Todd was WRONG!

OK, maybe not completely wrong, but.............


Today was not a good day.  


It started out OK.  Everyone did their morning chores and got ready for school. Little P even put his breakfast plate in the dishwasher without a fight!  No one argued when I said we needed to clean off the entertainment center before starting school.  Then we started school on time (well.... almost).  


And that's when things started downhill.  


Little P and Little Bits insisted on playing nerf guns in the livingroom, making quite the ruckus, while I was trying to read the history lesson.  But a raised voice (once or twice) and we made it through.


Then we started on Kindergarten.........And things got worse......Way worse.


Today's lesson was our first introduction to reading a simple story.  We were working our way through and she got stumped on a word.  No big deal.......sound it out.  But she wasn't getting it.  The kicker?  She had just read the word FOUR times in the previous sentences!  My mind just couldn't wrap it's self around the idea that you can struggle with a word you've already read 2 seconds before.


And I found myself getting frustrated.  Really frustrated.  And (I hate to admit it).....Angry.


I finally threw up my hands in defeat and stomped into the bedroom.


I texted my frustration to my husband (it's easier for him to text than call when he is at work) and he responded "right" with words of encouragement.........."You can do it."


And I got angrier........


Now, let me deviate from my story a little and back to Todd.  Todd Wilson is one of my favorite homeschool speakers.  He's funny and real and I can relate to him.  His concept of "be real" is great and something I think we homeschooling moms tend to ignore. 


Hubby and I heard him for the first time a few years ago when he came to our states' annual homeschool conference.  One of his concepts that really stuck with us then was the idea of "shutting the escape hatch".  In other words, committing to homeschool and taking public school off the table.  So, Hubby and I did just that.


For a while things seemed great.  But then I started feeling like I was clawing at that escape hatch, trying to reopen it on a regular basis.  After several blow-ups, I finally put my finger on the problem.  I explained it to Hubby this way:

"It's as if we were both in a room and closed the escape hatch and then I turned around to find you had snuck out of the room and locked me in by myself."

Ouch!  Well, after a long heart-to-heart and some reorganizing of our homeschool, things got much better.


But lately I've been feeling like I'm back to clawing at that escape hatch.  And today, things really came to a head.


One of the things Todd stresses to homeschool dads is to be encouraging, especially when your wife has a bad day.  My hubby has latched on to that and has always been very encouraging.


However, today I finally discovered something about myself....... Encouragement doesn't help!  Well, at least not on a bad day.  'Cause, don't get me wrong, I need encouragement just as much as the next homeschool mom.  But, when I throw up my hands in defeat and stomp out of the room, the last thing I want Hubby to say is "you can do it!".  'Cause what I hear is "you have to or I won't love you anymore".


OUCH!


What I need is for Hubby to give me "permission" to take the day off, to take a break.  I already feel guilty for walking away, but know I'm too frustrated to go back.  So when Hubby says "you can do it!" I feel like he is pushing me to go back.  


And I know I can't.


Thus, I feel like I have failed him and he won't love me anymore.  So my only solution is to accept failure and put my kids in public school.


Thankfully, all these realizations have helped and Hubby and I have had a heart-to-heart this evening.  He is more than happy to simply give me "permission" to take the day off when things aren't going well and I'm beyond frustrated. =)  


So, I'm laying all this out there just in case I'm not the only one who feels like this (Please tell me I'm not the only one?!?) and it may help someone else.  


And, Todd, if you ever read this, maybe just a little clarification from you that not all homeschool moms are made exactly the same?


Blessings,

First Week of School

Well, we did it. We finished our first official week of school {yeah!}. And without any serious meltdowns or temper-tantrums...........from the teacher anyway, lol.

I decided to go with My Father's World again. We enjoyed it last year and, while I debated on coming up with something on my own to save on money, in the end I decided (well, truthfully my husband decided) my sanity was more important! I'm just not very reliable when I try to come up with my own lessons. I tend to not do them rather than figure out how to. So MFW is a really good fit for us (read that ME, lol) as I don't have to do a lot of teacher prep or planning of my own. I can just open the manual and go!

Munchkin doing her reading assignment.

I also decided to stick with pretty much everything else we were using, although, I did switch our writing program. MFW recommends Writing Strands (level 3 for Munchkins age), but it just really didn't work for us. Both she and I were ending up frustrated every time we worked on a lesson out of it. So, after a little research, I decided on Wordsmith Apprentice. So far we are really loving it. She loves the idea of being a reporter and the lessons are short enough to keep her interest, but challenging enough that she has to really think and apply herself.

