Christmas Newsletter 2012

The holidays are here

And the Johnsons wrote to say,

We’re filled with festive cheer

And we’re sending some your way!

The New Year rolled in peacefully.

We enjoyed the mild weather.

Jeremy continued his intern time

Of learning and growing together.

Micah was in afternoon 4K.

We adored his teacher to no end.

And Liliana went to school too,

To learn how to be a good friend.

Our family had quite the spring!

Jeremy needed a hernia repair.

Liliana needed surgery too,

Only hers was for dental care.

Our summer highlight was visiting family.

All of our loved ones were in attendance!

We had a blast playing out on the lake

And celebrating our nation’s independence!

End of July meant moving

From Beloit back to seminary.

You’d think we’d be pros at this by now,

But it felt to be quite the contrary.

This fall brought with lots of changes!

Liliana started full time preschool.

She attends at our YMCA,

Loves the writing center and swimming pool!

Micah started Kindergarten this year.

We can’t believe how big he is!

Learning to read has been so exciting,

And he’s a totally rockin’ math whiz!

The biggest change in our family dynamic

Is Sandy has gone back to work.

She’s loving her job as a preschool para,

Even if our home is now sometimes bizerk! 

Jeremy’s finishing up his coursework,

Completing his senior year of seminary.

We go through the assignment process soon

And will get our synod in late February.

We hope to return to Minnesota,

But it’s up to the Holy Spirit.

If you feel like saying a prayer for us,

We’re sure God would love to hear it.  ;-)

That wraps up things on our end,

But we’d love to hear how life is for you.

Can’t wait to catch up with ya’ll sometime

And find out what’s exciting and new!

Until we see you that next time,

We’re wishing you and your loved ones the best!

Happy Holidays dear friends and family!

We pray that your New Year is blessed!

Love,

Jeremy, Sandy, Micah, Liliana
and Rex

A New Chapter

The Johnson family is entering into a new chapter of our lives.  Today was a huge day, full of transitions.

I just LOVE our sweet little family.  We're so very blessed!

Micah started Kindergarten!

He was psyched to be wearing a "Ninjago" shirt.  Just when I'm finally catching on to all the Star Wars lingo, he's switched over to Ninjago.  

Liliana started all day, every day preschool.

Her backpack is almost as big as she is.  <3

And Sandy started her new job (paraprofessional for the voluntary 4 year old preschool program).

Why yes, those are tennis shoes.  Apparently glitter flats aren't good for chasing after preschoolers.  I was totally disheartened by this until I actually spent the day chasing after said preschoolers and then I was thankful I sucked it up and wore the tennies.  

And Jeremy...well, we haven't had a chance to talk yet, but I'm willing to bet his day involved video games.

Sharing a special Daddy/Nahna moment waiting for school to start.

WHEW!  What a day!  I'm still processing it all, but here are a few tidbits.

Micah had a really rough day yesterday.  He was overtired, there was a dentist appointment that he was fearful of, and he was all nerves about school.  Lots of meltdowns from our typically serene son.  I was so nervous for him that today would be rough, but he had a great pep talk from an older neighborhood boy last night, and he was ready to go this morning.

I started to get teary-eyed walking him to his classroom.  I immediately stopped myself.  Knowing I had Liliana's drop-off still to go and then my first day too, I couldn't risk getting emotional.  If I had just been heading home, I probably would have spent the day sobbing over a bag of chocolate.  Good thing I was distracted!

Liliana was all bubbly until she actually got to her classroom and talked to her teacher and then she got shy.  She didn't look sad though and went right to play.  I peeked in on her a few times (I work at her school but with the older class) and she was engaged in the activities.  

During the 3 year old naptime, Liliana's teacher comes over to our room to help with the older kids, so I talked with her for a bit and she said Liliana is such a good kid and a total smartie!  It's always funny to hear how your child is so much better for other people.  :-P  She did say that she got sad during outside time, and as the teacher was telling me the story about it, it was all I could do to not cry about my poor baby girl feeling sad.  Liliana and I have been together her entire life, minus a few hours here and there.  This is the first that we've ever really been apart and I didn't expect to feel this much mom-guilt over it, but I sure do!  They called me into her room to give her a hug after nap because she woke up confused over where she was.  I think it will get easier for both of us, and Liliana liked that she could peek over and see me if she needed to.  (And I liked that too!)

I had a GREAT time at work!  It feels so good to be back in the classroom and was good reassurance that this is exactly what I need to be doing with my life.  The lead teacher in our room is fabulous, and I think it's going to be a really great year.  First days of preschool are always a little rough.  When you have kids who have never had to sit in a circle or do what they're told before, it takes awhile to learn the routine.  But we have two great groups of preschoolers and I'm excited to see them grow and learn throughout our time together!

We left preschool/work early to go pick up Micah.  Typically when I ask him about his day, I get a "I can't remember."  Boys.  But today, I heard all about art class, math, the new reading program, lunch, and so on.  Sounded like a great day to me.  He did complain that it felt really long and casually mentioned that he didn't make a friend yet, but he played with his BFF from seminary who is in the other kindergarten section during recess time and we talked about how it might take awhile to make a good friend in his own class.

