Our Homeschooled Munchkins are SO Deprived!

We picked up Miss B yesterday & are currently hanging out in the Dallas area for a couple days as a family before heading back home and into the busy-ness of life.

SO many things have amazed us about how she handled herself without us near. Some great friendships were formed with the other people on her team. She had a great time reaching out to homeless people and innercity kids.

However, the part that sticks out the most in my mind is this...

We were leaving the YWAM (Youth With a Mission) ranch and saw an old school bus driving to the area that we just left. Cowboy & I suggested that it was probably heading to pick up a youth group that was part of Miss B's team.

At this point she blurted out, "I got to ride a school bus! I was SO excited! Everyone said, 'Uck! We have to ride on a school bus?' And I was like, 'Sweet! I get to ride a school bus! How cool!"

That's what happens when you send your 13-year old homeschooled daughter on a mission trip...She finally gets to ride a school bus & is excited about it!

If you finish your school work early...

We're all about rewards in our house. Cowboy usually is the creative one to think of them, but I'm happy to follow through if they make my life easier and more fun!

So...before Christmas break Cowboy dangled the carrot in front of Miss B and C-Man. They went for it!!!

I had their agendas filled out with everything that needed to be accomplished before we started our official Christmas Break. Cowboy told the kids if they finished by certain dates they would receive rewards. The sooner they finished, the bigger the reward. He did this to save my sanity and I thank him for that! (He's always looking out for my sanity).

Miss B stayed up until after midnight one night to finish her work so that she would have an extra week of Christmas Break.

She and I went to our city's downtown area to ice skate. We had so much fun and laughed SO hard at each other! I worked very hard to NOT FALL!!! She, of course, made fun of me for my caution. However, I tried to remind her my body was old and I could get seriously hurt if I fell.



After successfully ice skating without injury, we had dinner together. Don't panic about the amount of food she consumed. Right after this she swam for an hour and fifteen minutes. (Makes me tired to think about it).



This reward was TOTALLY worth it!!! Not only did I not have to harp on Miss B to finish up her school work on the days preceding Christmas, but I also got to spend time with my girl. PRICELESS!!!

Mental Defect

I have a sickness, a mental defect, if you will.

I LOVE school supplies--fresh, new, unsharpened pencils, crayons with perfect tips, new pencil pouches, neatly arranged colored pencils, binders screaming for fun scrapbook paper to be placed in their front covers to make them look all cutesy, RSVP pens in all colors,...




Maybe my mental defect stems from my elementary years. Our family would go to Ratcliffe's Books to purchase our workbooks that our school required for the year. Because it was a college bookstore, my eyes would wander to the other items the bookstore sold. Such excitement--everything was colorful and new!!!

Or maybe my mental defect stems from my need to have order. Unmarked workbooks, pages without eraser marks. No mistakes have been made in any books! How peaceful...




Or perhaps my mental defect stems from my public school teaching days. That first day of school with all those fresh school supplies was the last day of complete cleanliness and order for the entire school year.

Wherever it came from, my sickness is here in FULL force. I love the beginning of something new...something pure...something clean!!!

Wait a minute, those things I LOVE about new school supplies are just the things God does in our lives. His sweet mercy and grace takes us from the marred mess we are and makes us new, pure, and clean! What a beautiful gift!!!

This is Why I Taught Him to Read

The whole family was running errands together today. I hear laughter from the back seat. Then C-Man speaks up, "natural gas pipeline. It's a fart pipeline!"

When I taught this kid to read when he was 4, I had no idea he'd use his gift to keep our whole family in stitches! I love his sense of humor and fresh outlook on life.

Proof That God LOVES Me!

It's been one of those crazy weeks! You know the kind...I'd felt LOUSY for days due to this ridiculous cold I've had, I'd felt a heavy burden for one of my friends, Cowboy turned 38, and well, you know...life in general. Anyway, I opened the pantry door for something and what caught my eye?



Do you notice the dark brown thing on the top right--below the cobweb? It called out my name. I'm not very tall and don't remember seeing it before, but I had to know what it was.

Well...

I immediately checked the expiration date and was SO relieved to see I still had time.


I very selfishly thought, "Thank you, God. I needed chocolate today." Then, my munchkins smelled the candy in the air. So...I did what any good homeschooling mom does, I used candy to quiz them about the history I was reading to them. We've been learning about the reconstruction of our nation after our Civil War and about the many changes to our nation after this war.

C-Man and I were reading about a contest that was held for the best tenement plan for NYC in the early 1900's. The $500 prizewinner's plan was called the dumbbell plan because of its shape. They thought it was this incredible plan to safely house more people in a small amount of space which would be airy and filled with light. HUGE mistake--the buildings were built right next to each other, with only 28 inches in between them. No privacy, a great amount of stink, huge fire dangers, and little light! Using the Tootsie Roll wrappers we were able to recreate the dumbbell tenements and rearrange them in a way that would have been safer and healthier for the people living in them.

When C-Man's in architect school someday at OSU I'll bring him Tootsie Rolls to help him on his projects. He'll be so appreciative!

Confessions of a Scatterbrained Mom

I'm too distracted in December to do a bang-up job of homeschooling. I'm online trying to get ideas for those last few gifts I still need to purchase. OK, let's get real. There really weren't a few gifts in December to buy, there were MOST! Anyway, I'm still stumped on some and there are only 10 days left.
The potential bad weather for this week is distracting to me. I must make sure we have enough food for me to prepare for Cowboy and these munchkins. Our co-op is finished for the semester so I have to do some fill-in for Miss B this week. LUCKY HER!!! C-Man is whining like crazy that he didn't get his Nana Day today because the classes I teach are finished until January. Little Bit gets no weekend visits with her mom for awhile because her mom had a new baby today. Miss B & I are going skiing in a couple weeks and I've been working to make sure she has snow boots that fit. We've had 3 different Christmas programs our kids have been in within the last week and a half plus a few Christmas parties. Miss B's swim club is hosting a huge swim meet this week and we will be putting in lots of volunteer hours with the help of our family. Cowboy has been working ridiculous hours lately--60-73 hours a week lately. When things get out-of-control like this I lose my brain. I can't keep my thoughts focused. I'm dreaming of a white Christmas apparently! I must forge on and school my kids this week--ALL WEEK--if it kills me! (I hope it doesn't, though, because so many things would be left undone.)

Spelling

Calling all parents of kids who take spelling tests! I recently learned of www.spellingcity.com. This is an awesome site for homeschoolers and public schoolers and private schoolers. The student (or parent)enters the word list and then the program sounds it out, uses it in a sentence, and spells it aloud while the letters come up on the screen. I love it. Happy Spelling!!!