek God's picture of what their family should look like.  They do not take for granted what their family should be based upon American cultural norms.  

And this friend, who has a passion for adoption sent me a link, and I proceeded to post this link on facebook, and this link generated a lot of discussion and got reposted a few more times.

I want to keep this adoption discussion going.  In the works are some blogs about:
*Why YOU (whoever you are) should consider adopting. (Expect some soap-boxing in this one, and some David Platt-esque American church criticism.  If that's a problem, maybe skip this blog next week.)
*Saying "No." The two hardest decisions Kevin and I have ever made and what you can still do even if you say "No" to adopting.
*Adoption options and how to get started.   
*Any other adoption related ideas that may get generated as I get started on those...

In the meantime, I'd like to leave you with some weekend adoption reading/viewing:

Reality is a Weighty Thing

Civil Forum on Orphans and Adoption

James 1:27 and the Church
 
Get reading.  Get Considering.  Get Praying. 

Midweek Mommy Question - Train Up a Child

As in Proverbs 22:6, Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

Our new church, and therefor our whole family, is going through The Story, but this is not our kiddos first introduction or training in our faith. Church going, nightly Bible reading, and praying (before bed, before dinner, on the way to school are the regular times for us) have been part of the routine for a long, long while.  

What we haven't done much of is memorizing Bible verses, but I decided for my sake (I could use this too) and for theirs, this was getting built into the routine.  Since school started we've had a weekly verse and Kaden has to read it out loud and then write it one time before breakfast, by Friday, he's expected to write it from memory.  Here's what he did this Friday:

Yup, that's Romans 6:23.  No pansy John 11:35 (Jesus Wept) memorizing for my boy. 

This week, because it correlates to our Story reading, we're doing Psalm 119:105 (Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.) which gave me the idea to download the old school Amy Grant song, Thy Word, which then got me searching itunes for other scripture verse songs. After a small bit of searching, I now have a breakfast music playlist that includes three of the our first four memorized verses in it.  Fun reinforcement I say!  (Which is how Blue is learning all this stuff, with him it's all caught not officially taught.)

Another good thing about having Kaden write his weekly verse in the morning is that this becomes what we talk about in the car on the way to school which really feels like we're doing Deuteronomy 11:19 right. (Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.) 

So that's what we're doing these days for our at-home faith teaching and learning.  How do you help your kids learn verses? What else are you doing? I'm looking at you home-school moms - I know you have awesome ideas in this area!