Thursday, February 25, 2010
Blog
A friend of mine just started a blog for new homeschoolers. Somewhat in response to my call for encouragement - so there Erica! :-) You can find it here: New Homeschooler's Resource.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
News
Sometimes no news is just no news. We heard nothing today at all about our next military assignment. I did hear, through the wonderful wives network, that it will probably be 2 more weeks. So I will go back to my original thinking - we should hear something mid-March. Not a hard and fast date! Just sometime in March.
Today while thinking about the possibility of moving I was reminded that we really can move anywhere and be fine. We have friends or family at almost any base that seems a possibility. So while I definitely don't want to move, for many reasons, if we do, we will be stationed with friends!
Today while thinking about the possibility of moving I was reminded that we really can move anywhere and be fine. We have friends or family at almost any base that seems a possibility. So while I definitely don't want to move, for many reasons, if we do, we will be stationed with friends!
Homeschooling and "The Itch"
I have two friends who started homeschooling this past year. One has 6 kids, one has 5. Kuddos to them for even attempting it at this point! :-) They both wanted to know if there is such a thing as a 7-month itch, or a nonstop itch. :-) YES! This may discourage you, but I was not comfortable with homeschooling for a few years. I knew this was the right thing to do, knew we weren't going to change it, but it is hard! A huge lifestyle change, a huge mental shift - and I only had one in school to start! So anyone else want to offer encouraging words to my newbie homeschooling friends?
Hang in there Lara and Erica!!!
Hang in there Lara and Erica!!!
Monday, February 22, 2010
Perseverance and Patience
Lately I seem to have neither of these qualities. I think I've decided I have the 7 year itch with homeschooling. Pretty similar to the 7 year itch in marriage. You're tired of it, but don't really want out. Just want a break! This is our 7th year homeschooling and I'm just tired of it. I don't want to quit, can not even imagine not homeschooling, but I just want to not do it for a while. Of course that applies to anything responsible too. Can I just jump back in time about 17 years and be an irresponsible adult for a month? Do what I want, when I want, how I want, without interruption? Ahhh, that does just sound heavenly right now. I've realized that I need an extra boost of perseverance right now. Any ideas how to get that??
And patience. Sigh. At some point, we were told that we might/should know about our next military assignment on February 23. I tucked that information away and thought I was good to go - no worries at all. But I AM thinking about it. I AM waiting very impatiently for February 23. Of course, as the day draws closer, I realize that this is the military we are talking about here. Just because someone somewhere at some point in time said February 23 does not mean ANYTHING! AND, February 23 was the day they tell SOME people about their future assignments. Not necessarily us. Sigh. I do think we can make the assumption that if we hear nothing tomorrow we are moving. Where? Who knows, don't ask. So could tomorrow hurry up and get here already? I mean, if I'm moving I need to start figuring out what has to be done to get our house on the market. I need to replace a couple lights, fix the floor in the laundry room, redo the laundry room, replace the broken blinds, box up half our belongings, keep the house pristine, be ready to leave with short notice to show the house, ... If we aren't moving, I want to rearrange the basement, redo the laundry room and, hmmm, maybe that's it! Oh, and if we're moving I have to decide how soon I should just pack up the kids and get out of here so the house can actually stay clean!
Patience. Perseverance. HELP!!
And patience. Sigh. At some point, we were told that we might/should know about our next military assignment on February 23. I tucked that information away and thought I was good to go - no worries at all. But I AM thinking about it. I AM waiting very impatiently for February 23. Of course, as the day draws closer, I realize that this is the military we are talking about here. Just because someone somewhere at some point in time said February 23 does not mean ANYTHING! AND, February 23 was the day they tell SOME people about their future assignments. Not necessarily us. Sigh. I do think we can make the assumption that if we hear nothing tomorrow we are moving. Where? Who knows, don't ask. So could tomorrow hurry up and get here already? I mean, if I'm moving I need to start figuring out what has to be done to get our house on the market. I need to replace a couple lights, fix the floor in the laundry room, redo the laundry room, replace the broken blinds, box up half our belongings, keep the house pristine, be ready to leave with short notice to show the house, ... If we aren't moving, I want to rearrange the basement, redo the laundry room and, hmmm, maybe that's it! Oh, and if we're moving I have to decide how soon I should just pack up the kids and get out of here so the house can actually stay clean!
Patience. Perseverance. HELP!!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Driven
I have never been one of those driven types. Not even a goal oriented person. A goal? Isn't that something you make in sports. I don't even play team sports. My senior year of high school we had some book to fill out with pictures, quotes and memories. One thing asked what your goal was in life. My response? "To have fun." Yep. That was my goal. I do remember when I was a kid wanting to have a ranch filled with quarter horses, a large house and a building with lots of windows and only a piano inside. I think you call that a fantasy, not a goal. I have never known what I want to be when I grow up. Still don't! Most of the time now my goal is survival. Just make it through the day. And my prayer is that I will enjoy my kids. Yep, still want to just have fun.
