I am still mulling over the idea of setting aside outside activities next year, with the exception of church activities. We've not made a firm decision yet, mostly because I haven't talked to Roger about whether or not he plans to play softball next year. That IS a church related activity, but it's been physically tough on him to play this year because of shoulder injuries, so he may not want to play next year.
My "dilema" is American Heritage Girls. It is a wonderful and fantastic organization, and my girls LOVE it. I enjoy it as well. But that isn't what makes it hard to give up. They really learn a lot at AHG, and a good bit of our curriculum for this year has been taken from the AHG Handbook. The AHG leaders, whether they realize it or not, are helping me teach my kids this year, and I'm not sure I want to give that up, or that I SHOULD give that up. I DO know though that I WON'T be serving as an Assistant Leader or Leader next year. Serving in that capacity means I HAVE to be present at the meetings. I often go to the meetings anyway, but sometimes Roger and I use that time to do errands, or to sit outside and just talk, or play with our son. We don't have that choice when I "HAVE" to be at the meetings.
So, we are praying for the Lord's guidance in what to do as far as activities for next year.
This is unrelated to the thoughts above, but if you are studying, or planning to study the Pilgrims and the Mayflower soon, my kids and I had a good time this morning exploring www.pilgrimhall.org There you can see some portraits of some of the pilgrims, read about their journey, and see photographs of some of their personal belongings.
We were delighted this morning to see a picture of a beaver hat that belonged to our ancestor, Constance Hopkins Snow!!
Another random thought: I have, for some time now, had this "plan" in my head~sort of an outline of what our days SHOULD look like. Nothing complicated, just basic stuff like the fact that I want EVERYONE in the house to be up, dressed, teeth and hair brushed, and beds made and breakfast eaten before any playing, tv, or computer time. We DO all these things every day, but sometimes tv, or toys, or the computer, or whatever, sneaks in and eats up time, and we don't get these things done until late in the day. People end up in their pajamas all day long, or start watching tv and don't want to stop when it's time for school, things like that. This is someting I've felt really convicted about. I know some would have no problem with this at all, but it bothers me.
All 3 children are also participating in AWANA, and we have fallen into the habit of spending a large "chunk" of time on Wednesdays learning the verses for that evening's AWANA meeting. This too has been bothering me for a while. I KNOW what I wanted us to do, I guess I just didn't want to deal with the resistance from the kids that I figured I'd get if I actually ENFORCED this routine.
I've been praying about this for a while now. Yesterday, a friend of mine said something that really stayed with me. He was referring to a different situation, but when he said these words, I just "felt" that the Lord meant for me to hear them. He said "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten." I *think* Dr Phil has made that quote popular, but as I don't watch Dr Phil, I"m not sure. Anyway, this statement really stuck with me. I want things to be different in our home. But if I DO what I"ve ALWAYS done, I'm going to GET what I"ve ALWAYS gotten!!
So, I got up this morning, and read my Bible and prayed FIRST, before ANYTHING else. I"ve long had the habit of reading and praying each day, but I usually 'squeeze it in" where I can during the day. I've felt convicted recently to give the Lord the FIRST part of my day.
Rachel got up while I was reading, and asked if she could play on the comptuer. She seemed surprised when I said no, but she didn't argue. She looked at a book while I finished reading, then I got the other 2 kids up and we all got dressed, made beds, brushed hair and teeth, and I started a load of laundry. Then, while I fixed waffles for breakfast, we took turns practicing everyone's AWANA verses. As they finished up eating, we did some oral additon drills, and we talked about the concept of multiplication. We have a tiled table in our kitchen, with five rows of five squares. We talked about how that was "5 squares, 5 times" or "5 groups of 5" and that it is a total of 25 squares. We are about to start memorizing the multiplication tables, and I thought it was important for them to understand what they are doing when they multiply.
After that , the children helped me put away some laundry, then took a short break to play while I started some more. Then, we read a little bit about Miles Standish from Abeka's history text book "Our American Heritage 3" This is Abeka's 3rd grade history book, the same history book I used in 3rd grade in christian school. It is in "story" form, and not very "textbookish" if you know what I mean. Then, we spent some time exploring the pilgrim hall website I mentioned above. By then, the kids decided to make their own sandwiches for lunch and watch Between the Lions while they ate. They have just finished eating and are now watching "The Big Comfy Couch".
In a few minutes, I think we will do a bit of reading aloud, probably from the book "Constance" by Patricia Clapp.
We may or may not be headed to the ball field tonight, depending on whether or not it rains, and whether or not Roger thinks it's too cold for us to come with him to the ball games tonight.
Right now, I"m just thankful that we've had a nice day, and it HASN'T been eaten up by the tv and computer!!
Blessings,
Mom23munchkins