So that was our day.  I rarely allow myself to utter this MN word, but it really fits in this case...

"UFFDA!"  

I have Wednesdays off, so tomorrow we'll be dropping the kids off at school, and Jeremy and I will have an all day date!!!  Yay!!!

Here's hoping the rest of the year goes as smoothly as today did!

Fairy Fun!

Liliana has been really into fairies lately.  This is what I love about having a girl!  Fairies and princesses and make believe!  It's easily just as much fun for me as it is for her.

So when she came to me asking to build a fairy house, I was all over it.  We sat at the table together for over an hour, glue gunning things and chatting about our favorite types of fairies.  This is what we came up with.

Table and chairs, shower, and crab apples...because according to Liliana, fairies love to eat crab apples so she's been pulling them off of all the trees in the neighborhood, despite our objections.

Fairy beds, wall decorations, and a secret escape hatch through the yogurt container.

I let her do as much of it as possible, so it was a great experience for her in cutting, glueing (regular, not hot for her yet), and general home design.  :-)

After it was made she kept saying, "I hope we catch a fairy tonight.  Then it can be my very best friend."  Poor Rexie was about to be replaced.

While we didn't catch a fairy, one did stop by and leave her a little note.

I added a quarter in the photo to show how tiny it was.

Here's the text:

Dearest Liliana,

Greetings!  Thank you so much for building such a lovely home for my fairy friends and me.  You really did a splendiferous job!  I just love the decorations and the way you colored the chairs.  While the home looks quite comfortable and I’d love to live with you and your family, I do have other fairy duties to attend to.  And so it’s with my deepest regrets that I cannot stay.  I have however, left these pretend fairy friends for you to play with.  Hope to visit again soon! 

With much love,

Glorinda the Garden Fairy

P.S.- Despite what your friends may have told you…Fairies do not eat crab apples or candy.  We are quite happy with our fairy food we already in fairyland, so please don’t pick any more apples off of the beautiful trees.  Thanks love!

And her new fairy friends (super cheap at Hobby Lobby):

She was sooooooooo excited!  Like, squealing-and-running-out-the-door-to-show-her-friends excited.  I was terrified one of them would spill the beans, as they're a lot older than she is and beyond the whole "imagination" phase...but they either believed it or played along.  

Also, she thought twice before picking crab apples off the tree today.  We may be using "fairy letters" to solve a few other behavioral issues as well.

So all in all, it was a fun mother/daughter project and a great way to add a little magic to our daughter's childhood.

Monday Fun Day!

We've fallen WAY behind on our summer to-do list.  Somehow during our move, we managed to misplace our cards and so I couldn't remember what mandatory, organized fun we were supposed to be having this summer, so we had to have spontaneous, random fun instead.  Then I remembered that organized me put a list up on the blog, so we've been playing catch up today!

We started the morning with mini-golf...

The kids loved it!  And it was our first time mini-golfing as a family where there were no fits, balls thrown at people, and we made it through the entire course!  Success!

This afternoon we made giant bubbles.  Here I am demonstrating how to do it.  It's not as easy as one would think.

After many failed attempts and a few successes, I handed it over to the kids with the warning that it was really tricky.  

Sure it was.  For me.  Micah was able to do it right away!

Jeremy had a few good ones too, which Liliana promptly popped.

We used 1 part baby wash (so it's tear-free) to 5 parts water with a squeeze of Karo syrup in it.  Then we let it sit for the morning so it could settle together before using it.  The wand was just two dowels with eye hooks attached to the end and yarn tied on.

After giant bubbles, we went inside to make homemade ice cream (the Ziploc bag way).

We used a recipe from Family Fun.

In the small bag goes:

• 1 c. half and half
• 2 T. sugar
• 1/2 t. vanilla
• Squeeze of chocolate syrup (optional)

In the large bag goes:

• The small bag
• Ice
• Salt (kosher or rock)

Then you shake...

And shake...

And shake.  This process would have gone a lot faster had I not just done 150 pushups and could barely move my arms.  Must have ice cream BEFORE exercising next time.  ;-)

It was way yummy!  I actually liked the vanilla better than the chocolate (blasphemy, I know!)

It was pretty soft, so we broke out the straws and drank it out of the bag like a milkshake.  Actually I should say "they" not "we" because besides a little sample, the kids were NOT about to share with us, despite all of our shaking effort on their behalf.

So that was our Monday.  Tomorrow, I'm thinking we won't leave our lawn chairs most of the day.  Mandatory family fun is hard work.  :-P

Our New Digs

Here are some pictures of our new digs!  I know you all have been dying to see what seminary student housing looks like, right?  ;-)  Well, at least my mom has.  So here you go mom:

We're in one of the family duplexes.  There's a whole bunch of these surrounding a cul de sac in our little neighborhood.  It's very quaint!

Living room

Front entry/Living Room.  The other doorway you see there goes into the kids' playroom.  Upstairs is our room, a half bath and the office.

Standing in the kitchen, looking into the living room.  Shoe storage in the lockers and a drop station on the counter there.  The door you see leads down to the basement (kids' bedrooms and laundry/storage).  If you continued to the right, you'd hit the other entrance into the playroom and our main bath.

