What a trip!

Whew... vacations can be crazy. Just got back from a trip to Disney World with my husband's work. We had a good time, the hotel was beautiful, the entire Disney property was beautiful, but there are not enough hours in a week to do all I wanted to do out there. We did a lot of walking and a little waiting in steamy 90 degree weather with probably 90% humidity. Record breaking highs for Orlando this time of year, I'm told.

It's nice to get away with Tim once in a while. I'm so glad I have my parents to watch the kids. I never worry about them when I'm gone because I know my mom will take excellent care of them. They made it through the week with only a bruised cheek on my dare-devil daughter. Pretty good considering how crazy she can be.

I'm so glad to be home, but the return trip was not an easy one. I got so little sleep on my "vacation", and was surrounded with hacking-coughing kids whose parents seem oblivious to the concept of teaching your children to cover their mouths. You should have seen the 3 year old girl on the shuttle from the airport to the resort. She was standing in front of her seat, next to her spaced-out, blank-faced mother hacking and coughing on the arm of the lady in front of her the whole 30 minute trip. The mom never once even motioned to the girl to cover her mouth or sit down or anything. The older lady in front (with the spit-on arm) kept turning around in disbelief, trying to glare a plea to the mother to contain her child's spittle, to absolutely no avail. When that lady left the bus, the offending child switched to our aisle of seats, and our whole party moved WAY back on the bus. What is wrong with people? I've traveled with kids before. It's hard, but they're YOUR kids, don't make them everyone else's problem. Unreal.

9lb lemons in the hydroponic gardens in Epcot!

So, my point is that I ended up with a cold. It started to hit me in Atlanta on my extended-lay over on the way home. My flight from Orlando left the gate late because of a security issue. There was a scary looking dude in a black, ankle-length tunic/gown talking on a hands-free cell phone thing at our gate prior to boarding. Before boarding, 3 TSA agents showed up to run a security check for our aircraft. They checked "random" ID's as we boarded, and when they showed up, Scary Dude took off to another gate, said something to some lady and then disappeared. I was glad to see him go. It sucked to miss my connecting flight because of the delay, but that's better than the alternative! There was also some anti-terrorist support agent on my flight. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. For one, I am comforted by the diligence of the agencies we rely on to keep us safe, but on the other hand, that was scary. Ignorance is bliss, as they say. That was too in-your-face for me, even if there was no real threat. It reminded me of the real threats that are out there.

So I arrived in the huge Atlanta airport 10 minutes before my connection departed, and didn't make it in time to board. I got placed on stand-by for another flight about 4 hours later, and thankfully made it on that plane. I was sooo tired by this time. Disney's Magical Express shuttles you to the airport 3 hours before your flight, so I started my day very early, and had almost no sleep. I made it home, though, and got some sleep last night. Tim is actually in the air on his way home as I type. I hope he's having a better trip than I did. I know he was having a hard time finding gum to chew on the plane since they don't sell gum on Disney property, but they sell it at the airport, so he should be ok.

Anyway, I know I haven't said much about the actual Disney trip, but there just isn't much to tell. It was a lot of walking, not a lot of actual doing. It wasn't particularly relaxing or exciting. It was fun, though.

By the way, the Disney employees were deightful, with the exception of the waiters. The waiters were awful, but the rest of the staff, from the bus drivers to the housekeepers to the sales people and ride operators, they were all cheerful, helpful and seemed very sincere. Delta needs some Disney training.

Hopes and Dreams

So much is up in the air right now, I'm going a little batty. We're trying to buy our first house, and the process has been an emotional roller-coaster already, and there is still a long way to go. Hoping to close before the tax rebate cut-off of December 1st. We will hear more in a day or two, and I don't want to write too much til then. Just praying everything works out. :)

Michael Jackson

When I first heard about Michael Jackson's death, I didn't feel anything. I was more moved by the passing of Billy Mays a couple days later. I guess I thought of MJ as kind of a weirdo; an eccentric personality more than a person. I caught some of his memorial service on TV at Jace's speech therapy in the waiting room today.

