I know that I am not the only homeschool mom that is longing for September! The routine...the productivity...the sanity! But, it's a couple of months away and I think that now would be a grand time for me to practice a little meditation and reflect on a few things. I hope to come back in the fall full of ideas, thoughts, homeschool tips, menus and the like. But for now...
~Annemarie
Monday
Breakfast- Pancakes*
Lunch- Burritos**
Dinner- Cabbage Rolls <--*, corn, carrots
Tuesday
Breakfast- Oatmeal
Lunch- Leftover spaghetti
Dinner- Green Chili Stew<--*
Wednesday
Breakfast- Eggs and toast
Lunch- Sandwiches and fruit
Dinner- Leftovers
Thursday
Breakfast- pancakes
Lunch- Burritos
Dinner- Crockpot Pork with veggies
Friday
Breakfast- Oatmeal
Lunch- Sandwiches and fruit
Dinner- Hamburger Stew
Saturday
Breakfast- Kid's make their own
Lunch- Quesadillas
Dinner- Leftovers
Sunday
Breakfast- Eggs and Toast
Lunch- Spaghetti
Dinner- Sandwiches and Cup-O-Noodles
*On Monday mornings, I make a huge patch of pancakes and what we don't eat that morning, is frozen for Spunkster to eat (because he eats them almost every morning) and for the other mornings where pancakes are on the menu.
**These are homemade burritos, sometimes, when I am feeling very industrious, I will make a ton and freeze them.
<--* This denotes a recipe found in the cookbook Fix It and Forget It. I highly recommend it! The slow cooker is in use at the house pretty much everyday. This book is full of tasty recipes that I use again and again.
Boy, that's a catchy title. And not entirely accurate, but WOW! The Tornado is daily offering up evidence that he is above average when it comes to brains. For instance, last night, when my husband took him into the bathroom to brush his teeth, Tornado looked in the mirror and noticed his flushed cheeks (which were due to fatigue, it was a LONG day).
He pointed to them and said, "Boo-boo?"
"No, Tornado. You are just very sleepy", my husband replied.
"Oh, red cheek", said the oh-so-brilliant Tornado. This is just one small instance of his amazing vocabulary. He has completely ditched baby talk.
Can I tell you that being smart is not always the best thing that a child can be? Being above average in any area of life can be a determent at any age. Why? Because it keeps us from seeing how we really are as we stand before God without Christ. Even our best is like filthy rags. I am so glad we homeschool! When your child never enters the ps arena, they are frequently unaware of any "special gifts" that they have until they are old enough to be taught that to whom much has been given, much is required. That they must not waste their talents and skills on themselves, but in serving the whom God whom they love.
On an other note, I am already getting excited about our next school year. Even though the heat is melting our driveway, in my mind's eye I can see our school room set up. I can feel the excitement that starts to build mid-way through July as summer starts to grow old and the children start yearning for school! Yes, that actually happens in our house. :-)
But, it is still the middle of June and I have a ton of work to do before then...
~Annemarie
I am not a very patient person. In fact, I usually want what I want now! But as I grow older, I am beginning to see that there is some value in waiting that you can't get from instant gratification. I have noticed that when I have to wait longer than I expect, when I receive it, WOW! Amazingly, that's biblical.
Ha-ha. Actually that's not far from the truth. I just checked my stat counter and I see that the fruit of my non-blogging weeks has yielded a crop of 1-2 readers a day. Truthfully though, with the present political climate, I have become concerned with the lack of privacy afforded to my family when I choose to open up our life on the internet. I know, there are about 1,265,683,345,678,341 bloggers out there now and out of all of them, mine is definitely in the bottom 1% of interesting....still. Do you worry about keeping your life private?
So yesterday, I remembered that I don't like summer break in reality as much as I do in anticipation. I always forget that when summer comes, a schedule/routine of any sort tends to fly out of the window. Not good. Even though school has slowed down, the trash and the laundry, they keep a comin'! I warned the kids last night that their days of sleeping in are over. We need to keep up with all of the normal daily chores and it is best to get that done in the morning.
