Just sharing a cute little video hubby took of the kids the other day in our living room. Mariah was still a little under the weather, but still enjoyed being one of the “judges”! 
One of my favorite parts about this video is seeing the love and bond between Ethan and Savannah as they “dance” together. Enjoy!! ~Melanie
The E Kids and their \”Dancing Contest\”
We took the kids to a local baseball game tonight! The Cardinals were playing against Haymarket… we were able to get free tickets from their sponsor of the week, Gold’s Gym. Each week a different business sponsors the team, making the tickets free for us! Yay! As you can see from the pics, everyone had an absolute BLAST! Hubby and I kept asking ourselves why we’ve never done this before. So this certainly won’t be a last for the E family… can’t wait to do it again, and we’re hoping they make it to the finals so we can catch more games this summer. Below are some pics from tonight – the quality is not great, sorry, taken w/cell phone… but hope you enjoy! The kids were thrilled not only to get a chance to have their picture taken w/one of the players, but some generous person made sure that each of them also got a baseball to take home – 2 of which were special for Mariah and Ethan that had the signatures of all the teammates on them. Mommy & Daddy were quite touched by such a kind & thoughtful act!
Every time the crowd cheered Mariah would squeal with delight! She absolutely loved every minute of it, much to our surprise as she usually does not handle loud situations very well… I figured she’d get overstimulated easily within an hour or so, but she lasted all night! Who knew our little girl would love baseball so much. So Cass & Tony, if you’re reading this… get ready, because the next time we’re in WA we’re joining ya for a baseball game!
Great fun – where else can kids yell, jump, and stomp their feet with the rest of the adults?!!
Well what do you know… it’s exactly midnight here at midnightbrew! Turning in for the night! Blessings, everyone!!
Joyfully,
Melanie
Our family has had the displeasure and discomfort of some lovely illness that struck like lightening on the eve of Jeremy’s birthday! Ugh. It has not been one of our greater weeks, lol, especially the part when Ethan tossed about 3 days days worth of cookies all over the table and highchair at the Cracker Barrel on Wed afternoon. It was definitely a number #1 topper in mommy’s list of WORST EXPERIENCES IN MOTHERHOOD! LOL!
BUT…. our week didn’t bring all bad stuff. It actually gave us a chance to regroup and spend some special downtime together as a family. You know, that love language that is so important? Quality Time. Yep, we got it covered for a month, I think. Haha! Between hubby’s work schedule and having Uncle Scott and our other attendant here, I was able to sneak out with the kids, one or two at a time, and during our little jaunts we squeezed in a few visits to local libraries, including our county library that is practically brand-new and so beautiful, kid friendly, and quite wheelchair friendly, as well! We’ve neglected to do this since first moving here nearly 10 months ago, and I am just so thankful we finally made the time and effort! After paying my dues for old books that were never returned (yeah, that was funny… the 2 books were : “When you’re expecting twins, triplets or more” and “I sleep at red lights” -a true story written by a father of triplets – gee, I wonder why these books were never returned??) we each had so much fun picking out new books & dvd’s!!
It looks like this will be my week for book reviews…
Ethan chose one titled “The Summer My Father Was Ten” by Pat Brisson:
This is definitely a book worth sharing about! The story is both fun and touching, in a tender sort of way… Ethan just loves it, and mommy does, too! Here’s a great personal review posted by someone on Amazon:
“This gentle tale of redemption is appropriate for the six and older child or either gender. In the story, the protagonist (a ten year old boy) redeems an act of mindless vandalism (the destruction of an old man’s vegetable garden) by assisting the victim in planting a new garden. This act of redemption develops into a friendship with a lasting and positive affect on the protagonist’s life.
This book manages to deliver a profound and important moral message without preaching, but rather through gentle persuasion. The text is simple and well written and the illustrations beautiful. I highly recommend this book.”
Anyhow, things are looking up for the E household… I’m hoping and praying that the illness is behind us. I’m thankful we got sick now, and not in 3 weeks which will be about the time Mike’s Sister, Beth, is getting married (the girls were chosen to be her “flower girl/butterfly fairies”, and I’m a lucky bridesmaid!) or a few weeks after that, which is when my sister is due to deliver their first child!
It’s almost midnight, so signing off!
I’ll leave you with a beautiful quote:
“Will someone else’s life be brighter tomorrow
because of what you have done today?”
