Today was a day.

Unfortunately not a day that I will look back on as one of my better days.  Do you ever have days when you wake up and it's like a cloud is around you that you can't shake?  Actually I didn't even notice right away.  Then I heard myself saying no over and over again.  I'm usually a yes mom.  If it's not harmful and if we aren't going anywhere or doing anything, I will typically say sure why not to the kids requests.  Not today though.

Once I realized it, I tried to undo the damage.  Did you ever notice that those moods can be contagious? The kids picked up on it and were being snarpy with each other and easily frustrated by little things.

Why am I like that at times? Beside the obvious fact that I still struggle with sin everyday.  I thought about it a lot today, and I came to the conclusion that it happens when I stop putting others first.  The others in this case were my kids.  There were things that I wanted to do today.  Not important things, just things. So when their needs intruded, I got cranky.  Wow, that sounds so ugly.  But it's the truth. 

I'm happy to say that the day ended better than it started.  I got really good snuggles with Logan. I tucked Eli in twice even though she is notorious for requesting a post snuggle tuck long after she is supposed to be asleep.  And I didn't get upset with Ben when he jokingly threw a glass of water at me.  Eleven year old boys can be soooooooo fun.  It was kind of funny how surprised he was that his bed was all wet even though I was sitting on it when he decided to douse me. 

What are you reading?

I'm always looking for good reading material.  Last year while in the states someone gave me a copy of Radical by David Platt.  It sat on my shelf until about three months ago when I started reading it.  I can say truthfully that me gustó mucho.  One of the best books that I have read in a long time.  Mostly because it really made me think about a lot of things.  What's most important in life?  Do my day to day actions line up with my beliefs?

If I believe that the one and only God of the Bible is the answer to all of the pain and lonliness and suffering in this world, why am I not actively and daily seeking people to share that good news with.

If I believe that this same God wants me to help meet the physical needs of those around me, why don't I use my resources more wisely so that I can help more people.

What do I teach my children?  Not with words or sermons, but with my actions.  They are watching every move I make.  What do they see me spend my money on? How do they see me spend my time? How much of my time is spent on things that really matter not at all in light of eternity. How often do they see me reaching out to the hurting and lost? 

I forced Jon to read the book too.  We balance each other well.  He is a realist and brings me back to earth when I have flown off into the sky.  I must admit that my mind had already gone to places like the jungles of Brazil....how will the kids handle eating large spiders over a fire as we learn the language of the unreached amazonean tribe so that we can share our God with them?  I'm back now, and I realize that God hasn't called us there...yet. But he has called us to be faithful with what he has given us and to always live in a way that others will be drawn to him. 

So as a first step we are focusing on our finances.  Where do we spend our money?  What are we placing importance on simply with the things we purchase?  How many shoes do we need? More accurately for us, how many books (me) and movies (Jon) do we need around the house? What about birthdays and holidays?  I have been saying for the last 8 years on so that Christmas was going to be a low key affair.  It never fails that I get sucked in to the temptation and fun of buying way too much.  Things that a month later are forgotten or lost. I want our family to be content with less. And so we are evaluating how we spend, and making some institutional decisions that will change the way we live.  My hope is that we will  grow a little closer to living what we believe.

The way we learn

As a homeschooling mom, I think a lot about education and how kids learn and what's important to learn and what's the best way to ensure that kids learn and many, many other things.  Oddly enough, I never thought that I would ever be a homeschooling mom.  It was not something that I wanted to do AT ALL.  But life happened, things changed, Eli had boys kissing her in kindergarten while the teachers looked on and smiled....and here we are three years later. 

When we first decided to homeschooling, I asked advice from a few of my veteran homeschooling friends. They sent really long emails that were very helpful.  My friend Mrs.Green, with whom I used to sing "Love shack, baby, love shack" very loudly on the way back to college from somewhere, recommended a book to me.."100 Top picks for Homeschool Curriculum". This book started out by having you identify your educational priorities and style preferences.  It made me think a lot. 