I've also added in a few things. First is A Reason for Handwriting Transition. We've used this book (and the one before it) before, but it was rather hit and miss. I decided to more "formally" schedule it this year as I think her handwriting could use some help. Second is a workbook called "Comprehension Detective". I've felt like her reading comprehension hasn't been as good as I'd like considering she is reading above grade level. So I got this book to work on a couple times a week to try and improve that area. I also have a book of Multiplication Practice Tests (that comes with a CD as well) and Times Tales that I will add in as I see a need. Right now they are not scheduled, but I have them on the shelf ready to pull out if needed.

I started Peanut with MFW Kindergarten earlier this year. We've taken some time off here and there, so we are only finishing up lesson 12. So far we have been really enjoying it. I've been trying not to go too fast or push too hard because Peanut has needed more time to be "ready" for school. But I do think we are finally there {yeah!}. I'm hoping to be able to move into MFW 1st grade after the new year.

Peanut working on her Picture Cards

(notice the Ocean poster from week 9 in the background?)

Little P has been mostly tagging along with both Munchkin and Peanut. (All three of the kids participate in most of the group stuff in Creation to Greeks, although Munchkin is the only one I "require" to do the notebooking and other written assignments.) He knows most of the songs in the Kindergarten program and is starting to recognize some of the letters. But he's not ready to do more yet :o). He does frequently do his own version of the worksheets (both from K and CtoG) and has his own notebook to put his schoolwork in.

Little P working on a coloring worksheet.

Little Bits has thankfully been napping during school time. She has become somewhat of a handful, always wanting to be involved. However, her involvement usually entails taking all the pencils out of the supply tote, dumping the crayons out and throwing them around the room, or writing/coloring on my lesson plan! Occasionally she likes to take whatever worksheet one of her older siblings is working on, which prompts them to grab for it, usually resulting in said worksheet getting torn. I'm hoping that by the new year (when she'll turn 2) she may be ready for some more independent toddler activities and not be so focused on getting into whatever her siblings are doing. (Hey, I can dream right?!? LOL)

Peanut and Little P working on their individual worksheets.

This was supposed to be a post about our first week, but it seems to have turned into a post about our curriculum for the year! Mostly that happened because I don't have much to report on this week. It did go well, we got a lot accomplished. We studied Creation and started our timeline (picture of that coming soon!). We also did our version of a Sabbath meal. That was fun and the kids really enjoyed it. We may try to do it again sometime. They did have a science experiment, but daddy did that with them, so I can't really give an update on that!

So, that's our first week in a nutshell and where I see our year going. I hope to get a post up soon detailing some of the scheduling and organization that I have implemented this year, but I need to get pictures taken first :o) Hopefully I'll get to that in the next day or two. Until then...

Blessings,

Where has the time gone?

Wow, I've been seriously slacking with updating my blog! Where have the last few weeks gone? I feel like I've simply been in "survival" mode. Just get the basics done. Ever been there?

I'm horribly behind in menu planning. I didn't even make a menu last week (or go shopping!) Somehow we made it all the way to Saturday without eating out or take out! Definitely have to go shopping this week, though. We are seriously out of staples.

We have been busy, though. It's the end of the school year. So there is that push to get everything done before the weather gets too nice and you don't want to do school anymore =) Munchkin had to test this year. It was the first time for both of us. She did really well, though, I'm proud of her. A little weak in math, but we knew that going in. Now it's time to re-evaluate curriculum and determine what to do for next year. I think we'll probably stick with MFW, but I may switch a few other things around. We'll see.

Peanut has been doing really well in school as well. She finally seemed ready for "formal" schooling around January, so we started her in MFW K. She's taken to it like a duck to water =) Little P has also been working with us some. It won't be long before he's ready for something more formal as well. Little Bits has truly become a "toddler terror", lol. She does her best to disrupt school as much as she can. Thankfully she naps most mornings, so we can get something accomplished!

We also made it up to my parents "cabin" for our annually Memorial Day trip. It was cold, it actually snowed on us! But the kids had fun (as always) even if I was a little whiny =).

We just celebrated Munchkin's 10th birthday. I can't believe she is getting so big, she's going to be a 5th grader next year! {Yikes!} She's definitely turning into a little lady. Makes me feel old {sigh}.

Blessings,

P.S. What's a blog post without pictures, lol? All the pictures in this post were taken last weekend at a marsh that's near the "cabin".

Saturday...er....Sunday Confessions

So one of the blogs I like to lurk on, A Familiar Path, has started "Saturday Confessions" and I thought I'd give it a try :-)

1. Well this one is pretty obvious, today is Sunday, but I'm participating in "Saturday Confessions". I'm frequently slow to catch on...........

