Expert Parent?

Several weeks ago I took my six children to a state park about an hour from our home.  We were meeting up with some other friends to take a hike and explore the beautiful fall colors.  My older three were walking, while number 6 was strapped on me and numbers 4 & 5 were in a stroller.  Of course they wanted to walk too, but because of some disobedience they had that privilege taken away. :)
Anyway, during our hike we walked past a couple of older women.  I could hear one saying to the other, "There's your expert. Ask her your question.  Look at all those kids."  They proceeded to come up and ask me how old the baby was.  At that point my little guy, Evan, was 6 months old.  She wanted to know how much he ate and how often he was eating.  I probably should have known better than to tell her because she began to tell me how her daughter was over feeding her 6 month old grand daughter.  "She feeds that baby every two hours.  The baby is so fat."
What I began to realize is that the comparing and the worry doesn't stop after your children are raised.  The best advice I had to offer was that every baby is different and that she really shouldn't worry.  Then I motioned toward my 14 year old and said, "When your grand daughter is 14 it won't matter how often she ate as a baby."  And really that is the lesson I have learned from parenting for a little over 14 years.  The things I worried about the most with my first two kids are things that don't really matter now.  It didn't matter that he was breastfed or formula fed.  It didn't matter if I followed a sleep schedule or not.  It didn't matter that I wasn't a co-sleeper and let him cry it out.  It didn't matter what kind of diapers I used or that I gave him a pacifier. What mattered was the love and care that was given.  That we did what worked for us!  I hope this grandma can take that "expert parenting" advice to heart.  Let's learn to give each other grace.  Most parents are doing the best they know at the time.  By the way,  I know I am NO parenting expert.  :)

That time of year again

It's that time of year again.  The weather is getting warmer, trees are in bloom, and the kids are playing outside.  Spring Fever!!!  Every year it happens to me.  I get to this point in our school year and I am so ready for it to be over.  I am ready to think about school for next year, but I must press forward and finish well.  Even the kids are ready to throw in the towel!!
Next year will be a big change for us as we start Classical Conversations.  This program is completely different from anything we have ever done so far on our homeschool journey.  I already have all of our school books for next year so I can pour over them and try to learn as much as possible before everything changes.  It's a lot to take in and process.  Prayers are appreciated!!!

Loving Children

http://mychildiloveyou.blogspot.com/2013/04/just-as-long-as-its-healthy.html


Read this blog post today and it touched my heart.  We all love our children, no matter what!

Anniversary

Happy 14th wedding anniversary to me and my husband.  I can't believe it's been 14 years already.  Sometimes it seems like yesterday, but more often it seems like we've been together forever.  This fall we will have been together for 19 years.  I was a mere 16 years old when I started dating Ryan.  Neither of us would have dreamed that we would have 6 children (two of which are in heaven) and be living such a blessed and happy life together.  I love you babe!  Forever....it only keeps getting better (and I really believe that even on days that I'm grouchy!)  Thanks for loving me!

Day in a Life

Today I am linking up with Kelly's Korner to share a day in a life.  Our days either seem pretty typical and boring, or we are on the run with WAY to much to do.  We had no where to go all day today, so its been pretty quiet around here.  By 6-6:30 Isaiah and Olivia are usually awake and eating breakfast and maybe watching a cartoon (even though Isaiah is supposed to be getting the dog out and starting school!)  I try not to get out of bed until 7:30am but that doesn't always happen.  Allen eats around 8am and this morning I read the older kids our devotional while I fed him.  After breakfast Olivia and Allen played while the older two started their school work.  Isaiah had two science experiments today that had to do with combustion; so I had to keep my  eye on my little fire bug.  I ran around doing laundry, dishes, and making sure Olivia didn't have to potty.  We all eat lunch around 11:30-12, including the baby.  After lunch we reviewed our Classical Conversations material, I graded some papers, started work on my Bible study, talked to my sil on the phone, and then Emma and I practiced violin together while Olivia watched a movie!  Right now the movie is still on and Allen is laying down for a nap.  The older two should be upstairs reading, but I have a feeling they are playing video games.
Tonight two of my nephews and a niece are planning on spending the night after the girls go to a violin workshop.  We'll have dinner, play, and then it will be bedtime!  I love days like this where we don't really have anywhere to go all day long.  Most days we are running to violin or piano lessons, a doctor appointment, haircuts, basketball practice, or to our homeschool co-op.  Once warmer weather comes the kids will speed through their school work to get outside to play as quickly as possible!  Can't wait to get some sunshine!!

What were we thinking??

We had a moment of weakness.  Maybe it's the lack of sleep or the cold winter months going to our brains.  In the midst of all the sickness in our house we have added 4 more members to the family. 
It all started when Emma wanted a fish.  Seems innocent enough, right?  Wrong!  Next Olivia wants a fish, which somehow turned into Isaiah wanting a snake.  Unfortunately for him my mother-in-law is deathly afraid of snakes and would refuse to come inside the house if we got one.  So he turned his attention to acquiring a a bearded dragon.  After much research we realized that a bearded dragon needs a lot more care and attention than we were ready for.  So we were on the hunt again for a suitable pet for Isaiah.  We went to both Pet Food Centers, Petsmart, and then finally to Harp's Pets before he found the deal he was looking for.  They had a sale on two steppe runners with a cage, light, cave and water bowl already included.  The only care they need is water and crickets, and to clean their cage regularly.  He was sold!!

