This is a silly little blog just to say i am LOVIN' IT!

Since Julia was a tiny babe Joe and I have both wanted to hometeach our children. Just seems to make sense that as the military life brings such constant change in thier lives, the fact that school is always with mom no matter where we move would be nice to have. Plus, i just love teaching my kids. I think every parent does this instinctually since the birth of thier baby. You read to them. You sing to them. You answer thier questions and ask them questions back, "yes, that is a carrot. they are vegetables and keep our bodies healthy...do you know what color it is?" plus i really really love watching thier faces light up with they "get it", and watching them bloom with self confidence and reassurance that comes with learning is just an extra boost as well! it is awesome...but it is also a huge responsibility. to be honest, although i have known the last 5 years we wanted to try hometeaching, and that i myself was hometaught my elementary years, IT IS STILL SCARY!

i have been really really really nervous! It is such a big responsibility, and what if i don't do it right? what if i do it wrong and handicap thier learning more than helping them? what if i miss something, or don't do a certain subject right? what curricullums do i use and what if we run into stumbling blocks??

yeah, nervous to say the least.

but still God's peace would remain. He'd lead me to different websites with resources that seemed to "fit" our family...and to different other homeschooling families to encourage us...i think one of the biggest peices of reassurement I heard was that we don't have to decide here at kindergarden if we are going to homeschool all the way through highschool. but rather, and probably better, to take it year by year, child by child to the Throne of Grace and ask for God's guidance....

Because I don't know what next year or 4 years from now may hold for Julia, or for Megan, or for Joey. I don't know if there may come a time that a public or private school may be exactly where they need to be for that year...but my good Father does know. He knows all circumstances, where their hearts will be, their strengths and weaknesses for each of those years for each child, He knows!! He knows the right curriculums for each subject for each child for each year, and has all the resources I need to teach His children. He is there, and as long as I remain open, as long as I remain honest within myself and submitted to Him in each step, I can't go wrong. I seriously can't go wrong!

So Busy Bees Montessorie school (where the girls went 2 hours a day twice a week last year) finally ended this last week. Joe would like to keep Megan in at the same schedule for next year, but since Julia is now 5, she has "graduated" and would either attend DoDs schools on base, A british Primary school, or be full time hometaught next year. As thier "school year" at Busy Bees grew to a close, my knees seemed to shake just a bit more...

so I have 6 weeks before school starts again and decided to try some "dry runs" to see how we'd do. I pulled out some "3-5 years preschooler" level workbooks i'd had for ages, blew the dust off and introduced them to the girls...don't you know they took to it like fish to water?!

THEY LOVE IT!

i have never been so surprised and proud and pleased and excited and relieved all at once!

So we do "school" everyday now. at my home! on my kitchen table, and we love it! In my pj's, in thier pj's, it doesn't matter! I let them work at thier own pace and we stop when one of us gets tired...(although it has yet to be them first! i usually am the one calling for break first lol!) Just yesterday Julia did 18 pages nonstop! and would have kept going if my eyes hadn't started to go crosseyed lol. We went out to dinner with joe and they wanted to bring the book with us, so I did, and they together did another 6 pages while we waited for our meal...

and I am just amazed at how easy it is..

and how much they love it,

and how capable they are already...

Next time i am out i need to pick up a "kindergarden/1st grade" book as Julia is just flying through this one.

and at the end of the day, the goal is being accomplished....They are becoming self learners, they are learning to LOVE learning and that is is fun and easy and school is something to look forward to, not to dread! and that's all I want to do...is teach them they can do it, teach them how to research when they have questions and that nothing is out of thier grasp or too difficult for them.

the nervousness has gone and peace has replaced it...and not just peace, but a true sense of excitement.

We're really doing this...! and i am really loving it.

Spring/Summer 2007 Update!

Sorry this has taken so long to update! It seems to be increasingly harder for me to get a good block at the computer to sit, and think (and type!) Anyway, let’s see what all I can update you with while I can….

