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I have been purging quite a bit around the house. If it doesn't look like it can be sold on ebay or given to Goodwill, out it goes in the trash!!! (We live so far out in the sticks that it doesn't pay to attempt a yard sale unless the whole neighborhood is involved). Also doing a lot of Ebay selling. It feels good to get rid of clutter!!! I'm not a slave to it anymore when it is no longer in my face or the back of my mind to "take care of"! Last week was so chaotic with Gregory here for three nights and three nights of Vacation Bible School. But at least Gregory got to go to VBS! I drove him to and from orchestra camp all three days which kind of put a strain on school and added to the chaos. I was "hormonal" on one VBS night and just couldn't go. People say it is just a state of mind but mine overtakes me to where I can't face things; believe me, if I could just change my thinking and overcome this hormonal problem, I WOULD! Who would actually WANT to feel this way??!! Don't want to go the prescription route, though. I felt so down during this whole week of VBS, I honestly didn't want to do it. But it gave me insight on what to do to prepare for next year and make it more enjoyable for myself and beneficial to the kids; mine and the students I have. At any rate, I am glad last week is behind me! This week we are going to get into more detail about leaves in Botany and do some reading of Ali Baba and Sinbad for history, and next is the Tang Dynasty of China. I was disappointed to find little on that subject at the library. It will be fun to get into Britian, France, and Ireland in the Middle Ages--knights, castles, etc. Meghan has been playing a lot with pattern blocks lately and when I looked ahead to see what she will be doing in math, (Purposeful Design), I noticed there are some pages on making designs with pattern blocks! She will probably give me a bored look and tell me she has already done pattern blocks. Matthew finally got through his metric system unit and is now into the American(?) system of measurement. I can remember in grade school, over 30 years ago, they told us the U.S. would be converting to the Metric System and it hasn't happened yet, which I am glad for; it is one small thing that keeps us unique and set apart as a country. No "one world order" for me! I am still wondering in the back of my mind when to start an art or music "class" at home. We have the resources, it is just a matter of Mommy getting her act together. Matthew finished Farmer Boy and is reading a little of a biography of Sam Walton and King Arthur and HIs Knights, what a combination! Well, I have some nice books on how to raise children up to love and obey God, but my problem right now is with MY attitude and heart. I have no "sweetness" inside me. I have so much bitterness towards certain people and I don't understand why I feel this way. Hmmm..maybe I do need an anti-depressant after all. I think some of it is me letting our financial situation dictate my moods, I need to learn how to be content whatever the circumstances--time to read some of the apostle Paul's letters! That man went through starvation, beatings, sickness, loneliness, physical peril, and still rejoiced in the Lord! And he didn't have the comforts I do. I hope it is not too late for me to straighten up and love my kids with Godly love instead of worrying that they memorize a Bible verse exactly. I see them bickering so much and wonder if it is me rubbing off on them. I am already looking forward to Autumn, maybe because it has been so hot. The cooler weather brings the fun holidays! Daddy is still hanging on. I called him yesterday and he sounded tired. I hope all the weight he lost was just fluid. What makes me so sad about him is knowing he has lost his freedom and can't do the things he loves like driving--he will never drive up here to visit us again and that breaks my heart. I hate trying to have a conversation on the phone with Nell; you start to say something and she rolls right over you with an interruption and she has to outdo you in sickness or difficult situation. I really try, but I wish my dad were able to answer the phone so I wouldn't have to bite my tongue. SMILE, BE NICE, SMILE, BE NICE.
