School - Wrapped Up & Looking Ahead

On Sunday (Mother's Day) Nathaniel came running up to me exclaiming, "Look mama! I wrote you a card!" I was in a conversation with someone, and had never seen Nathaniel actually write any letters at home, so I took the card, glanced at it, assumed it was his scribbling "writing" and continued my conversation. As I sat down and looked at it closer I realized that he really had written! The card says, "I love you mom" going counter clockwise. I was so surprised! He had copied it down from the board during his Sunday school class! He had never written any letters (other than N) at home before. This, coupled with his sudden reading, just goes to show that when a child is ready to read and write he will. 

I was determined to finish our Core B Curriculum from Sonlight before we headed to Pensacola. We had already been winding down our school year (Math had been finished weeks before) and I didn't want to come back from a week at the beach and still have school work to do. It sure felt good to finish up with the fall of Rome and put all our books and binders away! 

We really enjoyed this past year of school. Sonlight Curriculum is a perfect fit for our family. (The boys picture even made it into their catalog, page 35!) We spent our days mostly reading good books, marking up maps, and filling in our Book of Time. Even Nathaniel enjoyed participating in our Core studies and can tell you what a viaduct is and who Marcus Aurelius was. Jeremiah sped through the Horizons 1st grade math with very little help from me. We both enjoyed Language Arts, Jeremiah likes to write stories and is proving to be a great little speller. I am enjoying actually learning some English grammar rules this time around. 

Aaron and I spend some time every year thinking and praying about what to do the next year. After talking and praying we still feel that schooling our children at home is the right choice for our family right now. However, next year will look a bit different because we are adding an outside science class for Jeremiah and a bit more "formal" work for Nathaniel. 

I was initially a tad concerned about adding more formal work for Nathaniel. But he has shown so much excitement and is initiating so much learning on his own (see the reading and writing) that I think we will all adjust very well. He is super excited to have his very own work books. 

Jeremiah will be attending a science class one day a week at Hilger Higher Learning here in Chattanooga. We visited the facility a few months ago and were very impressed with the teachers, staff, and students there. He will be studying Astronomy this year and is pretty excited. 

Here is what the rest of our next year looks like:

Sonlight Core C - the fall of Rome through modern history. This will include history, geography, and some Bible memorization. Nathaniel still seems to enjoy and keep up with the basics of the core work, but for geography he will be focusing on learning the continents, oceans, and points on a compass rose. 

Jeremiah:

Language Arts - Grade 3 

Handwriting - A Reason for Handwriting, Transition

Math - Horizons  2

Science - Hilger Higher Learning, Astronomy

Nathaniel

Reading - Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons, BOB books

Handwriting - A Reason for Handwriting, K

Math - Horizons K

We definitely were ready for a break. But our new curriculum is here and all the shiny new books are tempting us so we will continue some things through the summer like reading and handwriting practice. 

Pensacola Trip!

We got back from Florida on Sunday night. It was a great trip! It was relaxing and fun for all of us. Here are some of the pictures:

Loaded up in the van. 

I was surprised at how smooth the traveling was. I guess all our kids were old enough to entertain themselves and we just had to be patient with all the bathroom stops. It was about an 8 hour drive (including lunch, dinner, and bathroom stops), not too shabby. Of course, it helps to have the Wii set up in the van, our boys thought that was amazing! 

 The view from the back patio of the condo. 

Our condo was so nice! It was located on the ground floor and just steps away from the beach access and both pools. This little grassy area was right outside the door and a perfect place for the kids to hang out. Having the patio in the back meant that we didn't have to bring sandy, wet beach and pool things in the house! Everything just got dumped on the patio. Perfect!

The swing was a popular place to hang out. 

You can see our condo behind the kids, to the left. 

One of the pools. 

Our set up on the beach. 

We decided to just leave our chairs and toys on the beach for the week. In the evenings we would fold up the chairs, consolidate the toys and move everything beyond the tide line. It was never disturbed. It was so nice not to have to haul all the sandy stuff back up to the condo every night! 

(Behind the chairs you can see the beach access, wooden walkway on the right, and our condo, to the left.) 

 Jeremiah made up a game in which they all had to jump the "poisonous" waves. 

 I call this Jeremiah's Baywatch pose. 

He looked like a little surfer! 

 My friend Kendal. 

 With my boys on the beach. 

The beach in the evening. My favorite time. 

Unfortunately we only went down there once. By the time we were done with dinner the kids were usually pretty worn out so we did a quick swim in the warm pool before bed. 