A day or two after MJ died, I was talking to my husband about how sad it was to me that he had risen to high to fame and yet was so unhappy. He obviously had self-image issues, amid a lot of other issues including pain medication addiction. I felt so sad that his life never turned back around; he never worked it all out. I wanted a happy ending like in your typical, satisfying, American movie. His life seemed to stop mid-story, and it left me with an empty, let-down feeling like the power went out at the movie theater at the height of the conflict of the film. You get your refund and go on with life but it's so abrupt, like stepping off a curb that was higher than you anticipated.

When a famous person dies, we all tend to mourn. I don't know why this is. I wasn't a huge fan of Michael Jackson at any point in my life. I wasn't alive when he was the adorable little boy in the Jackson 5. For about half of my life, he had been a very strange person to me, and hadn't produced much music.

I cried for like 3 days when the Crocodile Hunter died. I know why on that one. I felt so bad for his wife and kids. Steve Erwin was such a huge, larger-than-life personality... I just couldn't imagine anyone ever being able to even begin to fill the hole in their lives that he left when he died. Sudden, tragic, bizarre death. I was truly sad, not for my loss, but for his family's loss.

For Michael Jackson, I am really sad for him and for his family. Like I said, I really wish MJ would have lived to resolve his issues and find peace in the Lord, Jesus Christ. For his family, his brothers and sisters, and more than anything for his children who have no mother. 11 year old Paris, talking about how wonderful of a father he was to her... I just know nothing will be able to replace him to her. She was clearly Daddy's girl. And then seeing Prince Michael II clutching a Michael Jackson doll on stage. Broke my heart.

It broke my heart and brought to the surface my own greatest fears: That I will die before my children are grown. Since Tim is not a believer, I think about what my early death would mean to my kids. I stay home and home school them, they don't go to church... all the things that would change in their lives if I were gone. I pray constantly that God will allow me to live long enough to raise them. I cherish every moment with them and every opportunity I have to lead them to a relationship with Jesus so their sins may be forgiven when they are morally mature.

I don't know if Michael Jackson was a believer. I don't know that for sure about anyone but myself, but I pray that the glory of God will shine through this tradegty and that many souls will be saved as a result. I pray for comfort for the Jackson family and especially the kids. May they be blessed and come to a full knowledge of Jesus Christ. Amen.

8 years.... 4 of 'em wonderful!

Today is my 8th wedding anniversary! I went and met Tim for lunch. I love my honey, he's my best friend and aside from the fact that he occasionally drives me nuts, I couldn't ask for a better husband. He always makes me laugh, even when I'm mad at him, and he's a great father to our children.

Our marriage wasn't an instant success, and it wasn't easy getting to where we are now, but I would do it all again in an instant to have him as my husband and best buddy like I do now. And I'd do my part a lot better the second time around. The more time I spend around other people, the more I treasure him. I thank God for Tim, even though Tim doesn't yet know the Lord, I can see God working in his life. I pray continually for the day that Tim will be reconciled with his Maker.

To anyone out there who happens upon this blog and doesn't have a blissful marriage, I cannot recommend the book Created to be His Help Meet strongly enough. The God-given wisdom that Debi Pearl has passed down in this book has transformed my heart and attitude toward my husband and marriage. We're very much in love now, which I could never have honestly said in the early years of our marriage. You don't have to agree with everything that is said in the book in order to benefit from the Biblical wisdom that is contained between its covers. God has redeemed my broken marriage to an unbelieving (still) man. Let Him be praised!

Butterflies, Science and Fish

Well, our butterflies all emerged from their little chrysalis homes, and 3 of them successfully flew away. One of the butterflies had what looked like 2 proboscises (straw like mouth thingy) and they were kinda freaky, each going its own way and neither would curl up properly like the rest of the butterflies. Another one got injured in the release process. Neither of them could fly, so I just placed them up in a tree and let nature take it's course. Bummer. The other 3 flew off into the tree tops and the kids were happy with the experience. What a wondrous thing to witness. :)

We had to release them last week because we were going on vacation! Yay! I love vacation! We went to Oklahoma City's Science Museum on Saturday and then to the Aquarium in Tulsa (er Jenks to be precise) on Sunday. We all had a great time. I can't wait for our next trip! Not sure where we will go, but I hope we go somewhere before too long. I really enjoyed doing things as a family.
The Science Museum was lots of fun, but if you happen to visit, skip the cartoony Imax movie about bugs in space... it was just awful. I also could have skipped the Science Live show we went to and been no worse for wear, though it wasn't bad, it was LOUD, and Jace had to turn his hearing aids off in order to tolerate it, which means he didn't learn anything, anyway. Rachel liked it, though.

