After enduring such a hot week last week, with temperatures in the 90s, it was refreshing to have a low 80s day yesterday. Personally, my favorite temperature is mid-70s, so even 80 can be too warm sometimes. Yesterday, however, there was this nice breeze and blue skies, it was gorgeous. I sat on the porch swing in the afternoon and watched the kids playing outside and watched the white puffy clouds roll by in the bright blue sky. Made me incredibly happy to be home enjoying it with the kids.
One thing I'm noticing is even with all the time in the day, it is very hard to give each child some individual attention. It's pretty easy with the big boys because we can play a board game like checkers or chess. But with the little ones, I have to be more creative. Then with having twins, it is easy to lump them together and spend time with both of them at once. One of my twins has started having accidents in his pants and I think he is looking for attention.
Every day a new learning adventure....
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Week 1
The first week home has been awesome, exciting, rewarding, exhausting, overwhelming, and frustrating all at the same time. The beginning of the week, our au pair was still with us for two days. We went to Linesville, PA to see the Spillway. If you've never seen this, you should. There are so many fish. I mean SO many fish. There are so many carp that if you throw bread into the water they are literally swimming over each other to get to it. The tag line for the place is "Where ducks can walk on the fish".... and they do! Literally!
Tuesday we went to the zoo. This week we had a hot spell, so it was a roasty day with temps hitting the 90s. We rode the tram a bit to conserve energy and only stayed for a few hours. Grandma bought our au pair a ride on a camel as a special treat and then she treated all the grand kids to rides too. Grandma's are good for that kind of stuff. My older kids have been on the camel before, but it was the twins first times. Lots of photo opportunities.
Wednesday a friend called to see if I wanted to get together. After being gone for two days I was looking forward to a day at home. She said her younger children needed a nap first in the afternoon, so we wouldn't be able to go until around 4. Perfect!! Still can get stuff done around the house and hook up with friends. We went to a local sprinkle park. You mean I get to see friends outside of work too! This is great!
By Thursday, I was exhausted. First from all the running around, secondly from the heat, and thirdly from trying to accomplish a ton of housework in the midst of everything else. Even still I pushed through the day without a nap and accomplished some stuff. We moved my daughter back into her bed room which the au pair had been using so she was ecstatic.
The housework is the overwhelming part. I have cleaned our kitchen and swept the floor SO many times. Even with feeling like I'm constantly in the kitchen, the dishes have not been completely done even once. We average 5 dishwasher loads over 2 days -- almost after every meal. The kids have been helping too with putting dishes away and clearing the table etc, but still it's ALOT. And we haven't even started school work yet!! Oy!
Friday was nice. My husband is still part time. (Yes, supposed to change shortly) So he was home with us. Still feeling tired, but tried to accomplish stuff around the house. We went to a friends house to check out their garage sale and visited with our au pair. She is staying at their house for a week of vacation before going to a new family.
The older boys started swimming lessons this week too. They are daily, so I have to get everyone out of the house every morning and drag them to the pool. That's been cutting into the house work time too.
So all in all it's been a busy week, but I'm loving it! Really truly am glad to be home with them!!! Hopefully I'll make more headway on things next week!!!
Tuesday we went to the zoo. This week we had a hot spell, so it was a roasty day with temps hitting the 90s. We rode the tram a bit to conserve energy and only stayed for a few hours. Grandma bought our au pair a ride on a camel as a special treat and then she treated all the grand kids to rides too. Grandma's are good for that kind of stuff. My older kids have been on the camel before, but it was the twins first times. Lots of photo opportunities.
Wednesday a friend called to see if I wanted to get together. After being gone for two days I was looking forward to a day at home. She said her younger children needed a nap first in the afternoon, so we wouldn't be able to go until around 4. Perfect!! Still can get stuff done around the house and hook up with friends. We went to a local sprinkle park. You mean I get to see friends outside of work too! This is great!
By Thursday, I was exhausted. First from all the running around, secondly from the heat, and thirdly from trying to accomplish a ton of housework in the midst of everything else. Even still I pushed through the day without a nap and accomplished some stuff. We moved my daughter back into her bed room which the au pair had been using so she was ecstatic.
