Flabby Dance, anyone?

This morning when I came downstairs, Noah was already on the couch.

 He looked at me and said, "Do you want to hear something totally insane?"

I'm always up for something totally insane so I was all in.

"I flabby danced with my pet flamingo on the 4th of July."

I asked him to repeat it to make sure I heard him correctly and indeed I had.

And that was that.

So, who's up for flabby dancing next 4th of July?

Because sometimes a list is all I can do

My brain is not working yet this morning. As evidenced by the fact that I just told Ellie to eat her cereal "without no milk." My 7th grade grammar teacher (I don't remember her last name - we called her "Myrtle") would be appalled. Maybe I truly need to go visit the big city more frequently. I think the country life is having negative effects on me.

I digress.

A list is about all I can muster this morning.

• Our new church had it's first official service and it was amazing. We had 150+ people attending. So excited to see what God is going to do!!
• Our new homeschool group? Amazing. We have all (Kyle included) made friends through this group and I'm so happy I decided to join.
• The leaves have started changing colors. Considering it was 97 degrees yesterday, that's just wrong.
• I yearn for the day when it's below 90. I'm told it will happen. I'm not so sure.
• The other day in the car, Noah realized that Johnny Diaz (the singer) and Matt Diaz (the Braves player) are brothers. He said as serious as ever, "Their mother must be SO proud!"
• The country is starting to feel more like home. We are settling in and adjusting to life in a small town. 
• Today is the first day of fall. Bring on the apples, pumpkins, bake-a-thons, and weight!
• Speaking of weight, I'm in week 5 of my couch to 5K training program. I'm running a 5K on Oct. 23. And I'm still not to that euphoric place that my friends are at where all the world is good and right when they run. 

I must go get Lucas out of bed so we're not doing school at dinner tonight. 

I leave you with this question: Besides cereal and oatmeal are there any quick breakfast ideas out there? I'm not one for cooking at 7:30am. Need ideas!

it's a wild life

I've always prided (am I making up new words, here?) myself on being "outdoorsy". I grew up in the country. I was outside from sun up to sun down every day possible. I love hiking and being in the mountains. I'm moving up the success ladder of tent camping - on the still-need-a-real-toilet-but-can-do- without-a-shower level.  I was the organizer of many Cedar Grove community frog races and an avid collector of bugs back in the day. Having 3 boys who would live in a tent and chase bugs 24/7 if it were up to them has brought me much joy.

But put a spider or snake or mouse within a mile of me and chaos will ensue.

When we moved out of suburbia, I knew our chances of wildlife viewing would be much greater. I just had no idea that on a daily basis I would be encountering every species of bug known to man. Roaches? Got 'em. Little tiny unknown black bugs? Yep. Ants? Sure thing. Worms? Much to my boys' delight. Spiders? Way too many for my comfort level. Snakes? Not until today.

Yesterday the boys came running in to let me know they had found something that I! HAD! TO! SEE!!! I ran outside to find this in his nice geometrical web between two trees.                                                



I knew we had happened upon a rare rainforest species of insect, but turns out it's just a common Spinybacked Orbweaver. Common or not, that creepy thing was not what I wanted 30 feet from my house, but the boys convinced me to leave it. Last check it was still there hanging out. Pun intended.

This morning we were outside for PE (I use that term loosely). I saw some Ivy that was growing into the yard, so I grabbed a piece of the vine and pulled. When I did a section of pinestraw was moved. I saw something and wondered how a piece of rope got under the pinestraw. As I got closer I noticed that rope was coiled up and had a head and eyes and wriggled around. I tried not to scream. Really, I did. Two of my children came running to see. One ran inside with a vow to never return and one stood still. I think he though if he didn't move the snake may not see him.



So it turns out that snake is not poisonous. It's a common Brown snake. Common. Like the Spinybacked Orbweaver. Last check it was not there. Which makes me a bit anxious. As does the knowledge that these snakes have 3-30 young in late summer.

If you need me I'll be duct taping any open vents and cracks leading from the backyard into my house.

10

Dear Lucas,

Today you are 10. Double digits. Two whole hands.

Every year you continue to amaze me by the young man you are becoming. Your name means "bearer of light and truth" and that says it all.

At 10 you:
*are very independent. You hardly need me for anything anymore. Which is good, but also makes me a little sad.

*LOVE cars. You can name every car on the road and most of the time the model year too. You tell us you want an old mustang when you can drive. We'll see if that changes in the next 6 years.

