Shoeshine

So you know those moments where your heart is just overwhelmed with love for your children or your spouse? Well I had one of those today. My son Nathan has been choosing to wear his 'church' shoes on Sundays. His question before lunch today was "Dad can you teach me how to shine my shoes?" Now why this particular comment would cause that love sensation I'm not sure, but it did.

The Decision is Made

Well we have made the decision to home school starting this next year.  We will be taking it one year at a time.  Several things brought us to this decision.  First, we have a hard time placing our children in public school.  Our district has been hit hard by these economic times and that has led to cut upon cut upon financial cut.  This year the number of teachers has been razed to the bare minimum and they are predicting around 40 kids per class!!!  Also, I have a hard time subjecting my children to friends that I wouldn't be comfortable letting them go to their house to play with.  Our children are not missionaries!
Our kids have been attending a private school and the curriculum they use places our kids at least one if not two grade levels ahead of public school (My 2nd grade son was learning some of the same stuff my 4th grade nephew in public school was).
Second, the gas money required to get my children to their private school was 3 times what the tuition for the school cost!!  Now David has a pretty good job, but with gas prices going up our gas was going to land at almost $800/month!!!
So we looked at our options.  Homeschooling won.  For less than one month of tuition + gas to get them to private school we could buy all the home school curriculum and outfit the 'school' room.
Now that the decision is made, I've ordered the curriculum and have started organizing the school room.  I must admit I'm part excited (always thought I'd be a good teacher) and part terrified (stay at home with my children and teach them!!)
Let the Adventure Begin!

It's a Foreign Language

You almost need a degree in Meganese to understand my daughter when she talks...at least about some things.  You have to just know what she means, or you are out of the loop.  I can understand what she's after....mostly, her father is a bit more clueless.  Some examples:
"Mom I want my tappings."
"Those are my click, clicks."
"I want to wear my rounding."
"Do you see my oncles?"
"I want to watch Sam."

The interpretations are as follows:
"Mom I want to wear my blue canvas shoes with the rubber toes."
"Those are my plastic princess dress up shoes."
"I want to wear my dress/skirt."
"Do you see my elbows?"
"I want to watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs."

Now I'm sure you could have guessed the rounding, but every single other one threw my husband for a loop.

Kids are so fun, and I love all her little sayings and will miss them as she grows up.

Who Knew?!

So who knew dishwashing was a contact sport? Apparently in our house it is. Nathan faked right and went left and I smashed into his forehead with the edge of a plate. Whoops!

                                                               

Spring Cleaning Fever

Well spring is in the air.  It must be because my little fingers are starting to itch and my brain spin with spring cleaning ideas.  It doesn't help that I've been reading a book titled "Is There Life After Housework" by Dan Aslett (I think I spelled the name right).  My plan for spring cleaning this year is to start by SIMPLIFYING.
I was doing laundry this week (so what else is new) and Emily brought down her dirty laundry...all three baskets mounding full...and she still has stuff in her drawers!  Seriously?!  Nathan and Megan's clothing piles aren't much better.  So I'd like to downsize the kids closets and then just get rid of all that stuff that's been sitting there for years that I haven't touched since we moved in here 3.5 years ago. 
I'm planning to start in my bedroom, which is a bit overwhelming because our closet has a storage area in it.  I am so looking forward to decluttering our house!
Of course it may take me years to do it, but I'm hoping not.
Alright, off to bury myself in dust and stored stuff.

Getting Old

Well thank goodness!  It has been confirmed...I am NOT old.
At the dinner table tonight Emily (5) asked me how old I was.  I answered truthfully "32".  She said "For real?"  I confirmed that 32 was my correct age and asked her if she thought I was old.  With a little giggle she said "No, you're not old, but you are getting old!"

Sigh.  I can totally remember when 32 sounded ancient.  Looking back, 32 was when my mother was pregnant/giving birth to my baby sister.  I have more gray hairs now than I care to even try to count and I contemplate on and off having another child of my own, so I guess Emily is right, I'm not old (still reasonable child bearing years), but I am getting old (gray hairs proof positive).

Bumper Sticker Baby

Conversation between Me and my not yet potty trained almost three years old Megan.

Her:  I have an owie.
Me: Where is your owie?

Her: Ummmm, on my bum.

Me: Megan, did you poop in your diaper?

Her: Ummm, yeeeessss, it happens.

Laugh Out Loud!

It is so very true.  Poop does indeed happen!

And the rain came down!

Well it has been a while since my last posting. I am doing okay. Dealing very well with the miscarriage, I can even talk about it without crying!
Now as to the rest of my life, sigh, it is getting financially tight. My husband still has his job (good) but his hours are cut back (bad) which means our finances are not doing well at all. The conclusion of this is that I have to get a job. Up until today I honestly thought that meant a full time job, but taking a good look at all of our necessary monthly expenditures and holding it up against David's new income we should be able to meet our needs with out me getting a job, or taking our kids out of their school. However, a part time job on my part would make this much, much easier to do.
Without the job I would have to reduce our grocery bill to $500 a month...sounds not bad until you factor in two dogs, a cat, a guinea pig, 3 kids and that grocery includes all paper and cleaning products as well as food and that Nathan's goat milk alone costs $40 a month (more depending on how many Wednesdays are in a month). I'm not sure how to do that, but I am sure it is possible. People live on waaaay less than this and survive. That said anybody got any really good, doable tips for me on cutting that grocery bill down? On the plus side of this I could stand to lose a few pounds and this may just force me to do it!!
Oh dear it just hit me, this is the first time in my life (as an adult of course) that I have had to be financially savvy! We are dipping into the red every month and that simply just won't do.
In better much less depressing news, my children are still adorable. Megan has progressed to informing me when she is "stinky". Which means wet or in actuality stinky. One step closer to potty training (yay and boo!). She also sing songs "Let's go get my Emily." every day on our way to get Emily. She sure does admire her big sister, though that doesn't stop her from pushing Em's buttons!
Emily was emptying her backpack out today and said "Mom, can we keep my "m" paper? I want to remember how good I made M's." Very cute.
Nathan is doing so very well at school and is probably the best reader in his class. He rarely makes mistakes in math, is picking up science well, and his spelling has really improved this year. His cursive is still...interesting, but is much improved from last year and his teachers are super at pointing out all the letters that he has done really well instead of constantly pointing out all the letters he didn't do so well (though they do get a nod).
I love my kids and just thinking and writing about them has cheered me up incredibly.

Muddler Meg

So I'm sitting at my computer with my youngest daughter (2 next Tuesday!) laying on the floor playing beside me, when seemingly out of nowhere two icy little feet land on my leg. This means that she has managed to shove her feet up the leg of my pants and plant them there. Apparently she agrees that she is cold as she has now gone and grabbed her mittens to put on.

My littlest muddler has lost her mittens, deserted the book in the picture, stashed her tights who knows where, smeared apple sauce and fruit juice all over my table...I could go on, but to give her credit she has also washed her own hands and put her shoes in the proper place. I'll take the little steps towards de-muddling my house. Besides which how boring would it be if a house full of children showed no evidence that children actually lived there?!