The aquarium was neat, but short. It only takes about an hour to see everything and take 350 pictures (trust me). The special lighting made it difficult to get good snap shots with my camera, so I deleted about a hundred of the ones I took. Yay for huge memory cards and extra batteries!

See huge alligator gar to the left, opening it's mouth right by Jace's head, lol.

One of the highlights of the trip for the kids was running through the dancing fountain at the River Walk next to the aquarium. They got thoroughly wet and had a blast. Only problem was that this caused an unforeseen shortage of clothing for the kids, which got a little sticky when we had a bladder control issue on the ride home from Tulsa. We managed, though, and as I said before, the kids totally loved it, so it was worth the trouble. Note to self: bring lots of pants next time.

Tulsa is really pretty. At least the east side where we stayed is really pretty this time of year. Big, expensive houses in hilly, established neighborhoods with big trees and manicured lawns. Wonder what that is like... *sigh* It was very pretty. Wichita is UGLY. Ughly. Ughhhhly. It's flat and there are only trees near water, which is muddy, polluted and scarce, except when it rains buckets and everything floods. THEN the water is everywhere. It's in your dining room in the carpet because a pipe on the roof came loose from it's seal. It's in your basement because the ground is saturated. It's blocking streets, creeping up hills and ominously looming just outside of houses. I digress. Tulsa is pretty, but driving in Tusla is awful.

One thing I was thankful for when we got back to Wichita was the street signs. In Wichita you get advance notice of upcoming exits. Usually you get 3 signs warning of a junction or even just a regular off-ramp onto a city street. In Tulsa you get 1 sign and it's about 300 feet before the exit. We had to turn around 3 or 4 times just getting across Tulsa because we missed our exits! Ugh. Never again. I told Tim we should get ourselves a GPS for Christmas.

/J/.../J/...Jumping up and down in speech therapy

I am so excited! Today was Jace's first appointment with his new speech therapist. The hospital has been trying to hire a full-time pediatric speech pathologist for about 6 months and they finally got one! Jace LOVES Miss Caitlyn! She's very animated and up-beat and the woman knows her stuff! I am SO thankful.

I knew things weren't really jiveing with the last pathologist, but it was free and our best option at the time. Miss Caitlyn read a story with him and got him to say some parts of the story back to her to evaluate him, and she was really surprised at how well his /r/ and /l/ sounds were, since these were the sounds we were most-recently working on at home. She noticed his /j/ sound sound was coming out a lot like /z/. She modeled a correct /j/ for him and he picked it up really quickly. He was struggling with not making the /z/ sound at first, but he was self-correcting when he said it incorrectly. Miss Caitlyn seemed impressed.

She pulled out some cards with words from the story they read together and taught him about syllables. Then she gave us some cards with single-syllable /j/ words to practice at home and gave me some ideas on how to make it fun. We also need to get /ch/ down still, but, apparently /ch/ is the same as /j/ but without vocal involvement. Miss Caitlyn said once he gets /j/, the /ch/ will come easily.

I'm just so thankful. We only have about 12 or so appointments left, but I think it will be enough. God is good and He provides all we need. Amen!

Rent

Rent bites. I hate paying rent. I've been itching to buy a house for years. Our apartment is small and we don't even have a patio for the kids to play on. We've stayed here our entire marriage because it has been cheap, but I got a notice this morning that the rent will be going up again on August 1st.

I'm praying that we can qualify for (and find) a humble house to buy. We don't make a lot of money, but I'm not incredibly picky. I would be happy with an older house in a relatively quiet neighborhood with a few key features. I prayed for God to provide me the right church (with a few key features) and He did, so I am going to pray for Him to provide us a house, too.

I'm praying for a house (cheaper than our rent) with a basement (for safety in tornado season), a fenced back yard (because Rache' would spend all day outside if she could), 2 toilets (trust me), 3 bedrooms + (2 kids), central air, and non-carpeted floors would be nice (for Tim's allergies), as would a garage ('cause who likes scraping windows?), but not absolutely necessary.

God has always been good to me, and He's got cattle on a thousand hills, right? His will be done, and I will happily accept whatever situation we end up in, but this is my prayer. Praise the Lord!

