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A Window

2012-02-20T21:54:00.000-05:00

We have a window! A window is a metaphor for a time period. We are given an early date to a latest possible date and that they will be coming home at some point during that window of time. Unfortunately, the window is presently a month long window. It's a big 'ole floor to ceiling window I suppose, but hey, it's a window.

Once we are in the "window" and they are out of the country (and in a process called redeployment) all is quiet for their safety. Then we are contacted to indicate we are now within a 72 hour window.

It doesn't mean they will actually be home within that 72 hours. They could be landing 2 hours, 24 hours, 36 hours or 72 hours into that time period and to stay close to phones as basically we will be notified when they land.They could also end up redirecting them and changing their arrival if they feel their security has been compromised.

It's still some time away, and we are not currently in our window yet, but we officially have a window!

I can't say what the window dates are, but we have a window!

I can tell you when the window was after they are safely home so this post does you absolutely no good at all except to know that, we have a window!

The Army better not throw any rocks at my window.

Basketball Pics

2012-02-18T23:37:00.000-05:00

This is for my sweetie!

Jaxon actually played today! Not only did he play, but he even tried to shoot the ball AND he made 10 pts! At half time I asked him if the ear plugs were helping and he said, "yes and I felt like playing basketball today!" Awesome!!

I am SO excited you will be home before baseball season.

Here are their basketball pics.

She isn't the only girl on her team, but the other girl was out on picture day.

Basketball

2012-02-07T23:23:00.001-05:00

My three adorable small people have been playing basketball for a few weeks now on the Upwards team and they have been having a blast...well, that is if you call standing in the middle of the court, holding your hands over your ears in fear and anticipation for the loud buzzer while your teammates run up and down the court by you, a blast! Yes, that would be Jaxon-my no noise child.

I think he just feels threatened when something makes more noise than he does.

He does fine in practice bc their are no "loud cheerleaders," his words and no buzzers. I think we may try some soft ear plugs bc he really does like to play.

The other two are full throttle out there and are really enjoying every aspect(buzzers and cheers) of the experience. We are about 1/3 of the way through the season and they just did pictures. The professional ones won't be in for a few weeks but here are some candids I have shot so far.

Jaxon on the far left with the red shirt tie

Braden resting between periods

Isabelle and her team, The Thunder!


So cute!

This is hysterical video of Jaxon's first game. I am not talking to myself. It just so happened that Scott called in just as they started so I was commentating to him on the phone at the same time I was taking video. I love Jaxon's skipping across the court...how wonderful to have that kind of joy. This was, however, all taken BEFORE the first buzzer sounded and he realized their was a basketball menace to be feared. Jaxon is number 12 and has a red tie on his jersey and typically is no where near the ball.

Hello From Crazy Town

2012-02-06T23:30:00.000-05:00

We haven't fallen off the planet, but with our crazy schedule these days we may actually jump...

We are doing well, but are crazy busy getting started in the new online public school program, as well as my new job in addition to all our regular activities. Things are going great and I love my job and the kids love the new school. We are doing well with my morning hours and then after lunch we work on school.

It's a great schedule but in order for me to be fully present for them it doesn't leave me much extra time. I may have to give up blogging for Lent or something just to not feel so guilty...I'm fairly sure that's not actually how Lent is supposed to work though.

I will try and keep updates going and pictures(as soon as I find my camera, which I think is buried in one of our many daily bags) and definitely with the latest news on Scott, which is still nada! It's been 214 days since he has been gone. I got an iPhone 4S and I often ask Siri when my husband will be coming home. For some reason she laughs and responds(he he). I'm pretty sure the Army might have programmed that in!

He is doing well but is SO ready to come home and we definitely second that!

Running off now to look for that camera.

IHOP Anniversary

2012-01-24T07:18:00.000-05:00

Our first happy/funny memory of Texas(after the dreadful last day in the car) was the next morning after we arrived at Fort Hood and was our attempt to navigate the Texas access roads to try and get to the IHOP that we could see but just couldn't seem to get over to.

Our kids remember this as one of the funniest moments of their lives. They still laugh hysterically every time we recount the story of mommy and daddy desperately trying to get to the IHOP. We were hungry! We would drive by it on the highway but because we weren't familiar with access roads and how to get to places off the highway(no there were no exits) we ended up must driving by this IHOP, back and forth along the highway at least 5 times yelling out, "it's right there"....."why can't we get to it?"..."where is the exit?" The kids wanted to celebrate this day with a trip to that very same IHOP.

I'm so glad they have such a great sense of humor.

Looking Back- Arriving in Texas

2012-01-23T07:10:00.001-05:00

Continuing on in the theme of Looking Back this week, today is the day, one year ago, that we actually arrived in Texas. While I assure you that no one who was in that car remembers that day fondly, it was the beginning of something pretty amazing for our family. This has been quite a journey and it is so hard to believe all that has happened over the last year. I look back and read my own thoughts from a time when I had no knowledge or experience of how unbelievably life changing something was going to be and I can remember all the sights and sounds just like it was yesterday. I remember all those emotions as I read my own words.

I remember my husband being a part of those thoughts, memories and words. I have to say, I hate that he has to be away from us, but this has definitely been the ride of a life. I can't wait for him to get to actually live here with us and experience the Army life that we know.

Link to arriving in Texas blog

Looking Back- Leaving NC

2012-01-20T08:52:00.004-05:00

One year ago today we took to the open road and traveled a whopping 1200 miles across the country with three small children and a Beagle to our new home and our very first Army duty station in Texas. I spent some time reading and reflecting back on those blogs from this week last year to try and recapture some of the excitement and even anxiety that was in front of us.

I love doing that because it reminds me of how faithful our God is and how, through it all, He has been right there. When we pulled out of our driveway in NC one year ago we had no idea what we were heading into, but God did! We had no idea Scott was going to deploy, but God did and now, as I write this and we celebrate our one year anniversary of this journey, I am reminded to trust completely in the arms of the God who knows exactly what the next year will be bringing us as well. This week for us will be a week that we remember the beginning of the greatest adventure our family has ever been on and praise God for our unwavering love for each other.

Two Left Feet

2012-01-18T11:15:00.001-05:00

"Mommy, I am so glad that I don't have two left feet!"

"Wow, Braden, me too!" "Hey, uh, Braden...what made you think of that?"

"Well, I heard some people talking about that they had two left feet and I would think it would be really hard to walk like that. Think about it, mommy. If you had two left feet- how would that even work? I can't even think about it. It's crazy!"

At this point he was so into it and so serious I didn't have the heart to tell him that it was a figure of speech to indicate clumsiness, and he continued on...

"And you know who does have two left feet?"

"No, Braden. Who?"

"Goofy!"

"Really? How on Earth do you know that?"

*laughing to himself* "Because mommy, he said he did."

I wasn't aware, but evident;y while we were at Disney there was a conversation with Goofy and my son has been pondering the two left foot thing since March.

Have mercy!

My Ordered Thinker

2012-01-17T11:08:00.000-05:00

Jaxon is a very ordered thinker. For the life of me I can't figure out where(*cough*) he got that from. As early as a year old he was lining up cars and trucks and trains into straight lines, he will fix things that are crooked and he sees patterns and inconsistencies better than any small child I have ever been around. He amazes me with his observations.

Sunday evening we ate at Firehouse Subs and as we sat waiting for our food I noticed that he was staring intently at the racks of chips. He finally looks at me very disturbed and tells me that the chips are all in the wrong place. I kind of chuckle at his observation and then realize that this is really bothering him. I asked him if it was bothering him and he said it was. I asked him if he wanted to fix it and he said he did. So, I let him.

The staff were so tickled by him moving the bags of chips and putting them all in the right locations that they came over and thanked him and told him how much he had helped them get their job done quicker. He was very proud and I must say, it looked much better after he fixed it!!

Isabelle

2012-01-16T11:00:00.001-05:00

Ahhh, here is a little, long overdue Isabelle love for ya. She has been itching, since Christmas, to start back her horse back riding lessons. We left our old stable back in April because of the summer shuffle and decided to look for a new stable after returning from NC because I wanted her to learn English saddle not Western.

I don't mind if she learns Western but I want her formal training to be English. I actually hope she doesn't want to show. For her it is much more about the relationship with the horse itself so I doubt if she will care much about showing but I suppose she might take an interest in it and, if so, we will take that as it comes.

Her new stable is in Georgetown and is a bit of a trek but we really like the teacher and they are very faith focused in what they do there.

Here are some pictures of her riding Chance- the unicorn looking horse just without the horn. It didn't take long for her to remember posting and was even trotting before the end of the first lesson. She hopes to be cantering again in a few weeks.

The Salute!

2012-01-13T23:07:00.000-05:00

Oh my sweet, hysterical Braden! So tonight at gym he was still floating on cloud 9 from last night's big round-off backhand spring connect and normally I wouldn't do two posts with video and gym stories right back to back but this was just too good not to share.

As Braden learns the different competitive routines they are also teaching him how to begin and end that apparatus in competition and how to let the judge know that you are ready and how to do what they call "salute the judge."

Tonight they were on the rings and one of the coaches, Benji, was working with Braden teaching him how to do the ring routine. He would stand behind him and hold his arms and literally walk him through it by raising one arm to salute the judge, then raise both arms to indicate you are beginning the routine. As they walked through this the coach pointed at me way across the room and right away I knew he was telling Braden that I was going to be the pretend judge and he was to practice all that as if I was the judge.

