Today

Today Todd went back to work after a 5 day weekend. Today the dog vomited on the carpet while I was in the shower. Today the dog ran away (again). Today the dog came home (I didn't chase her) covered in some animal's poop less than an hour before we had to leave for a doctors appointment. Today Cadence pooped all over the bathroom floor, down the back of her pants and made a trail through the hallway because she couldn't hold it anymore.

All of this before noon! As I was cleaning up the poop, I thought - why couldn't this day have happened yesterday when Todd was home to help deal with it? What did I do to deserve - but my conscience would not let me finish that thought. Because I was asking what I had done to deserve being stuck cleaning poop on the floor and I realized that "what I deserve" is much worse than cleaning poop off the floor, and what I have is far beyond a pile of poo. I have a cute little house that is warm and safe. I am married to a man that adores me and the 3 beautiful, intelligent children that we have. We do not know hunger, we have running water, and on and on the list goes, culminating with "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions." Eph. 2:4-5

So I am thankful for today in all of its chaos as it serves to remind me of the grace and mercy of God as he has given me much, much more than I ever deserved!

No Greater Joy

"No Greater Joy" is the name of a parenting magazine and ministry that I enjoy. In their latest issue I came across this article. It made me laugh, and I thought it was worth sharing. The article is written by Michael Pearl, who along with his wife wrote the book To Train Up a Child several years ago. There are a few of their ideas that I don't agree with (they believe King James is the only true version of the Bible) but they have a lot of great insights on building relationships with your kids and training them while they are young. Subscription to the magazine is free, or you can read more at www.nogreaterjoy.org

Don't send a grandpa to do a mother's work
By: Michael Pearl

"Either I have forgotten what it is like to be solely responsible for a two-year-old, or I have gotten out of shape—both physically and mentally.

My daughter Shoshanna left Jeremiah with Debi and me for the afternoon. Somehow, Deb had to go somewhere right before lunch, and I ended up with Jeremiah. No problem. I can handle kids. I prepared a good dinner, but he didn’t want to eat anything except beans and cantaloupe.
Kids take a nap after eating, right? So he selected a book, and we sat in the rocking chair as I read the “exciting” story. I finished reading, and he still showed no signs of getting sleepy, but after having five children and watching my wife, I knew just what to do. I took him to our bedroom, and we lay down together. My plans were that as soon as he got to sleep, I would go back to work.
He kept fidgeting until he got bored, and then he started in on me. He climbed on me and jumped up and down like a bull rider. I bucked him off and told him in my most commanding voice, “Go to sleep.” Instead, he grabbed my nose and tried to unscrew it. My mother had it permanently attached, and it didn’t come loose, but it was not his fault. I knocked his hand away and rapped him on the head with a knuckle before whining my protest. He lay still for a minute, and then out of nowhere, he hit me with a pillow and let out his inherited rebel yell. I was under assault, so I grabbed a pillow and held it tight over my head so he couldn’t hit me with his. He was still for a minute, and then I felt additional pillows being piled on top of the one already covering my head. He then threw the covers over the pile of well-placed pillows and pressed his body down on the top. He was trying to smother me to death! I ran out of air real fast and had to come up gasping. He rolled off the pile, but managed to bore his little finger into my belly button as he passed by. I catapulted him to the other side of the bed and commenced complaining strongly. He thought it was quite an achievement and complimented himself with a triumphant dance in the middle of the king-size bed.
Finally, I had had enough, so I searched into my past and found my scariest voice, commanded him in no uncertain terms that his mother expected him to take a nap, and that he was going to take a nap if we had to stay there all afternoon. He got quiet for the first time. Under my pile of protective pillows, I grinned my victory. A couple minutes passed, and I realized I had won, and I did it without having to read To Train Up A Child!
I was thinking, “In a minute he will be asleep, and I will be able to get up and go back to . . .” I heard a yell coming from somewhere far away, and I struggled to consciousness. I had been asleep! He put me to sleep!I jumped up and staggered to the kitchen. He was standing in the middle of the floor with his legs spread apart, pointing to a pile . . . no, two piles . . . no, four or five piles . . . and a number of spears of brown, stinky, cantaloupe and beans poopoo—on my kitchen floor! He was whining and complaining and explaining why he could not go to the bathroom, because he couldn’t undo the buttons on his pants. He was very unhappy with himself, and he blamed me for sleeping when I was supposed to be babysitting. At least, that’s the way I interpreted his jabber.
I picked up the miserable little fellow, holding him at arm’s length to avoid contamination. I regretted getting rid of that old 1950s bio suit last year. When I tried to put him into the tub, clothes and all, he began to resist. I later found out that he doesn’t like to be in the tub. To hold on to him and get him undressed, I had to change my grip several times. You guessed it, I got contaminated. I didn’t know whether to take my clothes off and get in the tub with him or to try to clean him up first. At the thought of sharing a tub with him, a premonition of impending disaster came over me. So I stripped him and washed him from head to foot—three times—him hollering the whole time. I knew he was going to tell bad things about me when the women showed up.
I then cleaned up the kitchen floor, but since I didn’t have a change of clothes for him, I wrapped him in a towel and sat down to hold him until he went to sleep. He never did go to sleep. When the ladies returned, I handed him off to his mother and told them that I never could get him to take a nap. Shoshanna said, “Oh, I fed him and gave him a nap before I brought him over.” Then from the kitchen I heard my wife ask, “What is this brown stuff on the floor?” Over my shoulder, as I was heading out the door, I said, “See you girls later. So long, poop head.”
To all mothers of two-year-olds, you have my deepest respect."