2. I left my purse in the car at Trader Joes yesterday. I didn't realize it until the gal started ringing me up. I had to run out and get it while she (and everyone in line behind me!) waited for me.

3. After Trader Joes, I pulled into the parking lot and parked at Safeway before I realized I didn't want to go to Safeway, I wanted to go to Market of Choice. Yesterday wasn't a good day.....

4. A few weeks ago I created another blog for my photography so that I could blog more about "life" on this blog. The last couple of weeks I've only posted my menu plan. {sigh}

5. I DVR'd the Royal Wedding and my girls, my mother and I had a "Princess Party" Friday evening and watched it. We dressed up and wore tiaras and plastic jewelry =)

6. I have a group picture of us, but I don't want to take the time to download it from my memory card, edit it, and post it here.

7. We fast forwarded through a lot of the wedding......

8. You may not believe me because I was only 2, but I still remember staying up and watching Charles and Diana marry.

9. I have pictures of sewing projects I've done that I need to blog about, but haven't. I also have several projects sitting on my sewing table that I need to start.

10. I took some beautiful pictures of my oldest two last Saturday up at my in-laws. Later in the evening I realized I had my camera in the basic-only-fit-for-facebook setting. I almost cried.

Blessings,

Recipe Organization

My recipe organization has always been lacking. A lot of the recipes I use (when I use a recipe, lol) I have printed off the internet or scribbled on a scrap of paper. Then they got shoved in a drawer, or cubbie, or pretty much wherever I could find when I was done with it! The biggest problem with that system was finding it again later. Here are some examples of my recipes:

This is a bunch of them laid out on the counter.

Here is a close up of one. You can't see it very well in the picture, but this one is actually splattered with Teriyaki sauce!

(This one got me a new kitchen floor, but that's another post, lol)

Here's another close up of a recipe. Can you tell what it's for? This would be one of the times I just scribbled the ingredients on a piece of paper rather than printing off the recipe.

I also have a few favorites in these cookbooks.

And this shelf has the rest of my cookbooks, which I only use occasionally.

So, back to the organization issue. The other night I looked everywhere for a recipe. It happened to be one that I had scribbled on a piece of paper and I didn't even know what site I had found it on so I could look for it again. It was imperative that I find the recipe, our dinner depended on it! I did finally find it (it was on top of the paper towel holder. Great place for it, I'm sure), but it took me close to 20 minutes.

Since I'm also the type of person who suddenly goes "Oh shoot! I should have started dinner 10 minutes ago!", spending 20 minutes looking for a recipe can be a real drag. So, I decided it was time to do something about it (finally!).

I went to Michaels and got these cute recipe cards for $1 a package.

Then I went through all the recipes I had stashed different places and wrote the ones I use frequently on the cards. I then filed them in this old picture album that I already had.

For a couple of bucks, my recipes are now organized! I do still have a stack of recipes I want to try and one of recipes I only make rarely (like desserts). But they are all together in the SAME drawer. I will, also, probably add recipes to my book as I go.

Another thing I discovered while working on this project; I don't actually USE a recipe very often! I didn't realize it because it always seemed like I was searching for a recipe. But I went through a bunch of old menus to see what recipes to gather, I kept passing meals by because I didn't need a recipe for them! I guess most of the things I cook, I know what goes into and I just wing it, lol.

This realization of my cooking does pose a new problem, however. I'm trying to be more diligent about having my kids in the kitchen with me when I cook, so that I can teach them how. But I don't have a recipe to hand them for the majority of the things I cook. So, I will be getting more recipe cards and as I cook something that I don't already have a recipe for, I will write it down on a card. Eventually I will have a collection of recipes that Munchkin can take with her when she marries. I will also be able to use them as copywork, since she will need to make a copy of the recipes for her sister :o)

Blessings,

Are you a Mary?

So, this morning as I sat down to do my morning bible study, I felt compelled to share my journal entry here on my blog. This was interesting since I hadn't even opened my journal yet, let alone written anything! Then as I finished my reading and opened my journal...Nothing. Hmmm....The plot gets thicker!

Usually I start my journal with what ever verse or verses jumped out at me in my reading. This morning, however, nothing did. As I sat there staring at a blank page, wondering where on earth I got the conviction to blog a blank page, the verse I included in my post last night came back to memory. So, I started with that and ended up with four pages! And, since I felt compelled to blog, here it is:

_____________________________________

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. - Ephesians 4:1


Nothing jumped out at me in my reading this morning, but this verse did last night for a blog post. This is one I struggle with a little bit. I very much want my life to reflect Christ. I want my walk to be worthy of my calling. I do my best to make good decisions and to choose the right path. But when I look at our struggles I wonder if I really am? If I was walking worthy of my calling, would we be struggling so much? Am I doing something wrong? Am I missing the right path?

