Murals

Here are pics of the murals my sister and I have been working on

I haven't written in awhile because I have been busy doing laundry..

Well it has been awhile since I have written anything. Things have been very busy around here. But not so much worth writing about. I will not be talking about the hermit crabs anymore. The last time I wrote about how well they were doing, one of them died that afternoon. We still have one left, so I will try to preserve its life by not speaking of it.

School is going well for all of my children. Just in case you wanted to know, the 5th grade is very hard. I personally do not remember the 5th grade, so I can't attest to this. But, some people I know in their 40's and 50's told me they have vivid memories of their terrible experience in 5th grade. Now that I am on my second time through this class I have determined that the reason I can't remember isn't due to memory loss but due to blockage of things to painful to remember. The good news is I will be attending the 5th grade 3 more times (at least there will be a couple of years in between- giving me time to recover).

Kindergarten is apparently the best thing ever invented. I didn't know you were allowed to have that much fun in school. Third grade seems to be a lot of fun also.

If you take a step back and think about it, it may not be the grade you are in but the attitude with which you attend the grade, that matters. Is it really fair that they ask more of you as you get older?

My sister and I have been busy trying to get the preschool where we work ready for school. We said we would help touch up the paint and repair the wallpaper or do whatever was needed to get the classrooms ready for school. Word of Warning: Be careful when you say I can do whatever you need. The decision was made to totally re-decorate the classrooms. So, instead of fixing the wallpaper, we took it off. Instead of touching up the paint, we totally re-painted. I must say I am not complaining about this opportunity. First of all it provided a little extra money. Second, it made me feel proud of myself. There is not a lot of glory in changing diapers and staring at ever growing laundry piles. I don't really have any hobbies or abilities like others in my family. So, it was nice to do something I never thought that I would be able to do or even be interested in doing. I must also give my sister most of the credit for the design of the rooms. We are very proud of our work. It is not professional quality, but it looks nice. It was also a lot easier than it looks. All of the pictures were drawn using transparencies and an overhead projector. The detail painting seemed to take forevever though. If my sister can brag on her work, I can brag on mine.

School

For those of you that may be interested, the hermit crabs are thriving. They love their new home in the bathroom and their new very stinky food.

Well we finally did what we have been trying to avoid doing for 5 years. (now that is a sentence any English teacher would be proud of) We put our children in public school. We have tried the homeschooling route. I was fired from that once and voluntarily resigned the second time. We tried Christian School. The first year there was wonderful. It was just what they needed. The second year, not so good. The kids even noticed a difference the second year. I'm not sure what was wrong that year, I just know we were one of many families that did not re-enroll. Now that we have three kids in school, putting them in a different Christian school just isn't in the budget. I tried this summer to home school the 3 of them. A 2 year old sitting in the middle of the table singing and coloring in everyone else's books did not make a difficult task any easier. That is when I offered to resign. I absolutely enjoy having all of my children home with me. I also really enjoy teaching them and watching them learn. But there was really no teaching or learning going on. Mostly a lot of yelling and crying( not all of the crying was done by the kids). If we had more space or a special school room things might have been different. I thought I could just work one-on-one with them each day instead of having them all sit at the kitchen table at the same time. According to the home school requirements that would only take up 13.5 hours of my day. Obviously that wasn't a good idea. So after talking to some people about the local elementary school we decided to enroll them.
The boys have never wanted to go to public school. Any time it has been mentioned previously the idea has been greatly rejected . This time when the idea was presented it was met with great excitement. "When can we start?" " Can we ride the bus?" Apparently they weren't very excited about the thought of spending all day everyday at the kitchen table either.
My first response to the bus riding question was "absolutely not! I will be dropping you off and picking you up everyday." A person can only handle so much change at once. After sitting in the carpool line one time, they will be riding the bus home from now on. I would rather wait 30 minutes for them in my nice air conditioned home than on the side of the road in front of the school. After the first afternoon bus ride home, they are begging to ride it in the morning. If they are willing to get up early enough do I mind not having to get up rush everyone out the door and listen to them fight in the car? Of course not.

We also discovered this wonderful thing they offer before school. BREAKFAST! For only $2.25 all 3 of my children can eat breakfast. I don't have to cook it , clean it up or try to find something for them to eat. If we are going to swim in this pool called public education it may be better to dive right in than ease down the steps.

So, this week we have had to re-think some previously held beliefs. I was positively opposed to the bus. Now, they are riding it twice a day. I felt it was my obligation as a mother to feed them a well balanced meal before they left. Now, why should we let all of that good food that someone else spent all morning preparing go to waste?

If there is a problem on the bus will I start driving them again? You bet.
Are they going to attend public school until they graduate? Probably not .We are going to take it one year at a time. If I must home school them again, I will. We have had to make some difficult decisions. The health and safety and education of my children is a stake here. It has been 3 days and so far everyone is happy. Have we made the right decision? I sure hope so. One thing I have learned is that my children are much more flexible and open to new ideas than I am.

My prayer life has greatly increased. So has my trust that the Lord will watch over and protect my family. I have had to send my sweet , loving children out into the cold, cruel world. And I can't go with them and hold their hands. I hope that I have taught them well enough. I guess no one ever said parenting was easy. I must say it does seem to get harder the older they get.

To all of you who still have small children at home, cherish everyday because one day too soon they will be begging to ride the bus and eat breakfast at school.