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Meghan has already expressed fear that she is growing up and may not get as much affection because she is learning to read. She said "I don't ever want to be a grown-up." , as we sat down to do Alpha-Phonics. I reassured her with hugs and kisses. I remember her now 14-year-old brother saying the same thing around that age, and now he can't wait to get a job and his driver's license. The kids are enjoying "Seasons of the Sandstorms" from the Magic Treehouse Series as a supplement to their history curriculum. Matthew is reading "Farmer Boy" for language arts and seems to find it interesting to read about a world where work is so much a part of daily life. Rachel is writing a letter to her shut-in grandfather for Purposeful Spelling, Grade Three. I'm hoping to get out today to decorate my classroom for VBS, at least to mail some packages for Shane. Green tea is now brewing in the sun---refreshing! |
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Third day of homeschool for us. Since Matthew stayed overnight at a friend's last night, I decided we would do just seatwork today and no read-aloud, which means no science or history. I was going to make Friday our "seatwork only" day, but this week today will have to be that day. Another reason for making it today is that I intentionally did not set my alarm clock last night due to the fact that I was in intense pain in my lower left side and knew that I would be waking up several times during the night. I'm wondering if it is due to endometriosis (I think I have had a tender left ovary for about 20 years now). But I was told the CT scan from about a month ago shows nothing. So today I am on ibuprofen in order to deal with it for right now. Finally got Matthew to get up out of bed to do his seatwork. He knows I will add days on to his schedule next spring if I have to count him "absent"now. I have chicken cooking in the crockpot but am not sure what to do with it. This was a bad day for a big dinner project with this pain and Bible study tonight, but it had to get cooked or go bad in the fridge. I'm thinking something like fajitas. I am wishing I could do some of the "pretty" things I see done on other people's blogs, like include photos and the cutesy folkart kind of pictures. And the boxes with scripture in them. Sometimes I think if someone ran across me on a random blog search, they wouldn't stay long! Maybe some day I will learn. |
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I did too much fun and work on the computer this morning, which put our whole day about an hour behind. But, we got off to a much better start in Bible. Matthew knew his verse and learned the one for today quickly! My Meghan wants to go at a faster pace than the Alpha-Phonics book goes. Poor Zoe came over at about 10:20 and wanted Meghan to play. We told her to try again in about three hours, yet she hovered nearby in the yard wanting a companion. Sent away to get out of mommy's hair? Sad. Botany went slow and smoothly; I went at their pace and didn't get impatient with them, even when Meghan insisted on writing out the vocabulary definitions like Matthew and Rachel do, and having every word spelled out for her. Brownie points for Mommy for patience!!! We're going to try the chicken nuggets from Aldi for lunch today; so far all of their products have been quality. I was afraid before I tried them that the merchandise would be like food you might get somewhere like Dollar Tree. But don't get me wrong, I love Dollar Tree for crafts and gifts, just not for food. So, we will probably be returning to Aldi on a weekly basis to get what Kroger doesn't have a great enough bargain on. I'm seceretly hoping Shane will bring Mozzi's pizza home tonight, although today I wouldn't mind cooking. Speaking of cooking, time to start the nuggets!!! Happy Tuesday! |
is 
!!! Maybe writing it down helped him memorize it. He had trouble with reciting the passages for history, so I am having him copy one and then recite it to me before he can go on to any "extra curricular" activities. |
Today was our first day of the 2007-2008 "school" year. We started with Psalm 103; I read it aloud to them and we memorized the first verse (well, I don't know if they have it memorized, but they each repeated it back to me several times). I was near tears trying to work with Matthew; he is just as resistant and unmotivated as all previous years. I know 75% of it is my fault, as is the other problems I see with Matthew and the girls as far as attitude, discipline, etc. goes. I feel I have made many homeschool improvements and self-improvements over our homeschooling "career", but with Matthew they seem to "fall on deaf ears". Shane needed me to go to the post office for him, so when we finished Bible, history (the fouding of Islam), and Botany(leaves), the girls and I set off. However, when we got there, i discovered that the employee who won't take Shane's bank card as payment from me was the sole worker at the time, so we had to take the package(a guitar he had sold on ebay)all the way to Shane at work, so that he could get it sent off on his lunch hour. While we were there, Shane handed me his paycheck from one of his four jobs--I am married to a hard-working provider!