For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. - Matthew 7:14

Have I missed the gate? "The gate is small and the way is narrow", did I pass it in my haste to do good, to walk in a worthy manner? Maybe I should go back, retrace my steps and look again?

Two weeks ago our pastor talked about how all through the Gospels, the disciples listened, but didn't really hear what Jesus was saying to them. All through the Gospels they are surprised when things He said come true. Even after His death they are not there, at His tomb, waiting for Him to be risen. He told them several times what would happen, and yet, they still did not expect it.

There was one, though, who did. Mary.

Mary of Bethany. That's right, Lazarus' sister. She was the one chastised by her sister, Martha, when Jesus came to visit them. Martha was upset because Mary wasn't helping her. But Jesus said to let her alone, she was doing what was right. She was keeping her eyes (and ears) fixed on Jesus.

Later, it is she, Mary of Bethany, who pours expensive perfume on Jesus shortly before His crucifixion. Again she is chastised, this time by the disciples, for wasting such a costly oil. But, again, Jesus told them to let her alone. He knew that she was preparing Him for what was to come. She had HEARD what Jesus had been telling them all. That soon he would be sacrificed.

Mary was also there when Jesus rose from the tomb. She kept her eyes fixed on Jesus.

I find it interesting that all through the Gospels, as Mary does what is right, she is chastised by others. Not by the world, as you might expect, but by other believers. She kept her eyes fixed on Jesus, and literally everyone thought she was wrong! But she never wavered. Their negative remarks fell on deaf ears. The only voice she heard was Jesus'.

I want to be like Mary. To keep my eyes on Jesus no matter what. Maybe, just maybe, with this as my goal, I will turn a corner in my walk and spy that narrow gate.

Lord, help me to be like Mary of Bethany. Help me to keep my eyes fixed on you. And lead me to that narrow gate. Amen.

Blessings,

Blog Split

I've recently been convicted to blog more about... well... life. In the past, I've always waited for something "important" to blog about. But the reality is, LIFE is important. Things that happen every day, shape who I am and who my kids are and will be. Everything that happens each day, good or bad, is important.

"...I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received." Ephesians 4:1

So, I'm turning this blog back into what I originally intended. A place for me to jot down snippets from everyday life. That may be my menu, or something silly one of the kids did, or my bad day, or a great day of school. I will, however, be moving my photography posts and link-ups to a new blog. Don't worry, I will still post pictures of life here, just not all the post that were dedicated to photography =)

Blessings,

The Lord is my strength

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
~Isaiah 40:28-31

This verse has been my security blanket for the last few weeks. Why, you may ask? Well, it's the same reason I haven't posted in a while.

Life has been difficult.

Back in December I posted that we were expecting again. It was a bit of a shock. Our youngest was one in January and Hubby is still unemployed. But we looked at it as a blessings and embraced the excitement of expecting another child.

And then my world fell apart.

The first week in February I went in for my 12 week OB check. The doctor and I chatted for a few minutes about how things were going and he told me everything looked great. Then he got out the doppler and...........

Nothing.

I tried to stay calm as he went out to get the ultrasound machine. "This happens all the time," I told myself, "He'll see the heartbeat with the ultrasound."

He checked with the external wand first and..............

Nothing.

I was shaking as I undressed to prepare for the internal wand, but I was still trying to convince myself that everything was fine.

After a few minutes with the internal wand, he looked at me and I knew. My precious baby had been taken to heaven.

Somehow I made it home to cry on my husband's shoulder. And then we faced the painful decision of what to do next. We decided to go with a D&C. It was scheduled for the following Monday morning (this was Wednesday evening). I spent the next few days in a daze desperately trying to come to terms with the fact that my baby was no longer living.

And then it happened.

Late Sunday night I miscarried. And hemorrhaged. Which resulted in an ambulance ride to the hospital and two units of blood. My grief got put on hold as I dealt with my medical emergency.

Now that I'm starting to feel better physically, I'm once again facing my grief. It hasn't been easy. But....the Lord is giving me strength and, slowly, peace.

And tonight.....comfort.

As I was sitting on my bed knitting, I was reminded of the verse:

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
~Psalm 139:13-16

And it reminded me of what some of my family members had said about God taking an incomplete fetus. As I thought on it some more, I looked at it from the perspective of a knitter.

"You knit me together in my mother's womb."

How many times had I ripped out rows, or even an entire project, because it wasn't quite right? I would imagine God is a perfectionist. If, as He was knitting my baby together in my womb, He looked at it and thought "this is not quite right", why wouldn't He "start over"? I would.

