Wednesday Ramblings...the future and other stuff.

I've been doing a book study with two wonderful women that I'm truly blessed to have in my life.  We've been reading the book Ministry of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson.  We've come to the end of the book, and we've had some wonderful discussions about the book and just about everything else you can imagine.  If you haven't read this book, I recommend it.  Although some of the chapters left me feeling like a complete and utter failure as a wife and mother, I feel like I learned a lot.  It really makes you think about the job that we have been given. 

Last night I was reading another book which I've heard about, but never read for some reason.  I'm just starting Shepherding Your Child's Heart by Ted Tripp, but it looks to be a really good book too.  All of this reading got me thinking.  My daughter is 11.  Our days together, living and learning together are numbered.  Just thinking about the future, say ten years from now, scares me.  I can't imagine life without the pitter patter of little feet, the day to day routine that we have.  Ten years may seem like a long time, but in looking back, the last ten have absolutely flown by.  Where did they go?  I keep thinking to myself that I have plenty of time to become the mom I want to be, to instill in my children the life lessons they need, to change, to become better.  But, when you really think about it, I don't have much time.  None of us do.  Ten years from today I will have a 21 year old daughter, and twin 18 year old sons.  That's shocking to me.  Seriously scary stuff! 

I am the world's biggest procrastinator.  My motto should seriously be "Why put off today what you can put off tomorrow?"  I have wonderful intentions, but have the hardest time following through.  I have this wonderful vision of what I want my children to be, what I want myself and my family to be, but what am I doing to achieve this wonderful vision?  I vow today to start to work on changing my life, and the lives of those around me.  My days are numbered and I want to make them count!  I will have to take this one baby step at a time, but I vow today that I will get there.  I want to cherish these precious gifts from God.  I want to truly enjoy our time together while we have it.  The day is coming (faster than I can handle) when we won't have these days anymore.  I think its really important for all of us to keep that in mind during the day to day humdrum of our normal lives.  Think to yourself, if this the best I can do?  Is this how Jesus would handle this situation?  I need help!  I will be the first to admit that I am a miserable failure.  But, I am a work in progress.  I will continue to pray for God's help in molding me into the wife/mom/friend/woman that He wants me to be.  Do me a favor...pray for me!

Back to School...

Today is officially the big day for us...first day back to school, or not back to school, if you want to get technical.  I had grand plans to start two weeks ago, and we accomplished a few days before I just gave up.  To many distractions when nobody else is doing school.  At least by now most of our fellow homeschool friends are starting back as well.  That should help tremendously.  We still have the problem of the public schools being out until September.  I'm not cluing my children in to that fact though.  Most schools in the area have started back by now, but our county has been delayed due to the fact that the tornado that ripped through town in April just about completely destroyed two of our schools.  They had to delay the return to school to allow them enough time to rebuild.  I believe they start back just after Labor Day. 

So...we're now breaking for lunch and have only managed to cover 3 out of 10 workboxes scheduled for the day.  We're getting there...slowly but surely.  Wish us luck!!!

Birthday Cake Fun!

Well, I'm only a month late in getting around to celebrating the boy's birthday.  We had to postpone it from its originally scheduled date back in July due to one of their best friends having a death in the family.  We really wanted him to be able to attend, so we postponed it.  Since then I've been procrastinating rescheduling their party.  Finally, we had their party!  This year we had a pirate theme.  Here's a picture of the cake I made for them.

I honestly think the kid's favorite part of cake making is eating the icing.  Here's Adam caught in the act.  Notice Haley in the background?  Caught red handed!

Their party turned out well, everyone had a nice time, and I'm so relieved to finally be able to mark that off my LONG to do list.  As much as I enjoy making the kid's cake, I'm glad I only have to do it twice a year.

Time flies when you're having fun!

I'm looking at my calendar in disbelief...where did summer go?  It seems like just a few weeks ago we were finishing up our school year.  Now its almost time to start a new one.  Admittedly, summer won't feel over until we start getting some of the cool, crisp, fall weather.  But, in part of the world, school is less than a month away.  We will most likely be starting back on August 1st.  That's just slightly more than two weeks away.  Am I ready, you ask?  NO!!!  Not only am I not mentally ready, I'm not physically ready either.  Our school room is an absolute mess, we don't have all our curriculum, and we haven't even though about school supplies.  Not that we need that much, but it never fails that somehow, over the summer break, pencils, crayons, scissors and glue sticks mysteriously disappear. 

I guess the reason I'm so nervous about this year is that I have a lot on my proverbial plate.  Aside from our schoolwork, we will have Haley's choir class on Monday's, PE on Thursdays, Freaky Friday get togethers on Fridays, possibly a co-op in between somewhere, my business to run, a Sunday school class to teach, volunteer duties with my homeschool group, and so much more.  I'm really not sure how it's all going to work, but hopefully it will. 

Curriculum Planning for 2011-2012

This upcoming school year is fast approaching and I've been spending quite a bit of time pouring over catalogs and websites trying to decide what we'll be using this school year. I have to say, this is probably my favorite time of the homeschool year. It reminds me of when I was a child in public school. Do you remember the feeling you'd get when your mother would take you shopping for new clothes and school supplies?

I would always pick out my folder (called a Trapper Keeper) for the new year. I would spend weeks organizing it just so. I would carefully pick out my outfit for the new school year. It was always such an exciting time. I still feel that way. Every year I get so excited when we pick out our new curriculum for the upcoming year. Its like Christmas for me. Oddly, the kids never seem nearly as excited.

I'm just about finished for this year as far and curriculum.  The curriculum fair is coming up in a few weeks and I'll get the rest of the needed supplies there.  I can hardly wait!!

To be completely honest, I'm a little apprehensive about this upcoming school year.  I have a lot on my plate.  I have a full year of challenging curriculum picked out, and with our recent ADHD diagnosis, I need to revamp my teaching style.  Structure needs to become a big part of our life.  Have I mentioned how much I hate structure?  Yep, I'm 99% sure I have ADHD too.  Regardless, I've made the major decisions regarding curriculum and I've posted them.  Now I'm off to do some serious praying for the strength and wisdom to become the person I need to be to best serve my children.  Do me a favor...pray for me too?

Cats

If you've looked at my "about us" tab, you're probably aware that we have way too many pets. We seriously do. Here's a picture that I took Monday. This is morning at the food bowl on our deck railing.

These are 4 of the 5 cats that are allowed outside. Boo, Casey, Charlie and Bella from the food bowl to the left. Then we have two more that are mostly house cats. One is Sebastian, my persian, who is allowed outside, but not much.

He reminds me of a gremlin. The only one I don't have a picture of is Annabelle. She's the baby of house at only a year old. Spoiled rotten! I call her E.B. affectionately. It stands for Evil Brat.

So, since we're not doing any structured learning at the moment, I thought I'd share some of the funny pictures I've taken lately. Enjoy!

Happy Fourth of July!!!

From our family to your's, happy Independence Day! I hope you have a relaxing, fun family day planned. We have plans to relax, grill out steaks, corn on the cob and baked potatoes, and swim in the pool. The kids are having a blast with their new pirate ship float that grandma bought them to use for their upcoming pirate themed birthday party next weekend.

Have a wonderful day!