Time Flies When You're Having Fun

I realized that it's been a really long time since my last post. A lot has happened since November. Natalie finished up her first year of school the week before Easter so I decided to celebrate by having spring break! We went to the zoo, the science museum, the park, and out for ice cream. Yesterday Frank finished up his first year of math which we celebrated with oreos, rootbeer, and the rest of the week off from math. Frank was so excited about being done that he told the check out woman at the grocery store all about it. He was also excited that we finally finished up the rootbeer because he has been anxiously awaiting the time when we would have 2 empty bottles so he could try his tornado maker out. Allison is in the middle of a crash course in potty training. I'm not sure that she's "gotten it" yet, but she does like to go in the potty. Unfortunately she still also likes to go in her pants. Here she is also trying to train her dolly how to use the potty. I think dolly is doing better than Alli:) Frank and Natalie started soccer this week. This is Frank's third round of soccer, Natalie's first. Tuesday morning Natalie woke up saying that she didn't want to play soccer, that she wasn't going to practice, and on and on. She came home from practice saying that they didn't have snack that day, but that "Coach says we'll have snack for the games." Along with several other things "Coach" said. And today she woke up super excited about going to soccer. We may just have another soccer lover in the family. The true test will be on the first game day--will Natalie spend the whole time picking dandelions like Frank did his first season, or will she actually try to kick the ball???

God's Blessings--A Homeschool Update

I have been extremely overwhelmed by all the blessings God has poured down on my family since pulling DS out of school 4 1/2 weeks ago. Every time I stop to think about how much our family has already changed in just a month, it makes my heart so happy.

In one month, my DS has gone from a very beginner reader to reading on a 2nd grade level (according to the lexile measure of books). The first week of HSing, DS wrote a story on his own that had terrible penmanship and all his words excluded vowels. Last week he wrote another story and his penmanship was nearly perfect, and all the words were spelled right without my help. He went from barely tolerating his sisters to loving being with them and when he prays during our prayer time before bed, he always thanks God for a wonderful day, that we all got to be home together, and he has stopped asking about things at school.

Before we started HSing DS, I would lament to my DH how in doing schoolwork with my DD, it would ask questions like, "what do you do to show you love God?" or "how are you becoming more like Christ?" and how we really weren't doing anything beyond going to church and praying over meals. We wanted our kids to know and love Jesus, but we weren't actually DOING anything to help them know and love Him. Well, now we are every day. We pray before school and we pray before bed and read a short devotional. Even my 2 year old begs for her turn to say a prayer.

We are reading through the history of the Bible in school. We are memorizing scripture. And my kids are starting to apply that scripture to their actions. When they argue or complain, the other kid will spout off with "Do everything without arguing or complaining..." and it shuts the complainer right up. I hear my DD singing or saying verses as she is playing all the time.

I FINALLY feel like we are being proactive in our house rather than reactive and that my kids are actually learning what it means to love Jesus and to follow Him.

When My Kids Get Their Feelings Hurt

I am a bit down today because of a few things that happened and are hurting my "mommy heart." Natalie had preschool today and she told me that her 2 best friends (who are boys) did not want her to sit by them today at snack. Then I asked if that's why she sat by the girls today for lunch and she said no, that she sat by herself (she was the only kid on her side of the table while the other girls were across from her). That none of her friends wanted to sit by her today. I'm not sure what to do about that--she's so outgoing and active that she is naturally drawn to the boys, but the boys are starting to not want to play with a girl. While the girls are quiet and just want to play make-believe, so Natalie doesn't really fit in with that either.

The other thing that happened is we had to pick Frank's friend up from school today so we went in a few minutes early so Frank could say hi to his old classmates. When we went into Frank's class, he went immediately to his old cubby and noticed that his name was gone and a new name was up there. It was pretty obvious that upset him. I didn't know how to handle it, so I just ignored it and tried to take his mind off it. I told him that this was the last time we were going to go inside on the days we pick his friend up. It is a real hindrance to his adjusting to being homeschooled. We had to go in 2 weeks ago to drop off his library book and I could see his brain shifting from being content to not being content. Being reminded of the school is not helping at all.

I hate it when my kids get hurt and I don't know how to fix it. The mommy bear in me wants to jump in and save the day and demand the kids sit with Natalie or demand the teacher not remove Frank's name from his old cubby like he never existed in her classroom. I want to shelter them and protect them from ever getting their feelings hurt, but I know that I can't. Even as an adult, my feelings get hurt often. It is just a fact of life that I need to prepare my kids for. Learning to deal with disappointment is a necessary life skill I need to teach my kids.

But it doesn't hurt to dole out a few extra hugs and kisses to help make it all better:)

Losing Weight Hurts

Today is day 2 of the great "Biggest Loser-Family Style" competition. I have done really well today. DH had the day off so we took the kids to a museum and walked around for 1 1/2 hours, then I took Frank and ran errands for 2 hours, came home and went for a 1/2 hour walk with the family, then I spent 1 1/2 hours vacuuming up the leaves in my landscaping rocks (and let me just say that I am seriously considering sending some hate mail to the previous owners of our house who thought putting rocks in the landscaping was a good idea. NOT SO!!!!)

I have carefully watched my diet and have limited my Halloween candy consumption to only 2 mini candy bars (a minor victory). This morning I weighed in 1 pound lighter than yesterday, so I was happy the scale is going in the other direction than normal.

There's just one teeny tiny little problem. MY BODY HURTS LIKE MAD!!! I had to resort to pain killers just so I could get off the couch. Ouch! Ya, I know I was out of shape to begin with, but having every single muscle in my body screaming at me is just plain mean:( I am glad that my body is hurting because it means I'm actually getting a workout, but it sure would be nice if we all came equipped with a "instant muscle" button that we could push whenever we felt like being buff rather than having to go through the work and pain of actually getting in shape.