--and asked me to take it to his bank to deposit. After the bank transaction, I realized it was one o'clock, so the girls and I stopped for lunch at Taco Bell and I called Matthew to let him know he needed to fix "lunch for one" for himself. After bean burritos, with library material to return that had been in the van since we had gotten in today, we headed for the library. We returned our books and DVD's, and I treated the girls and myself to about an hour of library time. Having just finished Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell, which, by the way, I recommend to anyone who enjoys classic English literature, I looked in adult fiction, but nothing appealed to me. I feel I need to be into another novel, but we have enough at home for me to choose from. (Thank you Hancock County Public Library book sales). And I have enough to keep me busy with my job as my children's mommy and teacher and wife to Shane. Miss Tiffany let the girls choose a few unexpected prizes for the reading program and gave Meghan TWO TICKETS TO THE STATE FAIR THAT SHE HAD WON IN THE DRAWING. Neither Shane nor I are into the state fair, and don't particulary want our children in that atmosphere, so Shane is going to give them to people at work who do enjoy the fair. The girls had also each earned coupons for free dessert at MCL Cafetiria, and tickets to the Children's Museum haunted house in October. The funny thing about the library trip is that it is next door to the very post office we started out at on our journey!!!!! Not what you would call a normal homeschooling day, (or would you?), but I enjoyed the "running around" and the library break. Maybe I needed the break from the trials and tribulations of watching Mattew try to get away with much less than I know he is capable of. Meghan made a cover for her botany notebook decorated with a Venus Fly-trap next to an apple tree. She is doing a great job in Alpha-Phonics, "I already know how to read this.", but says she is bored with science and history, although I don't think the work is above her. I think maybe she is just not accustomed to being "lectured"; much of our botany and history is me reading to them all out of the same text and asking them questions. Rachel is a dream to homeschool! She is motivated and things like reading and "school" work just come easy for her. Maybe that's why I get so frustrated with Matthew; he is a lot of work and I want things to come easy for me. Charlie and the boys were over for their last day in Indiana Saturday. I cried before they even came over just knowing that they would be going back home and it will probably be awhile before I get to be with them or Karen. It seemed to signal the end of my "summer vacation" also. Trips to Tennessee, time alone and with just Shane, are over for now and have been replaced with my "job". Not that I don't like homeschooling(I do like homeschooling, don't I?). I don't know what it is. A lot of prayer and attitude adjusting and priority realizing are in order for me. One of my priorities is getting Meghan bathed and Shane fed so TIME TO END THIS ENTRY! |
Let's hope I get a smile on my face tomorrow!|
I haven't made an entry in quite a while. We have been spending a lot of time in Tennessee due to my dad's heart condtion and camp for the kids. I have been alone (shane is home when not working) for about 1 1/2 weeks with the kids in Florida with Karen. I intend to start the 2007-2008 year on July 30th, depending on how long the cousins will be visiting when Charlie brings the kids home. This will be Meghan's first year!!!! She has been telling people she is "already in first grade" because i let her do some work in her language arts and math books. When I get off the computer and get a bite to eat, my intentions are to get a majority of things ready for our first day of school. Notice I said those are my intentions; i hope to get that done, but sometimes something else (like getting a lot of reading in because i have time alone) seems more fun. I am changing Matthew back to an old Language Arts curriculum we had been in the year before last, LIFEPAC was not cutting it for him and I wanted to add more literature to his L. A. I looked over Sonlight curriculum, but was overwhelmed, so decided on Learning Language Arts Through Literature. Rachel has been thriving on LIFEPAC so far and reads the "classics" (Charlotte's Web, Narnia, etc.) of her own accord, so I will keep her in it this year with the option to go to LLATL next year. Meg is starting in LIFEPAC for L.A. For science and history, I will be reading to them outloud from textbooks; Exploring Creation with Botany, and The Story of the World Volume 2, The Middle Ages, and they will each have ability-appropriate assignments to do after the reading. I think right now for Bible, we will be memorizing scripture and taking dictation. I estimate i will be spending about 2 hours each school day reading to them or giving dictation. I will be all talked out! |
