It Is All Worth It

I can't even begin to express how awesome it is to be able to witness your children learning every day! As a homeschooler you often wonder if what you are giving your child is a quality education, I must say for the first year I questioned myself a lot. But well into our second year as I see progress I know now that the one on one teaching is exactly what my Kiddos needed. Yesterday one of my Kiddos friends wanted to play so before we could even get started with school work I said sure bring him over, then I got the wild idea that we would call another friend with two homeschoolers and I would take them all bowling, it was a blast six kiddos the bowling alley to ourselves and then an hour of play back at our house, then I had parents come get the extra kiddos and we did our school work. I Love the freedom and the fact that our schedule can be more fluid. Late in the evening I caught my Sons 12 & 9 at the kitchen table my 9 year old was refreshing my 12 years olds memory on rounding :) I didn't ask them to do this, they just did it on their own. It is so exciting and makes my heart so happy to see this happening, especially at 9:30 at night. Today were working through a fun Dr. Seuss packet in honor of Dr. Seuss's Birthday this week and National Read Across America week. At one point my 12 year old was playing guitar, while my 9 year old voluntarily had picked up a Dr. Seuss book and was reading it out loud and my 6 year old Daughter was on my lap working on a Dr. Seuss character word find. I know these seem like really simple things but to see the goings on of my Kiddos and to watch them just picking up the things that they need to be doing without being asked or nagged is awesome. We kinda do our assignments in the order that we feel we want to do them on school days and on Wednesdays we add a history lesson they always want to do History first. All of my Kiddos Love History <3 It is great to see them loving learning, I hope their passion for learning never dies! Don't get me wrong their are days that don't go anything like you plan and you just have to let it go. When it's good it's good when it's bad it's bad!!!! Keep Calm & Mom On!

Life Is Good

Last week we were adjusting to a new work schedule for The Hubby! He is working nights and sleeping during the day. I was feeling like we had just come off of two great school weeks back after Christmas Break and then last week was a crash nothing was going as planned. At one point I told my Husband I don't think we can come back from this half joking half serious! He replied we will rise from the ashes Babe :) and sure enough this week although it isn't quite the schedule we had a few weeks ago we have adjusted and school work is getting done. Life is so fluid when you have the freedom to adjust as you go. Monday we had to cancel out of guitar and allow the kids time to rest, I am a firm believer that sometimes you can ward of sickness with MORE REST! Also we took a hard look at Hallee's interest in ballet and decided that she just isn't into it and forcing it wasn't helping so she is bowing out gracefully in all fairness to her teachers and classmates. Not sure if dancing in a structured class just isn't her thing or if it is a phase but at any rate, I see relief in her and myself that we just decided not to do it anymore. And I know that soon it will change and we will be adjusting to something else! We bought a couple homedics sound spas, one so that my husband can sleep in the darkened room we created and we can kinda move around as normal in the house. We still need to keep it down! Once my Daughter laid eyes on it she wanted one so I picked one up for her, last night I heard crickets, that is the Summer Night sound and I wondered if it would actually call in crickets ;) Hehe! I see sick people everywhere and I am working like mad to keep our family healthy in this season of sickness! Hubby text me from work the other night and said there was a guy in the break room throwing up, the germaphobe in me went crazy, I lined up the shots of oregano oil and made each of the kiddos take one, ordered more, then had one waiting for him when he came home from work. That night at dinner I made everyone another shot and I started singing shots shot shots shots the song by LMFAO and I had them all laughing tell they cried, since the song is pretty vulgar my Kiddos hadn't heard it, so I YouTube'd it for them and I think that is what made them laugh tell they cried. My middle Son did the whole pace palm :) they wanted to know how I can have a song for every occasion. Our science talk for today was Urine, Yes Urine, I explained to them that in reality urine should be mostly clear or very slightly yellow LOL! That if their urine was bright yellow they needed to drink more water, to hydrate! What can I say no matter what I will create a learning lesson out of it! You just have to enjoy the chaos that is our daily lives! Keep Calm & Mom On!

