A Funny

In school today, daughter #3 (2nd grade) had a riddle as part of spelling. The riddle went something like this:

I clean your clothes.
I clean your body.
What am I?
(the answer is supposed to be "soap")

Son #1 (kindergarten) quickly answers: "I know...the answer is Mom!"

I couldn't argue with that!

On another note, daughters #1 and #2 are headed with me to Little Rock tomorrow! We are all so thrilled! On the other hand, Ben is not as thrilled to be here with the three youngest all by himself. I think he has proven many times over that he is perfectly capable...even more so than I am. I am remembering when daughter #2 and I went to Europe for three weeks last year and when I came back, it was evident that he didn't need me at all! He is remarkable and highly resourceful. I have complete faith in his abilities.

I can't wait to see many of you tomorrow! It is the highlight of our fall season.

Expectations, Rights, and Cinderella

This is the new question that Ben and I are asking each other lately..."were you expecting something?" or "did you have an expectation of something?" or even, "do you feel as though your rights were violated?"

Part of why we are asking these questions is a joke. I have been doing this Bible study and this was the topic of one week's work...yielding my rights, and not having expectations. The jist was that our anger and frustration over situations comes from feeling like I have rights and expectations of things happening a certain way.

Ben and I have discovered over the years that when God is trying to teach us something we really need to learn, it keeps coming up and then we discuss it ad nauseum, ad infinitum and then we incorporate it as jokes into our discussions.

The funny thing is that that is when we know that we are really embracing a point God wants to make with us.

So...Ben is driving down the road and begins to get angry that the car in front of us is going slower than the speed limit...you can actually see the smoke beginning to curl out from his ears, then his nostrils. The eyes are beginning to go red and it seems as though all the drops of blood in his whole body has rushed to his face. I don't know how he even has enough blood left in his hands to feel the steering wheel! Then, I pop up and say, with a smile on my face, and a voice like Cinderella's..."Is that person violating your rights? Did you expect him to behave differently?" Then, like magic, he is actually a white man again, back from his red man status! The fire has gone out of his belly because the smoke has disappeared from view, and oh my goodess, I think I see him really breathing again!

I could share a similar, but uglier, story from my life, but I think that sharing one of Ben's is more fun...at least for me! And I have always wanted to be Cinderella anyway...

What's Up With The Difference Between Boys and Girls?

So you know that we have a grand total of three boys and four girls in our house. This, in itself, is cause for much tribulation and gnashing of teeth! The world tells us that boys and girls are the same...our Christian friends tell us that boys and girls are very different...so who is telling the truth?

After we had three daughters, we had a son and all of our Christian friends asked the very minute he was born if we saw a difference. Well, to be honest, no we didn't see a difference. They both were sweet, cried, dirtied lots of diapers, and believed that the world revolved around them! And they were both right...for a time the world did revolve around them.

Then our son hit about 13 months! The activity level was not just upped a notch, but exponentially...the food consumed was enormous...his ideas of "gentle" and "fun" were completely foreign to us...except Ben somehow understood. hmmm.....

We have a large four-poster bed that the kids have played on forever. The girls would wait for us to hold them up as they held the top rail and we stood there while they swung on the bar, pretending it was gymnastics class. Our boys climb up on their own, swing from the top bar with no "spotter" and then swing out and land on our loveseat at the end of our bed! It's wild to watch them do this!

Just tonight one of our girls was sitting on our couch when all of a sudden she woke the dead with her scream! She jumped up from where she was sitting landing in my lap half a room away and began crying! "Why?" you might ask? A bug had apparently come inside on her shirt and she had just realized it. Ben, being the man that he is, was really startled by her scream...didn't I say earlier that she woke the dead? He instantly got a bit angry since he was so startled. She cried..he fought the urge to yell...so what's with the difference between the boys and the girls?

I think all of the troubles in our house are because of the differences between the boys and the girls...the way we think...the things we think are funny, scary, weird...our reactions to things.

All I can figure out is God. We have decided that our Christian friends are correct and the world is dead wrong!

The Homeschooling Adventure

For 14 years or so, we have been on this wild ride in our family called "homeschooling"! And boy has it been wild! When we first started, we told people, and ourselves that we were taking it a year at a time. And we meant it...sort of. I think it was more like, if God provided money for private Christian school, we might consider homeschooling the rest of the year, and then placing

our kids in Christian school after that. But as the years kept building up, and we were still homeschooling, and God hadn't provided money for private school, we stopped saying that we'd take it year by year. It just became who we are.