The housework is the overwhelming part. I have cleaned our kitchen and swept the floor SO many times. Even with feeling like I'm constantly in the kitchen, the dishes have not been completely done even once. We average 5 dishwasher loads over 2 days -- almost after every meal. The kids have been helping too with putting dishes away and clearing the table etc, but still it's ALOT. And we haven't even started school work yet!! Oy!
Friday was nice. My husband is still part time. (Yes, supposed to change shortly) So he was home with us. Still feeling tired, but tried to accomplish stuff around the house. We went to a friends house to check out their garage sale and visited with our au pair. She is staying at their house for a week of vacation before going to a new family.
The older boys started swimming lessons this week too. They are daily, so I have to get everyone out of the house every morning and drag them to the pool. That's been cutting into the house work time too.
So all in all it's been a busy week, but I'm loving it! Really truly am glad to be home with them!!! Hopefully I'll make more headway on things next week!!!
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Welcome Home!
When I got home from work yesterday, the kids were all sitting on the couch waiting for me to walk through the door. When I did, they yelled,
"WELCOME HOME!!"
My oldest son made this for me....
"WELCOME HOME!!"
My oldest son made this for me....
Notice the little people on the right. This is mommy homeschooling the two boys. Brings a tear to my eye :)
Friday, July 15, 2011
Never early...
... never late, always on time. Our God is faithful!
Today is my last day at work. It's hard to believe the time has finally come and this day is here. I know that God's timing in this whole journey has been perfect. While this is the end of one journey, a whole new one is beginning.
But for now, we celebrate! I bought a bowling deal from Groupon a while back, so we decided to take the kids out and go bowling this afternoon. Should be some great family time!!
<*Happy dance*>
Today is my last day at work. It's hard to believe the time has finally come and this day is here. I know that God's timing in this whole journey has been perfect. While this is the end of one journey, a whole new one is beginning.
But for now, we celebrate! I bought a bowling deal from Groupon a while back, so we decided to take the kids out and go bowling this afternoon. Should be some great family time!!
<*Happy dance*>
Monday, July 11, 2011
The home stretch - Baseball pun intended :)
This week is my last week of work. Only 5 work days to go. If this were a fairy tale, the prince and princess would be getting married and we'd be about 5 minutes away from the credits rolling. However, they never show you in the movies, life after the fairy tale. That's what we're bracing for. I've been really excited the past few weeks to see this day coming. Even when I think about money, I know that God is going to provide. My faith is increasing. However, I don't expect it to be easy at all.
Even in light of getting ready to face the storm/valley, whatever would be considered a low difficult time, God has still been blessing us amazingly. My company offers a yearly summer event at the ball park for the families of employees. You are given two free tickets and are able to purchase additional tickets at half price. Even at half price, the remainder of our family would cost about $67. (Side note: Why is everything so expensive when you need a quantity of 7 ???) My father, who also works for the company, and I started asking around for anyone not using their tickets. God blessed us with enough tickets to take our whole family!!! And food/drinks are included in the event so it will be a fun night for the family that will only cost us the price of parking!!!
Secondly, another thing my company offers is to volunteer at a baseball game during some of the kids events. As a bonus for volunteering you get tickets to a future baseball game. I decided to volunteer yesterday and received vouchers for 4 Club seat tickets to any future game. These are $100 tickets that include a full buffet of food!! We decided to break up the tickets and get 2 tickets to 2 different games so that my husband and I could enjoy two "free" date nights over the next couple months. I scheduled the games about 6 weeks apart to maximize the fun and date time needed. Again, this is an evening that will only cost us the price of parking.
A good friend told me to be prepared for these kinds of blessings and I have to admit, this has been really fun to see God pouring out His gifts on us. Doing things God's way may confound the wise, but God rewards those who diligently seek Him.
If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7:11
Even in light of getting ready to face the storm/valley, whatever would be considered a low difficult time, God has still been blessing us amazingly. My company offers a yearly summer event at the ball park for the families of employees. You are given two free tickets and are able to purchase additional tickets at half price. Even at half price, the remainder of our family would cost about $67. (Side note: Why is everything so expensive when you need a quantity of 7 ???) My father, who also works for the company, and I started asking around for anyone not using their tickets. God blessed us with enough tickets to take our whole family!!! And food/drinks are included in the event so it will be a fun night for the family that will only cost us the price of parking!!!
