I think It's Working!!!

I had to share this, for my memories. Also, if any of you are even considering the possibility of homeschooling, I want to share with you what I've seen.

Homeschooling Bear for kindergarten so far has been amazing and challenging!! I've been teaching him to read and write, and gently introducing him to math, science and history. (Five in a Row)
But to be completely honest, I've been more focused on his character and heart. I want to raise kids who love God, and have the fruits of the spirit. Let's be honest, which is more important? Your child growing up to be the smartest person in the world, or to love God with all of their hearts and live their lives for him?

Charlotte Mason said, "Education is an education,  a discipline, a life." I couldn't agree more.

I think the most important part of all of my children's education right now is our morning time.

                      Our Morning Basket 

At breakfast, I will read to them the Bible, a story out of a picture Bible, one of these (art book, poetry, nature book, Shakespeare) nursery rhymes, and we sing some hymns to end it.
It is astounding how many questions they have about God during this time. One thing I wanted to make sure I do is talk to my children about God, and show them the ways he's evident in our lives so often, that it becomes as normal as breathing.
This is helping me do that, and soooooo important to our "school" day.

Lunch time is memorizing/reciting time. So far this year they have memorized all of the books of the Old Testament in order, 8 Bible verses, and 3 poems. We are working on the New Testament books in order and new verses and poems. This has been vital as well. (More on that later.)

                     Our chalkboard with a
                   current poem we're memorizing 

For more Character/Habit training, I got "Laying Down the Rails"  and "Laying Down the Rails for Children" for Christmas.
Right now we are doing the habit "obedience". It's awesome. It gives you small little lessons and tips on how to teach your children this habit. I can't tell you how many times Bear had snapped his fingers and said, "Obedient,  meaning right away."

I'm also using this, from raising arrows blog. Anytime a child gets in trouble, I take them to the fridge where this is hanging and share the verse and deal out the consequence.

Enough about what I've been doing with them, and onto what I've seen.


Lieing

Bear had gotten into the habit of lieing when he thought he was going to be in trouble. It had gotten to the point where he would lie close to 10 times a day.  I was so worried about this trait in him. I know he's young, but I wanted to help him break this habit as soon as possible.

We memorized "The Lord detests lieing lips,  but he delights in people who are trustworthy." Proverbs 12:22
We also read "A Pair of Red Clogs" in Five in a Row, which deals with lieing and deciet. Coupled that with our If Then consequence chart, and Bear hasn't had to go to bed 5 minutes early for bedtime once!!! His lieing habit has disappeared for more than 2 weeks now! Thank you Jesus!!

Helpfulness 

 I can't tell you how many times bear has told me that he will do anything I ask of him, that he just wants to help me. I used to have to twist his arm to get him to help with anything. Over the last few months he has become so sweet with wanting to help me.

Fear

Earlier this year we memorized, "Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, do not be discouraged. For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9 by a song I made up.

The other day I started a new quiet tune routine. I want them to disperse throughout the house and play by themselves. It's come to my attention that with having 3 siblings, my children hardly ever have the chance to play by themselves.
I told Bear that he and Bunk would take turns playing in our basement (where the majority of their toys are) He told me he didn't want to because he was going to be too scared to be down there by himself. I told him to sing to himself and to remember God is always with him and to not be afraid.
I heard him singing the Joshua 1:9 memory verse the whole time. :)

Relationships 

The other morning during morning time, Bunk said he couldn't wait to see Goliath in heaven.
Beat very sweetly said, "Bunk, I'm going to teach you something. Goliath won't be in heaven because he's a bad guy, he'll be in hell." (I told them that people aren't labeled "bad"  or "good" but people who don't have Jesus as their savior will go to hell, but only God knows people's hearts)
In times past, he would have burst out, careless about how or what he said to Bunk.

Our relationship is becoming so sweet as well. I feel like we are really getting to know each other. Because he's the oldest, I rely on him more than the others, and we are both gaining a deep respect for one another.
Bear told my husband the other day that Mommy works harder than him because she takes care of 4, sometimes 5 kids every day, and that it's a really hard job ;) (don't worry, I talked with him about it lol)

Over all, I really can see him blossoming into a wonderful little boy. Is some of that because of him maturing? Yes, I'm sure. But I believe that part of it is God using what I'm pouring into him.

My last thought on homeschooling.