The Adventures Continue

November 29 Hubby is in excruciating pain in his foot/toe, make it through the 30th, he goes into the Doctor on December 1, they take an x-ray and after quite a little run around we are headed to Wenatchee on Wednesday to a podiatrist who is willing to work my Hubby in. We are told that it is a tumor and that it needs to come off, they plan to amputate the first bone & a half on his fourth toe! I am an optimist so I am full steam ahead, yep let's do it soon let's get it done and get him on the mend and I am just positive it will come back benign. So prep starts, I am getting all the Christmas stuff ready and done prior to surgery, so that I can focus on work and Hubby after surgery. We take a 3 week Christmas Break to allow for all this to take place. December 18 is the day of surgery, we get to the Hospital get him prepped, gowned and IV, then they tell us the Doctor is delayed in the previous surgery so 3.5 hours later he is headed for surgery. It was a LONG day! He came through surgery awesome. He is the only person I know who has ever requested a cheeseburger fresh out of surgery, the man was STARVING! Prior to going to surgery the doc ordered a little cart for him that he could put his knee up on and wheel around, do you think that there would be one in Omak NOPE, so as soon as they took him back to surgery I raced to the other end of Wenatchee picked up the cart and made it back to the waiting room before he was done :)my recommendation to anyone is that having two people go along with the patient who is having surgery is a must, doing it alone twice now, well it just plain and simple sucks, but it can be done! At home recovery went well, there were some painful days and some really good days, he was home a month, the first two weeks were basically nonweight bearing! Then he had his stitches removed and was able to start using it again. That made for some really tough days, but after a month he has gone back to work and although it gives him a bit of trouble he is doing well. Our Christmas was great, it went off without a hitch and being all ready that far in advance made it pretty sweet! New Years was uneventful just the five of us hanging out, I made some surprise bags for the kiddos to open on the hours and that was fun, games, movies, snacks, glow sticks, ice cream etc. That was by far my Husbands worst night pain wise, pretty much indescribable. :( On January 5, the Doctor told us we would need to wait another week or so for results that they were sending everything to the Mayo Clinic for basically a 3rd opinion. But on January 6, he called us back to say that they had sent results and his tumor was benign. Hubby spent the last two weeks doing school with the kiddos, I created the lesson plan and he went through it with them, this was really fun for him and for the kids because thus far in our homeschooling he hadn't been able to really participate like that. It was great seeing him get excited about school! He went back to work last Sunday and he is working nights, it has thrown us for a loop, ours schedules are off because he gets home at 6 a.m. and needs to sleep so that house must remain quiet !?!?!?!?! So we can practice guitar and we had to rearrange our school schedule a bit, but luckily that is the great thing about homeschooling your schedule is fluid and it is flexible, you must always be flexible with homeschool. You can't let a little hiccup ruin your whole day/week. And trust me the hiccups will try to ruin your day/week but stay positive and Mom On! My Daughter also woke up a UTI her first ever :( after a sleepless night of her being in pain and me worrying about her. I scooped her out of bed at 7a.m. and took her to the walk in clinic, they gave her a prescription and I took her home to rest while I ran to the pharmacy but I found out that they don't carry that medication and the closest pharmacy that had it was two hours away which I was willing to do, but our little local pharmacy was willing to go to bat for me and talk to the Doc about an alternate medicine that he was knowledgeable about, I had asked them if there was an alternate but they said no, after they talked they agreed she could take something else. So the prescription was transferred to that pharmacy and I didn't have to travel out of town, such a blessing. I had to talk myself down from that super frustrating morning!!! This whole night shift that my Husband is on is plain and simple a strain, I don't really know if I am foot or horseback. My allergies are amped up for some reason so I have been trying to get extra sleep, Hubby is staying up all night on his two days off and sleeping all day because well the schedule has to continue basically, so that is literally a pain the butt. I went to bed early last night and woke up to what looked like a party happened, then I realized that Hubby stayed up all night had a few beers and the Kiddos stayed up right along with him and made snowflakes, had a few mean games of checkers and had juice and snacks, how do I know this since I went to bed early!? I woke up to the evidence and I cleaned it up while they all slept~! Keep Calm & Mom On........................

Being Fluid & Random Thoughts

The most important thing I have learned in our days is to be fluid, it seems there is always something changing the flow of our day but we don't let it ruin our day. Today our Dentist Office called and asked if I could bring all of our Kiddos in to have their teeth cleaned, they had a cancellation and they could get all three kids in if we could be there in a little over an hour, I thought for a second and then thought heck ya lets do it, we have the time and they have the time so why not! That task is one of my least favorite in the whole wide world and now it is done for six months. As we were driving earlier Hallee was noticing all the EVERGREENS or as she calls them FOREVER GREEN trees, it is always fun to see her learning and taking in the world. Hunter asked me where I was on September 11, 2001, I vaguely remember the details of that day because my stroke took alot of memories or pieces of memories, I tried as detailed as I could to tell him what I could remember, but what I do remember is that it was as I described to him almost as if the world stood still for just a bit, even though I know it didn't and it was a day of disaster! There is a Kid, I say kid because he was only in his 20s so to me he is a kid, anyways he asked me why I always seem so happy! I told him that I'm not always happy but I do try to face life optimistically. He looked at me as if I was speaking a foreign language. So I just said "Listen, When You Sit In A Hospital For 7 Days After You Have Had A Stroke Not Knowing If You Are Gonna Live Or Die, You Live Each Day As If It Is Your Last" He still looked puzzled.....No one gets it unless they have had a near death experience, it really isn't worth trying to explain. Trust me I have days where my mind is as negative as everyone else but then the positive thoughts commence and onward and upward we go. I live with one of the most negative people I know, my Husband is a natural doom and gloom person, trust me it wears on a person, you just have to stay positive always as best you can, trust me it can always always always always always be worse!! Keep Calm & Mom On!

