North Carolina

Moving really takes a lot of effort when you're an adult! I moved about every 2 years as a child, due to my father being in the Air Force, but it was just fun to move as a kid. Being a grownup requires a bit more work... Anyway, we are all settled in Clemmons, North Carolina, now (and have been for a while), so I figured I should try to get back to blogging.

We are still homeschooling. North Carolina has a few more rules than Texas, but nothing much I wasn't already doing. I had to fill out an online form after we first moved here, establishing our home school, and had to give us a name. We are now Shadow Creek Academy! There's a creek next to our property, and our cat is named Shadow, so that's where the name came from. Nothing too inspirational or meaningful, but it got the most votes among the kids. Then I have to keep attendance - just marking off the days each child does school work - no specific hours worked or anything - just "present" or not. And then I have to give them a standardized test each year, which I was already doing in Texas anyway. The state reserves the right to review your records (attendance and test scores), but apparently that doesn't happen very often. Oh, and when I submitted the initial online form, I also had to submit documentation of my own education (either a high school or university diploma) and that of any other potential teacher (like my husband). Other than that, it's pretty much just as basic as Texas.

This past year has been busier for me though, since my youngest was a full-fledged 1st grader. Having 3 students with a full load takes a bit more time. We also changed things around a bit as we got into the year, finding what worked best with each child. We used Sonlight mostly for history and literature, though my middle child tried out an online history course with Veritas Press. She liked it, but I'm not sure how much she really retained. Veritas Press is heavier on memorizing dates and events, which I thought would be good for my middle child, who is good at memorizing - but she didn't really care for that part - just the stories and video clips. It was pretty good, but more expensive than I'd like, seeing as we've already got all the Sonlight books. We're going to go back to all Sonlight for history this coming year.

We had some issues with working independently this past year. I tried to have the girls do more of their work on their own, since I was feeling overwhemled at times. But over time, I let the accountability drop more than I should have (meaning I didn't check up on whether they really did the work they were supposed to be doing), and we had to go back and re-do (or rather, do for the first time) some of the work. But I think we've gotten that straightened out. I will be doing more spot checks, and doing more work together with them (longer days for me...), and the girls have learned more about being responsible.

Part of the reason I let the girls work on their own so much was the amount of time I needed to spend with my youngest. We struggled with finding the right reading curriculum for my youngest, but he is now, finally, reading quite well. I think it wasn't really having the find the right type of curriculum - I think he just needed time. Something just clicked only a few months ago, and now it all makes sense to him. He was this way with speaking too - he hardly said any words for a long time, and then he suddenly started speaking in full, long sentences. He has read through the Beginner's Bible twice on his own in just the past few weeks. So I now have 3 readers!

Right now, I am preparing plans for next year, and hopefully I will put some more of those thoughts into this blog in the near future.

From NASA to NASCAR

My husband became eligible for early retirement from NASA a year ago, and so he's been looking into possible other jobs for a while now. Neither of us are too fond of Houston summers, hurricanes, or the flatness. We knew we didn't want to live here forever, so when the government started offering "early outs" for which he was eligible, we decided it might be the right time for us to leave.

My husband began looking almost 2 years ago for possible jobs near San Antonio or the Hill Country in Texas (we did still like the rest of Texas!), but not much turned up. Then, he branched out and started looking at jobs in other states. I wrote about this once before, about a year ago when we had a potential lead on a job. That one fell through, though, so we stayed put.

Just a few months ago, after we'd pretty much accepted that nothing better was available right now, my husband got in contact with a NASCAR team in North Carolina looking for engineers. He flew up there for an interview, and it sounds like it's a really good match. They want to hire him, and we are finalizing the details now. So, just like that, it sounds like we're moving to (near) Welcome, North Carolina!

It is tricky enough to move with three young kids, but adding that to the typical busyness of Christmas is maybe not the best idea! They want my husband to start work there in January, so we are going to try to sell the house as soon as we can. We had a POD delivered a few days ago, so we can start de-cluttering. Painters have come the past 2 days to freshen the paint indoors and repaint our front deck, which is very worn. We are in contact with a few realtors, both here and in North Carolina. So things are really starting to get moving. I am already tired of packing. We have way too many books! And so much dust.... (yeah, I don’t dust much around here.)

December has also been very full of music. I have various rehearsals and concerts happening every weekend, and throughout the week, both for me and the girls. We have travel plans to visit my in-laws. We have parties to attend. We have houses to look at online. And my husband is trying to finalize all the retirement paperwork with NASA. Not to mention still trying to homeschool the kids. So, I may not write again for a while....

Got to go – more books to pack!

Baptism

My middle child, Reanna, was baptized yesterday! She asked Jesus into her heart over a year ago, but she was not ready to be baptized then. Over this past summer, she started asking more questions about it, and by this fall, was more than ready to be baptized. We met with the children's minister at church, and she agreed that Reanna understood quite a bit, and knew the significance of baptism - that it was to show others that she had already accepted Jesus as her Lord, and had asked Him to be her Savior.

So, a week after turning 7, she was baptized. She was so excited that morning! We got there plenty early, and stood waiting in the dressing room behind the baptistery (she was too excited to sit).

She had wanted the children's minister, Karen, to baptize her. Reanna was all eager to get started, but when the time came to step into the water, she turned a little hesitant. The water was deep for this little below-average-height child! But she made it down close enough to grab Karen's hand, and floated the rest of the way to the brick to stand on.