Despite the pain and hard work of losing weight, I am not giving up this time. I am going to kick some family butt and win this competition and be the Biggest Loser.

Losing Weight--Biggest Loser Family Style

Over the weekend I took the kids to my Grandma's house while my DH was out of town for work. During the course of the weekend we both lamented that we wanted to lose weight. We have a specific event in mind that we want to lose weight for, but I won't expand on that until it is official. Anyway, I jokingly said that we should do a Biggest Loser type competition with our family since we all want to lose weight never dreaming everyone would jump on it with excitement. So today is the official start day of our "Biggest Loser-Family Style" competition.

I hit the pavement running today. Frank rode his bike for moral support and I jogged. Or plodded. Possibly just walked really fast. But I did it. Only one loop around the neighborhood but I jogged the whole time despite feeling every muscle in my body screaming at me to stop. By the end of it, I felt like I was going to die, but I did it and didn't give up. Tomorrow I will maybe run just a tiny bit further and do that every day until I'm running a respectable distance. Like an entire mile:) And I also discovered that the asthma I thought I'd outgrown is still with me. I just haven't worked out in so long that I didn't notice I had it. But I am now coughing a ton and probably need to pull out Frank's inhaler to get my lungs back in order. Rather shocking to know I am that out of shape, which just proves this is a needed step in my life.
I also went shopping and put back almost everything that was unhealthy and stocked up on extra fruits and veggies along with soy and sun nuts for snacking. And my token box of tofu which I always buy when I am starting a diet for some reason:) But I'm going to stirfry it up tonight so it won't just sit there for months until it's spoiled like I normally do.
So far half my family (6 people) are in on the diet competition. I'm expecting almost everyone to join in. After Frank was born and I lost all the weight, the thing that really got me to be serious about it was that my coworkers at the time did a Biggest Loser competition with cash prize and we were all competing against eachother (with support to eachother as well) and having that extra motivation really works for me. I think maybe I am just competitive:)

I am hopeful that this time it's going to work and that I am going to see success in my weightloss journey.

Homeschooling on the Go

I took the kids to my inlaws' lake house this week while my DH was on a work trip. I had planned to not do much by way of formal school since it wasn't practical to haul all those school books along. But seeing as how we were in the middle of a unit study on water, I just couldn't resist using the lake right out the back door and the various rivers all around us to help explain the concept of the water cycle. Of course, the rain we got also helped explain the water cycle:)

I took the kids to see Lake Michigan on a rainy day to observe the crashing waves on the pier (we stayed in the car for safety reasons). We had learned about the erosion power of water so the crashing waves definitely provided a great example of the power of water to erode things. We noted the entrance of a river emptying into Lake Michigan and the area that would sort of be a delta (the piers pretty much keep the sand from collecting). I put a pot of water on the stove to boil to demonstrate water vapor. The kids had a lot of fun putting their hands in the steam to make their hands wet.

We also went to visit a local fish hatchery to observe the fish. We were fortunate to arrive just as they started the automatic fish feeder so the kids had a blast watching the fish jump to get their lunch. We then had the unique privilege of seeing a baby turtle on the sidewalk--his shell was still very soft. We'd learned about turtles a few weeks ago so this was a real treat. Even momma had never seen a baby turtle without a hard shell.

The final lesson of the trip was a lesson on the power of a wind storm when the driving wind knocked out the power to the entire county. We ended up cutting our trip a day short because without a working furnace, water, toilets, or a way to cook food, it was just best to go home.

I bought the kids notebooks and glue sticks to start a "Field Trip Journal" with cut up brochures of the places we visit interspersed with pictures they draw of the things they observed. Natalie drew her own rendition of a rainbow trout while Frank drew a map of the hatchery (the kid is officially obsessed with maps). It will be fun to look back at the end of the year at all the places we have visited and seen.

We're in the Right Place

Today I had to take the kids up to Frank's old school to drop off his library book and pick up his medicine from the office. As we were walking out, Frank's class was coming out of the building to go on a "fall foliage" walk. Frank ran right up to them to say hi and the kids were excited to see him. I thought that going back to the school would make me question our decision to pull him out of school. Instead, it solidified in me that we had made the right decision. No lingering regrets assailed me, only the knowledge that the decision felt right and that school isn't the best place for Frank.

Later that day we went to McDonalds with our playgroup and the moms were asking me how HSing was going. It's the first time I've been asked that so far, and yes, it has only been 1 1/2 weeks so far, but my answer was immediate. "Home schooling is going great! I love it. The kids are enjoying it. I find it to be much easier than taking Frank to school every day."

I think that these little confirmations are important because I was wavering a LOT as the time drew near to pull Frank out. I doubted our decision almost every other minute. But I don't doubt that anymore. I can already see Frank changing for the better, I can see him being challenged to learn. In just a week, I can already see his reading level significantly improve. He can read things today that he couldn't read a week ago. I know he would have eventually learned to read in school, but why make him wait until the teacher got around to teaching him when he so obviously is ready now. Why make him learn how to count to 10 with the rest of his class when he is capable of adding and subtracting 3 place numbers and can already do simple multiplication and division?

But most of all, I know that our decision was right because my kids remind me every morning after breakfast and every evening before bed that I need to pull out the Bible and our Bible study book because it is time to pray. Even little Allison begs for her turn to say her prayer. And the kids are memorizing scripture (and me along with them) and applying it to their daily lives. These are things they would never get in school that in the long run, will mean so much more than anything else they will learn in their lives. I am so thankful that God changed first my heart and than my DH's heart to embrace homeschooling for our family.