Please explain to me how I ended up with my oldest daughter. She's 11. She knows what she wants to be when she grows up and is working towards that goal. Seriously! For a few years now she has said she wants to be a missionary nurse. Now it's even more specific than that. She wants to be a missionary nurse in Botswana with the Herero tribe. Ok. What? And she wants to be a wildlife photographer as her hobby. So now she wants to learn the language they speak in Botswana. Thankfully their primary language is English. But that's not good enough for her! She wants to know what language the Herero people speak. Well, they speak Herero. Thankfully for her she has connections to Wycliffe Bible Translator people (her grandparents). They just happen to know a guy who just came back from Botswana. Not sure if he speaks Herero. She also is doubling up on school work so that she can graduate early and finish college early.
My head is spinning. Did I mention she works out with us too? Can we all say DRIVEN? She knows what she wants and is working towards it. At 11. I'm a bit older than that and I can barely tell you what I want to accomplish in a day, much less for my life. She also knows more about raising kids than I did when I had kids.
She also doesn't like chocolate. If it weren't for the fact that our children are all clones of each other I would seriously question if she had been switched at the hospital. :-)
Now, she is just like her Daddy. :-)
Please explain to me how I ended up with my oldest daughter. She's 11. She knows what she wants to be when she grows up and is working towards that goal. Seriously! For a few years now she has said she wants to be a missionary nurse. Now it's even more specific than that. She wants to be a missionary nurse in Botswana with the Herero tribe. Ok. What? And she wants to be a wildlife photographer as her hobby. So now she wants to learn the language they speak in Botswana. Thankfully their primary language is English. But that's not good enough for her! She wants to know what language the Herero people speak. Well, they speak Herero. Thankfully for her she has connections to Wycliffe Bible Translator people (her grandparents). They just happen to know a guy who just came back from Botswana. Not sure if he speaks Herero. She also is doubling up on school work so that she can graduate early and finish college early.
My head is spinning. Did I mention she works out with us too? Can we all say DRIVEN? She knows what she wants and is working towards it. At 11. I'm a bit older than that and I can barely tell you what I want to accomplish in a day, much less for my life. She also knows more about raising kids than I did when I had kids.
She also doesn't like chocolate. If it weren't for the fact that our children are all clones of each other I would seriously question if she had been switched at the hospital. :-)
Now, she is just like her Daddy. :-)
Monday, February 8, 2010
Help
I have a huge problem asking for help. I'm sure you can point to whichever sin it is in my life that causes me to be this way. Please don't. It isn't that I think I can do it all - I know I can't. I just hate to ask someone for help and then burden them or have them say "no". I get super embarrassed, apologize all over myself for even asking. I guess it's not that I think I can do it all it is that I think I should be able to do it all.
I can't do it all. Eric is now working 2 jobs. Both in the Air Force. At 2 different bases. At least both his jobs are in the same state (he has a tendency to have offices in two separate states). The bases are actually only 30 minutes apart. The problem is that he is now completely overwhelmed at work. He has not been working any longer hours, but he is STRESSED. And he won't work longer hours (despite telling me he really could work until 7 or 8 every night) because he doesn't feel it is fair to me. So he comes home at 5:30, stressed, distracted, overwhelmed, grumpy. Hmmm. There has to be a better way!!!
What is my reaction? I want to do more to lessen his load. I really can't do much more though. I'm pretty much maxed out myself. Guess this means I need to get some help - someone to come help clean, someone to be with me a couple evenings a week so he doesn't feel badly not coming home until late, someone to babysit so I can do the grocery shopping (he currently does this for me). I finally decide I HAVE to ask.
This takes a lot of nerve on my part. The whole calling thing. Again, I don't know why. I'm willing to pay!!! But I know people are busy. Our culture is full of people who are way too busy. Maybe I feel I will be rejected if I ask for help??? Could be. Whatever I make a phone call. No answer. Call another person. My friend is not home, but her husband is. So I present him with our issue. No help. Not because he doesn't want to be helpful, but he can't think of someone either (these are families in our church, so we know the same people - he just knows them better than I do). I hang up the phone and start crying. What is wrong with me?
So, hey, if anyone wants to make a few extra bucks a week, I want to pay someone to help me. I need someone who can babysit, help clean the house some, make a meal, feed kids ... A part time nanny! And, oh, did I mention I really needed the help a couple months ago, so the sooner the better? Would help if you can drive. And like kids. :-) Oh, and did I mention you might need to live close by? :-)
Where is my mother when I need her??????
I can't do it all. Eric is now working 2 jobs. Both in the Air Force. At 2 different bases. At least both his jobs are in the same state (he has a tendency to have offices in two separate states). The bases are actually only 30 minutes apart. The problem is that he is now completely overwhelmed at work. He has not been working any longer hours, but he is STRESSED. And he won't work longer hours (despite telling me he really could work until 7 or 8 every night) because he doesn't feel it is fair to me. So he comes home at 5:30, stressed, distracted, overwhelmed, grumpy. Hmmm. There has to be a better way!!!
