Feeling Adequately Inadequate

Every now and then I will be driving down the road and think of something so ridiculously witty and on point that I cannot wait to get home to write it out. Then I get home and life. Suffice it to say, today was one of those days. I have absolutely no idea what it was that I wanted to share with the world, but imagine it was terribly insightful and hilarious and then thank me for having a profound impact on your life.

Now that we have that out of the way, I feel the need to actually share something with my adoring audience. (Hi, hubby!)

But, I’ve got nothing. Absolutely, nothing. Which strangely sums up my life as of late. There is so much going on all the time, almost too much, yet I have the feeling that I am only spinning my wheels. Maybe this is what it feels like to be a stay-at-home-mom and homeschool teacher. I’m still learning, so I could be wrong. I don’t recall reading any labels about being a SAHM that said Caution: May Invoke Feelings of Inability to Accomplish Anything. Were they there and I was ignoring them?

I cannot be the only one that feels this way, can I? Am I?

The realization is ever present of how blessed I am to be able to stay home with our children, to not only take care of their everyday needs, but to also learn them a thing or two… or everything they need to know to be productive and responsible adults. Wow. I am blessed. But I am also a wreck.

My mind has been scrambled, like the image of the eggs, “This is your brain. This is your brain with 3 kids.” Down is up and up is to the left and I think I forgot to put the load of clothes in the dryer. 3 days ago.

My body is in shambles. Yeah, I don’t really want to go there. Big sigh. You know what 3 kids has brought me? 25 to 30 extra pounds. Thanks, kids. And the ability to carry 100 pounds worth of babies and bags in a single leap. Plus a sore back.

My house. Hm.

My clothes. Stained and bigger than I’d like them to be.

My car. Old, noisy, and filthy.

My entertainment. Cartoons, cartoons, and cartoons. Seriously. Even when they are all asleep and the man is not around, I find myself watching cartoons. The Jungle Book is currently playing. I chose it.

My personal time. Limited.

My life. Wonderful.

My heart. Full.

My worth. Endless.

My family. Priceless.

Growing and educating a family is not about meeting deadlines. This is something I need to be reminded of at times, because before children, I worked in a world where every single project had a deadline. And people counted on me to meet those deadlines. Now I work for little monsters who only understand “right now” and I’ve been commissioned to train and prepare them for Eternity. The thing about that is, I do not know when this deadline will be. So, I’ll spin my wheels. I’ll leave those clothes in the washing machine one more day (don’t judge). I’ll focus on my family’s emotional and spiritual needs and feel as if I’m accomplishing nothing, all the while knowing that every single thing I say and do adds to or takes from their well-being. Even the things I don’t say or do.

I’ll continue to feel inadequate, because how could I possibly be fit to do this kind of job? Yet, it is precisely this kind of job that I was created for, so I am the exact person to do it. Mistakes will happen, forgiveness will be sought, love will increase, wisdom will be obtained, and I still will not be able to remember what I originally wanted to write about.

~Lisa

Naming Our School

I have been thinking for the past couple of hours about what we could name our homeschool. You know, for when we want to incorporate a mascot and for our letterhead. Well, maybe it is really because I didn't feel like teaching today and this was a good way to waste some time. Yep.

Anyway, while searching the web for some inspiration I came across this website that has a school name generator. Try it out, it was fun and entertaining.

Some of my favorite names from that generator:
The Useful Prep School of Weird Children - This one probably describes most schools, public and private, because aren't all children just a bit weird. It gave me a chuckle. Then I saw The Freaky Boarding School of Beautiful Education. I don't have anything to add to that, it is a pretty great name, haha. Another name I enjoyed because it is basically exactly what a homeschool is, that is The Complete Boarding School. But my absolute favorite was The Over-Whelmed School, this encompasses everything about our school right now. I doubt that will ever change.

So other than something simple like School, I cannot think of anything real catchy to name our school. What are your ideas? If you homeschool and named your school, what is your name? 

The more I think about it, I might just name it The Experiment.

~Lisa

Our Very First Day of Co-Op

This past Friday was our first day to participate in our homeschool co-op. My big little girl A was so excited to be going to co-op, just like she has been excited about all things related to school. I think we got us an academic on her hands; time will tell.

We got her all set up with a princess backpack and a Hello Kitty lunchbox and then the obligatory 'first day of school' pictures. Here's one:

It feels like there should be some catchy title to it about being smart, or filling her brain full of new facts, or something more witty than I am this morning. What it really is was her sassing us with "The sun is in my eyes!" Wonder if we can get her to reenact this picture for the rest of her school years?

