"The-Hurricane-That-Wasn't" Day

Polk County schools were closed today due to the threat of Isaac, so my kids got a surprise day off their second week of school!  I do think the school officials overreacted by closing everything, but I appreciate them wanting to keep everyone safe and I was thrilled to have my kiddos home for the day!

Caleb ended up spending last night at Mima and Papa's house, but the rest of us made plans to hang out with our neighbors this morning so the moms could drink coffee and the kids could play.  I decided to make monkey bread (I used whole wheat biscuits, does that make it any less naughty?) and had lots of help in the kitchen this morning while I was making it!  The kids played all morning and had about five rounds of monkey bread while the moms got to chit-chat and watch HGTV and Food Network - what a life!  Around noontime Grandaddy and Granmommy came over (she was in town for a short visit) and not long after that, Mima and Madisyn arrived with Caleb.  We played some games and I took advantage of a little bit of down time to get a project taken care of that needed to be finished.  It rained off and on pretty much all day, but no one seemed to care that we were stuck inside all day.

Back to School 2012

Lots of changes around here this year...  A few weeks before school started (and about the time we received his materials for Florida Virtual), we got notification that Caleb's name had been drawn for Blake Academy.  We toured the school and decided to accept their offer just in case it ended up being something we wanted to do, but knowing full well we would have the option to withdraw him before school started if we decided to stick with our original plan of Florida Virtual School.  I will not use this as a platform to talk about our struggles with the decision, just know that it was quite possibly the hardest choice I have ever made (of course Scott and I decided together but I am sure he wasn't as conflicted about the whole thing as I was).  All of that to say that Caleb is no longer my student and has entered the world of brick and mortar school again for his 3rd grade year.  Sigh.  I wanted to walk him to class Monday but he would only let me go as far as the building his classroom is in.  We won't discuss how many tears I shed that morning as I prayed with him while we were driving to school, and walking back to the van, and the whole ride back home.  

Lillian began VPK this year at the same school Caleb went to and Ella is continuing the homeschool journey (her name did not get drawn and there is not sibling priority past entering Kindergartners).  We are using Florida Virtual (free) 1st grade curriculum for her.  She actually started on August 13 and I am loving it so far.  I think she likes it, too.

Lillian's Orientation (Scott wouldn't let me take any pics at Caleb's - lol)

 

Back-to-school breakfast: homemade cinnamon rolls, sausage and milk

LOVE this boy!

4 going on 14

Jackson doing his "school" at home

Momma's view

 

 Ella doing a PE lesson on yoga...  Jackson had to join in!

Back to School!

Saturday was the Back to School Bash at the Lakeland Center. This is the third year in a row we have gone and Ella's first time to participate as a prospective student. I can't believe my sweet little girl is old enough to be in Kindergarten!

The first year we all went (at that time, it was just Caleb, Ella and Lillian who wasn't even a year old yet). Last year, I took Caleb by myself and this year I told Scott I wasn't up for it and if he wanted to take them he was more than welcome. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity for free stuff, he happily obliged. He took the oldest two while the others spent the morning at home with me.

Whoever is in charge of planning the event has made some major improvements in making it run more smoothly. We stood in line for HOURS last year in the miserable heat. This year Scott and the kids were home within a couple of hours with all their stuff and they even had fun activities set up for the kids to do while they were in line. Caleb and Ella each got a backpack with standard Polk County school supplies (no they are not going to school, but we can still definitely use the supplies for our school). It's amazing how excited they all got over new crayons and colored pencils - they have been coloring pretty much nonstop since Saturday afternoon.

A New Year and Lots of Fun

What a fun first week of 2011 we have had! We had our usual New Year's Day meal after watching a Gator victory. School is back in session for us - we are on track to finish our school year on May 20 if we plug ahead with no breaks, May 27 if we take a week off for Spring Break. I will see how I am feeling later in the pregnancy to decide which path we take. I also need to decide what work, if any, we will do over the summer.

