Quiet

Today my husband took the kids to work, he loves to work the kids, he usually doesn't take them all but today he did, and wow four hours of almost alone time Joshua got to stay home. We played and giggled and read books, and he fell asleep on my chest. I didn't move for an hour I sat and cuddled him and read my bible before I moved him. I had thoughts of cleaning or Netflix or just something. Problem was it was quiet so blissfully quiet. Those who know me personally know my house is NEVER quiet. Ever. It's bustling with school, kids, chores, neighbor kids, cooking, cleaning, the list goes on. I felt sadness, I missed my kids, I wanted to make the third lunch of the day, I wanted to clean another face, I wanted to hear some bickering, tell someone to go clean their mess up again, because it was so quiet. These little people are why I rise each day, they are my joy, my sorrow, my smiles, my tears, but mostly they are my source of happiness. They bring me such joy. A quiet like I had today is not what I am preparing for yet, I want to live in this season of life and enjoy the noise, enjoy our chaos, and climb into bed each night knowing we had fun, we had frustration, we had love, we had anger, and we had each other. 

Enjoy these ever so brief moments they pass all too quickly. 

Potty Training

For two weeks now, I have repeatedly been asked how we have a potty trained two year old boy none the less, well quite simply all four of our kids with the exception of one were all potty trained before age two or right at their second birthday, our child with ASD, was two and a half.  I never have really put a lot of thought into this to be totally honest, we just did it, it took about a week, sometimes (our boys especially usually did not wear clothes), we had accidents, and of course frustration.  I am in no way an expert but here are some of the things we did, and for us, they worked.

I never yelled when cleaning up an accident, we just cleaned it up and moved on a simple uh oh, next time we better get to the potty fast, seemed to work wonders

We never used pull ups, except at night and that was brief, like three months or less

I would take our children potty pretty much every thirty minutes for the first two days, they seemed to start telling me about day three

I never used a "little potty", our children use the big potty, yes that meant I had to be there all the time, every time for a while, but it also meant less work, no cleaning little training potties, and no retraining bigger children to use the real potty

I tried to never leave our children in wet diapers, very expensive, but worth it,  and this seemed to heighten their awareness, all our children but one were telling me when they went potty by about 18 months, so we could change them, this was also around the time, they were all put on the potty to sit and read or just explore it

We have four bathrooms, you might think that privacy would not be an issue, I never recall since having children being alone in the bathroom, I think this has been beneficial, they saw mommy and daddy in the bathroom so there was never any fear associated with the potty

I never went from under wear to diapers, and back and forth, we went to under wear and that was it, no going back, no wavering

Of course every family is different, and therefore these strategies worked for us, not everyone, hope they help!

A Great Teaching Resource

I stumbled across this on Facebook, and it looks great, I just ordered two and am adding the button to the blog, hope that you will check this out and consider a set a for your family.  I will post pictures, as soon as I assemble ours!!! 

Finding the HAPPY medium

This has always been something I struggled with and probably always be, but I am trying daily.  I want to get it all done to every ones expectations, and then more, to every ones satisfaction.  Can you say unreasonable expectations of myself and others???!!! You see I was having one of those days, where I was just being really hard on everyone around me and myself of course and I felt this urging to write a list of all that we had accomplished and realized we were doing great, I have a sixteen year old with 22 college credits, and he is almost a certified locksmith, our eleven year old is almost done with her six grade curriculum, our other daughter is almost done with her first grade curriculum, and Isaac well he is two, but potty trained. This made the light bulb go off in my head, we are actually ahead of schedule, not behind, and not struggling with school. I realized I do not need to be so driven to meet unrealistic goals, much less meet the goals that other people think we need to meet, I am raising pretty great kids overall, and most days, not all,  having fun in the process, so in my opinion, that is a good thing, and really what matters the most to me!

                                            So here are some things that I am finding to help in our home:

Start EVERYDAY in prayer

Get into the word, EVERY DAY, more so when I am feeling frustrated and overwhelmed

Time Out for fun, for all of us, even a walk around the block can change all our attitudes and make for such a better morning, afternoon, yes even evening

Not comparing myself to others and how they are doing and getting it all done, because really they are just like me, and NOT getting it all done





The Question

I was asked three times this weekend alone, why I home school so let me clear this up right away, and I will start with the reasons why I do not.

Reasons I do not Home School:

To keep my kids locked up and under my full control

I think public schools and teachers are failing, granted some are but not all

I want my kids to fail later in life

To have a clean and organized home

I do not want my children to be indoctrinated with pop culture

Reasons why I Home School:

I enjoy having my children, and letting them learn at their own pace, we do not unschool for the record

None of my children learn the same, yet I am expected to think that 25 children in one classroom all learn the exact same way

I want my children to spend time learning Christian Values and Morals, that in my opinion can be lacking in the public school

I want to watch my children grow and learn together, to achieve goals together, to support each other, to work together and to love each other

I want them to learn in action, by doing things, not by sitting at a desk or standing in line, all though home schooling does require us to sit at the table and do the book work too

I do not feel that a standardized test is going to tell you or the educators much about my child, or the wonderful people they are now and will grow to be

I want to be able to raise children who are proud of the people that God made them to be NOT define their worth on their GPA

You see, these four little precious angels are not mine, they belong to Jesus, he is their Father, and I am merely here with them for a short time and I hope and pray that I can teach them all they need so that when they do leave here, they are strong in their faith, and are ready for love, life and happiness, because in the end these really are the important things!

Pity Party

The last few days have been a real struggle, first I had an ear infection that I did not seek treatment for, so it got very bad and painful so not much got done around the house, of course.  Then Savannah got sick, with what I thought was an ear infection so we took her to the pediatrician right away, she had croup, this caused her iron to drop to very low levels, she has anemia and a very weak and compromised immune system so when she gets sick needless to say, it can be really scary.  I had somehow convinced myself in my mind that we had "cured" her being that she had not been sick in a very long time, but then this hit and guilt and sadness came rushing over me.  I feel so sorry that she has these struggles in life, I wonder could I have done something different, what happened differently in my pregnancy with her that did not happen with our two older children?  Then I have to stop and remind myself it was not us, it was God, he gave her to us this way to help her, to teach her, and to support her through all this.  She is going to be an amazingly strong and brave woman someday, and I will be proud to say that I was a small part of that!

Talk about a new adventure.....

So here goes, our latest adventure, we do not like to sit by watch things at this house.....a new puppy.  Now, first I must say that I have ALWAYS BEEN A CAT PERSON, they are relatively self sufficient, usually do not make messes on the floor, and of course ABSOLUTELY entertaining.  Well, the last time I went to to the animal shelter we went to look.....I came home with the cutest little mix breed healer, who we would name.....HAPPY.  She is a year old, she sheds, digs holes in the grass, chews wooden train tracks, and is not particularly found of the chickens, but she was adorable, about to be put to sleep and she made me happy when I saw her, so the children all too easily talked us into bringing her home, and well she is ours and we love her to pieces.

So I got a call from my friend about a nine week old puppy who was left at the shelter, needed surgery, and of course a home.  I am a sucker for these kinds of stories, they just break my heart into two, and I always to help, so we went to meet him today, to see if they would allow us to adopt him being that his leg was broken by a child, I thought for sure they will say NO, when they see all the children behind mom and dad, nope she said we had a great family, and he would fit right in.  Not quiet the answer I was looking for, as Taylor, who LOVES all animals, really had her heart set on him and I guess secretly I did too, he is adorable you can see for yourself in a few days, he will be home on Wednesday, and then we can take his picture, his name is Eli, not sure if we will keep it or change it to Snowball, family vote for that tomorrow!