Category — Fun Life

Oh, how this photo makes me want to stop time! It reveals way too many rites of passage for my sweet 6-year-old Kennah:

• Although you can’t see it in her smile, she just lost her first tooth two weeks ago.
• Today she got a haircut — and for the first time requested bangs (even though several older friends cautioned her that the forehead fringe, with its constant need for trimming, is “too stressful”).
• After the haircut, she persuaded me to take her to the shoe store she’d visited the week before with her dad to buy tennis shoes. While there, she’d spotted a pair of “high-heeled boots” that were “just her size,” and she wanted me to see them, too. Lucky for her, they were still there — and on clearance.
• Of course, then she needed an outfit to wear with the boots , so we went next door to Target, where for the first time she spent her Christmas money not on a toy, but on clothes and a headband that she picked out herself. Especially eye-opening for me was the realization that she no longer fits into the “T” (for toddler)-size clothes but has now crossed the aisle into the “Girls” section. (I was so relieved that she didn’t even consider the otherwise adorable floral skirt that, upon closer inspection, also featured pink skulls! Seriously?)

I really can’t take too many more “firsts” right now, so I hope we’re done with them for awhile. I’d like a little more time to enjoy this particular age (and stage) of my all-too-quickly-growing-up girl.

… things we’re celebrating this season:

1. Our faith in a loving God who meets our every need when times are tough. We are not always grateful for the lessons we’ve had to learn, but we know where our trust belongs: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord. “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” —Jeremiah 29:11

2. A family life that not only keeps us busy but also allows us all to be together as much as possible. We’re also thankful for grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who help us juggle a tight schedule and meet responsibilities both at home and on the job.

3. Friends! We’ve kept our current ones (whew!) and made several new ones (yay!) — and reconnected with a few old ones, too (thank you, Facebook). All have inspired us in some way. We’re making it our goal to return the favor.

4. There’s no shortage of work to be done around here — and that’s a good thing! Shawn just took a new job as a project manager for a Tempe company, and he continues to do small handyman jobs on his own. Sonya is still a homeschooling mom and free-lance writer/editor, as well as a tutor and writing teacher.

5. And then there’s school. Kellen (11), Kerrick (9), Kennah (6) and Keillor (4) still do most of their learning at home, but the three oldest also attend two enrichment programs each week for extras like art, history, Latin, music, P.E. and science. It definitely keeps us all hopping — and our brains popping!

6. We actually hope to play more in the near future. Sure, Shawn and the boys have hiked and camped with the Scouts, and Sonya and Kennah have tried to squeeze some girl time in here and there. But we’ve resolved to soon do more of those things that refresh our spirits and keep us going. We hope that’s your plan, too!

Merry Christmas from the Hemmings Half-Dozen!

The seventh-grade homeschooled students I tutor once a week for a program called Classical Conversations are learning to draw the entire world from memory this year — and label at least 200 countries, capitals and features. It’s no small feat! They’re halfway there, so I thought I’d give them this little memento to help keep up their momentum. I photocopied a world map onto 8 1/2-by-11-inch paper and cut it into half-inch horizontal strips, making sure I preserved one strip in particular with the words “The World” printed on it. I played with that strip to form a circle (secured by tape) that would neatly fit the inside diameter of the clear glass ornament. Then I curled each of the remaining strips around a pencil, smoothing the curl out a bit before pushing each strip individually into the ornament and inside the band formed by the first strip. Each time I pushed in a new strip, I shook the ornament and all of the strips naturally curled around each other to form a jumbled globe shape that I thought looked really fun. My handy husband shortened up and sharpened some Christmas pencils and drilled a hole through each one so that I could tie it on — along with a little jingle bell — with embroidery thread. I hope my students enjoy the ornaments. I liked them so much that I made one for our tree, too.

We said a sudden good-bye to one of our guinea pigs, Prairie, yesterday. She was 2 1/2 years old and belonged mostly to Kerrick (holding her in the photo above, taken about 1 1/2 years ago), but we all thought she was pretty cute. We buried her in our backyard next to our pecan tree. Kerrick is heartbroken — which, of course, breaks my heart. Certainly, there are bigger losses in life. But this kind of little loss is tough, too — for Kerrick, because it’s really the first time he has lost something he loves; and for me, because he has so many questions that I can’t answer (“Why did she have to die right now? What made her die? Can’t God bring her back if I ask him to?”). I want so much to handle it the right way. I want him to know that it’s OK to be sad that she’s gone. I want to help him remember how much fun it was to play with her. A part of me also wants to relieve him of the guilt he feels about the times that he didn’t play with her because he was busy with school work or Scouts — or because he chose instead to play the Wii. But I can’t do that, and I know I shouldn’t anyway. How else will he learn to deal with the same issues and questions when the next loss — inevitably a bigger one — comes? Mostly, I want him to know that despite the pain he’s feeling now, it was worth it to love Prairie with all of his heart.

