Thursday already?

Well this has been a quick week! The highlight of school this week was...science!! Granbob and Gram got the kids 2 cool kits, one to grow vegetables and the other is a butterfly kit. So right along with Chapter 2 in our Science book, studying living things, we planted our vegetables and sent off for our caterpillars. Adam was thrilled with both of those activities. I think we will do a lot of hands on projects this year, this seems to be where Adam shows the most excitement.

Today we took Ryan to preschool and unfortunately had to leave him crying...same as he did on Tuesday. Last year he cried when he missed seeing Adam get on the bus and really missed him during the day so I guess this year it has been hard since Adam is at home and now he is leaving us to go to preschool. I am thankful for his wonderful teacher Mrs. Holley as well as knowing the tears are short lived and he recovers quickly! When we picked him up today he was happy to share that he ate his entire green apple at snack, well except for the skin. While Ryan is at preschool on Thursdays we are back at the house hosting Bible study. Our wonderful babysitter, Madeline, was out today since her daughter Lillian was still getting over being sick. We missed them but I was able to hold down the fort with the children in the basement while the rest of the group met upstairs. It was a good morning!

Todd worked a half day with Sean landscaping and then on his way home he passed us driving through town. We did a u-turn (which I am famous for) and headed back to catch up with him. He knows me well and went ahead and pulled over knowing I couldn't resist turning around to see him. The kids loved it and we got to touch base! Later that afternoon we were home and decided to go out to dinner. Before we went to dinner of we stopped by Replay to exchange a Wii game we got a few weeks ago, Star Wars Clone Wars for....Kung Fu Panda Wii game. To some of you this may be an insignificant point to our day but we have been WAITING to do this for WEEKS and the kids have lost much sleep over this transaction, when it would happen, what they would get, how much it would cost and the fact that we said everyday we are not doing that today. So the fact we got to do this tonight well lets just say...the boys were over the moon about this new game and now just want to head home to play and not go to dinner. Since they are not in charge we did manage to go to dinner and then we came home to play. The boys seem to love the new game; there has yet to be any buyers remorse, unlike our first purchase of Clone Wars. I think it is a good lesson to learn young, think hard about your choices and don't rush into anything, hopefully it will translate to much more important decisions later in life!!

After playing the game for a bit the boys get ready for bed, get teeth brushed and are settling into bed when they begin to tag team Todd with tons of Star Wars scenarios...Adam will start then Ryan will pipe in, then back to Adam and so on. If you spend any time with our boys you will have an opportunity to hear the great Star Wars stories with many characters and many situations. It is quite interesting since they really have had limited viewings of Star Wars and neither Todd or myself are into Star Wars. It is funny what your kids latch onto! We are thankful this is something they enjoy together! They are good brothers and becoming good friends which we hope and pray will last a lifetime!

Who says Mondays are boring?

We had a great start to our week! We did school this morning and then headed out for an afternoon adventure...we headed to the lake! We started a new unit today in Science, "Living Things", what better place to learn about living things but at the lake! Grandbob called us last night and invited us out on the boat, the best part about that invitation is that Todd was going to get to come too! Dad doesn't get to come with us too often so when he does we leap at the chance to have him with us.

After picking up lunch at Wendy's we were on our way and arrived at the lake around 1:30. Grandbob picked us up at the dock and then off went! Since we had dad with us today we were able to get out a 3 man raft that is pulled behind the boat. Adam was a little nervous about it and Ryan was fearless about it...Todd was excited and in the middle of the boys! He of course briefed them on what to do if they were to fall off the raft and then assured them it would not happen! So they are settled and Grandbob starts up the boat...slow at first, then we were off to the races, going in circles, cutting back into the waves. It was a perfect day to have such fun since there were hardly any boats out today, I kept forgetting it was Monday. After a while I decided this should be the day for me to try it too. So Ryan got in Todd's lap and I got in the raft. It was the most fun I have had in a LONG time as well as the hardest I have laughed and screamed in a long time. I was very lucky I did not get thrown off. Grandbob was doing a great job as the the driver almost too good!

