BFIAR: The Little Rabbit

Harriet and I started doing a very loosely-scheduled version of Before Five in a Row a few weeks ago.  Our first book was Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?, which was a tremendous hit and involved many many readings and many hours of related activities.  It was a fabulous way to start, but I don't have any photographic evidence.  Drat.  

HOWEVER.  This week we jumped to The Little Rabbit and it has also been loads of fun.  We have talked about different colors of rabbits (white, grey, brown) and read many other rabbit-related books and we made rabbit cookies.

I'm trying to do more involved projects on the days that Steve is home, so I got E down for a nap and we started baking.

I was so super-duper excited to find a scan of Cookie Monster's Cookie Dough recipe online because Mom and I used to make it when I was little...and it just works.  Every time.  Always.

After letting the dough chill for an hour, Harriet was back at it with her rabbit cookie cutter.

Then we painted each rabbit cookie with an egg/food coloring paint.  Harriet wanted green bunnies.

(I think the green looks a little freaky, but whatever.)  I couldn't find our paintbrushes, but a clean pipe cleaner works great, too.

H must get every last bit of dough licked out of the bowl.

YAY!  It's a finished green-eyed-monster rabbit cookie!  This was a fun project to do together.

Meanwhile, E ate apples and mixed berries.

The End.

In other news, my children have been dealing with some weird little virus which results in general Crabbiness, Low-Fevers, and Sleepless Nights.  This results in a rather frazzled Amelia.  But there is a date night on the horizon!  

Small Sanctification

"It's been a long time since I felt like I was really depending on God for everything," Steve says to me as we're driving home in the dark.

I glance towards the back seat where the kids are finally asleep after screaming silmutaneously for the last forty minutes.

"Really?" I say, incredulously.  "Maybe you should stay home with the kids tomorrow."

My mom always says that children are the best sanctification acceleration tool...a definite bump up from marriage...because when a person is parenting small children suddenly all self-absorbed desires and plans and expectations take a major hike.  When I'm parenting multiple small children, I feel like those "me" desires take a hike to the Antarctic.

And every single day I find myself praying for grace to make the right decisions, to be consistent in discipline, to stay focused on what's really necessary, to not admit myself to the nearest insane asylum so at least I can take a nap.  In the hurry-blurry moments that come and go with a two-year-old and a six-month-old, God's grace is evident when:

• An intense moment of marital fellowship turns into a constructive discussion on parenting consistently
• We squash the Perfectionism Bug and let good friends spend the night at our house on short notice
• I don't run screaming from the bedroom when, at 2am, one child is nursing incessantly and the other child is sleeping on top of me and I am seriously wondering who thought Attachment Parenting was a good idea
• Harriet's attitude does a 180 degree turn as soon as we sit down to read books together
• Both children nap at the same time so I can finish a Bible study worksheet
• I find a package of pancake mix in the pantry when I thought there was nothing for breakfast
• My sweet sisters eagerly and willingly watch Harriet and Edmund

There are many more instances, I'm sure, but this is what comes to my minimal-sleep-latte-buzzed brain right now.  I'm grateful.  Really.