Recently, a friend of mine gave me a book called Child Training Tips by Reb Bradley ( a new feature of my "more private blog" is that I am not doing so many links...I know that ya'll have google too) and it has been a treasure. In my last post, I talked about the children returning to some behaviors that were less, waaaay less than desirable. Well, this book has made it clear to me that that has happened because I returned to some bad parenting methods. For example:
me: Please, go clean your room.
Child sits.
me: Did you hear me? Please go clean your room.
Child sits.
me: Please, I know that you hear me. Go clean your room.
Child sits.
me: Get up NOW! Go clean your ROOM.
Child begins the slow, arduous process of separating their bottom from the chair.
me: If you don't get up right NOW, you will not swim one single day this summer and I MEAN IT!
I only wish that this was an exaggeration. Not only did this never work, it was fostering (more like festering) an attitude of rebellion and disrespect in my oldest, big time! After only 3 full days of implementing some of the techniques in Child Training Tips, my oldest is more respectful and happier. For real.
I read an article the other day and it irritated me. OK, so what's new? I get irritated pretty easily. Sad, but true. Anyway, the article was talking about homeschool moms needing to get real. When I read that, I thought "RIGHT ON!" because I am all about being real. Then I read on to find out that she believes that when women say that they love to homeschool and that things are going great for them, they are putting up a front. Oooooh.....I almost commented, but refrained because I knew that I needed to think and calm down a bit. Why? Because I really do love to homeschool. A lot. And usually, things are going great. Then I realized that I do that exact thing to women in other areas. Like having a clean house. I tend to poke fun at women who have a really neat house. I make snide comments about the fact that they must not have anything else to do. I also sometimes fall into this way of speaking about my friends that are thin. I tease them, make fun of them, act like being thin is horrible, when the truth is that I feel convicted about my being overweight. I feel convicted by my friends with a clean house that I need to be a better housekeeper. False guilt is lame, but where there is a real need to change, real guilt can be a catalyst for that change. Shame on me for trying to gloss over that guilt!
Our local library started it's annual summer reading program. Yeah. I am of two minds about it. (Is that ever a good thing?) First, my kids already love to read and do so constantly. So we don't really need a program with tons of incentives to get them to read. In fact, logging in all those hours can get to be a pain. (Time me, Mommy!) But in the other hand, it is fun to go to the library and see the neat programs and get new books every week. And, it is about the only other thing that we are doing this summer besides clean and declutter. :-)
Speaking of, I cleaned out our medicine cabinet and a corner kitchen cabinet. It may not sound like much, but both of those were full of stuff that needed to chucked. Why do I hang on to stuff that I don't need?!? Ah well. Slowly but surely.
I am still studying Matthew. Yes, still. I just finished chapter 15 and, as always, there was a few verses that made me chuckle.
12 Then His disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”
All I could think of was what were the disciples expecting Jesus to do? Go apoplogize for offending them? Say "Oops! That was not my intent at all."? What He did say, was this:
13 But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.”
15 Then Peter answered and said to Him, “Explain this parable to us.”
16 So Jesus said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? 18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. 20 These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”
His incredible patience makes me smile.
~Annemarie
It's funny how my blogging goes in cycles. I know that there was a time when I was blogging almost daily. I had a lot to say. Now, I find that when I sit down to attempt to blog, I have no words. I would have them if you were sitting down next to me, but in the cyber world? I am a little wary, to be truthful, that some of what I would love to say, will not be communicated properly. I hate miscommunication. Which is apparently not a word, if the red line underneath it is any indication. So, when I sit down and feel that I don't have enough time (when do I ever have enough time?!?), I get right back up and think maybe I will blog later. But I don't. Fortunately, blogging is completely not a necessary thing. I am fine and, all of my 3 readers are fine.
But, as usual, I digress.