Grandbob ended up towing us to our "usual" spot to anchor down and do some swimming. Todd was pretty comfortable in the raft and hung out there the entire time as well as the entire ride back to the dock. However he was under attack most of the time with 2 boys trying to flip the raft, tackle him and anything else they could think of. It was a great time! Emily was happy and content between her stroller and the saucer. She ate, took naps, and watched her brothers intently! She enjoys the boat but will have to wait until next summer to get her toes in the water!!

We came home to have dinner, take baths, and hit the hay! Adam was very thankful that he didn't stay on the boat and that he tried the raft! He said it was the greatest time of his life!!

Weekend Fun

We had a fun weekend that started on Friday afternoon! After school we headed out to do a little shopping, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then off to Lynchburg for Thomas, my nephew's 7th birthday party! We got there early to enjoy some extra time with the cousins (missing only Haley who was going to a concert that night in Charlottesville)! The party was lots of fun, a Star Wars theme, Darth Vader cake, and a search for asteroids (aluminum foil with candy bars inside) in the backyard we could not have asked for a better night! We left around 7:45 and arrived home a little after 9:00 p.m. with 3 sleeping kids and one exhausted mom!! Off to bed they went and then "off" to work I went!

On Saturday I hosted my annual CD Desk Calendar Stamp Camp...I was up late Friday and then up early Saturday morning to finish getting ready! It was a slow start to the event with a few last minute cancellations but we ending up with 4 and had a great day of stamping and snacking!Todd was in charge of the kids and was a huge help to me getting the last minute details around the house done before anyone arrived. Adam's friend Zabien came over in the early afternoon and hung out with the boys for the rest of the day. Then after the ladies finished stamping we decided to head out for dinner at Denny's! With an additional child it is always great to work the free kids meals which Denny's has on Saturdays and Tuesdays, all of us eating for $22 isn't bad!! Zabien got picked up shortly after returning home from dinner and then we all headed to bed! It had been a long day.

Today was a good day, we were slow to rise and ended up making the 10:00 a.m. service instead of the 8:30 a.m. service. Then we made our usual stops at the Dollar Store to pick up Sunday papers, Walmart to pick up misc items, and then off to Dynasty to meet Todd's family for lunch. We enjoyed lunch and got to hear all about Grandbob & Gram's trip to GA and SC to visit family. It sounds like the Warren reunion next year will be in Myrtle Beach, get excited we can't argue with a reason to head to the beach!! After lunch we went home for only an hour or so and then it was time to leave for Bible Study. When we got home from Bible study I took Emily to feed her and ended up taking a cat nap with her until about 7:30. During my much needed nap the boys ate dinner and then it was time to get ready for a night of Bingo fun!! We bought a bingo game on Friday during our shopping time! Mommy picked the lucky card tonight, I managed to hit bingo 2 or 3 times before anyone else as well as filling my card first! It is always fun to beat Todd, even if it is just totally random luck!! I'll take it!! Adam said he was going to pick my card for the next game!

Time...

We headed out this morning to my business group meeting, which I did not have child care for, and was really going to tell the them in person I would need to take the fall off from the group. It is a great group and I enjoy going but with trying to slow us down, all 3 kids needing childcare, and home schooling I needed to let this go, at least for now. We did manage to get home, eat an early lunch and start school by 11:30, a small miracle.

I find myself struggling with the time issue...when a subject takes 10 minutes I don't think that is good enough and the longer we go sometimes the harder it is to keep Adam's attention. In sharing this with my friend, Sandi, she let me off the hook, "sometimes subjects do only take a few minutes and not to worry so much about that." I know that our school day will be much shorter than a regular school day but how much we should do each day is still something to figure out. My focus continues to be on Adam's attitude and getting the easy things done quickly so when harder things come we will have more time to work. As for Ryan he did much better today having fewer interruptions and being more patient for Adam to finish school. I am anxious to get to the point where Adam can be working on some assignments so Ryan and I can work one on one. Emily was a jewel again today! She must be saving up for some unruly days to come, but for now we are just thankful she is a happy content baby!!