Halloween

Monday night we carved our pumpkins. Gabriel and Cadence both quickly decided that scooping guts out of pumpkins is gross, and they didn't want to do it. Jacob, on the other hand, seemed to really enjoy it and he wanted to scoop everyone's pumpkin. We made an executive decision not to roast the pumpkin seeds, since Todd and I both have childhood memories of our moms making the pumpkin seeds and us really not liking them.

As Halloween was drawing near, the kids watched Lord of the Rings. Cadence fell in love with Gollum, and wanted to be nothing else for Halloween. Gabriel got on that bandwagon and was going back and forth between a hobbit and Legolas. I wanted him to be a hobbit because I always call him my little hobbit. He used have curls, he is short, and he likes to eat 8 meals a day - just like a hobbit. But, I was sad to discover that they do not make Gollum costumes for children... Furthermore, there were no Lord of the Rings costumes to be found in Syracuse and to buy them online would run me about $40 each after shipping.

Todd in all his wisdom was able to convince Cadence to be the fighting princess in Lord of the Rings. Gabriel settled on Legolas, and Jacob agreed to go along with the theme and be Aragorn. I made Cadence's dress and Jacob's costume. For Gabriel I found a used costume on ebay that included the Legolas wig.

Cadence may have agreed to be a princess for Halloween, but she still loves Gollum. Often when Todd and I call her, she doesn't answer the first time and after two or three times she will say "I'm not Cadence, I'm Gollum." So we say "Gollum, come here" and she runs right over. She plays Gollum all the time. Several mornings she had taken off her pajamas and run around the house naked before I had a chance to get her dressed- I thought this was because she likes to be naked. When I try to dress her she tells me "Gollum doesn't wear clothes" which is true. See, just a loin cloth...So I assumed this her way of trying to stay naked as long as possible. But the other day I caught her taking the pajamas. I asked her to wait because I couldn't get her dressed right then. She said "Gollum doesn't wear pajamas!" And she doesn't fuss about wearing underwear, "Gollum does wear underwear." I have decided that it isn't so much about being naked as it is about embracing the role of Gollum. Naked Gollum uses pillows for her house too - I'm not sure how this relates to the movie, but she does it every day.

Reading Lesson

I've been struggling with how to teach Gabriel long vowels because most of the first grade reading books won't hold his interest (he may have the brains of a 5 year old, but I guess his attention span is more like that of a normal 3 year old). By the time the books get to long vowels, the stories are pretty long and everything I have tried has black and white pictures. So I am improvising right now, taking word lists from a set of books I have, and writing some of the sentences from the stories on the white board.