 ~Julia~

In October 2006 her pediatrician became concerned about her short stature and wanted to run a whole gamut of tests to rule out any chromosomal abnormalities (Including Turner’s Syndrome) and possiblky try to put her on growth hormones. As most of you know, I seriously bucked against this. I was 9 months pregnant at the time and have just grown tired in MY own 26 years of living of hearing “how small” I am (and how small Julia is in her 4 years of life) as though it is a disease needing a cure, or as though I am with holding food from my child resulting in her not growing to her “peers” (nevermind that mom is barely 5 foot tall and dad is 5 foot 10, and was a small child when he was growing up too!) Anyway….we recently went ahead with the blood tests and can officially say, guess what?! Julia is a normal healthy happy newly-turned-5-year old little girl! (This is where I slap my head and say “I told you SO!” but it does feel good to have medical science to back up what my intuition was telling me all along)

Her growth hormone levels are normal, No turner’s syndrome or any other chromosomal abnormalities, her thyroid is normal, all of her “levels” are NORMAL! But still..if you can believe this, the doc put in a referral to send her to an off base endocrinologist to see “if she qualifies” for growth hormones….I truly don’t understand why this doc thinks being short is such a terrible thing. The projection of Julia’s height from now until she us 18 puts her at 5 foot tall, surprise, just like me! So I really don’t understand all the “concern” of that being “avoidable if possible”…at any rate Joe and I have decided to go speak to this endocrinologist just to get a specialist take on it. The way we see it is this, Julia does not need growth hormones. God made her this way for a special reason and who are we to try to “fix” it as though it is a mistake? But it will feel nice to have a specialist say “you know, she is just small like her mom” so anyone else that says “MY! She is so small!” can just plant a nice big smackeroo on the back of my knee…no really, we’ll be polite. We are both interested in what they may have to say….we just have no desire whatsoever to put our child on medication simply because it is optional and not seriously needed for the wellbeing of her overall health.... and HELLO?! Genetics anyone??

Otherwise Julia is doing fantastic! She recently had her 5 year well baby check up and is 36 inches tall and weighs 27 pounds. She is wearing size 3T to 4T shirts and 2T pants. She plays imaginary games with her sister and bounces around the house constantly. The “why?” game has started (oh yippie) and her writing is continuing. She is so involved in discovering her world and trying to make sense of it. She can not take anything just as it is…she continues to question the” why, how, when, where” aspects of everything! A simple discovery to the joy of Earthworms can easily lead to a weeks worth of study and materials pulled off the internet (I love homeschooling! Really all it is, is indulging my child’s natural curiosity and encouraging her desire to learn myself, and not leaving it to an outside influence! *grins*) not to mention the rest of that night alone was spent, you guessed it, pure earthworm talk! Lol! She has also become very interested in the way things grow. I have 3 anonymous seeds that she randomly found on the ground sitting in a cup of water on the table lol!

~Megan~

She is doing very well! She will be 4 years old in just a couple weeks! I can’t believe it! She has really been developing in the artistic area. She is our little diva. She sings songs she makes up, hums while twirling in the mirror, and loves imaginary play with dolls, cars, and stuffed animals.

(Here she is with her friend Aidan. I have no idea what pose she is doing lol. Isn't he so cute?! His mom took this picture and she said when he saw it he said, "Look mom! There's my gurlfriend"...look at his expression, it's just too cute. They are church buddies and can occaionsally be spotteed holding hands inbetween playing with dinosaures and matchbox cars.)

For her birthday we have a wooden dollhouse to give her to encourage her natural love of pretend play and mimicking family. She also is really loving books right now. I lose count to how many books she has me read to her a day. (and you know I really don’t mind! I LOVE that she is enjoying reading so much and pray this instills a love of books in her) Her favorite “character” right now is Maisy Mouse. We have ordered a few Maisy books for her and hope to make a Maisy cake for her birthday.

Her party will be on her actual birthday of July 2^nd and we’re doing an “art” themed party like we did for Julia’s second birthday. With Megan’s natural artsy-fartsy mind this suits her perfectly. Julia is very analytical. She explores to make sense of her world. (for instance she loves writing people’s names and making pretend mail to send. She can write her name, “mom” “dad” and “Megan”) Megan just celebrates life in general. Her art constantly amazes me because of how her brain works. Last week she drew a “chinchilla” for me!!!! It even looks like one lol! Cat? Dog? Those I expect, but a CHINCHILLA?!