Working Moms

My mom was a stay at home mom. My mom was also a working mom. I was homeschooled for several years, and I was also publicly and privately educated for many years.

My mom was a great mom and she was very involved in our lives. I hated being a latchkey kid when she was working. I'm not saying that a working mom is bad or absent. Stay at home moms, especially if the kids are home, are around their kids more than working moms. This doesn't mean that stay at home moms are by default good mothers, nor are homeschooling moms. It's very difficult to express my thankfulness for my situation without offending those in different situations, especially when it touches on emotional subjects, like family.

I have very few friends who are stay at home moms, and far fewer who homeschool. I have reasons for the sacrifices our family makes so I can be home with the kids, and they home with me. My husband isn't a Christian. My kids aren't allowed to attend church. My son wears hearing aids and can't hear well in noisy environments like a kindergarten classroom. He also has a speech and language delay. These things plus public school would equate to a bright child at the bottom of his class who can't effectively communicate with his peers and would be taught godlessness and humanism by everyone except his mother for the few hours I would see him each evening.

I am not a very maternal person. I don't like babies. I don't really like children. I love my children, and I know my ultimate responsibility as a mother is to train them up in the way they should go. "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth" (III John 4).

My plan, when I had Jace, was to go back to work when he went to school (and then when I had Rachel, I added a year to that). I went back to school, I was ready to go back to work, but we found out about Jace's disability. Public school just isn't the best option for him. I didn't want to homeschool, but I spent the entire Fall and Summer before Jace started school researching and praying. The answer to my prayers was clear.

To the working mothers, and all other mothers out there, I do not know what is right for you. You can be a fantastic mother and work, or a crappy one. You can be a fantastic mother and stay home or you can be a crappy one that your children wish didn't stay home. I'm just trying to be obedient to the voice of my Master. I didn't mean to offend anyone in my zeal for master meatball recipes and cheap laundry detergent. I will look over my original post again and see if maybe I worded some things poorly. I was really just happy to find a site to help me learn and teach my daughter how to run a household and save money (which we need to do on one income). I figured someone would probably take offense, but my reasons for my choices are legitimate, and I would have to pretend they aren't in order to not offend someone.

When I speak of my life, I'm not criticizing you for your choices, I am simply thanking God for my life, for His help, His guidance and provision. Sorry for rambling, my thoughts aren't always organized.

I also have to say that I do believe it is best for children to have their mothers at home (as long as the mother isn't a terrible, abusive mother). No one else has as vested an interest in their child's success, well-being and happiness. No one. I know not everyone can stay home, but I do believe it is the best thing for young children. I know that will ruffle some feathers, but it is a harsh reality I had to face before I committed to staying home, myself.

Reminds me of the lyrics of a song:
"promises are only mercenary troops. They bear no real allegiance to the soil. When they fight they always look around. They have never really been in touch with the ground..."

Teachers, day care providers, therapists, paras, non of them are about your child's success like you do. They do their job because it is their job, and many do it well, but none of them have your child as the highest priority.

The Lost Art of Homemaking

On one of my internet bunny-trails (meaning I don't remember how I got there, or from where) I stumbled upon this site: FutureChristianHomemakers.com and I was reading through some of the lessons. I am SO excited about going through them with Rachel when she's a couple years older! I would love to start up a FCH group in my area, but even if that doesn't work out, it will be great to incorporate these things into our school days, as a sort of home ec.

I wish I had learned more when I was young. I had to pick things up as I went, which resulted in a lot more work, less tasty food, and messier house. My parents got divorced when I was 8, so my mom had to go to work. Plus, being a child of the 80's, homemaking as a "career" choice wasn't very popular. At the height of women's lib, homemaking was viewed as demeaning and undesirable. I didn't grow up planning to be a homemaker, but I am so thankful to God that I am one. I want to be the best homemaking wife and mother that I can be, and I hope someday Rachel will get to be a homemaker, too. I'm glad that women have the rights to have careers outside the home. I'm glad for our status in society that was brought about by women's lib, but I believe, when you have children at home, it's best to be there for them. This is part of why I homeschool... it all flows from the same source: I want to be the one to raise my children. My own, personal convictions keep me home (that and God's great mercy and grace), but I don't expect everyone to. I don't even expect Rachel to, but I hope she does.

