school

After a long hard day at school, we were taking a break out back when we realized we couldn't find Kimberly. After much desperate searching we found her here in the classroom! Now we are off to join Stephen and Paul at the campsite...I didn't want to be camping in all that rain yesterday!
Have a very blessed day!
Kris

Only for today...

1) Only for today, I will seek to live the livelong day positively without wishing to solve the problems of my life all at once.

2) Only for today, I will take the greatest care of my appearance: I will dress modestly; I will not raise my voice; I will be courteous in my behavior; I will not criticize anyone.

3) Only for today, I will be happy in the certainty that I was created to be happy, not only in the other world but also in this one.

4) Only for today, I will adapt to circumstances, without my requiring all circumstances to be adapted to my own wishes.

5) Only for today, I will devote ten minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul.

6) Only for today, I will do one good deed and not tell anyone about it.

7) Only for today, I will do at least one thing I do not like doing; and if my feelings are hurt, I will make sure that no one notices.

8) Only for today, I will make a plan for myself; I may not follow it to the letter, but I will make it. And I will be on guard against two evils: hastiness and indecision.

9) Only for today, I will firmly believe, despite appearances, that the good Providence of God cares for me as no one else who exists in this world.

10) Only for today, I will have no fears. In particular, I will not be afraid to enjoy what is beautiful and to believe in goodness.

Indeed, for twelve hours I can certainly do what might cause me consternation were I to believe I had to do it all my life.

More bad news...

sorry for not posting for so long! I have felt like we've all been run thru the ringer. That last time I posted about Katherine getting ousted from choir, well, now we've all been ousted from piano as well. Blessings in disguise though. We've had a leak, which now is requiring extensive work (and money) to fix. Thankfully no obligations, except tutoring, scouts and ballet (all of which have been prepaid) keep us from driving and paying for stuff. Grocery bill up, dining out bill down.
The piano thing was an ordeal that I am glad to be on the other side of. The kids do seem to be suffering, still, but they will get over it. I may look into trying to get someone to come to the house so we don't have to drive. I'm waiting until later though, for now they are all each other's teachers.
Megan still can't seem to get it through her head that homework is something important that needs to be written down and followed thru with AND packed into the backpack and taken to school! Paul talks of bringing her home next year, but I fail to see where that would help her. This is something she will have to accomplish and soon! Homeschooling her will not help her with these endeavors and they are things that she has to know to do for the rest of her life. I knew none of the kids but Katherine were ready for school, but Paul had to insist they attend and now it seems a waste to pull her out, when otherwise she is doing well with the adjustment.
On another note, Kimberly seems to be showing signs of being ready to potty train. Asking for her diaper to be changed all the time and wanting to sit on the potty, doing nothing, but still sitting. I know she has to go, but she holds it until she has that diaper back on and then she finally goes. Maybe when the weather gets warmer and we can all go out in the back and let her wander around naked. That is how all the others did it!
Paul got a lawn mower last weekend. It is old and beat up, but perfect for our weeds! It needs a new battery, so that will be the next purchase. Hopefully it was worth the drive and money to get it.
Well, I need to get breakfast going and get the kids up pretty soon! Have a blessed day!
Kris

Poor Katherine!

Well, I have been really dreading having to make this post, but Katherine was removed from active participation from the choir for failure to show up for a concert. She is devastated, but it has been a valuable lesson for her to be more responsible. She has been struggling with that this whole school year. Constantly losing books, homework, etc. Well, she, as well as myself, wrote the wrong date on the calendar for the concert and by the time she realized her mistake it was just too overwhelming for her and she broke down. Never mind the fact that we had piano from 5-6:30 and Stephen had a ball game at 6, so our schedule was already full. After this I incident, we pulled Stephen out of baseball and changed piano to revolve around Lauren's ballet on Thursdays. Thursdays will be absolutely crazy, but at least now other activities that everyone likes to schedule on Tuesdays, will now be free. I just wish my kids had fewer talents...that would keep my schedule more cleared out :)
It is now allergy season and we are all suffering....well, at least Katherine and I. We both can hardly sleep and our attempts at taking meds seem to be making Katherine more sick than just the allergies.
Well, I need to cut this short to move forward with the day...I'm an hour behind schedule and I will be having a houseful later today!
Kris

