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Ok, to the dismay of many - I'm sure
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, I am going to stop blogging. I feel like I don't have the time. I know I can make the time, but I don't want to have to do that. We have so much going on... I love to read other people's blogs, but I guess I am just not much of a blogger! So anyway, thanks for reading and sticking with me. If you really want to know what's going on in my life, just ask me!
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Ok, I know it has been forever since I blogged and I had this great plan to blog all about the RE Conf (it was great). But... since it's been so long and we've been out of town so much and so many other things have happened and continue to happen, I've decided not to go into great detail about the conference. By now (over a month later), I've already told everyone all about it in person! If I haven't and you want to know, ask me or email me. I'll be happy to share ( |
). As soon as I get around to it, I will blog our pics from the conference. Here is also a link to a little clip of a video some people made at the conference. |
Well, we are back from the conference and it was great! There is so much to say about it... I've decided to break down into days (although I will still have to give the condensed version!).
8/31/06 (part 1) We wake at 4:00am to get ready and go to the airport. We arrive at the airport at about 5:15am. Since Jeff wasn't going with us and airport security is tighter, he couldn't wait with us, so he basically had to just drop us off. We had no problems with security and made it through just fine (chapstick and all!). We spent the next hour or so at gate C1 waiting to be called to board. At 6:20am (plane was scheduled to depart at 6:45am) we hear the announcement that our "flight will be delayed due to mechanical problems". Grrr! As soon as they can get a mechanic in to look at it they will be able to give us more information. Ooookaaaay. Close to 7:00am they start boarding us... no other mechanical delay info, no "everything's been fixed"... I mean come on, you can't even get your car fixed at the auto shop in less than 45 min. and the mechanic is already there!... much less an AIRPLANE! I must admit I was a bit worried. Had they forgotten that minutes before we had mechanical problems? As we take our seat, I start to run escape plans through my head in case of engine failure or emergency landing (weird habit I have of always finding escape routes in unfamiliar places). If we start to crash, does the person in the exit row look competent enough to know how to take off that emergency window? *no* Or if they look incompetent (read: like an idiot), are they weak looking enough that I can overtake them and throw them aside to get my daughter and me out to safety? *yes* OK, got that covered. Once everyone is seated, a guy comes over the intercom to give us the scoop. BTW, this guy is not the pilot or a flight attendant b/c he introduced all of them. I still have no clue who this dude was. Anyway, he apologized for the delay and the "whatever" had been fixed (oh goody, I won't have to jump out any windows at 25,000 ft today). "However", anonymous man says, "we will have a short delay while we wait on the fuel truck to give us some more fuel before we take off." What? Fuel Truck!?!? Don't they do that before passengers board? Soooo, we wait on the fuel truck and finally we are fueled and ready for take off!!! We still ended up arriving at DFW around 8:45am. Only 30 min. off our regular schedule. Moral of that story... I need to quit over analyzing and just relax...
Well, that's all I'm going to blog for now. I'll finish up day 1 (part 2) soon. |
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Well, in a few short weeks (actually 11 days) Shareen and I will be flying to Dallas/Fort Worth, TX to attend our very first (and hopefully not the last) unschooling conference. I am very excited about just getting away for a few days and meeting some new, like-minded friends. I think Shareen is going to have a blast... they have all kinds of stuff for the kids to do. Shareen, however, is very excited about flying in an airplane (this will be her first time). The other day she said "Momma, I know we are suppose to be very excited about Jesus coming back and that it's a good thing, but... I really hope He doesn't come back before I get to ride on that plane!" Boy did I crack up! Of course, I reassured her that if Jesus did happen to come back before then, I had a feeling we wouldn't care... that flying up to heaven would be MUCH better than just flying to DFW! Haaa, that girl of mine makes me laugh...