*can and do read an astonishing number of books weekly. You love, love, love mysteries, but will read anything. You are really enjoying Hank Zipster books right now.

*are always hungry. You can eat a huge lunch and I will find you eating a sandwich a couple of hours later. Though I'm still not sure where it goes since you are so. very. skinny.

*are almost taller than I am. Not much longer and I'll be looking up to you.

*wear the same size of shoe as I do.

*have started calling us Mom and Dad. Which I'm not so sure I like. :)

*are learning to play the guitar.

*love music. Switchfoot is your favorite, but you also really like Toby Mac.

*like to draw comics. You are showing your Dad's talent for art, though you aren't really interested in
trying anything that doesn't look like a cartoon.

*love to be on-the-go. You would travel the world everyday if possible.

*hate math.

*hate being still.

*love being outside.

*are showing us everyday how blessed we are to have you as our son. You are an incredible young man and we believe that God has big things in store for you. Our prayer is that His purposes are fulfilled in your life and that you grow up to be a Godly man, husband, and father. We can't wait to see what this year brings for you!

We love you!
Mom & Dad

It was the best of times Part 2

School started and things were going well for the most part. Jacob had an awful time adjusting - to the point of me fighting with him and dragging him down the hallway in the mornings to get him in his classroom. He would do okay the rest of the day - aside from a few tears now and then. Noah had a great teacher and he adjusted like a trooper. He would pace the perimeter of the playground at recess instead of playing with other kids - but that's just part of Noah being Noah. Lucas & Ellie, the two socialites of the group, jumped right in and had friends after the first day. 

The boys took reading level tests the first week of school and they each had the highest reading levels in their classes. They were soaring through the other subjects as well. I was very proud of them.

I guess I started to get concerned when Lucas came home and said "There's a sheriff's deputy in my math class now." Evidently the 5th graders needed a bit more crowd control so they brought in the big guns - literally. He would come home with stories of how disrespectful several of the kids were - talking back to the teachers, refusing to do work they were given, cussing and how often the entire class would be punished for the actions of one student. He said the teachers often had to yell to get the kids under control. That's when I started wondering how much of a positive learning environment this school actually was for him. 

As a teacher I know first hand how hard it is to teach while there are severe discipline issues in the class.  I also know how the well behaved children are often shorted since more time is spent on discipline than it is on actual teaching. 

So I spent the next week wondering whether or not this was actually the best thing. Kyle and I talked and prayed and talked and prayed some more and the only positives we kept coming up with were all social oriented - there were no academic positives for leaving them in school.

To sum it all up - I knew that, even though I had prayed about putting them in school, I had not listened to the answer. My desire to have the day to myself apart from 4 very loud, active kids was put above everything. All I could think about was the quiet. The freedom. The 7 hours of "me time."

All along I was pushing the Spirit's conviction deeper down and passing it off as my anxiousness about sending them to school.

We finally sat down and talked to the kids. They were all in favor of coming back home. Lucas was the most hesitant, but all he said was "I'll miss PE and recess. But I know I'll learn more at home." 

So on Monday they stayed home. We started homeschool back up on Tuesday and things are going splendidly. Jacob - who had been a short tempered, angry little boy since school started, is back to his happy, smiley self. Ellie's even loving sitting down and writing her letters. However backward they may be. (and if you know Ellie, you know how backward that can be!)

When I think back on this whole roller coaster ride of the past 2 1/2 weeks, I laugh. The same people who doubted and were against our decision at the beginning are now joyfully celebrating our return. And the ones who were encouraging and cheering us on are now doubting and left in disbelief that we would want to bring them home. What a lesson in doing what God has called you to do and not trying to please people!

As our family has stated time after time after time - the education of your children is between you and God. There are positives and negatives about everything. Will I miss my days of quiet? YES! Are we done with "school in a building" forever? Probably not.  School is not bad, and I'm sure at some point one or all of our children will be in some school somewhere. Homeschoolers should not castle themselves in their homes away from the world. Christians need to be in the world living out the gospel in all they do so to remove all believers from the school systems would be tragic.

But, for now, for this year, our kids are home. And we're where God wants US to be. And there's no better place than that.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

My kids were in public school for 13 days. Except for Jacob, who just couldn't get over the possibility that he may get an answer wrong, they all adjusted wonderfully. The boys were all at the top of their class and blowing reading level tests out of the water. Their teachers were extremely nice and good at what they do. Three of them loved PE, recess, and eating in the cafeteria (especially ice cream!). The other one loved computer lab. They hated coming home to homework every afternoon and waking up so early, but what kids love that?