"But," you may say, "God is perfect, he doesn't make mistakes."

And I would agree with you wholeheartedly. But, while God is perfect, he is working with imperfect materials. I am a sinner. My husband is a sinner. And our baby, while it would seem perfect when born, is a sinner. Given that, I find it amazing that He can create a baby in the first place.

Think of it this way. As I said earlier, I'm a knitter. And I've gotten pretty good at it. Not an expert by any means, but I can follow a pattern and turn out something that looks good. However, if someone were to hand me a pair of chopsticks and a whole bunch of shoe laces (in different lengths and types) and tell me to create a sweater to be worn on the popular fashion runways in Paris, I would struggle. I could probably eventually come up with something, but I can't imagine how many times I would have to "start over" in the process.

So, as I said, it's amazing that God can create something as wonderful as a baby with the imperfect materials that he is given without having to "start over" many times first.

I am still sad to say goodbye to my baby. I wish I could have held him and told him how much I loved him. But I will take comfort in knowing that God is the Master Knitter and that He knew what was best for my baby. And I will trust, that when the timing is right and the stitches are "perfect", I will have another baby to hold.

Blessings,

News!

I have a secret.......

Can you guess what it is?

Blessings,

I Am Weary

"There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens"
-Ecclesiastes 3:1

The verse above is one that I've tried to keep forefront in my mind lately. There is a season for everything and this season won't last forever. But it's been a long year.

I am Weary.

At the beginning of the year, my husband was working for a mortgage company, but it was solely commission based. The paychecks were few and far between. He then decided it wasn't the path God had for him.

He worked for my parents business for a few weeks. But, it's seasonal and mostly out of town. He was gone. A lot. But it got us through a few more months.

Now, he is officially a member of the unemployed. He does have a temporary job coming up, but it will only last 3 weeks. Plus, it's an evening/night shift that will be hard on the kids, especially Peanut. She doesn't do well when daddy isn't home to pray and give lovies at bedtime.

He has been sending out applications, resume's and cover letters like crazy. But so far nothing else has come up. As it stands, we have no idea what the new year will bring.

I am Weary.

God gives us this promise:

"He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."
-Isaiah 40:29-31

I try to hold onto this verse like the one above. I try to glean strength from it. I want to shout "Where is my strength Lord?" I am tired. I am tired of waiting, of not knowing what is to come. It is so difficult when He only gives you enough light for the step you are on. I SO want to see where I am going!

I try to focus on the "here and now" and try not to think too much about what tomorrow might bring. But what is the "here and now"? Laundry. Cooking. Cleaning. Kids arguing. How do you find joy in the mundane when you don't feel like there is anything good to look forward to? Sure, I could try to go the other way, that the mundane is more joyful than not having a home. But, instead of finding joy, I start to feel anxious and fearful that that is where we are headed.

I know that we are not promised lives filled with joy and no heartache. So I know that His answer may very well be that we loose our home and everything we have. I HOPE and PRAY that His answer will be different. And so I wait. I wait on the Lord. The waiting is what's getting to me.

I can't help but wonder what lesson the Lord has for us in all of this. Are we somehow failing to grasp it? Is that why we are still waiting? Or is waiting the lesson? In which case, I still feel like I'm failing to grasp it :).

There have been many blessings during this season. The biggest being that, somehow every month the bills have gotten paid. Sure, we've wracked up more debt than we'd like, but we aren't drowning in it {yet}. The Lord has provided for us. It was definitley him, there is no way we could have done it ourselves! We still have our home. We are also still able to homeschool and I am still able to stay home with the kids. There are many more, but this is already a long post as it is :).

I am still weary. My faith has been deepened. My trust is in the Lord. I don't panic about our situation near as often as I used to. But I still have a long way to go.

"Dear Lord, Please help me to continue to put my trust in you. You have promised to never forsake us, help me to remember that. Help me to remember Your blessings and to be thankful for all that I have. Help me to find joy in the waiting. Give me strength for my weariness. And Lord.....Please.......Could this season end soon? In Your Son's name, Amen"

Blessings,

Boulders and other ramblings...

I'm way behind in the blog world right now. Not only have I not posted anything in a few weeks, I haven't read any posts either.

I also haven't been taking pictures {gasp!}.

We've gotten a little bit of school done, but not much. Overall, I feel like the last few weeks have just been a big blur. My husband has been working out of town and that's been very hard on me. I don't do well with my hubby being gone. I tend to get depressed.