I think she was a bit distracted, and thinking a million thoughts, and so had to be asked twice if she had asked Jesus into her heart, but then she answered with a quite loud, "Yes!" to the amusement of the congregation.

She held her nose, and was dipped below the water, and came up spouting water with a slightly panicked look on her face, but after a few seconds, that bright smile popped out, and she was grinning ear to ear. She talked non-stop after that, while I dried her off and got her changed.

The children's minister also gave us a good idea to help us remember this day. Many times, when children are baptized this young, they don't retain a solid memory of the day. I know I don't have too many memories of my own baptism, when I was 5 or 6, though I do remember some moments. Karen suggested that we make a celebration of this day every year, like a second birthday. Celebrate with some sort of gift that has spiritual significance, like a prayer book, or Bible verse bookmark, or something similar that is age appropriate. Then, this day, and the exact date, will be remembered much more easily. So, for Reanna, this will be easy to remember - her baptism day, or her spiritual birthday, however we decide to call it, is just one week past her regular birthday. What a wonderful way to celebrate her new life in Christ!

Getting Into the Groove of Things

My “resistant” students (see my last post) have gotten better over the past week or two. We are getting into our schedule fairly well, and are managing to get everything done within a fairly reasonable time, with minimal whining and pouting. Our days (or at least, my days) are longer than last year, due to having an additional student (my youngest), and due to my 4th grader having more work to do this year. On Mondays and Tuesdays, we tend to not finish until close to 3pm or so, after starting around 8:30 (but taking a long lunch break). Wednesdays and Fridays are a little shorter, since I put several of the “once a week” topics (piano lessons, geography and health for the littles) on the first days, to get them over with. Science with my oldest is only M/Tu/W. We have modified a few things, and streamlined the schedule, and I’m sure we’ll do more of that as the year passes, but things are pretty good right now.

On Thursdays (today), all 3 kids go to a once-a-week Academy that has recently started up in our area, offering a variety of elective classes in one location from different teachers in the area. My youngest goes to a K-1st enrichment class, mostly dealing with science and animals. My girls go to several 2nd-4th grade classes, including geography, art, and science. They all have lunch there, and my youngest also has an hour of recess/playtime with other kids his age. And I get a break!

This is just our 2nd week of this Academy, but my youngest is still quite resistant to it. He has cried both times I’ve left him there. I’m hoping he grows to like it, since I hate leaving a crying child for the teacher to deal with. He was happy when I picked him up last week, though he still said later that he didn’t like it. I pick him up right after playtime, at 12:30, so it’s not really that long of a time for him, but he feels that it is. It might also be hard for him since he’s also started several new classes at church, and it just takes him a while to get comfortable with new situations.

Anyway, so today I have time to write, though I’m hanging out at church instead of going home. Our church and the Academy are both about 35 minutes away from our house, so instead of driving so much, I figured I’d try staying in the area until I pick them up after lunch. We will see how it goes!

Resistant Students

This past Monday, we started up with our full load for this school year. I had already started the full load with my younger two a couple weeks ago. But now we're doing the full load with my 4th grader too. And it has been a difficult week. Is it only Wednesday still?

I have 2 rather resistant students - my youngest and my oldest. They both would really rather just play. We have had a number of talks these past few days, about the rules for when we're doing school (like no electronics, no talking or sound effects while I'm reading aloud, no pestering me with questions about what time we eat lunch while I'm in the middle of a lesson with another child, etc.), about the value of education, about the value of persistence, about obeying your parents....

My youngest is having adjustment issues since this is his first year of homeschooling. He went to preschool 3 days a week last year (and loved it), but has been very insistent that he wants to be homeschooled for kindergarten. I'm not sure he understood that this involves doing actual work at home, and not just perpetual playtime. We are mostly working on learning to read this year, but he struggles with blending. I've tried (over the summer and up til now) All About Reading (not quite ready for level 1, I don't think), and A Beka (not sure the consonant-vowel blend ladders are as intuitive as word families for him), and now we're taking a break and trying Reading Eggs, with him sitting on my lap in front of the computer as he does the lessons. He is ok with this, though not too happy. We'll see. The only other main things I'm doing with him are math (using MathSeeds for that right now, again sitting on my lap), and Sonlight Core A for Bible/literature/history/science. He likes the Sonlight stuff best, and it only takes 15-20 minutes, but he still has to be scolded almost every time for playing (noisily) with his toys while I read. His full load is not that long - maybe an hour altogether - so hopefully he'll settle into it soon. Once reading starts to "click," I think it will be better too.

My oldest is having adjustment issues since 4th grade is requiring a bit more work than 3rd grade. I'm trying to push things a bit more this year. She's way ahead in reading ability, history, science - but still struggles with handwriting, writing, spelling, and math. So, that's the work she resists doing, of course. In the past, I have let her drop some things that she struggled with, thinking that at her grade level, it wasn't that much of a big deal. But this year, I'm not planning on letting her drop much at all. So, our days are rather long (due to all the scolding and "pep talks" I'm having to give, and having to re-do some things when she wasn't paying attention). But I am hopeful that once we get into the schedule a few more days, she will get used to it, and things will go more smoothly. Today was already quite a bit better.