Road trip!

I'm itching for a road trip this Summer. The kids are old enough, now, to be able to make it to the next restroom without having an accident in the car, and they're mature enough to appreciate some of the neato things you see on a road trip - and remember them.

I have several destinations in mind, but in reality, we will probably only make it to 1 or 2 this Summer. Money is an issue. I 'd like to take the kids to see the Oklahoma Aquarium in Tulsa, and the Science Museum in Oklahoma City. Then there is a really cool petting zoo at a bed and breakfast in Nickerson, Kansas. They have all kinds of exotic animals that you can get up-close and personal with at a reasonable price. Rachel keeps asking if she can ride a horse, and I think they have pony rides there, too.

In the recent past I have strongly objected to long road-trips (sorry, Honey), but my views have really changed, lately. I think it has been a combination of seeing photos from other people's trips, and seeing my children's curiosity bloom from doing things hands-on. I'm also starting to remember the road-side attractions that my family visited on long road trips when I was a child. Someday I hope to take them to places I remember, like the Giant Redwood Forest in northern California. Everyone should see those trees in person before they die.

Since we homeschool, we can take these trips whenever we want and make a lesson plan out of it, but I like to have Tim go, so we have to work around his work schedule. I wouldn't want to take the kids without him, it's just not right making memories without Daddy.

On a side-note, all of my caterpillars have morphed into chrysalids, and will be butterflies in about a week! Isn't that cool? The appearance of their shells changes every day. The kit says they will get darker and darker, and I have noticed some new, iridescent spots on them! What incredible little creatures God has made for us to marvel at! I had a hard time picking up the iridescence with the camera, but you can see it a little in the goldish spikey things. Very scientific description, there.
Here you can see them in their "Butterfly Habitat" enclosure. Don't forget to click on the pictures to enlarge them for detail! They're really neat!

Update on butterflies

Just this morning my caterpillars were all fat, fuzzy and mobile. This afternoon, 3 of the 5 are chrysalids! I tried to get some good pictures, but my camera battery died, so I will try to get more later on. Maybe the other 2 will have transformed by then!

Transformation

Two new updates:
1. Our painted lady butterfly larvae are getting fat and ready to transform. They're starting to hang upside down, which means they will be forming chrysalids soon. Here are some pictures from May 28th and from today (June 1st). Look how much bigger they have gotten!


The 2nd update is that my Central Park Hoodie is almost complete. I have finished the back, fronts, and sleeves. I blocked the back a while ago and am blocking 2 of the other 4 pieces right now, but I ran out of pins, so I have to wait to do the other 2 when these ones are dry. I really hope it fits. I will be able to sort of try it on once the blocking is done. I wish I could find my other box of pins. Here are some pictures of the front panels and sleeves, blocking and pre-blocking (the unblocked pieces are lying on top of the blocking pieces in the first pic):




For those who don't knit, blocking is a technique that usually involves getting a piece of knitted fabric wet, pinning it to the desired shape, and allowing it to dry. This relaxes the fabric, helps even out the stitches, and in natural fibers, it can help set the shape. My yarn for this sweater is only 20% wool, 80% acrylic, so I don't think blocking will do much to hold the shape, but it did give the fabric a nice drape, evened out my stitches and made it "grow" to the correct dimensions. Can't wait for this to be done! All I have left to knit is the hood and button band! Woo hoo!

Birdius Maximus

We have a 3 year old Java sparrow named Max. Max is possibly the coolest pet that I have ever had... and I have had a lot of pets. I found him at a pet store when he was a baby. He sang at me every time I walked by, and he had such a pretty song, I had to get him. I had no idea that a little finch would be so animated and interactive. He loves us, especially the kids.

We let him fly free in the house sometimes, and he usually flitters from one of our heads to another or from shoulder to shoulder. He also likes to sleep on top of the DVD rack, which is about the highest point in the apartment that he could easily sit on.

He's such a little lover, but he doesn't like hands. He will hop around on the floor and nearly get flattened because he has no healthy fear of feet, but bring your hand within a couple feet of him and he flies away, squawking in protest. This is probably because I have to periodically catch him to trim his toe nails.

His favorite place to sit is on Jace's shoulder when he's doing school work. I have included a picture for your enjoyment. He also likes to sleep on my shoulder while I knit. I guess he likes the repetitive motion.

