In prayer.

If you see this, please say a prayer for my husband tonight. He is sitting in Louisiana with a big target on his back. Hurricane Gustav is on the hunt.

Thank you.

We are not morning people.

I snapped this picture this morning as the girls were waiting for their scrambled eggs. We are not morning people at all. And this waking up "in the middle of the night", as they call it, is not working. Who do I contact to get school hours for the entire county changed?

Promoted.

Promoted to First Grade

That is what is written on my daughter's school record. She was a Kindergartener for all of one day.

Her complaint? She said when I picked her up from school, "Mama, I got pulled out of recess so I could read baby books to the teacher. She had to find me a harder books to read."

The Oldest was referring to her assessment to get her out of kindergarten and into the grade that she is supposed to be in. I feel affirmed that I did a good job teaching her last year and that she did a fantastic job learning.

I spoke to her new teacher for First Grade this morning, and was told that The Oldest is one of 3 other children that read extremely well. For this, I am pleased. She is right where she should be now, and will be adequately challenged in her work. Hooray!

Before even the sunshine is awake.

Public school. I don't have too much to complain about just yet....except that it starts at O-Dark-Thirty. I am not kidding. The Oldest has to report to her desk at 7:30 AM. This poses a bit of a problem for us. Actually, this is a problem of astronomical proportions. Usually, my children aren't rolling out of bed until about 8 AM. And I usually don't get to my first cup of coffee until around 9 AM. Even the baby thinks the morning comes too soon... she eats around 6 am and then wants to go straight back to her crib, only to wake up around 9ish

And the issue of getting dressed that early in the morning bothers me. We have been having homeschool in our pajamas for 2 years now, and suddenly I am being stripped of my nightgown and bedroom slippers. I fear that I am going to have wake up at the crack of dawn to dress up like all the rest of the good moms, "slap a coat of paint on the ol' barn" (that means putting on layers of makeup to make myself look like one of those pretty moms that can do it all!), fix breakfast for my children, feed the baby, get everyone ready, and manage to squeal out the door in time to make the 15 minute drive to school.

Are you kidding? Who makes up these hours? Don't they realize that my kid needs about 10 to 12 hours of sleep every night just to function in the morning. That means my kid needs to go to bed at like 6!!!!!! She is going to plop her head down on her desk first thing, in spite of my efforts of putting her to bed early all week and getting us all up early. She will be begging for a jolt of caffeine before lunch, and then she will probably take a nap as soon as school lets out.

Somehow we will manage this. The rest of the world does. I don't know how, but they do.

Getting ready...

I am trying to prepare myself for what is to come in just a couple of days. On Monday, I take my daughter to her school orientation, and then on Tuesday, I drop her off for her first day at public school. I had a huge challenge put before me this week, as I took her to the front office. I was told that I would not be permitted to enroll my daughter in First Grade where she belongs, that she would have to be put into Kindergarten, since she had never been to school before.

It was pretty apparent that the principal of the school doesn't like homeschoolers. She would not accept any of my child's work from last year. She didn't think that she should just automatically be put in First Grade because of her age, either. So after much discussion, I went ahead and enrolled her, with the promise that my daughter would be tested and evaluated the very first day of school. Little do they know that the teacher is about to get the shock of her life. I was just testing The Oldest myself today, and she was getting 98% efficiency on 4th and 5th grade words in reading. She is doing really well in math too, even though she really hates it, she is counting by 2's, 3's, and 5's, and 10's (ready for multiplication almost!)

I can't say enough about how brilliant she is. She is one of those kids that when presented with a new subject, she just dives right in and absorbs every piece of information that she can find. Last year, being that it was just kindergarten for her, we ended up throwing out the standard curriculum from Sonlight and just did our own thing. The Oldest ended up studying and writing her own books about the ocean and the living things in it. And we did this for several months. When we go to the aquarium, she is able to look at a skeleton of a shark's mouth, and tell you exactly what kind of shark it is. She is amazing.

On the other hand, I am doing my best to get prepared for a year of homeschool with The Middle. She is ready. She is set. She is just waiting for me to go, go, go! I chose a different curriculum for her for Kindergarten this year, and I think that it will suit her nicely. My Father's World has lots of hands on activities for her and I to do, and it is slow paced, and very investigative, kind of like The Middle. Our very first 10 days, we will study God's 7 days of creation and then we launch into unit studies that go along with the letters of the alphabet. This is going to be so great!

I am, however, at a loss of my homeschooling room this year. So, I am going nuts as to what to do with our work space since the house is on the market for sale. I have secured a bulletin board of decent size, and have decided that it MUST be used. Classrooms have bulletin boards. That is just how I think about it. So, I have this bulletin board in my dining room, that gets stored behind the china cabinet when school is over, and pulled out when the morning routine begins. In theory, this should work, but we all know how theory goes.

How are yall's school plans coming along? Are you getting ready?

There is such a thing as nasty chocolate.

Note to self....

Do not leave a candy dish full of Dove Promises in direct sunlight on the dining room table for 3 weeks while on vacation in Florida.

It changes the texture of the chocolate.

I never thought that I would ever say this, but this chocolate is actually gross now.

*humph*

Defeated?

I am not admitting defeat.

I have decided to temporarily enroll The Oldest into public school for a little while. I have had a couple people say to me that I must not been a successful homeschooling parent and that I have been defeated. This is very far from the truth. We have been extremely successful. These people know who they are and some of them read this blog.