So, it's been a tough few days, but we're still going, despite my threats of packing them off to "big school." My middle child is my inspiration. She is eager, happy, and determined to do whatever I ask her to do. She loves worksheets, she loves reading, she loves math - she just loves school. She is a joy to teach. Of course, she's not perfect either, but she is an encouragement. And the other two have their moments of teaching joy too - my youngest's giggles of happiness when he recognizes a rhyme, and my oldest's amazing inventions she comes up with, with intricate detail and surprising links to what we've been studying (when I didn't think she was listening).

Your new school year may be starting out tough too, but try to find the high points, no matter how rare. It will get better. Just keep at it.

Summer Is Coming

I almost considered turning the air conditioner on in my car today. It was stuffy, a bit humid, and it was about 78 degrees outside. I turned the fan up and rolled down the windows instead, but still, I am reminded that summer is coming. The weather report said it's supposed to be in the 80s tomorrow.

For those of you who live up north (anywhere north of Houston is North), you may be jealous of our warmth, and be thinking that the fact that summer is coming is a good thing. Well, you may be cooped up inside all winter with freezing cold outside, but we are cooped up all summer with unbearable heat outside!

I thought last summer might have been our last one in Houston, as my husband was looking for a new job. He was interviewed for a really promising one in North Carolina this past December, and we were starting to get our house ready to put on the market, but that job fell through, we recently found out, and we are back to square one. So we may end up spending another summer here after all. It's all still a little up in the air, as my husband is still looking for a job in various places. He doesn't need a job - he has a perfectly fine one, but he is eligible for early retirement this year, and so we decided it might be worth looking to try and move away from the Houston climate. (and it's ok for me to post this publicly, as his bosses know all about it anyway)

I have to admit, I love warm weather. 80-85 is about perfect for me. So as long as I have air conditioning in the summer when I want it, I'm really ok staying here. But I wouldn't mind losing the humidity either.

The near-move this past month or two is probably why I haven't blogged lately. At least that will be my excuse. Uncertainty about our plans has made planning extracurricular activities for the kids difficult too. I purposefully didn't sign the kids up for too much this school year, fearing that we might move half-way through. Now, it's about time to start signing up for the more popular programs for next year, and I'm not sure what to do. Pay a deposit now, and maybe have to lose the money later if we do move this spring or summer or fall? Wait until we know more, and risk the most interesting classes being full?

I bought a nice, large whiteboard last fall, which we are using for spelling, math, and many other things. For the longest time, I had it propped against a wall, and had the kids (and me) sit on the floor to use it. It was a bit awkward, but I didn't want to put more holes in the wall if we were going to put the house on the market soon. Well, when this recent job opportunity fell through, I decided to just go ahead and hang up the whiteboard. It's so nice to be able to stand at the board, and not sit hunched over to write on it!

I think we just need to trust that things will happen when they're going to happen, and not worry too much about planning ahead. I don't mean not to plan - I'm a devoted planner, after all - but just to not over-plan. Do what seems best right now, and don't worry about what else (or what two trillion potential possibilities) might happen later. I think God lets us see just as far as we need to, and wants us to trust Him for what's around the corner. He'll handle it. I don't need to worry about it. Plan, yes, but worry, no.

Summer is coming. That's a fact. But God's got it all under control.

Thankful

I am so thankful that my entire family approves of our decision to homeschool our kids. I read about others who face opposition and negativity from the grandparents, siblings, even spouses. I read about divorced parents where one actually presses charges against the other over homeschooling. I read about grandparents that sue for custody over homeschooling. I read about lost relationships, broken ties and angry words among family members, just over homeschooling.

I didn't start out planning to homeschool. I sent my oldest to public kindergarten over 3 years ago, and breathed a sigh of relief! None of my family members tried to convince me to homeschool. None of them mentioned it really.

But we all apparently had thoughts about it in the back of our minds. I had considered it since my firstborn was born. It was an option. We had quite a few friends and neighbors who homeschooled. Our school district wasn't the best, and I thought maybe after a few years of public school, we'd bring them home, before they got to the dreaded middle school years with all that peer pressure. "Later" just turned out to be earlier than I had thought.

When I discussed it with my husband, he just nodded and started coming up with more and more reasons to homeschool.

When I told my parents, they smiled broadly and after a few conversations about how to do it, whether I would be ok with delaying my other career plans, and asking when they could help, we were set.

When I told the church choir about our schooling plans during prayer time, I don't know how many people said, "Good for you!" - and prayed for us.

When I told my in-laws (with a little trepidation, I have to admit), my mother-in-law smiled and admitted, "I've been praying you would decide to homeschool," despite never having mentioned it to me before.

My brother-in-law and his wife thought it was a great idea. My brother and his girlfriend thought it was great. No one spoke in condemnation of it, no one told me it was a bad idea, no one discouraged me. Sure, some probably had some doubts and concerns, and some mentioned other cases they had heard of which didn't turn out very well, but I didn't feel any strong negativity toward our decision. Maybe it helped that I have more education than most public school teachers, in a variety of fields. Maybe it helped that I was also a good student and a life-long learner.

But whatever the cause, whatever the background of all my family members that made them view homeschooling in a positive light (none of whom were ever homeschooled themselves) - I am just thankful. It makes it so much easier. And it makes it so much easier when they compliment the kids' progress every now and then, send little notes of encouragement, and tell me how glad they are we're still homeschooling. That can turn a negative, poor, sad day (when I'm considering packing them off to school somewhere) into a happy, relieved, positive day (when I remember how lucky I am to be able to homeschool).