Tonight was a good night, dinner was fun, a cleaning race between me and the boys, and then off to bed BEFORE daddy left for poker night (always a goal of mine). Adam and Ryan cleaned the basement while I cleaned the sun room. We needed to get the toys picked up for our Bible Study tomorrow morning. It was fun and always makes it easier for me if that is done before they go to sleep! I got to catch up with some friends on the phone tonight and now hopefully will be able to head off to bed! Thank you Lord for this day and for helping me to remember that these days will be gone in the blink of an eye!!

Getting into a groove...

We had a slow start to our day yesterday but still managed to get a few things done. Adam was very excited to write a letter to his pen pal, Haley! She is one of his friends from when we lived in MD and our families just enjoyed a fun weekend together. He wrote her a short letter and drew a picture as well. We got that letter into the mail today and hopefully will hear back from Haley soon!

Today we got off to a great start and got 3 subjects done today! We begin each day with Bible and then launch into our other studies from there. It is great to have this be the foundation of our learning as well as seeing how our curriculum weaves God into our lessons. We went onto Math from Bible, then onto English, and then ended with Science. The great thing about all of these subjects is that is allows us to work on reading, writing, & spelling skills while we study. During Science we were able to work in a few snacks. We had to observe using our senses so what better thing to observe than food. We used a veggie tray as well as some Sun Chips to work through our lesson. It is fun when you can eat your work, which Adam devoured.

I felt today like I knew what I was doing and was beginning to feel adjusted to this new role. We are always teaching our children and I know that but when you are responsible for all of their academic learning as well it can be hard to juggle. With just 6 days under by belt, the biggest thing I have learned is that God may be using this year of home school to teach me more than to teach Adam. I am excited for the journey and cannot wait to see how and what he will be teaching me as well as the growth of our family through this journey!

Ryan had a great day at school today and he stayed for Lunch Bunch...an extra hour after school where he stays to eat lunch and play. He will be staying each Tuesday for Lunch Bunch to give Adam and I some extra one on one instruction time. Emily was perfect today, going down easily for her nap and not waking up until almost 1:30. It helped that Todd was home for the first half of the day because I could leave her while we picked up Ryan. I will enjoy those days for they are going to be few and far between when he can help during the day!!

A great weekend...

Friday ended on an up note for the first week of homeschooling. We need to find our groove and schedule while remembering one of the reasons we wanted to home school was to slow us down and have more peaceful days (we’ll see about that). So with that in mind I do not want to be stringent on our schedule but also desire not to be so fly by the seat of our pants either...so a happy medium I am sure we will find. Regardless of being in public, private or home school kids, as well as teachers & moms are always TGIF!!!

We had a wonderful weekend enjoying the company of our dear friends the Millers from Maryland. Ryan and Sandi and their 4 girls came to visit and it could not have been a better visit (well only if they had stayed longer)!! Their girls range in age from 7 to 7 months as do ours...however they have one more blessing tucked in their pack than we do the kids played great together. Sandi is a homeschooler and was great encouragement to me in figuring out a plan for us with school. She gave me some great insights that I can try as well as helping me figure out a worksheet, yes a 2nd grade worksheet, that did not make sense to me. She agreed that the directions/activity were not the greatest but did show me what they were talking about. I felt silly last week when it didn't make sense but decided to ask her anyway!

