I'm a homeschool mom of 3 daughters. My aim in life is to glorify God by loving and serving my family, grow personally in my walk with Him, and being a Titus 2 woman to those younger than me. This blog is to share what God is doing in my life and in the life of our homeschool. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Tue, 20 May 2008 02:20:00 -0500 Tue, 20 May 2008 02:20:00 -0500 HI, I just wanted to post to make sure that this blog didn't get deleted. I am hoping at some point that I can turn this into a book using blurbs.  I am currently at http://fromthenarrows.wordpress.com Come say hi. Susan http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/534933/ Tue, 20 May 2008 02:20:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/534933/ Hi--- I still seem to be getting some traffic here. If you haven't heard yet I have a new location that I am blogging at.  Please come and say hi at from the narrows. If you have found this blog from my new location then by all means, check it out and stay a while. I have written a lot here. I wish I could transfer it all over but it is a long and tedious job and I don't want to spend the time doing it. Susan http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/363539/ Fri, 27 Jul 2007 01:44:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/363539/ Would anyone know how I can transfer all my entries from HSB to my wordpress blog?  I don't want to loose all that I have written over the last year and a half. I do have the entries saved in a word document but I was hoping to get it all in one place.  Thanks! Susan http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/329672/ Thu, 17 May 2007 00:58:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/329672/ Hello-  I just wanted to point you to a new blog address for mamaduso. It is no longer Ladies in Training but instead From The Narrows. So please go to: From the Narrows On another note- I am almost back. Meaning I will be coming back slowly.  I will fill you all in on whats been going on the last few weeks. Susan http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/319087/ Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:44:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/319087/ To say Good Bye for the time being.  The Lord has spoken loud and clear this week.  He wants me to focus on Him and this gets in the way.  HSB has been an incredible place for me and if you asked me a month ago if I would ever quit blogging I would say definitely not.  I am being brought to a place where i need to deal with some stuff and I am thankful for this opportunity.  It is what the Lord wants.  I can now say that I can leave the blogging world.  I may be back after some time of rest and growth and change of focus.  You may see me around leaving a comment hear and there.  If you feel led to pray for me I would appreciate it. If you would like to say hi, send me an email (see sidebar).  I know I sure would love to hear from you.  There are many special people here and I have been blessed to get to know some of you.  Thank you so much for blessing me. Until then, Susan http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/300221/ Fri, 16 Mar 2007 01:16:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/300221/ Here on the West Coast we are seeing some nicer days. In fact today it was a balmy 75 degrees.  Last weekend we decided to take a short hike.  What you will see in these pictures is what we have available within city limits and about 20 minutes from my house.  I realized how blessed I was to live where it is so green.  I guess there are good things about having a lot of rain. Susan http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/298121/ Mon, 12 Mar 2007 00:51:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/298121/ I feel like I have been such a downer lately. Sorry for all you who get tired of the woe is me.  I am feeling a little more encouraged today.  I owe some of that to my husband.  We had a good long talk tonight and I was able to communicate to him how I was feeling and what discouraged me the most as I have been trying to see where the anger is coming from.  While I don't know the root of it (except for sin) I can tell you what makes me crazy and that is the disobedience of my children. Then I start thinking of all I need to do and I get overwhelmed and it goes downhill from there.  I was talking with him about ALL that I need to do with the girls and the things I need to teach and work on he pointed out that they all seemed to be symptoms and I was trying to put a bandaid on it instead of working on the root issue which is..... my relationship with the girls.  His thoughts are that if I worked on the relationship some of the symptoms just may work itself out on its own. That is not to say I don't continue with the training/reminding/discipline that needs to happen, but the focus isn't so much on that behavior as it is really spending time with the girls, nurturing the relationships, trying to creat a bond with each other and having fun together.  I am feeling encouraged again that maybe I can do this.  I am glad because boy it was looking pretty bad there in my mind lately.  You really wouldn't want to be there. This week we have worked on some of this (spending time together) and I really feel like it is the best thing to do.  We have done chores together. We have all sat and watched and listened as Peanut read her first words today and screamed and yelled in excitement for her.  We have done math together and read alot together.  It has been good. Next week I hope to do more, like play games and puzzles together.  We didn't get to that this week.  My house is cleaner than it has been in a while.  I am looking into getting some more fun games. What games do you like to play (for ages 5 and up)? Well, I just noticed that I titled this entry "Husbands" and have only mentioned hubby once.  My point is that my husband loves me and our family and when he listens and encourages me I feel his love.  He has great insight and advice.  Most of all he is so patient with me.  He simply is the best for me.  He had an interview today. We are praying for this job for him. He was so excited in talking to me about his interview, yet he is holding back a little because he doesn't want to be disappointed if they don't offer him a job and if the pay isn't close to what he is getting now.   Will you please pray that the Lord gives him the desire of his heart? He wants to leave his current job. It has been more than difficult.  If he doesn't get the job he will have to stay where he is at and try to work on acceptance.  It will be hard.  I was just told today that at the end of the month his boss is likely going to put him back on that crazy shift.  I am just not going to think about it.  