- William Arthur Ward
Joyfully,
Melanie
I am reading this wonderful book that I picked up from the library…
Although I’ve just begun reading it, I can already tell that I will more than likely love it! The first 4 chapters have been so inspiring and enlightening! Suzie Andres, the Author of this book, happens to live here in the same town we live in, and she has such a neat way of writing — Very open, honest, and REAL! She makes lots of reference to John Holt and Charlotte Mason, two of whom I consider the the most brilliant & inspiring people when it comes to our children and their education. My family is not Catholic, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from those who are, and I have a feeling that this book has so much to offer homeschooling parent’s who question the traditional methods of teaching and learning!
With a double mocha buzzing through my veins this very late midnight-ish evening… I share with you 2 excerpts from Holt’s book “Teach Your Own” (quoted in the above book) that spoke so clear and directly to my heart tonight:
John Holt on What Unschooling Looks Like
“We can sum up very quickly what people need to teach their own children.” First of all, they have to like them, enjoy their company, their physical presence, their energy, foolishness, and passion. They have to enjoy all their talk and questions, and enjoy equally trying to answer those questions. They have to think of their children as friends, indeed very close friends, have to feel happier when they are near and miss them when they are away. They have to trust them as people, respect their fragile dignity, treat them with courtesy, take them seriously. They have to feel in their own hearts some of their children’s wonder, curiosity, and excitement about the world. And they have to have enough confidence in themselves, skepticism about the experts, and willingness to be different from most people, to take on themselves the responsibility for their children’s learning.” But that is about all the parents need.
Children don’t need, don’t want, and couldn’t stand six hours of teaching a day, even if parents wanted to do that much. To help them find out about the world doesn’t take that much adult input. Most of what they need, parents have been giving them since they were born. As I have said, they need access. They need a chance, sometimes, for honest, serious, unhurried talk; or sometimes, for joking, play, and foolishness; or sometimes, for tenderness, sympathy, and comfort. They need, much of the time, to share your life, or at least, not to feel shut out of it; in short, to go some of the places you go, to see and do some of the things that interest you, to get to know some of your friends, to find out what you did when you were little and before they were born. They need to have their questions answered, or at least heard and attended to (if you don’t know, say “I don’t know.”) They need to know more and more adults whose main work in life is not taking care of kids. They need some friends their own age, but not dozens of them; two or three, at most half a dozen, is as many real friends as any child can have at one time. Perhaps above all, they need a lot of privacy, solitude, calm times when there’s nothing to do.
Joyfully,
Melanie
Outside my window…
Dark skies all around with a few visible stars out tonight!
I am thinking…
how nice it will be to crawl into bed and snuggle under the covers with Mariah tonight… she and I are battling a head/chest cold together, and I always sleep more peacefully whenever she’s sick when she sleeps next to me.
I am thankful for…
My amazing Mother and her ability to lift my spirits just by hearing her voice. I love that she’s always there when I need her, even if we are miles apart!
From the learning rooms…
The warmer Spring weather means more time spent outdoors. A good thing, too, since Charlotte Mason recommends 4-6 hours daily of outdoor play/nature study/walks/etc, for children, lol! Once this head cold clears up & Lord willing the rain stays away, I am looking forward to starting on the kids’ new Nature Journal that arrived in the mail a couple weeks ago: 
From the kitchen…
To be honest, I’ve been struggling a lot in this area recently… I think much of it has to do with our over-committed schedule and needing to cut back and/or combine therapy days into 1. This is something I’ve been going back and forth about for months now, and something I think a majority of parents of children with special needs struggle with. The balancing act of homeschooling, therapy, dr’s appt’s, sports & electives, etc. is NOT an easy task, but I am just taking it one day & one week at a time right now. Already, I have cut back on one therapy appt each week, and soon will be cutting down to just 2 each week. Ideally, we would be able to get all therapies that the triplets need on the same day, like we were able to do in TN. Unfortunately, because of scheduling that just isn’t possible for our various therapists right now, so it puts us in a holding pattern… I would love to avoid a long drive into Northern VA each week, but the idea of getting it all done on 1 day really appeals to me, so we shall see what the near future holds! It is so very important to me that ALL of our children have their needs met, and live as typical (I loathe the word “normal”) a life as any other child in their age-range. Being so “busy” can rob families of so much precious quality time together, and God convicts me of this time and time again when I find myself over-committing our calendar. So, long story short… hopefully with less commitments and more time together at home will also mean more opportunities for my blogging and recipe sharing, so stay tuned!
I am creating…
nothing at the moment… the knitting needles have been tucked away since knitting the Christmas stocking last month. Right now I’m in my “reading mode”, and for those of you who know me well… know that my ADD personality cannot do both knitting & reading at the same time, haha.
I am going…
To enjoy a day full of “window” & “just looking” shopping at nearby garden centers on Thursday with my hubby… we are in the market for some new patio furniture, and my fingers are just itching to get a hold of some new gardening goodies!