To put into words the reason we brought them back home - I'm not sure I can do that. I've put off writing this blog for a few days now. So many people will have so many different opinions and I'm not one to run head-first into conflict. But, since this blog is my way to journal our life and my thoughts, I'm going to try to explain our decision.

From the moment we found out we would be parents, Kyle knew he wanted me to homeschool. Coming from the viewpoint of a public school teacher, there was no way I was considering that. My kids would not be the isolated, weird kids that I had stereotyped in my mind. We did the pre-school thing and life was cruising along.

The year Lucas turned 5, we had a dilemma. Since his birthday is Sept. 7, he missed the cut-off for Kindergarten by 6 days. But, this boy was more than ready for school. He was well beyond what most sets of Kindergarten skills included and I knew he couldn't wait another year to start school. So I got a few books and we "did kindergarten" that year. And we've been "doing school" at home since then.

Teaching the older kids with younger ones running around wasn't always easy. In fact, it left me in tears many days. I vowed that once Ellie was in kindergarten, they would all go to private school.

Ellie entered kindergarten this year. And the money for 4 kids in private school? There was a big sign on our bank account that said "funds not available." Since we had just moved to a much smaller area, I decided to check out the public schools.

I found out they weren't stellar. In fact, if you just looked at their test scores you would probably question that anyone at the school knew what they were doing. But the more I researched, the more I realized that in a lower-income rural area schools are often full of students who have little to no support at home. And it shows up big time in their education. As a teacher, I knew that the best teacher could be in the classroom and still not have perfect test scores.

The teachers seemed nice enough, the kids looked normal enough - so I pushed and pushed my husband until he relented.

Maybe that was my first mistake. :)

I signed them up and they started school 3 weeks ago on a trial basis. We would wait until Labor Day and discuss their progress.

And since this post is so incredibly long and I must go fulfill my promise to the kids by taking them to the bakery downtown and getting smiley face cookies I will continue later ......

The first day of school has come and gone and we all made it through. Getting the kids up at 6:30 yesterday morning was a breeze. Which is a complete miracle since homeschooling never started before 9:30am. Morning people my kids are not.

I had timed the trip earlier in the week and it took exactly 9 minutes. We left at 7:25 to give us a little extra time since there would probably be a little more traffic. And traffic there was. Oh, the traffic. Did I mention the traffic??? Whatever person decided to put 2 elementary schools, the middle school, and highschool all on the same road should have his degree revoked. The school starting times don't even vary - they're all the same. So the entire county is filing through one street. We were not prepared. The kids arrived at school after 8:00 as did half the other kids and at least one teacher.

Lucas would not let us walk him into his classroom. Evidently 5th graders do not enjoy Mommies hugs & kisses in front of friends. Who knew? :) The other kids were definitely okay with us walking with them. So we did. I cannot express what it's like to watch my kids go into the unknown all alone after being at home under my watch for so long. But I was proud of them for being so brave and I knew they were ready.

I met Amy in Madison for lunch, which was a wonderful thing. Had I come home alone there's no telling how many old videos I would have watched of the kids in their younger days while singing "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof. I kid - there would have been no singing. But the videos would've definitely been going on.

After a 45 minute wait in the car line, I finally saw my kids. The smiles I saw when they spotted me were priceless. Those 4 smiles will forever be ingrained in my memory because it was affirmation from God that they were going to be okay. Like He promised, He had been and will continue to be with them. And they're in much better hands when I turn them over to Him than when I try to hold on tightly to them.


All of the kids had much to say about the first day - Lucas made a good friend already, which doesn't surprise me since I think the whole reason that child was put on this earth was to talk to people. He liked his classes okay, but recess was awesome, evidently. And, though the youngest in the 5th grade, he is not the shortest, so life is good.

Noah had a good day. He almost lined up with the wrong class at recess (why does that make me almost cry?) but found his way back to where he belonged. He liked 3rd grade, but can't wait for Christmas holiday. Poor child doesn't realize he'll have 3 breaks before then. :)

Jacob had a good day in 2nd grade and gave it a B+. He had to do spelling which he claims is his worst subject. But the cafeteria food smelled really good and those chicken fingers and french fries looked delicious and can he please please eat in the cafeteria one day?

Ellie's report: We had fun. We played on the playground.
And that my friends, is Kindergarten in a nutshell.