I realize that my recent posts have been a tad negative. Perhaps I've taken to using my blog as a place to vent? Yikes. So, let me think of some good things to post about...
Liza is adorable. She is 19 months and the cutest thing ever. She sings all the time - even while nursing! She sits in the car, singing and clapping her hands. In the tub, at the table, while looking at books. And she loves books. She has quite a few words and even a few sentences, but mainly she babbles. She'll string a whole bunch of sounds together and we'll understand one word, maybe! So cute! Her hair is curly. While she nurses, she twists and twists and twists her hair until she has a huge knot in her hair. I actually had to trim the back of her hair to make the knots smaller! One of my favorite things she does is when she calls to her siblings, especially Josiah. She calls him "YiYah". Her main goal is to be BIG like her siblings. Hates drinking out of a sippy cup, hates sitting in a high chair, wants to sleep in a big bed, loves to sit on the potty (not that she does anything while sitting there). She keeps us all smiling and laughing nonstop! Even when she's naughty she's cute!
We love our church here. We had a string of bad church experiences for a few years, so we've been absolutely thrilled to have found a church that we truly enjoy. The kids beg to go to church - we are always early!! If they find out we aren't going to church, or aren't staying for the meal after church, they are so upset with us. We feel so blessed with this church.
Despite many interruptions to school this year, I think we will actually finish well. Abigail started the year behind in math (maybe a half year behind?). She has worked SO hard on math that she is actually due to finish 6th grade math next week. She's been doing 2 math assignments a day for months. She also finished grammar early and has started next years. Seems she has this goal of finishing high school early. Crazy girl! :-) Rebekah actually started 4th grade math yesterday. Now, just so you know I'm not super homeschooling mom, we basically ditched history this year. I'm thinking we'll have to listen to a bunch of history cd's this summer. I also really didn't do any school with Seth - he's technically kindergarten this year, but really not ready to sit still and do anything. He's just starting to read - and not very well at that. Matter of fact, Josiah is starting to read with him! :-) Just proves that all children are so different!!!
There, is that better? Maybe I could actually even post a few pictures one of these days!?!
Friday, April 23, 2010
Fatigue, Snow, Sickness and Company
Do you ever wake up in the morning and want to quit the day immediately? I am SO there this morning! We've had a yucky sickness in our house for a month. A solid month. Oh, and we had company for 2 weeks in that. Currently it's Liza and Josiah who are the worst, but Seth is congested and Rebekah is still coughing. I am so tired of having sick kids!!! Argh! We also woke up to snow coming down this morning. You know, not so pretty anymore. It was great in the first week of October, but I'm a little tired of it now. Seven months of snow? Yeah, not my thing today. Where can we move to that has 4 seasons, each only 3 months long, the way my calendar says it's supposed to be?
My parents arrive this weekend, Eric's parents arrive Wednesday. The BIG day is Friday (Eric's promotion). Which I'm actually dreading. For far too many reasons. The first being I hate dressing up, never know what to wear, never feel comfortable dressed up. Can't I wear my ripped up jeans and a t-shirt? Sigh. The other reason is that I'm beginning to feel old and that stinks. :-)
My parents arrive this weekend, Eric's parents arrive Wednesday. The BIG day is Friday (Eric's promotion). Which I'm actually dreading. For far too many reasons. The first being I hate dressing up, never know what to wear, never feel comfortable dressed up. Can't I wear my ripped up jeans and a t-shirt? Sigh. The other reason is that I'm beginning to feel old and that stinks. :-)
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Burnout
I've posted a bit about burnout recently. A friend sent me an e-mail with some thoughts and links to homeschool blogs. Not necessarily about burnout, but just about the way we view education. Great blogs to read. I think she will post a blog about this on her blog, so I won't put her thoughts here. This was my reply to her though:
About burnout. My first thought is that burnout is primarily a result of sin. Not necessarily my sin, but just sin in the world. Sickness would be one of the main things! And getting old. :-) God says His burden is easy and His yoke is light. If that is true (and it IS), then how can we get burnt out??? Sin. For me that means I don't spend as much time nurturing my relationship with the Lord - for many reasons - no time!, no privacy!, exhaustion ... But I need to place such a higher priority on going to Him, praying without ceasing, taking every thought captive ... The taking every thought captive is a huge on for me right now. I catch myself grumbling internally "this is so hard", "why can't these kids figure out how to clean up?", "ARGH"... :-) I'm currently reading Seasons of a Mom's Heart (I think that's the name) by Sally Clarkson. She's talking about JOY and THANKFULNESS. Right now, every time I catch myself thinking the negative thoughts I'm replacing them with thanksgiving to God. Today, I was cleaning up a mess from brownies that Abigail had made. My thoughts were "oh for pity sake, can't she clean up? Can't she notice the mess?". I stopped and instead started giving thanks for Abigail - for a daughter who can bake brownies on her own, who delights in doing this for her family. I think changing those thoughts will go a long way towards helping with burnout.