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Today the weather was bee-you-ti-fullll!!!!!! High of about 75 degrees! Yippeee! We got Bible , History, spelling, and math done, plus the girls went to a program at the library. And we all went to my doctor appointment. Shane met us at the park and although it was a little crowded, we had FUN! We visited the Children's Museum yesterday. Meghan gave us a bad scare when she strayed off from us! She said it was because nothing in the Clifford the Big Red Dog exibit was going right for her. Well, I certainly would rather that she had whined about it than wandered off!!! Matt and Rachel like the second volume of history. We are currently reading about Irish monks and the copying of books by hand. Still talking about Daniel in Bible study. I bought the cutest birthday card for Andrew; it's hard to believe he will be six and Meghan already is. The time is getting closer to see him in person in Gatlinburg. It will be so nice to be with Karen. My dad is getting "diabetic shoes" soon and goes to the dermatalogist tomorrow. He sounds well on the phone. I am happy and more confident with the way homeschool is going. My organization skills are improving by the week, which is a big part of it. I'm thinking all we will do for Easter is color eggs; don't want to fill the kids with candy or have them think they get a gift just because it is a holiday. Maybe I can think of something spiritual for us to do.
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I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel through this virus. All of us but Shane had it; now Matthew has bronchitis. I felt so frustrated about not getting well right away. I am so thankful to almost be over it!!! Going to get back on the homeschooling track tomorrow; slowly but surely. I will take it easy on the kids and will take plenty of breaks between "subjects". We will start the second book of "Story of the World" sometime this month; we received the workbook in the mail last week. Well, I'm going to sign out and go enjoy my family for the remainder of the evening. Maybe I can get them away from the television. That has been a crutch for all of us in our sickness-induced boredom. |
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Okay, let's try this entry agoin! Rachel went to the doctor Friday but is fine now, must have just been stomach virus. My dad is still in the hospital and his feet still look bad; doesnt' know when he will be released. I am now sick with non-stop runny nose and body aches but am determined to feel better tomorrow and get much accomplished. Rachel is trying to talk Shane into taking us to the Children's Museum tomorrow. Shane delivered pizzas for four hours last night in an ice storm, after working eight hours at his regular job. Let's see is this goes through. |
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Well, I had today all planned out--we would do Bible class(Daniel 2) and head off to the library where we were going to do spelling and math and then have our leisure time perusing books, selecting DVD's, etc. However, in the middle of Bible class, Rachel began complaining of a tummy ache and mom soon found out that Rachel had a fever of 99.1. Sooooo..... all of the library plans were shot and we all stayed home with Matthew doing his schoolwork alone and Rachel moaning and groaning with an achey belly and fever. LIFE IS WHAT HAPPENS WHILE YOU ARE MAKING OTHER PLANS. Justin called Matthew and they talked for awhile and then Theresa and I go on the phone together. She is doing a lot of buying and reselling of children's books on E-bay; something I have thought about doing. It seems to be profitable for her. We promised one another we would get together soon. Rachel is out of bed and arguing with her sister and begging me to let her be on the computer now, so she must be feeling better. I will take her temp again in about 15 minutes. Meghan asked me to do the rest of her Daniel Bible lesson with her about 20 minutes ago. I was so glad she had an interest in it and sat down with her to finish it. She is still crazy about that I Spy type of book from the library and we did more of it together today. Tomorrow will probably have to be grocery day. I hope we can squeeze in the library too. |