My children are in the throes of difficult behavior. Have you ever noticed that kids can seem to fall into behavior that you totally thought they were done with? And you want to stare at them like they are a two-headed monster and ask incredulously "Where did that come from?" Well, that's what we are living through with both of the older kids. The behavior is really nothing big. In any other family, it might be passed over, but I have learned that dealing with the little things, elimates dealing with the big things. So, this summer promises to interesting.
We are doing something that I have never before had the time, energy or inclination to do....a grand house purge. Six people can accumulate a ton of junk. I aim to get rid of it ALL. And I do mean all. It is totally complicating our lives. It makes it difficult to keep the house orderly, which in turn makes it difficult to invite people over on the spur of the moment. And for some reason, I feel like I am catching the hospitality bug. Yikes!
It was fun to delve into a recent post by the Pyromaniacs. I attend a Fundamental Baptist chuch, so the article held particular interest for me. Calvinist Fundalmentalist? Who knew. In that article, there was a link to another article which I really enjoyed. Entitled, Time To Speak Up, by Kevin T. Bauder, it really layed out why the leadership in the Fundamental Baptist have a problem with some of their congregants adhering to the doctrines put forth by Calvin. There is one thing that he said that was really interesting to me and a "duh" moment at the same time.
It seems never to have occurred to Pastor Sweatt that people might choose Calvinism precisely because they think it is what the Bible teaches. They are drawn to it, not because it is systematic or philosophical, but because they see it as biblical. Every Calvinist I know thinks of himself as a Biblicist.
The same is true of every Arminian I know. Neither side in this debate is conscious of attempting to force a theological grid upon the scriptures. Neither side sees itself rejecting the authority of the Bible. Both sides cling to their theology—often tenaciously—precisely because they think that they discover it in Scripture.
I can almost hear the clomp, clomp, clomp. We are nearing the end of Rookie's 4th grade year and yes, I am sad. In about 5 weeks, I will have a double digit kid. That is something that I can barely wrap my mind around. I am so thankful that the Lord changed my heart about homeschooling. When I think of where he could be and what our life could look like, I shudder!
But enough rambling.
We are winding down our school year fairly quickly. In an attempt to actually finish everything that we began, we are doing "double school", which is two days in one. At first I was skeptical. I did not want to go so fast that they were not getting what we were studying. However, it has turned out well. Probably, in large part, because we are now afternoon schoolers. That was a huge switch for us! But I was so frustrated every morning because it felt like I spent 5 hours hounding the kids non-stop to eat, get dressed, do their chores, do Math, do LA, read their Reader....quick, the boys are in their cribs....ignore Spunkster's thumping the wall with his crib, he will play for 20 minutes and we can do History, Science, and Bible. Ha! That never happened. Instead we always ending trying to school with Spunkster running around. It was not fun at all. My oldest had come to hate strongly dislike school. So I prayed and prayed and prayed, begging God to show me how to ease up on everything or change everything because it was painful for all of us!
I want you to know that He hears even the smallest prayer! Of course, He knew that this wasn't small to me. But you know, relatively speaking. When the idea popped into my head, it was like a cool breeze that hits your face when you are outside working in the garden (not that I ever do that, I don't). So now, the kids wake up, eat, do their chores, do their Math, LA and Reader seperately (which can be done with the babies awake) and then they have 2-3 hours of FREE TIME! Then lunch, a little picking up, babies go down for a 2 hour (please, please, please) nap and we start our Bible, Read Aloud, History, and Science.
It has tranformed my 9 year old back into the school lover that he once was! I find little notes that say: School is fun...even on Saturday. Or, School is cool. A.m.a.z.i.n.g. I know what the difference is, time. Time to leisurely read, look at the globe, answer questions, and simply talk about what we are learning. Time for Rookie and Rosie to learn without interuption. I am so thankful for this switch.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that during that 2-3 hours of free time that the big kids have, I have 1 1/2 hours to sit with Spunkster, watch Sesame Street, eat a snack and talk just with him! He is eating that up. He needs that quiet, one on one time as much as the others. OK, more than the others. He is my high maintenance child.