Pictures of some of our homeschooling year thus far. :)

                      Holding a book he loved 
                           from Five in a Row 

                        Drawing a tank from a
                             picture in a book 

             Timed races in front of our house  

With his reading lesson book

With the boat we bought them

 to race at a local pond 

Pattern blocks are his favorite 

Finding a flower in the middle of winter 

Of course puddle jumping ;) 

(Should of put on boots that day lol) 

SPONSOR

My husband and I have been watching the series Elementary. It's a modern take on Sherlock Holmes. It does a great job of combinding humor and crime, and we've been really enjoying it. 

In the show, Sherlock is a recovering drug addict. He has already been through rehab, and now has a sponsor and goes to meetings. 

Watching the show this evening, I was struck by something. Sherlock sends a text message to his sponsor. It simply says, "I'm struggling, meet me here." It shows his sponsor reading it, and immediately leaving to meet him. 

Wow! What if we treated Christianity this way?? 

What if we each had a mentor, and if applicable, were a mentor ourselves, and we had relationships with them like this. 

How do you think this would affect our walks with God, our relationships, our world? 

I think the results would be tremendous. 

I've read so many articles bashing the church. Some people will find fault in anything, but in some cases, the church (Christians) need to do a better job. 

I recently joined a new church, and the pastor there likes to talk about "living life together."

That's what people need. To live life together. They need 

And by recovery, I mean the human nature of sin. We all sin. We all struggle daily. Will it be so dramatic that we will need to text someone to come meet with us right away all the time? No. But we need to know that we have each other's backs. In essence we need "a person" 

                           

(I see this all the time. Grey's Anatomy?) 

And maybe it's more than just one person. But I hope you get the idea. Life is too short to not make time for what's most important. 

As Christians, our walk with God should be our number one priority. 

Can we not then make time to REALLY live life with our fellow believers. 

Do you have what it takes to get in the trenches with someone, and pray over them, dig into scripture with them, and fight the good fight with them?? 

Do you need someone to get in the trenches with you and pray over you, dig into scripture with you, and fight the good fight with you?? 

Let's open our homes, our lives and our hearts. The next time someone tells you of a problem they are having, don't just tell them you'll pray for them, do it then and there with them! 

For some reason, I've been thinking a lot about the early churches. Can you imagine what life was like for them? I think they clung to each other as they began living their new faith. 

They had worship in people's homes, they ate together, they REALLY did life together. Look at Paul's letters. He knew these people. 

What if that's what God is calling us to do? I'd ask you to pray about this with me. 

If there are no mentor/discipleship relationships in your church, talk to your pastor about it. 

What about a small group? Think outside the box on what God may be wanting you to do. I know I will be. 

Pee and Poop

Here's some things for you to ponder this Christmas season.

What would you say keeps you the most busy. Want to know mine??

Pee and Poop 

Why do you buy scentsy/candles/air fresheners?? Do you have a pathological fear that your house smells like something you've gone nose blind to a LONG time ago?? Mine?

Pee and Poop

What are you covered in the majority of the time?? Is it flower scented perfume? Mine? You've guessed it...

PEE AND POOP! 

Bear is potty trained.... Thank the good Lord! Bunkin..... He's getting there. I started to potty train him last year.... When I was GINORMOUS with Ren (yeah it was Roo before but since Bunkin started calling her Rentar, like Reptar off Rugrats, that nickname has unfortunately for her stuck lol).

There I was, dilated, swollen everywhere, and wondering when I'd ever see my feet again, but goneflabit, I WASN'T going to have 3 in disposable things. Yeah....  Who was I kidding. Fast forward a year, and we are finally making great progress with Bunkin.

Then there's Boo.  Oh Boo. I've jumped on the train wagon of trying to get her potty trained earlier than the boys, because according to....  Idk people.... girls are easier to potty train than boys.

Some days are good. Some days are bad horrendous. Like the time I was getting her dressed and she decided to run into our dining room and stand on my padded dining chair and pee.
Or when I'm walking around thinking pleasant thoughts and I step in a pee puddle and drench my socks and the bottoms of my pants.
Or the numerous times I hear "Mom, Boo peed on the floor!"

Then of course there's sweet baby Ren. I wouldn't mind changing her diapers at all if I wasn't already so sick of poo. I'll admit the thought has crossed my mind of holding her over a toilet too.

You'll miss this time, they say. It goes by so fast they say. Well THEY have never had Bear on the potty doing number 2, while you're showering off Boo in the tub because she had an accident, and Bunkin couldn't wait for Bear to get done on the only potty in the house so he pees on the floor, and all the while Ren is crying in the background.

Yeah, you can't make this stuff up people.

My husband recently started a new job. Right now is their crazy busy season, so he's gone from home for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. By the time he gets home at 7:15 p.m I look like this.