I am very blessed to have such a supportive environment, among family and among friends and neighbors. I have never had anyone tell me I'm crazy or that my kids will turn out terrible. The store clerks just smile and chat - one even told my daughter that the smartest people she knows were homeschooled. One told me that she's trying to convince her grown daughter to homeschool her kids, and asked me about support groups in the area. Even the public school teacher and counselor were very encouraging when I withdrew my oldest. Maybe God knows I needed all this positivity to make the decision He wanted me to make. Whatever the reason, I am thankful.

Pizza

Earlier this week, while we (all the kids and I) were driving around to various activities, we saw a big 18-wheeler truck with one of those bigger-than-life-size images of food plastered onto the side. This one was for spinach pizza. No, it wasn't close to lunch time or dinner time - it was early morning, actually - but it still made me hungry. My middle child (the one who eats vegetables) also thought it looked wonderful. The other kids - not so much.

We just happened to be going to the grocery store later that day, and I just happened to see a box of frozen spinach pizza. So I bought it. It wasn't the same brand as we saw on the truck, but with the encouragement of my daughter, we decided to try it out. Normally, our pizzas have pepperoni, sausage, bacon, more pepperoni, etc. But a vegetarian pizza sounded good for a change.

And it was absolutely one of the best pizzas I have ever eaten! Only my middle daughter and I ate it, but that was fine - more for us! So I thought I'd write a blog post about it, if you would like to try it out too. It came from a company just called Amy's Kitchen. They claim to be the nation's leading natural (vegetarian) frozen food brand. I just may have to try some more of their stuff...

Birthday Time!

My middle child turned 6 two days ago, and my youngest child turns 5 today. So we had their party the day between their birthdays this year. We went to the Little Gym for their party, since they love gymnastics (and so I wouldn't have to clean house...). Here's a bunch of pictures.

The cake and cupcakes:

Play Time:

Running across the beam

And jump!

Balance walking

Two at once

 Hula Hoop moves:

Moving too fast to capture

Bubbles!

All tuckered out

Big sister gets to swing too: 

Cake Time:

Dig in!

 Time for a few presents:

Fish Food, Doctors, and Sniffles

This week has been a bit abnormal for us. In other words, we're not getting as much school work done as I would like. I had my annual check-up on Tuesday, which means most of that day was lost, what with dropping off my boy at preschool, driving to my parents' house to drop off the girls, driving to the doctor's office, driving to pick up some Chick-fil-A, driving back to my parents' house for lunch with them and the girls, driving back to the preschool to pick up my boy, and driving home. We didn't feel like doing much school work after that.

Today, my oldest has been rather sniffly and not feeling well, either due to allergies or a cold that's going around. She didn't even feel up to taking her ballet class today, so I'm letting her have a sick day. At least I did get more reading work done with my middle girl.

Then, I've also spent an inordinate amount of time this week cleaning the fish tank

I just cleaned it on Monday - the first time in a rather long time, poor fish - which took quite a while, to do a thorough job. Then on Tuesday, I glanced at it as I rushed past and thought it looked rather cloudy. Strange, I thought. Later that day, after all our running about, I looked more closely and saw a ton of food covering the bottom of the tank.

After (loudly) calling all three children to come and look, I determined that my youngest was at fault. He says he got up in the middle of the night and decided to feed the fish. With about half the container of food.

Ok?

So, I cleaned the fish tank again. It still looks cloudy today, but I think I'll wait until tomorrow to clean the tank again. The fish is still alive, after all. And it's only Wednesday.

Sunflowers

We grew sunflowers this summer - giant ones. Then we read about how to dry them and harvest the seeds. My husband did most of the work, but we are just now getting to the part where we remove the seeds from the dried flowers and use them for something.

We have still been doing bird studies for science (almost done), and we recently made bird feeders out of empty milk jugs. So our plan is to put the sunflower seeds into the bird feeders. The kids have all been rather excited about it, especially making the bird feeders (one for each - fortunately, we drink a lot of milk, so just happened to have 3 empty milk jugs handy).

But after the initial excitement of figuring out how to get the seeds out of the dried flowers today, my 2 younger ones have given up rather quickly. It is hard work, separating the seeds from the rest of the flower. My oldest is still outside, but the younger 2 have come in to play play-dough. It is rather warm outside still, I have to admit. We are eagerly awaiting the cold front that is supposed to come through Saturday night, bringing highs only in the high 70s (and lows in the 50s!)

 We've had some other excitement lately. My husband found a puppy on the side of the road near our house two days ago, and we have not been able to find the owner. We might be willing to keep it, but it looks like a Rottweiler, and we're not sure we really want that breed of dog. So we're searching for someone who might want him....

My middle child came down with a stomach bug yesterday morning too, but fortunately, it only lasted a few hours, and she is fine now. My youngest came down with a fever and a cough almost 2 weeks ago. His fever only lasted a day too (of course, the day we had a really good field trip planned), but the cough is only now gone.

And on top of all that, my husband has been furloughed without a job since Tuesday, when the government shut down. It is handy to have him home for a few days, but I think we'd both prefer it if this was just (paid) vacation time and not forced, unpaid time off. Fortunately, we have enough savings to last us for a while, but not forever....