I think you're right about how the lack of motivation and burnout are from what we have been taught. Not just about learning, but even on our view of children and hard work. We've been taught that children are a nuisance, an irritation. That work is something we should try to avoid. That we should be filling our lives with entertainment and relaxation and our SELVES. And this comes from the Christian culture as well. You've had a hard day? Well, you need time out with your friends. You need to get AWAY from your family. You need to go to a coffee shop, go shopping, go to a bookstore ... You and your husband need to get AWAY from your children one night every week or your marriage is going to fall apart. In order to enjoy a vacation, you need to be AWAY from your kids. Take time for your SELF. Focus on YOUR needs. Focus on what YOU enjoy. Basically it's ME ME ME and get AWAY from those annoying kids!
What does the Lord say? Children are a blessing! Jesus said, "Let the children come to ME". (KJV says suffer - Eric and I were joking that maybe people don't know that word means "allow" and instead think it means you will suffer if you let the children come to you!) Why do we spend our days trying to get away from our children? Why is the automatic assumption that if you're with your kids you're "stuck" with them? That obviously you are not enjoying your life? That it must be super bad to be in your shoes? Why is this the thinking coming from our Christian brothers and sisters? That having more than one or two kids must be HORRID?
Off on a tangent there. :-) The point is, work is to be expected. Children are a blessing. So if our children create hard work for us, be thankful. Be thankful you have children. Be thankful for the ways they DO bless your life. Stop focusing on the hard parts and choose to focus on the blessings in all this.
Besides, life is hard. Even keeping yourself well entertained is hard work. :-) I'm thankful that the Lord gave me five children so I could learn that hard work can be a blessing. My work is hard! But the eternal reward is worth it.
All right, I think I may post this to my blog. I've been severely uninspired lately, but this has been brewing in my head. Thanks for your e-mail to force me to sit down and put my thoughts into writing!
Couple extras I'll add here. First, I'm going to my kids first names here. Very few people read my blog and you pretty much all know me. It's confusing to ME to use their middle names and it's confusing to you. Also, I'm not saying that getting away is wrong or even unnecessary. It's just what are we choosing to focus on? The only true way to be refreshed is spending time with the Lord. It's great to have a date with my husband. It's great to go out with a friend. But I know that those things do not bring about a change in my heart. Only time with God can do that!
About burnout. My first thought is that burnout is primarily a result of sin. Not necessarily my sin, but just sin in the world. Sickness would be one of the main things! And getting old. :-) God says His burden is easy and His yoke is light. If that is true (and it IS), then how can we get burnt out??? Sin. For me that means I don't spend as much time nurturing my relationship with the Lord - for many reasons - no time!, no privacy!, exhaustion ... But I need to place such a higher priority on going to Him, praying without ceasing, taking every thought captive ... The taking every thought captive is a huge on for me right now. I catch myself grumbling internally "this is so hard", "why can't these kids figure out how to clean up?", "ARGH"... :-) I'm currently reading Seasons of a Mom's Heart (I think that's the name) by Sally Clarkson. She's talking about JOY and THANKFULNESS. Right now, every time I catch myself thinking the negative thoughts I'm replacing them with thanksgiving to God. Today, I was cleaning up a mess from brownies that Abigail had made. My thoughts were "oh for pity sake, can't she clean up? Can't she notice the mess?". I stopped and instead started giving thanks for Abigail - for a daughter who can bake brownies on her own, who delights in doing this for her family. I think changing those thoughts will go a long way towards helping with burnout.