Prairie, a true home companion (all of you Garrison Keillor fans know what I mean!).

… fun facts about Kerrick:

1. His first name is English and means “the king’s rule.” His middle name, Andrew, means “manly, courageous.”

2. He loves playing with his dog, his LEGOs and his nine Webkinz (including the newest, a red squirrel named Redwood) — and he collects Playmobil knights.

3. His favorite song is Get Back Up, performed by Toby Mac. To hear it, click on the audio player at right under Song of the Day.

4. He’s super-smart, super-funny, super-outgoing and super-adventurous — all of which makes his parents super-proud (and super-exhausted from trying to keep up with him).

5. He developed our menu for today:
• Breakfast: sprouted spelt raisin cupcakes.
• Lunch: Grilled grass-fed beef burgers on spelt sourdough English muffins.
• Dinner: Pizza (not a healthy version).
• Dessert: a gluten-free (so his older brother can eat it), double-layer chocolate cake with vanilla frosting and strawberries.

6. If you haven’t already guessed, he turns 9 today! Happy birthday, second-biggest Little!

. . .fun facts about Kellen:

1. His first name is Irish and means “mighty warrior.” His middle name, Joseph, is after his great-grandfather and means “God will increase.”

2. He loves pirate stories and pirate movies, and he collects Playmobil and LEGO pirates.

3. Despite having multiple food allergies, he loves to eat! Favorite foods include banana-chocolate-chip muffins, spaghetti and meatballs, tacos, turkey sandwiches, strawberries, and coconut-milk ice cream.

4. This year, he earned the highest Cub Scout/Webelos honor, the Arrow of Light, before crossing over into Boy Scouts.

5. Kellen has played the piano for two years. To hear his performances at one recital, click on the audio players under his photo at right under “Songs of the Day.”

6. He turns 11 today! Happy birthday, not-s0-little Little!

Last year, Kennah and I made super fancy matching Easter dresses for her and her baby doll, Mary (click here to take a look back). We wanted to continue the tradition this year, but we didn’t have time to make anything elaborate. So we were amazed and grateful when a neat opportunity came along for us to not only carry on our tradition, but also to participate in an upcoming project at our place of worship, Grace Community Church in Tempe, Arizona. Two weeks from now, Grace will host an event called Dress a Girl Around the World. Kennah and I will gather with a whole bunch of other girls both big and small to sew dresses for an organization called Hope 4 Women International, which delivers handmade dresses to impoverished girls in almost 40 countries worldwide. Our goal is to make 200 “pillowcase dresses” (so called because they can be made with a pillowcase and just a few other supplies) in just two hours! After exploring the organization’s website (click here to view it), Kennah and I were inspired to make some of these simple dresses for her and Mary to wear on Easter (we didn’t use actual pillowcases, but selected our own fabric and sewed it into pillowcase shapes before making the dresses), as well as a matching one for an unknown girl whom we’ve been calling “our friend around the world.” Maybe someday we’ll find out the name of the girl who receives the twin to Kennah’s dress, but even if we don’t, we’ll know that another little girl somewhere, as Kennah puts it, “has at least one dress, and we match.”

Our dog, Sweetie, is enjoying her first playdate ever, as we are hosting Daisy, our friends’ Portuguese Water Dog for a two-night sleepover. This high-energy pair has played hard all day, and we’re pretty sure they’ll sleep just as hard tonight. Though they look nothing alike, their personalities seem as well matched as their identical collars and pink heart-shaped tags.

Merry Christmas! For many, many reasons, we did not send cards out to friends and family this year. But we absolutely LOVED all of the cards we received anyway—so much that we covered the inside of our front door with them! (Look closely, and you might see yours somewhere in our collection!) Well, almost covered anyway. (See the space at the bottom? There’s a little room left if yours didn’t make it into the mail yet.)

I didn’t have a lot of time for blogging this holiday season, but as a throwback to my Christmas carol countdown of last year, I thought I’d share one of my new favorites this year—God Bless Us Everyone, sung by Andrea Bocelli from his My Christmas CD:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I hope you find it meaningful, too!