First Day of School

No, not our first day. But most of the public school kids around here went back to school today. I lost count of how many "first day" pictures I saw on Facebook today. And how many comments I read about quiet houses - some said sadly, some said happily.

I wouldn't mind a quiet house, and a whole day for myself. Being an extreme introvert, I really crave quiet time by myself.... But I wouldn't trade homeschooling even for a whole school year of quiet days. We've been at it for 2 1/2 years now, and I've seen the immeasurable benefits of it. For all of us. Restructuring of priorities, amazingly increased self-esteem and a boundless curiosity about the world for my oldest, intellectual leaps and bounds for both girls, a growing desire to help out around the house for my little boy, the opportunity to notice how creative and skillful a builder and "maker" my son is turning out to be, an obviously sincere interest in others shown by all my children to people they meet of all ages and stations in life, a closeness between all the siblings that will never break, a growing depth to our love and thankfulness for and amazement of God, and a vision of how intertwined God is with the whole universe - not just something added on at the end of the day or on Wednesday nights or Sundays.

Nope, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Of course, there are negatives as well, and days that I threaten them with sending them to "big" school. Childish arguments, temper tantrums, stubbornness, not listening to directions, not listening to anything I say, slamming doors, whining (oh, the whining!), a lack of personal free time for me, the challenge of scheduling appointments when I have to find a babysitter first. But still, I wouldn't trade it.

I thought I'd give a run down of our day today, for comparison, perhaps? Probably a fairly typical day, though we're (I'm) still getting used to how to schedule things with 2 full-time students instead of 1 - trying to prod my oldest into doing a bit more of her independent work independently, instead of sitting there watching me teach her sister.

So, I don't know what time we started this morning. Breakfast is email reading time, so sometimes it takes me a while to get going. Maybe around 8:30 or 9:00?

• Read 1st grader a Bible story while she colors
• Study 3rd grade Bible lesson with oldest daughter
• Start up a 1st grade history lesson video
• Teach 3rd grade English, spelling, math, and world history (learning about England in 900 AD today)
• Tell 3rd grader to finish reading chapter book, and do reading comprehension worksheet, handwriting practice, vocabulary practice on computer, logic puzzles on computer, math fact review on computer, and complete a review on bird facts learned in her science book (all of which should take about an hour total)
• Teach 1st grade math, logic, and half of the reading lesson
• Read 1st grade read-alouds (with 3rd grader listening in, who has done exactly 1 of the tasks I gave her earlier) (interspersed with worry about why my 4-year-old is being so quiet, until he comes to listen in, holding a complex Lego model of some sort of vehicle)
• Take a break for the kids to watch the newest episode of "Paw Patrol"
• Lunch
• Ask my 3rd grader questions about the chapter book she finished and then tell her to finish the other "independent" work she should have already been doing
• Finish the 1st grade reading lesson
• Teach my 3rd grader a piano lesson
• Tell my 3rd grader, again, to finish her "independent" work
• Let the 1st grader and 4-year-old watch "Paw Patrol" again while I exercise in the TV room (it's raining today, and if it weren't, it would be too hot to play outside during the afternoon anyway)
• Let all 3 kids play with the (very loud) rhythm instruments while I take a quick shower
• Take away the (very loud) rhythm instruments when I come out
• Let the 1st grader and 4-year-old play on the piano while I sew some
• Read-aloud for my 3rd grader (and 4-year-old who wants to listen in)
• And done for the day! Play time! Legos! Dinner! More play time! (unfortunately, still raining outside...) Is it bedtime yet?

That's basically it, not counting a few chores, bathroom breaks, checking-on-the-4-year-old breaks.... We switch out different subjects on some days, like geography, art, exercise, health, history of the horse instead of world history, etc. I admit I haven't been doing too much with the 4-year-old lately - he will be starting preschool next week, 3 days a week. I think he'll get a lot out of being with other boys for a while, and I'm not as good with entertaining teaching preschoolers as I am with slightly older ones. And the girls will be starting ballet lessons in a few weeks. And they all will be starting Team Kid on Wednesday nights in a few weeks (missions, physical activity, teamwork, music, etc.). But we get done with most of the main subjects by around lunchtime, and tidy up the loose ends throughout the afternoon and evening, whenever we feel like it. (I have checklists - I'd never remember everything without them.) And then we take breaks some days for field trips - hopefully one tomorrow morning, to the airport.

Nope, I wouldn't trade homeschooling for anything.

Tendonitis

Well, here I said I was going to try and write more often, and then I take a 3-week break! I have a somewhat good excuse though. I've had tendonitis for years - it seemed to start after my first child was born, and then it got better.

Then after my second child was born, it got worse again. Then it got better.

Then my third child was born, and it got worse again.

This time, it never really went away. I complained to my doctor, had an x-ray which showed some calcification of my tendon, and got sent to physical therapy for a few months. It got better. That was about 2 years ago.

Then last summer/early fall, it got worse again - worse than it had ever been before. I started getting sudden jolts of pain when I moved my arm too quickly. Another x-ray showed more calcification, and I went to physical therapy again. The therapists were surprised by my limited range of motion, and while the pain disappeared and I slowly improved, it was very slow, and at least one of the therapists wondered if I might have a "frozen shoulder" - where the tendons or muscles have "locked up" and take a while (1-2 years) to go back to normal. But I learned all the exercises and starting in January of this year, I just did my exercise routine once or even twice a day on my own. I think it was still slowly getting better.

