Have You Seen That e-card....

...that says,

"From a procrastination standpoint, today has been wildly successful."

Yep. That would feel like my Friday. Only I'm truly not procrastinating school....its just that there were so many other pressing things first.

Like, we needed toiletries.

And groceries.

And to get the van washed.

And Sweetheart had a mandate from her Daddy about the state of her room by the end of today.

And then while I was trying to get Bee to sleep for nap time, Little Bit did this:

And when she wakes up, she has to work on an ornament for the Tourette's Association of Texas Christmas tree. I need to mail it tomorrow.

And so, (how many times do you think I can start a sentence with "and"?), in all of that, I managed to read 2 chapters to Sweetheart for her read-aloud and Little Bit did Explode the Code and Math. Oh, and we ate lunch and I changed 2 diapers.

School is clearly pretty low down on the list today.

Which stresses me out, but really....us having toilet paper and food to eat are really, really important.

What remains to be seen is the age old question:

Will Mama make them do school on the weekend?

or

Will Mama just roll it all over to next week?

Tune in next week to find out!!

(Even I don't know the answer yet!)

These Three

Oh the age gaps. They are interesting.

Having a 14 year old, a 10 year old, and a 1 year old all at the same time is mostly really cool. The big sisters adore that baby. And they are really, truly helpful. Not like, "Can you get Mommy a diaper?" useful....I mean, I can shower uninterrupted and not worry. They've got it. They will handle whatever unless it's an especially bad diaper. Even then they wouldn't mind if they knew she would just lay there and let them change her. But she will not.

They play with her. They teach her things. And they love on her all the time.

And they still have a great relationship with each other. There are only 1 or 2 things they still play together, those older two. But they still have a great time with those two things. It was just the two of them as sisters for 8 years and that will always be special.

But I love watching their relationship with the littlest sister grow as well.

Not that everything always is perfect or smooth in their relationships. I don't want to let you think that. But really, I feel so blessed that these three have each other. I think the space between them makes our family a little unique and it's fun watching them learn from each other and help each other. 

Now as far as school time goes, the age gaps are not that helpful. If you don't have children and you know you are going to homeschool, I highly suggest having your kids close enough together that you can do at least a few subjects together. It would help, it really would. 

And as far as the tiny tornado being helpful during the school day? She's not. At all. But man are my older girls learning to prioritize and deal with interruptions! Good skills people. Good skills. 

This 'N That

Want to know why I suddenly came back on the blog scene? It's because S needed some dates for something he was working on and we had no idea where we were going to be able to locate the proper paperwork to find those dates.

Then it hit me. My blog! I bet I blogged about the thing he was looking for. Sure enough, after some hunting Sunday morning, I found the dates he needed. And I REALLY enjoyed reading back through my old posts. It was old--Little Bit was 3 in those old posts and she just turned 10 this weekend.

And I was sad I haven't documented the last year (or so) very well. It's been near impossible to do so, but nevermore. It's just too important!

S had a doctor's appointment yesterday and I needed to go with him. We are still trying to get his diabetes under control. It was a good appointment. We learned a lot and the doctor said he really feels he can get S's labs looking perfect in about 9 months. So we have a renewed determination about his diet and a new pill that I really hope works. And a plan for the next month. Then we'll go back to the doctor.

But Mom and Dad had an appointment with my Dad's cancer doctor yesterday too, so I dropped the big girls off at Mrs. Carrie's house. (I paid her with a Sonic drink.  I'm generous like that.) When they got there, all the kids were sitting around the dining room table and there were chairs for Sweetheart and Little Bit. It was quiet, the plumbers were working in the kitchen (so you act really good when there are strangers in the house) and S said, "This is going to be good for them."

And it was. They got everything done that I sent in under 2 hours AND made caramel apples. At one point Carrie asked them if they missed Bee and did they want her to play a video from her phone of Bee saying, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy......" They said, no. They were good. I think they were shocked at how if feels to homeschool without the distraction of a 1 year old.

Oh look. I found a peaceful moment of school. 

Whew. She's quite a distraction. Many times I just close the book I'm trying to read. I can't possibly read over her and I stop every other sentence to say something to someone and AACCCKKK!!!! Sometimes it is chaos over here.

Baby Bee, Little Bit, and Sweetheart before Little Bit's birthday party. It was a bird theme.. 

Since we had Little Bit's birthday party this weekend, you would think the house would still be relatively clean, but you would be wrong. All that effort should last a few days but it didn't. Last school year Little Bit's chore was cleaning and picking up the homeschool room. Sweetheart's was the laundry and laundry room. This year they are both in the kitchen. Little Bit cleans the dining room table off (putting away all items on it and wiping it) and also helps keep the toys under control in the rest of the house. Sweetheart unloads the dishwasher, clears off the kitchen cabinets and sweeps the dining room and kitchen. I go sit down after supper. I'm supposed to get back up and load the dishwasher but sometimes that doesn't happen. Like last night. Anyway I was thinking about how my sisters and I always had to clean the kitchen after supper while my parents went and sat down in the living room. So unfair!!! Now, as a parent, I realize how many, many years I've been doing all that and I'm so thankful they are big enough and I can sit down!

**cue "Circle of Life" song**

Anyway, we had our first cold snap come through yesterday so it's 38 degrees today and I'm thankful we don't have to go anywhere. Planning to educate these young'uns and hopefully get the house back to decent should someone knock on the door.

