Random thoughts about family size

When I was a young girl I knew I wanted to grow up, get married, have lots of babies and stay home. Sometime around my highschool/college years I decided I wanted to homeschool them. I always have other careers lined up for when people asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. In my heart though, I knew, I wanted a family. I don't remember when exactly, but I did at one point decide I wanted 10 children. People, mostly my family who knew me all too well, scoffed. I actually have one aunt who loves to tell me how amazed she is at the responsible person I turned out to be. LOL I was just not a responsible hard working child. I was not. People are always commenting on what great people we are for adopting all these kids. Should I tell them it was all part of my plan? LOL Don't get me wrong I KNOW it was all God's plan, but well, I had to get the desire from someplace right?? I was so excited to find out that Lily was on her way. You see, we have run into some issues that might mean we never step onto that adoption train again. I'm not writing that in stone because God is truly the author of our story, but we would definitely pray long and hard about it. It's always been in the back of my mind that I would not mind adopting again, but it would be with much caution. The fun part was the fact that everyone was so accepting and excited about our pregnancy. I remember at one point looking at my DH and telling him that if we ever found we were expecting again we should be prepared for some reservations from some people. No, I'm not expecting right now, but it's never far from my thoughts. I hear some sad, sad stories from some of my friends online. People who are afraid to even tell grandparents because of the reaction they usually get. Grandparents. That is so sad. While, my mom might not necessarily agree with our decision regarding family size she has never been anything less than thrilled to welcome another grandchild. I would love to have another baby. I think that we will someday. God gave me Gideon's name for a reason. I have some other girl names I would love to use as well. A boy or two after Gideon would have some fantastic names from my list. :) I'll admit part of me really hopes that God waits until Roy has a job. Then, he did provide so that we had minimal debt from Lily's birth. We are still paying for her birth, but God has provided. A big part of me would love to see Roy get a good job soon and God bless us again soon after. Jonathan is 4.5 years older than Lily I would really love for her to have some closer in age siblings. Plus as hard as it is I think it's cute to see two or three little people around the same age running around together. LOL, yes, I do have everything together so well that I think three or four kids under age five would be fun. Right. Not fun. Cute. :) Well, I guess I will close the random file for tonight. Be Blessed!!

Babble, Babble, Babble

STUFF!! EVERYWHERE! Seriously, why is this taking me so long? I get started and the baby cries. I get started and someone needs help with math. I get started and it's lunch time. I get started and it's 11 p.m. Sigh. But I would not change it for anything in the whole wide world. I love being here with my kids. I love knowing every little thing that is happening in their lives.

I do have some babblers in my house. Babble, Babble, Babble. As I caught myself getting short with one today and rolling my eyes in exasperation with another I thought about all the times I have listened and caught one or two sentences that really revealed something about what the child was really saying.

I also realized that time is FLYING! How soon will it be that my house is eerily quiet and empty? I know, I know some days those days seem so far away. ;) Today though as I watched Lily climb onto a box I realized that all of my kids grow a little older every day.

Yes, I need to finish my bedroom. Yes, I need to organize the rest of the house. Yes, I need to train up my girls to be homemakers. I also need to stop and listen. To relish in the babbling for just a few minutes.

Be Blessed!

Crawling Around

Once again I am on Karly's netbook so no pictures. Just think of my cute baby while I type this. It's really easy. She's so stinkin' cute.
She is all over the place right now. She is crawling, cruising, and even starting to stand up by herself. Yeah. It's crazy. The Doctor said yesterday to watch her because she'll be taking her first steps any time now. I believe that.
She is very spoiled and LOVES to be held. Her second favorite position is down on the floor with NO barriers. She does not like the barriers in the play yard though she is learning to accept them.
It's really easiest for me to put her down in my room while I work on the computer in here or do my walking workout.
To do that I have to make sure the room is safe. I have to close the bathroom door because she loves to crawl in there and EEWW... it's the bathroom. It's clean but it's the bathroom. LOL I have to make sure there is nothing heavy she can pull down on herself. I have to make sure the room is swept and mopped really well.
We have cats so we have lots of cat hair around the house. We also have laminate floors so the dust bunnies try to take over. She loves to chase the cat hair and dust bunnies so we have to make sure they are all up.
Her favorite thing to do is to empty a basket or box of clothes. When I want to keep her occupied in our room I will put a couple of boxes of the clothes I have packed up for her down and she will go to town.
All of our outlets in this room are plugged and we have all the cords out of her reach.
I am working this weekend on moving out some of the other clutter that is in my room so she can roam all over the room. She loves to explore and I plan to put various things she can explore in different parts of the room.
She'll be happy and I will be able to work on some stuff on the computer.
It's fun to watch her. I enjoy making a nice room for her to learn in as she grows.
I have taken some pictures of my room. I will finish up this weekend and take some more to post next week.
Be Blessed!

How many times do I have to go through this?

"I'm done!" "I can't do this anymore!" "I'm just going to send them all back to school!"
The past few months have been filled with these phrases. It's been hard. You all know that. I have whined about it plenty. You also know I am heading out of the slump and into a new day. My love for homeschooling, homemaking, mothering, and all that goes with it is back.
Want to know what I am figuring out?

We ordered the CLE books at the level *I* wanted the children to be at.
Tomorrow we will do the diagnostic testing CLE recommends to figure out where you *should* place your children.
I LOVE CLE so far but I have to face it, my kids are really, really, really far behind where they should be. Did I mention it's been a rough 2 years?
Tomorrow I will take a deep breath and deal with it. That's step one to getting my kids education back on track.