But then, about 2 weeks ago, I noticed a marked increase in soreness during the day, and by that night, I woke up in extreme pain and was just sure I had torn my rotator cuff or something. I called an orthopedic specialist the next day and got an appointment (not until a whole week later), but the pain became excruciating, especially at night. I couldn't move my arm at all, and even touching my shoulder hurt terribly. There was no position I could put my arm in that would lessen the pain. I think it was worse than childbirth, even before I got an epidural! When my husband got home from work that day, I was just in tears with the pain. I had to cancel going to our music co-op (I couldn't really drive), and I had to find a substitute to play the piano for me in church that weekend. I could do absolutely nothing with that arm. Taking ibuprofen and acetaminophen helped take the edge off the pain some, but I couldn't sleep at night laying down on the bed more than an hour or so at a time. The recliner, with a heating pad, was the best I could do.

Fortunately, I was able to get in to see the doctor a few days early, and they x-rayed me, gave me a cortisone shot, and 2 prescriptions for an anti-inflammatory and stronger pain medicine. By that night, I was much, much happier. The x-ray showed a rather large spot of calcification on my shoulder - right where it was the most painful to touch. From what the doctor said, and from my own internet research, I think what happened is that the calcification went into a re-absorption phase, where the calcium starts to break up and get absorbed into the body. Apparently, that is the most painful phase, and I can attest to that! The calcification can be growing for quite some time - 6-18 months, I think I read on one site, and then spontaneously starts to break up. So I don't know if the previous times I had x-rays that showed calcification, perhaps the spots never got too large and I never really noticed the re-absorption part? Or maybe this one place on my shoulder has been forming for a really long time, and just now started to break up?

In any case, the pain disappeared almost completely about 4-5 days later, though my strength and range of motion in that arm is still really bad. It's possible something is still blocking my range of motion, and that's why my earlier progress in physical therapy was so slow - perhaps a bone spur or something? I go back to the orthopedic doctor on Monday, so maybe he'll have some ideas then. I do hope I don't have to have surgery. I am re-starting physical therapy, at least for a few sessions, so we'll see what happens.

Anyway, that's my excuse for not writing much the past 2-3 weeks. It's pretty hard to type with just one hand, and for a week or so there, I wasn't feeling up to doing much typing (or even thinking straight) anyway.

On the bright side, my 4-year-old son learned how to dress himself much better (even the buttons!), and my 7-year-old daughter learned how to wash at least some of the dishes (the plastic ones ;-). And my sweet 5-year-old daughter prays for my shoulder every single night.

Happy New Year's Eve!

I think my New Year's resolution should be to write a blog post at least twice a week! We'll see how that goes. We've been having internet trouble lately, so hopefully I can post this today, the last day of 2012.

We went to stay with my in-laws for Christmas, in New Mexico. Two out of three kids ended up being sick in the car on the way there. It turns out both of them were sick before we left, though we didn't know it. The youngest was only sick for a short time - some sort of stomach bug - and was fine the rest of the trip. The middle child apparently had an infection which added to her typical motion sickness, and when she didn't stop throwing up after we stopped driving, we ended up taking her to the ER (our first trip to one). She had to be rehydrated with an IV and have antibiotics. Not a fun time. But by the next morning, she was back to smiling and talking and running around. And on the trip back home, all 3 kids were perfectly healthy and happy.

Other than that, our Christmas was great! It figures - all the kids have been so healthy for the entire last year, and then 2 get sick the day we leave on a trip!

I am experimenting with typing my blog post on my tablet instead of the computer. I don't think I like it as much. The touch keypad is much harder to use than a regular keyboard, and the formatting keeps getting messed up. In fact, I think I'll switch over to the laptop before I post this and clean it up a bit.

Ah, much better! Much faster too. I guess I'll stick to blogging on a real computer.

Catching Up Update

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written a blog post. I guess we've been busy. And once I get out of the habit of blogging, I tend to take a while to get back into it.

We went to Disneyworld at the end of September, to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary.

A year or so ago, when we were discussing what they'd like to do, they picked a trip to Disneyworld with the grandkids as their favorite choice. So we went! We weren't sure we were going to make it a few times, what with my dad's health issues - coming down with mysterious physical and mental issues (soon after making the Disneyworld reservations a year ahead of time), being diagnosed with NPH, having brain surgery this past January, the slow recovery. But things seemed to be improving so much by this summer that we got our hopes up again. We made it to the week before, started getting out suitcases, started packing - and then my dad had some suspicious heartbeats during a physical therapy session and ended up in the hospital again a few days before the trip was to start. They did so many tests, but (thanks to so many prayers, most likely), they found nothing wrong, and released him from the hospital 1 day before our flight to Orlando!

Fortunately, they had already packed. We left on time, and had a great time! This was the first time for all 3 grandkids, and they absolutely loved it. We all loved watching them love it, too.

My son (3 years old at the time) cried every time a ride was over, and I had to pry his hands off the handlebars and bribe him with another ride to get  him out. The Speedway was his favorite, where you get to drive your own car around the track. I had to carry him away kicking and screaming when that ride was over.

The girls loved everything too, and a couple nights we took them back out to see fireworks after leaving their little brother sleeping in the hotel room with the grandparents. They felt like they owned the parks.