Gabriel really enjoys working on the white board, especially when he gets to erase things. Then, after we have done several word lists and sentences, I let him draw a picture on the board for one of my sentences. Today's sentence was "Ray will take a nap." Gabe set to work illustrating the picture, and he was whispering "This is his head. This is his stuffed animal. These are his eyes." I thought it was funny that he was whispering, so I whispered to Gabe, "You have to be quiet so Ray can take his nap." He looked at me and whispered back "Ray isn't real you know." He just cracks me up!

Fraggles Rock!!

When I saw Fraggle Rock on Netflix, I had to rent it - for the kids. When we put it in I said to Todd, "We are probably going to think - why did we ever like this show?" But 20 years later, the fraggles did not disappoint. Neither one of us could remember there being so much music in the show, but it was all so well done!

We let them watch one episode the first night and they begged for more all day the next day. When we let them watch it again, Cadence said "I like the bagels".

Dueling Dukey

Let me start by saying that the word "dukey" has recently been revived in my vocabulary. I don't remember how it happened - it may have come from a movie or something. But I think it is a funny word, and I have been using a lot. This bothers my boy genius who says "Mom, can you just call it poop?"

So, last week Jacob came home from his father's house informing us that his sisters had been sick, and the step-mom was throwing up the night Jacob was there. He was worried about getting sick, and rightly so because he tends to bring home all kinds of stuff from their house. And the next night it hit him. Wouldn't you think that by age 8 you would be able to puke into the garbage can without getting it all over the carpet every time? Well, Jake can't. The night of vomiting was followed by several days of diarrhea.

Then Cadence got it and shared it with her beloved daddy. Todd hasn't thrown up but has been feeling sick all week. Then yesterday, it hit me. Last night we were trying to watch our favorite night of television, but we ended up playing "dueling dukey" while we watched TV. We only have one toilet (unless you count the training potty) and we were taking turns running upstairs saying "tell me what I missed". Thankfully our stomachs were on a slightly different schedule. In the 2 hours of television that we watched, I don't think that we watched more than 25 minuets of it together.

So thank you, David, for bringing my son into your germ infested house once again! We are waiting for him to come up with $150 to pay his lawyer to redraft the surrender document so that we can get this adoption moving. The way he operates, that will probably take months...

Get them to the ranch

I think I have mentioned before that my sister, Cathy, and her family are in the process of moving to PA to pursue full time ministry at Miracle Mountain Ranch. They are actively looking for churches to speak at as they seek support (both financial and prayer). So far, they have traveled to Maine and various places throughout New York. So, if you are interested, or have a possible church connection for them, they would appreciate it. The ranch is a really neat place, and provides some great opportunities for young adults who might not want a traditional college education - you can earn an accredited associates degree in 1 calander year, while doing lots of hands on learing and character development. So here are excerpts from their current newsletter...

"We have been very busy the past two months. It is hard to believe that two months have gone by since we sent our first newsletter. Yet, it is also incredible what God has done in that short amount of time. It has been a blessing to see Him provide in many ways.
As we mentioned in our last letter. We hoped to move to the ranch at the beginning of September. Unfortunately, we have not been able to move yet. The last step that needs to take place is for our house in Syracuse to sell. We have a buyer who is very interested but the gentlemen works locally with the United Auto Worker’s Union and the union contract is in negotiations. He does not want to commit to purchasing a home until that is resolved. We had another couple look at the house yesterday. Lord willing, we will be free from the mortgage soon and be able to move.
In the meantime, Roger has been able to continue working with Kurt Peschka. It has been a real blessing to work for someone who is willing to be flexible. His flexibility has allowed us to work at the ranch a few times and travel to speak and share about our new work. We are grateful that the Lord has provided employment in this time of transition....

The day after graduation we headed to Maine for a series of meetings. Roger was able to preach at a few churches and present our new work. We were able to stay with Roger’s uncle Eric and his family. We always have a great time with them. We even got to do some sight seeing with them and Grandma Look.During our visits and meetings several churches and individuals mentioned they would be praying for us and they would consider helping us with financial support. We are so thankful for the many gifts and words of prayer and encouragement. PRAISE the LORD!! We have really enjoyed the opportunity to make new friends and to share about the ranch and the GOOD News of the gospel with some who have never heard of the hope that we have in Jesus Christ.