My friends Crissy and Kim and I had a great talk about unschooling at her house Friday night. I'm glad Crissy and Kim are my friends. I feel like they understand me and even if they really don't they still try to understand or sympathize or empathize or whatever the case may be. We just talked about the types of unschooling, because just like homeschooling, there are different kinds of unschooling. There is what I like to call no-curriculum homeschooling to radical unschooling and everything in between. Anyway, I hope we get a lot out of the RE Conference. I know there will be things that won't apply to us (such as How to Meditate) but I think there will be lots to soak up and explore and have fun with! If anyone is interested in looking at the RE website it is www.rethinkingeducation.com. Hopefully I can bring back some great pics and info to post! |
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Well, Jeff and I are back on the baby discussion again. Not that we ever stopped wanting one, we just kind of dropped it for a while, hoping it would just happen. I know lots of people mean well when they say "if you don't think about it, it will happen!", but guess what... not true. Only people who don't have problems getting pregnant say that. If you have been hoping and praying for a child for 5 years, there's not much time when you don't think about it! In fact, I've had lots of people trying to give us advice and tell us stories (you know the "I knew a lady who..." stories) to help. The problem is this - none of it really helps. You just nod your head and say "oh really, mm hmm" and then go home (or in church, on the phone, at a friend's, heck, at a stranger's house) and break down and cry and question God (yes, I said question God) and come to terms with it and then it starts all over again. Some people say "well, you should be happy, at least you have Shareen". Where this would seem logical, really its not to me. Yes I have Shareen, Jeff adopted Shareen, so by law she is his also, but I want us to have a child TOGETHER, whether it is naturally or by adoption I want it to be something we do together, at the same time! Sometimes that gets so lost on people it is hard for me to make them understand it. I actually had a friend tell me several times in the same conversation "well, it's not like you don't have ANY kids!" Grrr! Oh well, keep praying for us... |
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As most of you know, this past week was Camp Cornerstone (our church's version of VBS). For the first time, I worked in the kitchen (usually I'm a tour guide). Working in the kitchen is way harder than you'd expect. But with Elizabeth as our fearless leader, we made it through the week. I must say that I felt very disconnected from what was going on with the kids (I have no clue what the "stops" or bible verses were, who the story tellers were, what crafts were made, etc.) and that was a strange feeling. The only thing familiar to me about CC this year was "Great Big God". After relaying my feelings about this to a friend, she commented that since I worked for Steve, she assumed that I knew everything that was going on with CC. Of course, my reply was "just b/c I work for him doesn't mean he informs me of anything". Sorry G, it's true. AND this week Shareen got in trouble for not really helping where she was suppose to be helping. Yes she is just 12 and this was her first year to help with CC and eat off the teacher's table (a rite of passage for every upcoming 7th grader), but I expected so much more of her. Why? Why the great expectations? I don't know. I've always said I just want her to be who she is in Christ, be comfortable in her own skin, just be herself. So why do I not let her learn from her own mistakes, why do I constantly try to keep her from falling, when I know she has to experience the fall to know how to climb back up, to be who she is in Christ and be comfortable in her own skin? I don't know, b/c I'm a mom, maybe. Or b/c I want everything to be ok for her. I don't want her to have the life I had. Or b/c I'm a great big sinner and I can't get past my own pride and unbelief.
Great expectations gone without a trace Consummation of the common place Always falling on one's proverbial face But that's the human race ya'll The human race ya'll -Mo Leverett
Ok, probably b/c I'm a great big sinner that is so wrapped up in pride and unbelief I look like I came from Roly Poly (BTW, Roly Poly has the greatest wraps EVER!). I'm so glad God gives abounding grace... now if I could only learn to pass that on to my daughter! And to all the people who complained about the carrots |
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We just came back from my daughter's first ever youth trip. It was a jr high beach retreat. Shareen was the only homeschooler on the trip. I'm hoping I can wisely use some of what I observed to help her understand some things better. I was absolutely appalled at the way some of the other girls talked/dressed/acted. I'm not talking real teenagers here. I mean 12 and 13 yro. I couldn't believe it. And it's not that I'm naive to the ways of the world. Trust me, I could tell you some stories. But 12 years old! My daughter is 12 and I would pass out if I saw her acting in some of these ways. My daughter is no better than anyone and we are all sinners. We all need Christ. I guess I'm just venting frustration that no one is talking to these girls and telling them what they need to know. Maybe the Lord will give me the words to say. Please pray for them. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as our unschooling journey continues! |
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Ok, I got this from Lesa's blog and a yahoo group I'm on. I hope they don't mind me stealing it, but it's hilarious.
