hippin home school mom

Jan. 22, 2008

new blog

I have a new blog address. I can put videos and pictures there. Luke and I are blogging together there. Go to www.icatlin.com. You have to type the www part. See you there!

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Jan. 10, 2008

Welcome baby Audrey

Monday, January 7th @ 8:17 pm we welcomed our new little bundle into the world. She is so beautiful!! Labor was long and hard. But now we have her. God is good!

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Dec. 30, 2007

one week till baby and a months worth of groceries

One week from tomorrow I will be induced. So we will for sure have a baby in a week. I am really ready. We went grocery shopping today at Sams. We spent the entire grocery budget for the month of January. My husband thinks it will last the whole month. I am not sure. We've never bought groceries there before. We will see!

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Dec. 17, 2007

3 days of school

Just 3 days left till we break for Christmas!!!! Yeah for that. Time will fly, we'll have a baby and be back to school in February. That seems so far away but will be here before I know it. I hope my kids don't forget everything over that long break!

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Dec. 10, 2007

So close

I went to the Dr. the other day, we scheduled a date to be induced. January 7th. I feel like I know her birthday. I have never gone into labor before, so I am assuming that is the day I will have her. I know it is close, but it seems so far away. I am glad I have Christmas to look forward to. I think that will help break up the waiting. It is a funny thing getting ready for a baby. It is almost like getting ready for company. I want to make sure all the laundry is done, every thing stays clean. I made her bed up nice and pretty. Her clothes are washed and put neatly away in her closet and storage baskets. Every thing is ready. Now we just wait. Sometimes when I have been expecting company that took a while to get here from out of town, they would be an hour later than they said. I wait, but it doesn't take long and they arrive. I feel like waiting for this baby is so much the same. Every thing is ready. I am trying to keep things in order. The waiting though is like that hour before the company arrives. That hour that just keeps going and going. I worked on her album tonight. I got her calendar pages ready. I made her title page. I put her sonogram pictures in. So the countdown continues. 28 days to go (till I am induced.)

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Dec. 5, 2007

30 days till baby!

I haven't had much time to blog. All I want to do is sleep. We have been getting school done most days, but that is all. I figure that is my #1 priority, so if the living room needs to be dusted and the stairs need to be vacuumed, maybe some one else will do it. Perhaps if I put the vacuum in the stair way someone will get the picture. My honey has been helping, but I feel bad for him. He is working a lot this month and then I need his help too. I guess it is only for a time. So, sometime in the next month or so we should have a new baby!

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Nov. 14, 2007

Think

Sometimes I wonder if as a mother all I have to talk about is my children. It seems that on the phone with my mom or girl friends, the conversation always goes back to those three little children living in my home and the one living inside my abdomen. So the question is, don't I think? Do I think about anything other than my beautiful little people? The answer is yes, and even though this isn't a conversation with any one I decided to post the things I think about other than my girls. 1. I think about the upcoming presidential election. I visit websites of candidates and watch the entire debates on TV. I have even DVRed them. 2. I love education. Before I had my own children I was an education major. Right now I am reading a book called "Over coming Dyslexia." I am fascinated by the brain and how it works. When my children are grown I would like to finish my degree and teach dyslexic children. 3. I think about what it is that makes up a good church. What am I laking spiritually in my life. Should the church I attend feed me or should I feed myself? Where do I find the accountability I need to discipline myself to do a consistent Bible study. 4. Do I always want to live in this town? Where do I dream of living? 5. I think about my sexy husband. I just love him. I don't feel like being intimate very often lately, with 7 weeks left in my pregnancy, I am just never comfortable. Despite that, I think about how wonderful he is, and that I think he is hot! 6. I think about the economy and what that means for our situation concerning our mortgage and healthcare. 7. I think about my friends and how they are doing. I just wanted to point out if for no one but myself that I think about things. Not just my children. Even though it seems that is all I talk about. There are plenty of other things that I ponder. Those are just a few.

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Nov. 12, 2007

I have a 9 year old?