And that's on a good day ;)

(Disclaimer: I love my children dearly. Just keeping it real and hoping to give you a smile :) )

There is Beauty

If we are friends in Facebook, you'll already know that I was involved in a car accident 3 weeks ago.
A driver pulled out in front of me and I hit them going 55 mph. I have a possible fractured foot (there's been differing opinions), ligament damage in my foot, deep knee bruising, a mild concussion, whip lash, and my hips are out of alignment.
Our van was totaled and dealing with the insurance company has been a nightmare. You would think that when an accident wasn't your fault that they wouldn't jip you out of money, but I've found that's not the case.

I've dealt with depression for years, and I normally keep it in check by remaining active and exercising. You can't do that when your foot is non weight bearing.
I took up writing more of my sequel to my first book, "Beneath the African Sky", and reading lots. Then my chiropractor told me that watching TV and those things are the worst things to do with a concussion, so I sat twiddling my thumbs day after day.

3 weeks in I was feeling really badly. I asked for prayer, because I knew I really needed it.
You know what?? It worked!

The evening after I asked for prayer, I felt like God took a veil off my eyes. I was feeding Roo upstairs and the rest of my little family were in the basement playing.
All of a sudden I felt beauty all around me. Roo was laying softly at my chest, birds were singing outside, a squirrel was eating corn in our tree, two little boys were riding their bikes down the side walk out our window, and pails of laughter were coming up from the basement.

It's hard to explain, but I felt as though I were seeing things the way God sees them. I welled up in tears as I realized the wonderful things that God has given me, and that every moment with my family is laced with beauty. I just have to look and see it.

God has always taken care of me, and he will continue to do so. I knew such peace as his presence settled over me. He knows the accident wasn't my fault, he knows my heart, and he'll sustain me.

My family came bounding up the stairs dressed in silly hats and scarves, with a drum and guitar in hand, and they put on a veggie tales "rock show" for me. They just wanted to make Mommy laugh.

And I did.

I pray that you too will see beauty in your life. Instead of being excited for the next big event in your life, wake up excited to see your children's smiles. Appreciate the amazing smell of a flower. Dwell on a sunset. Enjoy the warmth of embrace from your spouse.

This is the way we were meant to be living.

Big Exciting Changes!!!!

It's been a while.... at least six weeks. You want to know how I know??
I'm holding 6 week old Miss Roo on my lap. :) Her nickname for the blog doesn't start with a "B" like the others, but it fits her and I couldn't resist Boo and Roo!

I couldn't ask for better siblings for Roo. They love her so much. Boo will even try to offer her pacifier to her if she's crying, which in my book is the biggest sacrifice anyone could ever make ;) Boo is very attached to her pacey (something we're working on :) )

Our little family is complete and we couldn't be happier or feel more blessed with the beautiful children God has given us. 

Life with 4 children under 4 is... something else!! lol. I am NEVER bored to say the least. I'll do a post about a day in the life pretty soon, but onto other news. :)

WE'RE MOVING!!!! 

Four months have come and gone since we've moved in with my parents. We have been able to take care of the majority of our debt, and we couldn't be more grateful. 

The week Roo was born, we felt strongly led to start looking into a house to rent. We were very drawn to a certain town because of location to my husbands job, and pricing. 

The first house we went to look at we really liked. It was a 3 bedroom, 1 bath for a great price. The landlord told us that 15 other people were also interested in the house, and to fill out the application ASAP if we were interested. 

We did with little hope because of our still low credit scores and not any references. (The place we rented at before, the landlord tried to take advantage of us when we left. He charged us for things we'd already paid, and even had burnt out light bulbs on the list. We didn't pay his outlandish requests, and we knew he wouldn't give us a good reference because of that.)

The landlord called the next day and told us that all he needed was a reference and that it could even be someone that we went to church with. If we gave him one, we could have our choice between that house, and another house that him and his wife thought we would like better!!!! 

We were blown away!! We went and looked at the other house, and liked it even more than the first. 

It's a 3 bedroom, 1 bath as well. It has a big flat back yard (the other house's yard was sloped) and a full basement with tons of built in storage, a mud sink, and even a pencil sharpener!! Can we say PERFECT for homeschooling?? :)

We obviously chose the later, and we move in this weekend!!! :)

We were already feeling like God was outdoing himself for us (not that that's possible ;) ) when my husband got offered a job with a different elevator company. He will be getting a nice pay raise, and guess where his route is going to be?? The town we're moving to and surrounding areas!!

He will no longer have a 4 hour commute to and from work each day. This will mean more time with family, more sleep, and more money. 

Only recently did we start praying for a closer, better paying job, and God blessed us with exactly that!