We stayed up late talking on Saturday night and then got up early for church on Sunday! They got to come and experience the launce of the Read Mountain Campus at FCC, which means we watched the recorded Saturday at 6:00 service, while the RMC had Pastor Ken preach live. It was a great service and you hardly noticed that he was not actually there!! Check it out here if you want to learn more... www.fcclife.org

After church and many introductions we headed out to lunch at Dynasty, one of our kids favorites, you know everyone loves a Chinese buffet for the chicken, fries, fruit and ice cream. Well most kids anyway and it was a hit! We went back to our house after lunch for little one to nap, the hubbies and older kids played Rock Band, and Sandi and I visited some more! We ended our visit later that afternoon with Todd's favorite… a photo shoot!! Taking pictures my husband does not mind but when it turns into many different combinations and retake after retake he looses his enthusiasm. So at least I continue to give him good "material". Well that was our wonderful weekend...now I guess it is time to start school! Stay tuned for updates this week on how we continue to walk through the 2nd grade adventure!!

What a day...

Today was another new day for us...we started off slow and steady and I was feeling good about all the things we were getting done. You see I host a women's Bible study at my house on Thursday mornings at 9:30, the milk man (yes we have a milk man) comes around 9, and Ryan now has to be at pre-school at 9 a.m. Like I said it I was feeling good about the start of the day...everything around the house was pretty much done about 8:10 but then something happened and my time starts disappearing...and all of a sudden it was 8:30, I guess I should hop in the shower now. Once I am in the shower of course my milk man comes (earlier than usual)...Adam manages to get the order form for me I fill it out (after getting out of shower) and then he takes it back to Jeff. Then the race is on...I got dressed quickly, dry my hair for 2 min, grab my make-up bag and off we go.

With Bible study starting at 9:30 we need to get to pre-school and get right home! We are heading down Main Street when I begin to put on my make-up...I know this is not the best idea but sometimes it has to be done. So at the 1st red stoplight, avoiding eye contact with the Salem Police Officer sitting next to me at the light, I begin to quickly put on my eyeliner, or at least what I thought was eyeliner (more on that later) and so on. It is a quick process and I only applied at red stoplights, which I was hitting a lot of! We get to pre-school, Ryan tells me he is not going to cry and is not scared to go to class. Awesome!! He walks right in only to find out we forgot to bring his show and tell! I was bummed and I knew he would be too...but it is only the 2nd day so we will have plenty more days to bring back Obi One:)!!

Back home we go...a friend at Bible study asked if something was wrong with my eye, it look red to her. I told her I had just probably rubbed it and that no nothing was wrong. Fast forward to the end of the day and upon looking in the mirror as I go to wash my face I realize I put my lip liner on my eyes this morning!! I guess that is my own fault for putting make-up on in the car. I laughed even after my long day and figured if only one person noticed it couldn't have been too bad or maybe no one else wanted to say something who knows!!

After Bible study ended at 11:30 I quickly packed up a lunch for us and we were off again now heading back to pick Ryan up from pre-school by 12:00. We stayed at the school playground for a picnic lunch with friends. It was a beautiful day and the kids had a blast, especially Emily in the swing, pictured above. After the playground and heading home we began school. It was a little different since we didn't begin until 3:00. We started with Bible and he managed to knock out his 2nd memory verse, 1 Peter 4:10 "As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another." We also had another first today...Adam says "I wish we had not decided to home school", this was after looking at his handwriting book and feeling like it was too simple for him. I assured him that practice and review of things you already know is apart of learning whether you are at home or at school. We finished after handwriting with reading and comprehension and then called it a day. We will just need a few weeks to get into a groove.

After dinner tonight Todd went off to the basement to play football with the boys and Emily watched from her saucer while I made some popcorn. The boys then took a break, had popcorn and drinks while watching some football on T.V. Finally Todd got the boys ready for bed and tucked them in while I fed Emily and put her to bed. Another day done!

A better start...

Today had less dramatics but was still an interesting day as we figure out how this new schedule is going to work. Emily is a great sleeper, so being able to wake her up each morning has been helpful. We started our school day with all three of the kids doing the devotion...Adam reading the scripture, Ryan asking to play the Wii and or trying to tell me a spider man adventure, and Emily bouncing in the loud saucer (which we will have to change out of the school room). It was picture perfect or at least a picture! We did manage to memorize the scripture from yesterday Romans 6:14 “Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” It was awesome to see how excited Adam was to master his first verse for school.

