Well...

So all the craziness resulting from the car accident is still not finished. I've spent the past few weeks on the phone with insurance adjusters trying to get everything settled. It is so hard to give a statement of events when you've got four littles running around. Haha. I must have said "sorry, hold on - we don't lick doors. Sorry, one second - don't sit on the dog, please," a million times. I swear having a phone conversation with kids is like having Turret's. lol 

I ended up developing mastitis from where the seatbelt hit. I cannot tell you how fun that was. Having to rush to urgent care before Bible quizzing practice and have a liberal doctor scoff at being young with so many kids - even though there only three of them. Having to explain to a male insurance adjuster your injuries and what it is. Not to mention the pain.

We're still in the rental car because the van isn't fixed yet. It makes me so thankful for my van - our little rental feels like a clown car with all three in the back. Drum kicks Tony, so Tony hits Drum so they scream and fight. Good times. Haha

But we're trucking along. Auds is having a ball in ballet and Bible quizzing. I'm trying to be more flexible in my schooling by discussing things with the kids as they ask questions and if we don't get to the scheduled lessons not freaking out. They're not in college yet so I don't need to be so focused, but I still feel they're getting a better foundation than they would at a local school. 

B and I also treated ourselves to an early Christmas  present. We haven't given presents to each other in years. We got a beautiful 1930s Duncan Phyfe revival couch. The best part - I found it for only $150!! And we prayed for wisdom in purchasing it so that we wouldn't be splurging more than we should and our pastor heard we were thinking about it (his wife and I are very close and I showed her pictures) and walkedup and  unexpectedly   gave us money to put towards the purchase of it. We tried to refuse, but he said if we didn't take it that he would go and buy it himself and show up at our house with it. 

It'll look great once I paint the red one day! It's in near mint condition and will be our forever couch. We're thinking of reupholstering it in a tufted leather when the kids grow up and move away. 

We've also been enjoying cooler weather.  We took a yogurt date at a nearby fountain on our way to make groceries one night and have been playing in the back yard a lot. 

Drum is now about 30 pounds and is a climber. He gets in to everything!! I can't even keep the chairs by the table anymore coz he climbs up and tries to jump off. He also has a habit of getting on the rocking chair (I have an antique wooden slat one) and sliding out the side and getting stuck and walking the rocking chair around. Never a dull moment! 

In other big news - Auds is getting her big kid teeth. She actually has lingually erupting incisors, or shark teeth, where the big teeth come in behind the baby teeth because they haven't fallen out yet. Generally it takes care of itself, but if it doesn't correct itself within a few weeks, the dentist will have to take the baby teeth out. 

There's two big ones right there. It is hypothesized that it happens when a mouth is too little and the teeth can't fit in where they're supposed to so the teeth take the path of least resistance. Looking at her teeth, the dentist may need to take all four bottom ones out. How is my little girl big enough for big kid teeth?!!

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! 

Drum Update

Goodbye fever...hello, rash. Looks like roseola came. The fever broke and the rash showed up at dinner yesterday.  He's still not 100%, but he is doing better. Thank God for that! 

Hot Mess

That would be my Drum right now. He's been running a 100-103 fever all week. Normally I'm not one to run to the doctor for everything. But an elevated temp on day four with no tell tale signs (cough, sneeze, red throat, puffy eyes, runny nose, etc.) and no relief (nothing brought the fever down below 100 at all) had me concerned. After a thorough exam, the doctor said he had no clue. Aside from the fever and lethargy, Drum is the picture of health. He lost a bit of weight with not wanting to eat   much, but he was nursing well still so dehydration wasn't a concern. So I've got a cranky pants boy who won't sleep at night or nap without being held. I can't just lay down with him in arms. Oh, no. I've gotta be sitting upright with him for him to relax. With no idea what's causing it. Yay for modern medicine. I'm hoping its just a little bug that goes soon. 

We haven't gotten officially started with school work yet since I only have bits and pieces of materials, but we've been working with what we have without a set plan so far. Mostly Bible, reading and art with some science exploration. Not too much math or formal schedule yet. I'm determined to start right after Labor Day! I'm debating on how we want to register. I'm thinking about doing an "official" school through 8th grade if the TOPS (scholarship for local kids for in-state colleges that pays full tuition) program is still around when they're older and then switching to allowing outside review every year since TOPS isn't given to kids in the "registered schools," but is to those who turn in their yearly performance review. If TOPS is done away with by then, we'll just continue our "school." I'm thinking of the name "la petit academie de Pont Breaux" which is French for "the small school in (our city)." Hope it's not taken when I make my final decision. Lol

I've been super busy otherwise. I designed magazine from scratch for my Junior League chapter complete with doing the pictures. Full color, full bleed professionally printed magazine! I'll take pictures when it comes to my mail box. But it has certainly been a lot of work behind the scenes and making presentations and whatnot. Deadline was right before Drum got sick, so it's been a crazy time here. 

Also coinciding with Drum's sickness was our church ministry fair. We've had a tremendous influx of new members, so we wanted to provide an opportunity for them to get information about the various ministries and get involved. I was swamped with that. I had two booths to design (complete with logos for our ministries and information cards) all promotional materials and videos and social media leading up to and during the event, photo booth, food, and a huge free closet for all members to take whatever blessing they needed. We had so many like-new clothes donated that it was   amazing. Two big 6ft tables with stacks of clothes, three racks full, a table for shoes, and bins stuffed full. There was so much left over that I was even able to grab some stuff for myself. And there are still about 8 or 10 huge trash bags full to donate to the homeless shelters here. 

It was a lot of work, but it was great! 

Those are our booths and a fussy feverish Drum who kept us company while we presented information about our groups to people. 

Of course as soon as that calms down, fall portrait season comes around so I'm not really getting any sort of a break. I
won't   complain about getting business , though! But by the grace of God and coffee, I'll find peace and energy to make it through. I'm working hard on being content. This new busy season has made it very hard for me to make a much from scratch as I'm used to, so I'm having to adjust to the mind set that store bought bread and chicken stock won't kill my kids. That doesn't mean we're all out of a box now as I'm still cooking, but I'm having to purchase pre packaged sauces and ingredients that I can thrown in a pot. And let's not even get started on the laundry room. Haha. 

But, it is a lesson in finding peace amidst the chaos. It would be really easy to become overwhelmed and freak out and not be able to find rest in His grace. So I'm making time for extra prayer to stay plugged in. 

Auds starts dance again in two weeks, so we went and got her fitted for new shoes and had a breakfast out and some girl-time. It was so nice hanging with my gal pal and not hearing poop jokes or belching contests. But I did miss my boys. Auds got an apple fritter as big as her head and loved it!

My kids' creativity never ceases to amaze me. They used my balloons from the ministry fair as a volleyball net for a rousing game.