It also doesn't help that last Tuesday I woke up at some horrible early hour of the morning in excruciating pain. I finally called my mom around 4 and had her take me to the emergency room. My dad came and sat with the older three kids and we took the baby with us. The diagnosis? Kidney stones. They sent me for a CT scan to verify. The scan came back that it wasn't kidney stones, but a kidney BOULDER! The scan showed it to be approximately 8mm (you can pass stones that are 6mm or less). Then after much confusion and many phone calls (and lots of pain pills!) I was scheduled for a procedure to have it taken out. That happened on Friday. I wont go into all the gory details of said procedure, but I will say that they have to leave a stint in for 5-7 days afterward. So, while the boulder is gone, I've still been having some discomfort due to the stint.

Thankfully hubby was home over the weekend, so I got to take it easy. He was very sweet and took care of me :o) He even went grocery shopping for me for the week!

But, alas, he has left again already. And, unless it rains, he wont be home again till Friday evening. I miss him already :-(

I need to get back into a routine, but that may need to wait till I can get this stint out (which I just found out isn't going to happen till Friday, ugg!). I was already planning on taking a short break from ECC to do some other things. We went to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum recently and my kids loved it! So we are going to do a short unit study (and lapbook) on Amelia Earhart. Then I'm going to do my best to put together another short unit study/lapbook on Hawaii.

Why Hawaii, you may ask? Well, that's the exciting part in all of this. Hubby's family is taking us to Hawaii in October!!! The kids are beside themselves with excitement (and in all honesty, so am I!). So, being the homeschool mom that I am, we are going to study up on Hawaii before we go :o)


Well, I think that's pretty much my last few days in a nutshell. Hopefully I will find my energy and motivation here soon. I need to get out of my PJ's, I've been in them for three days! I would appreciate any prayers you could send my way!

Blessings,

Homeschool update

I haven't posted any school updates here for quite a while.

The reason?

I haven't really had any updates {sigh}. This last year has felt really LONG, but at the same time, we only managed to finish 17 weeks of school.

Why, you ask?

Well, mostly because this last pregnancy, delivery and recovery were all really hard on me. I get HUGE when I'm pregnant and that makes me whine {*insert sheepish grin here*}. And the delivery and recovery were really hard this time. I can't explain why, but it took a lot out of me. Plus, I've basically been an emotional basket case since about 4 or 5 months pregnant (just ask my poor husband). I feel like I'm coming out of it now, but..........I still have my bad days.

So, even though I did not intend for it to happen (and tried not to let it happen), school kinda got put on the back burner. I tried to school all through December, but there are just too many things happening that month and, without intending to, we took most of the month off. Then baby came in January and we (intentionally) took that month off. I tried to get back into things in February, but that didn't work. Then March. Then April. Then May. I think your starting to get the picture {grin}. Don't get me wrong, it's not that we didn't to any school. It was just hit or miss. No structure. No consistency. I just got further and further behind. I tried to assure myself that it was OK, I'd just school through the summer and get caught up.

Then, I hit the brick wall of burnout..............at full speed.

I know what you are thinking, "how do you burnout when you're not really doing anything in the first place?"

Well, the best answer I can give is, it's a weight thing. No, no, no. Not how much weight I have (or haven't) lost, more of a weight-of-the-world-on-your-shoulders type thing. The more days I took off, the guiltier I felt. And the more overwhelmed I became.

• We are so far behind, how will we ever catch up?
• I'm not doing enough, my kids are hopelessly behind.
• We wont get to have fun this summer because we have to catch up on school.
• I'm not cut out for this, I'm ruining my kids, I should just put them in school.

These are some of the things that went through my mind on a daily basis. I was ready to throw in the towel.

Then we went to the OCEAN conference. I was very inspired by David Hazell's lecture, "Help, my homeschool is chaos!". I came home encouraged and ready to take it all on again. I was stuck on one of the things David had said. He had explained how they started their school year early, in July. That way they were ahead from the get go, so it was "OK" when they had a day that didn't happen. I sounded like a great idea! It was exactly the type of thing I needed to implement! But then I remembered how far behind we were and I got discouraged. All those statements from above started running through my mind again. After all, I was already soooo far behind, how on earth could I get caught up, much less, get ahead?

Once again I was right back to feeling overwhelmed. Feeling like I was ruining my kids. Ready to throw in the towel.

My husband (bless him!) was desperate to encourage me. But I was convinced he couldn't understand how I felt so his attempts at encouragement just added more weight to my shoulders. Now I felt like I was letting him down as well. What I really needed (but didn't realize it at the time) was for him to give me "permission" to take a break and re-evaluate. He did eventually suggest that (that's why I now know that's what I needed {grin}) and I felt like some of the weight was lifted.