I am reading…
The China Study & Disability is Natural – just started on both!
I am hoping…
For God to open certain doors WIDE OPEN!
I am hearing…
The window-unit fan humming from our bedroom. Love the sound of white-nose…Ahhhh!! My bed is calling my name as I write this.
Around the house…
New living room furniture – Victorian style that matches my reproduction wallpaper just perfectly if I say so myself! I will be sharing pictures soon…
One of my favorite things…
Savannah’s sweet pretty voice, especially when she sings, which is practically endless nowadays! I just love it!!
A few plans for the rest of the week:
Other than shopping on Thursday & Bible Study on Friday morning, I’m hoping the weekend will be relaxed and stress-free …oh, and sunny!
Here is picture for thought I am sharing…
This is the prayer shawl I knit a couple months ago for a dear friend, and this old chair that I love so much belonged to my great grandparents!
Thanks for taking a stroll with me!
Joyfully,
Melanie
Coffee filters ….. Who knew! And you can buy 1,000 at the Dollar Tree for almost nothing even the large ones.
1. Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave. Coffee filters make excellent covers.
2. Clean windows, mirrors, and chrome… Coffee filters are lint-free so they’ll leave windows sparkling.
3. Protect China by separating your good dishes with a coffee filterbetween each dish.
4. Filter broken cork from wine. If you break the cork when opening a wine bottle, filter the wine through a coffee filter.
5. Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in the skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.
6. Apply shoe polish. Ball up a lint-free coffee filter.
7. Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through a sieve lined with a coffee filter.
8. Weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a coffee filter on a kitchen scale.
9. Hold tacos. Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.
10. Stop the soil from leaking out of a plant pot. Line a plant pot with a coffee filter to prevent the soil from going through the drainage holes.
11. Prevent a Popsicle from dripping. Poke one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter..
12. Do you think we used expensive strips to wax eyebrows? Use strips of coffee filters..
13. Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, French fries, chicken fingers, etc on them. It soaks out all the grease.
14. Keep in the bathroom. They make great “razor nick fixers.”
15. As a sewing backing. Use a filter as an easy-to-tear backing for embroidering or appliquéing soft fabrics.
16. Put baking soda into a coffee filter and insert into shoes or a closet to absorb or prevent odors.
17. Use them to strain soup stock and to tie fresh herbs in to put insoups and stews.
18. Use a coffee filter to prevent spilling when you add fluids to your car.
19. Use them as a spoon rest while cooking and clean up small counter spills.
20. Can use to hold dry ingredients when baking or when cutting a piece of fruit or veggies.. Saves on having extra bowls to wash.
21. Use them to wrap Christmas ornaments for storage.
22. Use them to remove fingernail polish when out of cotton balls.
23. Use them to sprout seeds.. Simply dampen the coffee filter, place seeds inside, fold it and place it into aplastic baggie until they sprout.
24. Use coffee filters as blotting paperfor pressed flowers. Place the flowers between two coffee filters and put the coffee filters in phone book..
25. Use as a disposable “snack bowl” for popcorn, chips, etc.
OH YEAH THEY ARE GREAT TO USE IN YOUR COFFEE MAKERS TOO.
My dear friends & Family,
Midnightbrew is back up and running! My apologies for disappearing for a few months (5, to be exact!). Our move back to Virginia in October was much more labor-intensive and emotionally draining than we had ever expected it to be, oh enough with the excuses… the real truth is that I’m getting old and lazy!
I’d like to say that things have slowed down a bit, but with 5 kids, homeschooling, and all that goes with raising multiples and special needs children (blessings), I don’t think life ever does nor ever truly will “slow down” –however, things are definitely a bit more calm and structured in the past few weeks, evidenced by my being here to finally update this blog …and I’m really excited to see what the spring with its warmer weather holds for us. I find myself longing to sit in my wicker chair outside on the 120 year old porch soaking in the sunshine with my children, a laptop book, iced coffee, maybe even some knitting… aaaahhh. I can almost pretend it’s spring already!
Stay tuned… I will be posting pictures from our move, around our town, and all the lovely renovations hubby and my brother, Scott, have been working diligently on since October!
Have missed you all dearly…
Joyfully, Melanie
A typical summer day for the triplets! They love playing with the bubbles, as you can see – please excuse Savannah’s blue panties sticking out – what can I say… she’s 5, very independent, likes to dress herself!
I can’t believe that Fall will be here in less than a week. The kids have been having fun with the leaves covering the ground, raking them into big piles and playing in them… Our family is very excited as Fall is our favorite season of the year… and this also means that our move date is quickly approaching. Exactly 2 weeks away from today!