Secondly, another thing my company offers is to volunteer at a baseball game during some of the kids events. As a bonus for volunteering you get tickets to a future baseball game. I decided to volunteer yesterday and received vouchers for 4 Club seat tickets to any future game. These are $100 tickets that include a full buffet of food!! We decided to break up the tickets and get 2 tickets to 2 different games so that my husband and I could enjoy two "free" date nights over the next couple months. I scheduled the games about 6 weeks apart to maximize the fun and date time needed. Again, this is an evening that will only cost us the price of parking.
A good friend told me to be prepared for these kinds of blessings and I have to admit, this has been really fun to see God pouring out His gifts on us. Doing things God's way may confound the wise, but God rewards those who diligently seek Him.
If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7:11
Monday, June 27, 2011
It's Official
I submitted my letter of resignation last week. My last day at work is July 15. Kind of crazy, but there's no turning back now. I'm happy to say that I am very excited at this point. I have had tremendous peace for a few weeks now and just trusting the Lord that he will not leave us hanging.
Some of our curriculum came in the mail today and the kids are "rip raring" to go. They asked me if we could start school today. Umm... no. Not until I finish work. I've got so much going on with leaving my job that I've been pretty busy.
Who would have thought that leaving a job could be so busy? I have to worry about transferring our health insurance, making sure I have all my online accounts set up to my personal email account, and make sure all my personal files are off of my work computer.
News had started to spread around work and I've been a little surprised at some of the responses. All have been good! One manager told me she wishes she had done this when her kids were small. Now they are grown and she wishes she could have spent that time with them. Another person couldn't believe I was home schooling!! Some one else had no idea I had FIVE children, as she emphasized. Everyone by far has said good things though.
So here we are. The count down continues. Only 13 more days of work and 3 weeks until I'm home full time.
Some of our curriculum came in the mail today and the kids are "rip raring" to go. They asked me if we could start school today. Umm... no. Not until I finish work. I've got so much going on with leaving my job that I've been pretty busy.
Who would have thought that leaving a job could be so busy? I have to worry about transferring our health insurance, making sure I have all my online accounts set up to my personal email account, and make sure all my personal files are off of my work computer.
News had started to spread around work and I've been a little surprised at some of the responses. All have been good! One manager told me she wishes she had done this when her kids were small. Now they are grown and she wishes she could have spent that time with them. Another person couldn't believe I was home schooling!! Some one else had no idea I had FIVE children, as she emphasized. Everyone by far has said good things though.
So here we are. The count down continues. Only 13 more days of work and 3 weeks until I'm home full time.
Monday, June 20, 2011
CHEO Conference
This past weekend, we attended the CHEO (Christian Home Educators of Ohio) conference in Akron, OH. On Thursday was a Family Discipleship seminar by Matthew and Maranatha Chapman. The key points I came away with, that spoke to me were:
1. Seed produces after its kind. If the parents are selfish, the kids will be selfish. Conversely if the parents are givers the kids will be givers.
2. Home environment should be a safe place.
3. God gives grace to the humble
4. Conversation should always edify, even in jesting.
5. We have to die to what we want. Life is not about you, it's about Him.
6. Don't complain, we make a place for the enemy.
7. Life is messy. Its about how we approach the spills.
8. Make sure you have the hearts of your children each morning.
Friday, my husband was able to join me for the day as well as my eldest son. We saw some more great speakers.
One of the speakers talked about homeschooling with preschoolers. My take-aways from that were:
1. Children are a blessing from the Lord
2. There is a time for everything
3. Keep a solid routine - not necessarily time-based, but routine. Morning devotions followed by breakfast, followed by .... etc.