Full view of the kitchen.  It looks big, but it's not.  The drawers are small and shallow and there isn't a ton of cabinet space.  But it works for now.

This has nothing to do with anything, but I had to share how prettily my cabinets are organized.  Okay, okay- full disclosure, I had to remove a couple bags of stuff tossed on top of the cute bins before I could take the picture.  But in theory, it would look like this all the time.  ;-)

Dining room.  

Family Organizing Center.  <3

The kids' teeny tiny playroom.  Those magazine holders are how we organize our children's books.  They're sorted into categories/series/authors and labeled with a photo.  

Liliana's "housekeeping" center.  She's been cooking food for the whole neighborhood.

Main bath

Micah's room.  He has the biggest room in the house, but when someone asked him about it, he still said "it's a little small."  While it may be "small" in his opinion, it's also way awesome!  Who wouldn't want a carpetball table in their bedroom!?!?!

Carpetball AND foosball.  He also has an entertainment center/TV that isn't shown.

Liliana in her butterfly bed.  The basement rooms aren't exactly the prettiest and we can't paint or anything, but this helped girl it up a bit.

Dress up/ponies and Rex's cage tucked back in the corner.

Her armoire, dollhouse, vanity and something I'm working on for organizing her clothes, but I haven't quite figured out how to jimmy-rig it yet.

We don't have a garage, so everything is shoved in this one narrow/long room.  Plus our laundry.  Plus my treadmill and workout mats.  Yeesh!

Upstairs is our office/craft room and bedroom, so we've been able to completely ban the kids from that level of the house.    It's pretty awesome!  

I can't wait to sit at that table and look out the window and sew (once we can take out the window air unit that is).  And yes, that is a beer fridge in the corner.  :-P  Seminary is stressful.

So there it is.  Home sweet home!

Update/Jolly Phonics

Wow!  It's been almost a month since my last post.  I'd like to say that it's because we were so busy packing/unpacking with our move that I haven't had time, but it's mostly because I've been so unbusy sitting in my lawn chair and catching up with friends that I haven't had motivation.

Sometime soon I'll post pictures of our new (temporary) home.  We're getting better and better at this moving thing.  This time around, 24 hours after we arrived we had only 3 boxes left to unpack!  Granted we'll get to repack them all in 10 months (hopefully) but for now, we've settled in quickly.  This move was also made easier by our Family Organizational Binder!  When I went to register Micah for school, fill out my paperwork for subbing, etc. I could just grab the binder and I knew I'd have everything I could ever need.

But on to the main reason for this post...Jolly Phonics!  So Jolly Phonics is a curriculum published by an independent British company that combines teaching phonics with cute little songs and actions.  Micah's 4K school last year used it, and we fell totally in love with it!  He has a literacy assessment in a few weeks for Kindergarten, so we started to review his sounds with him and Liliana has been picking up on it quickly too!

Here's the video...I LOVE the little British accents the kids have.



I also made some flashcards with the pictures/letter on it so they have something to hold while they sing it.

After a few days of reviewing these with the kids, Micah said that he wanted to learn how to read.  So we sat down this afternoon with some magnetic letters and I'd give him a three letter word and he found the letters that spelled it.  He spelled all of these words by himself!!!

The best part was while he was trying to figure out which letters he needed, he was doing the action from the song while saying the sound.  It's amazing how the kinesthetic connection really drives the language part home.  So if you're looking for a way to teach your kids their letter sounds...this mama HIGHLY recommends Jolly Phonics!

Minnesota Part 2- Water Fun!

We've spent the last three days out on the lake or playing in water.  Minnesota Heaven!  We even had a loon serenading us while we fished.

Usually I skip the slip and slide, but it's hot enough out where I had to join in the fun!  I even have the bruises to prove it.  ;-)

Jeremy and I on the lake.  We spent a lot of our summers when we were dating out on this boat.  Great memories!

Micah's first fish of the season!  They were practically jumping into our boat.  And we were even fishing with summer sausage.  :-P

Liliana's first fish of the season!  She said "I think we should give it a boat ride!  Fish love boat rides!"

My two cuties sitting on my lap while we drove.

They were pretending to be sharks.  <3

Water slide at Camp Lebanon.  Jeremy used to work there and his mom and sister still do, so we get to visit occasionally and play!  J and I took the kayaks out the other evening...beautiful way to see the lake.

I love little kids in goggles.  So super cute!

Liliana's first time tubing.  She LOVED it!  She didn't want to stop and then she took another turn later.

Micah loves tubing too!  

Swimming in the middle of the lake.  

Liliana was hesitant at first but when she figured out the lifejacket would keep her up, she was all over it.

We spent an hour just jumping off the boat into the water.

Wahoo!!!!

Even Liliana jumped off the boat.  With a little encouragement.  Of course, this strained Jeremy's healing from the hernia so he's been in a bit of pain.  Nothing like re-injuring himself right before moving!

Today, we're headed to a Splash Pad!!!  I'll take 100 degree heat and sunshine over the freezing cold and rain we had here last summer.