Keep Calm And Mom On

Homeschooling asks a lot of us, it asks me to be more organized, patient and creative. It asks me to teach on days like today when I have a migraine and I am tired or stressed.

We spent the first few weeks of September on break this will be an annual time off with our county fair and Labor Day holiday.  It is a natural time to break when everyone else is headed back to the grind of school and work.

Now we are back at it, weather is cooling, leaves are changing, soccer has started, dance is back in session.  It feels like lots of new beginnings.

I've been revitalized with some curriculum changes, I am not what I would have thought I would be as a homeschool teacher.  I haven't planned out our entire school year, which I would have leaned toward or so I thought.  I have became more of an adaptable free flowing more fluid schedule, like yesterday when Hayden asked to do more math because what he did the say before was so fun, thus he just did more math :)

We are having fun with new books by scholastic called Word Ladders, I haven't purchased much scholastic stuff but these are great. A brain teaser! Always something fun and new if you are adaptable to change and not stuck on certain ideals.

Keep Calm & Mom On

What Would I Tell Myself About Homeschooling

A Letter To Me: You will have doubts and lots of them and they will sneak in and out of your mind at many different times. Your philosophies will change many times, don't be afraid just go with it. You will need support, it won't always be there, you will find it in the oddest places with people and things you didn't expect. Education for the masses (AKA by grade level) will fall away so you can truelly see your individual child. READING, out-loud can help more than you know, we have done a lot and started small with The Magic Treehouse books in order to give Us a plan. You will love homeschooling more than you could ever have imagined, knowing that beyond any quantifiable education there's a closeness, connection and the gift of time to explore the wild wonderful world to explore. Housework equals who cares, it will get done when it gets done and will always be there. Your whole house will become a classroom inside and out, you don't need desks, throw those out or sell them but basically forget it, learning happens everywhere It is annoying, kids in brick and mortar schools don't get asked to solve equations out of the blue, but people will ask your kids to prove themselves, Hmmmmm Rrrrrrr this never gets less annoying. Be flexible with everything, school can start at 8am or Noon or Midnight, it can be 3, 4, or 5 days a week, year round or not, any way you do it, it is OK! If a curriculum isn't working drop it and fast, find something different don't waste time with something that isn't working. And last but not least, Have Fun, Don't Stress! PEACE OUT LOVES

Facing An Overwhelming Week

Today is day one of what could be an overwhelming week and even facing it positively I will surely be happy to see the end of it.

Monday equals extra kids, school, dance classes, soccer practice, shooting practice and soccer board meeting. Dinner!? In between there somewhere!

Sunday we decided to unplug and take our Kiddos to the movies, we saw Bears, & Moms Night Out, I was excited for both, Moms Night Out being created by a homeschooler was especially exciting, Kiddos could not quit talking about Bears, our local theater was not showing either movie, such a bummer so we drove to a theater 1.5 hours away, it was well worth the trip.  Our middle Son had been counting down the days to Bears release and was super bummed when it wasn't going to be shown in town.

With taking this half a day to ourselves I had no idea it would create drama with a certain family member, even though I am the Mother, Mother's Day has yet to be about me, I always do what everyone else wants to do or accommodate others.  I find it interesting how once people with children don't have little ones at home and aren't going 24/7 they forget what it was like and suddenly think you also have lots of free time, I mean really, so fricking irritating and people who don't have kids also don't have a clue.  I am so Thankful My Mama actually gets it and remembers.

I wanna say, Hey grab a cup of coffee, let me just show you on this here calendar just what minute in 2024 I have free!

Our Daughter is having her tonsils removed Wednesday the 14th, it is a routine surgery but with her because hers on a scale of 1-4 are a 4+ need to be done like yesterday, she is choking on food and sometimes feels like her throat is closing up.  I am so ready for her to have the surgery, this also takes place out of town. Wish they would let me know now what time surgery is but unfortunately we won't know until the day before :/

Not so conveniently before her much needed surgery was scheduled I had scheduled our Boys for their yearly homeschoolers testing, so Thursday the 15th out of town again for that all day event.

There isn't one free night this week at all, once we catch our breath from those two days, it is the weekend of our local Relay For Life event and we get Fair Pigs Woo Hoo, Relay is going to depend on how Hallee is doing, I would love to invest more time, but Kiddos come first for me and basically there are only so many hours in a day, only so thin one can stretch themselves and frankly life is short.

~MOMMY ON MY FRIENDS~