The next day she found my bingo stamper and made me a page “full of balloons.”

Her creativity is just abounding! 3 weeks ago I bought them some toddler scissors to work on their fine motor coordination and also because I just knew they’d love cutting things. Two days later I had TONS of random pieces of construction paper littering my house, so they made their first collage. It is hanging in their play room now. They loved it and are currently cutting more paper for another one! (*mental note, mommy needs more glue!*)

I will post pictures of her birthday when it comes!

~Joey~

He is growing like crazy! At his 6 month check he weighed 15 ½ pounds and is 26 inches long. He smiles, coos, giggles, squeals, babbles “dada, mama, gaga, blah blah” and everything in between…he is sitting 5-10 minutes unsupported and is a scooting madman! He is officially mobile…nothing in my house is safe and I am really having to step up on vacuuming lol. He constantly explores. Where Julia inspects her world (my future scientist?) and Megan celebrates life (our artist), so far Joey must conquer….explore and conquer, explore and conquer! We’ve had to be careful not to drop him on several occasions as he will push himself completely out of your arms just to face outward. His hands are constantly out reaching, grasping, and pulling. Everything is in his mouth! He is the most adorable little caterpillar, inching his way across our living room! He started on baby foods around 5 months old and is now on oatmeal with a fruit or veggie twice a day. His sleeping is getting better. No longer is he up every 1-2 hours a night, but a more consistent 3 hours. No teeth yet, although he has had several bouts of teething pain. Those first ones are always the hardest the get in, it seems.

He did have a bout of shaking spells around 5 months of age that scared us for abit. We now know they were not seizures, but perhaps something along the lines called “shuddering”. Shuddering has no found cause, seems very common in baby’s 4-6 months old, happens as they are falling asleep or upon waking, needs no medication, does no apparent physical harm, and seems to be something the babies outgrow. It is also more common in breastfed infants. Two “spells” happened while he was nursing where his arm, then his head, then his whole upper body began to rhythmically shake for about 5-6 seconds (although it felt much longer!) I called his name and held his arm still against my chest and the shaking subsided. He then curled his body around me and nursed vigorously for a few more seconds, then finished eating and went to sleep as usual. He woke up fine. No fever. No nothing. He was seen by the ER and had a follow-up appointment at the peds office. Everyone has the same ruling “pretty sure it is not seizure activity, although we’re not too sure what it was.” He has an appointment for July 5^th to be seen by a pediatric neurologist in Cambridge. He only had those two episodes and hasn’t had any sense then. I am not worried, more curious than anything about what the specialist will say. With all the online research I have done, I am content with the Shuddering possibility as it best describes what I witnessed as in the type of shaking he had…I don’t think it was a seizure either.

(Sleeping with my baby blanket handmade by my grandmother 27 years ago!)

Other news on the home front:

Britain is FINALLY warming. Seems June/July is the time frame to finally break out the shorts and leave the jackets at home. The kids and I have truly been enjoying getting outside more and see some sun for a change! Two weeks ago we took a small cartrip to Petite’s Animal and Adventure park…basically a very small amusement park designed for toddlers to have rides their own size! The kids had a blast and I have a few pictures to include here:

 (Daddy with his girls)

("Look Ma! I can drive!")

("Choo! Choo!" Julia and Megan ride the train)

(Dumbo has nothing on us! Wave Megan!!)

Our new van should be here in the next two weeks. Feels like we have been waiting and waiting and waiting. We keep putting off any further road trips until we can drive a more dependable vehicle. All is well anyway as we are trying to save as much as possible for a small visit back to Oklahoma. I miss my family and friends. I miss good AMERICAN food, I miss paying for things in dollars and not pounds and pence. I just miss home. Flying commercial would cost near 4 grand which we do not have, so right now we are checking out taking military hops, then renting a car and driving down. We’d probably stay 1 week to ten days with no other plans than to eat, eat, eat and visit the people we’ve missed so much the last 2 ½ years. Right now more than anything we are waiting on Joey’s passport. It will take 2 months to come in, and his Visa requires a trip to London and 500 pounds (equals 1000.00 American dollars...it is reimbursable, but none the less that is quite a chunk of cash!)…so we need time to get the passport/visa in and money to do it all. It will probably be this fall before we’ll be able to come…so just be praying everything comes together and it is a safe, unstressful trip.  Well, that’s all I have for now.