9 years have gone by so fast. I remember the first thought I had when I saw my little girl. I thought "wow, she's huge." It was hard to believe that child had come out of me. That is still what I think...she is huge!!! Now, I can't believe I have a child that old. If the next 9 years pass as quickly, which I am sure they will, then she will be graduating and leaving me. Then what will I do? Since it is her birthday I should say a few things about her, who she is, and what I love about her. She is very bright. She questions everything, but in a good way. Why is multiplication important? What do people in other religions believe? How do you get cotton from the field to become clothes? It is great. I learn so much by finding the answers to her wonderful questions. She is also beautiful. I love every feature of her little face. Her smile just makes my heart warm. She is a cheerleader for the first time this year. We have a great home school athletic department here. Most people say they can't believe that she loves cheering so much. I think it is because she is so smart. She doesn't seem like the "type." But to me I think that is even better, because she is intellectual, but can also have a good time for good time sake. Plus she strives to be the best at what ever she does. So of course she puts her little heart into cheering and does great at it. I also love that she will talk to me. She has already had some pretty big questions for such a little girl. She has been so confident in just asking me and telling me what she needs to. I pray that is always the case. That reminds me to say how confident she is. When she is sure of something... she just has the most confidence. Even if she ends up not being right, she has confidence to say what she thinks. What a wonderful trait that is. I could go on and on. I am hard on her, I think because she is my oldest. I expect a lot out of her too. Despite my pressure, she is a great kid. I am so proud to be her mom.

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Nov. 5, 2007

Newspring Church

For any one who has read this over any amount of time: Earlier in the year I mentioned that we had left the church that we had been members of for over 6 years. I don't even really know why we left now. After so long, our reasons seemed so silly. There are still a few things that I wish were a little different but every where we went I wished things were a little different. Then I started thinking, why? Why do I wish this was this way or that...is it all about me? Absolutely not. It is about bringing people to know the Lord, which the church we left is now doing in a big way. So we had a 10 month tour of the churches in our town. There are some great people doing some neat things but a couple of weekends ago we went home...and boy did it feel good. Hopefully we will be accepted back into service there with out any apprehension. We have had an odd journey, and I know we will continue to learn and grow through out the rest of our lives. If you would like to visit the web site of OUR HOME CHURCH you can go to www.newspringchurch.org

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Nov. 5, 2007

8 1/2 weeks and counting

The little ticker widget on the right is incorrect. I actually have only 8 1/2 weeks left till my due date. What that really means is there is only about 6 1/2 weeks till Christmas. That isn't very long. If I were very smart I would have either started buying Christmas gifts already, or would be doing it now. This time of year always seems so tight. We have my oldest birthday, Thanksgiving Christmas then my middle daughters birthday. Now we are going to have another birthday in there. WOW this is all going to happen very fast. Thankfully some of our school activities are slowing down. PE is over until Feb. Art will be over in a few weeks. Cheerleading will pick up as the games start, but I am not the only person that can take her to that. My in laws can help and so can my husband. I won't want to miss any games but I know I am going to have to miss some. Especially the really away game like ones in Oklahoma or the KC area.

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Oct. 27, 2007

nursery in progress

I LOVE redecorating!!! My sweet husband volunteered to do the painting. He painted what was the little girls room sage green. The bottom is white. My oldest daughter's room is pink on the top and white on the bottom. So I am moving the now littlest in there with the baby. I free hand painted their names on the wall and I am so excited about it. It is in cursive and the letters are vines and the ends of the letters are roses. I have done that kind of lettering in my scrapbooks before and have always like it. So I think it turned out good. The kids are away for the weekend. I hope they are excited about their "new" rooms when they get home.