So as Benji spots him he tells Braden to walk through his arm raising and then he says, "Now, salute the judge." Braden looks over at me with the biggest grin ever on his face and whips out the best, proud, 8-year-old, "my daddy is a solider" Army salute with his hand over his brow that I have ever seen. I thought the coach was actually going to have to sit down he was laughing so hard and of course all the other little boys on the team wanted to know why they never got to "salute" like that. I laughed so hard I actually cried a little bit, mostly at the sweet, adorable innocence. Braden thought, finally, this was HIS chance to salute like his daddy does and it was the most precious thing ever!
If only the camera had been running just a little bit earlier...

Braden kept saying he was so sorry and we kept telling him we were laughing bc it was just the most awesome misunderstanding ever and that we could understand how being the son of a solider and being told to salute would be a little confusing.

Here is what came after the salute. I know it's a ways off but my phone doesn't zoom on video. It's hard to believe how strong he is sometimes when you see how tiny he is. Watching this is a great reminder that size doesn't determine strength of body or of spirit- that is all in God's hands.

Big News Here

2012-01-12T11:02:00.000-05:00

Well, this week is just full of big news... tonight Braden "connected"(meaning: went straight from one into the other) his round-off back handspring!! This is a big moment for him.

I was chatting curriculum talk with my back to the floor with one of the other moms when someone came up to me and said, 'you probably want to turn around bc your son is about to connect!" I thought they had me confused with the wrong kid to be honest bc I didn't even know he was close. Sure enough, I turned around to catch it on video so, honey, you seeing it here is exactly what we all saw for the first time too.

He did about 15 passes and I caught about 4 on video bc Jaxon kept grabbing my phone to play Angry Birds.

Here is his very first connected round-off back handspring

Here is the best pass caught on camera

Roller Coaster Ride

2012-01-11T23:05:00.000-05:00

Well, the first 24 hours of processing my thoughts about my new job and all the things that go along with it has definitely proven to be quite a roller coaster ride. I officially start tomorrow with all the paperwork and was supposed to start in the office next week. However...

This morning I found out that the original after school program I was banking on for child care started too late in the afternoon to utilize effectively for work hours so a complete re-vamp of my in-office hours was necessary.

So, basically a complete change of work schedule. Instead of piecing together staff meetings and afternoon hours I will be working 3 hours in the morning on T, W and Th. My kids will be spending those mornings with my amazing homeschooling neighbor who volunteered to keep them.

She said that her family needed to be on a better schedule and that with my kids there it would help them do that. I just call it amazing generosity that I am so grateful for in a way I can't even begin to express. I am really excited about the new schedule because it will allow me to be in the office when the majority of the rest of the staff is there and I won't have to make multiple trips back in the afternoons on the days there are morning staff meetings. The kids will be with someone who understands the homeschool life and is familiar with their work and they will be able to work independently for an hour and then play outside and snack with their friends for the rest of the time.Then we will still have from lunch time on to finish school and spend time together before afternoon activities begin. I will still have all day Monday, Friday and the weekends to be with them full-time.

I am now able to leave behind the panic stricken state that I spent most of the day in as I was thrown this tremendous curve ball this morning. It seems like it is all together a much better way to schedule this time and this new schedule plan will benefit the kids more, as well as my job performance.

Changes Coming

2012-01-11T00:32:00.000-05:00

There are some changes coming for our family.

Today I was offered a position as Communications Coordinator for the church we attend here.

I am really excited as this is where my heart firmly is and what I believe God has called me to do, however it is no secret that I am a committed homeschooler and I feel just as convicted of that calling. Scott and I have prayed heavily over this decision for many months and he is just as excited about this as I am. It's wonderful when you get to see your spouse pursue something they feel so passionately about.
I have been working with the staff for a few months in the role of communications volunteer and right before Christmas they told me that the position had been approved and asked me if I wanted to interview with the other candidates.

During this volunteer stint things went well and I was able to "practice" within the position while juggling the homeschool schedule and child care set-ups as a volunteer with no pressure. It was a good opportunity to see what was possible. I interviewed just before Christmas and today they notified me that staff parish made their decision and they offered me the position!

And I accepted! I know- I'm more than a little crazy... but God has made it so clear to me that this is what I am supposed to do and those details had just all worked themselves out perfectly, that even despite the craziness of it I am completely at peace.

The position will be 25 hours per week with half of it being done from home in the evenings after kids are in bed. The church offers after school care at a staff discount, which will allow me to avoid the hassle of finding childcare and will keep them in a safe and trusted environment of people they already know. The only time I will need to find a sitter is for the Thursday morning director's meetings. It is a very exciting time here at our house. Finally having the opportunity to fulfill God's plan for my education and passion, but also provide our family with additional play funds is such a blessing. I love that I can still have the best of both worlds and be an active part of my children's schooling and childhood while still showing them, by example, what it means to passionately pursue the will God has for me as an individual. You may not always be able to have all of everything you want exactly the way you want it, but sometimes compromising slightly on the details of things allows you to get the best of both worlds in a way you never expected.

So this is one of the reasons we have been considering the accredited online virtual school. This will allow me to continue to homeschool using an excellent private school, college-prep program, with an additional set of eyes and help in all the administrative and planning areas. We will get an awesome curriculum and support system and I will get to experience school with them, still in our home together, instead of me spending so much time planning out curriculum. We will do school in the mornings and early afternoon and then I will work a few afternoons each week on something I feel so passionate about. This isn't the right choice for every homeschool family, but we are excited to give this a try as it seems like a good fit for our family at this point.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T11:12:00.002-05:00

Wishing you and your family a year full of only the happiest times together in 2012.

May God bless you with peace and joy in this new year.

We've Been Waiting

2011-12-30T11:56:00.000-05:00

We had an album of professional pictures take with Ali Rae Photography. We have been waiting since October to share these pictures bc the album was a gift for Scott for Christmas. It was so hard to wait, and I did let one or two sneak on the blog, knowing Scott probably wouldn't catch on with just that. Hope you enjoy!

Christmas Day

2011-12-27T23:17:00.000-05:00

Here is our wonderful Christmas in pictures. We were so blessed to have a full hour of Skype with Scott early on Christmas morning. It worked out so perfect. He was able to see the kids wake up and come to the living room to see them find their gifts, as well as open most everything. He opened his gifts and I opened mine and it was a wonderful, creative and laid-back Christmas morning that was filled with unexpected blessings.

I honestly never though it would be as amazing as it was. I'm sure it was much harder for him, but it truly made our Christmas getting to spend the morning with him and share those memories even if it was over video. It set the tone of the day for us. He was there. He experienced it with us. I spent Christmas morning with my husband and though it wasn't exactly the way I wanted it, it was so much better than we thought it was going to be.

Isabelle sings her first solo on Christmas Eve. "Mary did you Know" was so beautiful. So proud of her .

Jaxon and his little choir friends.

Christmas morning

Kids get a tablet from mommy and daddy and here is daddy Skyping on the tablet with them

One of Scott's gifts to me. This was awesome and so sweet!

The highly anticipated and requested by all 3 razor scooters. They really are pretty cool!

We had Christmas breakfast and then headed off to a magical Christmas Day service at church where we greeted so many with a joyful 'Merry Christmas' and singing carols.

Christmas day service- petting(with permission as they know this dog quite well) the service dog all dressed up for Christmas Day.

The traditional 'jumping in the wrapping paper pile.'

Later that afternoon my parents arrived from NC and we had another Christmas with them. We spent time on the phone with Scott's family and then a wonderful surprise second Skype with Scott for a few minutes as we caught up with each other about how the day had gone.

Before and After- LOL

Mmmmmm...hot cocoa

Sasha decided she was going to open this one and was even pawing at the gift.

And the winner of the, "best face of Christmas" goes to Braden!

He has been asking for a violin for two years

Christmas day night skype with daddy

He loves the hand carved chess set Scott sent him

Jaxon takes an interestingg approach to getting this gift out of the box!

When I laid down that night my heart was filled with joy and exhaustion, but the very best kind. I wasn't consumed with sadness and I wasn't bitter in my heart that my husband was not here. I wished so much that he could be, but I felt so grateful to God that we had the time with him that we did. I know just how hard it is to get that kind of time and it worked out so perfectly that it was just impossible to complain. We really had a Christ-filled day full of joy in what could have been a really difficult day. God is SO good and gave me exactly what I needed this day-time with my husband!

For You Sweetie!!

2011-12-26T22:05:00.000-05:00

I Love You, Honey!!

Merry Christmas!!

2011-12-25T22:25:00.000-05:00

Hope your Christmas was filled with Christ and the many blessings that family and friends bring.

So Many Blessings

2011-12-20T12:01:00.000-05:00

There have been boxes arriving at my door consistently for over a week now and the coolest part is that they are not things I ordered! We have been so blessed by friends and family who have sent us things to just to brighten our holiday or let us know they were thinking about us. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law sent the kids PJ's that also match PJ's that were sent to Scott as a way to help them connect on Christmas. How sweet is that!

My other sister-in-law and brother-in-law sent us 4 pints of custom made ice cream. It was named for our family and was a custom flavor of birthday cake and Oreo cookies. It was SO yummy and one of the most creative ideas I have ever heard of. My mother and father-in-law sent us a snowman tower of Christmas goodies like nuts and fruit and cookies and candy. It was so yummy!