A new season of our life that is sure to bring much joy, but undoubtedly sadness, as well. We are going to miss my mom and sisters something terrible, our pastor and his wife, not to mention the many wonderful friends we’ve made all over this beautiful state. Tennessee will always remain “our 2nd home”, and fortunately we will be less than a 10-hour drive away… so visits back here should a lot easier and more affordable. At least more so than our trips back West. Although we are just itching to squeeze in a cross country trip again sometime in the near future! It has been more than a couple years since we’ve seen the Grandma’s (late 70′s & 93 years old!), not to mention the Aunt’s, Uncles, cousins, and dear dear friends!
Anyhow, enjoy the few pics I’m sharing today. I hope each and every one of you is having a season full of joy -laughter and love, building happy memories with your loved ones!!
We leave tomorrow for our weekend family retreat at the Courageous Kids Camp in Kentucky! A world class medical camping facility in the rolling hills of Scottsville, Kentucky providing a cost-free, safe, and fun camping experience for disabled children and their families. We are so thrilled and excited to have the opportunity to do something like this! Thank you, Jesus!!!
My sunflower’s only bloomed for a few weeks, but they were so lovely while they lasted! The kids loved them!
Savannah got carried away in mom’s container garden… with the help of big brother (Jeremy), of course!
The 2nd set of baby bluebirds living in my fertilizer box, of all places!!
Joyfully,
Melanie
So a few months ago I spent an evening sipping hot coffee at my computer while researching gluten-free living/recipes/etc – and somehow I stumbled upon this wonderful blog:
His Work in Progress written by an amazing woman, whom I can now call my dear friend and Sister in Christ, Terri!
I think I clicked on her site when I read something about homeschooling and gluten-free – I thought to myself “ah-ha!” now that sounds interesting and right up my alley. Sure enough… it was that and MUCH MORE! As I scrolled through her pages, I discovered more and more how much we shared in common – how similar our lives were!
Lo and behold our similarities didn’t just stop at our common interests and convictions! No, my friends… we both happened to have son’s (7 months apart) who could practically pass for TWINS!
Here they are… Jeremy’s & his new buddy, Levi: 
We met Levi & his family for the first time tonight! You would have thought the boys had known each other their entire lives! I get the goosebumps just thinking about how well they clicked – and just how much they look alike!!
Talk about an exciting & fun evening for all…
…Although we are sad to be leaving TN and yet another amazing family, we know that this won’t be our last visit with them!! Jeremy is looking forward to his new online buddy and pen-pal to keep in touch with, and I’m thinking this may be just what we needed to kick start his handwriting program into gear once we get settled in VA!
Thanks for stopping by, friends, and please feel free to leave me a little note in the comments section!
Joyfully,
Melanie
Every once in a while someone will make some negative and ignorant comment about homeschooling that fires me up, and that’s just what happened tonight! I’m sharing a link to a great article about a report that dispels homeschooling myth’s, and subsequent discussion and comments: http://www.dakotavoice.com/2009/08/homeschooling-report/#comment-15628275
Here is my response:
I am happily homeschooling my 5 children, including triplets with special needs! Brian, I applaud both you and your wife for being so involved in the education of your children in public school. I do agree that it is vital to be dedicated and involved, regardless of which method of schooling you choose for your children, to ensure their success.
I do have to ask why you immediately assume that homeschooler’s are being sheltered from the world? They are not the ones confined to a school building, many in which now have high security/armed guards, chain linked fences, etc. – even in a small “safe” community like the one I live in, in West Tennessee.
I would have to argue that it seems the public schooled kids are the ones missing out on the world around them. As a homeschooling family, our opportunities to experience life in our society and the world around us in at our fingertips each and every day. We have the freedom to visit any museum we wish, zoo’s, parks, art galleries, field trips to local businesses, etc. Our children are exposed to things that I believe most kids in public school may miss out on, or have a limited exposure to, because of security, rigid schedules, and conflicting agenda with the school/teacher/staff.
If anything, I think an argument could be made for the fact that homeschooled children are actually a little more in tune and in touch with the realities of life around them, because they are actually the ones who have not been living a “sheltered, structured, and rigid” life within the walls of a traditional school building.
I respect your decision to send your children to public school, and I simply ask that you do the same of us who choose to homeschool. We are not a bunch of Little House On The Prairie families hiding out in our basements sheltering our children from the world around us. I would argue that the majority of homeschooling families are quite the opposite – we are living, learning, and enjoying life each and every day, freely, WITHOUT boundaries.
Regards,
Melanie