We're so excited about our families future and to see what else God has in store for us. :)

Pregnant Momma at the Movies

The new year has come and gone. I always have a sense of excitement when it comes to starting a new year. It feels like a fresh start to me. I always evaluate my life, and see what God wants to change or keep the same. I then go out and by a new planner, (for some reason I love planners, notebooks, pens.... I always have. My heart always starts racing when I go down that particular aisle in the store. I'll just chalk it up to being a writer..... ;) ) and write down the things that I want to change. I suppose most people would consider them New Years Resolutions.

My new found sense of hope and excitement died fairly quickly this year. In one word... reality hit. I woke up one morning to one child acting sick with a bad cold, and have been staring at a week and a half of sickness ever since.

These have been my days...

                     They wanted to sit together and watch a movie. Yes, this is how they really looked all week. 

 

Cuddled up reading "Curious George". I think Miss Boo is in mid sneeze lol

(and in case you're wondering, different day, same Pj's for Miss Boo ;) )

 

 

 

Because they were sick, we kept them in ALL WEEK. I didn't mind at first, because my husband and I were sick too. But Monday turned to Friday evening, and I was about to loose my mind!!! Luckily my wonderful MIL said she would watch the kids so we could go out to lunch and see Star Wars Saturday.

 

The joy was real. I felt like skipping to the van. For a few hours, I was kid sick free!!!!!

 

To make sure you understand my week and level of grossness, I'll share this incident with you.  One of they days (they all run together) Bear was sitting beside of me and said,

"Mommy, what's this??" He wiped something off of my shirt and showed me.

 I took one look at it and said, "It's a booger."

"EEEWWWW. Mommy, why do you have a booger on your shirt??"

"Probably because your sister likes to wipe her head on my shirt when she snuggles me. It's not the first time it's happened. Did you know that you've all wiped your boogers on me at some point or other??"

"No!!!" He says astonished.

"Yeah. Maybe I'll start wiping my boogers on you. Would you like that??"

"NOOOO Mommy," He says laughing.

Yeah... I'm sure you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about ;)

 

 

Anyways... like I said, the joy was real. We ate at one of my favorite restaurants (Olive Garden, in case you ever feel like sending me a gift card ;) ) It was delicious and oh so quiet and calm and CLEAN!! 

 

 

                                             How Miss Boo eats Olive Garden when I look away for a moment

 

 

My dad likes Star Wars, so I grew up watching the original ones. To not see it in theaters was not even fathomable. I mean it has Harrison Ford in it!!!!

 

 

 

We get there a half an hour early, and were happy to see one person sitting in the theater.

 

Now let me be honest here. I am currently 30 weeks pregnant with our fourth little blessing. I also have a prolapsed uterus that according to my doctor, makes my pregnancies 5 times more painful than the average woman's.

 

The doctor didn't lie. I'm miserable.

My plan was to find a seat where someone wasn't sitting in front of me, and prop my feet up on the arm rests of that seat. Don't get me wrong, I was raised to treat things with respect, and I had an inner war about if it was really ok for me to do that, but in the end the pain won over.

Sitting normally for two and a half hours was going to be torture.

 

People started trickling in like mad the closer it got to the movie time. We switched our seats two different times so that no one was in front of me. (It was my husband's idea every time. He really loves me :) )

It got closer to the movie and I was in another dilemma. Being pregnant with a cold, I've been VERY thirsty. BUT I didn't want to have to visit the bathroom a million times either ;)

I decided to chance it and get a drink.

 

Can I just say, WOW!!!! Theater priced food and drink is getting even more and more ridiculous!!!

I got in line behind a couple and waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, I was first in line.

The guy at my register decided that the coffee machine needed fixed, and left. I was frustrated, but determined not to leave my first in line place.

 

A few minutes later, a lady called that they were the only ones with cash registers open. 

The black old man with a cane behind me, ran to the open register while I waddled like a penguin in disbelief to stand behind the other register.

I wanted to take his cane and hit him with it. He OBVIOUSLY didn't need it.

 

The couple in front of me apparently didn't have any kids, and have plenty of money. They ordered like 7 different things off of the menu, including extra, extra, extra butter on their popcorn (his words, not mine) In order for me to order 7 different things, I would have to take out a small loan or sell a child.   

 

 

 

The black old man with the cane asked for a drink and was out of there lickedy split.

It FINALLY became my turn, and I was happy to announce to the punk boy teenager that I only wanted a drink. Surely this wouldn't take long.

 

I was wrong.