A sweet friend of mine baked me my favorite dessert and mailed it to me. We were also blessed by a wonderful Sunday School class from back home that sent us a gingerbread house kit and a gingerbread train kit and we had so much fun making them. Thank you God for such sweet people in our lives who are helping to make this time away from Scott so much less lonely.

Christmas Box

2011-12-19T11:49:00.000-05:00

Here is a peak inside of Scott's Christmas Box that we sent to him the week before Thanksgiving. Having a deployed spouse does take quite a bit of forethought and planning. It is stretching me in my organizational skills.
We were really excited doing this box but it was a slight sting as this is the moment that the reality of spending Christmas without him was right in our face. I'm glad I didn't post about it then because I feel very different about it now. I am finally through my funk and to the point where we are excited and looking forward to our Christmas with him with what we have to work with. It may look different than normal but just like Romans 8:28 says, God can make good of even this.

Yes, we sent a Christmas tree and decorations from home so he could have that memory of seeing those special ornaments that only come out at Christmas.

They did ALL the wrapping themselves

We sent a mini snow village as this is Scott's favorite part of Christmas decorating

Ornaments I had made for him. One with each child's picture on it.

The special ornaments I picked out for his tree. They better make their way back home, honey. :)

Wonder what it is???

The first half of his company arrived home safely very early this morning and we are so excited for them. We do wish they were all home together but we are very proud that they wanted Scott to stay behind. We have done some unique things in some very non-traditional ways. We Skyped while we did a short version of Christmas tree decorating and he got to watch us unpack our special ornaments.

Kids showing daddy the ornaments as they open them.

Scott laughing at me as I try and hang the angel without knocking the tree over!

We talked on speaker while the kids and I drove all throughout the Christmas tree lights. We planned his phone call so that we could do a little Christmas shopping together. Sure it was only for 15 minutes but hey, it's a memory and he got to share that with me in some way and he had me running all around Target looking for one thing and telling me to, "go, go, go...I only have 2 minutes left and you have to find it!" I'm sure that visual was very entertaining.

We have already begun talking about Christmas morning and how he is going to Skpye(God and Skype lines willing) that morning and then get right back in line and go a second time so he can see the kids open presents and so we can see him open his.

None of these things change that he will miss Isabelle's first solo on Christmas Eve, or that we won't have the chance to worship together or watch our Christmas Story marathon while we wrap presents until 2am. It doesn't change that I won't wake up beside him on Christmas Day or snuggle with him on the couch while we watch the kids play with their new treasures. But, I have finally come to grips with this and have found a peace in what we do have. Sometimes it doesn't feel fair, but other times I just extraordinarily grateful for who he is and what he is doing and that I know this is one day in a life time of moments and that overall we are very lucky to have the communication that we have. This to shall pass and soon enough we will be preparing for his homecoming with nothing but joy in our minds. It will be ok. And, honey, don't worry- I will tape the solo!

Braden made Team!!

2011-12-17T00:21:00.000-05:00

When Braden was 3 his doctor told us that because of his prematurity he would more than likely have to have surgery to cut the intercostal muscle that crosses the rib cage when he was between 10-12 years old. When a preemie with lungs as bad as his were for such a long time they have to work so hard to breath that the muscle becomes so overworked that it pulls tight across their ribs and can give them a really tough time as they start to go through adolescent growth spurts. Often times this would need surgery to correct to help their lungs expand in their ribcage and to allow for their body to grow.

I had just had abdominal surgery myself and knowing the life long pain, scar tissue and complications of this kind of procedure I asked him if there was anything we could do to prevent this or help him not to need the surgery. He told us the only thing that was helpful, though not a guarantee, was upper body strength and flexibility and that they had some success with boys who were gymnasts. So we decided to give it a shot. Not to make a gymnast out of him but to have him work towards upper body strength and flexibility to hopefully avoid this surgery. So he started gymnastics when he was 3 and about the time that he turned 5 the coach told us he showed real promise and that we should move him into a boys only program as they did not teach boys there outside of tot classes.

We interviewed the boys program at another gym locally and started him there on their pre-team bc he was too young to join team. In fact he was the youngest one to ever join their pre-team. This is all very exciting of course, but the most exciting thing was that it was working and he was getting stronger and he LOVED it! He loves every second of every apparatus and he is so happy when he is there. Even though he was so tiny his upper body strength was unreal. At 5 he could climb a floor to ceiling rope and could invert himself and hold himself upside down on the rings among many other tricks his tiny little frame and strong arms could give him an advantage on. For the first time we watched as he used the only remaining "disadvantage" from his preemie days, his size, to his advantage and it was awesome.

Flash forward 2 years and a whole year out of the gym as we took on the Army life, moved to Texas and got settled into life as a deployed family and that brings us to about 2 months ago when we were told about a wonderful gym with an amazing staff that was a little out of the way and was mostly word of mouth. We visited and they worked with Braden, but at 7 a year of time off had taken its toll on what he remembered. So they put him on their pre-team, but saw promise in him and asked him to come to one hour of team each week to get to know the staff and team athletes but to also model for him what tumbling should look like as he had never done much tumbling.

In fact, though he was trained well and pretty strong on rings and parallel bars and pommel horse even with the break but he had been given very little floor training in his previous gym. Today, after working 3 days a week for the past 2 months they asked Braden to officially join team. Here is the video of just how much this means to him. I am also including some videos for daddy to show him what he has done over the past 2 months. Seriously, I kid you not...he couldn't do a cartwheel 8 weeks ago.

Here is Braden the very first time his hands touched a set of rings.

Here was Braden today and the video of Coach Benji giving him the news. Yes, I did know ahead of time and it was SO hard not telling him. God has been so good and we are so grateful for the strong and healthy, but mostly the happy little boy he is today.

Amazing and Unexpected Blessings

2011-12-16T13:23:00.001-05:00

My two homeschooling neighbor friends, the Jennifers, are the most amazing gift from God. On top of just being amazing women who have pulled me up from the depths of this deployment with their attentive friendship and kindness and hysterical senses of humor, but they have stepped up way above and beyond. For example- Last week, realizing I had absolutely no way to Christmas shop in person for my children, one of the Jennifers offered to take my children ALL DAY, yeas 9am-4pm, so that I could have time to shop. She offered this without me ever even mentioning it to anyone. Not only did she do this but while I was away they baked cupcakes and not just any kind of cupcakes...cupcakes that were so good and so professionally done that I actually licked the paper.

Then the next day, my other Jennifer, knocked on my door saying she was there to get my kids and take them to her house where they had special top secret plans that I wasn't allowed to know anything about. What? You're actually coming here asking for my kids? Am I dreaming? So this morning I got a child-free 2 hour break of getting caught up on house cleaning and an interruption free shower. They told me they were working on something special for me but wouldn't tell me what it was.
How amazing and sweet is that? This is the same friend who the sweet mailman has been delivering all my packages to so that when Scott's gift comes for me I don't see where it is from. Bless her heart, she has been filtering all my boxes and then is wrapping my gifts from Scott for me.

God knew how much I needed friendship here in our new home and he sent me two angels!

Christmas Cards

2011-12-15T13:18:00.000-05:00

We love getting Christmas Cards! We stole the idea from a friend to tape them onto the back of the front door and after they start coming in your door just fills up and is almost wrapped up like a gift. We have a window in our front door now so we decided to put them on our kitchen french doors instead. The kids got some Christmas cards today and I told them to go ahead and hang them up. Now, I know metal doors are very entertaining with their magnet properties, however this is not at all what I meant when I said hang up the Christmas cards. These kids are too funny!

Some Christmas Fun

2011-12-09T11:30:00.003-05:00

We have been very busy this week with Christmas fun. We are officially off school the entire month of December as we go year round. This has given us lots of time for the fun that only comes once per year. The decoration pictures are for Scott so he can see the house Christmassy.

Hope you enjoy our cookies, lights and Santa visit pictures.

The Really amazing BLORA light show

The kids visit Santa this morning and have breakfast with him.

Scott happen to call in while we were waiting for Santa so we decided to let him be in the picture too. :)

Hot Chocolate

Making homemade sugar cookies

Jaxon cuts a gingerbread man

Mixing the food coloring in the icing.

Can i lick my fingers?

Boys!

2011-12-06T21:58:00.000-05:00

Ahhh. There is so much I could say about little boys. But for today I will sum it up with this...

In the absence of detailed instructions this is how little boys hang up clothes. The clothes were actually still on the chair.

Love Notes

2011-12-05T08:56:00.001-05:00

I'm very careful what I expose my little ones to and I don't talk about my concerns in front of them. While I think I'm doing a good job being strong without Scott and not burdening them with my feelings, you just can't always hide desperately missing the other half of your heart. My little ones must be sensing my need for encouragement as they have been leaving me tiny little love notes in various places throughout our home. It is so completely precious and just melts my heart.

They probably got this idea from Scott as he left love notes for them hidden in places for them to find slowly throughout the year and he always would leave me love notes when he would go off to work each day. He has done this for years. Here are some pics of some of the notes. Aren't they so sweet to be so thoughtful to try and encourage me to keep my chin up...it worked.

Happy 8th Birthday, Braden!

2011-12-02T09:05:00.003-05:00

I simply can not believe my little tiny miracle is 8 today! I still remember, like it was yesterday, the moment I hit my knees and begged God to let me keep him, just one day after we released his brother into the arms of Jesus. I didn't care what challenges he came with I wanted him so badly. As the doctors worked on him for hours that night, trying to get his heart back beating and his lungs back on a ventilator, I prayed. I still remember watching the doctor give him manual CPR for such a long time that my only prayer was that she wouldn't grow tired and give up. Over the next 105 days his journey would take many devastating turns and he has the physical scars to show it, but God has given him a spirit of strength and joy that few people have had the opportunity to witness in anyone much less a child.