4. Don't give up on nap time too soon. Even if it's just quiet time on their bed.
5. Keep "Activities in a bag" or a list of what the littles like to do on hand
6. Focus on the ministry (personal) to your children, less management (impersonal).
Two of the sessions we attended that day were by a sweet couple named Jenni and Matt Cox. They struck me as the type of people we would get along with great provided more time to spend with them. Here are some points I got from them:
1. A wise man chooses his destination and accepts the path. A fool chooses the path and accepts the destination.
7 Purposes of Marriage
1. Partnership
2. Power
3. Pleasure
4. Pro-creation
5. Protection
6. Picture of Christ and His church
7. Peace - place of trust and sincerity.
After attending our sessions on Friday we realized we didn't focus too much on home schooling sessions, so Saturday we tried to hit some practical home schooling sessions. We heard J. Michael Smith talk about measuring home school success. He used 1 Cor 15:58 as the standard for judging success.
Here are his 5 pre-requisites for success:
1. Be part of the 'my beloved'
2. 'this work' - the work of the Lord
3. 'be steadfast' - be excellent
4. Be immovable
5. Abounding in the work of the Lord - overflowing
And the outcome is that your work will 'not be in vain'.
Lastly we heard Steve Demme talk about strategies for understanding one another. We've had lots of sibling conflict and rivalry going on in our home lately that I was really looking for some ideas on that. Steve talked about these points:
1. Pray for your wife and family
2. Learn each others love languages
3. Communication
4. Personalities
5. Birth Order
I have some other notes taken, but that was the main stuff I walked away from the conference with. I really enjoyed the whole thing and look forward to going again in the future. We also were able to purchase the remainder of the curriculum we needed and are looking forward to packages in the mail. The boys are already asking if we can start school early.... ahh, if only that would last!
1. Seed produces after its kind. If the parents are selfish, the kids will be selfish. Conversely if the parents are givers the kids will be givers.
2. Home environment should be a safe place.
3. God gives grace to the humble
4. Conversation should always edify, even in jesting.
5. We have to die to what we want. Life is not about you, it's about Him.
6. Don't complain, we make a place for the enemy.
7. Life is messy. Its about how we approach the spills.
8. Make sure you have the hearts of your children each morning.
Friday, my husband was able to join me for the day as well as my eldest son. We saw some more great speakers.
One of the speakers talked about homeschooling with preschoolers. My take-aways from that were:
1. Children are a blessing from the Lord
2. There is a time for everything
3. Keep a solid routine - not necessarily time-based, but routine. Morning devotions followed by breakfast, followed by .... etc.
4. Don't give up on nap time too soon. Even if it's just quiet time on their bed.
5. Keep "Activities in a bag" or a list of what the littles like to do on hand
6. Focus on the ministry (personal) to your children, less management (impersonal).
Two of the sessions we attended that day were by a sweet couple named Jenni and Matt Cox. They struck me as the type of people we would get along with great provided more time to spend with them. Here are some points I got from them:
1. A wise man chooses his destination and accepts the path. A fool chooses the path and accepts the destination.
7 Purposes of Marriage
1. Partnership
2. Power
3. Pleasure
4. Pro-creation
5. Protection
6. Picture of Christ and His church
7. Peace - place of trust and sincerity.
After attending our sessions on Friday we realized we didn't focus too much on home schooling sessions, so Saturday we tried to hit some practical home schooling sessions. We heard J. Michael Smith talk about measuring home school success. He used 1 Cor 15:58 as the standard for judging success.
Here are his 5 pre-requisites for success:
1. Be part of the 'my beloved'
2. 'this work' - the work of the Lord
3. 'be steadfast' - be excellent
4. Be immovable
5. Abounding in the work of the Lord - overflowing
And the outcome is that your work will 'not be in vain'.
Lastly we heard Steve Demme talk about strategies for understanding one another. We've had lots of sibling conflict and rivalry going on in our home lately that I was really looking for some ideas on that. Steve talked about these points:
1. Pray for your wife and family
2. Learn each others love languages
3. Communication
4. Personalities
5. Birth Order
I have some other notes taken, but that was the main stuff I walked away from the conference with. I really enjoyed the whole thing and look forward to going again in the future. We also were able to purchase the remainder of the curriculum we needed and are looking forward to packages in the mail. The boys are already asking if we can start school early.... ahh, if only that would last!
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