Lincoln Logs, Tricycles, Encouragement & Real Estate

This has been the week of the Lincoln Logs! I think they have made their way out of the closet just about every day this week. Olivia has really honed her building skills and has loved cramming her houses with as many people as possible. Peyton enjoyed delivering supplies to the little builder. She was particularly excited to be able to insert the windows and doors by herself (it can be pretty tricky for little fingers to do this without making the walls fall over). :)

Another success? The little nut has learned to ride her tricycle! She has been stubborn about not wanting to learn to pedal, so this was a big success for her! Mama figured out that she needed the right motivation. The motivation came in the form of pointing out how baby brother was making his little car go by walking and all of a sudden her little legs were pumping away! My brother Daniel and I used to compete and get motivated in the same way. He is only 7 months older and thanks to the assertiveness of my mom she requested that we be in the same class every year in elementary school (I think 5th grade was the only class that we weren't). It was against school policy to have "twins" in the same class, but my mom knew better. If Daniel was in a higher math group, I would work hard until I was in that group too. Conversely, if I was in the higher reading class, it wouldn't be long before Daniel was in it too. Competition is a powerful force!:) I'm so glad my mom advocated for us. It is okay to question doctors, teachers, etc. I think sometimes we are intimidated because they are the experts, but like Patty H. taught us, they work for us! Olivia's special treat for learning to ride is getting to invite a friend over to ride trikes! Woohoo! The helicopter pad is the perfect spot for riding (my siblings and I spent many hours riding in the very same spot).

We had the pleasure of hearing my mom share at Moms & Tots this week. You are such a great teacher Mom! She shared about the importance (absolute necessity!) of family devotions. A C T A- Action (just do them), C- Commissioned (we are commissioned in His word) T- Tools (have the right tools). I love it when there is an acronym to support the message and scriptures! She had us flipping in our bibles, brought resources to share with us, and left us completely encouraged and better equipped to have meaningful devotions with our children! Thank you, thank you! I am always amazed by how much creativity, time and effort you put into your teaching whether it is for Sunday school or a group of adults. She has been teaching Sunday school for 25?years (since my brother was a tot and he is 30). She always prepares weeks in advance and watches for special treats to help support the teaching, etc. You rock Mom!

Finally, we closed on the sale of one of our properties last week! Praise God! One down and four more to go! I am working on getting everything together so we can begin construction on a new house (Lord Willing) and we're also working to clean up another house to sell this spring! I'll try to post pictures of the one we have for sale when it is all ready to go. It is a very cool, historic home. I snapped a picture while the kids and I were out there this week. Olivia has been my helper from the beginning!

Here she is at the same property as a one-year-old:

And now with the little guy to keep in line:

I hope you are enjoying the sunshine this week! Welcome Spring!