Please continue to pray:
· That we will have more opportunities to share the GOOD NEWS
· For our home to sell and for more financial support (we are currently at 55% of our total need)
· Praise for the gifts and support (both prayer and financial) that many have given already.
Even as we await the sale of our home we are hoping to be able to spend some more time at the ranch getting to know this year’s apprentices and helping with projects. We are also looking for more opportunities to share the ministry with churches and individuals. Please feel free to contact us if you would like more information or would like to be added to the Miracle Mountain Ranch mailing list."

They can be reached at rpiger at aol dot com.

4 and 1!

Coach Kelly managed to orchestrate another win Saturday morning, guaranteeing that the "Green Snakes" will finish above .500 this season. We didn't deserve the win this time - and I felt a little guilty as I stacked my team (putting my 3 best players in at forward all at the same time) in the fourth quarter with us down 1 - 0. "It's not about winning, it's about having fun!" that's what we are supposed to tell the kids. And the other team had moved the ball down the field and passed effectively the whole game. I can't seem to get my kids to work together - and last week Todd overheard one kid complain to another "coach is putting us both in, but she said we have to pass it."

I enjoy coaching, but I think I would enjoy it more with older kids, or maybe if I had an assistant at practices. I inevitably lose control about 3/4 of the way through practice and on game day they are all begging to play midfielder or goal keeper the entire game. The concept of team seems to be above the heads of these 6,7 and 8 year olds. The gap in skills and maturity between a 6 year old and an 8 year old is another part of what makes it hard to run practices. Either the drills are over the heads of the little ones or they are boring to the big ones - it's tricky to find a balance. But I had a great conversation with the losing coach after Saturday's game, and he gave me a few new ideas.

We play a lot of our games at Velasko Road, which was Faith Heritage's home field back in the day, and as I was warming my team up I thought "I would have made it as a keeper if we had used these goals - I don't even have to jump to touch the cross bar"

So, my team doesn't totally suck and most of them seem to be having fun most of the time. But really, deep down in my heart, it is really about winning!

Fundrasing

My niece Nicole is raising money to go to Jacksonville with her AWANA club. They are doing a "book party" and each order hips seperate ($4 shipping), so if anybody wants any Pampered Chef, follow the link www.pamperedchef.biz/lauriemitchell to browse the catalouge and contact me if you want anything!

Izzy Saves a Deer?

Yup, I did figure out how to record Grey's while we watched the Office. It required another cable (which I had to pull out of the wall in our bedroom - the last people who owned this house had as many tvs as Jessica!). But I was staying up late watching the long awaited new season thinking "this is the weirdest episode I have ever seen." There were a few sub-plots that were pretty good, and I almost fell out of my seat when George showed up at Izzy's door - but what is up with Izzy and the deer?????? Did anyone else think that last nights episode was kind of weird?

Updates

Well, I know you've (all 2 of you) been wondering how the whole toilet thing worked out so here is an update from my bathroom: We spent three hours sawing the bolts off the base of the toilet in a bathroom that is maybe 8' by 4' (and is our only bathroom) on a night that was at least 85 degrees and about 99 percent humidity. We put took out the old seal, stuck in the new one and put the toilet back. After we flushed (and were feeling pretty good), the water leaked right back out in the same spot that it did before. So Todd tried to tighten the bolts in the floor a little more - then CRACK! The base of the toilet cracked. At that point we didn't know what to do and it was 11:00 at night, so we went to bed with a leaking toilet. The next morning on the advice of a friend, we got an extra thick wax seal and tried the whole thing over again. Of course, the bolts didn't require 3 hours of sawing this time. And - the toilet is now working - yeah us!!! If we had payed someone to replace the toilet (which we were thinking about after the crack) it would have cost us close to $300, but we got away for about $30.