Our little routine was to go down to the beach in the morning before it got too hot. The kids would play in the waves while Summer and I sat in our chairs with our feet in the water finishing our morning coffee. We would head back up to the condo for lunch and then do some swimming. At some point in the afternoon we would have rest time. Then dinner, more swimming, and bed. 

One of my favorite parts of the week was getting up in the morning (our kids all woke early, go figure) and taking my coffee out to the patio. It was so relaxing to start the day with the sound of water and the sights of the beach waking up. Sigh....

One evening we went out to dinner at the Crab Trap. A seafood restaurant on the beach with tables in shade outside and a play ground for kids to play on. All the kids got buckets and shovels and were happy to play while they waited for their food. It was one of the most relaxing meals out I have ever experienced. Summer and I just sat, talked, and watched our kids play. Who ever thought of that was a genius! 

Nathaniel and Clayton were good buddies all week! 

It was fun to watch them always up to something together. 

 While we were there Carter celebrated his 7th birthday. 

The boys thought he needed some Nerf guns. 

 We went out to lunch at the Shrimp Basket, my kids ordered grilled cheese. 

 Pretty cool dude.

 Off the beaten trail we found this amazing playground! 

Birthday cookie. 

We are sure the neighbors appreciated the horn blowing. 

Before Carter's birthday we realized that we were traveling with kids aged 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7 years old. 

So we did a little craft and took some pictures. 

Kendal, Nathaniel, Clayton, Carter, Jeremiah

Mother's Day 2012

More and more lately I sit down to blog and have absolutely no idea what to say. Life is normal, mundane and dare I say mostly boring to other people. There is also breathtaking beauty in our daily moments. We feel the joy and struggle of becoming more Christlike as we learn to love each other better. 

This Mother's Day I felt the weight of mothering in a new way. The responsibility of these souls entrusted to my care was constantly on the edge of my consciousness. I can say that I am becoming daily more and more aware of my inability to do anything, much less mother my children, in my own strength. And to my great surprise I am finding so much joy and freedom in acknowledging my weakness and laying it down. Instead of trying to fix myself, or feel guilt over all my failures, I am learning the joy of humbly coming to Jesus and resting in Him. I have prayed over and over again recently, "Lord, your Word says that I am now complete. You see me as righteous through your Son. Show me what it means to be loved, whole, and forgiven. Help me believe that I am already complete and insanely loved. Help me believe that you have already given me everything I need." 

I realize that sounds like Christianity 101. But I still struggle with the need to fix myself, to somehow think that I can earn the salvation that was freely given to me by grace. I am learning to lay that down and simply revel in the depth of love poured out on me. 

This Mother's Day was joyful and poignant. I am profoundly grateful for these boys that have been gifted to me. I feel acutely the absence of the child missing from our home. Even though our paperwork is still sitting on a social workers desk waiting to be approved (it was turned in a month ago!) and no child has yet been identified, my heart is committed and feels the absence of that child. It is difficult to explain. Yet every Sunday during worship tears fall as I contemplate the birth family, the fact that our child could be being harmed right now, the foster family that may be the temporary family, the tender heart and body of a child I have yet to meet, the ache in my arms and in my heart as I yearn.. 

In all those complicated emotions I feel deep calm and peace. I can rest in His care and love. 

Busy Spring Days

Pictures of our morning spent outside the Chattanooga Aquarium. We visited with a friend of mine from college. It had been years since we have seen each other and obviously both of our lives have seen much change. So fun to see our kids all playing together! It seems like just yesterday we were in college together and now we are all grown up. :-)

Y'all. 

We are busy. 

Baseball season is in full swing with practices and games occupying almost every week night. Our calendar is full of graduations, birthdays, weddings, baby showers - crazy fun stuff. 

During our "Screen Free Week" I had a horrible sinus infection. It knocked me out for about 10 days. Surprisingly the boys occupied themselves during that week and it was actually a screen free week. I am amazed! But anyway, I had grand plans of finishing our school work, cleaning the house, working on projects, and generally getting us organized for summer. None of that happened. In fact, quite the opposite. The house descended into chaos, no official school work got done, and I feel like I am a step behind. 

I still get tired pretty quickly, but I am slowly getting us back on track this week. And for better or for worse, after this busy week and weekend the boys and I are loading up with some friends and heading to the beach for a week! I am not a beach lover, but the offer of a week at a condo in Pensacola with good friends was too good to pass up.