I am here to tell these people that this choice was not made lightly, and it's a choice that was extremely difficult for our family to make. There were several factors weighing on our decision...and none of those factors have anything to do with my success as a homeschooling parent. I have been very successful. The Oldest is very bright and her reading, writing, spelling, and math are way beyond 1st grade level, the grade that I am enrolling her in. She will not suffer.

We had to look beyond the individual needs of our child and look at the needs of our entire family and the situation that we are in. I am first and foremost, a child of God. Secondly, a wife and mother. Thirdly, a teacher to my children. I do not need to justify to any of you why we decided to do what we are doing because none of you hold any of those positions in this family. We are doing what is right for our family at this time. I am at complete peace regarding this decision. And I really don't need any of you trying to make me feel badly or regret what we are doing.

God's Yard Care Service...

I have received a wonderful gift today, and it was totally anonymous. Remember how I said that my lawn was waist high when I got home from our vacation? Well, I was on the phone all day yesterday trying to track down my garage key to no avail. I was going to mow it myself, but couldn't get into my own garage. Sad, isn't it?

We went to church this morning where I had to play tag with about 6 different people saying that they had "given the key to such-n-so to cut the grass". Apparently, since the key was too busy getting passed around, no one had time to cut my grass, and we got forgotten again. *insert big frowny face*

When we got home from church, there was something dramatically different about our house. I could actually see the flowers in the front yard and I could tell that my driveway was supposed to be a place to park the car. Someone had apparently dropped by my house and mowed my yard while we were gone to church. I asked myself out loud who might have done such a thing and I hear from the backseat, "Hey look! God cut the grass! He didn't want you to work on Sunday, so He did it for you!"

I am totally going to let my kids think that God cut the grass for us because He loves us. But I do have to wonder who skipped church and cut my grass? I am sure that the Lord will bless the little church skipper :D

I wonder what kind of mower God drives?

Olympic Gold Attitude

I love watching the Olympics. My girls have really enjoyed watching them too. Especially the gymnastics, swimming, running, and diving. When we first started watching them, The Oldest asked, "Mama, why do we have Olympics?" I told her that every 4 years, all the countries get together, putting aside their differences, just to play games and have a good time. The best in each sport gets a medal.

Last night, as we were watching the races, and the sportscaster displayed on the screen the medal standings for the world, where it shows how many each country has gotten. United States in the lead with the most medals, with China in the lead with the most gold.

The Oldest pipes up with a truly mature statement for her 6 year old self. "Mama, why does it matter which country has the most medals? Who cares about that? Isn't it supposed to be about having fun, and getting the whole world together??? Aren't we supposed to be cheering for the whole world?"

She totally understands the Olympics alot better than some grown ups do. I am glad that she is starting to understand better about winning vs. having fun.

Yea, World!!!!

There's no place like home....

We are finally back from our trip to Florida. I think I would have liked to have stayed longer, but I fear I was wearing out my welcome. And I had things to work on...like getting The Oldest registered for school (her first time in public school!) and getting The Middle's curriculum all set up for her year of homeschooling alone. The Littlest was in desperate need of new outfits...as she had outgrown several of the outfits we had on hand in Florida. She is just growing and growing sooooo fast.

So my dad packed my car for me (thanks dad!) and took that long journey home. I will have to admit, traveling such a long way by car with a baby, IS NOT FUN. We had to stop every couple of hours so that I could nurse her, change her stinky diaper, and find her pacifier that she had somehow managed to chuck into the back seat. Add on top of that....The Oldest got carsick not even 20 miles from where we were staying (so I had to unpack a set of clean clothes, change her, and mop up the rear seat, purchase some seabands, and find an empty container in case it happened again!) , and The Middle who wanted to make a poopie at every single gas station that we stopped at, but was just too afraid to squat on the nasty gas station potty that long. She held off until we got in our own back door at 10:30 last night.

Upon pulling into the driveway, I almost turned around and went back. I am not kidding. Here is why. I had set up for my lawn to be mowed once a week for the duration of my time away. MY GRASS IS ALMOST HIP HIGH. *sigh*

I quickly got the children to bed, and broke out the OREOs. It was a long day. Almost as long as the grass.

under construction again...

Yes, I am doing another switcharoo. I got tired of brown. Everytime I logged on, I felt dark. So, this one felt a little cheerier. Hope you like it. I might change it again in a couple of days. The idea of having someone custom make a page for me is still dancing around in my head.

The Gospel Truth

A conversation with The Middle Child today in the van.

The Middle Child : "And Jesus said, 'Chocolate is good.'"
Me: "Who said that?"
MC: "Jesus did!"
Me: "Really? When did He say that?"
MC: "He said it in the Bible."
Me: "Oh."

All this occurred as The Middle was shoving a chocolate chip bagel from Panera Bread in her mouth.

Ok, I know that the Bible doesn't say a thing about Jesus eating chocolate. But in my mind's eye this afternoon, I saw Jesus with a twinkle in His eyes and a huge laugh on His face saying, "Yep, that's My girl!"

After all, I am pretty sure that God sat down with a Hershey Bar on the 7th Day and ate it while He rested and admired His creation.

NoiseTrade Widget

I hope that you will take a listen to this awesome guy....Alex was a friend of mine when I was just a brand new baby Christ Follower and was very instrumental in my decision to believe in Christ as a girl of 16 years old. I love his sound. I can say that I knew him way back before he was awesome. :)