Pfffffffb

I'm not really sure how to describe the craziness lately, so I figured a "raspberry" would be appropriate. Lol

We started ballet again and Auds loves it! She's thrilled that one of the girls in her class is a former classmate from her four-month stint in private school. The other little girl's mom pulled her and homeschools as well now. In fact, a good deal of people have done that - even the board members who have resigned. I'm sad for the school that it's not working out, but feel even more secure in our prayerfully considered decision to pull her as I'm not the only one who saw problems there. 

I'm now watching Taitum over 25 hours a week. It's weird coz I was certain that I wouldn't be helping this semester. Her mom even had a friend move in as a roommate (another young single mom) and they would watch each others' kids during their respective classes, but it ended up being chaotic and short lived. It's been a big adjustment from preparing to not watch to watching the hour equivalency of a part time job. It limits our freedom to go places during the week, but helps me save on gas. ;)

Then Tuesday I got rear ended. The kids were fine and we were able to walk away. The van is another story. It needs a new muffler, back end, back door, and back a/c. The lady who hit me had just gotten the call that she has cancer and was on her way to the doctor. I just hugged her in the parking lot and cried and prayed with her once I checked on the kids. We have our health, thankfully. My heart still breaks for her. I only ended up with a bad bout of mastitis from where the seatbelt hit me. 

Fall portrait season is in full swing, so while most families are enjoying the season and the cooler weather together, I'm out working my tail end off. But it means I can help support my family, so I'm happy to do it. I'm also donating $100 from all sessions in November to our bible quizzing program to help cover tournament travel costs. We had our first practice last week and it was so heartwarming to see kids quoting the Bible. :) I just wrapped up a bake sale fundraiser for it, too, and will be sewing and selling scarves and headbands for an up-coming fundraiser for it. Add to that coming up with fun activities and questions and prizes for motivation and it's almost a full time job - on top of my others. ;)

It's been a busy and chaotic (dealing with rentals and insurance and new car seats yadayada), but blissful. I'm so thankful for His peace that envelopes us in our time of need. And for His provision to make sure I have ample opportunity to help provide for my family and ministry. And for His protection in the car accident - it could have been much worse, but we were blessed. I've got a lot to be thankful for. Even if I rarely have time to sit and reflect on all of His goodness lately. 

But I have decided that I'm taking off December to have family time during the holiday season. I'm looking forward to not waking up at 6 on a Saturday. ;) haha 

My Magazine

So I had to take pictures of the magazine I made for my local chapter of a non profit. It's so cool to see it in hand and have all of my hard work's fruit. I had no idea what I was doing and had to teach myself the program and figure it out. But totally cool to see it in print! I also did the cover and some of the inside photos. 

First Day Part 2

After lunch Taitum came and once all babies were calm and playing, we jumped into math. I really like the Singapore Math books from my first impression. The books are nice and colorful and pretty good at working through the trivium in terms of teaching new concepts. 

And the activities are fun and it breaks down how to properly interpret word problems - which most kids tend to freak out about. It's nice that she'll have a positive look on word problems from the beginning. 

 

I teach the text to everyone just like I would if I were reading a book allowing the opportunity to point and answer questions. Then Auds does the workbook. 

T really enjoyed getting to look at the book by himself. 

Right now it's pretty much review, but it looks like she'll easily transition to different concepts as they're introduced throughout the year. 

I love our art! It has a famous painting, the name, date, country, artist, and a fact. Today we did the Mona Lisa and T loves the fact that in 1911 someone stole it but that it was recovered. Each week we'll do a new artist. The first day it's introduced we'll talk about it and they'll do a color sheet. The next day they'll paint their own interpretation of the work. The last day (we'll do a mwf) they'll do whatever they want to inspired by that work. 

Here's what I'm thinking for our schedule: 

After art we did a bit of our Asia work. I showed them where Asia was on the map and what countries were within its borders. We started with my telling them how in Asia it's more difficult to be a Christian and I read an "inspired by" story of a persecuted village when a missionary came to bring Bibles to the whole community. We then discussed what we would do if we had the same hardships regarding our faith. 

Auds said she'd make a huge mess in her room and hide her Bible in her stuffed animals and baby dolls and whisper her prayers very softly so she wouldn't get caught. Tony said he'd do the same. 

So now I guess they feel the freedom to mess their rooms up for the sake of persecuted Christians. Lol 

Next time we'll look more into the geography and history of Laos (where our story was) and draw the country's flag. 

We wrapped up with fruit salad for snack and are just hanging out playing for the rest of the day. 

Not too shabby of a first day! Excited to see how the rest goes!

First Day of School Part 1

We officially started our first day of school today! 

After pictures were taken, we started our day off with prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance and My Country Tis of Thee, and worship. The kids get to pick which son we sing and alternate days. Today T picked "I am a C-h-r-i-s-t-i-a-n." Then we moved onto a daily Bible lesson from the Big Picture Bible. 

We then colored paged from our Bible Verse Coloring Book. I forgot to take pictures of that. After that we worked on Proverbs. Auds is writing a proverb a day and Tony is working out of Proverbs for Preschoolers. 

Next was snack. After that was done, we moved onto spelling and handwriting. Auds is doing the list Jessica linked to that Gabe is doing and then T is doing Raising Rockstars. 

Now we're taking a lunch break. 

After lunch we'll do some math out of Singapore Math 1A, some art - which I'm excited about - and some history of Asia. Taitum comes this afternoon, so she'll get to sit in on that. Then we'll do reading and play before getting ready for church. 

So far, it's been a good day!