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Oct. 22, 2007

update on us

I haven't had much time to blog as of late. So here is what is new. We started middle daughters new curriculum. It is Saxon Phonics. It is very thorough, combining phonics with handwriting and reading of course. I like that her hand writing is part of the lesson. The lessons are a little long, but I think she is doing well. We have began a new topic as part of our Attentiveness unit in Konos. I always swore I would do every thing in Konos but make costumes. Guess what I have on our lesson plans for this and next week. Indian costumes of course. My oldest daughter prefers to be self driven. She doesn't like me telling her what book to read or what project to do. She likes to decide that herself. Which is very annoying. For math, language, spelling and handwriting I make her do what is in her books. However science and a little more flexible subjects. So I came to a conclusion. I will let her pick her project from some choices that I preset. For example, with the indian unit I would like her to read a fictional indian related book. So today I took her to the library and helped her find a book and I am going to let her choose a book report style that she wants to use. I got a book last year called "Better Than Book Reports." It has all kinds of different ideas on reporting on the information in a book other than a traditional report. So I am just going to let her choose. That way she feels more in control and I get her to do the report. As for the littlest she is just great. I was curious how much information she picks up just from being in the class room all the time. I asked her "if 8 + 8 = 16 then what is 16 - 8?" She very quickly responded with "8!" So I thought that was a lucky guess and repeated the question with 2 + 2 and 3 +3. She got it right!!! So that is a little update on our little school. We are still hangin' in there!

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Oct. 11, 2007

Answers

We had my middle daughters screening today. Turns out she is Dyslexic and ADD. I jokingly told the therapist "wow thanks here's your $75!" That wasn't all I got though. I did receive a lot of information on how to help her and where to go from here. I just wasn't surprised at the diagnosis. It actually wasn't a diagnosis so to speak. It was a non medical observation. The facility I took her to was endorsed by our pediatrician. I will obviously continue to home school. The therapist actually praised me for home schooling her. She said at this point in her education it was the best option for her. That is all I have time for tonight. Though there is oh, so much more!

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Oct. 2, 2007

This kid is so funny

My middle daughter is often the topic of my blogs. She is either giving me major grief or making me laugh my butt off! The other day in the car my husband decided to sit in the back seat next to her. Something began a very odd discussion. My oldest daughter was talking about something she had seen some time ago on the Oprah show. There was a young woman who had either been injured or was born disabled. She had no arms or legs. My middle daughter was amazed by this and was almost in disbelief. She asked her daddy if he had ever seen some one who had that disability. He said he had and I guess she couldn't believe his answer because she very quietly leaned over and whispered "you got any pictures of that." We couldn't help but laugh. it was so funny that she needed proof of something like that. Why would we make that up? Another random funny from her. We were again in the car last night and a song came on the readio. It was "stayin' alive." The part that says "ladies man" was kinda funny seeing how we are having our 4th daughter. So when I heard the beginning I said "hey this is daddy's song." My middle daughter said "Is it SMOKING IN THE BOYS ROOM?" Were did that come from? How does she even know that is a song and why on earth would she say that was daddy song. He detests smoking. It was so funny. We couldn't stop laughing.

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Sep. 25, 2007

screening appointment

Well, I did it. I made an appointment to have my middle daughter screened for leaning differences. I really don't want to call what ever is going on with her a disability. She isn't disabled. She just isn't as easy to teach. I told her that we were going to have a lady play some games with her and have her do some reading and writing then the lady is going to tell mommy how to be a better teacher. I don't want her to feel like any thing is wrong with her. My entry titled "ADD" was written on a particularly difficult day. I was way over stressed and hormonal I am sure. I am trying very hard to be the best teacher that I can for her and for my other girls. I will blog about the results of her screening when the time comes.

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Sep. 23, 2007

A blizzard IN the car

My family took a trip to KC this weekend. It was a fun little get away with a field trip involved of course. We were about an hour down the road, KC is about 3 hours away, and I noticed the air in the car (we drive a ford Explorer with a third row seat) began to get linty. Then the amount of white lint in the air increased dramatically in only about 10 seconds. I was waving my hand saying "what is this, what is going on." Upon closer examination I found the lint to be white feathers and source to be my giggling 6 year old in the third row seat. I should have known better. She had been so quite for so long and that is never good news with her. She had picked at the seam on her feather pillow until she created a 3 or 4 inch hole. Then she gleefully reached her little hand in and produced the fluffy white clouds that were quickly caught in the air flow of the car. Soon the clouds filled the car and she continued to produce them until we discovered her new game. My husband rolled dow the windows in hopes to clear the air. I think that just caused the feather to fly around even more. We were all laughing so hard I was afraid we were going to get feathers caught in our throats. You never know what kids are going to do. Especially my middle daughter. She is just always up so something. I couldn't help but laugh when I told her that was naughty. She was proud of her self for providing such great entertainment. I put her pillow back in the pillow case with the hole toward the back. She hasn't pulled out any more feathers but I think I will be cleaning them out of the car for months.