In other news, the adoption papers are no closer to being signed than they were the day David agreed to sign them - he wants it to be an open adoption and so his lawyer is drawing up new papers.

School is going great, but I'm thinking we are still in the honeymoon phase. Jacob rarely complains, and he is doing so well. The one thing he complains about is Latin. I can't say I blame him as I hated Latin during my junior high years at Faith Heritage. But then as I got I older I discovered that my Latin studies were more useful than I originally realized. And I must admit that I think teaching Latin is kind of fun.

I called the district's superintendent about the special ed situation, and the lady called me a few hours later - it's like magic! Of course she was very surprised that I hadn't heard anything from anyone and she was doing this and that to make sure that Jacob gets taken care of before we get too far into the school year. But then she added "You know you can't get services in your house..." which I did know, so I told her "My understanding was that he can receive regular services if I bring him to the school, right?" And then she was sweet as pie again. But she almost seemed like she was trying to lead me to believe that all I could get as a homeschooler was a consult or something.

And yes, I think I did figure out how to record one show and watch another. We're watching the Office now (Todd's show) and we'll see if Grey's (Kelly's show)came out ok in a little while.

Date Night

Last night I was feeling desperate to get out of the house, and Todd agreed to take me out on a date!!!! We went to dinner at TGIFridays in Shoppingtown so that I could return a pair of holey jeans. While were enjoy our dinner conversation, Todd suddenly looked distracted and said "Is that Heather?" Heather was the girl right before me, and they were pretty serious. Todd met her working in a restaurant about 10 years ago. And yup, she is still working in a restaurant as a server.

When I saw her it brought back the memory of Todd sharing a poem with me. Early in our relationship he was talking about Heather and he said "I wrote her a poem - want to hear it?"
"Not really"
"But it's really good, just listen"
"I don't want to hear it"
"Please, it's important to me" (or some line like that)
"Ok, fine"
Then he proceeded to quote this poem:
Your eyes are blue as the sea,
Your hair looks like rays of sun,
Your face is soft as a babies butt,
How come your ass looks like a truck?
Enough of the bread already!

Todd didn't really write it, he heard it from Jeff Ross on Comedy Central. Around the 3rd line I wanted to kill him, but then at the end I was crying from laughing so hard. He insists that I point out that she gained weight at the the end of their relationship, and then gained a whole lot more immediately after he broke up with her. From that day until this, we refer to her as "Truck butt".

Back to our date night...she has either continued to gain lots of weight (at a far greater speed than I have) or she is slightly overweight and very pregnant - but I don't think she's pregnant. She walked near us several times, always pretending not to see us - once she had to walk a few feet from our table, but I guess we were invisible! Why did that make my night? Maybe 'cause I got the man, I've had three kids (I think she's had 1), and comparatively, I've got the body! Am I being petty and ridiculous? Yes!

Anyhow, after dinner we went to Sears where for the very first time I took advantage of the Kidvantage guarantee. If your kids put a hole in their jeans (or similarly ruin any other piece of clothing from Sears) Sears will replace it with the same thing, same size for free. It really is true! I'm tempted to exchange the jeans when Jacob puts holes in them and then put the new ones directly into storage for Gabriel.

Tonight we take out the toilet so we can replace the wax seal! Wish us luck - maybe I'll post pics later...

Idiot Box

I was just reading an article on crosswalk on de-stressing the home school house. I came across a few things that were interesting, and I couldn't pass this part up...

By limiting or eliminating your TV time, your home life finds more stress-free hours in the day. Because your child is not subject to ads (which exist solely to tell you that you are not content with what you have), you have less-stress shopping. Your children are also more receptive of others' gifts to them. As Urie Bronfenbrenner, a professor at Cornell University puts it:The primary danger of the television screen lies not so much in the behavior it produces as the behavior it prevents. ... Turning on the television set can turn off the process that transforms children into adults.

I have been fantasizing about putting the television out to the curb nearly our entire marriage, but the idea causes Todd to break out in hives (slight exaggeration - he has once or twice intentionally gone a week without tv, and didn't kill him, but it did hurt him). Now, he will be quick to point out that I spend my share of time worshiping at the shinny black idol in the living room, and he is right. That is why I would just assume not have it in my house. The only thing I would really miss is NY Giants football (did you see that they finally won yesterday?)