Rabbit Trail: Yesterday, we went out and picked up some "special lunch" because I had a horrendous headache. When we returned, Spunkster, as Rookie was attempting to help him into the house, fell on the driveway for the second time in 2 days. He was crying when we got him upstairs....because he wanted his french fries. So, I put him in his seat, gave him his food and he was a happy camper for the next 30 minutes. But, when I went to get him out of his high chair, I took off the tray, he glanced down and saw his skinned knees and started to scream hysterically "OWWIE! OWWIE! OWWIE!" When I put him on the floor, he limped around bawling. Finally, after 20 minutes of listening to his dramatic presentation (and cleaning up the knees), I told his brother to get him some pants so that he wouldn't see his skinned knees. Yup, it worked like a charm. That kid crack me UP.
So that is what our days look like now. I am sure that it will evolve and change as Spunkster gets older and when he eventually drops that afternoon nap. But for now, we are enjoying this time.
~Annemarie
So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. - Romans 8:8
Wow. The implications of this verse are incredible.
I was listening to a sermon yesterday and this statement really, really got to me.
You remember when David said, "Protect me from secret sins, hidden sins?" And to kill it you've got to recognize it {sin}, you've got to search it out. Psalm 139 is a good verse, verse 23, Psalm 139:23, remember this? "Search me, O God, and know my heart and try me and know my thoughts and see if there be...what?...any wicked way in me." Help me see my sinfulness. I want to recognize it for what it is. I want to get to the root of it. That's what's so fallacious about contemporary psychotherapy is that instead of having you deal with the reality of your present spiritual condition, it wants to drag you in the past and find somebody else who is responsible for your problem. You must deal with whatever is debilitating your life that is in you. And don't be deceived about how good you are. Believe me, your sin is there and it is wretched and it spurts forth between the cracks of your supposed righteousness. It comes out in anger and bitter words, unkind thoughts, criticism, self‑conceit, lack of understanding, impatience, weak prayers, immoral thoughts and even overt sins. You've got to know your weaknesses.
That last part (bolded) not only instructed me, it actually ministered peace. Sometimes, even though I know it's not true, I feel alone in my struggle with sinfulness. I think that is because we, as Christians, don't really want to talk honestly about our struggles with the flesh. Frequently we joke about it, but seldom do we discuss it in the context of seriously wanting it out of our lives.
Early in the sermon, he said this.
You spend so much of your life justifying your sin as a quirk of your personality or a product of your environment, you spend so much time sugar‑coating your habitual kinds of sins as simply idiosyncrasies of individuality or some prenatal predilection that mother had, or whatever, you have become so good...we all have...at coating over the reality of our sin that we don't see it and so we don't deal with it because we flat out, number one, don't even recognize it for what it is.
Wow. Just wow. The truth in this statement screams out to me. How many, many time I have said "That's just part of my personality." Or "That's just the way I am". Now I can see that the Spirit was screaming "NO! That is sin. Deal with it. And deal with it properly."
Now I am going to step on some toes...
You know my internet break? Well, far from revealing that I spent too much time on the internet, it revealed to me that I have a very monkish time personality. Instead of seeking balance, I tend to throw out the baby with the bath water. And then, think that I am righteous for doing so! Ack. I want to lock myself away from anything that carries with it temptation, when instead, I should (gasp) simply resist the temptation. I cannot, nor should I, live like a monk.
All of this reminds me of dieting. Until recently, I believed that the only way I could attain health, was to absolutely starve myself. That is not only an impossiblity, but the root thinking is untrue. I must learn to resist temptation and at the same time learn balance, eating regular food. But I had to recognize that I was doing it wrong in order to fix that way of thinking.
Well, I am thankful that Spunkster gave me an extra 30 minutes this morning, but I hear him calling me. I am so glad to be back. I really, really missed my friends!
~Annemarie