I think you're right about how the lack of motivation and burnout are from what we have been taught. Not just about learning, but even on our view of children and hard work. We've been taught that children are a nuisance, an irritation. That work is something we should try to avoid. That we should be filling our lives with entertainment and relaxation and our SELVES. And this comes from the Christian culture as well. You've had a hard day? Well, you need time out with your friends. You need to get AWAY from your family. You need to go to a coffee shop, go shopping, go to a bookstore ... You and your husband need to get AWAY from your children one night every week or your marriage is going to fall apart. In order to enjoy a vacation, you need to be AWAY from your kids. Take time for your SELF. Focus on YOUR needs. Focus on what YOU enjoy. Basically it's ME ME ME and get AWAY from those annoying kids!
What does the Lord say? Children are a blessing! Jesus said, "Let the children come to ME". (KJV says suffer - Eric and I were joking that maybe people don't know that word means "allow" and instead think it means you will suffer if you let the children come to you!) Why do we spend our days trying to get away from our children? Why is the automatic assumption that if you're with your kids you're "stuck" with them? That obviously you are not enjoying your life? That it must be super bad to be in your shoes? Why is this the thinking coming from our Christian brothers and sisters? That having more than one or two kids must be HORRID?
Off on a tangent there. :-) The point is, work is to be expected. Children are a blessing. So if our children create hard work for us, be thankful. Be thankful you have children. Be thankful for the ways they DO bless your life. Stop focusing on the hard parts and choose to focus on the blessings in all this.
Besides, life is hard. Even keeping yourself well entertained is hard work. :-) I'm thankful that the Lord gave me five children so I could learn that hard work can be a blessing. My work is hard! But the eternal reward is worth it.
All right, I think I may post this to my blog. I've been severely uninspired lately, but this has been brewing in my head. Thanks for your e-mail to force me to sit down and put my thoughts into writing!
Couple extras I'll add here. First, I'm going to my kids first names here. Very few people read my blog and you pretty much all know me. It's confusing to ME to use their middle names and it's confusing to you. Also, I'm not saying that getting away is wrong or even unnecessary. It's just what are we choosing to focus on? The only true way to be refreshed is spending time with the Lord. It's great to have a date with my husband. It's great to go out with a friend. But I know that those things do not bring about a change in my heart. Only time with God can do that!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Sickness in Spring
We've had some serious yuck going on around our house in the past month. First I had a raging sore throat and ended up with a raging sinus infection. That's over, but I still think I'm struggling with allergies. Anne had a fever for 5 days - double ear infection. Little Bit is congested and has a low-grade fever today. David woke up coughing this morning.
FUN! Gotta love the spring here. The wind has been blowing 40-50 mph gusts off and on for the last 3 weeks at least. Apparently that makes your house full of dust. Go figure.