Any hope I had of becoming one of those crazy one income homeschool fundamentalist families without a television died last February when the above pictured 32" LCD flat screen found its way into our house, complete with 5.1 surround sound. But, you can see that the NY Giants have eyes, noses and mouths with such a television. I hate it because it has a tendency to draw you into hour after hour of mindlessness. Don't get me wrong, I understand that sometimes you need mindlessness. But tv wastes so many hours of life (and countless brain cells, no doubt). Not to mention the effects of tv on "ADHD" - somewhere I read that when children labeled ADHD went a week or two without any screen time, their symptoms disappeared and when the screen was reintroduced, so were the symptoms. And I give credence to this because we have noticed a strong correlation with Jacob. Not to say that a half-hour of tv (or even a full length movie) here and there will cause him to bounce uncontrollably around the room. But if he watches a half-hour or hour every day, he quickly becomes dependant on the tv to entertain him, and his behavior becomes noticeably more unruly.

That's all for now, I need to go figure how to watch one show while recording another since The Office and Grey's Anatomy are on at the same time this week. :)

Time Out

There is a change of the guard coming in the worship leadership of our church, and we aren't sure how we feel about it. We have also been wanting to take a break from playing on Sunday mornings but hesitated because we didn't want it to look like we were taking time off as a response to the coming changes. We (at least one of us) usually end up playing 3 Sundays out of the month, and with one car that means we have to have all 3 kids dressed and ready to go at 7:40 on Sunday morning. Then, the kids have to entertain themselves (unless one of us has the morning off) for almost 2 hours. We usually spend about an hour Saturday night getting their breakfast and clothes and toys ready to go. The kids actually enjoy the whole ordeal, as long it is not all the time. But that is the problem, we were starting to feel like it is all the time. When we do have a Sunday off, we are like "WOW, we don't have to be to church until 10:00, this is so relaxing!!!" I almost feel guilty that I am so happy about having the morning off.

Like I said, we have been wanting time off for a while-about 3 months probably. When we first decided that we needed a break, we felt like there was some weird tension going on with some of the other worship people. We decided to stick around and try to help resolve tensions. Then we found out that the tensions had something to do with the fact that our worship pastor (Bryon) had decided to leave our church. So once that became public knowledge, it would look like we were taking a break because Bryon was leaving - and that would look bad to lots of people. So, in October Bryon will be gone. We were still hesitant to take time off because we know that it could still like we don't want to play if Bryon is gone (we were close to him). But we really feel like we need a break, and we aren't sure about the direction that worship is going in, so Todd decided we will take off October, November and December, then re asses things for January.

Now, Todd is calling this a sabbatical. And the reaction from the interim worship leader was "I thought you were just going to take a break - like a month." We decided to take more time because last time we took a month it didn't feel long enough. But here is where the problem lies - the interim guy then asked us if we would be willing to play for the church's birthday celebration at the beginning of October "before" we start our break. My initial reaction is - No. The birthday thing falls in the time we asked to have off, you have other musicians - use them. But then that leads into the pride filled we are the best musicians and they don't want the music to suck for their birthday thing. This leads to the irritated - they "value" me, and want to "use" me, but won't let me lead worship ("there is a stylistic problem" - I'm a little too modern and edgy) and really grow in my gifting. After that egocentric tirade, I come to - I don't want to be arrogant, so I guess I should play. But, it still bothers me that my boundaries aren't being respected...we asked for Oct-Dec off, and they are already asking us to make an exception. How many more times in the next three months will there be exceptions? So to play or not to play - that is the question. I want to have a good attitude, but don't want to be taken advantage of. What do I do?

During our time out, we will be exploring the idea of a "college and careers" group. There are not a lot of people in that age group in our church, but there are some, and we're thinking that could be a good ministry for us to head up. If we meet in our house, the kids won't suffer, and we will have a chance to build some good relationships. So maybe this is the beginning of a new season for us.