And so now we have 2 parents, 4 children, 1 dog, 2 fish, and 2 steppe runners.  Who knows, next it may be chickens!!  (Not kidding, I've been wanting chickens for a long time now!!!)

Please excuse the mess in the background.  We are in the middle of turning our dining room into a school room.

Really??

If I wasn't living it; I wouldn't believe it.  Since my last post Isaiah has had strep throat and a cold, Olivia has a cold and Allen has been diagnosed with RSV and an ear infection.  It really is time for this cycle of sickness to be over.  We've also had to replace a broken toilet and fix a broken fridge in the last week.  Anyway, I know that the Lord is teaching us something and is sustaining us through it all.

We did venture out of the house Wednesday this past week to attend a Classical Conversations open house.  The kids and I really had a wonderful day and I was thoroughly impressed by what I saw.  Emma even said it didn't feel like school and she wanted to go back next week.  So, my excitement for school next year continues to grow.  Now I just can't wait to get my manuals and books so I can get organized and ready for the big change when fall comes.

The kids "helping" me give Allen a breathing treatment

I surrender

I surrender.  I give up.  Sickness continues to visit our house and I am tired of it!!  Quite literally. 

It all started about a week before Christmas.  We were at basketball practice and my throat started to hurt.  Thought it was just a cold.  This "cold"  lasted about 3 weeks and turned into one of the toughest respiratory infections that I have had in a long time.  Coughing became a frequent sound in our house.  At one point I even lost my voice.  Ryan thought that was pretty great!  :)  My body ached, I laid in bed, I had the cold chills.  Every time I thought I was getting better then, WAM, it would hit again.  After two antibiotics, a steroid shot, and a high dose steroid pack, I was on the mend. 

Since then Isaiah has had the cough and ache, and the pukes.  Emma has had the cough and ache, and then the high fever while feeling horrible.  Olivia has coughed and ached, pretty badly, and then she had the puke and fever.  Fortunately, little Allen only got goopy eyes and just recently a little cough and hoarse throat. 

That brings me to Ryan.  He has had all the above too.  Then today he came home from work (which he hardly ever does) with a fever and running to the potty, if you get what I mean. There has been a constant stream of sick people in my house for over a month.  We have had 3-4 days in a row here and there where all was well, but it never lasted long.  I didn't even get to go to church for something like 5 Sundays in a row!  That may be a record for me!!

I am so done with sickos in my house.  Starting to wonder when it will end??!!  Maybe we need to just hole up until it is warm outside again.  Spring can't come soon enough for me.

Cherished Day

Friday was one of those days.  The kind that I know I will cherish for years to come.  My big kids had been at Academy of Arts drama camp all week and on Friday they stayed ALL day; like 10am-midnight kind of all day!  I had spent the rest of my "free time" earlier in the week running errands and volunteering at the camp.  But Friday I was able to spend all morning playing with Olivia and Allen.  We played games, doctor, read books, colored, played in the snow, and showed Allen all sorts of toys while he rolled around.  It reminded me of my early days as a parent.  We never had much to do and Isaiah, Emma and I would play, dance, paint, sing, ect. 

Now that Isaiah and Emma are school age most of our time is consumed with school.  Not that I am complaining.  I love teaching my children and watching them learn and discover the world around them.  But I do miss just being able to play and I often feel badly for Olivia and Allen.  They don't get the same attention and individual time with me that the older two did.  I understand this is just a function of where we are in life, but that doesn't make it any easier!  So, I must make a commitment to be more purposeful with my little ones.

All that being said; I thoroughly enjoyed my time with my little guys on Friday and then that night I was treated to a wonderful play put on by the Academy of Arts students.  My older two had a wonderful week learning about set design, make-up, costumes, lighting, and acting.  They made friends, learned more about the Lord during chapel time, and learned some major teamwork!  Already, they are wanting to be signed up for next year!!  Overall, the whole day was a treat!!!

before the performance

the entire cast of "Basket of Flowers"

It's been too long-an update

It's been so long since I have paid attention to my blog that is almost seems pointless, but I still want to keep up with what's been going on around here!!  Halloween and Christmas have passed.  So have both of my girls birthdays.  The new year has started and it has been a time of reflection and thinking for me.  My days are consumed with preparing school curriculum for next year and pouring over a new diet book my sil gave me for Christmas.
This book has changed the way I think about food and the way I eat.  So far I have lost about 10lbs. and I still get to eat things like chicken broccoli alfredo with noodles and the ever so important, chocolate!!  You can go to trimhealthymama.com  to find out more!  It's a long read, about 600 pages, but worth every word!!  Serene Allison and Pearl Barrett (sisters who wrote the book) have tested all of this info on themselves and have tried almost every diet on earth.  For them this is a way of life, not a weight-loss plan.

