I'm a homeschooling mom of 2 girls with special needs. I have been a born again Christian for about 20 years; been married 18 years. Please feel free to leave comments and I'm glad you came to visit my blog! *please note the section "when it doesn't seem to go anywhere else!" is really home/health issues! Sorry, my dh tried helping me with the categories (thanks, babe!) and made a little mistake. :-) http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:08:00 -0600 Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:08:00 -0600 Okay I'm bad..but trying.. We just completed week 1 of Missouri. It was very hard getting back into homeschooling after taking a week and a half off from schooling. And Christmas week, we did very little. So it was kinda more like 2 weeks off. We didn't cover everything I had planned so it's carrying over into our second week. Some things we'll do: Harry S. Truman - learn about him and do a bio report. Mark Twain - ditto! State quarter, color in a picture of a "postcard" from Missouri. :) Art: how to draw cartoon characters. Walt Disney was from Missouri! Make some homemade vegan ice cream. We learned how dairy ice cream is made last week. I'm terribly allergic to dairy, plus I wouldn't know how to make the dairy kind. I have a recipe for tofu ice cream so we'll make that this week. :-D Books to read: Rude Mule, Simply Delicious, Grandpa Was a Cowboy. Character Trait for this week: polite. Now this was a hard one to find in the Bible so it's basically examples of politeness.. Memory verse is Rom. 12:10 (about genuine love, taking delight in honoring each other - I think this fits because when you're polite you honor other people) One example I believe it's Abraham towards two angels when they came to his tent... very cool story. I'm just tired and can't think.. Outside activities: both girls have choir practice on Monday, separate times of course. Wednesday Rabbit has this prayer shawl ministry she'll take part in, making a prayer shawl. (what's a prayer shawl?) And Thursday Rabbit has Sprouts. I may be helping out this week but don't know, could be the following week..which will be the day after Rabbit's birthday. (she's a busy girl this month!) I think I mentioned this before that PD asked me to help with the crafts with Sprouts. I'm excited and can't wait. Still don't know what I'm doing.. yet. :D Rabbit turns 10 on the 21st. Hard to believe she's hitting the double digits! And her party is the 25th. Theme: Around the World! It's doable. Hard? a little. But we did Galloping the Globe unit study and I still have the book, plus some other books. I'm sure we can swing this. I did the invitations by hand.. now that was work! One more thing and this is a brag: Rabbit did her first overnighter the other day (Friday night) at a retreat with a group from our church. She did great! Now I should mention that she has Asperger's so it's tough for her. But she's become friends with a girl who, just a few months ago she had a hard time with! They said there were no problems with her, she did great. I'm very proud of her! OTOH, my little girl's growing up! *sniff* http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/644175/ Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:08:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/644175/ Just going OT for the day to wish everyone on here a very Merry Christmas! I hope you all have an awesome day today! Happy Birthday Jesus!!! You're our Greatest Gift!!! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/636493/ Thu, 25 Dec 2008 05:14:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/636493/ A friend of mine's daughter tried to commit suicide recently. I just found out today. She lives a few hours away from me - I can't get down to see her due to scheduling conflicts. But she really needs prayers. I contacted my friend G from the church and she forwarded my email to the youth pastor. I sent them both an update as well. My friend is not a Christian nor is her family Christian. Please pray for them? The "sin" I got caught up in, I have no desire to do now. Just makes me wince and shiver over it all. I just can't. Which I know, is very good. Still no word from Pastor D. I'm afraid he doesn't want to speak to me anymore and that alone is killing me right now, on top of everything else. I'll see him in a little while because Rabbit has her group and he's one of the leaders, along with G. So afraid how he'll react when he sees me. With everything going on, our finances, Chris's disease, and all this stuff.. I'm not doing very well. But I won't do what I have been doing... and I won't do worse. That is a promise. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/621986/ Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:00:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/621986/ Now mom can play, get some things done... Okay Piglet's got the sniffles real bad so I'm ending early. Art this week is supposed to be drawing comics. With dh being off next week, it could be make-up time for that. He's very good at drawing (unlike me who can mostly do hearts and flowers!). So this works. And if my friend does call there shouldn't be any worries about interrupting our homeschool. We read a lot this morning. The Shadow of the Wolf book, finished off the first Kirsten book, read some Peanuts comics... I don't know if it's true or not but yesterday we did a biography report on Chuck Schulz. We learned he died - as a non-Christian? Something about his becoming a "secular humanist"?? Oh I hope not! I hope he's in Heaven. Not that it matters a celebrity being in Heaven, I care that there's as many as possible up there. Hate to hear about someone dying and not going there. A few years ago we lost a non-Christian friend. The girls' first experience with death of a person (we lost a guinea pig a few years ago, that was very sad). It's tough either way.. Someone correct me if it's not true about Schulz not being a Christian when he died. I would definitely love to know if he's up in Heaven... of course some day we'll know for sure. Gotta go. Piglet needs more of her medicine. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/621352/ Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:43:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/621352/ I'm hoping to be able to talk to my friend soon since he's back from his trip -?? I still feel terrible about how I treated him a couple of weeks ago. I don't know if he's angry at me, given up on me or just has been too busy to get back to me? He tends to be very patient, not the big tempered kind (like me! ). I was scared. I felt threatened. But he would never hurt me and I know that. I felt backed into a corner. How do I deal with this? Which way out? He was so like "in charge" after my confession to him that it scared me big time. He told me "I'll call you ___________" - not asked if this was a good time to call. Just gave me a time limit to tell my dh or we'll schedule a meeting with him.  I felt like running - like to the Bronx where some friends live. Being shot by a gang member would've felt better than this. I'm not cheating on my dh but have been doing something wrong. I am doing a bit better about that...but I know I'm still very weak especially right now. I hope he forgives me and we can talk things over. And soon! My stomach is in knots just thinking about it. But I truly am sorry how I reacted and how nasty I got. He didn't deserve it. He's one of the nicest people I've ever met. And I really do admire him. He'll probably want to get together and talk with my husband and me - I'm open to it but still am very scared. I can't guarantee I'll do everything he thinks I should since I gotta get looking for a part time job. Things are really tough right now. But I'll talk and listen. I hope he listens too.  I'm praying so much about this. I hate the not knowing in these things. I even had gone so far as to leaving a message on his cell last week but still, nothing. That's the only time I've ever called his cell and won't make a habit of it. My dh has all of next week off - he took vacation days so our schedule is very open, except for some homeschooling that needs to be done. That's flexible enough. I just want to do some reading with the girls and maybe a couple of math tests to get outta the way. And of course, Bible.   So we'll see if this meeting happens at all. I think sometimes because of my past abuse, when someone is nice to me, I react the opposite. Or I question their intentions. I struggle with trust, especially people in authority. But he's never given me a real reason not to trust him. I'm keeping this on "Everyone" so he can read this and get an idea how I'm feeling. But will close it once we've talked - if we do talk. I'm so nervous. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/621298/ Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:53:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/621298/ This is a vent. I'm so tired of how the kids treat me these days. Now it's the younger one, the one I call Piglet on here. She's got ADHD Combined, IOW, the severest form of ADHD according to the doctor. To me, it's a mixed blessing and a curse. She gets so violent and so hard to deal with. I just don't know what to do anymore. She's very disrespectful. She even hit me at church last night. We were at choir practice. (I don't sing, the kids do) When she had her choir practice, it was a very hard night and I felt bad for her leader. But I did appreciate how she and the rest of the kids in her group handled it, that's for sure. They came up with some ideas what to do when you feel bad. Piglet had wanted to tell her leader, Mrs. R, something but thought she didn't hear her. So Piglet screamed. There's a rule you're not allowed to scream, but raise your hand if there's something you want to say. And if you don't obey, you need to leave the room. ITU and respect that rule. Piglet nearly made Mrs. R cry. Mrs. R is really trying to figure out how to deal with her and her problems there. And I am too here at home. I am so beside myself in all this. I know the youth pastor has tried to help too and I do remind her of what he's said... she has a crush on him and I let her know he won't be happy when he hears about how she's behaving. She says at choir, she's not screaming, but "steaming." She was screaming, whether she's steamed or not. I'm so tired. And I'm tired of my dh stepping in at times when they really need to respect me as a mom. They don't. I do get very upset and I think that's why my dh steps in but I really think it would be helpful if he stood by me in agreement than "taking over" the situation. He's got a rare blood disorder - he could die from it. And if he does while they're still kids well then I'll have to deal with them alone. I know I sound selfish, but how will they respond to me once he's not around? Or just when he's out now, in general? Like when he's at work or something. We need to get a handle on this now. I'm tired of them talking back at me. I'm tired of being hit, kicked, etc and they complain they're being punished so much. Well, duh. I'm at a loss. But I love them and want to keep homeschooling. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/620859/ Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:52:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/620859/ We finished our first week of MN. It's been fun so far! I've really enjoyed it and hopefully so did the kids. We're learning about pond life - the good, the bad, the icky! Ya gotta love those frogs! 8) The girls did get upset about predator animals though.. yeah ITA, not fun to learn about that.. but it's a fact of life. We've been reading the story, The Shadow of the Wolf. It's about a family whose dad is a land surveyor. He is a friend to the Indians though and moves his family to an Indian friend's area to help them buy back their land from the government. Pretty cool. And today we started reading about Kirsten, the American Girl, who moved to MN from Sweden. Both girls did their spelling tests and got 100% on them. (yeah!) And they had "self tests" from their math workbooks. Did okay, a few wrong. Math isn't our strongest point.. I did horrible even in the 3rd grade! Just couldn't get it and my dad, well he didn't take my math weakness too well....   I'm really trying not to repeat the chain of abuse going in my family...it's hard but I'm trying! Next week: we'll learn about Charles Schultz and try our share of drawing cartoons.. We'll learn about MN's state tree; more pond life stuff and learn about starting our own pond. Though we may not start one, being the fact it's going to get colder! I wouldn't know where to put it on our yard even though we have a nice sized yard..we've also had aquatic pets - goldfish, sea monkeys. The sea monkeys died in less than a week. So did the goldfish! We do better with the furry kind of animals. Which probably explains the squirrel nest in our roof! lol We'll also be doing more sign language which has been a blast. I do need to try working it in to everyday stuff so they/we learn it better. The kids are driving me crazy. I'll make lunch, some fries like they ask. Piglet will come to me and say "it's about time!" when the fries are done. She's also hit me and hurt me a bit this morning. That's another week without computers for her. Rabbit called me an "idiot" this morning. She wanted to listen to a song on playlist but I had to reboot the computer first. (it was giving me some problems) She didn't like it and called me an "idiot." She didn't get to listen to her song.. I'm so tired of their being so disrespectful and even going so far as hitting me. Rabbit lost 2 weeks of computers for kicking me twice... she's still in that punishment btw. Onto the changes:  No I'm not pregnant. lol I was talking to my dh last night. We're struggling really bad financially. Getting deeper into debt. And we got some important bills coming up. I need sneakers and can't afford that! And new glasses. The kids need winter boots and some winter stuff (especially Rabbit) So I'm going to look for part time work. Honestly I don't want to. However, it looks like I don't have much of a choice. It's either I go back to work or dh does. And he's the one who drives.. so for him to go back to work wouldn't be so smart. The kids have church activities and need their time with dad too. I'm with them all day homeschooling. We do get tired of each other, though I hate to admit that! Only thing is: what about my going back to school? What if Chris gets worse? He can go on disability, so we found out but it doesn't pay so great... I had a dream last night he died. I know, it's only a dream. He has fallen asleep on the kids (not on top of them!) but I worry about them with him falling asleep so easily and what if he doesn't wake up in time to come pick me up from work? I know it sounds so petty and selfish, huh? I'm telling you, special needs issues should only be for families that have money! I will be applying for some local jobs tonight/this weekend when Chris is home. Just in case I have questions. I'm kinda out of it with this stuff these daze.. One more thing: Chris has been extra tired lately. And he just had a phlebotomy last week. *shrug* Trying not to worry. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/619372/ Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:53:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/619372/ It's been a busy week - and this weekend will be crazy. More on that in a minute. Monday we took the day off for Columbus day. Plus my dh had the day off. Makes no sense doing homeschool when he's home. Just doesn't happen. We finished our first week of MA today. It's been fun, kinda. We learned about Johnny Appleseed (real name John Chapman) which I think all 3 of us could agree that was very cool. He was like a missionary - spreading the Gospel and apple seeds. We was considering kinda strange since he was pretty much like a pauper and wore odd clothes for his time (and ours, come to think of it). But the people loved him - and tried to help both the Indians and settlers. Sad that he died of pneumonia. I wonder if there was anybody that helped him when he got sick? Today we also learned about John F. Kennedy. And Rabbit is truly rebelling against me, always going for those Democrats. lol I don't think JFK was such a terrible guy but it's kinda funny how Rabbit goes talking about wanting to vote for the Democratic party. Honestly, I vote for whoever I think is best for the job - Republican, Democrat or other... But she loves learning about the Presidents. The other day we did a Flower Detective of MA's state flower, the Mayflower. But when I did