The highlight and quote of the day was when I asked Adam to open his Spelling book and start on page 2...he looked at it and his eyes got big and with a great sigh he tells me "uhh this looks like a….Kindergarten book”, (pause and then goes on to say) “actually I think some pre-school kids could do this." We both just looked at each other and laughed out loud!!! We skipped ahead a few pages and did some more challenging tasks but it was great to see and hear him speak boldly about what he knew. I look forward to many more fun filled quotes from the boys. Each day of this week will be a challenge learning how to manage the kids at such different stages while still engaging each of them in a fun way.

First day of school...

Well today we embarked on a new adventure in the Warren World...homeschooling! I wish I could say it was an easy and blissful morning, but I will share anyway! I did not sleep well last night, a busy mind having weird dreams about our decision to homeschool. The morning started with a bad headache in addition to feeling like I was going to be sick! We are calmly going about the morning activities, Emily sleeping, Ryan and Adam busy on the Wii, Todd getting ready for work and I am making waffles. I am not talking except for keeping the boys on track getting dressed, shoes on and calling them to breakfast; we have to leave by 8:45 to get Ryan to pre-school on time. He has shown lots of excitement about his 3 year old class and at this point I am not worried about how he will do...more on that later! So now it is time to scoop Emily out of bed, get her dressed & head out the door for pre-school at First United Methodist Church, in Salem. As I leave Todd can see the concern, fear, uncertainty in my face (the glaze in my eyes that at any moment the flood gates might open)...all I say is "I hope we made the right decision", to which he assured me we had, that Adam would be fine and I would do great! Words that I desperately needed to hear! Off we went…

We arrive at pre-school right on time; Ryan and I head into school! But first we stop by and see Ms. Sherry and Ms. Sandy whom he had as teachers for his 1 and 2 year old classes. After a few hugs and some fun talk about the UVA Cavaliers winning this past weekend (go Hoos) we head back down to Mrs. Holley’s class. As we approach the class we hear one of the children screaming and crying to which Ryan says “I don’t want to go in there...it is scary!”, so the fun begins…Ryan does come in after a few minutes of convincing (and me going in) sits down at the puzzle table and poses perfectly for a picture. Phew…it was going to be fine…until our little friend becomes hysterical and Ryan follows me out of the room. We get back into the class and now Ryan is screaming and crying and is being peeled off of me by Mrs. Holley! I leave the room immediately and burst into tears! One of my good friends consoles me along with Adam telling me “mom I know Ryan will be ok and have fun at pre-school, don’t worry”.

As we drive away from school I realize the daunting task that awaits me at home…school for Adam…he begins to talk to me in van “mom I cannot wait to start home school”, to which I respond “me too” (a slight crack in my voice). We get home and while I feed Emily some breakfast Adam picks out his 3 subjects that we will do today after Bible. He chooses History, Science and Math…so off we go to our school room. He is ready to go and we start with a prayer for our day and for Ryan and then right into our devotion. It was the first moment that I felt the true calm come over me…not the calm of earlier that I was forcing to prevent me from completely melting down but true peace from God that He is the one who will be working in this time in our family. I need to be leaning on Him for my strength.

Driving to back to pre-school…going over the events of the morning in my mind I began to think about the pangs I had, the question I asked Todd, “Have we made the right decision?” I decided that I would probably be having these same pangs of questioning our decision if we had sent him back to school. Regardless of whether this decision was right or wrong the fact is that my regret will not be this year of time with Adam; teaching, learning, laughing and yes maybe even crying but my regret would be if I never had this chance. This may be the first and last year of homeschooling, but it will be an adventure that we will remember for years to come!!

P.S. Ryan was happily playing when I arrived to pick him up and told me that "I only cried a little bit and then did a great job!" Also the other boy in his class settled down and ended up having a great day as well! Prayer is a wonderful thing!!!