Other highlights included a trip to Parkesdale Farms for strawberry shortcake and a free trip to Chuck E Cheese thanks to the generosity of some of Scott's drivers and warehouse guys who gave him a gift card and tokens for Christmas. We finished off the week with a hot date on Friday night and then breakfast at Chick-Fil-A. We had free coupons for the new spicy chicken biscuit. Caleb took Jackson all the way up the playplace and he LOVED being up there with his big brother!

Sneak Peek...

One afternoon last week I was organizing our school curriculum. Scott was home sick so I was hanging out with him in our room while I did it and Caleb came in and saw all of his school books. He was so excited and just had too look at them. I let him start reading one of the Science books on weather and he wouldn't put it down!

My plan was to start school after Labor Day but it looks like I may need to start sooner!

Update...

Our curriculum has been shipped and we are now officially a homeschooling family!!! YAY!!!

I am anxious, overwhelmed, thrilled, elated, excited and oh so thankful all at the same time.

Possible Change of Plans...

I have posted before about how awesome summer has been and what a blessing it has been to be able to just enjoy each other and our time together. When I started seeing the back-to-school commercials on TV and ads in the paper, I honestly felt a pit growing in my stomach. I was not (and am not) excited about school starting again, yet I am trying to hype it up to Caleb so he will continue to be excited.

I have struggled a LOT this summer with getting him to spend time online with the website his school has assigned him - three times a week for a minimum of thirty minutes at a time working on math and reading. Not to mention the required journal entries and book reading log (although reading hasn't been much of a problem for him). All I want to say is yes, I agree with you and it SUCKS that you have to do homework all summer, especially considering that you are only entering 1st grade! But of course I know I can't do that.

Moving on to the point of this rambling post... Last week my sweet husband told me I could look into homeschooling our kiddos!!!!!!!!! I was beyond excited at the idea that he would even consider us doing it. I have always had a heart for homeschooling (although only after I had children of my own) but we weren't on the same page at all. It was so hard for me when things got challenging last school year, whether it was with Caleb's behavior issues or the logistics nightmare of taking and picking him up every day, or worst of all feeling like I was always "on him" about something - getting dressed, finishing homework, bathtime or whatever... All I could think about was how avoidable it all was... not to say there aren't issues to be dealt with when you homeschool, but it just all seemed so unnecessary to me. I have prayed hard all year to be at peace with all of it (contentment is such a hard thing) or that Scott would have a change of heart...

So now our prayers are changing to figuring out if we will go for it! I don't want to homeschool just because it is something I want or it is easier for me. I want to do it because it is best for our family and what God desires for us to do. What a challenge to be the one responsible for your children's education but what an amazing privilege and calling it would be. So please pray as we are working through all of this. The main obstacle I see at this point is purchasing curriculum - never in a million years would I have thought this would be an option for us, so we have no money set aside for it. I am still getting over the idea that this is even a possibility for us! I'm so excited!!

Wow that was a lot - sorry about that!

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

Are You KIDDING Me?!?

I guess I'll get to do a little bit of homeschooling over the summer :)

Reading is Fun

(This entry is only about Caleb, but I loved this picture I took recently and wanted to post it!)

We had a conference last week with Caleb's teacher. We thought it was because he has been having some behavior issues the last couple of weeks (which we are trying very hard to work through - please pray for us and him!)... The main reason she wanted to see us was to let us know she was trying not to be too hard on him but still be consistent in her disciplining. She also told us that she tested Caleb to find out where he was with his reading.

She used the AR (Accelerated Reader) test and out of the five students she tested in his class, he scored the highest. He got a 2.8 which means he is reading at a 2nd grade, 8th month level (next is 2.9, then 3 for third grade). I'm so excited at the strides he is making with reading this year and so thankful that God has blessed him with a desire and excitement about learning. Now if we could just keep him out of trouble!

If Only It Felt Like Fall...