 (Are you SURE that's it mom?...)

I’ll just post a few extra pictures and check back later when we have an appt date for Julia’s Endocrinologist and after Joey’s neuro appt.

 (....Nope, just one more pic! Megan giving Joey kisses, of course)

Well, as promised on my other blog, Here is our trip to Orford Castle we took about 3 weeks ago.

Orford Castle sits on the furthest eastern coast of England. It has two marble spiral staircases (flashbacks of Pisa kept hounding me lol) and was built in 1165 AD. It remains in excellent condition to this day! Here are the girls exploring the castle canons on the grounds outside:

It was a really beauitful day, although very windy which made it feel colder than it was. The Castle overlooks the north sea, so wind off the water chilled everything quite a bit. This picture is of the girls and I walking up the steps to the front door. For those that have wondered, this is how i look with 3 kiddos lol. I had Joey tucked inside my coat in a ababy carrier so I could at least have my hands free to help the girls up...the steps went up pretty high before you were inside and they were worn and chipped in some places.

Inside the castle they had a giant illustrated book of how it would have looked in it's prime day, and how life was lived. it was very interesting, although I had to watch the girls closely as they almost managed to tear the pages several times. This page is showing the different ways people may have tried to overtake the great castle walls and you can see megan doing her usual "song and dance vanna routine" lol. she gets so excited. it is so funny to watch!

Here is what used to be the Chapel of the Castle. this room was very interesting. they had a place for a "Sink", a few cubby nooks in the stones served as storage for goblets or other things they may have used at that time. Here are the girls and i sitting upon the "alter"...i know, this is probably so wrong, but i couldn't help the picture opportunity lol! I told the girls to pretend they were drinking from the goblets. I can't help but think that Julia is looking at megan thinkinkg, "NOT in the mouth megan! eeeeew!" okay, maybe that is just what I was thinking lol.

And here is a modern day picture of the town of Orford itself. The church was also built around the same time.  It was a cute little village. not much parking though...but alot of walking potential lol.

Poor baby! I am referring to both Julia, and her little cat. An orange stuffed tabby that her Aunt Terra gave her 2 years ago. This kitty has been everywhere with us. Even to Spain when we went in '05. Well tonight was a lesson in "tough love", for both kitty and Julia.

Joe and I were in the living room last night and Julia comes running in in hysterics. Big fat tears running down her face and talking so fast we couldn't understand her 4 year old words. She just kept saying, "kitty hurt! by the fire! Kitty hurt!" of course, the word "Fire" sent both Joe and I running, asking Julia (much like we would Lassie) "where's the fire, girl?" She takes us to the candle i had burning by the sink in the bathroom, then tearfully points at kitty's now burnt nose. Apparantly Julia was "showing" her kitty the fire and letting kitty smell the pretty scent of the candle, and 2 whiskers and part of kitty's nose got singed.

It was a hard lesson to learn. Julia kept asking for us to "make it white again" and hugging kitty with a death grip. she was still crying profusely...she really really REALLY felt her kitty was hurting and  in pain and was so upset she had put her cat through it. it broke my little mommy-heart!! Me being emotionally based wanted to immediatly put her out of that emotional pain and let her know that kitty was not in any pain. Joe, (the logical thinker of the family and who is gifted seeing the bigger picture than just things at hand) gave me the "look" to let him go first and began reafiirming exactly what happened to kitty, why the fire did as it did, and why it is so important to treat it respectfully. It was a hard balance of a lesson to teach, this is why fire is so dangerous, yet kitty is absolutly fine, but don't you do it because you wouldn't be fine, but yes kitty isn't in pain, but you would be if you did it....not in such words, but you know, it was hard not to be contradictory.  

After the little talk Julia and I put a band aid over kittys "owie" singed brown nose, and then spent another 10 minutes talking in depth about scars and how they don't hurt, but they serve as reminders. poor Julia. it was a hard lesson for her to learn...and let me tell you, she has been babying that kitty just as much as i would had one of my own real baby's been injured. She is such a compassionate child.