So the first three or four years of our adventure, we only had one child. Sadly, she became our "test child". We heard comments over the years about whether we were making the right decision. All the focus was on our first child and how she was doing. If she knew something that was beyond what "normal" kids her age knew, then it was great...if she didn't know something that others thought she should have known, we heard the "tsk, tsk, tsk" of naysayers.

I must say that the naysayers have been much more absent lately as our oldest, who was homeschooled all the way through, has begun college and is now in her second year! Others view her as a success. We view her as a success also, but not always for the same reasons as others do! She is a woman of God and is following what He tells her to do and how to live her life! We are very proud of her.

There are four others involved in our adventure these days, and we are having a ball! They sit at the kitchen table and laugh, argue, tease, play, and oh yeah, they learn to read, do math, read maps, and create all sorts of things! Yesterday we learned about the four layers of the rainforest, and then for lunch they were Brazilian rainforest Indians eating rice and meat with no utensils! It was great! They won't forget it.

I will never regret spending all the time I have with my kids! I know them well and love them individually and certainly know their quirks, strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles. I have been the one to teach them to read! I have been the one to teach them their math facts! I have been the one to teach them how to write a story and poetry. I am the one who gets to teach my children our faith and who God is. Why on earth would I want to give that privilege to someone else who might like my child but doesn't love them like I do? It is the greatest honor I have had in my life.

I might hear from God one day that He wants me to put a child of mine, or even all my children in school...and I will obey...but until I hear from Him, I will keep on teaching my children and loving it.

Happy Columbus Day

In my never-ending quest to live up to my mentor's goals for me, I decided we would really celebrate Columbus Day today in homeschool. Now, you'd think this wouldn't be such a huge task for me having been a for-pay honest-to-goodness teacher in some real schools, and now having homeschooled for at least a kazillion years (ok maybe just 14, but who's counting?)! The idea of celebrating a "day" is always more elaborate and wonderful than the reality.

This year I was determined to change that!

I thought of several things to do and even was prepared ahead of time with most everything I needed.

I had planned for all but my oldest to participate, since she was at school herself. Then my girls got a better offer: to go to lunch and a movie! (Come to find out the movie was sold out and they got to go shopping!) Who could say no to that. So it was just Two Boys and me.

Well, we had a big time! We started out by reading a book about Columbus.

Then we had lunch and ate all Italian food, since Columbus was born in Italy. Two Boys ate, and scarfed up, I might add, fried ravioli and gelato! They thought this was a real treat since we only have ice cream, or it's appropriate substitute on Saturday nights!

After lunch, Rawley went for a nap and Rainey and I drew a picture of Columbus' three ships and he memorized the very short poem about Columbus sailing the ocean blue. He drew the holes for the cannons, thinking that any great sailor would have really BIG cannons to fight off the pirates!

You can't see it, but Columbus is actually manning the wheel on the Santa Maria, the largest of the ships and the one he really was on! There is also a shark making his way toward all the fish under the water.

After the expert drawing, we went outside and taped it onto our garage door for all to see. He loved that I put it out there! I made him just a little bit happy! (referencing a post a couple of days ago)

Then we realized that Columbus needed binoculars to see the land after all those days of sailing, his crew getting really grumpy, and the food going rotten. So we made a set out of toilet paper rolls and Rainey spent the rest of the day peering through them!

Rainey had a ball and Rawley loved the part he was up for! It was a great day. It made me think of the bravery of Columbus and all the explorers to go against the common thought of the day to sail out in faith. Tonight we watched the movie Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium and in it Mr. Magorium made a comment I will always remember: You need to face tomorrow with determination, joy, and bravery. That is just what Christopher Columbus did! And I am going to try to do that tomorrow as well...determination to do what's right, have joy in the Lord, and display bravery to face whatever God allows in my life with dignity and integrity.

Get There Before They are All Gone!

I just wanted to let all of you with children know that Talbots Kids is going out of business. They are selling their clothes for an extremely ridiculous price! You could even stock up on bigger sizes and hardly notice it in your wallet. Go to www.talbots.com and click on "outlet", then on "kids" and you'll see the great deals!

Thought you might want to know.