Despite all the professionals telling us he wouldn't make it through the first year and if he did he would be blind, deaf, have CP and be unable to fully function physically, God instead gave us a son that reads his Bible every day, proclaims that he is going to preach from the Great Wall of China(and takes Mandarin to back it up), is both a competitive dancer and a team gymnast and scores 2 grade levels above his peers academically. He is tiny, but he has a mighty spirit.

I am a very proud mama, but this has nothing to do with my personal bias towards how amazing my child is because I certainly feel that way about all of them, even the one who shares this same birthday but celebrates with God instead of us each year. This has to do with my personal bias as to how great and powerful and amazing my God is! I get to look in the face of a miracle everyday and am reminded that God is still in the business of doing great things.

Dec. 2003

Today

A very powerful message of hope and mercy comes in that tiny little package.
Happy Birthday Braden!

Happy Birthday Tyler!

Another Proud Moment

2011-12-01T08:05:00.001-05:00

Despite the news of not coming home with the first half of the company, Scott had a really good day yesterday. He was chosen to accompany a group of officials visiting their base, which included 3 one star generals, 2 Lt. Col and the command Sgt. Major. He was assigned to one of the one star generals and had the opportunity to show him all around and spend the day interacting with the group. He made such a positive impression on him that the general gave him one of his personal coins. Receiving a coin is such a huge honor, but to receive it from a general is even more amazing. The coin actually has the star on it to reflect who gave it to him. Scott was so excited and felt so blessed to have this opportunity. Here are some pictures of the coin. I'm so proud of you sweetie.

Front of the General's coin

Back of coin

Scott also found out today that due to all the major changes and downsizing the Army is doing he will have to make his re-enlistment decision a year early to have any chance of being considered for another term. his term isn't up until summer 2013, but they have set a re-enlist date of March 1st, 2012 for all those whose contracts expire in 2013 and it is first come first serve. He will actually have to make this decision before they return home and he has no choice and will have to change his MOS(job) to something else in order to re-enlist. This is very discouraging to him but we are praying over it and if you would like to join us in prayer over this very important decision we would be so grateful. They do like to keep us on our toes.

Our Southwest Adventure in Pictures

2011-11-30T12:14:00.000-05:00

Countryside of west Texas farming land

Windmill farms in TX

Getting into the extreme portion of west Texas

A little fun and silliness in the UFO museum in Roswell, NM

Check out the lamp post!

You know you're in Texas when...

Bitter Lake National Park, NM

Bottomless Lake National Park, NM

This small area of water is actually 95 feet deep!

Burnt area of Chihuahuan desert, NM

Carlsbad Caverns in NM

Guadeloupe Mountain range, TX

Beautiful San Antonio River walk

Outside wall to Alamo

Really cool themed McDonalds in Roswell

Ha Ha!

Happy Birthday, Papa!

Jaxon's Navajo pinch pot. Braden got an arrow and Isabelle, a ring.

Roommates

2011-11-29T09:54:00.000-05:00

Our boys have been roomies all their lives mainly because I wanted them to grow up that way. We had enough rooms for them to each have their own but it was important to me that they share a room. I just thought being brothers so close in age they needed to learn from the beginning how to work together and work out their differences.

When we moved here in Sept I allowed them to try separate rooms mainly because Jaxon had been really struggling with his anemia and stomach issues and was up at night a lot and then Braden was an early riser while Jaxon was not. It didn't take long for them to decide that they really wanted to be back together, but with Scott away I just wasn't able to bunk those beds without help. Since my parents were visiting for Thanksgiving my dad offered to help when he heard the boys begging to be roomies again. The outcome was awesome! We got the beds re-bunked and them moved back in together. We also gained a spare playroom/school room storage and we couldn't be happier.

Jaxon's old room converted into a playroom

Update- 144 Days In...

2011-11-28T10:58:00.000-05:00

Wanted to give you a quick update on Scott, especially for those of you who are also on Facebook and have access to comments made by people in Scott's company. Half of the company is returning early...very early. That's about all I can say, except that Scott is not in that half. He will be staying behind to complete the deployment in Afghanistan. Good news is they consider him key personnel, which is why he is staying behind, and that is a good thing, but also part of him(and us) just want him home.

He is proud to stay and serve the remainder of the deployment, but it is really hard to see half the company return home, leaving the other half behind. The best we can hope for is that the mission will be done sooner than expected and maybe we will get the rest of them home sooner than expected as well. There is no mention or confirmation of this, it is simply me desperately looking for a silver lining.

Otherwise, he is doing well and in good spirits. Thank you for your continued prayers for his safety.

O' Christmas Tree

2011-11-25T08:07:00.011-05:00

You can look back to November in my past year's blog history and see that the weekend after Thanksgiving is a very special time for us. The day after Thanksgiving we always head up to Spruce Pine, NC and spend the entire weekend at a Christmas tree farm. We would ride up the mountain in a covered wagon, cut down our tree by hand, see Santa, roast marshmallows by a huge bonfire, got to the Spruce Pine Christmas parade and then go out to dinner to celebrate Braden's birthday.

We have done this for 6 years and family and friends have often met us there to share in that experience. It is a wonderful memory, but obviously not possible this year. With Scott deployed and being really really far away from the NC mountains, we decided to try and find a little bit of the familiar but give it a new Texas twist.

We found a live Christmas tree farm here about 30 minutes from our house. There aren't many in Texas but we were lucky to find Silo Farms. They import in NC Fraser Furs as that is what so many people here want. However, the live trees they grow just happen to Afghan Pines!

This is what I wanted! I didn't come all this way to Texas and have my husband be deployed to Afghanistan to pass up the chance to have an Afghan Pine Christmas tree just so I could do things the same way we've always done them. If there was ever a year to try something new it would be this year! I told Scott that's what I was going to get and I had my mind set.

Everyone at the farm kept trying to convince me to get a fur as they were bigger, softer, smell better, are fuller and less spiky. I'm sure all those things are true, but when my husband looks up at the mountains of Afghanistan on Christmas morning he and I will be seeing the same tree and that's all I care about. It is a beautiful tree and perfect for what we needed this year. It's about so much more than the tree looking or feeling perfect. It's about adapting and finding the blessings in the sacrifice. This is a memory for this year. The kids and I cut down the tree all by ourselves with a hand saw just like Scott usually does and they were so proud of themselves. This will be remembered as the year we cut down an Afghan Pine for daddy so we could all share in something special together.

Looking for the perfect tree

Braden was SO excited to make his daddy proud.

Here is our tree of choice

And then, of course, Isabelle and Jaxon wanted to jump in there too.

Well, then I had to have a turn.

Victorious!

He took it down!

I'm sure when Scott gets home and we celebrate Christmas next year it will be with a good 'ole NC Fraser Fur, but this is the year of the Afghan Pine and it will be gorgeous!

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T12:07:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone is having a blessed Thanksgiving today. We got up this morning and Skyped Thanksgiving with Scott. A few weeks ago we packed up a Thanksgiving box filled with a make-shift Thanksgiving meal for him to eat while we Skyped. It was hysterical! We included a Thanksgiving menu, a non-perishable food option for every Thanksgiving staple, decorations and notes telling him why we were so thankful for him. It was a fun box to pack up. We also made a hand-painted sign with our hand prints as turkeys, declaring that his 4 turkeys loved him!

We had a little trouble finding an option for sweet potatoes so we ended up choosing the comedic option and sent baby food sweet potatoes. He thought this was so funny and he even took a bite just to get a great big, "ewwwweeeee!" from the kids. He got half the day off today and they enjoyed a very nice dinner out there. The FRG made a Thanksgiving banner with pictures of the families and sent it over and he seemed in good spirits when we talked. His Thanksgiving is over and ours just began. We will spend our morning watching the Macy's day parade and preparing our meal. I think we will eat around 3pm and then put up our Christmas tree after dinner.

Corn the kids shucked themselves from the pumpkin farm field trip.

You'd be amazed what can fit in a flat rate box!

Our "thankful notes"

Happy 60th Dad!!!!

2011-11-17T09:32:00.000-05:00

Today is my dad's 60th birthday! They are due to arrive in Austin at any moment and we are going to take him on a birthday trip. I can't disclose where yet bc he doesn't know, but we are all looking forward to a road trip and surprising him with some fun, some history and some southwest adventure. Please pray for travel mercies as there is a good bit of driving involved. I can't wait to check back in and share all the places we went.

Happy Birthday DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Boots

2011-11-15T12:00:00.001-05:00

My sweet Jaxon has a deeply-rooted love for cowboy boots. He has just worn to holes his third pair since he was 18months. He took a short break for a few months and choose the fireman rain boots everyday instead, but for the majority of the past 4 years he has been seen in only his black cowboy boots.

He wears them everywhere, including church and yes, even with his bathing suit! It is absolutely precious. Last night he kicked those boots up with his sweet little co-op Kindergarten friend, Julianna. The danced as the Texas state song played at family night. It is a rousing, hoedown-like tune and it was one of the cutest things I've ever seen. His toe is literally sticking out of the side of the boots. I had a new pair of black boots all ready for him but he was having trouble letting go of the old pair. This is the part of mothering that just melts my heart. These moments are going to be gone so fast and his heart is gong to be burdened with far worse concerns than letting go of his wonderful, comfortable, broken down cowboy boots. In my blog intro I talk about the sweet moments within all the madness of this crazy life we have...this is one of those moments. So sweet!