They really loved everything. The hotel (Old Key West resort), the buses, boats, and monorails we took to get to all the parks, the rides, the shows, the walking (or strolling) around, the rides, the food, the characters (well, only the oldest was brave enough for them), the rides, the music floating in the air everywhere, the princesses, the lines (mostly short, but they still liked the lines too), the rides. Did I mention the rides? We got 6-day tickets, and went early most days and went back later most days too.

The kids were amazingly good. And my parents, though tiring more easily than they wished, had a lot of fun too, getting wished happy anniversary everywhere we went.

Anyway, after all that excitement, it was time for annual and bi-annual doctor and dentist appointments, which are always tricky to schedule. And then I've been having more and more shoulder pain, and am now in the midst of physical therapy for tendonitis and extreme range of motion limitations. I did physical therapy 2 years ago, and it got better, but the past 3-4 months, it has gotten much worse than it ever was before. So this is putting a damper on our schedule too, going 2 times a week to therapy.

But school has been plugging away. Ryan is loving his preschool classes, 3 mornings a week, and has already gotten better with his alphabet and counting than he had been doing with me. I think he likes to flirt with his teachers.

Reanna has already learned many of her addition facts, and even some multiplication facts, mostly thanks to computer programs and games. She is also reading some 3-letter words, and sounds out everything she sees. Now that she's 5 (and Ryan is 4 - their joint birthday the beginning of this month was another big deal) - anyway, now that she's 5, she said she's ready to go to "big school" and wants to ride the bus and have a classroom full of kids. She doesn't seem daunted when I tell her that she's already doing some 1st grade work, and she wouldn't be able to start public kindergarten until about 9 months from now. Actually, I think she'd really like going to kindergarten anyway, just for the social aspect.

Rebekah is still doing great with CLE Math, and is ahead of schedule there. She is reading her CLE readers and Sonlight books more and more easily, and is always eager to narrate them to me. Her artistic and musical skills are expanding rapidly, and her spelling is actually improving (we've switched to Rod & Staff spelling 2, which I've had for over a year sitting in my bookshelf). Her handwriting still needs work.... She's learned about the government, listened to me read Hillyer's history, experimented with pulleys and studied Einstein, and done all sorts of Bible story projects. So far, so good!

And now we're taking a break for Thanksgiving. Hopefully I'll blog some more before our Christmas break!

Potty Training #3

Ok, I promised my next post would be about potty training, so here it is. I have had the hardest time with my 3rd child, who happens to be a boy. The girls weren't that easy either, but I had begun to think that my youngest would never learn. He's already 3 years and 8 months, after all, and we're just now making some headway.

I started working with him over a year ago, but he definitely did not seem ready. He very obviously had no clue about what was happening when he had an accident. He had no bodily control at all, and I think it scared him. We would try for a day or so, and then I'd give up, since he so obviously wasn't ready. Maybe he would have gotten the hang of it earlier if I had been more persistent, but I didn't see any hope of progress being made at that time, not without a lot of one-on-one attention from me (like all-day attention), and I just didn't want to spend that much time on it at the expense of teaching my oldest, doing preschool with my middle, fixing meals, washing the dishes, sleeping, etc. It just wasn't going to happen, if I was to keep my sanity, and I didn't see any real reason to traumatize him.

So we waited. I tried again every now and then, without much sign of progress. It was kind of nice for a while, since whenever I took off his diaper, he would lay down on the changing pad and not move until I put another diaper on him! Good for when I needed him to calm down for a while and stop running around the house.

But just this past month, he has made a breakthrough. He stopped screaming when I put him on the toilet, he began to show more comprehension of the whole process, and he even was happy (ecstatic) when he successfully used the potty seat. It took quite a while to get him to stop sitting on the potty seat for hours on end, and to realize that he could "hold it" for a while. But it was nice that he really didn't want to make messes on the floor - I had to clean up after my girls a lot more than I am having to with my boy.

To make a long story short, he now wears underwear the entire morning until naptime, and most of the afternoon/evening between naptime and bedtime (as long as we don't go anywhere). He uses the toilet and not the potty seat. He still has accidents if I don't remind him to go (and often physically take him) to the bathroom. He still has a hard time with #2. And he still will only use the one toilet he has "practiced" on. But he is making so much progress! Now I just need to train him to put his clothes back on afterwards, and convince him that he can use different toilets. My middle child just recently learned how to last the entire night without a diaper, so we are rapidly approaching the diaper-free zone. I am so looking forward to no more diapers!

Swimming Lessons

We are taking a break from most school work this past week and this week, and all 3 kids are taking swimming lessons at the local city pool. It is going better than I expected! My daughters are both scared of water, or at least, they have been. My oldest daughter was supposed to take swimming lessons last year, but after the first 10 minutes or so, she refused to get in the water any more.

This year, she has stayed in the pool.

The instructors are so patient, and have been guiding her very gently into doing more. Today, she actually got off the steps (don't laugh - this is a big deal for her!) and let the instructor glide her around the pool. She also practiced what they call the monkey crawl, where they hang on to the edge of the pool and inch along one hand at a time to make their way to the nearest ladder to get out. And, she even dunked herself completely under water! And came up smiling! We have 3 more days left of lessons, and I am very happy with her progress.