Settling In

Well, here we are near the end of "Week 3" in the official school year! Overall, things have been going smoothly. Cadence has not been feeling well, but she went to visit the doctor Tuesday, and they couldn't find a thing wrong with her...I guess it is all allergies - I know my have been acting up this week.

Jacob was struggling with his behavior in the mornings (by about 10:00 he would be settled in and doing fine). It was every morning, usually before we had started school work, and it was making me crazy. He didn't act like this all summer, but then I remembered that last year getting him to school every day was a nightmare for this same reason. So what is the trigger? I don't know - I don't think that school work is stressing him out, on the contrary he seems to enjoy it. Today he has actually been good all day - and now that I have said that, some horrible thing will happen.

Academically, things couldn't be better. I was a little worried about math because when I gave him the placement test (which I didn't do until after I bought the curriculum) he didn't even come close to placing in Saxon math 3. This threw me for a loop, because math is one of his strongest subjects. Last year the teacher went on about how good he was at math - that he would have a concept figured out as soon as she introduced it and the rest of the class would need to be walked through the stuff to figure it out. He is incredibly good with patterns and memorizing facts and stuff like that. All of that to say, he is kicking butt in math. I didn't realize he was supposed to have a test today until (during our lesson) I got to the part of the teacher's manual that says "give students Assessment #2". And don't you know, Jacob went and got a 100 on it. He had scored in the high 90's on the first test.

Of course, I have already managed to get a little behind on our Read A Louds, but that's nothing a little weekend reading can't fix. Spelling always worries me, but I started him in a 2nd grade book this year, and he is moving quickly through it. My hope is that by doing well for the first 10-12 weeks it will build his confidence and then I will either move on to the 3rd grade level "Spelling Workout" or switch to "Spelling Power" which is expensive, but will serve as spelling curriculum all the way through 12th grade. And frankly, I still can't spell - that is what spell check is for!

I'm beginning to get ticked at the director of Special Education, since she will not return my call. Homeschoolers are entitled to special ed services (it is NYS law!) and last year they labeled him visually impaired and he got services from the special ed teacher and the teacher for the visually impaired. I really want at least the vision teacher to work with him again this year, but I have no idea what procedure I need to follow to make that happen. I've called her twice, and if the lady doesn't call me back soon, heads are going to roll.

I have abandoned a formal reading curriculum with Gabriel, and he is much happier now. We work with some cute little letter books (mostly pre-reading skills) and then do sight words and phonics stuff on the dry erase board. The other night he willingly read a "Bob Book" to Todd and did the whole book without help. So maybe he will start to really enjoy reading again!

Life is BUSY

All right, this post is WAY, WAY overdue! I meant to post before we went on vacation, thought about posting while we were on vacation and then resolved to post as soon as we got unpacked (Labor Day).Obviously, that didn't happen! We went camping in Ohio, and it was wonderful. The weather was great, the kids had a blast, and the time with Todd's family (Aunt Ellen and crew) was most enjoyable. The above picture is of Gabriel and Cadence playing on the swing set at Aunt Ellen's house. Todd spent our last night chasing raccoons out of our garbage - they came back 3 or 4 times. Aunt Ellen and S'mores were the favorite parts of all 3 kids!

But then, on Monday - Tasha came to live with us. She is my new jogging partner and she is like a little shadow. This is Tasha...

Tasha is a really good dog, but she was having a skin problem and of course I think she was a little depressed and getting used to her new home. The kids love her, and she is super gentle with them.

Then, on Tuesday, we jumped head first into homeschooling. Jacob is in third grade and doing world history with Sonlight. The curriculum is heavily based in literature, and we (Jacob and I) really enjoy all the reading. Gabriel (3 years old) is reading just about on a 1st grade level, but is at a point where I don't think he has the maturity to sit and read the 1st grade reading book - so we are experimenting with other things. And Gabe joins Jacob for poems, calender time and things like that. We haven't quite found our groove yet - so school is taking all day right now - and I'm usually correcting papers at dinner and setting out tomorrows work after the kids get to bed. But I think in another week or two we should have it down to the point where we are almost done by lunch.