Homeschooler Speech Therapy Goldmine!

Jace has moderate to moderately-severe sensory-neuro hearing loss in both ears, and wasn't diagnosed until he was 4, so he has only had his hearing aids for about a year and a half. His speech and language were delayed (about a year behind) when we started speech and language therapy at the local hospital on a grant from their charitable foundation.

Jace has made huge advances in his speech and language since then, but we knew from the start that we had a very limited number of visits, after which our insurance will not cover his therapy. Because of this limitation, the pathologist has worked with me, spacing out his sessions to every 2 weeks and giving me lots of instruction and homework to practice with Jace to get the most bang for our buck.

We're over half way through with our free sessions, and while Jace has made awesome progress, he still needs a lot of fine-tuning and there are some sounds we haven't gotten to yet. He started out omitting a lot of sounds and substituting for many of the sounds he did attempt to say. I sit in on all of his therapy sessions and we practice at home, daily. I feel confident that we will be able to continue at home with no problem once his sessions are used up at the hospital. He's a smart kid and he wants to do well with his speech.

I woke up, again, at about 4:50 am today and couldn't get back to sleep because of the congestion from this endless cold. I had something in my inbox from The Old Schoolhouse magazine that was about speech and language therapy options for homeschoolers. This got me started on one of my Google bunny trails, and I happened upon a web site that is just FULL of resources!

If you are looking for home speech and language therapy resources, free on the web, you have to check this site out. Be warned: there are a ton of links to sift through, but I have found some incredibly useful information on their list, already. I haven't even scratched the surface.

This one is really helpful for training specific sounds:
http://speech-language-therapy.com/tx-facts-and-tricks.html
This looks promising, some useful ideas:
http://www.speechpathology.com/schoolBased/toolTips.asp
And some more freebies:
http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/freebies.htm
Another site with some creative ideas for building speech:
http://www.speechtx.com/language.htm

I'm so happy to have found this goldmine of resources! Praise God! I felt confident enough about continuing before, but now I feel equipped for the job. I found a worksheet for eliciting the "ch" sound, which is awesome because as of yet, Jace has always used "sh" instead. I can't wait to try it out with him! They explained that "ch" is basically "t" plus "sh" so you can sometimes get a kid to say it by putting a word ending in "t" before a word starting with "sh" (ie wet shoes = choose) <3 the internet

If I hadn't been a mother

I can't sleep, so I thought I would try to blog some of the thoughts that are bouncing around in my head instead of lying awake coughing in bed.

If I hadn't been a mother, I might have been an anthropologist, or an archeologist or some other type of -ologist. I have a thirst for learning. I love to study new things, learn new skills, and fill my head with mostly-useless knowledge.

I think I get that from my dad. He spent most of my childhood and adolescence dragging me around to various historical sites in California and surrounding areas, and sharing a wealth of mostly-useless, however interesting factoids about the world around us. My dad has a love for learning.

My mom inherited a propensity for research from her mother; I inherited it from her. Combine the love of mostly-useless facts with a natural tendency to obsessively research, and you get someone like me. I am fascinated with the world around me, the people around me, the nature of things on a whole.

Any time I plan to make a major purchase, I research obsessively until I have narrowed it down to the "best" apparent choice, settle on that and then research until I find the best possible place to buy it, considering price, time, distance, customer service, return policy, warranties, etc. I can't imagine how anyone buys a camera or clothes dryer or (God forbid) car, without going through this process. Seriously.

So I probably would have eventually settled into a career in which on-going research and discovery were required... if I hadn't been a mother.

I grew up not wanting children. I loved animals and had planned on just having lots of pets, but I married the world's most allergic man, so anything with fur is out of the question. A year and a half later I had my son, and then 11 months after that, my daughter. I went to school for a year and even went back to work as an intern for a short time, but I couldn't leave my children. We can survive on Tim's income alone, and nothing I can buy is more important to me than being here to raise my children, myself.

I never expected to be this way. I never thought I would be a stay-at-home mom, much less a homeschooling one. I hated staying home at first, and it has been hard over the years, especially because there were a couple years in which I didn't have a car while Tim was at work. God has richly blessed me with the ability to stay home and teach my children, and I take every day as a gift from His hands. I know that no career, for me, would ever be as important.