Then I jokingly made the comment to hubby "Maybe I'll just say we're doing ECC* for next year, then we are 17 weeks ahead!"

He latched on to that and told me it was a great idea and he thought that's what I should do. As I pondered it further, I decided it was a pretty good idea. MFW doesn't do grade levels, so it really didn't matter what grade I used it for. I could just as easily use it for 4th grade as for 3rd grade. It really was just a matter of changing my thinking and choosing to consider myself ahead for next year instead of behind for this year.

So, now that I've had some "official" time off and I've changed my thinking, I'm ready to go again! I've been drooling over back-to-school ads (I get a high from shopping for school supplies! I know, I'm weird, but I've accepted that!) and we've decided our "official" back-to-school start day will be August 9th. And the best part is.............

...I'm excitedly looking forward to it!

Blessings,

*Note: For those of you who don't know, we are using My Father's World (MFW) curriculum. It's a unit study type approach that you cycle through every five years. Exploring Countries and Cultures (ECC) is the first year of that cycle. For more info, visit their website.

Father's Day

As today is Father's Day, I wanted to take a minute to honor my wonderful husband.

Thank you, Sweetie, for being such a wonderful and loving father (and husband!). I very much appreciate the fact that you go to work everyday to provide for us so that I can stay home and care for and teach our children. And I'm thankful that you have such a solid foundation in God and that you are faithfully leading our family down that path. I love you and feel so blessed to have you in my life.

Now, the kids and I wanted to get a very special gift for Father's day this year. The difficulty was, finances are VERY tight right now. So being the "crafty" person that I am, I immediately started trying to come up with some kind of craft we could do to make a present. What I finally came up with isn't really a "craft", but it turned out really great and Hubby loves it =)

So, here it is:


I took a bunch of pictures of the kids and then created this collage. I had it printed (minus the watermark!) as a 16x20 poster and then framed it so he can hang it in his office. I found the frame at Target for $5.99 and the print only cost $4.99 (with a $1 off coupon). So for $10.98 and a little bit of my time (OK, so it was A LOT of my time, but that's a whole 'nother story, lol) we came up with a very special Father's Day gift!

Blessings,

So Today is Tuesday.....

Yes, today is Tuesday (Tuesday April 20th, 2010, to be exact). Which means I should be posting a picture to link up with "Sweet Shot Tuesday", but once again, I have neglected to get my camera out this week {sigh}.

So, I'm going to challenge myself. I've heard rumor of a "365 challenge" going on (I think it's through Flicker?) that I believe is a challenge to take a picture of something different everyday. And, while it's obviously too late to join that challenge, I'm going to do something similar. I'm going to challenge myself to get my camera out (rain or shine!) and take at least one picture everyday. Even if it means taking my camera with me to the grocery store! I've been stuck in a rut, thinking I have to have perfect lighting (read that to be a sunny day!) and a perfect subject/set up in order to get a perfect picture. But wouldn't it be more of a challenge to get a great picture on a cloudy/rainy day ('cause let face it we have a lot of those around here!) of some random object? Hmmmm....... I think it's time to start thinking outside the box.

So, I probably wont post every picture, after all, I'm sure they wont all turn out :o) But I will post some of the good ones. And, hey, maybe I'll actually learn to use my camera along the way ;)

Blessings,

Our Bedroom Re-decoration

So, like I said in my last decorating post, Hubby and I are working on redecorating our home and we started with our bedroom. Now, I didn't remember to take before pictures. However, I did think to take a picture of "The Wall" before we changed it :o) Here it is:


Now, this wall has been an annoyance ever since we moved in almost 6 years ago (yes, it really has taken us that long to do something about it, lol). First I should mention, our room is basically blue. The carpet is a light blue, the blinds are blue and the bathroom has blue tile. So why the people who lived here before us (Hubby's grandparents rented it out for 7 or 8 months before we moved in) thought Forest Green would be the perfect color for this wall, I will never know (and, no, the picture doesn't truely show the color well). They also did a horrible job of painting it. The wall originally had wallpaper on it that was put directly on the drywall. They simply pulled the wallpaper off and slapped up some paint. They didn't use any kind of primer, they didn't texture the wall and they only did one coat of paint. The result was, you could see every blemish in the wall, there were thin spots where you could see the wall through the paint and there were holes forming everywhere (notice the rather large hole in the paint in the middle of the wall!) Here is the picture again, so you can truely appreciate the change :o)


So, Hubby and I spent the weekend painting and this is what "The Wall" looks like now:

We started with a light blue (and yes, we primed first!) and then I "ragged" on a purple and a darker-basically-looks-brown-purple. We decided not to texture, since the paint technique we picked would give the illusion of texture (and it does :o)). The color combination looks soooo much better with the rest of the room! Here are a few more "after" pictures of the room. And, for those of you who have never seen our room before, the curtains and the shelves with the dolls are new. Oh, and it's clean :o)

So we are basically done with our room now. We still want to change out the light fixtures (I REALLY don't like the ones that are there!), but we haven't found ones that we like and that are in the budget. So that may have to wait a little bit. But in the mean time, we have a much nicer "retreat" for ourselves.