FUN! Gotta love the spring here. The wind has been blowing 40-50 mph gusts off and on for the last 3 weeks at least. Apparently that makes your house full of dust. Go figure.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Random Stuff
Seems like I haven't blogged in a while, but it really hasn't been that long. Last week, I was SICK. Started with a sore throat, worked its way into a raging sinus infection. Loads of fun. Eric's been quite busy at work, so he couldn't take any time off for me to be sick, so I kept going. I've discovered that I can do all things through Motrin and caffeine, which give me energy. (Sorry if I'm offending you with my tongue in cheek take on that verse!) Thursday was our 15th anniversary. Sweet Eric got to have dinner with his kids, and sick wife. Friday I went to the doctor. My ear, sinuses and throat were all a mess - antibiotics for me. Yippee. We had a fabulous date planned for Friday night - a hot tub and massage at a spa, dinner out and my sister kept the kids overnight. It was a very nice night, would have been much better if I hadn't felt like absolute crap. Nothing like a romantic evening with your husband when all you can think about it blowing your nose, coughing and sleep. Happy Anniversary Honey! :-)
Eric's brother and his family came into town Monday. We had the Amazing Race Vacation. They arrived Monday evening in Denver, the kids and I picked them up because Eric was in LA for the day. Tuesday we went to the Garden of the Gods, Manitou Springs, Cliff Dwellings Museum and Red Rock Canyon Open Space. We didn't get home until 6:30 - the kids and I stayed home, they all bathed and had supper. Eric, his brother and wife went out to a German restaurant for supper! Wednesday was our "down" day, so I stayed home with Little Bit. They went hiking at the Paint Mines for a couple hours. We had bison burgers and bison sausage for supper. Thursday was spent at the Royal Gorge. Great place, just don't go if there are 40 mph wind gusts! By last night we were all exhausted. They flew out this morning very early! We had tons of fun, but are all worn out.
Homeschooling has barely happened here this month. There are a combination of factors that have made it this way. One of the main ones is that I have just become so incredibly disorganized that if anything is "off", school doesn't happen. This MUST change. MUST. I am trying to figure out how to reorganize our basement, reorganize our school supplies, get myself back into the whole mindset of planning and organizing and staying on top of things. I would like to say this has been a problem just for a couple of months, but things have been deteriorating ever since we moved, so we're going on 2 years of this. My eldest child is not tolerant of her mother being so wishy washy anymore. The other kids are happy with me as long as I don't interrupt their play time. I'm hoping that by this fall I will have everything much better organized and a renewed sense of desire to actually school my children. Odd, I can not imagine sending them to school, but have no desire to teach them myself. Am I not the least bit concerned about having severely uneducated children? What about all that they are not learning? All the things I should be teaching and am not? Sadly, this doesn't bother me most days. Maybe this is what you call burnout?
Eric's brother and his family came into town Monday. We had the Amazing Race Vacation. They arrived Monday evening in Denver, the kids and I picked them up because Eric was in LA for the day. Tuesday we went to the Garden of the Gods, Manitou Springs, Cliff Dwellings Museum and Red Rock Canyon Open Space. We didn't get home until 6:30 - the kids and I stayed home, they all bathed and had supper. Eric, his brother and wife went out to a German restaurant for supper! Wednesday was our "down" day, so I stayed home with Little Bit. They went hiking at the Paint Mines for a couple hours. We had bison burgers and bison sausage for supper. Thursday was spent at the Royal Gorge. Great place, just don't go if there are 40 mph wind gusts! By last night we were all exhausted. They flew out this morning very early! We had tons of fun, but are all worn out.
Homeschooling has barely happened here this month. There are a combination of factors that have made it this way. One of the main ones is that I have just become so incredibly disorganized that if anything is "off", school doesn't happen. This MUST change. MUST. I am trying to figure out how to reorganize our basement, reorganize our school supplies, get myself back into the whole mindset of planning and organizing and staying on top of things. I would like to say this has been a problem just for a couple of months, but things have been deteriorating ever since we moved, so we're going on 2 years of this. My eldest child is not tolerant of her mother being so wishy washy anymore. The other kids are happy with me as long as I don't interrupt their play time. I'm hoping that by this fall I will have everything much better organized and a renewed sense of desire to actually school my children. Odd, I can not imagine sending them to school, but have no desire to teach them myself. Am I not the least bit concerned about having severely uneducated children? What about all that they are not learning? All the things I should be teaching and am not? Sadly, this doesn't bother me most days. Maybe this is what you call burnout?
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