Hard Worker

Courtney is not afraid to roll her sleeves up and help when the family is doing a project together.  This night it was helping to stack the wood.

When we were done moving the wood into the pile, I picked up a broom to sweep the driveway with.  Courtney didn't hesitate...she found the smaller kid broom and started sweeping right along side of me.  I'm proud of her willingness to help when a job needs to get done!

Sweet Prayer

As I listened reverently to Courtney's personal prayer last night I heard her say this (all on her own, unprompted):
"I pray that Jesus is real.  Please bless that I can meet him someday"

Who Tied Your Shoes For You?

I came out to the hallway the other day to see what Courtney was up to.  She said she wanted to play outside and she had her tennis shoes on (she hasn't worn them all summer because she's been wearing her sandals).  I was surprised because one of them was already  tied.

***History-Courtney has not been successful yet in having the dexterity, strength and coordination it takes to tie shoes.  I had always bought her velcro shoes until this last pair (they don't make a lot of velcro shoes in the bigger kid sizes). I had always tied these shoes for her.***

I asked her, "Who tied your shoe for you?"

She said, very casually, "Oh, I did."

I said, trying not to sound too shocked "Where did you learn to do that?"

She said, "On TV."

So there you have it.  She can tie her shoes all by herself.  I watched her tie the other one and...sure enough, she can!

I told her how excited and proud I was of her, how responsible she was, how smart she is.  We had a little celebration as she was very excited and proud of herself.

Alphabetter Soup

The other day I gave Courtney a kid's cookbook and told her that she could pick out a recipe to make.  She decided on Alphabetter Soup.  She made a list of the ingredients we would need and the first thing we did was shop for what we needed.  She was sad that we could not find ABC noodles, but was able to be talked into "O" soup (which became the joke she told for the next week, so it worked out fine!).  It was a good recipe because she had to count out a lot of things at the store and while we were preparing it.

 Washing 8 green beans

 Cutting 8 green beans into 1 inch pieces

Stirring all the ingredients together

 Alphabetter Soup

 Yum!

She did such a great job.  She counted items (green beans, onions, carrots, cups of water, bullion cubes, etc).  She followed the directions and added everything that was needed.  I was so proud of her for doing such a great job.  And the soup was delicious!

Service

Today, Courtney's job was to empty 2 of our 4 garbages around the house.  Megan, her sister, was to empty the other 2.  Courtney also had to dust their bedroom and Megan had to dust the family room.  When they were done, they were earning a 4th of July craft to do.  Megan was not happy about having to do jobs first.  Courtney got a head start on her jobs, quickly finished them and started on her craft.  Megan finished dusting and went to empty her garbages...only to find that her garbages were already empty and had new bags in them!  She was shocked and surpised!  I asked Courtney if she had emptied them all and she simply said, yes.
Without being asked to, Courtney had finished her sister's jobs for her.  I am proud of Courtney today.

Lost Teeth

Courtney has lost 2 teeth in the last 2 weeks.  One was on Easter Sunday!  She is so great about it.  She wiggles and wiggles it until it just pops out.  The one on Easter we didn't even see at first.  We were skyping Grandma and Grandpa (who are living in the Country of Georgia near Russia) and she starting yelling "Where's my tooth?"  It was bleeding a bit and that upset her a bit.  The tooth was not in her mouth, but we coldn't find it anywhere. Once the bleeding stopped we celebrated with my parents, showed them the "Toothfairy Bear" that would hold her tooth for her at night and laughed about not knowing where the tooth was.  While my parents were still on Skype with us, we found the tooth...it was under the bench that Courtney was sitting on.  She must have just pushed it right out of her mouth!
It was so much fun to share this experience with Grandma and Grandpa!

Rapunzel

This is the chapter book that Courtney has started.

(Sorry I couldn't get this page turned the right way.)

She is on chapter 3 and can read the chapters by herself without much help.  She is not quite able to keep up with the comprehension.  After she reads the chapter on her own, we spend time talking about what happened and re-reading parts that she didn't understand or remember.  She loves having a book that is just hers!