I thought my younger daughter would do great in her lessons, with her adventurous, more outgoing nature, but last week was not the best. She cried and even screamed whenever they tried to carry her into the deeper water off the steps, and refused to do the monkey crawl. By Friday, she said she never wanted to go swimming again. However, she calmed down over the weekend, and today, she did not cry one single bit! And she let them float her around, and did the monkey crawl several times! I'm not sure what brought about this change, but she now says she can't wait for her next lesson.

My son, the youngest, has taken to the water like a fish. He absolutely loves it. The first day, he was scared, and it took a while for me to coax him into the pool, but after that, he has never looked back. He kicks away, holding onto a float board, does the monkey crawl all by himself back and forth, and is even starting to swim a few strokes all by himself.

The younger two are taking the preschool class together, while my oldest is in the level 1 class. I am very impressed with the instructors and the whole set-up, and it is even much cheaper than many of the other swim classes around (plus it's close to our house). The level 1 class is limited to 8 kids, and at the original time we signed up for, there were 8 kids in the class. The coordinator noticed how nervous Rebekah was, and how shy she seemed, and suggested that we change to the class 1 hour later, as there were only 3 in that class. So we did, and it has been perfect. The preschool class at this hour only has 3 kids, including my 2, so it is really nice too.

Now, if only the weather would cool down a bit - 101 is too hot for me, and they won't let me jump in the pool!

Missionary Games

I overheard my girls playing today with the Legos and cars that are always piled on our "train" table. I was reading some things at my desk, so it only gradually dawned on me what they were playing. They were pretending to be missionaries (or pretending that their cars were missionaries, I'm not sure). My oldest was saying something about "but no one here is a Christian" while my youngest was trying to tell everyone (or every car and Lego man) about Jesus.

It made me smile, that's for sure! Whether it's due to the GAs and Mission Friends classes at church, or the missionary biography stories we've been reading for school (mostly from Hero Tales), or a combination of everything, missionary work is on their minds. I had just been telling my oldest, at her bedtime last night, about an article I had recently read. It told of a missionary to a small village in a remote area, where not only was no one a Christian, but they were overtly hostile toward Christians. But thanks to months of prayer, and God's miraculous healing power, a church was born there, with 35 or more new Christians. They began to make a huge difference in the village, where drunkenness and spirit (demon) worship had been common.

I have really ended up liking the stories in Hero Tales, which was suggested by Sonlight, in an older version of Core A. They are amazing stories, and make me quite emotional sometimes, which makes them hard to finish reading aloud. I wasn't sure how much my oldest was getting out of them, but I guess she really is listening.

I like the title of the book too - Hero Tales. Missionaries really are the type of heroes I want my children to admire, and perhaps emulate. How hard it is in our culture to imagine giving up the little luxuries that we take for granted (or even big ones, like running water), to live in another culture, with little income, with no thought for career advancement (at least here on Earth). How rare it is for someone to aim for such a life, instead of a career as a lawyer, engineer, computer specialist, scientist, doctor, athlete, etc., with the accompanying big house, 2+ cars, etc. (And how many parents truly want that for their child? Do I, really, when I really think about it? I'm reminded of the verse where Jesus said it was harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.) How hard it is to go through with such a life, instead of just thinking that being a missionary would be "neat." Perhaps the drive to become a missionary starts now, in childhood, and with continued exposure to the real-life miracles that those who are fully committed to Christ may see every day. Perhaps such an emphasis might even change the parent....

Baptism

My firstborn, Rebekah, was baptized today! She became a Christian last year, when she asked Jesus to forgive her sins, and to come into her heart, promising to follow Him. She went forward at the end of the service at our church, to tell the pastor and the congregation. However, being only 5, she was a little too nervous to declare her belief very loudly, and while she became a member of the church that day, we decided to wait on baptism for a while. We, and the pastor, talked with her quite a bit, and were convinced that she understood enough to have made her decision. But we told her she could wait until whenever she felt comfortable enough to be baptized. (She is also afraid of being under water, so we figured it would go more smoothly when she was older.)

She had talked and talked about waiting until she turned 7 (which isn't until July), but last month, after another person was baptized, Rebekah told us that she was ready. My in-laws were planning a visit in a few weeks, so we decided that weekend would be a perfect time for it. We met with the pastor, visited the baptismal, practiced at home, and so this morning, Rebekah was baptized. She was nervous, but was very brave, and was so excited afterwards that she couldn't stop talking and hugging everyone she met!

It has been a nervous week this past week, though. My dad had to make a trip to the emergency room last Monday night, and was admitted to the hospital for 2 days. They think he had a TIA (or "mini-stroke"), but he recovered very quickly, and was able to come to our church today for the baptism. They changed my dad's medication again, so hopefully he won't have any more episodes like this one.

My in-laws will be here this whole week, and they will be keeping my 2 little ones under control while I give Rebekah her first standardized test - the IOWA 1st grade level test. Homeschoolers are not required to give standardized tests here in Texas, but I wanted to anyway, for my own knowledge. We'll see how she's doing, after almost 2 years of school, 1.5 of those being homeschooled. I have a feeling she's going to do great!

Combining Math and Exercise

As I sit here finishing my breakfast, my oldest daughter is doing math and P.E.  At the same time.  She has a balloon and is tossing it up in the air, trying to catch it before it hits the floor. Each time she catches it, she counts. She's on 76 right now. Now, if I had suggested she do something like this, I don't know if she would have, but since she came up with the "game" on her own, she's going at it full power. It's a bit noisy, but hey, at least I have time to finish my breakfast and write a short blog post!