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Sep. 20, 2007

ADD?

My middle daughter is my greatest teaching challenge. I had her eyes checked last week and all was well. No eye problems at all. Something is not right. Reading in particular is very difficult for her. She does have difficulty paying attention ALL the time. For instance, this evening after dinner she went to the bathroom to wash her hands, forgot to wash and used the potty instead, still forgot to wash and to flush and came out front. I asked her if she washed...she told me she had forgotten. Then she went in the bathroom and flushed and came back out...when I asked her if she washed she said she had forgot and went back to the bathroom and finally washed her hands. I could list a million times where similar situations had taken place and that is just in regular life. At school it could, and does, take us 45 minutes to read 4 sentences. So what do I do? I am hopefully going to have her tested in the next few weeks. I don't want to medicate her. I am more interested in behavior modification. Do I have the patience, do I have what it takes to be this child's teacher? If I do, do I have what it takes to do that and have a normal rest of my life? My husband has no idea how the stress of teaching is affecting the rest of me. I have something like 15 weeks left in my pregnancy, I am exhausted and trying to be the perfect everything and all he sees is that I spent some cash that was allocated for another purpose. Do you have any idea what I went through today? Do you know that the money I spent on that pizza was spent to spare my sanity? Probably not. Ok, this has gotten way off the ADD issue. It has been a very difficult day and I am wondering if I am cut out for this homeschooling thing after all. May be I should just stick them in school and be done with it!!!

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Sep. 11, 2007

sept 11

I know we all remember where we were 6 years ago. I have my memories of that day as well. There is a certain place on the highway here, I know the exact spot, that I found out the plane had hit the pentagon. I dialed my phone as quickly as I could knowing my dad was scheduled to be working at the pentagon sometime around then. My folks live 8 hours away and though I talk to my mom all the time, in that moment I couldn't remember just when he was supposed to be there. As soon as I heard her voice say "Hello" I said "where is dad?" She said he is right here and we both started crying. She said he wasn't supposed to work there until the next week. He works for Computer Science Corporation in Security and he frequented the pentagon until that time. I will never for get the relief I felt when I found out he was at home with her. I was on my way to an appointment for the sales job I had at the time. I met several other people there, we were all in shock as was the rest of the country. That day, I found out my father was fine when I made that phone call. I can't help but think of the hundreds of people who made the same phone calls that didn't receive the same information. I take time every year on Sept 11 to pray for them. I got to go on, my life didn't change too much. Theirs will always be altered- forever changed.

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Sep. 4, 2007

banana split

I have been doing a behavior chart with the girls. Every day at school that they have positive attitudes with each other and have positive attitudes about their school work they get a piece of a paper banana split. There are 8 pieces, a bowl, banana, 3 scoops of ice cream, chocolate sauce, whipped cream and a cherry. It is really cute and pretty effective in getting them to behave at school. Well it took them 4 weeks of school but they completed their banana split and we went to DQ tonight and had ice cream in celebration. Only my middle one actually wanted a banana split. We let her get her own. It was so cute. My little one licked away at her dipped cone while my oldest maneuvered her way through a mud fudge blizzard. I was so proud of them and I hope they can win their ice cream party even faster next time!

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Sep. 2, 2007

my beautiful kitchen

I am so excited about my "new kitchen." Well, it isn't really new. I just ripped off all the wall paper the previous owners put up, painted and redecorated. But, it feels new. I love it! A couple of weekends ago I painted my living room which connects to the kitchen. The back wall is a deep chocolate brown and the others are a warm beige. So in the kitchen I painted below the chair rail the same deep brown and the top the same beige. It feels so fresh and clean. Now, before the baby is born I just have to paint the room where my two little ones are now so that the two older ones will live there when the baby is born. Then the 4 year old and the new baby will move in together in what is now the my oldest daughters room. The room I am repainting is bright yellow with black bumble bees painted on the walls. I think it is cool, but I am kind of getting tiered of it. Also I want to paint the upstairs and down stairs halls the same beige as up stairs. Funny what having a baby will make you do. I know if I don't do it now...it could be a couple of years before I get it done.

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