Jaxon and Julianna

Oh, the memories...

One last look at two years of his life.

Looking ahead to new cowboy adventures in these pretty things.

Poor Thing

2011-11-14T08:29:00.000-05:00

Poor little Sasha. She can hear Scott and runs to the computer to sit in my lap every time he is on. But from what I understand about the vision of dogs is that they can't see on screens the way cats can. So, bless her heart, she looks all around and then runs in and out of the room looking for him. She doesn't get upset she just keeps looking.

Happy Veteran's Day Sweetie Pie!

2011-11-11T11:11:00.001-05:00

I want to take just a moment to say, "Thank you," to my hero husband, his dad(Marine), my dad(Army National Guard), my late grandfather(Army), and my Uncle Jack(Navy) who have all proudly served in the U.S. Military. The sacrifices you have made to keep our country free is appreciated beyond any words that I might have. Our thanks to you and all those who have served and sacrificed for our way of life. Today, like so many soldiers before him, my husband worked while while we rested and tonight he sleeps in the desert in a tent while we enjoy the warm, coziness of freedom. I love you and am proud of you.
Happy Veteran's Day!

This is for my sweetie, but enjoy watching this cute little gym moment as Isabelle begins learning back handsprings and Braden tumbles across the floor in the background.
(Braden is wearing a white shirt and blue shorts and is tumbling in the background)

Nails Have Feelings

2011-11-10T08:44:00.001-05:00

I am still laughing about Braden's post-bath conversation tonight. Here lately he is just bringing it something fierce with the "Scott-like" antics and comedy.. He has had me laughing endlessly now for weeks. He even had his gym coach in stitches the other day. However, tonight he had me laughing at his adorable cluelessness that only total innocence can bring. Braden has very strong feelings towards having his nails trimmed. Let's just leave it at 'he hates it with a passion hard to explain.'
Here was our short, but unforgettable conversation.

"Braden, come to the bathroom after you get dressed for bed."

"Why?"

"You know why!"

"But, mommy it always hurts."

"Braden, nails don't have feeling so there is no way it can hurt when I cut them as long as you don't jump causing me to nip the skin."

"Nails, don't have feelings?"

"No Braden. Nails do not have emotions."

"But, mommy, they do!"

"Um, Braden. No they don't"

"Then how come I can move them. They have motions just fine!"

"No, Braden not motions...emotions. Nails don't feel happy or sad and they don't have feeling either."

When he told me that his fingers had motions I almost had to leave the room to not laugh hysterically and embarrass him for the misunderstanding. This is why I blog. Because, despite what I say, I will forget this one day and when I go back and re-read this I will laugh just as hard as I did today!

Getting Dressed

2011-11-09T15:32:00.000-05:00

I am well aware that I am not a role model for impeccable fashion, but nothing brings me more entertainment than children dressing themselves. Little girls always seem to have an entertaining flair to their unique dressing creation that makes you giggle a little at the color combinations and accessories, but little boys...oh, little boys are all about the practical. This is what it looks like when you tell a 5-year-old boy to get himself dressed.

Christmas Sweater with shorts. "My arms were cold, but my legs weren't!" Well, that's about as good a reason as I can think of.

It's best I leave Braden's fashion choices and dressing mishaps for a blog all it's own!

My Project

2011-11-08T09:51:00.001-05:00

Being a task orientated person I tend to panic a little when I run out of tasks, especially when I have nothing to do from 8pm-10pm every night. I started work back on a pet project that I started a few years ago when I first started homeschooling, but had to stop when I went back to work. Even though we have been homeschooling again for a year I was hesitant to restart the homeschool blog because I hate starting things that I'm not sure I can see through. I kept the blog active, just haven't updated it to reflect our current homeschool/ Army circumstances and I have been doing a hodgepodge of blogging here instead.

As of recently I have found that more and more of my blogs here are homeschool in nature and the main reason for that is because it really is our life. Our life is pretty deliciously mundane and I am so I am so glad for that. I have prayed and prayed for the mundane. For the ability to be with my children and not have unnecessary drama in our life. But, unfortunately that leaves us with a some-what boring bloggy existence. There is so much of that homeschool life I that am eager to share, but also know that not everyone who reads this blog is interested in all the homeschool stuff.

I'm still going to keep blogging here and I will do my very best to keep it as interesting and homeschool-free as I can. If you really are interested in the homeschool life we lead the feel free to check out the homeschool blog at
http://www.homeschoolmommyto3.blogspot.com/

The blog is completely current and updated to reflect our style of homeschooling and why we choose homeschooling. In addition, there will be resources specific to homeschooling in the military and the challenges and benefits. It also will reflect on the things we do each day related to homeschooling. Much of it will be a compilation of resources and us showing off how the wonderful ideas of other great homeschool bloggers are working for us.

I would love for you to check it out and hope you will still follow along with us here as well.

This is Why...

2011-11-07T02:02:00.000-05:00

I teach a little Kindergarten Bible study at church on Sunday evenings while the "big kids" are in choir and their Bible study. I have been following along a fun curriculum with them and usually I have anywhere from 3-7 little ones each Sunday night. I think they are precious and I love teaching them. I can relate to this age quite well. I think both mentally and theologically I am right there with them.

This past week a lot of soldiers came home. My kids are handling it pretty well so far mainly bc they have some sweet friends in our neighborhood who are just treating them like they have known them forever. They are head over heels for these children and there daddy's are coming home in the next few weeks, but my kids are so excited for them. There is no hint of anything other than pure, innocent joy towards them. They do wish their daddy was going to be on the plane too but they are genuinely excited for their friends.

This morning in church they made an announcement that in order to bless the families of deployed soldiers within our church and give them a break they would be sending a poinsettia plant and a gift card to them at Christmas for them to go out together as a family. It is an amazing gesture, but with 15,000 troops coming home early it is easy to forget that so many are not. We are watching in the wings, trying to be ever so still and quiet, as to not overshadow or darken the reunions with our own heartache. Some of us are ok, like my children and I, and are distracted by our excitement for our neighbors and friends...
...but some are taking this news ...the news of their daddy not being on that plane quite hard.

There are some Sundays when I wonder why we even have this little Bible study. Don't get me wrong, I love doing it and the kids are so sweet but often times there are only one or two others aside from my youngest, Jaxon. Tonight was one of those nights. I had prepared a lesson about Daniel and the lion's den and God showing up and delivering Daniel for his faithfulness. He shut the mouths of those lions and he was released from all the danger. He was never afraid for his life because he was faithful to God.

I had my fun little lion, paper bag craft ready to go and my small children's Bible story in hard. My heart sank a little when I saw only 3 total children. I had printed out 10 copies, faithfully preparing for a room full, but yet, there were 3 sweet little 5-year-old faces. I quickly got over it and was ready to give them my all when I looked and one of those sweet faces was sitting in a chair in the corner crying big crocodile tears. I didn't know what was wrong but in my mother's instincts I knew this was deep pain. This was not an injury or hurt feelings. This was the kind of tears you cry out when your heart is overflowing with pain and no matter where you are or who is watching they just pour out. Seeing it come out of a 5-year-old literally broke my heart and put me on my knees before her.

Even through her sobs it didn't take me long to know exactly what was wrong. "I miss my daddy," she just cried, "and he's not coming home for a really long time," she defensively lashed out at the well-meaning, non-military person trying to console her by telling her that it wouldn't be long before he was home and that everything would be ok.

Oh Lord, give me strength. Facing this child's pain, with the charge of helping her was the greatest obstacle I have faced since moving here. She cried the tears I wanted to cry. She sobbed and I just wanted to join her, knowing that at school all week she had been hearing about reunions and while happy for them just not able to understand. It's the Army. It just stinks sometimes. We have all been there. The ones who are coming home now have been there too. They have cried those tears. It's their turn to come home, not ours. But it will be our turn and someone else will cry in our place.

I waited for the nice lady to step away before I spoke, knowing full well that even this child of just five could see right through the attempt to see the bright side. She knew better and she was right. Her daddy was not coming home for a very long time and trying to convince her otherwise, 3 days before her birthday, was just not going to happen.

I called Jaxon over. I asked if he would get his friend a tissue. While he was I told her that she was right and it was a long time away. And that it must feel so sad to think about it. I told her she must miss him so very much that sometimes the only way to let it out is to cry and that was ok. If she needed to cry she should cry and we would sit here with her. Jaxon handed her the tissue and like any sweet child would, he asked her with distraught concern, what was wrong. I could tell she wasn't up for repeating it all so I explained to him that she was sad and missing her daddy because he was gone for a long time.

I could see the most precious look of complete understanding and empathy on his face and I looked back at her and explained that we knew how she felt because Jaxon's daddy was also away for a very long time. I explained that, here, most of the daddy's were away and that they're just those days when we feel sad. Together we shared with her that when we feel sad sometimes we just hug each other, sometimes we pray that God will help us and sometimes we do something that will take our mind off of it, and then God helps us to forget about the sadness long enough to have some fun too.