On Thursday, I started coaching Jacob's Under 8 soccer team. Yes, I am nuts... The first practice went really well and we won our first game by a couple of goals. Last night's practice didn't go so well - I don't have an assistant and I felt like I had lost all control by the end of the practice.

Sunday was the start of football season, and that is all I have to say about that- except curse the Cowboys for hurting half my team. (See Jessica's blog for more on that)

And lastly, the boys started AWANA tonight. This is Jacob's 3rd year, and Gabriel has been waiting a very long time to be old enough to go with Jake. So Gabe started tonight as a Cubby - he seemed so big! And Jacob moved up into Clubbers, he's one of the big kids now. AWANA has been great for him, and some of his goals are to finish every book (it goes all the way through high school) and be an AWANA leader when he is a teenager.

Cough, Cough

This morning while we were getting ready for church, Gabe was coughing a lot. Todd asked, "Why are you coughing so much today, buddy?"
"Maybe because I ate too much coffee!" Gabriel replied. He didn't even miss a beat, and of course he was quite pleased with himself and his little joke. He sure does keep us on our toes!!

"Deep Thoughts" by Gabe

About a week ago, we were talking to the kids about kindness as we are working our way through the fruits of the spirit. I chose the story of the Good Samaritan to illustrate kindness for the kids, and today our pastor used the Good Samaritan story, and it reminded me of our little family Bible time...
I was going through the text, and explaining each part in a way the kids could understand - the priest is like a pastor, the Levite is like a worship leader or other helper in the church, the Samaritans and Jews were enemies, the man had been beaten up and stripped of his clothes by "bad guys" on the very dangerous road. We always ask lots of questions during a Bible lesson, to make sure the kids are following us. So as was explaining how the Samaritan came upon the Jew and maybe didn't want to help his enemy, I asked my children "What do you think the Samaritan was thinking when he first saw the Jewish man on the side of the road?"
Gabriel promptly replied (in a serious tone) with "He was thinking 'That guy should get some clothes on!'".
Well, that wasn't exactly the answer I was looking for, but yeah, that could definitely have been the first thing the Samaritan thought....

Just like mom?

Once upon a time (about 25 years ago) there was a very little girl who didn't like clothes. I can't say why she didn't like them, but I am certain that she did not. Often the little girl would go play at one of several neighbor's houses. Her mother always took care to make sure that the little girl was fully dressed when she left home. Often the little girl arrived at her friend's homes (just one or two doors down) without any clothes on.
When someone in the family would notice the little girls clothes strewn across the yard, they would follow the trail in search of the naked girl. This was such a common occurrence, that the other grown-ups in the neighborhood didn't even notice it anymore. One day when the mother when following the trail, she came upon a neighboring mom and inquired "have you seen my little girl?"
"Yes" the neighboring mom replied. "She ran through my yard on her way to that house over there just a little while ago."
"Was she wearing any clothes?" the mother asked.
"I don't know" the neighboring mom said.
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It seems that neither one of the little ones like that wet bathing suit feeling. Whenever we swim at my sisters, their bathing suits are off before they get to the back porch. So the other day we all went swimming (even TODD!) and in the interest of time, I told the kids to leave their suits on till we got home. At least twice, each of them started to take their suit off. Then we got in the van and drove home. When we got home they all wanted to play outside - "sure" we said...just leave your bathing suits on, and then we will put your pjs on when you come inside. Todd and I were inside making dinner when Jacob ran in yelling "M - O - M" (why is it always mom, dad is right there...) "Cadence is running around outside naked!"

And she was in all her glory, too! "I'm nahked mommy!" she said, smiling at me. She got VERY upset with me when I told her that it is not OK to be naked outside. You can see that as I marched her over to the house to put her bathingsuit back on, she was less than thrilled with the situation. And this morning, Gabe was getting dressed and hadn't found a shirt yet. Cadence, observing the situation squeals "Gabe is nahked, I want to be nahked too!" and proceeded to pull her shirt off. Hopefully, Cadence doesn't end up like the little girl in the story, but I have heard lots of other stories about that little girl and often I think "Cadence is just like her...

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