What is my reaction? I want to do more to lessen his load. I really can't do much more though. I'm pretty much maxed out myself. Guess this means I need to get some help - someone to come help clean, someone to be with me a couple evenings a week so he doesn't feel badly not coming home until late, someone to babysit so I can do the grocery shopping (he currently does this for me). I finally decide I HAVE to ask.
This takes a lot of nerve on my part. The whole calling thing. Again, I don't know why. I'm willing to pay!!! But I know people are busy. Our culture is full of people who are way too busy. Maybe I feel I will be rejected if I ask for help??? Could be. Whatever I make a phone call. No answer. Call another person. My friend is not home, but her husband is. So I present him with our issue. No help. Not because he doesn't want to be helpful, but he can't think of someone either (these are families in our church, so we know the same people - he just knows them better than I do). I hang up the phone and start crying. What is wrong with me?
So, hey, if anyone wants to make a few extra bucks a week, I want to pay someone to help me. I need someone who can babysit, help clean the house some, make a meal, feed kids ... A part time nanny! And, oh, did I mention I really needed the help a couple months ago, so the sooner the better? Would help if you can drive. And like kids. :-) Oh, and did I mention you might need to live close by? :-)
Where is my mother when I need her??????
Mice
If you know me, you know I detest mice. I hate them, I'm afraid of them, I cringe at the thought of them.
A couple days ago, Dawn's dog, Lucy, was digging in the back yard. Anne and a friend were in the back yard, encouraging the dog as she dug a big hole. When Lucy dug up a mouse nest and started running off with mice in her mouth, Anne's encouragement changed to horror. Somehow she got Lucy to stop running and put the mice down. Anne quickly decided she had to rescue the mice. She put a bucket over them and ran inside to tell me she had rescued two mice. Great. Nice. Gross. I personally would have been fine with the dog killing them.
Anne started begging me to let her keep the mice. In the house. Not happening. Thankfully, Eric completely backed me on this. Anne found a plastic bin in the shed and decided it was the perfect mouse house. She put dirt in the bottom, took a couple old kitchen towels I had, filled a cup with sunflower seeds, filled a lid with water, placed some boards on the top of the bin. There you go! A mouse house. Since it's cold and snowing here, I figured they would die pretty quickly. No chance. They are still living. The girls have to check on them every couple of hours. "Mommy, it's WARM in their house!" "Mommy, when we go check on them they poke their cute noses out!"
Apparently one of the mice was injured when Lucy was carrying it in her mouth. It cannot use it's back legs! Anne thinks it's legs are broken. I'm guessing it has a broken back. Since I'm unwilling to even look at the mice, no chance of me picking it up to examine it. And the girls aren't allowed to pick them up either (they used a shovel to pick them up and move them around). Anne thinks we should take the mouse to the vet. Fat chance of that happening! Besides, the vet would put the thing out of it's misery pretty quickly.
I think this means we have two new pets. The girls have named them Prince Martin and Matthias. Okey dokey. Whatever works. As long as they stay outside and I never have to look at them, fine with me.
A couple days ago, Dawn's dog, Lucy, was digging in the back yard. Anne and a friend were in the back yard, encouraging the dog as she dug a big hole. When Lucy dug up a mouse nest and started running off with mice in her mouth, Anne's encouragement changed to horror. Somehow she got Lucy to stop running and put the mice down. Anne quickly decided she had to rescue the mice. She put a bucket over them and ran inside to tell me she had rescued two mice. Great. Nice. Gross. I personally would have been fine with the dog killing them.
Anne started begging me to let her keep the mice. In the house. Not happening. Thankfully, Eric completely backed me on this. Anne found a plastic bin in the shed and decided it was the perfect mouse house. She put dirt in the bottom, took a couple old kitchen towels I had, filled a cup with sunflower seeds, filled a lid with water, placed some boards on the top of the bin. There you go! A mouse house. Since it's cold and snowing here, I figured they would die pretty quickly. No chance. They are still living. The girls have to check on them every couple of hours. "Mommy, it's WARM in their house!" "Mommy, when we go check on them they poke their cute noses out!"
Apparently one of the mice was injured when Lucy was carrying it in her mouth. It cannot use it's back legs! Anne thinks it's legs are broken. I'm guessing it has a broken back. Since I'm unwilling to even look at the mice, no chance of me picking it up to examine it. And the girls aren't allowed to pick them up either (they used a shovel to pick them up and move them around). Anne thinks we should take the mouse to the vet. Fat chance of that happening! Besides, the vet would put the thing out of it's misery pretty quickly.
I think this means we have two new pets. The girls have named them Prince Martin and Matthias. Okey dokey. Whatever works. As long as they stay outside and I never have to look at them, fine with me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)