I know loved ones and strangers alike mean well but when people try and convince me it isn't as hard or as sad as it is really is, it usually only ends up making me feel worse because then I feel like no one understands. Most all of us have had that experience in some way over something in our lives. I wanted to love her and acknowledge her feelings and let her know that what ever she felt was ok with me. I trust in God to be the one to make her feel better. I told her my top secret lion puppet plans and that she could stay there as long as she needed but whenever she was ready she could make one too.

We turned on some music and read our story and finally she came over when I got the craft out. She is so smart and so sweet. God protect all their hearts!

Facing her cries felt like facing my own inner demons. They are my cries and hers. They are the cries of my children. They are the cries of my neighbors and the cries of the hearts of our soldiers, even if no one ever hears them or sees them. The pain is the same.

Every time I hear the bugle play it's like it is crying out in pride and pain all at the same time. Thank you God for sending us to a place where we can experience this life along with those who are hurting and who are trying to do it without you. You strengthened our family over many years and experiences and then planted us in the midst of where you are so badly needed. Help keep us strong and protect our hearts from too much sadness so we can show them that you can bring joy even in the darkness. They need to know you are right there to love them through this.

This is why we are here. Now I know.

I will keep preparing for 10, but will look forward to the even just the 1.

Commitment to the Classics

2011-11-04T22:48:00.000-04:00

I have shared before that we follow a loose Classical/Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling. In my first year of homeschooling I was very hesitant to associate with any sort of "style" of homeschooling because, honestly, I just didn't really know what it was all about and I didn't think we could be confined to a style. Over the past 2 years I have had the chance to learn and grow as a mother and a teacher and learn what priorities my husband and I have for my raising our children, as well as learning what interests our children have. Sometime in the early Spring on this past year it became very apparent that the Classical method of learning was something that fit both of those standards for our family. Scott and I found great value in it as well as it seemed to really gel with all 3 kids. They seemed to respond well to the types of assignments I was giving them. This was a changing day in our homeschool life. Up to that point we really had been somewhat muddling along. We had a curriculum and we were getting the work done, but there wasn't a great deal of joy and it just wasn't acceptable to me that my children would be anything other than excited and on fire about learning. Children of their age naturally desire information and have great curiosity so I knew, without a doubt that I was the problem.

I did a lot of research about different styles and practiced each style for a short period of time without them knowing to see which ones really spoke to them and brought back that sense of joy. Well, it turns out that it wasn't one, but two'ish, styles that really spoke to them and since all 3 children responded with such excitement I really began to consider the possibility that we could peacefully and enjoyably learn together without all the frustration we had been experiencing. I don't tend towards extremes on much of anything. I enjoy all kinds of people, places and experiences. I don't really believe that one way is the right way, especially with learning. We loved some things from the Classical style but others from other styles, especially Montessori and Charlotte Mason. The philosophies of each are slightly different but there is a common underlying theme among them and that is what we decided to go with. Montessori encourages hands on experiences while Classical and Mason encourage chronological, linear historical learning, as well as copy work and classical literature in the development of writing, spelling and reading.

Mason also encourages delight-directed learning which is the idea that you occasionally(not everyday) give the child the opportunity to explore topics of their interest. All three promote the importance of being out in nature and learning from experiences and life. Mason also encourages keeping a nature journal, which includes drawings and note booking of the things the children see and experience in nature. None of these are unschooling philosophies and all are strong proponents of an age-appropriate math, language arts and history education but don't believe that it has to be done via a blackboard and worksheets only. Mason also feels that the arts are of equal importance and should not be excluded.

The underpinning of our home education is reading. We read the classics together as a family, presently "Swiss Family Robinson," and the kids each have their classical reader, which they LOVE! We also follow the Mason's "living books" idea which uses whole topics and real people and things rather than made up Twaddle. Twaddle is not the same thing as fiction. Mason has no problem with fiction. Twaddle, however, is the term that refers to dumbing-down children by giving them books to read because you honestly don't think they can understand classic literature. "Captain Underpants" while a coveted book of my children, would fall into the Twaddle category. It gives them nothing and in essence is a waste of time. But, I'm ok with the occasional waste of time if it brings them laughter and joy.

We have our fun books, don't get me wrong, but the statistics on IQ's and reading comprehension scores are strikingly higher for children who have read and understand classic literature. Not all reading is equal. We as parents assume that because we find it dry and boring or because we were told it is dry and boring that our children won't read it. Well, I am here to tell you that my children have read more since I have committed to the classics than they ever have before and with greater than 90% accuracy on all reading comprehension tests for these books that many consider too difficult or outdated. Isabelle alone has read 8 classical books including, "Trumpet of the Swan," "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm," "Black Beauty" among many others and many living books such as, "Noah Webster," "Remember the Alamo," and Abraham Lincoln" in less than 2 months.
While every mother thinks they're kids are amazing, I don't think this is because they are smarter than any other child. I just simply think the greatest minds in the world were educated off of these classics and that holds a great deal of merit for me. Newer isn't always better.

We love books and we love to read, but not all books are created equal and not all books fill our children's brains and hearts with what they need. We have tons of books that would be considered Twaddle and we love and enjoy them, just much more in moderation now than before. I am seeing the results and they are undeniable. My 7-year-old is reciting poetry from memory and is begging me to let him read "Little House in the Big Woods." My oldest wakes up and stays in her room for an hour each morning because she can't wait to read more of what C.S. Lewis has written. My youngest can't wait til bedtime to hear what happens next to the Robinson family and no, not the "Meet the Robinsons"- family, the "Swiss Family Robinson."

One of the hallmarks of Classical and Mason is the daily reading of poetry and scripture, as well as originally told fairy tales. Here are some of our favorites.Braden loves to memorize poetry the most, but Isabelle reads it like it is music. It is amazing to listen to her. I can so see her being in poetry readings in a college coffee house one day.

Mason encourages the exposure to beautiful things like photography and art. This is the area I am most incompetent in and struggle with. The kids have a natural curiosity though and seek out these things in the books we have and also take weekly art lessons to supplement.

These are some great examples of what classical looks like for a pre-reader or early reader-even babies. These are books that would be read to them not for them to read at this level. The majority of the classical philosophy up until about 4th-5th grade focuses more heavily on the parent reading to the child. Children learn language(pronunciation, context, cadence, etc...) best by hearing it spoken to them correctly. They learn spelling easiest by seeing it after hearing it and then being able to understand the context of it. These old stories give them all those things long before they are able to read a word on their own. Other early reader examples would be, "Winne the Pooh" and "The Little Engine that Could." A good classical early reader for the child to read would be something like, "Henry and Mudge."

Other examples of classical reader options

These would be examples of "living books" which present whole topics and not just short segments of ideas in a book with lots of different topics. It allows the child a more in depth study of a topic they are interested in.

Our Ikea cubbie bookshelves.

We have a "living books" section with all kinds of people and things to read about. These rotate out and I add new ones once they have read them, but we always keep them for reference.

This is our fairy tale and poetry section


This is our cubbie that holds our current classical and living books topics that we are covering within our curriculum at that time as well as the book we are reading together as a family.

Each child also has their own cubbie with classical readers at their reading level. I think my main, underlying message is that this works for us. But, there are a host of homeschool teaching approaches and styles out there that can be used by homeschoolers or as supplements by traditional schoolers. If you are finding that you are frustrated with the system you are using don't be afraid to try something else. Finding this learning environment has not only changed mine and my children's level of happiness in our daily life, but has given us such a peaceful existence among all the chaos of our reality.

Unfortunately, many of the books that have educated and inspired the great minds of our world are often overlooked and passed by for more modern day fluff. These classic books have great treasures and morals inside, as well as an amazing and timeless literature education to offer.

Books

2011-11-03T22:12:00.000-04:00

I have a very strange relationship with words. I love to write and have for almost as long as I can remember. I actually wrote a 100-page fiction when I was 11. I also like to speak words, as anyone who has spent more than 30 seconds with me well knows. With all this word love going around you would think I would be an avid reader. Not the case. I am a reader wanna be. My husband can down the entire "Twilight" series in a week and I struggle to get through a magazine. It's not that I can't read or don't enjoy reading it's just that I read very slow and something gets lost in the processing somewhere. I recently ran into a lady who suggested to me that I be tested for dyslexia...I'm thinking it might be a little late in life for that.

But, honestly, I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was something a little off in my brain(no jokes) when it comes to processing the written word. I was and still am a terrible speller and can remember endlessly crying while reviewing words for tests. I can even remember bubbling in guess answers on my test bubble sheets in elementary school because I felt so hopeless like I would never understand. It always seemed like everyone else got it and understood what was going on and I just didn't. I was perpetually lost.

I struggled with this through the first try in college and then finally as an adult learner I sought out coping skills for my problem areas and finally was able to take the reigns of this problem, which helped me in both my undergrad and Masters. I wish I was a better reader and I wish I loved to read for entertainment more than I do, but I honestly wouldn't change that struggle.

Struggling to read really developed a personality in me of listening and remembering as well as one of personal motivation as I didn't want anyone to know I was struggling. I knew if I had to go and read it later then all was lost so I would listen very carefully in class. If I paid good attention and remembered everything that was said I could get by. I learned how to remember things from a very young age because if I did happen to HAVE to read it I definitely didn't want to have to go back and re-read it again. I would not say that I was born with a photographic memory by any means, but as a coping technique I remember almost every thing that I do read. Unfortunately, much of it is useless, but it's not the sort of technique you can just turn on and off like a super power.