We tried a few more times and got some normal looking ones, with the sun still in her eyes. You will be relieved to know that she survived the first day of school pictures and I think she will only be slightly scarred, not enough to warrant any concern. Here's another:

Of course we could have turned her the other direction, but then the sun would have been in our eyes, and that just cannot be. 

There is a daycare behind our house and a chain link fence where the kids will occasionally line up and watch us and our shenanigans. This day was no exception. By the time we were done taking pictures there were a few little kids staring and wondering what in the world those crazy parents are doing. Big girl waved at them and off we went to jump in the car and head to co-op.

The first day of co-op went quite well, to me. She really enjoyed getting to be in a room of 20 pre-schoolers. I think the teachers made it through too. That is a lot of 3 to 5 year old kids in one room. Each class lasted 55 minutes and she had Pre-School Language Arts, Discovery Science, Little Artists, and Sing & Play. Oh and little baby girl had her own nursery class she spent the day in with 4 other littles. 

I was assigned to help in each of the girls' classes throughout the day, starting with the nursery and going back and forth. I enjoyed getting to help with all those sweet kids and their wonderful teachers, and getting to watch big little girl in action. Those pre-school kids are fun and chaotic and more fun. Some of them had been in this same co-op last year and knew what to expect, but it looked like quite a few of them were new to this like we are. They all did so well considering it was new to them. My favorite moment of the day was when one little boy proclaimed to me "I drink my bath water!" How I did not bust up laughing, I do not know! Terribly cute. In the classes that I helped with there was a good mixture of learning and playing time. Of course by the 4th period, most of the kids were done for the day so it was a little more difficult to keep their attention. And there were a lot of awesome toys in the room to get their attention. 

On the way home I was asking her all about her day. "Did you like having mommy help in your class?" "No. You need to teach your own class and not come in mine." "Why?" "Because when all the girls were quiet, YOU talked." Gasp! I'm so terrible! Oh, my little girl is growing up. 

We are already looking forward to next Friday. The ladies that organize this co-op are doing a fantastic job of setting up all the classes and keeping things rolling along quite well. I think there were over 100 kids plus most of their mommies, and one daddy. My husband graciously offered to teach a class our first semester, so it is nice to get to see him there too. He is a natural when it comes to teaching. He is teaching the older kids and I know he'll do a fantastic job.

Hope you are having a wonderful day so far!

~Lisa

The Basics of our Homeschool

I think I may finally be getting my head wrapped around this huge undertaking. I need to find some time this weekend to finish setting up our homeschool room, again, and then I do believe we will be hitting the books beginning this Monday.

For now I wanted to share with you my goals for our first year of preschool and our general schedule that we will be attempting to follow. All so that this girl can get her learning on.

I had a moment of clarification a couple of weeks ago and it took so much stress off of me in just a matter of seconds. I was knee deep in opened tabs on my browser, trying to jam entirely too much information into my brain when it hit me, I have a goal. A real true goal. A goal that we can so meet. We do not need to build the house this first year, we only need to set the foundation. With that said, our main goal this year is to get the girl used to homeschool, oh and this mom too. Do-a-ble! The other goals will be to teach her to recognize and write her letters and numbers, memorize some Scriptures, learn some sight words, and learn to enjoy learning. Our goals will most likely change and be added to as we progress, which is okay.

Once I figured out what my big goal was, I was able to decide on some curriculum I found online from three different sources and I will be piecing those together to make it into what I believe the girl will respond to. It will take a little extra planning and time each week than what I had hoped, but I think this will work best for us at this time.

With a curriculum in mind, I was able to write out a daily schedule. Currently, it is the plan to homeschool Monday through Thursday and then go to co-op on Friday. If we are not feeling it any specific day, then we just won't do school, no biggie. Flexibility is key. Also, this is absolutely not going to be an all day thing, we'll work on it when we can through out the day and keep the activities short and simple.

The schedule, so far, will begin with a prayer and we will move on from there. I hope to make a cute little schedule I can post on the wall with graphics that she will be able to follow. When I get that done, I will be sure to share it with you. But here is what I have so far:

• Prayer
• Pledge
• Calendar work
• Bible class
• Alphabet work
• Reading
• Sight word work
• Snack break
• Number work
• Shapes and colors work
• Games or Art
• Clean up

I guess we will see if all of this planning works out or if it just goes by the wayside in a couple of days. Either way, it has been a learning process for me and I feel just a little bit better about what we are about to do. Now I still have my moments where I don't think we will be able to do this, but I am trying to push through those.