That's kind of the plan every, day by the way.

Making It

(I remembered how to log on to my blog!) :)

This has been one rough pay period folks. Whew! Our annual camping trip was fun, but we didn't plan on all the money we ended up spending. Plus some unexepected expenses plus Little Bit's birthday and pretty soon we were staring down the end of the month in fear.

Well, concern I guess is the better word. We are about 2 days away from pay day now and I woke up this morning subtracting things in my head. I started to figure out we weren't going to make it--even with the amount we could transfer from savings. Yikes!

Anyway, I went to the kitchen to try to figure out what we could eat these next two days. And I was actually finding meals in all the hodge-podge of the pantry and freezer. In the midst of my hunting, I was looking through a cookbook my grandmother gave me a long time ago. Seeing her handwritten note inside just made me smile. Man, I loved that lady.

And then I thought about how many, many times my Nanny probably wondered what she was going to feed her 5 kids and husband and brother-in-law during the depression. I know their meals weren't very exciting. They ate what they had. It made me feel better. We certainly aren't as poor as they were back then, but it's neat to think "my Nanny felt this way once."

The Lord is so good. We managed to pull off a party for Little Bit for $32. We had enough for some presents for her. And I found enough meals in our kitchen just now that I only need to spend about $15 to get us through these next two days.

We're going to make it.

I could worry about a list of upcoming expenses, but I won't. The Lord has proven Himself so many times. Even when we don't make the best decisions, He is faithful. He loves us. We have enough. We are so blessed.

Per my husband's wishes, I haven't once said, "We don't have money for that" or "We're almost out of money" to the girls these last few weeks. He grew up feeling stressed about having no money and he doesn't want that for them. I'm pretty sure Little Bit thought her birthday was great and she never knew how hard Mama budgeted for it.

It's going to be a great end of the year as I get to watch the Lord provide for us! And some of that provision (I hope) will be wisdom for me as continue to figure out ways to spend money in the best way possible.

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

When You Have a Diagnosis

 Last week I talked about homeschooling with kids who struggle academically and may be 1 or more grade levels behind. I will probably say more about that in the future, but today I want to talk about another concern that can greatly affect our homeschooling and that is when one of your children in diagnosed with something.

It might be something physical. Perhaps a child has a physical handicap. Maybe it's medical. Maybe it's emotional. It could be any number of things.

Asthma
Cerebral Palsy
ADHD
Epilepsy
Tourette Syndrome (our personal diagnosis)

The list could go on and on and on and on. In fact, when you stop to think about it, it's kind of a wonder there are any "normal" children out there! If you are the parent of a child with a diagnosis of one kind or another (even if you are the one who did the diagnosing), it makes you more aware of how everyone has some kind of struggle.

And yet, we don't always see that. We might see another homeschooling family and be around them for 1/2 an hour and somehow in our mind we convince ourselves that they don't struggle. That their kids are smart and healthy and wow how easy they must have it!

But let's talk about how the rest of us live. (And I hope you are starting to realize that "the rest of us" is nearly ALL of us!)

If your child were in public school, you would have a team of people involved in your child's education. The school counselor, the principal, the special education teachers, a diagnostician, the OT, the classroom teachers, etc. There would be ARD meetings and 504 meetings and IEPs and all kinds of paperwork and legalities.

Education is so much more than academics. Little Bit learning to sew last year. 

On really trying days maybe a team of folks sounds good to you! On other days you feel blessed to have your problems be YOUR problems--with you and your spouse in control. I am of the opinion that public school resources are there to help. If you need them--use them! If it's an interference, don't! I don't think you should feel badly either way.

There was a time in our country when children who struggled probably weren't diagnosed at all. My dad tells a story about a family they knew and "the older boy wasn't right." Have you ever heard that expression? He probably had some sort of mental or learning problem. I asked my dad and he said, "You know, we never thought about it. We just knew he needed help and he wasn't like the rest of us." Yep. That's all they needed to know back then. The parents and family and even neighbors just helped the child however was needed. No doctors or psychologists involved. To a certain extent I still think homeschooling families can help their children however is needed. (Of course, if medical intervention is required that's another thing.)

That's my Dad sitting on the porch with his siblings and neighbors. 

It just means that your homeschool will not look like anyone else's. (And it probably never did to begin with.) I know we talk a big game about "who cares about grade levels" and all that jazz but the truth is those things are firmly entrenched in our way of thinking. I tried really hard the other day to think how educating my children would be if I never knew a thing about public school. My first thought was, "well, there wouldn't be grade levels and I wouldn't start and stop each year. We would just keep learning until they were 18 and graduated!" Then it hit me: Wait! They wouldn't stop at 18 and we wouldn't even know what "graduating" was! Boy are we stuck on public school traditions!

If you are the parent of a child who has a diagnosis of one kind or another, you just need to keep on teaching your child. We may say things like "she's in 4th grade" or "2 more weeks and our school year is over" but really and truly we just need to KEEP ON TEACHING and they need to KEEP ON LEARNING. They will make progress. They will learn. It just may not have anything to do with a school calendar or benchmarks or the scope and sequence or any of our other pre-conceived notions. Oh how freeing would it be to be able to shuck all that from our mind and just do what our child needs?

Thoughts?