The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off!
Amen! |
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Yesterday, was End of the Year Fun Day at Lakeside Park for a group of homeschoolers I know. The reason I like this group is b/c we come from different cover schools (in AL you have to be under a cover school), backgrounds, religious affiliations, etc. Shareen and I had SO much fun. I barely saw Reen all day b/c she was off making friends and having fun. (Yes, homeschoolers/unschoolers do know how to make friends despite their lack of social skills |
) I got to judge a baking contest - all desserts made by the kids (apparently, some homeschoolers can cook too!). I got to get in a little socialization time with friends and meet new friends. I played with sidewalk chalk, so did Shareen. I got to laugh at how funny kids are. How bright and playful and funny and great they are when they are just free. Overall, it was a fantastic day. Days like this just help me reaffirm why I homeschool. This is something I need right now. We've homeschooled for 2 1/2 years and everything has been fine... no family members totally against it, most don't care, friends ok (not necessarily supportive, but not saying anything bad either). But for some reason, since we've made the change over to unschooling in the last month, people have really been getting on my nerves with the questions. What's weird is most people don't even know we're unschooling now. It's not about the unschooling, they've just been general irkies like "When are you going to put her back in school?" or "Doesn't she need to be around kids her own age?". Just bothersome things like that. Anyway, why now after 2 1/2 years? I don't know. I don't ask people "When are you going to take your kids out of school? Don't they need to learn to associate with people that aren't their age?". Whatever. |
Here's a funny story... My dh, dd and I went to the Botanical Gardens several days ago. We were almost done with our excursion and we were coming back out of the Alabama Woodlands section, when dd saw a sign that said something about "toxic plants in Alabama". Shareen said "ooo, toxic". Not knowing if she even knew what that meant b/c to my knowledge we have never used or discussed the word toxic, I said " Shareen, do you even know what toxic means?", and she said "um, it's like poisonous". I was a little shocked and slightly proud she knew and I asked "how did you know that?". Her response: "that Britney Spears song - Toxic". Dh and I just giggled and gave each other the look |
and whispered "hmm, learning all the time!"|
Well, this is my first post of my new blog. I created this new blog to be about our "unschooling" adventures/life. I will still be updating my other blog, but I will use this blog to talk more about my daughter, learning experiences and the life that goes with it! I welcome comments and hope my homeschooling/unschooling friends I've made in person and on the web will visit often.
I named this blog "Leap Of Faith" b/c it was definitely was a leap of faith to start homeschooling, but it has been even more so to start our adventure of "unschooling". I don't particularly like the word "unschooling" but for lack of a better term I will probably use it here. Sometimes I may refer to it as "natural learning", but for us, it's now just "life"!
I'll tell you a bit about us... my dh is Jeff and he is an estimator/bidder for a commercial paint company. Shareen is my 12 yro dd,the most wonderful child I know if I do say so myself. She is an only child and always wants a bro or sis, but the good Lord hasn't blessed us with another one. But it's ok. There are definitely pros and cons to having an only. I see the pros all the time!!! I work part-time at our church and Reen can come with me and I help out at our church's food pantry, Covenant of Grace, part-time also. We are living, learning, laughing and loving in Moody, AL (and anywhere else we happen to be!).
Well, that's all I'll put on the opening blog, but I'll start regular posts soon.
Later! |