Another way that this struggle blessed me was in the fact that it motivated me to make sure my children were all extraordinarily competent readers. I feel that all children should have a designated library of their own to love and cherish. They are little and don't have access to the world the way adults do and reading these stories sparks their imaginations and opens a place in their minds that helps them to really believe anything is possible. Books are treasures in our house. They are treated with the respect that you would treat an expensive electronic. They do not color, draw, bend or throw them and we have raised them this way from the time they were tiny. Books are prizes to be cherished and the stories inside of them are the adventures that will motivate and inspire them to seek adventure as they write the story of their own lives.

Even though I struggled as a young child reading and never wanted anyone to know about it then, I am very open with my children about this fact so that they will understand why it is so important to be an avid and accomplished reader. I love to sit and read books to them because in many cases I am getting the chance to read these great stories for the first time and share in the excitement of my kids as they also hear it for the first time too.

Reading is a way of life here and I love that. It is peaceful and exciting all at the same time. It opens the lines of communication as they want to tell me all the wonderful things they that are happening in their books and makes them want to go out and have all kinds of adventurous experiences too. I love that my children would choose me reading to them over any game or TV show and that they treasure that time together as a family. So many of our inside family jokes come from books. Tomorrow I will share with you how we use books(not text books-though we have those too) as part of our homeschool and why I think the classics of literature are so important.

Hermit Crab Habitat

2011-11-02T08:45:00.002-04:00

We have these little hermit crabs from our summer beach trip in NC. They are well-loved and taken care of by the kiddos but were in desperate need of a new more permanent home.

Tuesday we got a ten gallon fish tank and filled it with, well, basically mulch and relocated Hermie, Shell and Claw to their new and very large home together.

We then went off to gym class and while we were gone Braden's crab changed his shell. This is something we
have been anxiously awaiting. They don't change shells until they outgrown their current one which is a good sign that they are growing. We came back and he was sporting a nice, new, shiny blue shell on his back. We think they must like their new house.

Tuesday Craft Day

2011-11-01T12:42:00.001-04:00

Tuesday has become the official off-topic-from-regular-school curriculum craft day. I am not crafty at all and our two neighbors who also homeschool struggle in the same department(though after today they seem pretty craft talented to me) and so we decided that every Tuesday we would intentionally plan a craft for all 9 children(yes, 9...we avg 3 per family and all 3 husbands are deployed). We rotate houses each week and the host provides lunch and the other two moms plan and do the craft.
Last week at our house we made pumpkin crafts and I made cheese quesadillas.

Today was awesome. We met at one of the Jennifer's(both are named Jennifer) houses and she taught the kids how to make bread all the way from the beginning of the process, starting with the actual wheat berry that makes the flour. She showed them how to grind the berries and gave each a turn and then they baked the bread to eat at lunch. She also gave them each a small portion of dough to knead and add brown sugar and raisins to to make their own small scone-like bread.It was so much fun for them and a great lesson about how things don't just magically grow out of the ground as whole foods, but are part of a process. It's official...I'm getting my bread machine back out this week. That bread was so good- at least the two small bites of the soft center I was able to chew without moving my back teeth.

Jennifer has a captive audience ready to learn about wheat

This is what the wheat berry looks like before it is ground into flour. Did you know that the same berry gives us both white and wheat flour? The difference is the wheat berry that is ground with the covering(wheat germ) becomes whole wheat flour and the berry that is ground after the covering becomes white flour.

Feeling the wheat berries

Getting a turn to fill the grinder

Everyone watched as it grinds the berries into flour. Sort of like coffee beans in a coffee grinder.

Braden kneads his flour to make a small scone

Jaxon adds brown sugar and raisins to make it sweet

Dessert for after lunch

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T21:46:00.001-04:00

The kiddies help me get ready for Halloween

A little Skype trick-or-treating across the miles

Getting ready to go out and get candy!

Jaxon the Transformer, Braden and Addison(left) and Aidan(right)

Dorothy and the wicked witch

All 9 children-8 of them are 10 and under! Whew!

Stunt doubles

Dorothy before she left for Oz(obviously still in Texas)...ahem, I mean Kansas and then after arriving in Oz

Isabelle, Haley(left) and Taylor(middle) our fellow homeschoolers in the neighborhood

This house gave her a bit of a fright

This was just too funny to not take a pic of.

These guys dressed up as MP's(Military Police)!

Hysterical....the little MP go-cart passing out candy

Our decorated porch

I cut this pumpkin all by myself!

Our Great Wolf Trip

2011-10-25T09:50:00.000-04:00

We had the most amazing time at Great Wolf this weekend. I so badly needed a time that I could just set life and everything in our reality aside and just play with my children. The Strong Bonds program is amazing and they covered all our expenses and even gave us gift cards instead of meal vouchers so we could choose how we wanted to spend the funds and what we wanted to eat. It was an amazing 3 days of water fun(I even rode a water slide-many of you may not know I am terrified of them) and great food, costumes and trick-or-treating, ice cream and MagiQuest and just good 'ole hotel fun. Here are some pics from this much needed break.

Braden was having a slight life jacket wardrobe malfunction!

That's a much better size jacket!

Dressed up for trick-or-treating

Jaxon, I mean Super Mario with Wolf ears, checking out his candy

The kids waiting for bedtime stories next to creepy cheerleader

Jaxon LOVED the MagiQuest

They are showing off their new stuffed critters

Braden takes his magic very serious!

Coloring on his Great Wolf tee-shirt

Braden chose a pillow case instead of a shirt

So carefully making it beautiful

Jaxon wanted to take this bear home to his room. I think he thinks it gives out cupcakes.

Isabelle gets some colorful hair

This child is very creative. He made a rice crispy s'mores.

He just couldn't choose. Hey, no judgement... it's vacation!!

Sparkly glitter tattoo

I wonder what spell they are putting on me...

Jaxon's face the first time he used his wand and it worked!

Howl!!!!

A Really Fun Surprise

2011-10-21T07:57:00.000-04:00

The Army Corps of Chaplains works diligently and tirelessly supporting entire battalions of troops and their families. They are a strong force within the life of a military installation. They organize Bible studies and support groups for spouses, counsel soldiers and their families, plan VBS events and ministry and mission opportunities to some of the most desperate of souls. With people involved in war, spouses trying not to live in fear and children in flux leaves a community of people in great need of reminders of God's love.

Proud Army families who have been battered by the deployments, constant moves and the strain of being single parents, usually away from all their family support systems, can find it challenging to nurture and grow faith and family bonds. The Corps of Chaplains is there working against all those odds to try and give opportunities for families to grow together and in their faith despite all the stressors in their lives.

As part of the Army/Family Covenant the chaplain get to schedule and plan retreats or get-aways to fun destinations and use them as a tool to get families away from regular life and bless them with some great and completely free fun. These retreats serve as a time for fun but also as a time for couples counseling or opportunities to participate in group time with people who are going through the same thing you are. Each trip has a different theme. For some the couples must go together but for other trips they are opened only to the families of deployed soldiers.

Last week we found out that my husband's battalion was offered one of these deployed family trips.
Get ready for it...all expense paid trip for all four of us to Great Wolf Lodge in Dallas for 3 days! We leave this morning and drop off the dog at the kennel and make the 3 hour drive to Dallas. This is our only expense. All room, food, tickets and yes, even spending credit is included. It is the perfect time for this to come. All the kids there will be like them and all the wives will be like me and we get to spend time hearing ways to cope and deal with the upcoming holidays and other deployment issues, but also have lots and lots of free time to just play and relax as a family. Sure, we have been to Great Wolf before and yes, we can afford to take our family on our own, but that isn't the point.

The point is that I can say to the kids that the Army wants to thank them for all they are doing and wants to treat them to some extra special fun. In their minds the Army took their daddy and any chance I get I try to remind them what the Army gives us as well, I take. I try and remind them that our home, our food, all the things we have are because daddy works for the Army and sometimes they like to do extra special things like this to make us feel special and say thank you to us. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel and that this will just provide fun and comfort and great memories for us to share with daddy.

TMJ- the jaw thing

2011-10-19T09:11:00.009-04:00

I have always been a tense kind of person. I don't really feel tense during the day and I don't really feel like I act tense, but my teeth and jaw know just how tense I actually am, especially in my sleep. I used to grind my teeth so loud as a small child that I would wake my mom up in the middle of the night with two closed doors between us.

Since I have always been a teeth grinder, when I was about 12 the dentist attempted to give me one of those hard dental mouth cards you wear at night, but I actually chewed right through it within a week. The dentist basically claimed me a hopeless case and said to be ready for TMJ. When I was 14 the temple headaches started and by my early twenties I had major clicking sounds when I would yawn or eat. I had one bad flare up of full blown TMJ when I was in college but since then I have had no pain. I know I still grind my teeth as it wakes my husband up sometimes, and I hear it clicking still so I know it's still there, but never have I had any pain from it.

That, however, was the case until last week. I have a terrible carrot and hummus addiction and I will eat them like crazy. I love raw veggies and I'm an ice cruncher too. Honestly, I really think the dentist was right...hopeless. I bit into that carrot and felt something funny, which I promptly ignored and continued to eat them. The next day at lunchtime I noticed some soreness which, I again ignored and continued to eat them. By the third night I was woken up with throbbing left side jaw and cheek pain and by the next morning I couldn't open my mouth more than an inch without my jaw clicking and hurting.