Short and sweet

This is just a quick note to let everyone know we survived Spring Break. I enjoy having the kids around so much more than when they go back to school. Everything and everyone has been tired, cranky, busy and downright miserable since they returned.
Katherine got her braces two weeks ago. She refuses to smile for the camera, so sorry, I have been unable to catch her silver smile for you!
Megan started at Sylvan to help her thru some learning difficulties. After attending our Catholic Homeschool Conference this past weekend, it really helped me to understand her better and I can see where I've failed as a mom to adequately prepare her. All the educator things I've been opposed to in our homeschooling, I'm now finding out are necessary steps to increasing mental capacity and neuron connections! OOOOPPSS! We are taking steps to rectify that with all the kids this week. We are seeing some positive changes in just the past few days.
Rebecca has reclaimed her own room again. She is also excelling in the new brain games I bought and is very receptive to all the new "stuff" I've acquired. We've also committed to homeschooling her until high school. I'm so glad! I see what a huge difference in their maturity and esteem those three crucial years make. She's always been slower on the social side than Megan ever was and I don't think she could handle what Megan has already been thru in just the few short months she has been in school!
Stephen is loving his friends and still hating school. We've also committed to homeschooling him for a few years. We'll wait and see how he does before we make any judgements on middle school. It would be nice for him to get into band and 6th grade is when they start...we'll just see.
Lauren...my big headache. We are really working on discipline and obedience with that one. The iron will and stubbornness really are linked with that red hair (Stephen had red hair until he was about 18months old...that explains some of his too). She has a ballet recital coming in a few months!!!
Kimberly is learning tons and tons of stuff. She can pick out, from memory, some letters when I write them in a series of three letters. So far she has B, T, I, G, A and K down. I honestly was quite shocked at what she knew when I started this little alphabet game with her. I was schooling the kids and had just finished the instruction part of Lauren's grammar class when Kimmy climbed into my lap and wanted to write on the white board.
This beats cleaning corn starch off a kitchen floor! Those pics are being held hostage by my phone until I can figure out how to get them out :) Yes, she survived and no I didn't rip all my hair out and dissolve into a pile of tears...my mother's words rang in my head, "you have to learn to laugh about things or you will drive yourself insane!" "Take more pictures so you can show them to your friends in the old folks home when you're 90!"

Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland!

Becca & Megan...with my camera! I guess they wanted to document their sneaking out of the house to go to their secret hiding place...so smart! They must get it from their father :) Sad thing is, when confronted with, "I told you not to leave the house...I told you not to go into the wilderness!" Their response is, "we didn't! We were in the backyard playing, you just didn't see us!"
Now I know where all that mud is coming from! Give the kids an undeveloped subdivision and they run wild! If it wasn't for poisonous snakes, bobcats, foxes and deer, I just might be okay with their exploring natures. Mental note, get them rubber boots to help keep fangs from skin!
These pics were, of course, taken later in the afternoon, after the snow had melted.
Here are some pics before the snow melted...our beautiful winter day, err, morning...
The front of our house. By mid afternoon, the snow was already melting :(

Stephen had some pals drop by...he's very lucky that he rides the bus with two kids who are in his third grade class. They buzzed on over in their four wheelers and blessed us with a morning of snowball fights and fort building...of course, the snow ran out before their energy did.
I'm not so sure Paul was glad...he was pummeled quite extensively by those under the five foot level!
You can see in places that the snow did get to about five inches deep...oh how I miss Washington sometimes!


Lauren's attempt at making a snowman. This snow was perfect--not too wet and not too dry! It held together well, even with Kimberly's help and Stephen's "King of the Snowball" episode...

I thought everyone was lying to me!

LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW!!!!
When we moved here everyone said there is usually one snow a year. Well, now it is March and I didnt' see any, but now a wintery snow storm has blanketed our backyard and the kids are all anxious to be out in it. I tried to convince them to keep inside until tomorrow when the icy coldness will have stopped, but to no avail. My living room is now littered with multiple pairs of wet mittens, socks (because some of them used these when their mittens were failing to keep their hands warm) from both feet and hands, shoes, coats, gloves, hats and scarves!!!!!!! I think it looks to be about 2 inches thus far and it is to continue thru the night! Of course you don't see boots on the list because we haven't been anywhere with snow in so long that I've not bought snow boots since Katherine was a baby! Kimberly doesn't even have a winter coat and Lauren's isn't really a "proper" winter coat, but just a cute faux fur thing. Stephen lost his already, athough I didn't think it that important since I thought winter was over. He loses one every year and last year he went thru three. I always figure God finds a way for some poor child to get coats thru my absent minded professors!

Here is Megan's giant snowball, she has lovingly named her "Lisa." She plans to roll her down our long "ramp" of a driveway tomorrow...they all cannot wait. So glad I did my shopping today! I'll try to get some good ones of the kids in the snow tomorrow...guess I better find some more winter clothes...that I'd already packed up because it has been in the 70's lately!