Hope everyone's school year has started out as you hoped, whether you are homeschooling or not. I would love to hear how you prepare things from year to year!

~Lisa

Summer: Too Busy

Our summer has been busy busy, so far. Thankfully, it looks like the busiest part of it is behind us just in time for our life overhaul. When I thought we would make major changes in our home beginning August 1st I actually thought that meant I would have time to research, plan, and make smaller changes prior to August 1st. Instead we are 1 day away and the only thing I think we have done is... Okay, I can't think of anything.

Wait, I cleaned out his closet. That's something, right?

So here we are, 1 day away from starting homeschooling and we are not ready. Which is absolutely not a big deal, the girl is only 3 and at this age we do not need much. But I did want to be ready. What I have figured out is a make-shift plan and that I really could just have her watch Leap Frog videos on Netflix and call it a day. I am teasing. Sort of.

I have been working off and on, well thinking about working on a menu plan for weeks now. Yesterday I finally sat down and noted some easy-ish dinners and I am hoping that today I will be able to plan out the month and then plan a grocery shopping trip. Those are always fun. Side note: We bought a Boba carrier a little while back, and that thing is awesome! I get the most use out of it when grocery shopping. That way I can carry little one and the big 3 year old can sit in the shopping cart and I actually have a place to put groceries. I love it! End of side note.

The budget stuff that I planned to have ready will just have to wait until I am done with the menu planning. We do okay with a mental budget, but I really need it down in written form.

This past month has been trip after trip after trip for our family. The husband was gone a lot taking various out of town trips for work, Bible camp, and a dear friend's wedding. Then right after he was finished with his big trips, the girls and I left for a week visiting family with my parents. We saw family in Tennessee and Ohio. I got to meet my dad's biological mother for the very first time, which was pretty neat. Then we had an 18 hour drive home in one day. Can I just say how lucky I am to have 2 little girls that travel really well? Imagine 18 hours sitting in a car, now imagine being 6 months old and 3 years old and sitting in a car for 18 hours. They were rock stars! There was a little whimpering about 14 hours into it, but for the most part they were great. Come to think of it, the whimpering was probably from me.

So with 1 day left before I start forcing myself to make big changes, today I will just do little things and enjoy time with my girls. Starting with going back to bed. ;)

Hope you will enjoy your day too.

~Lisa

Why?

I am not sure why it seems so difficult to write regular blog posts. Well, other than the fact that I don't really feel like I have all that much to say. Yet, here I am trying once again to entertain.

Things have been going great for our little family. Sweet Girl is 18 months old and as sweet as ever. Sometimes I wish I could clone her and have about 7 more, then she starts to throw a full body tantrum and I change my mind. Oh yes, the full body fits are fun to deal with and take a lot of skill on the parents' side. Not only are you trying to get your kid to stop the tantrum but you are also trying to keep the kid from hurting his or herself by banging their little heads on the floor/table/bed/wall/tub/concrete/you name it. I'm sure I never caused my mom so much trouble, she must have gotten this trait from her daddy. (I'm joking, of course.) Even despite the crazy Toddler Tantrums she is the most precious thing I've ever seen. Not biased at all here.

The past few weeks she has decided she wants to hug and kiss all.the.time. I love it! Her daddy loves it too. I see such sweetness and innocence in her and I hope she will always be that sweet and innocent.

Sweet Man and I made the decision before we even had little girl that we would homeschool her when the time comes. I have been thinking about it alot lately and trying to do a little research online for different curriculums and resources. It really is overwhelming! Now I most likely will not start anything with her until she is 3 or 4, so I have at least a year and half to get my head wrapped around the enormous responsibility this will be. Obviously, things could always change so it is not 100% definite that we will be homeschooling, but it is what we are planning on. If you have taught your children at home or have ever taken time to research the possibility you'll understand where I'm coming from when I say it is overwhelming. There is just so much information out there to weed through. I think, at least to start, what I need is curriculum that includes everything I would need for a year. Now to find a good one for preschool age. Again, I have a year and a half I just really like to be prepared.

So that is a tidbit of what has been on my mind lately. I hope your life is just as peachy.

~Lisa