I took ibuprofen on the way to the gym and by force of habit chomped on some ice while swallowing the pills. That was all she wrote! My jaw was done.I can't express the pain from my jar, cheek, ear and neck. I really can be quite stupid at times. So for about a week now I have been on soft foods alone. Large doses of anti-inflammatory meds and ice bags as my cheeks are swollen like I was punched or something. I am pretty much living off of Slim Fast drinks, pudding and soup. The intense pain has stopped when I am good about taking the meds and honestly I have no desire to chomp down on anything right now. I just hope it heals. I have a dental appt next week in case my home remedies don't work or that it is some sort of tooth crack or fracture in my jaw, as I do have mild juv arthritis, but I've been here before and I know there is nothing much they can do that I am willing to do. No shots in mouth, surgery, narcotic or muscle relaxant drugs for the mama who has no other adult in the house. But the silver lining is I really love soup and I could stand to loose 10 pounds.

An Unfortunate Auto-Correct

2011-10-18T09:52:00.003-04:00

Those of us with phones that have the auto-correct feature know just how funny some of the auto-corrections can be. I have laughed on many occasions at some stuff my auto-correct dictionary thought I must have meant instead of what I wrote. Typically, they are harmless and I just laugh it off knowing that the other person gets the point if I accidentally hit send before realizing the auto-correct changed my message.

But Friday was a doozy!

We were headed off to our homeschool group's field trip to the pumpkin patch and because I had organized the trip I gave my cell phone for other members to call with questions as I had only met two families of the 30 people who were attending. I always try and spend time with people before texting them just to avoid communication misunderstandings that texts and emails can often cause.

On this day, however, I got a text from an unknown number letting me know they were at the farm and were eating at the picnic tables. I texted back(or I thought I texted back), "If you see any other Ft. Hood homeschoolers will you let them know that I am a few minutes out?"

At the next light I looked down to see if she had responded when I saw what I actually sent her. OMG!!!

I just sent this homeschooling lady that I have never met in my life or even talked to the following message..."If you see others with Ft. Hood home ~~hookers~~ will you tell them I'm a few minutes out?" Are you kidding me auto-correct???!!!

Because when writing 'homeschoolers' I certainly must have meant home ~~hookers~~! Thank you for correcting that for me! Tomorrow I am starting a petition to Apple to include "homeschoolers" in their Iphone dictionary.

As quickly as I could I texted her back with apologies and what I meant to say and I got the following response. "My husband and I are still laughing!" Awesome! Her husband was there to see it too. They are probably thinking 'what on Earth kind of field trip is this?'

Lord, have mercy!

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-17T09:07:00.001-04:00

The pumpkin Patch was so much fun. It was a bit of a drive but totally worth it. This was a Fort Hood Homeschoolers planned field trip. We arrived at Sweet berry Farms, Marble Falls, TX at about 12pm and had a picnic lunch with our group tour began shortly after that with wagon races and pumpkin painting. After that they did the corn maze(no Braden did not go in) and then on to the hayride. They played with the old timey water pumps and shucked corn and we ate homemade pumpkin ice cream. It was amazing. It was such a fun day with new friends and we can't wait to go back in the spring for strawberry season.

Braden(left), Haley,our neighbor(middle) and Jacklyn,our little buddy(right)

Cool way to dry pumpkins

Old fashioned water pump.

Jessie(our other neighbor and also homeschooler) who is preciously smitten with Braden. The feeling is mutual. He adores her!

The corn maze victors!

Just in case I had to text a picture of where to find me in the maze.

Shucking corn

The group

Our two sets of homeschooled neighbors

Madelyn(left) and Haley(right) with Isabelle as they bought goat food

The goat treehouse

Can you tell it was hot?

Check out daddy doll driving the truck!

They loved this goat treehouse

Jaxon with his buddy Aidan(Madelyn's little brother)

Wagon races

Hurry Braden!

Aubrey(right-not neighbor but new friend from homeschool group) holding 4 week old Evelyn and I'm holding 2-year-old Jacklyn who hugs me every time I see her. My own kids don't do that! I must really look desperate for affection. Her other two are Madelyn who went with us to see Dolphin Tale and is Isabelle's age and Aidan is Jaxon's age.

Homeschool neighbor, Jenn with her 2 boys-daughter Jessie is with Braden.

The pumpkin ice cream was amazing!!

And, of course, they HAD to take daddy all around the farm and take pictures! Too funny!

Texas i's

2011-10-14T09:22:00.001-04:00

Right now we are on our way to Marble Falls, TX. We are really excited because we are heading down their to a pumpkin farm where we can do corn mazes(not Braden), pick pumpkins, paint pumpkins, stuff scarecrows, eat homemade ice cream, ride hay rides and just have some good ole fall fun Texas style.

The drive is about an hour southwest from us but there just is a whole lot of nothing round these parts so we decided we would go looking for some fun with one of the other homeschooling families we met.
Hopefully, I will have good pictures and fun experiences to share with you upon our return.
In the meantime I will share with you something pretty funny that I've noticed. We have noticed that here in Texas people who were raised here have a VERY strong love for the short i sound. Imagine me saying the word "like." "I like Texas." Us southerners would say that something like this...ly-ke. It's sort of a cross between a short 'i' sound and a 'y' sound.

We also say the 'i' sound rather quick and you hear hear the 'k' more than the i..Well, a Texas native would say that(and this is very challenging on a blog). "I Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike Texas." Well, they would actually probably say, "I LOVE Texas" but hang in there with me. The 'i' sound way overpowers the k and you almost don't hear the k at all. The 'i' first makes the normal short 'i'(eye) sound but then it just never lets go and says the short i(iiiiiii) sound for a good 5 seconds before moving onto the next sound.

It might sound as if I am making fun of it, but really I'm not. It is adorable!! I'm not kidding. Completely endearing. The best way I can explain it is to listen to Matthew McConaughey say anything with the vowel i. You will melt.

You know how back in the 90's when Madonna moved to England with Guy Ritchie and she was teased endlessly by the press for developing a British accent(or something like it) after like 6 months there? That's the problem I'm having. I hear people doing it and it's so cute and because it's so cute to listen to it's all my brain hears, but everyone around me speaks Texan i's and now, after only 6 months here, I am loosing control of this vowel. I don't think it sounds anything close to cute on me because I am not from Texas and it is some mesh of southern city girl mixed with a confused Texas cow-poke. But I can't seem to stop it. I hear it and it just comes out. Just promise to not make fun of me if you hear it.

Expanding a Concept

2011-10-13T11:46:00.001-04:00

I know, I know...it's been a very homeschooly kind of week here on the blog. But honestly, I just gotta tell you-right now, this is about all we got going on!

I can always post more bike riding and monkey bar videos! :)

Yesterday I talked a bit about learning styles and how important I think they are, but another aspect of your child's personality, well, all of our personalities, is our natural wake and sleep patterns. Some of us are morning people and wake up with the sun raring to go. Others of us need a bribe such as coffee to even want to get out of bed at all. We all fall somewhere in a category of being naturally stronger in the morning or evenings and this applies to and affects when we are naturally at our best to learn.

Some of us(hand raised) are night owls and do our very best most alert work after 9pm and sometimes after midnight. Let me just say that this is a terribly painful thing when you have young children as you are constantly shooting yourself in the foot and staying up too late. They really don't care that you love to blog or write or prepare curriculum at 1:15am. They have been in bed since 8pm and it is time to get up and that includes you!

I would not call any of my children night owls because they have never had an opportunity to develop that so far in their life. I'm pretty secure in their bedtime routine, always feeling very strongly that their overall ability to succeed in life and be healthy is so strongly rooted in their emotional view of their life. If they are exhausted I can't expect them to behave at the store or think straight when we are trying to do school. Their bodies and minds need consistency to be healthy and develop normally. Even though I can tell already that Isabelle has a harder time falling asleep at night and is always my last to wake. She also enjoys doing school after dinner so I suspect she might have some natural strengths in the later part of the day. I will say that, without a doubt, I have one serious early bird on my hands. Braden is up everyday with the sun (despite black out curtains) and I have finally just come to the realization that no matter how much I want to sleep past 6:30am God created him this way for an important reason. We got him a clock for his room and he has to play quietly or read until 7am, but in reality I don't want to stifle his most productive and receptive learning time. I am missing enormous opportunity with him.

I have decided to give a trial run to a slight schedule addendum to see how it works out. In theory, we will be done with school much earlier in the day, giving them more time to play together and do outside activities without rushing. It will be an adjustment for me because it will put me on a much more defined morning routine. We will see. I feel a pull on my heart to give it a try and that I simply can't ignore.

I am going to start Braden's independent hour with me at 7:30am. Typically the other two are still snoozing and as long as I have coffee I should be ok to teach second grade. Then we will pause for breakfast with everyone at 8:30am and Isabelle will then have her one on one time with me while Braden does his independent work and Jaxon does our equivalent to Kindergarten centers(Wii and DS are not a center).

After her hour we will stop for our snack and she goes on to complete her independent work while it is Jaxon's turn for Kindergarten with mom. Kindergarten consists of an hour of one on one reading, math and letter recognition. We then have an hour of time all together where we do Story of the World and Science. They will still have blocks of time they will do their reading and handwriting and group fun things like crafts of experiments, but for the most part we will be done with the meat and potatoes of school by lunch. We may end up having to move some of Isabelle's one on one time to later in the day as she tends to do better and is more attentive after dinner.

I'll let you know how it works out...that is if I don't fall asleep at 8pm when they do.