Still Here...

It has been a while since I have blogged. It has been a rough couple of weeks, both emotionally and academically. We have a anniversary that has wreaked some havoc and then our newest 2nd grader is struggling with the new curriculum. Not so much the work, but her confidence level is low. As in the past with my other children, bringing her home from public school has a transition where I have to spend a great deal of time teaching her how to learn. I feel like she was fed information that she had to reproduce, but was not required to search for and find information  She loves being home and if I drive anywhere near where her old school was she hides her face and ask me not to take her back there. I assure her all of the time that she is safe and home.

Anyway... for the record.

9th grade is doing well in school, currently having a 4.0 GPA.
4th grade is keeping up and seems to be doing much better in math.
2nd grade (Jackson) is doing excellent. He works so independently and has tested out of 2 units so far.
2nd grade (Jeanna) is working hard. She has leaned some key information that will lead to more success.

We are still working out some kinks, but making good progress. I hope things will smooth out in the next couple of weeks.

One of My Favorite Things

The week did get better. We are still struggling with getting to bed on time. The day just gets away from us and the long daylight trips us up, making dinner late every night.

The little kids had a first this week. We made shish-kabobs on the grill with veggies from the garden; corn, green beans, tomatoes, green peppers, onions and good 'ole hot dogs. They made very interesting kabobs and the 4 year old kept asking for "more stick please".

I bought a cord of wood today and when it was delivered, the guy asked if the boys could help stack it. Well those 2 unloaded and stacked that wood so fast the man wished they were old enough to hire. He said he hires high schoolers and college kids that don't work that hard. He was so impressed that he reached in his wallet and paid both boys $2. Of course...that meant we had to have school outside this morning.

Monday... Oy Vey!!

We have had a rough day today which actually probably started late last night with a real fire (drill) emergency.

When James loaded the dishwasher last night, a plastic lid to a storage bowel was loaded incorrectly. As the drying cycle came around, the lid had fallen onto the heating element and started melting which caused a major burning smell. I was on the couch and even though the detectors did not go off I quickly got the kids up to leave the house thinking it was electrical. As we walked through the kitchen to leave we could smell it was coming from the dishwasher. We opened the dishwasher to stop the cycle and found the melting lid. Whew.... glad that is all it was. I had never had that happen before so I was a bit nervous.

They all did a great job of getting out of bed and getting out of the house in less than 1 minute.

Of course the kids were a bit nervous to go back to sleep so I let everyone sleep in this morning for an extra hour. That seemed to throw every one off their schedule and school was not very productive today. Oh well... we will catch up this week.

9th grade finally started today. She had delayed her start due to many family emergencies last week. She is off to a great start, but the rest of the kiddos....oh my. Lots of weeping and tears today.

Praying for a better tomorrow.

New School Room

I have been talking about this for 2 years now and this summer we were finally able to get our school room. We really like it and especially like that we don't have to break down school in the evenings and weekends so that we can eat at the table or have our living room back. Also with the school room being downstairs we actually "leave" school in the evenings which is very much needed.

Custom Monogram!

Pre-K Bible lesson

homework drawers

Joshua is already very good at puzzles

Second and fourth grade busy at work

Working on stacking.

The student with perfect attendance

Pre-K's circle time calendar.

The new and improved play/recess room.

The Kidnapping

My brother came from KY to attend the party and was then planning to go to Canada for a little get-away. He ask if he could take Jordan as a surprise and I thought that would be cool. I packed her a bag the night before and pulled out her passport. The kids thought that "Uncle" had left to go home and were sad at his short visit. He had brought a friend home with him and came back in the house to fuss at Jordan for not saying good-bye to Ms. R. She went out to the car to say good-bye and he pushed her in the car and took off driving. She thought it was a big joke and that he was just going around the block. When they got on the highway, she said she was a little nervous, but she knows that Uncle would never hurt her, so when I called she said, "Uncle got me and I don't know where we're going." She said that she then thought they were going out to dinner in the next town, so fell asleep in the back seat. When she woke up later, she was at the Canadian border patrol. When my brother pulled out her passport she said she was so surprised.

She had a BALL!!! They shopped and ate and stayed at a very expensive hotel. She swam and rented a movie and had a king sized bed all to herself. When she saw her suitcase she said she was worried about what I would have packed. (we have a difference of opinion as to what is modest and acceptable clothing) She was surprised that I packed some of her favorite outfits.

All and all it was a great experience for her and gave me a chance to clean that bedroom of hers..."ha ha ha" she says with a smile...

Adoption Party Success!!

We had a wonderful party! It kinda turned into a backyard camping party as we had the pop-up and RV open, I put up the screen house with the picnic table inside. We had about a dozen camp chairs set up under the awning and a great big 'ole fire in the pit. We hired a hot dog vendor who works downtown on the corner to bring his cart and set it up in the driveway. It was a HIT!

There were about 13 kids running around, we had great music and fantastic fellowship.

I am so pleased and blesses with the building of my family.