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Well, I signed on to enter a little something about the day's events and suddenly had a mind freeze--what did happen today? This is my dad's eighth day in the hospital--the swelling in his feet still hasn't gone down enough for the hospital to release him. Rachel is constantly reminding me that she wants to foster puppies (Thanks, Puppy Place series). We are having a big thaw. The temperature has been in the 40's for the past two days--yippee! I woke up late this morning, but to my surprise, it didn't get me down and cause me to see the entire rest of the day as a failure like usual. I took it all in stride and even sat down with Meghan and an I Spy type of book before I got in the shower. We managed to get spelling, science and math done and attend Bible class tonight. Plus one and a half loads of laundry!!! I started reading Homeschooling With a Meek and Quiet Spirit and doing the study guide today, I think both wil be very helpful. I would love to see comments from anyone who has used resources from Doorposts; all of their products look great and I am seriously contemplating ordering a few items. Looks like it's time to get the kids in bed and settle down for the night. Library day tomorrow! (Meghan is still being rebellious about her "h"). |
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We had Gregory over yesterday, and it was wonderful and chaotic. Finally got to do the Bible study with him!! He introduced us to a new flavor of Pop Tart--Strawberry Milkshake--and managed to consume several Mountain Dews while he was here. It seems that teenagehood is tough on him, he wants his "other parents" to leave him alone. He has a mohawk again and now has a leather jacket, making him look like one of the Stray Cats. His dad is not showing much trust in him, from what I can tell (maybe only when it is convenient?) All six of us went to the Mexican restaurant on Smith Valley Road yesterday and got FULL! Except for Meghan, she refused to eat a thing. TODAY we began the Daniel portion of Bible Study Guide for All Ages. We got into some lengthy reading which was over the kids' heads and we all ended up cranky and not completing what we had set out to accomplish. I will have to be better at selecting what readings will actually benefit the lesson. Live and Learn. But it really got me frustrated and discouraged--on the day I had decided to start following an actual schedule too! Rachel and I went to the Brownie meeting where the topic was sports and games. She played a game new to her called Octopus which ended up being very loud with not only the Brownies but some of their brothers and sisters involved. Most of my conversing was with Tracy, we always get along well. Heidi called me at home later with a concern and we had a good coversation. It was so good to talk to people out in public after suffering from cabin fever these past weeks!! I told Tiffany at the library that we felt like we had finally thawed out. I received the Day of Delight book from Doorposts and Homeschooling With a Meek and Quiet Spirit by Terri Maxwell in the mail today--boy, do I need both of those! Found many more things in the Doorposts catalog I would love to utilize! Rachel received her Puppy Place book, Patches, and finished it in few hours. We received Charlotte's Web a few days ago and I plan on doing a read-aloud with it when we finish If You Grew Up Where Jesus Lived. Matthew cheated on his spelling test Calling LuAnn and Theresa about Southport Church of Christ is still on my mind. I need to do studying and research on this "non-institutional" business from both points of view. At any rate, we need to get back in the swing of things with the Jones family. Shane brought home Mozzi's for dinner tonight, a real help for me. We let the kids watch Monster House while eating their pizza, but I would not recommend it. Back to only G movies--their is always something too objectionable with PG. Shane ate with us and then fell asleep early across our bed. The kids and I did a little reading together and then I helped them bed down. Meg read the latest installment of her Ginger story, which she has been working on since I brought her the blank book last night. Still trying to cultivate a servant's attitude and still needing much strength from God in that area! Now I"m off to turn Shane vertically on the bed and fall asleep myself! |
Which goes along with her refusing to write the "h" in her name--at six years old! Shane took the other three sledding while Gregory and I stayed home and played Super Mario Three. Do you have to ask who beat whom? We also looked through a box of photos and I gave him a photo of his papaw, Matthew, and himself at "the peach house", and one of himself and Shane at the same location (Shane looked very young in it) to take home. Gregory also was able to take home the contents of his Christmas stocking, only two months late. 
and I tried to have a scriptual talk with him about it and advise him to ask God for forgiveness. It seems he feels so worthless with just one little failure but he would have made a 95% on the test before he cheated--not too shabby in my book. I am really concerned about him already being baptized and doing such things. I am wondering if he may feel the need to get rebaptized later in life because of maturity level when he was first baptized. If it is needful, I pray I can do my part to help get him to the point where he realizes it is necessary.