I will probably never become an anthropologist or archeologist. I am a mother, a wife, a keeper at home, and a teacher to my children. I hope I can pass on my love of learning to my children, and I pray that they use it to learn to hear and know the Lord's voice, and to go where He directs them.

walk walk walk walk walk... and stuff.

My friend, Beth and I spent most of last year walking about 2 miles a night, several nights a week... until it got too cold out. We stopped walking together over the winter but have just now picked back up.

We've decided to walk every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening (around her work and school schedule), which works out great for me since Tim goes into work later on Tuesday and Thursday, so I can walk in the morning those days before he leaves, while the kids are asleep, and it's still cool, but light out.

So far we walked Sunday and Monday, and I walked by myself Monday morning and this morning (Tuesday) so it's going well! I am not a morning person at all, so it's no small wonder that I have gotten up before I had to, 2 days in a row this week to do exercise. EXERCISE! Can you believe it?! ME! lol. I have been praying for God to help me get fit, lose the weight, ya know, and I think the fact that I've been sick and congested this week has helped get me out of bed and out the door. I can't sleep anyway, so might as well walk. So thank you, Lord, for the sniffles!

I'm trying to get past this plateau. Walking is the least torturous form of exercise I can think of, so that's what I'm doing. I also have a new step and step aerobics dvd that I can do when the weather sucks or when I feel like burning a lot of calories, quickly.

On another subject, entirely; I stumbled across a support group in my city for moms using the specific homeschool curriculum that we use! They meet at a local church (that I actually attended as a teenager) so I'm really psyched to hook up with them. In the Summer they only meet once a month, and this month it is today... and I can't make it, but I will make arrangements to go next month. It's so weirdly specific to my needs, I must go. The church also has a Wednesday night service that I am contemplating attending this week, since my church only has Sunday morning services and this church is close to my home. Oh and because I haven't actually shown up for church in a month. That too.

Anyway, I'm planning to go to my mom's today. My kids miss their uncles and grandparents and my dear step-dad generously changes my oil for nothing, and I desperately need an oil change.

I've been knitting the Central Park Hoodie but have slacked off the last several days. I usually knit when I watch TV but there is nothing on TV now. I went to a fabric store to look for buttons for it and they had crap, and it was expensive crap, too. $3 for a button? One button? Really? It's just a plain plastic circle with 2 holes in it. Soo... off to ebay and etsy in search of buttons. Man it's hard to choose buttons. So many possibilities. Good thing I have plenty of time before sweater weather arrives. I will keep looking until something catches my eye.

Anyway I'm off, so much to get done. And I'm hungry.

Sick.

Tim caught something at work and didn't realize he was actually sick since he's always stuffed up with his allergies. We all ended up drinking after him (he had a delicious frozen coffee drink, and we did not) and one by one we all came down with a yucky cold. The worst part is that this crud seems to want to stick around for WEEKS.

I had to take Rachel to the ER in the middle of the night/wee morning hours because she was all croupy. They gave her steroids since I had already given her a breathing treatment at home. She's doing much better now, but this junky cough just doesn't want to go away.

I hate going to sleep when I'm congested. This is why I am up at 4:30am. That and the Amp I had earlier. In case you're wondering, Amp vs. cough medicine: Amp wins.

I hate being sick. I guess I should try to get some sleep.

And this year...

Well, I'm almost done with Kindergarten with both kids, and I'm already looking forward to the wonders that next year will reveal! I haven't updated this blog in an entire year, but I plan to post a lot more this year.

I have so enjoyed teaching the kids to read and especially seeing them grasp concepts about God from the wonderful My Father's World curriculum we used this year! Jace was just telling me how God is bigger than Daddy and bigger than everyone, and that God is the "main boss". My kids have never been allowed to go to church, so MFW has been just amazing. We will be going back to them for 1st grade.

What a fantastic year we have had! 3 more weeks until we are done with this year, but we will be doing lots of fun, hands-on things this summer to enrich our learning.

I have been knitting a beautiful Central Park Hoodie for myself out of Avocado green Lion Brand Wool Ease and I'm loving and hating it at the same time. I decided to add pockets to it, which was kind of complicated (for a novice like myself) AND I altered the pattern, making the cables wider, which further muddies the water. I think (and hope) I will really like the finished product. I really hope I made the right size. We shall see, soon.