The next step REALLY surprised me. You see, I have gone astray from my original homeschooling goals. I have wandered away from where I found my passion for homeschooling. I decided it was too hard and too much work to follow the plan.
Now, I am swimming upstream and kicking myself.
As I read through the Well Trained Mind boards I realized what I realized back in 2006 when I started this journey.
I LOVE the classical education model. I LOVE The Well Trained Mind. I really do. I love the way they do History. I love the way they do Science. I love the way they teach writing.
As this realization dawned on me I dusted off my copy of TWTM and started to read again.
Yes. YES. YES!! Now I remember!


I don't know what Classical Education and The Well Trained Mind and Teaching The Trivium will look like around here this go round.
I'm still working through that. I know it will include CLE for Math and Grammar. I know it will involve backing my 6th and 5th grader up in the writing department and working through the skills they need to be great writers and communicators. It will mean adding in a writing program for my 3rd graders. It will mean a lot more reading around here. It will mean a lot more writing around here.
It won't look like the first time around when I crashed and burned. I'm going to figure out how our family can be successful. I am not going to worry about content as much as skill.
I am excited to be excited about homeschooling again. I know I have a long road ahead to make up for the years I gave away.

Be Blessed!

P.S. My next post should be a homemaking post. :)

Our family and youth group

From their earliest ages we have kept our children with us in church. We have taught them how to be respectful by listening quietly and sitting still. Yes, during the toddler days we had to take them out a few times to show them we meant business but it was only a few times. We searched the scriptures and could not find any instruction for Children's Church. As a matter of fact all we could find was families being taught together. That sealed the deal for us, since God's word is our instruction manual for life we decided that our children would worship with us.

We were uncomfortable with youth groups as well. We could not find the purpose in them. We prayed and prayed and searched the scriptures some more. Nothing on youth groups. In fact it looked like young men and women were expected to begin acting like adults. Hmm.. we began to think when our oldest was about 10 that we would probably forgo the youth group as well. Around the time we made that decision I read about this guy and his book.

This was it, everything I wanted to say but could not find the words for. When DH read it he asked if Pastor Baucham had a recording device in our room listening to our words of late. He'd echoed so many of our thoughts.

Recently in our church a new youth group began. My oldest is 13 and in 6th grade now. We were approached a few times with encouragement for her to attend. We really, really thought about letting her try because we trust the leaders. In the end we were not comfortable with it. Then we saw this video. I also had a conversation with a mother who'd homeschooled and let her kids go to youth group. She said her kids were strong in their faith and growing so much that she let them go to the church youth group. She said her youngest who just graduated is the only one still living a life of faith and going to church. She said by the time she saw the damage in her older children she only had time to pull her youngest out for the last few years. Once again our conviction was confirmed.

No, I don't think every child who goes to youth group will wander away. I did not. The argument that slays me is when people tell me that because my kids are not in youth group/children's church they will probably rebel. Really? So, if my kids are in these programs you promise they won't rebel? Sorry, I don't buy that.

If God does not instruct us in youth group why do we think we need to rework God's plan. Plan A (God's plan) so let's revamp it and call it Plan B (Youth Group). We know kids today and they need this.

Not my kids.

Be Blessed!

Cleaning up

I have been thinking for awhile of cleaning my blog up some. I have been blogging for awhile. I love looking back and seeing how I have grown and changed. It's also been a source of serious conviction in some areas. This past winter as I was dealing with being allergic to winter I read through some posts and realized that what was missing in my life was my passion. I used to be so passionate about my duties here at home.
I feel that passion coming back and I am so excited!
I don't yet know what I'll be changing around here.
I guess we'll all just have to wait and see!

Be Blessed!

Excitement

I am using my daughter's notebook computer to type up this post and I don't have any pictures on it, so a picture free post. I do have some cute ones to share if I can ever talk my DH into giving me back my computer. ;)

I have had a feeling welling up inside of me for the past few days. I was not sure what it was until today. I am excited again. Excited about homeschooling, excited about being a mom, excited about being a homemaker... just excited.
I love winter so this is going to be hard for me to say, but I think I may be allergic to winter. Ever since the sunshine started showing her sweet face again and the flowers started to bloom I have felt so much better. I know there is a technical name for being allergic to winter, but it's just so S.A.D. ;0).
Maybe it has to do with getting our new curriculum. We are using Christian Light Publications LightUnits now.
I used to be totally against the "boxed curriculum" for my family, but with everything going on school was falling behind. This is my solution. It's saving all of our behinds. LOL

I am working on getting my house into shape again. This also means making this house work for me. Yes, we still have plans to move, but with the unemployment and the housing market I don't know when that will be. So, I am working smarter. Starting with getting rid of anything that will not fit into this house. I used to love decorating my house but when the house started getting cramped I removed a lot of my decorative stuff and began boxing it up to use again someday. Well, someday might be a long time from now. I took inventory of what I have and really I don't have anything I can't replace one day. So out it's going.
We are moving our school room and play room into the great room. The kids are the majority in this house so it would just make sense that we make that their main room. I am thinking even of really decluttering my kitchen to the barest essentials and making room for us to eat in there freeing up our dining room for something more.
Once the school room/playroom is finished I will take some pictures and post them.

A few weeks ago we went to a church 4 hours away to see Pastor Voddie Baucham. He is such an inspiration to me and I am thrilled to say that as much as my husband enjoyed his books hearing the man in person sealed the deal. For almost 3 weeks straight we have had family worship almost every day. He's leading it and initiating it. He's always believed it but I think it overwhelmed him. Pastor Baucham laid it out step by step and my husband took it and ran with it! AMAZING. Pastor Baucham even stopped to admire my sweet baby. Missing his own baby girl I am sure. :)

Well, after all the hum drum posts I have put up I just could not wait to put up a positive post! Thanks for hanging with me. I'm hoping this will last. :)
Be Blessed!