Turns out my biggest priority is to instill a love of learning in my kids. I want them to enjoy learning.  As for style preferences, I felt drawn to Charlotte Mason and still do.  I love the idea of whole books. I love the emphasis on art and music and nature.  I find however that following a strict CM curriculum is pretty intense with three kids.  I'm not an intense person.  I'm a bit spontaneous and like to have the freedom to play fake school all day or walk on the beach on a rainy day if the whimsy strikes us .  So we have settled into a sort of relaxed/book focused education.

Even though I love what we do and how we do it, there are times when I freak out.  Usually it's during a conversation with someone about the advanced classes they are taking in order to graduate early so they can start college at 12 and have a Phd by 14 and start working in their $500,000 a year salary job.   I come away from these conversations feeling very inadequate and have to fight the temptation to require of my children eight hours of research paper writing the next day.  Then I argue with myself for the next few days and ask questions of myself.  What's really important in life?  Is having a well paying job the goal?  Do I even remember half of the things I learned in college? Do you have to go to college to be "successful"? Who writes in cursive anymore anyway? 

I would love to hear from you.  How do your kids learn?  How do you learn?  What does school look like for you and your family?  What are your educational priorities and why??

School days....

This morning Logan woke me up by putting a pencil in front of my face.  Then he explained to me while I tried to understand him through the fog of sleep that today we were doing school with desks.  Umm, what?

Mom, I set up the trays and have chairs and all of the books are on them and you will be the teacher and you have a chair and let's go!

Sure enough when I was finally concious enough, I found it just as he described.  He had taken the TV trays and set them up for Eli, Ben and himself.  He had all of the books out ready to go. 

So we had school.  We gave ourselves fake names just because that makes it so much better.  I was Mrs. WormWood.  Logan was Justin Beaver.  Yes Beaver, not Beiber.  I asked that specifically and he assured me that his name was BeaVer.  Eli's name started out as Notebook Girl because she was late to school and that's the name Logan chose.  She protested and changed it to a name more becoming a young lady like herself...Isabel. Ben was rolling his eyes through the entire thing and remained Notebook Boy.

We sang songs to start...."Today is a sunny day" sung to the tune of  "Here we go loopdy loo".  "The days of the week song" sung to the tune of "O, my darlin".  At one point Logan got out the rolling pin because we had no ruler and every school needs something with which to smack students on the back of the hand, right? It was required that I give homework.  So I did.  I wrote I love you on a piece of paper for Logan's homework.  He gave himself and A+++. 

School broke up quickly so that Eli and Logan could organize another school day.  Eli/Isabel was the Math teacher.  Justin B/Logan was science teacher.  Mrs WormWood/yours truly was the spelling teacher.  School was held outside in the fort.  Sunny the dog also attended.  Notebook Boy/Benjamin declared himself to well educated to attend a school like this one and took the day off.

Isabel and Justin Beaver at school

Isabel the Math teacher

                   

The scientist creating a secret formula

Mr. BeaVer explaining the technical terms of the experiment

Did I tell you about the time....

  

Yes, that is a power pole.  Yes, it is on the ground.  When this happened we had three work groups from the states and our summer staff  staying in camp.  It was the middle of our last camp which is a day camp, and two groups from Puerto Rico were due to come to camp that weekend.   We were without power for three and a half days.  What fun!!!  I think that it was during that time that Logan had hot chocolate and Oreos for breakfast one day.

Tra la la....

I am a music geek.  That's why I enjoy Sing Off.  And now my daughter enjoys it too.  Eli enjoys it for reasons like pretty dresses and songs she recognizes.  I enjoy it for sounds like these:

AWESOME!!

Love is not jealous....

Jon and Eli got back from their trip to Wisconsin a couple of days ago.  Jon has been telling me about all of the people that he saw and spent time with and chatted with.  I'm not jealous.  Not at all.  I'm also not lying. Or being sarcastic.  Next women's reatreat need to be in Puerto Rico.......