an "image search" on the computer for Mayflower, I got a bunch of pictures of the Mayflower boat, not actual flower. Rabbit, who hardly ever laughs about such things, burst out laughing! So that was cute. We figured it out though and they got their flower detective done. :-) Character Trait for this week: Persistence. One we could all work on! And boy did we struggle. And I'll stop procrastinating next week. lol I'm so tired now. Sunday is Piglet's birthday party. She turns 8 on Monday. Where does the time go? Our theme is High School Musical, which is no surprise. So far, only one boy is coming but that's perfectly fine. Should be fun. We're mixing a basketball theme in with HSM since Piglet loves basketball and is fairly good at getting the ball in the basket, for her age or any age.. And since Monday Piglet has choir practice, we're bringing cupcakes for after for her group and anyone else.. Got lots to do this weekend and want to get to bed early. G'night and Happy Friday! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/606346/ Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:08:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/606346/ We're getting there in the middle of the M states. I wish I could go visit all of them. Taking Columbus day off since dh has the day off. I'm hoping to get to a farm stand with the kids and go pumpkin picking. We actually already have a pumpkin, since one somehow myseriously grew in our yard. I'm an accidental gardener, things don't always grow well if I do it on purpose. lol  Okay the morning glories did great and we got baby's breath that's taken over some areas of our yard. (baby's breath was sorta an accident - I threw the seeds down last Fall!) So we're finally up to Massachusetts. I could take 3 weeks on this state, there's so much you can learn about with history, etc. I haven't decided yet on art for Tuesday. But we'll be learning about Johnny Appleseed and JFK. (two Johns in one week!) Hoping to make an apple pie with the girls..talk about timing, being October and we're going to a farm stand on Monday... (but I still miss the city!) For vocabulary, we'll learn what a cape is, as well as bogs and marshes.. MA's flower is actually the mayflower. (thank you, Pilgrims!) Next week, I'm hoping to teach the kids about Louisa May Alcott, who wrote Little Women. I've read the book and seen the movie. Not my taste personally, but I think it's good for the girls to read about.. and of course Paul Revere. I'll try to find the Fetch! episodes we have on tape when the kids had to retrace Paul Revere's ride and go on this scavenger hunt, etc. Should be fun. I got a week to look for it - so there's a chance I'll find it. :-D Maybe. We'll also be learning about the MA colony, stuff like that. History, history! Rabbit's gonna be in heaven...Piglet, well she'll hafta suffer through it. She'll be fine. Now that I think of it, I have a book on making 3D maps- including Paul Revere's ride somewhere in there... Other news: My pastor friend, his wife had a baby boy on Thursday (the 9th). I haven't seen him IRL and don't know if I will soon but I've seen a picture. He's beautiful! The expression on his face is like he's ready for his first kiss! Piglet cried when she saw his picture, saying over and over how beautiful he is. (and she'll be turning 8 next week - sweet huh?) I probably won't be talking to my friend for another week or so, unfortunately.. since he's outta the office for now. :-(  But keeping him and their family in my prayers, especially his wife and her recovery time...I did tell one of his other friends from church I'd be glad to help them out if they need it and told him as well in an email. So I don't know if I'll get a call but we'll see. They have a lot of family who live nearby. Of course the offer still stands even if it's weeks, months, whatever from now...(got that, Pastor D if you are reading this!) I haven't written on here much - sorry to say. Been giving in to depression a bit.. But I'm doing alright. I did get together with a good friend on Friday, for a little while. And I've had some fun on facebook... felt sick on Saturday and last night I dyed my hair a reddish color. I know it sounds funny but when I'm going through tough times, I dye my hair a lot. This is the 2nd time in about 2-3 months. About my dh: Thursday he had a bad day, did better Friday. Today he's cranky, moody and it's becoming contagious. >:-(  He's making macaroni and cheese for the kids right now. His feet look horribly swollen! We got into an argument, that's how he ended up cooking dinner. I won that battle..sorta.. Happy Columbus Day / Canadian Thanksgiving day everybody! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/603694/ Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:10:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/603694/ I'm saying this again for those of you who aren't on facebook: My husband went for his regular-scheduled phlebotomy and great news: He didn't need it! It was only 3 points above normal. They called the blood specialist (the dr he was going to see today) and she said he didn't need to get it done. And she doesn't want to see him til next month. She'll test him and see -- maybe he won't need to get this procedure done as often!! I'm praising the Lord in this! And thank you thank you thank you everybody for your prayers, your encouragement, etc. Praise God!!!!!! (((group hug))) http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/599399/ Fri, 3 Oct 2008 09:38:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/snmom/599399/