When it comes to school I have decided to switch gears altogether.  So far I have used mostly Abeka with the kids which is traditional schooling.  We have used a couple of other things along the way, like Soaring with Spelling, Veritas History, and Apologia Science.  Over the last semester I was so thoroughly impressed by the caliber of work my niece and nephews were churning out in their new schooling venture with Classical Conversations. As the name implies this is a classical learning style, which is not something I completely understand yet, but I am so excited to start learning. The level of work that is expected of the student is high, and they also have a local co-op of sorts that meets once a week during the school year to provide our family with tutors, healthy competition, debate, and learning games in a group.  They do offer so much more but like I said I really can't fully understand it all until we start this fall.  As Isaiah moves toward the upper grade levels, Classical Conversations will help me challenge him in a way that I don't think I could do on my own!  Be praying for us....this change will be HUGE  for the kids.  We have essentially done school the same way since Isaiah was in kindergarten (that was over 6 years ago)!!!www.classicalconversations.com


That's enough update for now. Here are a few pictures of the last couple of months!

Only the Word

Over the last couple of months I have spent a lot of time awake at night.  It's during those times that I realize, I am a brilliant writer!!  I write the most lovely blog posts, thank you notes, and speeches for my children.  Somehow when the dawn breaks, all my brilliance fades like the shadows and I once again sound like someone that doesn't have a college degree.  That being said; I had an epiphany in the middle of the night.  Hopefully I come across sounding half-way intelligent.
Anyhow....recently I started reading another Christian self-help book.  If you know me well, you would know that I am a self-help book junky.  I love to read how to be a better wife, mother, Christ-follower, ect.  This one is supposed to help me overcome my bad reactions to raw emotion. You know; the kind that sneaks up on you and has you yelling at your kids before you even know what hit you.  Then later you're full of regret for how you acted!  The book is Lysa TerKeurst's Unglued.  I must say the book is wonderful.  Lysa is funny and full of true to life stories about how she has blown it and what she is doing to overcome exploding in the moment.  As I lay in bed last night thinking about this book and the many others I have read, it occurred to me:  There is one common theme in all of these Christian self-help books.....read the Word, know the Word, apply the Word.  So simple, yet seemingly so difficult.  Why do we find it so hard as believers to do what the Word says?  We say we believe, but then we don't listen to the verses that are there to help us overcome our issues.  Be sure that I am not pointing the finger here; I struggle with this too!
So the conclusion I came to in the night was that while the stories and steps to freedom written down in all these books are helpful by showing us we're not alone; the thing we really need is to listen and apply what our Creator has so lovingly written to us!!
Praying that I will dig deeper into His Word every day for strength and freedom to be more and more Christ-like. 

I am still here!!

I know it's been a long time since I have written in this blog!!  I am still here!!  For awhile I have wanted to give a baby update, but was a little scared to do so.  The closer my due date came, the more frightened I became that everything would go wrong in the end.  I did start to have a few health problems at the end of my pregnancy that renewed my fears.  My mind raced, and even though I knew if everything were to go terribly wrong I would make it with the help of the Lord; the fact remained that delivering and burying a full-term infant would be much different than delivering and burying a 16 week old baby!  Holding two babies that literally fit in the palm of your hand is not something you ever forget.  It has a way of getting into your soul and mind and never, ever leaving!  That being said; I never fully believed that I was really going to have a baby.  I stayed emotionally distant from my pregnancy, but that came with consequences.  I spent most of my pregnancy being irritable and snippy to my family.  If you had asked me if I was worried, I would have told you that I really wasn't too worried, but it showed in ways that were beyond my control. 

Fast forward to August 30, 2012....my fears were relieved when I delivered a healthy baby boy and heard his first cries!!  Again, the Lord shows me that He is trustworthy and I am confident I would be able to say that today even if my fears had come true!!!  Beautiful little Allen Christopher has joined our family and we know that we are blessed!!  Praise the Lord!!

Update in Pictures

Swimming with cousins

Father's Day 2012

Olivia helping Isaiah make cookies

My princess

We flew to Destin with some of our Bible Study group

Big and pregnant on the beach

Great friends

Good food at Pompano Joe's

Emma went to Big Splash Adventure in French Lick with friends

Enjoying the lazy river with great buddies

Just a week later our family went to Big Splash Adventure and had a great time!!

Having fun waiting for the city fireworks!

Praying during our 1 year celebration of Family Bible Church

Enjoying cake and cookies after the service

First night in the new bed!!  The girls were so excited to share a room and have a bunk bed!!

Pensacola Beach 2012

I realized it has been a long time since I have updated the blog; so here it goes!!  We recently finished school and we decided to go on a family vacation before my pregnancy got too far along.  So a couple of weeks ago we went down to Pensacola Beach, Florida and stayed a week.  Our family really needed the time away to just relax and enjoy each other.  I think it will be easiest to "tell" you about our trip through pictures!!

View from the condo

Fort Pickens

National Aviation Museum

Ryan caught a crab on the beach