I have told you that I get to see my sister in LA at the end of the month, but I didn't tell you that hubby is taking two days off for it and will be watching the girls on his two day scheduled holiday.  He is so nice to me.  Now- I have figured out his birthday present. He never reads my blog so I guess I can tell you what it is.   We are going to eastern Oregon to have an evening on a Mystery Dinner Train.  Then we will spend the night there. The girls get to stay with grandparents. It all worked out so quickly and perfectly that I knew this was what I should do for him.  The train is an old fashioned one. The dress and mystery is western with cowboys etc.  The dinner is 4 courses.  It should be very fun. Some friends went and loved it-she gave me the idea.  (Hey Tia, I will be in your neck of the woods) Susan http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/296836/ Fri, 9 Mar 2007 01:01:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/296836/ I am so excited for the end of the month.  I get to fly to LA to see my sister for 4 days!  Four days alone iwth my sister to go to tea and eat out and shop and hang out at the beach. Just me and my sister.  My hubby is so good to me!  While I am there I am hoping to get  a perm from the same lady who did my sister's hair. Hers turned out adorable so I am hoping for the same result, and seeing chickadee's hair convinced me to try something new.  Another thing happening at the end of the month is hubby's birthday. I won't say how old he is but it is a decade marker and I feel like I need to make it a big deal out of it. The problem is I have no idea what to do for his birthday.  I am stumped for the first time in 12 years. Throw some ideas at me! I need it! Spring!  I am so ready for it. I feel like my life has been in a winter for far too long and I am looking forward to some spring in it. I am not just talking about the weather either, although a little sunshine and warmer weather will be helpful.  I need renewal.  I need a spring in my step and a new outlook on life.  I need joy.  Will you pray for me that the Lord brings me to this place?  An experiment: I feel like our school days need to look differently. I guess we all get to the place at this time of year where we need to change things up a bit.  I have noticed that my children are not behaving as they should. No wonder when their mama isn't either.  Today we did something different. Maybe you all do this and I am just figuring it out now.  We spent the morning together. Yep- sounds strange huh? You are wondering how that is different from a normal day around here.  Well it is and let my tell you how.  When the kids got ready for school, we had breakfast and then sat at the table for some discussion of going over the 21 Rules of the House by Josh and Gregg Harris. Then we got to work, with chores, together. One room was worked on together. I needed to monitor their interaction with each other and catch all that needs to change.  After we did a fair amount of cleaning we had some read aloud time.  We had lunch and then an appointment.  The big difference is the together part.  This week, while we won't focus on too much of the academics, we will do more chores, more reading together and silently, and games and puzzle activities together.  Notice the word "together"?  It is the key word in our day.  I need to spend time with them, interacting with them.  I plan on seeing fruit from this. I pray I can keep it up.  Susan http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/295202/ Tue, 6 Mar 2007 00:12:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/295202/ Hi--- Ali is having a contest at the Homeschool Nations Oregon blog.  Please go check it out and leave a comment about how your day goes and what advice you might have for the new homeschooler.  If you live in Oregon make sure to put her button in your side bar. Go see her blog first though before you enter.  The winner will receive a one year subscription to The Old Schoolhouse magazine.  If you are not aware, the Homeschool Nations blogs for each state are to inform you of all the many events that go on in your state. It serves as an alert too on information about what is going on in legislature about your homeschool laws.  It is a good place to go to keep up on the news.  Susan http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/292866/ Thu, 1 Mar 2007 01:07:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/292866/ The good news is that I didn't have jury duty. The bad news is that maybe I should have had to go to jury duty.  I made my phone call last night and there were no cases scheduled today so I didn't have to go. I was kind of hoping to have a chance to experience it. Maybe next time.  Unfortunately, today with the kids and school created a very frustrating day for me.  One child in particular was causing problems but the bigger picture is that somehow their behavior has gotten away from me, meaning they are not being diligent in their work and they are not obeying me.  Ugh!  So there was a moment today (I am being very candid) where I really wanted to find an object to through and scream like a wild woman.  In that moment as I looked for something to throw and what to scream I had an opportunity to make a different decision and in that second I chose to close my eyes.  I just stood there with my eyes shut and I took several deep breaths and I just whispered "help me".  When I opened my eyes I was much calmer and the impulsiveness passed.  Thank you Lord.  After about 5 minutes I started getting a bad stomach ache.  Then hubby called. I told him what happened and started crying.  My stomach was so upset and my chest hurt like it was going to explode.  I realized that I was having an anxiety attack.  While I was able to control my outward behavior in my anger I had internalized it and it came out physically. My stomach hurt until the evening time.  I am feeling better now, but that was just a strange experience.  Can anyone relate?  Any tips on how to handle this better? What to do about math?  Princess is 9 and in 4th grade. I just don't know what to do about math with her.  I am so frustrated.  I am using Developmental Math with her. It is a good program. She is stuck right now with division with remainders.  I don't know how to move past this point.  She doesn't get that division is the opposite of multiplication. She knows her multiplication facts, but she isn't fast at it. It still requires some thinking.  I have used manipulatives with division and she can do it. She understands the concept doing it that way.  She is already behind in math and I am not sure how to help her anymore.  Do I need to change curriculum?  I don't know.  Any words of wisdom? Susan http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/292268/ Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:10:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamaduso/292268/