The next project on the list will be the kitchen. This time I WILL take "before" pictures, lol. As a matter of fact, I may just go take the pictures NOW, so that I don't forget when we get ready to work on it :o)

Blessings,

Success!!!

We recently did a major clean and reorganize of the girls' bedroom. We needed to make room for another bed so that we could move Little P into their room. With the new baby coming in a few months, we will be needing the crib (and the space) in our room. And I wanted to make sure Little P had time to adjust to being in a big boy bed before she gets here. Of course I forgot to take before pictures (sigh) but I went through my computer and came up with a couple. They are a little old and they don't show the whole room, but they do give a somewhat decent representation of the condition their room was normally in.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Here is what the room looks like now. As you can see, we needed to move the beds around to make room for the captains bed. Now this is the best part: Their room has stayed this clean FOR OVER A WEEK!!! It's been wonderful! No more stepping on sharp little things in order to get to their bed to give goodnight hugs.

This picture shows what we did with most of their toys. I organized everything into bins of similar items. Now almost all of their toys are in those big blue tubs! They have to ask to get one out, so it is easier for me to stay on top of making sure they clean up what they are done with before they get out something new. So far it has worked really well and they are starting to get used to the process now, so the complaints have eased also :o)

So the next will be to finish reorganizing their play area out in the main part of the house. This is where they have their play kitchen (and all it's accessories) and their dress-up clothes. We have the dress-up stuff mostly done, but still need to go through all the kitchen stuff. And then it will be time to move on to our bedroom and closet (I'm not looking forward to this, it's a mess, lol). I am, however, looking forward to having the house organized and relatively clean before new baby gets here. Hopefully, that will help me keep from stressing over the condition of the house while I'm supposed to be recuperating!

Blessings,

Glennda

Attack of the Flowers!!!

So my house has parts and pieces of silk flowers all over. Plus flower tape, wire, wire cutters, ribbon and various other items needed to do floral arrangements. It looks like the the floral department at Michaels threw-up in various areas of my house. Here are a couple pictures to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

Here's a picture of my couch and coffee table.

And the window seat in my bedroom.

Now, why, you may ask, do I have flowers and such all over my house? Because my sister is getting married this weekend. She doesn't want real flowers 'cause she's convinced she'll get stung by a bee (she's allergic to bees) if she does. So she decided on silk flowers and asked me if I would do the arrangements for her. And since being pregnant; taking care of three kids, a husband and a house; homeschooling; working part-time; and being Matron of Honor wasn't enough on my plate, I said yes (sigh). Anyway, I thought I would share the results of my hard work.

Here is the boutonniere for the Ring Bearer (who just happens to be my son!). When I finished this one I held it up and asked my husband if he though Little P would wear it. He said "Sure.............If you put it on his back!" (sigh)

Here is one of the other boutonnieres. There are nine total: one for the groom; 5 groomsmen; 2 dads; and one for the pastor.

Here are the corsages for the mothers.

This is the toss bouquet.

This is a bridesmaid bouquet, there are 5 total.

This is the brides bouquet.

This is the brides bouquet from the side and it shows the ribbon-wrap. The ribbon-wrap is the same on all of the bouquets.

And, if all of that wasn't enough, I was called yesterday and asked if I could do the flowers on the cake as well. It seems the bakery has a picture of a cake with flowers on it, but they don't know how to do the flowers! Go figure!

Here is one of the flowers that will be on the cake, there are nine. I have removed the stem and attached some wire. Hopefully when I get to the cake Saturday morning it will be easy to arrange them on it!

This is one of the black pearly things I used in the other arrangements. I'm going to take some of them with me the day of and see if I can put them on the cake as well. However, at this point, I have no clue what the cake looks like, so I'm not exactly sure how I will decorate it!

Just to clarify, the colors in some of the pictures look a little orange. There is NO ORANGE!!! The flowers are various shades of pink (well, the stephanotis is white) with some black accents. So in case you haven't figured it out yet, the wedding colors are fuchsia pink and black. I will post pictures of the wedding and the cake later next week :o)

Blessings,

Glennda