The drink machine was on the other side of the of the room, and he started his slow trek there. He stopped to chat with the other guy who was still fiddling with the coffee machine. By this time I had called his bluff. He had NO IDEA how to fix it, but sure was enjoying every moment he got away with it.

He slowly got my drink, and stopped to chat with the cute blonde girl behind the other register. Yeah, I know she's cute, but flirt on your own time, not mine!!!

 

I got my drink and waddled as fast as I could back to the theater. Luckily only commercials were playing. I sighed a big sigh of relief to see that the seat in front of me was still vacant. I refused to put my feet up until after the movie started. I wasn't going to be THAT person.

 

The silly "Silence your cell phones now please" lady came on, and I rubbed my hands in anticipation. I was going to get to put my feet up!!!!

 

 

Then who do you suppose meanders into the theater, milking his cane???? My eyes locked on him and all I could think was "Please no!!!!"

He looks around, and rubs his graying beard. It took everything within me to not put my feet up. 

He slowly makes his way to the seat right in front of me, and sits down.

 

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I secretly think this guy has it in for me. Where had he been all of the glorious minutes that he wasn't standing in line???  

 

My husband and I both have a good laughing fit. I had already told him all about the man with the cane.

 

I'll just say it was God's way of providing me more material to write about :) Hope it made you smile!





Life in 2015

I had started to write "a day in the life" post about... a month ago??? It has been so long since I started it, that I can't remember exactly what happened that day. So I decided to just do a broad life post. How homeschooling is going and life in general.

I guess the biggest change that has happened since my last post is that we have moved in with my parents for a while. As I'm sure you could probably tell from previous posts, our credit isn't in the best shape. And my parents being the best in the world, offered for us to move in for no more than a year to help us get out of debt. I'll never forget their generosity as long as I live. Inviting a family of 5 (soon to be 6) to live with you is a BIG deal. But so far it has been going really well. :)

You may be wondering where we all fit :) Here you go!!

In one room :) And just when you thought that I couldn't get any crazier!!! But you know what?? It's really not that bad, and I actually mean that.
I think the family of five sleeping in one bedroom deserves an entire post to itself, so stay tuned!!


Other then that, the days have been starting out around 7:00-8:00 (if I'm lucky).
They have been filled with lots of this...

Load after load

  And this....

Mess after mess



And this....

Living in the bathroom

BUT they also have been filled with lots of this

My sweet daughter's smiles



And this....

Hours of these two playing together

 

 

And this....

 

Playing with Daddy

There really is never a dull moment around here. I can vaguely remember a time when I used to be bored. It was before kids entered the picture. lol. I would choose the crazy, loving, chaos over being bored any day.


Homeschool preschool has been going great!! I can't believe how much Bear is learning. I have really tried to focus on reading quality books with all three of them, and having a laid back fun approach to learning. Here are some things we've been doing.

                          

                                        

 

 We read "The Carrot Seed" and found all of the carrots that were mixed in with our foam letters. We were going to do it a second time, but Bear and Bunkin couldn't stop eating the carrots. lol

 

We read "We're going a Bear Hunt" and worked on our numbers in the teens by hiding a bear behind the cave numbers, then trying to guess which cave the bear was under. (Bear wanted his transformer in the picture :) )
We also took scissors outside, cut grass, and hid a counting bear in a tub of grass to find. We used our hands and then tongs to make it a little harder.


Lately we've been doing Christmas things. We're going to go cut down our tree this weekend, so this week is going to be all about Christmas trees.

 

We've been reading "The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree". My aunt had given this book to me and my sisters as a Christmas present when we were kids, and it's really a fantastic book. You should check it out.
I printed off a do-a-dot paper from pinterest, and wrote some upper case letters on the paper and matching lower case letters on the stickers. Bear then matched the upper and lower case letters, and he got every one of them right. :)
We also made a Christmas tree forest using play dough and a cookie cutter, then we "decorated" them with some pinto beans that we already had. Bear wanted to have 7 beans on a lot of them, so he would see how many he had on there already, and then quickly tell me how many he needed to still add. I was very proud of him. I think math will be a strong subject for him. :)


I'm loving having these precious days with my kids. They are hard and tiring, but so worth it. They all three get so excited when we sit down to have our reading time together. I can see they are already starting to form "relationships" with books. We'll take them to the library and they'll get so excited to see a book that we've already read together and beg to check it out again.
I'll be playing with them or doing "activities" (as we call preschool things a lot) and they'll come over and hug and kiss me or Bear will say "I love doing activities with you."
It warms my heart to no end.

Knowing me and the busy life I lead, I probably won't get to post again until after Christmas, so here's to wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas and may God bless you all in the New Year. :)