...all these fun activities would be so much more enjoyable. Last week we went to Autumn Eve at Caleb's school. They had all kinds of games, food, bounce houses, and trunk-or-treat stations set up in the parking lot. Caleb got some candy from his teacher and she even recognized him with his costume on. Maybe he is the only student in her class with three siblings younger than him! :)

I didn't know until the last minute that the kids were supposed to dress up, so I just threw costumes together with what we had already (like any other Halloween). Ella's kitty cat costume actually belonged to me when I was about her age - I wore it one year when it was obviously a little bit cooler outside! My mom made it all those years ago and after my grandmother died a few years ago I found it in some of her stuff and knew I wanted to save it in case we ever had a little girl!

Playing Catch-Up

Sorry I haven't posted in so long! This will be a long and somewhat rambling post, I am sure. And probably out of order since I am going to start with events from this morning - my baby is at school!! :( We had to wake all three kids up this morning - they NEVER sleep past 7 (except for Ella, she is our late riser) but by 7:30 no one was awake! We needed to leave here by 8 so that didn't leave much time to get all 4 kids fed and dressed.

The morning went more smoothly than I expected (luckily I had packed Caleb's lunch and laid out everyone's clothes the night before - Caleb informed me several days ago that he wanted tuna salad, crackers, and yogurt for lunch on his first day!) and we all piled in the van to take Caleb to Kindergarten. Just for today they had all the K families meet in the cafeteria so we would have time to say our goodbyes. They made us leave before the kids lined up to walk to their class, which was definitely a good thing for me. Scott told me I had to hold myself together until after we left because he didn't want CB to see me upset. That's just what I did - the second that cafeteria door closed I LOST it.

Then my sweet husband offered to take me (just me, just the two of us!) to lunch today to try and take my mind off my missing child... forget flowers or jewelry, he knows the way to make me happy is to take me out to eat somewhere! So I am definitely looking forward to that.

When we got home from taking Caleb, the girls ate the rest of their breakfast and then Ella started folding laundry for me... which leads me to what all we did last week and why my laundry pile even looks like this:

Ella and her pile of folded clothes

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Last week was a whirlwind of activity! There was so much I wanted to do with the kids before school started and last week was Caleb's first week not being at Summer Camp.

Monday morning Jackson had his 4 month well-check. He weighed in at a hefty 16 pounds, 2 ounces (about 10 ounces bigger than Caleb at this age) and was 25 1/4 inches long. He survived his shots and came home to take a really good nap! Later that afternoon we went to get the backpack full of school supplies and school uniforms that Parker Street Ministries provides to kids in the neighborhood. Caleb got a Transformers backpack and was THRILLED! After that we had a community dinner so momma got a night off from cooking!

Waiting for the doctor and talking to Mommy

Tuesday I took the kids to Backyard Adventures, an indoor playplace here in Lakeland. It is a bit pricey so we usually only go once a summer. Madisyn and McKenzee came with us to play, and Mima came along, too. That night Parker Street was having an Open House for its donors and volunteers, so I went to take some pictures of the event. Madisyn so kindly offered to bathe the girls for me while I cooked dinner for everyone.

Wednesday we trekked over to Daytona to visit the beach. I had wanted to spend the night over there instead of making the drive there and back in one day (by myself in the van with all the kiddos) but it just didn't work out because there was so much going on the rest of the week. Caleb told me he wanted to see the ocean one more time before school started so I was determined to get him there! The kids did great in the van, I just made sure to leave right after a feeding so Jackson would sleep on the way there. Grandma and Grandpa packed us a picnic lunch and we all went to the beach together.

Thursday we had orientation so Mima watched Jackson and the girls at her house while Scott and I went to Caleb's school with him. Earlier that morning Caleb and I went to breakfast together, something we both love!

Friday we met several friends at Chick-Fil-A for lunch, playtime and ice cream and then that night we had a special Kindergarten send-off night with just Caleb. Scott had gotten some tickets to a Devil Rays game from someone at work so we took Caleb and Papa to the baseball game. We had to eat a quick dinner on the run so we drove through Burger King. Caleb got to order a real Kid's Meal instead of something off the dollar menu and we even let him pick his drink (Coke - which is why I usually pick for him!). At the game he even got some dippin' dots.

7th inning stretch

I can't believe summer is over and my baby is old enough to be in Kindergarten.